Yeah good stuff guys! there are similar skills as warrior as well with leaping at enemies or just using it to run around or away. So melee should be easy to pick up, I was just hoping to avoid melee weapons haha wishful thinking I guess
Some rangers argue that other classes have better ranged options, like Warrior longbow, or Thief shortbow. And Shortbow will get a range of 900 shortly. Longbow, sword, greatsword are better with power builds, axe/torch/dagger are better with condi builds, shortbow works with both… for now.
Thanks guys, so basically rangers have to take a melee weapon, I guess you’re screwing yourself if you go SB/LB
Welcome to being a ranger, although there are some videos of someone running 2 bows, I think videos are titled kitten but determined or something like that.
Regarding sword/greatsword mobility, it helps a lot if you disable autolock, target lock, and deselect the target. If you use sword 2 you will leap away from current target, if you don’t have any target, the opposite of what you are facing. The second leap has a short window to trigger, like 2-3 secs. Again if you don’t have anything targeted, and turn away, you can chose where to leap, instead of leaping back. Greatsword 3 is also great for travelling, and if someone is shooting you in the back you can use the block, which won’t trigger the counterattack when not in melee range. If you want to see it done check out Umie Lain on youtube, he has some nice Bunker wvw ranger vids displaying the mobility with sword/greatsword, and leaps through water fields.
I would like to try something like this. But I’m a cheap kitten, and prolly won’t spend much. With easy acces to might on crit, pets will be able to deal some nice bleeding damage, especially with RaO.
Edit: kitten I forgot I don’t have 20 in BM and bleed on crits for the pet nvm
You aren’t the only one by far and you were the strongest build in the game this month.
Could you please explain this? What build was the strongest this month (I presume you meant the strongest of all builds across all professions)?
He probably mean the BM build, which allows the ranger to deal heavy condition damage, have high survivability, and burst damage with pets. This build is what I’ve used for the past month or so, and I must admit that it has almost no weaknesses. However, I still lose to phantasm mesmers, which needed a big nerf but instead got a buff…
Yeah that is what I tried to suggest, I doubt BM ranger is the best build there is.
I don’t understand, why aren’t you guys running traps with Rabid? There is burning and poison as well, don’t need to go all bleed. I agree that it is not the best 1v1, especially runing a trap build.
Do note that weapon swap/on crit sigils share their cooldown. So not sure if slotting geomancy/earth into each set makes sense. I have sigil of impact (+10% damage on stunned/knocked down foes) in my torch, as I run 2 dogs, and corruption (although only a major one) in my dagger. I can reach a condition damage of 1600 with food, but without might stacks. Burning on 1600 condition damage hurts. If you’re looking for more survivability, take selttlers/apothecary. But it will only be any good with Dwayna runes, without them you don’t have much access to regeneration. Also take your ranger into wvw, and see how it works against players. Your opponents will need to be CCd so your pet can hit them, and most people run at least 1 condition clear. So be prepared to work hard for melting the enemy there I do think a condition ranger needs the traps as well, otherwise you’d run into long attrition fights, and those will become harder if you’re not running a regen ranger.
While the axe offhand in open world pve might be fun, its not that great unfortunately in wvw, and it also doesn’t give much to a condition build. A dagger offhand provides an evade that poisons, and ranged cripple that bleeds. I currently run this build. Its not the most survivable, but it can deal tons of condition damage. I tend to swap out signet of the hunt for viper’s nest when I flip camps. I also swap axe/dagger for a rampager shortbow with superior sigil of earth, and swap the traps for Sharpening stone and Zephyr when I run into some large group fights in wvw. Being a trapper doesnt give you much use out of Zephyr, although it is a stun breaker. The traps have a 1s cast, but not worth popping Zephyr for that.
Another thing I noticed, some of the reductions on burst pets like birds and felines were skills that apply a few stacks of bleeds. So it would make sense that these deal less direct damage… if pets get a ninja buff to their condition damage that is.
Also with the new companions might we will be able to stack some mights to the pets that also increase cond dmg,not only power..
I was trying to make a build with clerics gear that would use devourers as a source of condition damage with sun spirit. They would have made a nice turret, as a workaround for the not so awesome pathing/AI. Unfortunately they cannot apply conditions fast enough, but felines might. When traited for it and stacking ca 20 might on them they were above 1200 condition damage I think, meaning 100+ on a stack of bleed. Lynx will be the new jaguar, mark my words. I’m expecting to see more cleric/knight builds when the dust settles. Maybe even zerker/rampager.
On the thief it’s on a venom, and I feel that it’s unlikely that a Thief will take it over other utilities unless heavily conditioned specced.
I met a really good p/d condi thief with apothecary, trust me, you don’t want them using dancing daggers, or shortbow to spread Torment. As rangers who constantly have 1 buddy near us, dancing daggers with Torment should be worrying, yes. With unload from stealth they can apply poison, bleeds, and torment as well. And they can share Torment with any class when traiting for it. Most people see thieves as a troll class, and Torment will make them even more of a nuisance.
Another thing I noticed, some of the reductions on burst pets like birds and felines were skills that apply a few stacks of bleeds. So it would make sense that these deal less direct damage… if pets get a ninja buff to their condition damage that is.
With the general state of discontent on this sub-forum I doubt we will see a developer here for some time.
Trust me, they are reading this. They won’t comment here though. Its hardly a strange coincidence that the patch notes were leaked so that players can discuss it all during the weekend.
So how about giving some constructive feedbeck on these “leaked” patch notes.
Like how about Natures voice doesn’t give 10 secs of swiftness, but 5 secs of vigor. Or gives 10 sec of vigor, but guard cooldown is raised to 20s. Rangers never had much access to protection/retal in the first place, but vigor fits Rangers well.
Or how about eagle eye raising shortbow range as well.
I would also remind everyone that the devs are listening to us to an extent. Evasive purity was moved 1 tier down, path of scars does pull targets now, spirit traits were merged, they shortened the longbow aftercast, and raised projectile speed as well, they fixed Companion’s might. We were moaning about how pigenholed we are (other classes were as well mind you) into 1-2 viable builds. Of course its not all amazing, but there are changes that were necessary, and that we asked for. Some we didn’t get, like the buff to longbow that everyone wanted, but lets test longbow first. Maybe – and its a massive maybe – this 15% projectile speed increase will solve a lot of out of range/missed problems we were having with it.
Weakness duration will be adjusted (my money is on reduction), and it needs our pet to hit with next attack, right? So we’ll have 2 ways to apply weakness, running a bear, or using axe 3. We’ll see when the changes come out I guess. If the trait/skill changes only cover stun breakers, reduced weakness duration, and Tremor being given to thieves and mesmers I will be pretty disappointed. Necros with a fear build might even become really strong. They will get burning I think as well at some point. So a necro will be able to put 10 stacks of bleed, poison, burning, and tremor on you, than chain fear. You’ll basically run untill you drop dead.
There are some changes coming. Thieves and mesmers, 2 of the most mobile classes (arch enemies of rangers mind you) get a condition that punishes you for movements. Given that most of rangers’ defense comes from movement (evade/dodge) this will be interesting…
What I was sad to see is a d/d ele inside Sunny before gate went down in RoF BL. Let’s keep these things out of wvw shall we? No ressing through the door, and no glithcing inside towers/keeps pls.
That D/D ele was me. I was wielding a fiery greatsword and somehow got through the gate with skill number 3. Apparently that’s a well known glitch on that gate and since it was the first time I was using the FGS on that particular tower, I wasn’t aware of that.
If you watched closely, I went up the stairs and jumped off the wall into the open without damaging anyone, despite ppl attacking me (obv). I’m sorry for what happened, I didn’t know there was a glitch there and it was in no way intentional.
edit: or was it skill number 4….. dunno.
You probably did (I was busy getting myself rallied so couldn’t see it), I was trying to take a screenshot of you, this explains why I couldn’t. Thanks for clearing this up.
What I was sad to see is a d/d ele inside Sunny before gate went down in RoF BL. Let’s keep these things out of wvw shall we? No ressing through the door, and no glithcing inside towers/keeps pls.
I tried farming Karka for shells during the Southsun Cove events, bought a set of rare magic find gear, and pirate runes, used buffs to reach 100% drop rate, it was still slow progress. So don’t think its worth the investment. Farm with gear/build you feel confortable with. I have a trapper ranger, and you can deal some serious condition damage with 1200+ condition damage. I run 2-3 traps and entangle with sword/torch, axe/dagger. If you want your pet to tank, take devourers. Not the hardest hitting pets, but they are really durable.
Can someone from DEX guild explain how that mes and thief were in our Bay when none of the outer structures were breached? Bay was fully upgraded and it had been hours since something was down.
Also, VCY/RiOT – Y U BLOBBING BRO.
I really don’t mind, just like poking at it since that’s why you all ditched t1.
I was on RoS BL this morning, and at Greenlake, a mesmer died at the door. Some time later he was ressed from outside and ported people in. Dirty tactics….
I’ve met thieves that are not in those categories. Thieves that could take on 4 players (not uplevelled noobs), they could be uncatchable and took their opponents down 1by1. If you didin’t come across one, good for you.
They must have been glass cannons, or they don’t know their class. Really, it’s not difficult to counter a Thief when you’re with other people.
Block, Stun, Immobilize, Daze, Interrupt, Fear, Knockdown, Push, or burst the Thief. CC’n the Thief rends him useless. Bursting the Thief may not kill him, but it at least forces him to stealth. If someone goes down, all other players res the downed player. The Thief won’t be able to finish the guy in time. It’s simple. If nobody in a group of 4 people can do that, I’m sorry, but they deserve to die.
I main a Ranger and I’ve never had a problem. One time I had a Thief attack me and a couple of upleveled teammates, who he killed 1 by 1. But I killed him before he even got close to killing me 1v1. It’s not rocket science.
Also, picking off players 1 by 1 isn’t just a Thief thing. I’ve done it on my Ranger and my D/D Ele in 1v2s and 1v3s.
I play a trap ranger, with two dogs, the thief was a p/d tanky condi build and used lots of stealth. Even though I managed to stack poison, burning and 9 stacks of bleed on him, he stealthed and managed to lose all the conditions and emerged with full hp. We weren’t an organized group, and probably didn’t have lots of cc/stun/daze. Having said that, I don’t know of many other classes/builds that you need an organized small group to kill, apart from some good mesmers perhaps. Having said that, the statement that there are only average thieves and trolls is just not right IMHO.
I’ve met thieves that are not in those categories. Thieves that could take on 4 players (not uplevelled noobs), they could be uncatchable and took their opponents down 1by1. If you didin’t come across one, good for you.
Every single thing in this game has multiple counters – except stealth. And for a long while there literally was no counter. Not a single one.
Stealth is pretty much it’s own counter. If I stealth to run away it is no different than if you chased me away. If I try to damage you from stealth I’m no longer stealthed. I can still be AoE’d and stunned to oblivion while in stealth … just because you can’t figure out how to do that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. I trait to heal while in stealth but it’s slow and while I’m doing so I typically watch my opponent heal faster unless he’s also a thief.
The best (worst) thing you can say about stealth is that it lets me decide whether I want to continue the fight or not. It doesn’t make me any more likely to win against a good opponent if I decide to stay.
Fighting thieves until you know their every move is not a counter to stealth, its a workaround. The fact that you can damage someone in stealth is not a counter. You can damage players with a retaliation boon, but it is not a counter for it. The fact that you have to leave stealth to attack is not a counter, its the devs throwing bone to hungry dogs. Stealth is not the only skill in this game which doesn’t have a counter mind you. The problem is not that thieves can go into stealth and run away. The problem is that some thieves have a lot of access to stealth, and some classes (not builds, classes) don’t have access to a lot of aoes to deal with them.
As for “It doesn’t make me any more likely to win against a good opponent if I decide to stay”, believe it or not, some builds/classes need to burn cooldowns to survive against a thief. So you can stay there in stealth while these players use their skills just to stay alive, and you can try again when they are on cooldown.
I wonder how many players have fun fighting thieves that go into stealth every few seconds
(not people …. who have fun fighting heavy stealth thieves*.). .
Well, considering the requirements you ask .. no one .. cause if you exclude ppl who have fun against them, you don’t have anyone left to wonder about…
“(not people who can kill them, people who have fun fighting heavy stealth thieves.)” Are you a tabloid “journalist” or something?
Wait until we are nerfed to start raging. Even with a nerf we can still do fine.
kitten noob you probably use a bear and LB in zergs.
If we keep accusing people of running bear+LB, they might take a few drinks and troll everyone by being totally useless. They will Point blank shot all the focused targets. I certainly have this itch now… gotta…. run…. bear…..
I am rarely on the receiving end, but I think the wines keep applying the immobilize until you destroy them. If you run into another one you get the immobilize again. Don’t think a stun break will be enough to break free, some kind of teleport, might do the trick like flesh worm, or spectral walk return. Or you enter deathshroud and use the skill that teleports youself to the foe if within reach.
If we (RoF) really had to spy Vabbi and FoW to defeat them I have to say, I am disappiont. I also feel for the OP, we have been smacked around like that in T7 before. Hang in there, organize yourselves, and find fun in harassing the servers that outnumber you.
I fully understood your post. And I stand by mine. I also don’t like people always bashing on new rangers (not saying you do that all the time, don’t get me wrong). They were fooled by adverisment thinking ranger is an archer in this game. The concept of using your weapon skills as a utility, instead of a damage source, might also be a new concept for some. The dodge mechanic is also probably something new to them, and they think all they can do to defend themselves with is #4 on longbow.
Heh, i remember that at the time i thought that fusing FoW and Vabbi into one server would make a differance. Naah, it wont. The problem is in numbers of servers, they need to be kept in numbers so matchups will be always like 1v1v1 not 1v1… .
What I meatn was, 1t9 server to 1t8 server. It will just mean 1 less tier.
Now you feel how it is for some servers to fight Vabbi and Fissure for several weeks again and again. Now the pain is more evenly spread amongst more servers.
Maybe it would be time to merge each T9 server into a T8 server…
I’m a little shocked. Necros are possibly the easiest profession to kill next to warriors on the ranger simply due to ranger having an entire lack of boons, high mobility in combat, and much higher dps.
Maybe necros are a bit like rangers. You need to play them really good, and in the right hands they can be devastating. I certainly met a few necros that just blew me up with conditions.
Maybe as an elite, where you get some of the skills your pet has, but to be honest, at this time don’t think ANet will develop something like this. It would take up too much of resources. They are currently concetrating on checking the traits for balancing classes, and fixing bugs.
I fought a p/p thief in wvw this week, was really annoying. I couldn’t dodge/evde all his shots. I threw traps at him, got him down to like 10% health but he managed to down me, and I got stealth stomped.
Im prety sure traps have always triggered retaliation.
Like I said, I started using traps when I got downed by my own Barrage. They did not trigger retal previously, but unfortunately I don’t have a vid to prove it, so thats that.
Unless they treat traps as a separate source from the ranger. Pets, minions and turrets all trigger retaliation for themselves (although they all have health bars and I believe use their own stats, not their owner’s stats, at least the ranger pet does) so there is a precedence for a class skill or ability to deal direct damage without taking retaliation damage. ….
Pretty much this. The source of the damage is the trap, not the ranger. If retaliation would work on everything, it would pretty much solve the ACs are overpowered issue for some people.
Hi guys, I run traps in wvw, especially when defending. Throwing traps and entangle at the gate being smashed down was pretty much the way for me as I got downed by my barrage a few times. After the recent patch viper’s nest triggers retaliation. Fire trap, and spike trap still doesn’t though. I hope this is a bug, and gets fixed.
Maybe next time.