Guild Wars 2

I’ve had a few PMs about this so I’ll pretty much say the same thing a few times over, heh.

Mostly Knights yes, with Apothecary/Zho’s/Vatlaaw’s. This is of course is WvW with a little food thrown in, I couldn’t hit that amount of power in sPVP. In sPVP I run with a rabid amulet and a cleric jewel, my power is down to around 1100 but the other stats are mostly the same off the top of my head.

I currently sit just a little below the condition and toughness but with a higher crit chance that I stated above after changing my runes from Undead to Thief. Swapping back to Undead would alter my stats back to the above again but I liked the flanking bonus which I was already adding to with the skirmish tree.

I currently sit at 0/30/30/10/0. Not a trap build. I do miss having 20 in BM for the bird swap vigor.

The weakness to the build is healing, I sit at around 300 and to deal with that I run with Sigils of Blood AND Omnomberry Pies, they will both stack and of course protection, sword/dagger dodges and near perma vigor. To get the power up I use superior sharpening stones which are always useful in builds with high toughness.

Quick shot of my stats, as you can see the toughness and condition damage are a few points below but the crit chance is higher – https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33266171/gw159.jpg

Yeah whatNerva said, I sit around 50% crit with around 900-1000 condition damage and I can still manage 1900 toughness AND 1400 ish power.

An axe in your mainhand? Then use a torch.

I was referring more to movement on myself, swiftness granted by birds is very useful and claiming because someone uses SotH then swiftness is pointless is not really very true.

Free swiftness is always nice.

I do agree that your pet is useful for landing burst when your target has been controlled or in melee on swap but my point wasn’t as such aimed at pets landing dps, more that swiftness on yourself in combat has a marked difference over SotH.

Beardmonger.4692:

Thanks for the responses!

@Dahkeus
-Swiftness barely contributes anything from what I’ve seen when running Signet of the Hunt already (Sorry that I failed to mention I carry this sig) so this is the last thing I’d want my raven to cast in the middle of a fight.
-Again, pet’s movement speed barely noticeable with SotH already applied

There is a significant boost in speed while in combat between signet of the hunt and swiftness.

Well, this is annoying.

Xsorus.2507:

The thieves you have to look out for are P/D Venom build thieves that use similar gear to the ranger (Healing/Condition, mostly shamans for example)

This, although given my food and rune choice the only ones that bother me are the ones that have +condition duration.

Confusion Mezmer’s don’t bother me much anymore either because of my runes and food.

Xsorus.2507:

If you keep your pet away, you slow their damage and force them to blow cooldowns to get in stealth.

AND this.

Xsorus.2507:

Against every other thief, you shouldn’t have much trouble.

Totally agree.

glock.2089:

Xsorus.2507

Other options would be Superior Rune of the Forge with Omniberry Pie or anything that adds Precision really, As your weakness with Clerics will be Precision.

Why does no one run Superior Rune of the Grove?

(1): +25 Healing
(2): +15% Protection Duration
(3): +50 Healing
(4): 25% chance to gain Protection for 4s when hit. (Cooldown: 30s)
(5): +90 Healing
(6): 50% chance to root your target on hit. (Cooldown: 180s)

The root procs pretty reliably and the protection bonus and +healing synergizes well with Cleric’s?

I have, it’s great, I just prefer the condition and stun drop, but I’ll often run more offensive runes on other armour.

nerva.7940:

Bark skin + 40% reduction on conditions is the best combo imo. You should maintain perma vigor no problem with birds

Throw in the Superior Rune of Melandru and it’s comical how funny conditions become, thieves using immobilize always makes me smile as it just runs off you like water off a ducks back.

Seems like we use the same pema vigor bird tactic as well.

glock.2089:

To each their own, I love my cleric’s!

You can’t have everything in a single build.

Full Cleric’s + Superior Rune of the Grove + Superior Sharpening Stone + 0/0/30/10/30 + Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew = easy 1 v 1 kills of 99% of our competition as a roamer.

Do you have burst? NO but consistent respectable damage GIVEN you have insane regen and protection up time. I’ll happily kill a little slower for arguably the best (easily amoung top three) bunker builds in the game.

Are you sure Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Strew endurance boost works? I think I remember trying and it didn’t stack with my WS trait.

Also, with 1200 condition damage, high healing and high toughness and holding 1500 power what do you think my damage is? Because when those bleeds start it’s a lot more than respectable.

nerva.7940:

i had a blast with my cleric set until i decided to stop using it. when i looked back at the footage i realized i wasnt really doing much for my group, even though it looked impressive. overall, it was a waste of 35g (sorry OP). i would stash it aside until they maybe revamp spirits or something, but even then spirits would work better with HTC gear.

im glad there are others using these exhilarating, high-APM builds. bunker ranger is one of the funnest, most balanced specs in the game. but really, he belongs in tpvp.

Yeah same, all mine is still in my bank.

Just a quick reply, 800 healing is a good number, if you use TU for a heal it really doesn’t benefit that much from healing but is still very powerful, I think with around 300 healing it still heals around 800 a tick, at 1000 healing it’s around 950 I think (numbers pulled out of my head). Sit at around 1800 toughness and use TU proactively (rather than waiting for things to go bad) in a fight and you’ll be a hard nut to crack.

1000 condition damage is good, your bleeds will hit for around 100 each, I more than that but will sometimes tone that back a little and sit at around 1000, I also sit around 1500 power with a 20% chance to crit, crit is a very good way to get extra bleeds out a shortbow with a Sigil of Earth, it helps when you can’t get your position right.

With your use of the axe and torch you’re laying down condition damage but I’d still add the Sigil of Earth personally.

Sorry, had to post again I’m still laughing from a thief whining that something he couldn’t see, hit him.

http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lol-cats2.jpg

Obsidian.1328:

Daddydeath.9371:

…i just dislike 2 be punished for stepping on something i cant even see

Are you kidding me? A thief is complaining about getting hit by things he can’t see? This might be the most hilarious comment I’ve seen in awhile.

By your reasoning, stealth should go away entirely…

That was a massive lol for me as well.

Daddydeath.9371:

Belzebu.3912:

I may sound really noob here, but can someone please post this trapper build and the overall equips used, because I used to run a trapper/precision build that wasn’t that effective in WvW, now I’m running a trapper/BM hybrid build but I’m not sure about equips.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8YjIV51tVyVoWCg2jMtET2DDd8xvAvgC2UB;TUABXEftWYEw+DA

precision isnt normally good for condition builds as ur condition ticks cant crit

anyway here a very good version of the cbuild

enjoy

Precision = more bleeds from any angle, more bleeds = way more condition damage.

RapidSausage.4620:

Jaycat.8167:

RapidSausage.4620:

capuchinseven.8395:

RapidSausage.4620:

Flubble.8093:

i don’t know about WvW, you might have better luck dumping the cats and going with the birds (they move a bit faster with their swiftness buff) or a ranged pet like a devourer/spider?

the damage won’t be worth it then, the point of speccing BM traits is to empower your pets and you taking the support role.

and currently, drakes and felines are the dps pets.

Birds are more than worth it and hit often, birds and more so ravens provide some of our best burst which is far more important in PVP than DPS.

how do ravens provide burst damage?, i thought stealthed panther is best,

Regarding birds, put 10 points in skirmishing for the 30% pet crit damage and press F2 on the raven(raven currently has the highest damaging F2 of the birds afaik, also blinds which is nice) and you can get upwards of 6k from it easily, highest I’ve gotten was about 9k on some glass build thief, even without that crit they are by far the best burst anyway due to birds basic 2k precision meaning they crit often.

If you want to go bm and make sure your pet is actually getting damage off, go sword/x (I prefer warhorn but offhand is personal preference really) evasion tanky build, take the aoe vigor on pet swap for birds in the BM tree, since you’re in melee range as soon as you swap pets your pet is on the target and also the sword basic chain is a 100% uptime 50% snare for when you need to land that burst.

Just sit there dodging their big hits with while your pet is hitting away.

Jaguar stealth (100% crit chance), 30% extra crit dmg, quickening zephyr >>>Raven.

Maybe in that one instance, but you’re forgetting the very very low cooldown of the birds F2, as low as 6 seconds for some.

Throwing away birds just because one cat is very good is silly.

It’s funny because I beat trap rangers all day.

Daddydeath.9371:

(thief) easiest way to beat them is to make them waste their initiative cc and aoe

This. Get that down and they are an easy kill, the only thief that kills me these days is a very very very hard hitting from opening thief, or one that culls the hell out of me in WvW.

florence.1674:

Play a thief using sword. Let it autoattack and try to dodge.
Play a guardian using sword. Let it autoattack and try to dodge.
Play a warrior using sword. Let it autoattack and try to dodge.
Play a mesmer using sword. Let it autoattack and try to dodge.

Now play a ranger using sword. Let it autoattack and try to dodge. Tell me it’s working fine.

Interesting, how many of those 3 attacks will also heat-seek lock on, perma cripple and is their classes hardest hitting weapon?

Intended or not, only ANet can answer, but don’t pretend that there is no upside to the ranger sword and if it is intended don’t pretend we don’t gain a huge upside to that single downside.

Arekai.5698:

vespers.1759:

now tell us how you really feel!

I feel like my class is kitten.
And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you can run 1 out of 2 viable builds in wvw that lets you kill other classes.

We’re not alone in this situation.

faeral.7120:

Durzlla.6295:

Example of a build that doesn’t use conditions (offensive) is my 100% chill ranger build

yep dual axe chill stack is good.

for the ones who believe axe is condi—axe is not a condi weapon, it is hybrid. axe 1 is 100% physical, axe 2 is physical/bleed, axe 3 is non-scaling condi ( chill + weakness ). axe 2 is the only skill that can scale with condi dmg & chill / weakness duration is increased by investment in the power tree.

dual axe is a full power spec. note that nearly everything an ele does is a ranged attack, even d/d. engis also ( 100 nades ). axe 5 is very stronk.

5 is strong but 4 is next to useless outside of throwing it through a combo field, it’s up to each ranger to decide if 5 is strong enough to lose a decent 4 or if they feel the 4 is fine. Personally though I’d rather have the huge fire damage of the torch or the high damage of the horn in a power/crit build.

Durzlla.6295:

RapidSausage.4620:

Durzlla.6295:

RapidSausage.4620:

Durzlla.6295:

RapidSausage.4620:

thieves can travel at +50% while stealthed, i’ll just let that sink in.

pets run faster than +50% with SotH and much faster than that with Sick’Em active, i’ll just let that sink in as well =D

afaik:
SotH +25%
Sick’Em +40%

yeah, pets run faster than players do, wanna know how to test this? hit F1 as you’re closing in on an NPC it’ll freaking book it and get to the mob long before you do.

Not to mention that when me and my friend (whose a thief with the stealth trait) CnDed me and i just targeted him and hit “sick’em” and the pet closed the gap, and knocked him to the floor before his stealth ended despite him running 50% faster than i can in the opposite direction (well 25% because i use SotH)

i may have to test this.
i don’t like sick’em in WvW because you can lose track of you target pretty fast, and therefore your pet as well negating the effect of the skill, i’d rather use SotW or SoS.

Actually once you hit Sick’em your pet is locked to your target (like a phantasm) until you give it a new command (F1-F4/ another shout), the timer runs out, or the target dies, if they stealth your pet will wait for them to reappear and continue the attack, clones generation I haven’t recently tested.

I noticed something like this, sick’em will keep them locked on the target even if they disappear.

I don’t think anyone said it’s bad or awful, but there are many other choices that give you better options.

Yeah melee range is great for keeping your pet on your target, it keeps them in a smaller area and the secound they try and attack my pet instead I pet swap and unload a zephyr’d stuck on target #1 sword burst, half the problem that many rangers suffer is because they refuse to accept we’re not able to be ranged 100% of the time in 100% of situations, different situations call for different weapons but after a small amount of training the enemy with my shortbow the moment they are fully closed on me and I’ll switch to melee and either finish the fight that way or use my evasions to keep myself alive while my regen works and my escapes to return to ranged.

Nothing funnier than a culling thief trying to kill me while I roll around all over the place with 6 evasions on short cooldowns/high regen then if I need to pull away, quick shot, lightening reflexes, hornet sting, monarchy’s leap.

Not sure I could pull off anything like that with a shortbow/longbow combination.

I’d say if you’re going with a main hand axe then torch is probably your best bet, but personally I prefer a short bow and then going with a high evasion sword/dagger combo.

Really not sure I’d be comfy going with an axe combo to replace my shortbow really, defiantly wouldn’t want to replace my sword/dagger combo with them.

But hey, whatever works for you man.

RapidSausage.4620:

capuchinseven.8395:

RapidSausage.4620:

Flubble.8093:

i don’t know about WvW, you might have better luck dumping the cats and going with the birds (they move a bit faster with their swiftness buff) or a ranged pet like a devourer/spider?

the damage won’t be worth it then, the point of speccing BM traits is to empower your pets and you taking the support role.

and currently, drakes and felines are the dps pets.

Birds are more than worth it and hit often, birds and more so ravens provide some of our best burst which is far more important in PVP than DPS.

how do ravens provide burst damage?, i thought stealthed panther is best,

Panther is great but the cooldown takes a while and to dismiss all birds and their burst simply because of that one cat is unfair to the hard and often hitting birds. Eagle and Hawk have very short, within seconds, cooldown F2 skills which double hit for a start.

Not saying cats are bad, I’m just saying you can’t dismiss birds.

RapidSausage.4620:

Flubble.8093:

i don’t know about WvW, you might have better luck dumping the cats and going with the birds (they move a bit faster with their swiftness buff) or a ranged pet like a devourer/spider?

the damage won’t be worth it then, the point of speccing BM traits is to empower your pets and you taking the support role.

and currently, drakes and felines are the dps pets.

Birds are more than worth it and hit often, birds and more so ravens provide some of our best burst which is far more important in PVP than DPS.

In the right build Healing Spring is not better in 95% of situations and it’s not better than Troll Urgent when Troll Urgent is used properly.

Most people don’t use it properly so they end up thinking it’s bad for burst and when you have conditions on you.

Troll Urgent is godly in PVP if used properly.

Arekai.5698:

A QQ’er who can’t play Ranger…
Hmm you’re not online now, but whisper me when you get online so we can join an empty sPvp server.
Maybe that clears how much i know about my class and how much you know about your class.

The number of people like you, who seem to have massive chips on their shoulders on this forum is comical and sadly a statement about modern MMOs.

Also the sword is used by a HUGE number of rangers in PVP, no idea where you get the idea it isn’t.

Arekai.5698:

About the pet names, they said it takes up too much memory on their servers. They did that change some months ago.

….!

Moddo.7105:

capuchinseven.8395:

Actually, cats do love water. Not all cats, but wild cats love water. That aside (because it still looks kinda dumb) I got around it in my head as a roleplayer by seeing my pet as an imortal shape changing nature spirit.

Yes and some cats will bend over backwards to get some water.

lol!

Moddo.7105:

achensherd.2735:

I’m fine with amphibious animals as-is. Yeah, it weirds me out that something like a feline or a bear can hold their breath for as long as some of my underwater ventures can take, but if I think about how long my own character can stay underwater and the depths that he can dive to with nothing more than a breather (which isn’t even necessary — take it off and nothing happens), I can’t really point fingers at my pets and claim they’re unrealistic. :P

On a side note, Devourers look cool underwater.

Ah but is your cat holding his breath underwater.

L O L!

Arekai.5698:

I love how people defend a godawful mechanic.
A mechanic that roots you in place in a game where mobility is everything.
The only reason you don’t complain is because you already know it’s never going to get fixed, so you close your eyes and pretend it’s not bugged.

Rubbish.

I don’t want it changed, I don’t want it altered, I don’t want it removed from rangers like the topic asks.

I just don’t understand why people don’t get the sword. As said, it’s a 100% permanent snare, with some of our highest damage and constant might granted to your pet.

The downside to that is that you need to time your actions.

It’s that simple.

Durzlla.6295:

capuchinseven.8395:

Actually, cats do love water. Not all cats, but wild cats love water. That aside (because it still looks kinda dumb) I got around it in my head as a roleplayer by seeing my pet as an imortal shape changing nature spirit.

lol that’d work! I’m trying to figure out how i’m going to play off the whole moa not being with me thing… the drake is fine since he just follows me into the watery abyss… but my Moa on the otherhand….

It worked for me, it kinda just made sense in my head. It made more sense than “oh look my shark just happens to be passing”. So I just imagine they are all the same shape changing nature spirit.

I’ve been trying out a BM melee build, mostly relying on the sword and swapping to the greatsword as I need to but I just love my short bow too much.

Actually, cats do love water. Not all cats, but wild cats love water. That aside (because it still looks kinda dumb) I got around it in my head as a roleplayer by seeing my pet as an imortal shape changing nature spirit.

runeblade.7514:

Puandro.3245:

Turn off your sword auto attack. Its your highest dps weapon and its awesome.terrible

Awesome would be dodge, #2 and #3 interrupting auto-attack.

Your personal opinion that’s terrible, nothing more.

Aveneo.2068:

capuchinseven.8395:

My pet has taken falling damage before, kinda stupid given it’s a bird.

Indeed

It makes an awful sound as it dies as well, I’m not screemish but even I wrinkled my nose when I first heard it.

Keep your hands off my sword, even if it was our least damaging weapon I’d still be using it, it’s godly.

My pet has taken falling damage before, kinda stupid given it’s a bird.

Wanderer.5471:

nerva.7940:

it’s closer to 70-80 HPS. so for every 2 ticks of SoW, u get a tick of NH. on its own, NH is irrelevant. but additive to SoW, 200HPS is a serious amount that can keep you up forever if you have Bark Skin and protection up.

test it nerva, but for me i get 3 ticks of SoW (121 with current HP) for every 1 of natural healing, so it goes:

121, 121, 121+133, 121, 121, 121+133 etc etc

That is how it works, for me as well at least. Depending on your runes and set up you’re looking at around 200HPS but some of that is delivered late.

As said above anyone that thinks its small is not really thinking of the bigger picture. It’s a way of boosting SoW without needing to invest in lots more healing power, which doesn’t effect SoW in large amounts and lowers your damage output.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Stow your pet befoe jumping or swap your pet after juming.

Yeah this. A key for storing and activating would be nice though.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Much like other posters, I also usually snag 2 Tier1 traits.

I’m using Compassion Training, Shout Training, and Natural Healing right now, as I’ve been taking Search and Rescue lately to help with the recent waypoint dungeon change.

But Master’s Bond is another goodie that gets underestimated alot. Most people are put off by the stack wiping on death, but in practice it’s easier than it seems, because the more stacks you have the easier it is to keep stacks.

I’m just meh about masters bond, I can’t think of a situation, fight or battle where I won’t swap my pet often.

Daemon.4295:

Really? I didn’t know it dropped, I wouldn’t have crafted one if I had.

Sorry I wasn’t being clear. Not the bow, the vial that you need to make one, the rest you still need to buy.

As said above, if you’re any good and you’re lucky enough to meet a bunch of bad players you can dance the around for a long while and even totally escape if you need with the right build. I kept 8 players on me last night until my backup showed up.

My, off the norm build, has vigor constantly running with many sword dodges that can be used while immobilised and I can still keep up my damage with conditions even with my pet down.

Stuns are your worst enemy though, or mine at least. Large damage incoming doesn’t bother me.

If you are good with high healing, toughness and condition damage no one should be able to best you 1v1 and the few that you can’t kill shouldn’t be able to kill you.

You can slolo the starter areas of many level 1 fractals and it will drop from any mob, will take a while but it’s more than doable.

The trait that gives your pets health regen, also gives you another regen.

angan.6572:

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Really, because two things, I never agreed that ranger was “so powerful, so perfect”, I never said it, actually. And trapper is not the ONLY viable build.

Is the only competitive build though.

I don’t agree with that, I would agree that condition damage is a very good stat for us but trapper is not our only competitive build.

Jae.5138:

but sure, get all defensive and be fan boys. I’m sure ANet is really grateful that you guys are sticking up for them, and basically dismiss every feedback they receive. You guys should get paid for what you do, really.

Dude if you can’t handle people disagreeing with you, don’t post on a public forum.