Guild Wars 2

With the upcoming “how to fix rangers CDI” i figured i’d post the current working ranger builds for WvW. These builds are proven to work beyond a doubt. They are both focused on teamplay and DPS. Some are roaming builds, others are group/zerg builds.

Zerg DPS Frontliner;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhODbkoqxOxywi1OQseQo9PImC+XInCU5pTe1uWB-jUDBoeJD3RQmgAioAhsIYEIwpqFRjtMqIas6aYqTLqW5CwiOYuDLqWKAmUGB-w

Zerg Support; (to be effective you need 1 ranger for every 10 players)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBjYD7koiugbswrCWLDItHai5devCzi7RpcKh4JvaSrA-j0CBoNCykDQEEAE1wZRFRjtyqIasqZCyKbY6SJ1ieQzuEJVKAmUGB-w

Backline Destroyer; (LB should do stable crits at 3-6k depending on the targets toughness)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJATRjAVB2JWGWs2Bg1DC7bw+BO5MMkxTe1kWB-jEyAYuARQgILAJ/ioxWJLiGraBTvSEV7TKiWtUAMpMC-w

Trapper;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnf8YjAV11xVuVo2BiVBA1eoJzfe2DD5oHlyVGRUrA-jUCBINDimWAgoAikO0pQFRjtaqIasaGYqUER1OEFRrWKgFVWB-w

BM Bunker (Conditions);
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8YjAVN2VWCWs2Bi2DOZeMxKco3jYp+2nyVSQUrA-jEyA4MBZaBMRJQ5xioxWULiGrmBTtSEV7TKiWtUALKMC-w

Some more builds will follow later on

I have just a few comments on these builds and the ranger in general for WvW (for the CDI). I play a ranger 95% of the time in WvW, the other 5% I play a guardian to support my guilds raids.

These builds will work in so far as you can push the buttons, and sometimes get bags and survive. However, the zerg builds (the first 3) are significantly disadvantaged compared to other classes. The first build will have decent but not great AOE DPS, and will almost completely rely on support for sustain—no good heals, no mobile condition clears, but good stability (though selfish—no sharing with group). The second build is fine, but the pets and spirits are completely unreliable and there is again weak condition clear and weak buffs (mostly fury). No sharing of stability and the protection sharing, while good in principle, is simply MUCH less reliable than what a guardian can bring. Kudos for appropriate selection of bear for condition clear—it is a shame even that is unreliable in a zerg.

The backline DPS build will indeed do great damage and with active and smart position, you can stay often alive—unless someone actually wants you dead. Your AOE damage is quite weak and you have few tricks to survive being focused make this is suboptimal choice for zerg DPS.

These are not critiques of the builds or Prysin, but of the class. These builds (or variants of them) SHOULD not only work in WvW, but bring something to the table that would make others want a ranger for support or DPS rather a guardian, warrior or ele. A good outcome of CDI would be to increase build diversity and comparative effectiveness of builds for group wvw play.

The ranger works in zerg WvW the same way a Mini Cooper could compete in Indy 500. The gas pedal and breaks work. You can travel the course and even pass other cars if they are in a pit stop or crash. But what driver in their right mind would opt to get behind a wheel of this car?

That is a bit harsh, the Ranger needs some love but it works ok in zergs if you can keep yourself alive. Ranger and thief both are very good at finishing the lower health players that survived the first onslaught by the melee train + Ele’s. LB can take out the running-away lootbags too.

Ranger profession forum mean anything remotely to this thread since apparently, we have moderators failing at their jobs and have not moved this to the more appropriate forum?

I ranger 95% of the time in WvW…LB is a great weapon…you just need to play smart, let the tanks hold the line and hope a thief doesn’t find and target you…but Sic’em usually makes a thief target a softer target.

The LB deals out some decent damage and really allows a team to hold a choke point.

When roaming I pack a sword and torch as my second weapon set…in a group I use axe and war horn.

…and YES. Rangers need some dev love. We should be one of the fastest professions movement wise. The range on our bows need extending (when a warrior can close the gap in practically no time and out run you when you stress him…then that indicates some tweaking might be in order.)

The BM bunker seems very attractive, but i was wondering why healing power, not vitality… 16k hp seems abit low…i’m really new to wvw scenario so any feedback would be appreciated, thanks

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQJARTlIVqrXVRwCr1Ax6xe2/fYPOEjWkrAqyYpQgJB-jUzAYrhoRQwoIQUhgk8KiGbRNiF3hsqrxUlJV9KIbvF0M5wejkKFwoCjA-w

This is the build I use and created.
Hilt Bash + Maul can one shot a Thief or Ele in most cases. And if every arrow hits, which if you position yourself properly isn’t all that hard to pull off, Rapid Fire can tick up to 16k given your Spirit Of Frost is active and you have all your stacks of Perception. I imagine there are better builds out there… But I’ve tried more than a few and this is the one I’ve come to be most comfortable with. Pretty glassy but since I mainly roam it works pretty kitten well for me.

Darkie.3582:

The BM bunker seems very attractive, but i was wondering why healing power, not vitality… 16k hp seems abit low…i’m really new to wvw scenario so any feedback would be appreciated, thanks

healing power just scales a lot better with ranger then many other professions. Yes you can load up on Dire Gear and get pretty tanky that way, but the setup i posted will allow you to heal for 1000hps for 10 seconds. That means you can actually actively negate the damage output of many enemies.
Using Troll Ungent, not when you absolutely need it, but as a DPS mitigation, you can go from being bursted to death, to living maybe 30 seconds longer because the enemies burst didnt do jack.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhYD7koisgLsQxCWLDErHEa/Dq9ITWy8sC8H-jkyAYMB5cuiYCUYtqBUUZ0YV6w6FMlZU1nBxnUEtapAGVYE-w

A build I made focusing on guild raiding.
all exotics
give 150 precision to allies
3 evades (2 on lowered cd and 1 from greatsword auto attack)
2 invuln
2 forms of self stability (20 seconds from elite and 8 seconds from signet)
already on tag waterfield for group blasting and condi removal
2 leap finishers with lowered cd’s
1 blast finisher lower cd
lots of fury
good stats

If you think sword main hand sucks I would switch it out for axe

May i suggest using Axe mainhand over sword for a ranged option?
Also i take it you plan to use bears, as any other pet will be dead long before you get to use Protect me. In that case, which bears? Brown and Black?

I noticed you didn’t take the last ranger rune. Why? Your pet is permanently there, so that is a +5% DPS increase at all times regardless of pet status.

What about sigils? To you plan to use On-Crit sigils? If so, which?

Other then that, the build seems solid.

My last line states that you can use axe over sword if thats what you like.
As for which bears, I dont care, they are just meat shields to soak up damage for you and your party members.
I meant to grab the last ranger rune but I guess the build editor didnt save it for me when I copied the link ( I opened this from my list of builds and sometimes when you make changes the build editor doesnt save them )
Fire sigils on both main weapon sets and bloodlust on the offhand weapon.

In my experience, health recovery scales significantly better with the toughness stat than the healing stat. Seems a bit counter intuitive for a regen to build around toughness but it works. Dire on a solo Ranger is very effective and tanky as hell. It also means a player can completely avoid the now somewhat kitten BM line and push points into conditioning lines.

Healing Power is really only statistically useful (maybe) when the heals are group heals. Toughness only helps you… Healing Power may help everyone around you. If you aren’t built for group heals, I would strongly advise against loading up Healing Power.