Guild Wars 2

levcsu.7892:

Edit: But that missing Paricipator achievement need to: done 3 ranked match / 1 day, so i need to do this every day (3ranked)?

That is correct. If you are at 11/15, you will need to play 3 games a day for four more days to finish it off.
The later tiers also have this achievement so make sure you’re playing consistently.

Builds range from eh to OP, but spread across classes. With HoT specs and Core, there’s decent variety now. There are also some interesting choices to make.
Traits and utilities could use some tightening up in general (see class feedback threads for specifics).
It would have been nice to play the specs in one exclusively PvE map like Orr or DS or even raid test golem. PvP/WvW requires significantly different builds to be effective.

Thanks for this. I hope Anet adds beastmode effects for most or all of the pet traits.
Loud Whistle should reduce the beastmode recharge if possible.
Does Pack Alpha reduce beastmode skill recharges? I’ll have to check that one.

I’ll throw my opinion hat in the ring. Some of this will echo what others have said but here goes.

• MH Dagger. Def a condi or condi bent hybrid weapon. I can kinda understand the idea of using Dagger 3 to leap in and get quickness so AA and 2 are better but it does feel a bit heavy/slow usually. I wonder how it might work with 100% boon duration, but then you’re giving up attack power.
• The new pets are nice. That 3 of them are their own type makes for good variety but will we see at least one other Saurian/Iboga/Deer ?
• I like and don’t like that pet choice with Soulbeast is more meaningful. On one hand, it’s nice that some pets that didn’t get play previously work really well in beastmode. On the other hand, I very few pets have a full, useful kit. Most F1 skills aren’t worth using because the damage numbers are so low. The F1 skills that are useful are utility (leaps, sharpening stone, etc). Pigs in particular can be great in beastmode but its F1 and non-combined F2 is meh/bad.
• Furious Strength annoys me. It could be SO good. But it’s a minor trait instead of a major trait. We can’t choose or change the minors so they should all synergize with each other and/or work with the mechanic of that traitline. Look at Markmanship; the minors all are about Opening Strikes. Skirmishing; the minors are about weapon swapping. Look at other elite specs like Berzerker or DH; the minor traits all work with the mechanic of the traitline. But this trait and Twice as Vicious don’t DO that. You have to build around these minors or they will sit there being useless a lot of the time.
• With that in mind, the traits need a serious reshuffle. With that minor trait supports the traitline idea; I’d suggest that Fresh Reinforcement adds “copy your boons to your pet when exiting beastmode” and make it and Unstoppable Union minor Master and Grandmaster traits respectively. That way the traits we can’t change always have an effect for the Soulbeast.
• I love the healing stance in PvP. It’s something Ranger has needed for a while.
• The other stances are…Meh? Dolyak might be good when it’s not bugged but the others…I dunno.
• One Wolf Pack is a neat idea, just underwhelming. Maybe if either the power coefficient was better or if there was no internal cooldown (so attacking with LB 2 or 5, or under quickness would be amazing). Right now though, it’s not too useful. Might be just me.

Overall, I’ll play more Soulbeast. Just maybe after it’s tightened up a bit.

Just a small quality of life idea, if feasible.

Anet has (Good job) added quite a few skins for pretty much everything. But seeing everything at once is kinda a pain for collectors or completionists. If, for example, I wanted to collect all the game-acquirable longbows, I’d have to manually check each skin I’m not sure about.

The bank wardrobe currently shows every skin per category. Would it be possible to add some checkbox filters to more finely check on your collections?
Example filters could be like:

• Rarity filters based on the original item. (White, blue, green, ect.)
• Black Lion Ticket Skins
• Black Lion Store Skins
• Cultural Skins
• Collection Skins
• “Antique” Skins (the base ascended gear)

The big if for this idea is “are skins tagged like this already?” That would be a lot of busywork for small convenience if no.
Thoughts?

My opinion, yes. You should grab a few vanilla pets. Partly for the DPS but mostly for the utility.
If you are going strictly for PvE DPS, look for a Lynx (core)and a Bristleback(HoT). PvP/WvW will be different; generally wanting more control.

Other pets worth looking into:
-Jungle Stalker (might support)
-Tiger (Fury support, 2nd or 3rd highest dps, HoT)
-Lightning Wyvern (CC on big targets, HoT)
-Pink Moa (CC on small targets without pushing them around)
-Wolf (Fear, Knockdown)
-Krytan Drakehound (Immob, Knockdown)
-Jungle Spider (Ranged Immob)
-Smokescale (mostly PvP)

If you plan on getting PoF tho, you might consider just collecting them all. Some pets that are kinda eh for core look like they’ll be amazing for Soulbeast. Black Bear and the Pigs in particular.

Unpopular opinion but
you can take anti-condi runes and sigils if you’re really struggling.
Sure you’re DPS is lower but not dying is better, right?

Someone really recently asked close to the same question over here

The same tips apply. Do your research first, check your build and toughness, search for training runs or casual/training guilds.
Additionally, you can look for groups on Monday evening after reset, and try to find a group doing Escort or Cairn to start on. Those are the most beginner friendly encounters IMO. That’ll get you started.

On a side note: you can craft all of the precursor weapons. The RNG is optional now and crafting is cheaper than buying for some of them. Takes less time than legendary armor too.

Outfits are all or nothing with a headpiece on/off switch.
The Mask you bought is a skin for your armor headpiece and thus will be hidden when your outfit is turned on. Sorry :\

I get the feeling that this might not be a problem with any particular map or maps. I’ve personally seen this issue…three times on a different map each time.

I’m with you on these. Acid Bomb not making it now is probably because its leap distance is 550 instead of 600. That should probably be normalized to match the other leap skills your vid shows.

Rocket Boots is also strange. The tooltip says 900 distance but it looks like it’s only reaching half that. I’m guessing it’s the flip animation that the skill has that’s shortening the effective air distance as the other leap skills you show keep the character upright.

I’ve been playing with Rocket Boots in PvP; I’ll test it’s ground distance this evening. Thanks for the heads-up.

I agree with Kain. Most spirit are in a good spot.

The outlier for me is Storm Spirit. Vuln is plentiful and the traited swiftness isn’t too useful for fights that stay in spirit range.
The stun is nice but you have to lure your target to the spirit and sacrifice it. Not tactfully sound.

Now I don’t know how you might fix it… Maybe traited pulse 1 sec quickness instead?

EDIT: Oh and Water Spirit is just…it’s just bad.

What bugs me more is the pole/signpost stuck through the right lion statue. :/

kdaddy.5431:

Chrury.4627:

I’m going to make a general statement that applies to your questions.
Not every balance change is relevant to your skill level or game-mode.

As an example, I have never played a War. If I face one in PvP, there are only a couple attacks that I can see coming and dodge. Headbutt and Shield Bash may have obvious animations but, as I’ve never played one, I simply can’t pick them out of the flurry of actions going on in a given fight. For players of my skill level and below, the change gives us just a hint of extra breathing room against Wars.

The game should not be catering to you.

Like many posts before the game can not be balanced around the average to below average player.

When facing Plat players and above they are already dodging the skills that players want to land.

There is a reason alot of players could carry in X area. I myself could carry in Gold 2 and sometimes 3. The game should not cater to me, there are much better players then myself.

The NBA changes the rules for its best players, they added a 3 point line because there were great shooters. They moved it back because it was too easy, 5 sac back down rule because of great post up players. Zones because players like shaq were too dominant and teams needed more ways to help.

You dont change the game because some guy who couldnt make it to the NBA wants to be in the NBA.

That’s an interesting analogy. The difference is NBA teams search for and train the best players they possibly can. And yet, not only have the NBA rules been “buffed” and “nerfed” to help or hinder certain player types, but the rules also have variations for WMBA, college, highschool, whatever little league is in basketball, and casual play. How many people are going to call a stringent 5 second hold in a pickup game?

Basketball rules set what is allowed. GW2 rules set what is possible and every skill level plays at the same time. Balancing is hard and slow because ANet has to think about what is best for the game as a whole, not any one group of players. That includes the above average / top tier players.

Weak as my anecdote was; that is my point. Balance is (and has to be) game-wide and not for any one player or players.

I’m going to make a general statement that applies to your questions.
Not every balance change is relevant to your skill level or game-mode.

As an example, I have never played a War. If I face one in PvP, there are only a couple attacks that I can see coming and dodge. Headbutt and Shield Bash may have obvious animations but, as I’ve never played one, I simply can’t pick them out of the flurry of actions going on in a given fight. For players of my skill level and below, the change gives us just a hint of extra breathing room against Wars.

1: Yes. It is perfectly fine that some builds have an easier execution than others, regardless of how effective they are. ( I play hammer guard in raids more often than not and its rotation is mostly AA. )
2: I would try to balance power and condi to be about the same. Dealing damage in GW2 isn’t mechanically hard on any build. If anything, I would change % of health taken as damage attacks to be affected by toughness instead.
3: From my raiding experience, only the War is in every group but those three are meta for good reason. Other classes can heal but Druid gives spirits, perma fury (Tiger), and GotL. Chrono has low personal DPS but quickness+alacrity gives them a place in the team. War is good dps and easy might gen.
Having other directly comparable options would be nice but there are only a limited number of boons to upkeep. How do you add or nerf things without making the classes generic?
4: I think new specialized roles would have to be determined by the raid encounters. Like attacks that can be blocked but not evaded or a boss that only takes damage from crits. Otherwise it’s up to boons. And if you have healer/Chrono/might available; do you really need aegis or perma fury or protection?

It is a pickle.

I can all but guarantee that Vuln has never degenned break bars.
In addition to the player scaling as mentioned, is it possible that you aren’t corrupting boons or transferring conditions as much? The Jade cannons throw cripple and slow through Spectral Agony and gain boons from Power of the Bloodstone. Doing both would hit them with at least half of the CC conditions.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiance_Bar

Not every condition affects the break bar. Fear, Taunt, Immob, Chill, Blind, Weakness, Slow, and Cripple are the soft CC effects that work. The other conditions work as on normal mob, including Vuln.

I would suggest trying W4 in general. Cairn → Mursaat Overseer → Samarog are pretty easy to understand and clear regularly. Worst part is Samarog is a LONG fight. Upside is they are three bosses in the same wing and you don’t need to rejigger your comp between fights.

Gors takes some getting used to but he’s not bad if your dps is good. If you’re doing VG – ghost run anyway, I’d give him a shot.

Here’s a couple suggestions:
The wardrobe in the bank is sorted alphabetically. Can we please do the same with the wardrobe options panel? It’s a mess!

Also, could we have a “Hide Gemstore Items” checkbox and a “Hide Black Lion skins” checkbox in the bank wardrobe? It’s great that you’re adding new stuff but it disrupts my collectivist streak.

I can agree on reducing cast time on RaO er… Strength of the Pack and Signet of the Wild. That or make the first pulse of Stab apply on activation to cover the rest of the cast time. Either would help them in the middle of a fight.

I would like to clarify a minor thing though:

signets usually don’t have cast time.

Signets have a variable cast time like most skill types. There are instant cast signets like Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Agility but there are also cast time signets like all the heal slot signets, Signet of Inspiration (0.75 sec), and all the way up to the elite Signet of Courage with a whopping 3.25 sec cast time.
A lot of them have short cast times but most have something.

Loop.8106:

What I’d like to see is having a way for pvpers to unlock skins.

Kinda like the old pre-wardrobe system for those that remember that. Unlocking Rabbit – Dragon chests containing Less Prestigeous -> Very Prestigeous items.
Having a way of mystic forging the skins you already had unlocked / didnt like to gamble for new and better skins.

Soooo, reward tracks?
I’m not saying they’re perfect but that’s a large part of why they’re there.
My only beef is you only get one unique skin per completion of the legacy and glorious tracks. Makes collecting those a drag.

I’ll throw my hat in the ring here. YMMV.
Sw/T – SB Core Ranger

I don’t think this will be winning anything higher than mid-gold but I had fun/success with this build in S5.

I’m not a fan of druid so I personally try to avoid it. Luckily (?) you only really need skirmishing to get a condi ranger going. Beastmastery is nice but I found the extra survivability from Nature Magic and Wilderness Survival served me better. That’s also why I went with Deadshot amulet over Viper’s and dropped in Rune of Melandru. You could rejigger to maybe use Rune of Hoelbrak but my version doesn’t get too much might.

Mobility is decent with turn-around SB 3 and Sw2-2.

Lynx is your main dmg pet in this build, the secondary is flexible. Wolf and Black Moa are both good for CC, Bristleback is Bristleback and works well with all the bleeding. Carrion Devourer and a couple spiders work decently well for ranged condi. I liked having a range pet on this build for those times that Lynx overextends.

Despite the AoE of the traps and Bonfire, I generally spent a lot of time on SB waiting for the right time to jump in and burst. Holding points solo is tricky but can be done. Just lots of evades.

That’s just my version. Lots of things you could switch up to fit your style.

i have the Black Widow Spider pet already but its not showing in my hall of monuments i’m guessing i have to actually do something in the explorable area to unlock it.

To get the Black Widow available in the GW2 HoM, you have to get 30 HoM points. You having it in GW1 doesn’t matter, except to register on the Heroes/Pets altar. I think Black Widow counts as a rare pet though so it might give you an extra point.

You can totally still get 40/50 nowadays and you can do so almost completely solo. Getting 30/50 would be easier and is all you need to unlock all the HoM rewards. The last 20 are titles.

You just have to decide if it’s worth spending a few hundred hours in GW1 instead of GW2.

Both Muddy Terrain (the skill) and Soften the Fall (trait) have their niche uses. Outright deleting them would be a mistake IMO.

While I wouldn’t be against some reliable stealth for Ranger (LB3 never works when I need it >_>), that’s probably something to save for another elite spec/new skill type.

I’ll throw in my 2cents here and mirror some of the thoughts here.

I don’t swap for a couple of the reasons already listed.
-I logged on to play X character/class today.
-I don’t trust the load-times to get me back in time. It probably would be ok in most cases but it’s an unknown variable.

And knowing that, I’m fine with playing with or against a stacked team. I figure non-swappers are in the same boat as me.

Now if swapping characters or builds was as easy as TF2, I would absolutely swap around if it was really needed. As is though, we don’t have build saving or class selection on game start.

Why does this seem to happen only with thieves? Why not mesmer, necromancer, elementalist, engineer, ranger, or even revenant? Does every stubborn person have a thief alt “cuz stelth is cool”?

I’ve seen Ranger, Necro, Guard, and War stacked teams (3 or more) this season alone. It happens. Might vary based on ranking.

While I kinda agree with Shaogin (sword AA does so much cripple), have you considered Owl, White Moa, or Snow Leopard? Their F2 skills (that all do Chill) are attacks instead of howls so their dps will be better than Canines if F2 is used off-cooldown.

I’m not sure how they’d work in WvW though.

Rising Dusk makes some good points and suggestions. I agree that on crit sigils are fine as a concept and that on kill sigils are meh. On interrupt sigils are interesting in concept but not really strong enough to take (Maybe on X/P Thief?).

My suggestion would be to look at filling out what you have already. Add the missing conditions and stats to the options even if they might be silly.

+5% Crit Damage
+5% Health
+5% Armor
+5% Healing (I guess Transference is kinda like this already)

On Crit/Hit, inflict:
- Poison
- Blind
- Cripple
- Burn

+20% Blind duration
+20% Slow duration
+20% Torment duration

Some of these might be silly now but who knows about the future. Maybe Thief will get a ranged spec that does +10% damage versus blinded foes!

UmbraNoctis.1907:

For dps it is usually better to just use one pet, especially in condi builds/with lynx, because condis from the pet stop dealing dmg after swapped out and the pet loses boons.

Wait, pet conditions die on pet swap? Really? Wow.
If that’s the case, then yeah, stick with Lynx.

If that bug wasn’t there; I’d suggest Tiger (if fury is needed), Bristleback, Spiders, or Carrion Devourer. But if you lose the pet conditions on swap, there’s no point in swapping for Poison Master procs.

Uh, Anet bugfix plz?

Unless you’re raiding, feel free to take what you like. But if you want a more concrete answer, I can recommend:
Lynx, Tiger, Wolf, Bristleback, and even the spiders.
The first four will work for you in most situations.

If you need more CC, try Pink or Black Moa.

HeadCrowned.6834:

‘’Ignore him.’’ If you want to get better at PvP, do not run this build as it won’t learn you to improve your gameplay. If you just melt some enemy players because they don’t expect you to run this build, its fun. But this is more based on luck than anything else. You are not mobile, you melt in team fights, and other classes fullfill your role in better way. Your possibilities are so limited with this build, that you’ll have to play PvP in a very specific way, and that way will not improve your gameplay.

But again, having fun is more important.

Apologies. “Ignore him” was a quick and poor choice of words on my part and came off as harsher than I intended.

I would like to poke at your notion that a limited build won’t (or can’t) improve your gameplay though. If you go into a fight and your build has a known weakness, you should be watching for and dealing with or avoiding those times when it’ll hurt you the most. You’ll gain the skill to mitigate that problem, no matter what skills/traits might get nerfed. If you play only meta, what happens when the build is no longer effective or carries you?
For example; if you’re less mobile (shortbow 3 and sword 2 are great BTW), you have to consider more of where you should be as it takes more time to get there. And that map awareness is a skill that carries over to all classes.

But I will agree with you. Fun > Effective most of the time.

AkantorCZ.8952:

HeadCrowned.6834:

Condi ranger is fun to play, but basically its not viable in pvp. But fun beats viable offseason.

Why not viable in pvp?

Ignore him. While there will always be builds that are the strongest on paper, what is “viable” depends on your skill level vs. the skill level of your opponents. If what you have works, great! If something in particular is giving you trouble, maybe adjust your build to account for that.

I ran condi Ranger (not even Druid) in Season 5 and was climbing steadily as appropriate to my skill level. Here’s what I was running LINK
Sure, it has its weaknesses. But as you play a build you learn to play or build around them. In my case, I needed more help with conditions so I took deadshot, rune of melandru, and nature magic. That combo helped me outlast many opponents, even if it isn’t necessarily a bunker build.

Annoying but I don’t think it’s a new thing. I’ve had the issue you mention for at least a couple balance patches. Infrequent and/or random but there.

I’ve found that doing a quick F3 will usually reset the pet, then F1 or F2 to continue as normal. You don’t have to wait until it returns all the way either, just have him turn around.

Chokolata.1870:

Hopefully we get a coherent condition build in the near future. As much as I am enjoying condition DPS ranger in PvE, it is simply not possible in PvP. The traits simply do not work well with utilities, and the utilities themselves have no utility. Talking mainly about traps here.

I’m interested in hearing what ya’ll think a “coherent condi build” would look like.

I actually used a condi ranger (not even druid) in Season 5. Viper’s was only ok as it was so glassy. I had to make some hard decisions to fix where the build was lacking. In the end; I took Deadshot amulet and Rune of Melandru and even dropped Beastmastery for Nature Magic. And I actually took Trapper’s Expertise over pre-nerf Sharpened Edges. It’s not an easy win by any means, but I built to overcome the challenges the other players were throwing down and did better as a result. At what tier is condi ranger not effective?

So I guess my question is: if there was one trait in every tier that was the best, no argument, for condi, why would you run anything else? If you made sharpened edges baseline, wouldn’t that reduce build diversity?

Let’s not get crazy guys. The traits are in their place for at least a couple reasons: Flexibility and Choice.

As it is, Skirmishing is a flexible offensive traitline because it has minor traits that have the same effectiveness regardless of build. Moving strictly condition based traits from major to minor here would hamstring power builds. And “hunters tactics to have 10% increased crit chance on bleeding foes”? What good is that on LB/GS or Sw/T?

Second: Choice. If you move sharpened edges to minor, what’s the major? Right now, you have a significant choice whether you’re condi or power. For Condi do you take bleed on crits or do you buff flame trap and viper’s nest? For Power, do you want some vigor to stay alive or buff the other traps?

Look, I can agree that the nerf is kinda eh. But come on it still has no cooldown. It’s still effective and a viable choice. And it should stay a choice.

I’ll just pop in here and say that, in my experience, Muddy Terrain is a situational PvE skill more than anything else. When you need to stop/slow mobs from reaching something. Subject 6 oozes and Spirits on Gorsival in particular.

I wouldn’t be against a cast-time reduction for more PvP play but the now 3 seconds immob (6 on Vipers!) is pretty sweet when you need it.

Hmm. I guess I’m the only guy who would want to see shield then.

Hammer would be a close second for me.

Jim Hunter.6821:

You already have access to those pets through GW2, you just don’t have access to the unique HoM skins. In fact, in the Pink Moa’s case, you actually have access to a better version of the same pet because anet never bothered to update the Black Moa when they updated the skills.

You’re correct except for the Black Moa. ANet updated both pets on the same patch.

While it’s true that the Pink Moa got reduced aftercast on F2, it only gets one 2 second daze or 200 breakbar damage. The Black Moa version has the original, longer aftercast but deals three 1 second dazes for 300 breakbar damage.

Why they weren’t normalized in the past year, I’ll never know. If only both had the reduced aftercast AND the three 1 second dazes. I can dream.

Just like your primary weapon, secondary weapons are up to personal preference. If you plan on doing open world/map completions, consider grabbing a warhorn for your off set. The swiftness from WH5 will get you around faster. Axe mainhand will work decently with it and is a hybrid weapon like shortbow.

If you’re starting with Exotic equipment, go with Rampager’s as it’s cheaper. Viper’s can be great if you can afford it (I use a Viper’s SB – A/T build in raids) but getting the full set can get expensive or tricky.

For sigils, I’d suggest Sigil of Agony (+ bleeding duration) and either Sigil of Blood (steal health)or Sigil of Earth (bleed on crit).

Rune of the Ranger is a solid and easy pick.

Of the pets you mention, only the wyverns are meh IMO. They have decent CC but they don’t hit too hard. I would personally go with Pink Moa over Lightning Wyvern if you need the CC (except for Gorsival). Rest are fine.

As for Entangle, try it out. Especially in a condi/hybrid build like you’re building, it can do some great damage to 5 non-champion enemies. You’ll have to decide if you need help with groups or if the buffs from “SotP” will get you through. They’re both good.

Up to you if you want to add in a trap. Only Frost Trap is lackluster. Feel free to try them out.

Hi and Welcome.

Wow lots of questions. Let’s see here.

What you have is just fine for open world PvE. Map completion, world bosses, etc. I would only suggest trying the shout trait (Beastmastery Adept Major 3) and taking “We heal as one”. It will also help “Strength of the Pack” and “Sic ’em”. Then drop Signet of the Wild for Lightning Reflexes. This way you have better burst heal, regen on shouts, you can remove four conditions on command and get away from where the conditions are happening.

If you’re planning on maining shortbow, you’ll want a balance of power and condition damage. Precision and Ferocity will boost your power damage as well.

As to where to get it, you have a few options. Dungeon token vendor, the karma vendors in Orr, crafting it yourself, but the quickest option is the Trading Post. Especially for off-meta sets, a set of exotic armor and an exotic shortbow shouldn’t cost more than 10g. Then you can customize from there. The accessories might be a bit more but don’t be afraid to play with what you have until you can afford what you want. The laurel vendors are your main source for Ascended accessories.

If you want to get into WvW/PvP (and even fractals), I would suggest first looking at Metabattle’s Ranger Page . Whether you choose to follow one or not; look over a few builds and learn how things work together.

Also, Healing Spring is a trap.

VanishingClimax.2604:

5g for a certain Rune but you search it up and you can get the same one from a Vendor with enough Ley-line and 2g. If i buy the PvE rune, does it unlock it for pvp also? or do i really have to buy that locked PvP rune just to use in PvP only?

You do have to buy the PvP version to use it in PvP. Because it’s just that, a version.

In PvE, you buy 1 rune that goes on 1 piece of armor. To get all six effects, you need to buy 6 of the rune and apply it to 6 equipped pieces of armor. So your 2g becomes 12g.

In PvP, you buy the rune once for the PvP build and you get all six effects when you equip it via the build panel. Not a bad deal for the more expensive runes.

Even as someone who plays Trap/Condi Ranger, I’ll agree that you do lose some (or a lot of) utility taking traps over other options.

I’d just like to address this here:

With no utilities other than traps, how do you propose to remove the condis?

There are more ways than just utilities to remove conditions. I’m currently using NM/Evasive Purity along with other survival traits. There is also Sigil of Generosity and Sigil of Purity. And to make everything hurt less, I take Rune of Melandru for -25% condi duration on self.

And Healing Spring (heal trap) cures a condition on trigger and every 2 seconds active.
(6 total). With this setup and careful positioning, I can generally survive the average condi bomb.

Now I will admit that I’m probably not at that level where builds stop working (I’m only mid-silver) but there are options.

We Heal as One is one of, if not the, best heal skill Rangers have. It’s a burst heal with good numbers and has a great cooldown trait. It’s a safe and effective choice in most situations.

Fortifying Bond copies boons one way: from you to your pet. The duration is fixed by the trait but if you get swiftness, your pet will also get some swiftness. If both you and your pet get a boon at the same time, like say Warhorn 5 by yourself; you will get the boons on the tooltip, while your pet will get the boons on the tooltip + the stacks and duration from the copied version.

WHaO copies boons both ways. Your pet gets a copy of everything on you and you get a copy of everything on your pet. You can use this to keep boons up and stack might for short periods.

So for example, cast Warhorn 5 (Call of the Wild) on you and pet (no FB yet). That’s 3 Stacks of Might on both of you. WHaO copies the boons both ways and now you both have 6 stacks. Warhorn 5 with FB will give you 3 stacks and your pet 6 stacks (boon + copy of yours). WHaO and you now both have 9 stacks.

Another good trick is to pair WHaO with Strength of the Pack. SotP to Longbow 2 to Longbow 5 then WHaO and suddenly you and your pet both have 25 stacks of might. This will work with any pet but a Bristleback F2 in there will really keep things ticking.

That said, to use it effectively, use it as a heal skill first, boon copy second.

Fluffball.8307:

I had an interesting experience today from the “enemy” point of view. I’ve been playing condi warrior in a pathetic attempt to finish the backpiece. My overall win percentage has plummeted to a rather hysterical 40%, so I’m really not good at it. Went up a guy I knew was a condi druid, totally ignored everything he did, intentionally stood in his traps, and just spiked him down. There just isn’t enough damage vs sustain on a condi druid.

To be fair, I haven’t found a Ranger build yet that could counter a War. Might just be me but that’s a fight I usually need a +1 against.

Heya Benny,
I went through most of HoT (including the end mission) and LS on a core Ranger build similar to this : Ka-LINK:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9CilsAusActgh9gqL4eYI+44IW+92DgEoiVqB-TRAVAAw+DAA-e

If it fits your style; it has some good utility. Range when it’s dangerous, GS when it’s less so. Condi clears on your survival skills and shouts for everything else.

Pet selection is personal preference. HoT and after has a lot of breakbars so I went for wolf and Black Moa to help me solo them. Black moa is currently the best CC pet for breakbars thanks to a bug/unintended revert and its damage is decent. Lightning Wyvern is ok for groups but has trouble hitting small targets. If you don’t’ have Black Moa, I’d go Pink Moa over Wyvern for consistency.
If you have a Tiger, that can help fuel Remorseless.

I don’t remember my exact gear but I know I wasn’t all Zerk. I liked having a buffer so mistakes weren’t so punishing. I think I was at around 1400 toughness, 2000 Power, and 1400 Vitality (or 20,000 health). Not meta by any means but I liked being able to just wade through some sections with GS.

Shovel Face.4512:

CMM.6712:

You will need one of the non-expansion games besides having EOTN. If you can tell us what pieces exactly we can tell you more accurately what you would need to do.

Heritage Jerkin and Heritage Boots. And Heritage armguards if 3 HoM points equals 3 armor pieces? They’re all from medium set.

And what do you mean non expansion game?

You will need to buy Prophecies (the original), Factions, or Nightfall plus EotN to gain the bonuses.

If you just want the Jerkin and the Boots, the 3 points will be enough. You’ll gain access to the skins for boots, chest, and pants for all three weight classes. If you want gloves, you’ll need an extra point.

Depending on the version you get, you might get a free minipet that would give you one more point. Otherwise, you’ll need to actually play the game for a bit.

Good stuff. How’s it feeling now? Are you missing the bit of cripple and bleeding you used to have?

Hey, thanks for the videos! It really helps.
Noticed a big downside to always being ranged. You don’t get to use your sweet finisher too often! :p jk
On a serious note, I noticed something about your opening bursts. You generally go QZ + SotH -> Rapidfire. One small tweak to try: do QZ + Rapidfire then SotH + Autoattack. Attack of Opportunity from the signet only applies to the first arrow you hit with and Rapidfire’s arrows individually do 1/2 or less damage then the AA at any range.
This is assuming they don’t block after Rapidfire is over.

Oh, and a small optimization: when SotH is on recharge, try looking into doing a quick turnaround + shortbow 3 to get around a bit quicker. You won’t lose time if you mess up and weapon swap is eliminated when OOC so you can get back on longbow right after.

Yannir.4132:

The idea is not to stack 1 condi to the maximum, but to stack many different condis fast enough to produce a burst.

^QFT here. You’ll want quick and/or constant application of a few conditions to override clears.

There’s no readily available builds I can find but for love of all that is holy, do not use shortbow.. S/T or A/T will serve you much better as sources of condi. Staff is pretty much mandatory for the mobility it provides.

I’ll disagree here. Feel free to take shortbow with S/T or A/T. Shortbow is a good utility/hybrid weapon so long as you have a good swap. The daze/stun and immob are a great help in team fights.

Here’s what I’ve been running as an example. Build LINK
Feel free to swap Nature Magic for Druid.