Guild Wars 2

That makes a lot of sense so i’ve rebuilt around WHaO – I’ve removed axe now in exchange for staff, but i’ve kept Nature magic for Spirit Buffs

Spirit pulse buffs last longer on pet, such that the pulses alone will bring the pet 15-21 stacks quite quickly, + my own crit to give pets mights = 25might very quickly.. then Heal as one, as you say – 25 stacks each.. Losing the regen and Water field might be a downer, as i’ve had HS since i unlocked it, but if i learn to use CelAvatar more efficiently i imagine that will make up for it now having Staff equipped to quickly gain Astral.

i can also drop a damage utility on fights if needed to use Stone spirit and keep uptime on Protection for my pet with this build and then have staff for healing it.

I just manged to solo “Notice to Trespassers” HP in Auric Basin with this setup (using only staff as he hurts my pet a lot) so i’ll be keeping it for now.

I dont think i can be sold on Skirmishing, the only reason i used in back before the spec changes was because of the Stats, and even then i soon chose Sword/WH, NM/BM/MM build.

My Current Build is:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQJARWnUqAlsg1sCuqActglEBzp0lCuBwV1taY9JAsCmZX0T6PA-TRCBABPY+ZGNBXcJAmS5Hg7PcmSQAeCApq+TK6AAA-e

basically a tweaked version of the Staff build in my original post,
- changing my Magi’s Trinkets etc for Assassins,
- Pets to Drake and Lynx,
- Healing Skill to WHaO
- GS to Berserker
- Invigorating Bond to Natures Vengeance

I’m still on Altruism Runes, which i think i’ll keep for now

There will ofcourse be time where where i switch things up temporarily where the situation calls for it but for now this is suiting my playstyle for wondering round the map.

i’ve given staff another go with both Skirmishing and Nature magic

If i change to Nature’s Vengence, with 3mobs with axe i have 13-16 stacks of Might and my Pet has 25, being a Drake and having all its attacking being aoe makes it very powerful, and mobs drop very quickly.

with staff (Magi’s as i currently dont have another staff) i have 3-6 might (from frost spirit) and my pet has 6-10, the obvious healing benefit is helping for longer fights but i feel its slower, what is better about the staff is that when the mobs arent in close quarters with my pet, ie chasing me, i can still get some damage on them as you said.

With skirmishing – spotter and fury, my crit chance becomes 88% + 10% from behind (not sure if thats 98% or 10% to my precision) so my pet is at around 15 stacks for both weapons, but im at 0 with Staff, 15 with axe. i think than is making a big difference as the base damage of axe auto attack become about 500dmg 1/4second, and staff is 230per pulse 1-1/4seconds. Perhaps i could change to war horn instead of torch? adding fury and a nice dps burst to one target.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Axe/Torch is a terrible waste in the build you posted since you don’t go for any condition damage at all.

-Swap Rune of the Druid for any other. It’s bugged. Vampirism is my personal suggestion for roaming and solo content.

I’ve realised i’m actually using Altruism Runes, but since the Might and Fury only work with the main healing skills and not Celestial Avatar skills or Mushroom heals i’ll be changing them.

I find axe/torch is quite powerful even without condition damage gear, just using the traits. mainly as its got good ranged AOE (where staff is very slow) which is quite nice to have for a lot of HoT. Probably not as good as the GS but being able to stay at distance and have auto attack aoe is great.

My reasoning behind Nature Magic relies on Axe and pet aoe, using might stacking with the axe with fortifying bond, and pets with area attacks, if i drop axe i’d drop NM by default

I’ve taken a long break from this game, near 2 years and while a lot has changed while I’ve been away, for the better, also nothing has changed at all. (Berserker > Everything. Mobs in dungeons? no ty skip skip skip or we die etc) Anyway, to my point. I really like the introduction of Druid making attempting to group heal viable, whether it makes healing power a viable stat is a different question but nonetheless I’ve built my Ranger around it and leveled crafting so that i could have Zealots Armour as it seems to be the best compromise when dropping an offensive stat for a defensive one .. I have 2 builds below which i switch between situation dependent, GS-A/T for Roaming. GS-Staff for Elite monsters which i choose to just focus on healing my pet and avoiding damage while it nips at its ankles until dead.

I’m looking for opinions and possible tweaks that could improve these. Having missed a lot of changes, i’m unsure of what Specs and Traits complement different playstyles etc the best.

*Axe and Torch could be switched, i find it a bit boring.
*Greatsword is Set in Stone, most fun
*i refuse to use longbow, its too slow to be interesting
*i often switch my druid traits, Verdant Etching and Lingering Light to Natural Stride and Ancient Seeds
*I have Berserker, Rampager, Sinister and Magi’s Gear banked if switching up would help.
*Willing to Change Specs as long as Druid stays
*I play quite casually so have no intention of getting full Ascended or a Legendary

GS – A/T:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQNAR3fnMqAlsgFsC2sCctglCBjZAU6eAPJgZQAAurOWTrlssUA-TRCBQBpS9nHY+JF6AAwDBYg7PMFlfnRJoz0MchrAAA-e

GS – Staff:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQJARWnMqAlsgVsC2sCctglEB7JAsCmZOluUwUDuquVDrlssUA-ThCBQBtysyZUCehLBQUUW9ATFzQXwA3fAAPBgUp+zUUqAA-e

Thanks for any replies, they’ll be much appreciated.

Dahkeus.8243:

You’re missing 5 points in your GS build, but I assume they would be put in Skirmishing. If that’s the case, then it’s definitely a solid build for PvE. For Fractals runs, that may be one of the better builds to take, except that you will probably want to swap in a ranged weapon as your offhand set for some encounters. In those cases, you could always switch your 20 point investment in Skirmishing for Honed Axes or Quick Draw.

However, I would suggest changing VI in Marks to I.

The extra 5 points can be put in either skirmishing or nature magic, I prefer nature magic as can be hard to get behind opponents but you almost always have a boon.

Diehard.1432:

For the 3rd build, Do you get additional healing for each shouts? Does it stack?

It Stacks Duration, the idea is to have 100% regen uptime on this build. I use “Sik Em” as with 30 in BM and Sword your pet can do a lot of damage, this could be exchanged for Signet of Stone/Wild etc. Alternatively, Use “Guard” which is a short cooldown so as to give 100% regen uptime on its own then you can choose 2 other utilities that arent shouts, but as guard doesnt really benefit you in any other way i tend to avoid it.

Fluffball.8307:

Something ain’t right on your boon duration build. You have a trait that applies boons on shout, but have no shouts.

Oops. that trait was meant to be vigourous spirits. Althought Quickening Zephyr could be replaced for Guard, Protect me or Search and Rescue, it is good for quicker evades from GS auto-attack chain but reduced healing can cause a problem. Has to be well timed

Boon Duration and Defence/SelfHealing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMEQNBhYDbkRlSW7VxhFuWDELF6Z/MFHKRuH+fUlKlfdjpeB-zgyA4NBZCTgoQwJxioxWdlGLvCpqGMdKRUtLhIq2pgBA-e

Greatsword Damage Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMEQNBhYD7kRFKZxWBxVF4axAxmhe2PTxhSkTRp8UKD5ET9C-zAyAYLBZiQgpCQJvioxWULiGruGTVSEV7NIiqBA-e

Healing Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMEQNBhYD7kRFaF0eWwWQYYzASrQm8eQLziI6eMKiSImyb+yUvA-zACB4NCyE1w0GBKNqIasVXFRjV1ATriIq2jlIqGA-e

Opinions etc.

The utilities are more personal preference and fight specific, as are weapons, Longbow or Shortbow may be more use in certain fights, use common sense to find the best utilities for each fight.

CrockyClockwork.4095:

What armor/stats did you go with?

For GS? Full Berserker Gear, Sigil of Accuracy for 5% Crit chance

Currently i’m thinking 20/20/20/0/0

20 in MM for Precision
20 in Skirmishing for Crit Damage/Chance
20 in WS for Reduced CD on GS Skills

I don’t know where to put the other 10 or if there is enough benefit from the reduced cooldown on sword skills to put 20 in WS.

I’m trying to design a full berserker damage build based around Greatsword as Primary weapon, anyone fancy giving some opinions on what would benefit

Exotic celestial armor is account bound when crafted. That’s why you’re not seeing it on TP. First you need to buy the recipes off TP – they’re what’s no longer obtainable as loot. As it happens (I have a bunch of these saved up and am slowly selling them), medium armor recipes are the cheapest. And with everyone going crazy over the Lion’s Arch events, the price of the recipes has come down a lot. So now’s a good time to buy if you want to go that route.

You do need 400 leatherworking though. And you’ll need quartz crystals (there’s a healthy supply of them on TP due to many people having the mine in their home instance). You’ll need 5 charged quartz crystals per armor piece or weapon, and each charged quartz crystal is 25 regular quartz crystals (time gated to one a day, so 30 days in all). So a full 6-armor set requires 750 quartz crystals, which at current prices is about 10 gold.

I don’t think ill be bothering. Havent the patience for Crafting aha

You know, I’ve been meaning to test that. Does it just affect the first hit from Hunter’s Call? Or does it affect all 17 hits? I tested SoH with Path of Scars and it only affects the initial hit from that skill. But I forgot to test it with Hunter’s Call.

As far as I can tell it affects the entire skill not just the first hit. Same for Whirling Defence and Barrage.
I did some testing in Fireheart Rise. 5300avg. Barrage. 7600 with Signet active.

Solandri.9640:

Arran.9182:

Utility Skills (Damage)

Quickening Zephyr
“Sik Em”
Signet of the Wild/Signet of the Hunt

Rampage as One/Entangle (Situation Specific)

Utility Skills (Survival)

“Sik Em”
“Protect Me”/Quickening Zephyr
Signet of Stone

Rampage as One/Spirit of Nature (Situation Specific, Exchange a trait for Vigorous Spirits if using Spirit of Nature)

You’re trying to do too much at once IMHO. Your “damage” focus has too much defense. Your “survival” focus has too much damage.

The “damage” utilities should be one extreme, the “survival” utilities should be the other extreme. And depending on the situation, you can mix and match to arrive at something in the middle. The way you have it outlined, you’ve got a “damage” build which is good for one specific situation, but ignores situations where you might want slightly more or less damage. Same for “survival” – sometimes you might want slightly more or less survival.

• Signet of the Wild shouldn’t be in the damage spec. I run it in builds where I don’t have regen. This build has regen so I’d question even including it at all.
• Signet of the Hunt seems redundant where you have Nature’s Voice all the time. Swap it for Guard and you have 100% swiftness + regen uptime. Much better than having to choose between Hunt and Wild. Guard belongs in your survival category though.
• As others have said, since you’re already traited for it, Frost Spirit is a must.
• Sic Em is a really questionable utility in PvE. The 40% extra damage for your pet is for 10 sec, so is about 10% extra damage on average. But as a combined ranger+pet total, it only works out to about 2%-3% increase to your overall damage. Assuming your pet even hits. Frost Spirit even untraited at ~3% damage increase (including downtime) works out to be better if you have just one party member. Sic Em is usually used in PvP against stealthers.
• Flame Trap is another really strong damage utility even if you aren’t a condition damage spec. Burning scales the least with condition damage, so you still do decent damage with it. It’s AOE so can hit 5 targets. And it’s one of the best fire fields in the game for blast finishers which give might. If you’re running sword+horn, there is absolutely no excuse not to take it IMHO. Especially since your build has 30% boon duration which will extend the 3 might stacks you give everyone to 26 seconds. Assuming the party averages 2500 power, that’s another 3% extra party damage even after factoring in downtime. More if others can blast in your fire field.

Knight’s/Magi’s/Clerics
Trying to balance Toughness/Vitality/Power/Precision at around 1500 each. Healing Power to 700

Again, you’re trying to do too much. If you’re going to generalize that much, you should look into Celestial armor.

Pets (Damage)

Jungle Stalker – Might
Red Moa – Fury

Try the river drake some time. Its F2 bounces so is guaranteed to hit if it hits at least one target. That means it often works even if the initial target moves or dies. If the pet has a lot of might stacks (which it should since you are using sword and have the 15 NM trait), its F2 is almost enough to single-handedly kill off regular mobs. One of the best offensive pets in the game against multiple targets IMHO.

After dropping healing spring I change to Reef Drake for an extra Blast finisher.

All the drakes will do a blast finisher. I tried the reef drake and its confuse attack just wasn’t that effective IMHO. It’s a rather small cone so frequently misses. And the confuse damage is pretty weak since your pet has zero condition damage. I’d use the river drake instead.

As for the gear, i did really want Celestials armour, unfortunately as a havent got the patience to do crafting and there are currently non on TP (and if im not mistaken this is because some of the materials are no not attainable after the living world part has passed?) i cannot use it.

I do often use drakes, especially for the blast finisher as you desbribed, i do prefer this as well because Moa’s are low damage, and tend to die fast. but if i seem to be lacking Fury i will use one, or if it’s a fights where i know i tend to get focussed on so i take protection. I use Reef Drake mainly because, i might be wrong, but the initial hit seems bigger than the others, except Salamander, and the confusion and breath hots all targets (and theyve put a little bit more design into the body)

I like signet of the hunt purely to see a nice big opening hit from hunters call, no other reason.
Signet of the wild is nice for stability, main reason why i use it that was i dont have to use rampage as one if theres no one to give stability when required.

Other utilites i change fight by fight, Sik Em i won’t use in a fight like Malrona where my pet dies a lot for example.

TurtleDragon.3108:

HPS with 700 HP
Sigil of water/Sigil of renewal: (370 + (0.1 * 700)) / 10 = 44 HPS
Sigil of Blood: (453 + 70) / 5= 52.3 HPS . (Wiki says ICD = 5s)
Sigil of Leeching = 97.5 HPS
Healing Spring Direct Heal: 5620 / 30.5 = 184.26 HPS
Regen: = 217.5 HPS
Rune of Water : 690 + (0.5 * 700) / 10 = 104 HPS

I believe these sigils all share an ICD so you could all have 1 active at any time

Total HPS (Water/Renewal) = 549.76 HPS
Blood: 559.06 HPS
Leeching: 603.36 HPS

Total HPS to Allies: (Water/Renewal) 365.5 HPS

EP
1500 power/precision
70% critical damage?

-25 might
-No food
-No disc banner or Frost Spirit
-Assuming 70% critical damage because you didn’t mention it
Modifiers:
-5% From Nature Magic 25

EP = 3800.

So it does about half as much DPS as you running the same trait set up with Berserker/Ranger Gear. HPS is about 2.3x better (water/renewal)

I don’t know how to model toughness and effective health unfortunately.

I can’t remember crit damage, i imagine around that mark though.

I think with Toughness you have to double the base toughness to gain +50% damage reduction, then it suffers massively from diminishing returns so to get another +50% you have to double it again. so 1832 would be +50% then 3664 would be another +50%

I dont know how vitality scales but i have 21k HP at 80.

I realise this isnt the optimal way to play i just find it far more interesting than Power and it isnt a full toughness/healing build that hinders my partys.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Oh, I just assumed 0 healing power. I feel severely gimping your damage for an extra ~90 regen is not worth the trade off. This game is designed so that damage scales much better than healing power or toughness. (ie. going from berserker to clerics is like -75% damage, to increase your regen from to 0.78% 1.3% of your health/sec. Rough estimates, I can spreadsheet the damage decrease later if you want) I think I’m done posting here, but just remember: when you trade damage stats for survivability, you also take a non-negligible amount of time longer to kill things which means taking more damage taken overall. This will also requiring more healing/defense. Less healing and more DPS can make fights shorter, similar to how trading a healer in WoW for more DPS makes some fight easier.

Condition damage builds are bad because of game mechanics. They are useless against structure fights such as the one you mentioned in CoF p2 and burrows in AC. It’s also mostly single target too. 1000 damage per tick isn’t that impressive when you can hit over 8k DPS on a ranger.

Edit: Here’s some comparisons I did for fun. Might have made a mistake but i’ll try to fix any I make:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14qHjYQGHs2mxzxx2cuozv7nEhPrUHPhSL0YTI4V_C5I/pub
Comparison of full berserker meta vs. 20/20/0/30/0 full cleric. I don’t know your exact stats though, and would need a build link for your gear mix. Healing power still won’t outheal auto attacks from some of the harder content in this game.

As for the comparison, the numbers look fairly accurate in terms of healing.but I have a mix of gear

Knights, Magi and clerics

Power, Precision, ToughnessToughness (inc signet passive), Vitality approx 1500. Healing power approx 700

There’s also the extra damage reduction from toughness which I believe at 1832 is +50% so 1500 is about 40%?

Sigils which you say aren’t taking in to account I Dont really know how to see how useful these are.
Water -30% chance to heal allies and self on crit for 370 scaling at 0.1 = 440 10sec cool down.

Or Blood 30% chance to steal health on crit 453 (0.1) = 523 and it also does 452 damage, and this effect states cannot occur more than once ever 2 seconds, so in theory one could do be adding 226 dps and 261.5 hps.

Sigil of renewal -444 healing every weapon swap

Or sigil of leeching – 975 healing, 974 damage on weapon swap

Depending on if you want to help yourself more or the party.

There’s also extra protection uptime from the Adept trait I can’t seem to remember off my head if there’s any other uptime on protection.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Oh, I just assumed 0 healing power. I feel severely gimping your damage for an extra ~90 regen is not worth the trade off. This game is designed so that damage scales much better than healing power or toughness. (ie. going from berserker to clerics is like -75% damage, to increase your regen from to 0.78% 1.3% of your health/sec. Rough estimates, I can spreadsheet the damage decrease later if you want) I think I’m done posting here, but just remember: when you trade damage stats for survivability, you also take a non-negligible amount of time longer to kill things which means taking more damage taken overall. This will also requiring more healing/defense. Less healing and more DPS can make fights shorter, similar to how trading a healer in WoW for more DPS makes some fight easier.

Condition damage builds are bad because of game mechanics. They are useless against structure fights such as the one you mentioned in CoF p2 and burrows in AC. It’s also mostly single target too. 1000 damage per tick isn’t that impressive when you can hit over 8k DPS on a ranger.

Edit: Here’s some comparisons I did for fun. Might have made a mistake but i’ll try to fix any I make:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14qHjYQGHs2mxzxx2cuozv7nEhPrUHPhSL0YTI4V_C5I/pub
Comparison of full berserker meta vs. 20/20/0/30/0 full cleric. I don’t know your exact stats though, and would need a build link for your gear mix. Healing power still won’t outheal auto attacks from some of the harder content in this game.

The healing power comes from the gear, so in damage gear theres 0 healing power, the only stats which would be a ‘waste’ there would be the extra 15 points in Nature magic but boon duration isn’t a bad thing

And yeh I always forget about fights where conditions are useless.

Arran.9182:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Arran.9182:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Regeneration and Nature’s Voice are fairly weak in PvE. The pitiful ~130 hps is not going to help you face tank a 7k auto attack. It’s more of a “nice to have” thing than something that has a great impact on survivability. It’s largely a waste of trait points and redundant when you have healing spring already. It’s also fairly easy to get regen in a party composition from eles, engis or guardians. Swiftness doesn’t help with survivability either.

The maths doesnt add up, i know this, looking at the numbers i’d of never had chosen to put anything into healing power or regens, but when playing the difference is very noticable. and i prefer noticing this differnce to noticing myself doing massive damage. As long as on a fight like p2 cof end i dont hold people up on acolytes im happy. 130+ 0.125*HealingP is nothing. for regen. I think Healing Spring Heal is 1.0.. and when i look at this i think, “pointless, not worth it at all” but when im playing it, i just feel that i dont have to do everything perfect, using GS gives me that stun/daze which i otherwise have with sword/wh/axe, and also the built in evade. i might be mistaken but is shortbow now preferable? but id rather have path of scars than shortbow, i love that skill.

If you’re getting higher regen than 130 hps, it’s because someone is using cleric’s in your group, or you’re getting heals from other sources (ie. ele in water attunement).

Acolytes in CoF aren’t a good example, since they have a disproportionately low amount of health compared to elites (silvers). Anything can look good there. It’s like saying you’re good at killing critters so damage is a non issue.

The reason i get more than 130 regen is because of my 700healing power in survival gear, so long as the regen is applied by me it does it based on my healing. I used Acolytes as an example because when the closer together thyere killed the better, and if i had too little damage and took 4 seconds longer than others, it would disrupt the group. as the next spawn would mean id be 8 seconds behind, and if there was a 3rd spawn 12 seconds, as many pugs just rambo and kill right away rather than waiting.

I have a question not based on the quote here.
Condition builds, i went for full rampager’s just to see what it was like, using sword/torch shortbow. and i found that my bleeds were doing 1000 per tick, then i had burns from both torch and trap, and poison from sword and trap, doing, tbh i cant remember the number, but i know it was a good amount. as i can only make estimates i can only guess, but it looked to be doing not much different damage, because i’d crit everything, apply bleeds with that, then burns etc, it seemed to account for the lak of power and crit damage
so what’s your opinion on condition builds

TurtleDragon.3108:

Arran.9182:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Regeneration and Nature’s Voice are fairly weak in PvE. The pitiful ~130 hps is not going to help you face tank a 7k auto attack. It’s more of a “nice to have” thing than something that has a great impact on survivability. It’s largely a waste of trait points and redundant when you have healing spring already. It’s also fairly easy to get regen in a party composition from eles, engis or guardians. Swiftness doesn’t help with survivability either.

The maths doesnt add up, i know this, looking at the numbers i’d of never had chosen to put anything into healing power or regens, but when playing the difference is very noticable. and i prefer noticing this differnce to noticing myself doing massive damage. As long as on a fight like p2 cof end i dont hold people up on acolytes im happy. 130+ 0.125*HealingP is nothing. for regen. I think Healing Spring Heal is 1.0.. and when i look at this i think, “pointless, not worth it at all” but when im playing it, i just feel that i dont have to do everything perfect, using GS gives me that stun/daze which i otherwise have with sword/wh/axe, and also the built in evade. i might be mistaken but is shortbow now preferable? but id rather have path of scars than shortbow, i love that skill.

If you’re getting higher regen than 130 hps, it’s because someone is using cleric’s in your group, or you’re getting heals from other sources (ie. ele in water attunement).

Acolytes in CoF aren’t a good example, since they have a disproportionately low amount of health compared to elites (silvers). Anything can look good there. It’s like saying you’re good at killing critters so damage is a non issue.

The reason i get more than 130 regen is because of my 700healing power in survival gear, so long as the regen is applied by me it does it based on my healing. I used Acolytes as an example because when the closer together thyere killed the better, and if i had too little damage and took 4 seconds longer than others, it would disrupt the group. as the next spawn would mean id be 8 seconds behind, and if there was a 3rd spawn 12 seconds, as many pugs just rambo and kill right away rather than waiting.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Arran.9182:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Regeneration and Nature’s Voice are fairly weak in PvE. The pitiful ~130 hps is not going to help you face tank a 7k auto attack. It’s more of a “nice to have” thing than something that has a great impact on survivability. It’s largely a waste of trait points and redundant when you have healing spring already. It’s also fairly easy to get regen in a party composition from eles, engis or guardians. Swiftness doesn’t help with survivability either.

The maths doesnt add up, i know this, looking at the numbers i’d of never had chosen to put anything into healing power or regens, but when playing the difference is very noticable. and i prefer noticing this differnce to noticing myself doing massive damage. As long as on a fight like p2 cof end i dont hold people up on acolytes im happy. 130+ 0.125*HealingP is nothing. for regen. I think Healing Spring Heal is 1.0.. and when i look at this i think, “pointless, not worth it at all” but when im playing it, i just feel that i dont have to do everything perfect, using GS gives me that stun/daze which i otherwise have with sword/wh/axe, and also the built in evade. i might be mistaken but is shortbow now preferable? but id rather have path of scars than shortbow, i love that skill.

If you’re getting higher regen than 130 hps, it’s because someone is using cleric’s in your group, or you’re getting heals from other sources (ie. ele in water attunement).

Acolytes in CoF aren’t a good example, since they have a disproportionately low amount of health compared to elites (silvers). Anything can look good there. It’s like saying you’re good at killing critters so damage is a non issue.

The reason i get more than 130 regen is because of my 700healing power in survival gear, so long as the regen is applied by me it does it based on my healing. I used Acolytes as an example because when the closer together thyere killed the better, and if i had too little damage and took 4 seconds longer than others, it would disrupt the group. as the next spawn would mean id be 8 seconds behind, and if there was a 3rd spawn 12 seconds, as many pugs just rambo and kill right away rather than waiting.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Regeneration and Nature’s Voice are fairly weak in PvE. The pitiful ~130 hps is not going to help you face tank a 7k auto attack. It’s more of a “nice to have” thing than something that has a great impact on survivability. It’s largely a waste of trait points and redundant when you have healing spring already. It’s also fairly easy to get regen in a party composition from eles, engis or guardians. Swiftness doesn’t help with survivability either.

The maths doesnt add up, i know this, looking at the numbers i’d of never had chosen to put anything into healing power or regens, but when playing the difference is very noticable. and i prefer noticing this differnce to noticing myself doing massive damage. As long as on a fight like p2 cof end i dont hold people up on acolytes im happy. 130+ 0.125*HealingP is nothing. for regen. I think Healing Spring Heal is 1.0.. and when i look at this i think, “pointless, not worth it at all” but when im playing it, i just feel that i dont have to do everything perfect, using GS gives me that stun/daze which i otherwise have with sword/wh/axe, and also the built in evade. i might be mistaken but is shortbow now preferable? but id rather have path of scars than shortbow, i love that skill.

Fluffball.8307:

The disconnect is that you’re using a trait that gives yourself a small power increase in exchange for a buff that gives your entire party a 7% damage increase. It’s just plain wrong. You’d benefit yourself more by taking FS.

That’s the only thing I’m complaining about, the other stuff may be different but it’s not completely wrong.

I noramlly use protection on hit>10% or boon from pet duration, i sugested 7% of vitality as an option, in the video i also state most prefer frost spirit and that if thats the case take vigourous spirits, but personally i dont like spirits.. at least, i think i said that.

Fluffball.8307:

You’re getting a lot of negative feedback because of

Arran.9182:

i don’t use frost spirit becuase i dont like it.

…versus the thread title. You should have started with “this is not an optimal build, but I enjoy playing it anyway.”

i started with “This, in >my opinion<, is the….”

Ok then. Anyone care to post me a reply with what would make this a better All round Build. or is not taking Frost spirit the only problem.. just fyi i wont be changing it how i play im just interested to know what anyone else would consider to be a perfect all round build, foccusing on traits, then utilities are secondary.

Thaddeus.4891:

The thing is you named your tread. the PERFECT all-around build. You didn’t say the Perfect Build or the Best DPS build, but still the two BEST thing a ranger can bring to a party is Frost Spirit and Spotter. The traits Vigorous Spirit and Spotter, with the Frost Spirit utility are minimal requirement for any build that have Perfect in from of them. Because these are the best thing the Ranger can bring to a party.

I take spotter, i prefer not to use frost spirit.

Bunmaster.9734:

You can’t drop off Frost Spirit and call it a perfect all-around build. It’s like calling the Whopper the perfect burger, but without the patty.
You take away one the ranger’s strongest asset to the team and replace it with selfish signets. That’s why it ain’t a perfect all-around build.
A perfect all-around build, would be a build that offers good dps, with defensive and offensive buffs for the entire party, while being able to survive multiple hits. Ding-ding, i believe you are describing the meta guardian.

well, i only took 20 in Power for the Spotter trait, so that my unselfish trait spending.
i choose shouts give regen for others, i could of put 20 in there and 10 in survival, but i chose to give party 100% regen uptime instead. so dropping 1 utility for a selfish one seems ok to me, more to the point i did say utilitys were personal preference. the trait build was the main part of this post, the rest is personal/situation specific

Dahkeus.8243:

It’s not exactly something new for someone to over-hype a build. I don’t think everyone needs to get so up in arms over him putting “perfect” in the title. Do a YouTube search for “GW2 Build” and you’ll see more builds with stuff like “BEST” or “PERFECT” or “OP” used in titles for videos showing off builds that are usually pretty mediocre at best.

If i put “a pve build, most of you wont like it because you liker zerk build, but ive chose a different direction, and for me its worked out to be perfect for my style of play note, it doesnt use frost spirit” i think i’d be over the title character limit. but it might stop people who want pure damage build looking at an all round build post

Fluffball.8307:

You’re getting a lot of negative feedback because of

Arran.9182:

i don’t use frost spirit becuase i dont like it.

…versus the thread title. You should have started with “this is not an optimal build, but I enjoy playing it anyway.”

this is not a DAMAGE BUILD <—— very important.. Frost spirit is Damage, nothing more. Therefore i do not believe it is necessary when you are not aiming for Damage.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Alright, I have time to post so i’ll try to address everything

Malrona: I don’t think you quite understand this fight. You WANT to get hit by the frontal cone breath because the poison gives you a gigantic DPS boost for a few seconds. Combo this with a reflect and everyone stacked in melee and you’ll do atleast 50% of her health. The other attack (red circles) is a projectile that can reflected or blocked. Every class but warrior and necro has a party wide projectile defense spell. She alternates between those 2 attacks with the 1st one being random.

Perfect builds: Perfect builds aren’t designed around the creator having latency issues. If a build is tailored in that direction, then it will have features or adjustments that will be a non issue for people with reliable internet. 30/25/0/15/0 is probably the perfect all around build, because it has the option of traiting for signets which can be very good for survivability.

Frost Spirit It’s a common misconception for people to think Frost Spirit deaths are a problem. It’s not due to a patch that made spirits persist for around ~15s after their death. Even if it dies, you’ll continue to get the buff which also has no ICD, as long as you remain in the target area. The net result is around ~8s downtime if it dies. It’ll also buff way more than 6 attacks on a warrior over 10s unless your RNG is very bad.

Overall, I think you need more experience running dungeons in general, and should start to venture outside of CoF, AC and TA.

You expect those in a pug to get retaliation timing correct 100% of the time?
I didnt design the build around latency issues, i was just stating that i sometimes have them.
The reason i don’t take frost spirit, and i dont know how many times i’ve said this, because this im not aiming for maximum damage. i really dont care if the 70%chance to get 10% extra damage on a hit persists after its death. because i’m aiming for moderate damage, with high defence boon up time.
I dont stray outisde of Cof Ac and Ta because i have no interest in the armour or weapons from there.

i’d like to stress again, this is NOT a max damage build. i don’t use frost spirit becuase i dont like it.

Fluffball.8307:

I’m not one really bashing this build, my main issue is it’s unacceptable to me to not take Frost Spirit (and you’re already traited for it) when it adds SO much damage to the entire party.

is frost spirit survives an entire fight (which wont unless hte group is fast, in which case this build is irrelevant, go zerk if you have fast people) it gives 7% assuming it procs exaxctly 70% of the time. if it dies for 10 seconds it gives 10% extra damage to.. guessing, 6 attacks each. if we’re not warriors, 10% on my biggest attack with 25might and it crits is 1400, on auto attack it 100. and like i said. this is not a damage build, and if you want to take Frost spirit, take it. this is about the acutual build not skills etc. those are just what ive found to benefit me in my groups most

TurtleDragon.3108:

Arran.9182:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Eurhetemec.9052:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Tl;dr: It’s not that berserker gear doesn’t work well in PUGS/non zerker groups, it’s YOU who doesn’t work well with glass cannon builds.

Except that obviously isn’t true and is basically just faux-elitist or confused-elitist backslapping/self-congratulation. Nikephoros’ argument doesn’t make sense on a very basic level. He’s a superb player and optimizer, but he basically lives in a fantasy world when it comes to player skill, as do a lot of posters, here, sadly. Claiming someone is “bad” because they prefer a non-full-zerker gearset in a messy PuG is completely unreasonable. It’s basically redefining “bad” as “not in the top 1% of players”. Which just shenanigans.

I mean, it’s true that the very best players, those few, really don’t benefit from non-zerker gear even in a messy PuG. They are extremely few in number, however.

Unfortunately there are a gigantic number of people who think they are in that 1% (just like with the wealth 1% IRL – 33% of Americans think they’re in it! Obviously only 1% are, and it’s not even all the same people!), but who would strongly benefit from, when coming to PuG, being in some more survivable gear.

Nikephoros’ “But you’ll get better if you get downed all the time!” argument obviously doesn’t hold a great deal of water. If you’re downed, you’re not really learning anything. Wearing full zerker will teach you that you need to be better, but it won’t necessarily let you learn how to get there.

This build might well benefit from Frost Spirit, I note, but there is some really faulty logic and unrealistic elitism going on here. You need to accept that most players will never, ever, be so good that they don’t benefit from non-zerker gear in a PuG. Even most full-zerker players who are in elite groups are definitely benefiting from Reflects, Aegis and so on, and are not good enough to pull it off without those.

No.

Gear (Armor/Trinkets) is the last thing I would change in a PUG because it has the least influence on personal survivability. There are plenty of things you can do to increase your survivability in PUGS without changing your gear.

And if you can’t tell why you downed most of the time, then you are tunnel visioning a lot. Most of the time it’s easy to tell if you got downed by an auto attack or if you were doing a bad job of managing your endurance. There’s a tell for almost everything in this game that’s avoidable.

I’m also not telling people they should play in zero reflect groups, because those “elite” players usually don’t do that as well. They always bring reflects if the content requires it.

Malrona!

all i have to say, Malrona.

get downed when in no red circles, and not being direct focus.

If you’re getting downed, that’s a l2p issue and also a problem with your group’s strategy. This fight is easily cheese-able with reflects or FGS if you understand the poison mechanic. If the fight is dragging out too long, its because you or multiple players are running builds like the one you are promoting as “perfect and high damage”

Maybe so, i don’t have great internet for one so if there’s a quick Abilility i could miss it, but i find if i even enter melee range i instantly get downed or close too if in sv gear. And any way you look at it if i survival gear and dont die from that damage that I personally cannot avoid then its better than being full zerk and dead. Dont get me wrong, i love zerk. fire and Forget 8k Hunters call with 14k whirling defence at the same time makes me happy. but i prefer trying to survive rather than outdamage

I would like to say, People saying oh this utility or that one. Theyre all preference, choose what you like, but try the build, the traits. Switch to Vigorous spirits if you choose to use spirits. But the build is undeniably the best ‘all round’ build. 30 in Nature is not wasted because we get boon duration which is great for pet damage with Sword. No, it doesnt give as much damage as spending those points in MM or Skirm. But this isnt a Damage build. Just like it’s not a full Survival build. else i;d have suggested 30 in Wilderness. but as 30 in Wild benefits almost nothing to damage because of my weapon choices and poor condition scaling it doesnt make it all round.

People trying to discard this becuase it doesnt do damage are being ridiculous and ignoring the point.

So, to those saying this is terrible, please suggest your perfect All Round Build. i will try it (i recently looted The Hunter and can now afford to experiment more from the 500g sale woop)

Fluffball.8307:

No one is saying the build is useless and won’t work; obviously it will. It does have some pretty glaring problems though.

Most the problems seem to be “omg not enough damage, could have more damage here”

If i wanted a full damage build id of suggested 30/20/0/15/0 . but i wasnt oing for a full damage build, im trying to give something that can be used in all situations just by switching gear.

solrik.6028:

Medens.4960:

Did the dudes who disapprove the build even try it yet? Something tells me they haven’t…
Why don’t you just go and try it first and thén legitimately burn it to the ground with critisism (or not).
And don’t say it’s common sense.

Think a little bit…

To be able to say that eating poop is bad doesn’t mean that the person has to first eat it.
Same in GW2. If someone specs for ranged and uses melee then it doesn’t require anyone to play the build because it’s common sense if you notice that speccing for melee or using ranged is a better option.

It’s over exaggregated but I think you can see my point. It only requires common sense.

Yes, you sont have to eat * to know its bad. But this isnt eating poo. This is eating an animal testi. should be terrible, but its just not. It’s a nice all round build for those who dont have the option of guaranteed zerk builds and dont know every dungeon to the the letter T. I admit ‘perfect’ is a long shot, i just didnt realise how intense people were on this forum

TurtleDragon.3108:

Eurhetemec.9052:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Tl;dr: It’s not that berserker gear doesn’t work well in PUGS/non zerker groups, it’s YOU who doesn’t work well with glass cannon builds.

Except that obviously isn’t true and is basically just faux-elitist or confused-elitist backslapping/self-congratulation. Nikephoros’ argument doesn’t make sense on a very basic level. He’s a superb player and optimizer, but he basically lives in a fantasy world when it comes to player skill, as do a lot of posters, here, sadly. Claiming someone is “bad” because they prefer a non-full-zerker gearset in a messy PuG is completely unreasonable. It’s basically redefining “bad” as “not in the top 1% of players”. Which just shenanigans.

I mean, it’s true that the very best players, those few, really don’t benefit from non-zerker gear even in a messy PuG. They are extremely few in number, however.

Unfortunately there are a gigantic number of people who think they are in that 1% (just like with the wealth 1% IRL – 33% of Americans think they’re in it! Obviously only 1% are, and it’s not even all the same people!), but who would strongly benefit from, when coming to PuG, being in some more survivable gear.

Nikephoros’ “But you’ll get better if you get downed all the time!” argument obviously doesn’t hold a great deal of water. If you’re downed, you’re not really learning anything. Wearing full zerker will teach you that you need to be better, but it won’t necessarily let you learn how to get there.

This build might well benefit from Frost Spirit, I note, but there is some really faulty logic and unrealistic elitism going on here. You need to accept that most players will never, ever, be so good that they don’t benefit from non-zerker gear in a PuG. Even most full-zerker players who are in elite groups are definitely benefiting from Reflects, Aegis and so on, and are not good enough to pull it off without those.

No.

Gear (Armor/Trinkets) is the last thing I would change in a PUG because it has the least influence on personal survivability. There are plenty of things you can do to increase your survivability in PUGS without changing your gear.

And if you can’t tell why you downed most of the time, then you are tunnel visioning a lot. Most of the time it’s easy to tell if you got downed by an auto attack or if you were doing a bad job of managing your endurance. There’s a tell for almost everything in this game that’s avoidable.

I’m also not telling people they should play in zero reflect groups, because those “elite” players usually don’t do that as well. They always bring reflects if the content requires it.

Malrona!

all i have to say, Malrona.

get downed when in no red circles, and not being direct focus.

Antalore.4206:

Thanks for posting and a nice video.
You should control and stop the Tssskk you do between sentences though xD

I have a cold, i don’t normally do it that being said i do often have colds aha, so i probably do it more than i don’t

TurtleDragon.3108:

No Frost Spirit = automatic fail. It’s the equivalent of bringing 1 warrior and having him run 0 banners

Signet of Stone is fairly useless without 30 in marksmanship as well.

This build is also missing the ranger’s best modifier (25 Skirmishing). I wouldn’t call this build high damage in it’s current form.

.

Firstly, this isn’t a full damage build, this is all round which can be used for other purposes without having to pay to reset traits or buy gems for instant reset. The reason i do this is because i dont like to sit and wait for full berserker group, Berserker builds are completely useless unless you’re running a full berserker group, not to mention horrendously boring, as the bosses won’t die fast enough and you die from any and every hit. So no, this isn’t a high damage build, but it’s certainly not a poor damage build.

Secondly, Frost spirit adds 10% to one attack every 10 seconds, unless the tooltip is wrong, that’s if it lasts 10 seconds, which it rarely bloody does, sometimes they die the second you use them, which is nothing like a warrior using no banners.

Thirdly, Signet of Stone used at the same time as “Protect Me” means the damage your pet takes from you doesn’t kill it, also the passive toughness brings me over 1500 which is where I like to be.

Tree.3916:

Scholar Runes exist.

I prefer Ranger because of precision, i like to keep 100% crit while under Fury

CRrabbit.1284:

please change title to “[PVE] Perfect All Round Build”, thx.

Done so, sorry about that.

This is, in my opinion, the perfect build and gear sets to run on a Ranger. I’ve spent a few weeks testing builds and gear in Citadel of Flame, Twilight Arbor and Ascolonian Catacombs and this is what I’ve found to be ideal

Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-D3LeumnmQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The idea of this build is to maintain high damage in berserker gear while also having high survival-ability in a second set of gear, whilst also keeping a good amount of damage, without having to redo traits.

Traits

20/20/0/30/0

Spotter
Beastmasters Bond

Pet Prowess
Companions Might

Natures Protection
Natures Bounty(survival)/Strength of Spirit(Damage)
Natures Voice

Utility Skills (Damage)

Quickening Zephyr
“Sik Em”
Signet of the Wild/Signet of the Hunt

Rampage as One/Entangle (Situation Specific)

Utility Skills (Survival)

“Sik Em”
“Protect Me”/Quickening Zephyr
Signet of Stone

Rampage as One/Spirit of Nature (Situation Specific, Exchange a trait for Vigorous Spirits if using Spirit of Nature)

Weapons (Damage)

Sword – Warhorn/axe – Force Sigils

Weapons (Survival)

Sword – Warhorn
Great sword (Longbow if ranged is required)

Sigil of Water on Sword and Great sword.
Sigil of Renewal on Warhorn

Armour (Damage)

Berserker/Assassins (Ideally to 60% Crit Chance)
I use Runes of the Ranger for +5% Damage when a companion is active. Ruby Orbs may be preferable.

Armour (Survival)

Knight’s/Magi’s/Clerics
Trying to balance Toughness/Vitality/Power/Precision at around 1500 each. Healing Power to 700

I chose runes of water, this is a personal preference for the heal allies.

Pets (Damage)

Jungle Stalker – Might
Red Moa – Fury

Using Red Moa only if the group isnt getting a lot of fury hipefully not having to use it during combat. Jungle Stalker for high damage output.

Pets (Survival)

Jungle Stalker/Blue Moa
Reef Drake/Blue Moa

This depends on the fight, heavy incoming damage fights i drop jungle stalker and have Moa as my primary pet. for protection and an extra heal. After dropping healing spring I change to Reef Drake for an extra Blast finisher. Otherwise Jungle stalker just to keep the damage up.

This setup has not let me down yet and has proved enjoyable, hope you benefit from this, let me know your thoughts.