Guild Wars 2

im currently running a pow/prec build, and need some more survivability.
should i go toughness or healing power? and why

Both!

Nah, but really, you might want to consider more than one single piece of armor/jewels tbh. I have 3 armors and a bunch of jewels that I switch between, depending on what I’m doing; magic find, dps and a one armor with decently high armor/healing power.

both.

Apothecary

For me tough > healing > vitality. And don’t forget condition remover

Yeap..Both…

Love my apothecary gear

Feel bad for new players though, when I got apothecary it had just came out and was cheap..

not so much anymore

Have to go with apothecary. Was just about ready to delete my ranger until I got this set. Clerics doesnt work without double ravens. And you need sustain which means both toughness and healing

Power/precision builds are laughable sorry. Compared to condi rangers and to other profs.

nerva.7940:

Have to go with apothecary. Was just about ready to delete my ranger until I got this set. Clerics doesnt work without double ravens. And you need sustain which means both toughness and healing

Power/precision builds are laughable sorry. Compared to condi rangers and to other profs.

hehe opened your eyes up to the ranger huh with Apothecary…

I remember when I got it a last year…I saw the stats that it was going to have and I was like “WTF, that’s amazing for Ranger”

Even posted about back then and a bunch of rangers were like “You can’t kill squat with that setup”

Sooooo much sustain and consistent, high condi dps synergizes better with pets too. Im actually finding myself with so much endurance and healing that I dropped the sword/dagger for sb so I can stay relevant at long range with 1200 torch

Op I also wanted to add that you can never really have good sustain with power/prec builds and you’ll have to roll with organized groups

nerva.7940:

Sooooo much sustain and consistent, high condi dps synergizes better with pets too. Im actually finding myself with so much endurance and healing that I dropped the sword/dagger for sb so I can stay relevant at long range with 1200 torch

Op I also wanted to add that you can never really have good sustain with power/prec builds and you’ll have to roll with organized groups

Yeap, That’s why i laugh every time I see people wanting our pets to mirror our stats…Because the way it is now is a HUGE advantage for us.

Though I do think we need some condition based pets.

But yea Power/Prec is just so wasted with the pets we currently have.

I ran lynx jag with expertise training and bleed on crit in spvp and liked it a lot. Traited cat bleeds are roughly 60% of yours. Works in spvp because they land more hits on point…wvw is too open but might be worth testing

nerva.7940:

I ran lynx jag with expertise training and bleed on crit in spvp and liked it a lot. Traited cat bleeds are roughly 60% of yours.

At level 80, the regular cat bleed is 42/sec. With expertise training it becomes 60/sec.

I can easily surpass that if I gear for it. But as others have said, it’s nice to be able to generate those bleeds while putting your stats and gear into something else besides condition damage.

Funky.9762:

both.

Apothecary

Yeah +1 this.

Personally for my defense build, I prefer Precision to proc Omnom Pie – Toughness to maximize the healing you get from all sources, and Condition Damage to effectively increase the power of conditions. With a higher Precision (Critical Hit) you open up a very large variety of Sigils you can utilize too.

I also run Rata Sum runes (might be changing these) to help murder Thieves. This can allow a near permanent uptime on Weakness, thanks to our primary Axe #3 attack, giving us not only Protection from all sources, but Weakness from two sources. Both synergizes well together, and greatly reduces damage done to us, unless we’re also fighting another crit build.

I eat bunker builds up, and love fighting D/D Elementalists, Guardians, the few Bunker Warriors I’ve seen, and smile at the sight of a Necromancer. The only class I have a major issue with are Hammer Warriors, some Glass Canon Thieves who get lucky and get all crits, and of course the Pistol/Dagger Thieves.

To each their own…. I run Axe+Axe, and a Shortbow. I might be running Axe+Axe, with Axe+Torch as my secondary, havn’t made my mind up yet.

I like the thought of toughness/healing set up. It sounds like great survivability. I explore mostly so this caught my interest. I’m always taking down veterans and I like to challenge myself with a champion. Running a toughness/healing set up sound good for PVE including soloing champions but what about running dungeons?
Also, what is this apothecary gear people are discussing? I’m assuming it has toughness and healing. What is the full name of the gear so I can look it up on the Black Lion Trading post. I’m always exploring the world and it would be helpful to have a very good survivable build/gear as I continue to complete many events and fight champions.

Thanks!
iczek

iczek.9628:

I like the thought of toughness/healing set up. It sounds like great survivability. I explore mostly so this caught my interest. I’m always taking down veterans and I like to challenge myself with a champion. Running a toughness/healing set up sound good for PVE including soloing champions but what about running dungeons?
Also, what is this apothecary gear people are discussing? I’m assuming it has toughness and healing. What is the full name of the gear so I can look it up on the Black Lion Trading post. I’m always exploring the world and it would be helpful to have a very good survivable build/gear as I continue to complete many events and fight champions.

Thanks!
iczek

Apothecary is the Armor and Weapons

Passiflora is the Jewelry

Thanks mate for your reply. To clarify, is the gear called Apothecary Emblazoned Helm for example? I want to be sure I purchase the right gear.

By the way, I’ve seen your nature ninja videos Xsorus. They’re awesome. I posted them on our guild’s website.

iczek

It depends what you’re trying to do.

Would you please elaborate? Are there different sets of Apothecary gear for a ranger? If I get that set, would it be a good for supporting a dungeon? I also explore qutie a bit. I like to solo a lot of champions.

iczek

iczek.9628:

Would you please elaborate? Are there different sets of Apothecary gear for a ranger? If I get that set, would it be a good for supporting a dungeon? I also explore qutie a bit. I like to solo a lot of champions.

iczek

Apothecary is generally used if you’re a condition damage based ranger..Basically Traps/Bleeds/Torch/Entangle ect ect…The set also is fairly good for support in dungeons because you can provide pretty good damage/multiple combo fields/Healing Spring

So yea, it’d be an alright armor set for Dungeons.

I’ve ran it in a few dungeons as a Tank/Support

You’ll also find it’s good for soloing champions.

It makes Signet of the Wild (with full set) heal for a bit over 400 a tick on your pet.

Very good. So my pet benefits from it. The more healing power I have, my pet heals for more resulting in him lasting longer. That’s great news. The set is pretty cheap, around 6 gold I saw for the chest piece. Although the earrings are expensive. I’m spec’d BM/WS so more I can help my pet the better Thanks again mate for your help.

iczek

iczek.9628:

Very good. So my pet benefits from it. The more healing power I have, my pet heals for more resulting in him lasting longer. That’s great news. The set is pretty cheap, around 6 gold I saw for the chest piece. I did see the earing for 56 gold so… Thanks again mate for your help.

iczek

Yea, the armor isn’t that bad…Neither are the weapons

However the Jewelry is expensive because Passiflora has an awful drop rate and it requires a buttload of it to make the jewelry

What rune should be used with this set?

iczek

iczek.9628:

What rune should be used with this set?

iczek

Few Choices on that… and it depends on Food as well..

Superior Rune of Undead – Rare Veggie Pizza = Lots of Condition damage, This will be more Offensive…

Superior Rune of Melandru – Condition Duration Reduction Food (Think it might be lemongrass?) = You’re more tanky cause you have more toughness, but also will reduce the Duration of Conditions places on you.

Superior Rune of Dwyana – This will give you a PBAE Regen everytime you use a Heal, like Healing Spring, this will increase the effectiveness of your heals.

Another Option is I think Superior Rune of the Forge? if its the one i’m thinking of this increase Burn Duration and gives you a 10 second Protection Proc…but it requires dungeon runs to get…Still a very good Option.

I personally have a set with Melandru for Defensive Purposes and one with Undead for Offensive Purposes.

Personally i prefer Knights Armor (power, toughness, precision) pvp and WvW with superior runes of the Ogre and utilities: Quickening Zephyr, Sick Em , Signet of the Hunt and Rampage as One elite skill.

Toughness is king in WvsW sPvP, and precision helps proccing the lifesteal from consumables more often

when i weigh Toughness vs Vitality vs Healing Power i go like this.

Vitality > Toughness
Toughness is great vs direct damage only, vitality is good vs direct and condition damage but not great.

healing power is as good as the heal that benefits from it and your choice of toughness, vitality, or other defensive tools.

for example, if i have healing spring, i will probably be specced in a ranged build with some pet aids, and i probably will take toughness because healing spring already removes conditions.

But if i’m a beast mastery build, i’m more likely to be using troll unguent which is a HOT, meaning i don’t expect to be burst healing myself out of a tough situation, so i’ll most likely take vitality.

That depends entirely on what kind of damage you need more survivability against. You can’t just draw a line across toughness, vitality, and healing power, and then say “this one is the best of the three”. They each exists for different reasons. If you’re having problems against burst damage, then get more toughness. If you’re having problems against condition damage, then get more vitality. If you’re having trouble surviving prolonged fights, then get more healing power.

On top of this you can also add different boons and conditions, depending on what you need more survivability against. For instance, vigor and blind is good against burst damage. Condition removal and regeneration is good against condition damage. Control skills, weakness, and regeneration is good when you need to stay alive.