are there any good wvw zerg builds? I found some builds but they are pretty old and im looking for a new one
I know ranger are bad in wvw zergs but i love to play my ranger + wvw zerg fights!
I almost always play on the periphery of the zerg, picking people off, so I use Straight DPS and enjoy that type of playstyle, if I want to get into the thick of it, I just get on my war with sentinels gear.
Zerk gear
Ranger runes
66200
signet of the wild, signet of stone, quickening zephyr/lightning reflexes, RAO
Since you’ll be dead if you get caught anyway there’s not much point in running defense imo. When they rush you can use your invis, swap to GS and swoop out/block with 4.
I just pop everything and plink away with LB. I swap between eagle eye and piercing arrows depending on the fight.
Bristleback can’t hit anything? Let’s fix the HP bug instead.
If i was sarcastic i would probably say that nobody care of your build in a zerg while following the pug s’ commander. There is no ranger in a good WvW guild run (but there are thieves on the periphery to reflect what Heimskarl said) . I can understand that you like the ranger (ofc) and i can barely understand that you like zerg fights, i main ranger for two years and a half and the few times i play in a zerg i just take my guardian, cuz, you know…
Unless you’re running as commander, I’d say your best bet is to stick with a longbow power build to quickly burn important targets instead of running a short range build that doesn’t do anything that a war/guard could do better.
Since you’ll be dead if you get caught anyway there’s not much point in running defense imo.
I know this is just an opinion but I see a lot of people post this and I hate that this gets spread around about rangers. It’s true if you build for 100% offense with no thought to defense, condi removal, etc. you will likely die when being focused, but if you run something slightly more balanced and are good with your melee weapons, rangers become very hard to kill.
Longbow can be fun in a zerg if you get into a sniper party, something to pick out enemy commanders, or squishy back line players, to call target on and focus down. But for this to be effective you need to have a good sized zerg to run with.
The front line ranger builds on the other hand work really well even in smaller groups because you can stay with the hammer train providing decent condi removal, a good deal of damage, and a fantastic water field, which has pulled out a win for my guild a bunch of times after we lost our entire back line.
…There is no ranger in a good WvW guild run (but there are thieves on the periphery to reflect what Heimskarl said)…
Thieves are a joy in that role as they are such an easy kill when you are full DPS LB ranger. You burn them almost instantly and stealth will not save them. This is assuming you stay inside your people who have over extended (they always do), target the thieves who are targeting your players and do not over extend yourself. Else you will melt.
In that case, I would swap to DPS with Sic Em as Sic Em with even a few up levels will kill a good thief, if you time it right.
Sometimes I go 6/1/6 rather than 6/4/4 in order to get SotF… I also sometimes use double GS just to make use of the on swap fury.. and since you only ever really need a GS for zerging you don’t lose out of much by not having a second weapon set.
The general purpose is to hang just on the edge of the melee train and do as much DPS as you can (which is quite a lot), and use your 2 utilities to catch people out and get them run over by your own train. Used to best effect on the back of the enemies melee train, not infront on it, because then you catch the people who were already falling behind and can pretty easily cut them down.
I find it fun.. even if it’s not proper meta :P
Cufufalating – Ranger / Part-Time Mesmer
Gunnar’s Hold
Since you’ll be dead if you get caught anyway there’s not much point in running defense imo.
I know this is just an opinion but I see a lot of people post this and I hate that this gets spread around about rangers. It’s true if you build for 100% offense with no thought to defense, condi removal, etc. you will likely die when being focused, but if you run something slightly more balanced and are good with your melee weapons, rangers become very hard to kill.
Longbow can be fun in a zerg if you get into a sniper party, something to pick out enemy commanders, or squishy back line players, to call target on and focus down. But for this to be effective you need to have a good sized zerg to run with.
The front line ranger builds on the other hand work really well even in smaller groups because you can stay with the hammer train providing decent condi removal, a good deal of damage, and a fantastic water field, which has pulled out a win for my guild a bunch of times after we lost our entire back line.
I was referring to the build i put up above. The only defense is sos and situational awareness. Glassbow ranger is one of the squishiest classes but thats what makes it fun imo. If you get caught out of position you get punished for it. Obviously if you go for more defense you’ll survive better but your effectiveness will be lower. Imo you are most effective as a log range spiker in a zerg anyway when eles and necros exist.
Bristleback can’t hit anything? Let’s fix the HP bug instead.
Since you’ll be dead if you get caught anyway there’s not much point in running defense imo.
I know this is just an opinion but I see a lot of people post this and I hate that this gets spread around about rangers. It’s true if you build for 100% offense with no thought to defense, condi removal, etc. you will likely die when being focused, but if you run something slightly more balanced and are good with your melee weapons, rangers become very hard to kill.
Longbow can be fun in a zerg if you get into a sniper party, something to pick out enemy commanders, or squishy back line players, to call target on and focus down. But for this to be effective you need to have a good sized zerg to run with.
The front line ranger builds on the other hand work really well even in smaller groups because you can stay with the hammer train providing decent condi removal, a good deal of damage, and a fantastic water field, which has pulled out a win for my guild a bunch of times after we lost our entire back line.
I was referring to the build i put up above. The only defense is sos and situational awareness. Glassbow ranger is one of the squishiest classes but thats what makes it fun imo. If you get caught out of position you get punished for it. Obviously if you go for more defense you’ll survive better but your effectiveness will be lower. Imo you are most effective as a log range spiker in a zerg anyway when eles and necros exist.
Eh, I think it depends on your group and how reliable your ele’s are. Being in the front line I am definitely dealing more overall damage than a longbow ranger thanks to cleave and 5k mauls. And my water field is a lot more reliable thanks to it’s duration (don’t have to worry about a pug overlapping a short duration water field with a random light field). Plus it’s nice being able to drop aoe poison on the downed players.
Honestly the build feels like playing back line support while being just as tanky and dealing just as much (if not more) damage as a warrior. It comes down to what would be more beneficial to your group, another water field or banner. I prefer keeping people alive rather than rallying the downed.
Maybe the pirate meta isn’t as pronounced in some of the lower tiers, but a “front line ranger” is a dead ranger in t1 – a total liability. Going full zerker lb/gs with signets has massive tagging ability and great damage, especially if you trait piercing arrows. As long as you instantly dip out of red circles and stop attacking or switch targets once someone puts up a reflective wall, I’d say glass cannon is the only way to play ranger in WvW now.
Maybe the pirate meta isn’t as pronounced in some of the lower tiers, but a “front line ranger” is a dead ranger in t1 – a total liability. Going full zerker lb/gs with signets has massive tagging ability and great damage, especially if you trait piercing arrows. As long as you instantly dip out of red circles and stop attacking or switch targets once someone puts up a reflective wall, I’d say glass cannon is the only way to play ranger in WvW now.
As someone who plays on a mid-low server… I think it’s just that we’ve always had this so called “pirate ship meta”. I mean we have 2 guilds with regularly do open raids, and what you find is half the zerg is guild members who are in “proper” builds, and half the zerg is pugging around on ranged DPS builds.
We’ve always been really heavy on the ranged players because that’s what pugs do.. this is nothing new :P
Cufufalating – Ranger / Part-Time Mesmer
Gunnar’s Hold
Yep it’s pretty disappointing but LB is really the only reasonable weapon choice. I think 6(RtW)/0/2/6(SotF)/0 with GS is the strongest of those. GS, mainly because of the GTFO mobility and the block.
Traps could almost be a thing if the range on them wasn’t so short (600), and the trait placement so plainly stupid — short-range condi utilities in a crit chance/crit dmg line, so stupid. Notwithstanding the difficult range, traps also fall a bit short on the condi removal side as well.
Nothing else comes close. Melee/tank is not an option, at least in T1 — warrior/guard is so much better.
Arguably, you’re still better off playing your GWEN class but there is something of a role in ele/commander sniping, but it gets dull pretty quickly.
Maybe the pirate meta isn’t as pronounced in some of the lower tiers, but a “front line ranger” is a dead ranger in t1 – a total liability. Going full zerker lb/gs with signets has massive tagging ability and great damage, especially if you trait piercing arrows. As long as you instantly dip out of red circles and stop attacking or switch targets once someone puts up a reflective wall, I’d say glass cannon is the only way to play ranger in WvW now.
As someone who plays on a mid-low server… I think it’s just that we’ve always had this so called “pirate ship meta”. I mean we have 2 guilds with regularly do open raids, and what you find is half the zerg is guild members who are in “proper” builds, and half the zerg is pugging around on ranged DPS builds.
We’ve always been really heavy on the ranged players because that’s what pugs do.. this is nothing new :P
Ain’t that the truth. We’ve been dealing with the “pirate ship meta” for years.
While there is no denying warriors and guardians are objectively better in the front line, it has nothing to do with a ranger being a “dead ranger”. Warriors and guardians frontline builds bring better aoe CC and group support skills. With the exception of the precision boost, condi cleanses, and water field, the frontline ranger build tends to be a bit more selfish but it allows you to tank like a boss and put out a good amount of damage.
Since the stability change the build has actually become a little more viable because the axe still let’s you cleave from a distance and rampage as one is one of the best sources of stability in the game. Not to mention if you get stuck range bombing one another you can take full advantage of healing springs long duration. The only real change I’ve had to make is swapping lightning reflexes for SotW since group stability doesn’t last as long.
What it comes down to is a lot of people find ranger more fun to play than guard or war. This build will let you have a lot of fun dropping 5k mauls on people in the middle of a zerg instead of standing back pew pewing while trying not to die from the retal damage your are wracking up.
I know ranger are bad in wvw zergs but i love to play my ranger + wvw zerg fights!
Try Ranger in a periph squad rather than trying to frontline/backline it. You might be surprised how good it is when gank squads have Water regroups (Thief SB+Healing Spring) combined with the highest range pressure in the game.
If we’re talking about open field ZvZ then I often see servers with giant blobby numbers advantage running Ranger pugs just bc its easy to hide behind a massive 1push army. This puts smaller groups on the defensive and you don’t get pressured, although Rangers don’t tag as good as other builds so there is that…
I’m curious why you go into the skirmishing line. Is it for the stats or specifically for honed axes? I always found that trait a little underwhelming.
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