Guild Wars 2

ProxyDamage.9826:

Chokolata.1870:

ranger DPS will never be the meta because every other class does it much better with half the effort .

This.

You can do dungeons, and if you’re going to you might as well go berserker, but you won’t be good at it. We have inherently crippled damage because… We have a class mechanic I guess… Especially after the pet damage nerf and the loss of cheap quickness access through pet swapping (which at least partially mitigated the horrid damage difference versus other classes), it’s simply a “why bother” issue.

I have one of everything. If I wanna do a dungeon I’ll just take out anything else for double the performance at half the effort.

My drake has perma 25 might stacks in this build. No idea what “pet nerf” you speak of. My drake is a cold blooded killer. This was simply impossible to attain before. Piercing arrows + high crit chance + companion’s might = 25 might stacks on drake…

Why does this not make you guys happy? I’m so sad right now.

I’ll tell you what. How about I stream a FOTM run using this build? That’s so much easier than filming.

The only reason I would reroll would be to get away from the QQ on these forums. It’s embarrassing.

Chokolata.1870:

I stopped reading at full berserker gear

As far as builds go, since pets don’t really die anymore when properly played, this is a great way to go I think, maybe even approaching “the best” way to go. Yes, I will go out on a limb and say that. I believe in this build, I think it works really, really well.

In high level FOTM, you want full zerk, especially when there’s guardians in the party, which there almost always is because it’s so common. Well placed walls of reflection and good positioning means zerk players live. Also, you have up to 12 s invulnerability with a drake, signet of beast/stone, and stun break Protect Me…if you want to play it that way.

By the way, here’s a life tip: disregarding something immediately because an idea you don’t like hits your brainwaves is to deny yourself the chance to learn from others. Even if this isn’t your desired play style, there’s still nuggets of truth you might discover. Nevertheless, this should be your play style in my opinion. But that’s up to you to decide. Exposing yourself to ideas that are different is a healthy thing.

Wvw was too laggy last night as the fight my guild was working on revolved around skill lag and garrison

Weird, no comments. Pretty sure this is a good build template. Let me know what you think.

Shiren.9532:

Bran.7425:

Chopps put you kitten away, you’ve made your stance and your endless need to make a paragraph out of L2P has long since stop being amusing.

He thinks being in tier one is an indicator of player skill in WvW. You really don’t need to pay attention to the rest of his posts, that alone tells you enough.

Shiren, you cry more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Go back into your hole.

Edit: I’m sorry for being mean. By the way, Nature’s Voice basically means we don’t need greatsword anymore for mobility in wvw. I’m running double bows right now and testing a few things. Once I get going in zerg and havoc I’ll record some video and the number of bags/badges I get tonight.

Even if the ranger goes down in havoc, it can be a good thing.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Circle_of_Life

Rangers in small fights are formidable. Everyone knows that, Bran. :P

BlusterWolf.2103:

Chopps.5047:

TheDarkCynder.4618:

So is longbow useless now? :/

Longbow is snappy. It’s very good. I’m so happy with this patch I can’t even begin to explain. Might stacking on pet is awesome. Bows are awesome.

I got a couple things I specifically asked for: combination of vigorous/spiritual knowledge into one adept trait, as well as a way to run fast. Rangers should be running fast, don’t you think? We had to use rune of speed (meh) before along with a signet just because we didn’t have a reliable way to stack swiftness. Now, with nature’s voice, rangers are arguably a must have in 5 man havoc squads, definitely a run for top tier.

Or you can just have a guardian and an ele which good havoc group gonna have anyways.

So to be a good havoc group, you need guardian and elementalist? Let me make sure I’m getting all of this because it’s pretty funny. Tell me, what makes up a good havoc squad? I wouldn’t know, it’s not like I don’t havoc in T1 every day vs guilds that would make your server cry. But why would I know?

TheDarkCynder.4618:

So is longbow useless now? :/

Longbow is snappy. It’s very good. I’m so happy with this patch I can’t even begin to explain. Might stacking on pet is awesome. Bows are awesome.

I got a couple things I specifically asked for: combination of vigorous/spiritual knowledge into one adept trait, as well as a way to run fast. Rangers should be running fast, don’t you think? We had to use rune of speed (meh) before along with a signet just because we didn’t have a reliable way to stack swiftness. Now, with nature’s voice, rangers are arguably a must have in 5 man havoc squads, definitely a run for top tier.

Tons of builds. If you look at my might ranger high level FOTM build, you basically get huge damage spikes from pet due to companion’s might, high crit, and peircing arrows with shortbow. It’s awesome to have 25 stacks of might on the pet from a poison volley into a mob. It’s great to keep up 10 stacks of might on the pet just by piercing a few enemies. It’s pretty insane.

Mighty Ranger (Dungeons/High level Fractals of the Mists)

My goal with this thread is to define the best general starting place for a ranger build in high level fractals as well as general PvE and dungeon encounters.

The premise of the build is that peak efficiency and damage are achieved with berserker stats. That means glass cannon so it must be played in a strongly positional manner. That is within reach of your ability and getting to that level is very rewarding. You must know the encounters, anticipate, and outmaneuver the enemies—evading at the right time and utilizing things like leap heals and blast finishers. This is meant for advanced gameplay.

Based on the huge, massive buff to Companion’s Might (adept trait, Skirmishing)

High precision, fortifying bond, sigil of strength, and companion’s might all work together to keep a ton of might on your pet (15 to 25 stacks might). Fortifying bond is essential because it allows the pet to get buffed regardless of the 5 person limit on aoe boons. Also, spirits form a key part of this build. They won’t let you down, I promise.

• The basic template

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VG;4wEkx-h2wDV-0;9-8U;1JT4E-06-450;13;3LRH5L;1zxrUzxrUo-FvNJLWK;1Vd-i0o1sYzZ352o-G-2i;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V8k3y

Details

• Armor: Berserker

• Upgrade Slot: Can be ruby orbs, Superior Rune of the Ranger (6), or Superior Rune of the Scholar (6); If you cannot keep health about 90%, Scholar might not be better than rune of ranger. Of course, ruby orbs is the cost efficient option.

• Trinkets: Berserker

• Weapons: Sword / Torch and Axe / Axe (all berserker stats)

• Food: I show the soup but candy/ghost for 66% lifesteal is nice for durability with a zerker setup

You can bring longbow, shortbow, or greatsword, this particular load out is just my preference because of the access to reflection, pull, cleave, vulnerability, retaliation and weakness that dual axes offers. The offhands depend on how your group plans to blast might. For example, if you have an elementalist, you probably don’t need torch.

The sword will produce might on the pet, the torch still does good damage and allows the team to blast/leap for aura…besides, got to love the ‘Indiana Jones’ feel of the torch. The offhand axe is essential for pulls, reflects, and vulnerability stacking, and the mainhand axe allows the ranger to range.

• Heal: I almost always take Healing Spring unless I’m fighting large mobs that don’t use condition damage (krait/grawl/ascalon) but in general it’s to personal preference.

Healing Spring is probably the best option since you should be leaping and blasting it…so as a general utility heal, this is your best bet

Troll Unguent is safest bet for the ranger in mobs that don’t one shot…unless there’s conditions to clean. It’s very good against krait, for example.

Of course, heal as one for more rapid burst heals, making it better for bosses you tend to range/kite (Captain in ascalon or the archdiviner in cliffside) but I wouldn’t use it where you want aoe condition removal such as the legendary lmbued shaman.

Think on your feet! Be flexible! Work with your team! Don’t duplicate…diversify—like stocks.

• Elite: RaO or Spirit depending on fight

Trait Envelope

30 (steady focus, spotter) / 25 or 30 (companion’s might) / 0 or 5 / 10 or 15 (vigorous spirits) / 0

Stats

(fully buffed)

• greater than 100% critical chance due to precision stacks on sigil
• 118% crit dmg
• 4019 attack
• 16582 health
• 2030 armor

Notes

• Vigorous Spirits and spirits…yes you should use them. No, they won’t let you down. I wouldn’t lie to you—especially underwater. Sometimes you might want more condition removal or stun breaks so be flexible, yet I fall back on spirits for general encounters.

• As far as I know, spirits do not stack so it’s probably not advantageous to have multiple instances of spirits, assuming there’s more than one ranger in the party.

• If there is another party member providing protection, use a storm spirit for more DPS.

Pets

• In general, drakes and devourers are great general purpose dungeon pets. The drakes blast finish on tailswipe and the devourers just are survivors. If you can immobilize a single target, you can’t beat cats. If you need a tank, switch to bear and use “protect me” shout. Be flexible with pets; the ability to hotswap them for the right utilties needed in the next fight is a big advantage. What if you need crowd control? Dogs and spiders—again, be creative and have fun.
  :)

• If there’s more than one ranger in the party, try to diversify pets to fill any holes the party has. Missing fury? Red moa. Need more blasting? Slot another drake. Need more healing? Slot a pig or a fern hound.

urdriel.8496:

the best bow user on this game is warrior, sad, but true…..

What makes you say that?

Aden Celeste.3650:

I wonder what is Anet’s vision for the ranger. The first time I saw the ranger class on youtube back before the game was released, I was so happy and excited.

This must be my biggest disappointment in gaming history: believing in GW2’s ranger class.

It’s pretty clear to me, based on the patches: Rangers are nasty condition bomb / point holding tanks in spvp, scouts/havoc squadders in wvw, duelists, and a good mix of damage/support/control in pve and dungeons.

Ranger is one of the best havoc squad professions (as well as scouting professions) by having traps that slow followers and perma swiftness and regen with easy access to condition removal with the healing spring and a free “out” with shared anguish. Haters will hate, though. They know not compromise. They only take, take, take.

You’d think a commander would like traiting into vitality and boon duration and get perma swiftness to boot? By the way, we have thief and warrior commanders and they do just fine. Guardians are obviously the most balanced profession in the game but it’s not like a ranger can’t command in wvw. Ranger is one of a few classes that make both good frontliners and backliners…that’s kind of special, at least to me.

By the way, there are many ranger commanders. I’ve only seen one tornado in my life but thaf doesn’t mean there aren’t 1000 more out there cropping up. Just saying.

I also feel in trouble using longbow without swiftness. I feel vulnerable using shortbow secondary, like you said, it’s not being able to move fast.

So how do we deal with this? How about lightening reflexes to create a gap? I mean, if you dog has already burned their CC, point blank shot into lightening reflexes is very effective. Let me know if that helps.

I was chasing people down all month (may) using rune of speed! I play 2-4 hours of wvw every day on Jade Quarry. Don’t tell me I don’t know that zergs stop and blast powerful fields just for the swiftness. Zergs snail tail all the time because of slow pokes. Not everyone is running a 25% speed signet or swiftness yet OP writes, and I quote, “I can’t chase ANYONE down anymore”. You are so wrong I’m almost at a loss of words. I think you guys are just haters. You must like to bellyache.

Perma regen/swiftness/fury with warhorn, nature’s voice, and runes of altruism means ranger just became a top tier in havoc/roaming squads. No one heals like ranger or removes aoe conditions and now they get perma aoe swiftness too. It has never been this easy to run fast outside of combat and you don’t even have to stop and blast.

I’d say only solo for novelty. I mean, at least on Jade Quarry, you can’t really go anywhere safely without five people. Plus, you get a teamwork dynamic that’s very effective.

I just ran full zerk with scholar runes in 36 FOTM and never had double death on my pets. The key is calling/sending at the right times. You do have a “dodge”: call back! You just have to watch your own position, the pet’s, and the boss’s. Also, Zenith is asking for a lot of OP stuff on the ranger forums so I’d be wary of his or her complaints as they aren’t coming from a place of deep knowledge, rather, it’s an emotional rant.

What an awful, depressing answer. Don’t listen to him. Ranger is awesome because it’s the best healer in the game with some of the best condition removal. On top of a huuuge water field that also grants aoe regen and pulse condition removal as well as vigor, if you want it to. With runes of altruism and nature’s voice, you will be a huge asset to 5 man wvw havoc groups (I’m not aware of havoc having powerful regen and perma swiftness in the current meta so this is really actually a big deal).

Maybe you should find access to swiftness so you can close a gap? Hmm…if only there was a trait…

Both grandmasters are good and that’s how they all should be.

I play mostly dungeons and fractals as well as world vs world in coordinated teams. I play tpvp but am a deer and a fairly awful player overall, compared to some of the talent I’ve seen lately at least on high level tpvp streams.

@ryan: never said I was a great player for enjoying dungeons, I just play for fun is that bad?

Ryan.8367:

Chopps.5047:

@Ryan

Re-read the patch notes, beastmaster’s might for ranger might stacking, just got 3 times better. Also, in dungeons, frost spirit is an adept 7% group dps increase and spotter is 150 precision now to party, which is nice for people who aren’t running signets. Also, leaps for flame aura and rampage as one still exist, as they were the default might stacking mechanisms before (as well as stalker). No one took beastmaster’s might before.

If you seriously think 2 extra might every 60-120 seconds is gonna make a game changing difference, not to mention the fact you’re going 20 into Marksman which is horrid for any 1on1 spec, then you are really selling yourself short. Power has such a bad diminishing return for ranger it’s not even funny. Just go 0/30/30/10/0 w/ knights and you’ll have more sustained damage and tank across the board than any power based build spec.

Signet cooldowns aren’t 120 seconds. Besides, I was talking wvw and dungeons there.

First of all, I never mentioned 1v1 because it’s not a standard gametype. There are only a couple kinds of real 1v1 in this game:

• 1v1 on point
• 1v1 off point

The gvg and all the wvw 1v1 videos (sorry, Xsorsus, I do feel this way) are not really that interesting from a competitive point of view. So to me, your ideal 1v1 deathmatch is irrelevent. But let’s make it relevant for a moment. How many of you lost 1v1 fights in wvw before using regen/apothecary? Almost never? And would you all consider yourselves to be great players? I certainly wouldn’t call myself that and I won those fights too. Shouldn’t a 1v1 be skill dependent as opposed to build dependent? Yes! But it’s a team game built around capturing objectives so the 1v1 isn’t balanced and tested like a Halo or a Starcraft. Those are 1v1 games. This is a 5v5 game. Where’s the 5v5 guild vs guild battles? Why is it 1v1 or 20v20? And then, without satisfactory answers to these questions, we wonder why tpvp’ers make fun of us pve’ers. I’m just saying—1v1 and 20v20 require less skill than 5v5 which itself requires less skill than 5v5 plus objectives.

This is all very clear and we’ve known it since day 1.

@Ryan

Re-read the patch notes, beastmaster’s might for ranger might stacking, just got 3 times better. Also, in dungeons, frost spirit is an adept 7% group dps increase and spotter is 150 precision now to party, which is nice for people who aren’t running signets. Also, leaps for flame aura and rampage as one still exist, as they were the default might stacking mechanisms before (as well as stalker). No one took beastmaster’s might before.

Shirou.4862:

bye bye WvW/sPvP shortbow.

Hello zerker longbow builds.

I just ran full zerker shortbow and sword/horn and the damage output is simply amazing. Full zerk with runes of scholar and a couple signets with might stacking. And that was yesterday, before this patch, in high level FOTM with no double death penalty on pets. Calling and sending the pet, I went with bear and cat and piercing arrows. It was great in pve yesterday so I can’t wait to try it again later today.

They took some pet damage away and gave some damage back in the form of might stacking and weapon buffs. It’s a bit more in the player’s hands, now.

The only weapon nerf was a 900 range shortbow and that’s not really a big deal besides reducing the ability to pressure a point in spvp by 300 units. Shortbow actually got dps increases on a couple of the skill shots. It’s more DPS.

Spirits are looking a lot better, I mean spiritual knowledge is now a good adept trait. It was so painful to try and use spirits before because you needed the master’s trait to really make it worthwhile.

And sun spirit will get the blind off so much easier now. You’re doing more damage with both bows and a wvw shout build looks pretty good. I just can’t see how this is the disaster some of you make it out to be.

Also, I might add that many will start taking Enlargement as they experiment with nature magic line and will find their pet still doing spike damage when they need it the most. Just a thought.

I’m going to test bear/longbow in dungeons with a power build then compare it to my run today and future runs with different pets. I just ran 30/30/0/0/10 with full berserker and scholar runes and did a fine job. Again, pets don’t really die all that much if you are smart about how you use them. Plus, with Protect me and Signet of the beastmaster with signet of stone, what more do you need? :P

In wvw, I’m going Nature’s Voice and shouts for sure. No doubt about it. I haven’t worked all the details out yet but it’s going to be fun. I might just run carrion, I’m not sure, but I have a wardrobe of stats to try so I’ll rotate through carrion, apothecary, knights, valkrie, and berserker to see what I can come up with as time goes on.

Ya if I’m called off the bench, I’m running traps. I want to be able to hold a point, ya know?

Frost spirit has no internal cooldown despite what the tooltip may say. The rest have cooldowns. I hope this helps.

I don’t know about you guys but it’s the first thing I’m trying. Doesn’t longbow/bear seem pretty good, given what we know about tomorrow? So how would you build this ranger, assuming the pastebin is accurate?

Manekk.6981:

Durzlla.6295:

Manekk.6981:

jubskie.3152:

Vox Hollow.2736:

Mmmm.

I think we’re missing one of the real > of focusing on might stacking gameplay and downplaying our glass cannons. Cat/bird burst is limited to cats and birds, and might stacking works for every pet. A damage spec was previously limited to bringing vulnerability and swiftness and blind to the table, because cats/birds were far and away better options. Now the opportunity cost for swapping one out and picking another pet to throw different utility on the table is much less.

This is basically an offensive mirror to what they’ve already taken steps towards defensively. Pets were given better defenses so that they could survive better in more dangerous situations, and people migrated away from devourers/bears and a larger swath of pets became acceptable to carry around. Granted, they obviously need to take greater strides in the field of pet defenses, or take a different approach with damage output in dungeons. But both these changes do fit a theme; they seem to be helping builds avoid being pigeonholed to specific pets.

If you think about it, a mechanic that can swap to pets with various utilities on-the-fly was not being best served by options that encouraged pigeonholing. I think we’re moving towards the removal of ‘Tanking pets’ and ‘Glass Cannon pets’. And I think that’s a good thing. (Even if flattening the higher points of our damage curve in an effort to give optional higher sustained damage to all pets currently strikes an unfortunate juxtaposition with the burst-heavy meta, and pets that don’t have traits are taking an awful pounding right now)

Good analysis, something I had swirling at the back of my head but couldn’t put into words. Maybe they could buff up Speed Training (10% cd reduction on pet non-F2 skills) to make it a more meaningful pick to buff up pet DPS. This would benefit all pet families except for felines as their auto is untouched.

That said, I still don’t understand why Moas got a 7% damage nerf. lol

I agree, it’s sort of like they just started from the top and then had to keep nerfing the pets in the lower part of the ladder so they kept their same order of useful/less-ness

Except Bears, i think Bears may have just climbed a lot higher on the ladder of DPS, because a 27% nerf to my canines damage means he should be hitting for ~100 more damage than my bear…. and bears attack faster….

Maybe this is some conspiracy ending in us all looking like complete noobs with bears and longbows?

That’s actually really accurate. Bears and longbows are where it’s at after tomorrow! Bawhahahaha

Even I picked on bear/longbow rangers before (IN JEST! Just in jest), but, yeah, that is hysterical.

Holland, give me a break. No one is in denial. I happen to have the same opinion as Durz: wait and see, ruminate about the leak but don’t get overly negative about it.

This will hurt your eyes: Shortbow should be 600 range and so should axe, maybe. Count yourself lucky, if you ask me. Be happy with what you have because shortbow will still be one of the best weapons in the game—assuming the range reduction is true. Right now it’s just really good because you can use it effectively on point yet pressure so hard with it off point. Just my opinion though.

They stated a long time ago that they didn’t want people to have to respec all the time to fight new monsters. That’s why you can burn or bleed a rock elemental. The same should apply for this case.

You can’t even use longbow on the clffside fractal. I’m not joking: every single attack bugs out and goes invulnerable. So if you can hit a harpy with bow but a harpy can’t hit you: invuln. This triggers the bug.

Even if you close the gap so you are in range of harpies attacks: invuln. Invuln invuln. On every arrow invuln

What the is the point of having 1500 range on longbow if you can’t even use it on cliffside? And now they want us to use longbow more? Fix longbow bugs!

Ya! Memser can feedback 1 shot a mob, guardian can spam stability, warrior does massive group buffs, but a ranger actually making use of eagle eye? That’s OP we can’t have that. The harpy fractal is kitten enough, guys. Fix it.

Ya they really nerf longbow hard right now. You can’t even use longbow on the clffside fractal. I’m not joking: every single attack bugs out and goes invulnerable. So if you can hit a harpy, but a harpy can’t hit you: invuln. Even if you close the gap so you are in range of harpy: invuln.

What the hell is the point of having 1500 range on longbow if you can’t even use it on cliffside? And now they want us to use longbow more? Shortsighted if you ask me. Fix bugs then change weapons IMHO.

Mcrocha.3891:

Terkov.4138:

I’m not going to prove anything. Sorry I tried to help. Just remember about me when update is out.

That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. When the patch does come out and if you turn out to be right it means nothing, so sorry I will not remember you.

Terkov probably leaked it. ANET THE CULPRIT IS RIGHT HERE lol

RoyalPredator.9163:

If it were fake, Arenanet should been shared a statement about it.
They keep quiet, so they’re searching for the reddit spy (propably an asuran one)

Lol probably an asura theif. But, in all seriousness, don’t you think it’s better for anet to say nothing?

ANET wins either way. If they leaked it, they are getting valuable feedback. Win. If they didn’t leak it, they are geting valuable PR and an excited community roaring to log in this week.

It is in their benefit to not talk.

Durzlla.6295:

Chopps.5047:

Terkov.4138:

@Durzulla
They are real. Some things can change just before 25th, but mostly they are true. Trust me

Why should we trust you?

This, and the whole, “I’m an alpha tester, so trust me it’s real!” Nonsense doesn’t fly for me, I need something more substantial than that.

I mean, for kittens sakes I could be running around saying “it’s bull kitten, trust me I’m in Alpha!”

You’re not alpha! You are Dolyak!

I might add that swiftness is huuuuge. Everyone tells me I’m wrong but that 25% signet jut isn’t enough. Especially if you’re using bows and want to create gaps, swiftness is very necessary, right? I mean I can shout to run fast now, if this patch is correct. I can drop oakheart salve for offhand training. Maybe the beastmaster won’t die, it’s form will just change? Maybe the nerf was necessary to the build we’ve been using in wvw since the Lost Shores patch? Maybe this patch is just toning down the beastmaster while making other builds actually viable? Maybe I’m going to love Tuesday?

Jubskie, you are a god amongst mere mortals in my book. Thanks!

Vaya.1354:

more projectile speed would be nice, with its current speed just moving a bit left or right is enough to avoid it, you don’t even need to dodge)

That’s true but note that if the ranger moves with you, the axe can still land since it is ultimately using the heading of the position of the ranger at the moment of flyback.

Terkov.4138:

@Durzulla
They are real. Some things can change just before 25th, but mostly they are true. Trust me

Why should we trust you?

Dojo.1867:

Shut up with stupid suggestions pls that dumb down the game for your lack of skill.

Dojo, the guy was just posting a thought. Relax, dude! Geez

Player Character.9467:

HELLruler.4820:

Do you guys see more space for condi thieves with Bloodseeker ulti Torment?

Torment is only 50% effective on stationary enemies, pve mobs are typically stacked and kept perfectly still…

Lot’s of bosses move around. Some move quite a bit.

For the record, I’m a huge fan of every dev with the gonads to post on these forums.

I’ve been thinking about what you said, Ray. You’re onto something. I made a few changes I’m pretty excited about.

Weapons/Skills~

Drop torch for warhorn, right? Still rampager armor with zerk trinkets with flame trap, one drake and one stalker or moa, and swap drake on flame trap drop for might. Quickening zephyr and signet of the wild and spirit elite or RaO depending on situation

Traits~

Something like 5/20/30 (bark skin)/15/0

But wait chopps! There’s no healing power! That’s because you’ll use rune of altruism for your healing power. If it’s still too squishy try adding in “guard”. The great thing about rune of altruism is alll the might and fury you grant on Hs.

What do you think, Ray?

In game name: Faelwan

What class do you main/wish to learn: Main Ranger / wish to learn warrior

What class(es) do you play as your secondary/tertiary: Necro/Elementalist

Are you applying as a teacher, or a student: Teacher for rangers

(If you are applying for a teaching position, please answer the following questions. Student position applicants may ignore these)

How many hours on your class do you have: as of right now, 1950 hours on ranger

How many builds have you theory crafted: At least 12, probably more

Would you consider yourself a good contributor to your community: I guess so, although some people in here might debate that point :P

Are you friendly/helpful: Most of the time, yeah, I think so

Would you be willing to prove your skill/knowledge in game: Yeah, I guess. I need my pencil and a calculator if there’s a test though.

Lol i like the way you phrased that

I see what you’re saying. But realize you have a drake that blasts fire, water, and ice (if you want). You have good AoE and aura/might stacking abilities with sword/torch. I don’t think there’s many drawbacks because losing a cat is worse than playing a drake. Is that a problem? Maybe. Maybe the death penalty cooldown after swapping a dead pet should be removed for pets in dungeons? I don’t make the decisions here.

Heck, I run a cat versus crusher and do fine (bring lots of condi removal and call the cat back to you as you move behind the boss). I can solo crusher/hunter using a drake. It’s situational. But you’re right: without some things focused on pet survivability, you will find yourself hamstrung. This is the reason you see full berserker rangers running a bear (4800 vitality or so, right? Bears are insane uptime!) with master’s bond in dungeons. People have thought out different solutions to this problem but going full glass cannon with cats/birds is not one. At worst one might say it’s slightly less effective than more popular builds but I’ve solo’d sections in Arah with it before (no, I haven’t solo’d Lupi, but it’s not like it hasn’t been done before). And it’s full rampager with zerk trinkets. I run Bark skin and a signet, so what? That signet is bursty and has a shortened cooldown.

TL;DR
I’m not limiting my chance for more damage because—and you can test this yourself—the more you push it to the edge and run less defense, the more you risk hampering yourself for up to 1 minute due to death penalties. And they will come, as we all know, when you run glass. (bear is the ultimate defense with insane vitaltiy, or else some combination of bark skin / natural healing / “Guard” / SotW from which you can run drakes, dogs, or devourers and suffer few pet deaths).