Guild Wars 2

Oh yeah I totally agree. I was just hoping to get a but of a warrior theorycraftin head start. How about this: What did you wish you knew about warriors that you know now?

I use SB with QZ in dungeons and it seems to burst just fine. If anyone sees a bug please report it through the bug report system and post a note here of your findings.

Are there any utilities or traits you wish you could use but cannot because it doesn’t fit into some kind of established meta? There’s tons of cool skills. Which slot skills or traits are underrated in dungeons? What’s your favorite adjustments to some commonly sought after builds? Thank you for your time, rock on guys.

Are you trolling?

Grayback.7148:

It’s IMO like this with ranger in wvw, the more people are involved (both sides) the less usefull we become. On the other hand, small-scale battles and solo is fine.

Where did this notion originate?

I agree that in theory should be counted from the dungeon pre-event since that is basically the starting place for the dungeon. However, this method has drawbacks.

Doing that means there’s more luck involved in a low time and these runners are trying to reduce variation as much as possible to be able to get a “fair” comparison. The influence of chance and luck are values deeply ingrained in GW2. The unpredictable makes competition exciting and spur the fun, endless discussions of a crazy play we all love. I like luck and this approach, but it doesn’t make speed clearing for a record any easier.

The subjects in question do not want to hear logic, OP.

Lunchbox? Hells to the yeah! I can’t wait.

marnick.4305:

And that’s why I play fotm10-12 mostly I’m too young to commit suicide over strangers in a videogame.

With a regular team, I had a much, much easier time on a 48 than PUGing a 10 from the LFG website. Our team composition was ranger, ranger, guardian, thief, and warrior. Don’t tell me rangers can’t FOTM. We basically had permanent uptime of reflection between the rangers Whirling Defense and guardian Wall of Reflection and just kicked the crap out of dungeon bosses. Our warrior had 20 AR but it was cool helping him on agony because he held his own. We finished in just over one hour.

Nikaido.3457:

Altered Dimension.2834:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 5:42 is no where near the fastest, its actually considered a mediocre group for that time. I regularly run under 5 mins from gate being blown, while playing on my guardian. I have a video posted a few months ago(post quickness nerf), recorded with a 5 min 17s(still slow).

Something weird about your video is that you got a better time despite having much slower kills. I saw it, you didn’t even kill the slave driver in one time warp, OP’s group is much stronger DPS wise.

edit : actually, OP’s video not from gate like yours. They did have better times too if you count from gate.

Listen to Nikaido, he knows what he’s talking about.

I think this is a fruitless exercise because it ignores party comp. Here’s a more interesting question: what is the most efficient way to stack might with ranger in a party of ranger, X, Y, Z, and A? What’s the most efficient way to stack might in general?

How do you define efficient is even an interesting question and deeper than it sounds. Is it using the least number of players to get 25? Is it using the least number of skills dedicated to stacking might?

More generally the question should be “what party composition does the most damage”? And, of course, the community will say mes. And four wars but what rigorous proof of that is there besides the builds and comps by a few popular guilds and their youtube videos? That’s hardly conclusive. Skill coefficients get you closer but is that the whole story? I don’t think so because you have to consider traits and minion/pet damage, as well as the boundary conditions. In other words, what’s optimal for team comp. A in situation D isn’t necessarily optimal for team comp B. in situation D and—going further—isn’t even necessarily optimal for team comp. A in situation E. Every new boundary condition should return a new time optimal party comp, party setup, attack strategy, and best possible finishing time.

Skill plays into this too. For example, less skilled players might not be able to utilize time shortening reflects. Luck plays into this too: maybe the dungeon event hasn’t kicked off yet and the doors closed to 6 other servers; maybe boss aoe keeps landing in just the wrong spot to thwart a perfect run. This is a significant effect that should not be ignored although once the skill approaches cap all that’s left is luck. Ask the guy’s that were doing Lupi in 45 seconds how much luck and skill got in the way. It’s more than you think.

It’s too bad this hasn’t been further explored beyond the pvp realm because even if the final conclusion of what’s best doesn’t surprise us, we’re bound to learn surprising things along the way.

I suspect that for many players, it’s easier to ignore all of this and assume play is already at a high (or the highest) level. This is a common fallacy for the player still trying to master a game. It’s easier to assume that “my warrior is BEAST and rangers SUCK” not only because 100,000 people say so but also because the questions I pose are difficult to answer and make people’s heads spin. Heck, that might be true about warriors but jumping straight to the end means we skip a lot of steps along the way. And those steps are where the knowledge manifests itself.

Surely there has been progress made on these problems. If anyone has a resource, we’d love to have it. Have fun, guys, and happy hunting.

I’ll never understand that. I do FOTM 48 (non pug) with two rangers in the party and finish in good time (45 mins to 1 hour usually). I’ve never, ever seen a PUG besides CoF 1 do anything even close to optimally yet they abhor rangers. What the hell? Most the PUGs I play with can’t even jump tree stumps in the swamp fractal BUT OMG ITS A RANGER RUUUUUUUUUUN

Just to get the right information out there, there are lots of mobs in dungeons that heal and poison works very well against them. Just off the top of my head from Arah: Giganticus Lupicus, the Crusher, and mages. Mages in particular get an extremely powerful regeneration and heal mobs around them. I don’t usually use dagger in dungeons but I do use sword.

I think I have seen storm spirit crit in the mists. Can anyone verify?

I guess the reason I would try storm spirit / fortifying bond would be to keep swiftness on the pet, since usually the obstacle to good K/D is whether you can control and/or pet speed is greater than enemy speed. It might not be optimal for some situations but it just seems like it makes sense. I don’t know though, I haven’t really tried it. It might be good for roaming since you can tag ambients and basically keep swiftness up.

Maybe it’s better with bows so the pet can catch the target and the ranger can keep a gap with the various skills that allow the ranger to basically negate gap closers and/or create gaps (LR, hornet’s sting, quickshot, swoop).

Just a thought.

Ya that’s a good point. I just throw stuff out to see what sticks sometimes. Drakes blasting is pretty fair I think. If your drake is getting interupted, use SOTW active, blast away.

Aeri.5738:

ok thanks >_<

fail Anet…

Wouldn’t it be neat if spirits blasted on secondary? It certainly fits the animation.

Oidmetala.8426:

nice video :P
that is what ppls talking about, ranger pet dont need dmg nerf. its kitten enough…

but if you nerf this pet dmg then give the ranger this dmg.
also remove pet if i dont put points into beastmastery traits and give me more active skill use on f1-f4 like other classes have.
whould be so nice if ranger only have to use this stupid pet when he put traits into beastmastery… well but just dreaming

at tpvp, fighting vs players with a bit brain, the pet will not hit much time, like in this video.
bm ranger build have only slow on axe 3 and dagger 5,
maybe also on weapon switch with hydromanci sigil.
nearly each class have condi remove for this and axe 3 is long animation (easy dodge)
and if you are slowed you can dodge the pet untill you are not slowed anymore.

and why not slow the bm pet if you face a bm ranger… it works pretty well

the condi dmg from bm ranger is not rly much, just the torch burning is much condi dmg at bm ranger.

@Serraphin Storm
i play ranger because i want to be a RANGER not a zookeeper :P
also love his weapon skills… only longbow is a bad joke and offhand axe

I respectfully disagree because I think that offhand axe is arguably the best defensive reflect in the game. Longbow is essential for knocking back grawl shaman on the grawl fractal, or knocking molten defenders out of their aoe protection ring in the molten facility. The legendary imbued shaman also favors bow usage with piercing arrows.

I just did FOTM 48 with two rangers and a thief the other day. Our warrior had 20 AR. We finished in an hour. I almost always have my pet on active mode and am often callin it back. You have to always be aware of the pet, no joke.

My pets don’t really die. Maybe once or twice due to a mistake in an entire fractal and I always have my other drake on reserve. That’s because of the build I use: 0/10/30/0/30 with bark skin , agility training, and natural healing. Hey, I can solo all the mobs up to and then defeat the crusher solo. It must not be that bad. :p

They’re all easy to beat with every profession you just need to modify your approach.

Melee’ing drakes, for example, and you might have a bad time. Or just be smart and avoid them if you don’t think you can do it. Or ask experienced players with your profession what they do. Learn and grow from others.

GW2 is a skill game so don’t get discouraged when you lose the first few times. Just be honest with people about being a new player and needing assistance. There is more to gw2 than spamming auto with your dps slot skills equipped.

If you’re a ranger, why not use sun spirit to blind? Because spirits aren’t cool? If you’re a warrior, why not try a condition damage weapon and spec? There are other ways to secure victory than just face tanking and eating damage. Approach it like a puzzle “hmm drake has this attack and this attack, what can I do to mitigate that? Aw yeah! Blind! Interupts! Why didn’t I do this before?”

And suddenly you’re a better player.

Well obviously you don’t want to hear this but drakes do blast finish on a 40s CD. It’s their first attack after swapping so it’s relatively easy to control. Drakes sometimes have this annoying “kitten ” issue on swap where they just sit there for a second (lag?) but besides that, it’s pretty reliable. If you’re blasting might, it’s easier to do with Bonfire than flame trap due to the active time of bonfire being longer. I hope that helps.

Here you go jubskie, get this stickied!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Guide-to-Thief-Guides/page/3#post2187591

I always thought frost spirit and storm spirit could work well with a beastmaster bunker build. Anything to say about that, guys? Although in this build the user likely wants sub spirit, like you said, for the blind and the burns.

Molch.2078:

Bright.9160:

Molch.2078:

instant debuffs a player with worm debuff (unavoidable?, unblockable?)
He will target the player closest to his position. Unlike the other worms, this can target summons/pets.

That closest to his position is wrong. It’s pretty random. He will usually focus his grubs on 2-3 people tops. Or that might be because he’s usually at phase 2 by the time he cast 3 grubs…

Works for me every time. Maybe you got me wrong, I was talking about the last worm, when he enters phase 2.

The closest position grub is always the very last one he casts before he goes invulnerable at the transition to phase 2 (70% life or w/e). This happens every time at the transition. Every other grub before that is based on what player (or minion) has lupicus aggro. Indeed, if your ranger pet attacks and lands the very first hit on lupicus when starting phase 1, the pet will get the first grub!

Nikaido.3457:

Chopps.5047:

I’d have to say my pet helps a ton in phase 1 and my ability to save myself or heal others quickly

Your group needs third party heals during phase 1 ? x_x

That’s a run on sentence, I meant to say in pugs I normally resurrect a lot during phase 2 and 3.

SF is a wvw guild so whenever I run Arah, it’s usually a pug with one or two people from my contacts list. Mind sending me an invite to your guild?

Btw we should pm this stuff because it’s going to derail this thread.

Dub.1273:

The best at lupicus you can do is ranger is hoping your pet dies very, very qucikly.

Solo’ing lupi with ranger is very different from playing within a party. I’d have to say my pet helps a ton in phase 1 and my ability to save myself or heal others quickly or get aggro from lupi using drake helps. You are right that a ranger that takes bears into phase 3 and keeps swapping and eating lifedrain is either trolling or just really new at playing gw2.

As a ranger, it’s handy to put a bird or cat on Lupi and use Ricochet to get locust aggro and keep pet safe. Just make sure your swap is off CD at the transition to phase 2. When the cat gets the final grub spawn and you see the green cloud appear, swap pets. (remember, like OP said, this is always the closest target as opposed to the rest which are based on what player has Lupi’s highest threat rating).

More on ranger: on phase 2 aoe you can do one of the following: 2 dodges, counterattack then dodge, or simply whirling defense traited with offhand training. In fact, the whole party can stand in it and be safe.

When Lupi shadow steps to you, please, dodge roll through him. Bring a stun break since his swipes and kicks knockback.

As a ranger, the only way to get out of bubble is to use shared anguish—and that’s on a terribly penalizing 90s CD. That’s because you’re severely punished for bad positioning in this fight. QZ will not work. SoR will not work. Good luck getting off RaO or a traited SotW. In fact, your best bet is to just block it with Counterattack, you’ll still eat a tick or two, though. It might be possible to dodge from one side of the bubble to another (while still inside I mean, to avoid damage) but I haven’t been able to do that personally.

Do not group rez on Lupi. Also, lupi attacks every few seconds. Always be more aware of what lupi’s doing than anything else. If you are resurrecting, note that Lupi will rarely let you complete the whole resurrect without you dodging or blocking. It’s often better to stand on a downed player and use Whirling Defense with offhand training, which will immunize the downed player during the aoe bomb.

*Important! Do not allow Lupicus to lifedrain a high health pet like a bear in phase 3. That basically will negate your party’s damage and you will go backwards. If you can move fast enough with pet to avoid giving life back, use a low health pet and let it die for phase 3. I’ve found that with signet of the hunt and agility training and speed training I have few issues keeping pets out of lupi lifedrain. A lot of playing ranger is learning when to swap pets and saving swaps for key moments. Devourers are great pets for this fight, I think, but I like using drake (gets lupi aggro attention) and cat (phase 1).

I ran around with Indo and took some camps last night. Reminded me of my SoR days. Enjoy your stay, guys, whatever the reason you decided to have a little fun and come to JQ, it’s definitely kept things…interesting, to say the least. And these forums are blowing up! Whoa! You know, BG, if you don’t want Indo to play the game his way, stop giving SoR so many bags. They must get a ton of bags to have that gold, right? Ahahaha

@Bright

Following your logic, every person who developed SC2 should be in the SK scene. After all, they made the game, right?

Prysin.8542:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/

Chopps, when making builds, please use this calculator as it is NOT a sPVP calc, but a complete gear calc.

It also offers alot more fine tuning then GW2Skills does.

I’ll try that soon. Note that there is indeed a pve toggle on the site I used. If that doesn’t work let me know (it might not). I’m used to writing out builds in ascii format so I’m kind of new with these build websites. Thanks for the tip.

Cempa.5619:

Hi Chopps, thoughts on moving 10 from Skirmishing to BM? Also, any other weapon sets you like?

I find agility training too important for a more reliable call back, but if you decide to use warhorn instead (not a bad choice) or shortbow (another good choice!), then you can drop agility training, however, this is most effective at saving pet when you put 15 into NM for fortifying bond and we only have 10 points to work with. So unless you drop Natural Healing and go 15 into NM, it’s not worth it.

In dungeons, Bark Skin is one of the best GMs so you want that, as well as companion’s defense and natural vigor. WS traitline is just so good.

I find that good DPS depends on whether you can keep the drake alive so Bark Skin and points in BM for stronger pets/healing power are likely close to optimal for many encouters.

Lol it’s not my idea. I think I heard about it from Durzlla, but thanks.

spoj.9672:

google.3709:

How come all his single target projectile just “disappeared” ? :P (the one where he tries to give high fives)

It misses you when you’re in melee or close to him.

Yep, that just goes to show how important positioning is in every aspect of this fight. He’s moving in a very precise way in order to successfully juggle several problems Lupicus throws at him at each phase in the fight.

Well I should clarify that. Some pets, like dogs, aren’t really affected by kiting as drastically as the DPS pets like birds or cats. As far as balance goes, I don’t really have anything to say. The sad thing—to me—about that statement you quoted is that master’s bond will likely always reset when you get in water. I mean, if they feel pet damage needs a reduction, then what about the master’s bond? Full master’s bond jaguar is a scary, scary sight.

I’m not sure about buffs or tweaks but be careful trying to use it in Lupi’s necrid trap. But, ya, it’s pretty solid, I don’t know. It was recently buffed, gives 100 toughness now instead of 70.

You probably could, Doug. Your pet will be more squishy though.

And rangers have frost trap. Frost trap is a great slot skill that’s frequently underestimated. It’s almost always on my bar anymore.

I have put many hundreds of hours into dungeon play with ranger. In my experience, your best traylines are wilderness survival and beasmastery and, to a lesser extent, skirmishing. Try this:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Flame-and-Frost-dungeon-build/first#post2178792

You’re running beast damage build without crowd control, chills, or immobilize and you expect to get kills. Pet’s are not designed to simply run up and hit every time. That would be OP. Instead, anet makes you work for it. You have to cripple, stun, or chill your target. It’s a thief, if he has shortbow, you need offhand axe. Also, it’s difficult to defeat a theif with a beastmaster build in the first place since you need to be able to target. It’s better to run blinds (raven, sun spirit) and traps, as well as axe/axe and sword/dagger. You’re going to need those weapkn evades.

Someone recently showed that without agility training, a cat kills the running golem in mists in 80 seconds. A dog takes 30 seconds. With agility training, the cat takes 26 seconds and the dog takes 28 seconds, if I remember right. Just a thought.

Puandro.3245:

Thank god they are nerfing pets!

Made me “lol”, nice dude

Tuluum.9638:

Chopps.5047:

In the lore, rangers are very much in tune with nature. They are quiet and leave no evidence they were ever present at a spot in the wilderness. Guns are loud and a sign of weakness to a ranger. Good rangers use the bow and arrow better than a warrior uses a rifle.

Personally, I could go for a staff or a whip. I don’t think the rangers would use the whip to crack because that’s loud and they wouldn’t use it to hurt animals. Instead, I imagine it would be a skill weapon used to evade or stun targets.

We’ll have to see what ANET has in store for us in the coming months.

You know, I hadnt thought of the staff as a ranger weapon before.. But.. I think that if its implemented right, that could be REALLY neat.

As for rifles… meh.. A true ranger has no need for such things.

I completely agree. A staff could bring so many possibilities it’s sick.

stale.9785:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

Leaving this here, and waiting for Anet to actually fix the bows.

What’s wrong with bows?

Kasama.8941:

Chopps.5047:

In general, Kasama, you’re correct about drakes. I should point out that other pets have their place. For example, dogs work well against nightmare hounds in TA because there’s usually too many dogs to keep up endurance to dodge knockdowns so CC’ing them first really helps. Red moa gives 15s of fury and a melee range AoE heal that’s roughly 3,000 health that’s not bad, really. For high single target dps (simin arah p4) you can’t reall beat a cat with quickening zephyr. But I agree, cats are tough to deal with when you have little healing power.

I personally disagree. The only pets I’ve found useful in dungeons, are those that can survive for a long time. Bears are great for short term tanking or reviving with “Search and Rescue”, spiders are great for ranged damage and when AoE is a problem since they don’t move as much, and drakes are great for burst damage and AoE damage. That’s all I ever use in dungeons.

Against nightmare hounds, the River Drake is arguably more useful, as it will kill the dogs faster, thanks to Lighting Breath. All you have to do, is use Entangle or Frost Trap to lock them down, and then use your AoE attacks from off-hand axe and longbow, together with Lighting Breath. The Red Moa will probably get to heal you once before it’s dead. Fury you can already get from warhorn, and healing you can do with Healing Spring+combo finishers. If defense is needed, I’d much rather use a bear for short term tanking, or for using “Search and Rescue” with. For high damage, I find the drakes are much better in dungeons. Their F2 skills deals the highest damage of all the pets, and they can survive for longer, which means more total damage output, compared to a feline that normally only lives for half as long. Many players also don’t know that the drakes have the third highest auto-attack damage, after felines and birds.

Your pets die because you don’t have the right traits. Try Bark Skin or Natural Healing and you’ll be amazed at the difference. This is exactly the reason beastmaster builds are better in dungeons right now, in my honest opinion. Yes, run zerker or rampager gear, but you’ll be very strong with 0/10 (agility training for faster pet recall…usually when you press Call Back your pet is in cleave range or on an aoe circle so you want it to move quickly)/30 (offhand training/bark skin)/0/30 (Natural healing, rending attacks, commanding voice)

Here’s my current Flame and Frost dungeon build—inspired by the living story. And this build isn’t just a gimmick—it’s extremely powerful and focused on group contributions.

Keep in mind that I often change weapons, pets, and utility skills for the encounter. Many times, warhorn is better than offhand axe, for example. Sometimes, bows are essential too. I should elaborate more on this later. For now, enjoy!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnX8fjEV11RW6Vs2Bi2DOZ+zzUooC9UEL1nxPjE7B-jAyAEEQSAM9BgKAl/KiGbVtIas6aMlLRUtUARsAA-e

When buffed with 25 stacks of bloodlust and 10 stacks of might, which is pretty typical for a well executed dungeon encounter, the stats on this build are pretty impressive.

• It’s very easy to control mobs with frost trap.

• With the sword, you have access to frost armor or flame aura.

• Drakes blast might and frost armor in the traps and bonfire

• Whirl in your frost trap to chill all foes around you. Since chill is typically an underused condition, you’ll find this is a great contribution to helping a party succeed.

• Whirl to reflect (traited, the entire party can stand inside the whirl); this whirl has roughly the same uptime (percentage wise) as Wall of Reflection, as far as I know, and is a 360 degree, spherical reflection

• Offensively whirl to stack vulnerability

• Defensively whirl (when traited with Offhand Training) to keep mobs out of cleave range

• Blast heals in healing spring with drakes

• QZ and sword is pure, unadulterated fun. You will melt stuff because the autoattack will put almost five stacks of might on the pet with QZ. It’s also your stun break so use it wisely.

• Part of the reason I run agility training is for faster call backs to get a pet out of cleave range when I recognize incoming danger.

If you find your drakes going down, switch from flame trap to Signet of Stone for that encounter—you’ll still have to watch the pet and call it back at the right times so only use this in an emergency.

I hope you guys like this. As always: happy hunting!

In the lore, rangers are very much in tune with nature. They are quiet and leave no evidence they were ever present at a spot in the wilderness. Guns are loud and a sign of weakness to a ranger. Good rangers use the bow and arrow better than a warrior uses a rifle.

Personally, I could go for a staff or a whip. I don’t think the rangers would use the whip to crack because that’s loud and they wouldn’t use it to hurt animals. Instead, I imagine it would be a skill weapon used to evade or stun targets.

We’ll have to see what ANET has in store for us in the coming months.

Dub.1273:

Whirling Defense has been main dps source.

Such an underrated skill

I didn’t see this posted here so I figured I would:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Ranger-lupi-solo/first#post2174543

Enjoy!

Kull.9801:

randomfightfan.4091:

Great job! Very surprised you went with axe main hand in both but it makes sense with the off hands being as good as they are. Sword wouldn’t have been a good choice either for obvious reasons. I just wish thief dagger storm reflected as well as your axe 5.

Why didn’t you use your pets though. I’m sure a lot of rangers would like to know.

I tried to use them in phase 1, but they barely survived 2 seconds between lupis kicks and all the locusts. In phase 2 his aoe and punches would probably also get them every time. In Phase 3 they might cause bubbles by moving too much and even more important: lupi would regain health by using his life leech attacks on pets. So i just don’t see how pets could be useful in this solo.

Regarding weapons, i assure you that axe wasn’t my first choice. I would have liked to use sword/axe + greatsword, but i couldn’t use sword for obvious reasons and greatsword got me killed multiple times, because the built-in evade interferes with dodging.

Axe is simply more mobile. In my best attempts, I used axe/axe and greatsword. In fact, in phase 2, you can sync up your greatsword autoattack such that it autoevades on lupicus’s attacks. Ultimately, I was unable to defeat him. This video is inspiring and makes me want to try again. Kull, simply fantastic work.

obal.3218:

Very nice job. I was leveling a ranger just to do this but I just knew I someone would do this before I got to 80. My bets were on Dub but it looks like you won.

Dub gave up mentally, Obal.

Thank you for doing this, congrats.

Smash the dragon, bash the dragon!