Guild Wars 2

I am starting to love the Jaguar.

At the moment I’m trying this out: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjEq0yaBLmsw1aALhodTQxvbvlPXMRJSA-TZBHwAGOIAAuAAq2fYwTAoZZAA

Also adjusting my keybindings – pet controls and shatter buttons do not belong in the same position so I’m moving them around to see what has the best flow to it. Probably have to rebind if changing classes.

Starting to understand how to use high damage pets to supplement personal damage – almost like playing a phantasm build, just with a lot of evades .

Please don’t think I’m ignoring any advice in this thread – I take every post on board, but it takes time to test and work through one thing at a time. Build will definitely be undergoing more drastic changes as I understand how to play the ranger better.

Right now? Sword + Torch.

In the beginning my first pvp build was glamour/confusion with staff + scepter/torch, simply because it was the easiest to land the skills and I was terrible at melee combat so fun to watch players killing themselves (before people grew wise about confusion).

I could not understand/comprehend playing pvp without a staff – it felt like a survival/kiting crutch which took a long time to let go of. I felt pretty much married to the staff – almost a certainty to go for bifrost if I ever decided on making a legendary.

With greatsword, I pretty much only used that in open world pve – because it’s the easiest thing to use in that mode.

Over a year and a half, and several builds later, after trying to drop the staff numerous times (doing things like sw/t + sc/sw, etc) – I have pretty much dropped staff altogether now. It feels very liberating to play without it.

Prefer greatsword because of two things:
- staff damage is terrible and I never liked the iwarlock
- I hate phase retreat bugs
- never really liked chaos armour

I feel that having become more proficient at the game has allowed me to let go of the crutch staff, and use the greatsword successfully in a pvp environment. I believe the greatsword requires more skill/effort to do well with – but you are rewarded by higher damage, chasing ability, and some of the best animations in the game (only surpassed by the ranger’s greatsword animations).

However sword/torch has become the mainstay, because it has such a fantastic flow to it. With greatsword, I may swap out for a new direct damage weapon (ie MH pistol) in the future, but I can’t see myself giving up sword/torch in the near future.

Would be nice to have skelk pets.

I would like to see the cooldown penalty for pet death reduced from 1 minute to around 40s untraited.

It would also be nice for the pet AI to include backing out of damaging aoe circles independently, rather than having to position yourself and call back/send in again to save them.

Finally a pet stat boost would also be good.

Edit: I would also like to see pets given two dodges and an endurance bar, with different rates of endurance regen (ie birds faster compared to bears), and for them to actively dodge attacks. Only affected by ranger through vigour and fortifying bond.

Regarding pet removal – if sub classes are ever considered in the future, then it could be an option for two possible ways to play the same class – and the class mechanic is changed accordingly. This would of course require an alternate set of traits for each class – something I can’t see happening in the near future.

Rabbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnOdAT6H94s

;)

And again that makes sense, thanks.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

it would be a waste on poison pets, i use it to improve the damage a Cat or dog does, the point of poison master is to make sure the healing regen is countered so your pet can do conistant dps or auto attacks/skils , normaly if the targets not poisoned or has some kind of condition on them the pets damage is just obsorbed through regen and Agis/protect boons.

Thank you, that makes sense.

I would like to know if there is anyone here in support of either Tail Wind or Furious Grip in skirmishing? Does anyone find them useful, or unnecessary fluff?

Hmm, with sigil of frailty I’m only seeing a consistent 3 stacks of vuln on the test golems.

I was contemplating using battle sigils – together with bountiful hunter.

Regarding pets – the hound knockdowns and drakehound immobilise has enabled me to land some nice mauls. And the quickening zephyr allows for some decent sword auto attack burst to down an opponent where necessary.

gawker.8340:

The opinion of the new rangers are very valuable because they aren’t made under some delusion that some gurus here have been indoctrinated into.

I wholeheartedly see your point OP. Going from mesmer to Ranger is like going from assault-rifle to literally throwing pitiful rocks. If the class doesn’t make sense almost right away from a veteran player’s perspective, it is a design issue.

I am a long time Ranger player. I felt that the Ranger has been gradually but surely losing ground in competitive pvp and WvW due to OTHER CLASSES getting buffs. Net-net Ranger got shafted every balance update if you look at the big picture. The two builds posted above are great for a Ranger build, but terrible as a build in general compared to what other classes have.

Haha – I don’t know if you’ve played mass effect 3 multiplayer, but I liken going from zerker shatter mesmer to ranger as going from geth infiltrator + claymore (glassy, shotgun, death machine) to turian saboteur with an eagle (little tankier, pets, mediocre sustained damage)!

Sorry, that’s an exaggeration.

Hmm, regarding poison master – I will try that first then. Is it worth using a pet that poisons on F2 skill as well, such as devourers?

Spatial surge locking on targets is handy to keep an eye on where someone might be hiding, if they don’t break target with stealth (for example around the clocktower on khylo).

That was fast, thanks!

Regarding F2 – actually I don’t use that – I have all the keys and mouse in nice comfortable positions anyway.

Hmm so it seems ony way or another I should include some condition damage.

I wasn’t sure of survival of the fittest – although that fury is nice to have.

I found that off-hand axe pull to be very unreliable – is there a certain technique to using it, or is the range for the pull just very small? I can see how #5 works to hold/decap points, but not liking the root. Still, I’ll give it another try and see if I like it over dagger.

Is poison master really work it over either bark skin or oakheart salve? I suppose Sw/D is poisoning a fair bit. Maybe I should take two sigils of doom?

Is it work losing both swiftness and fury on weapon swap? Maybe I’m just valuing these things too highly.

I do feel very comfortable now with swoop/hornet sting/monarch’s leap/lightning reflexes with detargeting for extreme mobility, and as such escaping a difficult situations is not a problem with all those skills and evades.

Rune of Ice is a bit strange – where does all the chill come from?

Sigil of frailty is interesting – I’ll have to play around and see what the max vulnerability I can keep stacked on a target is.

:)

Hello, just started playing ranger a few days ago – never had the desire to play it seriously before but finally enticed by the flashy melee animations!

Coming from playing mesmer (shatter), so it’s a very steep learning curve with ranger – I’ve just been messing around with different builds in hotjoin to get an idea of different ranger builds.

At the moment have settled on this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjEq0yaBLmsw1aADBpdrQl4FwbxXF8pB-TJhFwAAuIAw2fIxTAYaZAA
But have tried different variations of traits including full beastmastery or marksmanship, signet builds, moment of clarity focused, all with with different pets… I have tried to read as much as I can from the guides on here and through watching videos.

I have not tried trap builds, spirit builds or condition bunkers, because frankly I find that style of play incredibly boring

One thing I know for sure is I love the greatsword, but it seems that is almost purely a power based weapon. I’m not keen on both bows, although the longbow stealth is nice to have (makes me feel at home) – favouring sword+dagger for the mobility and… well… simply because it looks cool – and also if vs a thief I find using either bow to be extremely risky once they close with you into melee range (almost immediately).

What I am finding difficult, especially coming from shatter mesmer, is how to deal significant damage in a short amount of time. I can kite and evade easily survive/escape most encounters with GS + Sw/D, but downing opponents takes more time than I am used to. Often in an outnumbered situation I find it increasingly difficult to burst a single target down.

I suppose in wvw this doesn’t matter so much as there is no time limit on killing an opponent – but sadly in pvp it matters whether you win a fight in 10 seconds or 2 minutes. Granted once I am levelled up to 80 through tomes of knowledge, I will likely make this character solely for wvw roaming anyway.

I have read that ranger damage comes from a bit of everything – power and condition? However I don’t find this making sense in the traits or skills – especially if using the greatsword as a primary weapon. I have tried with signet of the hunt (traited to effect you) and moment of clarity, although find it too awkward to micromanage – especially if fighting a sword/dagger thief.

Then there is boon removal – I can’t find any. I take it this is just how it is?

And condition removal – not sure which is the best way to go here, either survival of the fittest with full survival utilities, empathic bond, evasive purity (nice to get rid of poison with a not too long ICD) or relying on melandru runes/sigils of generosity/bear pet/signet of renewal. Not sure how much is too much or how much is too little. I don’t really like signet of renewal because the active is pretty much “kill my pet”! :p
I figured with melandru runes + empathic bond it softens the blow for conditions transferred to the pet so they don’t take too much damage either. And I can deal with poison through dodging. Besides, if I do make this solely for wvw at the end of the day, I might just go with melandru + poultry soup.

Regarding Opening Strike – personally I find it extremely lackluster, even if it 100% crits, given there is no access to huge upfront burst (maul isn’t impressive damage unless you do the signet/MoC gimmick).

And another question about stomping – hard to get used to no distortion, diversion or stealth stomp, or even blink stomps (:(). Is it best to just kill the opponent the old fashioned way and not bother with stomping as a ranger, unless you have RaO up?

Finally a question on pets – is it a good idea to put them on passive – then press “attack target” to initiate their key skill (ie knockdown) and have some control over it? Or should I just leave them on automatic attack and just use F2 when I need it? On passive it seems you can reliably call them back out of an AoE to avoid damage so they won’t go charging straight back in to attack, although you have to constantly order them to attack your new target. Having played around with a few of them I do like the immobilise and knockdown on the drakehound for one, although not yet sure which ones best support a melee/power build.

tl;dr – struggling with melee power damage burst, choice of condi removal, choice of pet, killing players quickly in outnumbered fights rather than simply kiting and running away with swoop/hornet sting, etc…

Cheers!

For its surprisingly long cooldown, it should be made to just work whatever direction you or the camera are facing.

Either that or reduce the base cooldown to at most 30 seconds.

Xavi.6591:

I get the Phase retreat, stuck can’t move so must type /no to fix bug all the time. kittenes me off.

I hate this, but I don’t use staff at the moment fortunately.

Regarding blink – personally I think there’s an element of luck involved, in that sometimes it just does what it wants, when on another occasion it will do something different (used in the same location).

I think it’s better to play a lot and learn where you can/can’t blink through memory/experience – rather than going by what you expect to happen based on a set of rules that I don’t believe are at all consistent.

Sometimes it will just kitten up and move you nowhere, or ten paces forwards.

“Mimic: Fixed a bug that caused the underwater channel for this skill to be shorter than the on-land channel.”

Nice, I hope this works.

A shame Raid on Capricorn is no longer with us.

Smirgel.9460:

Jurica.1742:

• Manipulation – Illusionary Swap – Swap places with your enemy, creates a clone and immobilizes the enemy.
  Immobilize duration – 2 seconds
  CD-40s

Wow, that would create a sick decap mesmer.. Focus 4 -> iswap -> pull

Or stand on a breakable glass on skyhammer → swap the enemy onto it!

I know this is premature, but one day I’d love to be able to play Sword/Torch + Pistol/Focus.

The latter of course requires the main hand, and a fixed focus!

Nabbo.2845:

You must be sitting there with popcorn

This.

And I think PvE is contrived and stupid. I don’t like the conquest game mode, but fighting other players is at least different every time.

Save it for the stunbreak and just use a forward positional dodge instead. :p

At first I was going to say whatever you like – there isn’t really a “best”.

But then you say regarding tpvp – seems GS/staff is flavour of the month over there (I can’t speak from any experience, as I don’t play in team arena), but I suppose it depends on what your team needs.

Trouble with staff and sword + /torch/sword is severe weakness in chasing opponents – not that it matters much in pvp. At least staff (and IP) makes it a piece of cake to res allies, and kite around points. If you take off hand pistol then that makes it a little easier for chasing. Focus is a mess at the moment IMO – the other 3 offhands are better.

Personally I feel staff just doesn’t hit hard enough anymore – so I have to take GS. And I think sword + torch is an excellent defensive/offensive set (although no phase retreat).

I would take either:
Staff + Sw/P
GS + Staff
GS + Sw/x (whatever you like in the off hand, preferably torch)

And another GS + Sw/T here!

Blink, decoy are a given. And yes, do take a condition removal tool – either MoR or AT (requires more skill to use).

Ether feast is a great heal for this. Alternatively you can take mirror or the heal mantra, so depends on your preference – try them all out.

Don’t get hung up on rotations – think about positioning of illusions and yourself instead. Rotations should always be loose and flexible.

But if you want some templates:
GS generally – #4, throw #2, dodge overhead (moving towards, if close enough), F1+F2 shatter (just to increase damage). Flick the camera around and mind stab if you like.
Can do GS #4, throw #2 (might), swap, Sw #3, #3, F1+#2, prestige (disappear).

Sometimes F1+ F3 (small delay between) can be useful – all illusions go on the mind wrack, but you immediately daze which can ensure all shatters hit).

F2 is supplementary to damage – only use if F1 is not available, and or you just want to increase the burst or fake a shatter.

Use decoy or prestige for stealth openers – for example:
Decoy -> move, pause, GS #4, #2… etc.
This has won me a fight very often, as it gives you a good initial advantage.

Always try to either open or exit prestige next to your target (but be aware if your enemy is expecting this), for the blind and the exit damage.

1. Decoy
Words cannot describe how awesome this skill is, or how many uses it has.

2. Illusionary Wave
Sexy animation, sexy sound effect. Ultimate “GTFO of my face!” skill, skyhammer/eotm win skill, Edit: And the thief house busting skill! A shame it has a long cooldown.

3. Blink
It may not be 100% reliable, but the options it gives you both in and out of combat are unparalleled.

The leaf-brained shrubs do look very good, I will agree on this point.

I just hate wasting the blink cooldown, but sometimes it’s a bit of a gamble as to where you’ll end up when using it at the moment.

Of course, a lot of the time it works ok, but not as often as it should.

I’m glad it you posted this – it’s been bothering/irritating me for quite a while now.

I swear it used to work better than how it works now. Too often it fails in its basic task, either porting you a few paces ahead when you aimed for full range, or you simply remain in the same position.

Nevermind terrain and blink spots – it tends to have a good chance of failure on these two.

Finally I swear last year it used to work on downed clone → mesmer stomps. You know, initiate on clone, blink to mesmer. Now I don’t even bother attempting that – I think it’s worked once in the last few months, but most of the time nothing happens, even when you blink right on top of the mesmer… >:(

Ansau.7326:

<snip>

About BF, I think making it x4 instead of x8 would solve the problem while not affecting its performance in other game modes. It’s quite rare, as the skills slashes only 4 times, and the number also scales 4 times, but in combat reg it appears like if you did 8 hits.

x4 would make a lot more sense and match the animation too, rather than something like x6 hits.

Wyrden.4713:

torch stealth is awesome atm, its nice for burst dmg , nice stealth

torch 5 could use some buffs but thats all about it

This. #4 is fine, #5 needs a bit of love.

Focus needs fixing priority – reduce ItV delay to 0.5s (1s is overstepping the mark, as is usually done in balance changes) and fix iwarden.

I guess you have more trouble with necros than condition mesmers.

Shaogin.2679:

Yeah, I’ve been running decoy, mirror images, and the signet that recharges shatters on use for my utilities. And I definitely want to keep up with the shatter build, just trying to learn tips for better survival and burst. So I’m guessing I should swap out the signet for blink? I was using the signet because I play Engi alot and so my ground targetting is set to quick click thing and it throws me off moving my hand over to hit a 6-8 key for blink and then getting back to movement keys quickly.

Put blink on a key close to your hand, or even on your mouse if you have thumb buttons.

It’s too useful to be without, better than signet of illusion IMO.

Whatever you like, there is no set fee.

Just nice to give a token of thanks, but you don’t have to pay anything.

Xaurniven.2065:

Crossplay.2067:

Curunen.8729:

I’d prefer change evade to invuln on hitting an enemy with one hit of blurred frenzy – that should negate retaliation completely.

And that would just cause retaliation to become worthless.

But that’s the point of the topic! To make Reta become worthless against Blurred Frenzy

Retal should be independant of player stats (power) and simply scale as a percentage of damage taken. Then blurred frenzy is fine.

Good video, I didn’t know of a couple of points around quarry.

Remember, a king is nothing without peasants to admire him.

Also a king needs to learn how to manage his kingdom – but come into the local barfight with peasants and all are equal. It just so happens that all of spvp is about managing the kingdom and there is no “barfight” mode!

One place I love to swap up to is point B on skyhammer – send the ileap clone to whoever is sitting on point, fall down below then swap up to surprise.

Energy + fire/battle/doom/air…

^Good point – it depends a lot on individual builds.

Good on you for starting out with a shatter build – that will certainly force you to get comfortable with all our active defence and timing of skills.

I assume you’re not using mirror images (taking condition cleanse or something else instead, which is better IMO)? In any case, I know vulnerability on daze is nice, but don’t go blowing your diversion shatter just to stack up vulnerability in order to follow up with a mind wrack nuke. I’d only do the one-two punch if you’ve already got a couple of illusions up and at least half endurance plus a weapon swap (energy sigils) available – to quickly pop out at least 2 clones for the nuke.

Diversion has a lot of uses, from reviving downed allies (preventing a stomp) to interrupting enemies while you heal – a shame to waste the cooldown purely on trying to maximise your burst.

As for getting focused – use one of your stealths to break target (assuming prestige, and mass invis at he least, or decoy if you use it), blink away to create distance, use evades (blurred frenzy, distortion) to avoid incoming damage. Also it is good to think offensively while trying to avoid damage – because you have good burst, it is easy to turn the tables vs squishier targets (ie thieves or some eles) with one good hit. Position your illusions, dodge back at them and mind wrack for example.

There are no strict rotations – you’ve got to go with the flow and do what feels best at the time. Do not always do the predictable ileap/dodge/swap/BF+MW, because everyone and their grandma will see that coming.

The common GS ranged shatter combo is izerker – throw mirror blade – mind wrack immediately after the mirror blade hits the target (2 illusions up) – mind stab (if safe to do so) at target tocation. Edit: If you’re closing the gap by running at the enemy or blink right behind them, then dodge overhead before mind wrack for a full 4 illusion shatter (it also looks sexy, but only on asura). But again, mix it up depending on ally and enemy position. Most of it comes from knowing how your illusions work – where they will spawn and how to force the enemy to be hit by your shatters (waste their defensive skills, force their position, etc). Missing your damage repeatedly = you will die or be forced to retreat.

But seriously – keep going with this build, especially in pvp. You’ll get a lot better, and it will feel much more rewarding.

Gas mask.

It’s pretty unique if you’re a light armour profession.

style.6173:

At equal talent:

Mesmer > thief
Thief > ele

I would say at “equal” skill, Thief > Mesmer > Ele.

I have trouble nailing the thieves that have almost perma evasion – I’m not familiar with the build (trait selection), but they’re like Speedy Gonzales combined with Road Runner. It takes enough effort to set up a shatter burst, and hitting these guys with sufficient damage is a challenge.

But any good thief is a nightmare such that you have to be on your toes all the time. If you’re tired or not relaxed enough and have slower reflexes, you’ll get eaten alive by a good thief. Fun when you’re able to counter-play them, especially if you’re on low health and turn the tables to finish them, but timing must be flawless, and heaven help you if it’s 1v2 and they have a friend.

Combat mechanics vs other players (because pve AI is contrived and stupid). Simple as that.

I love the flow in fighting and stomping.

Is this post your own top 3 dislikes?

1. Conquest mode only.
2. Other players running to cap home if someone else (me) is already standing there and no enemies in sight.
3. Bunkers who take root and grow on a point like perennial weeds.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

When I run glkittenter and don’t watch my back, because of my low HP, i get 1-2 shot usually. :P

The key I have learnt (the hard way) with shatter is to have all your panic buttons and their cooldowns in finger memory, especially when running around out of combat and likely to get jumped by someone. That would be distortion, decoy, diversion, blurred frenzy, prestige, blink, power cleanse (if immobilised and need to move asap). If in combat then things like ileap swap.

Hitting those buttons without needing to think about it can be the difference between life and death.

It depends entirely on the situation, especially given it is easy to retrait.

The two options are 2/6/0/0/6 (my preference) or 4/4/0/0/6 (when you need boon strip or torch condition removal).

1200 blink is a necessity for mobility IMO, especially if not using staff, so the question should be really why do I pick blade training over cleansing conflagration or shattered concentration.

Most of the time I play solo – I don’t play in a guild, and so I always have the option to fight or to run away.

So the answer is simply because I don’t need the boon strip or the torch trait, and I’d rather have more lower cooldown on blurred frenzy/ileap – I can usually get off two bursts in Sw/T before having to switch back to greatsword, which I can’t do as easily if blurred frenzy is at 12 seconds. Also, never dismiss confusing combatants and the visual clutter it provides, especially with stealth and burst damage.

If I get invited to duel a guardian or something, then yes it’s better to retrait and take boon strip. Or if forced to duel some heavy condition build, retrait and take torch trait. I’ve highlighted the scenarios in my build list.

Generally I prefer to play with 2/6/0/0/6 if I’m running around solo.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

<snip>

@Curunen.8729 I do use invisibility utility skills, but I only use torch when i’m using gs as a main hand. Staff+Sword/Torch doesn’t give me much dps from illusions which is a nice bonus to have. I’ll make sure to try out your build

Well I’ve just updated all the links to my builds, current gear as well as projected gear (after the wondeful ascended grind which is slow going… ;D), with a huge focus on minimising gear changes and costs, taking into account all the different current pvp scenarios. I like things to be neat and tidy in the inventory!

I agree that sadly staff + sword/torch just doesn’t cut it anymore, so I have had to swith full time to greatsword + sword/torch.

Greatsword + sword/torch is devastating providing you use all your defensive skills and dodges wisely, together with good positioning. The Purple Wing’s and Vashury’s videos demonstrate fantastic use of this combo.

You can of course use any combination of weapons you like – such as staff + sword/pistol or anything that feels good to you.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

Thanks to all that have answered to far! I don’t mind trying new builds, so if you want to link anything please go a head.

Also Condition’s are something I’m willing to try, but aren’t really something that swings my way.

The builds I use are in the signature below. All pretty standard trait and skill choices, but gear may be a little different.

Play shatter – use stealth (torch, decoy, mass invis).

Best of both worlds.

Yes please, would be nice to have the option of assassins trinkets.

I would like a couple of these pieces too.

Well if nothing else, the least they could do is:
1. Increase the base damage of BF.
2. Reduce to cooldown back to 10s.

PvE bullet sponges, and meagre rewards…

I do not wish to sound ungrateful – I do love the architecture of the crown pavillion.

3 is why when you’re in first place, you can’t really lose, which I find a bit silly.

1 is luck – you might not get aspect master immediately, or you might.

2 is a given – everyone should do this and it is easy enough to maintain.

Sun dash can often be unpredictable with a little lag – either porting you back to where you initiated the power, or randomly boosting you long distance when you didn’t pick up any power up (or a delayed response to it).

Lightning pull can sometimes not trigget on the plates unless you press the button several times, leading you to run off the edge rather than jump, among other weird things.

Wait – did they just fix the achievement to work regardless of position? So all that time today I spent quitting and restarting different races to get ahead was a waste of time? Kitten…