Guild Wars 2

I am going back to ranger after awhile and wanted to play trapper ranger because I had so much fun as a trapper in guild wars 1. So I am just starting a thread on the current status of trapper rangers and wanted to ask the community your thoughts.

So what are your guys/gals experiences with trapper rangers? Where do you think they excel at and where do you think they lack a bit?

Other questions that may be useful:
-what are your favorite runes/sigils
-how do trappers do in a group fight vs solo
-pve,pvp and wvw viability
-what improvements could be made without making the build over powered
-counters to trapper rangers

Feel free to answer any and all questions and contribute any other information regarding the topic.

Example of a trapper build if you have not ran one:http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Stealth_Trapper

*as a side note, I just found out recently about the stealth issues regarding the trapper runes 0_o

In my experience trappers are a good way to make a melee focused build. Even traited for ground targeting, the range of traps is very low, and if you are already in melee range anyway, then the biggest disadvantage of traps is minimized.

In pvp the advantages are reversed- the Potent Traps trait gives you a massive duration increase without having to sacrifice runes or sigils, making Spike and Frost traps incredible kiting skills.

In general traps are sub-par, due to their short duration and low damage. However, they are lots of fun and have some uses. They are stronger in PVP then in PVE.

Spike Trap: Handy for cripple in pvp if traited. Muddy terrain is better in every way otherwise. Not useful at all in PVE.

Fire Trap: Moderately useful in PVE. Best DPS trap. GS 3 in the fire field for some self might stacking through the fire shield effect, very effective for fighting multiple opponents since you get a might stack for each enemy that hits you.

Poison Trap: Does some damage, though not a lot. Poison field + GS3 (or any other leap finisher, including pets) gives you access to weakness, which is excellent for a survivability build. Also handy for applying poison to a regenerating boss/vet/champ or something, if you’re GS/LB like me and don’t have poison on a weapon skill available.

Frost Trap: Trait with Potent Traps for +100% duration and it will make you into a PVP god. Shoot rapid fire through the field for EVEN MORE chill duration. Can be stacked to 10-15 seconds if you can keep them in the field for it’s full length. If your opponent can’t cleanse conditions, or already burned theirs, they will be completely borked. The snare is nice, but the cooldown penalty lasting that long will easily turn the fight in your favor.

Counters = condition removal. It’s really that simple.

Traps, like many utilities and traits, suffer from ANet balancing philosophy “the best possible”.

They balance them for ideal scenarios, where you go for all trap traits, utitilites. The outcome of this philosophy is that if you don’t get all the traits, cdrs and don’t build just for that one type of utility, investing heavily and locking into particular utilities… they’re absolute bullkitten and crap.

Untraited traps are good for unreliable combo fields or detecting stealth. That’s it.

Generally speaking, Condi Trapper could work in tpvp. In theory. It’s area pressure.

But because our meta is very balanced, Shoutbow Warrior, D/D ele, Engineer can do the same thing with less investment, thought while maintaing better survivability, teamwork potential, mobility, support. Tpvp Trapper excells only in one area, where that cele trio is good at almost everything. Also, pure trapper is easy to counter.

WvW – Trapper is really roaming-only. It’s okay against most melee build and good roamer when played properly with Trapper runes. That being said, it takes practice to use rune properly. Again, excells against most melee. But WvW roaming meta, if it even does exist (not on T1 eu), is extremaly boring, tedious and annoying to fight. You can try it, especially if you’re on T2-3 but flood of high sustain condi builds like Mesmers or Thieves/Engineers will likely make you throw up after half an hour.

No need for PvE – full berserker.
WvW – they work great regardless of server / tier.
PvP – limited scope but it depends on the build you are running.

Having said that I mostly use them in WvW and find them incredibly useful with small HAVOC squads or just solo roaming flipping camps or events. Speed is nice, as is stealth. Initial fights or first time engagements most people don’t even know how to react if you are using two traps. When three are slotted, forget it. Traps also work with all weapons I’ve found even double bow. Large group fights /or the zerg – they also work when used correctly. More so after the recent stability changes.

It really just comes down to your play style and comfort level.

After about 1500 hours of playing mesmer in WvW, I switched to a trapper ranger about 4 months ago. I love it for small group and solo play. It can work well in some zerg fights, but my pets die quickly (and this is my only condi removal). I can’t really speak for pvp or pve.

Trapper runes are the reason I made this character. Geomancy sigils are great. I also use corruption and bursting.

The stealth/speed mechanism with the runes could use a bit of tweaking. But after a while, I have mostly gotten used to it and accept that many times I won’t get stealth.

My build is quite close to the meta battle one you linked. I prefer jungle spider and marsh drake, and I use vipers nest instead of frost trap. I also prefer keen edge trait to nature’s protection. I don’t use sharpened edges (use the vigor trait instead), so I go ful dire instead of mixing in rabid. I also like hide in plain sight better than off-hand training.

As much as I love playing this character and don’t want it nerfed, I would say it’s close to over-powered already. This is mostly based on my time as a mesmer, so perhaps it’s just that was really underpowered.

In terms of counters, I never worry about a 1v1 fight. I still lose some of them, but I feel like I can win every possible fight. The ones that can be trouble are diamond skin ele, condi thief, something with a lot of stuns (no true stun breakers in my build), and necro if I foolishly let him put my own condis back on me.

Hope you try it out and enjoy it!

Trapper runes had a bug which has been fixed. Great runes all around.