Looking for a LI Ranger build - does one exist?

[mikexg.7329]

Hi all, 

Long time ranger player and have one as my main.  Recently I hurt my left hand and have some muscle trauma and nerve damage.  I was wondering if there were any tried and true low intensity builds for ranger that people found some success with.  I obviously know that an LI build is not a top performing build, but was hoping there was a useable one I could use while my hand recovers.  Right now I've been playing Untamed and despite it needing some love and balance, I do enjoy the playstyle.  I also really like soulbeast both as DPS and the good old "BoonBeast".  If anyone has suggestions I would really appreciate it.  Doesn't need to be a "1 button build" but anything that pushes it to the LI side of things.

 

Thanks

-M

[mikexg.7329]

Just came across this one from Mukluk, seems pretty solid, I am definitely going to give it a try.  Would still love any other input or suggestions.

 

https://mukluklabs.com/gw2-build/li-soulbeast

Edited May 5, 2022 by mikexg.7329

[AlexndrTheGreat.8310]

Assuming you’re looking at PvE, Condi Soulbeast (basically what you posted) is a very LI build, even when played at an optimal / high level build. Glanced over that link you posted and it’s basically what he said.

Viper / Trailblazer / Celestial gear

You can camp 1 shortbow. Use 2 and 4 off cooldown. Use 5 for CC / breakbar

Utilities are Vulture Stance, Sharpening Stone, and basically a utility of your choice (a trap, a spirit, Dolyak Stance for stun break / stability, Sic’ Em, Signet of the Wild for passive dps increase, etc). Elite is One Wolf Pack.

Skirmishing 1-3-2

Wilderness Survival 3-1-3 OR Beast Mastery 2-3-3 (OR Beast Mastery 3-3-3 if you took Sic’ Em as your 3rd utility skill, to reduce its CD to closely line up with. Vulture Stance and Sharpening Stone)
Soulbeast 2-3-2

Pet is basically any Condi pet since you will be permanently merged in PvE (Warthog for CC, Lynx, Bristleback, Jacaranda, Iboga, Forest Spider, Wolf, etc).

Basically just use your dps abilities off cooldown.

Boils down to 6-7 buttons. OWP every 80 seconds, Vulture Stance + Sharpening Stones every 30 seconds, Primal Cry (merged F3) every 20 seconds, use Shortbow 2+4 off CD. If the pet has some merged dps ability (Iboga Narcotic Spores, Forest Spider Poison Gas, Warthog Maul, Lynx Maul, etc) also use that off cooldown. Other pets such as birds, wolf, etc that don’t have that extra dps button would instead have extra mobility and CC buttons, so you only need to hit those when actually needed and cut down the amount of buttons during your actual rotation.

You said you already know that LI builds are not top performing ones, but SB2 (ShortBow SoulBeast) is genuinely a good build. It falls behind compared to the more meta Axe+Dagger/Dagger+Axe build, but it’s still solid for even higher leve instanced PvE.

Edited May 5, 2022 by AlexndrTheGreat.8310

[Average.7901]

I'm a new player. When I got to path of fire content, it was my first non tyria content. I got to it at the same time I unlocked soul beast and looked into the rotation. The rotation and the spike in difficulty of open world content really sucked the life outta the game for me. I'm still trying to recover. 

 

To do the rotation perfectly is insane. At least the one I'm seeing on meta site. I made my own ez version that seems to be doing ok. I need to get the dps meter add-ons and take myself into the fractals I've been doing to get the final word

[mikexg.7329]

16 hours ago, AlexndrTheGreat.8310 said:

Assuming you’re looking at PvE, Condi Soulbeast (basically what you posted) is a very LI build, even when played at an optimal / high level build. Glanced over that link you posted and it’s basically what he said.

Viper / Trailblazer / Celestial gear

You can camp 1 shortbow. Use 2 and 4 off cooldown. Use 5 for CC / breakbar

Utilities are Vulture Stance, Sharpening Stone, and basically a utility of your choice (a trap, a spirit, Dolyak Stance for stun break / stability, Sic’ Em, Signet of the Wild for passive dps increase, etc). Elite is One Wolf Pack.

Skirmishing 1-3-2

Wilderness Survival 3-1-3 OR Beast Mastery 2-3-3 (OR Beast Mastery 3-3-3 if you took Sic’ Em as your 3rd utility skill, to reduce its CD to closely line up with. Vulture Stance and Sharpening Stone)
Soulbeast 2-3-2

Pet is basically any Condi pet since you will be permanently merged in PvE (Warthog for CC, Lynx, Bristleback, Jacaranda, Iboga, Forest Spider, Wolf, etc).

Basically just use your dps abilities off cooldown.

Boils down to 6-7 buttons. OWP every 80 seconds, Vulture Stance + Sharpening Stones every 30 seconds, Primal Cry (merged F3) every 20 seconds, use Shortbow 2+4 off CD. If the pet has some merged dps ability (Iboga Narcotic Spores, Forest Spider Poison Gas, Warthog Maul, Lynx Maul, etc) also use that off cooldown. Other pets such as birds, wolf, etc that don’t have that extra dps button would instead have extra mobility and CC buttons, so you only need to hit those when actually needed and cut down the amount of buttons during your actual rotation.

You said you already know that LI builds are not top performing ones, but SB2 (ShortBow SoulBeast) is genuinely a good build. It falls behind compared to the more meta Axe+Dagger/Dagger+Axe build, but it’s still solid for even higher leve instanced PvE.

Is the "Shortbow Soulbeast" build the one you listed or does it vary a bit from that?

[AlexndrTheGreat.8310]

14 minutes ago, mikexg.7329 said:

Is the "Shortbow Soulbeast" build the one you listed or does it vary a bit from that?

The one I had in mind was this one

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Soulbeast_-_Condi_Shortbow_DPS

This is the one optimized for dps in raids. There’s tons of minor stuff you can change though to make it more flexible for the open world like I described, but the general idea for the build stays the same.

[Project exa.3204]

[&DQQILyEpICp4AHgAlgEAAMIAAAC4AAAAwAAAABM5ASkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Weapons: Shortbow  + Dagger / Horn
Rune: Elementalist, Amulet: Carrion
Sigils: Exposure / Doom on both
Pets: Bristleback / Siamoth

This is probably the lowest intensity soulbeast build I've got. It's very gimmicky for PvP, decently strong in PvE, but still very fun when you play it. This build relies upon preloading your attacks and then bursting somebody with a lot of bleeds. 

 

In General:
You want to use Bristleback the most. Merging with it and using it's 2nd skill gives your next 5x attacks bleed.
When you preload Sharpen Stones you get 10x attacks that bleed, giving you a total of 15x bleeds to apply on the next few attacks. 

When you're ready to attack you want to pop One Wolf Pack (for double attacks) and Vulture Stance (for extra poison)

•  Hidden Barbs gives you another +33% bleed damage. 
• Sharpened Edges gives you additional +bleed on crit chance. 
• Ambidexterity gives you +additional condition damage
• Predator's Cunning gives you life siphon on poison damage
• Oppressive Singularity gives you 10% more condition duration when your enemy is at lower HP than you
• Double Arc (Dagger #2) gives your next 2x attacks poison
• Crippling Shot (Shortbow #4) gives your next 3x attacks bleeding

 

This is a basic rotation, and you can preload your skills up to 30seconds in advance

• Merge with Bristleback -> Sharpened Spines -> Sharpened Edges ->

10 seconds before you're ready to burst: 

• Use Crippling Shot (Shortbow #4)  for 3x extra bleeds before swapping to axe/horn for 5x extra vulnerability
• Use Double Arc (Dagger #2) for extra 2x poison

When going into combat:

Horn #5 (for the might + condition damage) -> Horn #4 (for the 16x attacks and dropping all your conditions)  -> Vulture Stance -> One Wolf Pack

Primal Cry (for quickness and extra bleeds) -> Rain of Spikes (for AoE dmg and bleeds)

 

When you're between burstings you're just kiting and using shortbow. I say this is LI because you can preload 75% of your attacks before going into combat. Hope this helps!

-Eros of Ascalon

 

•  

Edited May 8, 2022 by Project exa.3204

[Ashen.2907]

Take that shortbow build and switch out to have traps. Drop traps, send pet forward to attack mobs, recall pet, foes follow pets onto traps, crjppled, poisoned, bleeding, on fire....they die. You are never exposed to danger unless you then want to move in long enough to fire off a poison volley to speed up their deaths.