Guild Wars 2

So I’m running mostly zerker gear on my ranger with a couple pieces of PvT thrown in to add a little survivability. I don’t like being pure glass cannon as to not burden others by constantly being downed in dungeons and fractals. I try to achieve my survivability by having a dynamic playstyle (using different weapons and skills in different situations). Even though the great sword is usually looked at as a pure damage weapon I believe it is the best defensive weapon in a ranger’s repitore. It has that 1 second evade built into its auto attack and a block on skill #4. Usually whenever I know i’m going to be face to face with melee mobs because of group stacking or whatever I usually find myself reaching for my great sword. It seems understood by the community that the 1handed sword has better damage output than the great sword so I would personally go for zerker stats on a 1handed sword and use that as my go to for pure melee dps. I was thinking about going for PvT stats on my great sword to use as my “survivability” weapon with a high dps weapon ready to go on switch. Does anyone else do something similar to this? Do you guys think any other weapons go well with a defensive mindset on a ranger? As always any feedback is appreciated!
Thanks! Cheers!

Don’t know the name, but its power prec TOUGHNESS.
The berzerker with +10% crit dmg does no dmg increase at all, lol.

I use celestial since we’re not getting full damage from zerker. My DPS set is berserker just get my crit % high enough, the rest is celestial.

Assassins (like aiden mentioned, we do not get the best of benefits using power. However, atleast until the feature build goes live, thus the crit damage formula gets changed, it is better for us to run medium-high power and loads of precision + crit damage. Because the way the crit formula works, you get a certain bonus modifier from precision.
and Cavaliers (even made an ascended version)

I do mine with soldier’s.

The fact that our weapon coefficients are lower than other classes doesn’t automatically mean we can run whatever because “we won’t get the full out of zerk anyway”. That’s as stupid as saying “Well, I’m already only getting 80% scaling, might as well go full 0%”. Full zerk is still going to be better dps than any hybrid, especially one that includes Toughness, Vitality or Compassion.

@OP, you said it yourself, most of the defensive properties of the GS comes from the GS itself, passive evasion, stun/daze and one kick-kitten block. Stacking even more defensive stats with it won’t be needed! You should try to run as much zerk as possible, and start by switching out lower stat pieces (Shoulder/Hands/Feet, then Head).

TL;DR: Berserkers

^ Agreed, that’s what I run.

Zorby.8236:

The fact that our weapon coefficients are lower than other classes doesn’t automatically mean we can run whatever because “we won’t get the full out of zerk anyway”. That’s as stupid as saying “Well, I’m already only getting 80% scaling, might as well go full 0%”. Full zerk is still going to be better dps than any hybrid, especially one that includes Toughness, Vitality or Compassion.

@OP, you said it yourself, most of the defensive properties of the GS comes from the GS itself, passive evasion, stun/daze and one kick-kitten block. Stacking even more defensive stats with it won’t be needed! You should try to run as much zerk as possible, and start by switching out lower stat pieces (Shoulder/Hands/Feet, then Head).

TL;DR: Berserkers

Yes, the only useful answer here.

Zorby.8236:

The fact that our weapon coefficients are lower than other classes doesn’t automatically mean we can run whatever because “we won’t get the full out of zerk anyway”. That’s as stupid as saying “Well, I’m already only getting 80% scaling, might as well go full 0%”. Full zerk is still going to be better dps than any hybrid, especially one that includes Toughness, Vitality or Compassion.

@OP, you said it yourself, most of the defensive properties of the GS comes from the GS itself, passive evasion, stun/daze and one kick-kitten block. Stacking even more defensive stats with it won’t be needed! You should try to run as much zerk as possible, and start by switching out lower stat pieces (Shoulder/Hands/Feet, then Head).

TL;DR: Berserkers

+1000 !

True words, true story

Knight… its more defensive compared to my long bow which is berserker, since I assume with GS out Im in the thick of it. No vitality involved, just toughness increase, so I dont have to heal the difference.

Kilger.5490:

Knight… its more defensive compared to my long bow which is berserker, since I assume with GS out Im in the thick of it. No vitality involved, just toughness increase, so I dont have to heal the difference.

A good way to get a balanced build going is run full celestial armor and knights/assassins/cavaliers trinkets.
30/20/20/0/0 or 30/0/20/20/0 (GS build)

The more offensive your stats while surviving the better. You might find that a zerker greatsword with the dodge in the auto attack and skills 4 and 5 provide enough survivability already.

Full zerk on both gs and sword/x. the gs for trash mobs and sword for the single target (the leap can be irritaintng when you stack and change targets). No point in using a PVT, Sentinel, etc sword, you get all the survival you need from the gs skills.