Guild Wars 2

Before the Shortbow nerf I ran with either the Glass Cannon Build for keeps, and if out in open field I did a Con/Pet based build with Shortbow,Axe/Horn Build….This worked fairly good cause even with Condition build Shortbow with QZ could put out some mean burst.

After though, I decided to move away from QZ, and the range weapons all together.

This build i’m running requires Asura by the way, and you wouldn’t be able to use in tpvp (I use Traps during those) …but for Open World pvp I find it to be pretty effective.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMQQRAsY3flAVCs2XR5Gr1AR7xkM/5ZFO07B6jV7LYyB;TgAgyCuoay0koJbTumkNB

Now I’m thinking right now, you could probably replace Barkskin for the Condition one from your the line.. and then just pickup lightning reflexes of Nature’s Renewal. Still trying to find the right combination on that as Barkskin has saved me (It + Protection is a stupid amount of Mitigation below 25% life)

Anyway for those of you have guessed, You’re a Condition Ranger. The whole idea behind the build is to basically get directly on top of it to use your Asura Racial….Because it is absolutely just silly how powerful it is. I’ve killed a crap ton of thieves beyond measure with this spec. For those who don’t know, If you have a little over 1500 Base Condition damage like I do (Almost 1800 with the full corruption 25 stack) The Asura Racial does around 1087 Damage, from 3 Stacks of Confusion it applies, It also lasts 5 seconds, and the buff gives you Retal as well. Anyway generally what I do is if I see a thief..I run at them.. This alone will confuse pretty much every single thief in the game as to why a Ranger isn’t trying to kite them.. but is instead going to melee them ;o)

When I see the thief stealth..I go ahead and start casting the Racial…and then I just start dodging…Or if I actually see them.. I’ll start using the Sword/Dagger Evade Chains…while making sure Whichever bird pet I have hits them. I prefer to have the Owl out the most and i’ll explain why in a second.

Anyway….By running this setup I’ve killed thieves in a matter of seconds because they never really expect it… Bout the only class that has actually given me solid trouble with this build is a Bunker Spec Elementalist I ran across…..She simply removed every condition I applied and was nothing I could really do to counter that. But every build needs a counter so I’m not to worried about it.

Now as to why I use Owl and Raven Pet.

Owl provides a 5-6 second Chill
Raven Pet Provides a Blind

Both of the attacks hit EXTREMELY hard…The Blind from the Raven if both hits crit is an easy 6k+ damage on the target.

Why I prefer the Owl pet out is simple… The Chill + the Axe 3 Chill Is close to 10 seconds of it.. and its really easy to apply.. It also applies Weaken as well… if I can open up a fight on people.. That is generally what I start with before throwing the torch and switching to sword/dagger combo.

Now the Raven pet I prefer if I get downed by any target. Because you can instantly switch over to him and pop his F2 for big damage and it puts a blind on the target as well….

Now this build isn’t for everyone..It does however work fairly good, I don’t know how other races would be able to do other then the asura.. I imagine they’d probably have to adopt more of a Trap based Version.

But if you’re Asura, I recommend trying it out.

By the way I run a combination of Carrion Gear with the Precision/Toughness/Con damage karma gear.

Well, I’m rolling a ranger now. I’m torn between Asura and Human. Human has Prayer to Kormir (3 condition removal on 40 sec cd). Condition removal seems to be a challenge and could be more useful. Is the signet really enough? I suppose if you use it, you can fall back and equip Healing Spring or Brown Bear if the situation calls for it.

On the other hand, using Pain Inverter could be quite fun. Xsorus—how effective is it in your experience vs rogues (damage amount)? and vs. other classes? I was looking at your history and you seem to have quite a bit of experience and even reference DAOC, so my guess is you’re not a noob.

Norn have Call Owl (ranged bleed)—but I can’t find any place that tells me how much dmg it does vs pain inverter. Also, leopard form could come in handy, too. Help me make up my mind please.

I would imagine your build was based on a 1v1 situation in WvW which is… quite rare, you also rely on melee in WvW…. which is quite risky for a ranger considering we are quite squishy. No offense but my guess is any thief you have killed thus far is probably not a real level 80 or is probably not very skilled. Natural health regeneration for pets is just a massive waste of points and will be better spent in quickness when downed.

I’ve used Pain Inverter on my condition thief build before. It is very potent, that is sure. 3 stack of confusion is 1k damage per skill/attack they make. And the retaliation just exaggerates the effect. It really does what it says it does, it inverts the pain. (added perk, it doesn’t break stealth, because it doesn’t do any direct damage)

But for it to work well, you need to be in melee range, and your target doesn’t remove it, and your target attacks fast.

On the upside though, it is only a 30 second cd, so can be used fairly regularly.

i prefer “emphatic bond” over “barkskin”. bond seems to remove all conditions every 10s, which is better imo then barkskin, which “only” reduces 30% dmg when u have about 5000 hp left…

btw, rangers r not squishy, if build so. this one here is kind of squishy, i would build different. anyway, it depends on playstyle/task. he does good dmg, has tons of evades…so in smaller fights or 1v1s it will be good. and for zerg-encounters…just take a bow with u, equip it before fight, and u r fine…

edit: there’s one “godmode”-button as ranger (with right traits though) and anotherone if your pet (bear preffered) is still alive that u can hit and just watch whoever (thief) land his attack-chain while doing zero dmg…

I can see what you’re attempting to do with this build, but I agree with Calypso: this seems more like a 1v1 build used against less experienced players. Thieves who know how to control an encounter will not engage you with your Confusion/Retaliation up. They’ll wait out the 5 seconds in Stealth then reengage.

You’re also very brave or very foolish to be running this build while the Ranger bugs still abound. I love Sword and can’t wait to use it, but whether you disable the autoattack or not you’ll still root yourself on the third chain. I do like the axe/torch combo. Generating your own combo field is a great thing.

Your signets and your reliance on your pets, however, is misplaced. Again, this is pre-buff and before our bugs are addressed. You may see more sucess with your pets because you’re not kiting as much (melee), but your choice of signets – especially Signet of the Hunt – aren’t your best choices. If anything, swap Signet of the Hunt for Signet of Stone. This would synergize well with your bunker-esque build.

deepwinter.9015:

I can see what you’re attempting to do with this build, but I agree with Calypso: this seems more like a 1v1 build used against less experienced players. Thieves who know how to control an encounter will not engage you with your Confusion/Retaliation up. They’ll wait out the 5 seconds in Stealth then reengage.

You’re also very brave or very foolish to be running this build while the Ranger bugs still abound. I love Sword and can’t wait to use it, but whether you disable the autoattack or not you’ll still root yourself on the third chain. I do like the axe/torch combo. Generating your own combo field is a great thing.

Your signets and your reliance on your pets, however, is misplaced. Again, this is pre-buff and before our bugs are addressed. You may see more sucess with your pets because you’re not kiting as much (melee), but your choice of signets – especially Signet of the Hunt – aren’t your best choices. If anything, swap Signet of the Hunt for Signet of Stone. This would synergize well with your bunker-esque build.

I’ve changed the build up a bit after the original post and went with Empathetic Bond and Lighting Reflex instead.

I also dropped Masters Bond and picked up the AOE Vigor tactic for Birds in Beast Mastery.

at this point, I’ve flat out not lost to any thief 1v1.. and I’ve fought many many many level 80’s… I don’t even count people with the green arrow when talking about this build.

In general, Most Thieves don’t know how to handle the confusion, Most of them are very squishy and thus if they don’t kill you in the opening burst, They probably won’t manage to do it.

The Toughest fights I have continue to be Tank Elementalist (not lost to once since switching some of the abilities over) and Mesmers, But even Mesmers are doable if you’re patient in the fight.

Also this is a 1v1 build, Do not i repeat, do not attempt to Zerg Surf with this build and expect to be remotely useful.

If I see a zerg fighting, I move on and attempt to pick off reinforcements and such…

Warlock for the question about Pain Inverter and how much damage it deals, Flat out i’ve killed thieves with it in under 4 Seconds at the start of the fight.

Mine with full Corruption stacks is hitting for 1200 a pop….Whenever you see them stealth just cast it, Chances are they’re already on top of you and they’re spamming their abilities, things like Pistol Whip become instant death to them.

Xsorus, thanks for responding. Do you feel you get enough condition removal?

The Asura ability sounds like a neat trick—but much more situational. And probably very satisfying. But I’m a little worried I’d miss the human condition removal the other 90% of the time… I guess question is would you trade if you could? Sounds like you wouldn’t.

Warlock, I’d say it wouldn’t matter, although being immobilised is currently death for the ranger which the player would address, however, as stated by the Dev in another thread, they have their sights on working utilities. In my opinion, they will provide a counter for this in the near future and you should just pick the race you like best. However, I will have to say Xsorus is assuming that the thieves you will be facing will not be too skilled, no thieves will spam skills on stacks of confusion, it is actually more effective to cloak + backstab which will end the ranger anyway in a 1v1 situation. With equally skilled opponents of the same ‘real’ level, it is difficult for a ranger to win 1v1 situations with our current arsenal.

Calypso.9701:

I would imagine your build was based on a 1v1 situation in WvW which is… quite rare, you also rely on melee in WvW…. which is quite risky for a ranger considering we are quite squishy. No offense but my guess is any thief you have killed thus far is probably not a real level 80 or is probably not very skilled. Natural health regeneration for pets is just a massive waste of points and will be better spent in quickness when downed.

This might be true but ifh e uses greatsword, killing thieves becomes much easier, counterattack pretty much ruins opening burst for thieves. I plan on switching to it tomorrow myself.

Calypso.9701:

Warlock, I’d say it wouldn’t matter, although being immobilised is currently death for the ranger which the player would address, however, as stated by the Dev in another thread, they have their sights on working utilities. In my opinion, they will provide a counter for this in the near future and you should just pick the race you like best. However, I will have to say Xsorus is assuming that the thieves you will be facing will not be too skilled, no thieves will spam skills on stacks of confusion, it is actually more effective to cloak + backstab which will end the ranger anyway in a 1v1 situation. With equally skilled opponents of the same ‘real’ level, it is difficult for a ranger to win 1v1 situations with our current arsenal.

Backstab builds aren’t a problem 1v1, I don’t lose to them…I’m also not assuming anything..I’ve fought 100’s of Thieves since switching to this build…and i’ve not lost to one yet 1v1. Now that doesn’t mean I can’t get screwed over by thieves, if a Thief runs up to me while i’m fighting someone else and drops his load on me i’m dead, Nothing you can do against that.

1v1 though you can easily predict when you need to dodge, Basically whenever you see stealth….Dodge… If he pops on you with Bassilk poison or whatever, Lightning Reflex..Hell even if you can’t see him, just be dodging…

Now it could be that the vast majority of Thieves are just awful, which I would agree with that completely…Most frankly are so use to just instant killing targets they don’t know any better.

But at this point, I’ve not ran into any of them 1v1 that could take this build on.

Hell most of the time they die and the a few seconds later, pop from stealth..

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Calypso.9701:

I would imagine your build was based on a 1v1 situation in WvW which is… quite rare, you also rely on melee in WvW…. which is quite risky for a ranger considering we are quite squishy. No offense but my guess is any thief you have killed thus far is probably not a real level 80 or is probably not very skilled. Natural health regeneration for pets is just a massive waste of points and will be better spent in quickness when downed.

This might be true but ifh e uses greatsword, killing thieves becomes much easier, counterattack pretty much ruins opening burst for thieves. I plan on switching to it tomorrow myself.

Sword/Dagger with Lightning Reflexes

It’s 4 Evades, + Vigor, and When you switch the Birds in Combat you get Vigor as well.

Warlock.2461:

Xsorus, thanks for responding. Do you feel you get enough condition removal?

The Asura ability sounds like a neat trick—but much more situational. And probably very satisfying. But I’m a little worried I’d miss the human condition removal the other 90% of the time… I guess question is would you trade if you could? Sounds like you wouldn’t.

I was using the Signet before, I switched to Empathetic Bond after someone said it pulled all Conditions I believe every 10 Seconds..

I honestly don’t notice conditions being stacked on me a lot, so I’m assuming it’s working quite well.

Most Fights though I kill the target so quickly that Conditions don’t have time to stack up though.

Eh against thieves, as Ive said I will just use GS, if used right it can counter backstabers quite well. I used to use it but started with sword/horn, but I kinda miss swooping around the map, and the combo I used on warriors/thieves was simple, counter attack, swoord, hiltbash, either spam 1 and maul, or switch to longbow and point blank shot + pew pew.

I would also like to see a link for the updated build (forgot to say that in my last post)…

Calypso, I hope you’re right—just hard to say what devs will do. I also suspect it won’t catch all thieves, but I bet a lot. Let’s face it, most players aren’t going to be great (especially in WvW—which is where you can use racials). Second, I doubt many are even expecting confusion in jumping a ranger.

Warlock.2461:

I would also like to see a link for the updated build (forgot to say that in my last post)…

Calypso, I hope you’re right—just hard to say what devs will do. I also suspect it won’t catch all thieves, but I bet a lot. Let’s face it, most players aren’t going to be great (especially in WvW—which is where you can use racials). Second, I doubt many are even expecting confusion in jumping a ranger.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMQQRAsY3flAVCsWZR5Gr1AR7xkMPmYFO07RsYf7LYyB;TgAgyCuoay0koJbTumkNB

No one is expecting Confusion+Retal from a ranger.

It’s pretty obvious when I start running at a thief and he sorta just stops for a second like “wtf”

Whats even better is when you kill a thief before he can exit stealth. Then you become confused. Ive had that happen, killed a thief so fast that when he stealthed he was at full health but I had my rapid fire following him and my ravens f2 hit him in stealth somehow and he came out downed…good times.

I have one last question. Since it’s a roaming build for WvW (not siege where you’d use ranged), do you have some source for swiftness that I’m missing? I’d be worried about getting run down without swiftness in WvW.

other then birds and switching the horn out on off hand no…

my ranger is also full melee, but i alway take horn for buffing and one bow for wall defending.

btw, with the right spec…fly into the zerg with greatsword with that 1100 range leap, daze/bleed, switch to 2nd weaponcombo, continue, hit one of your 2 invincible-buttons if things get to hot, dodge and move out of enemyzerg (its not that hard, just use your conditionremoves and/or stunbreaks if u r cc’ed) and u often leave the target dead, especially if u had support from one other member of grp. i love to do that, since nobody expects a ranger or whatever to fly to u in melee-range. ppl r not prepared. works even better in spvp.

btw, Xsorus is right, thieves r no horror in 1v1, but i am talking about spvp, where at least lvl and gear is equal.

So been playing the spec some more, and it is still working pretty good, I did lose to a Thief doing the Wild Bill spec of just popping out of stealth to apply attacks and going right back in over and over again. This ended up confusing my bird pets which are a big source of my burst. I managed to make the thief run off a few times though when she got low on health so I probably really would of have more wins then her if I could of been able to catch her.

I’ve changed up my Weapon Sigils as well, I can’t afford another Sigil of Energy and wasting 60 silver on Corruption Sigils seemed kind of overpriced, so I switched over to the ones that proc the AOE Bleed and the Poison on next hit.

I found these actually work really well with the build. It’s a 3 Stack bleed that lasts like 8 seconds I believe, so I can apply 11 Stacks of Bleed if I land my Point Blank Axe Number 2 ability at the start of a fight fairly easily.

The Poison i put on my Offhand Dagger, its 5 Seconds of Poison Duration i believe, but if I apply it+sword+dagger poison it’s 20 seconds of Poison on the target..so I can basically keep Poison up perma on the target very easily. I would probably replace it with Energy if I could but on my server its over 1 gold 20 Silver for each Superior Version.

Can you please post the build link again as the ones above are not working. Also your name is familiar. DAOC? Mid Merlin, frequent the VN boards, etc?

Zera.8907:

Can you please post the build link again as the ones above are not working. Also your name is familiar. DAOC? Mid Merlin, frequent the VN boards, etc?

Cut and Paste

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMQQRAsY3flAVCsWZR5Gr1AR7xkMPmYFO07RsYf7LYyB;TgAgyCuoay0koJbTumkNB

Clicking on it won’t work.

Yes on others, I played with Desolate from Midgard Merlin, I have a RR11l3 Valkyrie named Terravos (My Savage is Xsorus)