this is what i’ve been running for power ranger roaming, and its been very very good to me.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YnEqQrg2xCmsAXLGQRoaWCTAzAoAc3DnwTfyHq0K-TFTDABdqSQPKxmRdHqUGQ3kittenHCgL6GSQJIUKNG4IAAgJuf2fgQAlHDA-w
general premise:
2800 armor, 40% crit, 195% crit damage, 2k+power, 20k health before stacks, 25% run speed from runes.
shortbow eats melee classes and kite based classes for breakfast, like mesmers, bomb engies, d/d eles, warriors who stand around in combustive shot like you dont see the fire, and longbow rangers. really the majority of whats out there.
sword/dagger for mobility, more poison, evades, and even more burst.
i prefer survival of the fittest over empathic bond because the condi removal is more controlled. with empathic bond you have to wait an average of 5 seconds for the condis to clear. its nice if you get lucky, but waiting 5-10seconds for confusion, a big bleed stack or a long burn to drop is awful. with Fittest, you can instantly drop those confusion stacks and hit your enemy with something of your own, like 6 seconds of hasted shortsword to the face or a muddy terrain immobolize while you put barbed arrows into their back.
combine that up with generosity on the shortbow for the lolz, if i had a dime for every time ive given an ele back her dragon’s breath, a mesmer back his confusion… its hilarious.
things that get swapped: generally i run with Sic’em equipped. it’s really the only way to beat a really good thief or mesmer as non-glass power based ranger, and it pretty much destroys them because they don’t seem to expect it. they will repeatedly cloak and dagger until out of initiative, or drop a SR on themselves, or in the mesmers case blow their decoy followed by their elite skill, all to no effect. the buff to make the reveal 6 seconds is going to be absolutely delicious. if i see an enemy that doesnt warrant using that skill (any non stealther), i will swap it out for muddy terrain. this is easier than running muddy terrain and swapping in sic em, because usually you dont see the thieves coming. wilderness survival traits get swapped out too, ill drop soften the fall for oakheart depending on where im at.
fun fact: soften the fall triggers survival of the fittest. if you fight somewhere you can take falling damage (most of wvw), congrats, you can clear conditions by taking a dive.
the main problem fights are high power guardians and necros. theres not too many of these guardians, but when you find them, retaliation against both of my fast weapon sets is a pain. necros… i dont think anyone has a good time fighting these. #1 OP class right now. pop rampage so you dont get fear locked and hope they arent running corrupt boon, or swap to entangle for the extra condi clear from Fittest. swapping to healing spring and pew-pewing from inside your puddle works if youre in an area where they wont los you. keep track of their heal, time your pet fears and knockdowns and shortbow stuns appropriatly, and remember that they will auto-chill you at 50%, so time your escape if you need to with that in mind.
SBI | Oceans | Ranger – Thief – Ele – Eng – Nec – Guard – Rev
Celestial Avatar is like an old man: Takes forever to get up and is spent in 4 seconds
