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Is core condi ranger even a thing?


KurokawaKazuma.8641

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Does anyone play Core condi ranger in PvP/WvW and/or PvE? I've been visiting this play-style after 4 years and this is probably one of the most outdated play-style in the game at this point (Playing sword/torch + Axe/dagger).Been roaming as core condi ranger in WvW and literally almost every build just counters this play-style.It either could be also that core condi ranger is somewhat a balanced (condi) build should be : NO hard condi pressure, NO 24/7 boonspam, NOTbeing able to apply EVERY condition, very slow and dull gameplay compared to PoF E-specs, NO constant condition to boon, NO AoE spam and so on...

And when it comes to the popularity of Core condi ranger, it's very low IMO too. If you type in youtube "Guild wars 2 core condi ranger" the first video that pops up is a soulbeast video... If look up for advice for ranger (as a whole) for WvW/PvP and/or PvE (raids, fracs and else) I see so many suggestions for Druid or Soulbeast. Sometimes Core power ranger.Looking around in PvE metas, Fractals, WvW and PvP, i have also never seen a condi core ranger as well.

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I've found torch to pair better with axe, because while you can combine it with sword for melee damage in most fights it'll be better to use it as a kiting tool combined with Winter's bite to basically cause enemies to get stuck in the fire if they get too close.

And mostly, sword is just bad on condi builds period, which is why Soulbeast D/D or D/T beats Core here.

Keep in mind that you can use the shortbow as a melee weapon, which is common in other PvP games. Skill into high condi duration and then "dance" around your opponent to avoid their attacks, using shortbow #3+Lightning Reflexes to escape if it starts to go badly.

I feel like the most effective WvW build for condi Ranger is condi trapper, with the stealth runes, combined with the Jaguar.

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@Hannelore.8153 said:And mostly, sword is just bad on condi builds periodI use sword mainly because it has great mobility for kiting and adding distance between me and my target in WvW. But to dish out conditions, then yes, this is a bad choice for a weapon. To deal power damage as a core ranger, I would choose Longbow + Greatsword or Axe/Axe and not sword. Thus at this point I don't know what sword is for other then great mobility.

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@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:And mostly, sword is just bad on condi builds periodI use sword mainly because it has great mobility for kiting and adding distance between me and my target in WvW. But to dish out conditions, then yes, this is a bad choice for a weapon. To deal power damage as a core ranger, I would choose Longbow + Greatsword or Axe/Axe and not sword. Thus at this point I don't know what sword is for other then great mobility.

For much the same role that it has on Thief, which is what you said. That said, movement will only get you so much in a fight compared to raw power, as soon as you come up against anyone with a bunker build you're really going to struggle to do anything but escape.

In WvW almost everyone is hybrid, bunker or support. Very few people are built for pure DPS.

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No. It was pseudo viable when the game was core... but why?

Condi core meta through the ages:

Trap ranger. Exinction: Traps no longer throwable.

Condi beastmaster: pets did most dmg and condi weps shortbow and s/d provided pressured and defense while pets killed people. Extinction: pet dps nerfs.

Spirit ranger: spirits did most dmg and helped buff Condi dmg. Spirits no longer run around, natures vengeance changed so spirits don't activate on death.

Anti d/d ele. This was the last core ranger build ever played competitively, and at WTS. This was a signet, Condi build meant to 1v1 cele d/d ele which DOMINATED the meta. It required a lot of game knowledge. Chill after they swap into water attubement. Make sure weakness from pet lands. After splitblade and dagger 5, wep swap for hydromancy and doom to cover the bleeds so they can't be cleansed. Use torch for more cover condis and apply poison to cover the bleeds, etc. Extinction: Expansions and power creep.

Core ranger is fundamentally not viable it seems. It lacks burst, it lacks reapplication, it lacks mobility. It's very easy to make a build that just straight up counters Condi ranger that Condi ranger has 0 chance of beating. Which is bad because the only thing it can kind of do is 1v1. Things you can manage to beat, require you to dodge everything and wittle them down... you never have control of the fight... it's like playing dark souls without ever leveling up. Let's say it could 1v1... it offers almost nothing in a team fight and anything else is more valuable.

It is simply outshined by everything else.

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@Eurantien.4632 said:It's very easy to make a build that just straight up counters Condi ranger that Condi ranger has 0 chance of beating. Which is bad because the only thing it can kind of do is 1v1. Things you can manage to beat, require you to dodge everything and wittle them down... you never have control of the fight... it's like playing dark souls without ever leveling up. Let's say it could 1v1... it offers almost nothing in a team fight and anything else is more valuable.

It is simply outshined by everything else.

Exactly.

Sometimes I do dumb condi build for fun, but you'll never feel strong like a condi Necro, Mesmer or Guardian. So many classes has passive defense, evades and Stability nowadays. Condi Ranger (all types) has no mean to corrupt boons or doesn't have enough raw condi power to go through that.

Necros and Guardians have huge condi AoEs which are usefull in team fights. Ranger only has traps and they are tied to utilities. The problem is just that, it takes space from an utility slot and Condi ranger needs them even more than Power builds. Condi clear ? Stun break ? Protection/Dmg nullification ? If you put more than one trap, you're hurting yourself.

As someone that was glad with Sword change, Serpent's Strike being after Monarch's Leap really hurts the viability of Sword in PvP. Making Monarch's Leap followed by Hornet String would fix the problem with Sword leaps or go back to the old ways but let the player choose the direction of the back leap. I tried playing around with condi Sw/D, it's really good for kiting, but that's it.

If they were serious about Condi Sbeast, they should just add an evade to Instinctive Engage, which has been requested so many times. All melee weapons from Ranger has Evade, even Shortbow. It doesn't make sense for MH Dagger to not have it. That would work nicely with Skirmishing (which is probably the least used Trait line) and Strider's Defense.

Can we play Condi ? Sure... just don't expect it to be good against the meta.

As for PvE, the only way to play Condi Ranger (any kind) is with Quick Draw. To be effective, the Ranger has to hug the target with Splitblade/Poison Volley. It doesn't remove the fact that Condi Ranger can't AoE without Traps. Shortbow Crossfire is dull as hell and it should do the Bleeding duration without LoyF. What Condi Ranger needs is AoE and higher burst.

Finally, for PvE, Condi Ranger has to INVEST A LOT to get full condi duration, even just for the Bleed (Full Viper, % Duration Sigils and Food/Utlities). All other classes outcap their Bleeding duration without that much investment. Ranger is the odd one.

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I have a Falconer themed PvE Hybrid Soulbeast.. not a build I've fine tuned though but it works well enough for me.

I use Dagger/Torch and Shortbow along side Eagle and Hawk pets for double Lacerating Slash (extra bleeds) and high pet crit.Armour and weapons are a mix of Viper and Sinister statsTrinkets are mixed adding precision, toughness, power and condition damage.. precision being the only stat shared on all of them.. this was more make do with what I have rather than planned to be this way, I plan on changing these at some point for a mix of Bringers and Rampager's stats.

Utility skills: We Heal as One or Troll Unguent, Sharpening Stone, Quickening Zephyr, Sic Em, Entagle.Sigils: Dagger/Torch, Superior Agony (increased Bleed duration) Superior Smoldering (Increased Burn duration) Shortbow (TBD)Runes: Superior Rune of the Soulbeast 6/6

I use Skirmishing:Sharpened Edges (Bleed chance on crit)Hidden Barbs (Stronger bleeds)Light on your Feet (Dmg/condi duration inc after dodge + Shortbow piercing arrows and CD reduction)

Wilderness Survival:Taste for Danger (+Vitality gain Expertise based on Vitality)Ambidexterity (+Condi dmg + more condi dmg if wielding torch or dagger, Torch/Dagger skills recharge faster)Wilderness Knowledge (Survival Skills give fury, remove conditions and recharge faster)

Soulbeast:Live Fast (Fury/Quickness when using beast ability)Essence of Speed (Quickness increase duraion of other boons by 2 seconds)Oppressive Superiority (damage and condi duration increased against foes with lower health % than you)

It's by no means a perfect build and it needs fine tuning which i'll get around to one day.I mostly made it because I wanted a Falconer themed Ranger but it works pretty well in PvE at least.

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@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:And mostly, sword is just bad on condi builds periodI use sword mainly because it has great mobility for kiting and adding distance between me and my target in WvW. But to dish out conditions, then yes, this is a bad choice for a weapon. To deal power damage as a core ranger, I would choose Longbow + Greatsword or Axe/Axe and not sword. Thus at this point I don't know what sword is for other then great mobility.

I run Sword along side Warhorn on my main Zerker Ranger.Mobility is it's main strength which is good for me being more glassy.. get in do damage get out, Sword is awesome for that.I also use it for CC too, combo the cripple leap attack with electric wyverns lightning field and you got a nice daze/cripple CC combo there while being positioned in melee after the leap to take advantage of the stun phase with Swords quick auto chain and Hunters call with is a 16 hit attack.

It's not a bad weapon at all and works pretty good with Warhorn imo, been using this combo for a good few years now.

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@Teratus.2859 said:I have a Falconer themed PvE Hybrid Soulbeast.. not a build I've fine tuned though but it works well enough for me.

I use Dagger/Torch and Shortbow along side Eagle and Hawk pets for double Lacerating Slash (extra bleeds) and high pet crit.Armour and weapons are a mix of Viper and Sinister statsTrinkets are mixed adding precision, toughness, power and condition damage.. precision being the only stat shared on all of them.. this was more make do with what I have rather than planned to be this way, I plan on changing these at some point for a mix of Bringers and Rampager's stats.

Utility skills: We Heal as One or Troll Unguent, Sharpening Stone, Quickening Zephyr, Sic Em, Entagle.Sigils: Dagger/Torch, Superior Agony (increased Bleed duration) Superior Smoldering (Increased Burn duration) Shortbow (TBD)Runes: Superior Rune of the Soulbeast 6/6

I use Skirmishing:Sharpened Edges (Bleed chance on crit)Hidden Barbs (Stronger bleeds)Light on your Feet (Dmg/condi duration inc after dodge + Shortbow piercing arrows and CD reduction)

Wilderness Survival:Taste for Danger (+Vitality gain Expertise based on Vitality)Ambidexterity (+Condi dmg + more condi dmg if wielding torch or dagger, Torch/Dagger skills recharge faster)Wilderness Knowledge (Survival Skills give fury, remove conditions and recharge faster)

Soulbeast:Live Fast (Fury/Quickness when using beast ability)Essence of Speed (Quickness increase duraion of other boons by 2 seconds)Oppressive Superiority (damage and condi duration increased against foes with lower health % than you)

It's by no means a perfect build and it needs fine tuning which i'll get around to one day.I mostly made it because I wanted a Falconer themed Ranger but it works pretty well in PvE at least.

Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

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@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:I have a Falconer themed PvE Hybrid Soulbeast.. not a build I've fine tuned though but it works well enough for me.

I use Dagger/Torch and Shortbow along side Eagle and Hawk pets for double Lacerating Slash (extra bleeds) and high pet crit.Armour and weapons are a mix of Viper and Sinister statsTrinkets are mixed adding precision, toughness, power and condition damage.. precision being the only stat shared on all of them.. this was more make do with what I have rather than planned to be this way, I plan on changing these at some point for a mix of Bringers and Rampager's stats.

Utility skills: We Heal as One or Troll Unguent, Sharpening Stone, Quickening Zephyr, Sic Em, Entagle.Sigils: Dagger/Torch, Superior Agony (increased Bleed duration) Superior Smoldering (Increased Burn duration) Shortbow (TBD)Runes: Superior Rune of the Soulbeast 6/6

I use Skirmishing:Sharpened Edges (Bleed chance on crit)Hidden Barbs (Stronger bleeds)Light on your Feet (Dmg/condi duration inc after dodge + Shortbow piercing arrows and CD reduction)

Wilderness Survival:Taste for Danger (+Vitality gain Expertise based on Vitality)Ambidexterity (+Condi dmg + more condi dmg if wielding torch or dagger, Torch/Dagger skills recharge faster)Wilderness Knowledge (Survival Skills give fury, remove conditions and recharge faster)

Soulbeast:Live Fast (Fury/Quickness when using beast ability)Essence of Speed (Quickness increase duraion of other boons by 2 seconds)Oppressive Superiority (damage and condi duration increased against foes with lower health % than you)

It's by no means a perfect build and it needs fine tuning which i'll get around to one day.I mostly made it because I wanted a Falconer themed Ranger but it works pretty well in PvE at least.

Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

If you really want to go core though then Beastmastery is probably the best choice.I'd take:Potent Ally (grant might to pet on crit and pet grants might to you on crit) good for high crit birds and we have a lot of fury.Wilting Strike (Pet F2 skills inflict weakness) It's not much but it'll give you some damage reduction for 4 seconds.Honed Axes (+ferocity and more ferocity when using an axe, axe skills recharge faster and Axe 3 becomes an AoE) No brainer that this is the best choice for any Ranger with an Axe.

Likewise you'll want to play Axe more like a melee weapon for the most part since you'll want to get enemies close to take advantage of Torch and cut down the distance/time between your axe's ricochet so you can take advantage of the might gain.

That's the best I can come up with for a core Ranger, unfortunately there just isn't much option for anything else really.But once you got Soulbeast I strongly advise swapping to it for the Dagger, it's the best and only decent mainhand condi weapon Ranger has access to.

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@Teratus.2859 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

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Most core classes are useless after the new contents power creep.. They work fine for Core Tyria outside that no way to weak.

And the nerfers in PvP aren't helping any.

@Krispera.5087 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

Iboga isn't a core pet? Also Lich runes work well.

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@Krispera.5087 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

That's one way sure.. though I'd prefer to have Light on your Feet over quickdraw as it overall makes the SB a fair bit stronger.Auto's bleeds last longer, poison volly poison lasts longer, crippling shot imobalize lasts longer and Concussion Shot gets 10 stacks of vun regardless of position.Likewise piercing arrows turns the weapon from a single target weapon into a limited AoE weapon which can be pretty effective when used right.I run piercing arrows on LB all the time too so im always lining up enemies to take advantage of it, trickier on SB due to the conditions requiring flanking but still doable with practice.

I run Wilderness Knowledge over Poison Master due to having multiple survival skills, I don't run traps on my build and due to being pretty glassy the condi removal helps with that against stronger foes that like to inflict them.Torment, Confusion and stuff like that can be a problem for more fragile characters, specially in my case as I have a lot of quickness and fast attacks, a big stack of confuse can hit me pretty hard as can torment and movement imparing conditions if I need to flee or retreat.Having 3 survival skills (4 if I run Troll) can keep those condis off me while also supplying me with a lot of Fury and reduced recharge on those skills, it's a good trade off over a bit of extra poison damage imo.

Aside from the Falconer theme though I've grown very fond of using Hawk and Eagle as pets.They are quick attackers, not as easy to kill as you might think and they add on command bleeds which is good when stacks are more important than condi duration due to the high experterse requirement that you mentioned earlier.They're also capable of leap finishers tooIboga is a great pet for Condi rangers though, specially SB's but Jaguar is more suited to a Power Ranger imo, Lynx would be better if you wanted to run a cat due to on command bleeds and they too have a leap finisher, unlike birds though Lynx leap is on command as well.

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@Teratus.2859 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

That's one way sure.. though I'd prefer to have Light on your Feet over quickdraw as it overall makes the SB a fair bit stronger.Auto's bleeds last longer, poison volly poison lasts longer, crippling shot imobalize lasts longer and Concussion Shot gets 10 stacks of vun regardless of position.Likewise piercing arrows turns the weapon from a single target weapon into a limited AoE weapon which can be pretty effective when used right.I run piercing arrows on LB all the time too so im always lining up enemies to take advantage of it, trickier on SB due to the conditions requiring flanking but still doable with practice.

I run Wilderness Knowledge over Poison Master due to having multiple survival skills, I don't run traps on my build and due to being pretty glassy the condi removal helps with that against stronger foes that like to inflict them.Torment, Confusion and stuff like that can be a problem for more fragile characters, specially in my case as I have a lot of quickness and fast attacks, a big stack of confuse can hit me pretty hard as can torment and movement imparing conditions if I need to flee or retreat.Having 3 survival skills (4 if I run Troll) can keep those condis off me while also supplying me with a lot of Fury and reduced recharge on those skills, it's a good trade off over a bit of extra poison damage imo.

Aside from the Falconer theme though I've grown very fond of using Hawk and Eagle as pets.They are quick attackers, not as easy to kill as you might think and they add on command bleeds which is good when stacks are more important than condi duration due to the high experterse requirement that you mentioned earlier.They're also capable of leap finishers tooIboga is a great pet for Condi rangers though, specially SB's but Jaguar is more suited to a Power Ranger imo, Lynx would be better if you wanted to run a cat due to on command bleeds and they too have a leap finisher, unlike birds though Lynx leap is on command as well.

Ugh. No. Lynx and Bleed birds are terrible pets for Condi ranger. Pet Condi dmg and expertise Is independent of the ranger, despite what the tool tip says. All you are doing is putting really weak bleed stacks on someone and pulling the bleeds up to the top of the Condi list so they can get clesnsed easier.

Only way birds are ok, is if you spam wilting strike.

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@Eurantien.4632 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

That's one way sure.. though I'd prefer to have Light on your Feet over quickdraw as it overall makes the SB a fair bit stronger.Auto's bleeds last longer, poison volly poison lasts longer, crippling shot imobalize lasts longer and Concussion Shot gets 10 stacks of vun regardless of position.Likewise piercing arrows turns the weapon from a single target weapon into a limited AoE weapon which can be pretty effective when used right.I run piercing arrows on LB all the time too so im always lining up enemies to take advantage of it, trickier on SB due to the conditions requiring flanking but still doable with practice.

I run Wilderness Knowledge over Poison Master due to having multiple survival skills, I don't run traps on my build and due to being pretty glassy the condi removal helps with that against stronger foes that like to inflict them.Torment, Confusion and stuff like that can be a problem for more fragile characters, specially in my case as I have a lot of quickness and fast attacks, a big stack of confuse can hit me pretty hard as can torment and movement imparing conditions if I need to flee or retreat.Having 3 survival skills (4 if I run Troll) can keep those condis off me while also supplying me with a lot of Fury and reduced recharge on those skills, it's a good trade off over a bit of extra poison damage imo.

Aside from the Falconer theme though I've grown very fond of using Hawk and Eagle as pets.They are quick attackers, not as easy to kill as you might think and they add on command bleeds which is good when stacks are more important than condi duration due to the high experterse requirement that you mentioned earlier.They're also capable of leap finishers tooIboga is a great pet for Condi rangers though, specially SB's but Jaguar is more suited to a Power Ranger imo, Lynx would be better if you wanted to run a cat due to on command bleeds and they too have a leap finisher, unlike birds though Lynx leap is on command as well.

Ugh. No. Lynx and Bleed birds are terrible pets for Condi ranger. Pet Condi dmg and expertise Is independent of the ranger, despite what the tool tip says. All you are doing is putting really weak bleed stacks on someone and pulling the bleeds up to the top of the Condi list so they can get clesnsed easier.

Only way birds are ok, is if you spam wilting strike.

Bleeds are only part of it, bit of extra damage and adding to the stacks I apply myself, I am always going to be pulling bleeds to the top of the condi list with my Ranger anyway due to it being Rangers primary condition so it's not a concern.The main reason I use birds aside from my builds theme is due to their high crit chance and direct damage.As I said before my build isnt pure condi it's a hybrid so I get a lot of damage from power as well and birds work great for that as they have one of the highest base damage auto attacks and also one of the quickest attack speeds.

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@Teratus.2859 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

That's one way sure.. though I'd prefer to have Light on your Feet over quickdraw as it overall makes the SB a fair bit stronger.Auto's bleeds last longer, poison volly poison lasts longer, crippling shot imobalize lasts longer and Concussion Shot gets 10 stacks of vun regardless of position.Likewise piercing arrows turns the weapon from a single target weapon into a limited AoE weapon which can be pretty effective when used right.I run piercing arrows on LB all the time too so im always lining up enemies to take advantage of it, trickier on SB due to the conditions requiring flanking but still doable with practice.

I run Wilderness Knowledge over Poison Master due to having multiple survival skills, I don't run traps on my build and due to being pretty glassy the condi removal helps with that against stronger foes that like to inflict them.Torment, Confusion and stuff like that can be a problem for more fragile characters, specially in my case as I have a lot of quickness and fast attacks, a big stack of confuse can hit me pretty hard as can torment and movement imparing conditions if I need to flee or retreat.Having 3 survival skills (4 if I run Troll) can keep those condis off me while also supplying me with a lot of Fury and reduced recharge on those skills, it's a good trade off over a bit of extra poison damage imo.

Aside from the Falconer theme though I've grown very fond of using Hawk and Eagle as pets.They are quick attackers, not as easy to kill as you might think and they add on command bleeds which is good when stacks are more important than condi duration due to the high experterse requirement that you mentioned earlier.They're also capable of leap finishers tooIboga is a great pet for Condi rangers though, specially SB's but Jaguar is more suited to a Power Ranger imo, Lynx would be better if you wanted to run a cat due to on command bleeds and they too have a leap finisher, unlike birds though Lynx leap is on command as well.

Jaguar is used because its attacks don't break its own stealth, so its 6sec invulnerability against anything but AoE attacks or a lucky cleave. If you do it while coming out of stealth your enemy doesn't even realise you have a pet, which adds up to alot more extra damage than the extra stacks of Bleeding that a Lynx inflicts with its special skill, and for SB the BM pull is very powerful.

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@Hannelore.8153 said:

@KurokawaKazuma.8641 said:Thank you for the build advice :). I'm in the ranger mood lately and my favorite play-style is core condi ranger, although I will give this build a try in PvE. Do you have any advice for when you switch the Soulbeast trait with something else to hold the core aspect of condi ranger?

As others have said in this thread there is unfortunately a complete lack of core weapons that work for a condi Ranger..You might be able to substitute a traitline and probably get some use out of main hand Axe but Axe really isn't a condi weapon.. neither is Sword so your options there for a pure condi build are already shot.. this is pretty much the reason I went with a Hybrid in the first place and went with Soulbeast.

The only way to DPS with Core Ranger would be to play Quickdraw SBow + Axe/Torch and Iboga or Jaguar for Core pet. Utilities : Flame Trap, Sharpening Stone, Something (Sun Spirit?) and Entangle as Elite. Probably Krait runes.

BM : 2-?-3WS : 3-1-2 or 3-2-3 (Whatever you like the most)Skirmishing : 1-3-1

That's one way sure.. though I'd prefer to have Light on your Feet over quickdraw as it overall makes the SB a fair bit stronger.Auto's bleeds last longer, poison volly poison lasts longer, crippling shot imobalize lasts longer and Concussion Shot gets 10 stacks of vun regardless of position.Likewise piercing arrows turns the weapon from a single target weapon into a limited AoE weapon which can be pretty effective when used right.I run piercing arrows on LB all the time too so im always lining up enemies to take advantage of it, trickier on SB due to the conditions requiring flanking but still doable with practice.

I run Wilderness Knowledge over Poison Master due to having multiple survival skills, I don't run traps on my build and due to being pretty glassy the condi removal helps with that against stronger foes that like to inflict them.Torment, Confusion and stuff like that can be a problem for more fragile characters, specially in my case as I have a lot of quickness and fast attacks, a big stack of confuse can hit me pretty hard as can torment and movement imparing conditions if I need to flee or retreat.Having 3 survival skills (4 if I run Troll) can keep those condis off me while also supplying me with a lot of Fury and reduced recharge on those skills, it's a good trade off over a bit of extra poison damage imo.

Aside from the Falconer theme though I've grown very fond of using Hawk and Eagle as pets.They are quick attackers, not as easy to kill as you might think and they add on command bleeds which is good when stacks are more important than condi duration due to the high experterse requirement that you mentioned earlier.They're also capable of leap finishers tooIboga is a great pet for Condi rangers though, specially SB's but Jaguar is more suited to a Power Ranger imo, Lynx would be better if you wanted to run a cat due to on command bleeds and they too have a leap finisher, unlike birds though Lynx leap is on command as well.

Jaguar is used because its attacks don't break its own stealth, so its 6sec invulnerability against anything but AoE attacks or a lucky cleave. If you do it while coming out of stealth your enemy doesn't even realise you have a pet, which adds up to alot more extra damage than the extra stacks of Bleeding that a Lynx inflicts with its special skill, and for SB the BM pull is very powerful.

Yeah I like Jaguar too, though 6 seconds of invisibility means 6 seconds of aggro focused on you instead of your pet so that's the trade off, if the enemy is moving to persue you then the pet is chasing not attacking and wasting it's damage bonus so it's mostly only effective if your both in melee before the Jag stealths.

Lynx's F2 bleeds are overshined by Jaguars direct damage that's true however if you are running a condition Soulbeast you'll still want the Lynx over the Jaguar for a few reasons.Merging with a Jaguar increases your Vitality and Concentration by 200 and 225 respectively which really doesn't benefit you all that much and is kind of a poor stat boost for such on offensive pet, likewise your F2 Maul primarily becomes a Bleed skill which on it's own and on a non condi build is kinda wasted, The pull from Prelude Lash is good though.

Merging with Lynx however gives you 200 condition damage and 100 precision, gives you the same F2 maul which will be more powerful on a condi build and also gives you Primal Cry with adds 9 stacks of Vulnerability (9% more damage) and more bleeds.Overall this is better for a condi Ranger than taking Jaguar which is admittedly better in it's pet form but not as good when merged.

As for Lynx's F2.. the best part of that isn't the bleeds but that it's a leap combo, used carefully it can be put to decent use.Can get a tiny bit of Tormnet from a Dark field, bit of burning from a Fire field, Daze CC from a Lightning field, Random condi's and boons from a Chaos field, healing from a Water field, 8s Weakness from a Poison field, chill from a Frost field, Retaliation from a Light field and Stealth from a Smoke field..Granted it's situational but it's good to have access to it. on a pet.. and since it's the F2 it's much easier to access than it is on the birds I use.

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