Guild Wars 2

There’s not many trapper vids here on the forums and I’ve seen a few people asking for some so I whipped up a new build and recorded some footage for a day.
I don’t really play trapper much anymore, since imo BM is better than it at everything except fighting on a point, but its still a pretty effective build. Any feedback or questions are welcome. Enjoy!

Build: http://tinyurl.com/p59s2ed

Duels with Xsorus start at 18:40, I think he was using Melandru runes which made it very tough fight. I put the best duels in.

Was wondering what type of armor you were using.

I have to change out to full condition removal just to stand a chance..Was much easier when I could PI you in the face ;o)

But yes, using Melandru rune till I get Superior Rune of the Forge

By the way, I have a much better video of you just absolutely taking a dump on me up near the bridge on one of the side borderlands.

Actually I have like 3 of them….

Bumping for future reference. I fooled around a bit with traps, but it was without condition duration/damage in equipment.

Question. You have lots of healing but I guess you need to put 30 points into skirmishing to get Trap Potency. Seems like such a waste to have to take 300 precision and 30% crit damage to get that. How much better would it be in Trap Potency was in beastmaster line.

Xsorus.2507:

By the way, I have a much better video of you just absolutely taking a dump on me up near the bridge on one of the side borderlands.

Actually I have like 3 of them….

I realy like the duels that go down to the wire, that last one in the vid was awesome how the advantage swayed the hole fight and we both ended up under 10% hp.

It would be awesome if you could upload those anyway because I realy like watching myself play from the other perspective.

Also I would be using runes of the forge as well but I cbf pveing anymore. The burn+prot duration is nice but the 10sec protection is godly.

Yea, currently working on getting the Runes, have decided which set i’ll put them on, Reyna’s or Apothecary.

But yea, I think about 20 seconds before I died in that one fight I realized I was going to lose when I wasn’t able to down you, I saw how long my heal timer was… and I was like “Yeap i’m boned”.

I really enjoyed this man, great vid!

Forzani.2584:

Bumping for future reference. I fooled around a bit with traps, but it was without condition duration/damage in equipment.

Question. You have lots of healing but I guess you need to put 30 points into skirmishing to get Trap Potency. Seems like such a waste to have to take 300 precision and 30% crit damage to get that. How much better would it be in Trap Potency was in beastmaster line.

The extra healing and pet damage would be pretty op, but you would still have the same condition damage. The thing is Bm builds usually use axe/torch + sword dagger which will pretty much keep poison+burning+bleeds up with 100% uptime, so the extra trap condis would add no damage. Its the same reason i don’t take vipers nest, because you already get poison from your weapon skills.

That was….eye opening. A couple of questions:

1. Why RAO over Entangle. You used Entangle in a couple of fights, but it seems like it would fit the “trapper” playstyle better than RAO. Great AOE dmg with a mechanism to hold targets in place for other traps.

2. Seems like the torch would also be a nice choice over the dagger. Maybe it’s redundant with the Fire trap?

3. Why do you think the BM builds are “superior”? Your survivability looked pretty darn good, your single target dmg seemed good, and your AOE was outstanding.

Not critiques, but questions from a noob. thx

Blackbird.4382:

That was….eye opening. A couple of questions:

1. Why RAO over Entangle. You used Entangle in a couple of fights, but it seems like it would fit the “trapper” playstyle better than RAO. Great AOE dmg with a mechanism to hold targets in place for other traps.

2. Seems like the torch would also be a nice choice over the dagger. Maybe it’s redundant with the Fire trap?

3. Why do you think the BM builds are “superior”? Your survivability looked pretty darn good, your single target dmg seemed good, and your AOE was outstanding.

Not critiques, but questions from a noob. thx

1. I feel like entangle is a little gimmicky, it will either win you a fight or do nothing at all. I do use it for taking camps so I probably got caught in a fight while it was on cd. I mainly use RaO for the stability, since getting stomps off is half the battle for a ranger.

2. I was using condition duration food so flame trap is almost perma burning if you stand in it, also bonfire is lame without offhand training. Crippling talon does almost as much damage as throw torch, and it bleeds so it stacks damage with your other conditions, unlike burning. Stalkers strike is just awesome.

3. Good players will evade your traps and you rely on them for alot of your damage. Trap builds are strong in spvp because you have to fight on points. The Bm build has more reliable damage when not fighting on a point.

Good points, thx.

The trapper build has better AOE though, right? If that’s the case, I could see something like this being superior in typical WvW. Being outnumbered is the norm for solo roaming. Players who are X v. 1 tend to be over confident and will often play recklessly assuming that the kill is inevitable. I think that played to your advantage & strength in many of your fights in that vid.

Kuddos on some outstanding play!

Blackbird.4382:

Good points, thx.

The trapper build has better AOE though, right? If that’s the case, I could see something like this being superior in typical WvW. Being outnumbered is the norm for solo roaming. Players who are X v. 1 tend to be over confident and will often play recklessly assuming that the kill is inevitable. I think that played to your advantage & strength in many of your fights in that vid.

Kuddos on some outstanding play!

Yeah it does, flame trap is pretty much bonfire on roids. For dueling I would say Bm is better but for general WvW and small group skirmishes trapper is amazing. It also takes camps like a boss (entangle, flame+spike trap and river drake). I usually just pull the whole camp and Aoe, sometimes you don’t even need to heal. Fully upgraded camps are also no sweat solo.

Also I think people see the shortbow and immediately try and get in melee range and train you, which is exactly what you want to land traps on people.

I’m gonna try this tonight. Already have all the apothecary gear.

The only thing I’m hesitant on is swapping out Signet of the Hunt for Signet of the Wild. I’m not sure I could go back to standard run speed. Does the build collapse w/o that passive healing?

Blackbird.4382:

I’m gonna try this tonight. Already have all the apothecary gear.

The only thing I’m hesitant on is swapping out Signet of the Hunt for Signet of the Wild. I’m not sure I could go back to standard run speed. Does the build collapse w/o that passive healing?

Nah I have used that before, I just like the Signet of the Wild+agility training combo. I mainly switch between Signet of the Wild and Renewal, I was using Renewal in the last part of the vid. You also get swiftness and fury on weapon swap from the skirmishing tree. If you want to use Hunt switch out agility training for something else cos they don’t stack, I recommend always using hunt or agility training because they increase pet damage by a lot.

I love Healing Spring — it’s a very underrated heal vs. TU. If you’re fighting any build with conditions, its effective healing is much better than TU, and most importantly as a bunker build with renewing vigor for each HS heal tick you get a ton of extra dodges.

I wish poison volley for shortbow was made better and both shortbow and axe auto applied bleeding baseline. Giving the axe auto a bleed would make it a much better aoe condi weapon and give the abysmal autoattack some bite for condi specs.

Xsorus.2507:

But yes, using Melandru rune till I get Superior Rune of the Forge

Absolutely, forge are the best runes. The 6th bonus alone justifies the choice (i don’t use burning anyway). Luckily i don’t have to farm for them in spvp…

Zenith.7301:

I love Healing Spring — it’s a very underrated heal vs. TU.

Both are good. It depends on the situation.

Zenith.7301:

I love Healing Spring — it’s a very underrated heal vs. TU. If you’re fighting any build with conditions, its effective healing is much better than TU, and most importantly as a bunker build with renewing vigor for each HS heal tick you get a ton of extra dodges.

I wish poison volley for shortbow was made better and both shortbow and axe auto applied bleeding baseline. Giving the axe auto a bleed would make it a much better aoe condi weapon and give the abysmal autoattack some bite for condi specs.

I’d nut if they gave axe auto a bleed.

I would like a condition for it, but not sure what they could add (though bleed would be incredible)

Nugget.8031:

Blackbird.4382:

Good points, thx.

The trapper build has better AOE though, right? If that’s the case, I could see something like this being superior in typical WvW. Being outnumbered is the norm for solo roaming. Players who are X v. 1 tend to be over confident and will often play recklessly assuming that the kill is inevitable. I think that played to your advantage & strength in many of your fights in that vid.

Kuddos on some outstanding play!

Yeah it does, flame trap is pretty much bonfire on roids. For dueling I would say Bm is better but for general WvW and small group skirmishes trapper is amazing. It also takes camps like a boss (entangle, flame+spike trap and river drake). I usually just pull the whole camp and Aoe, sometimes you don’t even need to heal. Fully upgraded camps are also no sweat solo.

Also I think people see the shortbow and immediately try and get in melee range and train you, which is exactly what you want to land traps on people.

Wonder if you could do Bleed+Frost Trap if you used Torch Offhand with Axe/Torch and Sword/Dagger

That’d be interesting.

Fjandi.2516:

Xsorus.2507:

But yes, using Melandru rune till I get Superior Rune of the Forge

Absolutely, forge are the best runes. The 6th bonus alone justifies the choice (i don’t use burning anyway). Luckily i don’t have to farm for them in spvp…

Zenith.7301:

I love Healing Spring — it’s a very underrated heal vs. TU.

Both are good. It depends on the situation.

Yeap, I’m happy to, I wasn’t aware I could do the dungeons on multiple characters for the 60 tokens, So now i’ll have my Rune of Forge even faster.

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

Puandro.3245:

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

I’ve not got them, but when I do run in SPvP i tend to use them over melandru.

It’ll just be my regular BM Bunker build, though right now i run 10 skirmishing I might switch back to 10 Natures for its Protection also (plus it’ll bump me to 30% protection duration)

You’re pretty good with math, Maybe you could give me an idea on that..

Also you think i’d be better off putting it on Reyna’s or Apothecary Armor?

Great video and great job Nugget. I too prefer standard Bm Bunker, but this spec setup inspired me for an alternate build for organized zerging and tower/keep defense without giving up to much of the defensiveness apoth supplies.

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

I’ve not got them, but when I do run in SPvP i tend to use them over melandru.

It’ll just be my regular BM Bunker build, though right now i run 10 skirmishing I might switch back to 10 Natures for its Protection also (plus it’ll bump me to 30% protection duration)

You’re pretty good with math, Maybe you could give me an idea on that..

Also you think i’d be better off putting it on Reyna’s or Apothecary Armor?

Forge runes for condi build? Im not a fan of giving up Regen TBH.

I will say this. After a lot of thought more than 20 BM on a Condi Bunker build seems a waste.

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

I’ve not got them, but when I do run in SPvP i tend to use them over melandru.

It’ll just be my regular BM Bunker build, though right now i run 10 skirmishing I might switch back to 10 Natures for its Protection also (plus it’ll bump me to 30% protection duration)

You’re pretty good with math, Maybe you could give me an idea on that..

Also you think i’d be better off putting it on Reyna’s or Apothecary Armor?

Forge runes for condi build? Im not a fan of giving up Regen TBH.

I remember seeing Battosai using Forge runes on a tpvp build, with a sigil of smoldering. I think it compliments a few different things the BM build has access to at the same time, like burning uptime, protection uptime, and the protection gain for 6x runes for 10s against a foe who can’t strip boons can easily be the difference of winning a skirmish.

While I can see all of the pluses, I tend to agree with not giving up Dwayna runes, since rangers regen giving and duration extension abilities are so strong.

How long is the burn?

I run a similar build, but my build is more all around for PvE and WvW.
It is also a trapper build but focused on BM and go more into Vit than Tou
Link to build: http://bit.ly/15mSIrv

I wear Reyna’s set and Shaman weapons (WAY cheaper than Apothecary), have a great AoE, runs amazingly well in dungeons and works well in WvW, just not as good as yours in duels, but in small and big zergs I do great.

The problem in my build that I’m trying to look for a better alternative is condition removal, I only have the tick from healing spring and nothing else, maybe change my Undead runes to Melandru but I’m not comfortable with the cond. damage loss.

This is just an idea, what would you say to celestial trinkets on a trapper build? seems like you would be able to up the damage quite alot and do respectable physical dmage due to decent crit chance and high +crit damage while practically not losing any of the condition, armor or healing.

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

I’ve not got them, but when I do run in SPvP i tend to use them over melandru.

It’ll just be my regular BM Bunker build, though right now i run 10 skirmishing I might switch back to 10 Natures for its Protection also (plus it’ll bump me to 30% protection duration)

You’re pretty good with math, Maybe you could give me an idea on that..

Also you think i’d be better off putting it on Reyna’s or Apothecary Armor?

Forge runes for condi build? Im not a fan of giving up Regen TBH.

Its been a while since i’ve done the Dwyana Runes, i’m going to give them a try again on my old apothecary armor set (going to remove the Nightmare runes since I no longer rune the rare veggie pizza)

Will run those till I get Forge Runes I think.

Puandro.3245:

How long is the burn?

Forge + Smoldering Sigil = 7 second torch throw.

Not sure about Trapper

Puandro.3245:

I will say this. After a lot of thought more than 20 BM on a Condi Bunker build seems a waste.

Depends on if you want the Heal or not. I personally like it, even if its only every 3 seconds.

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

I will say this. After a lot of thought more than 20 BM on a Condi Bunker build seems a waste.

Depends on if you want the Heal or not. I personally like it, even if its only every 3 seconds.

Well you take the heal to live longer and imho those 10 points could be put to a better use in NM.

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

I will say this. After a lot of thought more than 20 BM on a Condi Bunker build seems a waste.

Depends on if you want the Heal or not. I personally like it, even if its only every 3 seconds.

Well you take the heal to live longer and imho those 10 points could be put to a better use in NM.

I usually either choose NM’s or Skirmishing for my last 10 points.

usually its 10 in skirmishing if I use cats, 10 in NM if I use birds.

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

I will say this. After a lot of thought more than 20 BM on a Condi Bunker build seems a waste.

Depends on if you want the Heal or not. I personally like it, even if its only every 3 seconds.

Well you take the heal to live longer and imho those 10 points could be put to a better use in NM.

I’ve seen quite a few people now in the tpvp environment going 0/0/30/20/20 for the “spirits activate upon death” trait choice, which is strong in the arenas environment for team play off of the elite spirit.

However, in a WvW environment, that same setup can take Nature’s Protection, which means that on crit, you AND your pet due to the minor, are going to be getting protection, which is almost like a cheaper version of Bark Skin with a less restrictive condition imo.

However, since the 25 points in BM increases power by 5% of healing power, I’m not sure how important that is for a power based build or not since I run conditions.

Most BM bunkers I know from tpvp don’t run more than 20 in BM. The healing from natural healing is actually pretty marginal when you could get prot on being crit for better anti spike measures or sharing boons with the pet. Or you could get those points and put them in skirmishing.

I also have some hesitation with forge runes because it’s a whopping 60 sec cd triggered randomly when you might actually not need it. Most fights I get in are protracted and resets happen often, in which case you only get some extra toughness most of the time and that’s it.

I run either Dwayna runes or the undead runes for more offensive variants. If I were to give up undead runes I’d easily be giving up around 300 condi damage stat, and quite frankly the only tradeoff that justifies it is Dwayna runes’ survivability boost.

Most of the builds that give my BM bunker problems are condition builds anyways like good engineers or trapper rangers, so the prot from forge is only really useful against mesmers and thieves — and I don’t suffer against the meta specs of those two classes.

I just don’t find a 60 sec ICD too attractive.

Puandro.3245:

What build are you guys using runes of the forge on.

My spec is power based, not condition.

Zenith.7301:

I also have some hesitation with forge runes because it’s a whopping 60 sec cd triggered randomly when you might actually not need it. Most fights I get in are protracted and resets happen often, in which case you only get some extra toughness most of the time and that’s it.

Depends on your spec. If you don’t have lots of vitality that might be true. In my experience if my hp bar goes under 50% that means i need the prot bonus, and that has saved my life many times.

I’m still farming the runes just out of curiosity, however. Dwayna/Undead runes are dirt cheap, so it never hurts to try.

I run power so i go 25 BM but as conid 20 BM is max IMHO.

Zenith.7301:

Most BM bunkers I know from tpvp don’t run more than 20 in BM. The healing from natural healing is actually pretty marginal when you could get prot on being crit for better anti spike measures or sharing boons with the pet. Or you could get those points and put them in skirmishing.

I also have some hesitation with forge runes because it’s a whopping 60 sec cd triggered randomly when you might actually not need it. Most fights I get in are protracted and resets happen often, in which case you only get some extra toughness most of the time and that’s it.

I run either Dwayna runes or the undead runes for more offensive variants. If I were to give up undead runes I’d easily be giving up around 300 condi damage stat, and quite frankly the only tradeoff that justifies it is Dwayna runes’ survivability boost.

Most of the builds that give my BM bunker problems are condition builds anyways like good engineers or trapper rangers, so the prot from forge is only really useful against mesmers and thieves — and I don’t suffer against the meta specs of those two classes.

I just don’t find a 60 sec ICD too attractive.

Dwayna runes would definitely be better for long drawn out fights, but forge runes pretty much make you ungankable.
Since half the wvw population run glass cannon builds and run around trying to instagib people, forge runes would give you a chance to survive the burst even against multiple people or if get jumped mid fight.

Basically Forge runes counters gc thieves and wvw is infested with them.

I’m actually contemplating dropping the 10 in skirm with pets prowess and dumping into NM for Natures Protection, would help eliminate a lot of the burst I have to endure.

Furajir.3815:

I’m actually contemplating dropping the 10 in skirm with pets prowess and dumping into NM for Natures Protection, would help eliminate a lot of the burst I have to endure.

Yep the protection is amazing. I know for a fact that the thief at 13:00 is full gc with atleast 105% crit damage, and he couldnt get me past 50% hp in three burst attempts while i took that camp and killed the warrior.

Pet prowess or agility training are really nice, but I stack MB as is, would be nice to have, but I find when I try to go too offensive being bunker I walk a realy fine line, and I feel like having to spend 10pts to get my pets to move faster is kitten stupid.

Can’t buy Forge Runes in market ?

Forzani.2584:

Can’t buy Forge Runes in market ?

Sorrows Embrace dungeon merchant.

Forzani.2584:

Can’t buy Forge Runes in market ?

Nope. They are from the the dredge dungeon Sorrow’s Embrace, you can buy them for 120 tokens each.

Nugget.8031:

Forzani.2584:

Can’t buy Forge Runes in market ?

Nope. They are from the the dredge dungeon Sorrow’s Embrace, you can buy them for 120 tokens each.

Well that is too bad…..especially since I have no idea what dredge dungeon sorrows embrace is

Dredgehaunt Cliffs. It’s one of the least popular dungeons, but if you log on early enough you’ll find groups.

Once you decide to try I can offer you a few tips on skipping for one of the paths that will drastically shorten the run.

If you are EU I run the dungeon a couple of times and can show you some runs. It’s not too bad — just really gimmicky and PuG’s don’t do well with gimmicky.