Found this nice post for 4 different types of builds for rangers, check it out
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Copy/paste here for us, weekend is almost here!
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Welcome to my guide on Ranger Support. I will be going into detail on how to use 4 different builds which individually maximize different Ranger Support aspects. I hope that this guide will give other players insight as to how support is currently functioning in GW2 as well as enlighten players about the more subtle and sophisticated mechanics beyond the common “glass cannon” or “wall of bricks” builds that cropped up in BWE1/BWE2.
I'm going to introduce my builds by giving them codenames. I will be referring to them by this codename throughout the build. You don't need to use my codename, and I am not claiming these builds as mine. This is simply my way of organizing discussion.
The four builds are as follows:
The Shaman (Link): A full support build that attempts to maximize the group buffing and healing potential of the class. This build emphasizes stacking the odds in your favor through the use of boons, the backbone of support ranger play.
The Druid (Link): A support oriented build which utilizes pets to tank and deal high levels of DPS. This build is capable of providing strong support along with a very powerful pet which can act as a solid ablative tank or good sustained DPS.
The Warden (Link): A melee ranger who focuses on tanking and controlling enemies while providing well-rounded defensive support for allies. This build has one of the highest potentials for tanking in the entire game.
The Wanderer (Link): A support ranger who is capable of stepping into multiple roles by sacrificing some potential from each area in order to achieve a well rounded and highly versatile package.
Shared Aspects:
For all four builds I will be assuming that the player is utilizing some common set-ups, which I feel are optimal for support rangers.
Equipment Wise:
One weapon set is always Axe and Warhorn (the only exclusion being a Druid variant), as shown in the builds. It is assumed that the player will intelligently use Call of the Wild and Winter's Bite. Winter's Bite causes the companion's next attack to cause 10s of Weakness. Blunting enemy damage is very important as the longer your allies live the more effective your support will be. Use it often, you can keep it up near 100% of the time. This is a big deal against powerful single targets!
The 6 armor runes the builds are using are:
2 Superior Water (25 Healing, 15% Boon Duration)
2 Superior Monk (25 Healing, 15% Boon Duration)
2 Major Monk (15 Healing, 10% Boon Duration)
Please note that I will be listing two sigils, even for two-handed weapons. Developers have already said 2h weapons will have two sigils.
Healing Spring is in every support ranger build for good reason. This is arguably the single best healing skill in all of Guild Wars 2, and It forms the cornerstone of many advanced support ranger mechanics. The skill is simply a 30s recast 15s duration medium sized AoE water field which pulses a 3s duration regeneration 5 times and removes conditions during pulses. When activated the ranger and pet will also receive a heal for 5500-7000 depending on compassion. The water field and regeneration boons will be the focus of many combinations as many ranger attacks will combo with this field, allowing the ranger to spread healing through regeneration or direct heals. Additionally by maximizing boon duration the ranger is able to turn Healing Spring into a veritable neverending fountain of life. It will be asummed that for all builds between water field combos and boon duration Regeneration will always be up, and that at level 80 with high compassion this skill will regenerate 300 hp/s.
Signet of the Wild is also part of every build. Signet of the Wild grants another form of Regeneration to the ranger, healing an equal amount to Regeneration. The Ranger's companion will regenerate 1.5 times this This will represent another 300 hp/s to all builds for the ranger and 450 hp/s to all companions.
Now on to the builds.
Build Codename: Shaman
Playstyle: Ranged Buffer/Healer
Build Link: »
www.gw2tools....UZXf;ceba;bXWdbStat Priority: Healing/Vitality/Power
Primary Weapon: Axe
Primary Offhand: Warhorn
Secondary Weapon: Longbow
Primary Sigil 1: Superior Water
Primary Sigil 2: Superior Life
Secondary Sigil 1: Superior Water
Secondary Sigil 2: Superior Battle
Pet 1: Blue Moa (AOE Protection)
Pet 2: Red Moa (AOE Fury)
Summary:
Your goals with the Shaman build are simply to heal and buff allies. You will accomplish this by using Healing Spring, Moa calls, Spirit buffs and limiting yourself to a single weapon set in order to reap the benefits of the sigil of Superior Life. You will spend most of your time as a Shaman managing your Moas, your spirits and your many cooldowns.
The Shaman chooses to sacrifice the tankiness of a bear pet or the DPS of a feline pet in exchange for keeping a pair of Moas as companions. You will want to swap between these two often in order to keep them alive, and in order to maximize the uptime of the F2 skills Protecting Screech (10s of Protection, 40s cooldown) and Furious Screech (15s of Fury, 30s cooldown,) as well as use both of their Harmonic Cries (3250 healing, 40s cooldown) to generate healing. In a pinch the Moas will be able to take a bit of damage and act as an off-tank, but your main goal is to swap them often, granting yourself and allies boons and tapping into their rather large AoE heals to maximize the sustainability of your group. Signet of the Wild will also greatly enhance pet survivability, a dead pet triggers a lengthy cooldown on swapping and will disrupt the flow of the Shaman.
Playstyle:
Your goal will be to place Healing Spring in a place where as many allies will stand in it or combo with it as possible. Due to the high compassion of the build you will be healing for roughly 300 hp/s from regeneration with any combinations set off using your compassion and generating thousands of additional healing. Throwing axes through the water field is a great way to bounce around additional healing as well. If the fight looks bad use your elite skill Spirit of Nature to further pump healing, granting an additional 480 hp/s to nearby allies. Done correctly you should be able to sustain over 1000 hp/s on all of your allies for an entire minute at a time. This level of sustained healing is unapproachable by any other class.
Now on the other half of the Shaman, buffing allies. Warhorn's Call of the Wild will be your top priority, with 170% boon duration Call of the Wild will last 25.5s, with your 20% reduced offhand cooldown from Wilderness Survival trait Offhand Mastery you will be able to recast this every 28s, approaching near 100% uptime for Fury, Swiftness and Might. Using your Moa calls will also help bolster your team. Between Call of the Wild and Furious Screech you will have no problem keeping Fury up on your entire group 100% of the time!
If that wasn't enough though you also get to use Spirits. Frost Spirit will grant nearby allies another 10% damage. Stone Spirit however is a bit more complex. Each hit landed on an enemy has a 35% chance (thanks to Spiritual Knowledge trait) to trigger the protection, and the protection boon granted gains fully from your boon duration, meaning instead of 1s you'll get 1.7s. When fighting in AoE situations you will frequently find yourself building multiple seconds of protection, especially for multi-hit moves like Splitblade, Ricochet, Barrage and Rapidfire. In order to ensure your allies are well protected I recommend using your Moa's protection early in a pull, this will give your allies time to start building their own protection stacks and help keep the fight stable.
When the going gets tough the Shaman or Moa companions are also fully capable of stepping in and taking a few hits. Just make sure to keep protection up, keep weakness up through Winter's Bite, and use your large HP pool along with rapid health regen to soak damage where necessary. Don't forget that your spirits can also be used to draw the attention of enemies! Tanking is part of support.
Additionally remain situationally aware. While it may be painful to sacrifice your compassion stack from Sigil of Life you should not hesitate to swap to Longbow and use Point Blank Shot to push an enemy off of an ailing ally. This is especially true in PVP where you can prevent an execution and use your healing prowess to rapidly revive them.
When it comes to DPS the Shaman is decidedly average to below average. However it is no slouch. By maximizing Beast Mastery and providing so many buffs the Shaman's Moa companions are capable of contributing some pain. Additionally by converting 10% of healing into power the Shaman helps make up statistic gap. While under the influence of permanent Fury and Frost Spirit the Shaman is capable of producing about 60% of the DPS of a full DPS class. Don't forget that the buffs you give allies more than make up for any slack you have in the killing department.
The Shaman offers a lot to groups and scales well with number of allies. It is highly flexible and mobile thanks to high boon uptimes, mobile spirits and constant pet swapping. The healing and buffing potential of the Shaman is unmatched between all support rangers, though it tends to be middle of the road in healing and somewhat weak at DPS compared to other support builds.
Build Codename: Druid
Playstyle: Ranged Petmaster
Build Link: »
www.gw2tools....UbZa;ceba;bXWdZElite Skill: Rampage as One OR Spirit of Nature
Stat Priority: Healing/Power/Vitality
Primary Weapon: Axe OR Sword
Primary Offhand: Warhorn
Secondary Weapon: Longbow
Primary Sigil 1: Superior Water
Primary Sigil 2: Superior Battle
Secondary Sigil 1: Superior Water
Secondary Sigil 2: Superior Battle
Pet 1: Lynx (Leaping Attack)
Pet 2: Brown Bear (AOE Cure)
Summary:
Your goal with the Druid build is to influence the battlefield through the power of your animal companions. Capable of playing a DPS and Tanking role while providing well rounded support the Druid is a flexible build that rewards situational awareness. You will spend most of your time playing a Druid micromanaging your companion and maintaining boons by providing support for your companion and other allies. The Druid has some flexibility in weapon and elite skill choice which offer it new playstyles.
Playstyle:
The Druid will follow many of the tenets of the Shaman, they will endeavor to use Healing Spring as often as possible and maintain spirits. However they will generally tend to keep one companion out at a time depending on the role that they're filling. This pet will be the focus of much of their gameplay, and like the Sigil of Life for Shamans will grow with kills due to the trait Master's Bond. However while the Shaman constantly swapped companions the Druid will constantly swap weapons in order to utilize their Skirmishing traits Tail Wind and Furious Grip. The Druid's playstyle will depend a lot on which of the two companions is currently active, which coincidentally will give the Druid two focuses, a “Bear Druid” or “Cat Druid.” Which to at least my chagrin does somewhat smack of one specific other game.
The Brown Bear will act as the tanking pet, with the Druid adopting a mostly ranged playstyle utilizing Axe/Warhorn (Call of the Wild is still 25.5s duration but now 35s cooldown) and Longbow. This playstyle will use the Bear's natural toughness alongside the high healing potential of a support ranger along with damage boosting support abilities. Because boons are shared between pet and master it will be very easy to maintain 100% Fury uptime on the companion, and in many cases it will be rather easy to keep Protection up 100% of the time as well. Because the Druid will be swapping weapons consistently the quantity of attacks will be much higher. Rapid Fire and Barrage from the longbow are both exceptional at triggering multiple instances of Protection. Additionally these multi-hit moves are also devastating with the elite skill Rampage as One, quickly resulting in up to 25 stacks of might on your rather angry pet.
On top of these many boons the bear will also be healing for quite a bit, almost 450 hp/s from Signet of the Wild and 300 hp/s from Regeneration. In addition every time the pet crits (which will be close to 65-70% of the time with full Beastmastery, full Master's Bond and permanent Fury) the bear will heal itself for another 1400-1500 hp thanks to the Carnivorous Appetite trait. This will give the bear enough longevity to act as a main tank in many groups. This comes out to being a good 1000 or so hp/s on average, and if you select Spirit of Nature you can further enhance the health regeneration of your Bear, creating an enormous wall of meat with over 45,000 hp, 1,500 hp/s health regen, very high toughness and 33% damage reduction with the ability to go invulnerable for a few seconds every 40s. You can also keep weakness up nearly 100% of the time by using it as the first skill when entering axe and then reusing it before returning to longbow, further protecting your bear.
The Lynx will act as the DPS pet, with the Druid choosing to either fight beside the Lynx in order to help it stay alive, or choosing to support it from the rear. All of the same healing and buffing tactics from the bear also apply to the lynx, however a new combo will be available in that the lynx F2 skill can be used to combo with Healing Spring for a splash of healing. The lynx will additionally crit much more often, in the realm of 85% with full Master's Bond. This will greatly enhance the cat's ability to survive in order to do DPS.
Capable of landing attacks for nearly 3000 damage thanks to the 30% critical damage bonus from Pet's Prowess the lynx is a highly aggressive beast which can be further protected and enhanced through the use of the one-handed Sword weapon over Axe. By choosing to fight alongside the Lynx the Ranger can stack Might on the cat, increasing damage and also drawing the attention of some enemies. By no means is the druid squishy, with much of the same longevity of the Shaman the same defensive and reactionary options are available to Druids. Additionally be aware of the potential of an Druid utilizing Rampage as One with multi-hit attacks such as Ricochet, Splitblade, Rapidfire or Barrage. This can quickly result in a lynx with 25 stacks of might becoming an uncontrollable wrecking ball as it tears apart targets.
All this comes at some price though as the Druid is individually the weakest variant of support ranger in terms of personal DPS. With few options to convert stats into power it may be necessary to sacrifice some toughness or vitality for power to help cover up the gap. The stats gained from investing into Skirmishing are also somewhat lackluster as a fairly low personal crit chance and power will mean little gain from additional critical bonus.
The Druid offers solid support to allies while utilizing their companion to fill out the rest of their role in the party. There is some ramp-up time between swapping pets and maxmizing their stats, however the reward for maximizing Master's Bond is very substantial (your pet gains almost 12% crit from a maxed bond, which is important with Carnivorous Appetite.) The Druid acts as a mastermind support, increasing ally potential, responding to changes in battle flow and gaining momentum as they maintain their companions.
Build Codename: Warden
Playstyle: Melee Tank
Build Link: »
www.gw2tools....gbZa;Zace;bXWYbStat Priority: Toughness/Healing/Vitality
Primary Weapon: Greatsword
Primary Offhand:
Secondary Weapon: Axe
Secondary Offhand: Warhorn
Primary Sigil 1: Superior Leeching
Primary Sigil 2: Superior Battle
Pet 1: Brown Bear (AOE Cure)
Pet 2: Blue Moa (AOE Protection)
Summary:
This support ranger build isn't afraid to get into melee and get dirty. In fact it rolls in the dirt. The Warden is an evasive melee tank which uses the healing potential of support ranger along with the toughness provided by the Greatsword to outlast enemies. Your goals while playing the Warden are to draw the attention of enemies onto yourself or your bear companion, reduce or evade enemy attacks, and rapidly regenerate any sustained damage.
Playstyle:
The Warden utilizes similar healing tactics to the Shaman, focusing on maximizing healing spring. The Warden will however have their own leap in Swoop, allowing for a healing splash. Additionally the Warden will also grant equal duration Vigor as Regeneration thanks to the Vigorous Renewal Trait. With 100% additional endurance from Vigor and 50% additional from the Natural Vigor trait the Warden is capable of rolling every 3-4s. This combines with the traits Companion's Defense and Evasive Purity to cause every dodge roll to provide 3.4s of Protection to yourself (6.8 to your companion) and also remove a condition. Combine this with your bear's ability to remove a condition every 20s and you should be able to keep yourself and your allies sparkling clean when it comes to conditions. Who ever thought the old saying “rub some dirt on it” worked?
The buffing functions of a Warden are markedly different than that of a Shaman or Druid. Because the Warden wants to be in melee most if not all of the time it is inevitable that any spirits brought into melee would end up falling. Because of this the Warden's spirits are not mobile, instead the Warden will plant them at a distance and when renewal is necessary the Warden's bear companion should be used to occupy the enemies while the Warden quickly rolls out of combat and summons spirits safely aside. With the high duration of Protection granted and the high frequency of dodge rolling the Warden should have little difficulty maintaining strong Protection uptime, especially with the assistance of Stone Spirit.
Much like the Druid the Warden will want to be constantly swapping weapons, however this will be to maximize Sigils of Leeching, which will provide a 1200-1400 point heal every swap. This will also give the Warden a chance to use their Axe/Warhorn to give Weakness to the enemy and provide Call of the Wild to allies. Fortunately this behavior tends to work fairly well for the Warden, as buddy-tanking with a bear companion maximizes everyone's survivability. By stepping out to recover with the axe and then leaping back in to draw attention with the great sword the bear and ranger will take turns rapidly regenerating.
While using the Greatsword the ranger will easily be one of the most defensive characters in the game. By manually completing the Greatsword 1 Chain the ranger can carefully time evasions with the third swing. Using Counterattack to block attacks and Hilt Bash to stop telegraphed attacks or spell casts the ranger can easily frustrate enemy offense. When using all of these options with the ability to roll every 3-4s and a natural regeneration of nearly 600 hp/s thanks to Signet of the Wild and Regeneration from Healing Spring the Warden would have no problem standing alone with the most dangerous enemies in Tyria. Fortunately that isn't necessary as much like the Bear Druid the Warden's bear companion is also very tough and fully capable of tanking. While not quite as bloodthirsty or capable of self-healing through critical hits it is still extremely tough thanks to Companion's Defense.
The Warden is also quite dangerous in terms of damage. Thanks to gaining three stacks of might on every weapon swap due to Sigil of Battle, as well as dealing bonus damage and healing for 1200-1400 with Sigil of Leeching, the traits Strength of Spirit converting 10% of vitality into power and Nature's Wrath converting 10% of compassion into power, as well as generally high damage attacks on Great Sword the Warden has rather high personal DPS potential for a support class, including the pet the Warden deals around 80% of a pure DPS.
Very few enemies can overcome the combination of extreme defense, high healing and decent damage that the Warden has. However the Warden is weaker than the builds listed above when it comes to support. Stationary spirits with less chance to provide buffs and the companion filling the same role as the Warden somewhat limit the flexibility of the build. However the Warden does control enemies well and cleanses conditions at an extraordinary rate, rendering himself and allies highly resistant to control and debuffing.
Build Codename: Wanderer
Playstyle: Maximum Flexibility
Build Link: »
www.gw2tools....gbZa;ceZa;bXWdbStat Priority: Healing/Toughness/Vitality
Primary Weapon: Axe
Primary Offhand: Warhorn
Secondary Weapon: Longbow OR Greatsword
Secondary Offhand:
Healing: Healing Spring
Primary Sigil 1: Superior Bloodlust
Primary Sigil 2: Superior Life
Secondary Sigil 1: Superior Leeching
Secondary Sigil 2: Superior Battle
Pet 1: Brown Bear (AOE Cure)
Pet 2: Hyena (Call Hyena Ally)
Summary:
While the three builds discussed above were focused on individual aspects of ranger support the Wanderer is a generalist. Taking aspects of each of the above builds it tries to find the sweet spot between all three which maximizes as many aspects of them as possible and attempts to achieve ultimate flexibility. The Wanderer makes up for being only above average in many areas by utilizing Master's Bond and growing Sigils to bolster stats.
Much like the Shaman the Wanderer will typically stick with a single weaponset, the Axe and Warhorn. Choosing to gain Compassion and Power with every fallen enemy through Sigils the Wanderer will typically only keep a longbow or greatsword in reserve for use as reactionary control or tanking situations. Much like the Druid the Wanderer will also tend to stick to one pet, in this case the Bear, utilizing it as a tank. Much like the Warden the Wanderer will be rather tanky and evasive, by actively skirmishing the Wanderer will use their own toughness and recovery along with Companion's defense to help their bear control enemies. Should the Wanderer's companion go down the Hyena acts as good stopgap due to multiple leaps(for water combos,)a knockdown, decent tankability and the ability to summon another Hyena which also knockdown and leap multiple times.
Due to the increased compassion from Sigil of Life the Wanderer will be an above average healer as a support ranger, helping keep allies and their pet companion alive. With full condition removal capabilities it will be very difficult to control or debuff a Wanderer's party as well. And while immobile and lower chance Spirits will continue to provide support to the group.
The Wanderer's playstyle will be to dance in and out of the front lines, placing Healing Spring in the middle of combat and absorbing some damage before evading out of the mix, ensuring spirits are active and out of range of enemies, throwing axes and buffing allies as they regenerate and then returning to melee combat to absorb and evade more damage before repeating the process.
Thanks to Wrath of Nature and Strength of Spirit the Wanderer will also have competent personal DPS, which combined with their pet will bring it to 70-75% of a full DPS. While axes may not be outstanding in any one DPS category the generalist nature of the weaponset suits the Wanderer's jack-of-all trades approach to combat.
And that is what the Wanderer is, a jack-of-all trades, master of none. While capable of filling any roll and operating at 80-90% capacity it may lack the charm of one of the Shaman, Druid or Warden but it does well represent the myriad roles a support ranger can fill.
I encourage others to design their own support rangers, feel free to use any ideas of mine, and please share any of your own. The more ideas the better. I hope you enjoyed this post.
