Guild Wars 2

Hey guys , I wanted to share my thoughts on a new build i have been working on for the last few weeks . I am especially motivated by the last kick in the groin we got from Anet , but that was not so bad because rangers are far better now in dungeons then they ever were . The pet HP buff is really good .

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|3.1i.h1j.0.0.0|c.1i.h1j.g.1i.h4.0.0.0|1n.7c.1n.7c.1n.7c.1n.7c.1n.7c.1n.7c|211.0.21k.0.3v.0.211.0.311.0.2v.0|k67.k1a.0.0.u3ab|0.0|4j.4y.4l.4q.55|e

Without further ado , I bring you the PRO ranger bearbow….. JK LOL

Traits *

-20 into marksmen , beastmasters bond/steady aim and spotter

-20 into skirmisher , 30% extra pet crit , quickdraw

-30 into beastmaster , shout mastery(WvW roaming)/F2 cooldown (WvW zerg, PvE) , vigorous training , zephyr speed

Armor set
- Knights armor (toughness , precision and power ) , Superior runes of the pack ( 25 pow , 20% swift , 50 power , chance for swift/fury/might on hit , 90 power , 100 precision )

Trinkets
-mix of cavalier and berserker, cavalier and knight , cavalier and celestial . All 3 combinations work .

Weapons
-cavalier(toughness, power , critical damage) longbow with sigil of energy , cavalier sword with sigil of energy and cavalier warhorn with sigil of bloodlust .

pets
-for solo roaming raven/owl/hawk and brown bear .
-for PvE corner stacking and WvW zerging , fury moa and jungle stalker
-hard hitting bosses in dungeons use drakes . Spiders work wonders too

utilities
-Quickening Zephyr , protect me , signet of the hunt which you swap before combat for Signet of Renewal/stone/sick em/Kormirs blessing/signet of the wild….
-in hard dungeons where you expect huge boss hits equip both signet of hunt and stone .

The gameplay idea :

This build is by no means a glass cannon build and it is not a tank build . It is sort of a hybrid with its raw 3000 attack , 2800 armor , 40% critical chance . There is a lack of passive condition removal and vigor from not going into wilderness survival, but it is offset by the bear F2 and vigor on swap .
The strong sides of this build is the strong pressure from a full BM bird with both critical hit damage boost and spotter , generous offering of quickness , 2 stun breakers (3 if signet of renewal) , almost perma fury and swiftness in combat , and an invlunerability for 6 seconds every 48 seconds (for roaming ).
For dungeons it offers a lot of team play potential with spotter, boon sharing , supportive pets , quickness for resurections , etc..

So how would one play in a duel ? You would probably open up with attacking with the longbow and using bear first because as soon as you connect you would swap for a bird to get the quickness boost to rapid fire and barrage asap . Keeping the bird in combat until you get a small spike of conditions on you or you get stunned at which point you would swap to bear and use protect me or condi cleanse . Swapping between range and melee is dependant on the flow of the battle , but usually you want to do it when the bird is in combat to buff it for more dps .
The rest of the battle depends on the flow , but remember even after protect me you got zephyr from utils and swaps . This is by no means a low DPS build , on the contrary .

NOTE : Feel free to use berserker accessories for dungeons , but only accessories . Change up pets in dungeons depending on the path and boss .

HAVE FUN

used it against thieves. Not impressed . They can just teleport out .

well, honestly, after the PvE hp buff we should be much better off in dungeons, especially with drakes, spiders or devourers

the spotter +spirit +sword warhorn build is good in SOME dungeons . Anything a bit more complex and the ranger falls flat on his face in terms of relative effectiveness . Can a ranger complete all content ? Yes . Is it fast/reliable enough ? Nope .

At this point , it is no longer about the balance . The balance is irrelevant . We are stuck with bugs and functionality issues that have not been adresed for over a year now . The ranger main mechanic is not working properly , for cryin out loud . Who cares if weapon X does Y more damage to target Z

wow.. mah quiver no longer goes away when the hero is tossing his axe,torch..

pray to the lord!!

actually, necromancers got a nice UI update…

how was it disabled ? If a person would already have a gift unlocked, would he be able to finish the weapon . Or was the MF mixing part disabled ?

I do not appreciate the patch . No pet HP buffs for WvW, traps got nerfed , no pet AI improvements , no weapon improvements , no debugging .

i am so glad that i have a warrior leveled up… sweet bejesus

Honestly , i knew this was coming as soon as i saw the total lack of interest in the developer preview . When it was ele or guardian , its as if the devs were 2 girls about to get a pony … when it came to ranger , half the time was wasted on trying to find companions defense . LOL

So , essentially , this i a stealth nerf to traps ??

you are joking right ? pets are even worse off in WvW then in PvE… you do know that?

As far as i could tell, ranger pets did not get a HP boost in WvW . Was this intended ?

hmm from what i could notice by playing WvW a bit is that the pet HP has not been touched in WvW . God …. dammit

so, is there a pet HP boost in WvW or not ?

Short and simple question : does the pet HP buff apply to WvW?

Can you please link your build again ? tyvm

I really like your build . I have a suggestion of sorts though . If you would swap out perplexity runes, what would you think about mad king runes . They add power, most of your attacks are in fact power based , bleed and condition duration .

or just remove the flanking condition and improve the duration to 4 or 5 seconds . Voila

After watching the preview i have noticed a lot of quality of life changes . The one thing that cought my eye the most was the necro life force bar . How is it possible that the necro gets it , but ranger still has no idea how much health the pet has ??

Ty

He could not even locate companions defense trait . Nuff said

I like the style of the rifle and it is quite solid and reliable for PvE . For PvP it do needs some love though

reserved for a future post on experimental builds

the great sword trapper

-there is an inverse logic in this build . For the most part, traps are utilities that are extremely similar to necromancer marks … but are utilities . So by placing 2 or 3 slots of damaging skills in utilities would force me to think of the weapon skills as my new utilities . Makes sense somewhat ? Anyway , taking the build Xorus made a while back , i started using perplexity runes (which will get nerfed most likely , but irrelevant because you dont unload that many confuses ) into a GS based trapper build .

Even though the GS is not a condition weapon, it has extreme utility and allows you to use 2-3 traps easily and not sacrifice a tiny bit of utility . Perplexity runes are there to add a new condition to the mix , and if you get an interrupt off , the better.

I am using this build as a carrion armor and weapon, with mixed trinkets (depending what you have , but condition stat primary or secondary is a must) and perplexity runes . You might not be the strongest dueler out there , but you can rival the mobility of a warrior and then some . Off hand weapons are sword and torch/dagger with of course martial mastery.

Seeing how 30 in skirmishing and Wilderness are set in stone , 10 points remain up for distribution . If you want the fully offensive build go into 10 MM and get the sharpening stone trait and put on 3 traps . Dog or spider pets advised .
If you want the safe route , go 10 into BM and place into shout mastery , and instead of a 3rd trap , use protect me * . Played properly you will never die…NEVER!!! . if you get into trouble , pop protect me , and chain movement skills . Run drakes, river and swamp , with this (if the pet changes come through , more will be viable if not all )

Normally , you would rune SOTH as a 3rd utility and swap it out before battle . Sigils would be Geomancy or Hydromancy , and Corruption,bloodlust… on the offhand . You can even place a crit proc sigil on the offhand

Hey guys ,
i wanted to do a sort of an overview of the more mainstream builds that i have modified to my taste and to add thoughts on why the modifications took place… with the following play style adjustments .

the apothecary beast master

-this , for me , started out as the cookie cutter builds many a ranger played before it got hammered with the anti-ranger Anet bat . So in essence, most of our beloved pets got a hefty nerf in burst and or consistent damage . Zephyr got moved to GM tier but got a solid buff . So, i was perplexed for a while and then started working with the things i got . I started looking at racial traits , I play a human , and came to the conclusion that i have 2 options when it comes to playing this .

The more defensive 0 0 30 10 30 with vigorous training and dual birds , using the sword torch and axe dagger combo coupled with quickness on swap , allowed me to stay in melee range with sufficient dodges to have a chance of avoiding most of the current meta builds … the stun warrior , necro and any other burster roamer with sustain . Birds have a solid burst on autoattack when they crit , and the weapon combo allows for counter bursts with build in evasion . The tweak part comes from the fact that I am using Reaper of Grenth ultimate , thus adding consistent pressure to the warrior via poison and chilled casting it always after pet swap to avoid the cast time and the stun potential . So even if i do get disabled I am doing damage and my pet is . Pop a heal in quickness and roll a few dodges and you are safe and sound again . This applies to any bursters . The build is really safe .

The 10 0 30 10 20 , or 0 10 30 10 20 with cats and depending on prefference , sharpened edges or pet critical training using dual cats and shortbow instead of axe dagger , will allow for constant pressure . You will lose a bit of your ability to burst bleeds , but shortbow 4 with rending attacks and expertise training will more then make up for it . This one is harder to play against stun warriors , so I would advise taking the Rampage ultimate .

These are the small tweaks that i have added to the standard apothecary build , which in my mind is still the top tier build when it comes to ranger roamers .

More on other builds in the next post

The reaper build is probably a 0 20 20 30 0 build

Maybe they would work with a spirit build ??

That is the point i am trying to make . I do not care if someone brings conditions or raw dps or a hybrid build . I care about doing stuff for your team if your team asks you to do it . Fast clearing content like CoF has no point anymore because you would do it once a day now . However , staying at 1500 range , dropping HS and spirits so far away from the rest of the group and messing with the boss positioning because you refuse to do any sort of team play is something that i consider trolling .

And the attitude where any tip , suggestion or plea is met with a “f… you, I play as I want” is not ok with me .

PS. I main a ranger . I have brought dps , hybrid or beastmaster builds into dungeons so I am not into min-maxing all the time . However , TEAMPLAY TEAMPLAY TEAMPLAY .

Hey guys ,
i have to get this off my chest . For the Nth time in the last couple of months i have run into this … An apparent capable ranger in berserker gear in a dungeon , no bear pets , and saying i will place spirits and bla bla bla . OK , all seems great and honestly , as a ranger main , i have a massive degree of tolerance for other rangers incompetence…

But this is where the trolling starts . The apparent “i know what im doing ranger” turns into a static useless guy shooting at 1500 range , placing spirits out of range and not putting the healing spring on top of the party that is in melee range with a boss . Even if you tell them to go into melee to keep the boss pinned , you are just met with silence .

So after the last painfully dull and long CoF 1 run… 15mins or so .. In private , i explain to him that there is no need for 1500 range in dungeons and that he should put spotter instead , come a little closer to better support the party with spirits and HS and such …

I PLAY HOW I WANT!!! I PLAY AS I WANT !!! F… YOU !!!!

No wonder we are loathed and frawned upon… jesus

seems ok to me . Add the sigils of leeching so that the next attack on weapon swap steals life

Try it with traps . 10 30 30 0 0 . Trust me , you wont be disappointed .

just play a standard apothecary build and use birds cause they are more bursty. gg no re warriors

Actually some minor random things will get buffed , and one of the best things the ranger currently has will get hammered .

good dungeon , bad rewards .

WHIP , i want a WHIP

actually 2 can get it at the same time .

I am all set , switched to warrior as a main . Smooth sailing

or you can do that with a warrior using a diabloesque top down view and precision movements and solo the boss :p

Hey guys ,
i am at a loss here . Simply cannot do this achievement on my own . I have done everything else , can pretty much solo the end boss but this stupid electric floor puzzle is infuriating .

Help me please with tips or whatever else

It is how dungeons and WvW works . It is not about damage mitigation but damage avoidance and pets simply do not have a way to fully avoid being hit . Even if you are not losing your pet in dungeons, if it is moving back and forth when you micro manage it it is not doing damage and even if it is doing damage , most of it is single target .

its perfectly fine though to have mobility, sustain and kill people in 2 seconds as an Ele , no ?

Soldier gear with 0 0 20 30 20 with runes of the soldier and shout spec

actually , of or when they put condition caps for individual players not for the whole group , condition warriors will be viable as they can stack 25 bleeds in 2 seconds . Donot underestimate condition damage , especially on bosses .

actually for apoc , its better sword torch and axe dagger , more offensive , more burst .

the problem is warrior gets so much with so little . For a hero to be tanky he has to build tanky , or to build for dps to do dps . Warrior can build for dps and be tanky and have sustain . That is the problem , there is no trade off . Hence why there is a need to shave

maul is amazing when it crits , and it is on a 4.5 sec cooldown wen traited

actually i would advise you to take one of the proven templates or builds then after some experience , tweak them to your own taste

honestly the best stat combo for spirits is carrion with shortbow

do not turn the lesbian cabbage evil pls , tyvm

actually you cant make that distinction , simply because you have spirits and sharpened edges /trait and utility/ that can make all weapons hybrid