Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I noticed this got bumped from Grenth’s icy depths.

I’m not currently openly recruiting as I’m going through some guild changes. That said, if you’re interested I won’t mind considering it, just message me in-game, please.

6/15/14 Due to lack of demand for general PvX ranger guild [TACR] is disbanded until further notice. Got to [WIND] for all your ranger needs.
6/09/14 We now have a EU Coordinator who can provide limited support until we can get a dedicated EU guild going for our friends in Europe. In the meantime we will be accepting players from Europe into our community to help break the ice.
6/08/14 There is a growing demand for an European(EU) version of [TACR], if you’re interested in starting a EU ranger guild shoot me a whisper so I can refer people to your guild. I can provide you with access to [TACR]’s team-speak server, a website(eventually), and general support.
6/07/14 We are now live again and have most of our upgrades complete!

The Allied Council of Rangers[TACR] is recruiting any and all rangers from all servers in their place to fill the need for an active community free from ranger hating.

We are located in Blackgate(North America server “NA”), though this shouldn’t prove a problem with mega-servers and the recent updates to guild missions(you no longer need to be guesting to get guild commendation credit, you just have to participate). However for simplicities sake keep a guest slot open for events.

Advantages:
+PvX, no discrimination against preferred play-styles
+No requirements lvl or otherwise
+Open recruitment
+95% rep requirement, you’re free to participate in other guilds if we can’t meet your needs at the time you want them.
+No snobbish rank titles and elitism
+Home on Blackgate one of the largest PvE communities
+Hate free ranger group
+Suggestions are seriously heeded, if you have an idea better than mine I want to hear it
+Ranger PvP, PvE, and WvW advice(fractals and dungeon tips included)
+Guaranteed Response and invite to in-game applications within 24 hours.
+Commander and guild raid training availability
+Zero tolerance to trolling and drama
+Experienced adult leadership
+Eventual transition into a council based leadership of equality(for officers)
+Intelligent distributive recruitment expansion policy, guild is regulated by a fixed percentage of officers to prevent the guild from expanding to quickly and in the event an officer leaves the command structure isn’t crippled.
+Clear methods of Rank Advancement
+Lack of experience is not a barrier to advancement long as you are willing to learn
+Playing ranger actively while repping is NOT a guild requirement, but a guild preference
-Ts3 server
-Tier 5 upgrades
-Buffs activated upon request

Disadvantages:
-No free cake

Feel free to leave your applications/suggestions here or shoot me an in-game email to MuchWaffle.2579 (I will respond quicker to in-game emails).

I no longer use Skype, so if you signed up with our Skype I apologize.

As the title says, now that pet skills show cooldown number, can we also get boon/condition bar as well? It would make pet management a lot easier. And maybe give us an icon to show where the pets are as well, those things always get lost amidst clustered combat area.

@Awge,

Thanks for posting this VERY detailed guide on the Ranger class and the build options available. I will be going over each of these this evening as I try to find something that I like playing. I always hated those sniper builds in WvW as once they get in a tower, they just cut down zergs. I suppose though you probably get a ton of bags though.

I hope your guild fares better than the last guild

Added to the Sticky Thread!

Maybe I’m just smarter than the average bear but I don’ think TS is needed to know that you’re supposed to follow the blue triangle around on the screen.

I second this. I am from Canada and moose are everywhere, I actually have 2 of them in my backyard as pets. They are incredibly loyal and intelligent, please allow us rangers to take these cunning beasts with us into battle.

garythesnail.8475:

Hey guys!
I leved a Ranger to 80 and would love to try some WvW with him.
Could you guys suggest a few good builds for small scale roaming? I’m kind of new to gw2 so I’m having trouble coming up with a good one.
Thanks a lot

I’m slightly late to the topic but you should look into a BM bunker build (look up xsorus on youtube or in the forums here) it works fine in a zerg, you have plenty of evades, water field, fire field for might, axe 1 attack hits multiple enemies, plenty of health regen.

It’s stupidly easy to solo camps and entirely possible to solo towers (I’ve taken an undefended keep with an uplevelled warrior friend so with skill it might be possible to solo those, too)

With ram mastery and your health regen, it’ll take multiple enemies and/or multiple ACs to kill you. You’ll be able to shrug off single AC fire.

In a 1v1 fight, I realistically win 7 or 8/10 of my fights. I only really have issues with good necromancers or great condi-mesmers. (they are few and far between but they are tough) and if you are outnumbered, you can still win if the opponents are of lower skill level than you or they mess up.

And as you can see from some of the comments above, a lot of people think rangers are bad in WvW and will underestimate you during a fight, use that to your advantage and you’ll have a lot of fun fighting.

Hope you enjoy playing a ranger!

1.2.3 Leveling 45-70: Leveling 45-70: Nothing but an illusion, until it blows up in your face.

So you made it this far. Good. Level 45 offers you another choice to make. Which trait line will you unlock next? If you want to make the choice by yourself, go ahead, if you want to make the right choice, read on.

The best choice (with exception of all others) would be investing heavily into Illusions. You will benefit greatly from the minor traits Illusionists Celerity and Master of Misdirection as well as getting a serious amount of extra punch from the major traits.
The traits you want to pick are Compounding Power (adept), Shattered Strength (master) and Master of Fragmentation (grandmaster). With Illusions as second trait line, you will generate illusions faster, have a shorter cool-down on shatters and hit harder than ever before. A win-win-win situation, especially for the play-style we use with this leveling guide.

Not much more to say here, all you need is to safe up 52 hero points for level 71. Depending on your focus (PvE/WvW) you should have enough hero points to spare for getting Time Warp by now. If not, remember that filling up trait lines as soon as they unlock should be your Nr. 1 priority.

1.2.4 Leveling 71-80: All good things come to an end.

If you have been following this guide and reached 71 by blindly accepting my questionable decisions, you will have at least 52 hero points to spare and a choice. Yeah I know, choices have not been a thing I have offered before, but it is time to learn standing on your own feet.

Luckily for you, I will give you some clear advices first. Your third trait line to pick shall be Domination, dump your 52 hero points there. Good.

Now if you liked the way you have been leveling your Mesmer the last few dozen levels, you should get Empowered Illusion (adept), Blurred Inscriptions (master) and Mental Anguish (grandmaster). Your play-style won’t change much, but your shatter damage will significantly improve.

If you want to relax a bit while playing you can also simply use the trait setup found in the Lazy Kai Build below from now on. It is top efficient in open world and quite fun. You can also fool around with different weapon setups with your free secondary set while mainly using a greatsword.

That’s it, thank you for following this leveling guide.

Having been stuck in overflow attempts only, i have never seen him get to throw his tantrum on the 25’s, but..as long as that pic loads in this is my general idea:

1) All turret people need to be in a party who has the dragon as its marked target, keeping that thing targeted with so much else going on was impossible on my own, and I missed many shots with skill #2.
2) Each turret needs to support the others with skill #3 (this clears the poison field and will save the zerg, more on that later)
3) The zerg stands clumped in front of the turrets and not at the dragon’s feet, this allows turret skills 3-5 to be targeted easily, and in the picture, all 3 turrets get to combine the firing of these buffs, it also allows easy aoe heals, condition removals and rez (think Alpha of CoE 2 & 3)
4) The zerg’s #1 priority is defending those turrets, clearing out mobs and fingers, when this is satisfactory they can turn and range (only) the dragon.

Again, having never been witness to the 25%‘s mechanics I can’t comment any farther on what happens then, but this is the simplest picture that i see when i look at the setup of the battlefield.
Looking for specifics on what’s good or bad about this, thx

Sebrent.3625:

OGDeadHead, could you please make a video (or multiple) devoted to this little bit?

This is done by moving the camera around, and pressing 1. Since we don’t have a crosshair, it’s mostly guesswork until you hit the desired target.

I’ve been doing that with the burrows in AC. I manually aim my longbow with 1, then i press 2 as soon as I can hit it reliably. As for the treb, you just have to aim your camera higher (like he did in his screenie)

Sebrent.3625:

OGDeadHead, could you please make a video (or multiple) devoted to this little bit?

Sorry, I don’t do videos. If I change my mind about that, I can do it, but I’m sure there are many others out there with the skills necessary to shoot a video or two of this!

:)

OGDeadHead, could you please make a video (or multiple) devoted to this little bit?

By aiming your ranged attacks manually, you can make your shots go longer than normal, mostly useful vs stationary targets of course.

Like these examples, on Battle of Kyhlo, taking out the treb from the wall below. Best with an axe if there are opponents up there! Oh, and send your pet first, drakes are pretty kitten nice vs equipment with their F2 and they’ll also hurt any opponents around the treb with their regular attack since it’s an aoe attack.

jubskie.3152:

I’m just wondering how many rangers know that you can “insta-rez” a pet by stowing/unstowing it.

Assuming the pet just died and you’re not being focused:

1. Step out of combat
2. (While pet is dead) Stow the pet
3. Unstow the pet, and it should be fully healed without having to wait for it to regen to half HP, then wait again for it to be fully healed.

An added bonus is you don’t have to suffer through the 48/60 seconds penalty for swapping a dead pet!

This is mostly useful in WvW while sniping from the back lines, but I’ve been in circumstances where it became really handy (ie pet died to the lava rocks in CoF P1).

I’ve been using this trick quite a bit now and I thought I should share it here

Lol this one is magic. I will have to use this from now on.

I’m just wondering how many rangers know that you can “insta-rez” a pet by stowing/unstowing it.

Assuming the pet just died and you’re not being focused:

1. Step out of combat
2. (While pet is dead) Stow the pet
3. Unstow the pet, and it should be fully healed without having to wait for it to regen to half HP, then wait again for it to be fully healed.

An added bonus is you don’t have to suffer through the 48/60 seconds penalty for swapping a dead pet!

This is mostly useful in WvW while sniping from the back lines, but I’ve been in circumstances where it became really handy (ie pet died to the lava rocks in CoF P1).

I’ve been using this trick quite a bit now and I thought I should share it here

Raine.1394:

Some great tips here but no mention of the biggest potential loss of DPS largely caused by the Ranger class.

The use of gratuitous knockbacks.

Many rangers in groups seem to use a knockback on cool-down. This is a huge problem in group play and it causes a large loss of group DPS.

Ah yes. Have done that myself a couple of times during my early dungeon running days, much to the dismay of my fellow group member and to my own big shame!

Some great tips here but no mention of the biggest potential loss of DPS largely caused by the Ranger class.

The use of gratuitous knockbacks.

Many rangers in groups seem to use a knockback on cool-down. This is a huge problem in group play and it causes a large loss of group DPS. Melee needs to be in melee range to do damage. Removing their target removes the damage. And, many melee classes have a high-damage skill (e.g., a warrior’s 100 blades) that requires the target to remain in range for the duration. It’s is huge loss of DPS and frustrating to lose the target to a Ranger’s knockback. Additionally, many professions have ground targeted skills that require a target when the skill lands.

It would seem that this is obvious, but everyday I encounter Ranger’s moving targets around the battlefield for no reason whatsoever. I have accidentally hit knockback on my Ranger and I know that happens. But, there are many Rangers using it on cooldown and that’s just not cool.

Still pretty disgusted with the latest “Well we just could not figure out how to fix dungeons so warriors and mesmers wouldn’t speed run them so fast, so we axed quickness across the board, too bad it ruined your only viable burst build rangers, don’t forget we will be buffing your class real soon now” episode, but…

About the only pew pew Rangers have now that still rocks is piercing arrows. It takes a little work, but anytime you can cross a group of foes up and cross their T, you can see some pretty nice damage numbers popping up in unison. Bottle necks and narrow passageways are your friend.

Or when you see those Dredge/Flame Legion portals that pop up every now and then, get to the side just before the next wave pops, and then maneuver so you are always firing down a line of them.

Note to Anet: if you really want me to leave the Ranger forums, nerf piercing arrows and I will mothball my ranger and go back to playing my faceroll guardian or my faceroll warrior.

Just one from me:

If you aren’t sure what to build, try Beastmastery
The only way to beef up your pets is through traits, in addition, no trait line in the game provides more raw stats per point than Beastmastery. If your pet dies too often and does no damage? Well, an extra 10 points to its power, precision, toughness and vitality for every point you dump in that trait line will jump might make your pet die a little less and do a little more damage too.
The major traits might not look to impressive, but the traits you get from the first 15 points can get kind of silly. Quickness on pet swap and reduced cooldowns on pet swaps is incredible and can easily ramp up your own damage to stupid levels, as well as keep your pets from dying. The major traits for apprentice level aren’t anything to sneeze at either, being generally useful for almost any pet choice. Master’s Bond might seem a bit off with the encouraging of pet swappping, but the idea of having an extra 250 to your pet’s power, precision, toughness and vitality? Kind of ridiculous.
Pet focused traits in other trait lines tend to have better returns than your own traits as well. Malicious training for instance provides an extra 50% condition duration for your pets conditions (which aren’t affected by your condition duration), while expertise training increases their condition damage by 350 points, both at apprentice level.

Overall, this makes pet traits and beastmastery excellent “dumps” for your spare major traits and trait points.

OGDeadHead.8326:

I think this tip is a really good one, but I seem to use this a little different – I use the key bound to this function to instantly drop a target. Yes, what so many of us asked for was pretty much there all the time (I know about ESC, but that’s one crappy key to use for this).

Makes “sword-jumping” a LOT easier – try it out! Thanks for a really great tip Tuluum!

You are very welcome!! And I never really considered the ESC key a good solution for anything, haha. Its.. so very far away..

Using it with the sword, as you say, turns it into a completely different monster. I try to target someone for the first two attacks of the chain, and then Ill target someone on the edge of the zerg for pounce. It allows me to jump around a zerg, mostly avoiding any melee type attacks since I am in a different spot by the time they try to attack. Used in conjuction with the stealth from the siamoth, and the evades, it turns into an avoidance fighter.

One of my issues with sword was the “root.” I.E. the fact you cant dodge as normal. However, using different steps of the chain on different targets essentially has you constantly dodging. Its not just a great work around, it can be used in the players favor!

I do have to say though, that it has become a bit harder to use for specific targets with the removal of culling. So, I tend to click-target if I want to hit someone specifically. It doesnt happen that often in the middle of a zerg though, unless there is a high value target. For all intents and purposes (constantly moving in and out of melee range) the target itself is not as important as where they are on the field, imo.

Tuluum.9638:

Be prepared to have your MIND BLOWN!!!

Well, not really.. I just like to make an entrance.

Targeting has always been an issue of mine in this game, and it is at its worst using my current Bandit build (sword/dagger and GS). After a bit of messing around with settings, I have found a pretty decent solution in the targeting options.

I figure that many already know about this, but thats ok, I sure didnt and it has almost turned it into a completely new game for me. I have finally found the functionality I was looking for. Go to Options->Control Options->then the last option in the targeting sub menu (I havent been able to run the game today due to corrupted data, thanks Anet!). If I am able to get back into the game, Ill post the exact wording (or if maybe someone else could?). The name of the option is not particularly clear, something like “Auto-Target Lock.”

Try putting it on a key that is easy to press constantly, as well as hold down for varying amounts of time. This allows you to target the highlighted mob in the center of your screen, ONLY for as long as you hold the button down. To make it even better, it can be used to deselect your current target without clicking on some “open” space on the screen (in wvw, this can be a real problem).

Try it out! Dont be discouraged because it says “auto” and “lock,” as it doesnt really do either of those things! It also appears to be more reliable in targeting who you want to target, as it will just be the enemy that is in the center of your screen, with a “highlighted” name.

Maybe not Ranger specific, but I no longer have as many issues with targeting, thats for sure!

I think this tip is a really good one, but I seem to use this a little different – I use the key bound to this function to instantly drop a target. Yes, what so many of us asked for was pretty much there all the time (I know about ESC, but that’s one crappy key to use for this).

Makes “sword-jumping” a LOT easier – try it out! Thanks for a really great tip Tuluum!

Landing Interrupts

The easiest way to land interrupts in PvE is to use GS5 straight after initiating an attack on a mob. For example, swoop at your target with GS3 and immediately hit skill 5. This technique is useful if you trait Moment of Clarity for 150% damage after interrupts, allowing you to kick off many encounters with a 50% damage bonus. Note that it does not work on all mob types.

Greatsword – If you do 2 attacks, wait for the third attack to almost strike, then dodge roll. You get an extra evade when you attack after the dodge roll.

How it works -> Slash -> Slice -> Power Stab (dodge before it strikes -> Another Power Stab.

1 evade from power stab, 1 evade from dodge, 1 evade from second power stab.

For fun -> Trait for 15 points in wildnerness survival for endurance regen and dodge protection, Trait for vigorous renewal (each pulse of healing spring now adds vigor)

Eat orrian truffle and meat stew and put on lightning reflexes. Then go mess with people. cuz they can’t hit you.

Daemon Hawk.9406:

Prysin.8542:

AOE “Condition trap”
By wielding a longbow, you can create a AOE “Condition trap” that will seriously hurt your enemy.
To “set” the trap, you will need to utilize multiple skills, but the effect can be devastating.
First you need a longbow, the more condition damage on it, the better (dont use this bow for anything but this trap).
The skills you need to use (in this order) is
Sun spirit (preferably with 15% spirit bonus trait)
Sharpening Stone (for bleeding)
Pet F2 – use a Forest spider with it’s F2 ability (next three strikes poisons your foe)
Quickening Zephyr (4 second quickness burst, makes the whole barrage fire in less then 2 seconds, instead of 5)
Barrage

This chain is quite good against gate attackers in W3 or against large numbers of mobs (Since you apply Bleed, burn, cripple and poison)

Sun Spirit will add three seconds of burn to at most two enemies, one for you and one for your pet, until the 10 sec proc cooldown expires. I use Sun spirit, and like it, but fail to see the synergy with barrage. It’s not like the cripple is going to hold them in a fire field. You’re just randomizing where your burn proc goes.

I also don’t understand why you’re interested in the Forest spider’s F2. 6 secs of poison added to its next 3 attacks is nice, but won’t that just stack 18 secs of poison on a single target? Are you planning on redirecting it to 3 targets with F1 during your barrage channel? Otherwise, how is this helping to spread poison to a group?

pre 26th February patch, Forest Spider F2 would be added to your character as a boon, instead of being used by the pet.
I noticed a few weeks ago that this had changed… a sad change, but probably just an unintended bug.

The idea behind that “field” is that barrage is a player AOE, but it doesnt always hit the same 5 enemies, so you can lay waste to crowds by simply applying massive condition spammage onto them.

Also, please do note, that while i am not totally sure of this, “Piercing Arrows” seem to make Barrage hit every player in the AOE circle. This needs confirmation, however it seems to hit more then the max 5 target limit that is imposed on player AOE in WvW

Make sure you are in a straight line with target(s) when using “Path of scars” (Axe off hand #4).

If you strafe (change position) the returning axe does not hit target(s).

it’s now easier to swap pets to get them right next to you before entering combat – it only takes a second to do it twice and have the same pet at your side.

Prysin.8542:

1) Rune of the Ranger – Critbuild. I advice you to use bears, since those last long enough for that last bonus to be worth it.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Ranger

Unfortunately for new Rangers the Superior Rune of the Ranger is a tad expensive, requiring around 12 gold currently to buy all six. While you are saving up for this, I recommend either the Rune of the Thief or the Rune of Rata Sum.

Both give the same +165 precision stat.

Thief gives a 10% damage increase when flanking that stacks with the Hunter’s tactics trait. The net result is when you flank you do 20% more damage.

Rata Sum spawns a radiation field 50% of the time when hit. This field will rapidly deplete the health of foes that enter it, so it is most useful for those times when a ranged ranger gets rushed by a swarm of foes in a tight space. The downside is the proc does have a long cool down, and evekitten0% one can not count on it every time it is needed, but, it is nice to have while you are saving up for the Ranger set.

Be prepared to have your MIND BLOWN!!!

Well, not really.. I just like to make an entrance.

Targeting has always been an issue of mine in this game, and it is at its worst using my current Bandit build (sword/dagger and GS). After a bit of messing around with settings, I have found a pretty decent solution in the targeting options.

I figure that many already know about this, but thats ok, I sure didnt and it has almost turned it into a completely new game for me. I have finally found the functionality I was looking for. Go to Options→Control Options→then the last option in the targeting sub menu (I havent been able to run the game today due to corrupted data, thanks Anet!). If I am able to get back into the game, Ill post the exact wording (or if maybe someone else could?). The name of the option is not particularly clear, something like “Auto-Target Lock.”

Try putting it on a key that is easy to press constantly, as well as hold down for varying amounts of time. This allows you to target the highlighted mob in the center of your screen, ONLY for as long as you hold the button down. To make it even better, it can be used to deselect your current target without clicking on some “open” space on the screen (in wvw, this can be a real problem).

Try it out! Dont be discouraged because it says “auto” and “lock,” as it doesnt really do either of those things! It also appears to be more reliable in targeting who you want to target, as it will just be the enemy that is in the center of your screen, with a “highlighted” name.

Maybe not Ranger specific, but I no longer have as many issues with targeting, thats for sure!