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GW2 Building my Ranger- tell me what I'm doing wrong

K

Keleynal

Jesus Freak
I've read most of the stuff on the forums here and gone over the official GW2 stuff, so I'm feeling pretty good about building up my Ranger, but I thought some feedback woul be great.

My overall goal is for a high nuke damage, hard-critting build. It looks like there will be some bleed damage as a side effect, but I'm not planning to focus on it.

Weapon- Longbow seems the obvious choice to me. I don't want to be a melee ranger, so Longbow is the hard hitting weapon of choice. For a swap, I currently have an Axe and a Warhorn. I like the Warhorn buff, and the Axe can be used at range, so I lose less dps switching to it.

Weapon and Gear Affixes- I'm thinking anything that boost power, precision and crit dmg is a good thing. For survival, a life leech or life on hit might be nice, especially coupled with a deep hp pool. I'm also thinking some CC or boon removal would be good.

Slot skills- I'd actually like some help here. I don't have most of them unlocked yet, but it seems that Zephyr is an obvious choice. I also took the pet enrage skill and the one to make them do a hard hit. Seemed a good opening combo. The traps don't really interest me. I'm thinking maybe one of the spirits to boost dmg and add some group support. Jury is still out here.

Traits- I put my first 10 points in Marksmanship and I'm putting the next 10 in Skirmishing. The passive power and crit buffs are exactly what I want for this build. I'm considering taking the chance to bleed on crit, which seems to stack well with the longer bleed duration from Marksmanship. However, I'm not wanting them to live long enough to bleed out. What I'd really like is to be able to stack more vulnerabilities quickly. I can get 15 stacks up pretty much right away, but I need to maintain and add to them.

Stats- I'm prioritizing power, precision, and crit dmg. I'll take condition dmg if it happens to be there, but I'm not actively seeking it. I haven't decided if I should stack vitality or toughness. It seems like a complicated question, and I tend towards more of glass cannon/sniper type of play style. I'd like to stay alive long enough to be relevant in PvP though.

Sigils- I'm not high enough level for them yet, so I haven't looked at them. I should take a look and see which way to go.

Pet- I need to delve deeper into pets, but so far I think the Snow Leopard is good. It seems to stack some extra conditions for me and is decent dps. For PvP, a CC pet like a spider could be good. Or maybe the bear for the condition removal.

Those are my thoughts based on what I've learned so far. Any suggestions you guys have would be great.

Here's a link to the proposed build-
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc...zaqMaVM8kiH7khs7kiH7070M7kIW70V7ofD70M7owX70z
 
Not gonna lie, I'd love to see this on a builder, so that I could analyze and tweek accordingly to my views :p It becomes a pain trying to read and re-read and think without the visual. Plus it saves me from writing a book back in my personal critiques.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc

<3
 
I can't go those sites from work because the IT Nazis have them blocked. Once I get home, I'll hit those links and build it up for you.

(IT, if you're reading this, I don't actually think you are Nazis and I'll bring you bagels if you don't block this site.)
 
Alright, now that I can visually see it, here is my input.

First off, going for a high damage high crit build without a Greatsword seems off to me. The damage output on the GS, especially with it's control and movement abilities, is hard to pass up. I agree, the WH buff is nice, but your output on the axe isn't worth the difference IMO. Plus since you're with a LB, you need long long distance. If someone is pressing against you hard and your point blank is on CD, the swap might be necessary to put pressure back onto your attacker. The axe/wh just doesn't have that pressure.

Troll Unguent. I hate it personally. Healing spring is necessary for condition removal, not only for you but your party, and you gain regen while sitting in it. I haven't done the numbers on Unguent personally, but I think it clashes with the regen from the signet. Maybe that's outdated/false information, but I do recall reading something about the comparison of the two.

Since I'm on the topic of signets, your zephyr is a must for all rangers. +1. If you're really adamant about using the signet trait, then you've chosen well. I would go for the stone signet over the hunt, as the speed boost does not apply during combat, only OOC. Plus it's use is relatively subpar in comparison to stones.

Traits. I did a massive overhaul on the majors, but left your point allocation the same. Take a look, as I hope it's a bit more streamlined to what you want here. Sharpening stones is silly if you're not condition spec, and this will add some more might to your pet more often, making it a beast. Especially when combo'd with stone's invulnerability. You'll be able to get out of more CC with healing springs than you would with unguent, but still have the same, if not more, healing overall when used correctly. Also, since you're signet heavy, why not have the 20% reduction on signets? Waste if you don't IMO.


So here you go. More might for your pet overall, some extra zephyr'ing at 25% damage, GS damage for close range, and some added reduction to CC's more surviability, without sacrificing damage. If anything, this should add more damage with your pet being alive more often. Remember to swap to gain the benefits of might on swap, as well as the 2 second zephyr from the BM 5 point.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc...maqVabo8kiH7khs7kiH7070M7kIW70V7ofD70M7owX70z
 
Are we talking pure PvE here? I would not roll signets in sPvP, personally.
 
Nahku said:
Are we talking pure PvE here? I would not roll signets in sPvP, personally.
Click to expand...
There's been a recent rise of signet PvP'ers, mostly for that stone signet use, combo'd with the 30 trait skill. It's a bit niche, but it works for a lot of high damage builds, since you gain invuln for no sacrifice, Stone/zephyr makes you an unstoppable beast for 4 seconds, especially when you have rampage as one active.

Think of it as the 2 minute Ranger build.
 
Hmm.. will have to give it another shot. I don't think I tried them with zephyr. It's just hard for me to take that as my 30pt trait since I like Piercing Arrows with so much =/ .. I'll give it a shot when I can get back in and play for a reasonable amount of time. :)
 
Nahku said:
Hmm.. will have to give it another shot. I don't think I tried them with zephyr. It's just hard for me to take that as my 30pt trait since I like Piercing Arrows with so much =/ .. I'll give it a shot when I can get back in and play for a reasonable amount of time. :)
Click to expand...
Not gonna lie, I'm a DIE HARD piercing arrows fan, but more often than not I'm 1v1 focusing in SPvP. Very rarely do I have the time to focus my shots to hit multiple people on purpose, rather than chance. In PvE, it's a mandatory trait to have. In PvP, not so much. Too many random movement variables to predict positioning to make it fully effective.
 
I would like a build that is able to do both PvE and PvP, with a main focus on the PvE.

When I used the builder, it was the first time that I had seen any of the signets, so I just grabbed stuff that seemed to have synergy.

Peircing arrows does sound interesting, though I'm ok with less AOE and more single target nuke. I kind of think of it as a boss killer for dungeons- large amounts of dmg in short period of time. However, I do want it to be viable for exploration and it would be nice to not have to respec anytime I wanted to PvP.
 
I think that there is a signet mechanic that I am not aware of. Is there a downside to using signets? It just seemed like a way to add more stuff that my toon could do. Are they all triggered effects or are they passive bonuses?
 
Keleynal said:
I think that there is a signet mechanic that I am not aware of. Is there a downside to using signets? It just seemed like a way to add more stuff that my toon could do. Are they all triggered effects or are they passive bonuses?
Click to expand...
They are both. They are a passive bonus until triggered, then the trigger effects comes in, but BOTH are on cooldown until it refreshes.
 
only for story and look of gear at the end. I like the whispers medium set the best of all 3.
 
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