I was looking at the possibility of doing a support build on a ranger and have come to the conclusion that if you want to play support you should play another profession.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMA...9YUm6UV8xN;T4AgzCmouxcj4G7Nubk3s2YsxZj9GvNmbA
That is the best build I could come up with and its not terribly strong. You only have two skills that will aoe boons on allies (healing spring and warhorn 5) and then have to rely on pets, spirits and gear to help them otherwise on the defensive side of things. On the offensive side of things you do have a wide range of conditions you can put on, but not all in one build or loadout.
In fact your pets and spirits help others more than you do. I chose blue moa and fern hound because they have heals and boons and the fern hound can immobilize and knockdown. To get full use out of that you have to put 30 points in both nature magic and beastmastery trees for buffing spirits and your pets respectively.
With gear choices you can buff your healing to a good extent, but only having healing spring which most people wont stay in limits your ability to help in the regen department. At least with healing spring its a combo field and you can shoot through it to splash regen around. Still not as good as other professions. For a ranger this build and gear choices has healing buffed out to the max, but there are better 'healing' professions out there and all we can do is throw around some regen.
The spirits do give good buffs, and the elite: Spirit of Nature is amazing for saving downed allies. Just make sure you stick close to people you want buffed for not only the passive, but the activated skills from spirits that will help turn a fight.
And those are the Pro's. On to the Con's
You can't heal as effectively as other professions.
You can't throw boons around as effectively as other professions.
People won't stay in your healing spring.
In this build you can't even control as effectively as other professions.
Your health, while decent isn't as high as you want it for mele range and the defense you will need there.
Toughness is even worse than health. Not nearly enough to survive.
Because you will want to have your spirits in the thick of things where your allies are you will want to be in mele not at range. Same is true for using the warhorn. For this reason I took the shortsword/warhorn for evasion playstyle and buffs, and axe/dagger for more of a control playstyle. Not the best choices for ranger in general, and it feels like I had to stuff those choices in just to be able to keep in line with the build. No other choices helped in the support role imo.
Final thoughts:
While the nature magic tree with its spirits seems like it would be the basis for a ranger support role, I feel that its the only support you will find in the whole ranger profession and by itself not viable. Spirits should be looked at as buffs for you and your pet with any help to allies being thought of as an added bonus.
Our lack of heavy defense and/or vitality makes us a profession that is focused much more on the offensive side of of the scale. At best we can give ourselves survivability so that we can do more damage, but at the end of things, we should be focused on the damage and what we can do to better ours or others damage.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMA...9YUm6UV8xN;T4AgzCmouxcj4G7Nubk3s2YsxZj9GvNmbA
That is the best build I could come up with and its not terribly strong. You only have two skills that will aoe boons on allies (healing spring and warhorn 5) and then have to rely on pets, spirits and gear to help them otherwise on the defensive side of things. On the offensive side of things you do have a wide range of conditions you can put on, but not all in one build or loadout.
In fact your pets and spirits help others more than you do. I chose blue moa and fern hound because they have heals and boons and the fern hound can immobilize and knockdown. To get full use out of that you have to put 30 points in both nature magic and beastmastery trees for buffing spirits and your pets respectively.
With gear choices you can buff your healing to a good extent, but only having healing spring which most people wont stay in limits your ability to help in the regen department. At least with healing spring its a combo field and you can shoot through it to splash regen around. Still not as good as other professions. For a ranger this build and gear choices has healing buffed out to the max, but there are better 'healing' professions out there and all we can do is throw around some regen.
The spirits do give good buffs, and the elite: Spirit of Nature is amazing for saving downed allies. Just make sure you stick close to people you want buffed for not only the passive, but the activated skills from spirits that will help turn a fight.
And those are the Pro's. On to the Con's
You can't heal as effectively as other professions.
You can't throw boons around as effectively as other professions.
People won't stay in your healing spring.
In this build you can't even control as effectively as other professions.
Your health, while decent isn't as high as you want it for mele range and the defense you will need there.
Toughness is even worse than health. Not nearly enough to survive.
Because you will want to have your spirits in the thick of things where your allies are you will want to be in mele not at range. Same is true for using the warhorn. For this reason I took the shortsword/warhorn for evasion playstyle and buffs, and axe/dagger for more of a control playstyle. Not the best choices for ranger in general, and it feels like I had to stuff those choices in just to be able to keep in line with the build. No other choices helped in the support role imo.
Final thoughts:
While the nature magic tree with its spirits seems like it would be the basis for a ranger support role, I feel that its the only support you will find in the whole ranger profession and by itself not viable. Spirits should be looked at as buffs for you and your pet with any help to allies being thought of as an added bonus.
Our lack of heavy defense and/or vitality makes us a profession that is focused much more on the offensive side of of the scale. At best we can give ourselves survivability so that we can do more damage, but at the end of things, we should be focused on the damage and what we can do to better ours or others damage.