Traps are actually in a good place. It is like the necro needing to spec to GT wells or increase the size of marks.
Works well on its own, works better when traited.
Only things that needs some love is to remove or greatly reduce the spirit internal timer. And move the grand master spirits move trait up to first tier and place something else there. Spirits are useless unless they are following. Since it is about impossible to get any milage out of them until end game no one ever really uses them and or have settled into other builds by the time it becomes viable.
Pets hitting on the run would solve ranger DPS tremendously. If they fix this there would be no need to fix weapon damage as we would be complete.
Pet aggro works just fine, I actually appreciate the aggro system of the game and how it prioritizes. Some fights I have to kite more than others, no big deal. I don’t want to stand in place and pew pew pew.
RaO fix… lol… yeah… that’s all I got. It works fine as is and can build up a nice combo with my pets. The stability is bonus.
It existed long before the aquatic buffs
Sadly I find that the spear more often or not is the culprit as this happens to me all the time and I use melee pets.
Don’t have this issue usually when I swap to spear gun (usually)
Aside from damage and sluggish fire rate my real issue with it is that it lacks any real synergy with the other weapons. It very much is a stand alone weapon where as all the other weapons synergize well with one another.
I only carry it for the times I want to do WvW or if using melee would get me creamed against an event boss. Mostly just collects dust in my inventory.
“Know when to hold them’
Know when to stow them’
Know when to swap away,
and know when to run. "
Most simple and well rounded answer. It honestly comes down to pet management. The pet is not a fire and forget weapon.
During boss fights that require controlling the bosses location i will keep pet on passive. If the boss strays after a friendly I will sick my pet on the boss grab aggro and then recall my pet bringing the boss to where my team wants it. Pet is awesome at grabbing aggro off of friendlies.
Dungeon is more about survival then DPS race, plink your arrows axes what have you at it. It’ll go down when it goes down. As I typically run a tankier build i am the one usually rezzing all the glass kitties and tossing boons around. There is more mechanics in this game then straight up DPS.
15 Pts in Beast Mastery makes a huge difference in pet survivability with faster swaps and when you do screw up it is more forgiving.
Ranger is provided a huge slew of traits and skills that benefit both.
15 pts into wilderness survival grants 2 secs of protection. that is 33% bonus damage reduction. You want your pets dodge roll against AoE spikes, that is it. You get buffed endurence regen, use it to your advantage, even more if you are traited for vigor on Healing Spring pulses.
And as mentioned, use your heals to benefit your pet, not just you.
Your pet is your battle buddy. It is one team, one fight. If you take care of your pet, your pet will take care of you.
Only time my pet ever really goes down is when I failed to pay attention to its health bar.
We have four class mechanic skills, its okay to use f3 and kite for a few seconds if you are waiting for a swap or heal. Players do it all the time in dungeons when they are waiting for a heal.
It is still useful and will interupt a channeled attack. It still kicks enemies back just not as far… for some. In PvE some enemies you can kick across the map and others don’t go more than 2 ft. I kind of wish it would be a set distance.
And honestly, I would rather have a knockdown then knockback. Knockback generally is not all that great for melee leaving you chasing and making your pet have to move.
I am loving the channeled duration of block against ranged. I’ve used it to great effect and is great to help close while swoop is on cooldown. And you get to kick them once you are in range (provided duration hasn’t expired).
If I hurt your feelings I apologize. I applaud you for loving to play your ranger. Just sick of hearing all the complaints of why it doesn’t play like a warrior when its NOT a flippin warrior.
Np ye i’m sick of reading that too. Actually i don’t play a ranger atm, sadly. It was ofc the first class i picked. Then i tried a mesmer…i felt depressed looking at the ranger.
Just to clarify i think rifle warrior is a very fun class if you like a ranged dps, but it’s not a ranger and it’s not an archer. A sniper wearing heavy armor feels so wrong tbh.
I’ve debated alting a Rifle Warrior Female Norn for kicks and gigles, a lot of the Culteral armor has more of a woodsy feel to it, even heavy. That and the the warrior LB is a lot of fun to play as well with its field combos and area denial support play style.
I won’t be picking it up though because I am butt hurt over my ranger. If anything I play my ranger like a warrior… it’ll only be fitting to play my warrior like a ranger lol
I was thinking more chameleon… but meh, what do I know. I’m still okay with a parrot lizard.
you will also find that many rangers on the forums refuse to use their pets… yet refuse to roll warriors
WHY should a ranger reroll warrior? Ah ok cos he doesn’t like the pet, i got it. What if doesn’t like the heavy armor warrior playstyle? What if the ranger was the class he used to play (maybe for years) in gw1? Another example of flawless logic here.
Boomstin.3460
“Reroll thief or warrior. Thief with shortbow and warrior with longbow are superior to ranger with em, among other things.”
Simply mocking posters like this that seem to plague a majority of the topics.
If I hurt your feelings I apologize. I applaud you for loving to play your ranger. Just sick of hearing all the complaints of why it doesn’t play like a warrior when its NOT a flippin warrior.
And yes, our damage numbers and pets need tweaking, they are working on it, I’m just tired of the QQ when they said they are working on it, and with last update, yes they are working on it. Our class has the most balance issues to bring us up to par, they said that. I am glad they are taking their time to test things to keep the nerf bat coming that would follow to powerful a buff (we would really see crying, rage, and loud noises then)
Don’t post your build… people are cranky on forums and will rip it to shreds because its not a FTM thief or warrior.
That being said, I encourage you to play a class and style that you enjoy because you enjoy it.
I ran a pretty good GS/LB build that has worked fairly well for me. You won’t see high numbers from it because it focuses more on support and Pet damage (you will also find that many rangers on the forums refuse to use their pets… yet refuse to roll warriors).
Switched it up for GS/1HS Horn for more support and extra leaps and the like. I’ll see if I can find the build post for it.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74991-gs-tank-pet-build/
build posted there because community generally has more positive and useful feed back versus OMG why haven’t you rolled a warrior posts.
Well thought out and well written. I’d still like a slight tweek on all weapon damage numbers across the board but that is just my Humble opinion. When they fix the pets this very well could become a none issue.
Good post and good ideas.
Eir is just awesome, no getting around that.
Would be more entertaining if we could do some more trick shots with our bow though. Most of our arrow attacks all look the same lack any real sort of difference outside of pacing for LB 2 and poison Split Shot SB. Otherwise all animations are the same. (discounting barrage because obviously that is different). Honestly wish our Barrage looked like the way Eir shoots off hers. We just shoot up in the air and magically arrows teleport and rain down where we aimed. I’d rather cram the 30 something arrows on my Bow String and Let’er fly and scatter out.
might be placebo effect? Dunno. I was still having issues with my drake under water. But if your Devourers are actually listening to its master then rock on.
Well written post and Idea. We honestly need more of these as opposed to the more childish versions of impending doom and “I would rather play WoW so I am going to post here and continue playing GW2 anyways posts”.
that being said, honestly don’t want to see this happen to my pet. I love rushing into battle pet at my side as my partner. Not watching over my shoulder waving as I get my kitten kicked in the face. I love the pacing of the ranger and the concept behind it (needs work, we all agree on that here, Devs included).
That being said, I would actually love if they introduced down the road another class, druid that utilized all the pets in this manner. Somebody else mentioned communing with the spirit of the pet (why waste pet skins around the map, don’t even have to make new ones for it). Could be a more magicy class but still play with bows and what not. D&D druids got bows after all.
I play my GW2 ranger like I would play my D&D ranger, the pet is a big time partner for me and I enjoy just how many of our skills foster this relationship as we buff one another (<3 RaO, I’ve gotten pet up to 25 stacks of might in secs with sword, combined with BM and it really becomes awesome). If this is implemented, the ranger would be destroyed as I love to play.
Having fun != viable. And if you know anything about this class, this doesn’t even pass the smell test.
Does that mean you must not be running a “viable” build then… if you aren’t having fun after all?
I must have the most viable build ever then!
I run a tanky ranger as well and yes most of my damage comes from my pet. And I do really well dungeons and all. Nothing is more satisfactory than rezzing all the cannons who splattered all the while continuing to pressure with the DPS.
To all you haters, If you don’t want to utilize the pet as the class is designed around, then I really don’t know what to tell you.
Way to flame the one who found a usable build, was kind enough to share it with you and improve all the negative whine threads with a constructive post.
Okay so it doesn’t match the pew pew of the glory days of the SB or BW days. Guess what nothing will.
Rangers, Thiefs, hell all professions are only as pigeon holed as they make themselves out to be. Having this mentality will only keep us this way instead of exploring all the nooks and crannies each profession has to offer.
(and before people start yelling at me me about broken traits and fluffy utilities, yes I am aware, we are only going to get better as they are improved “pace” wise, as will all classes as they tweak balance)
I actually use an extremely tanky build with this weapon set as well. Amazing for stealing points / interrupting stomps and the likes. I absolutely love GS/LB, but I switch off for either LB/sword and dagger or GS/Sword dagger .
Really depends on my team / situation.
Same, except GS / sword horn, GS and sword have amazing synergy together. And tanky works well for ranger because going tanky doesn’t effect your pets damage.
Especially people who claim that rangers do poorly in SPVP. Ranger is slightly under-powered in terms of the meta in tournament style PVP but I wouldn’t say by much.
No one seems to understand how fast a ranger can put pressure on a player with conditions while still having decent survivability. Not to mention that there is a build that basically leaves you unkillable, or atleast until your team members can come kill off the attackers for you.
People seriously need to start to learn how to use their pets properly, for example I use double ravens because their high damage synergizes well with my build, not to mention they seem to hit running targets a lot more efficiently.
I’m not a ranger pro or do I claim to be but you guys make it seem like the class has absolutely nothing and I strongly disagree with that.
But before all of you guys start posting angry replies, yes the ranger has issues that should be addressed and is slightly weak at the moment.
And the best part… THEY ARE WORKING ON IT
seriously… pick one of the other 40 similar posts that were created today alone and post there… this is really starting to clutter up the forums
What am I going to do? I am going to continue playing what I, in my own opinion, find is the most fun and entertaining class to play.
Let the FTMs switch and play other classes. I play my ranger because I am my ranger at heart. I won’t let any sliver under the finger nail keep me down, I’m God kitten Woodsman for kitty’s sake.
Because my Ranger wants to feel like yoda as I swoop from victim to victim. Paired with the 1H to swap too, I make jedi masters look like padiwans.
Build variety doesn’t exist, or at least not significantly enough. It’s all bows all the time and the skills don’t feel really useful at all. Not enough utility. The utility skills are largely unuseful, and spirits still also aren’t worth using.
I use GS / Sword+Horn… I must be doing it wrong…
I’ll agree with you on utilities, but they are working on them. They made good progress on the Spirits and more changes are still being tested to make sure it doesn’t have to be rolled back.
The block is nifty, but the weapon still lacks any reason to be used over things like… warrior greatsword.
In much the same way that a Warrior Greatsword lacks a pet.
Ranger GS is always going to look lacklustre compared directly to a Warrior GS. This isn’t a defect, an oversight or something that’s ever going to be changed. It’s factoring in that a portion of a Ranger’s dps comes from its pet.
Now I don’t like the pet being factored into dps so that my attacks are for the most part slightly weaker than any other class… So, I play a Thief.
You’re either happy relying upon a pet or you’re not. If you insist on direct comparisons with other classes weapons you’re going to be consistently disappointed. I mean it in the kindest possible way when I say, if this fundamental aspect of the Ranger causes you problems, you need to change class.
This
I look across the forums and see defeat, sorrow, and betrayal. I see rangers dropping their bows, lowering their swords, and letting their companions go. I see heads lowered in shame and defeat. Souls crushed by false fruits of promised lies.
But I say NAY! I refuse to undo my bow strings and lower my swords to this adversity. I refuse to turn my back from this challenge and walk away. I am a ranger, nature is my calling, my animal companion by my side. Let the other classes call us weak, let them flaunt there strengths. We will show them our true metal.
I implore all rangers here, the ones whose hearts are broken in these dark times to not give up hope. Not to fall to depression and sorrow. There will always be those dark days when light seems so far away. There will always be those challenges that look to high to reach.
But that is what it means to be alive. To face defeat, dust the dirt from your knees and rise to face the challenge again. The fruits of that success will taste all the better.
Sparrow Silverstar refuses to be laid low, she refuses to allow others to call her useless, and she will not slink off into the darkness. So rise my fellow rangers and lets show them that though we may be neglected, broken, and forgotten; like hell we are without fight, spirit, and the will to succeed.
cookie for you
My Ranger stands by your side. Let them come, we shall prevail
God, no wonder a lot of you think rangers broken, a weapon “isn’t good” according to you unless it does tons of damage, I personally did a back flip of joy because my main weapon just skyrocketed in awesome!!
This, yay playing an attrition build.
Guys, it is rare for a representative of the company to give us any kind of information about what may be coming up as far as changes, tweaks , buffs and nerfs. This is why. People set expectations way to high and begin frothing at the mouth (or I guess the fingers) when what comes to pass falls shy of those expectations.
After the full blown meltdown some people seem to have had, why would they ever want to slip us tidbits of info again? You were given some vague information and some hints of things to come and expanded on it significantly. This is why it is rare to see communication from community reps that give you any direct information. We have behaved ridiculously here. I will honestly be surprise if anyone tries to slip us anything other than ‘good things are coming EVENTUALLY’ based on the over the top reaction already exhibited here.
Irrelevant image:
http://i.imgur.com/PL5JV.jpg
Here Here and Well said.
I still love my ranger. Took me 15 profession changes (this is my 4th ranger) to finally find a build that I enjoy.
If you pick a ranger, only suggestion I have is to treat your pet as a partner, not a curse. the more you utilize your pet the more success you will have.
and FYI, if you read posts in any of the forums people will either cry the class is broken and unplayable (non of them are) or FTM, which yup its true there are those. But picking up a class because it is currently the flavor of the month will only result in your getting frustrated when it gets nerfed.
I suggest playing all the classes before choosing one. Figure out which class core mechanic and skills/play style you enjoy the most and rock it no matter what come buff or nerfs. If you truly enjoy the playstyle then nothing will get you down.
Yes, they should be tied to the ranger. Otherwise we’d be a warrior in medium armor. What makes a ranger a ranger is his/her partnership with its pets. Most of our skills and utilities would be useless without it or greatly kittened. And NO, I am not saying change up skills. I love my skills and how they all boost my pet.
The pet is a huge advantage if it is utilized and even invested in slightly. Yes it takes some extra micro managing, if you don’t want that run a warrior, like every other one of the winers want to do. We are like the Necro who gets caught with his pants down without any LF when our pets go down. Focus on keeping them up. Sometimes that involves using your heal for your pet, advantage is all your heals benefit both.
CC goes a long way towards boosting your pets targeting. Stop treating it as a curse and using it as an advantage and you will see your effectiveness go up with it.
They are working on the AI, no one in their right mind would purposefully screw over a client (seriously, it is ridiculous reading this over and over). When they get the fix fully tested rangers will rock the damage like everyone else and people will actually have to decide between hitting the pet that can be swapped fairly regularly (as fast as any heal and faster than most), or yourself which leaves your pet open to smack. Just wait.
more responsiveness when I activate F2 and F3.
Allow my pet to either register the hit at start of animation, or like players allow them to hit on the move so that they can keep themselves in range through animation.
I will be pissed if they cut my pets damage out. There would be no point to our class. I like fighting along side my partner in the heat of battle and working as a team to take down our prey. Honestly why I can’t tear myself away now, I love my pets, my characters feel so lonely when I play any other profession.
Those 16K hitting warriors are the ones I am constantly scraping off the sidewalk and piecing back together. Role I’ve picked up for WvW, buffing the team and scraping dumb kitten GCs. People are only as useful as people allow their builds to be. Currently (And I mean CURRENTLY) our spike build doesn’t compete, smart thing to do would be to switch to something that does. Not march it onto the field of battle over and over and over and fricken over to get plastered. You have to adapt to overcome.
Like I said, if ANET really wants people to stop OMGing over numbers, support needs to be rewarded more in the magical gauge of how much people contribute to pvp and events.
Maybe your right, but then why do you have threads like this one https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-update/first where so many Rangers (literally 12 pages of them) are complaining that they are weak, have no useful skills, and have useless pets to boot? I don’t get it. I also don’t know since my Ranger is only level 20. I have an 80 thief and wanted something that could dish out dmg at range.
Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to the update along with every other ranger die hard. I am just tired of all the wining of oh noes my ranger got splatterized because I made it a GC. YES, our GC build currently is kitten, avoid the time being til they play with numbers. Condition is highly viable, and quite frankly the tank build is one of the most fun ones I have played out of any class. This again is my opinion. The GC build will be fixed. They know people are upset. The 50,000+ new wine posts a day let them know.
I was just pointing out that those shiny GCs that everyone and their bloody uncle fauns over on these forums die way to freakishly easy leaving it up to my rock hard kitten to rez over and over. I honestly just wish I could get points racked up on events for all the bloody healing I do and that it wasn’t left to just DPS to determine if I helped or not. Same goes for PvP, if healing and team support with buffs were actually rewarded (SWTOR IMO did an amazing job of this in their pvp (objective based, but you still got points for protecting and healing, and if you did a lot to actually help the team you were voted up as team MVP and got extra reward) there would be a much wider diversification from pew pew yay numbers.
torch has always been a fun one for me no matter what class. There is nothing better then setting an NPC or player on fire and listening to their characters scream in horror.
Is a must IMO if you want to run a condition build.
that said, my other ranger who is a BM uses horn when its not busy flailing away with its GS.
I dunno, the more I level my Ranger and see these Warriors out in the field one-shotting mobs dead with their swords, the more I still just wanna roll a Warrior.
I thought that too… until I watched a GC warrior get swallowed whole by a mob of 6 branded during an event nearly costing us. (forget name of event but its defending some iron legion centurian. Two hallways, since there was only two of us we each took a hall).
I had to switch over pulling the 6 I was working on to the 4 left standing on his side. Two pet swaps later and a healing spring or two I had all 10 mobs down and was rezzing the rather embarrassed warrior. Rangers are the gods of PvE.
First Ranger I rolled… I was like woah hell no… it was not what I was expecting from bow ranger. scrapped played something else
came back months later and made another Norn GS Hilt Bashing in your Face Swooping Ranger… Voice fits perfectly now.
I absolutely loved revenge brawl scene when my Norn threatened to turn the helm into a chamber pot.
Other favorite moments (has happened a couple times). When I swoop in and immediately get knocked 600 yards back and on my butt. Her response, “I did that” (as if I meant to do that all along)
Yup, still LOVE my ranger. Getting it to work well, bugs and all. Looking forward to the buffs which will only make me stronger (even if they are minor tweaks. Fixes are still fixes {except those times those “fixes” are not})
Ranger Spear does it all the time under water. really annoying when Champs reset to full after you spent the last 5 minutes whittling them down two 1/4-1/2 health.
Really sad since you are literally swimming right in front of their face.
Only Pets I never seem to want to bring myself to using are Moas. I am heavy Pet specced for my damage and buffing myself really has no use to me.
That and joyfully swooping into flocks of five and six of them and watching my wolf rip them all to shreds does nothing to boost my confidence in actually deploying them myself.
Yes, yes it is and I do quite well with it. Have taken down several champs solo in melee.
My build
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Post-Your-Build-Thread/713673
Short run down of build. I focus more on tanking and support allowing my pets to take up the majority of my dps.
Reworked my Build so that it is more pet focused. So far have had amazing results.
Link to the Build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQJARTnEVUYZVQKWwaZgopQTW69A90q9OFjKUF8ZC;TEBA1ymEMJZS1kiJqbM3Iuxej7G5NrJGbc2YTwbCA (Copy and Paste Link)
Premise of the build is to laugh as your pet chews the face off of everything around you. Your primary job is to keep the pet up, and if the enemy is kiting too much, lock it down. Since you are wading into battle melee style anyways, your enemies won’t be moving as much either.
With as many points as you have in Beast Master and the constant regen from runes, signets, and springs (huge regen up time through traits and runes), it takes a huge hit or complete dog pile to take a pet out before you get the chance to switch (which you can do fairly often if you have to; that said, I rarely have too, usually only on champ fights). Another boost is it takes just as long to take you out with your free evades, high endurance regen for dodges, stun, and block/knock back.
Equipment:
Great Sword: great all around fun weapon, when they buff soon, the only thing I hope they change are numbers, if they touch the skill bar itself I will freak. It is by far my favorite weapon (save the swoop for when you lay down healing spring for extra healing)
Long Bow: Rarely take it out, its there for those few fights that melee absolutely gets ground into the dirt in or for its utility.
Armor: Soldier’s, super tanky with some base dps with vitality tough and power. Jewelry is Clerics to buff healing up and make it even more tanky while boosting base dps. Runes of Dwayna to boost healing even more. Sigil of water on GS for more healing, sigil of speed on LB because typically when I have it out I am kiting like hell anyway.
Pros:
1) This build doesn’t ignore the pet and hate on the pet as our profession mechanic. Instead it utilizes it and fairly well. It does require paying attention to the pet and calling it back when it gets too hot to fast if you need to wait for swap.
2) Pet rarely gets one shotted except to uber leet bosses, those instances I should have either waited for back up and swapped to a ranged pet (we have 20 pets, bring the one that fits the job, it is okay to switch).
3) You rarely get one shotted with all the armor, healing, and regen… except facing those gimicky builds that one shot anything, nothing will survive those if you don’t prep to evade.
3) huge party support, you are the only class that can rez all the silly glass cannons AND do dps all at the same time via your super buffed up pet. Also all your healing doesn’t hurt either.
4) feel like yoda as you swoop from victim to victim in your spinning whirl of doom/evasion.
Cons:
1) requires you to focus on two health bars to stay optimal, with pet buffed up as is he won’t hurt as much when hit but you WILL suffer if you let your pet go down (even more so if it happens twice before the pet down penalty expires)
2) You will not see crazy numbers! but… ranger never sees those numbers anyways, so what the hell do you care for. Pet sees some nice ones though.
3) lack of stun break, countered best by saving your block to counter it and knowing your enemies. Your free evade is also awesome at randomly dodging the bullet from time to time. You will also with all the vigor and base endurance regen be able to dodge roll more anyway over your standard build. It is more pre-emptive thinking (can be more free with dodges since you get them back alot) versus re-active.
(edited by DaisyRogers.6837)
“Next” ~ After my wolf gets one shotted by an area boss… sounds like my pets are awaiting for a dreaded booster shot or something.
“Sick em” (Norn Voice) also sounds pretty intimidating. Will actually be intimidating after I finish up beast master.
Terrestrial: Fern Hound – Iduna (Norse for renewal of nature)
Alpine Wolf – Unndis (Norse for loving)
Deep Sea: Drake – Adalbjorg (Norse for noble safety)
Shark – Rika (Norse for eternal ruler)
If you haven’t figured it out my ranger is a Norn.
I’m so going to have to try this with a survivability build. Might have to name a cat Reaper Drone.
lol
My Build here: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoM0VmMzobLTombLTo9MGxGmackq0M8kii707kii7khs7kii70z7kIM70V7ofF70m8ofy
Wanted to see what all the negative fuss was bout the great sword so I rolled a second ranger… I simply don’t buy into the gripe.
Yeah, its not a face roll weapon but man oh man can it wreak havoc on multiple enemies with really good survivability, and the animations are a lot of fun.
Main premise of the build is to stack insane regen and healing to keep both your pet and you alive. The faster pet swaps will lessen the chance of getting a pet wiped. Also, since your are specced higher in survivability, your pet will be rocking a good chunk of the damage. Since you are sticking in melee range this won’t be a problem since your pet doesn’t have to move as much.
I roll alpine wolf and fern hound for greater crowd control and the fern hounds howl adds you guess it, even more regen.
I also have Beast master IV improved healing (won’t select), to keep the pets up even better. And I rock water runes to proc opportunities for even more area healing.
It is pretty tanky with the constant healing. I’ve managed to solo several champs so far with this build.
Also wanted to spec outside of my trap condition build so I thought I would run spirits (fingers crossed for buff). yeah they are kinda kittened, but they do buff and allows my build to be more supportive in parties. So feel free to make fun of my spirits, I still think they are entertaining and hopefully in a week decent/good.
My Build here: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoM0VmMzoGrgMmGrgM9MGGxmackM0b8kii707kii7khs7kii70z7kIM70V7ofF70m8ofy
Wanted to see what all the negative fuss was bout the great sword so I rolled a second ranger… I simply don’t buy into the gripe.
Yeah, its not a face roll weapon but man oh man can it wreak havoc on multiple enemies with really good survivability, and the animations are a lot of fun.
Main premise of the build is to stack insane regen and healing to keep both your pet and you alive. The faster pet swaps will lessen the chance of getting a pet wiped. Also, since your are specced higher in survivability, your pet will be rocking a good chunk of the damage. Since you are sticking in melee range this won’t be a problem since your pet doesn’t have to move as much.
I roll alpine wolf and fern hound for greater crowd control and the fern hounds howl adds you guess it, even more regen.
I also have Beast master IV improved healing (won’t select), to keep the pets up even better.
And I rock water runes to proc opportunities for even more area healing.
It is pretty tanky with the constant healing. I’ve managed to solo several champs so far with this build.
(edited by DaisyRogers.6837)
Axe/torch when faced with groups, the amount of AOE you can dump is epic when paired with traps and melts most trash mobs allowing you to switch to Short Bow to then focus down whatever Vet champ is left standing.
As mentioned Short Bow is my second and actual primary, axe is brought out to thin crowds and tag during events.
I carry Long Bow for WvW. Haven’t really gotten around to sPvP yet.
Condition / Crit build using high crit chance to proc extra conditions from traits and runes.
I’ve rolled Horn but find it over all meh after popping both skills it just kind of sits there in my hand, torch has much more friendly CDs.
I don’t like the ranger. I love it!
My ranger has become my favorite after bouncing through and trying every class in a mad bout of alto-hism. Will admit that this is my third attempt at the ranger and I am glad that I finally took the time to level it beyond the simple pew pew of the first few levels that left me wanting for so much more to do.
Yeah some/ a bunch of skills are borked, but they will be fixed. It can only get better from here unlike some other classes/ builds that are going to be nerf batted in the face.
Rangers aren’t in the best place but they are definitely playable, and kitten fun to play to boot.
Thieves will get the black eye they need to diversify, I really wish people would stop all these OMG my world is ending threads concerning them. They are aware of issues and working on it. Leave it be and contribute positive discussion on good builds, build improvements, and omg awesome vids threads and ideas on general improvement. You know, the kind of stuff that ACTUALLY benefits the community and ANET itself.
I use axe/torch and short bow. I usually run with short bow out unless I get caught by a huge chunk of agrro which the axe is amazing at leveling quickly.
Against tougher fights vet and above I start with the axe/torch. I’ll drop torch throw if single target or lay fire field if it has extra mobs. chuck my freeze to give my pet an easier time and then toss split blade to get a head start on bleed stacks. Switch to short bow, lay down #4 so pet can start stacking bleeds, #2 to add extra cond damage and limit healing, sharpened stone and then spam #1 while working on getting to a flanking position, once I have flanking qz for the win. So far I’ve gotten 16 stacks of bleed up at my low 24 lvl. Should get much more interesting as I keep increasing condition duration.
Its fun watching all those numbers jump all over the place from conditions. Also have spike trap for further bleeds and a buffer room maker. Yeah there are stronger traps but it has a really short cool down.
I carry the LB in WvWvW for when I get caught up in a zerg.
Only thing I would like to see is slight change to the #1 skill. The chunk it chews out of LF with each volley is pretty steep. I can get roughly 4 volleys off before the damage goes to kitten. the turn around decrease to damage is pretty harsh as well.
Easiest way I’ve seen to negate it though is to switch back out at around 60% so you can build quickly back again.