Guild Wars 2

Prysin.8542:

mistsim.2748:

Prysin.8542:

Razor.9872:

{*sigh*}

Someday…over the rainbow…I hope Rangers will actually become wanted.

oh, they are. Nothing is more needed then Healing Spring on rams…

this is hard to believe, but Healing Rain is better in just about every way. maybe not for rams, but for GvG/GvZ.

1. it’s got a huge casting range, meaning u can drop it anywhere at any time; HS is pbaoe, so u have to get there to cast it

2. its water field is enormous allow your group to blast finish from wherever

3. HR doesnt cleanse as much, is on a longer CD, doesnt give vigor, and doesnt last as long. in organized WvW however, you dont need this condi cleansing function as it’s already done by guard and warriors, nor do u need vigor, which is spammed by warriors and perma-stacked by most guard and ele builds. u need mobility, which is what HS doesnt synergize with.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Call_of_the_Wild
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nature%27s_Voice
at 30% boon duration, you will offer permanent regen and permanent swiftness. from 40 trait points. Add to that, the ability to offer traited spirits in siege situations… Congratulations, our kittenty profession can provide plenty of support, with one traitline.

regen and swiftness are the most underpowered and unnecessary boons for organized wvw. and i have to equip a shout to make this work, which is ridiculous because all shouts are entirely useless.

guardians and eles give perma swiftness and regen, in addition to a serious amount of heals if specced cleric. on top of this, they give a ton of protection, fury, might and stability (guards).

call of the wild is excellent and a step in the right direction for rangers. but not nearly enough.

i find it interesting how the QA seems to be, by far, the worst for this particular profession. and this isnt one ability, it’s a whole bunch. imagine, if ele’s static field or warr’s Earth Shaker only affected 3 people. the forums would explode and it would get hotfixed the next day.

Whats not true? The stats? Who in the world watches spvp? Most gw2 youtube channels are dedicated to wvw pvp, a lot of them gvg related.

Sol.4310:

LilMcGinley.3890:

CrassBippy.4619:

I love reading the gvg = skill stuff. Watch videos, people macro #1 spam and just mash all their dmg or heals. Any more then 8v8 and its beyond messy

My only question: what horrible GvG videos have you been watching?

They just need to give you guys 20 v 20 options in Custom Arena, so we don’t ever have to hear this GvG garbage in SPvP again.

I’ve watched many video’s of WvW guild’s and I was mind blown that you guy’s called it skill all you do is PRESS 11111111111 and move in a ball over the top of the other ball. How the hell is that skill.

Pretty disappointed to hear this from you. But fyi gvgs place much more emphasis on the larger group moving perfectly in sync , like cells of an organism, to perform a specific function. It takes a lot of practice and it’s a different KIND of skill. GvG has much more build variety and every prof has a place

Oh and one more thing. U wanna see what natural meta evolution is? Look at gvg. Meta is constantly and naturally in flux. There is so much more u can do with 15-20 people. Not to mention there’s a whole side game revolving around combo fields.

There is a reason why spvp is crawling and people continue to rage about stale kittenty meta, while gvg is flourishing and exploding.

Benjamin.7893:

20vs20 people hammering at each other in a blob of particle effects. The only way people could even have a clue wat is happening is from spectating a players pov and even then most of the micro goes lost, so I don’t see the reason why it should have spectator or even leaderboards as it’s totally not competitive.

Spectating gvg is a blast. Much more interesting than spvp because u actually have something to follow: an organic group, massive aoe abilities that are key plays and make an obvious difference, and various maneuvers which are easy to see (flanking, juking, penetrating) – you know, like a real sport.

Watch ogre’s gvg casts on youtube. Theyre getting more viewers and interest than spvp ever did or ever will. Ive been exclusively in wvw since last november, and I dont think ill ever go back to mists unless there’s a major revamp.

Mauvelence.6870:

They’re working as anet intends them to, if you want a class that can hit 5 targets at once with their skills you need to play ele or necro.

Lol that made me laugh. Thanks.

- Muddy Terrain only affects 3 targets! not 5, like any other ground targeted aoe. If 5 mobs are on the mud only 3 will get immobilized and only 3 will get crippled.

- Path of Scars also only pulls 3; Storm Spirit’s Call Lightning only affects 3 targets. Lightning Reflexes also damages only 3 targets. point blank shot kb’s 3 targets only

- traps are fine. barrage is fine. whirling defense is fine. please check on piercing arrows.

if some of these things are intended, it really should be stated in the tooltip. but i see no reason why MT and LR should only affect 3 targets. ele staff spam affects 5, guard walls affect 5, Earth Shaker affects 5. you get the idea. So i cant imagine this being intended.

Thanks.

Im not debating the usefulness of these skills. Theyre bugged is all im saying. Test it and submit bug reports guys.

Half of our utilities are entirely useless in pvp. Also the things u think are good, like muddy terrain, aren’t even working properly

Lord Trejgon.2809:

mistsim.2748:

stop derailing please…most people know how good LR is. lets talk about bugs and testing.

my question is: why should all of staff ele skills, for example, hit 5 people? why should guardian walls and immobilizes affect 5 people? why should Earth Shaker hit 5 people? while ranger aoe’s affect only 3.

maybe I’ll sound strange or what but I have guardian alt and…

what hells by the heck sake? and what immobilises?
guardian have only 1 “aoe” immobilise and that is skill from hammer other immoblis guardian have are single target skills so the cannot affect “5 targets”
also guardian have actually one “wall” – and that’s wall of reflection there is not possibility to talking about target cap because only things that WoR is doing is reflecting projectiles and this don’t have actuall cap (it can reflect for 10 and more players if they will try to shoot through it)
maybe You meant wards… but also that would be first thing I heard about target caps on wards – seriously I’ve never had situation that placed line of warding agains zerg and somebody cross it becuase "he was the 6th and the cakitten "

so I advice to think more before calling another cass skills to comparision

about OT – I’m not using muddy terrain so I cannot tell about max targets – also I’m rather not using spirits in PvP. only thing named I’m using lastly is whirling defence – but I’ve never managed to have more than 3 targets in AoE range so also I cannot confirm or deny their number of targets cap….

I meant wards. Wall = ward from the popular “4 wall” build. but I also meant hammer 3. Ive trapped 4-5 people with it many time. I also main a guard.

Secondly I DO use muddy terrain extensively and I HAVE tested this and I CAN confirm it. It only affects 3 targets at a time.

My whole point is other better balanced professions dont have to put up with this. In fact, guards are still enjoying the pure of voice bug. Rangers have so many problems and we have so few things to bring to the table, and even these things are broken for us. It’s frustrating and I just wanted the devs to see this issue and repair it, or clarify their intent with these utilities.

yea man, 100% sure. it’s either a bug, or it’s been there all along (i havent used the ability for a few months until recently).

Prysin.8542:

Razor.9872:

{*sigh*}

Someday…over the rainbow…I hope Rangers will actually become wanted.

oh, they are. Nothing is more needed then Healing Spring on rams…

this is hard to believe, but Healing Rain is better in just about every way. maybe not for rams, but for GvG/GvZ.

1. it’s got a huge casting range, meaning u can drop it anywhere at any time; HS is pbaoe, so u have to get there to cast it

2. its water field is enormous allow your group to blast finish from wherever

3. HR doesnt cleanse as much, is on a longer CD, doesnt give vigor, and doesnt last as long. in organized WvW however, you dont need this condi cleansing function as it’s already done by guard and warriors, nor do u need vigor, which is spammed by warriors and perma-stacked by most guard and ele builds. u need mobility, which is what HS doesnt synergize with.

the state of the ranger in organized GvZ/GvZ is quite sad, even though it has been slowly getting better. mostly with LB, signet, and OH axe buffs. but it’s small potatoes unfortunately.

ranger doesnt really belong in the frontline because he has no frontline sustain with the exception of a few nice CD’s (signets) and evades. frontline weapons (GS, sword) dont do enough damage with tanky builds and provide zero utility for your team. ranger has zero on-demand protection and heals (outside of the #6 heal itself)

ranger also doesnt really belong in the backline because he neither offers useful benefits to the group (might, blast finishers, stability, protection, condi clearance, massive hard CC), nor high aoe dps and debuffs like staff ele and power wellmancer can.

finally, ranger doesnt belong in the backline assault group because these jobs are done beautifully by GC mesmers and thieves. a full zerker ranger breaks like a twig in these gvg scenarios, and is always out-dps’d by the zerker GS mez, which has a ton of survivability to boot.

i have over 1000 hours on my ranger in wvw and have pushed the profession to the max in wvw.

overall, it’s a very poorly designed profession that has had a whole bunch of minor buffs, which have not dealt with the core of the issue:

- poor utility on weapons and utilities
- high damage builds require you to give up most of your survivability
- half of utilities are useless in organized fights
- poor sustain outside of regen bunker builds, which do nothing for your group
- fundamentally flawed prof mechanic, the pet. unreliable f2’s, terrible survivability in aoe’s, bad AI

Durzlla.6295:

Oh no…. LR only hits 3 targets, the horrors…. God what I’d give for how it worked in GW1…. Evade + Attack speed boost? Yes kittening please!

muddy terrain not hitting 5 people is a pretty kitten big deal. the point is their attitude toward the profession. it’s not just one skill that’s terribly bugged, it’s a whole slew. we’ve been fed scraps since launch.

SisiXuan.4178:

Bonfire only hit 3 as well.
And isn’t whirlwind defense only hit 3?

Btw how come guardian’s leap of faith can hit 5.

exactly. reason is rangers are ANet’s unwanted child.

nagymbear.5280:

It doesn’t sound like its intended. But what really gets me is…. how did you test LR only hitting 3 guys?

stacked a bunch of mobs around me, packed them tight. saw only 3 numbers pop up. same thing with Storm Spirit

stop derailing please…most people know how good LR is. lets talk about bugs and testing.

my question is: why should all of staff ele skills, for example, hit 5 people? why should guardian walls and immobilizes affect 5 people? why should Earth Shaker hit 5 people? while ranger aoe’s affect only 3.

AydenStar.4216:

mistsim.2748:

It’s a hybrid prof and it really needs to be seen that way.

This is how I always seen this profession and the reason I love it.

mistsim.2748:

Pvt/sent seems to fit well with gs and immobilize bombing. But your contribution becomes kinda meh due to low dps and minimal hard cc. If you could spam more aoe vuln with the gs it would give the ranger a LEGIT frontline role.

In your video its just you doing the aoe vuln now just imagine 3 or 4 Rangers timing WD at the same time to a CCed zerg ball.

added the frontliner immobilize bomber build above have a look.

seriously, MT needs to hit 5 people. or at least these things need to be in the tooltip. and no matter how tightly packed the mobs are, it’s always 3. so it’s not a range issue.

Yeah I experimented with knights/zerker for a few weeks and id basically drop myself to 50% hp after a single barrage. Nice.

Knights/sent is where it’s at. Especially with fire sigils. Path of scars is a beastly zerg busting ability. Wd, barrage, piercing rf are gravy on top. I see it as a hybrid frontline/caster. Youre by far outdpsing the frontliners. But then the question becomes why not just bring a power wellmancer. Well unlike the necro, ranger gives water and pretty reliable cc. It’s a hybrid prof and it really needs to be seen that way.

Pvt/sent seems to fit well with gs and immobilize bombing. But your contribution becomes kinda meh due to low dps and minimal hard cc. If you could spam more aoe vuln with the gs it would give the ranger a LEGIT frontline role.

The other reason signets are so good is they guarantee your f2’s going off before the pet melts or gets interrupted. So thats additional cc ure putting out

Glad youre enoying this, it’s been a long project. Another combo u might wanna consider is gs/s/a for greater presence in the frontline. I just didnt get around to testing it. And lb has much better utility.

CRrabbit.1284:

In your video, I saw you have barely condition stack on you for even 2-3 sec coz your BUDDIES clean them for you.

from 2:50-10:00 im basically by myself. first tower sequence my buddies dont even make it up the tower; the fight at umber i did have a shout warrior with me most of the time. but if you go to 5:05, 6:48, you’ll notice how little all those condis are doing to me. i just let them expire. mind you, if im focus fired by some rabid necro, sure id fall faster. but so would anyone else. with melandru + lemongrass (HS and EB if needed), ive never felt condis to be a problem to the point when i needed to slot SoR. from Jq to SBI to Kain to SoS. while i havent roamed in small groups much, ive exclusively frontlined with my tank build for about 3 months, so i speak from that experience.

Melandru, Lemongrass and high vit are basically the bread and butter of tier 1 WvW. for a reason. they make u almost forget condis exist.

let me clarify a few things about WvW and condis. i didnt discuss condis in-depth simply because theyre not really a problem with this build.

condi tanks work through condi duration reduction (lemongrass + melandru), a high vitality buffer (sentinel), and clearance (passive vs. active). therefore, i wouldnt easily dismiss sentinel in favour of PVT (unless it’s all you can afford).

condi clearance is just gravy. focusing on active condi clearance is generally a mistake, unless youre a guardian with traited VoR, renewed focus, and 3 shouts. stacking passive condi clearance (i.e. X removes condi every 10 seconds) is the best way to go, as long as u have Lemongrass and Melandru runes

condis are only a problem in tiny engagements like 2v2, 3v3, and duels. condi/regen builds are in fact best dueling builds. very few people use condis effectively in larger engagements, and if they do, you just push through it. this is possible due to aoe cap and stacking condi duration reduction. i actually main a rabid necro with almost 2k condi damage. he’s beastly in small engagements, and quite mediocre in GvG’s and zerg fights.

if youre really worried about condis, pick up empathic bond instead of bark skin. i started off with SoR and Empathic Bond a few months ago, and found them completely unnecessary for most frontline work. with melandru + lemongrass, you’re basically tanking it. if you added SoR, along with HS, you’d literally be immune to condis. the build does not have to be changed drastically.

I wont lie, the vit does make a difference. But you can easily go with pvt trinks and azurite jewels start there and depending on your comfort u can sub in some more knights/ruby stuff.

For the dps version, im happy with 20k hp 40% crit with food and 50% crit dmg. Thats with sent + azurite trinks.

Dont bother with sent armor. If you wanna play the tankier version id recommend getting sent weapons.

Sentinel trinkets allow you to be more liberal with your armor and weapons. For instance I used knights armor and zerker weapons for the damage version of the build, still had 19k hp and 1950 toughness.

Again I dont feel comfortable with traps for the stuff that we do…that extra stability and reliable invuln are much needed. Basically u have more than enough soft cc with my build. In zerg fights u cant rely too much on soft cc anyway. Might as well improve survivability and dps.

Atherakhia.4086:

Do you feel you benefit enough from signet of renewel to need 30pts in marks? While I love dolyak, protect me works similarly as well with more utility oriented pets (unlike cats/birds they tend to be alive when you need them).

I ask because if you can drop your reliance on SoR, you could drop 10 pts from marks, get 10 pts in survival and pick up empathic bond. Probably more useful overall imo.

I’m also curious what lead you to use the set of gear you chose? Have you considered celestial gear? I’m still trying to get enough crystals to craft the suit but the math looks promising with it.

I originally ran this with SoR. Awesome: pet clears condis from everyone every 40s or so. Problem: condis are reapplied instantly and youre stuck with a useless utility on cd.

SoR + empathic bond is amazing for small scale fights. But for wvw, melandru + lemongrass is way more bang for the buck and u free up a utility to improve survivability, cc or dps.

Gearing: you need vitality, period. For my support build I would have gone full sentinel, but the armor was too expensive. Sentinel trinkets are cheap and work very well with glassier armor and weapons (knights and zerker) if u wanna build for more dps.

Protect Me always gets me killed because pets melt inside red circles in seconds. SoS + SoW combo ensures you pet gets its f2 off at least once.

@Chopps

Thanks. My problem with traps is that u need 30 in skirmishing for them to be viable…and if I wasnt so dependent on signets, id love to run spike and frost.

However, I find on demand stability and invuln absolutely essential so im kinda confined to signets. MT is better than spike trap in every.

The other popular builds u mention are fantastic for smaller fights and I have ran them all in the past. This one is for zerg stomping =)

FRONTLINE SUPPORT VARIANT (PVT/SENTINEL)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAT8XjEVJ2FWOWo2Bi1DC5nB1ewJzfeXB/nyKawaqA-jEyAo8ITQgpPBKnXEN2yYR0YV6ER16FMPeR0qlBgZMA-w

- 2300 toughness
- -65% condi duration
- 25k hitpoints
- up to 30s of stability
- 2300 base power (with bloodlust)

Tanky frontline build for immobilize and water spam. Decent damage, but nothing game-changing. I’ve been using this build for leading small groups when we’re outnumbered, but i prefer my cleric guard for that.

VULNERABILITY/IMMOBILIZE FRONTLINER (GvG)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhYDbkoKxuvyxC1OQseQo9Po2DOZpz7K4/UWRDWTF-j0xAo8ARfCUOvIaslxioxq0Jiq1LYe8ioVLDAzYA-w

variation of above build. it can absolutely wreck any backline’s day. tanky as hell, incredible mobility, decent damage output, on-demand stability, and a load of aoe immobilize. includes spotter trait that gives a hefty dps boost to other frontliners. water field. vulnerability spam if using axe OH. can also be run with WH for blast finisher and fury instead of Whirling Defense. may be the better choice when u have to be more mobile.

Immobilize is a powerful condition. It punches through stability and prevents enemies from dodge rolling. Also forces condi cleanse CD’s. Ideally, should be timed with oncoming Earth Shakers and wells from your team.

DAMAGE VARIANT (KNIGHTS/SENTINEL)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAT8XjEVJ2FWOWs2Bi1DC5nB1UwJzzUwfGlyKawaqA-jkyAYLBZCCMZJQJwioxWcLiGrSfR16FM1JgHfR1ejgJFwDLAA-w

- 2550 power with bloodlust (2750 with food proc)
- 43% crit with food, 50% crit damage with food
- 19k HP
- 1950 toughness

This build is tough enough for you to be in the frontlines with the guards and the warriors. You also have the option of staying back with the casters. I generally like to open with Path of Scars, then cast Barrage + piercing Rapid Fire on the zerg, pop my signets and jump in with pet + Whirling Defense. In addition to this, you’re hitting aoe fear, and 2x aoe immobilize. I recommend using RaO instead of Entangle when running this build, for the additional (much needed) stability, and fury.

The weapons I’ve settled on are sword/axe and LB. GS has small arc and zero utility (maul needs to apply 10 stacks of vuln, not 3 lol…); SB is single target; MH axe has zero utility and poor aoe dps. the only viable alternative for this build is s/a + s/wh. wh is cool for its blast finisher and fury, but significantly reduces our sustained dps. nice for supporting your frontliners if you dont care for damage.

The utilities ive settled on are SoW, SoS, and MT. SoW is excellent due to 25% dps bonus, stability and reasonably low CD. SoS is essential for the on-demand invuln. both signets ensure your wolf is getting its fear off, and the drake is surviving to do its tailwhip and lightning breath. MT is a spammable aoe immobilize with 900 range. it’s probably our strongest team utility. Elite can be RaO (increases dps and reliability, useful for GvG’s), or Entangle, which requires perfect timing and positioning as outlined in the vid. Consider running QZ with the Knights/Sentinel build.

I have experimented with the Storm Spirit bomb, and have come to a few conclusions that led me to drop this utility. on paper, it does 3-5k aoe damage. well, it takes 2-3 seconds to actually summon and activate the kitten thing, and it hits only 3 targets! on heavy armor, damage ends up being 2.2k, and while ive seen it crit 5k on a clothie, it’s very rare due to its terrible crit chance. the main reason i dropped it is its cast time.

GS works for additional survivability with sword/axe, and immobilize bombs using swoop. damage and utility are very poor unfortunately.

Viable pets are:

- wolf: aoe fear
- dog: aoe immob
- black bear: long aoe weakness
- river drake: additional aoe dps

IMO, nothing else really makes a difference. I’d enjoy the Moas if the boons were instant, which they are far from.

GvG?

ive had reasonable success if a few informal GvG’s, and by that I mean i was able to help my team get kills with immobilizes and survive longer with HS placement. in other words, i was far from useless. should any guild give one of its spots to a well built ranger? well, yes. we’re sturdy, walking water field that can spam immobilize, do some decent damage, and apply some decent CC. in a group of 10 frontliners, it is more useful to have a PVT/Sentinel ranger instead of another guard/warrior. are we gonna see 5-6 frontline rangers in any given GvG? unlikely.

i have not had the chance to participate in many GvG’s due to our recent move and my long summer vacation, but i wil be following up with some footage at some point in time.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this build helps some of you who are lost/frustrated with the ranger prof in WvW.

RANGER IN “HIGH TIER” WvW PLAY

As many of you have learned, rangers are not well represented in top tier WvW guilds. in fact, many “hardcore” guilds dont even accept rangers, as the current gvg meta calls for guards, necros, warriors and staff eles. good thieves and engies most definitely have niche roles. but rangers dont. pick any category, and i guarantee most other profs will “do it better”. i am hoping to change this mindset with my balanced build.

When outnumbered, every team member must be able to output 1) hard crowd control, 2) team heals/boons, 3) strong ground targeted or pbaoe dps (preferably instant with short animation times), and/or 4) insane single target damage (thief niche).

1. hard CC includes stuns, kb/kd, fear. hard CC disables the target so they can get nuked. soft CC includes chill, cripple, blinds and daze. soft CC is generally less useful (unless we’re talking ToC #4’s aoe daze, or Plague’s aoe blinds). the ranger offers a ton of aoe cripple, some chill, and immobilizes. all soft CC’s.

if youre good at lining up your shots, we have quite a bit hard CC with piercing point blank shot, wolf fear, and OH axe #4. it is even possible to use these without a target , but i wouldnt recommend it. get good at clicking on the middle part of the zerg, and changing targets quickly.

immobilize, when timed well, can guarantee a few kills. cripple is a very underpowered and often useless condi.

2. rangers can share only the most underpowered boons with teammates: regen and swiftness. with only one reliable blast finisher and unreliable healing elite (ToL), ranger healing output is poor for the team. therefore, speccing for boon duration and healing power is not very useful to us. this is the reason i dropped my cleric build, which is still great for dueling.

this being said, Healing Spring is “the best water field of all times bro.” or is it? well, we have 15s water uptime, it cleanses condis, and can pulse vigor. but compared to Healing Rain, it’s pbaoe instead of ranged, and it’s smaller. that being said, if youre up there with your frontliners and have stability available, it’s a guaranteed burst heal for the whole group, and u can keep coming back to it for 15s.

3. ranger’s best aoe attacks (whirling defense and barrage) are kitten by long channel times. both benefit from quickness, but QZ is on a long CD and the build doesnt have room for it. therefore, we must rely on positioning, timing, and high base power. aoe condis (torch, traps) are inadequate because they cant be spammed. necros are able to spam bleeds and epi from a long range, while the ranger must apply aoe condis from 0-600 range on a much higher CD. in addition, ranger doesnt have any condi burst, meaning that when our condis are wiped, dps output becomes negligible.

4. glass rangers are not as viable as gc thieves or mesmers. we still dont have spammable target drops, making zerker rangers a gimmick, and limited to towers or other escape routes, YOLO moments, and lower tier play (i.e. your opponents are standing still eating your maul and swoop).

RANGER STRENGTHS:

- balance of soft and hard CC’s. spammable immobilize via Muddy Terrain and dog, and immobilize bombs with MT + Entangle; linear (piercing) aoe pulls and kb (axe 4, LB 4); semi-reliable 3s aoe fear (wolf; pop SoW for you and your pet before casting this)

- water field every 15s (assuming you fight near the HS)

- serious amount of on-demand stability (SoW, RaO)

- decent pbaoe damage with WD and drake, if barrage is pre-cast and enemies stay in the field, damage becomes significant. problem is, most experienced players know that if they dont move, they will die. which makes ranger’s dps output in GvG’s…questionable at best; however, Path of Scars is a seriously good spammable nuke with the right build. 2.5-4k both ways, and it pulls.

Ranger is therefore a “support” frontliner capable of dropping water field on heavies, and aoe immobilizing to ensure kills. getting lucky with wolf fear, axe 4, or lb 4 is gravy. we can also tank as hard as warriors and guards (requires expertise with signet timing, sword dodges, weapon swaps for rolling, and Hunter’s Shot).

This is a guide to my sentinel frontline build. the vid contains clips of my research, and in it I am actually learning as i go. my skill is quite mediocre in these clips, and the first half of the footage is about 2 months old. i can do more things with the build now, but this is a start for purposes of the guide.

WHY SENTINEL FRONTLINE?

it is well established that the ranger is a good roamer, duelist and small gang fighter. however, i am not after these roles while creating my builds and playing my profs. in my personal view, WvW prowess and achievement are demonstrated by victory in few vs. many scenarios (which means high efficiency for your server), guild vs. zerg (when outnumbered), and gvg (against competent guilds). bearing this in mind, i wanted to create a ranger that could survive and contribute meaningfully in these environments.

Cleric/Apothecary – regen builds are not useful when you’re heavily outnumbered and taking a lot of burst damage. Any “regen bunker” build can only withstand the focus fire of 3-4 competent opponents.

Knights- low vitality does not work well with GvG/GvZ. some profs work well with 14-15k HP, like eles, thieves and cleric guards. but ranger does not.

PVT/Sentinel – balance between high base power, toughness and vitality. Sentinel gives most base vitality without giving up much power and vit, so it’s easier to incorporate knights and zerker pieces without giving up survivability.

i like the organic theme. all my characters are in TA or sylvari armors.

Castaliea.3156:

mistsim.2748:

what people dont understand about entangle (and MT) is that it only works when timed correctly. a 1-sec aoe immobilize will prevent the clutch dodge roll to avoid the incoming Earth Shaker for example. so if your friends are right behind you, 1s is all you need.

in addition, it should never be cast in the area where two groups clash. the aoe’s will nullify the roots instantly. instead, one need to push deep into rear of the enemy line, or flank from the side. you dont need to be in the middle of the enemy. it has a fairly large pbaoe range, so you can actually grab people from 600 range where it won’t be telegraphed as much.

all this being said, ANet needs to decide whether to make Entangle a utility or an elite. in its current form, it works great as a utility with a 60s CD. as an elite on a 2-3min CD, it needs to do way more. for example, its target cap should be raised to 10, or the immobilize should be guaranteed for 2-3 seconds (no destructible roots).

sincerely,
Entangle User

Typical Ranger: Content with mediocrity.

But yes, it does need to be used right and can be quite useful when it is.

i definitely try to make the most out of the profession when im not facerolling on my guard and necro =)

what people dont understand about entangle (and MT) is that it only works when timed correctly. even a 1-sec aoe immobilize will prevent the clutch dodge roll to avoid the incoming Earth Shaker for example. so if your friends are right behind you, 1s is all you need. Entangle is however more effective when not used as an opener, but after the enemy has spent all endurance and blown defensive CD’s.

in addition, it should never be cast in the area where two groups clash. the aoe’s will nullify the roots instantly. instead, one need to push deep into rear of the enemy line, or flank from the side. you dont need to be in the middle of the enemy. it has a fairly large pbaoe range, so you can actually grab people from 600 range where it won’t be telegraphed as much.

all this being said, ANet needs to decide whether to make Entangle a utility or an elite. in its current form, it would work well as a utility with a 60s CD. as an elite on a 2-3min CD, it needs to do way more. for example, its target cap should be raised to 10, or the immobilize should be guaranteed for 2-3 seconds (no destructible roots).

sincerely,
Entangle User

our latest adventures. mostly small gang stuff and training with the new members, little bit of gvg action =)

Stormleaf.1769:

Atherakhia.4086:

And you claim to do this with a power build? I just don’t see it being possible. There’s burst or AE pressure potential with the entire class. A Warrior is likely to regen faster than you do damage. Condition I could see, but not as anything else I’m afraid.

Yes, I do.

Have you not seen the videos of maul rangers doing 15k with one maul, for example? Plenty of burst there. Power builds can be quite successful. Just because you don’t have any experience with decent ones doesn’t mean power is useless.

Thats with zerker gear, on a noob who cant avoid the telegraphed maul. Zerker rangers are a gimmick at best.

Atherakhia.4086:

I don’t think we need anything too ellaborate. I’m cool with only using one pet etc etc, but the functionality of the pet is the issue.

I agree that making f2’s instant and responsive would go a long way. Imagine, instant prot on demand from moa, or instant aoe chill from wolf.

Sadly this just isnt enough. The pet mechanic itself is…uninteresting and lacking. I am not attached to my pet in any way. F2’s and pet swaps arent ever game changing. In fact, in wvw I often just get my pet out for the f2 and forget about him. And I only use the f2’s because theyre there….not because I need to.

Ranger is definitely viable as a frontliner as I will discuss in an upcoming guide. You likely aren’t using the right gear and weapons.

I do agree that spirits are absolute garbage in wvw though

No one thinks there is anything wrong with pets and spirits =P ?

We’ve been consistently running small 5-7 man groups well into the early mornings when most people are logged, wiping groups 3 times our size. We maintain structure even while roaming, and as a result our small gangs hit very hard. Smaller numbers require a variety of specs that are outside of the gvg meta. If you’re looking to improve your skirmishing skills and experiment with different builds…well, we do that too =)

Problem is cripple is an extremely underpowered condi. It does nothing to an organized wvw group charging you. And it has no additional effects like damage. Immobilize is a fairly balanced condi and it can get you kills when timed well.

First hit of barrage absolutely should immobilize. This would make it a useful ability. Every move in organized wvw needs to have utility and this is where the ranger struggles.

I’ll get straight to the point: ANet dropped the ball on pets and spirits. Our weapons and utilities are slowly getting there, but pets and spirits were rushed without enough thought and testing.

It comes down to pets being a liability and an overall nuisance to manage, having poor utility, and just not being fun to use. Here is one way to make pets/spirits and the ranger profession interesting.

1. When or if the pet dies, its spirit lingers giving the ranger a few options. Each pet family provides a unique active ability for the ranger to use, and a unique passive damage bonus. For example, spider spirit gives an aoe immobilize and 10% damage bonus. Boar spirit active gives a skillshot charge that can kb up to 5 people, but maybe only 7% additional dmg. Cat spirit gives 15% dmg bonus and its active 10s of quickness . Etc. Actives can have cds ranging from 15 to 30s. So why keep pets alive?

2. When pets are alive, they pulse various boons to the ranger and his party. Cats fury, bears prot, dogs aegis, etc. All at different intervals scaling with boon duration. So bear will pulse 2-3s of prot every 10s for example.

3. Scrap the swapping mechanic. It doesnt do anything for us and it’s lazy, unfinished design. Allow us to specialize by selecting one pet family depending on what we want to do.

4. Pet will autorez every 60s. This can be sped up if ranger accumulates enough ch’i by being in combat, attacking opponents, or helping teammates by healing or applying boons (fills separate bar where pet controls are on the ui)

5. Improve current pet f2 abilities. For example, drakes should have tailswipe as a ground targeted aoe on a 30s cd, giving us a second blast finisher and more on demand aoe burst.

6. Significantly nerf pet autoattack damage. No one wants anything on autopilot.

7. Consider giving pets some kind of passive aoe protection in pve and wvw. Call it primal speed. The pet dodges every third aoe attack or something along those lines.

8. Deal with spirits properly. Don’t dance around the issue of poor spirit design.

- scrap the silly boon-on-hit-rng mechanic and purge the talent tree of the traits improving this bad design
- Spirits should be wisps, orbs of light that orbit the ranger
- Wisps imbue ranger weapons passively. Spring wisp allows small aoe heal on autoattack. Summer wisp gives burning. Autumn wisp increases crit dmg some. Winter wisp gives aoe chill on autoattack every once in a while.
- wisp actives are basically ground targeted aoe fields. Spring gives aoe heal and a very short water field, summer aoe burning, autumn lightning field (drains endurance instead of aoe stunning), and winter frost. Actives have 900 casting range.

These changes would make the ranger a joy to play! The community does not want pets and spirits scrapped. We want this theme improved! Numbers can be tweaked but this rework is a start. Please add your own suggestions =)

- Ikiro

thorston, i think it may come down to preference. personally, i like seeing big green numbers and keeping my frontliners up. for me, my regen has to tick for 300+ and Empower has to heal for 3k+. every dodge roll heal should heal for 1800-2k, and ToC #1 spam heals for 2k. but i have 1600 HP with stacks and thats the extreme.

vitality makes no difference for this build due to the huge healing output and high protection uptime. i have dived many 40-man zergs with my frontliners, bunkered 4-5 AC’s and a cannon, and been on the receiving end of huge portal bombs, all with 14k hitpoints, and lived easily. in fact, im always the last one standing.

so the real question is do you want more damage or utility? i say leave the dps to your buddies who have knights/PVT gear, and just focus on CC’ing with staff/hammer, blast finishing, and on keeping everyone up.

nice =)

i turbo charged my build by adding Merciful Intervention instead of third shout for another 3k aoe heal, Shelter instead of Healing Breeze, and ToC instead of RF. ToC #1 spam does 2k heals per cast with cleric gear o.O

Hi,

just wanted to share some footage i made a while ago demonstrating the support capabilities of the cleric guard. this spec focuses on boon duration and HPS. it’s always a blast to play and contributes tons to your guild.

alternatives to Retreat are: Save Yourselves, and Merciful Intervention

enjoy!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAseWlcgiCnFyKEf4ES2jCEBTQsHYUG1RXFcIA-jkCBoNCiUDg0HBKLqIasltht6KalXBRvATpiIq2loIa1iAYGD-w (build)

(tier 1 gvg/gvz)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILcorFHgghw (tutorial i made for my guildies)

We’ve been having a blast on SoS with all the new members. Good players, mature, and easy going. We always have room for more dedicated frontliners, necros and staff eles.