Guild Wars 2

Here’s a different take:
Pet – Dual Devourers
Traits – 0/10/20/20/20 or 0/10/30/30/0
Weps – Short bow or Greatsword, Axe/Warhorn
Heal – Healing Spring
Utility – Sharpening Stone/Signet of the Wild/Signet of Renewal
Elite – Rampage as one

I’ve tried all pets and Devourers survive the longest. They also don’t get in the way. No pet survives long in most Dungeon fights. I am tempted to keep a buffing pet like a Stalker and Moa by my side in the next dungeon I do and just have them buff and recall them back so they don’t attempt to fight (and immediately die). It will nerf my dps, but it’s already nerfed because pets rarely survive to their swap cooldown.

The first set of traits improves your heals and devourer. The second adds more survival skills and opens up the better Spirit traits should you decide to use them.

Long Bow is too slow and Sword locks you into an annoying dance although some players like both these. There’s lots of debate on Greatsword. I have a nice exotic L80 one and currently use it. I still keep a Short Bow in my inventory in case it looks like the fight will require me to stay ranged the whole time. Axe/Warhorn is almost a must with the huge warhorn swiftness, might and fury buff. I swap weps about every 30 seconds on long fight to blow the warhorn buff.

I hope this helps.

I stand by my reply a little earlier in the thread. I spent last evening dealing with the swarms of undead working on completing the L75 – 80 areas. GS does better than SB and I leveled using SB. It handles groups better and I seem more survivable. I switched between GS and SB several times and even respecced to make SB better to ensure I wasn’t slanting my opinion based on a nice exotic wep. From strictly PvE tough area in constant fighting, I’m sold on GS. I’ll know more when I do a dungeon.

Not seeing it. I had an exotic L80 greatsword reward when I completed the Frostgorge area and find it kills stuff faster than my shortbow. It has a built-in aoe and evade and nice closer ability. I was able to take down groups of L80 undead. I can’t do this as easier with my shortbow. It got even better when I specced for the greatsword. I’ll know more when I try to do a dungeon with it.

I use two devourers. They seem to be able to handle the most damage. I guess its the toughness, knockback and borrowing.

I use Short Bow and Axe/Warhorn and find the must have traits are:

20 – Marks, for Piercing Arrows
5 – Skirmishing, for Swiftness when swapping weps
15 – Wilderness Skills, for 50% more endurance generation (more dodging) and protection for you and pet when dodging
15 – BM, for Swiftness when swapping pets and reduced pet swap CD.

This leaves 15 points to spend as you wish. I respec alot and but usually come back to adding 5 to Skirmishing to get chance on bleed when crit, 5 to Nature Magic for a little more health and 5 to BM for a little more healing and making Devourer’s (my favorite pet) do more damage.

I swap from Short Bow to axe/warhorn about every 30 seconds to blow the “5” warhorn buff and swapping pets on just about every CD. Pets don’t last long on exploratory mode. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to use them given they die in about 10 seconds on lots of fights.

To clarify, I start my traits at 20/5/15/0/15 and add from there. Adding more to BM improves the pet and is nice for soloing. Adding more to WS and Nature improves your survivability.
My 6 – 10 is:
healing spring
signet of renewal/hunt/stone/spike trap (mostly renewal for group efforts and hunt for soloing)
Signet of wild
Sharpening stone
Rampage as one

I’ve respecced many times and find this is the must have:

20 Marks – for Piercing Arrows – arrows go through mobs, kind of like a mini-aoe.
5 Skirmishing – for swiftness when swapping weps.
15 Wilderness Survival – for 50% more endurance generation – more dodges and protection when dodging for yourself and pet.
15 BM – Swiftness when swapping pets and reduced pet swap CD

This means you are swapping weps and pets on just about every cooldown in longer fights. And for me, it’s short bow and axe/warhorn.

First, there is no real “tanking” in GW2 because there is no taunt mechanism and it appears that most big mobs like champions and dungeon bosses have a random aggro table. That means everyone, including pets, will get their share of aggro. When soloing at lower levels, pets look like they are tanking but it’s only because they are doing more damage than the Ranger. The gap narrows when you approach Level 80 and by then you will have to have learned how to kite and dodge. As for dungeons, pets do pretty good in Story Mode but last about 10 seconds in most explorable mode dungeon boss fights. The bottom line is you have learn to kite, dodge, swap wep/pet on every cooldown and mitigate incoming damage or you won’t survive long. Thankfully, rangers have some nice traits to extend these abilities.

Both long and short bow probably do the same damage in the perfect situation but short bow just “seems” better. I am L80 and have run a short bow and an axe/war horn most of the time.