Guild Wars 2

Lordrosicky.5813:

Not base necro though lol. Shows what they think about necro, they dont care.

Guardian and necro are unique in that their elite HOT specs replace rather than build on the core specs. So there is no reason for necro shroud to be so bad vs repear shroud except for the fact they dont care. Same with guardian.

Warriors burst was replaced with primal burst.

Also, I don’t see what you’re talking about. Core necro is fine.

Fluffball.8307:

Justine.6351:

I think I am going to make a run this season on condi longbow and see where I can get. I think I will be starting in amber or emerald as I havnt played since S2. Maybe the reduced CD on the wilderness skills will carry me to legend tier lols.

When druid first came out I tried condi staff and the damage even on a stationary test golem was so bad I couldn’t kill it. However I’m with you, I’m sort of determined to play this season with a condi build. I don’t want to do power LB again, and healing is so blasé.

If I wind up close to legendary which is unlikely since I PvP like once a month these days, I’ll switch to something more traditional . This season is likely the only chance I’ll have to ever make it that far. I don’t have time for grinding anymore with a bebe so maybe I’m actually skilled enough to pop this out.

Congrats on the baby!!!

Also, fyi ranger pets have set stats separate of the player as well, with only a couple traits that effect them.

Personally I like the fact that the pets/minions have their own stats. Makes them more useful not less imho.

The forum moderators really should unpin very old and unupdated threads from all the profession forums.

Archon.6480:

InsaneQR.7412:

For dungeons and low fractal zerker is better.
For high fractal is condi better.
Raids idk.
Openworld you can use pretty much both, zerker kills faster in openworld but both is viable.

No, I don’t think so. Condi kills much faster, but you have very little utility to work with. Zerker has better range and utility options. Condi is close range and VERY high damage. You would use as much Vipers as you can and use sinister for everything else. Also you need to eat food for +20% duration.

You should build both sets so you can use all Ranger weapons. With zerker, you can use Sword, GS, offhand axe, and Warhorn. With Condi, you can use SB, mainland axe, torch, and dagger. Just leave one 20 slot invisible bag for the alternat armour, trinkets, and weapons.

+1 this. Agreed on all points.

Suffer for condi cleanse (you mentioned roaming around in HoT) and You Are All Weaklings are my favorite shouts. Signet of Spite is also a good choice. Your Soul Is Mine helps with lifeforce regen, and as far as elites, it’s a toss between Flesh Golem and Chilled to the Bone, depending on the situation. If you do go heavy on shouts, it might be worth switching to the Augury of Death trait in the reaper line.

The fun thing about this build is you can swap around your 6-10 skills based on what you are likely to be facing, without having to reinvent the whole thing.

If you want only one set of gear, go with marauders. It’s more universally useful, and the dps difference is minimal to the point of being negligible.

Anchoku.8142:

If you use greatsword, I recommend dropping all minions and running shouts: Spite, Soul Reaping, and Reaper. You will not need minions with the AoE of shouts. Similarly, you will not need vitality if you crit a lot.

Use axe/focus instead of staff as your ranged weapon before switching to greatsword.
Slot Signet of the Locust for movement.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAnYRnMbClbitbCW2A0bilaBDKBEAmBxbxx4ZkaMMHqWA-TBSBABA8EAe4EAclyPKV/hm9HMTJIe6Di4QAQKgIGDA-e

It’s not whether you need vitality, it’s whether you need precision. between Death perception and Decimate defenses on a build designed to stay in reaper shroud, you don’t. So might as well boost vitality. Or any other stat, if theres another set that gives power and ferocity.

I agree about the shouts, but he wants a minion build so…

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

bearshaman.3421:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

bearshaman.3421:

I love the idea, I’m just not sure how it would work within the GW2 world. There isn’t any lore that I know of for undead creatures aside from the minions that necromancers create temporarily and zhaitan created permanently…

GW1 had lots of undead from Orr, mainly due to the Cataclysm and Scepter of Orr.

Yes, but I’m looking at GW2. To put it bluntly (but not meanly), gw1 timewise is ancient history, and human history at that. Gonna need something less human-centric.

Palawa Joko in Elona? Sure, he himself was human, but his undead are a hell of a mix. Not to mention his enemies.

Keep in mind, he’s active to this day.

Ah now we have a valid source for an elite spec for being some sort of undead thing. Though he’s more like a lich than a vampire lol.

hmm… now I’m imagining the utility skill being a set of different transformations, each replacing your 1-5 skills, like the norn racial skills. Vampire could be the healing skill, Lich the elite, and other stuff for the 7-9….

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWjM0QTN2VDu1A7NWyFMoAQDYFEXF7ioKDrhmFA-TxRBQBPZ/hco+DAeCA6RXAjUCKSlfP4SAAA-e

This build uses Valkyrie gear, boosting your substantial life pool even higher. You can get away with this because the build makes use of two traits: Death Perception for 50% crit in shroud, and Decimate Defenses, which gives 2% crit for each stack of vulnerability on your target. Between those two traits, and the amount of vulnerability this build can crank out, you should be at 50% out of shroud and 100% in shroud most of the time, and regardless of the level zone you are in! (wonderful for world completion, since your crits don’t scale down). Might stacking, etc etc.

Yes I dropped Death Magic. Mainly because you don’t need the toughness you were getting (you have vitality), and the minions aren’t necessary to your dps at this point. Trust me, you will mulch most things with this. The minions still serve a purpose, but you won’t need the traits from DM for them to be useful, and this allows you to feel free to change out minions for other skills as needed or desired.

trait options:

- reaper grandmaster trait. Pick one, depending on your situation. Reapers Onslaught makes the most sense, but Blighters boon may prove useful. Deathly Chill really is for condi builds, but you may want the extra bleed damage for something.

- Ranger runes. If you end up swapping out the minions, you will want to replaces these with something else. any of the rune sets I suggested before will be good choices. Traveler’s runes I will add here, because speed increase.

- Chill of Death over Rending Shroud if the enemies have boons.

- Spiteful Renewal if condi pressure becomes an issue (you don’t have necromantic corruption, so this could become an issue, but Staff 4 can transfer those conditions).

- Bitter Chill if you need more vulnerability (somehow).

If you don’t want to use Valkyrie gear (this is one of the only times that gear set is useful), you can stick with Berserker, and use Chilling Victory instead of Decimate Defenses, or swap the GM soul reaping trait for one of the other two. Either way, you will still be sitting on a 100% crit rate most of the time.

Edit: in all honesty, if you don’t want to use Valkyrie, its not a bad idea to use Marauder. It is a minor dps decrease for a substantial boost in health.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

bearshaman.3421:

I love the idea, I’m just not sure how it would work within the GW2 world. There isn’t any lore that I know of for undead creatures aside from the minions that necromancers create temporarily and zhaitan created permanently…

GW1 had lots of undead from Orr, mainly due to the Cataclysm and Scepter of Orr.

Yes, but I’m looking at GW2. To put it bluntly (but not meanly), gw1 timewise is ancient history, and human history at that. Gonna need something less human-centric.

Earth. You’ll proc bleeds on mobs more, and the extra duration is often wasted. Better more stacks of bleed over a few stacks with long duration.

These are modifications of your last build. Also note that I used exotic armor. There isn’t enough difference between ascended and exotic armor to justify ascended unless you are going to do high level fractals, and the cost is much higher. Ascended weapons and trinkets are worth it, and trinkets you can get with laurels, guild commendations, and fractal relics.

First build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmQD7khGopGsrGwbTg9GsgLYQXtAQLI+K2FLjS5gdw+C-TxRBABA8EAuR9HzUC68FB4KlfPt/Ae6GAA-e

This one uses Spite, Death Magic, and Soul Reaping. The idea here is lots of damage, vulnerability stacking, might stacking, lots of chill (and proccing effects off of chill like blind).

Some options here:
– Blighter’s boon instead of reaper’s onslaught if you need more lifeforce generation to get into shrou or some additional healing while in shroud,

- Death Nova instead of Unholy Sanctuary if you find you’re doing fine staying alive.

- Checked the wiki, the bonus damage on ranger runes does work with minions. However, you can use other rune sets as prefered. Rage, Strength, Hoelbrak are good options. If you find you can maintain your life at a high level, you can use Scholar runes.

Second Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmQD7khGopGsrGwbTg9GsQNYUvgawlSKAMAGWxfwSYLE-TxRBABA8EAMTJ4Nq/clyvn2fAPdDOfRAAA-e

This is basically the same build but with Soul Reaping instead of Spite. Here the focus is on staying in shroud as much as possible. You do more damage while in shroud, more life force generation, and even without fury, your crits will be over 100%. There are definitely better ways to do this build, but they will require a departure from berserker gear. But without changing that, here are some of the options.

- Soul Marks instead of Unyielding Blast if you have more than enough vulnerability, and want even more life force generation.

- Death Nova over Unholy Sanctuary. With the increased life force generation, you shouldn’t need Unholy sanctuary, but try it and see what happens.

- see previous build for alternate rune choices.

Now, that said….
One thing you’ve consistently mentioned is that you like being at range. Reaper’s shroud is a melee shroud, whereas the regular death shroud is pretty powerful at range, and with minions you will be able to use them as distraction while you pound away at a distance. Here is a suggested build that I think will do that effectively.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAW3djM0QTN2VDu1A7NOyFK5NkD1AMAagVgWGrRzC-TxRBwAXV+lT9HAPBgHXEgn7PgX3gZlgAA-e

This is a minion shroud build. Your goal is to have a lot of minions out while using shroud to pound enemies at a distance. Might stacking vulnerability stacking extra damage from several places, and near 100% crit without fury. The Valkyrie armor choice is because with Death perception you can lose a little precision, and the vitality will give you a little more of a cushion if somehow things go sideways.

Options are many on this one. Primarily weapons. Axe or Dagger mainhand, any of the off hands, depending on situation. The staff gives the highest damage in shroud I believe (someone correct me if I’m wrong).

Trait options:
- Spiteful renewal if you are facing a lot of condi, more than Necromantic Corruption can deal with. Unlikely, but just in case. Shrouded Renewal over Flesh of the Master for the same reason, and just as unlikely.

- Chill of Death over Rending Shroud if you are facing enemies that use boons.

- Soul Marks if you really need more lifeforce generation.

- See previous build for alternate rune choices.

On the flip side I have another build for a long lasting reaper’s shroud, but that doesn’t fit with what you’ve indicated you want out of this build.

Bishopp.8421:

I tend to try to stay ranged mostly out of self preservation but I think I’ll have a fair amount of toughness. Thoughts on moving from D/x to GS? And if I use GS, I assume I should change Banshee’s Wail to Vampiric Presence.

If you wish to switch to GS, the only trait I would switch based on that would be Decimate defenses and dropping Quickening Thirst in favor of Blood Bond. Vampiric Presence I would take regardless of which one you used.

Once you feel comfortable enough with the class and using your shroud as a second life pool, I would seriously consider switching out Blood Magic for either Spite or Soul Reaping.

If you do decide to use GS, switch to decimate defenses.

Bishopp.8421:

I certainly like the idea of keeping my current berserker gear + scholar runes. I think I can remain relatively tanky with this build but would welcome suggestions.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmQD7khGopGsrGwbTg9GssMYTfgAw1K+FeD/hSTgKQEA-TRRBABUq+TRK/A4BAEhSQd2fAA-e

Consider using Chilling Nova (you only have one shout). If you are worried about dying, Unholy Sanctuary is a better choice if you are going berserker (the poison fields will be weak, and you already have Rise on top of your other minion skills). Also, I’m pretty sure your minions count as active companions, so I would switch to Runes of the Ranger. You’re doing a power build, Condi doesn’t help you.

If they don’t count, Runes of Rage are good, especially if you aren’t using Decimate Defenses.

Assuming you are going condi:

Rabid will afford you more condi damage, Rampager will boost your power and give you high crit chance. Either will work decently well compared to the other depending on how you build around it.

As of right now, you are using Blood Magic instead of Curses. If you switch to curses, you will have access to lingering curse (a boost to your condi), and target the weak (a boost to condi and to crit chance), barbed precision (chance for bleed on crits), furious demise (fury for 5s on entering shroud). With this trait line in place, I’d switch to rampager. I’m think Krait runes (you can bleed on crits, jagged horrors do bleed, scepter AA and #2, dagger #5, staff #2, you get the idea). For Sigils, Earth and Malice.
Oh, and switch your Reaper traits. Deathly chill. More bleed. Chilling Victory which you’ve already switched, and Chilling Nova. A Song of Ice and Blood (cuz kitten dragons.

Assuming you don’t switch to curses (and effectively might as well not be doing condi):

Stay with berserker but switch to dagger/x and staff. I like to keep staff just for the range (since your DS is a melee shroud), and dagger traits well with blood magic. Runes? probably scholar, but if you need cheaper, Strength or Hoelbrak. Sigils Force and Air.

DeceiverX.8361:

Quite frankly, I’m in the mindset of the OP as well. I almost always main the archer/marksman style in games, because it’s typically highly-mobile with lots of damage and very risk-reward-oriented.

Most of the ranger unfortunately doesn’t realize this, and most of the builds that have the aesthetic lack the mechanics to back up this style of play, or otherwise the aesthetic of the archer/marksman etc. for said style of play is lost. Unfortunately, I don’t think the pet will ever properly be decoupled from the ranger, because especially now, it’s more important than ever for a lot of functionality. Such a change would need to cause profession-level re-designs which, quite frankly, ANet has proven repeated unwillingness to do for even individual weapon skills/utilities/traits which are just poorly-designed as a whole.

Primarily why I proposed the Deadeye ._.
Or why I think longbow non-stealth build options on the thief would be a welcome and rather excellent addition game-wide.

Ok but that doesn’t explain why you don’t play a LB warrior or SB rogue… or the now available DH.

Ranger, again, isn’t defined by being a marksman. They are defined by a connection to nature, which is typified by having a pet. If you want to play a marksman, the ranger is but one of now 4 options.

Gryphon.2875:

bearshaman.3421:

I love the idea, I’m just not sure how it would work within the GW2 world. There isn’t any lore that I know of for undead creatures aside from the minions that necromancers create temporarily and zhaitan created permanently…

GW1 has Necrotic Transversal and GW2 has a teleport via the Wurm minion, so having Necromancers teleport would not be new.

Oops, I was more meaning the idea of us becoming vampires or some such form of undead, referring to the dracula untold reference in the title thread.

Einlanzer.1627:

Acting like Virtues and Pets are comparable is rather silly. The former has much less aesthetic impact than the latter, and this is true across all other professions.

Aesthetic impact? What does that even mean?

Pets, Virtues, Burst, Initiative, etc. are all unique class mechanics. All of them augment the class in some way. The range of pets makes ours one of the most customizable in the game, but people still complain about it. Just like they complain about all the other class mechanics. So I don’t find his statement silly at all, but pretty much on point.

Eleazar.9478:

Dadnir.5038:

I’d say that the real issue is that they released only one elite spec at first. This is probably what hurt the game diversity the most. Now, each time they will release new E-Spec, the player base will most likely jump on it, forgetting the current for the new one.

So yeah, at the moment it hurt the game and after each release it will hurt the game as much as it hurt it now. But we can expect a bit more diversity each time they will release new E-Spec.

The real issue is more that core specs are not strong enough to rival the new E-spec, which wound the game in it’s current state. (Well… when you see some core spec traits, special mechanisms or skills, it’s easy to understand why…)

Exactly! If the next specs are equal with the hot ones then we should expect to see a whole new breath of diversity

That’s true. And I’ve made that point. I guess all the QQ are starting to get to me…

dulfy.net has class guides for everything except revenant, and they seem to do a decent job keeping them up to date with the patches. I think that’s your best bet tbh…

Dadnir.5038:

To be honest, the ranger would have gained nothing in becoming the Dragon hunter. The ranger already have the hunter vide tied to him while the gardian gained through this specialization this very same vibe.

What I’m most disappointed with is more that the ranger didn’t get a real new vide with the Druid spec. He sure became better at support/heal but it’s not a new vibe at all since the ranger was already more or less stuck in a supportive rôle. I think they intended to give the vibe of a powerfull healer that become one with nature… But no! honnestly, for me they failed at it.

I’m kinda starting to wonder about the elite specs. I mean, I like the idea, but it seems no one really likes them, and feel that they did more harm than good to the game…

I love the idea, I’m just not sure how it would work within the GW2 world. There isn’t any lore that I know of for undead creatures aside from the minions that necromancers create temporarily and zhaitan created permanently…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhIQNArfGnsICFohNoBWohlZDysC7ullBo2JDdJx8HA-TBSFQBVz8n72f4XKBrn6PFU5X50HAgTBgveCAAA-e

That’s a quick mock up of the build I was referring to. I used all exotic equipment (you only really need ascended for fractals, though ascended trinkets are easy to get depending on the stat set). If you don’t have access to Viper stuff, Sinister will work just as well (and if not that either, a mix of carrion and rampager).

Basically you tend to stay on scepter. Your AA will produce clones, and you also produce clones on dodges. Shatter often, as you will gain boons, load the enemy with conditions and damage, etc. Kite around, stay moving, force them to take more damage from torment, and avoid getting hit. Be sure to keep scepter 3 on cooldown, remember that you don’t have to wait for 3 clones to shatter, though you can easily as your clone production is really good.

Elite skill is up to you, depending on what you are facing or dealing with. The signets help give you boons and boost your condi, but feel free to swap out for other skills at need (we are a very heavy utility class, so don’t be afraid to swap those skills frequently).

Staff i picked just for the option of chaos field with the leap finisher but that can be swapped for whatever you want as well.

The base class is the base class. Elites were supposed to stretch the class into new areas. The very name of this thread points that out. Guardian: the support warrior that keeps his allies alive in a fight got an elite that allowed it to focus more on killing “dragons” or any other enemy (a pure dps traitline). Base guardian wasn’t bad at dps, but this traitline boosted it significantly. Rangers had nature magic already so we could do some healing and buffs, but now they expanded on that with the celestial avatar and the druid traitline and we are stronger as healing, condi clearing and damage buffing the party.

Besides, griping about the elite specs is silly. We know for a fact that there will be more elite specs coming, and we will have more and more options. so chill out and enjoy the ride.

Besides, DH would have given some different traits, but we already had the weapon and the utility skills. Redundant much?

Youre only expected to be a healbot in raids. There’s plenty of other content where you can play whatever you want, and our dps is fine.

PS. Wow… so many asura lovers lol. XD

Seriously, thanks a lot for the input guys. I hadn’t considered some of the issues you guys brought up (animations, scaling, etc). Are there any other issues I should consider?

This thread is the first mention of using a racial skill I’ve ever seen (and I wish they had done more with that.) Glad someone else looks at those lol.

The roleplay of the different colleges is definitely a good thought thanks for that. I can see that I can make anything work lorewise, so I guess at this point it boils down to mechanics, movement (they really do look like goofs, especially when they run or jump), and size issues (I love norn, but I have encountered size issues on that end of the spectrum as well). Further input appreciated, I’m still considering.

So I’ve tried asura, but I can’t seem to get a good feel for the race, so I want to know, what class makes an asura feel right to play? I know they are small, and great for jumping puzzles so I’ll likely use it at least for that, but I want to like it in other game content as well. Thoughts/suggestions/etc?

Edit: I am a lore junkie if that helps at all, but don’t let that restrict your ideas.

Here is a quick mock up of a build I was using for fractals for a while:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNIQRBHfdG2J9qQNrYzKgrKARLYxQwcWdxueA8WNsWWZCArrGwJM50wA-TRBVwAoU/Bw+DlMB5VJoFlfAA-e

Now first thing: yes I used celestial. It was my first set of gear, and I wanted to keep my options open. It actually works pretty well given the diversity of the build.

It’s basically my attempt (pretty successful from what I saw) at a condi support druid build. I used quick draw with bonfire and call of the wild: bonfire stacked a ton of burn, and provided a firefield to blast with call of the wild, adding 3 might stacks to an already impressive list of boons for my party. I can also use axe two in the fire field for more burn and poison, sharpened edges, etc you get the idea. So a lot of condi. but with CotW, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, spirit of nature, glyph of empowerment, Grace of the Land, I’m pumping out a lot of healing and boon support as well as 3 unique damage buffs, more condi (sun spirit), passive healing as well as regen, etc etc.

I was able to do appreciable amounts of condi while making everyone else better at the same time.

(also, if anyone has suggestions on making this build work even better, PM me.)

Boogzillaz.8417:

Im curious too’ should we change to Druid for endgame content like Raiding or WvW ? or we can go Ranger ( Condi Ranger build with Viper armor set )

For WvW, either is a good option, though you will likely want celestial gear there just for survivability.

For Raiding, Druid, but that’s vague. There’s more than one way to play it. Admittedly, if you are going for the healbot which is what people will likely expect, your gear will be a mix of Ministrel, Cleric, and Magi (depending on who’s tanking). You will be more support and healing with that build, but that’s what druids look like in raids.

Fractals, either will be welcome, even at higher levels. Same for dungeons, though there the condi ranger will be the better choice, as not as much healing is needed unless you have a bad group.

HoT, Silverwastes, etc. Go with whatever you enjoy and feel comfortable and effective at playing.

Tbh, with the exception of Raids, that advice holds true just about everywhere. You could go and play a meta build, but if you suck at it and aren’t comfortable, what’s the point?

You’ll notice on those rankings that the numbers for the realistic damage is based on having 5 buffs up, 3 of which come from ranger and druid. That said, I don’t trust rankings all that much. Those are based on hitting a stationary golem, actual combat never works that way.

So here’s a different question: what issues are you having? Just wanting to have the highest dps possible, or not enjoying the feel of the build, or not sure how to do the rotations, or…???

I love Norn, then Charr, then Sylvari. My engineer is a charr, and he looks amazing. Definitely a general nor a grunt. Hail Iron Legion!

Kenaz.3198:

yeah, i know, but is it worth? Does Power Druid really suck as i think?

Ok that’s two different questions. Is Viper worth it? Absolutely. I don’t have the trinkets yet, and am using a mix of sinister trinkets (which you can get from season 2 achievements if you don’t want to raid for the viper ones), or use rampager (precision is always good from proccing things). So you don’t have to have full viper to make it awesome.

Now, does Power Druid suck? Well, it depends on what you are trying to do. If you are going for pure DPS, then no it doesn’t. GotL is a unique buff that is easy for you to maintain, Glyph of Empowerment is another unique buff (in fact, Power Glyph Buffer is one of the Meta builds right now if you look on metabattle.com). You can easily switch up between LB, GS, S/x depending on playstyle or circumstances.

Now if you are trying to do high dps and high heal at the same time, well since the last patch that is no longer possible. You will be great at one, and decent but nothing special at the other. This is still good, as most builds won’t have as much access to healing as you will, but the druid heals are now all much more dependent on healing power to be really good.

A/T (SB is optional) is a lot of fun, and highly effective in end game content (HoT, fractals, dungeons). Viper is a great set, and if you are crafting ascended, it’s a good set for engi and thief as well, so you will get a lot of use out of it. There are links in just about every build thread that will get you started on playing this build. It’s also one of the fastest condi builds as far as ramping up the conditions quickly (bonfire on quickdraw, followed by axe 2 for poison and more burning (combo), then torch 4, with sharpened edges, you get the idea).

Daedraz.1650:

DeanBB.4268:

Can a core account get viper’s gear? I didn’t think so? Is there a near-alternative?

I am actually not 100% sure about the acquisition limitations for viper.

I/m pretty sure HoT is required. I think Sinister is your next best bet. Supposedly in some builds/instances it’s actually better. (shrugs)

Fluffball.8307:

bearshaman.3421:

Late game can mean a lot of things. Are you talking about WvW? PvP? Fractals/Dungeons? Raids?

Which one you intend on doing will have a major impact on what would be useful.

He specifically asked about raids and fractals. That pretty much leaves PS warrior or condi ranger, I can’t think of much else considering he doesn’t want to play guardian.

I kitten ed and missed that part. (feels shame)

Condi necro doesn’t depend on reaper and is pretty good, especially with epidemic and boon corruption (which deals well with some fractal instabilities). Condi Engi is good as well, and doesn’t use scrapper at all (would actually be weaker for it). Those are all I can add to your suggestions.

Dristig.9678:

So I made a mistake and spent all my money converting my gear to Viper just before the recent nerf. I’m fairly casual now-a-days so it seems daunting and wasteful to switch my gear back to Berserker or Valk. What is the best casual PvE build with Viper gear? I would prefer power because I like that weapon set and playstyle but Viper feels pretty weak with GS.

Edit: Forgot to mention I also farmed Runes of Thorns. I am additionally sad about that. lol

Go with a corruption build. Even with the nerf on jagged horrors it’s still really powerful. I use Curses (scepter trait GM, Master of Corruption, and your choice for minor), Death Magic (1/1/1), Blood Magic (that last one is personal taste really, can’t go wrong with any traitline for the third one, just depends on you), With Blood fiend, Poison Cloud, Blood is Power, Epidemic, Lich Form or Flesh Golem (depending on what you need).

I find it’s very survivable, lots of sustain (even without blood magic), and I can dish out a lot of condi which HoT creatures are pretty susceptible to. You should have 3 critters out at all times (BF plus two horrors), so that helps distract mobs too.

fourhim.3584:

Having played HOT content on 6 80s now, I’m amazed how easy even Orr seems in comparison. (Keep in mind I only PVE, and don’t do Dungeons/Fractals either.)

The last character I got to 80 was Thief a couple days ago, and WOW are they fragile in HOT. One big hit and they’re dead I’d like to avoid this with Mesmer, if possible, but I also want to deal good damage. Right now my Mesmer is 53, but I have 17 Tomes of Knowledge left in the bank, which will take him to 70. The next 10 levels will be easy after that.

My 53 Mesmer enjoys GS + Sw/Sw, mainly using Phantasms. I haven’t really experimented with Shatter yet, nor a condition build. (I run conditions on my Engi and Ranger.) For PVE, and considering HOT + content, will I kill things faster with a Condi Mesmer or Power/Crit build? Will I want the Specialization (Chrono)?

Thanks for the advice.

First off, on a side note, PM me if want some suggestions on thief in HoT.

That said, I have found a Scepter/torch condi shatter build to work really well for me. Condi seems to work amazingly well, I use deceptive decoy and The prestige to break aggro, lots of dodging (with the clone on dodge trait), and with the amount of torment I put out (not to mention condi) the enemies practically kill themselves trying to get to me. Dueling, Illusions and I think use Chaos? (don’t have it up in front of me atm). Elite is either Mass Invis or Signet of Humility unless I’m doing group stuff, then Time warp or Mass Invis.

Edit: Against single target, if I’m not in a rush, I’ll just let the clones take the heat while I use AA and scepter 3? (the beam of confusion one). If mobs, lots of kiting, shatters for AoE conditions and damage, and dodging.

I don’t say this often, but thanks for necroing this thread! I think I will enjoy playing this build or something similar to it!

Late game can mean a lot of things. Are you talking about WvW? PvP? Fractals/Dungeons? Raids?

Which one you intend on doing will have a major impact on what would be useful.

Eleazar.9478:

Henry.5713:

Why does the transition into a healer bother people so much? It is not like you can no longer play a base ranger or can’t play an offensive druid.
Would you have been happy if all we received had been a more powerful, updated longbow ranger spec? Something like the berserker which doesn’t change much apart from improving the base class, not making the class more versatile and still leaving it with the same huge holes it always had.

Just QQers man, however a net did it to themselves when they let zerk meta dominate every game mode for do long. So now peeps refuse to adapt. (Looks like more and more that leak was right so looking forward to main hand offensive ranger spec)

I’m a druid fan too it’s fun, plugged a glaring hole in ranger(weak kitten team support) and even fits into the lore extremely well (should’ve been expanded upon) maybe even more so than the other elite specs.

At least there is an event chain centered around druids. Most of the others got next to nothing as far as in-game lore. But then in-game profession lore is sorely lacking in general.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

I suggest The Engineers Hand Book by Wolvineer; I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around a rotation.

That has been handed off to a new caretaker. It’s mentioned in the stickied thread with a new link.

Irijia.6073:

tontonUB.4687:

I totally approve this.
The forced-pet gameplay linked to ranger class is a mmo abuse (it’s anet right to do what they want, even if it’s a bad move, imo).
Pet should be an option.
since GW2 ranger is balanced around the pet, just add a trait called ‘solo ranger’ or ‘pet free’.
- increase all stats by 15% when the player has no pet.

Ranger = must have a pet is an pure invention.
In med-fan culture, famous rangers CAN have a pet, they dont MUST have one.
Ranger is culturally about = wildnerness / stealth / nature magic / beast taming / Bow shooting / hunting / trapping / dual melee.
PET should be a choice, not the basic.

Hope this year, Santa Klaus will bring some new traits to buff / encourage my pet-less beloved ranger …

Gonna say it again. Instead of trying to turn the Ranger into a WoW Marksman Hunter, the easiest solution of all, for both you and Anet, is to reroll into one of the three other classes that give you the range without the pet – Thieves, Warriors, or Dragon Hunters. At the end of the day, you simply don’t want to level another class and want to alter the pet class to suit your own personal fantasy because you disagree with Anet’s original vision and want to apply the fantasy from completely unrelated games and media to this game.

You picked the pet class. You knew it was a pet class when you picked it. Own your choice and do something with the options you have because, at this moment, the petless option isn’t coming any time soon and this game is insanely easy to level up in.

Pretty much what I’ve been saying.

lol necro’d thread alert

Einlanzer.1627:

bearshaman.3421:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Most complaints i read about ranger pets in a PvP context come from players of other classes who have to play against rangers and their pets, so i don’t know, why you think that its mainly PvP rangers who don’t like their pets. I mean, why would you play a class in PvP which you don’t like? Ranger is good but not mandatory, so there is nothing that would hinder somebody to just play a different class in PvP.

I like my pets btw.

As do I. I’m just going off of what I’m seeing here in the forums. If that assessment is off from actual reality, I wouldn’t be surprised (the forums frequently turning into an echo chamber).

Still would love to know why people play ranger knowing that they don’t like the pets.

Gee, I don’t know, maybe because Ranger/Druid is a major fantasy archetype that incorporates a lot more than pet use and that is also not part of any other class? This is actually the source of the argument, and it amazes me that so many people don’t seem to understand it.

Well, if you want to continue to engage in a theory debate about “what constitutes a ranger”, go ahead. But arguing that won’t change that ranger in GW2 is a pet class. Period. End of story.

Knowing that, if you don’t like pets, why play it? Do you seriously think playing it and complaining about the unique class mechanic is somehow gonna get Anet to scrap ranger and start from scratch? Changing a trait or two, how a skill works, etc. sure. But the core mechanic? 0_o

My question has nothing to do with the debate on the paradigm of what is a ranger, and is looking at a far more practical issue.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Most complaints i read about ranger pets in a PvP context come from players of other classes who have to play against rangers and their pets, so i don’t know, why you think that its mainly PvP rangers who don’t like their pets. I mean, why would you play a class in PvP which you don’t like? Ranger is good but not mandatory, so there is nothing that would hinder somebody to just play a different class in PvP.

I like my pets btw.

As do I. I’m just going off of what I’m seeing here in the forums. If that assessment is off from actual reality, I wouldn’t be surprised (the forums frequently turning into an echo chamber).

Still would love to know why people play ranger knowing that they don’t like the pets.

Only real reason for ascended over exotic for armor is if you need the agony resistance for fractals, so discussing stat choices for any other content is in my opinion, pointless. Specifically for armor on this, cuz the stats don’t increase that much.

If doing fractals, it depends on your build. If Power, Berserker (or some Commander if you are set up for group boon support). For Condi, Viper.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

bearshaman.3421:

Most of the desire for a petless ranger is coming from pvp players.

I don’t think, that’s the case. This discussion seems to be more about archetypes (beastmaster vs archer vs whatever …), less about balancing issues. And only the latter is relevant for PvP, where ranger is still a good choice. Despite having pets? Or maybe even because of the pets …

I said most, not all. Typically most of the complaints tend to come from pvp, especially when people compare a class against another class, that’s usually a dead giveaway.

As far as the archetype discussion is concerned, as I’ve said, there is way more lore and support in novels, games, etc of animal companions being the most common feature of the nature-roaming ranger (need someone at your side, and can’t trust people lol) than not. More than ranged combat, more than having any actual magic, etc. If you want a petless ranger (an oxymoron, but whatever), play a different class. It’s that simple.