Guild Wars 2

jkctmc.8754:

Wow, sPvP players are horrible. Not a single dodge, or defensive ability used. You could have shown that hitting dummies, or something.

<face meets palm>

what? just because the people in this video weren’t doing anything you’re gonna make blanket statements about all spvp players??

Why all the hate? did you get rolled in a hotjoin 10x in a row or something?

i know you’re not finished typing, yeah the zergyness, sucks but at higher level games, it is less an issue frm what i’ve seen of streams etc. like you, most of my friends-list ppl are from dueling, i’ve recently got into it and spent way too much time, and similarly looking forward to doing some tourneys with my buddies when i get around to it. What server are you on out of curiosity?

Lordrosicky.5813:

But yeh the fact their pet makes conditions vanish is a huge advantage as it means their pet isnt dying when he should be.

you’re basically saying, if the conditions were transferred onto the pet, you could kill the pet and everything would be fine… so why not just target the pet in the first place?

In fact, doing so would be even more effective as all ticks will dmg the pet, whereas if you target the ranger then after a few ticks, the conditions are transferred (as you want), less ticks will hit the pet so it will die slower meaning he may be able to swap before it dies, meaning he has more sustainable condition removal.

I feel like i’m taking crazy pills.

TGSlasher.1458:

[you guild] Hyena Ally … wonder which is real …. :P just fooling bro

not part of a guild atm, but that will make it easier to distinguish between targets for sure.

But even then i think in the heat of battle it will still be effective as it only takes a split second of fooling to work.

Edit: either pet names can contain brackets or pets also display guild, saw it in action today

Eurantien.4632:

Kill the pet twice.

^ this. Most pets can be swapped every ~20 seconds – that gives you 20 seconds to kill a pet with conditions, vs 10 seconds to kill the player (before cleanse). If you can kill a pet in 20 seconds, do it twice, then you have a massive 50 seconds free-reign to kill the ranger without his condition removal.

But lets step back a second, you’re talking about a ranger build that is designed to be anti-conditions, requires 30 trait investment to do so, and you’re complaining you can’t kill him with conditions? Maybe you shouldn’t be able to. Maybe change your build to counter them, rather than asking Anet to change the other class so your condition build always works?

Just thought i’d update this to say, i’ve been playing with pets named the same as me in spvp for a few hours today and in group fights it is insane, i can’t count the number of time warriors have tried to stun and hundred blades my pet etc – it essentially works like shared anguish except it’s completely free and triggers about every 20 seconds!

Valroth.7138:

Wanderer.5471:

this is a great video, interesting build, you obviously make it work! Can i ask whether QZ and troll ungent synergize well though? with troll ungent, you’re being healed around 40% of the time, so if you popped QZ when needed, wouldn’t there be a 40% chance that you’re hurting yourself? (QZ 4 second duration = 4 ticks of heal, so 40% chance for up to 40% less healing) Or do you only use it after troll has run it’s course etc?

Thanks for mentioning this, it really didn’t occur to me but I should have explained in the video. I’m in the habit of using QZ near the beginning of an engagement, then using Troll Unguent immediately after the quickness ends. The end of quickness is my semi-conscious queue to use TU.

QZ lasts 4sec and has a 48sec recharge, Troll Unguent lasts 10sec and has 25sec recharge.

If used on cooldown timing goes something like this:
0: QZ on
4:QZ off
5: TU on
15: TU off
30:TU on
40: TU off
48:QZ on
52:QZ off
55:TU on
1:05:TU off
1:20:TU on
1:30:TU off
1:36:QZ on

So it takes a while before it ever overlaps.

Wow great answer, you’ve clearly done the math! I’m definitely gonna try this build – i think i’ll try using beastmaster’s bond (vi) in marksmanship instead of steady foucs (i) though, as i tend to dodge a lot, and i’m guessing with only 5 in BM your pet’s health drops below 25% quite often before swapping? and the fury could synergise well with already high crit chance; what d’ya think?

also i was thinking if you have high crit chance and problems with conditions you could try sigils of purity?

Loving the build, cos it’s not bunker or trapper, and those are the only viable ones i’ve managed to pull off so far, this certainly looks interesting.

depends on the build, there’s not just one BM build or one trap build.

Durzlla.6295:

Wanderer.5471:

Durzlla.6295:

What weapon are you using that you can’t proc a 60% chance per crit sigil every 10s? I run condi builds (condi + power or pure condi I don’t like the crit amulets in sPvP) and I can get nullification going off no problems!

it’s not just about weapons, if you have 4% chance to crit then you’d get one boon removed every 50 attacks – this is huge, even with the fastest weapons this is useless, then you have a 10 second cooldown, before 50 more attacks have started counting. Plus it only works on attacks that land… i could go on.

But yeah, it is obviously even worse with some weapons than others a longbow on a ranger, with 4% crit you’d average this sigil proccing once every ~90 seconds if every shot hits, which works out as once every 5 minutes in practice.

so yeah, it’s safe to say these sigils are only viable for builds that invest in crit chance.

-_-’ I used nullification on a longbow ranger and would strip boons every 10s, you have to take into account Rapid Fire and Barrage, and I know my friend runs purity with 4% crit on his engi (uses flamethrower which hits 10times with the 1) and he procs that thing like crazy.

it has a 10 second cooldown, so you are claiming you had 100% crit chance, and no-one ever evaded/obstructed your attacks? You are a troll.

And even if that was the case my whole argument is that it’s only viable for crit builds, so you saying you could do it with (what could only have been) 100% crit chance is hardly evidence to the contrary is it?

Durzlla.6295:

What weapon are you using that you can’t proc a 60% chance per crit sigil every 10s? I run condi builds (condi + power or pure condi I don’t like the crit amulets in sPvP) and I can get nullification going off no problems!

it’s not just about weapons, if you have 4% chance to crit then you’d get one boon removed every 50 attacks – this is huge, even with the fastest weapons this is useless, then you have a 10 second cooldown, before 50 more attacks have started counting. Plus it only works on attacks that land… i could go on.

But yeah, it is obviously even worse with some weapons than others a longbow on a ranger, with 4% crit you’d average this sigil proccing once every ~90 seconds if every shot hits, which works out as once every 5 minutes in practice.

so yeah, it’s safe to say these sigils are only viable for builds that invest in crit chance.

it should be on target click imho, and it should have a long range 1500 which is calculated from the player’s position

ifelldown.5426:

What I forgot to add to my post above is that ranger is something you play because you want to, not because it’s awesome. I’m guessing the same can be said for engineer.

this was true, but because of recent opinion changes about rangers in the forums, more and more people are jumping on them thinking they will have a win-button, which is why you see more rangers lately as the author noted.

1. HP is strong on rangers because we have a third source of health (beyond heals and regens) that scales with HP – ie signet of the wild. Yes not that much benefit on paper but if you spec high into healing, it doubles the effectiveness of the utility.

2. In short rangers are seen as good because they have a niche in the current pvp meta – i.e. using traps to take out bunkers who are geared towards mitigating direct damage.

3. traps do have burn, but torch + trap can keep burn on a target almost 100%

4. Yeah the idea is you can go bunker and have pet damage, because pet stats are independent from you’re own. This is somewhat true, but you need around 25 points in BM for pets to be good, so 45 trait points can be invested in survivavability, but it’s not much different from investing those extra 25 in skirmishing for crit or condition dmg hybird bunker.

As for master’s bond, it’s awful as you pretty much need pet swapping and it resets. Personally i think that if they made it so masters bond doesn’t reset on pet swap and you could see how many stacks your pet has, that would be a great skill for 30 points in BM.

you must have the “launch pet” trait, just click where you want your pet to go

my doctor advised against me playing this class because of my high-blood pressure and the rage i experience when lick wounds fails to work.

ranger is the only class i’ve played at a high level – i just assumed every class had trait-line set-ups like this to stop people making overpowered builds, similar to how they limit your options with stats on jewelry in pvp. Is this not the case?

yeah, but their effects are limited, for example if you wanted to remove conditions or boons, you can’t do it on swap, the only option is on crit, so only certain builds can do it.

Yezhik.2071:

I think that would cause A LOT of lag, if the game had to do each damage separately, especially in a teamfight, plus the ticking conditions, retaliation dmg, etc etc.

I see what you’re saying, but that might not be the best solution.

i don’t really know anything about game design, would these calculations really take a lot more computing power? what if you applied damage in chunks of a 100 even? if this stuff isn’t possible that’s a real shame, i just think they should work this way, though no idea if it’s possible to implement.

Jazenn.7526:

It’s a matter of perspective really. But yea, quickness stomping is quite nice. And annoying on the receiving end. It seems a lot faster than x2.

yeah i’ve noticed it seems way faster, it’s because the final downward motion is fast anyway, and usually there is a long build-up to it, so when someone is quick-stomping, the build up looks quite normal if you’re not paying attention but when they start to go into the final part, it’s so fast that you realise they have quickness but it’s too late to react.

this is a great video, interesting build, you obviously make it work! Can i ask whether QZ and troll ungent synergize well though? with troll ungent, you’re being healed around 40% of the time, so if you popped QZ when needed, wouldn’t there be a 40% chance that you’re hurting yourself? (QZ 4 second duration = 4 ticks of heal, so 40% chance for up to 40% less healing) Or do you only use it after troll has run it’s course etc?

i’m talking abut things like rune of vampirism: 6 gives mist form when you reach 10% health, rune of svanir – become block of ice at 20% health.

These abilities sound great in practice, and they sound like they would prevent you from getting burst-down without the chance to react. However they seem to do the exact opposite, i pve i’m guessing they work fine most of the time, but as a ~15k hp ranger 10% of my health is 1500hp – if a thief hits me for 4k, then 7k, 8k it doesn’t work, as techinically at no point am i actaully below 1500/3000hp, i move straight from 4k -0.

I can’t imagine this is what the developers intended, i propose having some in-game calculation apply all the final hp removal 1hp at a time in a milionth of a second, rather than in chunks so that skills and runes like these actually work. Come to think of it, would ranger’s bark skin “you take 30% less damage when under 25% health” even work in these high-burst situations??

Ok so basically there are sigils that provide unique benefits e.g. sigil of nulification – but they are essentially totally restricted to crit-builds, why? as well as 60% chance on crit, there should be blanket 10% chance versions – that way, other you have options that are better for certain builds, but every build can still utilise it.

For example sigil of superior leeching is consistent, but high-crit builds benefit more from sigil of blood. I think it would add to the number of unique viable builds in spvp.

yesterday i was dueling someone on temple of the silent storm, almost killed him, i was practically at full health but i miss-clicked and hornet-stinged myself down the hole. He started BMing saying i was kitten etc. I think this sort of experience proves that people who BM do so because they are insecure or annoyed, he was BMing because he was losing, just like people who say “none of you noobs could 1v1 me” whenever they die in spvp.

My advice is even if they are being rude/angry, be respectful, try to have a laugh with them – maybe say “you probably could judging by how long it took to 2v1 you, but you’re not dueling now buddy” or something – some people will appreciate that and calm down (they might usually be nice but had been having a bad day). I’m ashamed to say i did BM on one occasion because of real life annoyances.

Of course, some will BM no-matter what you say, even if you agree to a 1v1, whether you win, whether you lose – i don’t know that anything can be done about such people, but at least they’re in the minority.

yeah, i never thought about it until now but i hope Anet doesn’t think they can solve the dueling issue by simply introducing private servers? if anything this could kill the pvp scene, certainly kill accessibility – it’s fine for guilds who practice regularly etc, but there needs to be a way that random, casual players can just get together to duel without all the annoying bs we have to put up with in conquest maps.

Edit: spent a good few hours dueling tonight, and although people came in and interrupted too many times to count, many of them then joined the party; in private servers for pvp this will never happen, it definitely needs to be a dedicated game-type random people can join in order to build a community or no change at all.

Davinci.8027:

2.) I don’t care about BM bunker build because it’s useless in Paids.

1.) There is no contemplating or debating whether Empathic bond. It is – completely – broken. Necros are not able to stack any conditions, and they are not able to epidemic off of the pet either.

3.) I said either/or. Either reduce the AoE cleave or increase the CD.

Necros can’t stack conditions against Empathic bond? You realise you have 10 seconds of free-reign condition damage, before removal, then another 10 ad infinitum. I’d say L2P, but heck i’ll just tell you how to play: throw a few conditions on him, watch for the cleanse, then you know you’ve got 10 seconds before the next, so you stack all your major damage – if you can’t out-damage his heal in infinite 10 second windows then you need to re-work your build to do more damage (or to be more tanky, so neither of you can kill the other).

i would defend chopps against the haters but i wanna see videos of him soloing the bosses with that free software someone suggested :P

does that make me evil?

+1 for stickying!

Balancing heal and condition removal with Healing spring

Ok so Healing spring cures all conditions and heals for around 5k depending on your healing power. This tip pertains to the poison condition. If you are poisoned, heals are 33% less effective. In my experience conditions are removed after the heal, not before, meaning poison will still weaken your heal so instead of 5000, you’ll only be healing for 3350 – a huge difference. Therefore, it is sometimes advisable to use a different condition removal method before your heal despite the fact they’ll all be removed shortly after the heal.

Disclaimer: this will be down to your judgement, obviously you’d need another form of condition removal, and you’d only do this if you were actually down by ~5000 health of course, if you’d still be healed to 100% with the 3350 poisoned heal, then of course do that (or wait a bit to do the _ condition removal then healing spring combo). Against enemies which rely heavily on condition damage you may not want to use all your condition removal options at once – as i say it’s situational and down to your own judgement

hmmm, thanks for all the responses, i will share from now on – i shouldn’t take myself too seriously. If i can make playing more fun for someone i should – I got beaten consistently yesterday by another ranger in duels, and i didn’t ask for his build so as not to be a hypocrite but i definitely felt the curiosity for the first time, and it sucked realising my build was not optimal, despite all my theorycrafting – at the same time it makes me feel a bit better about not telling people my build in the past XD

Anyway, thanks for the wise words.

I went for a descriptive title to facilitate forum searching etc but other considerations were: “they’re always after me lucky charms!” and “I’m sorry Jimmy, grandma took that brownie recipe to her grave”

Ok so basically, in-game and sometimes in the forums people will ask you for your build (especially if you beat them lol), personally I don’t like giving my exact build, here’s why:
It’s my baby! I spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and I feel I’ve earned it. Whether it’s actually any good is beside the point. As far as I’m concerned there’s 2 reasons you duel/pvp etc – 1. To see whose game-awareness/twitch skills are better 2. To see who has created a better build. (of course it never actually decides these things because of class imbalances, luck etc etc but that’s also besides the point)

In short, if you’re giving away your build, then it seriously dilutes the point of playing pvp for me.

Like a build, twitch and general play/game-awareness skills are something that are worked on over time, that you earn through practice if there was some magic mechanism by which you could give all this skill to another player, would you do it? I wouldn’t. Anyone feel the same?

this is the video where i first saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e3PpFLUsRO8

@ AnthrageThe pet skills are pretty reliable (not 100%) because as they favour using certain skills after swapping.
@ RapidSausage, you’re right, you do sacrifice some dps doing this, as the pets are constantly being swapped and hence running towards the enemy, then getting swapped as soon they get there. However it gives you the chance to lay down you’re own damage which they can’t evade whilst down - doesn’t quite make up for the pet damage for most builds, but it’s something. You also have to factor in the fact they’re not damaging you whilst ccd - so i’ts actually pretty good in spvp imo.

SAtaarcoeny.8476:

my view on ranger= they can drop a top tier bunker in 30 seconds. (enough said u would think) they have crazy aoe damage crazy single target damage. they remove every condi every 10 sec, they have entangle elete super crazy op damage and its great for 1v1 and team fights. they are super survivable. u can be a bunker and your pet will kill them fast while they add condis so either one u try and kill ur SOL, they have super speed over 50 times a game on pet swaps so they are so crazy in team fights for reses and stomps. (cc them u say when someone goes down? well i do a smart guard wont let that happen they stability, plus gotta go over there to them cause ele mist forms behind the line so ur dead for over extending) they are super survivable also.

there is more to them but i want to get on with this post. when i hear on SOTG that they are not op and no jon said anything about that directly baffled me. a guy named Newmoney made rangers what they are today. he was the best ranger this game has or had ever seen he destroyed EVERY ranger in 1v1 and didnt die in team fights and he was are back point ranger when only we used a ranger. then he had rl drama and hasnt been back. then PTC got vyndetta and started stomping teams also. but they were still called weak? then i found vain and we perfected ele staff ele then they got nerfed. after that skovex made d/d ele were it is today and now thats were we are at. so yes ppl will always find the strongest way for there class and you keep nerfing it because the same pattern keeps happening we find op stuff to many ppl use multiple in it and ppl complain. (remember ppl thought staff phantasm was op until i made the GS shatter build and destroyed every mesmer in the game? if u dont try watching old xee videos and how he changed after fighting me and losing over 20 times in a row. then i give him my build he posts it and everyone changes then there is multiple mesmers on a team then we kept getting nerfed)

how people can think they were the first to come up with a build i’ll never know, i come up with builds every week but chances are they’ve been tried before (or something so close it makes little difference), there’s only a certain amount of combos there can be, you may have popularized it but that’s very different.

Also your description of a ranger really does sound op – tell me, what is this build that gives you two elite slots to get stability stomps and binding roots? Saying your buddy was the best ranger there ever was or ever will be? Are you serious? I play ranger and don’t recall fighting him, just like 99% of the people who play this game as rangers haven’t fought him… so exactly how do you know this? “he made rangers what they are today”? lmao never heard of him mate, he clearly made an impact on you though so maybe in future stick to speaking for yourself, not tens of thousands of people? cheers.

Chopps.5047:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

First off, I should mention that I main a necromancer, so I’ve been rather spoiled in the condition control department.

Even so, it seems like Rangers just lack decent removal options. Skill wise, there is Healing Spring (which is amazing in an of itself) and the signet. The problem is that these remove conditions too slowly for my taste. I could activate the signet to remove all of mine, but that screws over my pet.

Can anyone give me tips to deal with conditions? I really feel like I’m missing something.

Alright, I’ll open my codex for you guys who are struggling with removal.

My latest favorite:
***Turn disables into stability for your pet with this combination:
Shared Anguish + Stability Training + Porcine, ursine, or armorfish pet

For example, you could run pig with this combination, plus, it gives even more removal with the healing seed pod environmental drop.

Don’t like that?

Run Empathic bond for cleansing every 10s

Healing spring for condition removal

Run lightning reflexes or signet of renewal for stun breaks; plus SOR gives removal passively.

If you don’t like that, then run sigil of generosity or sigil of purity, if you don’t like that then run Rune of soldier for condition removal on shout

If you don’t like that run brown bear with condition removal roar

this is a very comprehensive list and seems to suggest rangers have a lot of options for condition removal.

However, i can see where the author’s coming from. As far as i’m concerned the only viable ones are

signet of renewal
healing spring
empathetic bond

- the others rely on chance and/or only remove 1 condition, which is usually pretty useless if you ask me. perhaps all the single removal options could be combined but that’s a big commitment.
- empathetic bond itself simply isn’t an option if your build doesn’t trait that far into the wilderness survival line. Having to put 30 points into any line in order to survive X type of enemy shouldn’t be a thing…

Personally i usually run healing spring and signet of renewal, and i can still get conditioned to death occasionally.

one piece of advice i’d give to the author is that the healing spring removes conditions in ticks, so rolling through it now and again (if you time it it works best) or staying in it will mean you’llregularly cure conditions for the 10 seconds that it’s up. Then you just have to survive the remaining 20 seconds of cooldown – i suggest not popping signet of renwal unless you would otherwise die… sometimes a tough call of course.

Also smart enemies will wait until healing spring runs out before dumping all their major condition dmg on you.

Eurantien.4632:

I was playing tPvP and this ranger had his pet named one thing and the other named after the thief on their team. So when he swapped pets I thought their thief just came out of invis at first. Freaked me out. I’ve been doing the same thing ever since. However, it occasionally messes with me because my pet will come from some far away target to my 1 on 1 and I’ll think, “sweet so n so is here.”

haha that’s brilliant! Seems like you can mess with this even more with organised teams, i’ve mostly just played with pugs so far but might just steal random thieves’ names each match XD

How about renaming your juvenile shark to just “Shark” for the water map? i know there’s a size difference but still!

Cempa.5619:

Wanderer.5471:

Cempa.5619:

Thanks great guide and some questions:

Cleric Vs Shaman I could use a bit more convincing, not seeing how Cleric is better.

Have players not figured out by now the BM Healer build is an outlast build, I mean don’t they just move in whatever direction as to negate your pet and leave you to last? I see a LB Ranger in PvP and I laugh and 3 shot her…I see a melee Ranger with healing signet and I just avoid them.

Edit: You used that horrible builder that requires us to watch a silly add :/ pass

i have a ranger build which uses healing signet, melee and LB so what would you do if you saw me BTW i win 95% of duels with the build, you’d be laughing all the way to the respawn

The thing is every one says that, I have yet to see one post that says they have a 5% win rate :/

So if every one says they win 95% of the fights basic math says something is wrong :/

But you caught my attention and I’m intrigued, what’s this bunker healing build that uses LB?

haha, it’s true – maybe the percentage of good players is higher on the forums than in-game? Seriously though, “everyone” doesn’t say it, it’s just that people only mention their win ratio if it’s high for obvious reasons which creates the perception that everyone has good ratios, because those are the only reports seen. As for my build, i’m gonna make a thread at some point addressing that lol

Chopps.5047:

Wanderer.5471:

i’ve been trying this recently, and it works great – though i use wolf and hyena rather than pigthing as i hate the environmental weapon mechanic – means you’re not dpsing while ccing, means the enemy can actually pick it up! means delay on casting etc etc. Yeah i got the idea from a youtibe video that was posted on the tips and tricks thread about pet stowing – though he only chained 3 ccs for some reason lol

The enemy cannot pick it up.

it’s been a while since i ran with forage, it was on siamoth but i’m 99% sure an enemy picked it up on a couple of occassions (sometimes after i was defeated – don’t know if that makes a difference) 100% sure allies can – which can be almost as annoying lol This was sPvP, don’t know if WvW has different rules perhaps? Anyone else have experience with this?

i’ve been trying this recently, and it works great – though i use wolf and hyena rather than pigthing as i hate the environmental weapon mechanic – means you’re not dpsing while ccing, means the enemy can actually pick it up! means delay on casting etc etc. Yeah i got the idea from a youtibe video that was posted on the tips and tricks thread about pet stowing – though he only chained 3 ccs for some reason lol

LB GS can work, you’ve just got to get used to the playstyle and obviously have the right build. Most powerful ranger is probably condition-based though because traps and binding roots are so good. I’d advise you to experiment until you find something that works for you – if you get beaten, think why and adjust to compensate – this could have you going round in circles though because the game is somewhat rock-paper-scissors, there’s no one build to rule them all, so just stick with what works most of the time. As for BM, some investment is definitely necessary, my builds tend to have at least 25 – if i put any less i start to see what people on the forums are talking about when they say “squishy pets” i’d say it’s almost required but i’m sure there are some viable builds which don’t invest in it (maybe). There really is no substitute for experience; theorycraft, playtest, read tips and tricks on forums and watch on youtube 4. profit?

Forzani.2584:

Wanderer.5471:

Solandri.9640:

Daemon.4295:

You can leap back with sword 2, press the key to rotate 180 degrees, and press sword 2 again to do a double leap away. You have to cancel your target first though, and disable auto-target.

In practice this doesn’t work as well as it seems it would. I tested it and for covering a set distance it’s pretty much the same speed as just running away with signet of the hunt (25% run speed buff).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Explain-Sword-Root/page/2#post1352421

true, but if you don’t want to use a utility slot on signet of the hunt, it’s worth it in certain situations.

Thought of another tip – The longbow 4 knocback knocks them back further the closer they are to you. When i first started using it i’d wait until the enemy was almost upon me to use it, but i did the math, and if all you want to do is create distance, it’s better to use it sooner rather than later:

for some reason the exact numbers aren’t on the wiki but i remember they are or were on the game tooltip at one point, i’ll just use example numbers to demonstrate my ppoint:

knockback = 50 if witthin 600 range
knockback = 100 if within 300 range
knockback = 150 if within 100 range

so as you can see from these made-up figures, whilst the knockback is increasing, the sum distance you create between yourself and your target is actually decreasing. Assuming the skill wasn’t changed – i don’t have access to the game at the moment to check the tooltip or test it etc.

However if you want to create maximum distance between your target’s original position and their final position, ie moving someone as far off a point in spvp as possible, then it’s best to use it at point blank.

Faulty logic imo. The point of knockback is for two things.

1. He can’t hit you in melee unless he is close.
2. He eats arrows because he loses interupts when he is not close.

Using your numbers. Assume he can travel 50 feet every second.

1. He starts at 600, and you knock him back another 50 feet to 650. He can damage you in melee at 50 feet. So you have 600 feet/50 = 12 shots (1 per second)

2. He starts at 600 feet. You shoot at him until he gets to 100 feet = 10 shots of damage. Then you knock him back 150 feet = 250 feet away = 5 more arrows for a total of 15 shots.

Of course it is just theory craft unless we know the exact numbers.

mind = blown. There are more levels to this than i realised. As you say we’d need the exact figures to work it out properly, and we’d have to factor in at what point he comes into range too, e.g. shooting from 1500 – 750, then using knockback, vs 1500 – 50 etc against starting engagement range of 750. But i think you’re right in theory – what i would add though is that whilst your way maximises dps, my way is still better for creating distance, and hence arguably better for survivability.

We also have to factor in how it synergizes with other skills – for example after knockback at max range, i lay down longbow 5 – normally leaves you vulnerable and/or not all shots hit as it’s such a long cast time, but he’s on his butt as you cast. So putting it between you and the target at that range means he hobbles towards you for the whole time, whereas if you used it before knockdown followed by close range PBS, the enemy would get 1/1.5 secs of travelling before the first bolts from the 5-skill fell (significant as normal travel speed is probably closer to 300-500 [Depending on speed buffs ofc] than 50 range per second), so he could travel a greater distance cripple-free.

Cempa.5619:

Thanks great guide and some questions:

Cleric Vs Shaman I could use a bit more convincing, not seeing how Cleric is better.

Have players not figured out by now the BM Healer build is an outlast build, I mean don’t they just move in whatever direction as to negate your pet and leave you to last? I see a LB Ranger in PvP and I laugh and 3 shot her…I see a melee Ranger with healing signet and I just avoid them.

Edit: You used that horrible builder that requires us to watch a silly add :/ pass

i have a ranger build which uses healing signet, melee and LB so what would you do if you saw me BTW i win 95% of duels with the build, you’d be laughing all the way to the respawn

Solandri.9640:

Daemon.4295:

You can leap back with sword 2, press the key to rotate 180 degrees, and press sword 2 again to do a double leap away. You have to cancel your target first though, and disable auto-target.

In practice this doesn’t work as well as it seems it would. I tested it and for covering a set distance it’s pretty much the same speed as just running away with signet of the hunt (25% run speed buff).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Explain-Sword-Root/page/2#post1352421

true, but if you don’t want to use a utility slot on signet of the hunt, it’s worth it in certain situations.

Thought of another tip – The longbow 4 knocback knocks them back further the closer they are to you. When i first started using it i’d wait until the enemy was almost upon me to use it, but i did the math, and if all you want to do is create distance, it’s better to use it sooner rather than later:

for some reason the exact numbers aren’t on the wiki but i remember they are or were on the game tooltip at one point, i’ll just use example numbers to demonstrate my ppoint:

knockback = 50 if witthin 600 range
knockback = 100 if within 300 range
knockback = 150 if within 100 range

so as you can see from these made-up figures, whilst the knockback is increasing, the sum distance you create between yourself and your target is actually decreasing. Assuming the skill wasn’t changed – i don’t have access to the game at the moment to check the tooltip or test it etc.

However if you want to create maximum distance between your target’s original position and their final position, ie moving someone as far off a point in spvp as possible, then it’s best to use it at point blank.

Fjandi.2516:

GS is not bad. Actually the block is really good in some cases. To bad the 1h sword is so much better there is no reason to use the gs. Ah ye i swap to gs in wvw sometimes just to move faster.
If you need to defend a point having a gs as secondary weapon (instead of a sb) is a great choice tho, this way you have 2 leaps (combos) at your disposal.

i think it’s situational, i play sPvP so i find the greatsword is useful for aggressively capping a point, pushing the defender off for a second with the block, fearing them off with wolf, shooting them off with LB 4 eventually you’ll neutralise and even cap the point from under them. i’m the anti-bunker XD

Sounds like i use very different stats and traits to you in all my builds, but i also favour the LB and greatsword combo for many and have a lot of success in Spvp – with some builds i win 95% of 1v1s. As for the QZ and LB2 combo remark – it’s not the only way to use the LB, firstly don’t waste QZ, just get quickness from pet swaps, secondly only use quickness with it if the enemy is ccd so can’t avoid, otherwise let it attack normally, they can’t avoid every shot then as it’s spread over too much time, but will still waste all their endurance trying, then swoop in with GS and use daze and quickness swap for some burst.

Am i the only one who thinks all such matters should be settled with a link to a youtube video of a duel between the person professing the strengths of their build and the person saying it’s weak? lol… a man can dream. Though that wouldn’t work as the game is a bit too rock-paper-scissors in most instances. Do people have to be on the same server to duel? what with guesting and all.

if you’re planning on evading a lot i suggest dropping steady focus, as you will never have full endurance.

shortbow 3 can grant swiftness in battle

Ok so the two ideas i’ve had are:

1 – name your pets the same as yourself (perhaps with a few characters difference if it’s not possible). that way if someone is just tabbing through targets in the heat of battle they could waste their skills on your pet my pet got moa’d once (though i wasnt doing the name share thing at the time) – so any time you could increase the chances of that happening to your pet rather than yourself it has to be done!

2 – i’ve been using the hyena recently and thought i’d try naming it “Hyena Ally” so enemies don’t know which one is yours in case they try to focus it – whereas you still do of course as you have it’s healthbar on your UI.

Hardly game-changing advantages but i don’t see a down-side so any edge = profit. Has anyone actually tried this?

^what everyone else said, but also i’d add that aoe fields are better than targeted ones because you can use them outside of combat to stack buffs on allies before an engagement (with the exception of traps)

Blakey.5670:

The whole ranger heal thingy is a bit screwy.
Even on land,if you don’t dedicate your attention to finishing him, there is a good chance he’ll stand right up.

Even when i see the pet going in for a heal and i try to interrupt it, sometimes it doesn’t work.

i play a ranger and totally agree with the post author about underwater combat. But on land?? any class, any build can out-dps a rezzing pet even if you didn’t want to stomp for some reason. Lick wounds only works 40% of the time on land anyway, and even with the best case scenario 1v1: ie a thunderclap interrupt, a wolf knockdown and a wolf fear, there isn’t time for you to heal as its only castable after wolf has finished fearing, so the heal starts (assuming it does) as the player is walking back towards you and can stomp within 2 seconds, whereas it takes around 5 to get back up after it’s cast….

when you are running with 2 other people in hot join, you see 3 enemies up ahead and think “we can take them!” LEEEEROOOY!!!! then you die and realise your teammates didn’t follow you, sad times.

Or how about when you’re running a bunker build and keep 3-4 people tied up trying to kill you in the middle of nowhere for several minutes, once they finally down you, (or you disengage if ele) you look up and somehow they still have every point on the map…

How about when you spend ages in a group fight and finally you manage to get like 5 ppl down, but your teammates stomp them all while your weapon swap is on cooldown so you aren’t using the set that stacks attributes on kill

As a ranger, sometimes when i’m stomping a necro my pet runs away in fear- that’s always hilarious.

i think the skills are great. Regarding your scenario of using block 4 vs a hundred blades warrior – even if he has stability, you’ve blocked the opening stun so you can just roll away. This skill is also incredibly useful against thieves, means they can only get 1 shot of their combo off before being ccd – then you can 3 leap on them, 5 them in the face to stop them stealthing, hell just have some fun.

Though i do agree that the cripple on 4 needs a much faster projectile speed and to be castable whilst moving.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Wanderer.5471:

Daemon.4295:

There are various ways a ranger can stealth: Hide in Plain sight, Rune of Inflitration, Smoke combo fields, AoE stealth from another profession (maybe his buddy was stealthed and you missed him?), one of the foraged items (feathers I think)… plus culling I think there’s also a Norn racial skill that lets you cloak, but I’m not sure about that.

remembered this thread for some reason and thought i’d add that i misspoke before; in world vs world rangers might also be able to stealth from the smoke bombs you can get from environmental weapons bought from npcs unless i’m mistaken? I seem to remember some npc sold them near the sylvari starting zone…

Most of the items like this are not useable in wvw.

oh ok, never mind then, i don’t play WvW but i knew consumables were allowed so thought this stuff might be too.

nice thread, though i wish people would stop stealing all the advice i want to give :P

1. Spirits If you’re using spirits on both above ground an water skill bar, don’t cast them underwater if you’re not planning on staying under for a while – they will NOT turn to land forms once you exit, they will just disappear and be on a 50second cooldown.

2. Amphibious Warfare If you use amphibious pets in or near water, they can chase ppl out of or into the water

3. What cooldowns? Pet abilities are off cooldown when you swap pets even if they appear not to be, so the BM trait which recharges them is usually useless as you’ll swap before it has a chance to do anything…

4. Quickness Quickness can be popped at any point when ressing but has to be popped before you initialize stomping for it to work.

5. breach shots Underwater ranged skills can hit people on the shore

6. Mobility and sword We all know greatsword leap can be used for extra mobility, but proper use of the 180degree turn button (I think it’s un-assigned by default) can have monarchs leap work almost as well, but with a little more management.

7. Stealh crits if you’re using jaguar and have at least 15 points in marksmanship, don’t stealth them right away if pure dmg is your goal, as first strike will crit anyway (of course if you want to sneak up on ppl it’s still necessary).

8. Mind Games. If you do stealth your jaguar, back off your enemy a little, he will be less likely to dodge etc if you’re not an immediate danger to him.

9. Range effectiveness longbow damage can be just as effective at close range – only the auto-attack suffers from the damage reduction.

10. Small print on condition removal your pet has to be in range for signet of renewal to work.

11. Questionable traits the cripple on activated effects of wolves trait in BM isn’t great if you plan on using wolf fear to move people out of points, into holes or away from downed players as they will move a shorter distance and hence may not leave the point, drop down or get out of/as far out of stomping range respectively.

12. Have a heart! dont be afraid to heal your pet! if you have full hp drop heals to save your pets if swap is on CD because having a dead pet is a massive blow to your effectiveness.

13. Healed as one?? the healing portion of healing spring will heal your pet regardless of whether it’s within the range circle, just like the other heals, so you can essentially use it from half the map away.