Guild Wars 2

To answer your question about Longbow/Shortbow. I’ve only personally seen the combination used in PvP with Hybrid builds. It lacks movement and defensive options, so it is a rare thing to see, but nevertheless it is seen. For PvE, I don’t think it’s a great option since you’ll be killing off alot of AoE cleave capability that you would have with most melee weapons, unless you run both Piercing traits for both bows. If you find it fun though, more power to you.

I don’t usually stick with a static rotation when I’m fighting, it’s almost always improvised depending on the scenario.

However, there is a general rotation for dps which goes a little like this:

Barrage
Rapid Fire
[Move into melee range while rapid firing]
Hilt Bash
Maul
Auto attacks

Counter Attack is useful in melee range if u want to do more damage while maintaining defense. Swoop for gap closers/escapes or an evade while attacking. Constant auto attacks with GS can upkeep evades and reduce incoming damage on the third auto. Switch to LB if you need to disengage to range dps.

Options for stealth are LB 3 or GS 3 into smoke fields.

I find GS to be the superior melee option compared to Sword/Axe for general play due to the increased survivability, burst dps and CC. Of course, against HP sponges, Sword/Axe will do more dps overall, but it’s normally against stationary targets and u require the Skirmishing trait line for Quick Draw to make full use of Path of Scars.

A few extra things to note: With GS, you should time interrupts correctly to optimise the trait Moment of Clarity. I’ve almost always found that trait to be superior to Steady Focus for general play, as you won’t be dependent on keeping your endurance bar full, as well as having a huge increase to burst dps when done correctly.

Hope that helps.

Hi SatanJunior. Your build already looks well put together of course for core ranger. But I’ll still try to answer your questions as best as I can though.

- Change Build? If yes, to what?

Depends what content you’re aiming to do.

For open-world PvE, I might suggest you switch Predator’s Onslaught for Lead the Wind for better AoE dps potential on Longbow. If you fear conditions, (the reason you have Healing Spring on I assume), you can switch out Skirmishing for Wilderness Survival (1, 2, 2) most specifically for the trait Wilderness Knowledge. This will give you room to experiment with either Troll Urguent or We Heal as One! as alternative heal skills.

For raiding/fractals/dungeons Druid is still considered the meta for Ranger builds, as GotL (Grace of the Land) is great for a group dps increase. So I would switch to Marksmanship/Skirmishing/Druid (with traits 2, 2, 1 in Druid) if you prefer a more meta approach to building for dps.

- Gear? Do I need to go for Ascended or is the exotic enough?

As many GW2 youtube personalities have stated many times, exotic gear is still capable of doing all the content in GW2. Upgrading to ascended gear is never a bad thing, but you don’t NEED it. I would suggest starting by first upgrading your weapons, then your trinkets, then thirdly your armour. In this order, you will be prioritizing the most important dps gear pieces.

- If I want to start raiding, fractals what should I do/change?

If you wish to start raiding, I would suggest changing your build entirely. A full Magi’s Druid is alot more manageable in PuG raids/fractals and even guild raids.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNQQNAW8Xn0rC1siFsCuqAEtiFGBjJc9tCAOjugVTD+pWVzqpEzxCzE-TRSBQB0UJoFuCAgS9HUohRfPAAAcQAGkuhlp8LL7PEAAB49uHA8zf+zf+zf2P/5P/5P/ZpA8bmF-e

Something along these lines will be beneficial to start with. After you learn some of the raid bosses or fractals enough, you can ease off on the amount of healing power/defensive stats you use and eventually use full berserker’s, however, I still prefer to use full Magi’s due to the ease of use.

On a broader note, use Superior Sharpening Stones now for extra power instead of Maintenance Oil if you remain using your current build.

My all-purpose Core Ranger build looks like this if you’re interested:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNQQJATRjUqQLL2wCmsAXLGWEqOC+8R4jiT4l3LPAO6UmWYmiB-TBCEABMt/o8rNdBGcBAA4QAQwDAI7jAwWKBTU9nAAIA38mZzbG48m38m38mnbezbezbezSBonyI-e

I hope you can find your preferred playstyle. Just remember to experiment with different combinations. Good luck.

Hahahahahahahaha

Agreed, make it happen Anet.

I actually really like ProtoMarcus’s design. The perfect circles I feel don’t match ranger’s aesthetics, but I can get on board with the whole ground sigils thing. Gotta agree though, the persistent fart is a bit much.

Agreed with everything Shadowpass has mentioned with Soulbeast.

I’d like to add that the specific survivability problems Soulbeast has is related to condition cleanse. I was running a Marksmanship, Beastmastery, Soulbeast setup and though I could swap out Marksmanship or Beastmastery for Wilderness Survival, it would either result in a build with lackluster burst damage or lack of movement capability. There just aren’t enough cleanse options on ranger (outside of Druid and Wilderness Survival) these days to counter the rise of many condition damage specs that have come into the game recently.

The heal stance alone on Soulbeast is not worth using in my experience due to it’s weak healing when not faced with condition damage specs. I’ve mostly found it better using no stances at all and running my original ranger utility setup as is.

I’ve found no real issues with the fluidity of the Beast Mode mechanic, however, I would like to see a “swap pet” available during its use. The cooldown can remain on exiting Beast Mode, but I feel the pet swap is necessary to enhance the playability of the spec.

So in conclusion, my thoughts:

- Improve cleansing options
- Pet Swap during Beast Mode
- Improve stances

It is a fun elite spec (and an increase in power dps), so it’ll definitely be seeing use from me in PvE (as I’ve mained Power Ranger for many years now). But as for now, it’ll sit on the sidelines for PvP.

Soften the Fall now casts Muddy Terrain on Heal Skill cast, so it’s mostly used as an extra survival skill to synergise with Wilderness Knowledge.

If you discount team-wide modifiers like Spotter, Frost Spirit and GotL. Power Reaper would do more damage. So that is on an individual or solo basis.

If you include those, Power Ranger does more overall damage by boosting allied damage. Which is based on group dps.

By how much specifically? It would depend on the composition of the group, eg) More difference in a Ranger/X/X/X/Ele group than Ranger/X/X/X/Engineer group.

Doing something wrong? Yeah, you’re using Shortbow lol. Best to stay away from it if you wanna do PvP on ranger.

No, since she has never exhibited this type of behaviour in the past as far as I can recall. I used to run dungeons frequently, and pulling her out of the room was (and still is) a widely accepted strategy, but if done incorrectly, she could lose line-of-sight and de-agro before she came down the stairs to fight in the open area. This either means Anet has changed the behaviour of the AI to now de-agro if away from her buddy for some amount of time (the randomness of the de-agro does not support this hypothesis), or it’s a bug which has come into existence relatively recently.

Again, nothing to get your panties twisted about, but a bug is a bug, nothing wrong with pointing one out.

Alchymista is right on this one guys. I’ve experienced the same bug when trying to solo the last boss of P1, and it happened a couple more times when I invited a few more people in after getting sick of the resetting. Even when pulled correctly, she seems to de-agro for no reason at any stage of the fight. It isn’t rare, it happens randomly during a prolonged fight with her.

I wouldn’t say it’s anything to be concerned about, since a full group shouldn’t run into this problem very often, but when you’re doing it with less people, the bug is quite apparent.

Try soloing it yourself, if you don’t believe me.

Git gud.

In all seriousness though, it isn’t buggy at all. People have already pointed out why it appears to be working as intended, most are just complaining about the reaction time required to dodge the initial throw… and to that, I refer back to the statement above. This isn’t the first skill that has a 1/4s cast time or less, you just need to know how to predict when these sorts of skills will be used. That’s a thing you need to learn how to do if you want to be good at the game, or PvP in any game for that matter. Predict it or be quicker. That’s not even counting for flight-time if thrown from a distance, it should be quite easy to dodge then.

Also, the fact that you can kinda disable the pull function on the GS #5 by dodging as it is cast doesn’t appear to be working as intended. It appears to be a bug, but nothing too serious to fix since it adds some counter-play to the skill. Most other pulls seem to work in a similar fashion (perhaps even spear pull) but don’t quote me on that since I haven’t done much in-depth testing on it.

I agree with Jim Hunter on this. I don’t zerg much in all honesty and my pet doesn’t die against 1vX even with my pet on guard stance since I mostly spam the living kitten out of the F3 button out of preference. It is a matter of how well people are at pet management, but even with my experience, it would make things so much better if they gave us, at the very least, a permanent stow option. That would be the easiest thing for Anet to implement, and as much as I liked the GW1 flag system, I don’t know how difficult it would be for them to create in GW2.

I know of many situations in both PvE and PvP where it would have served me greatly if I could just keep the pet stowed. In PvE for instance as I run through areas where you can’t avoid combat tag (which unstows the pet) or in PvP where people can and will (I do it all the time against other rangers) exploit the pet in some fashion, (eg. hunter’s shot for stealth or even GS auto spam if I’m desperate for a dodge).

Both QoL updates to the pet – Permanent Stow and Flag System – are necessary to round-off the pet as a mechanic. For now, all we can do is deal with what we got (obviously).

Name: Edrick Vikrant
Server: Dragonbrand
Type: PvX

The numbers you give are actually slightly off, I’ll correct you on them all, given the adjustments Anet made to the original equations (you can read the specifics yourself).
http://tinyurl.com/j3m6md6

Given the equations from the Wiki:
(these will change in time, so I won’t post links)

Cosmic Ray | 650 + 0.4*HP -> 325 + 0.608*HP
Seed of Life | 500 + 0.5*HP -> 400 + 0.665*HP
Lunar Impact | 2452 + 1.1*HP -> 1618.32 + 1.793*HP
Rejuvenating Tides | 810 + 0.35*HP -> 648 + 0.5005*HP

Equating these to each other gives the break points (you can check the math yourself if you wish):

Cosmic Ray | Healing Power = 1562.50
Seed of Life | Healing Power = 606.06
Lunar Impact | Healing Power = 1203.00
Rejuvenating Tides | Healing Power = 1076.41

These are the real break point values of the CA form skills. What this means is, if you have more Healing Power than these values above (eg. >1562.50 HP for Cosmic Ray or >606.06 HP for Seed of Life), those skills on an individual basis will do more healing than they did before the changes.

Inversely, any Healing Power below these values will result in a lower effectiveness due to the changes (this goes for zerker/viper’s druids especially).

To clarify, I’ll compare the effect this change has made for High and Low Healing Power builds.

For simplicity sake, I’ll be using 1700 Healing Power for “High” and 0 Healing Power for “Low”.

1700 Healing Power results:
Cosmic Ray | 1330 -> 1358.6 | Improvement = +2.15%
Seed of Life | 1350 -> 1530.5 | Improvement = +13.37%
Lunar Impact | 4322 -> 4666.42 | Improvement = +7.97%
Rejuvenating Tides | 1405 -> 1498.85 | Improvement = +6.68%

0 Healing Power results:
Cosmic Ray | 650 -> 325 | Improvement = -50% (nerf)
Seed of Life | 500 -> 400 | Improvement = -20% (nerf)
Lunar Impact | 2452 -> 1618.32 | Improvement = -34% (nerf)
Rejuvenating Tides | 810 -> 648 | Improvement = -20% (nerf)

Conclusion:

There have been very minor improvements to CA healing effectiveness in High Healing Power builds and major nerfs to CA healing effectiveness in Low Healing Power builds. The specific amount to which it has been nerfed/improved will depend on how far you vary from the break points (mentioned above) of each of the skills.

Bast Bow.2958:

Aomine.5012:

I kinda knew it all along.

This balance patch will make non healing gear heal significantly less while with healing gear, you still heal less or just about the same.

Win-win situation on Anet’s part of gutting ranger down once more.

going full heal like full magi without food makes you at 1557 HP. With food even more 1757 HP, wouldn’t that make full magi more viable and not less or just about the same like you said?

edit with food

You are right.

I was wrong guys, OP is right, forgive me.

Okay, I doubled checked everything on GW2 Build Editor. Here’s the Math.

Precision Needed = (66 * 21) + 1000 = 2386

This will give 70% Critical Hit Chance, the 30% left-over is covered by fury (20%) and flanking (10%). Therefore totaling 100% Critical Hit Chance.

Full Berserker’s Gear = 1961 Precision
Full Berserker’s Gear + Buffed = 1961 + 320 (spotter and disc banner) = 2281

Since we need 2386 Precision, we are in fact 105 (2386 – 2281) Precision under the requirement for 100% Critical Hit Chance. Therefore, you can actually just make that up simply by using a Maintenance Oil (100 Precision) instead of Sharpening Stone (100 Power) and 1 Precise Infusion (5 Precision).

If you believe in the myth that you have 1% more Critical Hit Chance than it says at all times (I haven’t seen the evidence to support that it exists), you simply reduce the amount of precision in the build that is necessary by 21.

That is, the required Precision becomes 2365, making Full Zerker Gear 84 Precision less than what’s needed. 84 Precision can be made up by switching out your [Helmet, Shoulders, Body and Gloves] from Berserker’s to Assassin’s Gear. This will give you 99% Critical Hit Chance on your hero panel.

Conclusions: You don’t need Assassin’s Gear if the 1% myth isn’t true. You will need it if it is true. This should clear up everything regarding this matter. To make this work, you need to be flanking at all times in a fully buffed group.

Links to both builds:
http://tinyurl.com/gncjxlw (No Assassin’s Gear)
http://tinyurl.com/jtfh9dl (Assassin’s Gear)

Further Comments:

Yes, kiwituatara, you’re right, 150 AR gives (150*1.5) = 225 Precision, which is 225/15 = 15% Critical Hit Chance with the Offensive Fractal Potion (assuming you have the mastery).

By Min/Max, we’re talking about the correct allocation of offensive stats to maximise Effective Power. Effective Power is calculated by using the Formula:

Effective Power = Power*(1+CriticalHitChance*(CriticalHitDmg))
Effective Power = Power*(1+(((Precision-916)/2100)+ExtraCritChance)*((Ferocity/1500) +1.5)

Regardless of the formula itself, the concept can be used in determining “Tankyness” or Effective Health as well. For this situation though, (I won’t get into the math), it turns out as I mentioned in my earlier comment, that when you reach ~4300 Power, Ferocity and Precision start to take over as more important stats (Precision more than Ferocity). In other words, to optimise Effective Power in fully buffed scenarios, you need to get 100% Critical Hit Chance. From then on in, Ferocity > Power in normal (crit-able) circumstances.

Min/Max is not always referencing Minimum Defense, Maximum Offense. From the get-go, that’s already assumed. It’s more referencing the distribution of Power/Precision/Ferocity. All % Modifier Traits/Buffs will be used over direct stats as a general rule, since they scale exponentially together, which can be overpowered. This is why you get the DPS of Thieves and Elementalists. Not due to stats, but due to % Modifiers. On the other hand, it’s why Rangers and Mesmers have the lowest direct damage builds.

It’s because the builds are poorly optimised. It is necessary to incorporate assassin’s gear if you wish to min/max the dps on the build, however, you won’t reach 100% Critical Hit Chance without Superior Sigil of Accuracy and perhaps Truffle Steak food anyways.

Overall, with most min/max, the benefit is minute so don’t get too caught up on it. I recommend qT’s website for their builds, since they’re close to 100% optimised for dps. Alot closer than these.

Edit: Additionally, assassin’s gear only benefits you if you already have “too much” power, ~4300, where precision and ferocity start to take over as more useful stats to invest in. In other words, these builds really are only optimal for fully buffed situations (a perfect composition). So they don’t work as well compared to other stat arrangements for soloing.

Recheck everything. I have 180 AR on my character since I run full +10 Agony Infusions.

6 Infusion Slots in Armour
2 Infusions Slots in Weapons (If you have 2 weapon sets, you’ll need 4 Infusions)
6 Infusion Slots in Rings (assuming infused and attuned)
2 Infusion Slots in Accessories
2 Infusion Slots in Backpiece (assuming infused)
0 Infusion Slots in Amulet (they changed it to an enrichment slot)

Total = 18 Infusion Slots

Almost the exact same build that I play, however, I find myself having to use Steady Aim and Lead the Wind instead of Moment of Clarity and Remorseless because of the amount of stability spam in the game. Good players on proper “meta” builds will for the most part roll over you unless you have good backup teammates.

For the most part though, in my experience, Druid builds which use staff will be much more successful in their fights as reflects are far too common these days. But as an alternative build, it’s pretty decent I have to admit.

Nice tip on the Moment of Clarity + Remorseless pet nuke btw, that didn’t occur to me.

Anyways, gratz on Legendary.

I’ve fought some highly skilled Heralds on my Druid and those are near impossible to beat. In almost every scenario the fight has myself on the full defensive with the herald engaging every moment he can. In both condi and power builds they have the advantage with superior burst and sustain.

Unless you’re a god Druid, or you know that they’re not that great at Herald, don’t fight them.

Edit: Also, if you don’t use Staff, you’re most probably gonna get creamed either way.

I agree. While it doesn’t specifically need to be fishing for me, any relaxing social tasks would be a huge benefit to the game.

Outside of playing instruments or dancing in towns, there really isn’t anything to do in your downtime while playing. All I do is stand around in town, get bored and just AFK until I’m ready to do my next big thing (WvW/Fractals/Raids/etc).

I know it’s an old game, but Runescape is the game I always look to, to see well made casual skill progression and minigames.

My pre-HoT build went like this:
Read traits from top (1) to bottom (3).

Traits:
Marksmanship – 3, 3, 3 or 3, 2, 3 (former for cc, latter for dps)
Wilderness Survival – 2, 3, 2
Beastmastery – 3, 1, 2 or 3, 2, 2 (former for weakness on pet f2, latter for cds and dps)

Gear:
Full Berserker’s

Longbow – Air and (Fire or Blood) Sigils
Greatsword – Energy and Bloodlust Sigils
Armour – Runes of the Scholar/Ranger/Pack (Any of those work)

Infusions:
Full Power Infusions

Food:
Omnomberry Ghosts (or equivalent)
Sharpening Stones

Pets:
Wolf and Krytan Drakehound

Utilities:
“We Heal as One!”
Signet of Stone
Lightning Reflexes
Quickening Zephyr
“Strength of the Pack!”

Alternatives to the build can give similar results, however, this is the one I found the most amount of success with in my years of roaming on ranger in WvW.

Quick link: http://tinyurl.com/jy2hcz6

Hope that helps

I wonder if you could do a combination of the two lists of ideas.

The ones that I liked from the poll (Revised List):

- Add cross-map team chat.
- Add a display effect for Righteous Indignation on map markers.
- Add floating indicators when gaining points toward war score.
- Add a WXP-gain sparkle trail.
- Add a territory-control map overlay.
- Adjust score for capturing objectives.
- Rebalance the score awarded for activities that don’t reward points per tick.
- Take suggestions from the community! (Obviously)

The ones that I didn’t like from the poll (Not So Important):

- Add an option for reduced nameplate clutter.
- Add objective-summary tool tips.
- Reduce the impact of night capping.
- Lessen the gap between winning scores and losing scores so losing teams can still recover.
- Adjust objective score relative to upgrade level.

As an avid WvWer, I find that this revised list is better suited to what’s important to make WvW even greater. I tried to be as concise as possible in my preferences, just my 2 cents.

Thanks Anet

Yeah, currently using the 64 bit client, downloading patch at something like 1.1 Kb/s.

Not to worry though, cooking a pie

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Raven

My DPS tests with Viper stats from the other day.
Ranger: http://s1.postimg.org/os2rzyori/Ranger_Viper_DPS.jpg
Engie: http://postimg.org/image/5l4of0jbh/full/
Metabattle rotations used for both cases (even the 48 step Engie one)

About the Double GS… There is no double GS build as far as I know. I’m talking about this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ljux9o5FGM
That’s correct – it brings little Ranged possibilities but for day to day runs it’s amazing (even the pull from PoS is nice when you get used to it). Much more AoE and burst in comparison to the standard ZerkMeta Frost Spotter. Weaker tunnel phase, but much more vuln uptime.
All in all, it’s better when “on the move”. For zerking bosses down the melee LB+S/A is better. For that you are right.
But Remorseless BM build is viable for a specific content.

I hope you realise that you’re comparing a ranger with ~20 continuous stacks of might (assuming that herald stuck around as you were doing quick dps checks) against an engi with no might in those pictures.

And you’re considering condi ranger as our dps, which honestly, I don’t think any condi should be the main source of dps for ANY profession. Our condi trapper/whatever ranger is in a fine position atm, but is definitely leagues behind engi in that regard. Our main problems are with our direct damage builds and pets.

You keep putting a silver lining on ranger, I’ve seen you post on many of these threads, ranger is definitely not in a good place atm.

Edrick Vikrant at his finest with some fresh new armour.

Hyped for HoT beta! [Portal to Heart of Maguuma]

RoyalPredator.9163:

Hmm, your look is interesting, except the Bow… You’re Male…

I dunno what you’re on about! Flowers are super manly :P. Besides, it’s the only longbow legendary at the moment.

Been Ranger since Day 1, here’s mine. Ranger ftw

I’ve never been one to care about the Destiny’s Edge members at all… They all felt weak to me

While I was completing my storyline, they did kinda take my thunder quite a bit… GW1 did a better job at making me feel as I you was the important one in the story, instead of the tag-along.

Arenanet definitely could have done a better job with the morality stuff… I personally see my Human Ranger as dignified, but it definitely doesn’t show through any of the dialogue (its the same as everyone else) (and when I mean dialogue… I mean cutscenes). I kinda just have to keep thinking that he is what I know he should be and ignore whatever comes out of his mouth.

I remember back to Fable 2 when I think of a good morality system… Perhaps they could take some tips?

I’ve been able to flip lodestones on the market to value skill points up to ~30-40s each… Personally, I’d only value them at ~10-20s each (if they were able to be sold directly).

They’re just too easy to get. Plus, wouldn’t being able to buy them ruin the point in “leveling” beyond level 80? So I’d say their value is fine as it is at the moment (doing the siege upgrade method).

Agreed… The sanctum sprint has been a pain to do with the skill lag. But Oceanic servers wouldn’t really be a big concern (in my opinion) for them at this stage.

It is disappointing that games nowadays don’t actually give Aussies/Asians/NZ/etc players a separate server to play on from the get-go. It’s like we always have to get on our hands and knees and beg for one every time.