Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I play an Asura Ranger. 90% of the time I play the Metabattle Condition Ranger (SB + A/D) in sPvP what with the celestial amulet and krait runes etc… With Sharpening Stones, Lightning Reflexes and Signet of Stone with Entangle.

In WvW I play the exact MetaBattle stealth trapper exactly as displayed on the website no changes.

I’ve only been playing for about 2 months, I was playing Engi but it seems no matter how hard I try I couldn’t get the hang of it, so I started messing around on my Ranger and fell in love.

I’ve been sPvP for around maybe a month and I am halfway through the purple bar to PvP level 50. I have finished farming and completed my full Dire Armor set (Inquest from CoE) with the Rabid everything else for WvW on Sunday and have been doing a bit of roaming ever since.

So here’s the problem: Warriors and Thieves. I just can’t seem to beat them.

Warriors just don’t drop no matter what I do. They have so many gap closers for constant in your face pressure it’s insane. I never seem to have enough energy or gap openers to keep them off my nuts.

Even with perfect dodge rolls, all the slows and immobis (Spider F2, auto attack, spike trap, bow #3, #4, #5, Axe #3 Dagger #4, 5 and actual energy dodge rolls) they just heal and heal and heal and stun and gap close and ride your face and can’t be shaken and the condis don’t even slow them down. They just sit at 10-15% HP and it’s like it the bar stops moving.

Thieves dance and bounce around and if they get low either run away or go invis for 40 years and reset then come out fresh.

I just don’t have the sustain to keep up with all the condi cleansing and healing and redo buttons these classes seem to have.

Any suggestions? I seem to do well vs thieves sometimes and even as Power cuz they’re so soft a #4, #5, #2 longbow combo can like one shot them if you catch them off guard but kitten me if warriors just don’t die no matter what.

Any weapon combos I should try?? A war horn maybe? I just don’t know what to do.

Most important thing about warriors is to keep poison on them. Don’t spam your poison for longer duration, instead make sure you reapply it as soon as they cleanse it.

In WvW they should drop fairly quickly like that. In PvP, the meta is a very durable condi-cleaning, weakness-spewing machine. Don’t fight them 1v1 on their point. If you’re on your own point, feel free to waste their time in a stalemate.

Should I use snake trap instead of frost trap for WvW??

Yeah the issue is I usually end up sitting at “home” point to guard it from takers and often Thieves or Warriors roam “far” to steal the point and I always give up my point to them while my team is off elsewhere doing whatever it is they do.

I can beat pretty much anything else most of the time. I may lose to an especially good mesmer or Ele, but normally nothing but Thieves and Warriors give me issues and steal my point.

In WvW everything is new to me I don’t know any of the meta builds or even non meta builds for it. I just know trapper ranger is super fun!

WvW warriors take a trait where they are nearly immune to soft CC, so ya, frost trap does very little to them.

On the other hand, if everything else is working well for you, it may not be worth basing your build around a single bad matchup.

Really the traps in that build are mostly for the stealth.

Edit: A condi ranger is terrible matchup for PvP thieves, you shouldn’t be losing that. You could try the sword torch variant instead of the shortbow? That will do better against thieves, and is far stronger in 1v1s of all types. The problem with shortbow is that the bleed doesn’t trigger in 1v1s, so all you get is the mediocre power damage.

I like the range on the Shortbow, and it shoots fast but I will try a melee sword and torch? What do you recommend for WvW and sPvP? I usually do Shortbow and Axe/Dagger for sPvP and the Shortbow with Axe/Torch for WvW.

Lately I’ve been doing much better against thieves. In PvP and WvW. I just really like how the Shortbow plays but I don’t mind trying anything.

I just want a well rounded build that can handle almost anything.

The basic idea is that s/t + a/d is for 1v1s and SB is for group fights. The CC, bleeds and range of SB don’t do much in 1v1s because you can’t get behind the opponent (they’re almost always going to be facing you unless they’re on drugs.)

I thought you were referring to the celestial longbow trapper for your WvW build. If you’re already wearing celestial armor or have berserker armor, you might try using longbow instead of shortbow with that trapper build. Most people think LB is a lot better weapon than SB.

I’m not sure LB trapper is even on meta battle? If would be 6/6/x/x/x, and you’d probably want signet of renewal or maybe lightning reflexes instead of a 3rd trap.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Stealth_Trapper

I meant this build. I have full Rabid Trinkets (Backpack, Rings, Amulet, Accessories) and weapons with full dire armor all exotic for that build fully runed and gemmed.

I also have fully deck out 100% berserkers (even an ascended chest piece) with two different long bows, one for PvE and one for EotM (and maybe WvW).

So in this way I am flexible. I just love condi builds because of how tanky they are and how much more complicated they feel to play. I do love the old read the wind sometimes too though

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Condition_Survival

This is the other build I use. I do Sharpened Stones, Lightning Reflexes and Signet of Stone with Entangle and use Celestial Rune but it’s essentially unchanged.

Fluffball.8307:

The basic idea is that s/t + a/d is for 1v1s and SB is for group fights. The CC, bleeds and range of SB don’t do much in 1v1s because you can’t get behind the opponent (they’re almost always going to be facing you unless they’re on drugs.)

I thought you were referring to the celestial longbow trapper for your WvW build. If you’re already wearing celestial armor or have berserker armor, you might try using longbow instead of shortbow with that trapper build. Most people think LB is a lot better weapon than SB.

I’m not sure LB trapper is even on meta battle? If would be 6/6/x/x/x, and you’d probably want signet of renewal or maybe lightning reflexes instead of a 3rd trap.

WvW LB Trapper but I’m still somewhat new I run a:

2 – III
6 – II, VIII, XI
6 – VI, VII, XI
0
0

Build with LB, Axe, and Torch – 3 traps, and entangle. Seems to work for me. Warrior and Thief just depends on their skill level so it is 50/50 at best. You probably don’t need 3 traps but I use them more for speed and fight resets. Maybe it is a crutch – I don’t know.

Short bow works also in my build and sometimes I’ll swap bows or even use both. It just depends on how the WvW fight is going for my roll as a scout, npc and camp flipper.

How does Power Trapper work? Literally all zerkers same as Read the Wind but with the trapper rune and trapper utilities??

Ravinsild.4637:

How does Power Trapper work? Literally all zerkers same as Read the Wind but with the trapper rune and trapper utilities??

A lot of people use celestial with trapper runes, and some use zerk and just throw the traps to not be triggered purely for stealth.

I personally wouldn’t want to use LB without RtW, but I’m sure there are tons of variants different people run, like crapgame’s build.

Pretty soon RtW and trap potency will both be default, so the build idea will definitely change for the better.

Hmm strange, I usually find Warriors to be among the easiest matchup on a trap build.

In any case, I’d suggest taking a sword. The easiest way to beat anyone is to make them sit in your traps for the entire duration, and the easiest way to do that (especially if they are throwing off your soft CC) is to sit in the traps yourself. This of course means being able to avoid damage while doing this, but with a S/D plus a regular dodge you can avoid any attacks for a good 3 seconds while they sit there and take all the pulses, and then just sword2 out of there and swap back to the SB.

So many suggestions and they all sound fun. I’m going to need more bag space for this…. I got some crafting to do ;D

I made this, is this what you guys are all talking about?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNQQJATRjEq0ua5KerQ1ag+ga9CEAjdrcg9EMClwJrYZVA-TFDFABop+zZKNY4QAgwRAwIlBYv/wRKxA4BAUm5PBuAAZoLwTlgkBgZLA-w

If you feel comfy using it, s/d would be a better fit than GS for your linked build. That way you get some more condi damage. And since you would have 3 sources of poison by doing that, you could replace viper’s nest with signet of renewal for condi removal and a stun break. If you went that way, you’d probably want signet mastery instead of keen edge.

I’m way better at Sword and Dagger than I am at Greatsword. I’m not very good at Greatsword dueling honestly. Did I get the stats right on the gear? You said a mix of zerker and celestial but I wasn’t sure how much mix.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNQQNAT8YjEq0ua5K+rQ1ag+ga9DEAjdrcg9EMClwJrYZVA-TlCFABop+zZKNMSZA27PckSMAeAAlZ+TgLAQG6A8UJIZAY2CA-w

Like this??

I’ve never used Healing Spring, is it any good and does it cure conditions for you or only “allies”? I was thinking with sword #2 the leap could be used for some healing and such plus the longbow could give me even more regen but literally the only heal I have ever used is Troll Unguent.

Imo am mix of sinister/carrion/rampager is better for Hybrid Trapper than cele, because it doesn’t benefit much from healing power. You can always add a few knight or rabid pieces for some extra toughness if needed. Or zerk for more direct dmg and less condi dmg.

And the defensive stats from cele won’t help much, if you play with (almost) zero stunbreaker and condiremove (SoR alone is often not enough)

This is, how I play lb hybrid trapper:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQNAT8YjEq0ya7KerQ1aABhYVQ76wW2JZbXsSDTA-TlTDABUcQAYWZQf6AMRzw37PcwFAIhHAgVKhi4IAks6O1oSAAmggQJ4UKdCAgAwMn5Mn5MTIAFbBA-w

(I would prefer sinister/carrion trinkets over rampagers, but haven’t unlocked them yet)

Boy they weren’t kidding. I was playing around with your suggested stats but holy crap ascended trinkets make a big big big difference! What’s the best way to get them!?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQNAT8YjEqUua7K+rQ1aABhYVQ73wW2JZbXsSDTA-TVDFABNcQA+QzA27PAwDAQgLAQPK9618HwKBV4IAkhOAiVGIs6OuoSAZAY2CA-w

This is what I came up with as far as what I could probably pull together relatively quickly. I mean I don’t know how to get Carrion or Sinister gear but hopefully it can be crafted.