8 replies to this topic

[Liru]

Hi all, everything is in the title. I'll be running a Power/Crit build in PVE based on Sword/Horn & pet/weapon switching traits. The build can be found here (edited).

I have pretty much everything down (comments welcome!) but I have a concern on what should be my second weapon set: I'm looking for a ranged weapon and I'll be switching often (traits). I'm hesitating between:

• Axe/Horn: I love the bounce (great for tagging mobs in PVE), but attack is quite slow/power quite low right now (low levels).
  
• Shortbow: I was VERY pleased with the attack speed on this bad boy, great for racking up critical hits. Unfortunately all the skills are aimed for a condition build which I won't be speccing into at all.

Please help me choose, and give me insight on my build!

Edited by Liru, 27 August 2012 - 12:36 PM.

[Dragosani7]

Everything looks good except for agility training it's more of a pvp trait imo and your cat especially will move plenty fast enough by themselves if you stick with longbow I recommend trading it out for Quickdrawm, though if you decide to go axe/horn in your other set I suggest switching out the warhorn (since it will share the same cooldown) with dagger it has very good synergy with the sword, and then switching out agility training for either pet prowess (more pet dps) or carnivorous appetite (pet survivability).

[Liru]

Dragosani7, on 27 August 2012 - 10:13 AM, said:

Everything looks good except for agility training it's more of a pvp trait imo and your cat especially will move plenty fast enough by themselves if you stick with longbow I recommend trading it out for Quickdrawm, though if you decide to go axe/horn in your other set I suggest switching out the warhorn (since it will share the same cooldown) with dagger it has very good synergy with the sword, and then switching out agility training for either pet prowess (more pet dps) or carnivorous appetite (pet survivability).

Thanks for the input. A few comments:

• I'll look into Agility training, thanks!
  
• I'm not considering longbow, but SHORTBOW instead of Axe.
  
• So I should go with Axe/Horn & Sword/Dagger?

[Liru]

Also, do pets share your critical hit chance?

[Jin]

Liru, on 27 August 2012 - 12:31 PM, said:

Also, do pets share your critical hit chance?

I replied to this question in another thread, but I'll respond here as well so others won't have to search.  Pets have their own set of stats that are not affected by the player's stats.  You can raise them by raising your Empathy (i.e. taking points in beastmastery).  There is some info on the wiki, but it seems to be hit or miss right now.

Edited by kwayso, 27 August 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[Liru]

Just wanted to give a brief update to this - I'm level 30 now and this build is turning out great, I'm dealing huge damage thanks to the synergy between crits and beastmastery and Sword/Horn is still as fun as ever.

However, I really can't decide on a ranger weapon to swap to in dangerous situations:

• Axe is slow although bounce is useful for tagging
  
• Shortbow is great but really focused on conditions
  
• Longbow is low and has virtually no AoE (how well does Barrage synergize with crits?)

Help me!

[Stooraform]

I'm thinking of rerolling into Ranger and I really like your build , would love to keep hearing updates on how it scales into later levels.

[alozada]

using this build right now. very effective in PvE. changes in weapon : I use Sword/War horn and Longbow. using black bear as pet.

I tried running it in WvW last night, quite powerful, got in a fight with a ranger using condition 1v1, i used shortbow to shut him down the longbow.

[Mr_Finesse]

Love the idea behind this build.  Here are my own two cents about the Axe and the Sword/Dagger combo.

I prepped for awhile that I was going to go Axe/Axe and Sword/Dagger.  This might change later on in-game, but over the course of the first 15 levels of PvE, this hasn't worked out for me.  There just isn't enough speed or damage in Axe/Axe to take it over a Shortbow at this point.  I'm also finding that Sword/Dagger is going to take some serious getting used to in terms of which skills to use when and on what terrain to use it on.  I found that jumping all over the place actually removed me from some critical fights due to ledges and such.  

Currently running Greatsword/Shortbow and it's working out a TON better.  :-)