Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRBHhx+0JBvQHvYDvgtgAXLYpQwcadzuaXe2d7Gef6CRrAQKqyavLC-j1RBQBA4kA4Rlfa7JAcQ1fun+hXqEcf7PEA4AY+yX+yHM/8zP/8z32zP/8zP/8zP/8zXKALWpB-w

WvW zerg build, balanced vitality and toughness with a good number of invulnerabilities. without piercing i’ll pass on bows in zergs and use the axe bounce instead. still debating on using GS or not for the cleave in zergs.

Viper SB+A/T is the highest dps for ranger at the moment, unless something changes that’ll probably remain the best build but gear stats may change to the new griever stats. Still not sure if SoulBeast will be worth slotting in for raids or staying with pure ranger for condi builds.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tested the soulbeast
hit stuff with greatsword.
Golem died.

Tried to workout rotation
clunky as kitten.
Camping beastform best
but boring.

Played holosmith
LOL
New engineer main.

Holo was absolutely the most fun I had on any new spec and the dps is amazing

played ranger in Beta
So happy with ranger
ranger nerfed

played ranger even though it was weak
it got nerfed

anet made mistakes and ranger got strong
it got nerfed

HoT came
ranger got nerfed

PoF is coming, ranger is decent
notice the pattern?

Soulbeast mode, for lack of a better term, doesn’t look like its something that is intended to be camped. What I mean is you may start a fight with your pet out and dps’ing, swap to SB to use skills and swap back out or maintain it for an attack chain. The same way we swap weapons might be the better way to look at how to use this. SB provides more play options, not to just sit in it, similar to what weaver will be for ele.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBMhZ6keVomVsVFwZFgoVsYIYMBg1VDAerGWLrOtuYXPA-TxxGQBVS5Xk0HIRlgTS9nhs/A5eCAA4UAEAAB49cP37eA/8n/8n/8n9zf+zf+zfWKA/mZB-e

+40% outgoing healing effectiveness while still having a decent crit chance and power. The one major drawback would be a lack of ferocity but some items could be switched to zerk or marauder, sacrificing healing but gaining crit damage. what do you think?

Fluffball.8307:

I kind of get the impression the soulbeast is a DPS spec, so it may be relevant. I’m just theorycrafting here, we’ll have to see what happens.

My gut feeling is you’ll want a viper-esque amulet for PvP with soulbeast.

Edit: I’m specifically thinking as should be obvious from the quote, my main mode of WvW roaming. But who knows. Could be all sorts of fun options.

Don’t forget about the Griever stats being added, they’ll likely be adding a Griever amulet as well with the patch. There certainly could be more combos being added as well.

for sure we’ll have to wait for SoulBeast to see if it’s worth the fuss but it seems like in everything other than WvW ranger got a buff or remained unchanged. If Soulbeast is what I would like to think it is, WvW builds will need to change but won’t see a big nerf either.

as with anything we should wait and see before freaking out but the current changes definitely aren’t bad.

haven’t posted in here for a while but the amount of negativity is deafening. I get that some people’s builds got changed with this since the use of some utilities changed but all in all this was a great patch. Power ranger got buffed, condi ranger didn’t get nerfed and healing druid didn’t get nerfed.

Condi druid was in the top group in regards to dps already. power ranger should move up the pve chart and druid is still druid, no one got anything that would take our place.

pvp/wvw builds are going to have to change but that should have been obvious when they mentioned trait/skill changes to force people to choose more defensive stats if they want to be defensive and vice versa. I extended a 5v15 in wvw last night on my druid without being in healing gear. my group still lost but we took out most of the enemy group.

Rangers have always had to adapt to anets changes, this is one of the few times those changes weren’t flat out nerfs and SoulBeast is going to be a further buff to all builds.

here’s an old post that is still mostly relevent, ferocity is a much bigger factor in dps than you think. go zerk or go viper, rangers don’t really need assassins but you can add a few pieces in to get crit above 75%

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ef4ch/ranger_stat_priority/

+1 what Sorin said, also if you’re using discord you can have everyone group for heals between phases etc

you don’t need ascended for raids, grab a set of exotic magi gear off the tp slap in some monk runes and your raid ready. Magi in fractals is useless and zealots is a huge dps loss compared to zerker. Eventually you can get additional ascended sets, I have ascended Magi, Zerker and Viper, but in the beginning ascended zerk( or viper) and exotic magi is the top choice.

I play Staff/LB when running with a group that knows what they’re doing. Since I tend to Pug more than anything else I spend most of my time in Staff/GS and I find it far superior to sw/d. personally, I don’t run SotW, it’s a crutch and as soon as it gets pulled out from under some people they’re going to fall down.

I don’t think they could increase attack speed and still keep the evade frames the same, you would end up evading everything by just using AA. i’d like a buff to GS damage but don’t see it happening. I use GS when i get a bad Pug group or in PVP for the evades and defensive skills. swoop, if timed properly, can be used to evade most attacks. couple that with a few AA evades and a block or daze and you’ve got yourself a kitten defensive weapon.

since the changes to AF generation why run Dolyak or SoTW? running a shoutbow build and appling regen to yourself and your pet or other players should also generate AF in the same way? or am i wrong?

I messed around with SoTW last night and it was fun paired with the WH and a few burst traits/skills. my cats where critting for 7-10k on players often and smokescale burst was a serious deterrent. After a bit they would just stop coming to my point or come in threes to kill me.

yup, nerf incoming in 3….2…

it’s not the signet, it’s WH

tested this after last patch when prepping a build and it’s only 4 sec as stated on tooltip, where did you get double that from?

I run t4 fractals regularly and raid occasionally. Full magi gear, or any healing power, isn’t really needed in fractals. Just slot the Druid traitline and you can provide enough general healing to get through most any encounter.

at the moment viper condi ranger/druid far outshines power ranger in terms of dps, especially in t4 fractals. kitten you can go either way but it pays to learn the encounter as condi since you’re playing closer to the boss.

power can certainly be used in t4 fractals and marauder is a good set, you don’t need to reach for 100 crit chance, druid doesn’t make as good a use of crits as some other classes. pure zerk is better but marauder can help you stay alive as you learn te encounters. once you’re ready stat switch your gear to zerk and have fun killing everything that moves.

LB/staff would be better than SB/staff. SB is mainly a condition damage weapon so you want to pair it with another condi weapon on swap like Axe or Sword. If you want to run LB that can be paired with Sword/X or staff for utility.

power dps output on SB in pve is very low.

mode is important:
raid – full magi healer
fractals/dungeons – full viper condi or full zerk
open world pve – have fun do whatever
WvW – zerk backliner, commander shoutbow

these are just the meta builds, feel free to make some adjustments but the gear is the best you can use in each game mode.

edit: take it from someone who sunk a lot of gold into making zealots gear day 1, it’s NOT worth it!! even in t4 fractals full magi healing is overkill, healer is a raid only build.

Dagger has it’s uses, it just doesn’t fit into a pure power or condi build because there are better choices. That’s kind of how it should be though, you have the optimal choice (axe or torch) and you have your personal choice.

in regards to OP, empatchic bond has been almost useless since the condi creep started. When someone can dump 12 conditions on you in a matter of seconds it doesn’t matter if EB can cleanse 3 every 10s. EB should be moved i agree but it also needs to be improved. SoR and EB are mostly passive cleanses, we don’t have a trait that lets us keep signet passives after use, if the pet dies or is too far they don’t work so imo these both need some changes to make them more active.

WK shold be increased to remove 3 condi’s and it would be good as well, the cooldown on all but 2 survival skills is well over 20s traited. that leaves us little to no condi cleanse and its been this way for a long time, rangers have learned to make do with what we have but more would be nice. If you go Druid you get one additional cleanse but it also gimps your dps.

SB is fine, it would be nice if they reverted the attack speed nerf but really it’s ok as is

baseline fortifying bond has been a request that’s been floated in the ranger forums for a long time, devs haven’t listened yet :shrug:

working on that collection now that i’m playing condi in PvE, I gave my Kudzu to my Warrior

anduriell.6280:

Prophet.1584:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8fjEqQDLWyCusAVLGMEq/Au9anDgRv073NYbBA-TJBFABAcRAI4JAIeZg23fAA

This is what i’ve been running, hybrid SB + S/T, you have :
2 stun breaks
an invuln
4 condi clears
and enough damage to hold your own

I like using a hybrid style build and think it works similar to Justines condi LB, most players build to defend against one or the other and not both.

No condi damage? Shortbow is very lacklustre in pure power dps and lack the utility from the sword.

this isn’t a burst build but it deals a good amount of damage over time between the bleeds and the power dps of the SB. I’ve gotten accustomed to the utility of SB#3, SB#5 and I like hitting a close range SB#2 for lots of poison stacks. You could certainly run sw/x on swap.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8fjEqQDLWyCusAVLGMEq/Au9anDgRv073NYbBA-TJBFABAcRAI4JAIeZg23fAA

This is what i’ve been running, hybrid SB + S/T, you have :
2 stun breaks
an invuln
4 condi clears
and enough damage to hold your own

I like using a hybrid style build and think it works similar to Justines condi LB, most players build to defend against one or the other and not both.

Mobs melt when you run viper gear, ranger stacks a ton of burns and it’s mostly aoe damage. I can also quickly stack up to 20 bleeds on a target and maintain them. If you have even 1 condi druid in the party to Epidemic it makes a world of difference.

Archon.6480:

GussJr.1643:

Archon.6480:

I really don’t think they do much. I’ve been trying to make Druid work without healing, but it’s not going well. You need over 1000 healing for Druid to be viable. I don’t see it working anyway.

Druid only works with Menders amulet. All else fail. They removed all build diversity last patch.

Edit: Sage might work with Druid runes. Trying that now.

I had more fun with my Druid when I got out of the mindset that druid was only for healing. I have so much fun on my bleed Druid now, but will be sticking with the amulet and rune I currently use.

I have no intentions of going back to a pure heal build.

I didn’t say Druid is only for healing. I said it only works with healing power. It’s weak without it. Good players will have advantage on other classes or same class. At least, I cannot find a competitive build that has little to no healing power.

If you have one, I would like to try it, in all seriousness.

Condi druid/ranger is very strong right now and requires 0 healing power. I run ranger in pvp Skirm/WS/BM and rarely have trouble with group fights or 1v1’s

turn off auto-attack when fighting mesmer heavy teams.

save your dodges for the shatters, that’s the biggest damage and also what layers on the condi’s

don’t spam your cleanses

build doesn’t matter as much as some say. mesmers don’t have a ton of hp so either a condi based or power build will eventually down them. imho it’s more about timing your defenses that what offensive strategy you choose.

rabid or rampagers would work if you’re not going into raids for the time being. also corruption sigils aren’t very good for anything outside of dungeons or open world pve because you don’t maintain stacks as long because you don’t have a lot of trash kills.

Metabattle builds are “optimal” once you understand the reason behind the trait, stat and sigil choices you can make changes to the build to suit your own playstyle.

condition duration is very important and that’s why the nightmare/trapper mix gives you the best dps. trapper runes are easily craftable and just collect your nightmare runes over time.

I haven’t seen anyone run the numbers yet but even with poison master poison ticks don’t equal burn ticks and ranger can put out far more burning and bleeding stacks than poison. It’s nice to have but my opinion based on playing a lot of condi ranger would be that nightmare/trapper would still be the winner. Also, for PvE maxing duration tends to result in more dps than maxing condition damage.

tbh it sounds like some of you guys don’t play Druid or Ranger very much.

Sword issues where fixed, it no longer makes you “hop around”

according to the latest dps rankings zerker druid is at or near 25k dps, condi druid is far higher at 35k dps and is The highest condi dps in game.

In PvP the mender’s build is still strong, as is marauder’s if you’re not going to rely on healing. You’re not really a bunker but no class is anymore now that the bunker amulets have been pulled out of pvp.

in PvE duration can provide more dps than pure condition damage even with the added 5%. I’d still run with the nightmare/trapper over berserkers, I need to get 1 more nightmare rune myself to complete my set.

take a look at quantifies dps charts. Power druid can still be used but condi ranger dps is far higher than both power and condi druid. I don’t think you’ll be kicked from groups or anything but there’s like a 10 or 12k difference in dps between power and condi.

THanks for compiling all the data and builds.

It’s not hard to believe pure ranger condi out dps’s druid but I never would have thought it would be that big of a difference. just slotting in druid is a 10k dps loss for personal dps lol. I wonder if the dps boost to the other classes makes up for that loss of personal dps?

vipers is still good

jcbroe.4329:

So, I’ve seen some extreme statements around different outlets about how this patch “killed zerk/condi Druid in Raids.”

This is false. Actually, if you were playing those builds, and even for a single moment had the thought that your purpose was healing, and that this patch “ruined” your build; then you’ve been doing it wrong.

You aren’t there for healing in those builds, you are there for DPS buffs, and the rotation you use is to spend the LEAST amount of time in CF while squeezing out the MOST DPS buffs for your party/group that you possible can.

As a matter of fact, with the speedrun groups starting to believe that they will need to pick up another mesmer in their composition and run 5-5 comps since 4-4-2 was severely neutered by the Mesmer/Revenant nerfs, there is a possibility that in those groups zerk/condi Druid will become even more invaluable since those groups will be looking to squeeze out as much DPS as what gets lost from having to drop the Revenant for another Mesmer in kitten mirror comp.

Moving on from PvE to PvP:
These changes hurt. Not survivability or anything like that, but what they do is hurt the ability to support through CF because you end up feeling like you have to save CF for use as a stunbreaker, but much more importantly as a condi clear. These condi builds have RIDICULOUS output on such a low cooldown that before, where with all the CF generating sources you could just match the condi output and survive enough to try to run away, now, you have to blow cooldowns on cooldowns to avoid the constant cancer inbetween CF usage.

Why this hurts? It hurts our team role. Without being able to use CF as liberally as before and having to save entering form entirely for self utility, the ability to use it supportively has to basically be combined with running another support on the team to support you if you try to support to liberally.

It finally makes the state of the game frustrating enough to want to complain about as a Druid player. The amount of condi output, especially on focused targets, is absurd. And as usual, it seems like ANet hears the community with this complaint, and then nerfs the defense against the most consistently complained about aspect of PvP. Like, it’s to the degree where Revs aren’t even “muscling out” other power builds, it’s that classes own condi cancer builds are 1000x stronger than their power builds could hope to be.

Anyhow, mini rant aside, I haven’t personally noticed a drop in my ability to win fights, but in PvP specifically, there has absolutely been a drop in my ability to reliably support my team, and I think it’s time ANet addresses it indirectly, starting with how condi imbalance is running rampant in their game.

all this exactly! to really get the benefit of these changes you need to invest very heavily in healing power for PvE and there is no set that has healing power primary with damaging stats. Magi and Clerics are both basically tank gear, HP tank or toughness tank. mixing a dps set with one of these sets still leaves you at or near our old no investment healing level. I believe the cut off point was found to be about 1250 Healing power to heal the same as the previous 0 healing power build. If anet wanted to make this change fine, whatever, but at least put out a set that can be useful for us in a fight.

The changes really hurt in PvP, 1v1 and some 2v1’s are still winnable for me but survivability is way down and group fights are getting tougher to survive. There are too many condi’s floating around with too many high dps power builds and you just can’t protect yourself against it all.

business as usual from anet. thanks for all changes!

not a lot of people must raid much, or have several sets of ascended gear. This patch was devestating to healing. In order to hit the break even of 1250HP you would need full zealots gear plus runes and food. That only gets you to the point you where at in full zerk gear prior to this!

there are 0 gear sets that allow us to get appropriate healing numbers as well as deal 20% of our damage. Zerk healing needed a nerf but without putting out a stat set that like pow/hp + prec/fer we’re either going to be really short on healing or far too high. and pvp….that’s gonna be a whole other s show

HeadCrowned.6834:

If they do so, that might mean that they need to add more amulets with healing power.

^ This, they also need to look at bringing more stat combinations to PvE. other than zealots, which brings no ferocity, there are no other good dps options for a healing power druid. If left this way we’ll have to go back to mix n matching gear to get the right stat combo’s to both deal damage and bring healing.

rather than transmuting your gear you can mix in assassin’s trinkets

This is a great build, i’ve been playing around with something very similar and rarely lose a fight when running on my Druid. I will say though that this can be tough in solo q even though Druid can sustain itself pretty well. A good rev or thief makes this really great.

Jerus.4350:

Kam.4092:

Jerus.4350:

Condi ranger should be perfectly fine in fractals, it’s solid respectable damage. People who want healing in fractals need to stop. It’s a crutch and it wasn’t there pre-HoT when fractals were more challenging, you don’t need it now.

The Meta ruins this though, and ruins classes. I hate being expected to heal.

Tell them to go kitten themselves and get good.

Fluffball.8307:

Dungeon running is now basically Play-How-You-Want. It was never hard, but now it’s never slow because of the absolutely absurd power creep rush. No one cares what you run. So that’s an option if you can’t find a fractal group that doesn’t expect you to heal, which sounds stupid to me. I don’t play fractals anymore but I can’t imagine healing has become the PUG culture??

I love running CoE when bored, and Arah still pretends to keep you involved in the combat. Lupi is still probably the second most complicated fight in PvE after the 3 headed wurm, excluding raids and fractals.

No one would think twice about running fractals without a druid. The problem is when these people see a ranger they just assume “ok I don’t have to manage my own health, the ranger is going to heal me”. Which is pretty kitten stupid in PUG groups. The worst is when they rage, everyone knows who’s fault it is when someone dies and it’s not that random PUG that happened to play a profession that might have been able to save them.

And yeah, Arah is a blast, but finding a group that actually fights Lupi and doesn’t just cheat seems to be pretty hard.

what he said people need to l2p rangers can’t carry all of them

jcbroe.4329:

The game isn’t balanced around 1v1s, and mechanically, WvW is an imbalanced gamemode meant for min/maxers to highlight their min/maxing ability with broken stat combinations and food combinations in whichever manner they see fit.

/thread

Move along people.

he wins….

F I R S T.3976:

Prophet.1584:

Jim Hunter.6821:

F I R S T.3976:

Been a pow ranger since day 1 using longbow(melee on switch). When fractal came out, made it all the way to fractal 34. I stopped playing for almost 2 years.

decided to play again 2 months ago and still rolled a new and improved power build ranger(with druid spec). Made it all the way to fractal 92 and was able to finish my legendary back. This was all done as a pugger w/o help from friend or guildmates

A player once told me while inside t4 fractal: number 1 rule! either you run a zerk build or gtfo.

I understood his point since most players would rather aim towards time and effeciency.
Overall, power build is still decent if not great imho.

Was that before you quit or after you came back? It used to be that condi’s were capped and zerk was the only way to go, but that changed a while ago.

Exactly right, condi’s are king in high fractals because mobs have such high health and toughness it’s a pain to down them with power builds. It can be done, it’s just a lot slower.

Condi ranger feels so… Very limited in terms of access to condition imo. Would rather roll necro for the condi but thats me. I have nothing against condi ranger since ive never tried 1.

necro can stack a lot of bleeds but really shines when other classes are present. epidemic is a huge boost to necro condi dps. ranger can stack a few burns but also applies quite a few bleeds and poison. I know at one time condi ranger was second highest condi dps, with this last patch we’ve dropped a notch or two i think but no ones tested yet.

Jim Hunter.6821:

F I R S T.3976:

Been a pow ranger since day 1 using longbow(melee on switch). When fractal came out, made it all the way to fractal 34. I stopped playing for almost 2 years.

decided to play again 2 months ago and still rolled a new and improved power build ranger(with druid spec). Made it all the way to fractal 92 and was able to finish my legendary back. This was all done as a pugger w/o help from friend or guildmates

A player once told me while inside t4 fractal: number 1 rule! either you run a zerk build or gtfo.

I understood his point since most players would rather aim towards time and effeciency.
Overall, power build is still decent if not great imho.

Was that before you quit or after you came back? It used to be that condi’s were capped and zerk was the only way to go, but that changed a while ago.

Exactly right, condi’s are king in high fractals because mobs have such high health and toughness it’s a pain to down them with power builds. It can be done, it’s just a lot slower.

Axe 1 used to have a bleed and it was trash. weapon effect conditions from the ranger, all of them, are very short duration with no trait to increase duration or provide more stacks of anything but bleeds. Anet should consider bringing down burning and buffing bleeds and poison a bit.

poison master and sharpened edges would then provide rangers with a niche bleed/poison build. poison master and refined toxins should be merged with the condi buff from ambidexterity. OH recharge reduction can be added to another trait or create a new trait.

people get too wrapped up in “builds” and being “meta”, the builds on metabattle are a blueprint that you can follow or edit at your discretion. I tweak builds to use weapons that fit my playstyle, it makes me more successful than slapping on a cookie cutter build and trying to force myself to play another way.

The only area where you really need to min/max a build is for raids because your lack of personal efficiency can wreck the entire 10 man raid team.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_S/A_LB_Power

staff > longbow

at one time anet had given pets a buff and the salt in the pvp forums was overflowing. all the hate about having AI killing players etc, etc. basically everyone in PvP wants to be able to completely ignore the pet.

If that’s what anet wants, fine, but give the damage back to the ranger.

Zenith.7301:

Prophet.1584:

all this math and time dedicated to answering a question that could be answered extremely easily.

In a SOLO situation your DPS DOES NOT MATTER.

if you’re truly solo and getting no buffs from allies, i.e. soloing dungeons or personal story, then druid can excel due to it’s high survivability. you have to be able to remain alive in order to solo dungeons. the ele and thief builds that max out dps do so at the cost of survivability.

On the other hand if you’re really asking about a max dps build that can be used in almost all the other content then the condi druid is decent but not the best when compared to other classes. ele’s and thieves are the kings of power damage and necro is the king of condi. all other classes fall off from those three. when it comes to GROUP dps druid is the lowest but is brought for the buffs only they bring, Not DPS.

Condi engineer does more DPS single target than a condi necro by far, as does condi ranger.

Condi necro is a thing because of the amount of utility they bring by comparison. Condi necro manipulates condi cleanses for group well, corrupts boons on autoattack, and epidemic is among the strongest AoE tools next to Meteor Shower in the game.

Against a single target there’s no reason to bring a condi necro over a condi engineer, ever. Their DPS is middling if they can’t game Epidemics.

In fact, if DPS is all that matters in a group setting, condi engineer completely eclipses the other condi builds by a large margin.

You must not PvE much, condi engineer has one of the most complex and difficult to learn rotations. If that rotation is not done perfectly everytime DPS falls off quickly. Condi ranger is no where near as complex but if Quickdraw bonfires are not done correctly DPS falls off very quickly. Necro can kitten on a stick and get max condi dps through epedemic and using horrors to apply massive amounts of bleeding. Sure in perfectly optimal conditions condi engi outDPS’s all other condi classes but i’ve only seen a few people play engi that well.

There’s a real reason why condi engi stopped being in demand as much for raids

edit: I will also add that for Rangers to max out condi DPS we have to play a completely selfish build that does nothing for the team. There is very little content in this game that is meant to be played completely solo therefore playing a build that gimps your team is not desired. When you build a condi or power Druid you’re not putting out nearly as much personal dps but buffing the entire team.