Guild Wars 2

Helloooooooooo again Rangers & ranger lovers.

Decided to tinker with melee ranger again after the patch. Nothing really that big came out which affected it, all of the Greatsword’s skills got buffed though \o/. Still, a new rune was added to the patch which I decided to test out. They’re alright, but I’m pretty sure there are better alternatives:

Le build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsYRjEq0yaHL+rQ1agDhq9K8BjA7AYdTAXDxIiC-T1xHAB9o8T5TBAAPBgPU/h59H+SfATKBJDg+WA-w

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_fLGdpzHrk – Enjoy!

Runes are flexible (like the build), could go for Hoelbrak, Melandru, Rage, Ranger and as LughLongArm suggested to me, Pack. I’ve always liked pack runes and they’ll give nice swiftness+fury uptime as well as better DPS. In that case, Runes of Evasion aren’t all that good, although the swiftness&fury procs even when out of combat and the final effect does dmg so can proc sigils or other effects. Plus cripple is nice. But like my last video, it’s less so about the specific build and more so about the play style.

I often opt for tankier pets, namely 2 spiders. I mainly use Empathic Bond for condi clear, so they’ve got to be spongey. Plus the poison & immob uptime is good and they’re ranged which is good and bad. Bad because they’re not very accurate and have low DPS but good because they’re not dying to Cleave/AoE skills. Dual birds often run into this problem, although they can provide a lot of Swiftness and DPS so I’ll sometimes use them if my opponent isn’t con/aoe heavy.

Dagger offhand can be swapped out for axe. The Velocity of #4-Patch of Scars was increased 25% in the patch so it’s somewhat harder to dodge. I normally swap it out if my opponent relies on projectiles but it’s nice to roam with as Path of Scars hits hard, CCs while bringing your opponent to you and can be followed up with more dmg while they’re disabled for a short time. Whirling Defense imo is weak but it can still come in very handy.

The utilities are very interchangeable, I often drop Muddy Terrain & Signet of Renewal depending on my opponent. RaO & Entangle can also be swapped for one another depending on the scenario, I don’t really have a favorite between the two.

The condi cleanse is particularly nice, capable of “removing” 5 conditions every 10 seconds, so long as you don’t use SoR, swap weapons constantly and your pet is alive. I’m very split on Empathic Bond, having to sacrifice my class mechanic (which isn’t all that good anyway) to remove conditions, kinda like saying to a thief don’t use your Steal or Stealth to cleanse X amount of conditions. Survival of the Fittest isn’t much better imo, I like the fury but your opponent’s condi skills often recharge faster than your Wilderness Survival skills.

Thanks for reading and feedback is always welcome!

Awesome video, loved your new off hand axe play. I remember that BM condi ranger(14:00) kitten he was nasty. Thank you for the upload.

Good music, good gampelay, awesome video! Did you consider the king/queen of the hill ranger thread already? More people should learn your craft!

Edit: How is the damage on the “crippling strike” on dodge from the runes?

Video is waaaay longer than I think videos should go… but it was so good and interesting to watch you play I watched it through anyway

I think I said this on a previous post of yours but I am still impressed by your ability to fight Mesmers. I rarely play an all melee build though I do enjoy it and find it extremely powerful against other melee builds, but Mesmers give me a really bad day every time.. So very nice as always

Thanks for the feedback all, appreciated.

@Lugh – Yeah the ranger was a tough one, lots of sustain.

@Nagym – I’ve seen the topic (I often lurk around the profession forums) but it seemed too organised (which is a good thing :P) and required a commitment, atm I’m just roaming in the borderlands solo and in a group and that’s all that I’m really interested in. If people want to duel me in OS then I’ll find time for that. Also the damage on crippling strike is very low, I can hit 150-250 dmg non crit depending on the opponent. But it can clear blindness and an opponent’s aegis/block.

@Cufu – Glad you did. I should probably make them into smaller chunks as that’s normally what I like when watching YT videos, but I guess people are free to stop watching at a certain point and then pick it up again another time.