Guild Wars 2

I tested Trident 5 and that does seem broken.

Not being able to water dodge for condition removal is really infuriating.

Still waiting for confirmation Anet.

Thanks!

This is pending an update because people pointed out that Sword makes much more sense than Axe, and it makes this build significantly stronger.

I don’t think the war/guard/mesmer meta is that hard to fix.

Buff Ranger, Necro, Engineer PVE damage.

Nerf Warrior damage significantly, and/or remove their ability to stack might/provide fury.

Give another class (engie probably) time warp/portal.

This would make some classes, like Elementalist, use combo finishers to stack more burning and such—- fun!

No comments? =(

Any other ideas for Meteorlogicus?

That seems a bit off topic Mad queen :P

Lots of good points raised =)

Thanks, I don’t feel strongly about Trinkets or amulets being made available in Fractals. Would just feel like a nice perk if they were supperrr rare.

Again, not even really focused on balance or PvP.

This just feels like a glitch with how often it fails to cast. Bringing down the cast time is simply a quality of life change that would hardly affect damage.

Bringing down cast time/increasing range/removing hit delay.

Shatterstone should be looked at as well.

I think OP is on to something.

Battle Music sounds like “TIME TO GET STRESSED OUT”, but when I’m running around in a low level zone, it is totally out of touch with the gameplay I am experiencing and I wish I could just disable it.

Or, even better— I want to replace the battle music with the cleansing of ORr music. =)

I don’t want to make this a balance issue— but that sounds accurate to me.

Fire 1 just seems the most gratuitously painful.

Anet has face implied upcoming changes to fractals…. potential Raids, etc. Let’s pray!

This is the biggest problem I have with S/D right now.

Well, that and how horrid the air 1 animation looks.

Check the reddit thread I linked. While conditions are worth about 800 dps iirc, 100 points of condition damage only increases the total by like 30. 100 power or precision boosts dps much more.

My build, so perhaps I am biased:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83561-hamartias-sd-elementalist-build-dps-might-stacking/#entry2209701

I do not know of an S/D build that provides more damage.

Edit:

More up to date thread because I love Reddit most:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1fuwpk/hamartias_sd_elementalist_dps_mightstacking_build/

kostbabis.8791:

^it gives! At least the elite.
Its random

Excuse me. I meant out of combat— it only gives swiftness when attacking something.

This thread distracts from some of the real animation issues elementalist has.

Scepter 1 air is atrocious beta art. Scepter 1 fire fails to cast due to hit delay and a cast time thats .25 seconds too long.

Chaosky.5276:

Seems a fine change to me.

However, if you’re lacking mobility, switch to staff, use Windborne Speed, drop a Static Field, switch to scepter/dagger, use Phoenix and Earthquake to blast it, use RtL, turn around and use Updraft, switch to your loadout of choice.

I just got Meteorlogicus, so I’m pretty much going to be S/D at all times. =)

I do swap in Signet of air, and this isn’t a high priority change— it just seems like there’s no reason Air Elemental couldn’t just give swiftness.

Not every ele runs the build that gives perma swiftness.

It would be a great quality of life change if air elemental gave swiftness buff out of combat.

I agree with a lot of your points.

To be honest, I just look at Swamp and Underwater as luck of the draw fractals— you got lucky easy fractals that take no brainpower.

Volcanic, Dredge, and Cliffside are the bad luck fractals. Even with these changes, they would still be the bad luck fractals— it would just be more balanced.

To be honest, I think they should just make the first fractal only spawn from the easier ones to keep people from having to reroll.

I’d love for Anet to announce plans to finish all legendaries.

Very true. I really hope Dragon’s Tooth gets a special appearance.

Meteorlogicus really needs to change Dragon’s Tooth.

Not every ele runs the build that gives perma swiftness.

It would be a great quality of life change if air elemental gave swiftness buff out of combat.

Ayrilana.1396:

For rewards suggestions:

1) Sounds good
2) Sounds good
3) No.
4) Sounds good
5) No way!

FotM is not really a net loss as I do make money. It is definitely not as good as CoF though.

Grawl Fractal:

This will not change anything. People will still bring guardians since there is a 66% chance they will need reflect. Besides, people use it for the shaman’s agony attack for the most part.

Dredge:

That shortcut was an exploit and the devs did not consider people would do that. Just because it was there before does not mean that something similar should be now. Doing that part the legit way is not difficult if you use planning and coordination. The HP of the elemental/dredge is fine. Just use coordination to keep the burning effect on it.

Cliffside:

That’s part of the fractal and not difficult to do. Just DON’T rush. Problem solved. People is higher levels should not be having issues with this.

I don’t see why anything needs to be nerfed to the point you can faceroll through it.

Honestly, I probably have someone screw up the cliffside fractal like 2/3rds of the time, playing different tunes across different difficulties.

It’s mostly just because its such a long fractal as it is, we shouldn’t be wasting any time on that.

That’s one of the smallest concerns I have, though. I figure that’s an easy fix for Anet— perhaps only disable it for lower level fractals, then.

Player Character.9467:

I feel the trinkets and amulets aren’t really necessary, the other ways to obtain them are perfectly fine.

Perhaps you’re right. I just think it would be a nice, very small chance to provide an extra bonus to those who have reached the hardest content in the game. Of all the changes I suggest, that is perhaps the one I care least about.

lorazcyk.8927:

So long as the “difficulty” mechanic is agony, I don’t give a skritt..
If it were fun and had real skill challenge, I would do it, even it had zero loot or rewards.

Suggestions for real difficulty have been made in several threads.

I’d like to stay focused on the main points, but I just wanted to point out that until Fractal level 40, Agony does not increase difficulty.

Assuming you get all Ascended gear available at a given tier, you can avoid getting hit by more than 1% agony until level 40.

Assuming you get your Ascended Amulet and Trinkets before Fractal level 10, you can never get hit by more than 1% agony ever.

Blaine Tog.8304:

The Scepter’s Fire autoattack just needs the hit delay removed. If it dealt damage and applied the burn in time with the animation, it would feel much better.

This might also be the case!

I think we can all agree that something feels off and it could use a fix, though.

STABILIZING DIFFICULTY, TIME, AND FUN!

Volcanic Fractal:

This Fractal is considered too hard by many players, and requires specific utilities that not every class offers.

Add a second type of mob that spawns when the Shaman enters its shield called Lavalings, similar to the gravelings from Ascalonian Catacombs. (Perhaps even have them spawn from burrows until these are destroyed, to give Elementalists’ Frost Bow some utility in Fractals.)

This mob will be a small, fast melee attacker that does less damage than the current Elemental spawn and inflicts burning. It has a higher chance of spawning the lower the Fractal level.

Whenever the Shaman enters its shield, you have a 33% chance of getting the Lavalings, the Elementals, or a mixture of both.

This change is intended to reduce the need for Guardians and Mesmers to complete this Fractal, as reflects will not be quite as useful. This also allows groups who wipe on this fight multiple times the chance to get a lucky roll where they get Lavalings multiple times in a row.
****
Dredge Fractal:

This is the Fractal that needs the most work. It is simply too long and tedious. It is not that it is necessarily super hard, but it adds an undue burden to players who wanted to do a Fractal run that didn’t consume an undue amount of their time.

To the left side of the initial starting puzzle, add a mini-jumping puzzle that allow players to skip the beginning puzzle as they were able to before the bug fix. Make this puzzle challenging enough that some groups will choose to do it the normal way.

Completely remove middle section with bombs and turrets. Completing the puzzle will move the players right on to the mid-boss.

End-boss health reduced by 25%.

Another important note is that the number of waves that spawn on the Dredge Midboss is simply insane. Perhaps there’s a glitch going on there, like with the Southsun Skelk. Nerf the amount of mobs that spawn by half, at least, on higher difficulties.

Cliffside Fractal:

Blowing wind and bomb stairs removed. This fractal simply takes too long and the jumping puzzles only end up being a layer of tediousness—having to sit there while two of your party members make their way up four different times. Alternatively, remove the very first boss encounter and simply allows players to start with the hammer. Perhaps both of these changes.

Tweak End-boss to be more interesting. It is a very lame fight. Perhaps consider adding Acolyte spawns with low health, but that can only be damaged by the hammer. One player, rotating, will be on hammer duty killing Acolytes/smashing the seal while the rest of the group handles the boss. Saving the hammer from the first fight would allow two players to kill Acolytes to make this go faster. In exchange, require players to both 1) Destroy the Seal, and 2) Kill the Boss.
****
All Other Fractals:

Mostly the other Fractals are far more even with one another in terms of time and difficulty. Some could still use tweaks, such as lower boss health in exchange for the boss hitting slightly harder. In fact, I think you could probably stand to make some of the other Fractals more challenging in exchange for these tweaks, as you have been doing recently with the changes to Snowblind, for example.

Jellyfish Beast could use an HP reduction. Perhaps lower its health by 25%, but add a high-damage low-health mob that attacks at 66% health and 33% health— this mob needs to be kited and DPSed down. Something to keep us awake.

Mini-bosses on Harpy Fractal also need an HP reduction.

Thanks for reading, please critique and provide feedback and additional suggestions!

Edit:

Link to Reddit thread:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1fvcim/fixing_the_rewards_time_and_fun_fractals_of_the/

Link to Suggestions Forum Thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Fix-Rewards-Time-Fun-Fractals-of-the-Mist/first#post2172794

STABILIZING DIFFICULTY, TIME, AND FUN!

Volcanic Fractal:

This Fractal is considered too hard by many players, and requires specific utilities that not every class offers.

Add a second type of mob that spawns when the Shaman enters its shield called Lavalings, similar to the gravelings from Ascalonian Catacombs. (Perhaps even have them spawn from burrows until these are destroyed, to give Elementalists’ Frost Bow some utility in Fractals.)

This mob will be a small, fast melee attacker that does less damage than the current Elemental spawn and inflicts burning. It has a higher chance of spawning the lower the Fractal level.

Whenever the Shaman enters its shield, you have a 33% chance of getting the Lavalings, the Elementals, or a mixture of both.

This change is intended to reduce the need for Guardians and Mesmers to complete this Fractal, as reflects will not be quite as useful. This also allows groups who wipe on this fight multiple times the chance to get a lucky roll where they get Lavalings multiple times in a row.
****
Dredge Fractal:

This is the Fractal that needs the most work. It is simply too long and tedious. It is not that it is necessarily super hard, but it adds an undue burden to players who wanted to do a Fractal run that didn’t consume an undue amount of their time.

To the left side of the initial starting puzzle, add a mini-jumping puzzle that allow players to skip the beginning puzzle as they were able to before the bug fix. Make this puzzle challenging enough that some groups will choose to do it the normal way.

Completely remove middle section with bombs and turrets. Completing the puzzle will move the players right on to the mid-boss.

End-boss health reduced by 25%.

Another important note is that the number of waves that spawn on the Dredge Midboss is simply insane. Perhaps there’s a glitch going on there, like with the Southsun Skelk. Nerf the amount of mobs that spawn by half, at least, on higher difficulties.

Cliffside Fractal:

Blowing wind and bomb stairs removed. This fractal simply takes too long and the jumping puzzles only end up being a layer of tediousness—having to sit there while two of your party members make their way up four different times. Alternatively, remove the very first boss encounter and simply allows players to start with the hammer. Perhaps both of these changes.

Tweak End-boss to be more interesting. It is a very lame fight. Perhaps consider adding Acolyte spawns with low health, but that can only be damaged by the hammer. One player, rotating, will be on hammer duty killing Acolytes/smashing the seal while the rest of the group handles the boss. Saving the hammer from the first fight would allow two players to kill Acolytes to make this go faster. In exchange, require players to both 1) Destroy the Seal, and 2) Kill the Boss.
****
All Other Fractals:

Mostly the other Fractals are far more even with one another in terms of time and difficulty. Some could still use tweaks, such as lower boss health in exchange for the boss hitting slightly harder. In fact, I think you could probably stand to make some of the other Fractals more challenging in exchange for these tweaks, as you have been doing recently with the changes to Snowblind, for example.

Jellyfish Beast could use an HP reduction. Perhaps lower its health by 25%, but add a high-damage low-health mob that attacks at 66% health and 33% health— this mob needs to be kited and DPSed down. Something to keep us awake.

Mini-bosses on Harpy Fractal also need an HP reduction.

Thanks for reading, please critique and provide feedback and additional suggestions!

Edit:

Link to Reddit Thread:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1fvcim/fixing_the_rewards_time_and_fun_fractals_of_the/

Link to Dungeons Forum Thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Fix-Rewards-Time-Fun-Fractals-of-the-Mist/first#post2172981

Lately, PVE players have been getting upset about the lack of end-game options available to them. New content is ideal, but perhaps Fractals can be tweaked to be more fun and rewarding so that current players can continue to enjoy them, and so that future players can have more fun working towards their rings and back.

Let’s Fix Fractals of the Mist!
****
I am going to focus on 3 things.

1.) Improving the existing Rewards System

2.) Stabilizing the difficulty, time length, and FUN of various fractals.

3.) Taking into account the months of player feedback on specific fractals, bosses, and other issues.

THE REWARDS SYSTEM:

Currently, running Fractals is net loss in terms of Gold for almost everyone. Running COF p1 outpaces it immensely, and to be honest, solo farming Orr probably beats it too.

The obvious tweak is to improve loot, so I’m not going to get into that too much. I do believe that loot in general should be improved from boss chests, and that perhaps an additional item, perhaps a chance at a core or lodestone, should be added to the daily chest above 20, with improving odds of getting a lodestone the higher the level.

Here are some less obvious tweaks. I’m not suggesting that all of these be added, but some would certainly help.
****
Five Fixes for Fractal Rewards:

1.) From Fractal level 30 onward, the Fractal daily chest has the chance to contain Fine Infusions. These are the infusions that offer +5 stat, +5 agony resist. Very few players ever bother to obtain these due to their high cost, and giving us a way to obtain them would get more players seeking their +30 stats they can now obtain through ascended.

2.) From level 40 onward, infused rings have a chance to drop with the Fine Infusion that corresponds to their primary stat. Red Ring of Death drops with a Mighty Infusion, for example.

3.) New Mystic Forge Recipe: 1 Fractal Weapon, 1 Shard of Crystallized Mist Essence, 3 Globs of Condensed Mist Essence, 5 Vials of Condensed Mist Essence. Gives you a random Fractal weapon of any other type than the one originally placed in the mystic forge. Or, if this is hard to program, just random Fractal Weapon, so that we can re-roll until we get the one we want.

4.) Level 40+ has a rare chance to drop Ascended Amulets and Trinkets.

5.) All Ascended Gear, including Rings, will now count as Yellow Armor for Mystic forging Purposes. 3 Ascended Rings + one yellow weapon will be a viable mystic
forge recipe for gambling for exotics/precursors. Four ascended rings will get you back a yellow armor.
****

Other Scepter Notes:
-Rock Barrier provides 250 Toughness. Using it as a damaging move provides 5 projectile finishers—great for extra burning, regen, or condition removal in a light field.

-Frost Aura, Lightning Strike, and Blinding Flash can be cast off the GCD while another move is channeling. This also applies to Arcane Wave, Shield, Blast, and Power.

-Phoenix provides vigor and condition removal.

On Elementals:
A much more viable choice after recent buffs.

Fire Elemental does the best damage, and great AoE. However, it only has 9300 health.

Air elemental has 14,500 health, deals less damage, and does no AoE, but it attacks from range and provides swiftness—the better choice for heavy AoE fights where Fire elemental will get downed. The damage difference between air and Fire is not that huge in single-target situations, and it will stay alive far more often.

Ice and Earth both have 21300 health and attack in melee. Earth Elemental does less damage than Fire and Ice, but is very hard to kill and provides a small amount of AoE Protection. Great choice if party starts wiping and your heavies start going down and you need a quick tank.

Ice Elemental does meh damage, but chills enemies and, on a 25 second cooldown, can cast cleansing wave for a 6570 heal.

swiftpaw.6397:

Maybe just me, but I find it’s really hard to see if I’m actually hitting something with that attack at all. There’s no projectile and there’s just a burst of flame which is usually easily lost in the tons of other particle effects in a dungeon run. When I do manage to separate the number from the condi ticks and what have you it’s so poor I may as well have not hit with it. I generally neglect it all together with S/D, I rarely auto attack and when I do I make sure it’s on air or earth while I’m waiting for my next attunement to load.

This is exactly the problem that caused me to post. I end up missing with this attack incredibly often.

Ideally, it’d get dropped down to 1 second cast and receive a range boost.

After using Staff for a bit I was amazed at how smooth a 1 second cast 1 move felt.

Possible Tweaks

For utility skills, you need Arcane Blast and Wave. The third can be Arcane Shield or Mistform for survival—I prefer Arcane shield since it benefits from the 20% CD reduction and does nice damage. Arcane Power is a pretty huge DPS boost since you can pop it right before your 5 super heavy hitters.

If someone else in your party is bringing some might, you can swap Persisting Flames for Ember’s might for a 5% damage boost. If you usually run with a friend who provides a few stacks of might, this will make the most sense.

If your party has lots of boons going around, swap out Elemental Attunement for Evasive Arcana to add some conditional removal and damage.

If you aren’t running boon duration runes, swap out Elemental Attunement for Evasive Arcana.

Ether Renewal is the best heal when you need some additional condition removal, but I feel that the Human Racial heal provides the big, fast heal you more often need in PVE content, with water 3 and 5 for downtime.

Alternative Gearing Option
Standard is nearly full berserker; PVT in 3 slots to make it easier to spend a lot of time in close range and get off your churning Earths. Perhaps a better player than me could pull off full zerker. Theoretically, chest or legs with knight armor, rest zerker might be an even better balance than PVT in 3 slots.

Since you are using Arcane Power and arcane blast, which guarantees crits, you can theoretically go with a much tankier PVT/Celestial mix, rather than full zerker.
This will allow you to still benefit from crits at the most intense parts of your rotation for nice burst damage.

Balanced Gearing Option
Zerker hands, feet, shoulders, weapons. PVT helm, legs, chest. Celestial trinkets.
I’ve tried this one out personally and it feels infinitely survivable with great damage.
Why Celestial? Scepter benefits from the condition damage, time spent in melee range will make your 3, 5, and dodge heals a bit more in demand.
Obviously lower damage than going pure Zerker, but this feels like a balance that I am happy with in casual play.

Leveling Build
This also happens to be the most fun and powerful leveling build I’ve tried across several classes. You can change the order you grab the talents to suit your own needs. I usually just ran with 3 signet to be lazier—air for movement speed, earth for toughness, fire for critical chance. Swap in the level 80 utilities for fun, practice, or when they start to feel effective. Arcane Blast/Wave and Signet of Air is probably a healthy balance. This follows the same rotation as the level 80 build.

Level 10—Start investing in points to get 10 Arcane.

Level 20—10 Arcane for Elemental Attunment—the burst of protection before casting churning Earth helps a lot along with the CD reduction on attunement swap.

Level 30—10 fire for 10% damage in fire and the Power stats.

Level 40—20 Fire for Cooldown Reduction, 10 Arcane.

Level 50—10 Water.

Level 60—30 Fire for Persisting Flames, 10 Arcane, 10 Water.

Level 70—30 Fire, 20 Arcane, 10 Water.

Level 80—30 fire, 30 Arcane, 10 Water.

Thanks for Reading/Critique away please!

Note: This is a PVE build and a remake of an earlier thread. It is not meant for PvP and I do not wish to discuss PvP.

UPDATED THREAD: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83561-hamartias-sd-elementalist-build-dps-might-stacking/

UPDATED FORUM THREAD:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Hamartia-s-S-D-Might-Fury-DPS-June-25th/first#post2309790

Rotation video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdmUz_WE7g&feature=youtu.be

With Elemental Attunement and Boon Duration for more support:
[url=“http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJArYlw1iMWZQzAOyAApAKhHEwQBlHzkTMA-jgyAYLhQCCIZBI5psm9EELdht6GtybQ01YKXioaA-e”]http://gw2skills.net...tybQ01YKXioaA-e[/url]

With Scholar Runes/Ruby Orbs and Evasive Arcana for More Damage/still maintain 25 stacks of might:
[url=“http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJArYlw1iMWZQzAOyAApAKhHEwQBlHxkjNA-jAyAYLhQCCIZBI5psm9EELuFRjVXjpcJiqBA-e”]http://gw2skills.net...FRjVXjpcJiqBA-e[/url]

Balanced Gearing Option: 2x PVT, 5x Zerker, Celestial Trinkets.
[url=“http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJArYlw1iMWZQzAOyAApAKhHEwQBlHxkjNA-jAyAYLhQCCIZJIJvFtm9CYxtIasqaioadNGA-e”]http://gw2skills.net...tIasqaioadNGA-e[/url]

Note that in most situations, Arcane Power will be swapped for Arcane Shield, because everyone needs a bit of survival. Arcane Power is the pure high DPS option.

What this build sacrifices versus standard builds:

Your only condition removal is Water 5, Phoenix, and Ether Renewal. If you find you need more than that, swap your choice of Arcane skills for Evasive Arcana.

You lose 100% fury and swiftness uptime to party. I feel that other classes bring fury while sacrificing less than an Elementalist has to. Or, if you have another Elementalist in your party, they will be bringing these buffs.

I’m not happy with Elementalist meta builds, I feel like they give up too much damage in favor of support, and that the support provided is not an adequate recompense. This is my attempt to fix things.

What it brings:
25 stacks of might to party, great damage, great AOE. Feels incredibly fun and versatile.
Can also do great damage in PVT and Celestial gear; doesn’t need to be full zerker if that’s not your style.

Rotation:
Take a deep breath

The gist of this is to pop all of your combo finishers inside of Ring of Fire (fire 4) to stack AOE might and some additional burning.

Start in Air or Water.

Swap to Fire and before reaching target, use 2, Dragon’s Tooth. Use 4 to throw down your fire field under Dragon’s Tooth and at your target. Use Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave. Use Fire 3 inside of your fire field. Use Fire 5 from melee range, use Fire 2 again.

Swap to Earth. Use 4. (Use Arcane Shield if its your utility choice) Begin cast 5, swap to air, 3, 2, swap to water, 4. Earth 5 finishes casting, back to fire.

Stay in Fire until your Earth cooldowns are available and then repeat. Use Arcane Blast and Wave on Cooldown unless you need them available to stack more might.

If you are using scholar runes + Evasive Arcana, do not wait for a second Dragon’s Tooth before swapping to Earth. Instead, Earth-dodge before Earth 4 and 5.

I recommend using Glyph of Elementals as the elite. I’d pop Fire Elemental before beginning your rotation, and use your Water heals to heal it up after Earth 5. Water Elemental is good for when your group needs some healing, since it attacks from range it does the best job staying alive. Earth Elemental can be useful in some situations since it tanks very effectively.

If you are able to run with Arcane Power, you want to pop it before Fire Grab (Fire 5) so that it crits Fire Grab, Fire 2, Earth 4, Earth 5, Air 2.

During “downtime”— when all but your fire moves are on cool down, feel free to use Earth 2, and water heals and evasive arcana for a minimal DPS loss. Whenever a long cast is going, swap to air for 3 and 2, which are off the GCD.

Also use RTL as a damaging move in PBAoE situations.

You can also use earth 3 blind before churning earth, and air 3 blind DURING Churning Earth to keep the boss unable to hit you while you use your big attack. In some situations, you might want to try and use Earth 3 and Air 3 to try and save your party from hard hits—think of blind as reverse Aegis.

Why is this build good?
The damage. Every fire move other than 1 hits hard. Arcane and Air moves hit hard off the GCD. Earth 4 and kitten hard.

25 stacks of might without making any sacrifices to obtain it.

You still bring good healing and buffs via Elemental Attunement.

It just takes too long. It makes it feel like the animation is lagging.

I don’t even care about balance or buffs nerfs. I just want the animation brought down to 1 second so the gameplay can feel more smooth.

Jason.9643:

i havent seen this before!! gona try it out indeed – most people focus on pvp.
was looking for a big numbers pve build for screenshots n giggles. thanks hamartia.

Happy to help!

Anyone give this a shot? Still enjoying it immensely. Did gate on a COF run and received compliments on the speed :P

No more thoughts on this idea?

Anyone know if Anet has confirmed they are working on it?

sorudo.9054:

actually, because of the hardcore player PVE has bit ruined for casuals, it’s ether really hard or time consuming.
improvements in the game engine for one would be a good start, QoL stuff is another thing that needs to be done before adding anything and break half the game.

Anet needs to do more at both ends— easy content and hard content.

I really think there should be easy modes of dungeons that have less rewards, but, for example, the trash becomes yellow so you dont have to fight it.

Wow, more than I thought!

Terkov.4138:

Nice to see other rangers noticing potential of 30/25 Personally, I’d swap axe for sword, as it deals more dmg and it’s melee weapon – very useful against bugged structures (AC burrows) or reflecting enemies (maw fractal).

I should give that a shot. Hadn’t really considered Sword much for some reason, just swap to greatsword for those situations.

Yup, Anet please confirm before people buy it with the wrong idea.

Tweaks:

Plenty of options. You can gain like 100 power by swapping spirit health for vitality—> power, if you dont need the 100% bonus health to keep them alive. In general, only the 30/25 part is important.

You can also take the 10 points out of spirits and add 5 to beastmastery for quickness, and have 5 left for whatever useful thing you can find.

I hate Spirits!!

You can move around everything other than 30/25 and swap your utilities out. They are not essential to this build, although I do believe they are the best use of the talent points and utility slots.

So are Rangers still underpowered?

I quite like this build. I don’t feel that in the average PUG, this build is anything but a very nice boost and great use of a party spot. 42% uptime on fury is huge. Vulnerability and spirits are very nice, and healing spring is insane on stacking fights. In a min/max Guard/War/Mesmer group? You aren’t going to be bringing much of value, sadly, that they don’t bring already.

Hey all,

I’m posting this because I noticed there are way too few guides to help Rangers out. I think that this build is pretty much the best rangers are capable of, and I’m happy with the results.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJAzXjEVR2dVWVsWCg1j9CsvuAOjDZ0VoUA-jwxAYrATWAoPwJvioxWcLiGruGT5SEVDA-e

How is the damage?

High. Not Warrior high, but high. 5% more longbow damage, 10% damage when above 90% health, 10% damage when endurance is full, 10% damage when flanking… these add up. And at max range, you can maintain all of these boosts very easily.

LB 1 can hit for 3.5k, nearly on par with warriors 1 move.

Utility provides by this build:

Frost spirit, always. For a 3.5% increase to damage for party. Before people cry, with the recent 60% health buff, and if you keep them near you and use healing spring to keep them up, Spirits will almost never die until they are off cooldown.

Stone spirit when needed (No Guardian), for decent protection uptime for party.

If you have any HEAVY condition damagers, add Sun Spirit. A condition necro or condition thief will suddenly gain access to burning, boosted by their own condition damage and condition duration. This can massively buff the condition damagers in your group.

10 stacks of vulnerability on target, the equivalent of Warrior’s “On My Mark” but on a shorter cooldown. 10% damage to target. Very few pugs hit 25 stacks of vulnerability on boss’s, so this is a huge boost.

5 stacks of might for 11 seconds every thirty seconds, using Jungle Stalker.

Healing Spring, one of the best heals in the game— 5k heal, AoE + 6k regen and tons of combo finisher potential. Be sure to drop it near boss or wherever allies need health since, at max range, you won’t be needing it for yourself much. Plenty of Regen via using combos inside of healing spring.

15s of fury/might/swiftness every 35 seconds. 42% uptime. This is huge.

How to Play

When you reach the location you will spend most of the fight (minimum possible distance away to reach 1000+ range), spawn your Spirit(s). it is important to pick a good spot so they benefit from your healing spring.

Use Axe/Warhorn off-set to provide 15s fury/might/swiftness to your party every 35 seconds. Be sure to run near them when you’re going to use it. Then use Warhorn 4 for nice damage. If possible, swap back to Longbow at this point. If not, use 4, 3, 2, 1 in that priority until you can.

With Longbow, always use 3 as your first priority unless the target is sitting at 25 stacks of vulnerability. Longbow 5 is your highest damager in AOE situations or if you know the target will stand in it for its full duration.

Only use longbow 4 as a Projectile Finisher unless you take aggro and need survival. It is a major annoyance to melee damagers.

Longbow 2 is your best damager if not at max range, and in some gear, appears to be best damager overall due to the faster cast speed. If not at max range, use LB 3 on cooldown as it beats LB 1. If you aren’t sure if you’re at max range, use the priority of 5, 3, 2, 1. If you are sure you are at max range, use 3 (if need vuln), 1.

Longbow 1, at max range, will hit pretty hard and do a majority of your damage.

When you notice the group around the boss taking lots of damage, run in and give them a healing spring to keep them up, especially since it will provide a lot of heals via whirling, blast, and projectile finishers. Remember that you can use any of your projectile finishers to give yourself tons of regen while standing in the water field.

Swap to Spirit of Nature elite when your group needs it. The +100% health, and you staying near it with healing spring will actually make it very powerful.

Please note all of your projectile finishers you have available to grant yourself a huge amount of extra healing when they are used in healing spring.

When you find yourself in need of stamina, swap to Axe for sigil of energy useage.

Remember that with Piercing, ALL of your moves are AOE with proper positioning.

Pets:

Are they going to have trouble staying alive? Spider/devourer because they are ranged.

Are they not? Cats for boss, Drakes for AoE. Specifically I mean Jaguar for max damage (crits when stealthed), and Jungle Stalkers for 5 stacks of might to party for 11 seconds every 30 seconds.

Does your melee group need help and someone to do some of the tanking? Bears. This helps in groups without many heavies.

Gear:

Full zerker and scholar runes helps a lot with damage. Optionally swap legs, helm, chest, longbow, to PVT or Knights for extra survival, in that order, swapping as few pieces as possible.

Ranger moves have poor scaling, so Sigil of Fire benefits them a bit more than other classes.

You can bring an alternate Longbow with Bloodlust to get 25 stacks, then switch to the one with Fire Sigil.

Fire 30 talent Perstisting flames doesn’t affect water fire 2 move “Boil”, which is a fire field.

Evasive arcana does nothing underwater.