Guild Leader of Favorable Winds [Wind]
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
Hey ShadowPass. I just posted a build on the ranger forum, and im curious of what you think about it it is a hell of a lot of text, feel free to not go through if you dont want to, the build is linked at the very beginning I mained ranger since launch as well and i am also quite sure about what i am doing, but it never hurts to get some more things told, i might not saw myself that time
Heres the link to the thread, ty in advance
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Guide-Condition-Druid-PvP/first#post6640682
Hi!
I will post my feedback about your build here as well if you don’t mind. And no worries, I read every word!
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To make it easier for other readers to follow along, here is the link to DerJoker’s build he posted in his thread:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3fjEqQ7KWuCusAVLWcEsmvVsqDAnUfqZVmAwkryVyxOD-TZRAQB1Y/BOcEA8wFBAAPAANWGAA
Right off the bat, I appreciate the thought you put into the build. The whole theme of “unblockable damage” is echoed throughout your build. That being said, you did admit you play it mainly in unranked, therefore the quality of players is not the highest. I do have some immediate concerns regarding the build if you were to take it into higher levels of competition.
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
/forumbug
While I’ll be all for a current-meta reference point for Rangers, a compiled guide which is to some degree exhaustive, could take some time.
Getting questions answered in detail like this, especially scenario questions, is really valuable, and I love the interactive feel.
Thank you for the feedback! I would love to do a compiled guide, though you are right in the amount of time required. The guide would be easier to create if people were to suggest specific points to cover. However, this would be relatively similar to what I’m doing now in this thread.
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
@Shadowpass
Is there any interest in or would you mind doing, a compiled guide on how to best use a Ranger/Druids combo fields, what to prioritize using at “Specific” time. As well as a, “How to engage/counter X class/spec”, that way people can read down through it, and use it as a reference point to return to when looking to, “Getting Good”?
There is definitely an interest! This was actually my goal when creating this thread. I was hoping that enough questions would be asked to turn this thread into a good reference guide for up-and-coming rangers. While I wouldn’t mind doing a compiled guide, it would be easier if someone were to create a list of specific points to address, rather than me doing a broad overview of every possible combination/scenario. Though, that wouldn’t be much different than what I’m doing now.
Combo fields is a good idea, what to prioritize using at “specific” times may be a little too broad for a highly detailed answer as there are so many possible “times” to address, and counters to every class and their specs is fairly broad as well. If someone were to ask what to do in a specific scenario or what to do vs. a specific spec, I would be able to give a much more detailed answer.
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
a mmo don’t include gambling ( if you mean game of money ).
And you don’t unerstand an item in a VIDEO GAME should not ask you thousand $.
you feel its right to fix a droprate who put a value on an item out of thousand $ in a video game ?
Do you do it on purpose or just refuse to understand the absurdity of the thing?an item in a video game should not cost 1000$
in reality an item should never cost more than the game himself. because its not fair for player who buy the game who can’t acces to all item from the game they have buy ! simple ? not ?
It doesn’t cost $1000. In fact, you can spend $0 and get a permanent contract or thousands of dollars and not get it at all. Again, you don’t understand the concept of gambling. You are delusional.
If you could get every item in every game for less than the cost of the game, everyone would have the best and rarest items the game has to offer easily. Literally you can look at any multiplayer game and there will ALWAYS be items that if you converted their in game cost due to rarity into real life currency, will cost more than the game.
Comments from the last tournament. We were matched against a team that was vastly better.
There thief concluded the match by saying “you’ve been farmed.” He went on to say, “you are the cancer of pvp” and “go back to pve laddie.”
ANET has chosen to use a ladder that virtually guarantees low level teams will get smashed in the early rounds.
It is very clear that this is a closed game. It caters to the top level players. That, anet, is why it will fail.
What anet ought to do is eliminate teams of any kind in pvp and go with pure random queue for AT’s if they are to be continued at all.
What game caters to the lowest level players? LOL
shadowpass.4236 , you undersand what i say or not ?
I don’t spend any money in , i explain how its stupid to ask this inifnite money to a single virtual item… i just highlight how it’s stupid to not put a limit on price item , to not put a limit to not let a droprate pass under a % who ask you this quantity insane of $/time/gold.
A game should be finish by all player , but when in history , online appear and especially MMO appear , conpany take right to ask insane mont of money to get endgame item , its not fair !
Getting a permanent contract is not endgame lol. I don’t think you understand the concept of gambling.
Ariurotl.3718 , so because all of you are billionar and think 1000$ is just a bad day for you , i should agree that 1000$ is nothing important… i should think 1000$ is just like a baguette ? we live in same world ? because in my world 1000$ is a saving money get in 2 years for most of 99% human in world who have not a boat from 30 meter in the garden from his castle.
But yea Ariurotl.3718 , maybe im wrong and maybe 1000$ for a single virtual item is nothing , maybe all this time i’ve live in matrix or an other paralel univers with unicorn where money can get easely on a tree.
And yea if 100 , 1000 or 10k people say me i can get 1000$/day and waste it on gw2 , i say ok , just show me how.
Then don’t spend the money gambling if you don’t have it. You are delusional.
@RangerThings
If it helps…
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In terms of 1vXing, one of my most memorable fights was in Alpine Borderlands near an enemy’s spawn. I stomped people repeatedly in a 1vX over the course of an hour and a half. Every time I stomped, more and more people came off of respawn until I eventually got bored and left. By this time, I was fighting upwards of 6 people at once. Although they weren’t outstanding players, they weren’t uplevels either. It was then I was asked by several people from the guild JOY if I streamed and I responded with “My computer can’t handle it, otherwise I would.”
I only had exotic gear at the time but I was able to do well in that 1vX because I had extremely good positioning and was able to burst targets down before they could react. When people went to revive, I cleaved them down and stealthed away before people could catch me. A lot of 1vXs come down to awareness. If you can pull several people off to the side, then blow up the straggler, you can take those 1vXs easily.
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Although slightly off-topic, I felt it was worth sharing to demonstrate the capabilities of the ranger class and possibly inspire some aspiring druid player lurking on the forums.
Best of luck!
I dueled a smart condi druid 5 times last night. I lost every time. I couldn’t create distance, I ran out of cleanse. He predicted and stealthed during bursts. He was just better. How should a power ranger approach?
When 1v2+, do you have a rubric for who to target first?
When 1v2+, what’s best approach to stomps? I’m relatively glassy and stomps are dangerous. I stealth, but that’s no guarantee.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
I’m a power/regen LB/staff druid. I exclusively solo roam in WvW. Love it.
1. Is it ever appropriate to use Staff 2?
2. Sometimes I can’t shake Warriors, they just keep closing gap, lock me down, burst me. What gives?
3. I dueled a smart condi druid 5 times last night. I lost every time. I couldn’t create distance, I ran out of cleanse. He predicted and stealthed during bursts. He was just better. How should a power ranger approach?
4. When 1v2+, do you have a rubric for who to target first?
5. When 1v2+, what’s best approach to stomps? I’m relatively glassy and stomps are dangerous. I stealth, but that’s no guarantee.
Hi! Great questions, I’ll do my best!
Is it ever appropriate to use Staff 2?
Sometimes I can’t shake Warriors, they just keep closing gap, lock me down, burst me. What gives?
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
Hello
I’m currently planning on bring my ranger to WvW, im already have a necro/reaper and a guard fully geared for WvW but i looking for something new, so my questions are :
1. Which is better in Zerg vs Zerg, large scale fight condi or power ?
2. Which is better in small scale fight like 5v5 or 10v10, condi or power ?
3. If so which stat of choice and build is better in large scale/small scale ?I already tried glass cannon with full zerk but i believe this one is mostly for roaming and i don’t do much of roaming nowadays. The damg is awesome but In zerg i melt like in 2s and shame of my uslessness.
I’m just looking for any advice and a better build to enjoy my ranger in WvW.
Which is better in Zerg vs Zerg, large scale fight condi or power?
Which is better in small scale fight like 5v5 or 10v10, condi or power?
If so which stat of choice and build is better in large scale/small scale?
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
Lack of build diversity is the main one
Removing so many amulets pigeonholed many classes into only one or two viable amulets, thus rendering some builds useless in PvP
Also conquest is really boring. I want a good old fashioned 5v5 deathmatch. One for full teams to que on, the other for solo players
When anet changed the ascended armor purchase in PvP to require a lot more money without giving enough of a warning, leaving a lot of people feeling ripped off… me included.
After everything over the years since release, this was the last straw and I uninstalled the game that day.
Earning balthazar faction to purchase Zaishen keys to open Zaishen chests for random PvP specific rewards or unique skins would be a lot more interesting than what we have currently.
What we have now is a bunch of chests, that open and give you more chests, that open and give you garbage.
Races don’t matter, choose whichever one you feel looks the best
Another question, from me:
What are some good weapon/armor sets to use in the meantime before you can get your hands on HoT stat gear?
Berserker weapons and armor, Cleric accessories:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBDelGT3pPtgQ1CzpvFAKclI9zA-TFCEABtpLAgjAgVK/CUJYiq/QwlAAhHAQ87PEAAB4m3MbezAH9oH9oH9od0de0dO0hWKAv2ZB-w
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Berserker weapons, Cavalier armor, Zealot accessories:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBDelGT3pO9tAQh7pFEqWYl8s0A-TFCFQBA4SAYtjAwjU/hTK/yoSw2t/Qa0FQgHAQAAEgduz05ODM0hO0hO0h2Qv5Qv5RPapA8anF-w
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These are both good pre-hot stats to use on your gear as you are farming.
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
Look at smite for example. The game doesn’t give you anything but skins for characters everyone can use. There are virtually little to no rewards in that game but people love it because improving your gameplay is rewarding enough.
Guild Wars 2 is essentially good rewards with bad gameplay atm. It should be amazing gameplay with good rewards.
Not to mention Smite has frequent, meaningful patches, new content every few weeks, and fantastic developer communication.
And everything Ncolas said is spot on.
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They should stop focusing on rewards and start working on making gameplay fun and diverse.
Right now it is boring and stale and they keep adding more rewards in an attempt to draw players into the gamemode. While it is somewhat working, it is drawing the wrong type of players that are healthy for the game mode.
I remember a time when i was broke as hell but i still had 10x more fun because I enjoyed the combat.
I am assuming this pvp.
One reason for movement impairing damage boosting traits for being problematic is this:
A lot of the classes have Innate -% condi impairing reduction traits, which are all part of the meta builds. Golemancer’s freedom, dogged march, Chrono GM minor, Engie mecha legs + ON TOP OF A LOT OF CONDITION REMOVAL and CONDI IMMUNE TRAITS OR UTILITIES.
That’s why they should just change it, Like predator’s onlsaught even just for pvp.
1st Problem
Survival of the fittest competes with Emphatic bond. I would honestly move this to another tier or a minor or even a different tree.
- Shared anguish is a great idea. I can imagine Glyph of unity combo with this one.
- Invigorating bond is a good idea although I would take it even further since it is located in a support tree. I would add "Every critical hit your pet makes, heals 200 * Healing power around it AoE. If it only affects you, then it wouldn’t be a good GM choice to be honest.
- Infected Barrage is a good idea, Maybe change bleed to weakness? also, I would make it unblockable for node denial.
- You should change steady focus to be honest, It would be a waste traiting it since vuln is easier to apply, with no cap. 3% increased situational damage is mediocre at best
- Critical Eye is meh for me too. So with this change, is there any reason to trait in Quickdraw? They compete with each other with very similar uses.
Thanks for your input!
Believe it or not, the best rangers who imo are even better mechanically than ESL players do not stream.
Shadowpass is really good, as well as Fluffball, or even Sevans.
Actually might as well pm them and duel them to get better at ranger.
Hell, I’d be happy to duel you and train eventhough I am just average at best.
Not really impressed by a lot of ESL players when it comes to druid (not to be rude or anything)
<3
Miss you StickerHappy, rangers ftw!
Hello, thanks again for the advice regarding sPvP. Knowing what to watch out for and where I’m headed has made learning Mender Druid very enjoyable.
I have a build request for WvW – since I’m in a T1 server and the roamers are usually in pairs or 5 mans built for heavy conditions, I would like to know if a Survival build with the condition removal would hold up better than a support druid relying on CA + Signet of Renewal.
I’ll admit I’m completely new to setting up gear outside of PvP, so relatively inexpensive options, as well as modest survivability so I can learn the ropes would be awesome.
Your welcome! Glad to know my answers were helpful.
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If you want to try core ranger, this is a great, inexpensive build to run:
It’s very tanky and it does good damage. Although it does lack stab, you have so many evades, blocks, and movement skills that it shouldn’t really matter.
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However, if you do the math, those survival utilities I selected would clear a total of around 60 conditions in 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Druidic Clarity in comparison would clear 140 conditions in the same time frame and even more with Signet of Renewal’s passive/active.
I recently created a thread named “Ranger Questions? Ask here!” in the ranger subsection. It has had a very positive response so far and those who have asked questions have received detailed and helpful responses.
I thought it would be nice if other experienced players in their respective main classes could create threads likes this as well to help out the community.
Just throwin’ it out there.
Happy hunting!
This is not balance.
My question is about astral force generation. theres one mechanic which im unsure of. the 0.75% generation from attacks (power). is there an internal cooldown to this.
if there isnt i would expect to see it fly up when using Hunters call and bristleback special at the same time but i dont notice it.
from both attacks you get 26 hits so it should recharge in combat about 20% but it looks more like 10% to me
The fastest way to generate astral force passively is by using Signet of the Wild, Natural Healing, Dolyak runes, and shouts for permanent regen.
I appreciate the effort and detail put in to the responses. Things were learned and will be practiced, thank you!
Also glad to hear that my build is solid, ignoring the fact that it’s highly vulnerable, lol. But nothing wrong with being all in as long as you know how to play it, right.
Thank you! Happy to help!
Many of the tricks I know are instinctual by this point. Asking specific questions really helps to bring some of the more obscure ones to light since it is impossible to recall of them off the top of my head. Aside from that, scenario questions are also rather fun to answer.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Happy hunting.
For WvW:
1. What’s your weirdest power build that surprised you with how well it worked (Not meta but very different) in WvW?
2. Same question as above except condi (even though condi is cancer in WvW )?
I like seeing off the wall builds!
Weirdest power build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAVRjUqQFLWwCOsAXLW+DslX3CIAAfWbr31n0wP4oVi0DD-TVCEAB+r+DR7PAwRAwddBMcIAaS5HgKBR4BAQwFAIAACghe0je0je025RP6RP6RLFQE7sA-w
Full signet is a ton of fun. You and your tiger can both land 12k mauls, easily 1 shotting people.
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Weirdest condi build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8YjEqQLL2xC2sAVLWMEsm3VwqFwEAGdNA4s6XNtWi0PD-TlyCABhvwwEHEg90NolyPPV/RhLAAjKBpafAkfAAAcEAyMMAMCCBYu7enxFXVSB03yK-w
Condi longbow ftw!
“Lastly, a question a bit different from the others, here’s my build. I tweaked it a little bit recently and I haven’t noticed much of a difference in performance. So I’m wondering if you could tell me: Do you think Bloodlust would be better than Cruelty? And do you think the first build is better than this one? Note that I try to reach 100% Precision with all buffs but I’m on the fence about it being worth the investment. All I know is that I enjoy guaranteed crits when people are trying to get away from me because Long Range Shot can go as high as 4k on squishys.”
“Roaming Tempests, though rare, give me a lot of trouble. Besides trying to keep them Poisoned, sheathing my longbow when they’re reflecting and not wasting bursts while they’re in Water, can you give me any advice on how to win? Just in general to be honest because unless they’re glassy or I catch them before they catch me, I don’t know what to do against them at all really. I know nothing about Ele as it’s the class I’ve played the least of.”
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
“Against tanky meta Druids, besides interrupting Rejuvenating Tides -> Rapid Fire before they leave CA, what are some important things I can do to gain the upper hand? I find these fights are often a battle against time which, with very little defence, I can’t win."
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
I’ve been playing Ranger for about 3 and 1/2 years by now so I don’t think I need advice. However, it’s always nice to see another players train of thought and it can’t hurt to have things echoed back to me for confirmation or even learning something new entirely.
Since you’ve done a lot of high level PvP, I’m sure you could tell me something I’d want to know. I’ve never bothered with being competitive in PvP and have never participated in the seasons. But I’ve done a ton of WvW and solo roaming, mostly (and still) with glass vanilla Ranger.
Speaking from a small scale WvW perspective, I’ll start by listing some problems I have and maybe you can help me out.
- What would you say the best way to deal with a Sword/Shield + Longbow, Medi-trap DH is? Can you give me any tricks I should know to turn these fights in my favor?
- Against tanky meta Druids, besides interrupting Rejuvenating Tides -> Rapid Fire before they leave CA, what are some important things I can do to gain the upper hand? I find these fights are often a battle against time which, with very little defence, I can’t win.
- Roaming Tempests, though rare, give me a lot of trouble. Besides trying to keep them Poisoned, sheathing my longbow when they’re reflecting and not wasting bursts while they’re in Water, can you give me any advice on how to win? Just in general to be honest because unless they’re glassy or I catch them before they catch me, I don’t know what to do against them at all really. I know nothing about Ele as it’s the class I’ve played the least of.
- Lastly, a question a bit different from the others, here’s my build. I tweaked it a little bit recently and I haven’t noticed much of a difference in performance. So I’m wondering if you could tell me: Do you think Bloodlust would be better than Cruelty? And do you think the first build is better than this one? Note that I try to reach 100% Precision with all buffs but I’m on the fence about it being worth the investment. All I know is that I enjoy guaranteed crits when people are trying to get away from me because Long Range Shot can go as high as 4k on squishys.
I think I know the answers to most of what I’ve asked but again, it can’t hurt to ask!
Ooh. I love these questions. I’ll do my best!
First things first, core ranger isn’t something I’ve played in a long, long time. That said, I still have years of experience with it! When using core, and especially glass ranger, outranging your opponents is your best bet.
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“What would you say the best way to deal with a Sword/Shield + Longbow, Medi-trap DH is? Can you give me any tricks I should know to turn these fights in my favor?”
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
@Spell of Iniquity,
I am going to the beach for July 4th so I was only able to type half of my full response. I’ll post what I have so far and finish the rest later.
Nice build, I did a bit of digging last night, and came across, Donee’s Shout Trooper Druid build on Metabattle and the YouTube version of the Updated version.
Here is his: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kSFoWQsXQwkFgrFsMLYw/zC6D1JqNnyaPBg603qEnnG-T1SGQB/7KAoQlDDUJVRUioP1AgoSwxpbAAHEg6p6jCeAAAZ/BSBE4yI-w
Now I don’t mind farming, doing event trains, ect. to do what I need for either build. I am “New” to Ranger/Druid outside the time that I spent use the Glass-Cannon LB build several months ago lol.
His build has been labled, “Good” by Metabattle standards and is, “Newbie” friendly, any thoughts on his, and would you just recommend that I go directly for yours?
Thank you! I’ve watched some of Donee’s videos in the past.
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As far as his build goes, it has 4k more health at the cost of significantly less damage, defense, and support. The gear he uses in his build requires more effort to obtain as well. While it is a decent build, he could definitely do a lot better in terms of gear choices. Personally, I find the critical damage he has very lacking.
The build I linked is a very solid build for WvW. It is a strong roamer, can hold its own in 1v1s and 1vXs, and can help the team out as well.
I would definitely recommend going for my build first. It is not only stronger, but easier to get the items and stats required.
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When creating a build for ranger, I’d recommend at least hitting these base stats:
2.4k power
40% critical chance
2.7k armor
18k health
200% critical damage
67% boon duration
300-700 healing power
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
I think it would make sense if there could be a separate symbol letting us know when a dev has actually opened up a thread to read its contents.
Arenanet says they read the forums but it’s very hard to believe when they hardly have any communication with the playerbase on it.
Currently, any threads that have a dev comment on it get marked with a big red symbol. Although they are rare, they let the forum-goers know that this thread has sparked the interest of the dev team.
I think this would help improve relations with the community, showing that the Anet, although rarely ever responding, do actually read most of the threads on the forums.
Any thoughts?
that’s actually good advice at the bottom, i learnt most of my mechanics when first starting to come up against hambow in pvp so i’d recommend it to anyone wanting to become better at ranger/druid.
hambow was really fun to fight against. in the hands of a good player feints could cause some psychological strain on you in an extended 1v1 doubled up with the APM that rom achieves you tire after about 2mins.
I’d say another piece of advice for anyone even remotely interested would be to understand the potential of dueling for practice and to not shy away from them simply because you’re afraid of losing. losing honestly is good in a practice 1v1, especially if you’re the winning match-up. it means you have someone to learn from, keep dueling until your win rate is 70-30 or until they get bored with you xD
The problem when you get really good at dueling is that you completely faceroll everybody you come across. Finding challenging duels is hard at a high level unless you’re friends with esl guys, strict duelers, or really experienced players on their main class. I’ve been pretty much strictly 1v1ing on ranger every time I played since release. I find it to be a lot of fun.
Personally, if you were looking to get good fast at ranger, another good method to try is asking around in dueling servers for 1v2s and 1v3s. You’ll probably lose, but learning how to survive against multiple people while downing them yourself is good practice. Aside from this, the best way to train for pushing far as a ranger is to ask for 1v2s where one of the enemies is a thief. If you can survive a thief +1, you’ll be good in most cases.
Back when I played, the only 1v3s that were significantly harder is when there was a good thief +1ing me. The burst, teleports, and interrupts were a lot harder to play around in an outnumbered situation when it was harder to keep track of everyone’s movement and skills.
Honestly it doesn’t matter how good you are at rotating, if you can’t fight, you won’t do well. Learning how to duel is one of the best skills to have as a player.
Yeah thats the thing about rom, at top tier his mechanics dont make as much of an impact on other highly skilled players (as theyll rotate around matchups avoid bad situations etc) but for pugs, his individual skill simply can’t be dealth with. he’ll go far and could hold 3 players the entire match.
I remember a while back i was theory-crafting with him in custom for ranger meta (wasn’t meta at the time). i simply couldnt keep up, not only in mechanical play but in conceptual knowledge for 1v1 scenarios. after an hour i was pretty much exhausted sat down watched a film and went to sleep. undoubtedly he likely went back to queues with more energy than he had before.
Winning 1v3s at far or any other point all game in high platinum and legendary pugs wasn’t actually that hard back in the earlier PvP seasons for druid. I managed it with skirmishing and zerker amulet because the extra damage made it easier to stomp people in outnumbered fights. Surviving and movement wasn’t a problem since our cooldowns were a lot lower. When the enemy started cleaving, CA 5 comboed with bristleback f2 with quickness was more than enough to stop the rezzing/down another player. Forget my seeker build, that was just overpowered. I would use that against higher tier players because the fights were harder.
I’d say one of the best ways to improve mechanical skill in terms of dodging and using skills appropriately is to practice fighting a gs/m-sh berserker warrior in melee range while using lb/s-d. You’ll get the hang of dodging, evades, and interrupts pretty quickly.
Looking for advice on making a Power Druid build for WvW, Solo Roam and Small-Group play.
The stats on my personal WvW build are as follows:
2500 power
50% critical chance
2,800 armor
18,000 health
200% critical damage
100% boon duration
Those are the stats without any stacking sigils, boons, or additional toughness from Signet of Stone.
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After the healing nerfs, I would recommend sacrificing some of those stats for around 300-700 additional healing power. This will not only help with self sustain while roaming solo, but provide additional support in small-group play as well. The build I linked has less base power and critical chance, but more healing power and critical damage.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBzpvFAKcPtgQ1CDelGT3pl8s0A-TVSGQB0T9n+oEMaHBAAcJAQ3+D/7BAUQlGERZG50FEAABYn7MduzADdoD9n/8ntzjuzjuzdWKgA3ZB-w
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
I’ve always regretted not recording my gameplay. If you are looking for tips and tricks or have any questions about how to play ranger at a high level, see my thread “Ranger Questions? Ask here!”
Aside from that, Gladomer is pretty good if you are looking for videos. If you want me to reinstall GW2 I would be more than happy to train you in person when I have the time, or let you spectate my duels.
Best of luck!
Hey there!
I’m aspiring to be a supporty Druid that still can holds it’s own in 1v1/open world etc.
But before I’ll be a Druid, I have to be a ranger (unfortunaly). An tips on weapon builds to make the path to level 80 ’bear’able (you see what I did there?) without a too boring pewpewpew beartank build? I think when I’m a Druid the best choice will be staff + longbow (for ranged attacks) right?
Any recommendations on a weapon that’s fun to level as long as I don’t hav the staff?
P.S.: Any ideas about classes that play very similar to the Druid playstyle?
Thanks!
Hi!
I actually don’t know too much about PvE unfortunately. I levelled my first character (a ranger) to 80 by grinding cows in Queensdale every day for 8 months (not a wise decision). Ranger doesn’t have very strong physical AoE. If you want to go physical, gs/a-a would be a good bet. gs/s-a could also be used for more movement. If you want to kill things easily, I’d suggest a condition trapper build using s/wh a/t such as:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRBMhd+1IlK0yitrg3KQ1iBGhiLgLPA+nYYT9ecr1QIjiH55D-e
Cheap and effective gear for this build would be full rabid.
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In general, when going through open world, permanent swiftness and a lot of movement skills is really handy for moving around. Fortunately, ranger has plenty of swiftness and movement skills to choose from. For movement, I’d recommend this build skeleton:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR83iUqQLLWyiBGh6fiSQTIwO6AoEF2F-e
If you are comfortable with surviving on ranger, I’d recommend full berserker stats with this build.
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Additionally, a shortbow could be kept in your inventory for quick swapping. Using sb3, “Quick Shot,” off cooldown is an easy way to maintain permanent swiftness. When using sword, using the “About Face” keybind twice while using the skills “Hornet Sting” and “Monarch’s Leap” can be used to gain additional distance.
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From personal experience, one of the best ways to level and get experience fighting in 1v1s is through playing PvP. As you progress through the ranks and reward tracks, you will earn Tomes of Knowledge that grant whichever character consumes it 1 additional level. Thus requiring 78 Tomes of Knowledge total after finishing the tutorial to hit level 80. This does take a little bit of dedication and time, but I find is a lot easier than playing PvE and 10x more rewarding because of the combat experience you’ll get.
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For Druid using ranged attacks, staff/lb will be your best bet.
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Greatsword is decent without staff.
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I personally enjoy warrior, necromancer, mesmer, and thief a lot. If you want a class that has a lot of mobility, warrior and thief are both good choices. Damage wise, necromancer is very good with AoE. Mesmer is interesting to play as well.
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That’s the best advice I can give you for PvE. I’ve been playing PvP and WvW since release so this area is not really my forte.
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Best of luck!
Thanks for the feedback Barry,
I think Critical Eye is a really cool trait as well. Though I think that a 33% or 50% cdr on all skills would be a bit too strong.
As for Ambidexterity, I believe the range increase for offhand weapons is very important and would help make Wilderness Survival traitline see more use.
Shared Anguish might be too strong at 10%. We currently have foods that grant the player 10% damage reduction. If both were selected, 1/5 of all physical damage would be mitigated.
The change I proposed to Invigorating Bond doesn’t scale with healing power. Keep in mind that pets still have to track targets and it’s not a rapid amount of healing. Smokescale’s Smoke Assault for example would only heal us for 1000 health.
Swapping Natural Healing with Honed Axes and reducing the additional healing power to 250 might be better balanced.
A radius increase on Cultivated Synergy would be interesting, but it doesn’t really fit the name. I like this idea nonetheless.
One change I would really like to see is Lightning Reflexes on a much shorter cooldown. while reducing the vigor duration. It used to be a staple in nearly every ranger build pre-HoT but we have much better options now with more utility. Reducing the base cooldown to 12 seconds while reducing the vigor duration to 4 seconds would help it see more use.
Another interesting change would be to remove the vigor on lightning reflexes and have it apply 2 seconds of quickness instead.
Don’t have any questions for now, just wanted to say this is a really nice initiative
Thanks! I’m surprised that there’s only been one question so far. But I’ll still keep checking the thread nonetheless.
Thank you! That was extremely helpful advice, and I’ll be sure to put them into practice for sPvP. I can see that Druid has seen better days, but Ranger as a class is so fun – mobility, evades, quickness, pet bursts, good sustain. Think I’m here to stay.
Not to mention the interesting builds possible in WvW with the freedom to tweak stats.
I hope the new elite of the future expansion will also be fun to play.
Edit: the answer quality is so high I think it needs a sticky.
Your welcome! Druid has definitely seen better days. I used to be able to win 1v3s consistently at far all game in high platinum/legendary back in the earlier PvP seasons. Repeated heavy nerfs to pet and player damage, cooldowns, and healing really butchered my style of play. Now, 1v3s are a lot harder to pull off and 1v2s are a lot less manageable than they were before. Even 1v1s take a lot longer because of how low our damage has gotten.
Thank you! A sticky would be great. A dev comment on this would also help more people see this thread if any are lurking around this forum.
If anyone else has any questions, feel free to ask. It can be as specific as you want or very general. You will get a detailed response from a very experienced ranger player. I will also tailor specific builds to your needs or watch gameplay videos and comment on things that could be done better. If anyone wants me to reinstall the game, I wouldn’t mind training people in game as well. I play on NA servers.
As for general advice vs. all classes:
Elementalist – poison and cc them off point as much as possible
Warrior – kite and avoid headbutt/skullcracker and their ccs and burst skills in general, bait shield blocks by cancelling longbow skills like the knockback
Ranger – use terrain to avoid the pet, dodge knockback/stealth, rapid fire and bristleback f2 when a druid is about to leave Celestial Avatar for stealth
Necromancer – knock them back and stay out of range of their staff, stealth to reposition and waste their marks, kite their death shroud by pinging with staff, sending pet to attack, and knocking back/stealthing with longbow
Guardian – have pet attack from one side, and you attack from the other, this renders their Shield of Courage useless on one side, avoid their ccs, dodge or use ancestral grace through them to trigger them
Thief – dodge the steal. although it is an instant cast 1200 range teleport that can be used from stealth, steal is actually fairly easy to predict if you have enough experience fighting thieves. other than this, cc, stealth, and aoe daze as much as possible in order to prevent their bursts/burst them and use rapid fire and bristleback f2 when they are going to stealth
Engineer – don’t attack when they reflect, cc a lot, have pet deal most of the damage
Mesmer – stealth off clones, dodge the shatters
Revenant – knock them back as soon as they use shiro phase transversal. this makes it 10x harder for them to close the gap, stealth as soon as they start to cast s3 so they waste it
4. Although pets were nerfed, the best tools for damage on a menders druid is smokescale’s Smoke Assault, bristleback’s f2, and quickness rapid fire.
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5. Assuming you are using Allies’ Aid, go into Celestial Avatar, 2, 3, leave for stealth, swap pets for quickness, and rez. If need be, use Signet of Stone to invuln and make sure you have stability through either CA 5 or SotP before rezzing so you don’t get interrupted.
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6. If your teammate is under ranged pressure such as another druid shooting at them with a longbow or a rev chasing after them with sword, using staff 5 and 3 not only stops the pressure, but also provides a blast finisher in a water field for a decent small heal. Follow this up with CA 2, 3 and leave if you want a quick heal into stealth so they can get away. If you aren’t under too much pressure, CA 2, 3, and then 4 before leaving for stealth can also work. In any other situation, CA 2 and 3 are your best bet for spike heals. CA 4 should be rarely used as it is an easy interrupt. Only use it in team fights if you desperately need to heal someone/heal yourself or you have a team that has a large number of blast finishers.
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7. Higher mobility, ranged pressure.
1. While I know Druids are fairly good at pushing far, I’m not doing as well as I should fighting side-node builds. I find myself kiting and giving up the node too often. Advice against Condi Mes 1v1 when I cannot avoid (please answer this if nothing else) and handling Thief +1’s would be nice. Is there a way to stay on point with a DH popping traps?
2. Should I be 1v1’ing the Engi at all? What are our best matchups?
3. Is there a way to cancel pet F2s? When would you recall your pet in a fight?
4. What is our best damage pressure tool as a Menders Druid? And what are some of our best bait-casts?
5. How would you do a solid power rez under heavy cleave?
6. Teammate on point is around 20% health under focus and needs emergency spike heal. What should I do in terms of skill priority?
7. Compared to Engi, what unique skill set do we offer to the team?
1. Side-node builds? Generally, kiting and giving up the point to neutral is perfectly fine in 1vX situations. If you are using a longbow correctly, the person(s) you are fighting should be unable to cap the point, thus both sides are fighting on a neutral cap. The difference being, in a 1vX situation, you are forcing an advantage for the rest of your team as they will be fighting 4v3 on the rest of the map. If you do push far in a 1v1, as long as your team is winning/doing okay on the rest of the map, fighting on a neutral point is okay as long as you know you are able to win the 1v1 and survive a +1.
As for 1v1ing a condition mesmer, use the terrain to your advantage. Clones can’t jump so they have to path around obstacles you as a player can jump over. Stealth as often as possible because clones can’t track you in stealth and they will end up standing around doing nothing until you appear again. If you stealth and move when the mesmer shatters, the clones will explode at the position you were at the moment you entered stealth so use this to your advantage.
Chronomancers generally have a lot of evades/invulnerability/blocks/distortion so target a clone for easier stealths with longbow because they can’t dodge.
Thief +1s can be best handled if you keep an eye on your surroundings. If you see a thief approaching, look away to make them think you don’t see them, then just land an easy knockback or stealth in order to mess up their opening. When stealthing vs. a thief, make sure you dodge as soon as you shoot the arrow so you ensure your ability to reposition after stealthing. This goes when fighting other classes as well. Nothing is worse than landing the stealth but getting hit by a hard cc or immobilize, stopping you from utilizing the stealth to its full potential.
Also, if you want to kill a d/p thief easily, use rapid fire and pet swap into bristleback f2 as soon as they drop black powder. Both skills track stealth and thus the thief will still technically be targetted even while invisible. I’ve killed many thieves with this.
Depends on which traps. If it’s just Test of Faith, don’t walk in and out of circle, dodge the longbow knockback, shield knockback, and Spear of Justice and you’ll be fine. If they are using Procession of Blades, don’t stand in it if you are taking too much damage. If not, it is fine to tank or avoid everything with s/d. Also, if they are using multiple damage traps they are probably sacrificing a lot of survivability or movement so take advantage of that.
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2. Druids can 1v1 any class. Just make sure you kite a lot vs. engis so they can’t hit you with hammer. When they hammer 3, just dodge or use ancestral grace to get out of range. Also, because engis have a lot of reflect and block, you can just send the smokescale to attack the engi the entire time. Another tactic that works is staying in longbow and autoattack and cancel knockback to bait dodges. The engi will blow reflect/block cooldowns trying to counter your longbow. As soon as the engi runs out of these defenses, knock back, swap to bristleback, and burst.
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3. You can cancel pet f2s by calling them back with f3. I keep my pet on passive 100% of the time so I have better control over its position. Any time there is a lot of aoe or condi pressure, I will call my pet back in order to prevent it from taking too much damage. Or, if it is low on health I will call it back to prevent it from dying. Not having the pet for 60 seconds is a lot worse than losing out on its damage. Smokescale can naturally avoid a lot of damage with Smoke Assault and they cannot be hit while standing in its f2.
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Hello fellow Bearbows!
Ask any and all questions you guys might have regarding this class in PvP/WvW here!
I will answer questions about:
Gameplay, mechanics, builds, combat… anything! Just no PvE please!
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A bit of background about myself… I have:
1. mained ranger since release and have extensive knowledge of its gameplay and mechanics
2. played at a high level in PvP for years
3. a deep understanding of every class in the game since I play them all, thus I can answer any questions regarding how to fight them with ranger
4. acted as the guild leader of the largest all ranger guild in the game for 2 years, with membership peaking at 250+ players
(edited by shadowpass.4236)
Thanks shadowpass.
Ranger is still new to me. While S/D allows a lot of margin for error, LB’s lockdown is great for pressure. The intricacies of LB escaped me completely, and what you said will probably save me around 300 games/many hours in WvW flopping around.
Your welcome! I’m going to create a thread to answer any gameplay questions people have about ranger. I don’t play Guild Wars 2 anymore but I have years of experience since launch on the class and would still like to help out the community. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Cancel your knockback to bait dodges until you actually want to burst or create a gap.
Use stealth to reposition or juke enemies as often as possible. Personally, I don’t really use it for offensive purposes.
Rapid fire to bait dodges or burst damage with quickness from pet swaps.
Auto attack from range to bait dodges and do decent poke damage.
Barrage rarely. You will be revealed if an enemy steps into the arrows while you are in stealth. I mainly use it after knocking an enemy back to cripple while they try to close the gap. Also, cast it on yourself to discourage thieves from attack from stealth.
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