31 replies to this topic

[Daisy Rogers]

A friend of mine asked me to post my build in light of all the negative forum posts on rangers. I haven't had to much issue with most content.

Link to my Build: http://gw2skills.net...G5NrNGbc2YDybDA

Premise of the build is to laugh as your pet chews the face off of everything around you. Your primary job is to keep the pet up, and if the enemy is kiting too much, lock it down. Since you are wading into battle melee style anyways, your enemies won't be moving as much either.

With as many points as you have in Beast Master and the constant regen from runes, signets, and springs (huge regen up time through traits and runes), it takes a huge hit or complete dog pile to take a pet out before you get the chance to switch (which you can do fairly often if you have to; that said, I rarely have too, usually only on champ fights). Another boost is it takes just as long to take you out with your free evades, high endurance regen for dodges, stun, and block/knock back.

Equipment:
Great Sword: great all around fun weapon, when they buff soon, the only thing I hope they change are numbers, if they touch the skill bar itself I will freak. It is by far my favorite weapon (save the swoop for when you lay down healing spring for extra healing). Primarily have sigil of water for extra heals for all allies around to keep everyone up, my builds primary purpose.

Sword and Horn: yeah it has a root but it keeps you in melee range with some great attacks and further buffs pet with might on sword auto. Also the horn has already been praised as an all around epic weapon, spread the fun buffs around. Using rampage as one, Horn #4 and auto attack you can quickly buff your pets with 25 stacks of might. The sword also has the sigil of water for extra heals to pop for allies. I attached to the Horn Sigil of Hydromancy for better CC to benefit pet. For more tricks with 1h sword and actually using the #1 skill to best effect I suggest this post here: https://forum-en.gui...irst#post877910

Long Bow: Rarely take it out, Sits in the inventory most times. its there for those few fights that melee absolutely gets ground into the dirt in or for its utility. Attached is the sigil of speed because typically when I have it out I am kiting like hell anyways.

Armor: Soldier's, super tanky with some base dps with vitality tough and power. Jewelry is Clerics to buff healing up and make it even more tanky while boosting base dps. Runes of Dwayna to boost healing even more.

Possible Alterations Suggested:
A: Switch up Sigil of Water on GS for Sigil of Hydromancy if you want to alter the build for more CC support. Also swap up one of your utilities for the ice trap. Even more CC and since you are in melee anyways, you can use it to maximum effect without even having to trait into it (as far as positional precision anyways). ~ Courtesy of Enillion
B: On Dungeons runs, with all your healing you might also want to consider rocking the Ultra Spirit. This will switch your play to even more to support, which is fine... because again, your pet is rocking all your damage anyway as you keep all the silly glassy kitties alive.~ courtesy of Eenskolde
B2.0: With same Ultra Spirit you can actually lay this down to prep for when you get downed and to take advantage of the rez functionality of it. This is makes for an awesome get out of jail free card when played right. With its long cooldown be sure you time it right. ~ courtesy of Safhy Chama

Pros:
1) This build doesn't ignore the pet and hate on the pet as our profession mechanic. Instead it utilizes it and fairly well. It does require paying attention to the pet and calling it back when it gets too hot to fast if you need to wait for swap.
2) Pet rarely gets one shotted except to uber leet bosses, those instances I should have either waited for back up and swapped to a ranged pet (we have 20 pets, bring the one that fits the job, it is okay to switch).
3) You rarely get one shotted with all the armor, healing, and regen...  except facing those gimicky builds that one shot anything, nothing will survive those if you don't prep to evade.
3) huge party support, you are the only class that can rez all the silly glass cannons AND do dps all at the same time via your super buffed up pet. Also all your healing doesn't hurt either.
4) feel like yoda as you swoop from victim to victim in your spinning whirl of doom/evasion.

Cons:
1) requires you to focus on two health bars to stay optimal, with pet buffed up as is he won't hurt as much when hit but you WILL suffer if you let your pet go down (even more so if it happens twice before the pet down penalty expires)
2) You will not see crazy numbers! but... ranger never sees those numbers anyways, so what the hell do you care for. Pet sees some nice ones though.
3) lack of stun break, countered best by saving your block to counter it and knowing your enemies. Your free evade is also awesome at randomly dodging the bullet from time to time. You will also with all the vigor and base endurance regen be able to dodge roll more anyway over your standard build. It is more pre-emptive thinking (can be more free with dodges since you get them back alot) versus re-active.

Fun Tips I've picked up While Playing this Build:
1) one of the big complaints is that pets get chewed up by AoE and Bosses, and that they should have a doge. The pet does have a dodge, or at least as close as we can get. Companions defense is 2 secs of protection 33% damage mitigation. Time your rolls both to save your kitten as well as your pet's. Traiting in this line already grants you boosted endurance regen. Use it to your advantage. Helps pets last a little longer if you are waiting on swap.
2) When you drop healing spring you gain vigor on every pulse. You can more or less semi permanently keep protection up on yourself and the pet for the duration. Great if you find yourself swamped with mobs. Your pet becomes a beastly tank for the duration combined with three sources of regen that will be going on. The key is to space out your dodge rolls, and use maul and GS auto inbetween to continue thinning while your pet picks off targets one by one.
3) As mentioned earlier you can quickly rack up 25 stacks of might on your pet with RaO, horn 4, and 1hSword auto. At 25 (roughly end of bird assault) engage sick'em for (boosted another 30% damage), swap to GS #5 and your pets attack in its Super Sayan status will do another 50% damage boost on top of that. Best if used after commanding a pets f2 (my wolves lack here) but drakes will hit like a truck as will ravens jags etc. (pets f2 are easiest to control, the hilt bash only works on pets next attack, why using it while pet is channeling works best).

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 28 November 2012 - 09:00 PM.

[Eenskolde]

I dont know whats the consensus on the elite spirit, but it could be a viable option in explorables (with all the healing power)?

[Daisy Rogers]

Eenskolde, on 13 November 2012 - 11:10 PM, said:

I dont know whats the consensus on the elite spirit, but it could be a viable option in explorables (with all the healing power)?

I've debated it. Originally I was looking going a with a gimmicky pet/spirit hybrid build before dropping it  when I saw the performance difference as I started buffing my pet more.

I'll swap to it for dungeon runs on boss fights to save team from wipes. It's just that with a 4 minute cooldown (3 min if it actually stayed alive the whole time) it becomes incredibly situational without it being traited or able to follow you. I'll have to experiment with it more.

Thanks for bringing it up though

[Eenskolde]

Yeah exactly, the cd is insane. That goes for a lot of elite skills, they feel,  in general very "unspammable" which is rather boring in PvE.

And im looking forward to test this build out!

Edited by Eenskolde, 14 November 2012 - 09:12 AM.

[Enillion]

First solid ranger GS (pve/spvp) build I've seen on this forum.
Since you're meele oriented, I would keep LB in my inventory for this few encounters that force you to stay away. Instead would go with GS/sword+warhorn with Sigil of Superior Hydromancy on both swords, and swap signet of the wild with frost trap. That way you'll be supporting your group with WH 5 and be able to control battlefield, freezing and chilling enemies, as well as give your teammates ice combo field + ofc makes it easier for your pet to wreak havoc. All this with expense of signet which isnt worth 120s cooldown.

Now lets see what 15th Nov update bring...

Edited by Enillion, 14 November 2012 - 09:22 AM.

[Daisy Rogers]

Enillion, on 14 November 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

First solid ranger GS (pve/spvp) build I've seen on this forum.
Since you're meele oriented, I would keep LB in my inventory for this few encounters that force you to stay away. Instead would go with GS/sword+warhorn with Sigil of Superior Hydromancy on both swords, and swap signet of the wild with frost trap. That way you'll be supporting your group with WH 5 and be able to control battlefield, freezing and chilling enemies, as well as give your teammates ice combo field + ofc makes it easier for your pet to wreak havoc. All this with expense of signet which isnt worth 120s cooldown.

Now lets see what 15th Nov update bring...

Good thoughts, I originally was running with sword and horn I just found myself never switching to them. I probably could/should/will be following suggestion for bringing them into the line up and weapon rotation. A) gives me more to do making build more fun to play and falls well in line with desiring to play support build.

That being said I need to experiment more with hydromancy runes. To make them optimal I would need a lot more practice to get swapping down. I will probably shift things up and carry a GS of hydromancy as well, but instead of placing Hydromancy on 1H sword I am going to place it on the Horn. That way even going for more freeze that requires CC I can still get the occasional extra heal without spending more on extra gear. I am still keeping Water as primary for most content as the heals go a long way with keeping pet alive (the less you have to swap pet, the more powerful it becomes with kills, not to mention whatever other allies are face tanking something).

Reason I have been running signet of wild is primarily for passive regen. I can have three different sources of regen on my pets with it and is usually enough to keep 1 pet up between heals without needing to switch. I'll keep trap in mind though for fights that require more CC or sPvP where Pets will be swapping a lot anyway.

Good suggestions, I am going to edit my original post to reflect.

edit: smily sunglasses were supposed to be a B...

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 14 November 2012 - 08:19 PM.

[Daisy Rogers]

I want to say thank you again Enillion for bringing up Sword Horn. Sword Horn and GS Combo well together. Both Swoop and Monarch's leap trigger healing springs combo field for extra healing. That and with Rampage as One, Horn #4 and 1HS auto, you can max stack pet with might in a very short time. You thought BM pet was awesome, combine that with the 25 Stack Pet buff from kills, Pets start kicking out some really nice numbers. I use wolves mostly, I would love to see what cats can kick out, especially if you drop 10 points from one of the lines for 30% extra crit damage.

Time being I am going to stick with my wolves, better survivability and CC, but Oh the possibilities

[Dahk]

Well, I was really looking forward into branching out into some more diverse specs with news about the latest patch and while it doesn't look like they made near as many fixes to some specs/weapons as I hoped (no fix to the 1h sword root or survivability of spirits), the greatsword looks like a good direction to go.

Because of this, I'll probably be running something very similar to this build, but with a few changes:
http://gw2skills.net...mxej7G5NrAGVs9A

The main difference is that this is less focused on healing and has a bit more focus on damage.  Other differenced include:
- Removed Compassion training since it only affects heals BY the pet, making it only really worthwhile for a build that uses moas.
- Axe instead of 1h sword to give a ranged option.  Also because I hate the root on skill 1 of the sword.
- Sigils are more bleeding focused since it synergizes with maul, splitblade, and the condition damage increase from talenting deep into Wilderness Survival.
- switched in Survival skills QZ and LR for Sick 'Em and Sig of Wild.  I'm not sold on Sick 'Em and the CC and it's hard to pass up QZ.
- Wilderness Knowledge used to synergize with QZ and LR.  Vigorous Renewal seems a bit unecessary with minor trait Natural Vigor and the evade on GW auto attack.  Also, LR makes up for this to some degree.
- Nature's Bounty doesn't seem that worthwhile since regeneration is a pretty weak boon and isn't applied that much by rangers.  Swapped for Strength of Spirit to make up for not having any talents in marks or skirmishing to boost dps stats.
- Enlargement seems too conditional.  Swapped for Two-Handed Training again to bring a more dps based build.
- Centaur runes used mostly for the quality of life bonus of having so much swiftness for travelling in PvE.

I also brought different pets, but I'm not 100% on if this is what I'll stick with.  Drakes are relatively sturdy, bring good AoE damage and Lightning Breath hits like a truck (when it lands), making them an overall solid choice for dungeons.  Brown bear brought because pets get smashed in dungeons and their condition removal comes in handy often.

I may end up changing this more and I may even end up just going back to the piercing arrows/trap build with a short bow that I was using before since it's awesome for tagging mobs in Orr and just a very strong build all around, but it will be nice to roll with a tankier build.
We'll see though.  I'll have to play with some of these changes and ultimately I may just

[Eenskolde]

I wanna try this out, but i dont have gear or money for gear right now. Is gear really important for this to work ok?

[Dahk]

Eenskolde, on 16 November 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

I wanna try this out, but i dont have gear or money for gear right now. Is gear really important for this to work ok?

It probably depends on what gear you have.  If you're full beserker, then I wouldn't recommend switching to a melee spec as a ranger, but if you have some decent defensive stats on your gear, then it's worth a shot.  It's only about 3 silver to respec, so you can always try without throwing a ton of money at gear.  Then, if you think it has potential, you can start changing gear around.

[Daisy Rogers]

I am still rocking blues and haven't died in the last 24 lvls. Won't upgrade higher than that until lvl 80. Advantage of the pet is you don't have to worry about gear to pump up pet stats. At most it might cost you 10s.

[Dahk]

Daisy Rogers, on 16 November 2012 - 09:05 PM, said:

I am still rocking blues and haven't died in the last 24 lvls. Won't upgrade higher than that until lvl 80. Advantage of the pet is you don't have to worry about gear to pump up pet stats. At most it might cost you 10s.

Oh yea, if you're leveling, don't worry about it.  I mean, if you want to buy gear while leveling, it's cheap (most stuff sells for barely above what the vendor price is on the TP), but it's a minor quality of life boost at most.

[FireWire79]

Thank you so much for this build.  It brought life back into my ranger.  I had accepted a boring life of Longbow and Axe/Horn like everyone else.  Maybe short-bow if I was feeling a little froggy.  

Now I can wade into the fight with my pet by my side and just go to town.  I now can actually, effectively, take a groups of enemies now.  No more picking them off 1 at a time, no more worrying about where I stand.  I now say "Bring it on!"  Green numbers just fly up around me, and white numbers just fly off the mobs.  

The best part is, as soon as I saw that Rangers could have Greatswords, way back during beta, I was waiting for a solid ranger/pet/GS build.  Thanks again for finding a solid Ranger melee build.

[Dahk]

Yea, I'm definitely digging a greatsword build over a bow build for dungeons.  A short bow/trap build is still much better for tagging mobs in Orr, but being able to keep my pet up and stay on my feet during big damage in dungeons is a big plus.

[Eenskolde]

What do you mean with soldier's armor? I can't find that type, only rune (http://wiki.guildwar..._of_the_Soldier).

I was thinking of getting http://wiki.guildwar...iki/Zho's_Armor or http://wiki.guildwar...i/Reyna's_Armor for the build, would it be a good fit?

[Shrouded Leaves]

I like where the op's build is going but I feel like Master's Bond isn't worth it and would take Mighty Swap instead. Do you guys feel like swaping is too dangerous because it switches the enemies focus to yourself instead of your pet?

[Dahk]

Shrouded Leaves, on 19 November 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

I like where the op's build is going but I feel like Master's Bond isn't worth it and would take Mighty Swap instead. Do you guys feel like swaping is too dangerous because it switches the enemies focus to yourself instead of your pet?

I ran with Master's Bond for a while, but ultimately ended up switching to Rending Attacks since A ) I've found the river drake to be a pet that deals big damage on F2 ability while being very tanky and B ) this talent works a good variety of pets (felines, drakes, devourers, and sharks).

Now, I don't run a heal-heavy build like the OP, so a better option for something like this may be to go with Vigorous Training and run double moa.  This may be a better option than the wolves anyways since Compassion Training only affects the heals that pets perform and not the heals received from you or others.  With the pets that the OP has, only the fernhound does a heal and even then, it's in the form of regeneration.

Master's Bond can be nice if you're in an environment where you're 100% sure that your pet won't die and that you won't need to swap pets, but realistically that's not always the case in dungeons, even with a big investment into BM.  You also lose out in the quickness that you could be getting from frequent pet swaps.

Edited by Dahk, 19 November 2012 - 04:42 AM.

[Shrouded Leaves]

Dahk, on 19 November 2012 - 04:41 AM, said:

I ran with Master's Bond for a while, but ultimately ended up switching to Rending Attacks since A ) I've found the river drake to be a pet that deals big damage on F2 ability while being very tanky and B ) this talent works a good variety of pets (felines, drakes, devourers, and sharks).

Now, I don't run a heal-heavy build like the OP, so a better option for something like this may be to go with Vigorous Training and run double moa.  This may be a better option than the wolves anyways since Compassion Training only affects the heals that pets perform and not the heals received from you or others.  With the pets that the OP has, only the fernhound does a heal and even then, it's in the form of regeneration.

Master's Bond can be nice if you're in an environment where you're 100% sure that your pet won't die and that you won't need to swap pets, but realistically that's not always the case in dungeons, even with a big investment into BM.  You also lose out in the quickness that you could be getting from frequent pet swaps.

I'm also a big fan of the drakes. So far they are all I've been using while leveling my ranger. You just have to make sure the drake is facing the right direction before using his ability or he will miss alot! The damage from the special attack is very nice.

[Liquidzoil]

Made an account just to thank you for this build.
It's really good and versatile (SPvP, WvWvW, PVE and dungeons).  
My ranger is like some kind of agi tank with the number 1 GS skill.
I replaced Sick E'm with QZ though because I'm not sure if Sick E'm really made a significant difference on the pet's damage.

My only complain is that sometimes, it makes me think I should just be a warrior instead because they can get into the opponent's face without having to rely on the pet's damage. I'm one of the few if not many people who picked up the ranger because of the appeal of fighting from long distance, it's just me though.

Great build none the less. Going to use it for a while.  

Edited by Liquidzoil, 21 November 2012 - 04:58 AM.

[Daisy Rogers]

Eenskolde, on 18 November 2012 - 10:44 PM, said:

What do you mean with soldier's armor? I can't find that type, only rune (http://wiki.guildwar..._of_the_Soldier).

I was thinking of getting http://wiki.guildwar...Zho's_Armor or http://wiki.guildwar...yna's_Armor for the build, would it be a good fit?

My goof, messing with builds and what not. For PvE I settled with Knights armor which is precision might, and toughness, weapons are valkyrie which is vitality might and crit damage (kind of meh with crit damage but I wanted to buff up HP pool), Clerics jewlery, runes on armor are the same.

Shrouded Leaves, on 19 November 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

I like where the op's build is going but I feel like Master's Bond isn't worth it and would take Mighty Swap instead. Do you guys feel like swaping is too dangerous because it switches the enemies focus to yourself instead of your pet?

If you are traiting heavy into armor and healing and with runes your ranger can actually survive a good long while as your new pet gets aggro back (against most mobs, champs, bosses, it doesn't take very long). Zephyr speed and GS1 also gives you 2 secs roughly of imunity with the build in dodge.

I've debated between both, once you get the 25 stacks up the pet becomes much tougher and is sustained damage versus the burst of damage from the might stacks. I've managed to solo champions without swapping out my fern hound (just need to utilize heals to benefit the pet, not just you, keep the pet happy, the pet will keep you happy). That being said, when facing dungeons PvP WvW where you are expected to swap more, mighty swap is a good alternative.

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 21 November 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[Daisy Rogers]

Added A fun tips and tricks section one things I have learned while playing this build to max the survivability of my pet as well as set up for a healthy burst out of the pet.

Liquidzoil, on 21 November 2012 - 04:50 AM, said:

Made an account just to thank you for this build.
It's really good and versatile (SPvP, WvWvW, PVE and dungeons).  
My ranger is like some kind of agi tank with the number 1 GS skill.
I replaced Sick E'm with QZ though because I'm not sure if Sick E'm really made a significant difference on the pet's damage.

My only complain is that sometimes, it makes me think I should just be a warrior instead because they can get into the opponent's face without having to rely on the pet's damage. I'm one of the few if not many people who picked up the ranger because of the appeal of fighting from long distance, it's just me though.

Great build none the less. Going to use it for a while.  

The funny thing is I play my warrior at range lol. I love the utility of their LB and can provide a lot of support functionality for the party (How I run my warrior).

On other side note I've been kicking QZ around a good bit, only reason I have shied away from it thus far is that my build is heavily heal focused and relies on all the regen to make my ranger and pet a brick. I am content with the 50% version on pet swap.

QZ is the god mode of dps and condition builds with its crit proc'ing potential. Sadly my build is an attrition build with zero burst potential. Outside my RaO make my pet Super Sayan burst which I can accomplish without it.

I've added to my build where I make most use out of SIck'em, quite handy with the 25 stacks of might on pet from RaO.

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 21 November 2012 - 05:27 PM.

[Daisy Rogers]

Eenskolde, on 18 November 2012 - 10:44 PM, said:

What do you mean with soldier's armor? I can't find that type, only rune (http://wiki.guildwar..._of_the_Soldier).

I was thinking of getting http://wiki.guildwar...Zho's_Armor or http://wiki.guildwar...yna's_Armor for the build, would it be a good fit?

I should probably actually rephrase. Currently I am using Valkyrie because there is no power vitality toughness gear. Honor of the Waves Dungeon set carries these stats so I'll be aiming for this set.

The reason I am going power toughness vitality for end gear is that you need the power to keep up your base line dps, since you have next to no crit chance, the higher you can keep the base damage up the better. Toughness is important and really makes this build. The more mitigation you have the better this build will work with all the regen going on. Makes it easier for them to pace with incoming damage.

The reason why I ultimately shied away from cleric armor is it is necessary to have a good base health pool. The extra vitality will keep yourself from being melted by condition spamming enemies. Using Dwayna runes and cleric jewelry will already spike your healing up over 1000 especially if you are traited max into BM.

This build does not make good use of the condition damage. You have a poison on the sword, and GS maul which is 3 stacks of bleed. Convenient but honestly not enough to make it worth while. You are better off using Zho's or a combination of both.

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 21 November 2012 - 10:54 PM.

[Dahk]

Daisy Rogers, on 21 November 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

I should probably actually rephrase. Currently I am using Valkyrie because there is no power vitality toughness gear. Honor of the Waves Dungeon set carries these stats so I'll be aiming for this set.

You can get everything but leg armor with these stats through Karma vendors.

http://dulfy.net/201...rma-armor-sets/

Karma is easy to farm if you do the dailies and monthly, plus there's nothing else to really use it on unless you plan on leveling cooking.

[Daisy Rogers]

Dahk, on 21 November 2012 - 11:22 PM, said:

You can get everything but leg armor with these stats through Karma vendors.

http://dulfy.net/201...rma-armor-sets/

Karma is easy to farm if you do the dailies and monthly, plus there's nothing else to really use it on unless you plan on leveling cooking.

Good to know, makes my life easier, there were only a couple pieces of the Honor of the Waves i was actually going to keep visible. Thanks

Edit: Looking through the link you supplied it looks like Arcon is what I am aiming for. Has my stats and as a bonus it comes with the runes I wanted as well. 4/6 complete there.

Edited by Daisy Rogers, 21 November 2012 - 11:38 PM.

[Zheo]

How would you use this build in WvW? It seems to me you could really only use it for melee, which is typically a lag-fest. I'm sure it's great for dungeons and PVE (not arguing it) but I wonder what it would do in WvW.  Im excited to try it but I'm currently on a WvW bender and find my longbow is oh so useful

[Eenskolde]

Daisy Rogers, on 21 November 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

You are better off using Zho's or a combination of both.

I decided to get a Zho's set. I guess i could get the vitality through jewelry! Didnt get to try it out yet, but im psyched!

[Dahk]

Zheo, on 22 November 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

How would you use this build in WvW? It seems to me you could really only use it for melee, which is typically a lag-fest. I'm sure it's great for dungeons and PVE (not arguing it) but I wonder what it would do in WvW.  Im excited to try it but I'm currently on a WvW bender and find my longbow is oh so useful

You don't have to follow a zerg to be successful in WvW.  A GS build can work in WvW, but you'd want to be part of a roaming team capturing supply depots and killing dolyaks.

[Daisy Rogers]

Zheo, on 22 November 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

How would you use this build in WvW? It seems to me you could really only use it for melee, which is typically a lag-fest. I'm sure it's great for dungeons and PVE (not arguing it) but I wonder what it would do in WvW.  Im excited to try it but I'm currently on a WvW bender and find my longbow is oh so useful

If you do follow a zerg carry the longbow to pop on. Also keep your pet on passive. I use birds when I find myself following zergs when I don't have a small team to run raids with (I am in a really small guild).

You won't do damage in zerg, its the shortcoming of the ranger is that it is forced into a support role. Heal your allies, rez your allies, lay down the cripple barrage field, buff your allies with the horn as often as you can. If you see an opponent getting close to going down then send in your bird. They have extremely fast travel speed with the swift auto move they use as soon as they enter combat. Once you pick off the target call your bird back to your side. I use birds because they typically are the most ignored. Raven is good here because you are looking for a hard hit to finish. Other.

Fighting in a zerg isn't about damage like roaming is. Zerg fighting is about survival, whether or not your zerg can outlast an enemy zerg, as long as you are tagging opponents you will get credit for kills. The role I've adopted in zerg situations is more support to keep our zerg up and functioning. If you don't want to worry about using assasin bird and want to rock an deeper support bring some moas along or fern hound. You can swap out for the Elite Spirit as well if this is how you desire to play.

This build is better for the roaming, since a lot of your damage is loaded onto the pet but is viable in zergs.

[Daisy Rogers]

Swapped Build Around for 0/0/30/10/30. After experimenting around I found the trade off for greater suvivability greater and more beneficial.

I rarely found myself down at 25% health for my pet to rock the damage buff of enlargement. And when I was that low I was healing up shortly after.

Instead investing 30 into wilderness survival better because at 25% the damage reduction kept me going long enough to get my next heal, add in the extra mitigation ontop of that from protection on rolls and it takes a couple really good hits to knock my ranger out before it gets a chance to heal. The Regen from sigil and heals really starts to kick in maintain life with that much mitigation which I can keep up with 100% uptime.

Updating Build link to reflect this change.

[Sahfy chama]

Just wanted to say that the elite spirit can be timed in such a way that it actually resurrects -you- as you go down. So if you see the situation coming, it can be incredibly good as a get out of death free card. Anyway, thats useful in dungeons or pve so you might consider it if you can get the timing down right. Most of the time you really -know- when you will die if you are running greatsword with pet so its fairly easy to time. I like that you took advantage of the greatswords damage mitigation. Alot of rangers who use greatsword don't really bother with it and its a true gem.