Guild Wars 2

I think the issue is the people who don’t PvP because they don’t like conquest won’t play stronghold because they still have to play conquest. There’s a chance that stronghold can bring new players into PvP that don’t like it at the moment.

I don’t think it’s the right way to go about it. I consider bringing in new players more important than dividing what’s already there. You can always combine them at a later point, but splitting them later will miss the opportunity to get people into stronghold.

I know I say this in every other post but…

Sword AA #3 needs to be fixed. There are plenty of projectiles in this game that can’t be reflected, and this melee attack should be one of them. There is no reason to eat half of your damage on a melee AA chain or even have it destroyed.

If I keep saying it, just MAYBE it will be fixed one day.

Moving Piercing Arrows from Marksmanship to Skirmishing is a great idea. Not only would it have better synergy with Longbow in a 6/5/3/0/0 build (or any for that matter), but it would also work better with shortbow. It wouldn’t effect anyone using both Eagle Eye and Piercing Arrows either, as you could just trait 4/2/x/x/x instead of 6/x/x/x/x. It’s the same investment either way, and with the lack of Skirmishing traits it would be a great QoL buff.

As was said, even though it effects two weapons, both are hardly used in the same build. One is a power weapon and the other being a condition. Lowering it to an adept trait would be a non-issue.

Spotter, on the other hand, is fine where it is. It has it’s spot in the PvE meta where it is between Predator’s Onslaught and Steady Focus. Moving it to Skirmishing would unnecessarily change the meta where it has the most impact (in dungeon runs).

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

though most new rangers make the Fatal Mistake of using Rampage as one first.

I agree. It’s too great of an ace in the hole to waste on an opening burst. That’s one of a couple reasons I always run sword/warhorn as my secondary so I can apply some fury to myself instead of wasting RaO. The other of course being my preferred method of escape (LR > HS > ML).
——————

I really enjoy running full zerk but it really depends on the team’s composition and your positioning. I see so many longbow rangers trying to hold points and it’s just not effective in my opinion. There’s just too much damage to give up to build into sustain and you lose the viability of side casting with high damage.

More often than not, condi survival is the better choice in a solo environment. It’s more versatile and doesn’t rely on your team to hold the points.

I don’t have any trouble dealing with a downed ranger with a medizerk, must just be you Silhouette. Try stomping them instead of dps, they aren’t going anywhere with movement skills. Generally you want to dps a thief, elementalist or mesmer down while stomping both rangers and warriors. As for guardians, engineers and necromancers it doesn’t really matter which way you do it.

Try timing your blind on VoJ to stop both the ranger’s down #2 and wolf fear.

I find sword very effective in PvP, it’s the focus of my main build (in my sig). It’s fast, hits hard and all of the damage is loaded on AA instead of easily dodged bursts. I’ll set it up with whichever weapon’s utility I’m looking for at the moment. Scepter is good all around but it’s hard not to take greatsword simply for Binding Blades that pulls thieves in stealth.

Camping sword in dungeons works fine. Again, secondary for whatever I’m looking for at the moment like hammer protection or greatsword cleave.

I’ll take hammer/staff in WvW though in zergs. That’s probably the one place I don’t use it in my build. Roaming on the other hand will have it.

Two things though. AA #2 needs a cripple and AA #3 should be unable to be reflected. Really sucks eating half your melee damage.

Darksyze, I’m going to give you some honest advice and I hope you take this to heart.

Making threads on the forums about mechanics that you deem to be “too easy” is a waste of your time. Why is that? First off, the devs simply don’t listen to the noise. They balance their game on their own and threads like this have no constructive feedback. Second, instead of of a thread demanding a nerf, your time would be much better spent by simply asking the ranger community how to deal with longbows. They’re pretty good guys and have given more advice than they should have to. Each profession has some mechanics that helps to deal with it, so start out by naming which one you’re playing and asking how YOU can get better.

Besides all that, it just gives you a bad image when you campaign for nerfs.

Dojo.1867:

Mainly talking about ranked PvP here. The more competitive you want to be the less creative you can be with your builds in my experience. :/

Your build looks fun but it wont work against people from TCG etc or just good players with meta builds in general.

I’ve been playing with a zerker melee ranger more and more lately and I’ve been having really good luck with it. Roaming WvW or in PvP, it’s pretty effective if played right. That build is missing a few things though that I think are pretty important, namely canine pets and offhand axe. Path of Scars works AMAZING with MoC and Maul. If you swap weapons after throwing the axe and cast Maul, by the time the player is pulled to you (hopefully being interrupted) your maul is coming down on them. Add SotW to that and you get some massive damage on Maul.

Mine looks like this.

The build has 2 stun breakers, good condition removal, evades and block, reflection/cleave best used on downed target, decent mobility with perma swiftness in combat and swoop/monarch’s leap, great CC (stun, pull, knockback, fear, 2 knockdowns and 2 immobilizes) and huge damage multipliers.

I suppose what would help it the most, like all ranger builds, would be access to boon stripping.
————————————————————————————————————————————

As for what I’d ask for, straight from the other thread, would be that Lightning Reflexes removes cripple and chill. Maybe a cooldown reduction on Sharpening Stone or add 5 stacks of might to it, as 45 second cooldown is quite a bit for 5 stacks of bleed.

If Toss Elixer B on Engineers is 3 stacks, all the more reason why SYG will be 5-6. It’s the staple skill to bunker guardians in both PvP and WvW and not so much for Engineers. I don’t think they devs would be so reckless to just destroy the foundation of support guardians.

I think the stacks are roughly going to translate from how many seconds there were to how many stacks there will be. Balanced Stance is an 8 second stability, so that’s 8 stacks. Throw Elixer B is 4 seconds so 3 stacks is close, slightly toned down. I don’t think SYG will be any less than 4 stacks, with 5 being most likely.

2 stacks would be a slap in the face though, and certainly a nail in the coffin.

My guess is that SYG will give allies 5 to 6 stacks of stability. I think that there will be a lot more guardians though with Rings/Lines of Warding as each pass over it takes a stack. I don’t think the guardian meta will change in the slightest.

Try preloading Sharpening Stone before a fight so it’s off timer early. You’ve got 30 seconds to use it on a 36 second cooldown. Helps you set up a quick burst for dropping their hp a bit and baiting out some early cleanses. Muddy Terrain > Stalker’s Strike > Splitblade/Sharpening Stone > Throw Torch is the rotation I use. With torment and geomancy sigils that will put on around 13 stacks of bleed, a stack of torment, burning, poison, cripple and vulnerability from Opening Strike. 6 conditions is enough to make some panic and blow some larger cleanses.

With Sharpening Stone off cooldown quickly, you’re set up for your main burst with Entangle (set it up with pet CC for guarantee hit) and Bonfire on your second rotation.

Sube Dai.8496:

Actually there was a period before sotf where lightening reflexes was a stunbreak, but didn’t remove immobilised. It was after they made immobilise a condition.

The skill was totally useless and no one was using it at all.

Indeed.

Shanks.2907:

I think for starters Lightning Reflexes should also remove cripple and chilled. Most similar skills do that already like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Rocket Boots. I don’t think it would be overloading the skill by bringing it up to similar standards. They had the chance once when they added an immobilize break but stopped short.

>.>

jcbroe.4329:

• Escapes. We have Lightning Reflexes and a Leap or 2. Without Survival of the Fittest, we can’t on demand cleanse any crippling conditions, and thieves, which are at the very least the bane of power builds (not exclusive to rangers, they hardcounter mesmers as well at top tier gameplay levels), and are inescapable with just the available options. Longer Range leaps, more predictable/reliable evades on our leaps, a stealth that doesn’t require a target or a combo field, and turning guard into a 2 part teleport/shadowstep skill (moves pet to location, you swap locations with your pet) would all be a fantastic additions to make ranger equally competitive with other classes mobility, as well as making swiftness on weaponswap work outside of combat (it would still have its internal cooldown).

I find that Lightning Reflexes > Hornet Sting > Monarch’s Leap is pretty effective as an escape on it’s own right now. Maybe it’s because I come from a guardian background where escapes are taboo, but it seems to work well in both power and condition builds. It would certainly be more effective if it cleared the cripple and chill though.

I like how you worked a teleport into Guard. Instead of granting stealth to the pet though, I’d like to see the ranger get 3 seconds of stealth. I never understood why the pet was stealthed with protection to guard something. It would certainly need a higher cooldown though if that were the case. A 12s teleport might be a bit much.

I find staff works best when together with another staff meditation guardian. You can both put down the symbol for swiftness, use empower and then just run train over whatever. I use sword/f for my bulk of damage but really it can be whatever you are most comfortable with. Staff does pretty good damage too when two guardians are spamming it with 24 stacks of might.

Your build has the bulk of what a condi survival ranger needs. It may be lacking a couple things, such as high poison application and mobility, but it also is really strong at putting bleeds out.

I consider shortbow more of a bleed maintenance weapon than a condi burst. I’ve never been a fan of it myself, without sword you lose a lot of mobility. Dagger compliments axe mainhand well with poison on evade with a matching poison evade on sw/t. I suppose that all comes down to preference though.

For extra cover I use torment sigils for a perma stack doing ~100 damage/s. Earth sigil may be redundant with all the applications you already have. Also, I choose traveler runes over krait for the constant 25% movement speed with a bit of condition duration across all conditions instead of just bleeds. I put a lot of value into moving through the map quickly and Hornet Sting on sword helps even more.

You may gain more using Poison Master over Keen Edge with your build. Higher poison damage and application on pet swap will certainly help your build with only one poison application.

I’ve got my build in my sig, but it’s customized to my liking and may not be for everyone. My favorite thing about condi survival is how it can be tweaked for each player’s preferences and still be quite effective.

Sube Dai.8496:

Shanks.2907:

I think for starters Lightning Reflexes should also remove cripple and chilled. Most similar skills do that already like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Rocket Boots. I don’t think it would be overloading the skill by bringing it up to similar standards. They had the chance once when they added an immobilize break but stopped short.

As for the leap finisher on LR, I agree that it could be too much for a skill already on everyone’s bar. Besides though, a blast finisher makes so much more sense with the crack of lightning. Ranger is seriously lacking on blast finishers.

I like the skill Sharpening Stone, but I feel it could use a cooldown reduction. 5 bleeds every 45 seconds is kind of meh beyond combining them with a splitblade. Drop it down to 35-30 seconds or maybe add 5 stacks of might to it.

What traps need are better traits centered around them. The duration boost should be baseline, while bringing the 20% cooldown down to adept. A new grandmaster that adds either unique boons to each trap or extra conditions to further their potency. A shame there’s already trapper runes that grant stealth on use because that would be a fantastic grandmaster trait.

Shouts are just in a bad place, to be frank. I had a whole paragraph written out on them and decided that they are just a lost cause.

How would that help at all?

Rangers don’t have a problem with DPS, they have a problem with support and mobility.

I merely laid out a few suggestions, no need to be so stiff.

If you think that those suggestions would have zero positive effect on the ranger, well then that’s just fine. Thanks for your feedback.

Sigmoid.7082:

Shanks.2907:

I think for starters Lightning Reflexes should also remove cripple and chilled. Most similar skills do that already like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Rocket Boots. I don’t think it would be overloading the skill by bringing it up to similar standards. They had the chance once when they added an immobilize break but stopped short.

The reason it doesn’t is because of survival of the fittest. If the skill removed movement impairing conditions as well the skill as a whole would remove a potential total of 5 conditions from you (6 if it breaks fear) . 3(4) are the start of the skill and 2 at the end.

We already have ample condi removal.

The skill has been like that since before SotF came out last April, so I don’t think that’s a valid reason to why the skill was like that in the first place. Not all builds that use Lightning Reflexes use SotF either, especially power builds. I don’t see an issue with clearing movement impairing conditions +2 when using SotF. It’s a grandmaster trait, you shouldn’t have to use it for the skill to do what similar skills do.

I’m in the middle myself. I’ve already adapted to using the sword and use it in both condition and power builds, but I understand the issue and would not be opposed to a solution.

IMO, the problem is that there are two roots. The leap on third chain would be easier to deal with for the greater majority if it wasn’t chained from another root. I think a fair middle ground would be changing the second AA to a slash that doesn’t root. Maybe compensate by dropping the first AA down to .25s cast time to make a more fluid slash > slash > pounce.

I think for starters Lightning Reflexes should also remove cripple and chilled. Most similar skills do that already like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Rocket Boots. I don’t think it would be overloading the skill by bringing it up to similar standards. They had the chance once when they added an immobilize break but stopped short.

As for the leap finisher on LR, I agree that it could be too much for a skill already on everyone’s bar. Besides though, a blast finisher makes so much more sense with the crack of lightning. Ranger is seriously lacking on blast finishers.

I like the skill Sharpening Stone, but I feel it could use a cooldown reduction. 5 bleeds every 45 seconds is kind of meh beyond combining them with a splitblade. Drop it down to 35-30 seconds or maybe add 5 stacks of might to it.

What traps need are better traits centered around them. The duration boost should be baseline, while bringing the 20% cooldown down to adept. A new grandmaster that adds either unique boons to each trap or extra conditions to further their potency. A shame there’s already trapper runes that grant stealth on use because that would be a fantastic grandmaster trait.

Shouts are just in a bad place, to be frank. I had a whole paragraph written out on them and decided that they are just a lost cause.

The only bits we’ve seen of resistance that I know of were from the revenant in the points of interest video. That class seems to have it worked into it’s mechanics with low duration (2s) and high applications. I don’t think that’s how it’s going to translate to other classes. I haven’t heard anything about any invuln skills getting resistance (even though it would make sense to not die during a Renewed Focus to conditions).

I don’t see any issues with it being attached to Save Yourselves with the current boon durations. 5s for PvP and 10s in WvW/PvE. Really, what better guardian skill to put it on? Shouts are aimed for defensive builds more than any other skill type. I think it would really give a hand to bunkers that are slipping out of competitive play.

A thief worth their salt will have the situational awareness to notice a Rapid Fire incoming when stealthing up. Yes, you’ve got to blow your dodges on it but it shouldn’t be a surprise any more that Rapid Fire will continue to channel. In fact, before the duration was cut the RF would track for even longer! Try stealthing up when it’s on cooldown or while out of LoS.

Anyways, this is literally the last thing about Rapid Fire that will be nerfed. That would require diving into all channeled skills which is seriously unlikely. Channeled skills tracking in stealth is working as intended, it is not a bug and does not need fixing.

Anet doesn’t balance by going back on something they previously buffed, they cut from somewhere else. If anything, SotW (25% damage boost) would be a candidate for the chopping block. That’s just how they do things, to save themselves some face while still dealing with it in a roundabout way.

5 months later, Rapid Fire remains despite the QQ. It’s not going anywhere infinity, your time would be better spent learning how to counter it than lobbying for nerfs in topics the devs don’t read. Perhaps you should play it yourself and see how people kill you (and they will, despite how OP you are) to get an idea of what is missing in your play.

I’d take one out of the 3 in virtues and throw it into honor. If you’re already 4 into it for Empowering Might, you might as well get the damage modifier. So something like a 2/5/0/5/2. You lose Absolute Resolution doing that so your party may suffer, but going 3 into virtues is a waste of a point.

As for the strength runes, you put them on an ascended set right? You can always make a warrior to run phalanx strength on for great might sharing. There’s nothing wrong with having a few classes. I never put strength runes on my guardian though, not worth the investment imo for what’s gained.

Hammer is great for keeping pugs alive too. Also gives you more blast finishers to work with your strength runes.

Yeah, once a d/p thief stealths up and closes the gap, a LB ranger is pretty much screwed. Not easy to keep up in melee wearing glass unless you deal quite a bit of damage first with LB.

The one thing I love about them though is that they pretty much announce when they’re about to go stealth using Black Powder. Just start a Rapid Fire before they can HS and if they’re below 50% hp they should go down. There’s a lot of thieves that don’t have the situational awareness to check when they go in stealth if they’re being targeted by a channel. Even if they dodge out of it taking minimal damage, it prevents them from getting multiple stealth applications on the Black Powder.

I’d say in the end, a d/p thief has the advantage 1v1 especially if it closes the gap. However, in a team fight I think the longbow ranger has the advantage especially if you’re able to free cast from the side.

Yeah it’s counter intuitive. You’re supposed to actively swap pets, why have a trait that discourages good play? I’d say ~50% of the pet traits are either not well thought out or bugged. Malicious Training? Yeah that might be a good trait if it actually increased the durations. I still see it being suggested or in people’s builds though.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

you detarget by clicking off the target using the mouse , and retarget using mouse , its much quicker and less random than using the tab to regain the correct target.

I took tab off of target keybinding so I could force myself to do that a long while back. It’s worth it though for sure. Like any changes to how you play, it takes a bit to get use to, but OP will surely see the benefits.

Auto target itself is just a lazy way to play. You often go after the wrong targets, and when you want to use a movement skill you end up charging the enemy. All for the sake of not having to click on the target you want to engage.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

How about toning down the damage a bit but turning it into a channeled beam attack that hits say 3 ? times a second.

This would allow them to make it more or less instantly hit the target and as a plus it would hit all enemies between you and your target (think mesmer greatsword)

This would also have the added benefit of making the scepter rather good for condition builds in Spvp in addition to the raw “physical” damage builds.

Out of all the suggestions I’ve heard for scepter AA, I think I might like that the most. Something like elementalist air scepter AA right? What if each hit put a stack of vulnerability down? Or at least one at the end of the channel if it’s only a second long. Guardians don’t have any vuln AA like a lot of classes have.

Killing it with the +1s from me though Ragnar.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

pandas.9450:

Fashion Mage.3712:

pandas.9450:

facepalm yes destroy one of the best supports the game has by moving them behind zergs and “supporting” the safer ranging groups. You don’t need to be tester or w/e to know the healing is going to be crap,

Yes you do, now please take your ridiculous and baseless assumptions elsewhere. Even if the specialization is garbage, the guardian will be perfectly fine because the specialization is an alternative, not an upgrade (so normal guards are unaffected). Which most people seem to disregard for some reason. Either way, if the weapon is underpowered, then it must be balanced, but this is irrelevant to the overall argument for/against bows in terms of play style.

I don’t get why you put “supporting” in apostrophes as if it’s not true, since that’s exactly what the bow would be doing (in literally every sense of the word) with the skill set listed here. It heals, it debuffs, it buffs offensively/defensively, and it has offensive/defensive CC.

Healing is nothing special in the game and expecting it to be anything good is silly. The only benefits i see with bow is vul and knockdowns and tbh the curret sets handle that fine. Alternative only makes it sound for me anyways bowbearguardianedition, i never understood the hate for scepters for our ranging. Great in pvp and if you want pve

The hate for scepter is mainly 2 things

1: The orb moves so slow that a person with swiftness at 600 range can outrun it or simply strafe to avoid most of them.

2: Smite is not an actual AOE, it’s a ground targeted multi hit attack.

If they would change those things then it would be alright.

As for people like me wanting the bow to be an offensive weapon with CC you only need look at their words.

They said they wanted specializations to expand what classes are capable of. Looking at the guardian they have very little CC compared to many other classes & their ability to do ranged damage is lack luster due to the problems I stated above.

So if the bow had allot of reliable offensive spells with good CC and a small amount of support (think condition cleanses or ranged protection application) then it would expand the guardian tool kit nicely.

I could get behind a bow like that if the mechanics were done right. The only reason I’m against the leaked skills is because of what they are. No amount of healing on the arrow will change bad mechanics.

Something that plays like warrior longbow that it’s skills are most useful at close range, but has an auto attack that works just as well at long range. A fast arrow AA with good CC (cripples, stuns) on skills would go a long way to expand on the guardian’s kit.

Tiale.2430:

Friend, its about the role and game pool.

I can talk for PVP.. We have 2 viable roles in the moment…
-Zerk meditation
-Cleric bunker
Have people that are trying to use celestial and condition builds in the moment, but its not viable in the competitive, because they don’t have much sustain like an El d/d, eng or war.
Maybe with the new spec we have more game play modes using celestial and condition builds, we need to wait to see the new traits too.

I chose Bow because we have only 1 weapon with long range, scepter, its better in the moment than in the past, but we can have another option.
We don’t need off hands because we have good ones, like focus.
Axe for what? do it will be a gap closer? more dps than sword?

I don’t think a longbow with crap mechanics is going to make celestial or condition builds viable. However, a main hand axe that does bleeding on auto attack and 3-5 stacks of torment on #3 would certainly open up builds. Sustain may be an issue with condition builds but from what the leaked skills show it’s healing to allies and not yourself. The bigger issue though with condition builds is the lack of condition spread and the reliance on only burning.

An offhand would also be much appreciated. A warhorn that can both give the guardian swiftness and cripple enemies would be huge for a lot of builds. It would be nice to fix shield or buff torch (boon stripping on cleansing flame please) but I would take a single warhorn over longbow any day. Guardians don’t belong in the back row.

blakdoxa.7520:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWl8ApUoNDxVI8DNBARldREhTolHQAgZLsCA-TFDEABEp8YIlYUPxoF1VUZ/haUpQiHAgAmnA4IAcgSwHuEAmorhQA2HDA-w

Bag farming in wvw. That’s what I use VoJ for. I can literally slot any “on kill” sigil there and reap the benefits. Might and blindness spam as long as bodies hit the floor. It’s kind cheap but I run it for the lulz in pug zergs.

Edit:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWl8ApUoNDxVI8DNBARldREhTolHQAgZLsCA-T1CEwAEVesTJWL1VqpShkHAgAzfAOCAHUC+4SAEb/BT6aIDAzYA-w

Here’s even a modified version with the condi reduction bit.

Here’s my build for WvW VoJ spam.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWSlsApZo9CxVI8DRBARlZRMh2FA4c9EkCZAA-TVCDAB6s/gUK/ATJIAPAAHV/hgjEwBXAgJOEAypLgUAMpyC-w

AH to take advantage of all that might shared and stamina/speed sigils to benefit even more from each kill. Once the kill train starts it’s a rotation of AA, VoJ and autoloot. xD

I wouldn’t call it cheap though. It’s not entirely effective until the kills start flowing and by then your zerg is most likely already going to win.

I have a tough time not taking greatsword simply because I love Binding Blades and how it deals with thieves so well. Ring of Warding is a really nice skill too, so greatsword/hammer is always a fun build. Using Ring of Warding > Judge’s Intervention is a great way to start any encounter.

But I still usually run sw/f and greatsword.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Or it could just be aimed like how anyone using Orb of Light properly uses it. Would be nice to have ally targeting added in the expansion though.

Anyone using Orb of Light properly will detonate the orb to heal allies or use non-detonated orbs to deal more damage on the target. Bow skills don’t have that option which is why I’ve said it will be about as useful as a non-detonated Orb of Light.

Now, if the arrows exploded on the target for an AoE heal to those in melee range then I could see the skill actually being useful. I’m not hating on this just to hate, I’m simply saying it as I see it based on the leaked longbow skills.

Fashion Mage.3712:

pandas.9450:

facepalm yes destroy one of the best supports the game has by moving them behind zergs and “supporting” the safer ranging groups. You don’t need to be tester or w/e to know the healing is going to be crap,

Yes you do, now please take your ridiculous and baseless assumptions elsewhere. Even if the specialization is garbage, the guardian will be perfectly fine because the specialization is an alternative, not an upgrade (so normal guards are unaffected). Which most people seem to disregard for some reason. Either way, if the weapon is underpowered, then it must be balanced, but this is irrelevant to the overall argument for/against bows in terms of play style.

These aren’t baseless assumptions if the leaked skills are true, like you’ve claimed them to be. It’s valid to base our speculation on this because if that leak is untrue, then this whole conversation is null and void. It’s not ridiculous in the least.

You say even if the specialization is garbage, guardian will be fine because the core will be unaffected. While it may be somewhat true, it would also put us further behind classes that get something actually good.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

A lot of great advice here, thanks guys! Already learning a lot.

On the subject of pets, I was recommended double canines for their awesome CC ability, but I reealllyy was hoping I could rock out with a bird and a spider. Would that be an inferior choice? Speaking of which, does anyone have any hints/tips/strategies for using the pet? The longbowing is easy, but everything else is much more nuanced and intricate.

Also, as for trait spreads, I was given 6/6/2, but I’m more than willing to explore. What exact traits should I be looking at and why are they valuable?

I like using the drakehound and wolf for the great CC they provide. Each has their own knockdown, a fear on wolf that can help land a RF and a low cooldown immobilize on drakehound that can also be used for RF. They also both have a 6s cripple and both the cripple and knockdown both do great damage. If you were to use a bird you lose a lot of CC but may gain a bit extra dps. However, with the amount you’re putting out with LB you’re better off with the situational CC. If you do take a bird, the blind on raven might be handy. Jungle Spider on the other hand can be just as useful with two 4s immobilizes, it’s just that it’s on a much longer cooldown and only single target. Wolf/spider isn’t a terrible choice.

Some tips on pets huh. Well first off, if you’re about to run away using a LR > HS > ML combo you could always use your pet to slow them down even more. You can rotate setting up your Rapid Fires between PBS and pet CC, even immobilize them with drakehound under a barrage/RF with quickness. I’ve heard that Agility Training helps them a lot to not only get to a fight quicker but to keep up with the target and hit them more frequently.

A 6/6/2/0/0 spread will get the job done. The one reason I go 6/5/3/0/0 is because there really isn’t a third trait in skirmishing I’d want over protection on dodge. You lose 2% crit chance and 4% crit damage but I think the protection is well worth it. If you want 6 in skirmishing, you could work Agility Training in or if you run greatsword Moment of Clarity can offer you extra damage on Maul.

Trash? Is it that hard to think?

Lining up shots between you, a moving target and your ally is not an effective way to heal allies. I don’t need to be a tester to know that a skill similar to staff 2 will be largely useless. Sure, there may be healing done incidentally but it’s not go to be efficient.

Pewpewpew is a lot of fun. I myself prefer to go as deep as possible into dps and play on the edge. I sacrifice most anything considered sustain and rely on my positioning and heavy long range damage. Here’s how I play it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBjYDbkQlWWLZxiFuWDsHUrDgC4s7NEcH4RogVNA-TpBEwAGuAAM3fAyRAAwBBIbZACPAAA

Pretty easy to see the general idea behind it. My job with this build is to cast from the side and assist other fights. I do not look for my own, in fact I avoid them like the plague. I’d say this build works best on maps like Legacy of Foefire, where I can move from side to mid quickly and do heavy damage.

A Rapid Fire with 60% damage modifiers is going to hurt, a lot. On top of the air/fire sigils, it’s possible to 100-0 some classes. On top of that the AA from range hits like a truck. Fury on warhorn helps a lot, and RaO will give a good amount.

Sword/warhorn works much better for this build and the role it fills. You can melee if you’ve already done enough damage to finish the fight, but where it shines is it’s ability to escape. Using Lightning Reflexes > Hornet Sting > Monarch’s Leap can put a huge distance between you and the enemy. Even better if you can get a Hunter’s Shot off and escape unnoticed. Hydromancy sigil on sword to help slow them down while escaping, and a bloodlust sigil to boost your dps as you assist fights. If you do decide to stay in melee and finish a fight, the protection on dodge roll from Companion’s Defense will help a lot.

This build completely relies on your ability to first position yourself and then know when to move. A good sniper doesn’t sit in the same place, and they certainly don’t try to engage a losing close range battle. If you try to invest too much into close range combat, you’ll see diminishing effectiveness in your ability to swing fights from afar.

I would really, really like a warhorn.

My biggest hurdle in my meditation builds is accounting for combat mobility. A warhorn with at least 50% swiftness uptime would make pack runes all the more viable. I’d very much like to run a scepter/focus sword/warhorn build. What would be even better is if it came with some sort of CC on it too, maybe a stun. A warhorn with some CC and swiftness could compete with focus for even one offhand slot better than shield and torch could. How great would it be to apply swiftness to yourself while crippling nearby enemies?

Axe would indeed be my second choice. Guardians are in dire need of a second condition like bleeds. An AA laying down bleeds with 3-5 stacks of torment on #3 would certainly shape a condition guardian in the right direction.

From what I read of the “leaked” longbow, I’m not impressed. Healing your team by shooting arrows through them at distance is terrible. It’s not effective at all and, though I hate saying this, is not very guardian like at all. I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Obtena but the guardian’s place is not behind the team shooting arrows to heal them. Besides, it would be repetitive as the staff already has a skill like that which isn’t very effective unless blown up.

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but chances are that Save Yourselves will get a much appreciated hand with the new boon Resistance.

I could see SY getting more play, especially in zergs. It would no longer be a 50/50 shot at killing yourself. In all game modes though, I could see it become one of the best party cleanses in many situations.

#HoThype

I’d really rather a knockdown simply because I think it’s superior control to Taunt, but I wouldn’t be opposed to the shield getting some love. It does make sense to improve the shield by adding the new status effect to it that guardian in some way will be getting anyways, killing two birds with one stone.

What I don’t like about Taunt though is that it’s the only control that allows them to attack, even if it is only AA. I’d rather the enemy not break my SoW after I CC them to burst them down. It does make it a bit more difficult to set up bursts on a moving target but it’s sure of a lot better than them dodging a WW.

http://youtu.be/5hfYJsQAhl0

VoJ is best used for the blind, in my opinion. Renewed Justice is another great trait to go with it. I’ll use it in PvP to secure a stomp with blind and have it recharged immediately.

It’s really the most versatile virtue we’ve got. You don’t need to put a lot of investment into it, can get great returns on what you do put in and it’s cooldown isn’t kitten.

I feel bad for when all these trinity supporters realize it’s nothing like what they want. lol

Jaxom.7310:

anything that opens up play from 5 dps specs in a party, is a move in the right direction. if this can make other roles useful, then i’m ok w/ it

It’s not like what you’re thinking. It’s just another type of CC. It’s not going to be like a typical taunt from other MMOs to tank with. First, there’s just not going to be a ton of access to it in skills to hold “aggro”. Second, in dungeons the bosses have defiance that negates CC. It will never take the place of Deep Freeze on the ice bow.

Not to burst any bubbles, well yeah I guess I am. Nothing will change in dungeons.

Tragic Positive.9356:

1. You really need to swap the Steady Focus from MM to either II or IV

Malicious Training (II) is bugged and doesn’t increase pet conditions, so I’d suggest Signet Mastery (IV). I was thinking the same thing myself seeing as SoR is his only condition cleanse.

If this build was meant for casting from afar with longbow I think Steady Focus would be okay, but it seems it’s built more for up close and personal where full endurance will be rare.

Never thought of trying a sentinel amulet with a longbow build. Seems like you’ve worked enough precision in, although I don’t think Two Handed Training is necessary. Between pack runes and Furious Grip you should be close to 100% uptime on fury. Maybe plug Read The Wind in instead, as that’s pretty important for a longbow.

Well, this is a build I threw together for someone who didn’t want to use longbow. It’s pretty well rounded for a melee zerk ranger, with condition cleansing, stun breakers and stability.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAsXRjEq0yaFL+rw1aAChaVA0OGKhUgdDEvPwJboCpA-TpBFwACOBAIOCA12fYxhAoaZAAPAAA

The focus of the spike is around triggering MoC and using Maul. There’s a few ways to trigger it, the easiest using Path of Scars. You can cast it, swap while the axe is in the air, cast Maul and by the time the enemy is pulled your Maul is coming down on them. They work really well together. I use it to open up combat and you get a free dodge to get closer with an energy sigil on greatsword. You can also use Counterattack and Hilt Bash to trigger MoC, I’m not sure if the wolf fear procs it or not though I haven’t tested it that far.

One downside is all condition cleansing goes to your pet, so if you use SoR, make sure to swap pets after to clear the conditions. There’s some decent survivability in there with an energy sigil, 2 evades on attack and a block. Gap closers help with mobility around the map, and Tail Wind/Pack runes will help with combat swiftness.

When things are going well with this build, it goes very well. It works good in 1v1 and even 2v2. I wouldn’t say it’s a team fight build though. It’s got enough survivability to manage, but it’s not ideal. You can always get out of dodge by using a Lightning Reflexes > Hornet Sting > Monarch’s Leap > Swoop to which not many will be able to keep up.

Tron.3471:

I dont see how he was pushing a zerk build, just encouraging the OP to use active defenses. The OP should be learning to use his virtues, not create some ineffective build. If you don’t want to use/learn the Guardian profession mechanics then why play a guardian?

It looks like the OP made a thread, saw that he started a build war, and took off for the hills. We may never see him again. xD

You know, Yume, if you’re having trouble reaching the virtue keys (F1, F2 and F3) you can always bind them to a different key easier to press. I’d actually recommend customizing the entire setup to how it’s most comfortable for you, as the default bindings are just garbage. You can try to google different binding setups if you’re unsure, ask for them on the forums in a topic or just send me a private message if you need some help setting them up.

It goes a long way and might improve your survivability more than traiting for sustain. Remember, it’s easier to kill things quickly and rely on active defense than it is to fight a drawn out fight dealing less damage even with more passive sustain.

SobeSoul.6910:

xDudisx.5914:

insanemaniac.2456:

ip used to be an adept. back then, every build splashed explosives for it. even at “only” 2 seconds its a ridiculous dps increase for an adept slot.

Well considering that all grenade engis put max points in that traitline and get a 4s burning it been adept or not wouldn’t be a problem.The problem is the duration. They are already maxing that traitline anyway.

Considering guardians and eles have higher burning uptimes I fail to see how a 4s burning on 10s CD being the only sources of burning is OP in those builds besides p/p condi engie’s 4 on pistol. I understand why passive play skills like IP get hated on, but that’s a separate issue.

You seriously just compared guardian’s ONLY damaging condition to the four that engineer has? Even ele has only burning and bleeding. What makes it an issue is when bleeding, poison, burning and confusion get loaded up on top of other cover conditions like vuln and chill.

Not that I’m complaining on this issue or trying to support this nerf. I’m just pointing out the flaw in your comparison. I’m more of the position that guardian and elementalist need something to make their condition builds more viable.

I’m pretty causal when it comes to WvW. I’m talking <3000 kills, maybe 100 hours or so. That said, even I have the decency to understand that when there’s a queue not to join up for map completion. Find a better time, you’ve had 2 years. I’m sure your map completion 0 to 100% is going to take a bit time.

Don’t be so entitled and think about the other players trying to get kitten done, and the players in the queue who want to actually help.

Would work really well on downed players in PvP with the cleave and reflection, if it did a bit more damage. For a 5 second channel the dps is quite low.

Now it only reflects what’s in front of you (90 degrees) and destroys everything to the sides and behind you, right?

Tim.6450:

Shanks.2907:

Maybe instead of gear inspections, there could be a different way.

Something like “minimum requirements” built into the LFG. The advertising leader can set minimum power, precision and ferocity (or toughness, vitality for equality). Only people who meet those requirements can join the party. Solves the issue of needing to check gear without pressuring anyone. You don’t meet the requirements? You can’t join. Simple, right?

How will this work with upscaling/downscaling, temporary boost like food,… ? Also not every build has/requires the same stats so you can’t judge them well especially if you want roles (with different stats) for some reason.

Well in a simplified manner, the party advertiser would select the “required gear” out of the menu. Just check off which gear you want in your party, whether it is only berserker or assassin and knight gear, etc. Could also chose required rarity (rare, exotic, ascended, etc) which would be more helpful in fractals. Downscaling wouldn’t be an issue as you only have to have the gear equipped to join the party.

I would be okay with those listings only showing up if you meet the requirements. Completely eliminate the hostility between the zerker only and play how i want crowds. The two obviously can’t get along, each thinking they themselves are right. Why not just separate them so they don’t even see each other?

Maybe instead of gear inspections, there could be a different way.

Something like “minimum requirements” built into the LFG. The advertising leader can set minimum power, precision and ferocity (or toughness, vitality for equality). Only people who meet those requirements can join the party. Solves the issue of needing to check gear without pressuring anyone. You don’t meet the requirements? You can’t join. Simple, right?