Guild Wars 2

Hi Guys!

I’m looking for a wvw zerg build. My main weapon in my choice is GS and the second one is LB.

Ranger just isn’t a frontline class. You won’t be able to churn out the kind of cc/damage of a heavy and still have good survivability to say nothing of the complete uselessness of pets in the heart of a zerg.

The changes to the LB have made us a very good backline (sideline?) class that works well for picking off glassy backliners in the enemy zerg.

if yuo built for 2.7k toughness then a decent amount of hp , you can maybe get away with Flitting between frontline and behind the commander using Gs, S/d , LR , muddy terrain and SotW with RoA as you’ll need more than one source of Stability on the front lines .

but while i was also trying out front line i felt like i traded a little too much power for Self hp sustain , in the form of Hleaing spring+natures bounty or taking some Celestial amulet and one accessory for some healing power to push springs regen over 4k.

in the end it did average damage/ decent survival and was not enough to go head to head with the heavy classes (vs those i was forced to kite again) so the changes i did were detrimental in some ways but vs the bulk of frontline which is heavy classes i didn’t fair too well in doing some good damage without going to the extremes to stack damage.

when i did do well it was with 25 bloodlust stacks, boarder stacks and a good amount of might , and i had to use 10% vs Kd/stunned foes and 5% more damage, to get more damage out of the hammer train.

some times it works some times the heavies are too tanky for the above to work.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

if yuo built for 2.7k toughness then a decent amount of hp , you can maybe get away with Flitting between frontline and behind the commander using Gs, S/d , LR , muddy terrain and SotW with RoA as you’ll need more than one source of Stability on the front lines .

I think it depends heavily on the numbers in the fight. I run with ~2600-2700 armor I still get instagibed if I get caught by the train or fail to dodgeroll through a clump of wells/marks.
Stone sig helps, but because it only reduces damage, not block or make invulnerable, you can still get stun/immob locked and die once it wears off.

Substance E.4852:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

if yuo built for 2.7k toughness then a decent amount of hp , you can maybe get away with Flitting between frontline and behind the commander using Gs, S/d , LR , muddy terrain and SotW with RoA as you’ll need more than one source of Stability on the front lines .

I think it depends heavily on the numbers in the fight. I run with ~2600-2700 armor I still get instagibed if I get caught by the train or fail to dodgeroll through a clump of wells/marks.
Stone sig helps, but because it only reduces damage, not block or make invulnerable, you can still get stun/immob locked and die once it wears off.

it will take some Extreame kiting skills to avoid it, I’ve learnt to use Sword two really quickly to Evade leap side aways over a wells to the other side of a zerg to avoid more statics and stuns, moving down the flank infront of the commander applying CC’s then moving back to the front lines , i just don’t stay there, the numbers yes but getting caught is always a risk.

I command in wvw and i play a ranger while doing it. All you need to do is build for toughness and condition . you can go for a spirit ranger to buff your allies. When i command i don’t let my enemies stack and empower, i just go straight ahead and fight them. Use your wolf’s fear to cc some of them so that you can isolate your target. Usually, i make sure i kill the necros and eles first.

I play full melee ranger in T1 hear is how i go about it

I change a few things out depending on the situation some times i change MT for SoS and some times Entangle for RaO, and i try to find a balance in my gear depending how the fights are going

Those who claim rangers cannot run frontline got little idea how to play ranger in zergs in the first place. Granted, a warrior/guard will have a wider array of pressure, but rangers can perform certain tasks better.
If specced right, a ranger can (with current signet functions) far surpass a warrior in sustain due to evade frames on AA granting us partial damage mitigation on a permanent basis. Warrior will however apply more pressure.

A good ranger zerg setup can look like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhODbkRlOWrYxhFqWDQIUrDg3Nyb2ClAz4dAO5QXZF-TFiDABEqEEgrAACPAAGV/hLlf/pbQgDCwM7PEAAB4m3Mb2mBH9oH9oH9od0je0je0jWKAmUGB-w

it is an expensive and time consuming setup to create, but there is NO trinkets that is better for WvW then celestial. They simply give you the most bonuses with the least amount of drawbacks.
You may think by now “But my warrior can do that, and much better too”. Yes, to some degree it can, however it also gotta be more careful with its cooldowns, since shout warriors (one of the more common builds) need to heal others, not just themselves. This is where you get the edge – you got a water field, and you got a blast and 2x leap on GS (Swoop is 2x leap trigger). You got condi cleanse, invuln, a metric ton of stability.
Most notably, you can run this without being a liability, granted, you will not be a huge boon to the zerg in a 80 man setting, for that you need spirits. And those take AGES to learn how to play in zergs (avoiding AOE, when to summon or more notably, when NOT to summon)

I like how everyone is talking about blackline, frontline, midline and such as if it was a real war on earth. Sadly, zergs are only blobs of players that can move through eachother and thus exploit the ability to stack on the commander. This leads to 2 blobs running through eachother, trying to deal as much damage as possible.

Like 2 cavalry units who can charge very well but are kitten when it comes to fighting face-to-face. Those 2 units keep doing hit-and-run on eachother until one flees or is wiped…

The builds already posted are what you’re looking for OP.

One silly yet productive variation thing I like to do is run a tank spec with berserker armor, s/d + gs. Pop RaO, run in with the front of your zerg, but use an untargeted sword auto to fling yourself completely in to the enemy backline squishies. Maul, MT, swap to wolf and fear, whatever it is you brought with you to disrupt them casting. At that point you’re good to go to get back out, as none of your skills are on cooldown. LR, SoS, swoop, etc. back to the safety of your zerg and then just join the normal frontline with greatsword autoattack.

WhiteGlint.4897:

Hi Guys!

I’m looking for a wvw zerg build. My main weapon in my choice is GS and the second one is LB.

I have just the build for you!

You can use ogre runes instead of Melandru for higher Damage output for 1v1 / havoc parties. If you want better condition mitigation, swap out SoW for SoR and consider empathetic bond. Replace fern hound for river drake in eotm.

Shortbow is the best weapon to go frontline. You would be hitting them on medium range that allows you to avoid the cc’s. You can use use this weapon to stun fleeing foes and let your zerg gank your target. Use healing spring to clear conditions and immobilize. Use your spirits to aoe blind and immobilize. Use signet of stone if you need to get past some arrow carts but i suggest to keep SOTH for mobility. You can use entangle for a surprise cc from a mesmer’s veil. There are so many ways for a ranger to be effective at the frontline.

the concept of front line is to be on the frontline not to hide behind allies using ranged,
hence the flitting between front and behind commander is a combat style , in the above Sb/axe+D ect with a Gs as main as Valentin explained many ways to do frontline.

did i say anywhere they cannot front line no?

its just simple better for rangers to flit between front and behind the commander using Ranged options , Even if that Ranged option is off-hand Axe or LB or Sb , using Whirling defence while the stack is on the defence to reflect Barrages and Projectiles, and doing some Cleansing bolts.

I honestly don’t believe that we do that mush less damage then a war/guard in the frontline, and i mean this assuming our pet is dead and given the exact same gear/consumables set up say pvt/stones/hoebrek runes/bloodlust stacks.. This is due to our trait set up. most of our good stuff for zerging is in offensive traitlines

If we compare these two builds from metabattle.
Warrior
Guard
To my build
Ranger
I’ve use the same gear and consumables for all builds

Offensive stats
Power
Warrior: 2361
Guard: 2356
Ranger: 2548

Crit chance
Warrior: 926 (4%)
Guard: 1063 (11%)
Ranger: 1426 (28%) I included 150/7% for spotter

Crit damage
Warrior: 200 (163%)
Guard: 300 (170%)
Ranger: 200 (163%) great-sword or 350 (173%) Axe-WH

I am not saying that that we do more damage then heavies there is a lot more to consider here such as modifiers, ability to generate might stacks and if we have spotter so do those around us etc.

But we do have more power (even more so if you run Prysins traits) more crit chance (this means more fire sigil proc’s as well) and on par crit damage. In my opinion we have just as much ability to survive (many warriors and guards go down well before i do) and we provide our own brand of utility.

All I’m really saying is the we are not kitten 30% by our pet being worthless as alot of people believe. Also the the best insult you can give a heavy is “how did you go down my pet is still alive?”

Sure, you can frontline and be pretty durable, but I wouldn’t recommend a longbow in a frontline build as it would suffer reduced damage at close ranges, and the frontline would be in the enemy’s face often.

I guarantee you will hurt people with this and come out of most engagements alive with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhOD7kRFaYxaBxjF4axA7B1yAIgb/D3wO48gPiSGVDA-TVCEABLcBAsZ/hoUGslSQmU6po6PtpbAgDCwDPBgAAIA38mZz2M4oH9oH9oHtbezbezbezyAssFA-w

“Protect Me” and Signet of Stone will allow you to simply power through most stuff, though condi removal remains a problem— usually melandru runes and empathic bond can handle it but you can always replace muddy terrain with signet of renewal if needed. And certainly signet cooldown can be taken instead of steady focus for extra survival but I don’t think it’s needed. For the most part this is rather easy to play and spammy.

I really wouldn’t recommend EB for a frontline zerg build, especially if you aren’t taking bears and are taking Protect Me. Your pet will be dead far too often to get any reasonably use out of it.

Bark Skin would be a lot lot better, or if you really want some personal condition remocal take SoR and/or SotF.

Yea, a bear would be best for Protect Me and EB as well; I’m just sorta lazy with the editor in that. A bear would also remove conditions too. I do take Signet of Renewal often for my non-frontline builds but I feel it is a bit selfish here and the immobilized/cripple will help me live longer. I also think that melandru/poultry soup is good enough that an occasional removal of condis is good enough. If I can keep each pet up 10 seconds in a 60 second time span, that’s 6 conditions removed in a 60 second time span that’s largely passive. Considering Signet of Stone also renders my pet immune to damage, this is entirely possible with some pet swapping. In general, the large chunk of condi removal (3 at once) is much preferred since there’s so much junk conditions flying around that it’s often not about how many condis you remove over time. In fact, I often take signet of renewal by virtue of it being a stunbreak though certainly the passive effect tips it over.

Of course, I understand people are skeptical about pet survival, but I’ve found it to be a non-issue. Of course I lose pets quite a bit but they usually last long enough to do me good. I find in zergs that fortifying bond makes a big difference in pet survival.

As for Bark Skin, I’m not too big of a fan of it since it only applies to when you’re @ 25% health and I feel I’d rather have an advantage earlier on as well as just not reaching that point regularly at least not for long. The other issue is condi damage which I’m not sure works with it.

SOTF is also good, but I think that would require use of more than 1 survival skill, and that would typically be entangle or lightning reflexes.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Substance E.4852:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

if yuo built for 2.7k toughness then a decent amount of hp , you can maybe get away with Flitting between frontline and behind the commander using Gs, S/d , LR , muddy terrain and SotW with RoA as you’ll need more than one source of Stability on the front lines .

I think it depends heavily on the numbers in the fight. I run with ~2600-2700 armor I still get instagibed if I get caught by the train or fail to dodgeroll through a clump of wells/marks.
Stone sig helps, but because it only reduces damage, not block or make invulnerable, you can still get stun/immob locked and die once it wears off.

it will take some Extreame kiting skills to avoid it, I’ve learnt to use Sword two really quickly to Evade leap side aways over a wells to the other side of a zerg to avoid more statics and stuns, moving down the flank infront of the commander applying CC’s then moving back to the front lines , i just don’t stay there, the numbers yes but getting caught is always a risk.

I’ve tried and just found it to be less efficient than circling the whole group picking off zerker ele’s or tabbing to find a guy under 50% health.

With the new LB, choosing anything else feels like choosing LB in a dungeon when melee is so the obvious choice.

solrik.6028:

I like how everyone is talking about blackline, frontline, midline and such as if it was a real war on earth. Sadly, zergs are only blobs of players that can move through eachother and thus exploit the ability to stack on the commander. This leads to 2 blobs running through eachother, trying to deal as much damage as possible.

Except, ya know, it’s not really. Unless the commanders are terrible.

Yep i understand , I’ve learnt not to Tab for targets and use the mouse for targeting (if i want a target I make sure to T-target him so i don’t loose him)

from the Damage point of view hitting as many targets with cleaves ect, my style is to make use of the opposing zergs squishy D/D eles/necros LF and create Stragglers ect don’t get away rather than focusing on damage i’ll get loot bags if i just tag them with some CC and make sure they can’t Regroup or run away.

aiding a zerg this way(if they become a zombie walk) i can just give them loot by doing so and in the process i get some loot too , how much loot i get im not bothered, i just want to see downed.

My zerg ranger build

General Use:

• Stay in between midline to backline.
• When the commander asks for might stacking, use Call of the Wild to blast Fire Field and pre-buff fury.
• When the front line group engages the enemy zerg, side step from the direction of the collision, cast Barrage a little ahead of the enemy front line. This is a wonderful skills that applies crippled 12 times, which forces the front line to cleanse or simply avoid the area making it a good area of denial. It also works well if you can predict the direction of the veiled enemy, and to cover the tail of your zerg when they retreat.
• The fun part comes from Piercing Arrow. If you target the frontline, which is always stacked tight, Rapid Fire always proc on at least three targets. At about 80%+ crit chance, Lightning Strike and Flame Blast always proc almost instantly and take a huge chunk of HP out of the frontliners.
• Most of the time, abuse Rapid Fire into the densely packed blob, especially at choke points like bridge/wall. It’s a very good way to farm bags from them. Don’t forget to activate Signet of the Wild beforehand. Use Rampage As One if you need another source of Stability when pushing.
• Long Range Shot on backliners like ele or necro to force them interrupt cast and pull back.
• Point Blank Shot on ele casting Meteor Shower, necro on Tainted Shackles/Life Transfer.
• Use Healing Spring + Call of the Wild when the commander calls for water field.
• Sometimes when the enemy driver got sniped and their zerg becomes disarray, it’s worth it to swap to Entangle for more immobilization.

Situational Use:

• Sometimes I made a bad judgement using Barrage on an approaching zerg and was at risk of getting caught. Use Lightning Reflex if getting stunned and immobilization (happened all the time) -> Hornet Sting, then turning back from the zerg, Hornet Sting again for its Leap skill. I’d be away quite a distance (1500+) from the zerg.
• I get ganked by thief and mesmer quite often. Against Thief, I use Serpent’s Strike as soon as they leap to me and follow with a full autoattack chain. Most of the time, the thief will react by returning to his location and stealth. I personally don’t want to engage in this kind of wasteful fight, I set my wolf to guard and move ahead to the zerg.
• Against Mesmer, they won’t be closing on me, either dodge out of their range of Mirror Blade and iBerserker, then use Rapid Fire to force them back away or stealth.
• Hornet Sting is really good for re-positioning myself back within the zerg.

Niche Use

• As a Sniper, I swap Piercing Arrow out for Eagle Eyes. Sometimes I swap Companion’s Protection to Companion’s Might to enhance the attack of my Spider’s Pet.
• Spider’s Immobilization is really good to stop the target from evading you Rapid Fire Burst.
• Ultimately, you want to keep 20+ stacks of Vuln on your target at all time. It can be maintained with Toxic Sharpening Stone. I also keep a extra Long Bow with Sigil of Night and sigil of Frailty for night time sniping. Highly recommended.
• You will need a couple of boon strippers and a good target caller in your group.

Pros:

• I’m able to get as many loots bags as my current zerker necro while maintaining an average of 80% HP almost all the time. I’m considering using Rune of Scholar for higher buffed damage.
• Have the best escape ability among the backliners.
• Can stay close to the commander.
• The best at sniping and finishing rally bots.

Cons:

• If you have a poor visibility due to culling (on purpose), Tab target always direct you to heavies, and Mouse clicking is an absolute nightmare.
• Have to stay close to the commander, but you may not be able to push through a heavily bombed choke points. Bad judgement = Death.
• Reflection is a pain to deal with in an open field fight. However, Barrage is not a projectile finisher.
• Pet AI is difficult to work with. You don’t want the pet to run into the zerg and die painfully. They are very useful when you need to defend yourself in a melee situation.
• Finally, in a zerg fight, if your driver is bad then you won’t be able to enjoy this kind of glassy build.

Another option – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR3XjMq0yaHLOsw1aAChaVA0OG6gj1dSsDbdKz6DPBB-TVCBABccEAM/gAE9+Dcq+jEPAAAuAAZp8jRlgIqbgUAsJMC-w

Eggyokeo.9705:

I honestly don’t believe that we do that mush less damage then a war/guard in the frontline, and i mean this assuming our pet is dead and given the exact same gear/consumables set up say pvt/stones/hoebrek runes/bloodlust stacks.. This is due to our trait set up. most of our good stuff for zerging is in offensive traitlines

If we compare these two builds from metabattle.
Warrior
Guard
To my build
Ranger
I’ve use the same gear and consumables for all builds

Offensive stats
Power
Warrior: 2361
Guard: 2356
Ranger: 2548

Crit chance
Warrior: 926 (4%)
Guard: 1063 (11%)
Ranger: 1426 (28%) I included 150/7% for spotter

Crit damage
Warrior: 200 (163%)
Guard: 300 (170%)
Ranger: 200 (163%) great-sword or 350 (173%) Axe-WH

I am not saying that that we do more damage then heavies there is a lot more to consider here such as modifiers, ability to generate might stacks and if we have spotter so do those around us etc.

But we do have more power (even more so if you run Prysins traits) more crit chance (this means more fire sigil proc’s as well) and on par crit damage. In my opinion we have just as much ability to survive (many warriors and guards go down well before i do) and we provide our own brand of utility.

All I’m really saying is the we are not kitten 30% by our pet being worthless as alot of people believe. Also the the best insult you can give a heavy is “how did you go down my pet is still alive?”

The problem has never really been the damage, it’s the lack of utility.

Guardians bring a burst finisher on a 3 second cooldown, a ranged immob, and real area denial. They also bring tons of burst healing, group protection, group stability. Warriors on the other hand bring a lot of AE, hard CC. They also provide burst healing, group fury, group might, a 16 second burst finisher, perma swiftness etc.

Ranger brings a lot of soft CC, a blast on a 30 second cooldown (and no fast hands trait to put you back in a preferred weapon set), the water field, and a chill trap. All the while doing about the same damage with less survivability in an odd spec that doesn’t really specialize in anything but providing the limited utility it can.

I would love nothing more than to run GS/sw+horn in a GvG/WvW guild group and be effective, but the class just falls considerably short of the other front line classes. As a periphery class it just lacks the amount of mobility/disengages that will be required to succeed while not dealing the kind of damage it needs to offset the weaknesses it has.

Overall, Ranger is not meant to be front line, but you can dabble in it. This is what I currently run in both PVE and WvW. I do a slight skill mod in PVE, but otherwise it is identical. I can survuve in the front line of the zerg for quite a while. Though I tend to charge in using Signet of the Wild stability and the Signet of Stone for no damage on engagement, while dropping entangle. I stay in for a bit using the Maul and such, then dodge out to the edge of the fight and long bow everything. I rinse repeat this during long zerg fights.

My build is in the middle of Berserker and PVT.
Here is my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjMqUxaDLGsQ1ag+ga9CEAjdzWIHYOBfwJf6LvA-T1TAABxohoo9HkRDyaKBn4ABgpKFVcJAG4BAAwBIIMlEcpMJT1VSTp0DHBg+0FEAABYnzMbuzADdoDdoDdod0de0duzhWGAmFA-w

Frontline is possible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHhxG1JjK0Lo1CiLLw1iB0EqmBQm+cGKV3TQy+wX80eTA-T1RDAB4o+jhKBZa/hsU+BwTAIgTCgK6HIEQ/FA-w

I use that for our groups. With the super spammy “Guard” you are a walking condi cleanser every 12 seconds, and an almost perma 5k-6k regen and swiftness. If timed correctly you can also have perma vigor with the pet swaps. (tend to run two-three of these rangers in a frontline|each in a different party so the boons dont overlap each other).

Pros:
-AoE Condi Cleanse
-Perma swiftness, regen, (vigor too if more than one of you)
-Blast finisher
– Waterfield
-Tanky, able to survive

Cons:
-Decent damage output (you wont pull 4 digits on autoattack, but its still respectable)
-Needs massive microing, so if you dont like fast playstyle where you need to manage cooldowns of utlilities (both you and your pets) and your evades/blast finisher this can prove a frustrating build at first.
-Lots of Ranger hate, so you may find it hard to find groups where you can run this outside havocs.
-Boon hate, be careful. As basically a boon-spammer this is your bane. (helps if your commander targets those pesky necros first)

Closing remarks/tips:
– Put your casting in settings to Instant so you dont lose time on “Guard”. Takes getting used to, but it improves your playstyle with this build by leaps.
-This is a very fun build to play. Allows you ample time to push with the heavies, keep them all nice and condi free, with lots of regen/swiftness/vigor and that nice waterfield for more heals.
-Pets are not set in stone. I just found those to be the most benefical for me when in a zerg setting. (dogs work too|) Boar is fun too, if you precast forage (hope for that skull) you can do a mass fear after your group strips that pesky enemy stability.

Good luck, and hope you find a build that fits your playstyle. What works for one, may not work for others. Dont feel afraid to experiment with any build that comes to your mind.

Jarettellis.7813:

Frontline is possible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHhxG1JjK0Lo1CiLLw1iB0EqmBQm+cGKV3TQy+wX80eTA-T1RDAB4o+jhKBZa/hsU+BwTAIgTCgK6HIEQ/FA-w

I use that for our groups. With the super spammy “Guard” you are a walking condi cleanser every 12 seconds, and an almost perma 5k-6k regen and swiftness. If timed correctly you can also have perma vigor with the pet swaps. (tend to run two-three of these rangers in a frontline|each in a different party so the boons dont overlap each other).

Pros:
-AoE Condi Cleanse
-Perma swiftness, regen, (vigor too if more than one of you)
-Blast finisher
– Waterfield
-Tanky, able to survive

Cons:
-Decent damage output (you wont pull 4 digits on autoattack, but its still respectable)
-Needs massive microing, so if you dont like fast playstyle where you need to manage cooldowns of utlilities (both you and your pets) and your evades/blast finisher this can prove a frustrating build at first.
-Lots of Ranger hate, so you may find it hard to find groups where you can run this outside havocs.
-Boon hate, be careful. As basically a boon-spammer this is your bane. (helps if your commander targets those pesky necros first)

Closing remarks/tips:
– Put your casting in settings to Instant so you dont lose time on “Guard”. Takes getting used to, but it improves your playstyle with this build by leaps.
-This is a very fun build to play. Allows you ample time to push with the heavies, keep them all nice and condi free, with lots of regen/swiftness/vigor and that nice waterfield for more heals.
-Pets are not set in stone. I just found those to be the most benefical for me when in a zerg setting. (dogs work too|) Boar is fun too, if you precast forage (hope for that skull) you can do a mass fear after your group strips that pesky enemy stability.

Good luck, and hope you find a build that fits your playstyle. What works for one, may not work for others. Dont feel afraid to experiment with any build that comes to your mind.

this build has very, very low damage and can only buff people with regen/swiftness/vigor

those boons fly around often tho, with all of the guardians, warriors, and other classes

1 condi every 12 seconds is meh, warriors and guards can cleanse like 4 every 20-25 seconds and change