Showing Posts Upvoted By Dennis.2068:

Eis' Bleeding Ranger Build

in Ranger

Posted by: Atroras.9481

Atroras.9481

Hi all! I would like to share my pvp build here for discussion. =) I really enjoy this build as I feel I can fight/survive rather well. Without further ado, here is the build:

Traits:
0/10/30/0/30

10 – Skirmishing

  • Agility Training – Pets move 30% faster.

30 – Wilderness Survival

  • Expertise Training – Pets deal extra condition damage.
  • Oakheart Salve – Gain regeneration for 5s when you suffer from bleeding, poison or burning. This can only trigger once every 20 seconds.
  • Empathic Bond – Pets periodically take conditions from you.

30 – Beastmastery

  • Speed Training – Pets recharge their skills 10% faster.
  • Rending Attacks – Drake, feline, devourer, and shark pets bleed on critical hit with their basic attacks.
  • Natural Healing – Your pets have natural health regeneration.

Runes:

  • 2 Superior Runes of the Afflicted – +28 Condition Damage, +15% Bleed duration
  • 2 Superior Runes of the Centaur – +28 Power, +15% Bleed duration
  • 2 Superior Runes of the Krait – +28 Condition Damage, +15% Bleed duration

Trinkets:

  • Rabid Amulet with Rabid Jewel

Weapons:

  • Shortbow with Sigil of Superior Agony (Increased Inflicted Bleeding Duration: 10%)
  • Greatsword with Sigil of Superior Geomancy (Bleeding upon Swap)

Utilities (slots 6-10):

  • Troll Unguent – You and your pet regenerate health over time.
  • Sharpening Stone – Bleed foes with your next five attacks.
  • Signet of Renewal – Passive: Cures a condition every ten seconds. (Stun Breaker)
  • Signet of the Wild – Passive: Grants health regeneration to you and your pet.
  • Entangle – Entangle your foe. They are immobile until the vines are destroyed.

Pets:

  • Lynx – Rending Pounce (Leap at a foe and make them bleed.)
  • Jaguar – Stalk (Gain stealth.)

Explanation:
This build revolves around a single concept: Bleeding.
From the runes and sigil of agony, all bleeding duration are increased by 55%, and bleeding comes from multiple avenues:

  • Crossfire (Shortbow auto attack)
  • Sigil of Geomancy when swapping to GS for melee
  • Maul (Greatsword #2)
  • Sharpening Stone utility (next 5 attacks bleed)
  • Entangle (immobilize and bleeding roll into one)
  • Feline’s Maul ability (Slash a foe multiple times and make them bleed.)
  • Lynx’s Rending Pounce
  • BM traited pet’s Rending Attacks (bleed on crit)

Heal:
Taking Troll Unguent over Healing Spring is because the main condition removals come from 2 passive avenues: Signet of Renewal and Empathic Bond, and if need be, Signet of Renewal active acts as an instant condition cleanser as well as a stun breaker. Thus Troll Unguent with irremovable healing and highest heal is superior in this case.

Traits:
Agility Training over Sharpened Edges because Sharpened Edges apply only 1 stack of bleeding for 1 second (albeit buffed to 1.55s) proccing on 66% chance (wiki) as well as only apply on critical hits (which this build has 37%) is simply inferior to the 30% movement speed buff. And pets (cats in this case) do require that extra movement speed to catch up on enemies. (you can test this easily on the moving golem in HoTM)

Speed Training is simply because most of the time when I’m deeply concentrated on the dueling (dodging, healing, apply bleeds, utilities etc.) I simply forget to activate F2 many times. (I know. You can say that I’m simply unskilled, but this is what I observed) Due to this negligence, I simply prefer to let my cats run wild. And with Speed Training, Agility Training and 30 points in BM, my pets hardly need my attention. For those of you who prefer more micromanaging of your pets, Commanding Voice or Mighty Swap are great alternatives too.

With 300 healing power from 30 in BM, Signet of the Wild gives 80 passive heal per sec and as you might notice by now, I’m incredibly lazy. (2 passive condition removals, ignoring dear Lynx and Jag) the passive healing is more than welcome an addition to my utility belt. The only thing I need to worry in battles are focusing on weapon attacks, dodging, and that Sharpening Stone utility which I only need to use every 45s. Of course, Entangle as an elite has such a great synergy with this build that Rampage as One is simply ignored. (I also notice I hardly use RaO as compared to Entangle when I’m in a tight spot)

Of course, as per all builds, this build is very suitable and comfortable for me to use, and I think the main thing in finding the right build for you is that sweet spot where you like what you use and can survive well in it. (You can see why I dislike trapper build. 2 or 3 traps to use every 16-20 secs is O.O complicated. Also, GC (glass cannon) builds has such low survivability I find myself trying to survive more than dealing damage. A dead ranger deals no damage >.>)

Feel free to trial and error with this build to your liking, and I hope you enjoy this build bleeding people as much as I do! =)

Cheers!
Eisteria

Eisteria. Asuran Ranger.

Busting the Myth of Useless Pets

in Ranger

Posted by: jubskie.3152

jubskie.3152

So you’re interested to try out the Ranger class and went to do some research. You went to the official forums and you get pages full of whining about “Pets are useless!?”

Fear not! Because this guide is here to help you get familiar with the Pets in GW2 so you can decide if the Ranger Class is for you!

What is the Ranger Class?

The Ranger Class is the Pet class of GW2 mixed in with the Archer class and a bit of melee to fit the woodsman theme. Picking the Ranger is essentially picking 2 characters to control. Think Syllabear in DotA. That comes with its pros and cons, which is discussed below. Lets start off with the Cons, and my counter arguments after it.

Why are people Complaining about Pets?

Because The Ranger’s damage is balanced to account for both the Ranger’s and the Pet’s damage. This gives several issues for most people but these are the main reasons:

1. No 5 digit crits for the Rangers. People like big numbers and they don’t get it, hence the whine.

2. The Pet AI is weak. Pets have a hard time hitting fast moving targets and has been raised so many times by so many people. When the pet accounts for a substantial portion of your damage and it isn’t hitting, its gonna incite lots of QQ.

3. The Pets suffer from pathing issues. If you jump down from a ledge, the pet won’t jump down with you. It will look for the shortest walkable path and run through that…dragging along all the aggressive monsters that it walks by. Needless to say, that’s very annoying if not deadly. Then there’s the issue of getting into Battle Mode because your pet started attacking.

4. Pets die really fast. They die to AoE even faster. This is more apparent in dungeons where dodging is absolutely necessary to survive. See a boss winding up for a OHKO and you successfully dodge it? Well, your pet didn’t. It’s dead and you have to swap it out and wait for a full minute before you can swap to it again.

Counterpoints

Things are looking grim eh? If you’re turned off, I wouldn’t blame you. I’ve experienced all of these as well and I know that these are all very valid and all very real.

But! It’s not all that bad for Rangers once you understand pet mechanics. Let me refute those 4 points above.

1. Rangers aren’t designed for spike damage, they are constant, steady DPS. Rangers deal the same damage as other high damage classes given a set period of time on a single target. Yes, we wont see 10k crits anytime soon, but we get lots of quick 2k double crits from birds and felines instead.

2. Pets not hitting fast moving targets is definitely a big issue, but Rangers have a lot of tools to help our pets along. We have access to a LOT of cripples and immobilizes. Spike Trap, Frost Trap, Muddy Terrain in utilities, Crippling Shot on the Shortbow, Chilling Bite on the Axe, AoE cripple via Barrage and Pushback on the Longbow. The pets themselves even have their own versions: Canine and Porcine pets have knockdowns, some Arachnids have immobilize and Devourers have a pushback skill. Think of snaring someone as marking them for your pet, and you should see it hitting more reliably.

3. Pet Pathing is more of a PvE issue and it is very annoying when travelling in Orr. Pet gets aggro, you enter battle mode and the movespeed slows down. Annoying? Definitely. Avoidable? YES! Here’s something most people dont know: Rangers only enter battlemode once the pet starts attacking. If you put the pet into Avoid Combat mode, you won’t enter Battlemode because the pet wont retaliate. As for the pathing, this can be solved easily by swapping pets once you get to the bottom. No more pet running off and aggroing everything! Simple eh?

4. As for the Pets dying a lot, this can be somewhat mitigated by putting points in the Beast Mastery Trait line, but it’s really up to ANet to help us here. One other reason pets die a lot is because it’s master neglects it. Even worse, is the master sends it off to fight in melee and expect it to survive when the Ranger itself can’t survive that scenario. If you see that big bad Risen Abomination charging up for its smash attack, call your pet back before the animation finishes. Most people just let the pet take the hit and then complain. Another possible solution is to use ranged pets, just remember that they only have 900 range on their attacks, so they will be slightly ahead of you if you’re at 1200 range (or 1500 if you’ve traited the longbow).

Extraordinary Gentlemen [EXG] Desolation
Doing It With Style
www.exg-guild.com