Guild Wars 2

So I bit the bullet. I quit complaining, crafted a full set of Carrion exotic armor (sans the jewelry – I’m not made of gold!), grabbed an exotic short bow with Superior Sigil of Earth, and respecced. And then got stuck.

What are the options for condition damage? Trapper? Axe/Shortbow? I’d like to hear what some of the best condition builds and their associated play styles. I end up doing a 70/30 split of WvW / PvE, with the WvW mostly being in smaller groups. Zergs are…. you know, zergy.

from what i have heard, trapper is probably the best way to go, i really liked shortbow and quickening zephyer before the short bow nerf as if your opponent ever turned away you could quickly stack 13 stacks of bleeding on them, whith the nerf you can get up to around 8, which is still ok. shortbow also has alot of condition damage on its other skill, thus i would suggest it.

the only weapons i dont see being to useful would the the longbow, great sword, and off-hand axe, but really any of these will work with practice.

Right now i’m in full rampager exotic gear and my build is 25/25/20/0/0. I mainly use the axe and offhand dagger, because both of the daggers abilities produce conditions (especially the bleed one which is nice, and the other is a dodge+posion which is useful). My alt weapon is a shortbow which is probably one of the best condition damage weapons available to a ranger, even after its nerf it is extremely easy to stack bleeds on a target if your placement is correct.

Shortbow is a must have for Condition Rangers.
Axe +Torch are quite a good combo as well.
In WvW remember to always carry a horn with your, for the running passages.

Traps are great for sieging, you can throw them against a wall – and they’ll blow up people on the towers.

If you’re playing with traps you’ll lack utility, remember to avoid duels and small battles.
Rangers usually don’t win those.

However, your pet is a great help when taking out path-blocking-veterans.
Your AoE conditions are inferior to those of a Necromancer, yet you can pull NSCs together to pillage and burn supply camps.
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And again:
Remember: Avoid groups and small skirmishes.
At least till the “great Ranger buff” patch is online.

“Traps are great for sieging, you can throw them against a wall – and they’ll blow up people on the towers.”

Holy cow, that works?

And yeah, figured out that duels can be hard if you’re stuck with 3 traps as your utilities =(

I don’t really think Trappers are /that/ bad at duels. I managed to survive a Thief and then a Guardian by using Signet of Stone to tank, Spike Trap to Snare and Call of the Wild to kite. You just have to be very wary of immobilize and stun.