Guild Wars 2

Salutations folks! after a 6 month hiatus ive decided to come back and have some wvw fun. But it seems that my beloved Dark Haven has pooped the sheets. Im looking to move to a server that has a nice core wvw following. Im not looking to hop onto the top tier bandwagon. I was thinking of E.Bay or similar. I know lots of DH folks have moved to several different servers but im not sure which one has the most of us.

Anyhow Im an experienced wvw’er and would love to make a move to a fresh server, and guild. So some ideas on where to move would be wonderful, thanks!

Jaxx.

id have to say i agree with Xsorus. Since ive had my Re-port fitted ranger ive never died in a 1 on 1 fight. and it usually takes atleast 3 good players to contain and drop a well played re-port/resto/bm ranger.

although i would like to see some viable builds for bows as none currently exist.

Heya there Roeore! thats more or less my Re-port331DD build. I was still working on it when i quit playing for a while so it isnt optimized. I found a couple issues with the DD version of the build.

1. the lack of condi damage means that you have to rely on the direct damage and with the build being so dodge/avoid/evade centric it gives you almost no time to “plant your feet” and dig in on someone.

2. The power is nice but with no precision you are getting no big crits ect the fact that the weapons used for the Re-port builds have fairly low Auto attack damage makes this even more noticeable.

Now one thing ive done with the build is take the 10 out of the beast mastery line and put it up top for the sharpening stone on hit trait. and it really shines. Last night i was able to drop 3 people at once with some nice tactical planning and nice guard placement for drake blast finishers to increase my healing.

As much as I want the DD version of the build to be viable its going to take some more work. If you like I can guest over to your server and help you with any potential issues you might be having.

Thanks!

Hyjaxx.

I always thought it would be neat to have a ferret or something similar that would stay at your feet and give you various buffs as opposed to its own abilities. that way Rangers who want the “stored” pet scenario would have something viable.

with the ferret you could have some neat abilities.

1. Into the shadows- You and your pet meld into the shadows causing blindness (smoke field) 3 seconds.

2. Aspect of the hunter- while ferret is active pet you gain heightened senses. all auto attacks have 50% to add vuln for 5 seconds (stacks 10 times max)

3. Gouge- when attacked your ferret attempts to protect you. ( each attack you block/dodge gives you 3 seconds of Protection.

any of these would be neat abilities. although i do think rangers are in serious need of a smoke field ability.

yeah with the regen on all my traits ect during a big fight i get a min and a half of regen on myself which is awesome for staying alive. guard also allows you to dictate when your drake does its blast finisher because its is always done after stealth breaks. it allows for a nice healing spring/blast finish to heal a group.

Sadly there just are too few viable builds for dual bow use. any other style ranger will destroy a Dual bow user. Now for pve it might be a little better. but im not sure how much. if you want to stay totally “ranged” you could do Long Bow – Axe/Horn or something similar.

Well. I dont have alot of pve experience but from a ranger as a whole i can tell you that the long and short bow are sub optimal weapons at best and that is when they are backed up with something more useful in the swap spot. If you were to run both bows at once it would just be a nightmare. in regards to the Bows being named having something to do with meaning you can use them both at the same time. Im fairly sure thats not what they were trying to convey.

Have you taken a look to see what the other well known Rangers are running ? thats always a great place to start.

Jaxx

Well after my first evening back in WvW im looking forward to making some changes. But the Re-Port series of builds is still working strong. ill re link the builds tonight with the proposed changes and get the ball rolling for everyone interested!

Jaxx

Yeah my change is from 331 to 133 so now i get the sharpening stone on hit ect and it lets me get 20 bleeds in a hurry lol. a thief tried to pop my lastnight and he went down like cheap date so im thinking im going to explore this route in greater length.

jaxx

hmm. well after one night Ive already made some small changes im excited to get some wvw testing in. only had enough time to give a thief the ole “Ike and Tina” then i had to bail for the night. so ill get some more going this evening.

Heya Faux! nice to see youre still helping folks out and making the magic happen for rangers. whats new?

Salutations folks! After several months away ive decided to come back for a bit and work on my ranger stuff some more. my First evening back and my re-port331 is still extremely viable. although im still checking out changes and things that have been buffed/nerfed since i left. I will put variations of my 331/331dd/331r up after changes have been made.

Anyhow, whats been cooking with rangers as of late? anything fancy?

Jaxx

Also something ive been thinking about, for sword auto attack, if all 3 steps hit the same target it grants 3 seconds of stability….we really need some stability up in here!

Manekk.6981:

hyjaxxx.1584:

Manekk.6981:

hyjaxxx.1584:

lol Plus 100! at the end of the day i think rangers are becoming a hard counter to thieves and they are getting a little nervous. I havent Died to a thief since back when i ran the condi-gen313.

that really made my morning….lol

I would say the thief is the hard counter for rangers rather.

If you are being killed by a thief in a 1v1 environment. adjustments need to be made. We are a thieves nightmare. i cant tell you how many ive had just run away in frustration or sit in their body after ive spiked them wondering what just happened.

Why are we a thief’s nightmare? I’m enclined to state the opposite we are good at outliving most others in a 1v1 good access to boons and high armor etc, thieves can strip the boons however and if necessary always reset the fight if they make a mistake and wait us out til all CDs have been blown and heals used up they can easily burst down a bunker ranger if they know what they are doing there are many variations of thief of course but in general I’d say good thief > good ranger.

I can tell you I beat and kill 99% of all players I run into 1v1 including thieves, all classes can be tough if the player is good however only a few times have I had to concede I simply stand no chance and it’s usually a thief, I met one today and he was cutting through my 3400armor like it was paper without being the slightest bit glassy I don’t think many rangers would have done much better to be honest.

after thinking about what i said, I was referring to Melee based Rangers ie Faux’s RRR or my Re-port331 series, also Xsorus’ trap build would do well.

with our amount of evades, rapid condition application and amount of soft and hard CC’s a thief fight might be drawn out. but the second they get knocked down with weakness/poison/chill on them. its all over.

Now bow rangers on the other hand, Probably not so hot.

So i will rephrase my statement, I would say that the Re-port and similar based build rangers are a counter to thieves. But alas this isnt the place for such talk.

I think the lick wounds ability is fine . if a ranger is downed for long enough to use it then something has already been done wrong on the killing persons end. and most times above water we get spiked before it rallies anyhow.

lol id pick a darker color for those pants….because that camel toe just crit for 10k.

All in all i like the look. Kinda reminds me of a character i saw in Perfect World line of games.

Nice Damage, it doesnt do a whole lot of good when you go down like a cheap date though.

as a side note, i love the Music. It made me think of the Ricolla Dude with Loc’s on…lol

you know, they have amphibious pets…why not amphibious weapons?

Although the only weapon i want to see on the ranger is the Whip..it would be hands down, the most awesome looking weapon in the game. Then i could Make another Asura Ranger named Dr. Jones!

Manekk.6981:

hyjaxxx.1584:

lol Plus 100! at the end of the day i think rangers are becoming a hard counter to thieves and they are getting a little nervous. I havent Died to a thief since back when i ran the condi-gen313.

that really made my morning….lol

I would say the thief is the hard counter for rangers rather.

If you are being killed by a thief in a 1v1 environment. adjustments need to be made. We are a thieves nightmare. i cant tell you how many ive had just run away in frustration or sit in their body after ive spiked them wondering what just happened.

Salutations folks i bought a custom arena for my guild but its not getting a ton of use. So i thought it would be fun to have our fellow rangers come in and test builds ect.

its the [GRIM] Tourney Room. pm me and ill send you the pass.

hyjaxxx.1584

lol Plus 100! at the end of the day i think rangers are becoming a hard counter to thieves and they are getting a little nervous. I havent Died to a thief since back when i ran the condi-gen313.

that really made my morning….lol

Nargo, switching to such an interactive build can be daunting , especially if you came from a build that was a “two planker kitten” ( double bow) all the questions you have asked are in the thread here in my replies and those of fans of the build but i will do a basic rundown for you.

1) When to use guard?-
a) Always use guard on your way into a fight or skirmish
b) when you know you want to use a pet 4 ability (drake blast ect)
c) when team mates/party memebers are taking arrow cart or ranged damage at a door or gate.
(please note- dont try to go crazy from the start, use it on your way into a fight..then add in some more as you get used to the rotations)

2) When to use the Torch abilities?
a) the most common use is right after an entangle in rapid succession.
b) when you are in a melee fight, and the enemy is running along side you, place it where you know he will walk through the entire thing ( also a great time to use a wolf KD so the enemy stews in your bonfire)
C) when you cant place Bonfire on an enemie, place it so people can do projectile/leap/blast finishers in it for the added boons and effects.

When do I use healing Spring?
a) lol…when you know you have taken or about to take a large chunk of damage.
b) When Fighting toe to toe and you know you are sustaining damage, place the spring . then use s2 to leap finish through it for more large heal.

c) when a thief or other class forces you to fight in their regen field , drop yours on top of it to even the playing field.

d) at a gate or door to heal people on rams ect, be sure to have party members Blast,Leap,whirl ect.
E) the Main thing to know about your healing spring is not to blow it too early with all the healing power you have the heal will be huge and the regen is enormous. so keep that in mind.

When do i Evade?
A) to avoid a classes primary burst.
b) If you get locked down/ Immob you cant move but your evade timers still work. so if you get rooted then 100b just run through your evades
c) if facing a necro or trap ranger its a great way to get through their Aoe/Traps without taking any damage. You see that trap circle and the enemy is on the other side waitin for you to walk through it. pop sword 3 and stab them im the face.
d) Our Evades hold a Huge portion of our Soft CC ie Weakness,poison ect. so before you get in close and have to evade try to toss up some other filler condi so when your Soft CC hits they arent wiped.

The main thing to remember with the Re-Port Series of Builds is that they are probably one of the most interactive builds in the game and require some time to figure out lil tricks that work for you. But you have the benefit of me having hundred of hours on these builds to trim the fat off of poor selections.

At the end of the day your main advantage is when people see a ranger they laugh and charge in for an easy kill. When i see an idiot like that i always act like im going to run just for a split second so they blow all their CC off the bat…then..thats all she wrote.

Jaxx of GRIM
-Darkhaven-

I dont have any knowledge of rangers in dungeons. is spamming auto attack the only way to rack up considerable damage against a boss? ( im being serious)

also, nice path of scars in there.

i just spit my energy drink out. A couple of “dps thieves” complaining about not having the damage to compensate for Lick Wounds.

You thieves cant expect to have game breaking advantages everywhere in the game, leave some crumbs for the lil guy ….whos already dead in the water.

all i know is that if they end up giving us the torch as a main hand weapon….we better get some sexy smoke fields. also the ability to light bunnies on fire and kick them at the enemy would be pretty stellar..

lol ive become obsessed over rangers getting a smoke field. the things we could do with it would be really amazing for our groups.

the bunny thing was just a joke….or was it!

All i can say is WHIP! its already in the game along with animations. We would just need some skills….and i would use a whip in a heart beat! and it would be an amazing CC weapon.

attack #1- 3 step attack Lash,Slash,Flash Lash-strait damage Slash-Damage/Bleed Flash- Damage/Blind

attack #2 timed Strike- an attack to the legs causing a 2 sec immob/2 sec cripple plus light damage

attack #3 Blazing Defense- 2 quick lashes at the ground around you 1 second KD, Creates a smoke field

EDIT-just saw someone above me said whip while i was typing! great idea on the pull…for the first attack , rather then my blind the pull would be even better!

Well we could always just skip the middle man and the ability could function as follows.

Barrage- 4 second cast- Immediately Spike yourself , saving your opponent the time it takes to run over to do it along with the humiliation of knowing youre being laughed at.

Joking aside. i see alot of LB rangers just wipe themselves out with retal and confusion. is there not a way to cancel the ability once started?

Salutations folks. While spit balling some more ranger goodies an Idea came to my mind and i havent had a chance to test it, so i figured i would have our community chime in.

if an Enemy is using an ability that Reflects prjectiles. what would happen if you put Retal on yourself and kept shooting? if it works like im thinking it would be great if for example " A thief uses that stupid spin dagger elite skill, so the ranger pops retal on themselves , opens range about 800-1000 units and keeps firing away." The time for the projectile to travel to the enemy and retal back could potentially be enough time for their ability to wear off and for them to take a heap of damage.

is something like this feasible? let me know …because if it does…its Sexy Time for sure.

ive been doing this the entire time, holding the direction i want to go, regardless of the skill chain. i also tested dodging while in the leap and diddnt have much of an issue with just the plain old auto attack.

yes, the double blast is referring to Horn5 plus drake blast finisher which can be easily choreographed by placing guard on top of where the enemy is.

you can also use this method for a double heal blast finisher…which is really sexy time!

ohhh ill sign up! im not sure if i can make this one with work and all. but im sure going to try! ive been refining my Re-portV build for 1v1 tourneys .

is there money or prizes involved?

jaxx

the dagger is very important for an 8 second 1 /1/4 second evade with Soft CC and dagger 5 with Soft CC and a heap of damage.

ive been doing some testing with warhorn in this config and while its nice for double blast finishers in bonfire..dagger is too important

The Perm Swiftness is from the Swift/Regen on Shouts.

Eurantien.4632:

Pet with smoke field. Pet with smoke field. Pet with smoke field. We have solid leap finishers and now a blast finisher.

god i love you! ive been screaming this forever! and now is the time! Put a 4 -6 second smoke field on Guard and maybe one on barrage.

lets get this party poppin!

Cufufalating.8479:

Probably a standard regen bunker with S/D + GS would be the best surviver a ranger could perform. Then take utilities like protect me and LR to finish it off.

Not sure you’d be of any use though, since rangers are no especially good at buffing themselves or others.

Not true at all, with the traditional Re-port331 you can keep permanent swiftness/and an amazing regen up on your party 100% plus you offer group condition removal,fury,Might and vigor .

I can tell you that I offer a ton of support to my 5-10 man skirmish groups. never mind the amount of Soft and Hard CC’s that we bring to the table.

Lets try not to scare potential rangers off with short sighted comments. Its bad for the community.

you can live forever and do pretty awesome condition damage with my Re-Port Series of Builds. for ranger survivability it is second to none and despite zerker builds and everything else this build tears right through them.

So be sure and check it out on the first page of the boards here. its labeled Hyjaxx’s Re-port331 and i promise you will be pleased.

Croustibat.7035:

hyjaxxx.1584:

Another idea is if an enemy runs through your guarded area they get a 3 sec immob/stun and 3 seconds of revealed debuff.

No-stealth zone is interesting.

When I tell my pet to guard an area, I want it to be MORE aggressive to anyone entering the guard zone = pet gains damage bonus or pet’s skills recharge much faster (except F2) or gains stability or something

Protection is nice but stealth … It can help the pet to land its first attack while in stealth IF guard has been used within 10sec, I don’t find that feature really useful, what do you think?

Well the reason i suggested the immob and revealed is because you could set your pet to Guard a choke point or door way and the skill would be used exactly as advertized. and really give rangers the jump on those sneaky classes.

But…i still prefer the smoke field…we need a smoke field in the worst way!

Its Guard, Not Attack, Not Sik Em and not “Go get em Boy” its Hey, Protect this area.

and by the way, yes you can send your pet invis infront of you to attack. I do it on almost every opening attack.

now would it be nice for it to have a longer range, Sure. But i would much rather see the smoke field or an Immob added to it and leave the range where it is.

Well In my opinion guards range is decent. what i think would really make it amazing is making it a Smoke field. Having the smoke field put down where ever you want would be a great addition to rangers. Imagine …you want to use your warhorn blast for an AoE stealth, Just cast guard on top of you and BOOM. But wait…you want to do a leap finisher for Direct stealth to run away, cast it in front of you and jump into it! As the enemy goes to chase you BAM the pet grabs em because they ran through the guarded area.

Another idea is if an enemy runs through your guarded area they get a 3 sec immob/stun and 3 seconds of revealed debuff.

these two ideas would really make the skill useful and give rangers a never before seen dynamic. and lets not forget that you would still be getting Regen/Swiftness and a dependable way for your pet to use its Pet4 ability.

Fun stuff…..

Jaxx

Xsorus, i have a question. if you were running something similar but with melee weapons. and you ran a geo sigil on the primary wep for each set, then ran the bleed on crit sigils. The with traits you ran the marksman @ 50% sharpening stone trait along with the skirmish % to bleed on crit.

Would all that stack? because depending on the build that could be a constant 25 bleeds all the time.

ive used the logitech mice and i prefer the naga to it. I also had a lechesis that i really liked too. I dont think its my mouse acting up because it only started with this last patch. almost like the skill queue system has gone wonky.

Im going to keep an eye on it tonight in my skirmish group and see what the deal is. i will also try a different mouse just as a baseline.

yeah, i lost a fight against a really kittened ranger because of my heal and elite not going off , in conjunction with a yak and guards pounding on me. when i saw my elite had not gone off i was like…really…then had to heal and it diddnt go off either.

if any other people are experiencing this please let me know.

a macro? no i havent experienced that. but i just went in again to make sure im not crazy. out of combat , no issue at all. when im in combat if im moving or have recently cast an ability my heal and my elite wont fire.

its really pee’n in my cheerios

yeah im looking for updates for my mouse and it seems to be up to date. its strange that this has only started happening since the most recent patch. and even stranger it only happens in combat. when im out of combat everything fires off like normal.

this is a great video. i hope the ranger community takes it to heart . When i watched it , i immediately thought of all the stealth spamming 2,2,2,2 thieves that run around the boards telling people how epic they are. but when they get beat they scream nerf to whoever beat them.

hmmm ill take a look and see if i missed an update. Nothing gets under my skin more then things not working correctly and causing you to lose or be at a detriment to your team.

if anyone using a naga has some insight feel free to let me know whats up.

yeah this is not skill lag. its like the button isnt even being pushed. i was killing a yak and drinking my rock star and got jumped by a trap ranger who was just running in circles casting traps. and my entangle and my healing spring wouldnt go off. i had to smakitten 7-8 times to get each to fire.

and its been happening since the patch. maybe i need to update my naga or something but its driving me insane.

heya heya Rangers, Since the patch ive been experiencing some strange things. My heal and my elite arent firing while in combat, i have to hit the keys 3 or 4 times to get them to work. which in the middle of a fight is awful.

Im using the Naga mouse. if anyone has some advice it would be wonderful as im super frustrated right now.

jaxx

question, do trap rangers use drakes? or is it just CC pets? i was foolin around with drake and A/T S/H with my re-port build just for fun and getting double blast finishers followed by birds into S3 was a pretty potent combo. in bonfire getting 7 stacks of might was sure nice. and an extra 3500 Aoe heal is nice on the water fields.

just sun spirit, then after the spirit was activated I cast birds and started auto attacking. and the Birds put a stack of burn on then i refreshed it right after. like it was counting us as two different players.

you are correct on the just over 400. i had the gem shop regen on me last night that was also ticking. which is where i came up with the additional 80 or so. My Mistake.

I have a question, it seems like ive seen this build quite a bit with the only main difference being that you are using Axe main hand in both sets ( perhaps you can explain why, because they share cooldowns from set to set. id be interested to hear your rational)

also with the axes being so heavy in conditions. a build like this would really shine from a celestial mindset as you could take benefit from the DD and the condi.

Is this just for Pve/ dungeons?