Guild Wars 2

You put max pts in Valor and Honor, but don’t neither AH or Pure of Voice?? And you replace them by trait that simply give you some stats?

Other than that 3700 armor is insane. Between 2.8-3.2k is what you should run. There is no reason to have more than that.

Nat.4029:

Soloing out in the world and exploring is great in GW2. Team content just isn’t fun to me. Maybe it’s been improved since the last time I played. I just enjoy the Trinity. I loved healing with my monk back in the day and healing with my Paladin in WoW. The most fun I’ve ever had in a game was running around with a buddy and leveling on a PvP server in WoW. Guild Wars missions and elite areas were so much fun with friends. I just haven’t ever gotten that with GW2.

And its ok. Trinity is obviously a good system since so much ppl like to play it. But that’s not the only system that can exist and be popular and GW2 is the proof. Like trinity is not love by everybody, gw2 system is not love by everybody. Both system have ppl that love to play them and that’s what important.

The main point of nerfing might was to put Cele engineer and elementalist more in line with other profession in spvp.

Those two profession can keep about 15-20 might during a fight. Limiting might to 20 would change zero about cele engineer and elementalist removing all reasoning behind the nerf.

Nat.4029:

Removing the holy trinity was a big fail. It’s the reason you get such amazing game play like stacking in a corner to kill a boss.

They changed that 6 months ago, get over it. Stacking in a corner shouldn’t be use in most fight now.

xDudisx.5914:

Condi gear really good at wvw?! All the gvg and zerging meta is power based. Conditions only work in small scale roaming and spvp.

And roaming isn’t WvW?? Anyway, like I said condition is a problem in its current stats that need to be address and fix. But its not because one aspect of the game need a fix that everything need to be changed, especially since a lot of ppl like the general direction of the game and only want small change. Oppose to you that advocate a trinity game.

Amiron.1067:

And this right here is the issue. People see certain stat combinations as “training wheels”. That should never be the case. Every stat combination should be meaningful and add to the gameplay, not act as some sort of stepping stone to the almighty stat combination of power, precision, and ferocity. When one stat combination rules all, there is a clear issue in game design.

You keep bringing up WvW, but if you didn’t notice, I was talking about PvE instances. And even in WvW, berserker is still the meta in large zergs.

Every stat combination should be meaningful and add to the gameplay is your opinion. In life you always have different option and nothing make sure that they all are equal. Some stats are powerful in pvp, other in spvp, other in open world other in dungeon. If they could add more good choice in the mix (aka Sinister in dungeon) that would be nice, they going out of their with the goal of making all stat combinaison equal will just destroy the game, if its even possible to attempt.

Fair enough for WvW. You talk about PvE, so I said what the purpose of defensive gear and condition gear. But what the hell are you talking about with your zerker gear in large zerg? Soldier is the meta in WvW zerg. Some profession can use zerker gear, but that’s dangerous are rarely apply on a large scale by guild that do gvg. Zerker have its place in WvW zerg, but that’s definitively not the meta lol.

GrimmR.3541:

Uhm guys, welcome to 2k15 its sylvari all the way now!

Pff. My Asura eat sylvari at diner. He’s vegetarian.

Do you have rune of strenght? Because with it your might should last 10seconds which mean you will be able to switch to axe/mace, then switch back to GS before it expire.

GS have a higher personnal dps than axe/mace. Axe/mace give more vulnerability, which increase the total dps of the team.

You should definitively keep GS +Axe/Mace. You should be able to keep 25 stack of might and give vulnerability. If you can’t, then there is something you are doing wrong. You should only go GS camping if your party can have enough vulnerability on his own. For exemple, if you play with a nade engineer and 1 or 2 elementalists.

Amiron.1067:

hybrid.5027:

Amiron.1067:

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

I didn’t know my Damage reflected projectiles, blinded trash mobs, put Deep Freeze on bosses, managed their Defiant stacks, cleansed conditions and granted stability. I guess I wasn’t using Support or Control after all!

The issue is the gearset. You did this all in berserker (and if you didn’t, you were a detriment to your team.) Which raises the question, why have any other gear stat combinations at all if none of them even compare in the slightest or have their uses in PvE instances?

You know exactly what I mean.

Your first argument was control and support is not there, only dmg. He responded to that. Now you are talking about gear, which is another issue.

Ok so why any othe gear stats exist right?

Half defensive gear like knight exist in PvE for ppl that learn the game, learn a profession or just play casual and just want a easier pve experience. A lot of ppl, including all those zerker elistist (like me) used those gear as learning wheel and I’m glad they exist.

Condition gear is very good in solo situation and should be good in PvE, but there is an issue with condition itself in PvE that need to be fixed. Everybody know it and want it. From the casual necromancer to that elistist that solo lupi in a min.

After that a lot of gear is really good in WvW, but maybe you don’t count that huge part of the game?

Usually ppl test their rotation over a period of 30sec. Then you list all the skill you were able to do in that 30sec and make a coefficient/second for each weapons you used. Then you calculate the dps for each and add the amount of condition for get your total dps.

That’s the most reliable way to get your dps that I know of.

Lol that’s commitment to the RP. I love it

Spoj The Second.7680:

I tend to leave smokescreen on the bar. But really you should take the init gain signet if you can.

I though about it, but 1 initiative ever 10sec is not that good. It won’t help at all in most fight, but I guess that in HotW and Arah where some fight last a bit longer it could give some additional backstab.

Spoj The Second.7680:

Jerus.4350:

dlonie.6547:

Dyes? Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not part of your build.

Dat stale blonde human female meta doe. Something needs to be done to shake that up (Sexier charr maybe? Grow the GW2 furry playerbase?)

Human Female meta is 2013, Asura are supreme, male or female, cause you know, they look pretty much the same.

Let me get the rat poison.

Asura are way too smart to fall into such a basic trap. You’ll need better than that to prevent the dawn of the Asura meta 2015. (diabolical laugh)

Jerus.4350:

If every guard brought Hallowed Grounds and Wall of reflection in SEp1 I’d be so happy, sure you can run it without but just saying, Hallowed Grounds is quite amazing, and while it may not be an always thing (good point) it is a major tool in the guard’s kitten nal.

The thief thing, my point is that you don’t need to waste that third utility. If you use it for something, you can swap the signets, then swap them back in before the fight wherever you can (including the third slot) and rotate things around.

You make a good point though, IF you were to stick with a single utility setup what you said is right, I just felt the need to point out the possibilities of other things. Sticking to one setup is pretty silly when you can get quite a bit extra out of your play by being a bit more flexible.

Ya switching utilities is really important. I tend to play with about 12 different utilities most professions.

For the thief thing, what do you try to bring in fight with your 2 signets? There is not much other stuff that is really that good. I like to keep smoke screen for the blind in some particular fight, otherwise I like SR as a OMG my friend is down button. Otherwise what would you bring as a third utility in a fight? Shadowstep in heavy condi fight but that’s rare, haste bring dps but it can be dangerous, skale venom give vulnerability but I most group we already have that max out. For me most of the time, smoke screen or shadow refuge seem the best 3rd utility in the fight even if its only just in case.

hybrid.5027:

The entire speed clear pve meta strategies for almost every boss fight are based around one skill, Deep Freeze. CC is critically important in PvE, if you care about having the most efficient dungeon run you can.

You ignore CC, just like you can ignore Support or DPS if you feel like it. The dungeons are able to be completed by 5 Nomads necromancers. Most pugs and even low end organized groups ignore CC because it takes coordination to Deep Freeze and burn Defiant stacks. they can still beat the dungeons anyway, but saying that there is no CC is simply wrong.

No no. I’m not saying its not present. I’m using tempest and my group is getting better and better at removing just enough defiant stack to cycle through our Deep Freeze, but CC is like the little cripple brother of the three. You have some push/pull and Deep Freeze, but the place of CC is really small. Yup right now Deep Freeze give a breath of fresh air to CC, but that was highly underused before september because of FGS. Its there, but compare to dps and support, CC seem a bit left out.

Fuji.6284:

Thaddeus.4891:

Kagamiku.9731:

SuzukiMethod.4732:

As someone with 2 level 80 rangers, I will trade you everything pet related, traits included, for just eviscerate.

Why? Rapid fire is better than eviscerate will ever be.

Against someone that know how to fight a pew pew ranger? Nope. Its easy to cancel the rapid fire of a ranger. If we could have a melee burst like eviscerate to punish those that approach too much of you and turn around you, ranger would be OP.

I thought rangers were already OP in WvW and PvP.

They are not OP. They are really strong, but unilateral. If you fight them on their ground they will be OP, if you know their weakness they are not.

Jerus.4350:

Don’t forget stability on the guard, Hallowed grounds and Stand your Ground are both very good in many situations.

Also for thief, you don’t really need a stealth skill always up, the nice thing about running 2 signets is that after every fight you can toss in the stealths and go, leaving that last slot as kind of free game.

Ya but stability is not something that you need all the time. He ask about what should always be on your bar and stability is not one of them. In SE path 1 I could remove it from my bar, but don’t really need it in most paths.

I don’t really get what you mean for thief? You always have your 2 signets and yes you don’t need a stealth skill while you fight, but i don’t like to switch a signet for a stealth and then having to switch back at the boss. I guess that’s a personal choice, but you need at least a stealth skill while running because that’s pretty much the role of the thief.

I know right. Its like an epidemic right now.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/the-trinity-system-in-gw2/first#post4716555

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Zerker-problem/first#post4716521

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Sugg-How-to-fix-the-Zerker-Zerger-problem/first#post4716348

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/suggestion-A-way-to-shake-dungeon-meta/first#post4716451

All of those are really recent.

Sylent.3165:

Sorry if my op wasn’t getting across what I meant. I’m not saying the game has a trinity right now in any way.

What I’m saying is at least in my server the lfg is nothing except warriors, guardians, eles, and sometimes a mesmer. I try joining as a s/d ranger I got booted. I tried going in on my d/p thief I get booted. My main suggestion was an actual dungeon queue for people who experience this issue and don’t care who they play with they just want to play. But just not on a specific wanted class just to get into groups.

LFG are accross servers and not limited to one server. One lfg for EU and one for NA. Ppl can be jerk and worst they can be stupid jerk and even kick good meta build that they just don’t know of yet because last time they check was a year ago and things evolved. I’m an elistist that play mostly with my guild, but I never kick pugs unless they go against my description. But not everybody are like me. Best solutions for you are either create you own LFG or play with your guild in dungeon. I do both even if I can bring any profession with a meta zerker build, 16k AP and can respond to math question (ya some LFG have weird demands).

Amiron.1067:

Uh… what trinity? I mean, they wanted a Control, Support, and Damage trinity, and the only one really present is Damage.

Support is a huge part of the game too. Protection, Reflect, Aegis, Condi Removal, Offensive Buffs, etc. But its right that CC isn’t present at all in PvE. They clearly figure out that it was too good against boss and added the Defiant buff as a cheap fix.

xDudisx.5914:

Stark.1350:

The “trinity” system is an archaic system that needs to go away.

So you are saying something is bad just because it is old? Democracy is old too and I dont see people questioning that just because it is old.

Lots of new games are releasing with trinity system or some variation of it. Also the most successful games have it.

Its an old system that show it’s age and that not everybody like. Some game try to make some variation or improving it with different level of success, while GW2 try something else with some level of success. Not the best system possible, a lot can be improve, but for a part of the gamerz community its a path that they prefer over the holy trinity.

That doesn’t mean that trinity should die, but that doesn’t mean either that gw2 should just get back to trinity. Two good system can exist in different game and be targeted at different type of players. I don’t like the trinity and that’s why I play GW2 and don’t go complain in forums how WoW or SWTOR shouldn’t use the trinity in their game.

Wynne.3908:

Cool thread. I like the groups Thaddeus and GrimmR put forth. I suppose the 5th slot would somewhat depend on which dungeon you are doing.

Taking all this a bit further… if the best group is 2xEle, 1xWar, 1xThief, 1x(free)
(not saying it is but just for simplicity sake.) are there any traits/skills that these profs NEED to bring. You know, those ones that never ever leave your bar?

First off you need to know if might will come from your PS Warrior and ELe are staff, or you bring 2 S/X Ele and Warrior is standard dps. The first is optimal in longer fight and fight where you can’t pre stack might on top of the boss before he turn red, the second is optimal in shorter fight (20sec or less) and where you can stack might on top of the boss while he’s still green. The first one is more reliable and easier to maintain your might.

What should alway stay on your bar :
Ele : Icebow, LH if you are S/X, Glyph of storm is really powerfull but not mandatory.
Warrior : 2 Banners, FGJ if you are PS Warrior.
Thief : 1 stealth skill (smoke screen or shadow refuge) and two dps signets (1 can be switch for a 2nd stealth skill if you need to run for a long time)
Guardian : retreat, WoR and Purging Flames are usually a good setup to have, if they are not necessary then you better without a guardian.

Kagamiku.9731:

It’s not about being bad, it’s about being unorganized. Only a few classes can deal with power rangers. (mostly just thieves and D/D eles) And if you have none of those on your team or the ones you do have on your team don’t know their roll, then the rest of the team suffers.

A warrior can’t do kitten to a power ranger backed by teammates in most circumstances. If you somehow make it to him wherever he may be shooting you from, he’ll just run and find another location to wreck havoc upon. They’re mobile, and between LB3 and GS3 they’re going to juke you. Unless you think it’s the warriors job to do nothing but chase the ranger all game…And in that case, you have to pray your pugs are better than their pugs.

You can’t talk about unorganized vs organized. If you are unorganized then you probably gonna fight the ranger alone, if not then don’t go after him. And if you chase him and he run, he’s not dpsing your team to death, which is a good thing.

Usually ranger are between home and mid. Go decap or even cap their home so he go on the node fight you where you gonna have the advantage as a warrior. If he just pew pew you, get out, he’s losing pts to his team while he’s doing that. If he’s only staying at mid, just keep you effort between far and home. Play the points. It doesn’t mean that you will win, but what do you expect if you team CAN’T handle a single ranger.

xDudisx.5914:

Look at the summary:

In favor arguments have 1 line
Against arguments have 1 paragraph detailing and explaining his point of view.

Make your conclusions.

Conclusion 1) : Against arguments are really weak

Conclusion 2) : Against arguments are not really that important because this game is build around not a trinity, while other game are build around having a trinity. Ppl that like trinity play game with trinity and ppl that don’t want trinity play GW2. And there is small portion of ppl that for a weird reason prefer tinity game, but keep playing GW2 and posting on the forum of GW2.

xDudisx.5914:

Oh so now you want to create a new definition of build. If I change the color of my armor does it also makes a new build for you?

You must be blind to dont see that all your “builds” are basically all the same for all the classes focusing in: direct dmg+ direct dmg %+might+vul+ might

Ok so what is the one and truly definition of build? You must know it all along, why do you spare us from your all mighty knowledge. Because apparently i was wrong thinking that a build is Weapons+Skills+Trait+Gear.

direct dmg+direct dmg%+might+vul+might? What happen sceptre build that focus on block, dps, endurance regen, reflect? Or the standard build that focus on dps, blind, condi removal, reflect, block? Or the hammer build that focus dps, protection, reflect?

xDudisx.5914:

You know that the forums are not a good sample size for the entire community? Also the demography in the forums in different from the game. For example here we have lots of pvp players while in the game it is not really popular.

Not fair, i’ll tell my mom. If you can give bullkitten argument, i want to be able to do the same. You’re no fun.

xDudisx.5914:

Thaddeus.4891:

What I use on my guardian (rotate between 12 different utilities):
-4/6/2/0/2 GS+Sw/F : its my basic dungeon build
- 4/5/0/0/5 GS+Sw/F : Use it in several dungeon when we need more reflect like SE path 3
- 3/5/0/4/2 Hammer : In fractal
- 6/6/0/0/2 or 4/6/0/0/4 Sceptre/Focus+torch : Lupi

Are you sure xDudisx that you are not confounding builds and role?

You said 12 builds and list 4. And all of them with the exception of 1 are pretty much the same.

I said 12 utilities right? I mean I remember writing it, i can see it right there. WHAT IS HAPPENING do I see stuff that isn’t there. I’m scare mama.

You could at least say 3. I mean that’s 3 different weapons set, cmon say at least 3. I can give you that the first 2 are not that diffrent. Its just that one allow the whole team to melee the cart in SE path 3 and the other one can’t work and need everybody to get a range weapon. But they have the same weapon and only some number are changing so pretty much the same build right.

xDudisx.5914:

I support 100% the trinity system. The problem is that you cant have a tank without aggro generation controlled by the player. They could create sigil/runes of aggro generation. Maybe some weapon skills could generate aggro, like a guardian/warrior mace or shield. Or give mace/shield passive aggro generation.

One problem with the lfg system you proposed is that the light/medium/heavy armor are not relater with been tankier or not.

When will you understand that this game is not and will never be a Trinity game. There is a lot of trinity MMO out here can we at least have one that is the same copy paste?

Ok lets start a count of ppl that aggree or disagree with Lishtenbird’s summary. I agree so

Agree : 2
Disagree :1

What I use on my guardian (rotate between 12 different utilities):
-4/6/2/0/2 GS+Sw/F : its my basic dungeon build
- 4/5/0/0/5 GS+Sw/F : Use it in several dungeon when we need more reflect like SE path 3
- 3/5/0/4/2 Hammer : In fractal
- 6/6/0/0/2 or 4/6/0/0/4 Sceptre/Focus+torch : Lupi

Are you sure xDudisx that you are not confounding builds and role?

Kagamiku.9731:

Rangers are not hard to deal with in a solo scenario, but when accompanied by a teammate they’re a nightmare. And yes, there is a huge difference between tryhard premade on teamspeak, and the usual unranked/ranked que games. Organized teams can probably deal with rangers np, but the amount of games that are lost because unorganized teams have no idea what to do when two power rangers are obliterating the whole team from a distance…is something eviscerate could never do..

I don’t base my argument on bad pvpers pugs. I couldn’t give less a crap about ppl that can’t think by their own to go after that Ranger that free cast your team down or that Warrior that only go into Longbow at the beginning of the fight (especially in celestial gear lol).

If you are alone in ranked/unranked and nobody is going for the ranger, then take the responsibility and get in his face. It suck if you are a bunker and you can’t do kitten about it, but its life.

It depend on the dungeon.

But for most dungeon i would want 2 Ele, 1 Warrior and 1 thief. The last one would be between a guardian and a mesmer depending on the situation.

Sylent if someone is telling you that only Ele, Warrior and Guardian are wanted in dungeon then he don’t know the game.

Elementalist, Warrior and Thief are right now the top profession in dungeon. But you also have Guardian and Mesmer that are often use in record runs

For normal speed run you also have engineer and ranger (they been buffed in september 2014) that are now really really good profession. They just fall between two stools for record run, but are perfect for speed runs.

The only profession that have difficulty in dungeon is necromancer. Its not that bad, they can do decent dps comparable to mesmer and guardian. But they don’t bring enough unique things in the moment.

Watch out, there is a LOT of ppl that don’t follow the game evolution close enough to see the game change. A lot of ppl continue to critic the stacking in corner or pugs group that continue to use that tactic but its been 5 months since FGS was nerf and corner stacking should be rare and only at specific place. A lot of ppl continue to see engineer, ranger and necromancer as poor dungeon profession even that changed a long time ago (except for necro). Ppl have a hard time keep up with new information that sick around in pugs for a very long time.

Mine was when they changed how agony and agony resistance work in fractal.

xDudisx.5914:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

xDudisx.5914:

The problem is that is basically the same build for all the dungeons.

The problem is not a problem. The problem is the way you are approaching the problem.

I disagree with you. I think it is a problem. Look at spvp for example, they are trying to promote more builds to become viable every update.

Exactly, more —>’’ BUILDS ’’<--. Bezerker is not a build, its a gear. You already have several builds for most profession. You can say hey it would be nice to have even more good choice (especially for warrior, which don’t have that much), or to make condition viable in PvE. But to say that zerker meta is a problem. pfff

Nexxe can you give us source? How do you know that it wasn’t intended? Are you a dev or do you know a dev or did a dev post something about that?

See, more and more of the ppl that see the zerker meta as a problem just quit the game by now (some seem to be still in the game), while most ppl that stay in the game, stay in part because they like how the game is. They like the zerker meta, they like that they can go fast, they like adapt to the game, they like to have little room for error and need to learn the encounter and use active defence over passive defence, they see stacking as a tactic.

So zerker meta is not a problem in the game. Its a different approach that some ppl like and other ppl dislike.

They are both ok in 1vs1. Elementalist are better right now, but against their counter they will both suffer. Elementalist will drop a bit after january 29th with the nerf to might so we’ll see what will happen. But mostly the advantage of Elementalist is the range of stuff they can do to adapt, while Necro with either dominate profession with limited of condition removal or be dominated by ranged profession (lack of mobility) and cc profession (lack of stun breaker/stability).

In WvW, they are both great profession. Necro are the source of burst dmg with wells, while elementalist are more of a support profession. They both are part of the meta zerg GWEN with E standing for Ele and N for necro.

Jay.3409:

thanks guys! lastly what are these terms might, blast finishers? also when should i use blast finishers..

Oh that’s some basic knowledge about the game.

Might is a boon. It give you 35 power for each might and you can have 25 might on you for a total 875 power (they will nerf it a bit on january 29th to 30 power per might). Its a powerful boon in PvP and PvE.

In the game you have combos. You have finisher and field. Different finisher into different field will give different effect. Check the wiki for a complete list. One of the most popular is a Blast finisher into a fire field that give might. That’s one BIG important tactic for an Elementalist. Entire build are created around that in both PvE and PvP. In PvP D/D elementalist you use a mix of blast finisher and sigil of battle (you can swap element faster than other profession can swap weapons) to keep between 15-20 stack of might constantly while fighting. That big boost in dmg allow you to use celestial stats while still doing good dmg because your low power is compensate by the might.

When to use blast finisher depend on where you play. As a D/D elementalist you have rotation that constantly blast might over time during the fight to keep your might high all the time. In PvE, you want to blast between burst or before fight.

Pretty good guide. Just some stuff.

- Order of targeting is not that rigid. Don’t to be quick on your first Rapid Fire and try to probe which enemies is the easiest to burst down. That squishy thief could be good enough with its mobility that you gonna waste burst on him and everytime he gonna just get the hell out and do something else, that Guardian could be a medi guardian, or that Elementalist could be a fresh air with a dangerous burst. Make a list in your head during the first few fight, you are in the best position for doing that and sharing it with your team in TS.
- Your mobility is highly dependent of your exact build. I myself like to use signet of the hunt and using the GS leap at the right moment can give you enough mobility to roam efficiently. But you can’t compete with Thief and Ele so don’t make far one of your priority. Focusing on mid/home is the best situation for a pew pew ranger.
- You shouldn’t fight on point, but don’t be afraid of doing it if your team need you to. With GS #4 and signet of stone you can give those few important second to your teamate to come back on point. Training yourself in melee range is also really important because you won’t be able to always be able to free cast from a distance. Improve your skill at melee, but know your limit. If someone is turning around you in close range get the hell out, you won’t win that fight unless they are just bad.

Kagamiku.9731:

How do you cancel a pewpew ranger that’kittenting you from a safe spot? Reflect is the only way, which not every class has, and those who do only have a very limited supply of it. And they’ll be sure to knock you down prior to using it so most of it hits anyways. You can pop your stability, but they made you blow your stab for a skill with a 10 second cooldown.

Eviscerate is easily dodged and it’s predictable to when it will be used. Shield bash is also pretty easy to dodge. There is nothing more annoying than a power ranger hitting you with rapid shot when you’re already dealing with another player. Since a warrior needs to be in melee range to land the eviscerate, a good player can deal with a 2v1 situation against average players. Rangers make it impossible to 2v1.

There is not such thing as save spot in pvp. Pew Pew Ranger are the best at long range fight, don’t play their game or you’ll lose. Get in their face and turn around them. Rapid Fire cancel out if the target get behind you in the middle of the attack, leaving them with only their Greatsword which have the same problem, its a long skill that will cancel if you turn around him and go behind him while he’s casting it. Without its two main burst the only option the ranger will have is to block counter attack you in one side, then leaping to the other side so he can put some distance between you and him. In that situation you would want to close the gap fast and evade the obviously incoming knockback from LB to get in their face and turn around him again. Engineer, Elementalist and Medi guardian are the best at that because they have good teleport/leap to close the gap and are doing their best dmg in close/melee range.

Its just a l2p issue. Pew Pew ranger have obviously flaw that can be exploited, but of course if you stay at a distance you are doing exactly what they need. Otherwise if you can’t close the gap fast enough, you can use the environment to block the line of sight, forcing the Ranger to go closer to you.

xDudisx.5914:

The problem is not having 1 optimal build for a dungeon. The problem is that is basically the same build for all the dungeons. Making changes in some bosses or all the bosses in some paths create space for more usage of the other gear.

What are you talking about? I switch stuff (trait, skills, weapons) around all the time on my Ele, Guardian and Thief in dungeon. I didn’t play Mesmer pve for a long time, but my friend is often switch build. You are right for Warrior, but that’s not an issue for all profession.

Gabriell.4856:

I don’t understand why a 6/0/2/0/6 would have more burst than the build I posted. 200 more power can be obtained from might stacking when entering stealth. 4-6 stack is easy to come by with D/P. I can see the 10% less damage from losing out on exposed weakness. I can understand 5/6/0/0/3 or 2/6/0/0/6 having more burst but not 6/0/2/0/6.

I don’t want to defend too much panic strike build because I’m not a fan of it. But 200 power and 10% dmg is far superior in term of dmg alone versus might on stealth. Like you said it will give you 4-6 might, but only on longer fight, you won’t have that from the beginning and remember on the 29th 6 might will equal to 180 power not 210. So ya, you will sacrifice a little dmg for more survivability. But panic strike build already sacrifice a bit of dmg to gain an Immobilize to help land your backstab at 50%. Also, when I tried panic strike i could care less about the Improvisation trait, and took the dagger training trait for a additional 5% dmg.

I’m not saying that your build won’t be good, but it won’t be great. You’re advantage won’t help your team win in a spvp match, that’s what i’m saying. You could be a annoying little kitten at far fighting against 2-3 ppl and being able to survive. But you won’t be able to keep the node decap so if they have half a brain they will only leave an AoE profession like a medi guardian or engineer at their home and you will only cancel each other out while they continue to make points on their home. You focus on stealth limit your ability to cap/decap and that’s a big deal in conquest.

You surely won’t gonna do the same amount of damage, but ya you will gain survivability.

You have good trait choice, but they don’t fit together well. You gonna have the survivability and self-sustain to fight against multiple target in the same time, but you won’t have enough burst to kill any of them fast enough to take the advantage.

You have a good steal, but again don’t have the burst to follow that up.

Overall you’ll be annoying, hard to kill, but won’t be able to complete the main job of a thief which is to finish ppl off. Trickery and Shadow art are support line for the thief in PvP, you should have both at the same time since you really need either Deathly Arts of Critical strike to be able to burst someone down.

Valentin.2073:

I was talking about a build that typical zerk rangers use in wvw. Lol. I didnt notive the op was asking about pve.

Oh lol. Then in that case you are right. I use those 3 signets, even if some ppl don’t use signet of the hunt, i can’t live without it in pvp.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I’m confused about your sigil of frailty recommendation. Vulnerability upkeep is already so high for ranger and if you are running with other people it’s almost always maxed out. I mean for the weapons the op is asking about you can hit 25 stacks on your own. On what weapon and in what game mode do you recommend using it over something else?

You can reach 20 stack of vulnerability (10 from rapide fire, 5 from opening strike, 5 from maul) a bit more depending on your pet, but that’s only a burst, you can’t keep that up. In dungeon, Longbow shouldn’t be used except for the initial burst so he should put between 15-20 vulnerability during the first 15sec of the fight, then it will drop to a constant 9-10 Vulnerability. In most pugs, 25 stack of vulnerability is not that hard to reach, but really hard to keep.
- If he pugs dungeon and do open world with Ranger runes, frailty will be the best option.
- If he do dungeon on a regular basis and do speed run he should use damage modifier sigils like force/night/undead.
- In fractal, frailty is good for pugs because most ppl can’t melee and don’t bring Skale venom, leaving the group with a lower vulnerability than the same group usually does in dungeon. Again, if he run organized group, better option are there for him.

Valentin.2073:

A typical zerker ranger would use ranger runes, sigil of air and accuracy or force. Signets of stone, hunt, and wild. Elites can be swapped between rampage as one and entangle. Possible pets are stalker, jungle spider, wolf, bird, and drakehound.

Only signet of the wild should appear on that list. Signet of the hunt is nice to have in open world, but useless in dungeon. Stone is only needed when you learn the profession. In dungeon Frost Spirit and Wild should always be there, the third should be Zephir if possible, but you can change it if you need a bit of help. Again Entangle is nice in open world, useless in dungeon.

Kagamiku.9731:

SuzukiMethod.4732:

As someone with 2 level 80 rangers, I will trade you everything pet related, traits included, for just eviscerate.

Why? Rapid fire is better than eviscerate will ever be.

Against someone that know how to fight a pew pew ranger? Nope. Its easy to cancel the rapid fire of a ranger. If we could have a melee burst like eviscerate to punish those that approach too much of you and turn around you, ranger would be OP.

You shouldn’t run the same thing in WvW and PvE. If you try, you gonna end up with a build that don’t do good dmg in PvE and that don’t offer you enough in WvW.

For PvE. Rune should either be Scholar or Ranger depending if you can keep high level of hp or not. Sigils depend on what you run the most.
Sigil of Force + Accuracy will work everywhere in PvE, but don’t use accuracy if you are using Rune of the Ranger. With rune of the ranger sigil of frailty would be better. Sigil of night would be even better for night dungeon (which are the dungeon that are the best to gain money) and Sigil of Undead slaying would be better if you like to run arah.

Sigil of Air and Fire are not that good in PvE. They mostly give a good burst which is perfect for pvp, but not overall good DPS, which is what you want in PvE.

That’s pretty vague. You gonna need to be a bit more specific.

What weapon do you want to use? What do you mean by for everything? For every aspect of PvE or for PvE and WvW?

What do you mean by ’’meh’’. What you don’t like in meta build exactly? The utilities? The Trait?

aspirine.6852:

I do a lot of burning with my engi, is Rune of the flame legion a valid option to replace scholar or other good sup. runes?

Flame Legion is a solid choice. What build are you using because with nade you want a good amount of precision. Ideally assassin gear with flame legion runes would be a good cheap alternative. If you are using zerker, the rune of the ranger will be a better choice with a mini.

Of course if you are not using a nade build then forget about what I said, it will depend on your build. If that’s the case, take rune of the flame legion it will be a really good cheap rune for you.

1) D/D is for PvP and WvW roaming. You can use it elsewhere but it won’t be the best option.
2) Rotation for D/D in PvP? In gw2 meta battle there is a video at the bottom to show it.
3) Right now Ele are probably the profession in the best state. Its number 1 in PvE dungeons and its view as one of the two best profession in sPvP. Its also part of the meta composition in WvW. With the path on january 29th, Ele will be nerf a bit in sPvP. What will be their state at this points is not clear. Some ppl freak out and think that ele will be bad now, I’m not that dramatic and I think it will bring Ele more in line with other professions.
4) It depend if you think you gonna use it in PvE or PvP
5) Google is your friend, but start with gw2 meta battle. It give you a basic idea of build and some have video in them.
6) You gonna need to specify what you want to gear up to. PvE casual? PvE dungeon running? WvW zerging? WvW roaming?

I have mystic salvage kit, copper-fed salvage-o-matic, 2 set of armor for WvW, about 8 different weapons with different sigils, food for WvW, cheap food for dungeon and expensive food for dungeon, about 7 different potions for dungeons, sharpening stone, my Kite, my 2 favorite tonics, ogre pet, elemental powder, WvW siege, Repair Canister, revive orb, ash legion kit, harpy feather, golems in a box (not using them anymore, maybe i should scrap them), my angel aureole, a couple of booster and all the stuff of current living story for Dry Trop and Silverwaste. I probably miss some stuff, i always have too much stuff in there.

Dadnir.5038:

What we periodically see on this forum (for PvE) are complaints stating :
- There is no challenging content and dungeon are especially easy.
- Some classes are useless/unwanted in dungeon.
- You can’t play how you want to play, you gotta play zerker.

1) That’s because the content is old. AC was consider hard as hell in the first weeks of the game. You also need to consider the problem of scaling that make low level dungeon even more easier. That’s a content problem, not about how the game is played.
2) The only profession that is useless in dungeon is Necromancer. Ranger and Engineer where fixed months and months ago, but ppl are just stupid to keep up and still think that Ranger is bad.
3) Yes you can play how you want, but zerker/assassin is optimal. There will always be an optimal gear and whatever you do there will always be ppl that complain about it. What a huge part of these ppl really complain about is the lack of diversity. They don’t understand that diversity come from traits, weapons, skills, etc. They just make a fixation on the gear things and don’t see the whole picture.

Dadnir.5038:

What i believe the change i propose could add to the game :
- A bit more challenging content : having to “ready” your boss before engaging him would make classes like mesmer and thieves even more welcome then now.

Well thief is one of the three best profession in PvE right now, and Mesmer is part of always all records run, soo. Anyway, it won’t be more challenging. It will be frustrating in pugs, and in organized group it will take second to ’’prepare’’ the boss. We already keep removing its defiant to keep Icebowing 5 boss that like to move around with high hp like in HotW, and its just a pain in the kitten . Zero fun about that.

Dadnir.5038:

- Including a buff that allow damage only if the taget is chilled would maybe make rangers and necromancer, which are among the best to provide chill, a bit more welcome in dungeon. (I know that elementalist are pretty good at that but what aren’t they good at?)

I see your point, but that feel artificial. Also, both of these profession would need to run bad build to provide chill. And what happen to pugs group that don’t have chill? No organized group will want to fight with that buff so who will be organized enough to keep the chill, but still want to fight in that buff?

Dadnir.5038:

- Don’t forget that there are boss that purge themselve and that why being able to chose which buff you want to handle on which boss could be a great addition. (ex : You would probably do CoE golem with the range buff).

Why would you want to do that? Organized group will want to melee it and again non organized group will have a hard time keeping it in that buff even if they want to range.

Dadnir.5038:

- Removing the stupid nerf to weakness on the unshakable buff could also allow player that want to build defensively to be able to better manage any survivability. I know first handely that it’s possible to facetank bosses in dungeon but having more room to do it would probably help diversity.

That’s more like it. Weakness is a good thing that is under use right now. As useless in most dungeon like protection is, it would be a great addition for some dungeon (HotW) and fractal (archdiviner). It would also be a great thing for solo run and some hypothetical hard mode dungeon.

Dadnir.5038:

- A buff that prevent any critical strike and allow condition damage to do more damage is a cheap solution to fix condition damage, at least in dungeon. This allow all party member to have more room to actually inflict any condition by clearing all short lasting condition given from critical strikes that remove longlasting condition. This also allow defensive build to not be a burden from an offensive point of view.

I couldn’t say it better. Its a cheap solution. But defensive build would still be a burden from an offensive point of view because we would want to run Sinister stats, now Rabid or Carrion. If anet could fix condition build so they would be on par with direct damage build, it would be amazing. Give more diversity, give a place for the necromancer in PvE dungeon. I don’t like you solution, but I understand what are you intention and fixing condition at it source would be a WAY better solution.

Well ok that. It won’t be that good of a build anyway, but it won’t be selfish. I guess you can do a good build of the kind if you play hammer. Something like 2/5/0/6/0 with 1 pts left to put where you want. But that sacrificing a lot to gain not that good of a condition removal. With that you will sacrifice UC or MoC. You will also need to sacrifice some of your utilities to use shout. You can’t use retreat as a condi removal since you need to time if with direct attack dmg so it will be able to remove condi only by chance not on purpose. Either you use WoR and you lose one more shout leaving you only with 1 shout using Pure of Voice at maximum or you don’t use WoR which can be a bad idea in some situation. You are better off without Pure of Voice, but with Purging Flames for group condi removal. That leave you more room to adapt to the situation. You could also get the condi removal on shout from a rune, but that would sacrifice more than 20% dmg.