Guild Wars 2

Also, I know a lot of people hate the beserker build and tbh anywhere but wvw it pretty much sucks, but it does have its place and the fact that so little rangers are using the build is cool because it really catches people by surprise when they get hit by maul for 10k or hit by a 3-4k auto longbow attack at 1500 range.

Beserker build myself, here are the stats…. a little more in depth with the information on this link:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Glass-Cannon-Beserker-Ranger/first#post2286862

Basically, with quickness, #4,#3,#2 on longbow, you can do some serious damage. I think it is the build you are looking for… definitely not good survivability, does great though for dishing out damage at a distance

Here are the current stats:

Marksmanship (Opening Strike=5 stacks vulnerability for 5 seconds)

Adept: Opening Strike Cause-vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat.
Master: Alpha Training-Pets have Opening Strike.
Grandmaster: Precise Strike-Opening strike always critical hits.

That being said, here is the issue with opening strike imo… First off, to put 25 into Marksmanship just for a shot that gives 5 stacks of vulnerability and crits is crazy. My build is beserker, I have 50+ crit chance, as well as using a longbow. A large portion of people traiting that much into marksmanship are using longbows and power builds. This being said, my first shot already has a 50/50 chance of criting, so the 100%chance is nothing terribly exciting for a build of that type with 25 points in marksmanship. Also, using a longbow, I can already use #3 to put vulnerability on my target. All of this leads to opening strike being lackluster.

All of the above is my experience with my build, but the biggest issue is that it is a one shot then you’re out sort of thing. Even traiting it to regain it with each kill (which, is a grandmaster trait) is sort of crazy because it just isn’t good enough to choose that over signet of beastmastery or another trait. If you are in wvw zerging, opening strike is pretty much a kitten, if you’re against a guardian it is kitten, there are just too many instances where it is just a horrible skill to be traiting so many points for…. and I mean heck, aside from Maul and Path of Scars, we don’t have a huge damage skill that would even work with the 100% crit.

TLDR: Opening Strike is not good :S

Well, anyways, I’ll just say what I think should be done to change it.

Adept: Opening Strike- First shot adds vulnerability to target, always crits.
Master: Recurrence- Opening Strike has a fifteen second cooldown.
Grandmaster: Eye of the Archer- Opening Strike deals 10% more damage.

This would make Opening Strike the skill it should be, also they should take Alpha Training and turn it into a trait and get rid of Remorseless all together.

Just my two cents

Sarision, you are probably correct… everything else is worse so bear all of the sudden is not that bad. I personally use duel dogs for control skills, does wonders with a longbow build

I think axe/axe works great actually. #3 to chill the opponent, then #4 to pull them in and use #5 with quickness for some good damage. What is a really good combo is #4 with the axe, then #5 with greatsword followed by maul.

Yeah, I have full zerker with ascended and bloodlust and I have never hit a 6k longbow shot in wvw. maybe 5.5k against a kitten but against a level 80 player? Would be impressed to see the numbers.

Bear is honestly not too bad, I switch out a bear sometimes when solo’ing a camp in wvw… the bear can tank like crazy, I can stay back and buff myself and use barrage to rain down on the targets. Also, bear has great condition removal and weakness.

So I am not sure why bear/longbow is such a bad combo… Having a pet that can aggro the npcs and keep them in one spot long enough to lay down barrage is a pretty good deal imo

1) Re-work spirits completely
2) Improve longbow
3) More weapon/armor skins that look good on rangers :P

Keep longbow away from conditions, let it stay a power bow as it is now… that being said:

1) Base damage below 1000, does not change. Any shot from distance above 1000 though has 25% extra damage than the normal shot, OR applies weakness with each shot.
2) No more rapid fire, instead a charge shot (4 second animation) which does high damage.
3) Add an interrupt in it, give the ranger swiftness as well, reduce the time of swiftness to half what it was.
4) Knocks back still, increased damage.
5) Barrage is 12 second CD, instead of multiple shots it is five arcing arrows that deal high damage with 3 seconds of cripple. Can shoot while moving.

Also, please please change up opening strike, it has so much potential but atm is really not that good. Add 150% damage to it, allow it to give might to pet, whatever it is I think it needs to be worked on. For people traiting in marksmanship it is really important, but 30 trait points for pew and then nothing is a little disappointing.

RaO I use with a beserker build, you can all imagine how that works amazing with that build type. Fury, Might, and Stability… not much more you can ask for lol

Gotta say, I rolled a guardian after maxing out my ranger with stats, and tbh I just gotta say wow what a great class. Guardians are so much better mechanic wise, every weapon feels like it has its own uses and not having a pet that aggros everything is great. Shouts are instant, sigils aren’t too bad, and the weapons are great.

If they are seriously changing up the longbow build to help power builds then that in general is enough to make me happy. As a beserker build myself, would be amazing to get a sniper kill shot skill added in!

would be nice to have spirits with active skills such as “every 10 seconds xxx spirit immobilizes foes in 600 radius” with a 5 person limit of course. Imagine that, rangers would all of the sudden become the masters of control

Just wondering for anyone with pics of their stats or knowledge of it in general, what is the highest power/prec/crit stats you have seen on a ranger?

Duel dogs! You can get two cripples, two knockdowns, a fear, and an immobilize… can’t beat that if you are a power/crit based build trying to keep your opponent’s movement minimized

Well, I’m not sure if spirits have been properly addressed yet so I think that is something that needs to be addressed.

I am also wondering, with the pet damage nerf, where that lost damage is going to be made up?

All I am saying is I played gw1 and the ranger was a bow class. When I bought gw2 I expected ranger (hey, same name as gw1 class) to be similar: a class that has a pet and is focused on a bow. Not to mention any sort of pre-release art about the ranger was always a ranger with a bow and a pet. To be honest this thread is one of those “suck it up guys, if you thought ranger was xxx before then you are wrong” rants. So sorry it is “very annoying” to hear that people who play as a ranger want a good bow class, it is just I (and many other people who bought the game) were all expecting the ranger to be a good bow class.

Yes, the typical “ranger” does not mean archer, but the guild wars ranger has always been an archer and was designed to continue to be an archer. Just go to Google images, type in “gw2 ranger” and look at the photos there. Every single one is a ranger with a bow.

Personally, I feel if we all just quit posting on forums and making videos and helping the gw2 community then and only then will they make a change in our favor. If you want to make a difference give Anet the silent treatment just stop posting on forums, stop purchasing gems, stop making videos of rangers and putting it on YouTube, etc etc…

I’ve tried it in AC dungeon only, does fine, then again it is AC which is extremely easy for a dungeon… tried CM too, was alright, the issue is when you start getting hit and you don’t have SoS done with cool down then you are going down unless you get away from the combat. I would probably switch dogs for bears in pve, let the bears take the damage while you attack from far away

Hi all, after the update with the pet nerf and the minor lb improvements I figured I would just show people this build if interested. No, it is not “practical” in many senses but it is really fun to melt people with the damage we can do. Ranger cannot hit as hard as a thief or a warrior, but we can still dish out some solid damage.

Weapons: Beserker LB (Bloodlust, I also have another bow with sigil of fire), Beserker GS(sigil of fire)

Armor/Trinkets: Beserker

Rune: Rune of Scholar

Traits: 30 (I,X,XI) 30 (I,X,XII) 0 10 (V) 0

Skills: Healing Spring, SoW, QZ, SoS, RaO

Pets: Duel Dogs (immob/fear, two knockdowns, cripple)

I use this build in wvw, I really enjoy it. Does great against thieves 1v1 (signet of stone does wonders, can down a thief with a rapid fire burst and the rapid fire follows the in stealth), as well as being amazing in zergs and in tower defending and camp capturing (send pet in, pop RaO and SoW use barrage, swap pet once their health is low). Of course it has nowhere near the survivability of other builds, don’t expect to 1vX groups since this build does not work for that. SoS with 6 seconds of no damage is really what makes the build viable in the first place. This is pretty much a one trick pony build I understand, but for some of you who are wanting some real power coming from your ranger and not your pet this may be what you are looking for. Using the LB #3,4,2 combo you can down any thief easily, and put a serious dent in any other class as well. Hope this helps anyone!

I’ve been beserker ranger the whole time, looking for some LB love. Suggestion for those wtih beserker armor or testing it out… duel dogs for control, lb main, duel axe off hand… fun build.

each server should have their own unique bl, would play in nicely with the different variation of match ups now

I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more lb builds after this update

With a beserker build I use 6 seconds of no damage is absolutely huge. Also, this is an amazing defense fro thieves. They try and burst you, pop this, then use knockback on lb and rapid fire and they’re down.

Would love to see a boost in weapon base damage, or at least lb damage in exchange for the pet nerf, that would be amazing…

They never should have changed Guard, that was the one skill that made us unique in wvw. We could take out siege on walls, as well as cause disruptions and revive members. I know the reviving was an issue, but they should have just made it so a pet cannot “revive” an ally while in “guard” mode and the problem would be solved. That is a much easier fix than completely ruining the skill.

It would be cool if there was a dungeon added that had a legendary pet in it for rangers to find, or some sort of long quest added in game that led to a legendary pet.

I am fine with the time to cast for the lb at distances greater than 1000 as long as it can actually hit a target at the speed it is going. The issue for me is as we get close to targets the longbow does less damage, but is still attacking at the same speed, which makes it feel really weak at close ranges.

Also, for Indoles, as I have played with a build like this before, I can try my best to explain.

Most players when 1v1 will charge at you, if you are against a melee player then send a pet out (duel dogs preferably) use #3 on axe which will chill opponent, allowing dog to knockdown opponent. Use #4 on axe while opponent is downed, and progress close to opponent while switching to dog #2. Use #3 on axe and switch to gs, your secondary dog should be able to land his second knockdown knocking your opponent down again. Use #3 to swoop to opponent, use #5 hilt bash and assuming you have moment of clarity trait use #2 then for a huge maul attack. That should do it for a lot of players from my experience.

Of course this is in an ideal situation, but the main point in my experience is to get good control of the opponent and dish out damage at a close distance.

I play as a beserker build, full exotics/ascended etc etc the whole deal… I use lb/gs but in the past have used lb/axe/axe.

From my perspective, I do not like axe/axe as a main choice of weapon because it just does not have the range that a beserker ranger desperately relies on to be effective. I am not sure about you, but as far as 1v1 goes having the initial range advantage and being able to get off the first hit is huge with a beserker build, and having to close the gap to 900 range when one can stay as far as 1500 range has issues (our vit/tough is really low to begin with). The base attack of an axe is mediocre unless there is more than one target around, the #2 and #3 are very low damage, #4 is an amazing burst so I understand why it is useful and #5 is just too annoying in a 1v1 fight because it immobilizes you and only is really effective assuming you are fighting a ranged opponent.

Also, a similar concept applies with zergs, just too hard to get that close to the action without taking serious damage that a beserker ranger just cannot take. An example would be asking yourself if you could do more damage to a zerg with barrage at 1500 range or an axe at 900 range, for me at least barrage easily outdoes it and keeps me at a great distance away from most people.

I am not bashing the build, I am just making observations from how I have played with axe/axe in wvw. I LOVE having duel axes because I personally think it looks cool and I enjoy the skills, but as far as practicability goes it just cannot replace the longbow (although that has it’s own flaws).

What server are you on? Send me an email in game if you want I would love to see your play style, always nice to talk about the beserker ranger build

For those people who trait 30 in marksmanship signet of beast master unleashes a whole new level of power on those signets. Signet of Wild gives 125% power and stability (which can stack on top of the stability given with rao), Signet of Stone gives 6 seconds of invulnerability. That is pretty big in wvw if I do say so myself, especially if you’re among the few who use a beserker build still. I do not know much about in pve but in wvw signets are almost a must have (even just signet of hunt for the speed boost).

For the original question, I would LOVE to see a power signet. Maybe passive effect is plus 100 power, and then the active effect is what Signet of Wild’s active effect is, and SoW could get a new activated effect like 10 seconds of regen applied to you and your pet or something along those lines. Or the power signet could have an active effect which grants quickness, but in general I think a power signet would be awesome.

Quickness got a serious nerf two patches ago, which ended the beserker ranger for a lot of players. Now a days for wvw regen builds (Faux’s RRR Build) or BM builds are becoming pretty popular.

I still use lb beserker times, a lot less bursty than before, but with signets being buffed in the last patch, having a signet build is pretty good(signet cd times reduced, increased passive abilities). Also, although quickness was nerfed, it has 2 seconds added to it so you can still combos (lb 4,3,2) within the duration of that skill still. Signet of beastmaster is huge, that with reduced signet times one can use the active of signet of wild every 48 seconds, and the active of signet of stone frequently too.

In my opinion with wvw canines are far superior than drakes. Duel canine gives you two knockdowns, two cripple attacks, as well as fear/immobilize/chill. For 1v1 battles that is absolutely huge, and the f2 attacks for canines are not too bad with larger battles either. Just my two cents, I can completely understand why others argue drakes are better though, for my build/play style canines do the trick for me.

Maybe to make the dagger a bit different from the shortbow you could change the skills to something like this:
#1: first hit cripples, second hit gives endurance regen, third hit is a longer cast time but a fairly big damage dealer.
#2: a condition attack, possibly poison, with fair damage
#3: I like your idea of a woodpecker attack, possibly 3 swift attacks that increase in damage or have a base damage.

It is nice to hear that story about the five rangers, I have always wanted to see that on a larger scale, i.e. fifteen rangers all dropping traps as a zerg tries to rush into lords room on hills keep.
I also agree with the negative stigma about rangers, it is sad to see people always assuming we are the worst class. At the same time that makes it that much sweeter when an enemy whispers you to tell you he is impressed by your skills

I could see that possibly, d/d trap ranger with duel wolves for immobilize/fear/knockdown/cripple. I don’t think it will happen though honestly, staff ranger on the other hand is something I would not be surprised to see in the future.

I agree that apian pets will probably not be put into the game :P on the other hand one pet I would love to see is a crocodile like gw1, could fit in the drake category (uses chomp, tail swipe) and could have the f2 be a pure damage attack.

10k on guard in wvw using full beserker build, have hit higher but this is the only screenshot I have of the combat screen with maul. This is no food also, not full use of the sigil of bloodlust, as well as not much might on my character, so 10k is definitely possible for beserkers. Notice I used signet of wild though, which gives a big damage buff to maul.

— but yes, this build is pure glass cannon (only power/crit/crit damage) with minor vitality

I think Indoles summed it up pretty well in the end, as nice as the lower cd’s and increased effects are for signets/skills, at the end of the day the old beserker ranger style was built around less time for the opponent to react and the old qz was a big hit to us. But the updates from this patch will probably make some old rangers pull out their beserker builds for another go

I agree ranger (aside from thief) is probably one of the best roaming classes for wvw, great swiftness boosts, gs is amazing with swoop, and the ranger is great for 1v1 skirmishes.

Definitely agree with the longbow, that weapon is very slow, especially at 1500 range when it is most important. OH axe I feel will not get a buff anytime soon since it was recently buffed as well as great sword. I could see them fixing the sword issues in the next update and the longbow though! LB is way due some changes. Personally I would want a “sniper” style shot to replace the rapid fire, some sort of single high damage shot with a long cast time

For my build personally these tweaks added up and I suspect will have a fairly large impact. Aside from elite skill, my other three regularly used skills had some sort of beneficial change to them, and one weapon skill (longbow #4 traited) was fixed which does make a difference for me.

Did they make changes to weapons like I wanted them to? No. Overall though, compared to the last update, it looks like a step in the right direction on paper for me.

Jw, what build are you running and what do you want to see fixed mainly? I enjoy beserker build, so the signet changes, qz time increase, lr time decrease, as well as canine f2 decreases is way better than what last update was for me :P

I think it is a great day for most beast-master builds running out there in wvw, the health increases on the pets is very significant. To add to that, I have a feeling drakes are going to be used a whole lot more in wvw now (health almost doubled). As far as my beserker build goes, every skill I used after the update (LR, SOTW, SOS) were buffed. I might actually swap out LR for QZ after the additional 1 second update.

In the long run, my beserker build relied on being able to use qz to unleash my skills in as short a period as possible. After the last update, I could no longer even perform lb #4,3,2, combo before QZ would run out. The reduction in signet times were great, and I think the beserker lb ranger in zergs will be more powerful than ever, I am just interested in seeing if a roaming ranger can be successful again.

I agree with the statement by Daemon, the ideal of getting as much damage in as short of a time as possible is important with longbow skills which have have fairly long animation times (rapid fire, barrage). using qz and then using a pet swap one could previously unleash longbow skills 2-5 in that short time period, which is a massive amount of damage.

My old berserker build

Faux’s “RRR” build, on the forum’s if you want to look it up, lol nice same here pretty much. Hopefully there is going to be something nice in this update! Personally, I’m hoping for they fix the appearance of the red and blue jellyfish, just so they look a little bit more distinguishable

I have tried it and you are right it does give a better balance, I think what I am going to do is see where the update puts different builds and go from there. The regen build I tried out is not too bad.

Since my original post I bought full another exotic build running a regen-style build, and have been playing around with it a bit. Although I like how much longer I can last in a fight, and I definitely have better fights, I like the numbers I put up/the play style I have with my beserker build better. Guess it just comes down to preference at the end!

For me personally, it was not the damage that quickness gave me that was important (although the damage reduction, whatever amount it may be, has hurt my build), rather the reduced animation times of skills that helped me out a lot. #4 longbow skill comes to mind, as well as barrage and rapid fire.

You have to understand if I am running a beserker build I am going to be using all of my skills within the first 5 seconds of the fight for max damage, so if I don’t put a serious dent in my opponent then all of the sudden I have long cool downs on my non-weapon skills, paired with low vitality/toughness which a beserker build gives up for damage.

For me at least, qz+lb #4,3, then 2 would just about down my opponents (especially thieves, ele’s, necro’s), so not having that burst damage which my entire build relied on is pretty big. Of course that style of build has serious set backs like being a dead kitten when the burst is over with but I personally enjoyed that play style so for me it had a pretty big impact.

That being said, I should probably check out thief or something especially if I enjoy burst damage so much

Yeah Lyndis if those are the stats then that is pretty depressing to see in numbers. I agree that sadly the ranger bezerker build is dead too, was playing with another ranger on the forum last night who was running a healing-style build, and realized just how pathetic my build was after the update. Where I used to be able to handle almost any class, now I have a hard time with a lot more people, not sure if other classes have made better builds or my build is really that obsolete.

Guess I am just holding onto the past though, personally I have a small hope that there will be something for the longbow in the upcoming update but who knows.