Guild Wars 2

Inspired by this PvP Build I decided to throw a few Krait runes on my Rabid set and I am very impressed with the results so far.

Build is this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnYRjMq0yazKGsQ1aADhqdLEslArAw9PMEX9ESB-TFyCwAp0HA4UAgT9HsK/U8AAmcEAmt/wYlgkBYZCA-w

It can drop 20+ bleeds in a matter of seconds on a single target, as well as 6 other conditions to mask your bleeds.

For camps you have AOE bleeds, burns and torment meaning you can clear them in no time.

Stunbreak which also acts as condition removal.

One of the first times I feel like a ranger build has no wasted traits.

Also features 3k+ armour, 18k+ HP, passive+active condition removal.

Not too bad, but i feel you are investing too many traits for 1 spirit. Empathic bond would not be required using SotF if you invested in a second survival utility instead of sun spirit (at that point your condi removal would be overkill with 2 utility survival skills, one from sharpening stone from trait and entagle Elite + EB, making EB redundant), and you would gain some trait points by dropping EB and added defence swapping out spirit traits. GS is useless for a condi build and there are many better options. May I suggest something like this?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjMqUzaLLGsQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg789G+6MWpEZTA-TZRAwAKOIAAuAAUeCAlLD0b/BA

Shortbow will acheive the same bleed burst, even better than A/D with the added bonus of sustain due to bleed on crit + sharpening stone + flanking bonus + the significantly faster shortbow attack speed (more bleed on crit), plus the ability to kite. You still have poison, evades and a leap finnisher on sword, Torch gives you 2 sources of burn, including an AOE burn/Combo field. Having 2 instances of sharpening stone (1 utility, 1 traits) gives you WAY more bleed burst, and the chance to potentially burst multiple times in a short period, which will be way too much to handle cleanse wise for enemies to deal with. I tried a variation with axe, and while Axe can acheive great burst bleeds, lacks sustain and is a bit of a 1 trick pony.

Sigils your better off going bleed on crit/bleed duration on the shortbow, since shortbow applys constant, short duration bleeds (avg 3 seconds) so being able to increase that to 6 seconds using food/runes/sigils means you can effectively stack WAY more bleeds.

I took bleed on crit/corruption on S/T to still have the ability to apply descent bleeds with s/T plus build corruption stacks, However I may possibly swap the bleed on crit eventually possibly to burn duration, to maximise burn duration before switching to SB to apply bleed (where the bleeds add up and count). S/T isnt designed to apply the bleed, but moreso poison and burn plus provide evades, but is still capable of applying bleeds to a descent level (7-10 stacks avg).

The only thing lost in my build opposed to yours is out of combat mobility from GS. This can be easily fixed by keeping a GS in the bag and swapping to it between combat.

The advantages of my build is more burst, more sustain damage/constant condi application/spam. The Sharpening stone from traits also acts as a cleanse and fury gain meaning some added passive condi cleanse and more fury uptime, leading to more crits, in turn creating more bleed stacks, plus the ability to kite with shortbow.

I tried using MH axe for this originally and while able to provide a reasonable burst, lacks sustain. Shortbow can acheive the same initial burst as axe, with added sustain + and ability to apply that burst from a distance. Axe bleed burst is only effective at point blank range due to the spread of the shot at a distance.

It does feel like a lot to invest 2 traits for one utility but sun spirit should not be underestimated IMO, as it is adding AOE burns to your axe as well as your pet.

And the burning axe I feel is better than the torch because the AOE is not restricted to one little area. Only thing I think is lacking with this is burn duration.

I used shortbow for the longest time but I have only recently switched to A/D. Sure the pressure and the single target damage is good but the bleed and poison durations are terrible, and like I said I can still get 20+ bleed stacks easily with this setup. Also the aoe from axe means you can clear camps a lot faster.

I have also gone right off sharpening stone, particularly the trait. I just find it goes off at the worst possible times in a fight, and usually my target is dead before all 5 stacks have been used.

Also I would say that EB is in no way redundant, particularly if you are facing more than one opponent. Your build can only remove roughly 6 conditions every minute – that’s terrible compared to EB. Plus I believe entangled is bugged and not removing anything.

GS is just for movement as you have noted. However the geomancy sig means it has some condition application, as does the bleed on crit. I find its good to be able to swoop away and reset if I missed my initial Axe 2 and Dagger 5 combo.

I’m not impressed by Sharpening Stone either. I am curious about what you meant about the sun spirit doing AoE burns. Is it not just a proc every 10 seconds?

Sube Dai.8496:

It does feel like a lot to invest 2 traits for one utility but sun spirit should not be underestimated IMO, as it is adding AOE burns to your axe as well as your pet.

And the burning axe I feel is better than the torch because the AOE is not restricted to one little area. Only thing I think is lacking with this is burn duration.

I used shortbow for the longest time but I have only recently switched to A/D. Sure the pressure and the single target damage is good but the bleed and poison durations are terrible, and like I said I can still get 20+ bleed stacks easily with this setup. Also the aoe from axe means you can clear camps a lot faster.

I have also gone right off sharpening stone, particularly the trait. I just find it goes off at the worst possible times in a fight, and usually my target is dead before all 5 stacks have been used.

Also I would say that EB is in no way redundant, particularly if you are facing more than one opponent. Your build can only remove roughly 6 conditions every minute – that’s terrible compared to EB. Plus I believe entangled is bugged and not removing anything.

GS is just for movement as you have noted. However the geomancy sig means it has some condition application, as does the bleed on crit. I find its good to be able to swoop away and reset if I missed my initial Axe 2 and Dagger 5 combo.

My build also acheives 20+ bleed stacks… quite often 25… with the shortbow, and with 95% bleed duration the bleeds applied last significantly longer (from 3-6 seconds for on crit/flanking bleeds, and from 12-24 seconds from sharpening stone, or whatever it is, im not in game right now in a lecture at uni). I have 2 bursts opposed to 1, and have superior sustain in between. If you trait for offhand training, the AOE radius of bonfire is actually quite descent, and while throw torch is only single target, the burn duration is significantly longer than sun spirit proc. (basically perma burn with koi cakes)

Multi target, axe is better, however single target shortbow will by far outperform MH axe.

Sword is just as good at disengaging as GS, even better IMO if you know the Deselect 180 camera trick. It will get you a much farther distance away than GS Swoop will on its own, and especially if you include LR in the combo. I keep a GS in my bag for out of combat mobility, but sword is still technically better at disengage with that trick, and has more condi options and evades.