Guild Wars 2

So I used to run this build before I quit the game in 2012 and I thought I’d bring it back. I had great results off it in PvE and WvW roaming never tested in Conquest though.

The point of this build is bashing with the Greatsword and having constant Quickness.

The build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTjMq0yaJLWsQ1aALhqZDEAvP1WNjduBRQJ+yL-TxBBwAfuAAQ3fAryPAPAAcq/kXXzZlgAA-e

Why greatsword you ask?
Skins my friend, some of the GS skins are beautiful like Belinda’s. Screw Legendaries, there are so many amazing GS skins out there.
Our auto attack though slow, has an evade on the 3rd hit, that’s why we want a lot of quickness. Maul, you like those big numbers don’t you? Swoop is great for chasing, escaping, its bloody awesome double leap finisher. We got a block and a cripple, 2 in 1, that’s pretty daym sweet and lastly the sweet, sweet Daze.

Now for our sources of quickness:
1. Quickening Zephyr: 6s ever 48s
2. Zephyr’s Speed: 3s every 15s
3. Sigil of Rage: 3s every 30s

Now with that we have so much quickness its ridiculous, deal damage, evade and have a good time.

Now for the secondary set, that’s quite situational and comes down to personal taste.

Sword(MH): Its fast, lots of dodges and survivability but we are clearly over-compensating for something with a big kitten greatsword, use it if you want to I don’t like it in this build. However if you’re in WvW and your enemy is dodging a lot this is nice for sticking to them like a blood hungry leech.

Axe(MH): Why Axe you ask? The damage sucks, well its more for the Chill than anything. And a couple stacks of might to start the battle ain’t bad either. Also when you initiate combat with this hit with Splitblade they might think you’re a condition ranger and burn their condition removal (Silly raggamuffins). In PvE the range is useful when needed.

Warhorn(OH): This is the main reason I’d consider not being Legolas. #4 hits nice on crits, messes up their targetting too. #5 speaks for itself with the buffs and blast.

Axe(OH): I know this is meta but I don’t like being rooted by the #5, though #4 is awesome #5 puts me off it. Has its merits in projectile heavy fights though.

Longbow: Now I rather enjoy this especially for opening if I’m running Canines. First attack is always a knockdown, so Rapid Fire that skeezball running at you. Or knock him down yourself and Rapid Fire that skeezball, or hit Quickening Zephyr, go Invisible with your #3, send in your pet and Rapid Fire. Just Rapid Fire him already. This is just for opening and hitting them when they’re trying to run.

Shortbow: Quick, has a daze, has an evade. Its fun for some, not for me. I don’t know why you want it in this build, take it if you want.

Torch(OH): Why not? Because I say so.

Pets:
With this build I find 4 pet families excel the most.

Drakes: The blast finisher opening says it all, awesome active abilities and you can just let it run freely without worrying. PvE only.

Bears: Meat shield with condition cleanse and regen. Worth while always.

Canines: Krytan Warhound/Alpine Wolf with another Wolf. Just sexy as hell. Knockdown on swap and great actives. Primarily useful in WvW but use it in PvE if you want. I’m not your boss and canines rule.

Birds: They do great damage and give you swiftness. I like dual raven for the constant blinds or raven and owl so I have a chill. With all those stats in Beastmaster traits, they are amazing and should always be considered.

Gear:

Damage set: Berserker’s with Ranger’s Runes – The constant 7% damage bonus is nice.

Survival set: Cleric’s with Drawyna’s Runes- You get the most out of your Regens, when using this with Canines, a Fern Hound is nice too.

Sigils: Depends on the weapon you’re running but on my greatsword I like a Sigil of Accuracy to accompany the Sigil of Rage.

Opinions, critique and your general flaming for a non-meta build will be loved.

WvW recommendations:
You’ll primarily be roaming, so either go Axe/Warhorn or the Longbow as your secondary set. Entangle is my go to ulti, but I only use it when my target is half dead or has just burned a stun break. Pet wise its always canines or birds, the Swiftness and Blind off birds is amazing paired with the damage. Canines for the knockdowns and CC on demand. Up to you.
As for food, go with Crit boosting and Life Stealing on crit.

PvE recommendations:
Open World, Sword/Warhorn should be your goto. Just Swoop, Hunter’s Call, Swoop, Swoop, Swoop, Hunter’s Call. Dungeons shortbow for boss fights, the extra evade helps, Longbow for pulling and mass cripple. Fractals, well you should be ready for everything, I like having one of each weapon(except torches) in my backpack. My go to elite for PvE is obviously Rampage as One, now if they made that a shout, we could make a nice bunker, shouting, beastmaster, ranger build.

The Zephyr Build experiments:

The Dazing Zephyr: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARVjEq0yaJLWsQ1agDhq1KwOAKgE4dxus3cBraA-TBBXgAAK/C1B0r+zjSQA-e

This build rotates around Quickness and CCing your foe for Moment of Clarity Proc, is only for roaming WvW and I intend to test it. We have two 25s CD dazes and Canines can interrupt when used well.

Do you have to be the chosen one for this to work?

I wouldn’t call build choices based on skins.

lol, looks like a lot of fun – I’m going to try this out next. xD

lol i’m a little bit surprised that you didn’t take runes of Balthazar or Orrian for the additional Quickness they give xD

Durzlla.6295:

lol i’m a little bit surprised that you didn’t take runes of Balthazar or Orrian for the additional Quickness they give xD

Well condition damage/duration does little for me, and it didn’t seem worth it with the 90s cooldown. I’m not very fond of dropping below 20% health as it is.

Ambush.3251:

I wouldn’t call build choices based on skins.

I am among the players, to whom aesthetics are pretty kitten important. So I would call build choices based on skins. [Also not a fan of following the meta]

jpnova.4572:

I am among the players, to whom aesthetics are pretty kitten important. So I would call build choices based on skins. [Also not a fan of following the meta]

Knowing the mechanics of Guild Wars 2, and how they distrubuted skills on different weapons, making every weapon essentially fill different roles and niches, doing build choices entirely based of weapon skin and the fact that you “want” to use weapon X or weapon Y is.. well, dumb. That being said, the GS isn’t the problem. You can easily bring it and still be an asset. The problem is the build itself.

In any settings were you play with other people and your performene affect them, you shouldn’t play a subpar build (unless they’re okay with that). This build is quite frankly less than subpar, both in damage and team utility. Hence why the PvE recommendation for this build would be not to bring it. It’s not about following the meta, it’s just that this build doesn’t offer all that much in any game modes regarding team play.

The build itself were probably a lot funnier before they nerfed quickness and shuffled around the relating traits in beastmastery. Not saying it can’t be fun as it is, but I wouldn’t use it for anything other than roaming around in wvw with something different just for the heck of it.

Potentially fun. Not too usefull. But I think you already know that.

I have to say I prefer 0/6/2/0/6 with GS/SB after messing around a bit. Of course much more vulnerable than x/6/6/x/x, but I suppose sacrifices have to be made to get to ZS now… a shame…

GS/SB is such a fun set as it is.

I played in wvw with an LB quickness build… It was a lot of fun, because I wasn’t zerker but dealt as much damage as a zerker without quickness

But miss once → Dead.

Lazze.9870:

jpnova.4572:

I am among the players, to whom aesthetics are pretty kitten important. So I would call build choices based on skins. [Also not a fan of following the meta]

Knowing the mechanics of Guild Wars 2, and how they distrubuted skills on different weapons, making every weapon essentially fill different roles and niches, doing build choices entirely based of weapon skin and the fact that you “want” to use weapon X or weapon Y is.. well, dumb. That being said, the GS isn’t the problem. You can easily bring it and still be an asset. The problem is the build itself.

In any settings were you play with other people and your performene affect them, you shouldn’t play a subpar build (unless they’re okay with that). This build is quite frankly less than subpar, both in damage and team utility. Hence why the PvE recommendation for this build would be not to bring it. It’s not about following the meta, it’s just that this build doesn’t offer all that much in any game modes regarding team play.

The build itself were probably a lot funnier before they nerfed quickness and shuffled around the relating traits in beastmastery. Not saying it can’t be fun as it is, but I wouldn’t use it for anything other than roaming around in wvw with something different just for the heck of it.

Potentially fun. Not too usefull. But I think you already know that.

I’m sorry to say this but besides Spotter builds in PvE, there is very little rangers bring to team play and I’d recommend you test it before calling the damage ‘less than subpar’.
With quickness you deal a fair amount of damage and you stay a lot longer in fights than you would with the evade and double leap finisher in waterfields(the drakes also blast to heal me and my melee companions, with the waterfield being right next to the prime target all ranged team mates also stack regen with their Projectile finishers).

I have been using this build in mid 20 fractals and have had great results and no complaints (just shaman I switched to the LB spotter build with S/A). Quickness is not only for fights but reviving a downed allies in a tough situation. And I can hold aggro for quite sometime before backing off, in case the heavy needs to back off for a bit/has fallen. Got roped into a couple 30+ fractals with just 35 AR last week and ended up getting commended for my performance.

The build relies on pet activation, hence though different from old Zephyr builds is still effective despite the nerf and is a whole lot of fun. After all with every swap I’m giving my team area might and vigor.

Not using the weapon you want to use is well… dumb. All weapons can be effective if you know how to build for it(maybe not axe MH). Just takes some thought.