It reads more of a “Use this trait spread but do whatever you want with the actual trait selections/armors/weapons/skills/runes/sigils”
I think that that is exactly what i said, i never said it was an optimal build.
You have Keen Edge, Shortbow, and Axe all listed as viable choices in your power based build but they’re strongly condition based traits/weapons
Keen Edge will do more damage Steady Focus if you never have any energy it is better then Signet Mastery if you don’t have any signets, it better then Predator’s Instinct if you opponent doesn’t run away.
Shortbow is not just a condition weapon it is all so a control weapon (it also not a condition weapon if you opponent is good enough to spend more time facing then not)
Axe is a bad weapon as a whole except for farming loot bags in WvW
i haven’t tested it properly yet. but when i read the patch notes i though that it was going good for what the OP said is was good for.
4s it not long enough to kill a troll thief solo, but it is long enough to kill a troll thief that is attack a small group trying to take a camp or something.
if it where to much longer it would take the advantage of stealth out of the game (that would be kinda nice) and be pretty over powered
Pets
Bears – tank, mostly useless, Black Bear can be used in WvW zerging for the weakness
Dogs – Control, all are good in WvW, dual dog for small group and roaming is great
Spiders – Poison/Control good in WvW roam especially the Forest Spider for the poison
Moa’s – Buffs good in small groups the Red moa is used a lot in dungeons, blue is good for mêlée ranger WvW roamer.
Drakes – AoE (blast finisher) all round good pets.
Cats/Birds – our damage pets, great for solo a group play.
Builds for different parts of the game.
Open world PvE PvT
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
Armour
Any power based armour will do and also combining different sets is great (eq PVT Armor and zerker trinkets)
PVT – all round good set if you only get one get this, a must for zerging
Zerker/Assassins – damage set great for all PvE and WvW roaming (I keep a set in my bags)
Cleric – Bunker set good for WvW Roaming and duelling, not a bad set use while earning token, karma and badges to buy PVT
Knights – hybrid set a good set use while earning tokens, karma and badges to buy PVT (epically mixed with clerics)
Runes
Once again whatever you have will be fine.
Travellers – The best complement to our causal idea. +30pt to everything speed buff for moving around quick, boon duration is all ways good (Might, regen, protection etc) condition duration; we use vulnerability and cripple a lot in this build and sometimes Poison and Chill.
Speed – poor man’s travellers
Melandru – strong defensive set I used this before the changes to travellers
Ranger (other damage oriented runes) – great for when using zerker gear to increases damage
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
Skills
Skill can varying and changed easily on the fly, example switch LR for MT for choke based fight in WvW.
Healing
Healing spring – all round good heal skill, party support
Troll Unguent – good for solo play
Utility
Signet of Renewal – condition removal, good for WvW small party and roam
Signet of Stone – Invulnerability and toughness increase, used in Signet builds as panic button
Signet of the Hunt – speed increase when not using Travellers or speed Runes
Signet of the Wild – regen, stability in signet build – used in signet build and or with cleric equipment
“Protect Me” – panic button for non-signet builds
“Sic ’Em” – damage buff (I’m currently still testing the reveal component, so no comment there)
Lightning Reflexes – great panic button, good in WvW zerging if you are in the middle of the fight and on low health and want to bail.
Muddy Terrain – aoe snare, great in WvW zerg fights around chokes, comparable and complement to ele’s static field, not affected by stability.
Quickening Zephyr – quickness, good for damage spikes, stomping and rezing.
Frost Spirit (and other spirits) – damage buff, use with Vigorous Spirits in dungeon’s (not so good in open world due to being stationary) can be used before engaging a large group of mobs.
Elite
Entangle – a good snare, with damage. Good for WvW solo and small group stuff.
Rampage As One – Damage buff and a 20+ second stability, used for everything. Pop during initial engagement.
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
Weapons and Sigils
Using different weapons can add verity to playing, and sigils can be just a varied. For kill stacking use Bloodlust. Sigils that are mention are nice for that weapon and when its used
Longbow – our ranger power weapon that maintains vulnerability and has some utility, used for everything. Handy sigils are Fire and Peril, and power buff sigils
Shortbow – in power build this is a control weapon (though we have 300 in condition damage) handy in WvW roam and small group. Handy sigils are condition extend an daze extend.
Great Sword – a defensive and power weapon use #2 on recharge used for everything. Handy sigils are Fire, blood, bloodlust Restoration, Stamina, power buffs.
Sword – our strongest damage weapon, use in Dungeons and WvW roaming (I don’t use it much). Handy sigils are Fire, blood, bloodlust Restoration, Stamina, power buffs
Axe – an opponent tagging weapon (considered and condition wepon) great for getting drops in zerging situations. Handy sigils are Bloodlust, Restoration and Stamina
Warhorn – a party buff weapon, WH#4 after RoA and a good way to stack might on our pet. used for everything Handy sigils are Bloodlust, Restoration and Stamina.
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
The traits
With 30/0/30/10/0 there is a lot of scope for different traits that a great for different play style and situations. So you need to select appropriately for what you want to do. The only miss trait is Quick Draw but it is not worth going 20pt in to Skirmishing for it.
Marksmanship 30pt
Adept
(I) Steady Focus – A damage buff which is good choice for open world PvE, and Yak/sentry slapping or any time when you are not going to be dodge rolling much.
(III) Keen Edge – A condition damage buff, due putting 30pts in WS we get at least some condition damage, it’s an ok choice if you know that you are going to be dodge rolling a bit more.
(IV) Signet Mastery – Signet buff used when using Signet of the Beastmaster
(V) Predator’s Instinct – snare, good in small group fights in WvW for chasing down opponents trying to get away.
Master
(VII) Spotter – a party damage buff, it expected in PUG dungeons. It is also a good choice in group WvW if you are not using a Bow.
(VIII) Piercing Arrows – our “AOE” trait for bows, great for tagging opponents in large group situations in PvE and WvW.
(X) Eagle Eye – range increase, this skill give us the longest range in the game, great for WvW; tower defence, de-siege towers and exploiting terrain (Borderlands Runes) and in open world pve for keeping agro on your pet (solo champs)
Grandmaster
(XI) Signet of the Beastmaster – Stability, Invulnerability, and damage buff (depending in signets), it’s the “signet build”, all round good choice, especially in WvW large group fights. Don’t forget to equip Signet Mastery.
(XII) Remorseless – a damage buff for vulnerability stacking, turns LB #3 in to a vulnerability stacking skill, great in PvE when things a constantly dying so you can kill the next thing quicker. Great in WvW Yak-slapping for stacking 25 vulnerability (open LB#3 followed by LB#2) and keeping 15-20 stacks.
Wilderness Survival 30pt
Adept
(I) Soften the Fall – less fall damage, great for moving around quickly especially karma training in WvW
(II) Shared Anguish – passive stun breaker, great for roaming/duelling, helps avoiding getting ganked
(VI) Wilderness Knowledge – WS skill recharger, LR, QZ and MT buff use when these skills are equipped.
Master
(VII) Off-Hand Training – WH buff
(VII) Oakheart Salve – a regeneration proc, a handy survival trait when some cleric great is equipped.
(IX) Hide in Plain Sight – a target drop, great for WvW roaming
(X) Martial Mastery – a GS, Sword and spear buff, handy when those weapons are equipped.
Grandmaster
(XI) Empathic Bond – passive condition removal, great for WvW roam and small party, condition heavy PvE.
(XII) Bark Skin – damage reduction, great for zerging around in WvW and PvE
Nature Magic 10pt
Adept
(III) Nature’s Bounty – regeneration buff, useful whit clerics gear (WS VII buff)
(IV) Vigorous Spirits – sprit buff, used when sprits are equipped (dungeons)
(V) Strength of Spirit – damage increase, great for when PVT gear is equipped.
(VI) Nature’s Protection – damage reduction, Great all round WvW survival trait.
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
The basic build
30/0/30/10/0
Builds for different parts of the game.
Open world PvE PvT
Open World PvE zerker
Dungeons
WvW large group
WvW Small group/roam PvT
WvW Small group/roam Zerker
Introduction and purpose
The build is a shell the can be adapted to a large variety of different parts of the game. It is based around power and It’s has the access to most of the more useful traits for all parts of WvW and PvE. It is a simple build that is great for casual players that only play a few hours a week. A lot of this build is stating the obvious and there is nothing revolutionary or original hear.
It is deliberately left without traits, pets and weapons as they can change depending and game type and mood. The armour, trinkets and runes are only suggested; whatever power based ones you have will do. Only exotics level gear is included.
A little about me
I love playing ranger, I have 3 other level 80s (War, Guard and ele) but they are getting dusty as I don’t enjoy playing them as much. I play on SoR and I am WvW orientated player and I do Zerging, Havoc, Roam and Duelling with small amounts of PvE during blow out matches. I have bank slots full different gear for my ranger but I’m too lazy to change between different game modes. I play a lot in winter and not much in summer.
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
in fights above about 5v5 you will die a quick and painless death. if you want keep the same style of build possible get some rabid gear and maybe some dire/apoth/settelers as well (mostly dire if you want to fight 10v10 or bigger). also what substance E said.
I love travelers runes, i switched all my melandreus runes for them (3 sets) the only set of armor that doesn’t have them is my zerker set (i use rangers on that).
boon duration is always good, makes our WH better, RAO better, healing spring better, some of our traits better, LR better, and more.
Condition duration is always good. even when speccing for power we generally still use Vulnerability, Chill and Cripple.
and 25% speed buff, nuff said. though i imagine that is doesn’t effect our pet like SotH (making our pet easier to kite).
plus 30 to each stat is nothing to sneeze at
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
i don’t intentionally spec for crit chance in a power build as i use PTV/Clerks gear (unless i feel the urge to go glass cannon/zerker)
i have had reasonable success with a verity of different setups, condition/bunker, power/bunker, rabid/companions might, zerker, PTV.
I use PTV/LB/GS a lot as i run with my guild for a raid and go roam/duel for a bit and im to lazy to go to a bank to get different gear, just re-trait and away we go.
I love using rabid gear with sigil of generosity, to send those confusion stacks back to them
i think that Demus hit the nail on the head, lots of things work as long as you have a few key things, (he forgot condition removal)
Sanctum of Rall’s Got Talent
I love Friday nights (Aussie time), just run around following the most entertaining Kiwi
I too find it quite disheartening, when me and my ever present sidekick Snuggles the brown bear are happily wandering around on some border land mining iron nodes when a group of defenders come running out of garrison and steam roll though me on their way to save hills, I mean what did ever do to them.
People should be band from grouping together when playing games!!
I find that for a ranger you cannot use that same build for Roam/Havoc and Zerging.
I use a 0/0/30/30/10 “guard” build with a mix of PVT and Cleric’s for Zerging (A/T, A/W)
and i use a 0/10/10/0/30 “Companions Might” with a mix of Rabid and Cleric’s for havoc. (SB, A/W)
and i use either that Companions Might build or a 0/0/30/10/30 (or 0/0/30/20/20) Cleric/Apothecary for solo. (SB or LB, S/D or S/W)
I feel that as a ranger we have a loot similar but slightly different build that are good and 1 thing but not so much another, unlike an an ele that sets to 0/10/0/30/30 and never needs to change, so you need to be constantly evolving.
Don’t use a longbow?
some wepones are not a good choice for different situations. Longbows are not good against a large zerg with lots of a guards in it. If you want bags use an axe and run through the middle of the zerg, dodge rolling through the melee train. If you want to sit in a tower build an arrow cart and use it.If long ranged weapon with AoE works bad for massive battles, like WvW, it’s omission of game design. Like if anti-tank rocket launcher works poor against tanks in a video game about modern war.
Also, about retaliation. Lot games contain such things, but I never saw them hurt attacker more than his own attack hurts attacked. Look, if there is berserker gear that grants wearer lot of attack and poor defense, there should be class… eh, sorry, they call it “profession”… there should be profession utilizes that gear well. Maybe profession with long ranged weapon and nice abilities to escape, like ranger? Oops, nope.
On the other hand, if there is really long ranged weapon there should be suitable gear for it. Wear tanky gear for longbow? For kitten sake, than why i even carry longbow? i just dont need such range if i wear tanky gear.
I’m not disagreeing with what a longbow in theory should and should not be before, i’m just saying that what people think a longbow (or any weapon) is for just judging by its name is irrelevant, we are presented with a set of mechanics and it is up to us to utilize/adapt/exploit them, not try to fit a square peg in a round hole and cry on a forum about it not fitting.
So firing a longbow in to a Blob for a distance whilst only have offensive traits and offensive gear, doesn’t work, try something else instead of giving up and whinging. Maybe put on some cleric gear and equip some Regen skills and traits so the retaliation gets moped up as its dealt to you, at the end of the channel you should only be down a small amount of health instead of alot.
Just out of curiosity what happens of if you dodge roll at the end of the channel do you still keep taking damage as that arrow are still hitting?
most if not all of the guilds that i know that go tagless still use the main server voice chat so are easy enough to party up a tag and follow, and still comunicat with other commanders. it just to stop that randoms and what no for mindlessly following the blue dot
Berserker is perfectly viable in WvW, staff eles run it perfectly fine as do most ranged because every team has the 6-7 guardians and the warriors and the d/d eles running knights+valk cc’ing the crap out of touching the backline while the backline spikes.
Those must be the guys that i’m constantly rezzing while f spamming to pick up my bags. Any commander worth there salt will target the back line/tail first to lower the numbers that they’re fighting against. A zerker pug who is not in voice chat dies and rallys the downed opponents is one of the most frustrating thing for a organized team and is the main reason why alot of guilds run tag less. but that’s getting a little to off topic.
having 30 points in WS and using bark skin as saved my life a lot in general, i don’t know whether it reduced retaliation, i have never know retaliation to be any major problem for me.
i’ve had some good results with this,
http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-HV-Fk;0wEFx-n2wDk-0;9k22;29TT;24;026A35A;1K-F6E;1TsW6TsW62Vy
Don’t use a longbow?
some wepones are not a good choice for different situations. Longbows are not good against a large zerg with lots of a guards in it. If you want bags use an axe and run through the middle of the zerg, dodge rolling through the melee train. If you want to sit in a tower build an arrow cart and use it.
Ohh and leave your zerker gear at home when entering WvWvW, and bring some defensive stats. you hate it when a bunker joins you dungeon group.
Just because the game doesn’t let you play exactly the way you want to, doest mean you should not adapt to the game and it current mechanics.
it depends on what aspects of the game we are talking about
PVE solo roaming/farming
Dungen
WvWvW solo/Roam
WvWvW Zerg
or a set and forget
healing runes a good, Monk/Water/Dwyners
I use Melandru’s for every thing, I play mostly wvwvw
Nightmare runes a good, undertakers are cheep
Fire/Hallbrok runes a good
Divinity are a set and forget rune
Orbs are cheep
for going it alone in wvw, you need to find your own “sweet spot” for defense and offense states, knights gear is a good start (i use rabid), you could also throw on some clerics gear as well. My armor, weapons and trinkets are a mix of Knight’s, Rabid Apoth and clerics
Any build i make for my self always has at least 20 in WS the 15 trait is a life saver, and there are some good traits to help you stay alive in there as well; such as “Shared Anquish”, “Wilderness Knowledge”, “Oakheart Salve” and “Hide in Plain Sight”
blast finisher of maul would seem logical and i would love it, but it might be a bit imba being able to blast our own long water field about 3 time + 2 from duel drakes (first skill after swap) whilst removing conditions and getting regen, i defently don’t want the duration increased. Hilt bash might be good
did any of you lot read this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Blatant-speed-Hack-Abuse-with-video-evidence
apparently the 00331 build is hacking, haha idiot.
its seems people don’t read patch notes before crying hack
Nice build by they i like it for small roam groups
I’ve gone back to a 02203 build for solo with some knights pieces, playing around with companions might
quite a funny thing happen to me last night, i was solo caping a camp and just befor the cap finished a thief ganked me, i got hes health down to about 1/3 before he downed me, he stealth stomped me, while he was in stealth the cap on the camp finished, and the NPC’s killed him (he did get the stomp off), a npc revived me and i picked up hes loot bag and carried on.
Camp capping OP
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)
I play Guard/Ranger and Ele,
i find it strange, that you guys are mostly taking about condition damage,
the reason the i run melandru and Loafs of saffron bread, (on the guard and ranger) is for the reduction in Cripple/chill/Imobilize and stun
there are so many ways to reduce power; toughness, doge roll, stealth, healing power water fields, stability+swiftness (run away). but the only way to counter conditions is to remove it, unreliable as it can be reapplied faster then it can be removed so you have to reduce it duration.
We have to spend our rune and food slots just to counter condition, so why can’t you can use your, runes, food, traits, gear, sigels to counter our counter.
There is all sorts of ways reduce damage (direct or Condition) but every thing you do to reduce the damage take per hit, you reduce your potential to hit for more damage.
just remember he who lives the longest does the most damage
a few different ones depending on what I’m doing and what class I’m using.
Zerg fighting
Mel-lay
Omnomberry Compote – trays are drop by my guilds comanders
Omnonberry Pie’s – if I’ve got enough crit chance
Loaf of Saffron Bread – if i don’t have much crit chance
Ranged
Omnomberry Compote
Plate of Truffle Steak Dinner
Roam/Havoc
Either
Bowl of Roasted Lotus Root
Loaf of Saffron Bread – current favorite
Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup
Mango Pie
for WvW roming/ havoc
I’m thinking that i should take advantage of the Path of scars Buff, and trading in my dagger for an Axe (S/A instead S/D) but i still want my Axe/Warhorn on the swap, do i need to by another Axe, as i only have one. I’m at work so I cant test it out
I not to sure why we should help people win 1v2’s in wvw, as far as I’m concerned those people going around looking for 1vx is www aren’t actually contributing to there servers success there just taking up Que spots form people who want help out. don’t get me wrong i love solo’ing, targeting camps/yaks/sentry that helps the server out i do the 1v1’s on the way to the objective and run away from 1vx’s, unless the out maned buff is up, I do not expect to win a 1vx, because 1 person should not be able to be 2 unless there fighting scrubs.
When I have killed 20 yaks in a single tick for a total of 60PPT whilst the other 60 allied players hold hands and fail to capture a keep I wonder why those 60 players bothered turning up. I don’t know if that made sense. Im drunk.
that’s a fair statement mate but its got little to do with the op. but in reply you should not look at 20 yaks as only 60ppt but as denying 2000 supply which a great job it stops upgrades and deny’s repairing and building defensive siege. and whos to say the 30-60 defending the keep didn’t do a better job then the guys attacking?
I not to sure why we should help people win 1v2’s in wvw, as far as I’m concerned those people going around looking for 1vx is www aren’t actually contributing to there servers success there just taking up Que spots form people who want help out. don’t get me wrong i love solo’ing, targeting camps/yaks/sentry that helps the server out i do the 1v1’s on the way to the objective and run away from 1vx’s, unless the out maned buff is up, I do not expect to win a 1vx, because 1 person should not be able to be 2 unless there fighting scrubs.
If you take away the down state, you will discourage guards/wars other front line specs from being able to charge in draw as much attention as possible and take as much damage away from the damage dealing back line and zvz’s (which i know is a dirty word around here) would be a game a kitten footing around each until someone is stupid enough to attack.
food for though, if you zerg fighting a lot maybe drop 5 point in virtues and put in to radiance, people are always dying which will renew justice, moar fire damage moar retal. sense i change to 15 in Radience i can barley keep up with my F1 spam
So after I get my gift of battle (should be any day now), what reason do we have to come back?
It all depends on what you find fun, the reason that i will never have a legendary is that you can not buy them with badges alone.
under a good well know commander, zerging can be great fun, and in a couple of hours you can get over a 100 badges (even with a ranger) a few gold, which goes straight into consumables and siege.
solo is fun, running around yak slapping, sentrys, camps and 1v1’s.
Havoc, my favorite part, jump in with some mates and see how much of a enemy BL you can cap or ninja’ing Bay or hold the north camp for as long as possible.
I cant think of anything outside of WWW to do, i’ve been trying to motivate my self to get 2 monk runes form AC for the last couple of week, but i can not bring my self to leave WWW.
it’s one of the reasons why i always have a wolf as well, that fear is often just enough to make sure the pet rez works
there is no reason why you cant run a bit of both, i have apoth armor with doylak runes cleric trinkets and 1 of each cleric weapon and a mix of sigles of life and sigels of Restoration. for me this works really well zerging and good for havoc and ok for solo (different sigels would be better for solo).
weapons wise i use A/WH + GS for zerging A/WH + S/D for havoc and SB + S/D for solo and i keep a LB in my bag for wall defense knocking people off in the jumping puzzles . If your just starting out as a ranger i would go SB and Axe/War horn
pets do a big chunk of our damage in BM build anyway and our personal stats don’t affect them.
I use rare Explores Armor, trinkets, and axe/torch with sigle of Luck and pirate runes (1 traveler) and magic find food guild banners for magic find are often placed in lions arch, Pearl inlet and just out side of lions arch to the north.
as far as build goes I don’t re-trait so what i have at the time is what i use, normally 0/20/20/0/30 or 0/0/30/10/30 (i mostly play WvWvW), i just make sure that i have “Mighty Swap” and “Commanding Voice” in the Beast mastery line.
I use duel drakes (river and reef) swap and use F2 skills on recharge, the first skill a drake uses after is tail swipe (AoE and Blast finisher).
Locations (don’t spend any longer then an hour per day in any of these) cursed shores, Malchor’s Leap, Frostgorge Sound, Southsun Cove.
I can farm quite comfortably while watching TV like this.
My list is
For solo play
Great Players > Good Players > Average Players > Bad Players > Terrible Players.
For group play (Zerg or Havoc)
People on Voice Chat > People who are not on Voice chat
For just zerging
People who donate siege = Scouts who reports accurate information = people who follow commanders instructions > people who mindlessly follow a blue triangle.
Also for zerging
Bunker builds >= Hybrid Builds >> Glass cannon build (you are no use to a team if you are dead and providing a free rally)
If i have to pick professions
Ranger (my main) > Ele (my first alt) > Guard (Currently leveling) > the classes i haven’t played yet
Devon Carver:Right now our game […] overwhelmingly favors the last server to log out for the day.
I new this “night capping” whinging would start again the moment I read the publication.
How about instead of blaming the developers for what you believe is a problem you tackle the challenge as it stands, actively recruit Players/Guilds form across the globe to your server so that you are the last server to log off, if at all.
the game does not necessarily favor the last server to log off, but favors the server with the strongest world wide community.
for those people crying about what you perceive to be a broken game because a 24 hour a day free for all, if you want to play a game that is exactly the same when you log on as when you log off play a single player
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I think that rangers are rewarding to play, it’s my first profession an the one that i understand the most.
I enjoy small groups the most, but i don’t mind zerging. and solo is fine i can take a camp by my self but i often don’t get it flipped before the opposition zerg or havoc group arrives.
I run mostly SB/GS and i speck either Hybrid 0/20/20/0/30 (Knights armor ranger runes, cleric/rampages Trinkets, about 50% crit chance) or Bunker 0/0/30/10/30 (apothecary armor with Dolyak runes, cleric trinks, 3k armor 1.2k healing).
Pet choice is important, I take the attitude of I tank for my pet not my pet tanks for me. The two pet combos that i use are Dog/Cat (wolf,jag) which i use for solo roaming and havoc and i use duel drakes for zerging and taking a camp (and PvE).
I have no problem dropping a Sentry or Dolyak in 15-30 sec, as for opponets it depends on how good they are and how there built, it could take 5 sec (if their glass and they’er bad) or it could take a few minutes (good build bad player) or we may even stalemate (bunker and a good player). About the only time i die is getting surprised by a thief (sometimes)
as far as getting bags in Zergs go you can still good amounts of bags, you either run around like a mad man with a great sword keeping an eye on your health pool being ready it hit “lighting reflexes” or stand back a bit with a short bow hitting tab and 1 alot. duel drakes a great for aoe damage if you swap them on recharge, there first skill after swap is tail whip and there F2 skill is aoe as well (this is also the reason i use them for taking camps solo)
TL;DR rangers are great
(edited by Eggyokeo.9705)