Guild Wars 2

I’m mostly looking for PvP advice here, though general pointers are also welcome.

My tendency is to try and make durable builds, and I’m just not really sure how to do that with a Ranger. I main a Necro, so it’s an entirely different playstyle.

My current pseudo-build is this

I imagine this is a pretty cringe inducing build for veteran Rangers, but, again, any advice is appreciated

Have you tried using the metabattle build yet? That one is actually pretty durable with all the protection uptime. It’s also a good starting point so people can know what you need to change after you try it.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Power_Survival

It’s not that cringeworthy. The two problems I see are that your sustain won’t be that great because your healing power is low, so it makes the regen on shouts kind of meh. You could change soldier to cleric but be advised that your personal damage won’t be that great with soldier or cleric and you will rely on pet damage for the most part.

Secondly your condi removal is not great which is a problem because something like a burn guardian will destroy you no matter how much toughness, healing power, or vitality you have. The best way to add condi removal is in Wilderness Survival unfortunately which you would probably want to exchange with marksmanship. This leaves you with a build pretty close to our one, kind of not really “meta” build, either running survival skills or shouts I guess like you have.

Edit: Also you could consider changing runes from traveler to trooper for extra condi cleanse. The 25% movement speed on traveler is marginal because you should have near perma swiftness from shouts. You can also consider changing bountiful hunter to allies aid in the nature magic line to help with ressing downed allies, and getting an additional shout if you decide to change runes, is somewhat useful as well.

I decided to use the meta build (except soldier ammy and reef drake) and it seems decent so far

There’s a reason it is the meta build haha.

Mcrocha.3891:

There’s a reason it is the meta build haha.

It just goes against the grain xD I’ve always tried to be a bit outside the meta (remember, necro main who uses soldier gear there as well) but this build doesn’t hurt my pride toooo much. At least it’s fairly durable. I just need a looooot more practice on it

I guess a decent tip if you dont know about it for general pvp knowledge is that for stomping wars and engis you can use your pet to bodyblock them so they can’t interrupt the stomp.

Any tips for positioning in various maps?

Foefire / ontop of pillar near stairs going to water fall node , just to the side of the mid cap , standing here means only thiefs/mesmers and pulls are a threat and if a Ele is D/D the platform is small + very hard to fight on.

if a player decides to put well on you just hop off to mid go Melee/Survive+CC those wells or Aoes are now off point making things easier for the team mates so that pillar is of great tactical advantage if you are left to Free cast pew pew away , use a Remorsless/Survival build to triple stack Vun on Multip targets using QZ+barrage>switch targets>RF and Sic um on theifs+mesmers to prevent them from surprise Res’s(stealth reses after you’re barrage combo or even stop them from getting a easy port attack on you by teleporting or blinking up to you) at this point you have to decide to jump down or not and support stomp.

1. are you over overwhelmed by clones or theifs guild or even have a Guardain with mesmer trying to push or pull you.
2. the Combo is on cooldown and you have no Strenght of the pack
3. your Wolf is dead (this is a major F2 used in stomps/suprise attacks force them off using fear) if it is dead you may want to move away and kite / repostion.
4. Staff Eles! the bane to postioning with a LB tip keep moving between two or three Pinpoint locations don’t stay in one place too long.

generaly this turns into cap node rotations between water fall +1 support and Bombing Mid > to cap moving between these points puts staff eles at a disadvantage as they will have to come up the stairs to stop you , and the objective is prevent them from Range supporting Mid and as you are faster you’ll have the advantage on flat ground vs a staff ele , even if you can’t kill them its just to delay or Point blank shot him back into mid where the Barrage combo is making him waste skills chasing you , lowers his condi clears , you apply more and more Vun slowly pushing most Team fights into your teams favour.
(this will only come with Game experience knowing when to or not)

while in a postion of higher ground main targets are Guardains,theifs,mesmers due to ports/pulls and teleports try not to waste Strenght of the pack use it only when you are being focused then rotate the survival skills (wilderness knowledge to reapply Opening strikes and clear 2 condis)

take note while on a pillar pets can’t climb down so its always good to have a support pet rather than dual dogs , as to why most experienced players use Wolf+spider or even Wolf+saimoth (if using nature magic to eat plasma gives you a long duration of mass boons) though if using a Saimoth check the opposing team for necros all those boons being corrupted will kill you in less than 2seconds.

so choose pets according to the opposing classes and what you plan to do in the fights.

i find using a General Poison spider with f2 your next 3 attacks Poison , or your next 3 attacks weaken ect..helps a lot when pets can’t move they also throw poison fields that will help a lot with the barrage>RF combo onto the node cover the cripple+vun with Bleeds from sharpen edges no matter how short the bleeds are they will stack up high with high Crits lots of cover condis meaning they should waste a lot of condi clear on weakness+poison+bleed before they manage to keep Vun off them as its being reapplied consistantly or atleast every time you apply fury (you have pet swap clarions bond and a Red moa that will help both offence + heal you a little when it uses its harmonic cry)

do note Clarions bond is not effected by Quick draw so if you do take quick draw Use Barrage first >QZ>swap weapons > if Sword+axe you can pull or push a target then Whirling defence on the pillar with healing spring or Troll ungent for a ranged protection while you regen as soon as 9seconds is up swap back hit Petswap(clarions bond>barrage>RF+optional skill for added Vun by now the targets should have a average of 10-15 each and the main target in the centre should have RF stacks too maxing to 20-25. thats the kill combo and if ignored it can be Repeated once every 15seconds alone , or burst combo every 32seconds.

down side if pet dies you loose one source of fury lowering Dps or Vun stack opening strikes so protect your pet with Whirling defence and ride out the timer untill Clarions bond is ready which is 30secs one every two pet swaps , so if you start with wolf out , the Spider or MoA will trigger the Clarion , then it will trigger every time you swap back to Spider or MoA so for optimal use make sure you have spider or moa out first so when you do swap its the wolf that gets the boon bonuses+opening strikes.

practice your pet swap rotations too if you plan to use Remorseless type builds.

I generally use this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjEqQLL2wCesAVLGWEqtFCgj+f9Wf17ytDGhS2VFA-TJBFABAt/g4lBW4SAAwTAAA

It’s a slight variation on a metabattle build. It doesn’t have enough sustain to go outnumbered for long, but between the evades, blocks stealths and such, it does alright. You can either use a hawk to continuously proc the weakness and blind, or double canines so that when you go down you can always swap and get a free knockdown/interupt. Wolf is pretty much mandatory imo, you get about 3.5-4s lockdown with beastly warden.

Plenty of condi cleanse since 4/5 of the utilities will remove 2, and the build has good damage.

I would say that the build probably needs a decent grasp of the class to make the most out of — but that could be said of almost any build. I don’t mean any offense by this, it’s just a disclaimer.

Your build isn’t bad for the most part, but I really don’t agree with your choice of pets in a competitive sense. Canines are great for control, and birds are decent damage (realllly squishy though) and have low cd attacks to proc your traits.

Take a look at the build thread in my sig mate (or on top of the forum, it got sticky’d) to see a myriad of PvP builds. Find one that you like and tweak it to suit your playstyle.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

take note while on a pillar pets can’t climb down so its always good to have a support pet rather than dual dogs , as to why most experienced players use Wolf+spider or even Wolf+saimoth (if using nature magic to eat plasma gives you a long duration of mass boons) though if using a Saimoth check the opposing team for necros all those boons being corrupted will kill you in less than 2seconds.

Alright, so I’ve tweaked my build slightly and I’ve played with it a bit. It’s about as survivable as the full survival set up I tried prior to it, but I like the feel of it better. Kind of miss the benefit of “Go for the eyes!,” but eh. Lower cooldown shouts is nice as well

As for builds – I run a hybrid PTV with some Sinister and Carrion thrown in for armor. I try to balance out my build(Marksmanship/Skirmish/Wilderness Survival). I can survive in zergs, do lots of damage, and use my build in any setting PVE, and WvW(I don’t do much PVP). Weapons of choice are Long Bow/Great Sword or Long Bow/Sword/Torch.

Oh, and one big tip. If everyone is AOEing a target don’t use Long Bow 4. That move has given rangers a bad rep from day 1 of GW2. Of course other classes have knock back, but we always catch the blame.

Examples to use it:
Knocking players off cliffs and bridges
Interrupt skills of bosses that you can’t knock back
Solo play – no one will see you do it
Saving a friend/teammate from being spiked in PVP or WvW

Im not much for following meta builds, i see them as a way to get an idea on a specific way to play a class and then tweak it and fine-tune it to fit your play style.

My PvP Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjEqQLLWyCWsAXLG+DqtIWgA4TjfY47+923hLeYkI-T5wHABWXGAgLBgI7PAA

This build focuses on giving you a lot of survival through high defense and the survival ability of the GS. Unlike the meta i use my GS as my Main weapon and LB as secondary.

With these traits/amulet you get pretty good damage as well since every time u get fury remorseless gives you a opening strike which in turn causes you to crit 100% of the time, no need for precision .

For 2nd slot of sigils on either it depends on who you’re up against, Doom, Leeching, Hydromancy are all good.

Also often i tend to use GS and S/A or S/D

Tip wise, not sure if anyone posted or if you are aware.
When you get downed you can still use pet abilities (swap pets, pet active, etc). So sometimes its nice to be able to swap to your wolf or w/e and fear them while you get up, its saved me countless times

Often when running my Warrior(Ham/Axe&Mace), I come across Rangers that have ZERO problems with survivability. What I don’t understand is the almost permanent stability. Signet of Stone gives what 3 seconds, where is the other stability coming from? Is it being transferred to the pet?

This isn’t whining, I play Ranger as well. This is constructive curiosity.

I would guess it’s this and this but don’t take my word for it. Also, all this advice has been quite helpful

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Often when running my Warrior(Ham/Axe&Mace), I come across Rangers that have ZERO problems with survivability. What I don’t understand is the almost permanent stability. Signet of Stone gives what 3 seconds, where is the other stability coming from? Is it being transferred to the pet?

This isn’t whining, I play Ranger as well. This is constructive curiosity.

Signet of Stone doesn’t give stability, signet of the wild does (which you can also have a 2nd traited SotW that procs at 50% health). Other than that you are probably seeing the elite shout “strength of the pack”

If you like durable builds, I recommend this one I’m currently using the most (it’s cele/condition)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8fjUqQ5KWyCusAVLGMEqfLu9avf3ToF4AY0L9CWdA-TpRFwAAeAAJOCADuAAKOIAp2f4ZZAA

I’ve got a few things to say to the build:
- Why sharpened edges and not trapper’s expertise? Sharpened edges gives you a lot more DMG, especially if your arrows hit multiple targets in teamfights, since the extra bleed from it has no internal CD. Also, I only have the one trap, which already has tons of bleeding cuz of the krait-rune (more duration than 10 isn’t necessary IMHO, it’ll very likely just get removed before it runs out). Also, the knockdown kinda makes the cripple a bit unnecessary and just for the lower CD for the one trap, it’s just not effective enough.

- Shared anguish: With only torch as offhand, the effectiveness of ambidexterity is greatly diminished. Also, negating 1 CC can really help you to stomp and/or rez in teamfights and make full use of your quickness for example.

- Pet’s: Pretty standard atm: The owl or the ravens have the highest single-target DPS by far and the CD coincides with taunt. The Wolf is just for the amazing fear. If your team doesn’t need much DMG and you really only want to teamfight with the build, I can also recommend the Krytan Drakehound with his AoE immobilize.

Playstyle is mostly teamfight-oriented, but it is very strong in 1v1’s as well. If you play it well and maybe can pre-cast a trap before the fight, it can even beat D/D-Ele’s (it’s a hard MU though and you need to know exactly what you’re dodging, interrupting, when to taunt with the pet and lay the trap, keep track of all the CD’s of the Ele etc.)

I play the build mostly on shortbow and I almost only switch to sword/torch for evades/dodges and against downed players or for a taunt+bonfire+trap+entangle AoE-combo.