Guild Wars 2

I don’t quite understand what you mean about the pet not making use of itself. For me, my pet crits for about 3k average, to upwards of 5-7k (maybe more) with the right party. I find that pretty useful.

If you really want to rely on your pet, grab traits that synchronize you and your pet. For example, in the Skirmishing trait line, there are traits that will increase your pet’s critical damage by 30% as well as heal on crits, and gain might on crits, a lot of “on crit” traits, come to think of it. In the BM line there are traits to give your pets unique effects like inflicting bleed on some pet autoattacks.

As for traits, the “Sic ’Em” trait is really useful for increasing your pet’s damage (40% damage and 40% movement speed increase), and works well with the 30% increased damage on crit trait.

Weapons also give buffs to your pets. For example, Sword 1 auto attack chain grants might to your pet, longbow 3 gives your pet swiftness (and stealths you), and shortbow 4 causes your pet to inflict bleeding. There may be a few more. More would be nice.

“NEW slot 4 & 5 skills are only is no offhand weapon equipped; more diversity & realistic combat.”

I don’t like this. Just add a new weapon for offhand and give it those skills, like offhand sword. Without an offhand, you’re missing out on the stats that a second weapon provides. Stats of a 1h weapon, half those of a normal 2h weapon.

So I’ve discovered a build for ranger that I rather enjoy. Consistent damage output uninsured; I have not tested it much. Anyways, the build is as follows:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcom0zm9bxx9MazRqzVao

You will start with casting Call of the Wild. Your pet won’t get this boon, only you will. The reason I used CotW first was so that I could make use of the 2s of quickening from pet swap to pop off my elite and Signet of the Wild faster. Call of the Wild has a 1/2 cast time, so almost immediately afterward, swap weapons and then swap pets, granting you 2s of quickening. These 2 seconds will help you pop off the next skills a lot faster, granted you can hit them fast enough. I bound them all super easy for me. Next, you tap the Attack My Target (F2 default, I think) command for the pet, then Sick ’Em, Rampage as One, Signet of the Wild, and then Quickening Zephyr. The QZ gives you more quickness to work with for attacking while your pet should already be at its target (if you manage to hit F2).

In list form, that is:

1. Call of the Wild
2. Weapon Swap
3. Pet Swap
4. Attack My Target (F2) Command
5. Sick ’Em!
6. Rampage As One
7. Signet of the Wild
8. Quickening Zephyr

I’ve found this outputs quite a bit of damage rather fast if you have the right equipment/traits.

Speaking of traits, if you haven’t clicked the above link, they are: 30/30/0/0/5. Some might argue against more Beastmastery or other traits, so those are up to you. Personally, I love the Signet of the Beastmaster (major trait, Marksmanship), which enables me to grow bigger and deal more damage as well. Monstrous. As for the 30 Skirmishing, that’s because I like having Pet’s Prowess, Companion’s Might, and Quick Draw.

List form of traits:

- Marksmanship:
——- Steady Focus (I), Piercing Arrows (VIII), and Signet of the Beastmaster (XI).

- Skirmishing:
——- Pet’s Prowess (I), Companion’s Might (V), and Quick Draw (X).

- Beastmastery:
——- Might Swap (VI)

Here’s a video of it. The PvE footage will show significantly less damage because I don’t exactly have top tier equipment and when I recorded that, I had slightly different traits. Heh. First half is PvE, second half is PvP training dummies.

I don’t particularly PvP much, so if you’re ambushed, you might want to change the order around on some of the skills, or drop one. Call of the Wild, maybe, if you don’t feel the might from it is worth the cast time? You’ll get fury/swiftness from Rampage as One anyway.

What do you think?

Soloing champions as a ranger is actually very possible. I’ve done it quite a few times, haven’t failed once aside from the champion giant in Orr. When there are 40 grubs spitting at you attracting even more Risen, you just gotta get out of there!

My traits are normally set up as 30/5/30/5/0, with the major traits Keen Edge, Piercing Arrows, Remorseless, Shared Anguish, Oakheart Salve, and Bark Skin.

Weapons, I use Shortbow primarily and either a GS or Axe/Warhorn for the fury/swiftness/might boost. With SB, I get an additional dodge and I already have the +50% endurance regeneration.

For healing, I always use Troll Unguent. It heals the most health, I’ve found, and I don’t have to worry about how far away my pet is, it’ll always get healed. The trick in using TU is to use it before you’re below 65-75% health because it heals over 10 seconds.

For utilities, I normally use Quickening Zephyr and Signet of the Wild (for the passive health regeneration, it works wonders) and either Signet of Renewal or Signet of Toughness. Toughness is great because since my pet it taking a lot of hits, it lets me heal my pet in emergencies (pop TU and then SoT and your pet will be thankful).

For my Elite, I usually run with Entangle for that immobilize so I can get away or get behind and stack some more bleeds.

I often use a Fern Hound for the healing and knockdown and a brown bear for the condition removal, but sometimes I do switch to two bears.

I would go and record myself fight some champions for proof that it’s possible, but I’m having trouble actually finding any champions right now. o.o Perhaps later. I do have one video, though, which is similar to soloing a champion. I was soloing Mad King Thorn (until he got down to about 20%, then my party somehow magically joined me in finishing him off, but I would have had him). I get my butt handed to me in the beginning of the video because I’m outnumbered 2,000 to 1 by candy corn and other Halloween monsters as well as the Mad King. However, after they’re gone, the actual 1v1 fight with him starts. I use a Fern Hound and Brown Bear in the video.