Guild Wars 2

what are you using for your pets?

jaguar’s f2 is used pre-emptively, Bears are a poor pvp choice but their tanky-ness allows for it’s usage. dogs aren’t that bad if used properly (i run hyena, and Fernhound and they work about 80% of the time i need them, which is basically right on switch +quickness)

never consider a pet to be a last second crutch. use it when you have a safety margin.

I main Ranger, i enjoy it (i have an ele and warrior on the side burner), and there are times where i wish where both had a pet since neither can do 2 simultaneous things at the same time (i can revive and still attack/contribute in combat).

imho, if you go ranger expect to not be the best in anything specialized, but you’ll have no real bad side. i like playing combat medic, and ranger seems to excel pretty well with it if you trait for it properly. you’ll most likely see bunker-trappers or beastmasters in spvp.

i’d also focus on crit play. you’ll be focusing primarily on poison (while an okay condition) shouldn’t be your only weapon for this. and give one of your weapons a sigil of rage, and perhaps a boon removal on the other.

but you’ll most likely run the wilderness survival tree since it’s already tied to toughness (to ensure a bit more survivability), and your condition damage will go up. so are you running s/d main? what are your pet’s and what is your secondary weapon set (don’t just go in without a ranged weapon).

pet’s will get the bonus of might every 3’rd auto-attack, and sword gives us some of the best burst possible on a ranger. i like to run duel dog for their knockdown (when opponent is knocked down i pop qz or switch pet for 2s of quickness and burst them down.

yep pretty much, it’s the dead pet bug that really ruins it (i don’t have any fear about going downed underwater…infact the plan is stay alive as long as possible to get max damage in and then face tank once pet skill comes out once i’m downed). but in any 1v1 situation you’re probably not gonna killthat ranger underwater.

there are 3 counters

a) kill the ranger before he becomes last stand aquaman
b) seperate the pet and ranger before he becomes last stand aquaman
c) 3 people dps

[img]http://i.imgur.com/3rP9c.jpg[/img]

i have a mix between cultural 3, cultural 1, and nightmare going. i’m thinking of getting TA gloves.

ranger quickness does come with a down side. rangers get it through 2 different ways:

• on pet swap (~30s cd, for 2s)
• on QZ (~40s, for 4s)

… i don’t run QZ so i focus on crit-play (to activate rune of rage), and pet swap. but on QZ you cannot heal for those 4 seconds. and for tanky-constant healing types, as myself, QZ makes us too glassy and you would have to pop out 2 utilites to make this effective (6s invulnerability). the only reason why Ranger can competitively keep up with dps is because of Quickness, so getting rid of it means making pet’s even easier to hit with and upgrading their survivability + increasing general ranger damage.

that being said i don’t need quickness to down (i have stability, invulnerability, etc).

if a single thousand blade quickness warrior or thief is screwing you out of having fun (e.g. you’re dying too fast) go towards a more survivability build and focus on reactionary,counter combat instead of guns blazing all the time. these are glass cannons.

if you notice person A is a glass cannon screw the bunker, kill the glass cannon. it’s 20x easier to kill a gc then a well built bunker.

KirinDave.6451:

(the Stallion Who Kites the World builds).

…maybe we should have gotten a sheep priestess to corrupt these builds while they were still in the womb…

that being said, i play on t3. i’m a pretty decent roamer, and i once lead a gorilla campaign with 4 lvl 30’s (me being the only level 80) on TC’s side of EB for a good 1hour before we were caught up by a CD zerg (held off really well as well).

in WvWvW map awareness and knowing all the tricks to turn the balance in your favor is crucial. i could solo cap unupgraded camps starting at level 50 and i got really really efficient at it (i can cap in about 2 minutes solo wise if everything works out perfectly).

i run shortbow/gs, or shortbow/sword-wh, but i also carry every other main hand ranger weapon and a horn. (in my bag is a sb,gs,lb,axe,sword,wh) that way i can alter my skills to help out with the situation.

don’t be ashamed for running away, you’re still contributing if you’re kiting 6 people around a borderlands for 30 minutes because those 6 people aren’t defending, roaming, or sieging.

NaturalPortman.9562:

I avoid capricorn so whatever happens to underwater healing is cool with me lol.

in W3 i stood outside CD left most spawn on FA borderland tanking 4 people under water. i ended up downing 2 people dying. ranger’s are basically aquaman, a good enough super hero on ground, with OP last stand.

…i don’t know man, it’s because people were like “ranger…pfff…hahaha”, now it’s “atleast it’s not a thief”.

it’s good where it is right now, what is OP is underwater downed healing. we’re better tanks dying then standing. heal needs to be slightly modified, it’s a bit too strong as it is right now.

i think as it stands rangers in pvp meta are the finishers and combat medics. because of quickness and access to stability/invulnerability.

i would love some game modes like TF2.

pushing carts, ctf, and assault type modes.

push cart:

• escort a dolyk but a dolyk is invicible. if enemy is witihn range it doesn’t move. must be clear.

CTF:

• kind of like 2 fort.

Assault:

• red team must defend for 5 minutes each point captured adds 2 minutes on timer. if timer runs out red team wins, if all 5 points are captured then blue team wins.

axe seems to be tied closely to crit and condition.

you should probably go:

xx/2x/30/xx/x5

Sharpened edges, Honed Axes, [personal preference for adept W.S], offhand training, empathic bond

• Mighty Swap/Commanding Voice
• Trapper’s Expertise

depends if you want to go trapper or beast master. i prefer trapper because of combo fields, but bm is possible.

ranger has a lot of CC’s and probably the most reliable access to quickness, this basically means insta-revives and insta downs. i’ve teamed extremely well with thieves where i become the target and the thieves deal the burst. i then just pop a wolf-howl, pop a quickness if they are down and we’re good to go again.

Iavra.8510:

Remember that, if you die, any number of opponents may rally und win the fight due to this. But you may always kill dolyaks, capture camps (can still be done with enough people), start a sneak-attack or simply stand at garrison watergate to report to your commander about incoming golemrushes.

or man a siege equipment and watch as 40 unsupported golems die due to a boiling pot.

but i recommend joining W3 around the same level you get your elite skill. until then work on pve .

Italyguy.4128:

My wish is that they add a crossbow weapon. The auto attack is a chain of 3 attacks, first attack is 1/2 second long and does damage, second attack is 1/2 long and gives 1 second of fury, third attack is 1 second long and shoots two arrows that pierce. 1000 range.

1. Skill (Lead Arrow) 1/2 cast time. Causes 2 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds and weakness for 5 seconds. 10 sec CD. 1000 range.

1. Skill (Ice Drake Shot) Instant. Causes a chill that pulses every other second for 6 seconds. 15 sec CD. 1200 range.

1. Skill (Dead Eye) 3 second cast time. The longer you hold the button down the more damage the shot does. Release at 1 second shoots 2 arrows, at 2 seconds 3 arrows, at 3 seconds 4 arrows. Cripples for 3 seconds. 20 sec cd. 1500 range.

1. Skill (Hide!) 2 second cast time. You blend yourself and nearby allies in a flurry of leaves for 3 seconds, causing all attacks to miss. 30 sec CD. 600 range.

Man that would be so cool

• skill 2: is a bit strong for a 10 second cool down (weakness + confusion) which are arguably some of the best conditions in this game. pick one or the other.
• skill 3: crossbows basically work like rifles, i don’t know if you want this to be a spray attack or another circle-type shot
• skill 4: i’m fine with this. if an enemy let’s you stand kneeled for 3 seconds without doing anything and allows themselves to get hit by this, they deserve to.
• skill 5: is this invisibility? or is this blind?

…i feel down state is essential. i’m a much better tank downed then i am alive while under water.

on a serious note, downed state allows me to take out glass cannon thieves who are just plain bad. if they get lucky and back stab→hs me and don’t cloak more than once after i use howl and my interrupt then they deserve to face the dirt throwing struggle while my pet heals me.

…i love to have a whale… huge underwater pet with stupidly high hp and toughness but pitiful slow attack power.

f2 → revive downed
-=-=-

land: griffon, raptor, bunny (swiftness and quickness on f2, low hp, low attack).

this is a nice change (coming from a ranger who’s only ever run ranger)… all the FoTM rangers who never played ranger before are horrible so it’s still a free-ish kill.

still a fan of troll ungent regardless. shorter cool down and you can’t get rid of the boon with the highest straight up healing we have.

empathic bond just allows us to free up our utilities for more traps or survival skills.

" I found myself alone trying to get from one side of the map to the other when suddenly a lvl 80 enemy character came rushing at me."

…what’s your server? i did that to like 10 different lowbies alone today…at least it isn’t a party of thieves gank.

" to move anywhere alone without being overpowered by just one other person. Im not new to Guild Wars, I played the first one and have owned the second one since before it came out, and I really had high hopes for WvW but I will no longer play it if something isn’t changed. It makes it very unfair for anyone lower than lvl 80 to enjoy what seemed like an awesome style of PvP."

you should try zerging until your 30 or so. in WvWvW i wouldn’t bother roaming until you’re atleast lvl 30-40 (this is coming from a solo roamer from day 1). there is power in numbers. if a single person is killing you and is patrolling an area stay away if he/she killed you multiple times. simple as that. the problem is that you’re level 17, you don’t have full access to your utilities, and gear difference is huge (while stats really aren’t).

“here’s really no opportunity for 1v1 unless you get lucky and are fighting someone who’s also traveling alone and is in the same lvl region as you are, but I feel the chances of that are slim”

what server are you on? i find plenty of small groups trying to raid the back. very few people 1v1, and if you do it’s pretty fun.

" Even being defensive (dodging) helps little against anyone higher lvl then you are. Taking away the gear based PvP system would, in all, make WvW much more enjoyable, or even setting lvl brackets would be great. I know that this is a “World vs World” and you should be able to show off your strengths and ability’s to your opponent, but being a low lvl in WvW gives you no chance against that person. They should make WvW either strictly for lvl 80 players, or add some sort of way where a lvl 17 character could have a chance."

the entire game’s gear treadmill is very very very very short. sneezing makes you earn karma and exp. and high end gear sells for 1-6g for things that don’t necessarily look nice but function.

yep…for a class that’s supposed to enjoy the mobilility of a thief, a lot of their channel skills root you in place for full effect…

…i might be an spvp only player (mainly discouraged because no one wants a ranger in tpvp). but i always put combo fields down (from traps, i go troll ungent which is a 8.5k heal over time -for my build), and i always melee burst in a trap.

even if i’m the only one using it, i’ll take extra damage where i can.

…well it’s specced to basically evade on 2 and 3… and has more leaps on 1.2, and 1.3…

use it how ever you wish, but i see the sword as a burst weapon (it’s burst is better than short bows, + might on pet). it’s also painfully easy to stick onto a target once you’ve hit them. more times then not i use this weapon defensively (2 offer an evade jump back wards, just simply move the camera in a complete 180 and deselect your opponent and you fly back)…but the weapon is finicky, i’ve only seen a few rangers who could master the sword so it’s not an every-man’s weapon.

the great sword has a great feel to it.

using exotic knights gear with a mix of rubys, Chrysocola Orbs, and Emerald Orbs (2.8k armor, 2.7k-2.9k attack, 20k hp). it’s defensive characteristics allow you to pull away and then block as your waiting for your heal to charge. it doesn’t do a lot of damage, but i use it to get closer to running opponents (3->5->2) for a finisher, or switch to shortbow because you are now within range (5->4->2/1->2/1)

sometimes i use sword/wh and gs to just travel, and your mobility sky rockets, with a 3 leap combo and swiftness.

…tbh… depends. in a zerg i feel useless (as a ranger). i like to solo-cap and and kill dolyks while the zergs are facing each other. taking camps is still 5 points for you and 5 points less for them.

…why don’t you guys carry spare weapons? i alwayse carry 1 of everything …

anyway…

litterally take a greatsword and sword and place a combo field where you’re standing and hit it till it’s gone…

Euler.3259:

Yea, until this game manages to get the rewards on events right, I’m just doing the ‘get the achievement, then play something rewarding’ thing. Everything in this game is so incomprehensibly out of reach I don’t even want to try. Sure the journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step. But why is it a 1000 miles before I get anything?

because, why does everything ever have to be about instant gratification? you feel better after working really hard to obtain something you want. plus this is how anet makes money… people using real money to buy fake money to buy another type of fake money.

Durzlla.6295:

Engis have one of the strongest downs out there… They can interrupt someone in PvP 3 times, and the 3 skill kittening launches everyone near you and does a ton of damage…

ranger could effectively interrupt someone 5 times (been able to pull of this chain only once though)

…e.g. you interrupt, dog 1 knock downs, switch to wolf (with quickness) howl, wolf knock down, you interrupt again… engi-down tbh, is really easy to counter. so number of interrupts doesn’t make a down state OP… most of the time for engi’s and warriors you can counter their interrupt by first standing directly behind your melee pet.

the only issue is under water, i tank better downed underwater then i am standing. and since UW downed ranger basically works like thief shortbow 1.

i’m a big fan of serpent strike and swoop.

my silvari looks fine tbh…

http://imgur.com/g45AS

…not taking into account bleeding on crits, spike traps, great sword 2, and axe 2… a trait which apples sharpening stone when at 75% hp, sharpening stone…

also burning from torch or fire trap, water combo field, ice combo field, and 3 weapons which deal poison damage, and a poison trap.

Blazinflames.8415:

They really need to fix Swoop. It should do more damage then maul but it doesn’t. Instead it does the same damage as crippling throw which it shouldn’t. Since the Swoop skill consists out of pure damage and doesn’t provide any condition or boon it should be our highest damaging greatsword skill just as the tooltip describes.

it’s also a leap finisher. if you play trap ranger it’s basically an easy combo field and fire aura.

hey i wouldn’t mind you rallying off of my pet if i could rally off of thieves, hounds of balthazar, elementals, etc.

i don’t mind maul. use it after you hit 5 and they are stunned or while they are on the ground after they are knocked back from 4. i can use it once every 5 seconds and does about an extra 1k in bleed damage for me. i usually crit for 1-2k using it so it’s an attack that does 1.5-3k in damage (on my build).

it add’s a bit of damage, and since i’m playing tanky-type ranger who basically fight’s on top of traps more condition damage isn’t bad.

> I just want to use a bow, and have tons of mobility.

then pick a bow then take an axe and warhorn for mobility.

i’m going with 20k hp, 3k armor about 2.8k attack power (800 or so condition). if i’m not culled i can solo camps, be a pain in the kitten for solo-moving reinforcements and roam pretty well. at most i’m angry at thieves and their extra stealth times, but i can usually hold my own forcing him to run away or win out on the ground.

if you consider taking hyena’s, wolves, or any dog really… you get a whole bunch of CC, traps help, etc. and if you’re built tanky enough people will aim for the ranger first meaning they’re not hitting your DPS who is wrecking show. i consider myself a skirmisher, and i constantly switch from bow the great sword, both for defense and offensive purposes.

i once dueled a d/d elementalist basically everywhere in the EB jumping puzzle. we literally couldn’t kill each other and s/he got tired after 15 minutes of fighting it out.

duel dogs: fern hound, wolf

i run this almost all the time, except on bosses where i’ll probably switch to ranged pets.

> Why are you using a greatsword?

for wvwvw, i like it because it increases survivability more so than a a longbow. but i carry different weapons on me should certain weapons be better for certain situations (sword, gs, longbow, wh, axe, sb).

> Why are you using traps with no trap specs?

even though i’m not OP (in this case opening poster) i still use traps because of combo fields and more/different condition damage, and i actually traited into pet speed by 30% so that it’s slightly harder for enemies to kite the pet. i prefer the trap lay down where i’m standing because i like to stand in the center of it to get 100% combo-field/melee capabilities. i really dislike having to click anywhere and simple just use mouse and keyboard for most of my controls.

@ OP

the only thing i don’t like about your build is the considerable lack of “oh kitten” buttons other than greatsword 4

short bow doesn’t need to be touched.

sword has a design flaw because it is animation base. so you either fix the animation issue (arguably harder) or add another evade function to the kick or pounce option (coding is already there, as per GS), or improve the evade functions offered by the sword. damage is fine because it attacks pretty fast.

greatsword just needs a 10% incremental damage (per patch) over all until we find a nice medium, you don’t want to buff-roid everything. the way it functions is really nice, and i’m slowly starting to embrace it.

longbow can be fixed with a damage increase and arrow speed increase. if we first increase the the arrow speed we can then reliably assess the weapon if it’s dealing sufficient damage or not. if it’s still below par you then increase auto attack damage, and reduce the cool downs of the alternative skills (making them more spammable, yet retaining same damage output).

off hand axe needs to have a whirlwind defence that can move

after this, we need 1-2 sure fire ways of achieving burst, or increasing the effectiveness of our sustained damage (option 2 is closer to ranger’s current design, making a comparable option to take instead of necromancers).

pet wise:

fix drakes, so that they can use the rest of their skills through regular AI. increase pet survivability over all, and increase the area effect of the attack (area where hit is registered). i’m fine with reducing pet damage if the weapon effects are taken, i use them for CC and howls anyway.

fix our bugged traits.

actually no…it’s nice to have if your an active roamer in WvWvW. why is this?

ranger no longer has to carry a warhorn to be fast. he doesn’t need to have swiftness to keep up with the group and can match basic thief running speed. the on use ability though should be much better (1 hit to do more damage is useless, imho, and should probably be used to add might and swiftness on pet). since the the ranger no longer has to carry a warhorn, this means he can use a different off hand which will actually increase the base-damage output (warhorn has the lowest). so you could use a torch or a dagger with a sword or axe.

the game isn’t 100% PvP all the time. signet of the hunt is useless in PvP. but in larger maps the 25% speed bonus makes travel easier, and doesn’t pigeon hold rangers into perma-swiftness.

this actually opens up much more build option for wPvE and WvW

etrigan.4213:

I can only speak from my perspective on FA, but I leveled 27 to 80 in less than two weeks with sporadic playing. Probably could have been a LOT faster if I dedicated more time to it. Anything that levels you faster really shouldn’t be in the game. You get XP for defending also….

I have to wonder if you guys are just running around not taking or defending anything.

FA is notoriously aggressive, so it’s easy to level if you follow GODS, ULTD, PRO, etc.

Shortbow is a great dueling-control weapon for single point damage.

2 is basically the only AoE of the weapon. but it’s pretty weak and is best used as a scatter shot shotgun, 3 is a dodge, 4 is to slow, and 5 is to stun. the design of the weapon is that it’s mainly supposed to do damage with auto-attack (which i’m perfectly fine with). imho the shortbow was nerfed because it was too good of a weapon for bots.

as it is right now though, the shortbow isn’t overpowered and i like how it’s used. only issue is projectile speed, but that’s also an issue with longbows.

…it would be incredibly easy to build might as a sword (3’rd hit builds might of pet by 1)+rampage as one (both gain might with each attack of the pet). put on a rune of rage, qz and pet swaps (for a maximum of 10 secs of swiftness)…

wish it did this…

honestly at this point, the ranger can be considered OP in wPvE. that being said, do what you want to do. pretty much everything is viable at this point.

i find this skill extremely easy to deal with. but since i only play ranger rampage as one it’s just too good to give up (i play solo-roamer). but it’s not that bad. i enjoy it

i actually think having 5-6 roaming squads about 4 people each. but let them be in constant communication with each other so that they can reinforce another squad.
as a ninja roamer you want to avoid crossed swords on the map. that alerts where you are and where the zerg is. in a border lands if your a roamer yourself, you can predict where they are going to be (which is gonna be the camp) and then take em out yourself. most pugs don’t report enemy movements of less than 5 people after they die.

a good roamer should be able to solo a camp and capture in less then 3.5 minutes. no all the safe jump spots. and should be able to act as a stealth crew. the zerg is there to draw attention. you are there to deny resources, and take out reinforcements.

rangers have pretty good condition removals if you trait. Empathic bond basically removes all conditions every 10 seconds, and signet of renewal works aswell. learn how to run away and be constantly aware and book it before it even gets bad.

can i see you play against condition+survivability thieves? alond with good d/d elementalists those are the only ones i can’t really 1v1

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-FF-W-BF0Fky-s2JEV-0;9k2A;2TT44;151959A;4LRl7-oG7UwG9dZH96Fe

here’s what i use. it’s finicky. you use sword defensively and for burst. and bow for basically everything else. it’s also a very chaotic build because of the constant switches you’ll be doing. having a good apm and keeping a cool mind (knowing when to burst, constant awareness) and you’ll do fairly successfull. never tested it out in tourney play, but it’s the build i use for pvp, pve, and wvwvw.

for sword you have to turn off auto-target and auto attack. get really good at timing your dodges.

i main ranger. it has only been about a month that after a couple duels, you can really see the weakness in mesmers if you can distance yourself and set up.

in general, take out the duelist and the beserker first. after that try and find the real mesmer. once you do keep your eye on that mesmer and don’t lose sight of him. if you lose sight of him fall back, test each clone and when you find the real one unload your conditions on him.

firstly, get familiar with all the weapons. get proficient a close range weapon because sometimes you’ll feel useless because your ranged weapons won’t hit.

i generally run Shortbow & Sword/Warhorn for pvp, and pve. but i carry an axe and long bow just in case the situation calls for it. i mainly just do WvW and PvP now mainly because dungeons aren’t my thing.

What i understand though is that pure-dps, glass cannons are suffering as a whole on FoTM. so speck up into some hp gear, and/or healing gear.

you can substitute a drop in dps with increase burst by putting 5 pts into beast mastery.

your weapon choice should also aid your pets. and your pets should aid your weapon choice.

since i run duel dogs, i’m maximizing knockdowns and control. using a rune of rage and quickness on switch you can chain 5-6 seconds of quickness. also, depending on your party you may want to increase your condition damage since you’re running shortbow.

depends on how you want to play, tbh.

EDIT:

by current allocations is:

0/30/30/5/5

i run with knights gear (power, toughness, pricision), with carrion and valkarie trinkets. i don’t really use sigils but full orbs.

i think my dmg stat is around 3k, my armor is at 2.8k, my hp is just 19.5k