Guild Wars 2

From a pet’s perspective :-)

I’m looking forward to the upcoming patches…

Dondarrion.2748:

crouze.3078:

If it doesnt get dark… they could remove the day /night cycle in my opinion.

+1 to your OP suggestion, would definitely like to see the nights darker. Make stuff as dark, or even darker by choice, than Skyrim.

And agreed, makes little sense wanting to keep a day/night cycle when you hardly notice the difference running around in the world.

It’s funny, I thought of Skyrim as well. LOVED to be an archer hunter at nights! Awesome feeling. Miss that in GW2.

I have said it before, as many others as well. But this should be fixed for the next patch (I hope):

Put trap traits in Wilderness Survival. Trap traits do not belong in Skirmishing at all.

Come on Anet, you didn’t make a logical decision by putting trap traits in skirmishing.
Traps have NOTHING to do with neither precision nor critical damage! They are all condition based.

Pets in dungeon: Avoid combat. A Temporary Solution!

Bear over me now. This is not the way it should be done and it is not a definite solution to pet’s poor survivablity or devastating impact from AoE. However I have experienced that my pets are far more beneficial for the group when the pets are in “Avoid Combat” mode.

I tried this in 2x CoF, TA and AC with my pets on “Avoid Combat”. Yes, I did loose some minor dmg from my pets since they didn’t engage in the fights directly, but they would die anyway after a few seconds if they did charge the foes.

What I did was to use pets that buffs the group like eg. Jungle Stalker, Fern Hound, Siamoth (or any other boar).

The pet stayed close to me and followed me around. So when I ran out / dodged out of red circles, most of the time the pets followed with success. In those 4 dungeon runs I think I lost pet twice. And I have 0 points in Beastmastery.

The benefit I / we got from the pets were “Extreme Might”, 10 seconds of 5x might for the group. Not Bad!!! This was a reliable source every 30 seconds (or 24 if traited). Imo, this is much better than allowing the Stalker to go fight for a couple of seconds and then die. A also used siamoth for the plasma, both for myself and others in the group (Gain all boons: 10s protection, regen, vigor, might, fury, swiftness, aegis).

Again, I underline that this should not be the way to be a ranger or the way to handle pets, but as it is now I think it’s the best temporary solution for the group.

ps. sometimes when you activate F2, pet charges the target when it should eg. give “Extreme Might” where it stands. Or when I had the siamoth and activated F2, it would engage target first, without making the “Forage”.
This is a bug, I believe. I hope Anet fix’ this soon.

Cheers all :-)

There is a Norwegian (Norn!) saying:
“It’s not shameful to turn back!” (Freely translated)
It’s actually the rule number one when hiking, skiing or any other activity out in the nature. If you see a storm is coming, or perhaps you feel tired: Turn back! NOT SHAMEFUL!

Anet, we will only applaud and be grateful if you could give the rangers the same feeling / essence they had in GW1. After all, GW1 is your own creation. Not shameful!

+1

Make pets “see” hidden enemies on map.

I have never played GW1, but alone from reading some of the skills the ranger has in GW1 on http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ranger , I get a feeling that the whole profession was much better in GW1.

I’m not familiar with the game machanics in GW1 either, but it appears to me that everything is much better polished / planned. Eg. traps are in Wildernes survival. But in GW2 it’s in skirmishing?!!??

Also it appears to me that it was really a decent archer class closely bonded with traps and pets. Maybe a more focused proffession than it is now. Imo, it looks like Anet tried (in vain?) to make a more versatile prof in GW2 but lost the core / essence of the ranger?!!?

Take a look at the ranger skills and traits in GW1. Imo, alot more interesting and fun!

Could those of you who played (still play?) ranger in GW1 share some thoughts?

Maybe it would not be a bad idea if Anet devs went back to their roots!!!!

Aveneo.2068:

Reposting one of my earlier messages from another thread:

Aveneo.2068:

After playing the Wintersday pvp event as the Scout, I get this longing feeling that this was how the Ranger should have been from the start…

So if there was an option for Longbow changes, I’d love to see Point Blank Shot changed/upgraded to Sniper Shot by adding a ‘hold down for more damage’ secondary effect. So simply tapping it would result in the ability we have now, but holding it would function like the ‘Sniper Shot’ as we saw in the Wintersday pvp

So for me I’d love to see something like this in the patch notes:

• Point Blank Shot: Changed name to Sniper Shot and now has a secondary effect. If you choose to press and hold to channel the ability, it will fire one shot dealing massive damage.

Next to that, I’d love for a ‘Camouflage’ ability which could be relocated it to a signet; like this:

• Signet of the Hunt
  Active – Your pet becomes invisible (3s) and gain swiftness (10s).
  (which would also apply to you if you have Signet of the Beastmaster)

At least that would make Signet of the Hunt more useful because at present time the active ability is pretty worthless in my humble opinion.

At present time we have absolutely no abilities to disengage from a fight or use any real opener to engage in a fight. Camouflage would provide both as a means to escape or as an opener to start one.

Amen my brother, Amen!

Make this happen Anet! (pleaaase)

My alternate build (in order to increase vitality) would be to drop the 20 points in Wilderness Survival and put them in Nature Magic instead.

I would sadly loose the 20% faster survival and GS recharge but gain:
Two-handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5%.
While Strength of Spirit: 5% of vitality is given as a bonus to power.

New health would be around 19800.

LostTemplar.6271:

Well, as for me, I prefer having more vit/power when it comes to use my GS or LB ( I use GS and LB in PvE). So I think investing in the Nature Magic branch is more appropriate and you get a good vitality pool from it . I asked a lot of people between toughness and vitality for ranger and most of them told me vit. It really depends on how you like it because they are both good in either way.

Hi Lost Templar!

Are you sure you replied to the correct post?

Maybe I didn’t make it clearly enough but the question was if it is more beneficial to use Two-handed Training vs Strength of Spirit. Both traits are in the Nature Magic tree.

Two-handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5%.
While Strength of Spirit: 5% of vitality is given as a bonus to power.

What’s the critical point of vitality in order to gain more from Strength of Spirit compared with Two-handed Training?
I mean, if you have really low vitality, then the +5% in power is diminishing. But if vitality is high, you get a lot of extra power. At what point (vitality) is it more beneficial to have Strength of Spirit comapred to Two-handed Training?

And also, how do you compare power with damage?

Two-handed Training ( 5% GS dmg) vs Strength of Spirit (5% power of vitality)

Hi guys ;-)

What’s best? I can’t decide which trait is most beneficial.

It’s kind of difficult to compare damage and power, imo.

If you have eg. 1300 vitality you get +65 power . How much damage is +65 power?

How do you calculate dmg from GS?

Hi all!

I have been a condition trapper for a long time with shortbow and sword + torch. It has been awesome and fun. However I would like to try something new. I tried a beastmastery build but even when the pets get harder to kill, it’s still not a reliable build for dungeons. It was fun in pve, the pets turned to be a really mean killing machine. But as long as Anet doesn’t reduce AoE damage for pets, I rather go for a different build.

The new build I’m working on is this:

Overall traits
Marksmanship 30
Skirmishing 20
Wilderness Survival 20
Nature Magic 0
Beastmastery 0

pve traited
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQJATRjIVB2RW2Vs2Bg1j967vmCOtkp4QGTZUngtUA;TkAqkMJJSymkLJZSrCGFsJA

dungeon / www traited
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQJATRjIVF2RWeWo2Bg1j96bwmCOtkp4QGTZUngtUA;TMArCGFsJA

I would like to use longbow and greatsword (tired of the same old weapons all the time)

Pets :
Stalker for group might and spider for long range.

Gear:
Helm Valkyrie
Mantle Berserker’s
Coat Valkyrie
Gloves Berserker’s
Pants Valkyrie
Shoes Berserker’s

Weapon
Berserker’s (Longbow)
Soldier (greatsword)

Trinkets
Ring 1 Beryl (Valkyrie)
Ring 2 Beryl (Valkyrie)
Earring 1 Ruby (Berserker)
Earring 2 Ruby (Berserker)
Amulet Ruby (Berserker)
Back Soldier’s Spineguard

Trinket Jewels
Slot 1 Exquisite Beryl (Valkyrie)
Slot 2 Exquisite Ruby (Berserker)
Slot 3 Exquisite Ruby (Berserker)
Slot 4 Exquisite Ruby (Berserker)
Slot 5 Exquisite Ruby (Berserker)
Slot 6 Exquisite Ruby (Berserker)

With those specifications I get:
Health 17872
Armor 2196
Power 2383
Crit % 38
Damage on Crit 2,3

Calculated with:
http://guildwars2.mmmos.com/?page=view&id=4048&title=pve-gear-calculatorefficiency-optimizer-spreadsheet-almost-all-pve-gear-included-with-some-theorycraft

What’s your thoughts? Do you run something similiar with success, or should I make changes?

I’m mostly concerned about the health. My current health is about 21000. I (almost) never die. Will it be much harder to stay alive with “only” 17872 health?
Should I have more health on the cost of less dmg?

I specially love that you can get 20 stacks of vulnerability with 1 hunters shot + marksmanship traits! It must be really awesome in dungeons?!

I’m not so sure about the 8-9 skills. I will always use QZ both in pve and dungeons /www. But not sure about the last two spots. I like SotH in pve just to get faster from A to B, but perhaps someting else would be better? Traps like fire could be handy in pve when using the GS. And SoS is nice to have in dungeons/www. Any good ideas for the last skill in dungeons/www? Evade in www maybe?

I hope you guys can give some feedbacks!

Cheers :-)

Anet, give the ranger something like these, pretty please <:-)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sniper_Shot

or

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sniper_Shot_

For the longbow!

ps. now that I have your attention, please make all ranger longbow skills useable while moving.

Cheers!

Hi all

I have only found rare guild backpaks on the wiki but no exotic back items.

Does anyone have a link or a list of exotic back items, including recipes?

Cheers

Seriously guys …….. stay on topic!!!

13 out of 19 replies are off topic! If you need some attention or would like to cry/whine, make a new thread. Respect the authors and make constructive feedbacks.

If I could only choose 1 fix:

Reduced damage intake for pets from AoE. (also mentioned by others)

Once again we can all agree that pets need reduced damage intake from AoE!

This is the rangers biggest concern. Unless Anet gives the pet an ability to dodge the red circles, they should be almost immune to AoE.

Or as someone else mentioned in some other thread:

When you swap pets, they both stay active for a short period of time.
eg. You swap out your spider with the drake but the spider remains active in battle for 60 sec while the drake also has joined you in the battle.

So you get two pets for a short period of time at every swap.

Haakkelberg.2460:

LB is only weapon I use, sword and horn if really needed, bad dbs. As mentioned in up, some make 1200-1500dmg at max range, I get avarage off 1500dmg on closerange and high as 5800dmg, so why not spam #1 it’s best dmg y got! Whit max range off 1500 I hit opponent whit two arrows and downed, didin’t even see me comeing Hope I hit 6000 crit today, backitem upgrade will give me 119 crit dmg

Best hits sofar:

1. rabid fire: 18.200dmg hope to hit 20.000 after upgrade
2. barrage: 2000-2500/hit x10 that’s allready 20.000dmg total

SB rpm is double or so compared to LB, sb hit about 200-300 on #1 when crit and my LB will hit 1500 when crit at close range (my cc=65%) (attack=over 3500)
Someone calculate how mutch faster I kill y and if y run away…

What build and gear do you use?

Elthuzar.9478:

I disagree that it should provide a combo field. Ranger can already get a poison combo field through spider pets or marsh drake. They already get the fire field and chill field from traps, and vipers don’t secrete poison, they bite. It just doesn’t make sense. If rangers get a buff anywhere it should be through their spirits and pet abilities. Pet AI and just general usefulness in PvE & WvW is deplorable.

Buffs and fixes are not limited! When something is broken you should get it fixed! If you , god forbidden, were in a car accident and got to the hospital, you would prefer the doc to fix all of your fractures. You wouldn’t say: hey, doc forget about my broken arm, I rather have my broken legs fixed!!?!?

You shouldn’t mix pets with traps. Two different things.

And do you really think the only thing that wouldn’t make sense in this GAME is if vipers nest gave a combo field? So all the other things in the game is completely meaningful? All the other things make sense cause they are more realistic? It’s called MAGIC :-)

edit: spider poison field / shooting is so slow, that even in pve, the foe has already moved to another area. So the poison field is completely useless. Unless you run as kitten into the poison field and maybe get 1 poison arrow hit the foe ;-)

I really would like to use the longbow (new build, perhaps )but no matter how I put the numbers together or read what others say about the LB I simply end up staying with the short bow after all. I read that even with a non-condition build, SB deals more dmg than LB.

So, I really would like to hear from those who use LB as main weapon on this matter. Only pve, dungeon and www oriented!

- What made you choose LB instead of SB?
- How do you use it?
- Do get more dmg compared to SB when traited with longer range/ 5% more dmg?
- Is it only a www preferred bow?
- If you are a prec/crit dmg build, what would be the best option (LB / SB)?

I think I’m kind of looking for a salesman to “sell” me the LB :-) Because I feel really comfy with my SB and can’t leave my home without it!

This has been mentioned before, but it doesn’t make it less important! Since the latest patch didn’t fix it, we strongly hope Anet consider this suggestion for the next patch.

+1
Longbow needs some dmg buffs!

higher dmg or faster shots!

just found these:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74869-pve-gear-attribute-calculation-spreadsheet/

http://guildwars2.mmmos.com/?page=view&id=4048&title=pve-gear-calculatorefficiency-optimizer-spreadsheet-almost-all-pve-gear-included-with-some-theorycraft

You don’t gain so much extra condition damage at high levels.

At 1400 Condition Damage Bleeding dealing 113 damage instead of 110 at 1300 Condition Damage

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/conditions-guide

btw, you say condition trap build, but I don’t see any taps on the skills. Did you just forgot them?

If you have the gold, go for the sup runes of the mad king. You get power and cond duration.

Drop the warhorn and go for the torch. Burn has awesome condition dmg.

Also it’s not only about bleed. People only think bleed when they read condition! For the long fights burn and poison is amazing (they only stack duration). And in dungeons you help your group a lot with frost traps. When foes move slowly, your team’s AoE have better effect.

Greetings all!

Just for a short moment forget all about numbers, stats and colors. Just try to enjoy the game. You will be amazed how fun it is. Don’t ruin your gaming experience by making it some kind of work that has to be done, or a race that you have to finish today.

I’m sure we all enjoy the game on our own terms, and I’m not trying to dictate how others should play. However as I read most of the posts, you see that (some) people have forgotten to have fun!

So, remember to have fun :-)
Happy new year all!

thx for feedbacks!

Haakkelberg.2460:

I build my ranger only for WvW use, got full berserker’s set and ascended rings sofar, back item in todo list. I have read many posts here telling that ranger damage suck and there is no use off it in any place. So I just give here little hint what you can do whit your ranger. first you can forget your pet, only usefull in 1vs1 battles, most cases allways dead, does only 1% off your dmg

I use only LB and sword/horn only for swifness in WvW

cc=65%
cd=117%
Attack 3.500

Sofar max crit hit useing skill 1 = 5800dmg avarage range in 3800dmg to 4800dmg depends off opponen defence.

max dmg sofar on skill 2 = 18.300dmg

and last, barrage constant 10x 2000dmg, high max 2800dmg

that gives single light target 18.3k + 20k damage, shortest fight sofar 2 arrows and down

what build / traits / skills do you use?

I made this build in order to get the most damage out of pets. I have selected the traits that benefit the pet’s damage and health.

Overall traits
Marksmanship: 10 (Malicious Training)
Skirmishing: 20 (Pet’s Prowess, Carnivorous Appetite)
Wilderness Survival: 10 (Expertise Training)
Nature Magic: 0
Beastmastery: 30 (Shout Mastery, Commanding Voice, Natural Healing)

Skills
Heal as one, Sick ’Em, Signet of Stone, Protect Me, Rampage as One

Weapons
Longbow (Sigil Force)
Sword (Sigil Purity)
+
Warhorn (Sigil Accuracy)

Armor
Svanir (HotW), Runes of Soldier

Accessories
Beserker + 1 valkyrie earring

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNBjYD7EpiCLzCyKIWLEErCAqVgSMFHCRvHxaWtPlpUC2SB;TkAqsMZJyymlLLZWrSGFsJA

Haven’t tested in game yet (theoretical build) because i need the tokens!
If I did the calculations correctly, the stats should be:

Power: 1697
Precision: 1316
Toughness: 2580
Vitality: 1345

Crit chance: 23%
calculated by (1316 – 916 ) / 21 = 19
19 + 4 = 23%

Crit dmg: 37%

What you guys think?

I wish someone made a build calculator for pve. All the current calculators only take account for pvp. There are no entries for neither accessories nor armor.

It’s really difficult to foresee how much power, health etc you can obtain by playing with different trait builds and mixing with different armors and accessories.

So I appeal to those genius programmers out there to include these matters into their build calculators.

My favorite build calculator is http://en.gw2skills.net/ but, as I mentioned it lacks the armor and accessories stats.

Merry Christmas all!

Separate trait builds for pve, dungeons and www!

I wish you had the option of having different builds for different instances.

I’m sure you all agree with me that pve, dungeons and www are 3 totally different things. Therefore it would be really practical (and more efficient) if we had separate builds for pve, dungeons and www. Just like the separation between spvp and pve.

Imo, dungeons and SPECIALLY www requires a different kind of play style and trait set up compared to pve. These different instances should have their own specific build options.

I have corsair m90. It’s awesome!

I’m a Norn so obviously I recommend Norn!

They fit lore wise to be a ranger. Personally I don’t think asura fit as a ranger at all!!!

Norn also have an elite skill that is THE BEST SKILL IN WWW “become snow leopard”. You get invisibility which is an kitten savior in www. I have always managed to get away with it!

i’m pretty sure the next patch will take this ability away :-((

Could we please get a griffon pet?

A bigger version of the plush griffon?

They would look adorable, but attack the enemy like a true beast!!!

I wish you had the option of having different builds for different instances.

I’m sure you all agree with me that pve, dungeons and www are 3 totally different things. Therefore it would be really practical (and more efficient) if we had separate builds for pve, dungeons and www. Just like the separation between spvp and pve.

Imo, dungeons and SPECIALLY www requires a different kind of play style and trait set up compared to pve. These different instances should have their own specific build options.

If you don’t like pets, get out of the ranger community :-)

I love my pets. It would be pointless to be a ranger without the pet.
The ranger profession is a pet class and it should work that way! However Anet has not fulfilled that mission successfully….. yet! But I’m sure they will get there eventually.

It will be a good class when Anet fix spirits, pet survivability (specially AoE) and clean up the trait tree (it’s to messy).

ps. I’m ranger all the way!

Edit:
As it is now, we can do a mix bunch of stuff that other professions also can do, but we do it less effective / poorer. In other words: Other professions can do what we do, but much better!
We need something unique for the ranger! And a pet alone is not enough!
Seriously, how many of you guys are “spirit” rangers? I’m not talking a build for a few hours or experimentally, but as a main build you use all the time?? I have only seen ONE “spirit” ranger during all this time.

Trap traits should be re-made. A ranger should be able to ground target traps at default (without traits) and it should not be in the skirmishing tree! Also range of traps AND ranged pets should be 1200!

It’s more important to choose a pet that suits your build rather than just looking at “strongest” or most dps!

So there’s some offer for a legendary gsword for 2200g on TP!

Is it legit gold? I mean is it really possible to make 2200g in game after 3 months? Or is it real life cash? Or bots?

If it’s legit gold from playing the game (credit card players / gem buyers don’t count!), whoever you are my friend, I salute you! Kudos!

CC Charles.3675:

Hello everyone,

Due to the amount of threads about thief and its gameplay impact, we have decided to open this thread in which you can discuss your concerns about Thieves in PvE, sPvP and WvW.

This will allow us to collect your feedback with more efficiency and forward them to the appropriate teams.

You can articulate both, positive and negative feedback for it, but we ask you to stay constructive and polite when you want to express your opinion, all posts that break the forum code of conduct will be removed.

Thank you!

This is from CC Charles (Community Coordinator) from the Thief forum.

I must say it’s really awesome that Anet devs take time to do stuff like that. That’s great. But I wished the rangers got some of that caring too! Our profession needs a lot of caring.

Right now I just want Anet to fix the profession within its self. Let us do the class balancing when the class has become flawless. I don’t care if some other class is OP. Please concentrate on the individual class first. When the class is finally working as intended ( and made unique), you can take time and balance it with the other professions. At that time it’s just a matter of damage numbers going up or down, or making fine tuning with the health bar or like.

At the moment, you can not claim that the ranger profession is doing well. Again, please don’t compare outside the profession. The last patch did indeed fix some stuff, but it’s still broken.
I’m positive that the ranger community would also gladly discuss our concerns about the Ranger and allow Anet to collect our feedback with more efficiency and forward them to the appropriate teams!

“They Don’t Care About Us”

All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us

Beat me, hate me
You can never break me
Will me, thrill me
You can never kill me
Jew me, sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, kitten me
Don’t you black or white me

R.I.P MJ

why a nerf??! The pet system is still messy, our traits still messy, spirits messy, and lack of decent skills ……. i could go on and on and on!!!

If Anything we need more buffs and fixes.
Rangers are not over powered! It’s a fact!

omg that is so funny! I didn’t know Anet automatically changes some body part words to “kitten”. That’s awesome. kitten kitten LOL

Well done! This kind of work is time consuming. We appreciate it.

Some of the traits that I find valuable in contrary to your statements, have already been mentioned by fellow rangers.
Also some traits are only good with certain builds but can be a waste with a different build.

In general I don’t use traits that give cool down reduction if the default cool down is pretty low it self. Because you don’t gain so much valuable seconds anyway. Eg. 20% faster sword recharge (Wilderness Survival X) gives your sword skill #2 only a reduction of 1½ seconds. That’s nothing! But the same 20% faster recharge for signets gives you 24 seconds shorter cool down for Signet of the stone. Now that I can feel! Anet shoudn’t just copy paste “20%”. They need to consider its actual benefit.

I always use “pets heal for more” in dungeons. My pet saves my kitten on several occasions and you can really see the difference.

Keep up the good work.

F2 skills should be instant. Either change the animation or make it faster! Are you listening Anet? Do you hear our cries?!!?

Pets also need a reduce in incoming damage from AoE.

As Da Poolp underlined, there is no best build. Also every player prefers a certain play style and therefore must build the character according to the that specific style. If you hate melee you really shouldn’t make a melee build.
Remember, the headline states “probably” :-)

However, with the skills and the traits Anet has given us, I believe this build includes the most favorable. I have made this build by considering what the best skills and traits are (in my opinion!). Lets face it, our good skills and traits are pretty limited.

4 of the 20 (1/5) skills are spirit skills. They are all poor to be honest because the spirits themselves are poor.

You have 4 shouts that have the potential to be good, but they are linked to a pet system that is very unstable. I don’t like to waste a skill slot on something that you can not rely on 100%. I have tested Search and Rescue in dungeons but it’s not as effective as I wished. It’s much easier just to do a fast rescue yourself. Protect Me is nice to have, but in pve most of the time you can manage to stay alive anyway. In dungeons and www the pet looses health to fast to be reliable ( a defeated pet doesn’t do Protect Me). The only shout that might be fun and also beneficial is Sick ’Em. But be warned that you occupy a slot on a skill that relies on you pet!

Then you have 4 traps. I really love the traps but in order to fully take advantage of them you need to have 30p in Skirmishing. I don’t understand why Anet didn’t make ground targeting as default?! If you don’t have 30p in Skirmishing traps are limited. The only 2 traps that (again, imo) do good are Spike Trap and Flame Trap. Viper’s Nest could be one of the best traps but lacks the combo field (Anet please make Viper’s Nest a combo field). Now if you have a torch (more dmg), the Flame Trap is not necessary. So you end up with spike trap. Spike trap is ideal to use when you are in melee and need to evade because of low health. Deploy the Spike Trap, use Hornet Sting (sword #2) and switch to shortbow (you can evade even further now by Quick shot, SB #3). Now you can use healing spring far away from foe (or run away!).

The signet skills are not that bad but I find the cool downs a little too long. Also the active effects are not something that you would get excited about! The Signet of Stone is (imo) a must have in www but it requires Signet of the Beastmaster (30p in Marksmanship). In pve it’s very practical with Signet of the Hunt because of the extra speed (not so much of the active signet). Signet of Renewal cures a condition every 10 seconds. This might be handy if you are in places with a lot of incoming conditions, but every 10 seconds make it unreliable. I need to remove the condition whenever I wish, not in a random moment. The self healing from the Signet of the Wild is just too low to be any good imo.

Finally you have the survival skills. QZ is my favorite skill because of the damage output, faster healing in groups, and it looks awesome :-) Combined with the 2 sec quickness from pet swap, you get 6 sec of glory time! Lightning Reflexes is nice to have in www combined with Shared Anguish in Wilderness Survival. But usually overkill in pve and dungeons. Muddy Terrain is a great control skill in dungeons. You don’t deal any damage, but your group (elementalists and the others with heavy AoE) can take advantage of your skill. Also it gives you the opportunity to flank with shortbow. It has low cool down and is by default ground targeting (good work Anet!)
I had never any difficulties to apply bleed with my shortbow neither in pve nor in dungeons. Therefore I never use Sharpening stone. In pve its quite easy to flank with shortbow ( use pet as bait). In dungeons you can easily position yourself to get bleed if you are not targeted.

After finding the best skills I made a build that would emphasize and strengthen these skills. So that’s how I ended up with this build.
Also the build was made in a matter that it can be used both in pve, dungeons and www by only changing the major traits. A very versatile and flexible build which can perform well in all three instances.
Not built for spvp.

Dealing condition damage in melee is actually straight forward with sword and torch/dagger even though sword is not the typical condition weapon (though it has poison). But remember that with torch you can deal a lot of burn and your pet gets 3-4 stacks of might. Also a build with 2,063 power does decent damage alone without condition. It is not unusual that i have most of the conditions (bleed, burn, poison, vulnerability, cripple) applied on the target right away.

If you are Norn, I recommend to use Become the Snow Leopard as elite in www. The #5 skill makes you invisible. I always manage to run away with this skill!

I have tried many different builds and playing strategies (pve, dungeons, www). One of my favorite builds was a condition trapper because I felt I contributed a lot in groups and it was also fun in pve. However because of the rather messy trait tree, you are forced to put 30p in skirmishing in order to become a trapper (although condition trapper has nothing to do with precision and crit. dmg!) Further more you have to invest 30p in wilderness survival for the malice. In order to benefit from the condition damage you need something around 1300 in condition damage.This gives you at the same time a decent toughness as well. Others might spend the 30p in Marksmanship instead, but that makes a glass canon build which imho doesn’t do so well and you also lack the condition damage (1300).

Recently I have made a new build which has enough power to be considered as a power build and enough condition damage to be considered as a condition build. At the same time I have enough health to keep my self alive in dungeons.
The best part of this build is that it can be optimized for pve, dungeons or www by only changing the major traits.

Overall stats:
Power: 2,063
Precision: 930
Toughness: 1,230
Vitality: 1,598
Condition damage: 1,300
Armor: 2,294
Health: 21,902

Condition duration: +40%
Bleed duration: +55%

Overall traits for pve, dungeons and www:

Marksmanship 30
Skirmishing 0
Wilderness Survival 30
Nature Magic 0
Beastmastery 10

I strongly believe the most beneficial traits are available in marksmanship, Wilderness Survival and till the first major trait in Beastmastery. Even though I only invested 10 points in Beastmastery, traits from other trees make the pets really good.

Weapons:
Shortbow
condition/power/vitality
(sigil: Superior sigil of Purity, but Force or Earth is also great)

Sword
Power/vitality/toughness (sigil of Force)

Torch
Condition/power/vitality (sigil of battle)

If you need 1 extra evade you can replace torch with dagger. But imho, the sword’s 2 evades are enough. Besides, bonfire + sword and QZ is just amazing!

*Runes: *
5x Superior Rune of the mad king (+165 power, +10% condition duration, +15% bleed duration)

1x Superior rune of the Pirate (+10% MF)

Gear stats:
Condition / power / vitality (carrion prefix)

Accessories:
Condition / power / vitality (chrysocola carrion)

(condition/power/vitality means the highest stat is on condition)
(power/toughness/vitality means the highest stat is on power)

pve oriented build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNAsfVlEVCsGZx+Gr1Ax6xeA0faPoEnO/rQrSZUngtUA;TQArSGFsrYKC

In pve i use Call Owl which is Norn only skill (3x bleed, 10sec, 3,225 dmg) but can be swapped with Spike trap.

Dungeon oriented build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNAsfVjEVF2RWOWo2Bi1j9QoB1ewJzf+XBalyriCbpA;TQArSGFsrYKC

www oriented build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNAsfVjEVF2RWWWo2Bi1j9EoB1ewpMd+XhWlyGiAbpA;TQArSGFsrYKC

(I think you need to copy paste the links)

This build gives you power, condition damage and a lot of evades. F.ex. use Hornet Sting (sword #2) to evade and create gap and change to shortbow!
In dungeons Muddy Terrain is really good to have even though you don’t deal any damage. In www the 6 sec of immunity (Signet of Stone) and Lightning Reflexes keep you alive against even the most sneaky thief out there!

Try the build! You will not regret it!

ps. My intention wasn’t to be disrespectful against other builds, but force other rangers to make better and more effective builds. Feel free to comment, I can take it :-)

Carry on!

i read somewhere that going from 1300 in condition dmg to 1400 had a really minimum benefit.
So I keep mine on 1300, and make power instead.

Electro.4173:

awe extender.1908:

If you start the fight then I guess your pet will benefit from the trait. But if you just stand passive and command the pet to fight with F2 ( while you don’t fight) the +350 cond dmg doesn’t work.
I hope some others would care to make some testing as well.

And if that is the case, its a really sloppy way of handling a pet system in a game where you know you’re going to have a whole profession based around the things.

I almost always initiate combat with F2, and thats apparently a really bad thing to do based on these findings.

That’s why I tested this in the first place, I used to initiate combat with pet F2 as well!.

And YES, it is a really SLOPPY way of handling a pets system!

Changes that will make Guilds even better:

- Guilds should not have more than max 100 active players.
+100 members make the guilds non-personal. You just become a number.

- Give the guild officers some tools to monitor inactive player so they can be excluded.
Alot of guilds have inactive players.

- Limit the numbers of guilds on a specific character. eg. max 2 per character.
You can’t be active on multiple guilds all the time.
A guild needs more loyalty from players. But the guild should also give the player more benefits as well (mentioned later).

- Make guild houses:
A free wp, access to bank and guild bank, upgrades like different kind of merchants, and the only place you can do unique stuff. Like eg. color you weapons!
If the option of eg. coloring your weapons was only doable in a guild house players would become loyal in order to gain this awesome tool! Its a win-win for player-guild relationship.
Guild houses could also be some kind of “home-page” for the guilds. Event calender, player profiles and so on.

I’m sure a lot of you also have some other great ideas to strengthen the guilds. Share them, maybe Anet will eventually listen!

Imho, the max number of players in a guild and a players max guilds per character is important.

Changes that will make Guild even better:

- Guilds should not have more than max 100 active player.
+100 members makes the guilds non-personal. You just become a number.

- Give the guild officers some tools to monitor inactive player so they can be excluded.
Alot of guilds have inactive players.

- Limit the numbers of guilds on a specific character. eg. max 2 per character.
You cant be active on multiple guilds all the time.
A guild needs more loyalty from players. But the guild should also give the player more benefits as well (mentioned later).

- Make guild houses:
A free wp, access to bank and guild bank, upgrades like different kind of merchants, and the only place you can do unique stuff. Like eg. color you weapons!
If the option of eg. coloring your weapons was only doable in a guild house players would become loyal in order to gain this awesome tool! Its a win-win for player-guild relationship.
Guild houses could also be some kind of “home-page” for the guilds. Event calender, player profiles and so on.

I’m sure a lot of you also have some other great ideas to strengthen the guilds. Share them, maybe Anet will eventually listen!

imho, the max number of players i a guild and a players max guilds per character is important.