Guild Wars 2

The rotation always depends on your enemy.
There are some, that you want to pressure.

There are some that you want to “bait out” in terms of blowing their cleanses like Eles, Necros, Warriors.

You’d always like to start with Axe. You chill them down, you throw some bleeds, you kite around. In this mode you are basically burning them down slowly. You can keep your distance and throw some damage in case they get close. Once they get close > You blow “2”, swap to sword > throw Bonfire > and this baits the cooldowns most of the time.
Here is the time to throw your torch “4”, Entangle, apply poison, swap back to axe for the condi bleed bomb and Generosity Sigil.
I often ensure that the enemy blows his cooldowns by pressuring my Pet’s immobilize > swapping to Wolf for fear right after swapping to sword (2 sec immobilize in bonfire is the “OH SNAP” moment that enemies feel). After that, they usually used their evades and clanses – so entangle is pretty much a death sentense.

Of course it doesn’t work like this all the time, and every build / every class has it’s own ways of mitigating your damage… But this should help you with the start.

The standard way is to force their cooldowns – and blow entangle afterwards (for this purpose is Rune of the Krait so great).

Actually, I found it strangely viable in higher Fractals.
… Frost Spirit + Earth Spirit.

And I occasionally run Spirit of Nature at places that I know are hard to be survived.
Apart from that – nothing but Frost Spirit is worth.

PvE meta is Zerging – which means – anything that is dead deals no damage anyways.

Fluffball.8307:

Tragic Positive.9356:

If I wanted a team support, I’d run spirit build which involves the signet.

It doesn’t need to be all or nothing. Any opportunity to help your team should be at least considered. There aren’t a ton of 1v1s that are settled as 1v1s, so building entirely selfishly isn’t needed or necessarily helpful.

If a necro condi bombs the first team fight, SoR could be the difference between winning and losing the match.

The same could be said about Healing Spring.
… Water Field? 6 Condi Clear?
And yet, I seem to be like one of the 5 rangers I see using that heal.

But if I’m supposed to duel and skirmish in a fight – and I build around this purpose – I expect someone else to bring the utility like cleanse.
But then again – I don’t really see a single problem switching one utility ability at the match start when I know what I’m facing.

But as I stated already – if I know that my build has a clear weakness of Power opponents and is practically condition immune already, why would I overkill it that much for another full-cleanse ? That idea is wrong. It doesn’t matter that it also helps my team. If I get myself killed in 2 seconds by a thief or a Mesmer, the team support is zero. You’d help your team much more by getting focused and surviving that, and dealing damage for a longer period of time.

Also, if my team runs no condi cleanse and I’m supposed to do it for them – then my job is to support them up. Which is not the purpose of this build.

If I wanted a skirmisher that gives my team this kind of support – I wouldn’t play ranger. And if I played Ranger – I’d definitely take spirit ranger as I stated already.

Puck.9612:

Fluffball.8307:

I’d ditch empathic bond for either poison master or even barkskin. But any of those 3 is fine, it’s just a personal preference.

Signet of renewal offers a lot to your team and is a stun breaker, so take a look at that in place of SoS too.

Carrion amulet leaves him pretty glassy, SoS puts his armor in a decent place and gives him an emergency “oh kitten” button. Probably wouldn’t hurt to run that until he gets a better feel for the ranger.

@op: You might also want to test out other rune choices. I prefer krait for the condi bomb.

This is 95% correct.
… The last 5% are about being glassy… Because having 25K hp cannot really be stated as glassy, since you are practically condi immune.
The problem is lack of Toughness – which is compensated with Signet of Stone. I wouldn’t swap it for the renewal. If I wanted a team support, I’d run spirit build which involves the signet.

Anyways, I did forget about the rune. Rune of the Krait indeed is a very good choice. If you find yourself in a need of extra defense – rune of forge is also a good one.

But yes, Rune of the Krait is Great.

Fully Viable.

One of the meta builds.
Everything is fine.
The only thing I might consider would be changing Sigils of Leeching for Sigils of Geomancy. The sustain is not really noticeable and bonus condi pressure never hurts… Well, never hurts … you know what I mean.

Aomine.5012:

…

But in PVE it is actually a dps increase overall.

A DPS… Increase?
… In which way?

You mean a DPS increase compared to no off-hand weapon equipped? Well yea… Obviously.

A DPS increase compared to Off-Hand Axe? Well something about your calculations is ridiculously wrong here. From any and every angle of view I look at it.

A DPS increase compared to Off-Hand Torch? … Well, I believe we are discussing PvE. Torch does not belong to that category by default. It’s a condi weapon that has nothing to do in Zerk Meta.

So… If may I ask … How exactly does it increase your DPS? In which way?

kiwituatara.6053:

2580 Power
94% Critical Chance
236% Critical Damage

Against EBG Level 80 Crimson Moa lol

I don’t even want to mention Path of Scars with the exact same Power, Crit and Ferocity.
…
Don’t even think of posting that here.
It hits 5 targets, applies a pull version of CC, and has half the cooldown. Also, I think it has shorter cast time and the damage is dealt in shorter time period.

Jesus Christ, don’t you dare post Rapid Fire damage here. I beg you. I’m already frustrated from all the QQ threads I read daily. Plus I don’t want to see the most underplayed class in this game from competitive scene nerfed.

I have a better idea.

What if it didn’t remove neither chill nor cripple conditions.
But what if the damage component was traded for another bonus utility function… Such as… A 0.25 second daze on a single target it hits.

I sincerely do not want skills to be the same in this game. I want them in similar value. Not functionality. And that’s why I am perfectly fine with it only removing immobilize (and 2 more random condis if traited).

I do not understand the damage component with low damage and low scaling on a 40 second cooldown ability that is supposed to “get you out of there”.

@Aomine
The age was not really an offense. It was the statistics.
After the age of 16, a regular guy starts to see the environment in a way of “what is he capable of changing”.

Of course there are people who will get to that point earlier, just as people who will never achieve that point. It’s just a generalization that was meant to say that it’s perfectly normal for an average teenage guy to think that way.

The reason is actually more complex and simple.

For a normal healthy 16- casual player, the normal thought process goes something like this:
What happened? (I died) – How did it happen? (I got killed) – Who was the one who killed me? (A ranger) – What was the way he killed me? (A longbow burst) – What could I do to avoid it? (50 ways of grey) – What did I actually do? (nothing, really) – Will I do something in the future? (Nah, sounds like a lot of work) – What is easier than that? (come to the forum section and b*tch a little about it)

And there you go. Problem analyzed. Nothing wrong about it. It’s actually pretty easily understandable.

magical giant.8650:

Alright guys thanks for all the comments but here’s my final setup!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjMq0yaHLWsQ1igDhq1KwLAeXsH7N7bGuYiqkA-TZBHABAcEAUb/hkLDU2DAYgLBAA

With this you can pull of some great combos making use of Zephyr’s Speed. Favorite one so far wolf f2, entangle, petswap bird f2 while casting signet of the wild, use GS 5 or SB 5 followed by GS 2 or SB 2. If possible I also always try to make sure I have a weaponswap ready for when I go for bird so it gets fury via “Fortifying Bond”. Can’t wait to try this out in WvWvW roaming once I hit lvl 80

Frankly?
… Will get melted by any and every condition based opponent.
And will still struggle against various Power Based opponents, especially guardians and elementalists.

As Zenos said.

Only 3 hits will be a critical. Also, keep in mind that not 3 attacks, but 3 hits will be critical.

That being said – if you happen to use Piercing Arrows and you hit 3 targets with 1 attack – all will crit and consume all 3 crit stacks. The same goes for Greatsword mechanics. If there are 3 targets and you hit all of them with this sigil – every target will be crit and all of your stacks will be consumed.

Treeoflife.4031:

Curring.9752:

I keep forgetting to get poison mastery to test it though. :/

There is a SB SD build that uses the same trait point distribution as yours but uses doom sigils on both weapon sets as well as poison mastery and the number of evades plus poison uptime looks OP. I have not attempted it yet either but i think it is on my list.

I tried out Sword/Torch and Axe/Dagger last night and ill say the damage was there but i found myself missing the Short Bow.

What about ST and SB combo? You have burn and poison on ST add Geomancy Sigil and sharpening stones for bleed….then you have poison and bleed on SB add Geomancy and Doom for an on swap condi bomb. This is all theoretical but does anyone run this?

About the Poison Mastery … The DPS increase is roughly 100 per second with full condi build. Which with all due respect – is not really noticable (also keep in mind that Poison applied via pet scales with pet stats, not Ranger’s).
Also sacrifices very powerful defensive options that surpass the Poison Mastery in Value by several miles.

The Trait might be considered if you run without Torch and you go Shortbow + Sword/Dagger. That way the poison can be reapplied through pet swap, the damage is increased – and you focus on surviving through SotF, evades and utility. Not the stats or sustain.
You might even consider it important against cleansy-classes that are supposed to sustain a lot – like d/d Eles.

But the thing is – when you take Poison Mastery, you’d like to avoid Sigil of Doom. Simply because you already overcapped your poison duration by a huge amount. Which is a waste of stats. You might rather get the Sigil of Battle for bonus might Or the standard Geomancy. Heck, even Hydromancy is fine.

The spirits are fine.
…
But overrated. If you compare then to any other mechanic that other classes posses – they are abysmal if anything.
They don’t deal damage by themselves unlike Engie turrets, they have internal cooldowns unlike Engie effects, have less HP than engie turrets, and can be targeted by conditions. They also require a whole trait line full of Spirit-only dedicated traits just to be somewhat functional – and even that way they die in a teamfight straight ahead (teamfight is where they are suppose to be – that’s the support way of ranger)

Also – their skills can be interrupted unlike engie turrets – which is crucial especially for Spirit of Nature.

aussieheals.6843:

The shortbow is the most reliable weapon in the game. The arrows fire fast, it has a combination of power and an array of condis and always hits when traited. I think you will find if you actually don’t hold directional arrows you will land a lot more hits while they are trying to flank.

But this is an example of why I want to make the detailed video to show a few tips and tricks that make all the difference and how to control the flow of the fight.

D/D eles are tough as is anyone at the top of their class, however, when you know when to push and when to pull the fight becomes much easier.

Edit: Your also forgetting the second weapon set, hybrid power and CC from pets

From my perspective – shortbow is a “safe pick” weapon. You can daze your target, you can evade backwards, you can cripple the enemy, you can dance around… That’s all safe play.
The only aggressive gameplay means… That the enemy is not paying attention to you. At all. If he was – he wouldn’t let you flank him for bleeds. Which means the damage pattern is not reliable. And the power component is … Low. With all due respect.

It’s not about “top class game play”. It’s about what a class can offer. While d/d ele is capable of winning most of 1v1, he is also capable of bursting huge AoE numbers, just as supporting the teamfight via 3 blast finishers.

Ranger is not even close to such luxury. This build is only good at focusing 1 target at a time and doesn’t even win all of them. 80% duels are skill match-ups which means the Ranger doesn’t really have the upper hand.

Talking about the pet – I’m afraid that goes for every build. Not only this one – so it means there’s no way including it as a “bonus / advantage” in contrast to other available builds.

EDIT: I can also imagine this build being used for bunkering or dueling. Which means mostly 1v1. If you pay attention to the mechanics even in the video – you are definitely going to let them decap your point eventually. You are jumping around and off the point far too often. cPvP is about points, not kills.

Treeoflife.4031:

Crapgame.6519:

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Treeoflife
The rune as such rarely matters. It’s mostly the (6) Rune bonus, and occasionally the (4) bonus. Not the stats the rune offers. The stat difference is close to none.

Thought they nerfed it so one couldn’t mix and match runes for 4/6 bonus?

I think Tragic is only saying that sometimes the no. 4 slotted bonus from a rune set can sometimes be good enough that it could sway your decision when choosing a rune. you are correct that you have to use an entire set while in PvP. I personally don’t think of it was a nerf tho bc a lot of runes were reworked for the better.

^

@Treeoflife
The rune as such rarely matters. It’s mostly the (6) Rune bonus, and occasionally the (4) bonus. Not the stats the rune offers. The stat difference is close to none.

From what I learned and experienced, Beast Master is not efficient enough for the point holding.

It lacks mechanics that other builds offer, like permanent Regen, or more Condition damage, or passive Condi Clear … And all in all – the only useful trait in BM is the Vigor from the pet. Others are not really worth the investment.

But that buff can be achieved even through other trait lines.
One way or another – BM Ranger does not really feel like competitive, since most important part of the pet is not the damage. But the “SotR” or CC… That is available to all lines.

What I found kind of interesting, though, was this build.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0T-DuFFPt0
I came across it the other day, and it actually earned my focus. What it offers is a good burst, better sustain, and very interesting utility.

I haven’t really played it much, yet. But I’ll definitely consider giving it a try.

mistsim.2748:

Aomine.5012:

I disagree with the low skill cap argument for ranger.
Power ranger has some of the highest skill cap, depending on how glassy you are..

I don’t think you quite understand what skill cap is. it’s basically the time and effort required to learn proficiency with a spec/prof. the more tools and CD’s are needed to generate effectiveness, the higher the skill cap. for example, triple kit engies have a high skill cap.

…

This one always bothered me … What actually is a “skill-cap” ? Skill required to play the subject into perfection MECHANICALLY, or skill to play the subject THE MOST EFFICIENT/COMPETITIVE way?

Because let’s say … There is a class that is mechanically worthless… But has the potential through other means like … Let’s say Range, right?
Range without damage is worthless… But if you are able to maintain the range at all times – you can’t be touched and it would equal being played into perfection … But without a single mechanic like stability / cleanse – which means you don’t need any skill about using abilities.
But you need the skill to know when to use them, what to counter, when to bait and when not to and when you can’t afford to use them.

Does it mean harder to be played (you have to outplay much more mechanically powerful classes) or harder to use your abilities efficiently (more cooldowns, require better reflexes, require ability sequence…)?

It’s obvious that mechanically most powerful would be elementalists. As well as they require high skill-cap to track their cooldowns and combo their abilities.
But if Ranger has to win – he has to literally track his enemies patterns, just to be able to outplay him through sheer “counters = evades” and “windows = opportunities to press the button”. Isn’t the requirement to know this stuff a skill-cap for the class, too?

aussieheals.6843:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvvmM6ad_eI

Works extremely well in all situation vs all classes. The build is designed so that each part of the build compliments the other.

Your bow can stack up to 4 bleeds from one hit, massive condi removal, stun breaks, evades, high evasion etc etc.

Movement speed is complimented by the sword and slow with muddy terrain.

Actually thinking about posting a guide for this build because it is ridiculously good when played right.

The build is in description. Have fun (oh and take any main pet)

I have been playing a build similar to this one … But it has huge flaws.

Any condi-pressure class will melt you down. Think d/d eles. There’s no way you’ll be able to compete them. Shortbow is flank restricted that makes it’s damage a bit jumpy. Also, bleeding is the main source of damage …
…
And You need to stack it from 5 different ways
(Sigil / Sharpening Stone / Trait Keen Edge / Elite / Shortbow attack / Crit = minimal)
While it needs to be mentioned that it requires 10 / 36 / 36 / 48 / 0 / 0 seconds just to refresh the cooldown. And from these – only the Weapon Swap sigil of Geomancy can be considered a reliable dueling ability.

While all it requires is to wait 2 seconds and use a cleanse – and all of your blown cooldowns went to nowhere.

d/d eles will not only outshine this build – but even defeat it in a duel.

It definitely is viable – but is hard-countered in current meta in competitive environment. Simply because it lacks a full-cleanse and doesn’t provide the needed condi bomb pressure to compete in duels against sustainable classes.

I used to have Sword + Dagger as a defensive weapon set and Axe + Torch as offensive set.

And I learned the hard way that it’s not effective enough.
It’s better to have a mix of both in both setups.
… Also, Fire Aura from Sword + Torch combo is not half bad either.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Zenos Osgorma
… That still doesn’t really say anything about why is it fair to require your pet to be alive just to earn the 3 seconds of Stealth through whichever reason.

Do you really think it’s absolutely aesthetically correct to throw you on a 60 second cooldown of Pet Swap just because you needed to get 3 seconds of stealth … ?
… Because if you don’t – you might as well leave your keyboard because you’ll die anyway (assuming you had a LB for the Hunter’s Shot – and by using the ability means you were close to death and you were running the only viable build – Glass Cannon).

Is any of the classes’ damage and utility reduced by 30% just because they had to stealth… for 3 SECONDS… With a TRAVEL TIME (not instant) and might fail (not reliable) …?

I’ll be curious about the argumentation.

excuse me , did i mention any dead pets in my comment i only Gave people advise on how to avoid Triggering the traps too quickly or too early also to keep the pet away from you so people can not predict your location , ps PET SWAP does not give stealth.

also if the pet dies thats the rangers fault for not keeping a eye on it , Aka just setting it on attack or passive / then forget about it. The Stealth trapper build for rangers is easy to pick up but hard to control because of said pet if not handled correctly will get you killed or revealed early.

the management of the pet is part of the class that does Effect the builds rangers use especially for their postioning.

you could say the same for Mini pets! that follow you that will also give away your location while running a stealth / trapper (rune of the trapper build)

And yes i do think its unfair for a 60second dead lockdown timer but it is also fair at the same time because it Punishes poor use which in turn makes the pet much more important machanic than the other classes because it is linked to the ranger Pet condis ect , if you want to survive using a Stealth trapper Keep a eye on the kitten pet.

Well, the topic is that Stealth is not really effective, because your pet is going to reveal your position anyways. That is the problem. Not the rune.
We are not talking about Rune of the Trapper, but about a mechanic that is included in it, but also in various other mechanics such as leap finisher into smoke field or LB.3

You mentioned the miniature following you, too. Well you can disable the miniature whenever you feel like. Can you disable your pet… ? Ever ? Can you? ………….. Well thought so …

Now let’s mention the “pet swap”. You said that it doesn’t give stealth. It doesn’t – correct. Did anyone ever said it does? I only remember saying that you need to use pet swap if you want to stealth safely, because your pet is dead the moment you send it to attack, and you need a new one that is alive to send it to attack so that it doesn’t follow you.

Moreover… You said that Ranger should keep the pet alive just to be able to use stealth. That doesn’t really make sense. Because if what you say is true – I am supposed to keep my pet on passive – which MAKES IT FOLLOW ME – which is the whole problem of the topic. Pet revealing the position.
If I keep the pet passive beside me just so I will be able to send it to the battle (to make it a suicide bomber) – then I may as well let it dead and Swap>send the pet when I need to stealth.
Because the pet won’t be available for 60 seconds either way, and it wouldn’t even deal any damage (unlike using the pet to attack in a fight… Not sending it only when you need to stealth).

Wanting and not wanting players to obey the skill cap is another matter. Not the problem of the topic – which is a user-unfriendly mechanic that makes your own pet a disadvantage. And if you want to avoid that – you need to get a disadvantage yourself by not using the pet at all (which A-net wanted to avoid).

Sigmoid.7082:

Tragic Positive.9356:

And Ranger has no immunity to conditions (has plenty of Cleanse if he traits for it, though… But if he traits for it, he has zero “Full cleanse” and can cleanse limited amount at a time only).

Signet of restoration is a full clense for you and your team.
On decent builds on a ranger you will lose 4 condis every 10s as long as your pet is alive and 1 every 10 if not. If there is anything you really need to remove you can use a survival skill.

If I’m correct, none of the viable builds traited for SotF include Signet of the Renewal. There’s no point in doing so. It’s a ridiculous overkill that way – and you’ll miss important utility or defense.

Moreover, decent Ranger builds you are talking about are condition / sustain based. From which almost none include SotF. Which makes the 4 condi cleanse every 10 seconds random (that is just awful and unreliable) and kind of forces the Ranger to go for the On-demand condi cleanse – which indeed is the SotR. Sadly – that will be the only real on-demand cleanse you’ll ever get – and will work only if your pet is within range (often requires a pet swap cooldown) and will kill the pet straight away.

Here I’ll mention that a full condi pressure ranger is still inferior to other Condi Bombing classes, Support Condi Ranger can either be a spirit Ranger or Regen Survival Ranger – that is vastly inferior to other supportive classes, especially the meta Eles, Guards and Engies.

From one perspective or another – Ranger has most of his abilities that sacrifice something for something (Traps are cool example – AoE condi pressure for any defense at all / Spirit Ranger – Support for lack of defense skills / Power Build – raw damage for anything else at all / Skills themselves usually sacrifice your pet, therefore sacrifice your damage and utility for soaking up damage like Protect me! or mentioned Signet of the Renewal / Plenty of abilities force you to swap your pet to be in range just to be effective = not allowing you to use others when you need them).

None of other classes suffer from such a design.
Prove me wrong.

Dadnir.5038:

Other then that, here are the misconception :

- Axe/shortbow are condition weapon, I hope it’s a joke because at a moment they nerfed shortbow range due to player pewpewing in zerk with it and many complaint coming from cough cough PvPer. They are Hybrid weapon.

…

… I disagree here.

It’s like saying that Engineer’s Rifle is a hybrid weapon…
… While we all know that it’s probably no.1 Zerk Weapon.

The fact that it deals both types of damage doesn’t mean that the best way to use it is celestial.
You can’t really claim that a Torch on Ranger is a hybrid weapon, just because it deals direct damage on application, too. The use of the weapon and it’s effectiveness by doing so makes it a “damage-type” oriented. Not the type of damage it deals.

The weapon specced into a stat that makes it FAR inferior to the other version (Power/Condi) is considered to be the other version.

Moreover, Signet of Stone nullifies only the direct damage. It’s not immortality. Also, “Protect Me” does not really soak up conditions either (and can soak up up to 29 707 HP – assuming we took a useless meat stick doing nothing). And Ranger has no immunity to conditions (has plenty of Cleanse if he traits for it, though… But if he traits for it, he has zero “Full cleanse” and can cleanse limited amount at a time only).

@Zenos Osgorma
… That still doesn’t really say anything about why is it fair to require your pet to be alive just to earn the 3 seconds of Stealth through whichever reason.

Do you really think it’s absolutely aesthetically correct to throw you on a 60 second cooldown of Pet Swap just because you needed to get 3 seconds of stealth … ?
… Because if you don’t – you might as well leave your keyboard because you’ll die anyway (assuming you had a LB for the Hunter’s Shot – and by using the ability means you were close to death and you were running the only viable build – Glass Cannon).

Is any of the classes’ damage and utility reduced by 30% just because they had to stealth… for 3 SECONDS… With a TRAVEL TIME (not instant) and might fail (not reliable) …?

I’ll be curious about the argumentation.

And yet, no one even realized that we have a master trait that boosts Ferocity on a pure Condition based weapon. (yep, I’m talking about Honed Axes)
At a trait line for Zerk (Crit/Fero).

Strange how everyone is okay with that. I haven’t been for years. Now if we put that on a “in any hand” – that would be okay. The damage increase would still only be around 7% on a full Zerk Ranger – and the Ranger itself. Would also boost the melee damage only, not the Ranged which rookies still complain about.

If your pet is dead – you can either choose to let it follow you in it’s “downed” state…
… Or you can swap the pet – revealing the position anyways and sending it to attack.

Which for a 3 second stealth is a load of pointless effort.

Hey guyz …
… Haven’t you realized that the OPer is not interested in facts? =D

You have known for a long time that he doesn’t really care, the numbers here are already stated, explained and proved – and you know he still goes in circles with a statement that has been denied over and over again.

I hereby release you from your duty to lose your precious time here =D
Feel free to move on =D

Vizardlorde.8243:

reflects are a risk, if retaliation were not garbage it would also be a risk to rangers. the only profession that would have a hard time fighting back would be a necro due to lack of reflects and poor mobility.

Retaliation is actually a problem for the ranger…
… Ever tried to blow no.5 into a Zerg? I usually had to blow my heal and hide because I lost over 10K hp just from that. 350 damage multiplied by 5 that’s somewhere around 1800 damage per second… And it lasts for a while. And signet of stone won’t soak it up.

If you are looking for a casual exp way
Go with Power,Prec,Fero stats – pick a greatsword.

You’re going to enjoy it. You won’t really have to pay attention to much of the stuff, you’ll get 30% evade uptime, you’ll have that Big Hit button, you’ll have the stun and you’ll have that bonus mobility.

Easy as that.

Anywhere in competitive – you’re going to need a more professional setup. But you already know that. And there are lots of builds for every environment of that kind.

I’m going to give you a payback for the bonus 300 range over other classes.

It’s called -30% overall DPS, since the Pet can’t be attacking from that range. Literally. At max Range – your pet gives a “too far away” error message.

That should be enough of compensation.
But if it is not – I’ll say that Ranger is only fine at 1v1 or 2v1. In every situation where he can be focused by a person he is not attacking – he is practically a dead meat. Not even a Meat Stick.

So being powerful only in 1v1 where he starts at 1500 range, or when outnumbering his enemy … Is not even close to being overpowered.

These would be clear ego issues. It’s not like the class is overpowered. It’s only that the OP is too lazy to try a different approach or learn how to play the right way.
Since it’s easier to complain about it on forums.

Thank you all for your feedback =)
What I mostly had in mind with this build is the potential of applying 13 bleed stacks… In a single ability cast that cannot really be dodged that easily (Mud Terrain).

I guess swapping Shortbow for Sword + X might be a good idea. I just felt like Shortbow is a cool utility weapon, and Axe+Torch is the deadly set.
If you happen to bait your enemy’s cooldowns through using Shortbow and kiting, you have easier time swapping to Axe – Rooting – blowing ridiculous amount of bleed stacks + increasing it further since Axe gives might.

I don’t really think that Sharpened Edges and the passive Trait copy overwrite each other often… When I bring the target to 75% HP – it means I usually blew my bomb with Sharpened Edges … Or I saved it for finishing the target off meaning I didn’t really think of using it early anyways.

I’m basically just trying to think out of the box. I have understood long ago that Ranger never will be the no.1 condi class.

This build is slightly different from the Survival Condi …
… And is more Condi Bombing oriented.

Anyone played something similar or thought of playing one?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV3fjMq0waHL2sQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg789G+6SWRUA-TZRFwAAuAAJOIARLDo4JAka/BA

It has a trade of defenses (requires track of fight since all Condi Clear and dmg mitigation comes from active abilities)
for a much higher condi pressure.

Haven’t tried out in competitive, yet… But I guess it might work in some cases.
Any feedback is appreciated.

Oh… That’s a disappointment…

Thanks for the replies, though.
I appreciate it.

I was just bored, trying some build alternatives from which some were a BM Hybrid focusing on team support via Vigor, AoE regen and an occasional heal burst…
…
And when I finally made one and hurried in-game to try it out – I got face-bombed.

Is there a reason why Fern Hound does NOT inherit any heal power coefficient from it’s master? GW2 build editor persuaded me that it does (and it would be absolutely magnificent if it did, since the build was interesting).

Is it a bug, was there a nerf, or is that intended… ?
(I’m thinking the same about pets’ condition damage stat – but I was aware of this not working)

DarkWasp.7291:

Don’t we want to be good rangers?

We do.
…
But most of the rangers here in forums are already good enough.
We – the forum community – are the ones to speculate, try new things out, improve, search for “new meta” … That’s what we do – right.

And I don’t mean this in a bad way but…
… The “meta” build that the community came up with (the highest DPS build – which is your goal)has been here ever since LB was patched which is like half a year ago.
… And you wouldn’t believe, but it did not include signet of the hunt.

Practically – not many of us run the build, since it differs on the situation – but I think we already are aware of this issue. What I think is that the forum community usually tries to search for some other ways to save time rather than the way that has been repeated so many times over and over again.
If a single and simple utility slot makes you uncomfortable playing the game (falling behind and stuff) – I guess the 45 seconds from a full 40 minute run is hardly noticeable… Not to mention that falling behind = loosing DPS = lost time.

anduriell.6280:

How easy? That sounds like when steve jobs said “you are not holding the phone right”.

Please spare me the L2P bs. It’s not about how you play is about doing things right. The skill is broken because is does not work as it supposed to be, you use it when you need to hide. Right now you must have too many things in mind thing that take the fun out from playing this class.

As i said this kind of problems you don’t have with other classes. That’s why is easier to play with them and not because the are OP compared to the ranger.
The ranger has many of his mechanics broken: Sword#3 doesn’t hit most of the time, Sword#1 root in place even delaying new commands, you can’t evade when needed.

If i use LB#3 is because i have to hide. Period. If i use Sword#2 is because i need to evade. When this things don’t work reliably we can say the skill is BROKEN. And we have many of this already.

I could assume that you consider Signet of the Wild broken, just as Rampage as one.
… Because you need stability in order to get stability since both of those can be interrupted (both have cast times). Because you have to figure the enemy build and weapons out, track their cooldowns and bait their interrupts or stun them (can be interrupted too and can miss due to blind as well) in order to get the stability.

Jesus, why waste the time with LB#3? Everything else is broken twice as much!

@Aomine
While I do agree with most of the facts you stated about conditions, I partly have to disagree about some statements.

This build might be viable in constructive PvP. Maybe not the tournament games, but this is nowhere around that level.

Anyways : This build can actually evade / block lots of conditions as well.
But what counts is not what it can evade, but what it offers. And it’s very tanky nature with passive 1/3 evade uptime, very strong CC through 2×2 sec knockdown + 1×1,5 sec Fear (AoE) + 3 sec Stun/Daze + 2×1,5sec knockback
-everything while in possession of noticeable power spikes (that are also AoE)

Here I’ll mention that SotR not only cleanses you – but EVERYONE on point close to the pet. I’ll also mention the AoE cripple through Longbow is useful as well. For a strange reason, this build includes a Spotter which is a 7% crit for your team, too.
And I do think that such an amount of CC is pretty much viable by itself.

You might not be able to duel up everyone with this build – but I’m 75% sure that you can survive more than 20 seconds at even a 1v3 situation which buys more than enough of the time needed for your team to come help or cap the rest of the map.

You see – sPvP is not all about winning a duel. Bunkering a point for the time needed is one of the most important parts of the objectives. And this build definitely can do that…
… For that – I can imagine Healing Spring a much better option since it cleanses 6 conditions – you’ll be fighting on point anyways – and it works cool with Swoop ability.

Pros:

1. High Survivability through stats and passive evades
2. Able to disrupt enemies – 2 knockbacks = Ideal for Bunkering a point
3. 2 stun breakers and 24 second stability
4. Noticeable burst on a short cooldown
5. Glorious Decapper

And now for not-so-pleasant cons:

1. Absolutely no dueling cleanse ability (one can not rely on the signet 100% of the time)
2. Relies heavily on an easily avoided Maul ability. The only reliable combo to apply the burst is on 12 second cooldown and requires LB:2 > LB:3 > Swap > flank position + interrupt requirement > GS:5 > GS:2 which can be avoided by way too many means
3. The only ability to cleanse immobilize effects puts you out of range of your main damage weapon
4. You really need to swap the Steady Focus from MM to either II or IV
5. Is outshined in sustained / burst damage by almost any other class > is not the best bunker, not the best DPSer, neither best CC machine nor the best decapper. Just the mash-up of mentioned above.

Even though I have to say the build is interesting. It definitely looks viable. I can just imagine it outshined by anything else.

Well, yep, I do agree that SotH is not probably the no.1 DPS choice of ability…
… But then again, PvE today is about saving time.

And there are 3 ways to do that.

1. Offense (Zerk Gear / Might stacks / Fury)
2. Mobility (Swiftness, Leaps) – here belongs the Signet of the Hunt
3. Skipping (Invisibility, Mesmer Portal)

Any of those work just as fine. Even though the DPS is probably the most significant since the fight can vary from 5 second fight to 1 minute. I’ll mention that the Signet will make only a slight difference since QZ has a 60 sec. CD (no one traits it in PvE).

Mentioning stability… Is not the ranger supposed to have the Signet of the Wild you mentioned when entering a fight? Not to mention that Rampage as One is the no.1 PvE Elite Skill that grants over 20 seconds of that. Which means you are going to have 30 seconds of stability with activation of the signet.
Stun Breaker is not really what matters. The tunnel vision is.

It’s the same as saying that Mesmers do not care if they do not trait Reflects but Cleansing and Stability mantra (which also gives them a DPS boost through traits). It’s still helping to achieve the goal, but through different means. If I have perma swiftness – I never run SotH. I run it only if the team “doesn’t care” (as you mentioned) and does not bring the perma swiftness – which is most of the time.

I have seen 3 rangers beside me to know what to do in dungeons.
… But do you really think I have time to personally check every single one of those?

If they Have a Spotter + Frost Spirit traited > I couldn’t care less about their 2nd and 3rd skill. They usually run SotW, but if they are Frost Spotter – I’m running a mesmer anyways. So they don’t really need the Quickening Zephir.

I’ve seen plenty of Meta Runs where you simply didn’t have the swiftness. And if you did – definitely not a permanent one. I don’t see a clear reason why to bring this topic up.

If the ranger is behind – he’s wasting others’ time. He can swap to QZ before the boss encounters.
But I still think that something semi-personal bothers you. I thought that we – the forum community – already know that 85% of Rangers are useless selfish bearkitten.

If the Ranger has a brain – he’ll definitely find uses for the SotH. If an intelligent ranger picked the signet – he did it on purpose.
If the Ranger’s an idiot – not only you won’t find him here, but he’ll ignore you regardless.

I love my Jungle Stalker, though.

I only manage to blow whole Barrage, Rapid Fire and swap to melee by the time it manages to cast the 3;1/2 second cast time for the glorious 5 Might Stacks.
Also… Why is it the ONLY pet ability that goes on full cooldown after being interrupted? No effect has been applied – so there’s zero reason not to refund it as a standard interrupt.

And well, most of pets get their F2 abilities screwed. My Lynx or Snow Leopard hardly ever hit their jumps when the target was trying to escape (which Snow Leopard should prevent).

If I’m thinking about reliably using Drakes for their abilities, first I have to check if the enemy already used both Dodge Rolls so I can immobilize him (which leads me to another point), and if I can afford to take Entangle and Mud Terrain as skills > since I have to immobilize the target and make sure I can re-immobilize him once he cleansed it just to hold him at a place where the drake might potentially hit him.

Some skills have fine cast times like Wolf’s fear. It should have a counter-window and I’m fine with that. But some are just annoyingly and unnecessarily long without any particular reason.

Why am I the only one satisfied with this ability and had my battles won thanks to this countless times… ?
…
Am I really the only one to adapt to the game and play according to it – not playing it based on my believes and cry in forums that my hopes are not fulfilled… ?
…
Furthermore, I believe you are playing a Ranger, not a thief to escape or use stealth offensively. You are a Ranger. You should use it for fighting and using surroundings in your advantage.
…
If you can’t really use your own abilities properly… Then I guess nothing, even#1 wouldn’t be viable. Because you actually have to hit 1 in order to deal damage. And yes, it’s supposed to be a damage ability, and it won’t deal damage UNLESS YOU HIT IT. Well, what a surprise.

That much for the arguments I’ve witnessed in here.

I’d just want the cast times reduced on both #2 and #3
I usually get killed at a time where I should be evading.
And that’s not user friendly

Soilder.3607:

Just had an idea. What if camouflage reduced incoming damage by say 50% while it was active?

So, you get stunned, your camouflaged, warrior knows your camouflaged so he queues his 100b burst, but now you take half damage instead of simply eating it while invisible?

Sounds fine by me.
…
If not too powerful.

It has flaws… But also very rewarding uses.

For example – if you pair it with Shared Anguish – and someone tried to interrupt your finisher > not only you’ll push the CC onto the pet – but you’ll also become invisible for the time you are finishing your target.

This mechanic won pretty serious teamfights for me countless times.
It also helped me survive, because even if it lasts for 1 second only if you were knocked or feared – it also detargets you – giving you some precious time and window for errors to your enemy.

Remus Darkblight.1673:

Because World of Warcraft is the font from which all original ideas spring forth? It’s not an original idea but it’s certainly not stolen from World of Warcraft. You can find plenty of examples of ranger-esque characters using different types of arrows in video games long before Blizzard behemoth hit the scene.

That being said, and this is probably the wrong thread for it given that it is clearly not to be taken seriously, different arrow preparations is perhaps not a bad idea as a mechanic. So many people want to get rid of the pet, so why not have preparations as a unique mechanic toggle, like Elementalist attunements, except they provide a passive effect to your attacks rather than changing your primary skills?

I yield. You got me at this one.

But I still don’t think that implementing a brand new mechanic – that would take half a year to balance in practice and find all the exploits that players would come up with, possible OP builds and so on – is worth taking Developers time instead of finding solutions for already clunky mechanics we have.

I’d rather have my Ranger rewarding than fancy.

Jelzouki.4128:

A cooler mechanic than dual longbow would be giving rangers special arrows that serve different purpose i.e fire arrow, etc.

This is actually stolen from World of Warcraft. I don’t think we need it.
We have trait for crippling our ranged targets, we have runes for chilling them or blasting with fire. That idea is not needed in my opinion.

Sube Dai.8496:

…
but the fact that it stacks with GS #1 Evade would arguably make it better suited to the GS.

But its still crap regardless.

How does it stack, if may I ask? It overlaps each other, I’m afraid. If you evade an attack – you evade the attack. Yet you can destroy a projectile that has already been evaded.

The thing is that it has synergy with it. It doesn’t “stack” with it.
The trait is actually less useful on GS than on sword.

I didn’t have a problem joining any group, for a few months now.

If I don’t count “meta a**holes” that kick everyone except Warrior/Guard/Ele … While they don’t even realize that Rangers will beat the former 2 in damage scenario with the PvE meta build.