Guild Wars 2

It seems I’ve come full circle after trying just about every sensible ranger build during my ~700 logged ranger hours. I started with a power SB build in spvp during beta, and it’s my build of choice for WvW currently.

Rangers have serious problems in WvW. They don’t have a clear role and they contribute very little in larger engagements. Everything the ranger can do, most other profs can do better in the open world setting. But this build feels different. For the first time since setting foot in WvW, I feel like I’m getting actual results. While I thoroughly enjoyed my bunker builds (thanks Xsorus for the tips on gearing up), for me, this build blows bunker play out of the water. Kills happen quick and I can stay up for a long time.

I started with Sol’s SB/trap build, and after a few weeks of testing decided to drop traps and maximize my SB and survivability. I needed a more effective build for roaming and zerg warfare to help my team dispatch the softer high damage dealers quickly (shatter mesmers, zerker warriors, necros). I see a clear role for myself: cleanup crew / ranged assassin. I sacrificed sustain for power, crit and short term survivability.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBMhV6EoiKLjsQLIWLEALF7FYTBnSyZcIjfBF8IB;TkAKrMWJsyalzKpVLLGfMhA

Highlights:

- with food and bloodlust stacks: 2200 power, 1900 toughness, 20.7k hp, 52% crit
- piercing arrows, sigil of fire and quickness amount to decent supplementary aoe
- exceptional sustained single target damage; each arrow hits bunkers for 500-550 (roughly 1000dps on the hardest of targets without quickness, sigil proc, horn#4, or pet)
- on-demand fury and frequent quickness
- short SB CD’s, meaning more evasion, more cripple, more stun
- +30% damage when flanking

Piercing Arrows
- piercing cripple
- piercing stun

Gear:

- SB/sword/horn/birds
- PVT armor and weapons
- knight’s accessories
- omnomberry pie + master maintenance oil
- runes of the thief

I captured this footage over the course of one day. I have only played this spec for one day. There is much room for improvement. The vid features some action with my guild on SBI, Black Sheep Wall. It is only a small preview of a series that I’ll be doing. Last fight is of us annihilating a zerg. I apologize for the horrid filming, as I didnt zoom out and I’m a total noob on my boonbot guardian.

(replaced old vid so Canadian viewers can access)

Enjoy, and if you choose to use the build, have fun! Discussion below.

Very nice, thank you!

Rofl, I’m actually collecting video right now for me playing SB/lB glass cannon build.

I’m actually running more of a CC heavy build while you’re doing more of a Tankier build, Honestly your build probably works far far better then the one i’m running as i’m not seeing a huge damage loss vs mine (in fact you might do more damage)

I’m however not going to spend cash on Knights accessories hehe

nerva, where are you getting the “+30% damage when flanking” ?

Looking at your build I only see +20%:

• Steady Focus – damage increased by 10% when endurance is full
• Hunter’s Tactics – deal 10% more damage when flanking

I guess the last +10% for that 30 is from the 6 Runes of the Thief? (6) +10% damage when behind or beside your foe.

By the way … didn’t you hear … we’re supposed to use longbow in WvW :-p

I’d be interested to see more of this build as you didn’t look squishy. I’m curious how you’d fair with it against those who leverage confusion and/or retaliation in their builds.

My biggest concern with the build is that you lose 20% damage if they are facing you (doesn’t seem ideal for roaming), and you lose 10% damage if you aren’t full endurance (you have to use dodge rolls against a good player).

It’s pretty weak 1v1 build. Against condition damage profs, you can’t do much. With few stacks of confu on you, you’re pretty much dead. It’s as well weak against theives and mesmers. These traps (tho might seem pretty weak damage) are pretty powerful against thieves.
Two traps, knight set with zerker jewel on trinkets and 0-30-30-5-5 is still my favorite one and so far the best/strongest in many aspects.

How do you sustain a 20k hp pool?

Krugan.7901:

How do you sustain a 20k hp pool?

omnomberry pie, TU and crits. even a few hundred heal on top of 1900 toughness is a big deal.

Lert.6287:

It’s pretty weak 1v1 build.

this isnt a 1v1 build. if i wanted to 1v1, id play my condi bunker. as i stated, i created a build to make a difference in group fights. in a large group fight, there’s so much going on that i can pop my stability, run in and snipe whoever i want before they can even react. because of piercing arrows and my range, they have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. i can exert such tremendous pressure that people actually stop attacking and start popping their defensive CD’s. thats where the fight is over. pressure.

but you know, so far ive actually done better in 1vX fights because i can kill sooooo much faster. in addition, this has way more sustain than a knight’s build =P traps are nice though, for sure.

group fights always were and always will be about downing as many people as quickly as possible =)

Xsorus.2507:

I’m however not going to spend cash on Knights accessories hehe

PVT + knight’s combo is so underrated. when i first tried wvw, i went PVT + zerker and ditched the playstyle so quickly. little did i know that i was really close to the sweetspot.

Sebrent.3625:

My biggest concern with the build is that you lose 20% damage if they are facing you (doesn’t seem ideal for roaming), and you lose 10% damage if you aren’t full endurance (you have to use dodge rolls against a good player).

no worries man, the +30% is just gravy. i got u covered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3vmtJC5CM&feature=youtu.be

Is it faceroll? yes. is it awesome? yes. unlike thieves who only like engaging from the rear cuz they cant look their enemy straight in the eye, we can do it missionary too.

would you post a link to your build for this it looks so close to what I just switched from I think I was just off the sweet spot !!!

Meh just a short clip of a guy fighting others while you shot him in the face. I need more to be satisfied with its non-zerg capabilities.

I’m sad that even you are saying it’s not really for 1v1 since on my Mesmer and Ele I can run a single spec and it be good for 1v1, small skirmishes, and zerg fights.

Sebrent.3625:

Meh just a short clip of a guy fighting others while you shot him in the face. I need more to be satisfied with its non-zerg capabilities.

I’m sad that even you are saying it’s not really for 1v1 since on my Mesmer and Ele I can run a single spec and it be good for 1v1, small skirmishes, and zerg fights.

you said you were concerned about the 30% damage bonus, not 1v1 capabilities. so i made a clip in which a single burst took down a tanky warrior to show that you do more than enough from the front as well, even without flanking. i was the only one attacking him. i only gave myself a day to collect some footage and post a little preview. SBI/DR/IOJ is a pvp desert now before the switch =P

so i dont know if this is a good 1v1 spec. im being cautious, so im saying there are better ranger specs for 1v1. i need to test further. unfortunately though, ranger is not a prof that can fill multiple roles with one build. most people carry several armor sets.

I think I’ll give this a shot tonight an see how it works. I’ve been using something similar but with less HP and slightly different traits to good success in WvW; this looks like it might give more survival possibilities.

Omnom and Sigil of Blood work with each other, it’s worth trying but you’ll lose a little DPS from dropping Sigil of Fire.

I sorry if that came across negative. I just meant “I need more”. That one target isn’t enough for me :-p

I understand being conservative with praise for your newest build … I will be watching closely to see how successful you are with it in all 3 forms of WvW. I already have the gear for trying it myself … I just am back to enjoying my Mesmer more at the moment.

Nice Vids, I agree that’s you’re more supportive to your group with such a build

There’s one or two think i do not agree / understand but i guess it’s just different playstyle :

- Hide in plain sight : i find this trait a little bit overrated, it stealths you but if the player is a little skilled he’ll still hit you easily. Since you’re not alone and have a good toughness i would rather go to 30 in skirminship and take primal reflexes, more dodge is always useful and it helps regaining bonus of steady shot faster.

- Troll Unguent instead of heal as one : I find this skill great for solo but a little bit lackluster in group : too long to trigger, more cooldown and u never know when u’ll get focused so hard to be proactive … but that’s just my feeling

- PVT gear + Weapon : again it’s just personal preference but i noticed that in your whole video there is just one or two time where u go below 5k HP so i don’t know if all that vit is really necessary. I think u would survive just as well with 17/18k HP and more precision is always useful

- Rune of the thief : I made some tests before and i do the same dmg with the rune of the ranger but without having to flank (if your pet don’t die all the time of course).

- Sigil of fire : As i said earlier, Sigil of fire is great but no condition removal at all is kinda meh…u should give sigil of generosity a try, with a good crit rate and the shortbow it works fairly well.

However as I said i think all of those things are just a matter of personnal preferences and considering your vid this build/spec works quite well for you ;-)

Question : How omnom pie is working after the recent nerf ?

thanks for the feedback. let me try to address.

- omnom is good. not like before, but i get 344 health every 2-3 second on average, which is nice on top of 1900 toughness.

- TU i just get more mileage out of it. it synergizes with pie procs. and because burst isnt an issue with this build due to the high toughness/vit, you want something that gives you more health over time. in fact, i think TU works best when youre meaty.

- hide in plain sight: it’s something im still experimenting with. it’s a target drop every 30 seconds. i like to go zerg diving, so offhand training and martial mastery just dont look as appealing. target drop is the most powerful mechanic in the game, hands down. especially in larger fights. when it’s wasted, it sucks. when it happens at the right moment, it’s amazing.

- rune of the ranger – my pet is dead most of the time because im usually near/in zergs, but not always. i find it really easy to flank.

- PVT – again this is something im trying to get a feel for. the only thing i would gain from knight’s is extra crit, at the expense of vitality. both are just sugarcoating anyway, so until i gain more skills with this build i think i prefer the defensive route. when i start the series, you’ll see how effective piercing arrows are against zergs. but the closer you are, the more dps you do (reduced travel time = less arrows missing). the closer you are, the more meat you need =)

- condition removal is very simple to add. i just havent needed it at all, but SBI is moving up a few tiers so we may face better opponents. sigil of fire damage too good to give up. p/d thieves, necros and some engies would be a pain in a duel, but in larger engagements theyre the least of my worries. high vitality is a bandaid solution to a couple of conditions here and there.

I’m thinking you could buy most of the sets gear with Karma

you’d have to make a simple change though

PVT armor + Cavaliers Jewelry (use knights jewels)

nerva.7940:

thanks for the feedback. let me try to address.

- omnom is good. not like before, but i get 344 health every 2-3 second on average, which is nice on top of 1900 toughness.

Despite Warrior whine after the nerf I still think it’s probably one of the best foods, the only thing I run instead of it is a Plate of Truffle Steak if I’m running in a large group.

Jos.8793:

give sigil of generosity a try, with a good crit rate and the shortbow it works fairly well.

Have you confirmed for certain sigil of generosity works? I put one on my SB, then found a number of claims online that it only works in PVE. I tested it in Heart of the Mists with the sparring NCPs and couldn’t get it to work. Sigil of Purity would be an option, but not nearly as nice.

nerva.7940:

hide in plain sight: it’s something im still experimenting with. it’s a target drop every 30 seconds. i like to go zerg diving, so offhand training and martial mastery just dont look as appealing. target drop is the most powerful mechanic in the game, hands down. especially in larger fights. when it’s wasted, it sucks. when it happens at the right moment, it’s amazing.

Ok, thxs for ur answers ,

About hide in plain sight i know the target drop can be amazing, but mainly vs small group in zergs there’s so much aoe that u just don’t want to be stuck in place ^^ Maybe vigor on heal since according to ur Vid it seems that when u use TU u already used a few dodges (+ it will regenerate steady focus faster)

- rune of the ranger – my pet is dead most of the time because im usually near/in zergs, but not always. i find it really easy to flank.

Yeah if ur pet is mostly dead rune of the ranger is quite bad…however in that case why not use at least one buffer pet ? 5 stack of might before rushing in could help
increase ur group damages. I also have the feeling by watching ur vid that sometimes u are switching on sword/horn just for the buff and stay quite stuck with it waiting for cooldown, a moa could also provide fury on demand.

PVT – again this is something im trying to get a feel for. the only thing i would gain from knight’s is extra crit, at the expense of vitality. both are just sugarcoating anyway, so until i gain more skills with this build i think i prefer the defensive route. when i start the series, you’ll see how effective piercing arrows are against zergs. but the closer you are, the more dps you do (reduced travel time = less arrows missing). the closer you are, the more meat you need =)

Ok i understand that, maybe it’s because i took the opposite way starting from full zerker that i don’t feel the same way about vitality ^^
However, on a long term view, i think that there’s now some ascendant gear with P/T/critic dmg, which could justify to change some parts from soldier to knight

U were talking earlier on giving a try to berserker shortbow, if it helps, with PVT gear and berserker shortbow i have 17.1 kHP which for me is more than enough

condition removal is very simple to add. i just havent needed it at all, but SBI is moving up a few tiers so we may face better opponents. sigil of fire damage too good to give up. p/d thieves, necros and some engies would be a pain in a duel, but in larger engagements theyre the least of my worries. high vitality is a bandaid solution to a couple of conditions here and there.

Yeah true, in large engagments condition removal is not a problem as long as u don’t get focused

@Xsorus : yep, u can get full pvt set from karma except leggings / u can also get it through WvW vendors (at least the leggings)

@Slingblade : When it’s said that Sigil of generosity is pve only it means that it doesn’t works in sPvp, it still works in WvW

I mainly play condi builds however now that ascended gear is easier to get I’m thinking of trying a power build, something like this.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|5.1n.h17|c.1n.h17.g.1n.h4|1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1|2v.0.2v.0.3v.0.3v.0.2v.0.2v.0|k18.p1a.k69.0.5|54.1|0.0.0.0.0|e

How well would that do in a wvw setting?

Nugget.8031:

I mainly play condi builds however now that ascended gear is easier to get I’m thinking of trying a power build, something like this.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|5.1n.h17|c.1n.h17.g.1n.h4|1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1.1n.a1|2v.0.2v.0.3v.0.3v.0.2v.0.2v.0|k18.p1a.k69.0.5|54.1|0.0.0.0.0|e

How well would that do in a wvw setting?

Honestly having a high critic dmg and a low critic chance (36% in your build ) is not gonna work cause ranger don’t do big numbers with the shortbow.

When playing berserker my crits were around 1500 and it was with 113% critic dmg…so if u compare with nerva’s video u’ll see critic dmg don’t change the damages that much.

In my opinion power build ranger is more about putting pressure, and for that u need à high critic chance and high toughness.

thats where the sigil of fire comes in. whatever u crit damage u miss out on, blast procs make up for it easily, not to mention they occur in a huge aoe. zerker bow + sigil of fire, now thats another story and something i’ll definitely be testing.

I definitely think it’s better to keep your toughness up and your crit chance high with the shortbow for the reasons said here.

I moved from condition damage to pressision and then added in more power, dropping conditions and I’m pretty much power and pressision now. My next job is to bring up my crit chance over 50%, it’s clear I do better off the procts than I do with stacking power.

knight’s SB might be a good compromise. i’ll give both a shot.

What about something like

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|5.1g.h17|c.1g.h17.g.1g.h4|1n.7j.1n.7j.1n.7j.1n.7j.1n.7j.1n.7j|2v.0.2v.0.3v.0.2v.0.3v.0.2v.0|k18.p4a.k6a.0.5|54.7|0.0.0.0.0|e

prety much a glass cannon build with 3k armor.

that’s what i wanted to do originally and i think Sol runs with those stats. the problem is you have no HP to buffer against conditions and massive burst. all you gain is +5% crit compared to my build. i would rather have 5000 more HP, but maybe thats just me.

my guildie recommended to use Master Maintenance Oil instead of Sharpening Stone. gaining 6% crit for 160 power. in group situations, you have access to might stacks via RaO/stalker, eles and warriors, which can easily make up for the power loss.

so in conclusion – more crit = reliable procs of fire blast and pie healing, not to mention higher dps. going from 66% to 72% with fury is a noticeable difference.

therefore, i will be sticking with PVT weapons and armor as I have reached the crit goal. the build has been finalized. keep an eye out on more vids in the near future =) next vid will include a detailed guide as well.

Welcome to tier 4 nerva, you will have to come say hi to the rangers here.

nerva.7940:

knight’s SB might be a good compromise. i’ll give both a shot.

Eir’s Short Bow is a pretty nice choice if you can find one, it’s Power, Precision, + Crit Damage. Long Bow version is okay as well if you carry one for keeps.

Sol.4310:

Welcome to tier 4 nerva, you will have to come say hi to the rangers here.

haha we playing against u next?

can’t watch the video at the moment but am looking forward too it, sounds great in theory. My only question is whether protect me is the best choice for utility if your pets are often dead, and only birds in the first place – so i’m guessing at best with 5 in BM and birds it would give 1-2 seconds of invulnerability. Would SoW be an option d’you think? even w/o healing power?

Nerva so what would your best gear choice be for this build now after all is said and done?

after all is said and done, i havent changed my gear yet, so whatever is in the first post. the ONLY thing i would consider changing is the weapon from PVT to berserker. as i said, with the right food, ive reached the 50-70 crit cap. at 70% crit (with fury). youre critting 90% of your shots. so there’s absolutely no need to get more knight’s gear. btw, are there any P/T/crit dmg weapons out there?

i will also be expertimenting with SB/LB combo for the times when i feel safe in my group. i will have much less survivability and less fury, but the QZ + rapid fire + petswap quickness + barrage combo would be super bursty and would shred zergs, so we’ll see if it’s worth it.

Wanderer.5471:

Would SoW be an option d’you think? even w/o healing power?

not for what im doing. for me personally, the only utility i would consider changing is Protect Me into SoH. and SoW without healing power is never worth it, unless you have beastmaster signet trait.

nerva, where’s more videos?! :-p

You and Sol are giving me Ranger video withdrawal ;-)

I’m still very curious to see how this build turns out since it is much more direct damage-focused than any other builds we usually see.

I’m still very curious to see how you skirmish/roam with it as it was definitely useful in large fights.

Don’t worry Sebrent I’ve been trying to find Ikiro, but no luck so far lol.

But I want videos right meow ;-)

Sol.4310:

Don’t worry Sebrent I’ve been trying to find Ikiro, but no luck so far lol.

lol…probably cuz Maguuma wont let us leave our spawn.

nerva, where’s more videos?! :-) I’m still quite curious about this build.

I’ve been directing new Rangers to watch you and Sol in order to learn what Ranger’s can currently do … but you two have to give them more content to watch! ;-)

I’m running out of things to watch during lunch hour … don’t you love me?! :-p

Yeah ive been busy grinding for my sylvari t3. Dont u want me to look pretty? Ive also been testing my trap bomber build for zerg warfare, switching between that and the sb build. My mission is to make my ranger a worthy contributor to zerg warfare which is a very difficult task.

The other problem is that mag and cd roll in groups of 20-50 at all times so ive had to adapt my builds to that.

Thanks for the support

If I cared how pretty you were, I’d tell you to reroll as a Norn ;-)

The trap bomber is something I’m personally a fan of … however, it is very ineffective if the Ranger goes in and isn’t followed by their zerg busting crew pretty soon after.

I also think the role is still best done by Hammer Warriors with Endure Pain.

I’m most interested in this new build of yours because it has the ability to fulfill a role that a few Thieves in my guild do during large fights … key target elimination. Rather than pick on weak targets and maybe get hit by stray AOE (a bad trade), they hang back a bit with their shortbow providing whatever contributions they can but then when they spot a good player from the opposite team that’s causing some trouble, they jump on them and assassinate them.

If you get an skirmishing gameplay with it, I’d love to see that as well. Wins and losses preferably. If there are issues with it in skirmishing, perhaps more eyes on the issues could come up with a solution :-) I’d love to have a build that is great for both zerg fights and roaming.

For starters I’d like to point that the link to your build seems to be broken, or at least for me says “bad link”. Now after watching the video this looks a lot like the build I used to use when I still rolled a ranger, back on beta lol, I am now lvling a ranger and since I haven’t play in a while I would really like to see your build and give it a test drive sometime soon.

Either way it seems really nice!

Nerva (or anybody), I’m curious about Sigil of Fire. Have I been noticing it proc on our pets attacks, or am I just seeing things? I am not on my cpu that has gw2 installed right now or I would test it myself instead of asking. It would just seem important to note on any crit based build if it happens to be true that sigils proc on pet attacks (it would make sense if they did/do).

Not noticed it, ever. I’ll take a look tonight when I get home, are you sure you not just seeing it for your own crits and your pet just happens to be critting at the same time?

capuchinseven.8395:

Not noticed it, ever. I’ll take a look tonight when I get home, are you sure you not just seeing it for your own crits and your pet just happens to be critting at the same time?

That’s what I’m assuming. I was testing out a new build at the time and didn’t think to actually check to see if the pet was proccing just because it was late at night for me and I had some online homework open in a second window I was doing at the same time. So the thought didn’t occur to me until today during class while I was spacing out lol.

Again, I’m going to test this immediately (and probably be wrong) when I can, I doubt it is actually happening, but think it would be very useful (and sensible, and awesome) if it was occuring. Thinking about it though, our DPS pets would probably break the game if this were true, unless the proc was somehow occuring when the pet was hitting but based off of the players crit chance and power rating (which would imply some crazy coding for weapon sigils).

Any luck with zergs?

Yeah sbi has definitely broken out. We’ve taken a few larger groups on our own but we mostly run havoc for smaller engagements. I should have most of my footage by the end of next week. Got some time off work. Will include a guide this time as part of vol.1

This is actually a really good skirmishing build as well. I didnt like it initially but ive learned to maintain my distance well. The build really shines at all ranges. I went back to my condi bunker the other night and i just felt so constrained. It’s almost useless against groups larger than 10.

Changes

- gradually introducing more zerker gear. Weapons are now zerker, no noticeable effect on survivability.

- switched owl for jag. Stealthed jag does like 2-3k dps. So raven/jag is final.

- protect me switched for SoH. Speed increase is noticeable when kiting. If I manage to leave combat almost nothing can catch me

Thats it for now. Look for the vid soonish

I keep trying to go back to condition, just to make sure I right the right choice and it feels wrong to me as well. I run Protect Me as well, I might slot in SoH and see if I get on okay with it, I used to run it all the time but found a Warhorn/Elite/Warhorn one after each other tends to get me where I’m going pretty fast.

Ah yes but I need that fury on demand for the deeps. I use sword 2 and soh for traveling.

I’m sorry but.. This just can’t be viable.
Essentially you have just specced dmg + piercing arrows and then run around auto-attacking.
From 0:22 and onwards there is like a whole minute where the only spell you’re using is Crossfire. In a more competitive context this would never work.

Edit:
Just to give an example:
What would you do if the player used structures for his advantage and obstructed your attacks? He would just completely rip you apart when you got close.

So, does SOH provide the speed boost while in combat? I should know this…

Also, I’ve been running a variant of this and have switched to 2 dogs as pets when I’m running solo or in very small groups. The CC from the dogs (knockdown, fear, chill) really makes up for being weak on healing.