Guild Wars 2

Xsorus.2507:

Agadar.4931:

Whatever you do, drop Pain Inverter. We want to see ranger combat, not asura combat.

hehe I have enough footage from today for Pain Inverter Volume 4.

but out of curiosity if I was to replace pain inverter in the build, What would you like me to use as an ability?

Taking Suggestions, I may just do pain inverter 4, then do a new set of movies based off what suggestions people make.

Next patch apparently will give you a 25% movement speed increase with Signet of the Hunt, which I guess would be a good replacement to Pain Inverter—more effective gap closing in exchange for a burst of confusion… not to mention it’s probably a really good pick if you’re doing WvW.
That, or you could get Quickening Zephyr cuz we all know how good that skill is in about every single ranger build ever.

EDIT:
Personally I’d also like to see a longbow build—another thing for next patch, since apparently arrow speed is also going to be increased.

It’s really satisfying to use RaO+QZ and Rapid Fire+River Drake lighting breath all at the same time.

So, if you go to the Heart of the Mists, you have the opportunity to get “steady” weapons that have normalized maximum weapon damage (the min and max damage are the same value)… Which means that all hits dealt from these weapons are constant and only vary based on the power of the specific attack being used.

…and I decided to take some numbers and some other considerations to compare and contrast Sword vs Greatsword.

Gear/Traits/Weapons – Constant across all tests
Race: Human
Gear: All basic pvp Medium armor with Superior Runes of the Ranger. No amulet.

Traits: 20 Wilderness Survival for reduced recharges, 20 Nature Magic for 5% Greatsword damage.

Weapons:
-Only Steady weapons, no sigils

Pet remained on Passive and did not provide any (de)buffs or added damage.
No additional boons were used.
———DATA———
GREATSWORD: The two skills you would be using purely for damage would be the #1 combo and Maul, as Maul is more powerful than anything the combo dishes out.

1st and 2nd hits in the #1 skill combo: 28 damage on hit, 44 on crit, 1/2 second cast times
3rd hit on the #1 combo: 33 hit, 53 crit, 3/4 second cast time
Maul (#2 skill): 56 hit, 89 crit. 3/4 second cast time, 4+3/4 second cooldown

Additional effects of the above attacks:
- All hits are AoE with a range of 150
- 3rd combo hit evades
- Maul applies 3 stacks of bleed

SWORD: Purely for damage, the auto attack is used, but the Sword has access to the offhand, which may offer added damage. However, values for Hornet Sting and Monarch Leap are included for consideration.

1st and 2nd combo attacks: 26 hit, 42 crit
3rd: 31 hit, 49 crit
Hornet Sting: 31 hit, 49 crit.
Monarch Leap: 44 hit, 70 crit

Additional Effects
-#1 combo is AoE with a range of 130
-2nd hit cripple
-3rd hit applies one stack of might to your pet (6sec) — maintains a 9-stack with no interruptions.
-Monarch Leap cripple

Warhorn birds:
Average of 92 per usage (each hit can crit, 16 hits).
(Additional effects being missed: Call of the Wild Might+Fury)

Axe off hand:
Path of Scars: 32 hit, 52 crit
Whirling Defense: 11 per hit, 18 per crit, 12 attacks each apply a stack of vulnerability (+1% damage) over 5 seconds.

……………..
What I took from this is that the damages are actually pretty balanced, but the circumstances either are used in are situational. The Greatsword is better for defense and control, while the sword most likely outputs more damage and has slightly more mobility with skill (and it has evades, for a more steep cost of damage than the Greatsword takes for defenses).

Let’s look at the comparison of damage first. We’re just going to assume we’re hitting a stationary target.
The sword does about 10% less on autoattacks than the greatsword, but of course, it is faster. Taking the casting times in to effect (ignoring ms):
Total combo time for GS: 1.75 sec
Total combo time for sword: 1.5 sec
Difference Percent: 15% — the sword is 15% faster to finish the combo.
So… I guess that means that the Greatsword with just auto attacks is about 5% behind the auto hits of the Sword. But, factoring in Maul (which hits harder than anything on the list--about 50% harder than its own 3rd combo hit), could probably account for that.

The advantages that the Sword has though, which rocket it past the Greatsword in damage-dealing:
-Its 3rd hit applies and maintains stacks of might to the pet
-Offhand abilities that allow it access to the all-powerful Warhorn and Call of the Wild, providing reliable and long-lasting Fury (and one stack of might)
-Sword specs don’t have to trait 20 in to Nature Magic to deal maximum damage, allowing swords to spec in to crit or power specs more freely

But of course, the Greatsword only has defensive advantages over the sword outside of the skills:
-The Greatsword specs easily into defensive builds that would trait Wilderness Survival and Nature Magic anyway, making it so traiting Nature Magic using the Sword would leave the Sword at a build disadvantage in comparison to the Greatsword.

So basically, the Sword can build offensively more freely and has large offensive benefits over the Greatsword, where the Greatsword can build defensively more freely and has defensive benefits over the Sword.

Buuuuuut I’m sure this will all get torn apart, so please, feel free to do so.