Guild Wars 2

its possible in a better place now and combined with the ferocity buff, i always had trouble getting agility training in to my build now it fixed in any pet build which is one of my favorites changes that we are getting

look at the new bm minor trait pets prowess

I don’t disagree, and taunt plus owl/raven spike is should be good. The only reason i’m leaning towards cats is that the bird swiftness is only going to be useful to the player and allies around, it will be wasted on the bird which is currently a primary reason that i use birds over cats

mistsim.2748:

^BW brings so much utility to the table (if the mechanic ends up working well).

Don’t get me wrong its a good trait line, but but duel dogs is still going to be very effect if you don’t want go in to the bm trait line.

as far as bears in zergs go we will have to see if they can stay alive with the buffs, if not we still might as well use drakes for the blast finisher every 1 min (dead pet swap)

I’m looking foreword to have agility training as base line in a BM build, it means cats should connect a lot more.

yeh that’s the other choices that i will be experimenting with in a bm bunker.

I don’t no that you need the extra damage reduction from oak in a bunker but the condi damage with cats and bleed on crit might be strong (remember base ling stat boosts for pets and minor). Go for the eyes will do wonders for keeping a pet alive in team fights.

I’m not sure the value of taking all the on F2 buffs as the first 2 sec are going to be less useful due to taunt, but the more conditions on the player the more that need to be removed

why is beast master compulsory?

i can not say what top tier will be like as i don’t play there.

but here are some builds that jump out at me.

BM bunker i cant decided between oak and expertise training in in the WS line

Rabid, Rampager or Cele shortbow and ill be doing this with sinister stats in roaming

glass bow

this jumps out at me as a pve build
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgUB5AKUBGQ~ Zerker S/A-LB (depends on the boon for Frost spirit)

WvW front line melee
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgUEWAO4Bew~ PvT GS/A-W

PvP/Roming – Lots of things to try

i cant see why you wound use a bear for any thing other then soloing a champ.

I looking foreword testing out the taunt effect and a glass pet maybe an owl/raven or Jag.

But it also means that you don’t have to have the wolf for the fear effect you will get the same uses on all pets (fear off stops razes etc)

Also keep in mind that pets prowess and agility taring (new pet prowess minor) is going to be permanent in a BM build this should make Cats hit more consistently with out a speed buffs

Pick which ever you use the mose/like the best i have kudzu and dreamer and im on on my way for the next one wich i pick after i seen the new skins from hot

Eurantien.4632:

Best thing you can do is always question your play! Keep it up.

this is some solid advice

So far thanks for all the feed back i was leaning towards knights but after this thread i think cavaliers might be the go. I can always use zerker/knight trinkets

Draeyon.4392:

edit: Btw, with a Power Greatsword build like this, what will be the standard skirmishing GM trait? Strider’s Defence, Quick Draw and Most Dangerous Game all look really good.

If great sword is my primary focus i don’t think i would use the skirmishing, I would probably use Marks/WS/BM but if MH-sword was my focus i would use skirmishing/WS/NM i don’t know i will see how it plays out.

@Toxsa in not really after armor for large scale stuff, which is the reason why i don’t thing PVT is going to be what i want. your opening strike comments raise and interesting point which would make Cavalier/Valk and interesting choice. as far as sticking to condi builds for roaming variety is the spice of life.

@Fluffy it will take me a month or more to get the mats together anyway, i just what some options and i don’t normally consider the future when investing in this stuff because it always variable (sinister became available just after I made a rabid set now I never use my rabid set). As I have no desire to use this in a longbow build I don’t see the need for anything other then zerker I’m thinking more of a GS build.

At the moment I’m more or less trying to decided between Cavalier or knights, maybe knights armor, cav trinkets and zerk weapones (i already have them). In the long term i most like will make both.

I just want to get some people options on tanky power stats for roaming.

I’m working towards my next set of ascended armour, I’m always working towards new armour/weapons etc. and I finish a set about a month or so ago and I am wondering what stats to get next. I currently have:
- Zerker
- Celestial
- Apothecary
- Rabid
- Sinister

As I have a variety of condition gear, it’s time to get some more power gear. So I want people options on Knights vs Cavaliers vs Valk vs Pvt vs Cleric vs whatever else not condition based. Also this is for roaming not zerg fighting as I’m happy in Pvt Exotics for that.

The builds that I am thinking that I might use it for are some sort of GS/S-X x/6/x/x/x type build but I’m not sure.

What are people onions on the different power orientated sets available and there usefulness?

A change was made quite some time ago (2013??) before that pets used have the health pool that it currently has in wvw (and pvp) in pve as well. So it was increased in Pve to help make pets more usefully in dungeons/world events, particularly glass pets.

At the time this change was made I think common pvp and roaming builds where BM bunkers and standard practices to beat (at least not die to) those builds was to target the pets first. So if the heath pool of the pets where increased it would have been much harder to kill those pets in a 1v1 type situation in 15-20s making the build even stronger. Hence it was never updated for pvp and wvw.

While i can see a case for increasing the pet hp for zerg fights (though i don’t think that would be enough to help them to survive in melee) it properly would be a bit strong in very small fight as duel bird BM bunker is still a solid build and possible more so after specialization changes, where pets prowess and agility training in a single minor trait is going to be strong particularly for cats.

simply put I almost away use the wolf and something else. If i have poison on the weapons that I’m using (any condi build) i use Drakhound. if i don’t have poison on my weapons (power LB/GS) then i use a spider. if Im going a pet orientated bunker I will use snow owl and some time i will used two birds.

so
Wolf/Drakhound – Condition builds (especially with poison master)
Wolf/Jungle spider – power builds
Wolf/Snow owl – beast master builds.

anything else is for very specific reasons/builds

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHRxG2IhKts2viFLUtG4QoavCt7UzKAcnDtQVfxKHEB-TZxFwAWLD44JAA4gAY4EAAa/BA

I didn’t have a lot of time to play this time around so i used a build that work for me last time. Settlers 0/2/6/6/0 a/d-s/wh and all i was try to do was escort door barkers and kill NPC while being under attack form the opposition.

I going with this is a revenant release, I don’t expect to see anything on druid until the very last as it was the first to be announced

I’ll either go a variation on our meta dungeon build (i use variations of this for most open world/story content)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0yaBL+rw1ag9gadAEwNA3OYE8tFZ8TJyeA-T1RBABXp8DPdBEt/AAXCgHeCAUq+jZKBBA-w

or something a bit more resistant/great sword orientated
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0yaBLmsw1ag9gaVA0eIuhs19WcEtdG/UisH-T1RBABXp8DPdBEt/AAXCgHeCAUq+jZKBBA-w

I think to say one class hard counters another class is a bit extreme,but think your list is referring to common/meta builds of that class.

I would agree that some builds hard counters others, that’s because that build relies on something specific for it to fully function and some other builds counter that function.

I can only speak from the point of view of a ranger is the only class that I understand well. some of the builds I use almost trivialise fighting warriors but will loss to necros, engis and some ranger builds and other builds fight condi classes with ease but will lose to warriors, guards and thief.

So when i Que solo i try to use a build that can handle as many different opponents as possible and when I Que as a team i build for what my job is.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV3IjEq0yi/KUtGwQoa3CqaWBg749Fu6C2UB-TVSHAB8q8jsHAQdKBtVHguq/AwBBIk9HQTzQwXBASBc30I-w

I’ve been using this build or some variation of it for roaming for quite some time now. While it may not be as durable as something with a few more defensive states it is a hell of a lot of fun to play. There is nothing new as it is more or less the same as a celestial short bow build but with sinister stats. I’m the kind of person that has been a fan of the short bow for a very long time as I like the kiting play style that it lends is self to, and I think that it works very well with sinister stats.

Some of the variations I use depending on my mood
• Spare utility slot could be SotW, SotH, MT or Sic’em (sometimes flame trap to flip camps).
• Spare Trait slot is either Off Hand training, Oak salve or Hide in plain sight.
• Sometimes I throw on some rabid or celestial gear to add a bit of defence.

I varied my weapon combinations a little but always use a short bow with this build.
• SB-A/D, high bleed damage low mobility, one you are in the fight you are there till the end
• SB-S/T, good damage good mobility, the Entangle/bonfire combo is very strong, some ability to get out of the fight
• SB-S/T, Ok Damage, high mobility, I don’t use this combo very much

Some off the pros
• Clear camps very quickly – most NPC are almost dead after entangle is done. Particularly with bonfire or flam trap
• High condition removal
• A good mix of direct damage and condition damage, SB hits pretty hard even without proc’ing bleeds.
• Good ability to evade and kite
• Can hold its own against most other builds, except pure dualist builds. (I regularly beat cheesy P/D thief’s, or at least force them to run)
• Poison spamming

Some of the cons
• Depending on weapon and utility choices could be quite slow between objectives.
• It’s very glassy, and does not have the range or burst of a glass bow build.
• Little sustain (more than a glassbow) the longer the fight the more likely you are too loose.
• If you are in a fight depending on weapon choice you may not be able to escape if things go paired shape

you build seam solid enough to me.

I think that you would get more value out of “read the wind” then “quick draw”.
And i would use pact runes over Warrior but that because i like the in-fight fury and swiftness.

I would also use more zerker pieces, but it a case of you need to find your own sweet spot in stats and i would consider using an air sigil over energy on you bow.

When i do this type of build i run it as
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0yaFL+rQ1ag9gadAUAnd7h4F2BXHcBraA-T1RBABXp8DPdBEt/AAXCgHeCAUq+jZKBJFwYLjA-w
But i make variations depending on my mood.

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/05/gw2-ranger-pve-class-guide-by-lorek-and-cell/

I can’t say that i get much hate from people well no more then any one else in map chat for instance, but then again i rarely play LB, don’t play un-ranked and only play hot join to experiment or bearbow troll.

in answer to the questions.
-When you first join and a ranger is on your team, do you automatically assume they are a power ranger until proved different?

No i click on their pet to see if it has opening strike.

-When you first join and there are multiple rangers on your team, do you automatically assume a loss?

Yes, but i assume the same thing about multiple thiefs and mezs

-When you first join and your team lacks melee/support but has multiple rangers, do you wish they would swap classes?

no, because im not going to swap class either (i cant play anything else)

-When playing as a ranger, are you often blamed for a loss even if you played well?

Only by scrubs who complain right from the start of the game and constantly draw and ping on the mini map

-When playing as a ranger, do other players call “gg” if they have rangers on their team?

cant say I’ve seen any correlation between saying people saying GG and rangers, i rarely say it as i often opening chests at the end of a game.

bahahahaha

this video was well worth 30 seconds of my life, fluffy killing a bearbow and eating every arrow along the way

bahahahah

ps maybe the bearbow did have any trinkets

i just check wiki in it buffs the players a little bit 133 to 177 (every 3s), so you wouldn’t take it just for your self, but there is an advantage to not having to swap pets to keep them alive and not loosing you bird to AOE.

i struggle to give up the wolf as well

I think that its the demo version of fraps that cuts at 30s you might need to buy the full version. i not on my home pc so i cant check to see if its a setting

How does compassion training fit in.

I like the build concept, and i have been thinking about putting defender runes on my celestial set (on all of my set rely), i just can bring my self to overwrite the holebrak runes:(

I agree it normally works for me but might have a occasional bug in it. for the most part it works for me just occasionally it doesn’t (maybe my pet got CC and at the start or something)

It kinda depends on what the most appropriate stats are going to be then i will pick which skin to match my armor of that stat

either way i will most likely make a celestial one first has i have celestial everything any way so i will pick one to match my Sylvari T3 gear

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Warden_Staff.jpg

the dulfy guide as a good start for any class
http://dulfy.net/2014/07/05/gw2-ranger-pve-class-guide-by-lorek-and-cell/

but i believe that leveling is the time for experimentation, what i do when i make a new class is change weapon sets about every 5 levels so i get a feel for all the different combinations and don’t get to caught up in builds until am about 70ish, just through all your points in to the first 2 trait lines.

i would actually go 3 in to natures magic before any thing else.

as others have said, you should give it a go and find out for your self
and i completely agree with the easy to play hard to master comments.

As afar as soloing content goes, dungeons I have no clue and have never tried but open would group events this is where the infamous “BareBow” actually shines.

… Someone decided to rush the lord.
… someone start complaining in team chat before the match starts

Bran.7425:

Eggyokeo.9705:

I was just answering the question in the title

How about the thought in this thread?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Something-we-all-can-agree-on/first#post5015715

I don’t really use traps so i have no thoughts on this.

mistsim.2748:

A simple-minded statement with no real backing, follow by another simple statement without rationale seems fair to me.

This

I was just answering the question in the title

I don’t agree that A-net hates rangers

There is a very comprehensive guide on dulfy for all classes for pve
http://dulfy.net/2014/07/05/gw2-ranger-pve-class-guide-by-lorek-and-cell

for wvw and spvp ist like Noein said you just got do it.

Here is a very simple but solid bare bones build outline to get you started for most condi/hybrid types of play (except traps and spirits) in both spvp and solo/small party wvw.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQBLSoSLLUtEgToaHA42AsyDoC-TZgPAAw+DAA

I have left the stats choice open (i like rabid or settlers/apothecary) as well as weapon/sigil choice, but any combination of SB, Axe, Sword, Torch and dagger will work and has its own pros and cons.

There is two trait point to allocate and there are option on all 3 of the remaining trail lines to put them in. For the grandmaster trait in WS don’t automatically go straight for EB, poison master or another master level trait are good options. I have also left one pet to choose, dogs, spiders, birds and the river drake are all good choice for different reasons. the most common ones are Drakehound and Jungle spider.

For the remaining utility’s any of the survivable or signets utility’s are appropriate and trolls can be switch for healing spring for different purposes.

Have fun

I have to disagree with the OP on most of the points, some of these problems maybe related to your way of playing condition ranger not necessarily playing condition ranger in general, i find that i have most of the tools i need to roam effectively.

1 lack of mobility,
This is the main reason I often run A/T – S/D for roaming (in pvp I almost always use A/D S/T). The mobility on the S/D set is quite high. Also for swiftness I run 0/2/6/6/0 and use either pets prowess when runing full bunker or sharpen edges when running Rabid or Sinister. You can get pretty good up time of swiftness from the minor trait

2 stomping
SotW, wolf fear, bonfire, poison, duel dog pet swapping are ways to get a stomp off. It just depends on the class that you are trying to stomp and the other classes around.

3 interrupts
Short bow, duel dogs, wolf fear, and in the case of stopping rezers, poison and bonfire even sic’em for stomping a shadow refuge rez, though fear, aoe immob and bonfire is normally enough.

You cant have everything on the one build and you need to comprises with what is most impotent to the way you want to play at the time.

Also why do people assume they should be able to win 1/x’s consistently, if i can win 1v1’s reasonably consistently how could someone expect to be able to 1vx me and a buddy or two?

If you can win a 1vx it generally means that your opponents are ether not very good, in bad builds/gear or are up levels. but more likely a combination of all 3

i can see mass invis mez or SR teef combed with some sort of condi bunker being a thing for assaulting.

mistsim.2748:

as a few people have already said, SH appears to be all about mobility and dps. I didn’t see any “shepherd” specs making any difference, other than giving swiftness to the npcs. npc’s will always be shut down hard by any hard-hitting roamer.

I aggree with this fully and is part of the reason why included a WH if for no other reason then to give a door breaker a quick toot after you spawn them. but if a glassbow ranger, teef or mez decided that wanted to kill the NPC’s you escorting there is very little you could do about it.

Fair question,

- Short answer is trial and error.
- I found that settlers had enough npc killing ability so rabid was not need for killing things.
- I also found that with settlers, oak salve and natures bounty i was able to handle a bit of pressure while getting supply (that place that turret engis decided to camp), this is also the reason for SotW.
- when defending i was able to handle 2 players long enough to kill the door beakers. (Glassbow rangers could do this from a perch)

The only real draw back was 1v1s could take a bit too long, also killing defending players when escorting door barkers was a bit slow. So if i was in a 1v1 that was a waste of time i would just bail, which is pretty easy with a S/WH set (also the reason for ice sigil on the WH for WH#4)

I got in about half a dozen games last night.

i ended up mostly playing with this build.

It seemed to do most of the things that i need to do, defend door barkers, kill door barkers/archers and run supply. And its competitive if i need to 1v1 or escape from a 1vX

I more or less played it as S/wh for moving and A/D for fighting

From what i have seen, things like moving around the map and swiftness might be some of the more impotent things.

I was thinking settlers amulate, SoTF, poison master either A/T – S/D or A/D – S/WH possibility even travellers or speed runes.

OR full glass bow for killing eneamy NPC’s

so i have been roaming with sinister stats (rabid armor) rocking a typical rabid trait set up of 0/2/6/6/0/ using poison master and i must say it was fun, being friday night ocx time i didn’t not get many dues (a PD thiff some sort of war a couple of necos and a mez) but i did play for about an hour in a small party.

I found, i could flip a camp almost as fast as a zerker, duels seem ok i think against better opponents i might struggle and in a duo it was great.

also the short bow hit pretty hard with out bleed procs so that was kinda nice

I think making a set of sinister exos would be worth it for a bit of variety

I use the longbow for:
- various buids in pvp and wvw
- open world content (LB/GS)
- living story content (LB/GS)
- personal story content (LB/GS)
- map completion (LB/GS)
- dungeons (LB/S-A)
- Fractals (LB/S-A)
- and for any content that i don’t know what is coming next

The only justified way that you can be disliked for using LB is if you only use a longbow (and only use bears “bearbow”)

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/05/gw2-ranger-pve-class-guide-by-lorek-and-cell/

I think that this will be a worth while set to make if only for pve when the condi caps are raised

I’ve been think about sinister for a while as a glasses condi roaming stat (if they remove bleed stack caps then it might be use pve as well)

I’ve been meaning to mix in some to my rabid gear as i got the jewelry from living word achievements and i have the dreamer. so i can go mostly sinister and use either my rabid armor or celestial or make some exotic sinister.

I would suggest that i would run it and play it as a typical rabid build just more glass and it does seam to be a match made in heaven for shortbow. Maybe something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNQQNAV3YjEq0yaBL+rQ1aADhqdL8uVNrAw9O8CXdBbqA-TlSFABMcQAA4IAQsyP2uAA+qDQPlgBr+DcaGSZ/hkfAAkC4upRA-w

My only real concern is that condition take a little longer to kill then power as it damage over time but but the extra power on the short may be the difference i reall need to test it

Pets only hit like wet noodle when you don’t bother to help them,

Pets prowess, fortifying bond and main hand Axe can make a cat or a bird (even dog or drake) hit like a truck particularly a jag in stealth.

But it not just about buffing you pets damage stats but also buffing its ability to connect more often, this is where traits like stability training, agility training, SotH and soft CC come in to play.

@ Eura – what would be the extra traits that you picked skirmishing in the 0/4/0/6/4 build Pets Prowess and ???

i gathered it is was to do with buffing the SB, but is that better then “Anti Ganking” of Natures protection?

I play at a lower level so lb rangers are every where and Natures protection give you the ability to eat a rapid fire from the guy you didnt spot perched some where.