Guild Wars 2

Expiatus.4210:

Offhand –
Offhand axe’s is more power based. Path of Scars hits like a truck(x2 possibly), pulls and is a projectile finisher.

It can actually hit three times. This is not my video, but I find it completely hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRc3qzjimkk

Similarly hysterical, Axe 5 in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-cVWh3bKt4

Amethyst Lure.5624:

I wonder why they let sword be so good. It requires no traits, or indeed build to come up on top in raw damage, as long as you have power. I’m not hating on it or so, just curious.

Because the GS has an evade on the autoattack. Greater self preservation means you need to do less damage or no one would ever use a 1h sword for anything.

It is pretty widely accepted that 1h sword does more damage than GS. If you have proof otherwise, you need to post the math. The excuse that people don’t want solid proof because we’re closed minded is getting old. Prove your point or stop telling the entire GW2 community only you know the truth. If you can prove it, no one is going to argue with math.

Atherakhia.4086:

No one would know what build you ran unless you told them. If they ask, you could just as easily lie.

If enough people are running bad builds, it’s ridiculously noticeable. I don’t usually bother with kicking or raging or anything, but sometimes you’re in a PUG where everyone is clearly using whatever the kitten they want and it’s just faster to leave them and start a new group. In extreme cases, say if you had 3 bearbows in PVT or something, you might actually not even be able to finish the dungeon. I was in a CoF PUG where the end boss was actually healing instead of being damaged. It’s like people want me to start raging.

I want to see your evidence and math that GS does more damage. If you can prove it, you’ll completely change the PvE meta.

Rym.1469:

I would like to see Heal as One scrapped. It’s useless.

Instead, give us a short-recharge heal (15 secs) which is considered as Survival maybe, heals for moderate amount and leaps you away from enemy for let’s say, 900 range.

I think you just described Withdraw. Would love to have that on a ranger.

Empathic Bond. The new Survival of the Fittest. Healing Spring. Signet of Renewal, both passive, and if necessary, the active. Spirit of Nature active. Sigil of Generosity. There are a few others, but those are the common competitive condi removals.

The OP specifically asked for the maximum damage PvE build, not one that feels the most user friendly. The 1h sword build Turtle posted is the correct answer.

Tragic Positive.9356:

You’ll definitely want to go for Sick’Em

For leveling I don’t think this is a great suggestion. It’s a single target skill on a fairly long cool down, and the effect stops if the target dies. In low level areas that could be before your pet even gets a chance to attack. AoE is the name of the game for completing hearts and killing general trash in PvE leveling. That’s why I often use Flame Trap even on a pure berserker in the open world. It does surprisingly good damage, plus it gets you to (IIRC?) 12 stacks of might when you have a jungle stalker and warhorn.

For dungeons, “Sic ’Em!” is awesome though.

I feel the same way about QZ, just way too long a cooldown for trash mobs.

I know you can’t craft it, but presumably worthless berserker rings you can craft will sell nearly as well as the worthless Balthazar’s Band.

I had one drop for me today which is why I noticed the ridiculous pricing. I don’t remember any flavor text. But I sold it ASAP because I thought the price was a typo.

Really really weird and stupid to me. I guess if people are willing to pay that much, sell it to them.

Crafting jewelry must be extremely lucrative, I will have to try that.

I’m not buying people are willing to pay 20 gold just for an exotic ring. You can get an ascended one practically for free. It has no skin or visibility so it’s not even a status symbol.

Am I missing something here?? This thing is just a regular exotic with a ruby jewel, it should be like 90 silver.

scerevisiae.1972:

i’ve had kicks because of ranger before. i’ve even kicked rangers, and i have one. let’s face it, group PVE is not their strong suit.

I don’t face that. The more times it’s said that rangers are excellent in dungeon running, the more likely the myth that we are bad there will go away. We provide a 14% damage boost to the entire party, not available from any other profession. We do excellent damage with a sword. We provide high fury uptime. A party is almost always going to be better off with a (competent) ranger in it.

No rotation. Just use sword 2 and 3 to avoid the big boss hits or re-position.

Or in Brazil’s latest ranger video, he uses swoop, maul, then swap to sword for best damage.

There are only a couple scenarios where pets die (WvW zerg, Living Story mega champs, etc.,) and in those scenarios even the bear will die.

Forgot about the pigs. I think they might do more damage than bears because they don’t have any defensive skills. Don’t quote me on that though.

I meant that you can look at the numbers and be able to tell exactly how much damage or tankiness the pets have. You can’t say something like “personally I believe bears are the highest damage pets and I believe cats have the best AoE.” You can say “I know for a fact bears have the lowest DPS and I know for a fact cats don’t have any AoE.”

Aridia.3042:

And if a target is moving horizontally across your screen, your arrows are actually hitting where the target was before but it would still register as a hit. So it looks like the travel time is not in sync with the arrow’s animation.

Noticed this as well. I think they just upped the numbers without touching the animation. On the patch release day, I was super confused when I used it on the first risen I saw at the Promenade. It took me a while to realize the damage occurred almost instantly.

Darth Llama.9217:

As for what is the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ build it’s really all just nothing but opinion and personal preference.

The PvE meta is not based on opinions, it’s based on math. For example,

Darth Llama.9217:

Personally, I think Drakes tank as good as bears but bring more DPS.

That’s not an opinion.

jcbroe.4329:

Viking Jorun.5413:

If you’re in SoloQ or pugging TeamQ, chances are if someone decides to rage over a loss they’ll blame the ranger. It’s just something you’ve got to put up with, and if you don’t have thick skin, ranger class probably isn’t for you.

Quite the opposite in my experience, I NEVER get raged at ever on my ranger.

It’s no coincidence that basically every top PvP team uses at least 1 ranger.

I actually think small group WvW fights are where LB rangers shine. You need to use a melee weapon on switch though.

Also immortality with a LB is never balanced. That’s an unacceptable suggestion.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

Fluffball.8307:

My point was not to PvP anyone or prove my skills. My idea was that giving a LB ranger unlimited kiting was OP. The gold thing was only to show how 100% certain I am that a LB ranger that cannot be touched is OP. Picture a condi necro atttacking this monstrosity. Maybe spectral walk get them in the vicinity, but otherwise they are totally hosed.

you did suggest pvping me though… all i did was accept…

I didn’t realize you did. If you want to duel me with your walk button on I insist we post the results.

My point was not to PvP anyone or prove my skills. My idea was that giving a LB ranger unlimited kiting was OP. The gold thing was only to show how 100% certain I am that a LB ranger that cannot be touched is OP. Picture a condi necro atttacking this monstrosity. Maybe spectral walk gets them in the vicinity, but otherwise they are totally hosed.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

Fluffball.8307:

A LB ranger being able to run at full speed backwards would be literally unkillable by many builds. In fact I’m not sure anything other than a thief could kill them at all.

literally unkillable is a huge overstatement, imo. since most melee weapons have 1-2 leaps, an immobilize or 2, etc. etc., along with the fact that if they aren’t crippled they would be moving at the exact same speed as us. tbh, i think the only class it’d make really hard vs rangers WOULD be thief, because it would become a lot more difficult to get behind us

I will literally bet my house, my wife and my firstborn that you can’t beat me on a LB ranger if I can move backwards as fast as forwards. It is INSANELY OP. If you can’t kill the ranger in those 1-2 leaps and an immobilize or 2, you can’t attack again at all.

Edit: Thought. I will duel you on a berserker ranger. You can use any class other than thief but you must have the walk command enabled. This should relatively simulate the scenario. It’s not as significant, but it gets the point across. I’ll put 50 gold up.

Halan.7931:

Fluffball.8307:

The s/d weapon combo is just magical to play. It feels so graceful. The second I put a sword on my ranger I effectively stopped playing all other classes.

How is being glued to the ground is “graceful”? Talking about sword 1.

I’m just leveling ranger, but I already fear that I’ll have to use longsword for dungeons.
Because some youtuber said it’s best for dps, so people will kick you if you use something else

You’re not glued to the ground, you’re in the air for leaping attacks. Once you get the timing down, I think you’ll like it. Use sword 2 and 3, and dagger 4 to dance around your opponents with out ever having to dodge. It’s very graceful.

It’s not some youtuber that said sword is best for DPS, it’s WAY better than risk-free ranged damage. As it should be. I won’t kick you for running a bearbow because I don’t usually kick people, but I won’t be mad when the rest of my party kicks you. It’s worth learning the grace of a sword. It’s like playing a piano, it sucks to learn it but now you can play Chopin.

A LB ranger being able to run at full speed backwards would be literally unkillable by many builds. In fact I’m not sure anything other than a thief could kill them at all.

Valneer.3854:

I certainly wasn’t handed these traits, I had to earn them and so will new players.

The issue is rerolling. It basically forces you to have a level 80 ranger on hand if you want to experiment with builds.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Bloodlust and Peril

I use bloodlust on my sword. That way I get stacks as I progress through dungeons (this is not optimal but I’m not that obsessive.) It doubles as allowing me to have bloodlust up in WvW while still having two sigils on my bow. I am naturally using a sword by the time I finish people, so it stacks up pretty quickly.

Rangers are the coolest class. The s/d weapon combo is just magical to play. It feels so graceful. The second I put a sword on my ranger I effectively stopped playing all other classes.

Plus PvE is ridiculously easy as a ranger.

If a warrior shows up for a dungeon run using a rifle, he’s probably getting the boot. It’s not about rangers, it’s about poor decisions.

If you run a berserker with either of the swords, cat, frost spirit and spotter, you will literally never be kicked. Never.

With 2 or 3 people rangers are among, if not the best. We can literally fill any role. Healer, tank, damage, spike, condi spike, pressure, anything.

Also your statement that you’re always running with 25 stacks of might in a 2 or 3 person party is weird. If you’re doing that, you can massively benefit from other things a ranger can provide.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Fluffball.8307:

I don’t think you can balance a game around zerging. For literally every other aspect of the game, rangers are very desirable.

Rangers bring some stuff to the table for zergs. Most professions aren’t at their best in a zerg, but every brings something to the table. And in the end, zergs are about numbers and experience more than profession.

I think rangers are very good in zergs. With piercing arrows and 1500 range (no point taking Read The Wind since you’re not aiming for anyone in particular and just trying to get as many tags as possible, as well as the fact that it just means arrows are reflected back twice as fast) you can bring some serious backline hurt on an enemy zerg.

An interesting philosophical exercise is to think about how the player created meta affects zerg compositions. Right now, because player have created hammer trains, it’s hard for anything other than a hammer heavy to be a part of it (although I do agree LB rangers have a place in it.) Imagine it had never been created. The slightest shift in the meta could change everything entirely. Let’s suppose the AoE cap is removed (ok that’s a big meta change but go with it) and now zerg combat is way more skirmishy. You often see this when PUGs fight around SMC. Suddenly LB ranger become one of the most desired components. The PvP meta can change dramatically with small changes from the devs (Dhuumfire.)

Anywho…

I don’t think you can balance a game around zerging. For literally every other aspect of the game, rangers are very desirable.

Rangers bring some stuff to the table for zergs. Most professions aren’t at their best in a zerg, but every brings something to the table. And in the end, zergs are about numbers and experience more than profession.

It’s a good set. Berserker makes axe 4 hit like a freight train.

Edit: Just to expand, it’s also an interrupt (if possible) so Moment of Clarity pairs well with it. You could probably kill a GC thief or mesmer in WvW with a single axe 4.

People made fun of what Anet said the ranger’s role was in the CDI. It was something along the lines of “party support and excellent skirmisher.”

Which is exactly what we kick kitten at doing. Spotter and FS provide a 14% damage boost to the entire party not available anywhere else, a party is just plain stupid if they don’t want a ranger for that alone.

We bring options for all sorts of additional “fill the need” party support as well. Need more condi clear? Got that covered. Need more fury? Ranger. Need more might? Ranger. Need some protection? We got that. Need some more healing? We got that too. To top it off we do excellent sustained damage, and are ridiculously hard to hit.

That’s our role. Damage boosting, general party support, doing excellent damage, and being able to dance around people in competitive play.

That looks pretty cool. I can picture you timing the drake shriek to hit right as entangle locks them in place. Poison, torment, bleed, immobilize, confusion all instantaneously. Peppered with burning.

I might have to try these krait runes!

Oh one more thing you probably already know, if entangle lands, a good trick to keep people in it for a spike is to immediately wolf fear them. Obviously if they’ve already used their stun breakers, otherwise you’ve wasted two different CCs at the same time.

When you drag the sigil to to the bow, it should give you a pop up showing your torment sigil and 1 unused upgrade slot. Are you not getting that?

Sigil of Perception gives you increase precision every time you kill something in the same way Sigil of Bloodlust gives you power. There are several types of these “stacking” sigils. You can only have 1 effect active at a time. But this doesn’t look like your problem. You would be able to put the Bloodlust in, you just wouldn’t get the effect if you had Perception on swap and already had stacks up.

Klonko.8341:

It seems you havents tested it enough!

It procs when you stomp someone, when you revive someone, everywhere where there is channeling time and you wield melee!

I cant count the number of time i blocked the engi/warrior #2 in downed state when stomping

Seems silly to take a grandmaster trait just to finish someone you already beat. Not to mention you can just hide behind your pet to avoid the interrupt while you stomp.

All of them work. You can’t have overlapping stacks though; did you have perception on your weapon swap?

kirito.4138:

Whew good thing I don’t PVE as much any more.

It’s actually a double problem, my WvW build winds up with the wrong weapon as well. Double the random deaths.

Botting is what we’ve been told to use. It’s defined along the lines of “not actively playing the character”. Also you’re not allowed to call people out by name, might want to delete that.

…is extremely annoying.

Can we get the PvP build remember to equip the correct weapon? A lot of good your PvP condi build does when you forget to unequip your PvE power weapon.

I accidentally just took a LB with sigil of ice in to PvP (the PvP build automatically using your PvE weapon is seriously kittening me off.) It worked surprisingly well; I was fortunate enough to be on Foefire and could freeze people from the cliff as a form of team support, despite the fact I was on LB with zero in power.

Ditto, as well as drakehound, wolf and entangle. It’s a bunch of streams that make a river.

Durz’s post was in response to me saying I liked Ice on the LB. My WvW roaming build is based around CC, and adding that much extra CC is a big boon to me. It really is a lot of chill. I wouldn’t want to roam with a LB using only Ice as my CC/defense, though.

What are your thoughts on leaving home in a PUG? Typical wisdom is you do not remain on any one point because you leave your team down a player, however you can be decapped by a thief using SR in a matter of what, 2 seconds?

In a team on voice comm you can keep track of where enemies are, in a PUG it’s extremely difficult. Stay on point?

Meowinator.8594:

In what way? Does summoning a spirit count as a shout?

Spirit builds are pretty fun too, but I’ve found that they’re pretty meh in a 1v1, or am I wrong? It feels to me like they’re more of a teamsupport build, or have I built it wrong?

Sorry meant to imply 3 spirits plus guard. Your healing is HUGE with almost permanent regen, the spirit elite, and a regular healing skill. Also all of your traits are in toughness and vitality. Finally, 3 spirits are getting in the way, providing distraction, and providing active defense (spirit of stone, or spirit actives such as blind.)

Spirit rangers are not ideal for actively taking a point (I assume what you mean by 1v1) but if you want to go 1v3 defending a point, ya you’re pretty solid.

Meowinator.8594:

You guys were completely right. I’ve tried out the trap line with renewed belief, and it works so much better. The tankiness I was looking i’ll never get with a ranger anyways, so I tried out some condi-stacks and it worked wonders. being able to throw traps was also pretty gamebreaking for me.

You can get tankiness with spirit rangers. Many people believe them to be the best home point bunkers currently in the game. I combine spirits with Nature’s Voice for ridiculous durability. But traps are more fun.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Fluffball.8307:

Examples of new dailies now available in PvP (assuming they still exist):
-snip-

That’s nice and all but some people don’t want to PvP.

So don’t. There are only 2 dailies specifically for PvP! I’m giving an example of how you can accomplish the daily in any of the 3 modes.

JustTrogdor.7892:

snip

You only responded to half of my quote. Ok, you’ve already tried all the game modes (a lot of people haven’t, and ANet would like them to I’m sure.) The other half of my quote is you can get your daily in any of the modes.

Examples of new dailies now available in PvP (assuming they still exist):

• daily kills
• condition applier
• condition remover
• daily dodger
• Skill interrupter
• daily reviver
• recycler
• mystic forgesmith
• leveler
• skill point accumulator

Personally, I’m finding it easier to get my dailies done now, since no matter what game mode I feel like playing I’m making progress.