Cebbar

I've seen many people "advising" me that Rangers don't "do" bleeding, at least not without Shortbow.

On finally levelling this somewhat boring profession to L80 I decided my favourite weapons were Greatsword and Axe. I really wanted to make bleed spamming work on it though.  I've had moderate success so wanted to share this, and see if anyone wants to rip it to pieces.

http://gw2skills.net...0yqlTLpWLPGesjA

My PvE Gear comprises Rampager's armour and weapons with Carrion accessories.  Precision suffers somewhat with an actual in-game crit chance of only 32% excluding food or sigil.

With this I am able to, with a little work, stack the full 25 stacks of bleeding on a target for a short time before it tails off.  If a fight lasts longer than maybe 15 seconds my bleeds can drop to single figures but shortly after my critical cooldowns are up and I can restart.

My Weaponsets are Greatsword and Axe + Warhorn.

Heal is usually Troll Unguent

Utility Skills are Sharpening Stone, Lightning Reflexes and Quickening Zephyr.  Being Norn I can drop Lightning Reflexes (sacrificing my stun breaker) and pick up Call Owl for a slightly easier time applying bleeds.

Elite is generally Rampage as One, but Entangle in another option to make the application of bleeding easier.  In the few dungeons I've played I've toyed around with Become the Wolf as this has some fairly imba HP regen and I'm in melee range anyway.

My chosen armour stats are Rampager's with runes of the Adventurer (Condition Damage and Power bonuses)

My pet choices for land are Lynx and Lashtail Devourer.  Brown Bear instead of Lashtail Devourer in groups for the condition removal.  Lynx has some great bleeds to apply; one is on the F2 skill and another is one of it's own skills.  Lashtail Devourer also applys a bleed with it's F2 skill but both are affected by the Master Beastmastery trait called Rending Attacks.

I am using Sigils of Geomancy to enhance my bleed spamming, especially AoE.  My typical skill use goes as follows:

• Sharpening Stone
  
• Call of the Wild
  
• Quickening Zephyr
  
• Splitblade (in melee range to try to make sure all 5 axes hit)
  
• Hunter's Call
  
• Rending Pounce (Lynx F2 skill)
  
• **Switch to Greatsword - activates Geomancy sigil**
  
• Maul
  
• Auto attack to finish, or until weapon swap is available, rinse and repeat when available.

Depending a little on luck due to crits and traits it is possible to hit 25 stacks if trying, on cruise control it's pretty easy to maintain 15 stacks for most solo PvE fights.

For me, this build solves two problems.  It gives me a reason to play with non-bow weapons, as presently Ranger bow skills are mindnumbingly boring, and the high condition damage bleeding increases DPS quite a bit on weapons I generally consider to be pretty low in terms of damage output.  Oh, and I get to bleed things, which I love.

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Anyone any thoughts / comments on this?  I've not played Ranger so long and it's easy for me to miss details - so anything that may improve this build is of interest to me.

For the last few days I've been trying to argue out a decision with myself.  I've come to my own conclusion but before I make a decision I might regret I thought it prudent to obtain other views.

I currently have an Exotic Greatsword with Berserker stats.  It's got Fellblade skin because...it's nice.

I also have the Exotic Greatsword from AC with the Power/Precision/Condition damage stats...because the skin is nice.

Mmm so, the Berserker gs currently has a +5% Crit Chance sigil.  I currently have no Sigil which stacks, such as Bloodlust.  I was intending to put Bloodlust on the second greatsword purely as an aternative weapon - something I could stack extra Power with, then switch.  So my quandry is this:

Are the stats on the AC greatsword (Power/Precision/Condition damage) worth keeping, or should I just reskin onto another Berserker? Is there ever a need for a Condition damage Greatsword on a Mesmer?

That's my question.  I'm really thinking - no.  But...does anyone feel it's worth keeping the original stats?

Simply this:

Is Toughness worth it for Guardian's in group PvE?

I ask because I'm currently completing Honor of the Waves for the Armour Set.  I want it for the skin, but notice that I think all stat options contain Toughness.

I already have an Exotic DPS set I'm happy with, but when I eventually do buy this set, is it worth keeping the Power/Toughness/Vitality stats it has on it as-purchased?

I've only ever played Glass-Cannony DPSy builds to date, and don't think I've even put one point in Valor, so value any opinions on Toughness.

I think it's time for a little moan.  Some aspects of the Guild Wars 2 community are starting to get me down.  It's time to find out if it's just me, or if this is a widespread problem.  I'm also posting to see if anyone defends these things.

I'm going to list three things which have been nagging at me more and more over the last few days, so raise your hand if any of these apply to you.  If you're not a Mesmer or a notorious pirate called Three-Arms the Fiddler, then you'll have to make a third out of cardboard.

-----oOo-----

Training

People train.  Players often seem to want to get somewhere so badly that they will pull mobs along the way, and after some time those mobs reset back to their start.  No problem with this, until that player happens to run past another.  Unlike other games, these mobs do not seem to ignore anyone who didn't aggro them and reset back to their starting point.  If they see another Player on their way back, they will attack.

in confined spaces such as Dredge mines this is particularly problematic.  Playing Guardian as main as I do, this practice of other players hasn't bothered me as much as it does now I began levelling a Mesmer.  Sometimes you find yourself swamped with extra mobs because of someone who can't be bothered fighting them.

Now I do this.  I run places and reset mobs if I'm in a particular hurry or short on time.  The difference is, if I see another player nearby, I always stop to kill the things I've aggro'd, instead of allowing them to lynch someone else.  Isn't that just common courtesy?

Ninja Communers

You know who you are.  You see a player killing the veteran mob, along with any of his friends, who are guarding a communable skill point and you just run in, commune, and run out.

Twenty seconds, that is all it would take to help kill the mobs around.  You'd have had to do it if the other player hadn't got their first...  It's pure lazyness, and it's mean.

This happened to me recently going for the skillpoint at the Statue of Grenth in Lornar's Pass.  I spent some time making my way to it, fighting off the Chaos Creatures and finally got to the Veteran Aatxe.  at 50% HP, another player arrives...and of course...goes straight for the commune.  Happily I had left one single mob un-aggro'd who interrupted this player's commune at the last second and he was forced into helping, but seriously, twenty seconds is all it takes to help out given someone else has already done most of the work for you.

Revived Runaways

You see someone in trouble.  They are downed but not dead, so you go to revive.  Being a heroic Guardian type, I do this often...what I didn't bank on 2 weeks ago are the number of people who will get up, and run away, leaving the veteran they aggro'd, fighting you.

Wow.  Thanks.  Way to show gratitude.  Most of the time you don't even get a "ty" in Chat, they just run.  Finishing the Veteran is no trouble really, but it's the principle of it.  You stick around and help clean up the mess you started.

-----oOo-----

Am i just hoping for the impossible here, or am I just unlucky in my encounters?

I'm no-where near as good at playing Mesmer as I am at Guardian.  Now I'm levelling Mesmer I am really thinking twice whether to help someone out or not, and I hate that.

I understand that in other games we have been conditioned NOT to attack other people's mobs, but this game is not like that, and I think people know this.  This is why I feel that the above is all down to lazyness and selfishness.

If anyone wants to defend these actions I'll be interested to hear it.

If this is a widespread problem I'll be interested to find out how big a problem this is.

Remedy

I have devised a remedy to the above problems.  I play the game as I always have, being helpful where possible, and looking out for others.  When I come across a selfish player, I add them to a list, and the next time I see them in trouble...I use the /point emote, closely followed by the /laugh emote, before sitting down and watching them die.  Fair?