Guild Wars 2

nldixon.8514:

I agree with Lorian.4028. Toughness and vitality will make melee combat not nearly as punishing, plus you get the benefit of traits that are geared towards melee combat (X in WS and IX in NM).

I’d use Sharpening Stone, Quickening Zephyr, and Lightning Reflexes along with Wilderness Knowledge and you’ll have pretty good up time on all three of those abilities. Troll Unguent is a good heal, but I personally prefer Healing Spring for the combo field, but to each his own.

I will have to look into the combo field for healing spring, I am very ignorant at times at how those work. Thanks for the tips!

Lorian.4028:

I had tried the same thing around your lvl and found that putting points into wilderness and nature magic to boost toughness and vitality so you are not nearly as squishy. This sacrifices the damage from marksmanship and skirmishing. In turn you are much tougher and get a few traits aimed at the greatsword. If you choose the nature magic major trait that grants 5%vitality as a bonus to power then the damage loss I s offset quite a bit. I don’t mind the lower damage but ymmv. I hope this was helpful.

Thanks I will try this! You were very helpful.

takatsu.9416:

Right now I’m running pure melee for fun and have been able to successfully solo swarm events including some in Orr, and its just MAD FUN. I run with greatsword and sword/torch and it’s an amazing complement to each other, crazy AoE and dps. like one big storm of havoc, and lots of mobility, swooping, evading, and two longer range throws and aoe combos like fire aura. In terms of skills I have, usually I run with Signet of Wild, Signet of Renewal to make sure I survive those tougher swarms and throw in something that works for the situation, i believe we all just switch skills for necessary situations. a good trap like spike for cripple effects, or chill, if i’m dealing with a lot of swarms, but lightning reflexes or zephyr if there are fewer numbers but like something stronger. Entangle for those swarms, but hounds of balthazar if I need more damage to be dealt, rampage if i’m against things with knock down and other effects. Vets are quite fast to take down with ranger melee actually.

My build is right now 25, 25, 5, 15, 0 something like that with full berserker gear and weapons that are power/precision/crit. Yeah I was building a dps power but also survivability build rather than doing anything for my pet. However, this way my pet actually doesn’t die often because I am right along side it doing tons of damage and clearing out mobs faster before they actually threaten us. I just pet swap when they’re in trouble or if i also need healing just pop the heal as one.

What I’ve found from experience is that you need vit rather than toughness though toughness traits have great skills. But just for the vit… Comparing pets, for example, i’ve seen that a toughness pet would die faster than a vit bear, however, my wolf, which has powerful attack, actually is durable bc it kills things off relatively fast. I’ve seen it tank like six mobs at once before and with little bit of healing came out unscathed. Comparatively, from experience and when talking amongst friends, players who has lots of toughness but no vit also dies fast around me in pve events while you can remain as last one standing.

Somehow, going melee with ranger actually helped me survive longer than with a long range set up from experience. So my personal opinion is if you are going melee or going to take lots of damage, up your vit, but meanwhile, boosting your power and precision to make sure you don’t have to stand off for so long. I usually stay long range if i need a long stand off. like bows for champs/dungeons.

:P That’s just how I’m playing right now and it’s mighty fun, so mobile and so much dps, it appears almost as if you clear mobs as fast as a warrior or another class built for dps. and we know how much super fast dps they have…

This is fantastic and thank you very much for spending the time to write it. I am excited to try this build. The hardest thing for me will be to give up my bow for the second weapons set after using it for 50 levels, but I really want a change and I think this is exactly what I need.

Having used Longbow/Shortbow for 50 levels, I want a change to melee. I have been told this is a bad idea, but I’d like to discover that for myself. I tried sword/horn and the sword just doesn’t feel right for me. I really enjoy the greatsword so far.
here is what I have so far:

Marksman 10: Steady Focus
Skirmish 10: Pet’s Prowess
Wilderness: 5
Nature Magic: 5
Beast Mastery:10 Master’s Bond

Troll Ungent/Signet of Stone/QZ/Rampage as One

I won’t list all the gear but I have 4 major runes of divinity and 2 Major Runes of the Ranger and these are my stats

Power 854
Precision 687
Toughness 566
Vitality 612
Crit chance 30%

Hopefully this is enough info for those of you much smarter and better at crunching numbers than I am. What I am hoping to get is some feedback on any glaringly obvious problems I have created in my build.

Thanks to all my fellow rangers in advance who take time out to comment.

Tulisin.6945

I have read on numerous guides that the #1 skill for Sword/Pistol is decent for AOE but very weak and underwhelming for single targets. Is it better to use #1 and Pistol Whip for multiple targets and Pistol/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger for singles or can Sword/Pistol be used effectively for both multiples and singles?

Tulisin.6945:

I wouldn’t put points into Shadow Arts unless you’re using very heavy stealth or in certain dungeon situations. The survivability of the tree is just overkill in open-world PvE.

Where would you put them besides Acrobatics?

Thanks

auhfel, thanks a lot for the tips. I had no idea that the stealth stacks. I keep getting different info on whether to use Signet of Malice or Hide in Shadows. I have tried both but will probably have to do more field tests to see what I like best.

I have been using Ambush, I like that most of the time it tanks for me for at least 15 seconds. This has helped me tremendously when doing skill point fights.

Eliteseraph thank you so much that was very informative and helpful. I will put your advice to good use. The consensus seems to be Pistol/Dagger which I am very happy with as most of the guides told me to use Pistol/Sword and to spam Pistol Whip. Is there an second set of weapons you recommend or do they all work with this spec and Pistol/Dagger?

Thanks to you two for taking the time to answer.

Remerik:

I tried D/D but I feel it might not be for me. I always felt I was running out of initiative when I spammed death blossom and then got hammered when I ran out of initiative.
How do you keep Black Powder up when it costs 6 initiative and still use other skills?

bwillb:
Awesome tip on the heartseeker with black powder, I had no idea, thank you. Is Roll for Initiative worth giving up for the others you mentioned?

Ok, so I have read so many guides my head is spinning. My biggest problem is that most of the guides are rooted in PVP or WVWVW which I have no interest in at this time. What I have been looking for but cannot seem to find is a PVE build with good survivability. While I am making requests, I would LOVE to not use the shortbow. I know it’s a great tool but as a former ranger I would truly love a Pistol/Pistol option with whatever else compliments that.

Here is where I am currently.

level 25 using S/P and SB.

6/0/4/5/0 for traits.

Slots are Signet of Malice/Roll for Initiative/Ambush and Shadow Refuge.

Starting with a ranger that I took to level 50 and then going thief which was what I originally wanted to play has been a serious wake-up call. I can literally play the ranger one handed while watching tv at this point. The thief is so much fun to me but I know I suck at it and I desperately want to L2P, so I am humbly asking my betters for their input.

TL;DR. Used to play ranger, love my thief more but suck at it in solo PVE. What can I spec in to cure this? (P/P instead of SB if possible)

This is a very clever and fun way of teaching noobs such as myself how some of the thief’s mechanics work. Good job.