Guild Wars 2

I would try to change the weapons first to rampager ones, and see how it does (if you have the money for it). Maybe some guildies can help you out by crafting one if you have the mats. Not that hard to get the mats for 3 weapons.

Not sure about the build though, it doesn’t seem to suggest gear, and not that fleshed out to be honest. This build will also leave you with little to no defensive options. Do you look for a build to run dungeons? The build says its a pve build for lvl80, not sure what its purpose is. I would also put 5 points into beast mastery and put the other 5 into skirmishing for more damage, or wilderness survival for the protection. Zero condition removal is frightening to look at, for me at least.

Burnfall.9573:

I normally read the thief forum and would make comments in our defense….

Wait what? Rangers need defending on the thief forums? Do thieves think we are OP and in need of a good nerf?

I don’t see anything wrong with what Robert posted on the thief forums. However I do have the feeling he mostly plays sPvP, and I would like to read about his experience in wvw as well. I don’t play much sPvP, but when I did my ranger did feel alright in there. Wvw I often feel useless. I tried to get away from 2 mesmers yesterday who started chasing me between briar and bay and cought up around the jumping puzzle. I had sword/great sword, signet of the hunt, warhorn. What was really interesting is that they used some drowning skill from the water when I was on land. It was “interesting” seeing my ranger being pulled “down” on the beach. I cannot express how much I hate mesmers and thieves without my post turning into something a cat fetishist would post.

The power shortbow build does pretty good damage I think, so if you’re not feeling fine with the pets out-dps-ing you, you can try that, but its not as effective as it used to be due to the quickness nerf. Other than that, welcome to the club, thats how rangers are

Well we’re probably not fighting the same thieves you and I. The ones I come up against roam in a group of 3-4 and do as they please. If they want to down 4-6 players in the middle of veteran npcs in front of a garrison they will do just that and laugh at our corpses. IMO stealth is a very powerful ability, and instead of having a tradeoff for that it can be traited to remove conditions, accelerate initiative regen, health regen, or move faster. That might be the thing people refer to as OP. I’m glad you can thrash them though good for you.

Bailey.6892:

KensaiZen.3740:

Go into the mists and try out the skills and rune sets. Fighting those npc classes is just like PvE.

You wont waste money for gear or trait change either.

Dont be lazy.

How do you get the npc’s? When I talk to the npc he says something about maybe should try the dodge trainer and wont let me get a sparring partner.

The dodge “trainer” is a golem that spins. It will be annoying untill you find out that the dodge button is mapped to “v” by default. This will not teach you the art of dodge though, which is of utmost importance in spvp, wvw, dungons. Hope this helps.

Until you reach lvl80, you can use all power, vitality stats. You won’t get a super crit chance at your level anyways, so you can ignore precision, and toughness probably as well. You can try traiting 15/0/0/10/5 with taking keen edge, and nature’s protection in the marksmanship and nature magic trait lines. Swap pets to shoot faster, yaaaay Be warned though, if you take your ranger into wvw you will acquire repair costs, and lose hair, and you will probably uninstall the game. Play ranger if you want to be good with it. If you just want to shoot stuff, you can try a warrior with rifle/longbow as well.

Did the runes work for the chill duration? I tried this in the mists and it seems the chill duration didn’t add to the chill coming from the axe #2. Although the pvp runes say frozen duration. Instead of Bleeds on crits, you could try +30% pet speed, as you don’t use warhorn, it would make it easier to chase down enemies if you’re roaming in a small group.

Well its still work in process. I’m not a big fan of sharpening stone to be honest. I definetly agree on the condition duration however, the bleed you get on crit is not that long. I usually start with dagger #5, dodge forward if needed, swap to axe (sigil of geomancy), axe #2, spike trap, warhorn #4. It works pretty good at the start but keeping the bleeding up is a pain in the backside. Might be easier with sb, but wanted to try something else. Still working on the sigil part, as I’m always short on money. I like the devourers though. When both of us are down and I hit lick wounds, the only thing stopping me from getting up is either a champion in my face, or someone stomping me.

Had some more fun in Orr with this. Turns out stacking 15 stacks of bleed at the beginning of the fight is easy (against mobs anyway), but keeping it up will be a challange. Although I’m not having the gear I’m planning with yet. Sigil of geomancy is great, was even thinking about using axe main in both sets, but that would leave me with little defensive options. Weapon swap grants 3 stacks for 9 secs, but the weapon skills only add 6.5 secs. Might need to change the runes.

Recently I acquired some rabid gear for karma (toughness, precision, condition damage), and have some carrion gear (vitality, power, condition damage). I was thinking about what build to run in wvw. I was trying with 15,25,30,0 with traps with mostly rabid gear recently, and also did some 20,25,20,0,5 with shortbow, sword torch with mostly carrion gear before that. My goal would be to make a build that focuses on toughness, precision and condition damage, so was thinking about making a bleeder build. The idea is to keep an up time of 10-15 builds, and keeping a balance between pet damage, and my own, while surviving the process. The idea is to constantly stack bleeding on the target, while staying alive. Was thinking about a pet buffing build, only to be let down by the 1 sec might given to pets on crits. Looked at the 875 thread, but I don’t think thats my cup of tea, seems too much trouble to get those might stacks up.

See the build I was thinking about here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMIQRBMRdG2IRVddclgFrlgYVAQNFUy8MFGyRPFpX9JM7yGD;T8AAzyoESJhS1liLqmMNJay2krJZTrKGVs9A (paste into your browser if link is borked)

I’m a bit torn on a few fronts. I decided to use devourers. As they have knockback, and evade as well as high toughness. I only recently found out, as I was reading the useful tips for new rangers that it works well with longbow as a sort of meatshield, and with 20 points in beastmastery, and fury, they would have 60%ish crit chance. Although I’m planing on using swords, axe, dagger, warhorn and torch in some setup. As you can see, thats more than you can use during combat. I was trying out greatsword with axe/dagger in Orr with spike trap, which did great I think. But sword and warhorn seem also useful.

So I’m looking to your suggestions on the following:
Weapons: the setup should have a nice acces to stack bleeds through the weapon skill and/or crits. Offhand dagger is good for surviving, and adds 3 stacks of bleed from distance while also crippling, and warhorn with sharpened edges and #4 that attacks 16 times might also stack some nice bleeds (prolly around 4) while I (and my pet) would also have access to fury and swiftness. I like gs though so looking for input here. Also will fire trap be enough to add some nice burning to bleeds and poison, or should I get a torch too.

Traits:
Malicious training or keen edges? Since devourers would deal bleeding on criticals with their standard attacks, which hits twice malicious training might be good to keep up bleed stacks longer, while keen edges would be better to apply more bleeds when you’re getting worn down.
Trapper’s expertise: Throwing traps, as well as the larger area seems nice, but other traits in skirmishing would also help the build i.e. pet’s prowess for more damage, primal reflexes for survival, or mabye honed axes.
Martial mastery/off-hand training: if I’m not gonna use greatsword, I might as well swap this for something else i.e. shared anguish, vigorous renewal, off hand training (probably this), or get wilderness knowledge and some survival skills like lighning reflexes, quickening zephyr, entangle.

Runes: I used runes of the Undead becuse they are pretty cheap and go well with the rabid gear, but could be persuaded to swap this for something else.

Sigils:
Main hand: Should I get a sigil of fire for more burning up time? Is there an iternal cooldown on sigil of earth? Is it possible to apply 3 stacks of bleed when flanking with a shortbow (sigil of earth, bleed from crit, bleed from shortbow)? Sigil of energy seem good for staying alive, but will share cooldown with sigils that proc on crit.
Off hand: Probably more condition duration. I like sigils that proc on weapon swap, but sadly they share cooldowns with sigils that proc on crit.

Given all these choises makes my head hurt, so hope the more experienced guys can add some input on what stats to aim for to make this work. I guess weapon/sigil/trait choices would be down to personal preference, but would like to see some input.

What part of the game are you looking forward to playing? From what I’ve heard Rangers are ok in pve (apart from the toughest dungeons), they do well in sPvP, and if you’re in a small group or just roaming by yourself in wvw you will do ok as well… granted you have the gear, build and the skills. Ranger can be a frustrating profession to play sometimes. People say it lacks buid diversity, because they mean rangers cannot compete with other professions at a certain level. But if you like going about with your pet in open world pve, the ranger can be fun.

Shiren.9532:

• Trait: Companion’s Might
  • Grants 1 stack of might for 1 second. Only works on ranger crits (not their pet’s crits).

This… I was thinking about making a tanky condition beast master build that relies on buffing your pet to be awesome, and slowing down the enemy with chills. Bought some nice knight gear with karma, and then I took a look at my pet thinking, surely he will be sitting at 5-7 stacks of might, and saw nothing. Then I looked at the might that was given while I autoattacked some mob. It was pretty frustrating to say the least.

@Sebrent, the tooltips look good.

Since you want this to be a skill/trait discussion thread, I was wondering regarding burning damage. Flame trap states a different damage as bonfire, and I know burning only stacks duration. Which burning damage will be applied if I put 3 different burnings on a target?

And in case of combos, whose condition damage/healing power is applied for the condition/regen granted? The one putting down the combo field, or the one using the combo finisher?

Sebrent.3625:

• Greatsword: Crippling Throw
  • You cannot move while casting this. You are rooted in place while throwing your greatsword with this skill.

• Off-Hand Axe: Whirling Defense
  • You are rooted in place while channeling this skill.
  • Reflects projectiles (tooltip only says “blocks”)
    • Will not reflect projectiles if your foe is inside the “bubble” created by your Whirling Defense

Actually these are channeled abilities that cancel on movement. You can tap the movement keys once casting started, but it will put your skill on cooldown, and the effect is cancelled.

I also find it hard sometimes picking up bundles found by my piggies when using shortbow autoattack. Sword autoattack, apart from making it very hard to move out of the chain, applies this to other actions as well i.e. healing, dodging.

I hope you don’t want these to be included in the tooltip though. I don’t want the devs to tell me whats good against thieves, I can find that out, or ask people for their experience. The thread is useful don’t get me wrong, I just don’t want all this info in my tooltips. Though something like, “Channeled ability, cancels on movement” would be nice.

How about they fix the LB before adding another melee weapon to “ranger”? I’d like that.

I have a charr ranger and use carrion gear, I recently tried the charzooka, and its great!!! At defending towers/keeps in wvw, just lay down #5 and watch them scatter like kittenroaches. But could we have the skills be a blast finisher instead of projectile? Pretty please!!!!

What tricks do you need for Artillery Barrage? I don’t find it useful at all, but maybe I’m doing something wrong…

Well Zenith did raise some concerns with the build which are legit. Survival is important in wvw, and most of these opponents were running away. The enemies looked pretty varied for this length. Would love to see some footage of more Mesmer, Thief, Engineer fights. I’d imagine thats where it will get tricky…

Having said that I like big numbers, and I loved it. Only felt sad for the poor charr at 5:50

Since you do use birds for quick damage, you might as well use Rampage as One instead of Entangle. Entangle is very useful against players that are still learning their trade, and during attacking/defending towers/keeps in wvw. However, experienced players will easily evade, if not strait dodge it. I wish it would apply 5 wines even if there are fewer targets, as sort of AoE immobilize that you can hack down. That would be awesome.

Rampage as one will give you stability so you will get interrupted less using the long LB skill channels, +20% crit chance, and movement speed which might be useful since you’re not using warhorn. It will also give might to you and your pet if one can go by the tooltip.

I usually go with sb/lb when I’m in a zerg, or attacking/defending towers/keeps and only seem to have trouble with immobilize. GS won’t defend against that unfortunately. I’ve also been stainding in a healing spring for a good 2-3 seconds unable to dodge (don’t ask me, I was pretty furious and didn’t understand myself), or use lightning reflexes due to immobilize. But with your trait setup I don’t think you will get rid of QZ, SoT, or SoH for Signet of Renewal. Sounds like a good build. What gear are you useing? What sigils, and runes?

Indoles.1467:

My trap build rakes in bags. Run up to a zerg, triple traps, run to back line while attacking, entangle, traps again, works pretty well when you have over 2000 condition damage and 3000 armor.

May I ask how you get 2000 condition damage? I have 5 pieces of exotic carrion armor, and 1 green, 2 exotic earrings that are carrion, 20 points in wilderness survival and still only am sitting at 1100ish.

It would be awesome if chill and cripple stacked. Sadly they do not. I found the hite moa, alpine wolf, polar bear chills easier to land, especially if the target is moving toward you. Alpine wolf also has knockdown. Also they are aoe as far as I know. Although chill is nice I would put more points into con damage or power for more damage.

Increasing cooldown on skills sounds nice, but as far as thieves go they dont have cd on their weapon skills. I always love to watch thieves go down, so if you make some videos of some thief ownage I’d love to see that. Sad truth is a good thief with basilisk venom will down you before the immobilize ends.

But do take the build into spvp and let us know your experience.

So you would use the chill not to slow your opponent down, but to increase skill cooldown? Sounds insteresting. A sword also has the advantage that with ice trap you can have Ice aura. Having said that I’d still go with shortbow. I was narrow minded and looked down on poison for dealing lower damage compared to other conditions, but the reduction in healing is the kind of small boost a ranger needs to take down its opponnent.

I also had a try at a chill build and had a go with it in spvp. Didn’t give it lots of time, for sure I’d need some adjusting to do as far as gameplay goes. What I don’t understand, why you use sword beside axe? Chill I think would be optimal at range, whether you are being chased or chasing someone. I tried axe/dagger, shortbow. I used white moa and the owl, and took the trait that gives vigor on swap. Also used 2 sigils of energy to keep distance. Guardians and warriors still managed to rush me. Maybe it was just me though.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/WvW-builds-w-new-patch/first#post1729905

Here’s my experience. I didn’t have the resources to test in WvW, but did try with soldier and knight gear with a varition in traits as well.

g e o.2589:

matthewr.3980:

do you get 5 new lives each day or just 5 lives for the entire month?

you get them each they and form Continue coins ou buy after all your lives ar over, its per char and every day you can get bauble baubles from chests as it resets

You mean from chests inside chests (cause Xzibit heard we like chests) after cage fights right?

Had a go with this in pvp, apart from being annoying 1v1 didn’t have the desired effect. Met a warrior and a guardian, they pretty much rushed to me regardless of the chill. Didn’t notice a spectecular slow (maybe they saw things differently). Also PVT didn’t give enough damage for it to be worth while, felt durable though. Extended duration of conditions applied by pets was pretty nice, 6 sec chills from birds, and vigor from swapping them around. Needs more work, had a try with 30/25/15 with knight gear, that was much better. Also it seems that the 3 set of 2 runes either don’t stack, or Freeze duration does not equal chill duration. Gonna try some condition duration runes (prolly Lyssa). Having Superior rune of Energy in both axe and sb was great though. Wonder how much those cost…

I was thinking of a build around chills with 30 in Marksmanship (prolly 30/0/20/0/20), and pvt gear. The idea would be to keep the enemy under constant dps, so not a gc build, but not a condi build either. The main weapon would of course be shortbow, and in offhand I would prolly use axe/dagger. Didn’t come up with a fleshed out build yet, but I will be looking into trying this out. Was thinking about utilizing things that I don’t see on the forums, like longer condition duration from pets with polar bear/alpine wolf, or maybe polar bear and some porcine and going with stability from these pets, but didn’t figure it all out yet. I was thinking of chills cause stability doesn’t stop that, and with pets, axe, and trap you can apply them when cleansed.

Edit: Put this together with birds for aoe vigor http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV3YjEV51NWCWs2Bi1j9Ao80UkJJ9UEL2XxD9A;TsAA1CtoEyAlAK7POhk/sMY8xGEA

You can also try sword/dagger which also gives 3 evades, as well as poison/bleed/cripple. You can have a signet of rage and a signet of geomancy as well, which worked pretty good for me. I’d stick to the shortbow as well.

For Lonbow #1 I would say it needs 2 of the below 3 changes:
- Damage increase so that with full zerker gear you can hit 6-10k a hit
- Decrease casting speed, and make it deal the same damage regardless of range
- Adding cripple with each hit (just like Thief SB)

Also if they think that Rangers should be the masters of ranged damage, I’d suggest limiting anything apart from lonbows/rifles/staves to a range of 900 with no option to trait above that. Rangers should be able to do damage with longbow that is similar to what warriors can do with rifles.

I currently use this. Its a jack of all trades build for a jack of all trade profession. Nothing op I currently use Jaguar, and Jungle stalker, didn’t test a lot of pets to be honest, but felines seem really good. Together with Troll unguent it will take some beating to get rid of them (even without heavy investment into BM), time for you to laugh at warriors running all around the place, or apply some bleed with your shortbow.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.6.10.9.0.0.0.0.0.0.132.141.300.139.152.9.9.29.376.385.0.391.400.0.408.414.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.20.20.20.5.5

If you think the regen from nature magic is pointless, you could put it into skirmishing for 10% flanking damage.

I thought I’d add a suggestion (sorry of it was already mentioned, I was overwhelmed by all the text in this thread so jumped ahead a bit). So some people want to stow pets permanently, which is a no go, and someone even suggested merging with your pets to gain abilities. I was thinking about Rampage as one. From the buffs it seems one will either be busy getting somewhere safe, or dealing damage with the crit chance buff on when using this skill. If you want your pet to maw someone in the ground, you’ll use shouhts/signets anyway. How about this, you would merge with your pet, and get swiftness and stability as before, but you would get the 3rd boon based on pet category. Not a perma stow, but still 20+ secs. Stats OR boons could be sg along the way of bears giving vitality/chance to get protection, felines precision/chance to get vigor, spiders con.damage/chance to apply poison, caninces toughness/chance to knockdown or interrupt, drakes vitality/regen… Probably needs some programming, but elementalists have something familiar, with boons depending on attunement when using certain skills.