Guild Wars 2

Maybe it could work with my former try of full melee Ranger build.
…
I’ll give it some proper testing once my exams are over. Which will be in one week.
If you can keep on hold till that – I’ll do that =)
Or I can throw the build I used for someone else to try it out.

Crapgame.6519:

Tragic Positive.9356:

For PvP we have plenty of options, even though I wouldn’t recommend Power GlassBow at all. You’ll see many of then, so be aware.

Not sure I would agree with this statement. For any class really.

Playing Glass/Zerk in any class brings high risk with great reward. It isn’t for the feint of heart, no. Nor would I recommend for the beginning player. However, there is a element of play style here that can prove to be a challenge.

I’m aware of your point. But since (I’ll help myself quoting the OP here)

Are rangers even viable in any game mode? As a new player i have been searching the wep for imformation about which class to choose. Every time people discuss rangers, they tend to call it useless and promotes other classes instead?

…

This is the reason why I wouldn’t recommend the GlassBow. 1st of all – it’s easily focused which is not a friendly environment for newcommers – it’s a bad reputation for rangers AND his own – and I couldn’t possibly see any good outcome doing so.

Of course there are several uses of GlassBow ranger. But that is up to the OP to decide when he becomes more friendly with the Ranger class.

I’m fine with it as well.
… But I never had the will to test it: Does it cleanse poison and blind on any evade? Like GS Swoop or Dagger evade?

For PvE – we have 1 meta build that surpasses even DPS warriors and DPS guardians in damage.
For WvW – we are excellent at small-scale roaming parties. Not useful in Zergs at all.
For PvP – There are some viable condition builds. Also supporty builds through spirits. For PvP we have plenty of options, even though I wouldn’t recommend Power GlassBow at all. You’ll see many of then, so be aware.
For open PvE – we are easy to play, and profit is there.

Rangers are more than Viable. You’ll just need to get hold of it. Get used to pet management, pet choices and swallow up that for PvP you are glued to 2 must-have trait lines.

Jim Hunter.6821:

As much as I would love this Rangers have an evade built into the GS auto attack… it would be way too powerful.

There’s a 10 second internal cooldown anyways.
I don’t see how would this make the Ranger overpowered, considering he can already cleanse over 20 conditions per 10 seconds.

Let’s say that with high healing power you’ll heal around 350 per second through the regeneration boon, 320 through your elite and you’ll have even the Water Spirit for some bonus healing (which is not that high).

Your Sylvari hound can heal for 4K every 20 seconds, and your Moa can heal up for 4K every 40 seconds if I’m correct.

That’s somewhere around 700 per second with 4K active heals. Water Spirit might heal around 600 every 10 seconds, and the active component might heal for 1500 with healing power?
I’m not sure. Too lazy to check it atm.

I’m still positive that the only thing that makes Ranger a good support is the Stone Spirit, Elite Spirit for ressurection, Water Field and it’s cleanse component (6 condis in 10 seconds is actually pretty fine considering it’s AoE)

It’s not like being “worthless”
… But you practically block a space for meaningful player.

This build does not grant your team immortality, it doesn’t give any straightforward advantage… And your damage is very close to pet alone – which is … Weak. Since the pet is not even a feline.

All in all – there is only one place where I needed a healing spec. And that’s Mai Trin in fractals. Because you don’t need damage there. You need to survive there. And since the only change-providing ability does not scale with healing power at all (elite)… There’s no point in investing into Healing Power.

In my humble opinion – you’d be more useful with an Off-hand Axe than a Warhorn. You’d be able to interrupt an enemy – also pulling him to melee range – where your group is. You’d also apply 12% vulnerability and provide AoE reflection bubble.

Which is thousandfold superior to overcapped regeneration, overcapped swiftness and 1 blast finisher. That is what I can tell you.

If you want to support your team up – Bring Longbow to your bag, open with 15 vulnerability stacks, swap to sword+axe pull the enemy to you – apply another 12 stacks from axe – and your party would be more thankful than giving them permanent Regeneration that hardly ever made a difference.

If we are talking about PvP – You have no stability to play a role of point-holder. You’d also be killed sooner or later.

If you really want to be a life-saver – just having your elite spirit is enough. Ressing your teammates is more than enough support. Regeneration is worthless.

I agree that Ranger is the most unreliable class in this game, so far.

While I like to fight with pets, I hate being unable to rely on them.
If I can’t rely on my sword because it kills me more often than it saves me – and I can’t rely on my pet that is useless more often than not – I’d like to have at least competitive options for game-play.

I do not support pet-less options, but I’d really welcome a simple swap of mechanics from our Sword to our Pet’s attack. Just as giving them a more survivability, since you can’t tell your pet where to stand and when to avoid the damage.

There has been a nice idea lately that made your pet evade all attacks for 1 second when you dodge roll. I’d also add a trait that would remove 2 conditions from your pet by doing that.

If those mechanics would be implemented, I wouldn’t have a single problem with competitive scene.
(Offtopic, I’d also like some more defensive options for Spirits. Engie turrets got bubbles, are immune to condis, can be repaired quickly… Spirits don’t have even close to the luxury)

Einlanzer.1627:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Why do people chose the pet class of the game, and afterwards come to forums to cry about not wanting pets?

It is plain simple. FEEL FREE to pick a class of the remaining 7, 8 soon.

Rangers are the PET CLASS of the game. If you don’t like it, leave us alone. Enough qq already from people who dislike pets.

Don’t be silly – nobody is trying to get rid of your pet. They just want additional options, especially seeing as how the Ranger has a much broader concept than just “the pet class”.

That would be similar to want mesmers without Clones and Illusions, because you can’t control when they attack and where to stand.

And can you? I’m afraid you can’t. Arena-Net clearly stated that Ranger class is the class that possesses a pet, and should not fight without it. If you don’t like this concept – there are other classes with different ones.

That’s all there is to it.

I might be wrong but…
… Doesn’t the signet icon start ticking into translucent mode when it is activated?
Because all boons start doing that when it’s going to last less than 5 seconds. And since Signet of stone lasts for 6 seconds – the 1st second you can see the icon above the head, and the rest you can see the icon.

I didn’t have any problem realizing the mode he is in so far. But if the change happens, I wouldn’t probably mind.

The Greatsword is viable mostly at encounters that requires you to move or dodge abilities. Greatsword will always be better at these fights since you can’t attack on the move. If you stop attacking – you stop dealing damage, and at that point Greatsword just blasts a sword anyday.

Anywhere else, Sword offers better utilization such as a bonus blast finisher, AoE swiftness, Reflect… But that has already been mentioned.

It always depends on the situation, I suppose.

In dungeon runs you should still be able to maintain +-24 might uptime and permanent fury uptime, since Ele/Guard is the meta. Which means that if you do not get these buffs – in solo game-play, GreatSword is definitely better in everything. Faster movement (swoop) – faster results. Sword would never compete with the distance advantage, which makes Greatsword superior. The damage difference is not that high.

In Dungeons and Party content – you are mostly full on buffs at all times and probably won’t need to stress about movement, since AoE swiftness will do the job. Here – sword is far superior for it’s better damage output.

Actually, Longbow hits so kittenly because of Sigil of Fire and Sigil of Air.
… If you look closely, it deals around 35% of the Rapid Fire burst.

And it provides some nice and valuable utility. But it’s not like it deals that much damage as people say. Also, if the enemy happens to have Retaliation … Not to mention on AoE basis … Then goodbye anyone who stick with the Longbow for more than a knock-back.

rapthorne.7345:

As far as I can understand it, a group cleanse is a pretty kitten useful skill to have (though, in my opinion, not the best of the ranger pet actives by far) Why is there so much hate towards “bearbow” rangers?

Because entering a dungeon with a Bear pet as default means trouble.
It means that the player has not even the basic knowledge about the PvE meta, and not even what people try to achieve in PvE environment (clear it as fast as possible).

If you prefer 2 condi cleanse (that wouldn’t change the outcome of you living or not) to 5 AoE might that boosts your group DPS by roughly 6% and boost your personal by 20% – than I’d get sick of the idea that the guy is supposed to be called the same class as I am.

Make no mistake, Sir. Bears are useful.
But expression “BearBow” targets selfish players who do not care about anyone but themselves. Players that do not bring anything to the party, usually run 2-3 signets (and sometimes a Quickening Zephyr), and suck at damage since they always get stuck at 1500 range ignoring party buffs and going AFK spamming 1…. Occasionally 2.

Do you really believe that a player that picked a Bear as a default pet … ever uses his “Shake it off!” ? I haven’t seen one to use it at a right time. Always used for selfish cases.

When I know that we will need a condi cleanse – I keep the bear as a secondary pet, and when the cleanse is needed – I swap to it – cleanse the party, and swap back again as fast as possible. Most of the groups don’t even notice I used a bear. But I used it. I did not try to find excuse for my selfish issues in order to keep him as a default pet.
EDIT: I usually swap an ability to Signet of the Renewal at those heavy Condi bombed fights to cleanse my whole party via my bear. And of course – that pet is sentenced to death – so I swap him back afterwards.

psizone.8437:

…

The only main downside to ranger is the lack of decent condition removal.
The one we have as a heal doesn’t heal as well as Trolls Unguent. The condi removal on survival skill use is in a trait line that not too many rangers go into and would have to give up other, more needed, traits and a timed passive traited condi removal that requires your pet to be close (there’s a signet that does a similar thing).

…

You mean…
~6 conditions cleansed in AoE per 10 seconds on a 30 sec CD (skill)
~3 conditions swapped to your pet every 10 seconds (Trait)
~1 condition cleansed every 10 seconds – allowing you to get rid of ALL condis on use (60 sec, CD) (Signet)
~2 conditions cleansed on each survival ability used, which can ramp up up to 8 active condi cleanse and 2 additional from Keen Edge trait in Marksmanship tree – ending up in 10 condi cleanse on demand (Trait)
~2 condi cleanse from Bear if you really needed

… That’s not enough? I was pretty much condi immune on my former build. What exactly about Ranger condi cleanse is not fine?

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Just a tip for those of you talking about using condition pets with condition builds; pets conditions overwrite yours. Thus resulting in a pretty major DPS loss. If you’re a condition build always choose a power pet or a pet that provides conditions that you do not.

As for Devourers being good for stacking might, two drakes are just fine for that as well. Swap them while standing in a firefield and they’ll blast it with tail swipe.

I was unaware that Devourers were good for might stacking so that’s interesting but I would still rank them among our worst pets. Regardless, use what you enjoy unless you’re a fan of being meta (which personally I’m not).

Also, also.. Another thing that makes Devourer’s bad is that they have a retreating attack which is terrible when you’re trying to stack NPC’s in WvW…

I wouldn’t say that Devourers are the worst pets. They are just super situational. But I usually use them on Tequatl, since they’ll boost me up with more might, providing better damage than a Spider would. When my melee pet dies – devourer is my pet of choice.

Also, Drakes on world bosses would rarely blast might fields, when there is like 40 of fields in there… Not to mention that some bosses need you to stay Ranged to stay alive. So drakes won’t blast anything since they need melee range for casting that.

In my opinion, it’s kinda … Blindfolded to say that a pet is useless, just because you haven’t found an effective use for them.

SilverWF.4789:

Not, all is OK. Have no idea about what game-mode you are talking, but in the every mode we have our own + and -, also as any another class

There’s something that almost no other class has to endure.
…
Bearbow community. Which is like 80% of the rangers in this game. And I’m not even exaggerating. 4 out of 5 Rangers are like that. No other class in this game is so hated as rangers are. I’ve never seen any class besides Ranger to be kicked for playing the class (without checking for build).

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

It is garbage. Devourer’s are worse than bears. At least Brown Bear and Black Bear have useful F2’s where as Devourer’s are just crap all around.

Still, if you enjoy it no harm in using it.

I wouldn’t say this twice. Because I realized that I haven’t met a single Ranger player… A Single one… That would know that Devourers are the best Might Stacking pets when it comes to Rampage as One.
And with 3 points in Natural Magic – they’ll boost themselves by the same amount of might as they provide to you.

While bear is an empty meat-stick that does nothing but sit around being useless – occasionally cleansing 2 stacks of bleeding or something – devourers provide a knockback, stay alive for longer since they are ranged (less vulnerable to AoE), provide occasional Bleed bomb and stack you up with might during Rampage as One.

Ryan.9387:

SotR?

Signet of the Renewal – that signet that pulls all conditions onto your pet. Also a stun breaker. Also cleanses 1 condi every 10 sec.

There are downsides.
We are not the cPvP meta, and most of our design is not reliable (pets, spirits).

Also, we have no burst in cPvP, either. We can only apply the burst in WvW, where as you say – we win only because we have the highest range in the game. Not because our damage is highest (because it is not).
Also, Rangers are more vulnerable than anyone else when trying to perform their burst. Because being immobile and channeling for 2,5 seconds, and having to channel another 1,25 is a risky business.

Also, Rangers have no burst. They have powerful tunnel vision DPS pattern. Not the burst. (If you need 4 seconds for your burst – throughout which the DPS is scattered continually – it’s no burst at all). Practically useless for cPvP, taking into account that you are literally a one-shot target in this version.

Rangers are great skirmishers. But they do not excel at Damage, neither utility. Elementalists are the ones who can do all of that.

The thing is, that if you cast Swoop, and you get immobilized for (let’s say 6 seconds), you are practically more than stunned for 6 seconds, because abilities cannot be cast in air (and swoop acts like putting you in air).
So you can’t even use stun breakers like Lightning Reflexes, because you are still in air, immobilized. The window where you can get immobilized is short, but it’s still there and it’s a life/death difference.

You can only be saved via SotR that can be cast anytime, if I’m correct.

@mistsim
I guess you are right. Settler is still the way to go even with my offensive variation.
I was probably afraid of the low HP it provided, since it’s super vulnerable against heavy condi bombing… But I seem to do just fine with the SotR.

Anyways, it’s more of a fun variation anyways. For Ranked plays there’s always the Condi/Survival stuff.

While we are at it – I found a celestial way of Beast Master.
… I have to thank the creator of this thread for encouraging me to take up on Beast Mastery again. It has been my favorite specialization since I was playing MMO games.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fnMqQrgWxC+rAXLI4QoafC/6IwKA+Vs+e3LWpEJ-TZhHwAEeAAAOIABODAGLDke/BA

This build is a bit more squishy, but ridiculously deadly. There is just no way anyone is able to keep up with the damage this build provides. It also gets:
- access to Vigor through Healing Spring (AoE)
- gives lots of evades
- immunity against Condi Bombing
- 2 different ways of stability (shared anguish is not needed)
- And ridiculously deadly damage output through hybrid damage that is hard to be countered. This build easily boosts pet in 25 might uptime, and also provides around 15 might for the ranger as well.
- Defenses are over 2600 Armor and 21K HP

This build is the best variation I could come up with. Please feel free to give it a try. It’s a bit of a different game style, because offense is your most valuable defense (enemy won’t have time to attack), but you need to keep track of enemy cooldowns in order to evade the right attacks. If you learn to do that – this Build is capable of swallowing even Point Holder Guardians alone in considerably short time period.

mistsim.2748:

…
BM definitely feels like the stronger bunker (even though we’re not true bunkers) and the damage is very comparable if birds are controlled well.

Actually, Rangers are one of the better bunkers. We are just not point-holders. We can’t out-sustain or live-through a fight, but we do win most of skirmishes. That makes us fine bunkers. But not point holders.
There’s only this slight difference

Just to throw my 2 cents about the BM empathic bond.

The truth is, that with the BM tree, you get a pet swap on 15 seconds cooldown. Which is pretty significant if you can keep the track of it (if you don’t use glassy pets like Birds or Cats as 1st pets, but rather a Swap/burst – they won’t die that easily). That means that it basically allows you not only to cleanse yourself, but still keep pets running.
The problem begins when the fight is heavy AoE oriented, but that’s not often the bunker scenario. Bunkering a point means usually 1v1 or 1v2 fights at best, usually duel oriented. Sooo, ye. The trait will definitely hinder your pet and it’s DPS – but it’s not a bad trait. It just feels wrong for pet lowers, but it’s definitely not a bad choice.

Oh, and also, about the celestial stats – they are fine, but they are fine at Might Stacking builds. I’m running a Celestial build now, myself, but it’s kinda unique and I haven’t seen anyone else run it. Anyways – a BM Ranger utilizes around evading damage and healing up, while conditions and his pet deal constant continual damage. 60% of your skirmishing time is evading. You don’t need power, neither precision or ferocity. By investing into celestial with BM build – you don’t get 37% bonus stats. You trade around 40% of your important stats for 60% of the useless ones.

I have to support Sube Dai in this one.
0/0/6/4/4 would definitely be even my way to go.

Even as a bunker – you have to constantly focus on dealing with your opponents, not “staying alive”… If you just wanted a meat stick to occupy the point – you’d take full tank Guardian.
Rangers are bunkers, but not natural point holders. We are able to deal with plenty of match-ups, but we were not made to endure long fights outnumbered. We can evade specific bursts of a person, but we are are inferior when it comes to mitigating damage.

That’s why we bet on control/utility and Hybrid Pressure via conditions and pets.

And for that role – having your pets powerful is as good as always.

In my opinion it lacks … Pressure. I mean, you don’t have any high Bleed bomb, any conditions you apply can be cleansed with ease and you need quite some time to apply them. Also, as a bunker, you won’t usually meet you enemies showing backs to you.

Truth be told, the build might feel safer if you picked Sword + Torch instead of the Shortbow. You’ll also provide a fire field > Fire aura for yourself and boost your pet DPS even further via high Might uptime.

Burning is very precious and powerful condition. If this build is meant for team-fights, SB it might be fine. You’d get more CC and you could apply more Bleeds to unaware enemies.

But if you tend to go for straightforward Bunker – than I suppose Sword+Torch just have to replace your shortbow and you have some nice Regen BM build out there. But I still have a feeling that I’d choose a different Trait than Invigoration bond. Since you are a solo bunker, you are loosing like 75% of the ability’s potential.
Heck, I’d even go for the Pet Natural regeneration rather than so little heal on such a significant cooldown.

Mades.5706:

First thanks all of you .

I’ve just started to play dungeon and it was very fun to play , very nervous and i love ranger playstyle. First time i’ve play this way, and it’s awesome how i can survive during a fight.
My ranger will be my new main character !

Welcome to the club, then I have to admit that I haven’t seen many dungeons where a Ranger got kicked out for being ranger any more… But I suppose it might still happen occasionally, so just cheer up some other way and keep playing, don’t let it get you down

Mades.5706:

So i need to craft both weapons and switch for each situation … Thanks !

Good to know sword and gs fight specificity , you really help me !
Also sword/x or gs > Lb for dps ? But what’s Lb fight specificity then ?

There is no specificity in Longbow. The reasoning is simple. Any Ranged weapon in this game will stay inferior to any melee weapon in this game.
You’re gonna use Longbow at times where you simply have to fight with a Ranged weapon.

Apart from that – it offers the most initiative tunnel burst for the least time cast. Which makes it perfect for opening the fight – it will apply a high uptime of Slow (10% damage increase via traits), it will apply 10 stacks of vulnerability for anyone who attacks it (10% dmg increase) – and then you simply go for your highest damage output, which is a melee weapon.

Also, you’d definitely like to go for GS instead of s/x at bosses that are heavy AoE oriented.

Sword is going to make you lose precious seconds that may eventually lead you to sure death. In fractals there are bosses as such. And sword even with #1 unbound might pose a threat for it’s own wielder.

However, it is the superior DPS weapon. It will always beat GS on single target bosses. The only time where it won’t is a fight where you have to move around. With Sword – you are practically immobile. In order to move, you have to stop your attacks. That’s where GS will be able to outshine the sword. No other exceptions besides heavy AoE fights.

monepipi.5160:

Shortbow is not a power weapon. Its for condi bleed stacks and poison. And theres a legit PVP build for ranger, its called tanky/regen trap condi which is far superior than the longbow #2 spamming nonsense that gets owned by anyone whos remotely competent.

And to the OP: Ranger sucks balls at dungeon PVE

It’s fun that you don’t realize that the obvious. I’m talking about both Power and Condi builds. Don’t you need to to spam ~1 on shortbow to keep the Condi Pressure of bleeds? Oh am I wrong?

Also, one of the best meta PvE classes sucks balls. Now that’s news for me.

It has it’s uses…
It also can be fun.

But you’ll find yourself experimenting a bit. To find what suits you and whatnot. I distance myself from Power PvP by far. Power is just a no-no for PvP. But in WvW you have the needed distance and you don’t need to contest a point. So yea – it definitely can be useful and fun.

Go for it.

Fester.9328:

As far as auto attack being our highest damage…im not so sure what you mean. There are plenty of burst skills, and even condi skills spread out across our weapons, which of course you have to use properly. Is this what you meant by timing?

When it comes to other classes like Mesmers and Thieves – those who can afford to play power build thanks to their utility – you can see their damage pattern.
Mesmers can go boom with Mind Wreck (F1), they can go boom with GS 2>4>3, they can use sword 3>3>2 … And they can choose depending on the situation they are in. Every single one of these hurts.

The same thing goes for Rogues. They go in, blow some numbers and initiative and then decide whether they’ll stay on offensive using stuns blinds or Stealth abilities – or retreat via multiple possibilities as stealth or ports.

What can a ranger do? Use 5>2 from longbow and that’s it. 25 seconds of auto attacking has begun. Rangers does not really have any retreat button. Rangers have several skirmishing tools, but none to escape or pressure enemy further. Greatsword is just not deadly enough.
Ranger once in a skirmish can merely use sword that can either spam auto-attack or roll around doing nothing (misses most of the time and poison damage is low).
What about Short Bow? You can jump around, slow people, daze/stun people… And where’s the damage? It’s auto-attacking again.
There’s nothing like “NOW’S MY TIME TO STRIKE” as ranger. You jump around hoping that your enemy dies faster than you.
And most of the time – using your utility like Fear/Roots in order to keep people at a position where you can spam auto-attacks. And by timing I meant using these utility tools at a time where they don’t get cleansed because if this fails – so does your damage.

Regarding power builds – If you have no cooldowns you have to spam 1 for 8 seconds. And nothing else is there to do for your damage. 8 seconds of nothing.
That is also a reason why are Rangers hated for pushing PvE with Point Blank shot and other classes are not. Rangers are the only class that gets bored by dealing damage. Because your highest DPS comes from auto-attacks.

I’ll just say it once and I’ll try to say it in as tolerant way as possible.

Anyone who thinks that mastering the Ranger class is easy is a desperate.
Ranger’s highest damage output comes from auto-attacks – which is true – which means two things.
~ His damage has no burst whatsoever (they have very high tunnel potential)
~ Ranger cannot use any utility or defensive abilities while trying to maintain the damage

In order to compete with other PvE classes – the ranger has only 1 viable trait road that has close to no variations. Also, his auto-attack pattern on his highest DPS weapon (sword) is broken and will lead you to death plenty of times.

Regarding PvP – Rangers clearly lack the “stuff”. Power Builds are just not viable, even though I see plenty of players playing it and even more of those complaining about them (but doing nothing to deal with them – which is honestly a child’s play).
While Rangers do not need to press abilities to deal damage, they have to keep track of enemy casting animations in order to evade them, keep track of enemy cooldowns in order to root them in place or apply their conditions so they won’t get cleansed in a second… Axe actually requires a bit of skill, so I’ll assume that OP has problems with Shortbow Users. Those shortbow users that require around 4 seconds to set up some conditions that get cleansed in one shot and have to use most of utility abilities just to deal their damage.

While Rangers do not need to think by which key to deal damage, they have to think WHEN to deal it, not to mention that their condition pressure is not even that high as other classes’.

Hattoni.8597:

It’s so good to hear that I have to go condi, I do love every condition build in gw2.

There is one more thing I’m worried about – is ranger weaker than other classes because of the fact that there is also pet? Let’s AI isn’t working very good, so how much does ranger rely on its pet?

@SilverWF
It’s sad, but: cele ele is answer for pretty much everything.

Ranger isn’t weaker. He is harder to maintain, but doesn’t mean that he is weaker. Your pets can do some really nice stuff. Especially a Wolf that goes into PvP by default (you just have to keep one). The fear that can be traited into 3 seconds (people turn their backs on you – tons of bleeds) is priceless.

Well, there’s plenty of experiments ahead of you. Pets can indeed be a pain in the a**. For both you and your enemy. So it’s fine.

Actually, Rangers are one of the better classes for PvP.

But the only way to go is condi (or celestial variation of condi).
Rangers in Condi builds are excellent at duels or 1v1 fights… Which is usually bunkering a point – but for that role, Turret Engie is just the way to go.
And why would you pick a dueling Ranger, when you can simply go ham with d/d Ele and provide ten times better AoE utility in case you get into team fights.

That’s the reason why Rangers are so rare in tournaments.
But for the PvP as such – Ranger is perfectly fine. Durable, Deadly, and fits the meta.

Another problem I’m experiencing is that my Swoop ability will reach the target in the 1st part of swoop, then turn back for a millisecond when damage is dealt, and finish the leap facing the target.

The damage is Zero again.

You actually get it pretty right.

The flight speed is not set with the runes.
The runes take effect according to “Using” – which equals casting the ability. Unfortunately – the traits that make the traps AoE targeted give them range AND a flight time. This prolongs the “arming time” of the trap to an extend that surpasses the activation of the Rune Benefit – resulting in broken stealth.

I’m not sure to what extend does ArenaNet want the interaction of the Runes – but I believe that the mechanics stated work just as intended.

I’m just wondering…
…
Is there a way that leap abilities would get improved?
I do not mean the combo features.

I mean the movement factor.
Every time that either my Monarch’s leap or Swoop abilities are used, I rarely hit my target. Even though I would be able to clearly go past my target if I didn’t target anyone.

The damage of Monarch’s Leap is applied at the wrong distance of the ability (too soon) and Swoop consists of 2 leaps, where the character will stop in front of the target after the 1st part, naturally not close enough for the 2nd missing the damage.

I’m not very familiar with other classes Leaps, but I feel like Rangers would definitely welcome some love for Melee Power builds regarding PvP. In PvE dungeon or boss content you don’t use them much, but for open content like events and such – it’s extremely uncomfortable.

Rangers are perfectly fine.

Very easy to level up, very easy to solo content and very comfortable to be used. Your highest damage output comes from auto-attacks, after all.

But the thing is, that once you reach 80lvl content such as dungeons, PvP or such – you’ll be called a Bearbow if you won’t learn your class and use it’s full potential. Trait and mechanic-wise.

Rangers are actually one of the meta PvE classes for Dungeons, but even I myself do refrain from inviting most of them, since the majority plays useless and selfish Bearbows that do nothing but block a place for any competent player.
You should definitely like to avoid playing like one.

But if you have no problem adapting to the people’s needs – Rangers are more than fine.

I sincerely think that Rangers have more than enough of Hybrid weapons. Greatsword doesn’t have to be one of them.

Moreover, Vulnerability stacks are way more valuable in PvE from my point of view.

ItIsFinished.9462:

@Everyone else, thanks for checking it out. I promise it’s a lot of fun to mess around with. I certainly hope you guys can/will come up with variations and improvements.

One possible slight variation I did come up with.
It’s when you intend to play a Bunker for the Mid Point (where it’s usually a teamfight). The thing is – that as a Ranger you are constantly focused.
I highly recommend sacrificing the Rune of the Pirate (Birds die to AoE instantly in teamfights) and going for Rune of the Forge.

This way you’ll get a fair trade of the bonus pet (that dies on sight) for a very precious bonus Protection … Which usually ends up for perma Protection for me (Spirit procs 4,25sec. once every 10 sec. / dodge roll gives 3 sec. / rune grants roughly 15 if you get below 50%)

Also, for this purpose I recommend using Primal Reflexes (Skirmishing) instead of Commanding voice (Beast Mastery) for even more Evades resulting in more Protection uptime.
Sometimes we’ll just have to deal with the fact that our pets are one of the first to die in battle. There’s no way to protect them from AoE or Conditions.

Lethal Njection.8741:

You think this might call for a water spirit?!?!? To be honest I have never bothered using it and I am not sure if this would make it viable or not.

just a thought…..

The thing is that Healing Spring is not only an AoE regeneration buff – it’s also a point holding AoE cleanse. And that’s far superior to Water Spirit and it’s unique healing support for the party.

I sincerely support these ideas.
Especially the “Sic’Em!”. The reasoning is basically a viable BM DPS variation of builds, since pets have literally zero condition removals. With ability like this, pets would definitely become more reliable DPS assets. Especially when A-net forces us to use them.
Not to mention that we would finally get a way of using Signet of the Renewal to actually help the team without killing our own pet at sight.
However, I believe that cooldown of 30 seconds is too low. With the trait with CD reduction, this ability would get almost 40% uptime which might very easily get out of hand.
Since the duration has been moved from 8 to 10 seconds – I don’t find a problem of letting the CD at 40 seconds (32 traited).

I also like the “Guard!” idea.

However, I do think that “Protect me!” loses it’s former idea absolutely. Not to mention that Rangers already provide a huge access to Team Condi Removal (healing spring 6,Spirit of Nature 4, SotR 12) I do believe that your “Guard!” idea would already add a signature feature of this ability – team defense.
My suggestion to “Protect me!” Would be ordering your pet to leap to you, applying Aegis and Protection for … Let’s say 4 seconds – also providing a blast finisher (finally a reliable one you could control).
The cooldown could be significantly reduced to 30 seconds.

I’d actually really like to see a DPS Beast Master build after such a long time.
… Yet, your idea would definitely not help my dreams. But I suppose that can’t be helped.

The only problem I see in your suggestion is …
… That it would be ABSOLUTELY FUTILE unless you’d take both Protect and Guard at the same time.
… So instead of revamping the shouts – you basically follow the only one vision you had and you are going to destroy the abilities on their own.

If you think that “Sick’Em” would still be viable (it’s not viable even now) after the dmg nerf, then I’m afraid your ideas were not thought over for different environments (changing a spell means effecting PvP, PvE, WvW… Not just PvP).

Apart from that, the idea looks nice. But I don’t believe the sacrifice such as this would be the way to go. Shouts definitely need some kind of rework, but making them nothing but mere pet utility tools (mostly tools the control the pet as you like, with the exception of distant point cap as you mentioned, where the pet would die in 3 seconds regardless) is not what rangers might like.

Very interesting and very promising build.

I’d like to sincerely thank you for your consideration and will to share with the community. I’d definitely like to at least try this build since it can bring another light to the Ranger role variety.

Someday.3650:

It can be any of these 3: a) Trapper ranger. b) Full regen ranger. c) Condi Survival ranger.

a) 2/6/6/0/0 : III, II, VIII, XI, VI, VII, XI + trapper runes
b) 0/0/6/6/2 : Empathic Bond, Nature’s call, Shout master.
c) 2/0/6/6/0 : Empathic Bond, Survival of the Fittest.

If the ranger wasn’t on stealth then you fought b or c. B is all about HP regen and the second one is all about not giving a kitten about condis.

In PvP there’s no such thing as a Rune of the Trapper. I believe that when talking about fighting on points – we are talking about Arenas. Not WvW.
In there, it would also be a mistake to take those runes (if you could) since you’ll get revealed immediately since on point fight, and also you’ll lose control of the point.

Anyways, it’s just a blind guess, but I’m 80% sure the ranger used something like this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsf3YjMq0ua3K+rQ1aABhaVA0+Fu3Wgd9mBbwB/q9A-TJhHwAPLDA4JAE4kAAa/BA
The SotR can be swapped for the 3rd trap anytime (even though it’s not mandatory and I feel it’s more viable this way, ranger in this build is vulnerable to condi bombing).

This was actually the meta build for tPvP, once.
I’m positive it’s still viable today, even though people don’t play it anymore.

You provide condi bombing, very potent pressure on downed targets, Ress (yet not always reliable) and you are a huge help for the teamfights.

The build is definitely viable.

Other Rangers will say that for fighting in melee you have melee weapons.
Also – if you are concerned about #4 longbow for champions, other rangers will question your team-spirit. Since… You know – community hates rangers that use Point Blank shot for this purpose.

I don’t know what else other rangers will say, but I’ll definitely say that you are mostly playing your class WRONG. Simply because you are misunderstanding Rangers for Archers.
If you find one of the meta classes being behind – than you must be doing something wrong. My opinion is that you play it wrong from the design point of view. Try changing some already acknowledged builds that community offers.

Sounds pretty interesting.
These changes I like.