Guild Wars 2

brogarn.8723:

Keyce.8137:

Not Karma vendor in Orr has an exotic P/T/V helmet.

The vendor in front of Arah has a mask that’s P/T/V actually. I have it.

For reference: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

Huh. Didn’t know that existed. Thanks!

I gave it a scan. I only found that the Light armour set had it. Bad news for medium and heavies! Oh well.

I used to run S/D and GS in dungeons often. GS was great during Subject Alpha fights (path 2), where if our auto attack starts just after he lays down the AoEs, we get the evade slash just as they deal damage. While the other four members of my team ran or dodge-rolled out of the AoEs, I just stood in them to smack SA some more. xD

But I’ve grown to dislike the dagger since I find it rare I use either of its skills. As nice as an extra evade is, I already have two on the sword alone, plus the other defenses my own dodge roll and GS bring. I am currently trying out a S/Axe combo, since the #5 skill is a wonderful whirl finisher inside of Healing Spring. Direct damage, support through vuln stacks, and healing bolts. What’s not to like about that?!?

Azlidax.9753:

I believe you can get some nice (Exotic) jewelry from Orr Karma vendors now with PVT stats on them. I could be wrong but I think the vendor becomes available when you complete the Grenth quest chain.

Temple of Grenth has exotic level P/T/V back/amulet/rings/accessories with no gems inside them.

Temple of Melandru has P/T/V armour but no helmet.

Not Karma vendor in Orr has an exotic P/T/V helmet.

OP:

When I watched the link in your post, I eagerly waited on you to show the traits you use for the build. I had long ago gone for what I called a “selfish wells build”, trying to be good support but also difficult to kill. Now, I’ve found out that our traits setup is almost identical! (Granted, my necromancer has yet to reach 80, but it’s getting there on its own time)

I can say that this kind of a build is great for face-tanking a lot of enemies, and can save groups with the amount of Blinds we have if the team tries to bite more than it can chew. I personally don’t run with the Focus, so I’ll try that out sometime in the future.

I am however curious why you chose the Focus over the Warhorn. Is it because the PBAoE is on a CD about twice as long as the regen from the Focus?

Thanks for showing the community a great necromancer build, and I hope you have fun in game!

I’ll keep a ranged weapon in mind. So far, I’ve been running a greatsword with Superior Sigil of Strength in it for the majority of most trash fights, then swap to my hammer with a Superior Sigil of Perception once they start getting low health, to get up my precision stacks. Once there, I try to hang around in my GS for as long as I can until either downed, or a dungeon boss calls for the hammer specifically (because I know that not every boss can just be bursted down in melee). I generally use the active effects on my Virtues, except when my health is topped off and the boss isn’t going to use some ultra-powerful effect. The one exception being Virtue of Justice, which I activate ever time I see it come off cooldown. Miiiiiight staaaaaacks.

Maybe I should swap the Sigil of Perception in my hammer to Strength, my GS’s Strength sigil to Rage, and pick up a staff with the Sigil of Perception.

akamon.2769:

Dristig.9678:

I have some Karma banked. Is there a Karma vendor that sells Power/Toughness gear? I feel like the 300 toughness I’m missing is a big part of the problem.

if you’re looking for Soldier’s gear (pow/Tough/Vit) gear, you can definitely pick some up with Karma. The Temple’s in Orr when non-cotested will have a karma vendor and you can get PVT gear from them for 42k a pop.

this link should have all the info you need:
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

hope this helps!

Temple of Melandru should have all P/T/V gear, though absoutely no temple has a P/T/V helmet. I don’t know why.

Also, the Temple of Grenth has P/T/V jewelry (amulet, rings, back, accessories).

On a more topic-related note, I’ve using this build since the mid 60’s all the way to 80. It’s been great fun. I have run enough dungeons that I am only missing two pieces of gear to be decked out in exotics (though I am looking to eventually get every single weapon in Knight’s stats, I am content with just the Hammer and GS for now).

I have not played an AH build at all, but I find this one to be fairly squishy against certain bosses (first boss of Path 3 Sorrow’s Embrace comes to mind). Is there a way I can increase my longevity in a fight without using a hammer all the time? Should I switch one of my other shouts to “Hold the Line!” ? If so, which one would be best to remove while keeping the (melee) group in mind?

Maybe I just need to abuse the dodge button more. Not for the sake of evading attacks (the amount of Block I can throw around, or stability I can grant is usually enough), but just for the heal on dodge effect I’ve got.

This will be a difficult one. I’m normally used to playing for fun, but I’ll see what I can whip up off the top of my head.

I’d recommend SB and S/anything. Warhorn for extra fury, axe for whirl finisher/vuln on targets in melee with your rangers, or the dagger for the ranger’s own extra survivability with its dodge #4. Building high for ’zerker gear is probably the best way to go.

Generally, the ranger should be okay staying at a range with the shortbow, shooting things down at a range and generally out of danger. During boss fights, or fights where you normally use Time Warp by the mesmer, the ranger can swap to melee combat and use Rampage as One. The amount of might stacks you get from the elite, AND the third hit on the sword, means that the pet should quickly reach and maintain 25 stacks of might for the duration of Rampage as One.

The downside with pets is that there is currently no way to maintain boons on one pet when swapping to the other.

I avoid non-tanky pets because I don’t like waiting 60 seconds to swap pets if one falls before I can swap it. That usually means the one I have out is going to end up dying, just like the first one.

SynfulChaot has the right thinking for Healing Spring. The amount of utility it provides is just too much to pass up. It’s like building a self-sustaining guardian but not taking Altruistic Healing, except in the ranger’s case the heal benefits everyone and is a water field, which means other combo finishers will also be healing allies.

I will give a word of warning, however. Many people have complained of the sword’s unresponsiveness when auto-attacking with its #1 attack. I have not found much trouble (if any) with this weapon myself, but some players may need to adjust to how it functions.

Enundr.9305:

though i feel like id get a better listener from a brick wall ill lay it out simple , this system was put in before ALL the boss changed / rebalancing for it , aka NOT A GREAT IDEA , it is therefore still promoting ppl to not revive others when they have a VERY HIGH CHANCE of getting dropped by said boss / small group of enemies , thereby NOT PROMOTING strategy other then hoping they can get reinforncements (aka teamate respawning) , there is no strategy as it is , teammwork ends up with you getting punished trying to save a teammate that is down , and these rez skills DO NOT WORK ON FULLY DEAD PLAYERS , only DOWNED PLAYERS that you can get up super fast if the enemy is not sitting on them , in which case i go back to have a high chance to get killed attempting to rez them , Lupi is renowned for sitting on someone after he charges them , and an unseccusful dodge (aka lag making that SUPER EASY) gaurentees their death , nothing justifies this system as it is. now im out , i only came back on to this waste of time btw because im busy doing stuff around the house.

PS: i still see ppl using this strategy in major dungeon events that arent bosses , so a timer would make a difference….how? they still dont revive you and still can find a way to do said thing , i will not say what it is cause its one of the few things left dungeon wise that even makes me want to continue playing the game , and barely at that. hopefully theyll notice this before players flatout quit for ESO…..not a smart choice imo but whatever , the warning has generally been made.

A brick wall is going to be a better listener than I am at this point.

I am sorry that you are finding people who refuse to pick up other players in every single dungeon you run, but I seriously doubt that the majority of players in this game are running across the same ill luck as you are. I’ve run dungeons with only one friend and three other PuG’d people pulled from some crazy LFG thingy I keep hearing about but have no interest in using (like my friend does). I have met players of all kinds because of that, from the friendly to the rude; from the best engineer ever to the GS burst warrior whose entire damage is accomplished solely while in the downed state. Okay, I am making a hyperbole on the warrior, but you get the idea.

These people still revive others if you talk to them, even to ask just that.

You are not required to revive a dead or downed person all at once. I admit that sometimes you are glued to the person you are reviving, but I simply click both my mouse buttons and I run away from their downed/dead selves to evade the incoming AoEs, and return when it’s safe to do so. It’s even easier (though longer) if the player is fully dead, because they won’t lose their revive bar while in that state.

As well, players who are dealing with high latency likely already know they are disadvantaged, and unless they are very good at evading attacks despite this, should be traiting/gearing more towards survival over damage. Not every fight is Giganticus Lupicus. In fact, I can confidently say that somewhere around 80-90% of all dungeon fights are not him – and I haven’t even run all paths of Arah successfully yet.

It’s only the most elite (not to be confused with elitist) players who are able to run Arah as a glass cannon warrior, solo. For everyone else – myself included – you need to pick up defensive traits and stats to survive those kinds of encounters.

Your build has to be able to synergize with other players. That means it has to be durable enough to take a hit now and then, most times when you don’t want it to happen at all. Like when you are trying to revive someone.

Dungeons were designed to be highly focused on teamwork. The current res-rushing mechanic discourages the type of behavior we intended when a fellow player goes down. We hope that by eliminating res-rushing, we’ll bring dungeons more in-line with our original design goals, which are based around team play and strategy.

Link can be found here.

I am sorry, but no amount of limited use of waypoints is going to stop players from not helping each other out. The removal of waypoint use in combat was done specifically to promote players reviving their teammates. If you put waypoint use on a timer, then you’re just forcing dead players to sit and wait until they can respawn and zerg the dungeon’s boss/event all over again, while one person (supposedly) tries not to die while waiting on 1-4 of his teammates to rejoin the fight.

At that point it’s still a group of people acting solo; they are not trying to succeed as a team watching each others’ backs, but as a group of people doing their own things their own way and expecting it to work. It will not. Not in a game like GW2, where teamwork is not only strongly encouraged, but oftentimes mandatory (such as in dungeons). Players and classes must be able to work off of each other in order to succeed in dungeons.

Lastly, many classes have auto-revive mechanics (like the warrior’s warbanner). Perhaps you might find the dungeons you run to be a lot easier if a couple of your teammates used these in place of another utility. They are literally lifesavers.

Literally.

nerva.7940:

swords are defensive/utility weapons for the ranger, know that. rangers are excellent in 1v1 and small roaming groups/skirmishes.

They make good Power weapons, but you’re also right. Secondly, I wouldn’t suggest the OP traits/gears for a condition-heavy build when running a sword, unless perhaps it is combining with the Torch. The sword on its own is not a good condition weapon.

The sword is currently dealing with (what I feel is) a minor bug in its auto attack chain (the #1 skill). Sometimes, trying to use the dodge button or other skills does not break the slash/jumpkick/leapingslash attack that it does. For the most part I get around this by saving the #2 and #3 skills (both of which naturally evade) for the times where I need to dodge, rather than using them whenever they are off cooldown.

Swords currently deals some of our strongest damage (the shortbow beats this by a mile thanks to the bleeds it can do), however I get some enjoyment from knowing that the third attack in my chain grants Might to my pet. I am unsure if it is one stack of Might per target hit or just one stack for the entire attack, but for now I’ll continue on in blissful ignorance. I have fun with the sword.

In dungeons, most players will say that Rangers are weak compared to the Thief, Warrior, or Elementalist. This is probably true, but if the reasons for playing a Ranger are similar to mine, it’s probably not because you want to top the damage charts. Despite this, being able to drop a Healing Spring in the middle of melee combat is a HUGE boon to your buddies in close combat. Traited for Vigorour Renewal (IV) in the Wilderness Survival line grants everyone inside the field vigor, on top of all its wonderful, natural effects.

I don’t dabble much in WvW, but for massive fights you probably won’t last too long in close combat. All the evasion we can get is really nice, but it doesn’t do well against focus fire. However, I have 1v1’d a couple people in sPvP with a GS & S/D combo, and it works out quite nicely. You can dodge almost whenever you want, and stick to your target infinitely with the sword (provided they don’t dodge roll away).

As far as pets go, I enjoy swapping wolves on cooldown to make use of the quickness boost in the Beastmastery trait line, as well as their knockdowns, to take out foes in PvP-type situations. When in dungeons or roaming between large events in Orr, I make use of two bears for their naturally (and immensely) high Vitality. I rarely if ever get the 60 second swap penalty for a dead or downed pet when running with two bears.

I hope I have been helpful!

haviz.1340:

Keyce.8137:

-snip-

What I’m seeing here is “I can’t improve”. None of those bosses requires brilliant strategy of zerg rushing. If you keep dying, it’s time to reconsider your current approach and zerg rushing will never do it. You’ll never improve if you keep zerg rushing instead of killing the boss without dying.

Enundr.9305:

i didnt check cause i was out of red circles and whole freaking party was getting the same thing , like i said its possible he bugged out. does the reference bugged out elude you? =P

No one ever reported that fairy tail of yours. Either you were extremely unlucky which shouldn’t happen again and you have nothing to worry about or you can’t admit you died to AoE.

Aye. Granted, all of those bosses I HAVE had difficulty with before, but repetition with a coordinated group of friends has made it easier to deal with to the point that I am likely able to PuG a dungeon without much of a problem anymore. I got my behind kicked, I tried again and again and again until I got it right. The only dungeons I can say offer me a hard time are CM and Arah, but only because I do not travel to those dungeons often and fight the bosses there. I don’t plan on returning to CM or Arah in the near future, though I will be more open to the former than the latter. GL is probably the only boss I am unwilling to “learn” at this point. Someday in the far-off future, maybe. I am not sure.

haviz.1340:

SynfulChaot.3169:

Subject Alpha. But, like Lupicus, a good party can overcome the mistake, though not without effort.

Okay, there’s two now, anything else? Also, have in mind that both of those bosses are encountered in two last dungeons.

Uh, couple bosses in CM. Can’t remember their names/paths, but I know my groups had severe difficulty with the one spamming symbols underneath herself, and the bandit final boss with all the poison AoEs. There’s also the first boss in TA’s U/U path, as sometimes her AoE skills are laid out directly in front of her and it’s difficult for the melee to avoid a hit that has almost no travel time. The giant worm at the START of TA has also been the bane of many players (myself included), mostly due to the number of lesser worms that spawn during the fight and spew tons of sludge-like AoEs all over the place. I know it’s easy to revive in TA, but it’s also easy to get downed there. Two of the end bosses almost HAVE to be fought at maximum range, because the rampant number of seed mortars or spiders is just too much for most groups to handle while trying to defeat it.

Kholer from AC can kill people without the experience against him, or people who just have bad luck the day they fight him. Colossus Rumblus is the same – his long-cast shout that makes the cieling fall has aggravated me a lot when a rock hits me from almost out of no-where.

Magg’s defense event, despite being nerfed into the ground, scares me half to death. First time I ran it post-nerf, I was constantly at low health and scrambling to kill the assassins while trying to sustain myself. Also, the defense event in path 3 has remain largely unchanged and I would not be surprised to hear of at least someone who wiped on it at least once, trying to clear it.

I mean, really. Every boss in this game has the potential to be difficult. Why aren’t they? Because we – the players – develop strategies to defeat them. Rez-rushing was one of them, but no longer is. Oh well. Now we have to learn to overcome these obstacles in new ways – ones that might involve a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in the beginning, but will ultimately help keep our repair costs down in the end.

Just a thought as I looked at all the new posts this morning, but why not alter the “rescue” skills to the following:

A.) Grant all classes teammate-revive mechanics that don’t currently have one.

B.) Make these skills revive downed players with no cost, or at maximum, the cost of a mesmer’s Illusion of Life, which just downs the player again if they don’t kill something in 15 seconds. This allows everyone to pick up their allies, but since they all have CDs, you can’t get a freebie if you go down every five seconds.

C.) Allow these revive skills to work on “defeated” players. It does not have to be a full revive (or what would the point of the downed state be?), but it can either grant a passive healing effect while defeated, or automatically heal about 50% of their health.

Warriors have a great revive skill in their elite, Warbanner. Mesmers have a good one too, though it demands players revived by its effects to run out of the fight if there is nothing to kill in the short time they have. Rangers can revive people without needing to line up an AoE skill over a downed or defeated player, and can still shoot at their enemies the entire time. There are other classes with similar skills, and in fights that the group knows are going to be tough, these kinds of abilities can be lifesavers. They aren’t there to collect dust on your character pane!

EDIT:

Iehova.9518:

SynfulChaot.3169:

Lupi is hard for most all players. If he is not hard for you, that is great. But for most players he is a difficult challenge.

Well, if they can’t kill Lupus, maybe they shouldn’t go to Arah?

And why on earth are y’all fixated on Lupus so much? It’s not like he’s the ONLY boss where no-res matters.

That is EXACTLY why I don’t go to Arah – can’t kill the giant puppy.

Detharos.3157:

I’d be surprised to see any ranger that doesn’t at least have a short bow in their inventory. It’s like the multi-tool of the ranger class. An effective, high dps auto-attack, a number 2 poison to nerf enemy heals, a number 3 evade w/ a speed buff during active combat for evasiveness/escaping foes, a number 4 to cripple foes so that you can kite them and stay away from melee threats for much longer, a number 5 stun that can interrupt most conventional attack threats when timed correctly.

The short bow is a great utility for any ranger assuming you have the right trait build, and especially for berserker gear rangers who are looking to increase their survivability.

Um… surprise?

Arekai.5698:

I love how people defend a godawful mechanic.
A mechanic that roots you in place in a game where mobility is everything.
The only reason you don’t complain is because you already know it’s never going to get fixed, so you close your eyes and pretend it’s not bugged.

The only flaw in that arguement are the following:

1.) You are not rooted in place. In fact, you chase your target if they don’t have their own evasion tools (but I am nitpicking on this one).

2.) I love the sword and I rarely IF EVER have a problem using its other abilities mid-chain. I agree, it still needs to be tweaked a little to allow for interruptions in its normal attack sequence, but I have never had the difficulties you all are claiming it has. If you are so adamant to hate the sword, then please, swap to GS or use the axe. There is no reason for you to use a weapon you don’t like to use, except to give yourself a hard time.

Ariete.6509:

Guys please, understand the intent behind the sword:

you can keep a permanent snare on the target with cripple and your own built in leap, but it has a sat back: you limit your movement.

Learn to time dodges in between that window of opportunity on the chain, then sword becomes your best friend.

It takes a lot of practice to get it down right. I know that standard dodging can be a little hard to do in between auto-attacks (and I let mine go off automatically despite the fact I spam the button anyways), but once you get used to how the weapon works, you can easily use #2 and #3 as your evasion tools instead. I am able to dodge Alpha’s attacks in path 2 of CoE and the new Flame Legion Charrr leader in CoF, who makes that growing ring of earth spikes.

Othayuni.7369:

Turn…off…your…auto attack.

And you leave my sword alone. It’s an amazing weapon as is its #1 skill. It just works differently. You need to make 1 manual and use it only when you want to hug something and go for the high DPS, which it’s fantastic for.

…Except that I run the sword with auto attack and I dodge just fine. Remembering now that the #2 and #3 are both natural evasion tools, I rarely ever need to rely on using my dodge key except when running around with my greatsword (which is also aaaaaaamaaaaaaazzziiiiiing at dodging things).

Solandri.9640:

Keyce.8137:

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the SB ends up beating every weapon in damage, primarily due to the bleeding it can do. That you need to be flanking is a (minor) hinderance, but that depends on the player and the fights they go through.

If you can stack the bleeds, SB is the top damaging ranger weapon against single targets. If you can hit two targets, sword and greatsword do better. I suspect even axe does better against 2 targets.

The axe is good when your targets aren’t in a straight line, like you would need to make piercing shortbow arrows to be effective, but its damage is small in comparison and I find is really only useful as a reason to stay at a range with an offhand (like the warhorn). There is the chill to account for, as it’s a better slow than cripple, but the only way to get any benefit out of a mainhand axe’s #2 skill is to be in melee combat, where all the axes can hit and bleed the target before they get too spread out.

At that point you might as well use a sword, as it’s got a cripple built into its auto, it hits three targets, and grants a Might stack to your pet every third hit. It’s got two evasion moves; one of which has a leap finisher as a second attack, and the other one deals poison damage at the end. Oh, and it strikes faster than the greatsword.

You can run Power/Precision/Crit Damage, or Power/Precision/Toughness and get away with it just fine. Someone did some math in another thread and found that the shortbow beat the longbow’s… everything, in DPS, just off its basic attacks alone and without the bleeding.

The point of running a pow/prec/cond build is to maximize the damage that you are doing, at least in solo PvE and dungeons when not grouped with other people who stack strong bleeds as well. If you’re not trying to get “the most damage possible”, then just run with what you find the most fun, and build yourself around that.

Leo G.4501:

I think they based every single dungeon on the merits people would use the rez feature when people go down. The reason things were changes is because players are too selfish to police themselves in their use of WPs. It got so bad, people built entire strategies around dying and running back for no other reason but being so idiotically lazy to simply coordinate a plan with their group.

CoF paths 2&3 had some of the hardest defense events in the game (pre-nerf). Trying to protect Magg while he set up a bomb was almost impossible to overcome without waypointing constantly. Then in path 3, you have to capture and hold a point in front of a door, while constant silvers appear out of the ground and try to kill you.

Only once in path 3 during that “take & hold” event did my group manage to beat it without anyone needing to waypoint. It was a miracle and I am happy to see that it’s still possible to accomplish, post WP nerf. And no, my group is usually a PuG of 2-3 members. I often travel with at least one friend, but we don’t normally use characters that work off of each other well.

As much as I’d like to be forgiven for a mistake, I think that’s what the Downed State was designed for, not the waypoint system. And to prevent thieves from being too bursty, but that’s for another topic.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

antonello.8592:

Rangers are very useful in dungeons.

1) Healing Spring. Enough said. Solid healing, but unlike the Engi’s turret it’s invincible.

2) Solid DPS.

3) Pets. Useful in support or to distract a boss. If he just soaks up a few hits that your Warrior or Guardian doesn’t have to take, he’s done his job. Also each pet has various special abilities that can be used in support or in attack.

4) Range! Very important in PVE

1) The only thing we’ve got going for us.

2) No. Just no. Compare to any warrior or thief or mesmer or ele that is equally geared.

3) Clunky, stupid, weak pets that delay up to six seconds before even performing an ability attack. Not smart enough to avoid enemy attacks and too weak to survive even the most mediocre AoE.

4) Penalized for being forced up close by terrain and obstructed, range no longer matters with stupid class mechanics and underpowered weapons.

Yeah, I hate to be a debbie downer, but there’s optimism and then there’s lack of realism.

Trying to compare anything to a thief, warrior, or ele that isn’t a thief, warrior, or ele, is not going to make the cut. They’re the best classes out there right now, no contest. Rangers are not known for blowing through things like a glass cannon, even when they’re specced for it.

We deal solid DPS because it’s always consistent. As an example, a D/D thief is not going to have good DPS – it’s just there to run around the fight and backstab people whenever the Revealed debuff isn’t on him/her.

I’ll admit, our pets are weak and the AI is lackluster. But they’re supposed to be run by us, the master/player. I’ll never run a bird in any type of combat, because they die too fast. But I have to agree with the above poster. I find wolves/drakes to be fairly survivable (as they have similar if not the same stats), but the bears really shine when it comes to surviving. So in PvE, I run bears. Not the most effective damage, I know, but it guarantees that I’ll always be able to get the quickness off of swapping them.

If you have a problem about pets reacting slowly when swapping, then I recommend you run a melee build. My pets have no trouble acquiring a target when I am smashing that guy’s face in with the broad side of my greatsword. I can quickly get a pet’s F2 to activate right off the swap because their reactions are so much faster in melee than at a range.

I can’t argue the longbow. I find it to be lackluster in damage and utility and I strongly prefer melee combat over ranged to begin with. Easier to get those Healing Springs down on my melee buddies.

Solandri.9640:

Daemon.4295:

SB flat damage is roughly on par with LB flat damage at max range for a power crit build, even without taking into account bleeds and poison. At short range it obviously does far more damage. The main reason people slot LB is barrage, it’s a good enough reason for me!

Actually, SB’s autoattack damage without bleed is about 5% higher than LB’s autoattack damage from max range. And LB#2 is the same DPS as autoattack from max range, so SB’s autoattack beats that too. Spamming barrage as often as you can, LB barely beats out SB’s autoattack. Go grab the steady weapons in the Mists and test it yourself if you don’t believe me. Time to kill heavy golem (no traits, no amulet, only default ranger PvP armor):

SB autoattack: 348 sec (+ /- 3% error margin due to roundoff)
LB autoattack: 370 sec (+ /- 2% error margin due to roundoff)
LB #2 spam: 372 sec (have to be careful not to interrupt autoattack cast bar)
LB #5 spam: 334 sec

Add in bleed and it’s no contest. You can’t test bleed with the steady weapons because bleed’s damage is fixed while the steady weapons do much less damage than regular weapons. And since it’s fixed, bleed’s benefit will decrease with increasing power. But in the above minimal power/condition config with a regular PvP bow, SB bleed delivers about 75% the DPS of the physical attacks, so it’s a huge boost.

Pretty much the only reason to use LB is barrage for AOE or if you need to cripple. Hunter’s shot for vulnerability if you’re in a group (10% added to your damage is not worth giving up SB, 10% added to everyone’s is).

So what you’re telling us is, SB is better than LB in most cases. Or use LB’s vuln and switch to SB right afterwards. Seems like a very good reason to be a crit of condi build.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the SB ends up beating every weapon in damage, primarily due to the bleeding it can do. That you need to be flanking is a (minor) hinderance, but that depends on the player and the fights they go through.

I’ll still prefer to use the melee weapons, even if it means I am in a lot more danger than at a range. I’m not seeking to put out the most damage possible, I’m just looking for a way to entertain myself in combat.

Depends on the fight and the players you’re with, I guess. I try to revive people whenever I can – unless it’s easier to kill the boss (like the last final 10-30 seconds of combat).

I ran CM (Seraph) a little while ago, and all but one player fully died to the final boss. The lone guardian brought me back to life, then ran away with the boss while I picked up the rest of the team and tried to avoid the rampant AoE spam. Every person I picked up added to the list of revivers, and we eventually got the entire team back up and went on to steamroll the guy.

..Probably would have been easier to have run away and start anew, but we’d already done that once and the guardian probably didn’t want to have to deal with the entire fight all over again.

He (the boss) seriously hates rangers.

I don’t WvW on my ranger, and I personally am not a fan of the bows. SB is a good condition weapon, but I prefer flat damage. LB is really good for flat damage, but it really drops in strength when a target is running closer to your face.

Personally, I run S/D and GS as both my weapons for PvE and sPvP. I evade EVERYTHING.

DanH.5879:

imo, it seems someone needs his brain examined by a specialist.
what if i do not want to res certain persons ?

it is just me, or it takes ages to res someone from the “dead” state

Who you want to rez is up to you. As for the dead state… yes, it kind of takes either a few people to revive a fully “dead” player, or at least someone who is willing to dart in and out of a flood of AoEs or enemies. It is possible to pick up players in CoE P2 when running around Alpha’s room, screaming at the sheer number of AoEs trying to kill you! It just takes time.

While I will try to do ANTHING to revive a downed player, it’s a lot more difficult because I get scared that some kind of attack or spell is going to hit me before I can react, and we both end up dead. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

If I see a dead player in a dungeon, I’ll try to revive them quickly anyways. Yes, it takes longer, but I’ll never have to worry that the bar might empty on me because of a razzle-frazzle AoE attack. I can just pop in, start healing, and duck out before the effort ends up hurting me for it.

SynfulChaot.3169:

I find GL to be quite difficult, if not the most difficult creature in the game. The mechanics are supposed to be this hard. This encounter is supposed to require high amounts of skill.

Yes, this makes Arah too hard for some people. But with decent skill and a good group, you should still be able to complete it.

I don’t believe they should nerf GL as once you do learn the mechanics and have a good group, you should be able to complete it without too much issue. I also don’t think they should bring back res-rushing as it breaks the intended battle mechanics and forces some people who do know the encounters to die just to allow the others to use the unintended zerging mechanic that was being pushed in some instances.

There’s no reason for the explorer content to be as difficult as it is. For the time, effort, and skill it takes to complete that dungeon, I can run a different dungeon in less time and still get the same stats. And you can’t call it’s difficulty on unique skins, because every dungeon has unique skins.

Maybe, MAYBE if that dungeon had a better chance to drop a precursor (no matter how small it might be) or something, MAYBE it would be worth the difficulty. But right now it’s just a difficult dungeon for a reward no greater than I can find somewhere else.

…But I do want revenge on GL for the times he made me eat dirt, before any nerfs come. Wouldn’t be the same otherwise.

SynfulChaot.3169:

Necros can be a balanced part of a team if played right, as can any class.

If you are judging all parties against a warrior/mesmer group then all others will always fall short.

I’ve yet to come across that kind of a group. While it is certainly one to dream of running with some day, I’d prefer to run with my necromancer because professions within groups tends to vary. A lot. I can support those classes a lot better with the necromancer (I find; it may be different for others) just by running into melee combat, laying down Well of Darkness (AoE blind) and switching into Plague Form to add even MORE blinds onto that.

I’ve got both an 80 thief and 80 ranger, but right now I am having soooo much more fun with my ranger.

My ranger is purely a dodge/tanky set up, with the GS and S/D for weapons and two bears as pets. I find that other animals tend to die often in dungeons, despite my best efforts to swap them on cooldown for the quickness buff from the Beastmastery traits. If I or my allies are in need of some health, I lay down a Healing Spring to give them a small direct boost, regen, cure conditions on my friends, and have the Water combo field. I can use the GS and sword’s leap skills to add an AoE heal to my attacks, helping keep myself and other melee partners alive just that little bit longer.

My thief is a burst build (D/D), though its traits are defensive in nature. She jumps out of melee combat to stay alive, then stealths back in to deliver a hard backstab to the spine. Thanks to a couple traits (dodging returns 50% endurance used / healing skills grant vigor), I often feel like I have endless dodge capabilities, if for a few seconds.

A few people say that AoE stealth is great for speed running dungeons, but I generally enjoy fighting everything en route to the boss. I can’t discount stealth’s usefulness, though – if a teammate gets downed in a big melee, dropping a Shadow Refuge over them keeps them hidden from everything but AoE attacks and cleaves, while letting you revive them in complete safety. Shadow Refuge can reset a dungeon boss if everyone enters it, but the only cases I’ve seen that happen is where it’s been necessary to do so in order to revive dead allies and get to safety.

Ultimately I’d suggest you try both the thief and ranger out for yourself, and see which you like more. I can tell you all the awesome things about being one class or the other, but you might find fun in something I didn’t see or found to be trivial!

Good luck, and maybe I’ll see you in the World of – err, Guild Wars 2!