Guild Wars 2

Eternity’s Guard for me. Dragon’s Watch seems corny, and the only value I find in that one is that you do end up doing most of the work, but bitterness seems a poor reason to choose a name for a group. Unbroken was my second choice, since each of them has lost something of importance and has kept going despite their misfortunes.

Personal Story for HoT and the map events.
Fractals. Dungeons. Raids. (Might want to find a good guild).

aside from story, most endgame content requires a group, which the LFG tool helps with.

So I’m seeing a common theme here, and maybe I’m slow to the discussion, but what I’m seeing across the board is that elite specs are borderline required for any serious build for pvp, wvw, high level fractals, and raids. Also, the changes to core specs to prevent some honestly outrageous synergies is having the adverse effect of wrecking most core builds left and right. While you can still play whatever in OW, personal story, non-speedrun dungeon groups, and low level fractals, it seems to be getting to the point where there is only one (maybe two) viable builds for each profession for higher level play.

While I knew this was the case for a couple classes, it seems to be becoming a common issue for more and more of them.

Thoughts?

King Cephalopod.7942:

bearshaman.3421:

Elite specs are called elite for a reason. And there will be more of them. Which can’t happen soon enough because at the present moment there is a narrowing of build diversity happening (for pvp and any challenging group content). And yes, there are places where I would be very happy that someone didn’t do something to my drink. One understands this once one understands how the world works outside the confines of your sheltered existence. PVE is more than open world, and I think people who do high level fractals and raids would laugh at your idea of easy. PVE is more than just open world. Chrono alacrity builds are in demand, but nothing else from a mesmer is. While druid tops the charts for healing, most classes don’t need that much of it, and so it still gets kicked from groups regularly in favor of other classes, and base rangers even more so. And as I said already, yes eles are doing fine.

That’s cute. Nice high horse, by the way, with that “sheltered existence” stuff, assumptions into underhanded remarks make for perfect arguments. You’d be happy paying for a service and not getting kittened over more than usual? In a nice restaurant in a pricey city? This isn’t some backwater developing group made of two people in a garage, this is a large company.

I’m realistic. I know what I’d ideally like the world to be, but it isn’t. So I deal and make the best of it. I find it more useful than complaining, which never gets you anything anyway.

No matter how you look at it elite specs are kittened. If they’re just better, the first group should’ve only been building on the base class. If they’re alternative to the base class, they need to be at the same power level. They’re neither.
High level fractals and raids? I’ve done high fractals. They’re simply tedious. People can do raids in masterwork gear and undermanned.

Really? You’re the only one I’ve ever seen have that opinion of either of those pieces of content. Maybe you should be over in those forums sharing your secrets with the rest of us.

So basically don’t use HoT pets. Got it.

King Cephalopod.7942:

bearshaman.3421:

If you want my full opinion on it, it’s this:

There was no nerf, therefore I’m happy. Because every time I turn around, one of the professions I play is getting nerfed, and it’s usually because Anet forgets that the game isn’t sololy PvP, so the changes it makes screws with us PvE players as well. I like my guardian, and I’m happy it didn’t get nerfed this time around (unlike my ranger, ele, and mesmer). But all of my classes have been nerfed at some point (into the ground with exception of ele), and it’s almost always because of pvp.

I’ve advocated strongly for a skill split between the two so this can stop happening. Most people only really play one or the other, so people would have one set of skills to learn for their game mode. I know MOST (did not say all, so don’t yell at me about you liking both, I know you exist) pvp people hate having to do pve content, and vice versa, so it wouldn’t be a learning curve issue (unless you like both, in which case you’re really playing two different games anyway).

So yeah… not a troll post. just want nerfs to stop, and game to balance separately around game modes.

Elite specs are still OP as kitten, of course they should get nerfs. As for guardian not getting nerfs being a cause for happiness, do you thank your waiter every time you go to a restaurant and your drink hasn’t been kittened in? PvE is kitten-easy, and your method of counting nerfs by quantity is flawed. Chronos were in demand in raids even after the alacrity nerf, and no class nears the healing support of druid/tempest. Hell, DH was the power damage elite spec but tempest still topped the charts for raid damage.

Elite specs are called elite for a reason. And there will be more of them. Which can’t happen soon enough because at the present moment there is a narrowing of build diversity happening (for pvp and any challenging group content). And yes, there are places where I would be very happy that someone didn’t do something to my drink. One understands this once one understands how the world works outside the confines of your sheltered existence. PVE is more than open world, and I think people who do high level fractals and raids would laugh at your idea of easy. PVE is more than just open world. Chrono alacrity builds are in demand, but nothing else from a mesmer is. While druid tops the charts for healing, most classes don’t need that much of it, and so it still gets kicked from groups regularly in favor of other classes, and base rangers even more so. And as I said already, yes eles are doing fine.

FrouFrou.4958:

How many times are they going to nerf these pets? This is starting to look like harrassment, someone call PETA!

Why so PETA and euthanise them in a van and dump them in a dumpster somewhere? (Fact: PETA does this regularly.)

Aeolus.3615:

bearshaman.3421, yeah but other still are on better position to receive those than guard is, if they tune down anything on guardian, well it would make sense to remove class from the game, all that class can do is try to farm bad players with traps… anything besides that isnt effective or works in a fight.

If you want my full opinion on it, it’s this:

There was no nerf, therefore I’m happy. Because every time I turn around, one of the professions I play is getting nerfed, and it’s usually because Anet forgets that the game isn’t sololy PvP, so the changes it makes screws with us PvE players as well. I like my guardian, and I’m happy it didn’t get nerfed this time around (unlike my ranger, ele, and mesmer). But all of my classes have been nerfed at some point (into the ground with exception of ele), and it’s almost always because of pvp.

I’ve advocated strongly for a skill split between the two so this can stop happening. Most people only really play one or the other, so people would have one set of skills to learn for their game mode. I know MOST (did not say all, so don’t yell at me about you liking both, I know you exist) pvp people hate having to do pve content, and vice versa, so it wouldn’t be a learning curve issue (unless you like both, in which case you’re really playing two different games anyway).

So yeah… not a troll post. just want nerfs to stop, and game to balance separately around game modes.

King Cephalopod.7942:

bearshaman.3421:

At least there wasn’t a nerf, like several others got.

Are you suggesting guardian was on par with other classes before, or will be now that the patch has dropped?

No, I said all I meant to say. If you want to read something else into it, that’s on you.

At least there wasn’t a nerf, like several others got.

You don’t have to switch to a different character. You can use a set of gear that has some defensive stats (like Soldier, Dire, Carrion, Rabid, Knight, Valkyrie, etc) and use that until you get used to using the various active defenses (evading, blocks, blinds, immobilize, chill, cripple, etc) and the boons that help with sustainability (regen, protection, aegis). All classes work fine at higher levels, this game just uses more active rather than passive defenses, and speaking from experience, that can take a little getting used to. Been playing for a year, and I’m still working on it (though I didn’t focus on one or two classes either, so there’s that).

Grimreaper.5370:

destroyers tops zerker anyday since a good portion of ele dps is conditions. Destroyers with soldier runes isn’t too bad, but its not great . now if ele had more tools for dmg mitigation… hmm

What is destroyers?

BrotherBelial.3094:

Go with what ever one you have more fun playing. It’s all well and good.saying what class would be best, but if you don’t enjoy playing the class then you are going to regret it.

This. Though if you have some idea on what kind of role you want to play, what playstyle appeals to you, etc. we can better suggest some good options. Also, you might want to mess around in the different game modes and see which ones you want to play long term, as that MIGHT have some impact on your choice. Might not, but allowing for the possibility.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4Ynk0Y2kWaM2YNN2NxcT5mQvpeTL4C2URoJUFividxxI0VLA0CA-TxSBABZfAEwS5XEKBRR3BAPJgcU/BBTQ1rBhiLKQR7P48BIIAACATciTciTMA-e

This is my power build. At the very least I would use the stat sets in question. With Decimate Defenses and fury uptime, you don’t need very much precision with reaper.

Don’t have a condi build for reaper yet. leveling another one for that purpose now.

Xyonon.3987:

Other have already suggested a version of chaos armor, where you grant it to 5 ppl rather than just yourself. I’d like to have that one.

What I also would like to see is that chaos armor in general gets buffed to a personal chaos storm like version. So you always get random boons for a SHORT duration, per second.

Ummm… you can do this by blasting in chaos storm or any other ethereal field.

If they do that, I hope we don’t lose Nature’s Vengeance for it. As it is, I can make them work in fractals pretty well where the fights tend to stay in one location, and same for dungeons. they don’t work for roaming and the more mobile map meta events, but they do work for dungeons/fractals.

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

spirit of nature can also be helpful, less for the heals and more for the group stability w/Nature’s Vengeance. I’ve seen it make a difference, when people can keep hitting whatever it is without getting knocked down/pulled/etc.

We’re talking about PvE here.
The stationary 30% chance of not getting CCed on a 120 second cooldown after the spirit dies is waaaaay to situational to be reliable.

If people do not bring stability against CC content – ranger is not the one to provide it. Period. You are trading one out of only 2 stability sources. You should not do that.

I was talking about PVE too. I know it’s not ideal, but I’ve used it to turn what would have been an obnoxious fight (like in some of the HoT zones when the vets/elites have alot of CC) because NO ONE for some stupid reason brought stability into a more manageable fight that didn’t take so long (the passive heals also helped). Ideally, you’re right, but it’s helped make some really f’ed up fights a lot less obnoxious. Given the choice, I’d go with SotP or the elite glyph. and the cooldown usually isn’t an issue, because I only use it when the situation is that bad.

Edit: it’s 25 secs worth of Stability over a minute. Not great, but better than zero which seems to happen with most random people in those types of events.

Interesting theory. I immediately saw where you going from the title alone, and am kicking myself for not thinking of this sooner….

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I suppose I should add this as an addendum: While they say “go berserker or go home”, in reality there are many glass cannon sets that are acceptable.

Berserker: Most common. Usually the best.

Assassin: Nearly the same as berserker (usually off by only a few percentage points). Some classes are better with full assassin, and some players will hybrid berserker and assassin gear.

Sinister: Also a good set. It’s a condi set, so in the overworld the ramp-up time will mean you kill things slower, but against tougher enemies you’ll occasionally match berserker in damage output. Due to the frequency at which condi attacks are ranged attacks, this is sometimes “safer” set over the all-melee berserker set.

Viper: Also a good condi set. In the short term (sub 10 seconds) it is worse than sinister, but against longer fights it is better than sinister. However, if your primary damaging condition has its duration over 100%, swap out viper pieces for sinister pieces until it reaches 100%.

Stay away from rampagers. It’s an inferior version of sinister.

Warning: I’m gonna be a little nitpicky. Apologies.

Viper and Sinister are hybrid stat sets. Any stat set that gives boosts to both direct damage and condi damage is a hybrid set. They are the preferred sets in most condi builds because it allows you to deal with objects effectively, and provides more of boost to hybrid weapons (Like MH axe for ranger or dagger for thief that’s been traited), among other reasons.

The only pure condi sets are trailblazer, dire, and rabid (off the top of my head). All fun sets, particularly if you do feel squishy.

Leaving the topic of stat sets behind…

I hate that people refer to sets with defensive stats as training wheels until you get better with active defenses, but there is sadly some truth to it. SOME. If you want to play such a set, play it. They are fun, and while they may drag a fight out a bit, it does mean that you can afford to mess up on defense and not immediately die for it. It means you don’t have to be 100% focused and can relax a bit more while playing the game. I played a mesmer with dire gear, and it was pleasant knowing that I could play without having imminent death looming over me if I goofed too many times.

That said, this game doesn’t do tank/healer/dps roles, and everyone has ways of doing all three. Active defenses (as someone has already listed above) are something that you have to practice and get better at that is different from other mmos (my only other experience is WoW, but I’ve had many tell me this is a huge difference from most MMOs). So there is a learning curve (I’m still working on it myself), and the sets with defensive stats does make it a less frustrating learning curve. I can also see the argument for just jumping into the deep end (no defensive stats at all), but each person has to gauge which method of learning this works for them.

So best I can say on this to everyone is this: yes people need to learn active defenses in this game, but let’s not bash someone who uses defensive stats while learning, ok? Different people, different learning styles. Respect their choices (training wheels is a patronizing term guys). Same mountain, different paths applies to this too, you know?

Fluffball.8307:

Tragic Positive.9356:

~Don’t go for healing power if you don’t intend to progress 80+ fractals or Raids
~Both Berserker and Viper are viable.
~For any group content you want Druid for GotL and Glyph of Empowerment, spotter, and frost and/or sun spirit
~https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PvE-WvW-Bleed-druid this might end up being your best friend for solo, which is a totally arbitrary good build I, tragic positive, personally like. There are few dozen other equally good solo builds.

Made a few edits in bold.

spirit of nature can also be helpful, less for the heals and more for the group stability w/Nature’s Vengeance. I’ve seen it make a difference, when people can keep hitting whatever it is without getting knocked down/pulled/etc.

I am not a huge fan of races learning other races’ skills; I like each race being unique. But then I’m usually a roleplayer and lorehound first, and I like the races having something that makes them them. That said…

I really don’t like that some of the racial skills override the unique profession mechanic (I’m looking at you norn and any other skill that replaces slots 1-5). That is one of the biggest problems I have with using racial skills. Some of them would synergy well with professions if it weren’t for the fact that they override the central mechanic of the profession you’re playing!

I feel like you should using the staff if you are actually striking with it, like with revenant and daredevil, but this is a caster class, and if every single skill (20 of them) had to have some sort of animation involving the staff, they would run out of cool looking animations long before they finished, and it would probably have my caster (ele, necro, mesmer, etc) looking so undignified I wouldn’t want to play it anymore…

reikken.4961:

HnRkLnXqZ.1870:

The big problem with this strategy is, if all people in the group spend 0 points for toughness, the boss will choose one of them as target. And when endurance and active-defenses are depleted, this guy is dead.

Actually, it usually allows you to rotate aggro. I know when I’m at 0 toughness and taking too much heat, it’s pretty easy to lose aggro.

Does aggro exist outside of raids?

DeanBB.4268:

If by “heavy armor” you only mean appearances, then an Engineer with the appropriate Outfit could fit that bill. You could choose between rifle and a kit, say flamethrower, which is still a big gun.

Use the Ironclad Outfit. It’s what I use for my charr engineer.

Staff Mesmer. Also did I miss it or do you not have a revenant character?

I will also point out that on most classes, the condi builds do require a second stat in order to be most effective. For instance, several classes have traits that proc conditions on crit, so the condi build benefits from a high precision. Also some classes also have traits that boost condition damage as a percentage of another stat.

Caredelth.1324:

ds dante.3209:

Yeah actually curses could be a good trait line to put on , atm is maybe the least used traitline on the necro

Curses is a very strong traitline.

Yeah I don’t think there is a “least used” traitline for necro. All of them see use in different builds. We are pretty fortunate among the classes to not have a dead traitline.

Brokensunday.4098:

Caredelth.1324:

fonvitale.9621:

Hi,

Third week. No explanation.

More games played and the meta starts to settle down.

With the current state I think that we can say:

- There are classes which can stack much more condis (even hard damage condis) than necros can. Therefore, these classes have better condi damage than necros. Furthermore, some of these classes can apply condis while not receiving damage (invulns) or while ccing.
- There are classes which can clear condis at a much higher rate than necros can reaply them.
- There are classes which can heal at a much higher rate than the damage done by necros.

These things are features of the main classes of the current meta. It is so now and before the patch. So, why the huge nerf to necros? Was it so necessary?

I like to see the community offering solutions. It demostrates how much love we have for the game. But remember that a solution is required when a problem exists. Who has made the problem? Is our work or responsability to offer a solution if we have not even received a coherent explanation? As a customer, I am very disappointed.

Hugh said: “Players, fight for your game mode”. I say: “Anet, fight for your game. If not, look what is being developed”.

I’m not going to ask for more explanation. Bearshaman was right. I’m crying in the wilderness. I’m just going to play until get no more fun.

Thank you all.

Just out of curiousity, does threatening to take your ball home ever work? I mean why not just like offer a solution in a different thread? Constructive criticism would probably draw a response faster than passive aggressive comments.

To be honest he have a point the game is so inbalance that sometimes is hard to play a class that you love , and sometimes people get tired of giving solutios and being ignored for so long so they just don’t care any more , thats why he says just play the game until you have no more fun or get tired of it

Maybe you should read these basic instructions.

Grayclay.4579:

I’m not by any means saying this is good, but currently:

P/P
Rampagers
Rune of Afflicted
Sigils: Agony/Smoldering
Utility: Bulwark/Rocket Boots/Toolkit
Heal: Turret
Elite: Stealth Gyro
Inventions: 2/3/2
Firearms: 1/1/3
Scrapper: 3/2/1

Basically scrapper utility and toughness then straight condition damage on tool kit/pistols with rocket boots for mobility.

The only thing that matters is that you are having fun with it.

I’m still looking to try different things with mine. I’ll be experimenting more now that I’ve started crafting my ascended gear.

Mnemesis.8257:

Something along these lines is best for PvE content. It allows you to maximize your condition duration potential for our intense condition application, while simultaneously utilizing our hybrid capabilities with decent power/precision. If you don’t like the concept of being a glassy hybrid, there is always the option of going for a more “tanky” condition set, such as Rabid. The basic idea of this is simple. You need to maintain your highest damaging conditions (and most frequently applicable) so that you generate great sustainable damage, unlike most power builds which stop dealing damage while you do something as simple as res a downed ally.

This is pretty much the highest damage build engis have for pve. Condi build and you basically just switch between kits and keep your highest condi skills on cooldown. P/P is standard for it.

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

Why Marksmanship over Nature Magic?

Literally because of Moment of Clarity. It allows you to keep a group of mobs dazed for around 10 sec and keep going. It made my fractals a lot easier. It worked even after MoC nerf.

Clarion Bond is also fine and works as a perma-fury substitution for Tiger with NM. Both are fine. With NM your pet deals more damage, with MoC your party has easier time (and your pet still benefits from +15% damage thx to PO).

It’s just a matter of play-style.

I was thinking mainly about the boon support for the party from Nature’s Vengeance, but I see your point.

Tragic Positive.9356:

You have 2 options.

If you are going for hardcore “meta” organized groups aiming for speed runs – you should definitely aim for Viper DPS buffer.

If you are more about getting the party to success – cleric is something I can gladly recommend. It has good synergy with staff and doesn’t die in 1 hit (it still dies in 2 but that’s all you need as a healer. If a healer dies in 1 hit – you are doomed. If you can afford to take 1 bonus hit – it also means you can afford to heal your allies instead of dodging/dying)

It’s the set of armor that saved me the most time and most nerves in fractals. It gives everything. Since you are a Staff fan, you might want to get this as a template:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8XnMqAVsidqAuqAEtilFBb5yFAGcwR1r6Wl5AEuGAlMszA-TBhXwAGV/BhyvaKBBs/AA-e

It offers a lot of AoE CC, most of damage boosters (if you have at least 1 condi player in group and all of you are 25 might stacked, you might want Sun Spirit instead of Frost, also, for Boss fights you’d like to have Glyph of Empowerment instead of Storm Spirit).
And most importantly – it keeps everyone alive via both heals and disruption (daze, blinds,…)

Sigils are not really important. You can go for Transference, Water,… Even Force is okay.

Why Marksmanship over Nature Magic?

I would recommend Rampager or Sinister (just depends on which you want more, precision or condition damage). Rampager with the high precision will also help proc plague sending, though that trait is more for corruption necro than MM necro (since you apply alot of conditions to yourself). Unholy Martyr would work well with that trait. Also you are using Necromantic Corruption, so it’s unlikely you will have enough conditions on you to use plague sending anyway (just a thought).

Might also wanna check out Lingering Curse since you are using scepter.

reikken.4961:

if you open the wvw scoreboard, there are a bunch of 0~10% bonuses for gathering, health, healing, etc. These typically apply to general PvE as well. I don’t believe they apply to raids, however.

Anyway, if you’re, say, a lv 80 elementalist with 0 vitality, you have 11645 health at base. If your server has an 8% health bonus from WvW, you instead will have 12576.

So you’re saying that the bonuses earned in WvW apply to PvE? For everyone, not just those who play WvW?

Edit: Just looked up stuff on the wiki, which I hadn’t done before because I haven’t played WvW. Now I feel bad for not doing it, because I feel like I’ve been getting the benefit of other people’s hard work.

reikken.4961:

bearshaman.3421:

He said for PVE not WVW.

Yes, I am quite able to read.

edit:
Perhaps you were unaware that the wvw bonus applies in open world PvE? Check your health next time you’re standing in town. You’ll find it’s higher than the base, by typically about 6-10%. unless you recently transferred servers.

Just tested that out. My health remains the same between the level 80 zones like Auric Basin and Rata Sum (the city I used). I’ve never transferred servers (FA since I started playing).

Edit: So what exactly is this WvW bonus you speak of? I haven’t played WvW (with the sole exception of running through to get the wolf pet for my ranger).

OMG YES VOICE OPTIONS!

reikken.4961:

The best is a mix of both. Full marauder unbalances your stats a bit. Partial marauder, however, is very efficient. Take just enough marauder to hit about 15k health before the wvw bonus. The dps loss is unnoticeable.

He said for PVE not WVW.

and this thread started off so well….

Silverkey.2078:

skcamow.3527:

Moa needed a CD reduction in addition to the transform reduction but you take the good with the bad here, at least Moa is better balanced with chrono AND we can still CS elites.

Yes, if we only wanted to change Moa, I would have reduced the duration, reduced the cooldown and increase the visual cue for the cast.

But I still think CS is unbalanceable. All skills are balanced according to effect/cooldown and CS just prevents balancing the CD properly, especially for high CD skills. Any CD higher than 150s is now only 75s, CD of 70-90s can be doubled. How do you balance that?

This is what happens when you mess with time. Pretty much in every sci fi venue it’s agreed that time shouldn’t be messed with. While my comment is somewhat meta, it does play out with the balancing issues and wonkiness of CS.

There are pets that require going into pvp and wvw zones too.

I can agree with the vast majority of your opinion. Much more thought out and targeted than most of the people’s complaints about chill overall and DC in particular since the update.

Spite and either Soul Reaping or Blood Magic. Probs Blood Magic for quickening thirst in particular.

gear? I recommend Valkyrie. Between Decimate Defenses in the Reaper line and Death Perception in Soul Reaping (if you go that route), You will have a highly boosted perception already. Use the trinkets that have power/precision/ferocity/vitality as there are no Valkyrie trinkets, and that will give you enough precision that maxing out your crit with fury and other things will be cake.

Utilities? If Blood Magic, Wells. If Soul Reaping, up to you. Lich is a good elite to take either way, unless you want minions.

Depends less on your weapons and more on your spec lines. If you are using radiance, viper is a good idea. If not, go with berserker.

I think it’s a troll thread. He hasn’t posted again here or in the thread he advertised here.

melandru.3876:

chemist.8649:

I’ve tried other defensive builds for pve but they tend to suffer so much on the damage end that it just doesn’t work. Reaper is probably the only other one that worked for me. I’m wondering if trailblazer’s armor would work on another class besides a Mesmer. The Mesmer with defensive build can really crank out some decent damage with all the clones and phantasm shatters. It works well for me. The only drawback is the cost.

it’s price is well worth the results imo, and as far as other classes. not really sure about those, since i only play mesmer but probably necro has a viable condi build aswell for it

but personally i would use viper gear for necromancer since they can afford being more combat orientated (power and precision) as they have high health, and shroud if needed co:pared to mesmer) on top of condition damage and expertise that viper offers. probably looking at a build like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWn0ICl3gd3Ae2As3gliBTqoFCOaRBgBQCIuHWETiA-TBSFQB+6BA0P1fAwJAod6DaoyPqdEAc3+DZRJYAgDgdrbd3NwzP/8zP/c195dfe3SBsoyK-e for soloplay

and a verry simmilar build for raids http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

the condi necro is probably even better then mesmer because of the bleeds that last longer, easier to stack(expertise + traits) and allways do full damage, they require no movement, or skill use of target

A power necro/reaper can also go more defensive with stats, specifically Valkyrie, thanks to the Death Perception and Decimate Defenses traits.

But yeah, Dire and Trailblazer (and Rabid for that matter) work well on classes that can really pump out a lot of conditions. staff/scepter/torch mes works, corruption necro/reaper works, a very specific build of ranger works, and possibly engi. Warrior I’m still working on, but I suspect it might have a good build for it too.

AZY.8352:

Okay guys, conflicting views :-P
Does ranger do decent damage or not?

I have done good damage with ranger in PVE areas. I can’t speak to how they do in pvp, they should be fine in wvw.

Also, are there any decent warrior builds around at the moment that don’t use berserker? You can’t test elite specs in the 80 boost trial

You can do a pretty good condi warrior build with LB and sword/sword. Arms traitline, and not sure about what other ones.

I am happy to see someone post a build using Dire traits. I know defensive traits for pve are generally looked down on, but this was my first or second gear set I tried (with rampager being the other) and it was a lot of fun! Objects were the only thing that was a bit of a pain.

Edit: Well not Dire traits, but you know what I mean…

Ranger meets all the requirements you listed (though I can’t speak to spvp). I have thoroughly enjoyed mine tbh.

Which they will probably do with future elite specs.

I made my comments to his post in the GW2 discussion thread he linked above. God, I’m tired of this complaint. You don’t like druid, fine. Don’t play it. Problem solved.