Guild Wars 2

borya.2964:

You ‘re terribly slow, you can clean one condi busrt but that’s it, you have no armor like Frou said, using a dagger without Off-Hand Training is meh, there’s no point to use celestial stats ect.

There is simply not point to make a build to kill only on type of another build, mostly in WvW. Everybody is looking for the most versatile build wich fit his playstyle, well, it’s my point of vue. The vid reinforced my feeling.

It’s like you knew this ranger was terrible. You engaged at half your HP, it’s crazy, you just dodge one time if i rememer well. Since am a GUARD SPAMMER, i would have come closed much more faster, dodging one time and then using Stalker’s Strike (Off-Hand say hi) , engaging full HP. Why you didn’t use Hornet Sting, Countterattack or Swoop is a total mystery.

Dude that video was a joke.

My fingers weren’t on the right keys because I was fumbling around with fraps, which I can’t get to work. At the beginning of the video I was moving forward with the arrow keys.

Also please read any of the thread before commenting, what you wrote is annoying.

Justine.6351:

Fluffy so awesome he killed a bearbow who didn’t even know how to dodge! So epic dude!

Maybe next he show us how awesome his build is at flipping sentries!

Not on my watch. You’ll get a video of me approaching the sentry and then the video ends.

You guys… my intention was not for that to be enjoyable. The only other full fight I managed to grab in the 30 seconds or less requirement was a cele staff ele.

Also he had full guard stacks? I honestly can’t even figure out what he was running that was so ineffective.

Also does anyone have any idea how to record more than 30 seconds?

<- Luddite. I cannot get fraps to record a full fight, and I tried to sign up for youtube and it was all like “sup. gimme yo’ cell number. now” and I’m all “you need a better line than that honey”. So I’ve been recording 30 seconds of crap video at a time, by moving my hand completely across the keyboard and getting my hands in the right position around second 15 of the video.

I present to you my complete failure of a single 30 second video, that does nothing but reassure Frou this is not a complete glass build. I can’t dodge a PBS that all of you will have seen coming about 10 seconds before it lands because I had my hand on F9. This is NOT worth watching.

vimeo.com/127229645

Also apparently you can’t directly link vimeo. This is not going well for me.

Eggyokeo.9705:

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:(

It bumps up the healing from natural healing. When I was grabbing 30 second video clips earlier, I grabbed one of me taking a camp with my bird tanking all the NPCs. I wasn’t taking any damage, so I know the bird ate it all. I guess I could take an eagle and a hawk and a better trait, but I want the wolf available on switch.

I don’t think compassion training affects the heal the player gets from NH, but don’t quote me on that.

FrouFrou.4958:

I can’t believe how glassy you can run, I’d be living in constant fear that I will get killed by a sneeze or a fart!

We play similar builds, but in different environments. I’m almost always on my own, and it seems like you’re almost always in a group. In small scale/solo stuff I don’t have to worry about 8 sources of damage that I can’t see. When I’m playing in a group (PvP) I run builds that are even tankier than yours.

Edit: I have no idea how to use fraps. I have a bunch of 30 second clips of me running dramatically towards an enemy. And then it stops recording.

It’s not really cele though, that’s just the armor I have. I’m actually considering making a third set of ascended just because this build is so much fun.

Or maybe I’ll use zerk armor and take like… a few nomads trinkets or something until the stats are somewhat balanced.

I have to take into account the way traits aren’t affecting stats though, I’ll probably hold off until I see how that plays out.

Edit: Frou your regular armor stats are probably almost exactly what I was aiming for. You use defender runes don’t you? That’s why I have all zerk trinkets. I wanted power with enough sustain to satisfy my suicidal tendencies.

Eh, I only had two 1v1s in this session, and I stomped both of them in less than 30 seconds, not worth looking at.

Also is 30 seconds the max fraps video? That’s just a setting right?

No, I just downloaded fraps though. I’ll see if I can get something. Probably have to wait till tomorrow because my server’s primetime is up.

The overall concept of the two builds is nearly identical, just different flavors. I really like the ability to aggressively charge more than 1 person though. I think mine has a few more “oh kitten” abilities while yours would work better than mine in a 3v3 for example (although HS is pretty nice group support as well…) Anyway, effectively the same build.

If you can get used to the button spam of an eagle, it’s pretty nasty with 25 stacks of might.

Ya that’s we we know it as right now, because the ranger is literally doing that. But if take away the arm movement, it’s just a whirling animation.

These are just animations and skill names, it’s very easy to slightly modify it or suspend disbelief so the game is more fun. I.e throwing 5 axes out of 1 or having homing axes magically find 3 targets.

I meant to just have the whirling animation, as literally a whirling defense. I think the D2 druid called it cyclone armor. Once you take away the arm movement, that’s what the animation is.

Also, axes bouncing around like flubber makes zero sense as well.

Sebrent.3625:

I do like your suggestion for us to be allowed to do other things during it … functionally that would be nice. From an actual look and feel though, I’m not sold. How would I be keeping up a whirling defense with my axes while my hands are doing other things or I’m rolling on the ground?

They could just change the animation to the whirling and take away your arms moving. A lot of games do that, a Diablo type of animated “armor” skill. I think the D2 druid had some whirling wind armor he ran around in IIRC. It just calls itself whirling defense, it doesn’t imply via name that the weapons or our arms are causing it.

mistsim.2748:

this will be my dude

That sort of recalls a GW1 warden, like an evil druid. Or maybe it’s just me.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

But your build seems a little bit weak against condis and CC. Are SoR and HS alone really enough against condi builds? Not only because of their dmg, but more because most condi builds have lots of soft CC and are good at kiting, which is my main problem against them when i play full melee (even with SotF).

Yes. Bleeding is fairly hard to stack on you even if you’re doing nothing but SoR passive and evade spamming. If they can’t get a big condi burst on you, the HUGE passive healing of the build (something like 400-500 health per second) just outheals the condis and you can ignore them. If they do land a big condi burst, you can use HS, which is practically an invulnerability between the runes, condi clears, and leaps.

For some reason, everytime I take this build out I run into a condi necro and obliterate them. I’ve tested this against condi necros more than any other build.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

I’m not using intimidation training though, maybe i should try it (I don’t like eagle and hawk :/ )

Ya give it a try. The bird has so much passive regen (and SoS) that it basically can’t die, which is one of the weaknesses of birds in small group skirmishes. You only switch to wolf if you want the CC. The sword, fortifying bond, and RaO are constantly stacking might on the pet, and the special attack recharges so quickly. The pet does really good damage, with both bleeding and power. Even though this is a power build, the bird bleeds and cripple from both of you, and the poison actually combine to really strain people’s condi removal.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Just out of curiosity: Did you tried melee bm with SotF? If no, why not? If yes, why do you prefer signets?

I’ve used a bunch of the lower tree builds with double melee. I have about 5 builds or so I’ve put tons of hours into. I am using the signets because everything just came together perfectly with them. I didn’t want to use EB and SotF just out of boredom with them, so SoR and HS were a given. SotW combined with all the other passive healing to turn into a supercharged healing signet. And then SoS just rounded out my physical defense, especially since the toughness isn’t that high. Overall, I like the crazy regen a lot more than a SotF or a Guard build, although those 2 are good builds that I’ve used a lot. Guard is annoying because you have to use it so frequently and it doesn’t play well with HS, and EB is annoying.

This build also does more damage than a 20660 or something build, because the bird goes completely crazy on people.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

And i can’t belive the good chasing potential

Well as good as can be. The 3-5 sword leaps depending on what weapons you’re in, 2 thrown cripples, and in-combat swiftness makes it awfully hard for people to escape. If someone can clear the cripple, get off about several movement skills in a row and avoid your ranged cripples, they’ve earned their continued existence. I did have one guardian get away from me by tele-ing to an ambient fish. I probably could have caught him, but it was a nice move and I killed his buddy instead. Edit: Actually now that I think about it, he came back after I killed his friend and that time I killed him.

Sebrent.3625:

Will have to see the rest of the specializations, but it’s an interesting thought … not sure if I feel like Chronomancer is Mesmer + Necro either.

6 gods, 6 dragons, 6 specializations we don’t know about yet. 6×6×6 is 216. 2+1+6=9. 9-6(gods/dragons/specializations we don’t know about) = 3. 12(months)-5(May)=7. 7+3=10. HoT is released in October.

The anet blog doesn’t sell it nearly as well as the more detailed ten-ton hammer article. TTH makes it sound way more engaging and active than guardian currently is.

“Swoop wings”, check.

Ragnar.1546:

WD is good fun on rangers LB2 or thieves pistol version (forget the name) who don’t have good enough reflexes or not paying attention. I’ve had many fun times defending a gate in WvW and being on the wall using that after I’ve let loose hell from above.

It’s fun/funny, yes, but you’re talking about 2 of the least respected types of players. P/P thieves, which are nearly unheard of, and people new to ranger who just mindless spam RF. You don’t need reflects to beat either one of them. You don’t even need an offhand equipped.

I’ve been using this for a few weeks now and I’m quite happy with it. I haven’t yet found a build that really counters it well, and it can consistently win 1vX against power builds.

Build points:

• YOU DON’T NEED TO HEAL OR SPAM GUARD.
• Doesn’t rely on random EB condi removal.
• Bird stays alive.
• It’s hard for enemies to escape. Cripple uptime can be 100%, and chasing mobility is the best possible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsYRjMqUxa/KOsw1iAChaVAwKefHGP706MJqhSWRXA-TVCEABRcIAwU9HCOCAbpEkJlfkv/Qb6DA4BB8wJAIAACwv5b28mBWuyVuyVuy53+23+23+WMAmB-w

Playing it

• Defender runes regen/block heal + SotW passive + mango pie (cheap) + Natural healing/compassion training = only use HS for condi clear or major emergencies. Use the leaps in HS if you need more, obviously.
• I generally don’t activate the signets, but all 3 of them have a place depending on what you’re fighting.
• Use bird attack on recharge.

That’s pretty much it.

Variants:

• Axe offhand works well, and can get you that final push you need for a kill. I really like the extra poison when I run into non-glass heavies or D/D eles though. The build is also low on CC to set up path of scars.
• Entangle. I love that skill, but it’s probably redundant with the perma-cripple.
• Almost all of the adept traits in Skirmishing are good.
• Nature’s protection for a more defensive build.
• I have ascended cele armor with defender runes on it, which is insanely expensive so I’m not changing it. A mix of cavs, valks, zerk, soldiers, etc. is probably better.

Feel free to leave suggestions.

Edit: Oh, disclosure, I did get my kitten kicked by a trap LB ranger. I just couldn’t find him. He would stealth, move to 2000 range, attack and restealth. I’m not sure if that’s a weakness of this build or of all builds. Also it was a duel, I could have easily just left and he wouldn’t be able to follow.

For PvE, there isn’t anything else to learn about the LB. It’s up to you how you want to play, but if you want to learn about the ranger for WvW/PvP or simply be more active, I would stop using the LB for leveling, or at least only use it for the opening burst and then switch to another weapon.

S/A or S/D + GS is the most active way to play the ranger.

jcbroe your druid is going to look like the heir to a hotel fortune decided to take up nature magic just because he’s good at it without trying, and girls think nature magic is totes amazing. Next year he’ll take up the next ranger specialization.

I think the only problem is that reflects in general are hard to use in competitive. It is indeed very situational. You need to either anticipate a huge single projectile, or use it on a barrage of smaller ones (RF), in which case the person will just stop attacking at a certain awareness level (not new to class). If the melee damage of WD was better, it would make more sense that you can’t move or cast while using it, because it would shut down both ranged and melee attackers. As it is, it’s not that bad to just stand in WD and eat it, and the ranger does nothing but look amazing as he dies.

PoS is fine as is.

There are an awful lot of PvP complaining threads lately, which is weird because the devs are going to release a new game mode as soon as they’re allowed.

If we didn’t know about stronghold, and have played a relatively finished map, I’d be complaining too, because the pace in the past has been beyond atrocious.

You are literally supposed to interrupt 1v1s. That’s how you win the game.

Cele SB is one of the main builds on metabattle. Tons of people play it.

If you feel comfy using it, s/d would be a better fit than GS for your linked build. That way you get some more condi damage. And since you would have 3 sources of poison by doing that, you could replace viper’s nest with signet of renewal for condi removal and a stun break. If you went that way, you’d probably want signet mastery instead of keen edge.

Heimskarl it amuses me that you saw a class thematically focused on life and immediately though of two death-themed staff.

Ravinsild.4637:

How does Power Trapper work? Literally all zerkers same as Read the Wind but with the trapper rune and trapper utilities??

A lot of people use celestial with trapper runes, and some use zerk and just throw the traps to not be triggered purely for stealth.

I personally wouldn’t want to use LB without RtW, but I’m sure there are tons of variants different people run, like crapgame’s build.

Pretty soon RtW and trap potency will both be default, so the build idea will definitely change for the better.

The basic idea is that s/t + a/d is for 1v1s and SB is for group fights. The CC, bleeds and range of SB don’t do much in 1v1s because you can’t get behind the opponent (they’re almost always going to be facing you unless they’re on drugs.)

I thought you were referring to the celestial longbow trapper for your WvW build. If you’re already wearing celestial armor or have berserker armor, you might try using longbow instead of shortbow with that trapper build. Most people think LB is a lot better weapon than SB.

I’m not sure LB trapper is even on meta battle? If would be 6/6/x/x/x, and you’d probably want signet of renewal or maybe lightning reflexes instead of a 3rd trap.

WvW warriors take a trait where they are nearly immune to soft CC, so ya, frost trap does very little to them.

On the other hand, if everything else is working well for you, it may not be worth basing your build around a single bad matchup.

Really the traps in that build are mostly for the stealth.

Edit: A condi ranger is terrible matchup for PvP thieves, you shouldn’t be losing that. You could try the sword torch variant instead of the shortbow? That will do better against thieves, and is far stronger in 1v1s of all types. The problem with shortbow is that the bleed doesn’t trigger in 1v1s, so all you get is the mediocre power damage.

Most important thing about warriors is to keep poison on them. Don’t spam your poison for longer duration, instead make sure you reapply it as soon as they cleanse it.

In WvW they should drop fairly quickly like that. In PvP, the meta is a very durable condi-cleaning, weakness-spewing machine. Don’t fight them 1v1 on their point. If you’re on your own point, feel free to waste their time in a stalemate.

PoS and MT aren’t things you necessarily lead with though. MT in particular almost never leaves my bar regardless of build in WvW or PvP, and I wouldn’t be doing that if I wasn’t consistently landing it.

Both skills are also not something a lot of people are particularly worried about. Opponents typically are looking for RF, maul, entangle, and PBS, roughly in that order. I think people mistake MT for a heal or something, and PoS generally misses because you messed up, while your opponent didn’t do anything at all.

Longer cast times like MT or wolf howl makes it all the more bizarre to me that many rangers absolutely refuse to chain their CCs. Every engi in history knows how to chain CCs to get them to land (net shot is far worse than anything rangers use, and slick shoes is downright impossible to use without chaining.) You almost never see that from rangers.

If you know you’re going to CC someone, why not “pre-cast” the wolf howl?? Oh you just stun broke hilt bash? Now you’re feared, and at the end of the fear you’re in an undodgeable entangle. Makes no sense to me.

People drastically overestimate how much CC engis and warriors actually have. They’re just famous for chaining CC, something most ranger rangers — for whatever ridiculous reason — do not employ.

If you actually count up the sources of cripple, chill, immobilize, and hard CC, rangers have as much as a warrior and engi combined. For example warriors and engis combined have 8 sources of immob, and rangers have 7.

Ignoring CDs because I’m lazy:

A meta ranger will be using between 3 and 6 immobs on his build (depending on meta pet choices), where the meta engi and warrior have 4 combined immobs.

A meta ranger will be using up to 6 hard CCs (depending on meta pet choices), and the meta engi and warriors will be running 3 or 4 combined hard CCs.

Rangers blow everyone out of the water on cripples, it’s not even close.

Oops. Well, still relevant if that’s the kind of playstyle you want. Dogs are surprisingly good for massively overaggroing in PvE. Sometimes I’ll take my WvW build into PvE to get a daily. Or if I manage to get myself in trouble against upgraded camps, wolf can give you some breathing room.

Tragic Positive.9356:

But for that playstyle you seek:
Lightning Reflexes
Muddy Terrain
Signet of the hunt

Those are the best to keep enemies at distance. Also, take entangle as your elite.

This, with drakehound/spider + wolf. My favorite LB setup by far (maybe using SoR instead of SotH). Even good players can wind up getting completely overwhelmed by the sheer obnoxious CC spam, which is not good when you’re up eating a full glass LB.

Turn down the hostility, buddy. I’m trying to help you see how the devs created two distinct weapons here.

Try taking a double melee build. PvE, WvW, whatever you’re comfy with. Use the sword when you’re not in danger and want to punish and pressure your opponent (especially if they’re trying to flee in WvW). If you get yourself in to danger, immediately swap to the GS.

That experiment will highlight the two weapons’ best attributes. Yes, you can use the sword extremely defensively, but I’m talking basic autoattack and learning the core intention of the weapon. I think you’ll very quickly see why the devs have said the sword is working as intended. If you try this experiment, I think you’ll grow to like the pressure the sword applies, and you’ll very quickly see how the GS is meant to be defensive.

And just to reiterate, I’m talking about autoattacks here. You can play the GS very aggressively once you start delving into the other 4 skills, and sword can be extremely defensive as well.

mtpelion, Heimskarl is right. The GS has lower damage and a very defensive autoattack. The sword has high damage and a very aggressive autoattack. The devs have confirmed that the sword is not bugged. This is an intentionally aggressive weapon.

It sounds like you’re trying to force the two weapons autoattacks in to roles they don’t belong in and are getting angry at the wrong thing. You’re trying to fix a leaky faucet with a chainsaw.

mistsim.2748:

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

Then don’t spam the autoattack. I’ve been using sword on berserker builds for 3 years. Especially in WvW where you’re often outnumbered, it’s objectively better than GS because of the movement. For 1v1 where you have more control and have to worry about less, obviously it’s going to be better than GS.

GS is still a solid choice for berserker LB builds of course, and in PvP I could see an argument for it. But this has been done to death.

30s is older? :-O

Downed bear throwing rocks?

I’ll second FantasticGman with the “whatever the hell you want” mantra, but if you want to actually learn ranger you’ll want to open world with a 1 handed sword. The more time you spend on that thing the better ranger you will be. The more time you spend in LB in open world the worse ranger you will be. Actually camping LB in open world transcends professions and just makes you a lazy player regardless. LB ranger makes you a bad mesmer.

They originally revealed the professions in the order they were completed and ready for presentation, so I strongly suspect that’s how they’ll reveal the specializations. Revealing the chronomancer, I’ve got to admit even I didn’t want to see the druid. They’ve been spamming the same info about HoT over and over, druid, wyvern, stronghold, hang glide, druid, wyvern, blah blah. It would have been disappointing for everyone if the first specialization revealed was… druid. They even acknowledged that in a joking way. I think maybe next week will be druid. I am quite sure some professions aren’t very well fleshed out yet, sort of like the engi during the video thing they did.

I think it could use a 10% damage buff.

From the devs perspective, it’s probably a PvE intended trait, so it’s a permanent 10% damage boost, and rangers get several of those; in PvE, requirements are always met.

However an additional 10% increase in personal PvE damage is far from unbalancing for ranger. In competitive, where the trait is actually interesting, it’s weak. We are the undeniable kings and queens of soft CC, but it’s still very build dependent for a buff that is comparable to minor traits.

It’s in a decent place for lack of PvE competition, but it could be a decent place regardless of play area.

Couple things to consider:

• Ascended only matter for high level fractal or WvW roaming. For most dungeons, the downscaling means there is literally no advantage at all over exotic.
• As far as we know, no new dungeons are being added in HoT.
• Ascended armor is expensive, so it’s probably worth waiting till the expansion so you have all the facts.

Assuming you do mostly solo or small group open world content in HoT and play a good amount of WvW, I’d lean towards using exotic gear with several stat combos, and make your ascended for whatever makes sense in WvW with a druid.

If you do a lot of high level fractals, you have probably won’t have much choice but to make ascended berserker.

Ehecatl.9172:

Minions: The druid could summon additional beasts of the wild to fight by their side, all tied to the pet’s F1 and F3 keys for limited control. All using an active skill similar to necro minions.
Bear: Tanky melee minion. Active skill taunts foes in an AoE.
Wolf: Support/damage minion. Active skill causes AoE fear to enemies.
Raven: High damage, squishy minion. Active skill sends the raven flying to the target like a projectile and inflicts vulnerability and blindness.
Leopard: High damage, squishy minion. Active skill shadowsteps behind the target and inflicts bleeds and cripple.

I really hope anet has learned their lesson about AIs spawning. Turrets, moving spirits, clones… all of which have been or are being nerfed. The community collectively hates it. I mean really hates it. It’s not fun to play and not fun to play against. I don’t think we’ll being seeing more minions added.

Healing spring-esque wells with effects similar to the GW1 nature rituals could be interesting and druid-like. Things that dramatically change the battlefield in a certain area, for example:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Frozen_Soil

Could MASSIVELY impact a PvP battle. Probably too easy to troll with though.

Edit: I’d forgotten how many spirits we had in GW1. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nature_Ritual

Based on your opponents builds it sounds like you’re talking about WvW roaming?

If you’re talking about PvP the answer is to stop 1v1ing thieves and warriors. Warriors are way too durable and certain thieves hard counter LB.

For WvW, warriors can be extremely tough depending on what build they’re running. Full glass isn’t that bad, but a durable-yet-not-tank roaming warrior with dogged march is going to be one of the worst possible fights for a LB roamer. You’re going to need to simply outplay him, so I suggest dueling over and over.

Thieves in WvW are a mixed bag. Some will be unkillable and/or hard counter you. Backstab thieves you can usually spike down in a few seconds. Hurt them then very quickly RF or CC them as they’re about to stealth. Again, dueling one over and over isn’t a bad idea so you get used to the duration of stealth, the steal range and some of their typical moves.

Our condi builds right now aren’t that great. We don’t have a steady way to apply conditions. Our main “condi” weapon, the axe, has a single skill that applies a small amount of bleeds.

Most ranger weapons are hybrid by nature. Condi builds arose because 1) they could go ridiculously overboard with defense in WvW through gear and 2) the fact that traits basically forced you to go condi with every build we had. For a long time our only condi removal trait meant that you had an extra 300 condi damage whether you liked it or not. Also that and the NM, two defensive condi lines, had almost all of our good traits for years.

It’s high time we stopped trying to shove rangers in to a pure condi role.

I was absolutely shocked they said “no changes” when that came up.

Wondrous wall I like your suggestions, although that’s probably too much stability spam.