Guild Wars 2

After roaming around my friend’s private Skyhammer map, as well as through some of the busier story missions, my goofy self came up with this build. As far as optimization goes, it probably isn’t going to win the competition for damage god anytime soon. It’s been a lot of fun, though!

So the build!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIEQJAUTjgOtu1OqOMxBEjCjgIOPSiAcJSKEDzA-jQzAoLEEWwQaQkAIqSwIQI5wioxW+SU9dYsqbMFsQqOOy28ioVLFAErBA-e

Rifle / Longbow
20 / 30 / 0 / 20 / 0

Strength II and VIII
Arms III, VII, and IX
Tactics I and X

Heal – Mending

Utilities – Bolas, Kick, and Stomp.

Elite – Signet of Rage

Rampager’s Rifle with Superior Sigil of Earth
Ravager’s Longbow with Superior Sigil of Smoldering
Ravager’s Armor / accessories with four Superior Runes of the Nightmare and two Superior Runes of the Krait (I tossed three Rampager’s accessories in later on to help the rifle’s DPS a bit).
Master Tuning Crystal and Bowl of Garlic Kale Sauté for the consumables.

As you can probably tell from the gear and the food, This is a high-duration condition damage build with a bit of Power tossed in to make the majority of the Rifle’s skills still have some kick, as well as crit enough to get plenty of mileage out of the Superior Sigil of Earth. I sort of model it after what a big game hunter in Tyria would be like when you’re hunting Dragons and Undead abominations.

Mending and Restorative Strength are your built-in condition removals, and Physical Training helps get the most out of your Utilities.

Deep Cuts and Crack Shot help increase the damage and number of enemies that the rifle can hit at once. Opportunist is your primary source of Fury, and it works wonders.

Leg Specialist makes Opportunist all the more useful by adding Immobs to your cripples, of this this build has two. Three Immobilizes total for Leg Specialist to work on, so it’s easy to make fury permanent. Burning Arrows amps the Longbow’s overall effectiveness by making it deal extra damage to burning foes (easily done with the Longbow’s own skills) and knock a fifth of the recharge time off of its skills.

Normally, you want to open the fight with the Rifle and build up as much Adrenaline as possible. With multiple enemies, Signet of Rage, and Crack Shot, this is fairly easy to do. Use bolas and Aimed shot as needed to bring up Fury while enemies are at range, especially if you can do so to put enemies in a straight line for more Crack Shot fun.

Once enemies get into melee, immediately swap to the Longbow and fire off Fan of Fire, then dodge roll backwards and let ‘er rip with Combustive Shot and Arcing Arrow. In PvE, kite around to keep enemies in the Fire field for as long as possible. It doesn’t work as well in PvP because, well, players are smarter than most game AIs.

Just as Combustive Shot is about to wear off, run back into the fire field and use Stomp to sent any survivors scattering and gain a few more stacks of might for the next pull, swapping back to Rifle to finish thing off and gain access to a second Knockback (aside from Kick) if things get hairy.

Speaking of the Knockbacks, they come in extremely handy in Skyhammer, especially paired with your immobilizes. A fun trick is to pile on the Immobs as needed to let yourself get into position to double-KB someone off of a ledge or into a pit your friend just opened up for you.

So that’s the build! What do you all think? How would you tweak it to improve either damage or survivability? I’m not the biggest numbers wizard, so any insight in terms of min/maxing would be hugely appreciated!

You run mostly close range physical utilities, yet all your weapons are range. It just doesn’t seem very synergetic..

Thanks for the input!

Exactly what other skills would you choose?

Mercurias.1826:

Thanks for the input!
Exactly what other skills would you choose?

I guess Bolas is okay vs a single target because you have no melee weapon. I’d probably run Stamina Sig and Balanced stance.

Stamina is extra dodges which you need, and an extra condi reset if you get immob’ or condi’d heavily right after a mending. Balanced is Stun Break, Swiftness, and Stability to help keep you mobile.

You COULD even, say drop 20 in Strength, and take 20 in Defense instead. Dogged march, and Cleansing Ire. You’ll end up with better condi removal than Restorative strength when you longbow burst, which you’ll be able to do more often.

peter.9024:

You run mostly close range physical utilities, yet all your weapons are range. It just doesn’t seem very synergetic..

Bolas is good for keep someone at range or lining up a burst, Stomp is good for putting someone back in range, Kick I am not sure of though. I would replace it with a stance.

Before I start, I suggest you check Pineapple’s condi war vids.

Some of the physical utilities are essential for ranged. The stomp is great because:

A-stun breaks thieve’s basi venom/ warrior cc -only melee class you have to worry about being close to you-

and

B- Knocks them away allowing you to almost unload a rifle 3 or immob then unload

Rifle isn’t a good condi weapon and it’s burst is wasted given your condi gear.

LB can go either way: direct damage builds or condi ones.

I understand you want to be full ranged but it wouldn’t hurt to say go for LB cool down reductions and stay on LB for full range and when someone gets close you switch to mace/shield and wreck them.

The AOE of LB making it superior to Rifle due to the fact that it pressures multiple targets and you don’t need to aim to hit thieves since you can AOE on top of your self. Also, it goes better with your condi build as opposed to rifle.

I’m not sure about the sigils. You might do better. Check pineapple’s condi warrior vids. He has been doing it longer than you and me.

You definitely need stability. CC warrior, thief basi opener, mesmer stun combo, necro fear combo, guardian circle of warding will eat you up without it. Those are common in wvw.

You need condi removal/reduction. At least berserker stance used smartly.

Get rid of kick. It’s not that good and you can use Rifle 5 or LB 5 and move away to be just as effective. The damage from it is crap.

Bolas is very slow and is even worse the further you are away from your target. Test bolas out..know the sentries? walk towards them while strafing and you will evade their bolas. That is how useless it is. It is good for setting up a kill shot -which won’t hit for much given your gear-.

Keep in mind that you have zero mobility in wvw using that build. You are also missing out on torment and confusion as conditions but that’s another flavor.