Rangers

ursen

ursen

Officer SOE/LoE/Where's "here"?
The Guardians got their little thread, now I would like to hear from the Rangers out there. Ranger is my main and as a lot of you know axe/torch is my favorite. There are some nice combos if you trigger Bonfire and work through that. And for the heavy hitters like Veterans and Champions I like to run in set Bonfire and Fire Trap then back out chucking an axe the whole time. If you use a spider along with that you have both poison and fire conditions rolling at the same time. I now have Hounds of Balthazar available, and when things get tight they complement that combo really well. Of course if ya wanna be real nasty load up Entangling Roots too, and before ya light up Bonfire and Firetrap set that up, instant monster flambe.
Just be careful you don't wander into a patch of Destroyer crud with that set up, then only half of your bar is usable. Been there done that. That is when dual axe or longbow come in handy. Dual axe has a couple of spells that whack multiple targets at once. Just watch the aggro on that, it can draw a LOT of aggro. :eek:
So what do ya use?
 
Guardian's ranged weaponry is really finicky. It's like Anet didn't know what to make of the Guardian and just threw stuff together. I mean.. they didn't even have a 1200 weapon in beta!






:p
 
I have long used Longbow as main weapon, switching to Axe+Warhorn when fighting multiple enemies or to apply the #5 skill buffs from warhorn. I am currently testing Sword+Axe as the swap set. I don't like it as much yet, but I want to give it some time.
 
I've enjoyed changing weapons every time I get a new better one to keep things interesting. I do try to keep one ranged and one melee equipped so I can swap, if needed.

Lately, I've been playing with a greatsword. I like using Swoop to quickly close in and start fighting.
 
I love using shortbow/longbow and then have axe/torch or warhorn at the ready. But yeah shortbow works great for me and I have a sigil of fire that explodes % of time on crits.. fun fun fun
 
SB and Sword/Horn here and I love it Jag and Lynx as pets QZ and I just chew through mobs.... the only downfall with sword for me is getting stuck in combat
 
I have a think. What if we just had a forum for each class? That way as new stuff is learned, and updates applied from Anet, we could share easily how we are doing on our favorite class.
 
I like the Longbow and Shortbow combination. I like to open with Longbow 3 (10 stacks of vulnerability), then Longbow 2 (rapid fire), then switch to Shortbow 2 (poison fan), Shortbow 5 (daze), and then Shortbow 1 (rapid pummeling until time is up to switch back to Longbow and repeat). For multiple enemies, add Longbow 5 (AoE cripple) and Shortbow 2 (poison fan). If I have room behind me, I can Shortbow 3 (jump back) or if the fight needs to stay in a tight area, Longbow 4 (push enemy back). Shortbow also has a cripple for a fleeing opponent (can be used if barrage is on cool down).

For my play style, I usually don't like switching weapons alot in combat, but the Longbow/Shortbow combo feels rather natural.

And I have found that using the Eagle/Hawk pet will occasionally grant me swiftness when running place to place (especially when I pop a rabbit, raccoon, sparkfly, rat, or some other tiny, harmless creature in my path). The speed boost is nice. And they have descent damage and good survivability.
 
Here is the build I am planning on making/currently working on;
Charr Ranger
Weapon Sets = Longbow/Shortbow
Healing = healing spring (heal self as well as allies around me)
Utilities = Muddy terrain,Spike Trap,Flame trap
(muddy terrain holds foes in the trap zone/marks long enough to get full damage effect after triggered,finish remaining foes off with bow attacks)
Elite = Entangle (helps hold enemies in trap zone/mark

Traits = marksman for decent bow damage and i'm unsure what traits to boost for traps

also can traps be stacked like in Guild Wars 1?

Note: im not high enough level to complete the build yet but wanted feedback on my idea before i get too far off track
just with spike trap and flame trap i am dealing decent AOE damage at a low level
 
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Entangle is a good idea, I use it in conjunction with traps, and when in a group that is laying down heavy aoe. As far as stacking traps I am still trying to figure that out, I use primarily Fire Trap because it stacks nicely with Bonfire, a torch skill. The poison trap is the next back up, I use that when I get backed in a corner. I really don't use bows very much so someone else will have to speak to that.
 
Ok now that Cristeen has struggled to 80 I have some trait questions, and a Duh confession. I just could not wrap my head around the same concept that worked in GW to dump everything in two or three areas, or traits. Not only that I had the odd assumption that somehow after attaining 80 we would keep getting trait points each time we "leveled" again, DUH!!! Now Cristeen is functional, but spread out in trait points Marksmanship 20, Skirmishing 10, Wilderness Survival 10, Nature Magic 15, Beast Mastery 15. Part of the problem is relating the Ranger traits to the basic template on the fly.

Trait lines


Ranger trait lines.
Each character has access to five profession-specific trait lines. Each point spent increases two attributes, one from each of the following groups:

Primary/profession-specific attributes
Power +10 — increases damage dealt.
Precision +10 — increases critical hit chance.
Toughness +10 — increases armor.
Vitality +10 — increases health.
Attunement Recharge Rate +2%; specific for Elementalists
Pet Attribute Bonus +1; specific for Rangers
Burst Damage +0.1%; specific for Warriors
all other Profession-specific attributes +1% — see trait lines by profession below.
Secondary attributes
Boon Duration +1% — increases boon duration.
Condition Damage +10 — increases condition damage.
Condition Duration +1% — increases condition duration.
Critical Damage +1% — increases critical hit damage.
Healing Power +10 — increases healing.

Now before I pay cold hard cash to revamp that mess, I need to evaluate what I need. I, as I have said before, use combination of Axe/Torch and Longbow, and use my aggro happy pets to be meat shields. Despite some of the draw backs of pets they still are of pretty good worth, especially my shark. Any and all input will be of great help at this point.
 
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What utility skills are you using or that you like? A lot of traits revolve around A) Your goal (dps, support, condition dmg, etc.) B) Your primary weapons (Axe/Torch, Longbow) and C) Your healing, utility, and elite skills
 
I do a fair amount of wandering around on my own so DPs and condition dmg are most important, closely followed by sheer survivability, I am lousy at support. Currently my bar has Troll Unguent, Fire Trap, Signet of Stone, Signet of the Wild, and Hounds of Balthazar. Hounds of Balthazar is most often swapped with Entangle. I have all of the Health skills, all of the first and second tier skills, besides Signet of The Wild, I have Storm Spirit, and "Guard" unlocked in the third tier, and all of the Elite skills including Mistfire wolf. Signet of the Wild is just too valuable not to put on the skill bar, grants health regeneration passively to you and your pet, actively pet grows larger dealing more damage and gaining stability. I will probably swap out Troll Unguent for Prayer to Dwayna because it grants more healing and only 5 seconds more recharge time. I just added it to the list today because had never really looked at it, and Troll Unguent was working ok for the most part.
 
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Curious, why do you use longbow instead of shortbow? It seems like you are running a very condition based playstyle and, at least from an outsider's perspective, the shortbow would be a better fit?

Here is what I would do ... http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQNA...5oH9Uke1fxUlIB;TwAg0ypEQJlSNlSKKqMUJoyWjjKJVA (slightly changed with edit)

Basically, you are going condition crazy. As far as utility skills, you throw down both traps at once, make things walk into them, and then proceed to pour out the damage. Zephyr is awesome ... love that skill for the quickness. I'm a fan of entangle, but hounds work just as well too. I love having 3 thief pets at once and so the hounds are great too.

*side note* My ranger is in his 40's ... not much experience with him. Much of this is theorycrafted. Oh, I also do pet swapping and such ... some people don't like the overhead of remembering to swap pets for quickness on them.
 
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Here's something that might be useful. Same axe/torch and longbow using mainly signets with spike trap to take the place of muddy ground.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV3fjIVx1FWKWo2Bi1DC5nB1eQp+jpXhYVipkC

This should buff both you and your pet, making sure that you both provide good DPS with strong conditions and high suvivability. When enemies close in on you and you need to get away, you can lay down spike trap to cripple them, dodge roll away to get protection, and if you're still getting hit use Signet of Stone for 6 seconds of breathing room, though I'd imagine AoE would still hurt you and condition degen would as well, but at least it'll stop incoming attacks.

Compared to the build Koeril linked, mine sacrifices 1000 health for much stronger conditions, 200 more armor, and 100 more power, plus the ability to couple with your pet for survivability.
 
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Do you have pets that heal you? If not you don't need Compassion Training in the Beastmastery line.


EDIT: Oh I'm sorry, I just realized the link in my previous post was the same as the build before it. I've updated my post to reflect the actual build I made, which should make more sense now.
 
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