Hit level 40 with my Norn Ranger. Let the trait research commence.

[Tek7]

So I hit level 40 with Logmar (my Norn Ranger) and I'm looking for input on how to spend my trait points.

I <3 my pets, I play almost exclusively grouped with my wife (for now; I hope to dabble in PvP before long but may wait until 80), I <3 speed bonuses, I favor survivability over damage output (though I love to drop a truck on my enemies), I want to be able to help in party situations, and I've been running with a longbow/dual axe loadout for some time now (though I'm willing to explore alternatives). I tend to favor a sure thing over a percentage chance.

I'm a bit too ADD for stealth and traps, but recognize that traps can be a huge help.

Right now, I'm just looking for general advice rather than specific builds (though I wouldn't mind those). If there are any skills that are effectively useless in real-life PvE and PvP, please let me know.

 

[Dragonhawk]

I have leveled my second ranger to 80 now and messed around with it a fair amount. Now while what I am posting is about a specific build you can take what you want out of it for your own use. From what you seem to like to do I think you may benefit the most from this setup 0/0/30/10/30 (or something similar). You maximize your condition damage and tons of survivability. You can drop packs of mobs like they are nothing and survive more than a few hits. Stat wise condition damage and toughness are your friends. Weapon wise Axe/Torch and Short Bow will be your best bet due to the amount of conditions they do. If you are worried about loosing the long bows AoE, dont be. Bonfire, Spike Trap, and Fire Trap will dish out more AoE damage than the long bow will with this build. You need to get up close but you can survive having a number of mobs on you briefly, then drop those 3 abilities at your feet and just watch targets drop. While pets still stink in dungeons if what you are mostly doing is world pve and some pvp then the build excels. One thing to take note of is that with all the toughness you will have the closer you get to 80, you are going to attract champions like crazy, any world event involving a champion be prepared to be running and dodging alot because they will stick to you like glue.

 

[ursen]

I will second most of the thoughts on axe/torch. Range can be a little iffy, and if you whack something with #1 axe skill you may aggro a little more than you want, but as long as you have Bonfire, Firetrap, and Spike Trap you can get some breathing room. Hounds of Balthazar make a good Elite complement to those three. I switch pets between spider for condition and the ability to hold a foe, and Arcdotus for up and close holding aggro. The combo with Bonfire is pretty good too, in a Meta event park yourself in front of another ranger or someone using pistols set off Bonfire then watch all the pretty, pretty fun.

 

[Enok]

Haven't really touched Ranger, but it's on my list of professions to be played at some point. I see a ton of people talking about Ranger PvE, but very little about PvP.

Anyone done much WvW with one? How do they fare? Can a condition focused build like you guys are talking about be tweaked to be useful there?

I did run across a ranger recently who was systematically working on capturing the Ogres by standing outside the camp and shooting them down one at a time. Looked kind of tedious, but he seemed to be able to do it without any personal risk, since his long range kept him from aggroing any of them.

 

[RyanB]

Also not a ranger, but I can speak to general effectiveness...full-time rangers please feel free to disagree on any of this:

Open world PvE - Great, pet can tank most everything, you can full zerker gear roll everything
Dungeons - Poor; pets die too quickly leaving you with less DPS
Fractals - See: dungeons
WvW - decent...doesn't add a lot to a zerg, but better in small skirmishes
sPvP - pretty good - nice 1v1 class, very good at adding to a fight while staying out of danger, pet causes a lot of trouble

In general, rangers do have a few nice utility things...using the range like you talked about, pet ressing, etc. Condition builds aren't generally reliable...they CAN be nice, but suffer from two big issues: stacking and removal. When more people stack on a boss, you hit the bleed/etc limit quickly...meaning you're all doing much less. Against other players it's simply too easy to remove conditions.

 

[Dragonhawk]

I agree with most of the thoughts about pets, though from what Ive read in sPvP I might rank them higher. Particularly with a full BM build. As far as conditions go though I would disagree, the only area where stacking is a factor is on world bosses like Jormag, where you have a ton of players on him (and lets face it there is no need to worry about world bosses cause they drop so easily). In dungeons it is much more rare to cap out on bleeds and even if you do it is only because the ranger is adding so many of them, so while you may not be able to put all your bleeds on a boss you are getting 95% of them up. As far as on PvP it is far easier to put conditions on a target than to get them off. Any condition removal is on a cooldown and you can reapply bleeds instantaneously. Fire damage is easier to remove since Bonfire and Fire Trap are both on a cooldown, but their damage is very quick so you need to be fast to get off you before it does most of its damage. Currently the top ranger specs in PvP are both condition builds (Trap: 20/30/20/0/0 & Bunker: 0/0/30/10/30). The bunker bunker build has the advantage of frustrating many thieves, by living through their initial burst and leaving the thief with no inititive left to do anymore damage.

 

[RyanB]

Well, I did say they were pretty good in sPvP.

Thanks very much for the feedback on conditions; that makes me a lot more interested in trying that sort of set-up. It's hard to tell sometimes how much internet complaining is reality. I don't play a condition toon, so it's not something I run into often...outside of the fact that I often run with a few more guardians so the idea of our fire damage is laughable. Of course, I don't think much about damage anyway, hehe.