Guild Wars 2

Check this video out and leave me your thoughts

This is a build of mine that i’ve been running for a while now, works pretty good for both roaming and zerging without changing much but a GS & Armor.

I have been able to stun then 1 shots some mesmer/thief full zerk out there with the GS
2 attacks on several with path of scars + monarch leap (check some of the video on my channel, more being uploaded soon)

aaand the leopard a must have!

Looonnngggggg video.

Well, I’m curious to see your build if you’re amenable to sharing it.

Looks like with S/A and GS a MoC build.

Things I noticed (he gained vigor when he got hit)
Is using offhand training for larger axe radius.
Not taking reduced fall damage or vigor on heal.
Don’t think I ever saw him activate signets so he isn’t using those traits in marks.
No opening strike
Gaining regen at 75%
Not seeing EB proc
Considering he is using 2 pets that applies boons that is prolly concentration training

So to take a stab
0
4/5/12
3/7/12
2
0

Decent play and decent build.
Considering you use 2 swords, why not martial mastery if you are already in that line?
Also, its just me but i HATE power builds that go 30 in WS. it just feels like I am wasting stats and picking up condi damage.
If I were you I would think about 0/30/15/25/0
You always seem to have a boon on you with weapon swap and pets, and you could pick up vitality → power converter for even more damage. Or Natures protection.
I think when new traits come out I would run 0/30/10/30/0 and swap out your 2 signets for WS for active condi removal + fury.

QZ will go nice with sword 1 attack Just use it when TU is down. LR would be your other utility as the GTFO and save me button.

I didnt share my build to have someone find out, rpfohr you pretty much sum up the core of the build, just 2 trait off.
Yes this is a 0 30 30 10 0 build ran as:
0
4/6/12
3/7/12
5 or 6 depending on situations
0

I’ve been considering using the martial mastery but i’m kind of stuck in a gameplay situation where i’ve always used my whirling axe to send back projectiles/protect allies AND mainly use the path of scars at full potential, indeed with the martial mastery i could add a significant survavibility.
LR is one of my alt utility skills replacing the SofS always running the SofR and the protect me friend (too many class run invulnerability forcing us to have temporising skills also).

The idea with this build is to stun/interrupt the enemy and have the "moment of clarity dmg boost of 150% on next attack (my max dmg with the maul on clarity was 12k+)
Having the rock skin 50% protection when Under 25%hp threshold helps staying alive during critical moments, although the auto 3 condi cleaning every 10sec is also wonderful to use but if using this i’d rather have nature protection (protection granted on dmg dealing more than 10% of your hp) it helps saving evades.

I’ve saved the build here on the net: 2 versions possible with the food both works great

First is more power: (note only 5 might stacks and 25 bloodlust stacks, MISSING WvW Guard 100power/Condi booster)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMMQNAsXRnEqQtg2wC+rANcGIaPyk5PP7B/V0icFQ1FfcyE-z0CBYfIYLAYORkgAkWGisAIzsIasFXFRjVXDT5KoqYKyBAOAIlDpAiYZE-w

Second is more crit, survavibility based with the leechin crit hit (338hp on crit each 2sec aprox) (just replaced the food)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMMQNAsXRnEqQtg2wC+rANcGIaPyk5PP7B/V0icFQ1FfcyE-z0CBYfIYLAYORkgAkWGisAIzsIasFXFRjVXDT5KoqYKyBAOAIlDhAKvAA-w

Oh, Sorry for posting that then, A few things

A. Great Video, I love raw video’s rather than highlights because it shows your true skill. Not only that you speed up the boring parts!

B. Your comments further solidify why I think offhand training is the best trait we have HANDS DOWN. I can’t think of another trait in the game as versatile, affecting 4 weapons in 2 ways.

C. I actually think Bark skin is a good choice for your build, when going power, best to stay the course of active condi removal with the sig. Your weakness of course was heavy condi application builds that could reload once you activated it.

D. Overall good job. I’ve wanted to do this for some time and was gearing towards it, but got really scarred by the crit damage nerfs coming in.

E. Get hyped for sigil of intelligence, Auto crit Mauls, I would love to see this in action again post patch

Thanks for the good comment rpfohr, i dont mind people knowing the build i was waiting for someone like you to find out, it shows your experience as a ranger.

Yes i also prefer to show the high & low of my gameplay/build.
The Offhand Training is indeed hard to live without. just like the bark skin or the empathic bond but a choice has to be made, i often have the time to switch between the 2 when im ooc.

Intelligence sigil! yeeeah i had my mind on it for a while probably time to get to it.
Again thank you, any critic, good or bad is always welcome.

After the 15th patch, your crit dmg will drop to around 78-80%. I’ve started working on my condi gear already :<

kiwituatara.6053:

After the 15th patch, your crit dmg will drop to around 78-80%. I’ve started working on my condi gear already :<

I don’t understand why people are so attached to that “nerf”.
If your focus was WvW roaming, power build was never the best option, condition was, and nothing will change after the update.
If your focus was PvE, power is and will still be the best option after the update, your cond build in PvE will only make you frustrated.

@OP: really interesting build, with April 15th update I buy and switch some ascended trinkets among my toons and give a try with a similar build.

Belzebu.3912:

kiwituatara.6053:

After the 15th patch, your crit dmg will drop to around 78-80%. I’ve started working on my condi gear already :<

I don’t understand why people are so attached to that "nerf".
If your focus was WvW roaming, power build was never the best option, condition was, and nothing will change after the update.
If your focus was PvE, power is and will still be the best option after the update, your cond build in PvE will only make you frustrated.

@OP: really interesting build, with April 15th update I buy and switch some ascended trinkets among my toons and give a try with a similar build.

Neither do I

Maybe it’s because the nerf only effects rangers.

Belzebu.3912:

If your focus was WvW roaming, power build was never the best option, condition was, and nothing will change after the update.

For defending camps on your home borderland, condi bunker is the better choice. For any other type of roaming, I believe power to be the better choice.

Couple examples: If you followed the surviving thieves thread, I talked about how power rangers are basically the only option to kill thieves that aren’t totally incompetent. We don’t really have any good condi weapons at all. Thieves are basically all you run in to when roaming.

Also being an offensive roamer myself, I just don’t have time to sit around waiting to kill someone with basically only bleeds from a single axe skill. A few weeks ago my server was in a protracted hour long siege of a heavily defended T3 Overlook. I saw a yak passing by T3 Veloka, which was swarming with humans and T3 guards from both structures. There is no way a condi bunker could get in there and take that yak out, let alone survive it. I play a berserker, so I zipped in there, killed the yak, and got out before I could get locked down (condi roamers will have speed on a sword and presumably LR, but the stealth and range on LB also helped me.)

Same thing for taking important camps and etc. It’s all bout the speed and condi rangers are the slowest build in the entire game other than builds that don’t intend to do any damage at all like some guardian bunkers.

All that said, I’m willing to give this nerf a chance. I don’t know for sure, but I assume most WvW players aren’t using ascended armor with infusions and I do know for sure most don’t use consumables. So I may still be in a good place.

If not, I have been saving up for some PVT ascended gear and will just swap to zerg busting. We’ll see.

Fluffball.8307:

Belzebu.3912:

If your focus was WvW roaming, power build was never the best option, condition was, and nothing will change after the update.

Same thing for taking important camps and etc. It’s all bout the speed and condi rangers are the slowest build in the entire game other than builds that don’t intend to do any damage at all like some guardian bunkers.

When I am solo, a good condi build with Drakes+ Entangle clears camps waaaay faster than a power build.

Using traps? I could picture that being viable if not better than power. I send in the pet to cluster them all, barrage it, entangle them, flame trap and blast it, then cleave the leftovers with the sword.

Note, obviously I don’t normally use flame trap as a berserker, it’s just a way to stack as much DPS as possible for the camp.

Fluffball.8307:

Using traps? I could picture that being viable if not better than power. I send in the pet to cluster them all, barrage it, entangle them, flame trap and blast it, then cleave the leftovers with the sword.

Note, obviously I don’t normally use flame trap as a berserker, it’s just a way to stack as much DPS as possible for the camp.

Sorry, yea with traps.

How do you against humans with traps? Seems like that might be a decent way to deal with thieves as well.

By the way I’ve been slowly watching the OP video (I’ll finish it next week) and I think it’s convinced me to start taking protect me. The biggest chance of death is when you’ve got everything on cool down and still need to heal, and I notice that’s when you often use it.

Currently I often use the health regen food and health regen signet, because the food is wicked cheap and a lot of fights tend to grind on for a minute or so even as a power ranger. But I’m going to try this out instead.

If I can use it well, I might even switch to power/CD food instead of vitality/regen food with the upcoming CD nerf.

Also lovin the Tupac. I haven’t heard these songs in 20 years.

Fluffball.8307:

How do you against humans with traps? Seems like that might be a decent way to deal with thieves as well.

I don’t deal well with with Thieves with any build…so I am a poor person to ask

I’d like to follow up on my previous comments. This is related to this build.

According to the traits and balance ready up. “Fear” will now count as an interrupt.

This MIGHT mean wolf fear would be another proc to moment of clarity and worth taking a wolf. But can a PET proc moment of clarity? OR does the interrupt have to come from the ranger? That could be HUGE in this build.

Unfortunatly what the pet does, the pet gets.
I have never seen the skill get triggered bcause of the pet for the ranger :/

I like that this wasn’t another montage of “look how I never lose anything”. This is a very accurate representation of how WvW generally goes down.

Have you tested that sigil of impact actually works in conjunction with path of scars? I would assume that it does, but the skill causes a “pull” and not a “knockdown” or “stun”. From testing, I’ve found things that work on knocked down or stunned foes don’t always work when other conditions apply.

For instance, the elementalist’s tempest defense trait, which basically applies the same effect of sigil of impact, does not work in conjunction with abilities like updraft since it causes a “launch” and not a “knockdown” or “stun”. I’m not sure the same difference will apply to a “pull” though.

Even if it doesn’t end up working in conjunction with path of scars, it will still function with the hilt bash though, so it could still be worthwhile.

I used to run in WvW as a trapper, and camps was freaking fast.
Bonfire + poison trap + spike trap + sigil of geomancy + entangle + drake = an insane amount of spike AoE condition and decent raw damage.

I used to handle humans really well, my build was a mix of trap + regen, I usually never lost at 1v1 but I have to say that if the target want to run away I couldn’t do much about it.

Most thieves wasn’t an issue, I could tank a couple backstabs/heartseekers after that the WH#4 to track the thief you could trow the traps where the “flock” is going and many times it was very effective.

Power build have some advantages at roaming, but cond bunker builds are superior in most cases.

Belzebu.3912:

snip

Meh, I mean I guess you have to assume the ranger is competent at the build they’re playing, and then you’ll beat 9 out of 10 players, no matter what they play. I’m really not seeing any advantages to playing one of — if not the — slowest builds in the entire game (condi ranger).

If you can’t play a power ranger I get that 100%. I can’t play a berserker mesmer even though they’re amazing. I think people should at least try to drift away from regen bunker rangers though; it’s not an efficient build unless you’re on defense.

Oh, I forgot why I came here. I added “Protect me!” to my berserker ranger and good god did I love it. I could play CRAZY aggressive. Like SO aggressive with no fear. I’m never going back, so thank you akallou.

Fluffball.8307:

If you can’t play a power ranger I get that 100%.

That is why I said “used to run”, I got myself a full zerker asc set, zerker/valk asc trinkets and zerker/sin asc weapons, but most of the time I do PvE and occasional roaming, I do really well in WvW, but I feel that my cond build was more effective, but unfortunately just at roaming it is better, my power build is better at everything else.

Oh yeah, I actually never tried to run “protect me” in my bar, I even tried to change a bit my build from 20/25/0/25/0 to 30/25/0/15/0 to try a signet build, I didn’t like it, and forgot to try the shout, I’ll give it a try for sure.

Just FYI, this build works decently in sPvP as well… or at least in hotjoins, anyways.

Actually the sigil of impact works with a GS #5 stun combo + path of scars (i did not have the chance to use this one in the video as i often try to score big numbers with maul, like mentionned it can go above 10k hit), Although this combo GS #5 + axe offhand #4 is actually a full control combo and DEADLY.

Why is it so Deadly, the #5 stun hits for some decent dmg 1-3.5k range from experience and the path of scars (the name says it all) hit so kitten hard, if you manage to throw your axe in a moment of clarity (right after a stun) (150%dmg added to it) expect your foe to be dead (i run a nova explosion sigil on it for extra dmg) or nearly dead and if he is not well the axe would have pull’d him to you and “stunned him” leaving you time to spam 1 on his sorry body

Protect me is usefull and give you the opportunity to match others class invul, you now have to take care of your pet a 100% to keep it alive and be able to switch to a fresh pet to enable this skill and profit from it a 100%, i believe i aquired enough experience to use this skill with félines pets but if you are getting started with it try the pig & siamouth (they are both AWESOME) they stun, and f2 drop some great goodies such as “elexir of heroes 3 sec invul” , " a seed pod, water field" or even a “plasma giving you all boons”.
Note that using f1 or f2, switch a pet also after activating the protect me skill will cancel its effect.

Yes yamsandjams, i also run this in spvp and so far i was able to defend or attack pretty easily, people often ask me if i run full spirit because this is the only thing they expect from a ranger but i always reply no i’m a stun lock ranger, they laugh then after the match they check my hands hehe.

Check this one out:
in sPvP:
http://youtu.be/-bR3jgGbbZ4

Can I try to duel this build with a run of the mill condi/bunker build?
It would be nice if someone proficient at running this build can take my offer.

This is a good setup, I play a very similar one, with a few changes to armor/runes and skills, its a bit more defensive.

Melee Ranger

Hehe, i like this.
I’ve been working on the similiar tactic.

Axe4 and GS2 combo xD

Love to do a focused build like this (I’m pretty close already) but no way I could give up longbow. Maybe I could try swapping a bit… hmm….

How does this build fair in the midst of a large wvw zerg? :P Or perhaps following a commander? I use the frontline sentanal build if I zerg on my ranger but I was wondering if this set up would work too

izzuedotcom.2498:

How does this build fair in the midst of a large wvw zerg? :P Or perhaps following a commander? I use the frontline sentanal build if I zerg on my ranger but I was wondering if this set up would work too

At one point during the video he shows himself joining the zerg by swapping in — I think it was soldiers armor, but the fight is over by the time he gets there. The toughness and vitality are already there, although protect me becomes pretty much useless and there is no stun breaker. So probably risky.

Fluffball.8307:

izzuedotcom.2498:

How does this build fair in the midst of a large wvw zerg? :P Or perhaps following a commander? I use the frontline sentanal build if I zerg on my ranger but I was wondering if this set up would work too

At one point during the video he shows himself joining the zerg by swapping in — I think it was soldiers armor, but the fight is over by the time he gets there. The toughness and vitality are already there, although protect me becomes pretty much useless and there is no stun breaker. So probably risky.

Thanks for the update, I didn’t get that far in the video

Fluffball.8307:

and there is no stun breaker.

He has two stun breakers on protect me and signet of renewal, though they might not be the most effective in all situations.

I think slotting out signet of stone for something like lightning reflexes would be a good choice if you’re looking for a nice stun breaker, which will also break immobilize once the patch hits.

Yamsandjams.3267:

He has two stun breakers on protect me and signet of renewal, though they might not be the most effective in all situations.

Yup, thought I addressed those.

Nm, I deleted that response.

this was cleric armor for the zerg, but i’m working on a power ,pre ,tough armor instead.
Yes LR break stun is a must in zerg, i didnt swap it cause i didnt think it would be usefull in this join in situation, i still could use the leopard

You should make this video available to mobile users. And i think i may try something like this after the patch

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMQQNAsXRnMqQtg2yCmuBXLGIaP0klOP7B/T0icFQ1FfcyE-z0CBYfIYLAYORkWGi+AkCBIHtIastBFRjVXDT5SQVFLxBAOAIlDpA0TZE-w

Better all around stats than your build, and without using signets

Dude thats one awesome stuff combo you got together right here i always loved the orbs and now considering going back to using them on my new armor.

I’m sorry they arent allowing me to reverse these settings or maybe i dont know how to..

Its because of your music i believe