Guild Wars 2

My build here – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Capuchin-monkey-evasion-power-precision-video/first#post1733412

A few videos of my build in action, these are not show off videos, I’m not claiming superior skill levels or that my opponents were all skillful masters, it’s just a few videos of my build in action. They were taken on the fly, mildly edited for length and then stuck on YouTube, my enemies make more than a few mistakes and I make more than a few of my own.

I’ve been told a few times from group requests, by enemy servers that I’ve become known as the dodging Ranger, my general rule for battle is to engage into battle hot and fast, I use my TU offensively and use it the very second I draw attention (so almost right away in 1v1), when my TU is on cooldown and the effect isn’t running, if I’m taking damage that I consider too hot, I drop to sword and dagger and evade out the cooldown. When my TU is up again, either sticking with my sword or swapping back to shortbow depending on the situation I’ll pop TU right away and go full crazy offensive again.

It took a while to reach this point with my build, I ran heavy condition damage with high healing previously and started to add to my critical chance in order to apply more bleeds, as I did this I slowly started to add more power and noticed it working well with my shortbow. At this point now, I’m sat at 2000 power (more with bloodlust stacks), 50% chance to critical, 2000 toughness and 0 healing. I consider it an advanced build with a high learning curve that I wouldn’t have run from day one.

These are mostly skirmish videos, I don’t often take videos of zergs but I’m happy with my build in those situations. The main point of my videos is the constant “evasion” popping up at just the right moment, a keystone to my build is evasion and high vigor while trying to lead the target into me where I will pet swap and land burst, I don’t hit like a truck but I hit hard and fast.

I run Mango Pie food which doubles the effectiveness of SoW, something I couldn’t get even with 900 healing power as well as Sharpening Stones. I run Sigil of Fire on my shortbow.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8YjAVJ2BWWWs2Bi2DOZJMxUwfG5U4fUB

These videos are post and pre quickness nurf.

A section of the video at the start shows some nice evasion of a group of enemies that closed the gap on me – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ8KgnWrYgs

Towards the end I get locked down and almost die but pull it back again with some defensive footwork, heh (ie if in doubt, evade like a monkey) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTDD68RwivY

The fight at the start of this video vs the Mesmer and then an Elemental and a Ranger isn’t the main part of the video, it’s more the fast evasion escape and run from a larger group (2:05 minutes in) which some of the more vocal critics of Rangers have often told me is impossible to do in PMs – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZncCzs2hL2o

I’ll patch a few sPVP videos together at some point.

So tired of hearing this. If you don’t like it turn off auto attack, auto attack is an aid NOT a requirement in the same way you should be turning off auto target.

There is a reason you can turn off auto attack for one weapon set and leave it turned on for another.

Do NOT touch my sword #1.

Luvpie.8350:

when you don’t have a single story mode done on 4 80s….

Don’t even have it done on my main!

Terra Dactyl.2047:

Quenta.2978:

kurtosis.9526:

/salute @ RISE for trying to disrupt our training session in south KNBL earlier tonight. Either you guys couldn’t see we outnumbered you, or you’ve got a lot of heart. I assume the latter.

FA keeps telling us we suck at ZvZ, so we were learning how to use flame rams in open field combat to get better at that.

But by the time you guys showed up we had gotten distracted RP’ing a high school dance where all boys and girls just stand around in small groups.

Fun times later in KNBL too. We figured since FA isn’t really into the points game we’d gift them Hills to help keep them in T2. <3 you guys.

You need to be careful of saying anything like, “You gave it to us.” In about 2 hours the video will show we left then we let you push Kaineng, we killed your zerg, farmed RISECO then capped the hills (by accident, we intended to keep farming everyone).

We then let you mesmer portal your entire army in, then we wiped you.

Then we burned the school dance.

I vote they can think whatever they want, as long as they fill my inventory twice every time they “give” us an objective like that. ;D

How about I “think” we took first place twice this week and contuine to “think” we’ve dominated FA all week and “think” our bags fill up just as fast?

Would be nice but a lot of our traits could use something like this.

I run sword/dagger and shortbow. It doesn’t hit like a truck but with 2000 power, 50% critical chance and 50% critical damage I hit like a lot of small cars over and over again. I can still hold 2000 toughness.

0/30/30/10/0 right now.

LOVE my build. Lots of videos of it in actions that I’ve yet to upload.

Wanderer.5471:

capuchinseven.8395:

OOOOHmg. These threads.

Nothing about the patch has effected my ability to kill with my power/precision build. In fact I’m dropping thieves even fast than I was before.

that’s because thieves got nerfed too, you might as well post that you seem more powerful vs warriors XD

try seeing how you do vs eles or mesmers now, we need quickness to take down these classes.

As for the 100+ gold, i feel bad for ya, it makes me appreciate PvP – i can just respec, i’d say try to make it work if that fails put ur gear in the bank for a few months, maybe things will change? in the meantime…. PvP?

Woooooosh. That’s the point going over your head as you sit in a box ignoring all the changes to the game just so you can focus on one change to justify your moaning.

I also I have no problem fighting Elementals with permanent vigor. Only problem I’d ever have with an Elemental is catching one that cheesed it when he noticed mashing his head on the keyboard wasn’t working with me.

It is old news but there is no reason to not mention it again for any that haven’t heard it yet.

Pre-loading SOH is very useful and the more people that know about it the better.

OOOOHmg. These threads.

Nothing about the patch has effected my ability to kill with my power/precision build. In fact I’m dropping thieves even fast than I was before.

Chopps.5047:

I love how reddit downvoted me for posting this. There’s this kid that doesn’t understand that 100% boost" equals times two or 200% of the original value and the. And then all the people that thought he was right. And then all the people that think they can accurately measure the true effect of this change via a back of the envelope DPS calculation. And then all the people that forget Time Warp is a group buff when comparing the effect on ranger with mesmer (Solandri had a post on this).

And then all the people just waiting DYING to cut you down for doing a little analysis and try to start a healthy discussion. It makes me sad and really makes me want to break from the forums for a while again.

s’understandable.

But then there are many of us here that can see full well that the sky hasn’t fallen in and I say this as someone using a power/precision build that used pet swap and in no real way have I been hinder in killing people the same way I killed them pre patch.

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of attacks in the game that hit hard can be a pain to land, not all of course but we’re not alone in trying to land hard hits.

Forzani.2584:

To someone above who asked if the community should or shouldn’t complain. Go read the rest of the class forums. Warriors apparently are all quiting because of the haste nerf. Thiefs are all quiting because of the haste and stealth nerf.

How is it possible that almost every class is upset in some way after each patch ? Some of the comments are very funny.

“I am quiting my Warrior. It is obvious the Devs all own Rangers.”
I am quiting my Ranger. It is obvious the devs all own Thiefs"
I am quiting my Thief. It is obvious the devs all own Warriors."

L
O
L

+1

awe extender.1908:

If ESO makes a decent ranger, not many will stick around here anymore!

“If <insert game name> makes a decent job of <insert class name or gameplay aspect here> in <insert month here> then I won’t be here for long!”

Never heard that one before.

Ursan.7846:

capuchinseven.8395:

Arekai.5698:

Who the kitten uses greatsword?
I laugh at everyone who attacks me with that thing. People who use it do only one thing, show that they are weak as kitten.

3k Maul crits say you’re talking kitten.

Try 10k =).

I’ll try to post screenshots later (At work ATM)

Jesus really? I landed 4k with 1900 power yesterday and was pretty impressed but went back to single sword (not because GS is bad, single sword just suits me better. I just like the evades over the block).

Arekai.5698:

Who the kitten uses greatsword?
I laugh at everyone who attacks me with that thing. People who use it do only one thing, show that they are weak as kitten.

3k Maul crits say you’re talking kitten.

Ryan.8367:

I mean Chopps let’s be honest here, it’s very CLEAR from your posts on the ranger forums that you probably do mostly pve and fight in low tier battles in pvp if any pvp at all. If you had any knowledge of fighting ANY good player in a 1on1, a group skirmish or even a competitive zerg situation you would NEVER in your right mind defend the patches for rangers these last 2 months, you simply wouldn’t be doing it.

So if you wanna duel sometime in spvp I just want to see how good you are and size you up for all of this kitten talk defending of the nerfs that you do nonchalantly as if everything’s alright and it’s just not.

I fight in T1 and T2 WvW, in sPVP and tPVP and I think you’re full of kitten.

Forzani.2584:

This is a comment from a Warrior who just made a post titled ..“Well I Tried …”

He is upset after the haste nerf and how much he, and other Warriors relied on it. Pretty good read. The funny part is what he says near the end ..

“So this leaves me thinking this class is now officially and utterly broken and I will be playing my thief and ranger until it gets fixed”

lol

That’s pretty lol.
Also a pretty good example of the rubbish these forums are.

Geshque.1326:

Necros and engis were not much worse than we are. But they got not only fixed but buffed. QZ was not a buff. Entire forum explained you why.

They were so much worse.

shrug my power/precision build really hasn’t changed that much, I’ve got videos pre and post patch and not really suffering much for the change.

BroScientist.9875:

Well I am done with this game. The devs are just so out of touch with the ranger profession. At least ESO beta is starting soon.

Love these arguments, I’ll put money on ESO having a crap load of people (maybe even you, wouldn’t shock me) saying “<insert game name here> beta is starting soon”.

Those of us willing to ride the balance wave up and down in the first 6 months to a year of a new MMO stick around and ultimately get more out of it.

shrug, dunno, I eat up BM and Trap rangers all day as power/precision. In fact I eat up most classes as power/precision.

Not being able to get a quiver in W3, the only real part of the game I play is really annoying.

Daemon.4295:

Dojo.1867:

Grimvar.9185:

Wow, the quickness nerf really hurts berserker ranger builds a lot. So all in all this patch has nerfed ranger dps when it is already in a bad state. Great, this is just wonderful way to keep beating an already subpar class into the ground even more Anet. 1 second duration added? That is nothing compared to the nerf of 50% speed this really really cripples the berserker build a lot.

GS buff is a joke nobody worth their weight in dungeons playing a ranger uses GS and AR being shared with the pet doesn’t change that the pet is still useless and dies to non-agony boss skills.

This such a bad joke.

GS is viable in dungeons. Maybe try it before you complain.

Also berserker gear with quickness is NOT our only viable dps build. Sick of those kids…

I’ve been playing online RPGs since the ASCII based Island of Kesmai in 1992, and I play a berserker ranger. Why? Not because I think I can “pwn face” with it, but because to me it is the most challenging ranger build and offers high payout for high risk. Master the glass cannon, and you can rival other classes’ raw damage output in dungeons and other tougher meta. At least, that was the case until today…

Berserker glass cannon is by no means the only effective form of damage output, but some of us preferred the more challenging approach and we each have our own favored styles of play. The fact of the matter is that this particular play style took a big hit today, too big IMO to really remain competitive with other Ranger builds or the DPS builds of other classes.

For someone that has been playing games for such a long time, the up and down of MMO builds seems totally new to you.

nekochan.5391:

It’s freaking ridiculous, from ANY POINT OF VIEW, that a ranged class – probably THE ranged class – receives buff on melee skills when its prior mechanic (Pets) still lack of control/ways to survive. I may be a bad ranger, but if you miss to notice this simple thing you live in a world of fairies and unicorns for sure.

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

nekochan.5391:

Thanks for the buff to greatsword (‘cause I’m going to play melee in medium armor, lol).

Comments like this really do show up who the bad rangers are. It wouldn’t matter so much if you didn’t then act like the problem isn’t with you.

TogoChubb.3984:

Where is the LB protection Anet claims it needs?

QZ nerf = took the last ability to keep the LB viable as a main weapon in WvW. Why can’t we have max damage at any distance on LB? I don’t understand why Anet wants longbow to shoot at 1200 range to get max damage but the projectiles are so freaking slow that you can evade them with a sidestep. I used QZ to help with this issue and now that’s out the window.

Trait lines still screwed up…seriously I still have to trait 30 pts into power to get the pet benefits from signets?

Bottom line = Overall nerf to ranger bow dps again which was arguably the worst on the game to start with.

Because these all take minutes to code.

Geshque.1326:

Because they have no clue what they are doing, They make something then they need monthes to realize obvious things and fix it. Like AR for pets. Shame.

People like you are the the type of people that tell me the “fix is easy” when it’s actually 2 months worth of coding.

Captain Beaky does not like to be whipped.

megaboy.6015:

Sable Shrike.7823:

Versus one target: Sword.

Versus more than one target: Greatsword.

Reason being is that ALL Greatsword 1 attacks are AoE, meaning less cycles are needed to drop multiple targets than Sword needs.

i.e. By the time you’ve killed your main target Greatsword has wounded the rest far more than Sword will have, even though Sword can drop a single target faster.

THank You! very good answer

It’s not really, sword #1 is better all over for damage.

Daemon.4295:

I see 916 power, 1916 attack. But you don’t have an amulet slotted on the build you linked, I guess all your power is on your armor? What are you wearing?

OH right, no no I was talking mostly about my WvW build. I just ran that quick build up with the calculator to show my traits during a quick lunch, simply because someone asked I didn’t slot any gear, just the runes and sigils to show the basics of my WvW build.

I sit with 2000 power in WvW. Mostly power, precision, toughness armour and items with a few mixed pieces of vitality to get my health up to 19k, I also used sharpening stones. I’ll let you know my items when I’m back at my game PC as I have a few crit damage items as well, to get my crit damage up to 50%.

Sorry for the confusion. My sPvP build is in a lot of flux but I’m mostly sticking with the same build and using cleric, but swapping the gem so I sit around 30% critical chance but with around 800+ healing. It’s not as effective in sPvP because if the stat constraints but I’m still enjoying it and find it to still be effective.

I wouldn’t put this out there as the ultimate sPvP build but it is still a decent build in the right hands and I like it.

Daemon.4295:

so having low power (you have zero over base 916) and high crit is ineffective.

…what are you talking about? I have 2000 power with 50% crit chance and 50% crit damage.

Diehard.1432:

You sir are my saviour, I shall try this build to honour it. I’m getting tired of the conventional BM build eventhough I’m doing well soloing in wvw. It’s time to try something new

Go slow with it, it can take some getting used to but rewards you for it.

Zeoli.3402:

I love the Greatsword but I might try the sword/dagger and see how i get on.

Again, it can take some getting used to but it’s very rewarding when you manage to get your head around it. It takes some practice.

Zane.8471:

capuchinseven.8395:

Zane.8471:

low chance to hit? Yes. Low DPS? I cant see how 3000+ crits count as low DPS. What ranged weapon does higher DPS on Auto-attack?

But that is low DPS really. The low chance to hit keeps the DPS down, DPS is damage per second. 3000+ criticals is great but the DPS is let down by the low chance to hit.

well there has to be a downside to auto-attack damage this high. So Longbow is a situational weapon. Really nothing wrong with that except the fact that there are no secondary weapons to get some synergy with. Thats the REAL problem of this weapon.

I agree for the most part. I still feel it needs a sniper kill shot like attack but that’s just a personal thing.

My build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8YjAVJ2BWWWsWCi2DNxJMxZwfG9F4K4/S2VBA;TkAKqMUJoySljKJVLMGWshA

With gear, traits and sharpening stones I sit at just under 2000 power, 50% critical chance with 50% critical damage. It’s common for me to hit for 700+ criticals one after another 4 times in a row, not huge relatively huge but with the shortbow’s rate of fire it is considerable pressure as well as constant AoE damage from the Sigil of Fire, throw in Quickness on pet swap and you have something to worry people who think you’re going to be an easy kill as well as helping out your team.

For survivability I have 19k health with low healing power, 1850 toughness, pro-active TU healing which doesn’t require high healing power to be very effective and SoW, which will tick for around 80 with low healing (not worth it alone but) which I also couple with Mango Pie, a very cheap food that gives an 80+ per second healing tick, effectively doubling the heal of SoW and costing me next to nothing in stats to gain.

As well as this, I have high vigor for normal evades, as well as the evades from shortbow, sword, dagger and Lightening Reflexes.

This is my WvW build but I run something very much the same in sPVP but with lower critical chance and much higher healing, consistently it’s commented from other players that my timing of evades and movement across the map is impressive (I’ve even been reported for “hacking” a number of times because they think I’m cheating) and I place most of my success with my Ranger down to my use of the sword and dagger. I evade into my target with normal roll evades, not away from it, pet swaping to land bird burst as they close to melee and gain Quickness, to keep them on their toes as two rolls away is not going to stop a Warrior or Thief gaining ground, rolling into them (then throwing in a Quick Shot on shortbow) forces them to turn and moves you out of melee and will often swap to melee while I wait for my TU cooldown timing my evades to avoid as many stuns as possible.

I think once someone has mastered the sword then they can move away from the high healing builds so many people use, dropping their heal and using TU instead. It’s given me more room for offensive stats.

Outside of being caught by a huge amount of conditions at the wrong moment my only fear is heavy stuns and lockdowns, but only while my sword swap or evades are on cooldown.

I use two birds for pets, I might consider a wolf and a hyena (I used one the other day and the sheer LOL’s watching a Guardian attacking the extra pet was worth it alone, I can almost see a “WTF” look on their characters faces when the extra pet shows up with a double knockdown) but I love the damage from the birds that I can get using my pet swap effectively.

Zeoli.3402:

Wondering if this build would allow a user to switch between LB and shortbow without the need to change gear. What about your Defensive stats?

Maybe, it wouldn’t be for me in WvW though so I couldn’t say for sure, but why not try it? The last time I ran double bows was in the first month of the game, sword has become too important for me and my play style is build around it now, even though the shortbow is my main damage weapon (sword lands heavy damage as well though, I can often hit for a 950+ critical from sword #1 on a soft target, pet swap Quickness makes that a blender of death).

Diehard.1432:

capuchinseven.8395:

With 2000 power, 50% chance to critical and 50% critical damage my shortbow hits for significant damage but with a high rate of fire in WvW. I can manage this with 1800 toughness.

I wouldn’t personally go back to my condition build.

Can you please link your build? This sounds like the build iam after

Sure, it’s the AM here so I’ll post it later or in a while if I get a chance.

My build is different but Nerva posted a thread that also uses a power/precision build you might want to take a look at it as well, he seems happy with power/precision shortbow as well.

I started mine from full condition damage, built up my critical chance to 50% and then slowly added more power till I found myself with 2000 power. I’m finding it very effective in WvW, even in 1v1 when I’m caught alone, the sheer number of criticals output by my shortbow at high speed is insane when coupled with our high evasion.

Zane.8471:

low chance to hit? Yes. Low DPS? I cant see how 3000+ crits count as low DPS. What ranged weapon does higher DPS on Auto-attack?

But that is low DPS really. The low chance to hit keeps the DPS down, DPS is damage per second. 3000+ criticals is great but the DPS is let down by the low chance to hit.

With 2000 power, 50% chance to critical and 50% critical damage my shortbow hits for significant damage but with a high rate of fire in WvW. I can manage this with 1800 toughness.

I wouldn’t personally go back to my condition build.

Durzlla.6295:

Chopps.5047:

I haven’t read any of the responses but my answer is simple: 10% chance to give 3s quickness on hit built into the longbow. That’s all it needs, I think, although poison on the knockback shot would be fantastic, or maybe a stun.

I would personally prefer Cripple on the #1 instead of quickness, i have PLENTY of quickness sources already, i don’t need more.

A Poison on Hunters Shot or an immob/stun attached to PB shot would be AMAZING though…

Think I’d prefer this as well, I do slot a Sigil of Ice on my longbow but it’s rare I use it.

Bryzy.2719:

That’s all well and good, but one of the original points of this thread was that there are few viable ranger builds (particularly for WvW, spvp, tpvp), and the power of a ranger severely lacks diversity when it comes to playing different builds.

Yup.

But we’re far from the only class with that issue.

I’m getting pretty happy with my power/crit build in sPvP. With around 900 healing it’s still a great build 1v1.

Sebrent.3625:

That’s part of what a QA team does. They look at changes to make sure they fix what was intended and not break other things.

Simply as an analogy, if Amazon’s QA team let as much get through as ArenaNet’s, customers would be griping left and right about being overcharged, receiving the wrong items, etc. simply because the site was made “more flashy” or new items were added to the site.

That’s really not correct at all.

Your analogy is bad as well, really that’s just a badly informed ANet bash.

Sebrent.3625:

In my mind, a Ranger build should be able to provide at least 2 things:
(1) Constant pressure through respectable non-burst damage
(2) Survivability to enable them to maintain that constant pressure long enough to get the kill

Once a build has both of those, it’s at least solid (in my mind) and we can then talk about any bells and whistles it has in addition to those.

Agree with that, it’s where I aim for any of my builds.

Dante.1508:

This is almost the same as my build.. i also run Dagger, Axe and Torch in my off hand on my build as needed..

Generally use Horn as well in WvW

You find the torch is worth it in a power build? I just stick with the horn and dagger.

Leo G.4501:

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Leo G.4501:

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Eurantien.4632:

You can’t get mad at them for things they did not say.

Yes we can. They ignored the majority of our profession’s issues yet again. We’ve had enough, our patience is gone. If they don’t read the forum, pay attention to us and actually learn about our class, they aren’t doing their jobs.

Okay. Let us return to a time period in which we just put up, keep our eyes to the floor, buy gems and accept the mediocrity the devs are offering us. Does that sound better to you?

You’re talking like the devs are out to get you or come murder your puppy.
Why not blame yourself for not keeping up to date and talking with the host to give him your questions?

I lack the time to chat with incompetent interviewers. I have a job and a life to lead, dunno about you.

Furthermore, I have every right to speak as I do. The devs aren’t doing their jobs, and they’ve been letting a profession with so much potential sit and rust since launch and are ONLY NOW addressing a FEW of its issues and in response buffing other already balanced(and arguably overpowered) professions. I can’t stand that.

No one said you don’t have the right to voice your opinion, but if you want to speak up as the voice of rangers, using lines like “we’ve had enough”, “they don’t pay attention to us”, or getting on your high horse expecting them to go out of their way to read your kittentry, then I’d have to say you’re not taking responsibility as the voice of Rangers to make the issues known.

If your problems are so severe, do something about it. If you’re too busy with your day job to make an impact, whining on the forums and sitting around being jaded is only hurting yourself.

+1.

Ryan.8367:

Keep in mind is supposed to be 50% of our dmg is our pet

Ryan.8367:

So quit spouting bullkitten.

Interesting that you’d put both of those comments in one post.

Evidence that pets are 50% of our damage?

I’m sorry but the very suggestion that warriors are OP is just comical.

I agree actually, your last line.

I’m sure someone will defend this with “omg get r teh sense of humor”, but I agree with you.

s’fair point…..

Forward evade into your target, hit F4 on evade then F2 if required, fire Quick Shot and then use evade again but this time backwards away from your target.

All damage is evaded on the two rolls and the Quick Shot, you roll through your target and then roll away from them behind, all pet conditions are removed, it appears right next to your target, it gains Quickness and will strike and hit instantly.

I’ve noticed it not work a number of times, I have to spam the hell out of the Hyena howl to get it to work sometimes.

Quarktastic.1027:

nerva.7940:

Actually ranger core mechanic is evasion (it’s on almost every weapon). I feel pets were just sorta tacked on last minute.

Rangers don’t have a single skill that removes immobilize/cripple/chill outside of our already limited condition removal skills. We only have two stun breakers while other classes get as many as four. We only have two very situational sources of vigor.

We do have plenty of evades on our melee weapons, but out of all our ranged weapons, only the shortbow has an evade skill.

Not totally correct.

a) Almost all our evades will still work even when you’re immobilized. Can we be locked down? Yes it’s the chalk to our evasion cheese but we’re not totally helpless.
b) What are you talking about? Very situation based vigor? We have perma-vigor which can be ran almost 90% of the time. You’re not looking at your builds properly.

All are viable, even off hand axe which most consider the least useful. Torch has huge damage for a condition build, horn is good for power builds and dagger is useful for the extra evade and cripple.

Most of the time I’ll run horn and swap to a dagger for 1v1s (although even then I’ll sometimes stick to the horn)