Guild Wars 2

Hail rangers!

[Wind] is currently looking to grow its EU community, we have EU people who are interested and we would love to offer all of them a big welcome EU party. Leadership roles, EU events and all on the EU side will be open to discussion so do apply if you are on the EU area.

For the NA rangers, [Wind] is currently very steady on PvP events, PvE is working at a very casual rate so all PvE lovers are welcome to join and help organize pure ranger PvE events (can you imagine all that zoo running around?). WvW events are of course on a server – by – server basis, [Wind]’s presence is highest in Sea of Sorrows, Maguuma and lastly Blackgate, commanders are also welcome!

See you in game, message us for invitations!

Invited! I hope you all are enjoying your [Wind] experience so far, the guild is growing in a positive way and now its such a good time to play ranger. Please be open about any suggestions you have for the guild and spread the word!

Hey peeps,

I’ve just invited those who have requested in the past 3 days or so. If you want to join it’s easier to message/mail us in game, but we will continue to check forums as often as we can. This is a very exciting time to play ranger and be competitive with it, so let’s all have fun together!

Aside from agreeing with the above… I’ve also seen it work with survival of the fittest + longbow + controlling the range of the battle.

Bumping up in order to help the ranger community, all builds have been updated with collaboration of [Winds]. Feel free to make any suggestions and additions to this post, share with those who need guidance!

Hello guys,

I have been getting a lot of requests for the builds I run typically in WvW. Please read the link under my signature and find me in game. I highly recommend you join the [Winds] guild for more feedback and in game practice.

Also any feedback you have on these builds is very welcome.

Cheers!

RoyalPredator.9163:

Uhm… Thieves usually try to escape (~80%+ Chances) when they attack us without success. I think it is US wasted time with a thief when they just walk away. Same with the mesmers and eles.

Pure Heart has my +1. We can’t operate well ~everywhere with the same build.
Yet I try to use my… Power Ranger? build, it is just not enough powerful than my oponent’s basics, meanwhile I miss only 1 ascended gear of all and can’t sacrifice more defense for dps.

It’s not just thieves who will try to run away, the fact remains 80% of the players will use hit and run tactics, hit because they think they can win, run because they realized they’re not willing to lose, rinse and repeat. Thieves are simply notorious at this because stealth mechanics allow for easy hit and run to occur… yes I mean to say it allows for cowards to sit behind their keyboards and run away much more easily. Now if you are being heavily outnumbered in WvW I wouldn’t blame you.

Aside from celestial, is there any way to combine Carrion + other gear to achieve celestial like behavior only in armour? I mention this because celestial could simply be too spread for your needs. Power + condition damage hybrids need only toughness + vitality to begin with, celestial can probably be thrown in there via stones or even runes if need be.

For those using longbow to fight thieves (or anyone for that matter), I just picked up a tip regarding ‘staying in place without moving while using rapid fire’ because this will make your character rotate itself around if the enemy makes its way behind you, or if the thief goes in stealth while you’re shooting them…. takes a bit of getting used to but it is a step forward in getting that kill.

Pure Heart.1456:

Kudos to everyone with their positive views on success versus thieves.

However, I feel that we need to be more realistic, because success depends on several factors— none of which are a guaranteed—and even if they were, the Ranger player needs to have a specific build(s) catered to thieves, which render the ranger less effective in many other situations.

The problem, is that the thief is able to achieve effectiveness (against most classes with ease) with a single build, but the Ranger needs a specific build(s) and needs to expend great effort to survive—let alone defeat—a thief. Balance issue!

The Sic ’em skill is a step in the right direction, but four seconds is ridiculous—it needs to be six to eight seconds.

Agreed, also an important thing you need to do is lure the thief into your pace, blow down it’s utilities (especially refuge) then save your fear or traps for that moment, and follow through with a kill. Every thief fight is a challenge, some easier than others, some do come ready for a ranger fight. In the end you really need to expose yourself over and over again until you feel comfortable fighting them, then work on your build from there.

atheria.2837:

awge.3852:

What to do against thieves overall? Do what I did:

Go into PvP 1 vs 1 arena with a thief friend, regardless of their skill level. Work your way to killing them, modify your build and gear as you deem it necessary. Use websites to build your character outside the game, so you don’t spend anytime in game looking for gear when you don’t know better. Put your ‘i think this works’ build in these forums so we can comment on your ideas. As you get better, challenge other thieves in the 1 vs 1 arena, until you feel strong enough, but do come back periodically to retest your skills and builds.

In my experience, I find that condition/toughness centered builds work best. There are certainly many variations in approach and I can share mine if you want, but it all will depend on your skill, your build can only take you so far as there are really skilled/experienced thief players out there.

Pro tip:
1. It’s essential for you to learn a thief’s approach, make a thief and practice with them in PvP, learn the flow of battle, or level them to 80 just for the single purpose of having fun.
2. Learn your ranger, we have a lot of (quite spreaded) survival options and damage options. When you have mastered your ranger, your weapon, utility and pet skills should flow as smoothly as an elementalist’s going through their elemental atonement rotation. The difference is that we can be more versatile since we have plenty of options, it’s just a matter of using them best the way that suits the situation AKA trashing the floor with that —- thief.
3. Learn to use your pet…. period.
4. Be open to losing, getting killed over and over by a thief until there is a permanent hole on your ranger’s back from all those backstabs, that’s how you will learn from your mistakes.

L2P?

How about you and anyone else who uses this phrase making youtube videos showing how instead of just ‘saying’ learn to play.

How is anyone supposed to learn without teaching in this or any game?

No, I can’t just “learn to play” – I have to have a mentor who is willing to show me how not just tell me to go learn how to play.

Find me in game we can train together, I am personally not fond of making videos and I’d rather show-and-tell, but I do what I can on the forums so I hope that’s alright with you.

From what I recall in my experience with Celestial, it is the best suitable build for hybrid builds, typically you would be gaining 2 sources of something (defense or damage or a bit of both) via traits, but you would be lacking deeply in 1 area, which depending on the profession and the build options, could be brilliant or too good to be true. The only case I have seen it work really well is in a PvE oriented necro build, very well balanced power + condition damage, survival is strong due to death shroud. To make something like this in a ranger can’t be impossible. I just cannot imagine what trade off would be given up in such a way that it would be considered a “good” build in WvW and PvE simultaneously… due to never trying such a thing myself with my ranger.

hunterkiller.5419:

After looking through the builds, I’ve got a weird, beginner’s question to ask:

What kind of choices should we put in the accessories slots? Should it be defensive like toughness, or offensive like condition damage or berserker. What kind of changes does it bring to the build?

A lot of changes, the thing is there are 3 main sources of ‘how’ you choose to make your build. For your purpose you want to maximize DPS while maintaining a good build and to be the least squishy that you can while doing so. So the first step is choosing the right combination of traits, everything else doesn’t matter until this is set. Second your gear will be chosen to maximize what you need to for your specific build. Here putting as much power / precision / ferocity is the most important. Squeezing in toughness and vitality is also important but it is secondary, so wherever you put these stats is entirely up to you. Armor tends to be soul bound for each character, so if there is a stat that you want to share between your other characters you should get it via ascended gear or ascended trinkets (trinkets are much easier to get via fractals/laurels), so that you’re not stuck getting that gear for that character alone. Also certain pieces of armor/trinkets give more stats than others do, look at head gear vs chest armor, rings vs amulets… etc. So if you want more of something put it in the gear/trinket that provides the most. If you look at the build I posted you can examine this and say ok… that’s what I need to do to maximize this and that, put this stat here and the secondary stat over there, mix and match.

Now if you were asking about infusions then… it’s not really a big difference in your dps/condition damage/defense/health/crit damage/crit chance/health, you would have to infuse all of your gear for 1 or 2 stats to make any difference and it would still be small.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

awge.3852:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

I’ve played berserker so far. All the time, everywhere. I already have a berserker armor, like said in the initial post. It’s time to craft another armor, so I’m receptive to suggestions.

For power build I would do this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnMqQHL2yC2CCXLGgRoaGCNAzwNAcnDl7SfxRVFB-TlCEwAMOEAwUDxpSvtKBZqMYlmAWqe0RHDgLAwjjAAhAGtAA-w

For condition build… hmm I like full apothecary, full dire and full rabid for the different builds that exist, but full rabid allows for more variety and it’s cheaper to make as well. Dire is a very bunkery build

Would be cool if you would read the initial post. I already have a berserker armor, I’m looking for another armor, that is usable for as many builds as possible.

Sorry about that I’ve been a bit busy today. From power to mid range to pure conditions I would go with cavalier – valkyrie to get power based combinations, celestial to fill in the gap where I need it, dire and rabid for condition damage. I wouldn’t go for anything else (berserker, soldier, apothecary, carrion) due to being able to fit in the gap with celestial alone. Clearly it will be difficult to find a truly optimal build for any occasion, so if I were you I would choose a power or condition build that you enjoy the most and get gear for each occasion, let the rest be from your existing exotic gear.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

I’ve played berserker so far. All the time, everywhere. I already have a berserker armor, like said in the initial post. It’s time to craft another armor, so I’m receptive to suggestions.

For power build I would do this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnMqQHL2yC2CCXLGgRoaGCNAzwNAcnDl7SfxRVFB-TlCEwAMOEAwUDxpSvtKBZqMYlmAWqe0RHDgLAwjjAAhAGtAA-w

For condition build… hmm I like full apothecary, full dire and full rabid for the different builds that exist, but full rabid allows for more variety and it’s cheaper to make as well. Dire is a very bunkery build

I think I would first figure out what I really want to do with PvE and WvW before deciding on a piece of ascended armor to craft. The key is getting to know the best builds (with exotic gear) and choose you enjoy the most in wvw/pve. I would focus on looking at the rabid, dire or apothecary based builds for condition damage. Power is tough since it’s always a mix of berserker, knight and soldier gear; so work with one that you like with exotic gear and then move it to the ascended world. Don’t just go with what people think is best, make your own decision based on what you like the most and what works for you no matter what.

This is close to what I would use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnMqQHL2yC2CCXLGgRoaGCNAzwNAcnDl7SfxRVFB-TlCEwAMOEAwUDxpSvtKBZqMYlmAWqe0RHDgLAwjjAAhAGtAA-w
Note that I intentionally left out a sigil on longbow as well as the runes, since depending on the ranger these will work hand in hand (example superior rune of vampirism + superior sigil of blood). A lot of rangers like fire/lightning/water runes so it truly comes down to what you feel works for you best. For the runes it’s very good to experiment with them. I would go for Scholar if I was purely focused on damage dealing and in that case I would choose sigil of fire.
Utilities wise, you definitely want muddy terrain and lightning reflexes, they will be your true survival options here. I added protect me as an interesting choice for uh oh situations, but as a ranger pick your own third utility up to your own standard. For example, sharpenning stone can be your ‘go to’ for fury and a little ~umph~ damage to a single target with the bleeding (notice your condition damage isn’t pure crap so why not). You can also choose QZ for this matter, but it’s a skill that can be used at the wrong time and can be wasted so I tend to not depend on this. The elite is quite important and very situational, so entangle vs RaO is a weighted decision for most rangers but in a power build RaO does not hurt.
The pet choice (wolf and marsh drake) are good choices for all purpose wvw, you can use marsh drake for the poison effect in situations where heavy condi clearing is and is not happening, it’s all about timing. It is widely known that drakes also work very well with healing spring so it’s worth having one if only for that purpose. Wolf is naturally a must have in almost all aspects of ranger play. However, you’re free to choose your own pet as WvW is a very controversial place to use pets so just have fun with them and use them as you seem fit.
Last but not least, the runes are left out of the build for you to choose ‘more crit, more power, more vit, more tough, more ferocity., this boon that boon….. etc etc’, so I would like to see what people have to add to the build and if they like it.

There is no one build wonder to kill thieves, they all come in different builds and skill levels. However thieves do have refuge which will provide significant advantage regardless of whom they fight. Knowing this, you should do your best not to waste your fear/knock back, or whichever other methods you prefer to push the thief out of the refuge. I prefer a high condi damage bleeding/bunker build using bonfire and fire trap, that takes care of nearly any thief I come across including condition p/d ones, the rest of that story will be up to your individual skill and if you don’t get ganked by other players as well.

We should be able to punish more on evades since ranger play is based on evade rotation mechanics, especially with that useless trait Strider’s defense. They would make it so that if you trait there you and your pet will gain something from evading successfully. Make it so that whatever this is is not based on a long as hell cool down either, which can make the trait even more worthless than it is right now.

I really like using the hybrid bleeding/poison master build for pvp, but keep in mind that you should also swap to a pure bleeding build or a burning build depending on the enemy’s team setup, its hard to guess this before the battle begins but the subtle differences do make a difference. In case you’re not looking to truly touch up this build, swap out of sigil of stone and grab something more useful. You have lots of choices in this matter but signet of stone won’t help as much as otherwise. I like to grab muddy terrain if I feel that I need to control my enemy more (also quicker condi clearing there), also quickening zephyr is very useful when you stun/immobilize your foe to fill them up with bleeds. I think you get the point, experiment a little but otherwise good stuff… and yes Belgium did great!

Edit: rangers who do like and want to use this build beware, there are ways of getting around this build and it’s not that difficult. You will encounter enemies who will wait for your condition spamming to occur, force you to use all your condition skills and then push you to a corner and kill you. Time your condition application in a consistent rotation, control your enemy all the time, don’t get yourself into a corner. Best test will be to defeat ham bow warriors (the kind that some or less know what they’re doing to begin with).

Invincibility in WvW is very difficult to define since it depends on the situation. You can ready my signature on my personal builds for WvW and however successful I have been in 1v1, 1v2, 1v3… etc, I cannot say they are truly invincible, it depends entirely on you and even then its not an easy feat to accomplish.

In case the signature is tldr: make sure you have at least 3000 toughness and that your source of damage is at least 2000 in power (with medium-high crit chance) or 1200+ condition damage with at least +50% condition damage duration and -50% incoming condition damage duration. Have a stun breaker, means to create a big gap between you and your enemies, and 1 way to recover quickly or become immune to damage.

@Sevans what guild changes? I’ve been inviting a good number of people lately although it doesn’t seem to affect the guild in any negative way so far.

Doesn’t this sound to all of you like that ranger was deep into the nature magic tree using survival of the fittest? Throw in 2 in wilderness survival for quick uptime on survival skills, that would explain the constant cripple/immobilizes via muddy terrain, unless the OP suggests they were not using muddy terrain, it would have been simpler to identify cripples from short sword 1 attacks and longbow 5 arrow shower. If the secondary weapon was a dagger then extra cripple there. Then the hunter could have traited 6 in to Marksmanship for sharpenning edges, piercing arrows and I’m not 100% sure about the final trait they could have chosen… it makes me thing of predator’s instinct for the cripple too. All they need is to have high toughness armor (at the very least) with condi reduction runes or something to benefit them (hard to say). Not to mention that the ranger is experienced enough not to die easily, I wonder if OP can say whether or not they used troll unguent (healing skill you can see this when they use it next to their boons).

Slavi.9137:

awge.3852:

More like the “you can’t kill me and I can’t kill you” build.

I believe that is the point of bunker builds, while you may not have access to much spike damage besides the Owl the constant application of poison and decent physical damage when in S/D means you will be able to outlast almost anyone

I understand because it is a team-based-build, you’re supposed to stay alive until you get help, or perhaps be hard enough to kill that you won’t need help. But you can reach a bunker build and also have a strong condition damage rotation which means you will have a better chance at doing something other than praying for help once all your suitability gets melted away. From personal experience I like to be very tanky but also being able to destroy whoever comes my way.

Nevertheless it is a good idea and it serves a purpose, I have encountered rangers like these around but they can still die.

Nice to remember the vampiric build, too bad the runes are bugged though but it’s a nice option for longbow rangers. Care to show a link to the build?

I’ll see you in game Waffle, keep in touch!

More like the “you can’t kill me and I can’t kill you” build.

@Silvos: I agree with you here, I took your build and retouched it since there is only so much you can do, it should still be pretty solid overall:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fnMqQtg2vCOsAXLGYQoWPAxbA0+FO2k119mxPh86B-TFCDAB/o8LG1fA4hAIiOhFUCWm5PV2fY6LAAA-w

Note that if you really had to you could drop signet of renewal for something of your choosing (muddy terrain, stun breaker, signet of the wild… it’s a bit difficult to say what will work best just by looking at the build. One thing is clear however, I wonder if sacrificing power for healing power will be a better choice for a commander. It surely can’t help to be able to stay alive a little longer. With regards to weapon choice it’s just as you said: Greatsword will be your go to weapon, the other set will be situational (torch or warhorn).

MuchWaffle.2579:

I’m currently contemplating disbanding [TACR].

I can understand why but why don’t you explain it for the ranger community a little bit? Also, will there be a merge effort into [Winds]?

For commander I would go for power-toughness signet build, should be pretty easy to make and to experiment with for most rangers.

For solo wvw I prefer the condi-bleeding build, regen shout build, poison master build and survivalist bunker build (see signature for references).

It would be cool to see melee~ish rangers being developed a little more with the addition of stability options. Ever heard of that GM trait Strider’s Defense? Yes the one no one cares about, how about bump that trait up to 30% and throw in a 50% chance to trigger stability on successful block. If that doesn’t make sense then please contribute by suggesting a way of making this GM trait worth picking up via stability.

I don’t see why having an extra source of damage is such a big deal, if you really don’t like the pet system then set it to passive and use them only for F2, if they die then congratulations, you will feel the loss of DPS one way or another.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Ya one of our guildies pretty much right way made that new Bunker P/S turret engi build , that one is pretty easy to deal with this build.

that kiting video loved it , and i though i was kiting enough :p but thats some 4d epic stuff.

if you want i don’t mind invite me to a ranger guild , i’ll still have to rep 60-70% of the time though to my guildies. i’ll even try to double up guild missions if the times/days are alright.

Yeah I’ll invite you, good thing about ranger guilds is that currently there is a non rep policy but they are fairly active which is nice.

FYI mate instead of trying this during fights do try with people whom you know or with people from the ranger community, I am sure more than one of us can use a minionmancer to practice with. Send us a message in game it could be worth your while and it’s better to see you in action to better comment on your build and your battle approach.

Let’s not forget that there are builds that will counter yours out there and you may be using such a build that is purely weak to minionmancers (ever fought bunker turret engineers?) in that case I would just get out and help somewhere else.

The best way to deal with minionmancer is to:
1. Be aware of your surroundings, you need to use your field to your advantage.
2. Understand minion mancer playstyle, they will get close to you and kite you or melee you from mid-close range.
3. Fight them alone if you can, they get pretty nasty when paired up with someone else.

Anet’s answer for dealing with a minionmancer as a ranger: Entangle, say it out loud my ranger friend. Using the above, lure the minion mancer so that wherever you fight is not where their minions will be, make sure to use entangle to trap the zoo train away from where the fight with the minionmancer will occur. Once you have successfully put some (but not a lot so they don’t run back to their zoo) distance from you via entangle, destroy that minion mancer, make them pay. I like to use a condition build with a lot of condition removal via survival of the fittest. A bleeding build is quite useful vs minion mancer (and necromancers in general) as long as you know how to use your condition clearing wisely, otherwise they will flip the battle on their side and then it won’t matter if they have minions or not.

The build looks very interesting, might stacking and survival under your belt. You can pick up the trait for larger traps ground targetted as its more useful in team scenarios. I cannot say much for the celestial or the runes yet, it looks good in theory but in practice I cannot agree with the low toughness on a melee setup, all I can say is that you have to play it smart.

Accuracy and Intelligence, I find that extra chance to crit quite useful and if my crit chance is high enough (anywhere close to 50%) then I can put those extra points into power or toughness or vitality.

I would advise against [sword-dagger / axe-torch] because axe-torch binds you with no weapon dodges, which a knowledgeable enemy will take advantage of to force you to blow your utilities. go with [sword-torch / axe-dagger instead]. Also shortbow is a great option if you choose to go with krait runes for the bleeding build.

Ranger roles are a bit varied once you get into details. The most popular setups consist of whether or not you want to contribute as a roamer or as a point defender, this will depend on your team’s needs. The most solid build will be however, the one you can use to destroy your enemy in 1 vs 1 while contributing to your role (roam or point defend). Let’s say you jump into an spvp match, personally I like to run to far point and destroy them there, if it is well defended I will go home if no one else in the team is strong enough to defend it, otherwise I will roam middle-home or middle-far. It’s a very dynamic choice of which I highly recommend you pick one for every match you play and get a feel for what works best for you as a ranger.

For point defense I go for: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjEq0xaLLmsQ1aABhaVA0uGS2u2d+eDfdBbqA-TphAwArLD45IAsc/BAHEgOXAgNPAAA

It’s amazingly tanky and its sole role is to defeat your enemy on a 1 vs 1 while staying alive. It has a slightly general purpose build which works great against any profession in a 1 vs 1 and 1 vs 2 battle.

For the same home defense role I also like to use a shout-regen build, although I will advise you to consider your condition removal options against your shout options: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fnMqQvgWLIWsAVLGAToanAdaA86Gc3sLwEXwnK-TpRAwAsLD85IAA4BAwc/hAHEAPXAAA

For the roamer role, the one I have found works the best is the bleeding master build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8fjEq0xaNLusQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg789G+6C2UB-TphAwAcOCAkLDA4gA05CAs5BAwb/BA
For this last one you will have to get a little creative, certain maps require certain setups as you will ideally roam where your team most needs you, or help defend a point, this is a very strong build all around (especially vs other rangers). The creative part will be on pet selection, choosing quickening zephir vs muddy terrain (do you need more condition clear and area control vs fast damage?… fighting a ham bow vs a mesmer?) etc…

Let’s not forget the spirit build which have been posted above and for tips, condition rangers work best when paired with 1 other person (if roaming). Best of which is necromancer, condition ranger and engineer. When running home point, you may be pressured off it, that is why you have to learn to fight in close quarters and constantly apply pressure using your build. Bonfire is the #1 way to pressure your enemy on point, use it when you know they chose to be close to you (melee), swap to your ranged setup not only to be ranged but to apply that poison (sigil of doom) just before they heal, very important!

Feel free to ask questions in game too, but also take some time to look at twitch tv for tournament videos to get an idea of what other people like to do, your role will eventually be defined by you.

Edit: there is also another strong build for roaming, it uses celestial, poison mastery and beast mastery but I personally don’t know all the details, perhaps someone else can fill it in.

shadowpass.4236:

I haven’t had much time to play lately, and I have my own guilds to rep, but if you ever need help theorycrafting, hit me up.

- I’ve played ranger since launch
– Commanded (no tag) for a zergbusting guild and created most of the builds used
– Know my way around tPvP :]
– All I do (literally) is duel in-game
– I am very experienced with all types of builds and know how to play them well, this does not only apply to ranger. (The only classes I don’t play as much are engi, necro, and guard, though I’ve fought and still played them long enough to know how they all work.)
– And I very strongly dislike PvE. haha

The only thing is I won’t rep much. I don’t really PvE so I won’t have a reason to guest, and I have my own guilds to take care of. Also, it might be awhile before I can accept the invite depending on how long until I return. But again, if you ever need any help training the new guys or anything, let me know and I’ll free up some time.

The best way to do this is to hop in from time to time whenever you’re jumping into PvP and ask the rangers to join you, unless you plan on doing anything competitive. Personally, I made up a tPvP group made from 3 rangers (including myself) 1 guard and 1 ele and we won every match that we played. Also I have begun inviting rangers to a highly competitive solo PvP arena I found to help them enhance their skills, as someone interested in the development of rangers in GW2.

Prysin.8542:

Rentapest.6503:

It’s about time that Rangers got sorted out and buffed BIG time with some SERIOUS dps improvements to BOW!

Ranger is meant to be a RANGED class, not melee. Yet we’re forced into melee coz it’s the only viable DPS.

sorry but you are WRONG. Because the whole “unparrallelled archers” thing IS A BUNCH OF BOGUS. Because the WHOLE GAME is revolving around melee doing the MOST damage, and ranged being an OPTION.

Ranger ranged DPS is end of the highest single target ranged DPS you can get. Ele holds the highest multi target DPS in the game.

What rangers need is group utility that does not go at the expense of the ranger itself. Rangers need a major spring cleaning of the trait trees. Merging and or implementation of traits as “basic default functions” of old redundant and irrelevant traits. last but not least, rangers need a overhaul of the F2 system (before the F# functions are revised entirely too), current pet F2’s have far too high CD’s in comparison to effect and their hit percentage.

Before we get off track here let’s point out something important that you mentioned, melee being the center point and ranged being an option. I have to admit that ranger feels a lot like this since pure ranged pressure is more a trade off than a reality. You need to trade off something for every single ranger build in order to stay alive, and the biggest loser of this trade off tends to be #1 DPS and #2 survival. This is exactly why so many ranger players feel confused towards which way their build should go towards, the ones who are not confused have either mastered the profession (like yours truly here) and have found ways to excel with the trade offs. Also there are those who have not mastered the ranger and instead have accepted the short comings and are satisfied with a build despite the trade offs.

I believe the gap needs to be better defined here, as of right now I can only compare with other professions in the gvg aspect. You have your melee train, which rangers should not need to be a part of, you have your ranged group which suits rangers quite well, and you have your pick team which focuses on target-kills. Just by analyzing the dynamic that occurs here, you can understand what rangers need in order to better define their role in the battle field. Let’s be honest people, once you reach level 80 you can run whatever build you like, but there is no player out there who will not wonder ‘what is the best way to do this or that’ and the response to many rangers is ‘well….’ rather than ‘this right here or something similar’.

I like this build more for WvW, that perma swiftness, strong regen and swapping sick em with protect me is a life saver. In PvP I find it more useful to go with a bleeding build or a survival bunker build.

kiwituatara.6053:

blitzkrieg.2451:

awge.3852:

shadowpass.4236:

Here’s one of the builds I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjUq0ya/Kesw1agDhq5K8BMDgFw9Q0CV9FXlWF-T1SDABdquSPKnmRlCT2f4gLAgQKZCwkRCPBQJoL6GG4gAAg5MxAwE-w

- 90% less cripple duration
– pretty good condi clear
– 50% critical chance with fury
– 202% critical damage
– 2k base power (2.25k with stacks)
– 2.8k armor
– 19k health
– very high swiftness uptime out of combat, near to permanent swiftness in combat

You can swap the Longbow out for a Greatsword if you want. I prefer Longbow for damage however. Greatsword’s Maul is hard to land and many of the attack skills are very telegraphed. Also, for escaping, the stealth from Longbow works wonders.

This is a good trade off from going full into marksmanship, but I would go for runes of strength + jungle stalker’s might, pretty good option since you’re constantly thinking about properly positioning yourself in battle and that’s what your pet will do for you.

do the runes effect might generated by pet?

I am afraid they do not. Strength runes isn’t very good on rangers. Maybe okay if you have sigils of battle and strength, but thats already a heavy investment imo. And stacking 25 might on pet is easy enough without strength runes.

Good to know!

Littlefeather.8623:

awge.3852:

I have personally been holding off making a 100% DPS ranger due to the huge squishy factor, even though I do keep 2000 ~2200 on the attack, I trade some crit chance to keep toughness around 2600~3000, running with the backline support means that no one is supporting you, so I keep an eye out for thieves and the like and maul them to death with my tankier setup. Otherwise I’d be just another sheep for the wolves, you can only defend so much from thieves and random ranged damage in WvW by being in the back line, after all a high damage dead ranger is worse than one that can deal moderate->high damage and stay alive longer in my book.

Yes this is very true, I avoid even partying up in WvW because I personally feel that I shouldnt need boons and stability etc, a good backline avoids getting touched before DPSing. That should always take priority, ofcourse you’ll get ganked sometimes but who does’nt. It’s constantly moving, straffing, always being aware of your surroundings, paying attention to not only the zerg infront of you that you’re hitting but both sides and behind you even some times, all the while making sure your pet is not engaging, It’s not easy at all, trying not to stick out like a sore thumb. but yes you are correct you ca have all the DPS in the world but if you’re dead you’re useless for DPS. I do it more for fun than anything though tbh, I enjoy playing DPS now because 1.5 years of WvW frontline guard is too boring and to slow to kill anything on my own.

It is indeed a nice change of pace, but you should also work on a build that allows you to pack a punch but still stay under a safer survival rating, it’s not every week that your world is on the winning side. Nothing can be worse than being super squishy on times when your world can’t keep up with the mob. That’s just one example, but I think it’s good practice for any ranger who is reading this to prepare for both kinds of builds.

I just hope they make it easier to store all that gear seriously cause once I get fed up of being trampled by thieves I swap to my condi build and show them who is boss, but it’s a lot to carry.

shadowpass.4236:

Here’s one of the builds I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjUq0ya/Kesw1agDhq5K8BMDgFw9Q0CV9FXlWF-T1SDABdquSPKnmRlCT2f4gLAgQKZCwkRCPBQJoL6GG4gAAg5MxAwE-w

- 90% less cripple duration
– pretty good condi clear
– 50% critical chance with fury
– 202% critical damage
– 2k base power (2.25k with stacks)
– 2.8k armor
– 19k health
– very high swiftness uptime out of combat, near to permanent swiftness in combat

You can swap the Longbow out for a Greatsword if you want. I prefer Longbow for damage however. Greatsword’s Maul is hard to land and many of the attack skills are very telegraphed. Also, for escaping, the stealth from Longbow works wonders.

This is a good trade off from going full into marksmanship, but I would go for runes of strength + jungle stalker’s might, pretty good option since you’re constantly thinking about properly positioning yourself in battle and that’s what your pet will do for you.

I have personally been holding off making a 100% DPS ranger due to the huge squishy factor, even though I do keep 2000 ~2200 on the attack, I trade some crit chance to keep toughness around 2600~3000, running with the backline support means that no one is supporting you, so I keep an eye out for thieves and the like and maul them to death with my tankier setup. Otherwise I’d be just another sheep for the wolves, you can only defend so much from thieves and random ranged damage in WvW by being in the back line, after all a high damage dead ranger is worse than one that can deal moderate→high damage and stay alive longer in my book.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Back in the old days good rangers were rare due to the high skill-ceiling of the class.

Nowadays it’s more or less to know where to put the RezzSpirit, interrupt/support rezzes with the pet and press 1. Besides that you can spam evades all over the place. So competitive . . .

In that sense then you can compare it to any other player from another profession who has a solid build… then it falls in the area of ‘I don’t know what I am doing but #1 for the win!"… that’s not the center point of why people hate on rangers.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)

Think of the Preview window and how it could be enhanced to be used to display relevant build information. A tab for the traits being shared including choice of food and consumable, a tab for Gear choice including weapons and trinkets. It could all be summarized in one tab if anything. This should be used in order to ‘view’ a shared build, the share option is something that should be shared via chat just like a gear can be shared, unless it would make more sense to share it via mail so that there is less spamming involved and more ‘I got what I want to work with thanks!’ type of option.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates.

I would also love to see in the hero panel ‘H’ under Equipment a tab either above the gear choices or above the character avatar itself that allows us to immediately switch into another pre-defined gear choice. A player would be able to call this ‘PvE gear’, ‘Arah dungeon gear’, ‘WvW guild’… etc. Even better these tabs could even contain the pre-defined configuration for a build, or it would allow a gear template to go with a build template.

The objective is simply to say ‘I have this template build for WvW roaming, and I have this template gear for it too’ instead of having to click into refunding traits for the build and swapping gears as well. The option of doing this out of combat already exists so one more step please <3

trunks.5249:

i have been pvping 8-10 hours a day on my melee ranger. if i sucked i wouldn’t be on ranger in pvp i am not the best in the world but i am good working my butt off to being great.everyone of us no matter what the class has seen really good rangers and really bad ones in pvp.but in ranger forums nothing but crying did they ever stop to think they just have bad builds?i know no class is perfect they all have there problems . so can anyone tell me what the kittens is going on? or is it has simple has forums is where people go to cry? thank you in advance for your answers

You are right in your statement here, what I have come to understand over time is that ranger has a very high skill cap and many people simply fail and get frustrated (like no one should fail right), and instead of posting about ‘how do I do this and that in a better way’ they rather unleash their fury in the forums. I get that everyone should be allowed to rage over thieves, especially since they are difficult to deal with when you’re still getting the hang of any profession, but to use your own failure as an excuse to lash out into the world is just sad.

Not to mention that historically, other professions do have it easier in terms of having an easier time obtaining a build that works for their play style and that is not terrible in terms of overall combat, whereas rangers have always suffered from this lack of balance. It’s even extended to the point where players from other professions look down on rangers, for their own personal negative experience with ranger players… and I could go on about all that jazz.

The truth is that rangers are strong, difficult to master and not 100% balanced. It takes a player who likes to play as a ranger to obtain its full potential. You will often find these rangers eating thieves alive in all aspects of wvw and pvp, kiting the life out of hammer warriors and face palming themselves whenever a poorly played ranger gets taken out.

So why all the hate? More than anything it’s in the people who play, it’s in the lack of compared balance in ranger profession and it’s in the history of much wider balance gaps. Players need to realize that if you do not like to play as a ranger then don’t, if you do like it and are struggling then get help, if you are trying hard and are failing then that’s really your own skill lacking there. If it’s a ranger specific issue then post the issue like a million times on the profession balance issues and one day the devs will care to fix it… but for now work around it.