Guild Wars 2

So one build I tripped on might be interesting to you. I ended up moving away from it because survivability isn’t quite what I wanted (and I want somewhat ridiculous survivability). It did give (relatively) great damage while retaining a lot of survivability, though. Note that I do not mean to imply this can compete with a zerker build on DPS.

10/0/30/30/0, cleric gear, ranger runes, mango pies. Ranger runes are important. Longbow & sword/horn would work fine. I’d recommend starting with healing spring, guard (required), muddy terrain (for zerg fights), signet of the wild (required), and rampage as one.

You have good toughness, decent healing power, and plenty of condition clears. You will need to keep your pet out of serious combat (ranger runes always apply even on a defeated pet, but your condition clears do not). It is important to keep regen up 100% of the time, both for the regen and 5% damage boost.

The interesting thing about this build is that you enter a fight applying vulnerability and +30% damage. You will not be pulling down bunker builds with this, but anything less will have to take you seriously. You are definitely not a glass cannon in this build, but you probably can’t run front line in a zerg.

The build I run now, btw, is 0/0/10/30/30, complete focus on being tanky. I’m filling a role in a group, though. It doesn’t do quite enough damage to have a lot of fun roaming.

I’m playing on Sanctum of Rall, so slugging it out in T1.

In large fights rangers provide healing spring, entangle, and muddy terrain. One healing spring with good blasts can heal an entire front line, and provide quite a bit of regeneration for the next push. It is by far the most important thing a ranger provides. Ele water fields are a piece of the puzzle, too, but they do not make up for a healing spring (huge, lasts forever, clears conditions).

The guild I’m in is fairly lenient on builds, but healing spring is a concrete requirement for rangers. The commanders want it around that much.

Personally I look at my ranger as a healer and secondary tank (0/0/10/30/30, full cleric gear). Survive with the front line to drop healing springs when they need it. Keep dropping shouts to give everyone around me a lot of regeneration. Soak up a ton of damage, and contribute to the dps a bit while I’m at it. This does mean I’m running melee all the time, though.

Durzlla.6295:

resula.6340:

May want to run ranger runes. The combined bonus is 9.6% between the extra precision, condition damage, and +5% damage when you have a companion (and you always do, even if they are defeated).

Ranger runes don’t give condition damage, they give crit damage and precision…

Right, typed out condition & meant crit damage. Point still stands, however. It is +9.6% damage no matter your health, flanking, etc.

May want to run ranger runes. The combined bonus is 9.6% between the extra precision, condition damage, and +5% damage when you have a companion (and you always do, even if they are defeated).

Been running GS + Sword/Horn for a couple weeks now on my ranger. Your build looks like a very survivable build, good toughness, nice tie-in with the runes. The build should get more like 313/sec regen, though. You could get closer to 400/sec with a mango pie food buff (85/sec regen).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Regeneration: 130 + (0.125*656) = 212
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_the_Wild: 62 + (0.06*656) = 101.36

In my experience protect me isn’t reliable in a zerg (20+ enemies). Even with guard your pets are pretty likely to get taken down if you are running melee/frontline. If they are alive, it is usually with more like 1/2 hp, so protect me is good for 2-3 seconds of invincibility best case. If you happen to position your pet just right protect me can be great, but that’s really hard when you need the regen from guard NOW. In smaller fights, protect me is pretty awesome.

The other issue this build has is a lack of crowd control. In zerg fights that’s one thing you can do to make a huge difference between victory and loss. For a ranger that means at least either muddy terrain or entangle. Barrage is ok, but it doesn’t really replace those two, and you can’t take the time to channel that if you are front-lining it. You can also run with wolf or kyrtan drakehound for yet more CC. I tend to prefer muddy terrain so I can run RaO for stability. Otherwise the hammer train knocks me around like a ping-pong ball.

I’ve successfully run this in pushes through front lines, racking up bags, generally doing just fine in big zerg fights (20-30vs20-30, and bigger):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMUQNBhYD7koiugbsQxCWLDIrC7R7RmIJYi7xogKh4JroKqA-jkCBoNCy0HwUBBKLqIasFhFRjVNDQFBTpaR12bAuEMa1yAYOGA-w

General idea is similar. Always up swiftness and regen with guard & nature’s voice. I was able to drop shout mastery because my boon duration is 45%. Runes of altruism apply might and fury to you (allies), so it is a pretty nice offensive buff when you drop your healing spring. Regen is about 494/sec, plenty of toughness, and plenty of ways to shed conditions. I keep a sigil of energy on the horn both to survive a bit more and to keep that extra 10% damage up more frequently.

I run like this. Greatsword is my main, with sword + horn ready for faster damage when the situation allows (or as soon as someone tries to run). It is a good mix of dps & tankyness for WvW and has a lot of group utility.

I used to run bunker beastmaster and shifted to this when the pet dps dropped and I started having trouble killing people.

10/0/30/30/0, cleric gear, altruism runes (buffs when you drop your healing spring), nature’s voice, guard, signet of the wild, most traits concentrate on being tanky.