Guild Wars 2

I’m kind of tired of seeing these posts. Haven’t played in a while and still this question keeps getting asked.
So here just take it and go
Defensive variant
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kRFaF0KWwfF4axAHCFrA4dWUENr73tFq5MWJBZPA-
TpxHwABOEACOCAILDY4BA4Z/BAnAAA

Offensive Variant
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kRFaF0KWwfF4axAHCFrA4dWUE3s73tFq5M+ZFZPA-TpxHwAJLDE4QAI4IAY4BAA4EAge/BA

A more power/healing oriented BM build instead of your typical condition damage bleed stacking roll around while my pet hits you build.

I just threw this together quickly, has what you asked for and it seems pretty good in theory. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsYRjMq0vaBLWsw1aALhqZCEAvP1WNjdWCRQBbqA-TFSEABAcIA0SJ4SK/kU9nIeCAspPAm9Hc4EAQKAmEGB-w

Or here is a variation on the build I use, but with a sword instead of axe.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhF6kRF6XxWBxiF4axAHCFrA4dWksNr73tFq5TuS3qA-T1BIABzpEEgTBQyPBACV/xIlfhs/wZ6DIFATKjA-w

This is what I run.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kRFaF0KWwfF4axAHCFrA4dWksNr73tFq5TuS3qA-TpxHwACOEABOCAILDY4BAA4EAge/BA

Good condi removal, high swift uptime if not permanent. A leap and a blast finisher with healing spring and 1200hp is insanely good. You can get easy 25 stacks of might on your pet with RaO Horn#4 and a few axe autos. With Sic’em its hits like a truck.

What most people don’t know is that the Beastmastery GM trait Natural Healing also affects the Ranger as well. That’s what the pet species buff is. It heals the ranger for 133 every 3 seconds, or 177 if you have the compassion training trait, which translates to 44hp/s and 59hp/s respectively. This is a big part of what makes BM rangers so tanky.

Eggyokeo.9705:

I like it and a bit different from my normal type of play, looks like fun i think i may give it a go with celestial gear tonight.

If running only power gear would be inclined to take primal reflex over sharpening edged, in celestial gear not sure.

If you are going to go celestial I would do something more like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjMq0vaBLusQ1aAChaVA0OGm3UgdBEBPwJDqSsA-TVCEABMcIAEUJImq/QwDAwgLAgWK/Me/h+0FAwRAgUAmLMC-w

Since going cele you are losing quite a bit of power in return for more condi damage and healing power. You can do some serious damage with confusion with all the interrupting skills you have access too with Perplexity runes. I also added in some regeneration to utilize the healing power that you get from cele gear.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjEq0waBLusQ1aAChYVQ74yU2FRPF8pC-TVSEABPcIAA4IAMwDAQLlg0s/QBXAAmU+xmuAGV/hUAmLMC-w

I give you the build that I have been running for a while now. It’s an incredible roamer, there are very few opponents that will give you trouble. Has great stat distribution, leaving you hitting very hard but is still quite tanky. Can hit 100% crit chance with perception stacks and fury, which works wonders on the SB with Air and Fire sigils combined with Omnomberry ghost.

Normally you wouldn’t be using SB in a power spec, but I find that in order to use longbow effectively you need to invest 6 points into Marksmenship. Plus with the SB you can dance around your opponent procing bleeds and making you very difficult to fight against.

Moment of Clarity makes you hit like a truck with your GS if you can get an interrupt. Which is not too difficult as both your stun/daze skills are on 20 second cooldowns. You will become very annoying to fight against when you combine your 3 interrupting weapon abilities coupled with 2 canine knockdowns and the wolf fear.

Conditions are also not much of an issue with the constant cleanse due to empathetic bond and if you get a condi burst simply remove it with your elite on Lyssa rune proc. If they still are bothering you too much swap out signet of stone for renewal as you have ample amounts of toughness.

Traits are pretty straight forward, sharpened edges is optional, it can be swapped out for primal reflexes if you want more vigour. But I find that since we are sitting on 300 condition damage you might as well use it.

The only issue with the build I find is not having constant fury uptime, which can be addressed by using the Moa or swapping elites. Although I find Entangle works wonders with Lyssa runes.

So there you have it, tell me what you think. If you want to test it in tPvP I find this is the closest thing to the build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjEq0waBLusQ1aAChYVQ74yU2FRPF8pC-TpBFwACuAAx2fgxhAAxRAoaZAAPAAA

Edit
Celestial Version
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjMq0vaBLusQ1aAChaVA0OGm3UgdBEBPwJDqSsA-TVCEABMcIAEUJImq/QwDAwgLAgWK/Me/h+0FAwRAgUAmLMC-w

Boar Stun/Daze/Fear
You are losing a bit of survivability w/o the Fernhound but it is so worth it.
I can’t believe I forgot about this, thanks for pointing this out guys. So strong.

Try this,
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNMQJAVRjMq0vaBLOsQ1aAChYVQ74yU2FRPlMqKA-TlSFABrpDYhjAwBHCAAuAA9pEcS1fgZ/hqU+hmmgBeAAkCwchRA-w

I find that with SB/GS Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival Trait lines are the way to go. If you want to run a might build use Axe. This build will put out similar damage but has superior condi removal. You are missing a bit of fury uptime with it but it is still manageable with the precision and boons from the Lyssa runes and weapon swaps. I suppose if you don’t care for the condi to boon on elite you could keep the travelers rune and swap out SoH for SoW to go with your 400healing power and get some stability. Or you can have high condition pressure with perplexity runes which also go well with your 2 stuns.

DeathPanel.8362:

Slavi.9137:

My jaguar would like a word with you

Practice dummies don’t fight back or evade or have 3k armor.

The heavy golems have 2.6k armor 3k is only ~13% better. Once again, we as rangers have a ton of access to cc, we have great chill uptime, access to permanent cripple, immobilize, and 2 stuns. So having your pet hit them is not so hard. Of course if you are trying to kite them with a longbow and keep knocking them around with point blank shot your jaguar won’t be hitting much. You have to use the right pet for the situation.

Your lack of condition removal could be a big hindrance, especially poison since you have 1000 HP. I would swap out enlargement for Evasive Purity. Also rending attacks isn’t worth it on feline pets because you don’t get enough attacks in to stack bleeds with it, plus you already have good condition damage. Either switch it for stability training or pets prowess for some good burst. I also would swap out either your wolf pet for a fernhound or change offhand training to oakheart salve for more regeneration uptime since you invested 1000 points into HP. The sigils of renewal are not worth it IMO, they don’t heal you only your allies and having energy sigils will benefit you a lot more because of your passive health gain, troll unguent, and protection on dodge roll. This may be a bit contradictory but I personally would swap out the cleansing sigils for geomancy but thats up to you.

Raven.9603:

Slavi.9137:

My jaguar would like a word with you

Call us when your jaguar can hit a moving target.

The issue has never been that pets are useless, the issue has always been that they are far less useful than they are required to be. We need them to hit moving targets, to be alive in dungeons and alive in zergs and alive in team fights are they can do none of that. Their survivability is reasonable for 1v1’s and open world pve and thats about it.

There might be some leeway if you are full on BM and running SotW, or if you are super bunker and sharing your regen with the pet, but really, the state of pets is pretty unacceptable. 2 years in and we cant hit moving targets, mitigate aoe damage, mitigate insta-death boss mechanics or save pet names? GG.

It’s not like we have access to 2 stuns, great chill uptime, immobilize, and permanent cripple right? Or how about the fact that there are ranged pets which don’t have to chase the target around to hit them. Oh and there is that trait that gives our pets stability every 10 seconds if they are disabled. I’m not saying they can’t be improved, but they are far from useless like many here believe, to the point where they say you should be able to disable them completely. People need to understand that yes when they are using a longbow and trying to kite their opponent and knocking them around with point blank shot maybe they shouldn’t be using a jaguar.

My jaguar would like a word with you

Raven.9603:

i think you are going overboard in a few places.

try playing with only 1k healing power and compare the survivability. I bet it wont go down much if at all.

more importantly, you have too much regen boon. there is no benefit to have more than 100% uptime. i would pick up natures bounty, then either decide between dwayna runes or natures voice but not both.

While I agree with you on having more than 100% uptime on regen isn’t optimal, im willing to sacrifice some efficiency for the mobility that nature voice gives with guard when im not in combat. Besides it may not make a difference to have more regen re-apply when fighting warriors or rangers; but when going against guardians,necros, thieves, engis, and mesmers who can just strip the boon off you are left very vulnerable. Since we invested so many points into HP any time we don’t have regen up we arent using the build effectively which is also why, when using this build avoid Poison like the plague. Unless I am using S/WH and GS with Healing spring I think that Nature’s Voice and Dwayna’s runes are the way to go.

I also tested the difference between 1kHP and 1.8kHP you get with exotics, food, and life stacks. Turns out its about 155hp/s passive regen which is 9.3k hp/minute. Since HP scales linearly that 800 extra HP gives a 30% increase in passive regen or about 23% with the active Troll Unguent.

Power scales pretty poorly after about 2k and it will have buffs from the WvW traits and 800 points into precision is hardy worth it. So now if those 800 points were put all into toughness that would give me about 20-25% more resistance against Direct Damage. Since this is more of a condition heavy meta, I think its better to drop a few points out of HP through the food buff and sigil and pick up some condition resistance/cleanse. So meet somewhere in the middle at ~1500HP

I’ve been experimenting with a build recently and found it works wonders. At least at soloing, not much team utility.
Variant 1:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhF6kQFaF0+VwiF4axAHCFrA4dWUENr73tFq5MWalaSA-TlSDABHp8jijAwDHCgUVCij6PFY+DgHAgEnAAV2fIF9BkCoIlRA-w

Excellent when fighting more than one opponent or necros, rangers, basically anyone who has summons for your axe to bounce off of. So all you do is pop RaO, use Hunter’s Call, a few axe auto attacks use Sic’ Em then swap to GS swoop in hilt bash followed by a maul and your cat will hit like a truck. Your pet will quickly get 25 might stacks while you will be sitting at around 10. All while maintaining 596 passive regen. Shooting up to 1670hp/s with Troll Unguent. Mobility wise, you can have permanent swiftness, just swap out Sic’Em for Guard when not fighting. Along with Call of the Wild you will have permanent swiftness.

Variant 2:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhF6kRFaF0+VwiF4axAHCFrA4dWsFNr7hoFq5MWalaSA-TlSDABHp8jijAwDHCgUVCij6PFY+DgHAgEnAAV2fIF9BkC4blRA-w

This is better when fighting solo opponents like warriors or thieves because your axe wont be able to bounce to anything to get might stacks. Also this has incredible burst healing potential with a Blast and 2 Leap finishers with your healing spring;’s water field totalling at around 12k burst heal. Also the condition cleanse is nice.

Variant 3:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnXRnEqQrg2vCWsAXLG4QoYFAvzitoZdPEtQNnxSrUTC-TlSDABHp8jijAwDHCgUVCij6PFY+DgHAgEnAAV2fIF9BkC4blRA-w
Basically the only difference here is the Axe offhand which is extremely useful against all these LB rangers, whirling wrath, hundred blades. etc. This can be run with either axe or sword, depending on the situation.

So there you go this is more of a defensive build, if you wanted to sacrifice some defence for offence you can swap out the sigils for battle and bloodlust and change the BM traits to Mighty Swap or Stability Training and Zephyrs Speed. Taking Strength runes could turn this into more of a Mighty Beastmaster build.

Tell me what you think. I’ve given this one quite a bit of thought and cant see any more improvements.

Why are you running Nature’s Voice without any shouts?

Here, I think when it comes to power/regen/beastmaster build nothing beats this, maybe when the axe starts applying might you can work that in but for now this seems to be the best. I’ve tried other pets but if you are going to put 30 points into BM, cats with Pets Prowess are the way to go. Also with lynx and rending attacks, you will have more bleeds than an eagle.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnEqQvg2vCWsAXLG4QoYFAvzij9mdPEtQNnxSpITC-TlCHAB3pEkgDBAAHBA50Eokyve2fAR1fS4CAMwDAQMdABAQAev7x9uHwP/5P/5P/Z/8n/8n/8nlCgJlRA-w

Sigmoid.7082:

@Eurantien
The pirate rune is nice but the lack of fury uptime and 125 precision from the rune means you won’t crit often as you need. Plus with all the moaning its bound to get needed soon so don’t want to rely on it.

@Slavi
The entire premise of the build was a retake on the clerics beast master build which was a power build. I was building around that fact. The build you posted isn’t anything beastmastery. Its a standard condi build and I would like to stay within the boundires of the original premise. Think better apple not try sell me an orange :-)

Anyone else have any better changes staying within the power, beastmastery concept. It would be good to see something like this work. For the time being pirate rune could be a thing but its about to get killed by all the QQ.

I fins the concept of beast mastery intriguing so I want to work with it.

If you really don’t like the condition dmg here is something more power oriented

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARVnEqQvg2vCWsAXLG4QoYFAvzij9mdPEvQNnxVpIrC-T1CBAB4p+zdKN44CAExhAwKlB2pL4KlYDu/Qdm/A4JA4qSQSBMqyI-w

Since you have to focus on 4 attributes (Power, Precision, Ferocity, and Healing Power) instead of just Condi damage and Healing power while dumping the rest into tankyness you are better off going with Celestial Stats. The pirate runes are simply too good to pass up on a beastmaster since the tropical bird is better than our pets in many ways IMO.

Also I have heard that the tropical bird gets the bonus from points in beastmastery, can someone confirm or debunk this?

Oh and obviously this works way better with ascended gear.

See the problem with these is that they nerfed the pets so much that this class can’t really kill anyone. I think focusing on condi damage is better since you should be putting points into the WS trait line if you are building tanky. Try something like this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQRAnY8fnEqQvg2vCWsABbG4QoafC/6IwKAcnDtQNfxVHVB-TlyCABUq+QFHEAAeAABrCzv6H4b/BCVCylyvJOBAUcEACAgA4n/8n/8n/sf+zf+zf+zSBAx0I-w

Give you a good balance on condi/burst from your pets. The tropical bird combined with the owl puts out a ton of pressure, the hounds are just for fun, and with virtually perma regen you are very difficult to kill.

LughLongArm.5460:

Looks solid the Sic’Em QZ combo must be alot of fun vs thieves . How do you do vs super tanky classes? Do you have enough burst to pressure them? The confusion with the spider combo realy catches ppl by suprise, tons of fun. Sigil of earth is a good replacment for sigil of generosity, i bought it when it was cheap, now its costs like 45g on TP.

Yeah its fun against thieves if they aren’t the evade/blind spamming kind, the class struggles against many evades/blinds when you are in GS. Mesmers also give me trouble since there isn’t much AoE, and its hard to target em. Tanky classes aren’t really an issue, the SB with the air/fire sigils and QZ puts a lot of pressure on them, people are generally surprised by how much DPS it can put out.

LughLongArm.5460:

Hi, I feel the same way regarding the GS/SB combo. I used this build for a long time, its still my “1v1” favorit build(i dont like full condi builds). The thing is, becuse the stats are so spread out in this build, it realy shines in wvw with the “defence against guard” and “sigil of bloodlust” bonus. The MinMax orientation of this build balance between good damage and good survivebility.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNMQJARVjEq0ya/KGsw1aAAhYVQ782Y2NZXlMqKA-TVCEABQ8AAi7QAgp6PEcEA2SJITK/Me/h+0FAwFAIAACwO3Z6cnBG6QH6QH6Qbn7coDdn7sUAPNMC-w
About the build stats:
2600+ thoughness( the “heavy armor” sweet spot)
2000+ power with bloodlust sigil( exacly when power start to have “diminishing returns”)
20k hp with defence against guard(enough to handle brust damage, more then that its hard to sustain anyway for non healing build)
60% critical chance(and you do get 60% and not 59% like the editor sugests) with fury -80%
211% critical damage – ouch!
720 condi damage to deliver the finishing blow.
About the build mechanics:
great physical damage with stuns, poison, bleeds and confusion to overwhelm the opponent. The jnugle spider as secondary pet with Malicious Training realy good vs heavy tanks like warriors and gurdians and realy help your conditions to stack.
The fast shooting rate of the sort bow with 60-80% crit chance with your life steal food and sigil of air will bring nice addition to brust and sustain.
With SoR, Empathic Bond and sigil of generosity, you can stand against most heavy condi damge builds without fear.
As an average player with average skills i do have some issues vs good thieves(even if i can get them low they reset or run away) and good mesmers(hard to target the real one and land your combo due to the lack of aoe damage).
You can change the sigils for might sgils on strike(for sb) or on swap(for gs) becuse you make use on both types of damage, you get much value from might.

Very interesting build, I run something similar but don’t really focus on condi damage at all. Mine is more of a burst damage spec. I like the inclusion of confusion in the build, which rangers don’t really have access to. I might have to give this a try.

Here is my build
The Wolf Fear —> Sb#5 --> GS#3 —> Swap to Jag --> F2 —> Sic’Em --> QZ —> GS#5 --> GS#2 combo if you can pull it off is devastating.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRnEqQJL2KIusAXLGYPQWFo9wb7YnZUoMWqCZSA-TVSBABXcEACc/hHeAARcBAwS53iKBxTXAmq/AwhAIAACwNvZ28mBO6RP6RP6R7oH9mH9mHtQAmXAA-w

RedSpectrum.1975:

Hey now, calling us vile is kinda mean. Besides, why go through this much effort to create a build designed around countering one class? Tbh, thief counters ranger since we can ignore the pet for the most part and fight the ranger while the pet struggles to catch up, or we can stealth off of it. it’s like making a fire type pokemon team that is good against water types. Regardless, rapid fire, sic em, and after my brief ranger session today, Counter on GS is LOL, Idk why GS rangers dont use this against thieves more often. AOES like traps and torch work well too, no new build needed

Well the reason why I want to counter Thieves is because they make up the majority of roamers in WvW. Also its not like the class is incapable of killing anyone else, it just specializes in hunting down thieves.

@ ItIsFinished.9462 its a great build for fighting off Thieves but it can’t really kill them if they don’t stick around and try to flee. I’m trying for more of a thief hunter build, making sure they can’t get away

So im sick and tired of seeing these little kittens running around WvW basically invincible, with all their evades, blinds, stealth, and just general disengage. It seems that 90% of the solo roamers i see are thieves. Fighting them solo is like bashing your head into a wall, either they kill you by blind/stealth spamming or you get them low enough for them to just pop stealth and run away. Only to come back 10 seconds later with full health and ready for another blind/stealth spam for another 5 minutes.

So this is my attempt at a thief killer build, as Rangers we have access to 2 things that can track them down. Sic Em and Rapid Fire.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnUqQBL2KIusAXLGQQoWGAzb7YIEaBm1bFcxGVJB-TlCFwAA3fAxhAgl6PKV+hVJ4GNBAeAACuAAZ0Bs4IAQKgiEGB-w

That is the best I can do, if anyone has any improvements or ideas for killing those vile cretins they would be greatly appreciated.

shadowpass.4236:

then just call it a bunker build.

anyone can make a tanky/regen spec and give it a fancy name.

Not really sure what point you are trying to get across here. All I did was post my own take on a bunker build that I thought works that is different from the current Shout/Regen build. Not many people post builds that utilize Bark Skin, protection, or axe offhand which is where this build differs.

Did you really expect it not to be some sort of bunker when you read the title?

awge.3852:

More like the “you can’t kill me and I can’t kill you” build.

I believe that is the point of bunker builds, while you may not have access to much spike damage besides the Owl the constant application of poison and decent physical damage when in S/D means you will be able to outlast almost anyone

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnX8YjEqUzaHLusQ1aABhaVA0uGS2l1d+eDfdBfOA-TJxHwAc2fIwTAYZZAAnEAA

Plain and simple. 3k Armour, great condi removal, Retaliation, and all the evades, coupled with Protection and Bark Skin makes you very difficult to kill. Plus you can still dish out decent damage and outlast almost any opponent.

You said a BM regen build. The regen involves the shouts. Are we starting to forget what we type now? Also you should really look into how boons work if you think that the healing power of the target over-rides that of the source.

Here, because you are under the delusion you actually know what you’re talking about when it comes to rangers, I’ll link you a build. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YnEqQvgWxCOsAXLGQToaFAvnhPNidPBHwDXwkD-TJxHwAOLDM4hAA4KAgZ/BA

That is a BM regen ranger. Please get yourself properly affiliated before you reply, because you currently don’t seem to know much about the class, or the build. Sword/dagger itself provides more than enough dodges if you time each right. SB has a dodge as well. And even if I somehow don’t have any dodges at one point, with 3.1k armour and perma regen, I can take a couple hits. A BM build doesn’t require you to have an excessive amount of condi pressure, especially if you have to sacrifice any defense to do it. The whole point is to bunker down and let your pet to most of the work. All you do is kite and some condi damage as well.

Considering I would run Sword/dagger, I would have a perma poison up time, this would seriously hurt your warrior’s healing signet. Not only that, but I would love to see a shout heal warrior do anything remotely considered “spike damage” which is indeed one of the few things that will kill this build. This build is anti-power, and will literally laugh in the face of a warrior, as do most ranger builds.

A shout regen ranger and a BM bunker ranger can be two separate builds but they can also be brought together resulting is quite a lethal combination. My favorite part of that build, is the longer the fight goes on, the less chance of beating the ranger you have.

thats a bit overkill on the regen, you dont need that much. All it does is stack in duration, guard has a 12 second cool down and you have 21s of regen on it on top of all your other regen its a waste. Something like this is more efficient
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fnUqQrgWwCWsAVLG4QoaXCXwIwKAeXsHbzexHlIB-TpRAwAsLDA4CAo4BA05IA45gAYb/BA

or if you want to go a bit more defensive
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEq0vaBLWsw1aAMhqdBssBw7cIVXVXXwFfkgE-TZRDwAgLDE5IAA4CAI5hAoa/BA
the reason this is more effective is because you get ~450hp/s of passive regen 495 if you get 25 stacks of life compared to yours where you get ~380hp/s

Hammerguard.9834:

All the situations you talk about are full offense; Full zerker, strongest pet, when you fail to mention that you’re sacrificing any form of AoE or survivability in which case, yes, the pet should absolutely be doing absurdly good damage. If a persons literally able to walk to remove 50% or more of the damage a pet provides, there’s a serious problem.

I also fail to see how the players choice of weapon should have any effect on the pet choice or pet effectiveness. Logically there’s nothing that support this, and from a game design standpoint it’s 100% incorrect. The weapon changes nothing in how effective the pet is in reaching and dealing damage to the target. I’ve had plenty of cases where I’d be chasing a target and my pet is just running along behind me, longbow or greatsword. The pet doesn’t just magically appear on the targets kitten if I leap over to them. It’s also worth mentioning, greatsword is the only real gap closer ranger have, and by your logic greatsword is the only weapon where rangers should be using melee pets.

Now you’re going to tell me that the majority of the GW2 community “don’t know how to play” and you’re in the right?

The problem is that you are treating the pet as a separate entity from your class. The pet is just a tool in your belt. It should compliment your attributes, weapon choice, and traits. First, the ranger has 3 weapons with gap closers : Sword #2, GS #3, and off-hand axe #4. The primary axe is arguably a good weapon for melee pets because of its #3. What I mean when I say use gap closers to give your pet an advantage is swap them in when you close the gap its an instant cast. Assuming we are talking only PvP the only melee pets that should ever be used with a primarily ranged build are canines because of their knockdown and cripple giving them a much better chance at hitting your opponent. The sooner people realize this the sooner they can start enjoying the class.

Here are 2 Builds that utilize the pet effectively one is focused mainly on burst damage and decent survivability and the other its a bunker build focused mainly on your pet and apply conditions with aoe and tons of survivability.

Burst Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRnEqQJL2KIusAXLGYPQWFo9wb7YnZUoMWqCZSA-TVSBABXcEACc/hHeAARcBAwS53iKBxTXAmq/AwhAIAACwNvZ28mBO6RP6RP6R7oH9mH9mHtQAmXAA-w

for example: You’re in a middle of a fight with your Shortbow pop wolf fear (600 range) #5 Concussion Shot swap to GS ->#3Swoop->Swap to Jag->F2 Stealth+Sic Em->#5Hilt Bash→Maul. This build gives your jag +120% Damage with ~4s of stun where it can do devastating damage, combined with your own burst this build will decimate almost anyone who isn’t careful.

Bunker Beastmaster:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fnUqQrgWwCWsAVLG4QoaXCXwIwKAeXsHbzexHlIB-TFTAABK8AAow8Xd6GMSFhnU+ZnqBAcBA64IA4xBBQXlgApGjN7PAA-w

Makes you and your pet near impossible to kill through all of the regen from Natural healing, Signet of the Wild, and Dwayna runes with 1200+ HP. Simply stack the bleeds with your SB and kite em around while your Fern Hounds knocks them down and cripples them. If they decide to get too close swap to sword torch and jag or lynx drop bonfire and dance around while they try to hit you through all your evades, meanwhile your conditions are ticking away while your pet mauls them to death.
If you wanted to be on the offensive and come to them simply swap to sword and use monarch leap followed by the pet swap, your pet will be close enough to get its attacks off and you apply cripple with sword. Drop Entangle, if you want a guaranteed Entangle almost every time use brown wolf for fear then Entangle. While they are immobilized your pet will wreck them.

There are two builds that utilize the pet in an efficient way, and they are just a small fraction of the possible hundreds of builds if you use your head. Ranged weapons don’t go well with most melee pets because the whole idea is to kite your opponent, but by doing that you are effectively kitting your own pet. Using melee weapons means your pet has to do a lot less running around. If you want to use LB use spiders, they give you tons of access to immobilize and they don’t mind if a person moves because they are ranged.

By the way it’s not the majority of the GW2 community on here complaining about pets, its a small vocal minority.

My Jaguar crits heavy golems for 6k, if that isn’t something to be feared I don’t know what is. While I will agree that pets could use some minor improvements, they are far from being useless like many people here think.

People just need to use the right pets for the situation. If you’re running a longbow build where you want to kite your opponent don’t run felines or melee pets because they will just be chasing all the time hardly ever hitting. But if you are using GS or Sword with gap closers your melee pets can do a ton of damage if you know when to switch them in.

If they where to implement all the changes you are suggesting pets would become extremely overpowered. Can you imagine a traited jaguar or raven sticking to your opponent like glue with skills like sic em, attack of opportunity, and quickness. Or having 2 canines with reduced knockdown cooldowns? Combine that with the damage of the Ranger and having the ability to swap pets every 15 seconds?

If you really want your pet to be the main output of your damage just roll a beastmaster spec. We rangers have a TON of access to cripples, chills, and immobilizes which will let your pet catch up and do decent damage.

You can’t have a class that has it all, you have to make sacrifices in some areas. Do you want a build that focuses on your own damage or a build that focuses on your pet while you stay back and apply conditions and just stay alive.

Most of the issues people are having is because they don’t know how to play the class and want it to be easier. Rangers and their pets can be just as good as any other class in the right hands. When I die to another class I don’t sit there going “Man this is bs I would have killed them if my pet/class wasn’t pure garbage.” I think “what did I do wrong, where can I improve, what part of my build isn’t optimal?”. There is a reason why every competitive team runs rangers as part of their team in almost every match.

Klonko.8341:

Btw the wolf fear doest work with moment of clarity since the description specify that only you can trigger it (and not your pet).

Oops you are right, just tested it out myself. I must have gotten some bad intel.

kiwituatara.6053:

Moment of Clarity + Technobabble is a 6 second daze actually xD

More bonuses:
- If you have Moment of Clarity + condition duration food + runes of nightmare, you can get around 7-8s of fear depending on how much total condition duration you have.
-You get Boar/Warthog + Moment of Clarity and hope for skull which fears up to 13s aoe.
- If you have Norn, Become the Raven allows you to aoe daze 6s every 10 seconds for 3 times during your transformaiton. Very valuable in group fights.

I like my CC ranger

My god that sounds like a nightmare to play against, oh and thanks ill change it to 6s.

So I’ve been having loads of fun roaming with this build. It can solo roam, take camps, and travel with a small groups effectively. Moment of Clarity is basically the core of this build together with the SB and GS 2 second stun/daze on 20 second cool downs spells death for anyone who isn’t careful.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRnEqQJL2KIusAXLGYPQWFo9wb7YnZUoMWqCZSA-TVSBABXcEACc/hHeAARcBAwS53iKBxTXAmq/AwhAIAACwNvZ28mBO6RP6RP6R7oH9mH9mHtQAmXAA-w

Now normally SB and GS don’t really go well together since one weapon focuses on direct damage while the other is more condition damage oriented. But the two stuns are just too fun to pass up on. SB #5 gives you a perfect set-up for a GS 3-5-2 combo with Sigil of Intelligence. Plus SB with quickening zephyr with Sigil of Air and Fire hurts. I’m critting roughly 1k per SB auto attack which is nothing to scoff at.

I chose a combination of Berserker’s, Knight’s, and Berserker+Valkyrie gear for which I found gave the best balance of attributes. The Traveller’s runes are mainly for the move-speed since I was not willing to drop one of my Utilities for SoH, the 15% boon duration is nice too.

Survivability-wise you are in the clear, 2.7k armour is more than enough for this build together with SB #3, Lightning Reflexes, Quickening Zephyr, and GS evade you should have no problem staying alive. Try to save your evades if you can since you lose your 10% damage trait w/o 100% endurance.

Condi removal is decent with Empathetic Bond, but you will be missing on demand condition cleanse. If you think you need more condi removal you could always run the Brown Bear, Healing Spring or Signet of Renewal. I found Troll Unguent to be the most effective heal, just be careful not to use it while QZ is up.

The traits kind of speak for themselves but the 3 that give a 30% damage boost are situational and you have to know how to make the most of them, positioning is key along with saving evades and staying above 90% health which Troll Unguent does a good job of doing. Pet’s Prowess is an incredible skill that often gets overlooked, 30% more damage on a raven or a cat is huge and if you have them stunlocked for 4 seconds your pet can do a ton of damage. Also with Moment of Clarity if you manage to interrupt some poor sap’s heal with GS #5 and hit him with Maul with Attack of Opportunity both on you and your pet and the 50% damage boost from Hilt bash +40% from “Sic Em” on your pet is devastating.

The Utilitys chosen turn you into an arrow spewing, Thief hunting, Hundred Blades avoiding machine. First off QZ turns your Shortbow into a machinegun that spits fire and lightning at anyone who dares come into range, or makes your GS 3-5-2 combo very difficult to avoid. Lighting Reflexes is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card and the Vigour goes great with Steady Focus. Now “Sick Em” is probably my favourite skill that we Rangers have. It’s ability is unique to this class and is so satisfying when a Thief has no idea what is going on and just begins to panic when he can’t stealth. If you manage to get a “Sic Em” SB 5 GS 3-5-2 combo off those sneaky kittens don’t stand a chance.
All of that combined with Rampage as One turns you and your pet into a force to be feared.

Happy Hunting

BONUS
If you happen to be an Asura then you have access to Technobabble, which with Moment of Clarity gives you a 6 second daze on a 45 second CD, IMO that is just broken.

awge.3852:

Slavi.9137:

hmm very interesting, I think you are right about the WS grandmaster. Now that I look at it again i was definitely lacking damage when in S/D .Ill give it a shot tomorrow and see how it works out. Thanks.

Also consider picking up torch, fire damage spikes really well if you can force your enemy to melee you, which should be easy enough as almost all professions start with ranged damage and then swap to melee.

i would be losing an evade with a short cooldown and i would probably have to swap out poison master with barkskin since i would be losing a poison application with that but ill give this a shot

hmm very interesting, I think you are right about the WS grandmaster. Now that I look at it again i was definitely lacking damage when in S/D .Ill give it a shot tomorrow and see how it works out. Thanks.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUyaNLusw1aABhaVA0uGChWwdTcDfdBrSA-TZRAwAAeAAZ3fgcZgHHEAPXBAA

So first attempt at making a direct/condition damage build with decent survivability due to the 10 evades you have access to and tons of condition removal. Been using it all day and have been getting good results, only thing is I’m still kitten and don’t make good use of all the evades this build has so I end up losing a lot of 1v1 fights. What do you think?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUyaNLusw1aABhaVA0uGChu2dTcDfdBrSA-TZRAwAAeAAZ3fwwBBgcZAPXBAA

edited build with new suggestions, has almost 100% poison uptime if you can time it right. You can still play around with different pets if you want more poison, although I like the raven and wolf for swiftness and fear.