Guild Wars 2

tl;dr: Suggest me some condition based, PvE/dungeon ranger builds.

My main is a warrior. I am more than happy with my main but the time has come to level up one of my alts to get a second to level 80. Why? Because im tired of feeling left out when friends say ‘ok, going on my alt’ and im left to either log out or find something to do for a few hours.

So…decided on a ranger (youll be pleased to hear) and have chosen a direction- condition build. My warrior is raw damage so I want something a little different. I am only looking for a PvE & dungeon build. PvP isnt on the agenda and i’ll leave WvW to my warrior.

The build I have so far come up with is: http://tinyurl.com/cys9wsl

I would prefer a closer range set such as axe/torch for PvE and would use the shortbow in dungeons. The one issue I see with this is that I am placing a lot of points into Skirmishing, but would not be using the crit dmg/chance bonus I get from it.

What would you seasoned rangers change?

You are almost the same as me. Except I have

1. 10% more damage when endurance is full (reason being is you have your animal taking agro from you thus you wont be dodging yet and want maximum damage)

2. I make my pet move 30% faster. This is excellent now with the new patch and allows the pet to hit moving target. I want to ensure it can chase up to enemies and hit them. With signet of hunt, my animals all have become cheetahs.

3. I use strength of spirit, again to get as much damage as i can for ranger.

4. I dont put any for beastmastery when i have this setup. My pets dont die often enough, so having zephyr speed and mighty swap is a waste.

Mmm i don’t really pve but i suppose a trapper build could work fine. I heard condition dmg in pve is not that good for some reasons tho.

I would probably try to pop poison trap in there rather than spike. Spike is good but it only really adds a cripple as you can get the bleeds other ways. Adding another condition rather than adding another bleed imo is better.

You could even have your pets apply poison or other conditions. I like dual spiders personally. ranged and poison cloud is part of their normal attacks.

poison trap is only good if the enemy regenerates. Usually champions or characters in dungeon. They are also good in pvp and wvw where players tend to heal. But all being said, spike trap is a more effective trap because of the nature of the ranger distance engagement. The cripple keeps the enemy at a distance allowing you to kite. The cripple also assist your animal in hit them more consistent. In terms of DPS acheivable, the trap does much more because you can throw more at the enemy when its limping.

lchan.2169:

You are almost the same as me. Except I have
2. I make my pet move 30% faster. This is excellent now with the new patch and allows the pet to hit moving target. I want to ensure it can chase up to enemies and hit them. With signet of hunt, my animals all have become cheetahs.

Sorry to ninja the thread but I’ve a question:

Do you mean Skirmishing trait VI “Agility Training: Pets move 30% faster”? If so, does it stack with Signet of the Hunt like you said?

Does this mean that pets move 55% faster? Or does it cap?

Sorry again for ninjaing the thread :p

i have no idea….but i do know when i RAO…my movement speed becomes 33% but my pet is moving faster then me….:)

I run a condition build strictly for PvE and dungeons (I never do PvP nor WvW)

This is my build:

-Full Carrion armor (Power, vitality, condition) as well as trinkets (rings, amulets, accessories)

-Shortbow (Power, vit, condi) with superior sigil of corruption (although you can also put superior sigil of earth if you want to stack more bleeds, but this only pertains to ONE condition)

-Axe/warhorn – I don’t ALWAYS use this, only for the warhorns skill 5 for the buff, and skill 4 for the hawks which hit pretty damn hard. Axe is to keep myself at ranged while waiting on cooldown to swap back to my shortbow

As for my traits I go 20/30/20/0/0

Marksmanship – Keen Edge (sharpening stone at 75% health) and Piercing arrows (a must have)

Skirmishing – Sharpened Edges (chance to cause bleed on crits), Trapper’s expertise (traps use ground targetting and are 50% larger), Trap Potency (trap conditions last longer and trap skills recharge 20% faster)

Wilderness Survival – Vigorous Renewal (gain vigor when using a healing skill, which gives you 100% endurance regen) and Wilderness Knowledge (survival skills recharge 20% faster, this is for your elite)

As for my utilities, I use these in the exact order:
Flame trap (12 second cooldown), spike trap (20 second cooldown), frost trap (24 second cooldown), my heal skill is healing spring (gives a burst heal, then gives regen and also cures one condition on you and allies), and my elite is Entangle

The only problem with my build is of course, no stun breakers/stability. So you’re going to have to be pretty damn good at dodging. Another problem is the fact that you have to stay still when throwing the traps. Well, you don’t HAVE to but trying to move while using a ground targetting skill is pretty hard to do unless you use your mouse (which honestly, you should be using the number keys if you already have an 80). And the reason why I don’t have 30 in Wilderness Survival (Toughness and condition damage) is because the grandmaster slot has no traits that are useful to me. I’d rather have the ability to throw my traps than to use anything that the grandmaster traits offer. Another problem, and this has been a long time problem for anyone using ground targeting traps, is that fact that you can only throw traps at 600 range maximum and there’s no way to increase that. It’s incredibly stupid, given that my shortbow is 1,200 range yet I’m never ever at the max range. On the plus side, traps are unblockable, so you don’t ever have to worry about an enemy blocking your traps when throwing them or if they walk into them.

EDIT: I forgot to add what pets I use. Since honestly a lot of them go down so easily and are, at this point, still pretty useless, I use a bear (for obvious tanking) and any ranged pet (spider, devourer, etc.)

Thanks for the ideas/tips everyone, its much appreciated. Im going to give the build ive got in my head a go up until 80 and see how I feel then. Just wish rangers (and warriors for that matter) had more combo fields! So damn useful in dungeon parties!