Ranger sPvP | Tournament Sword/Dagger, Shortbow | Backpoint defender Trap ranger
Table of Contents
Summary
This build counters almost any direct damage profession in this game. The 3K armor makes you a brick wall against all direct damage.
This is a heavy kiting build due to the traps and immobilization of spiders. This allows you to beat almost any melee class. Warriors, Elementalists and thieves are some of the easiest classes to counter.
I. Weapons and Skills
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- Kick¼Kick your foe, crippling them for a short time.Damage: 202Crippled: 2 sRange: 400Range: 130
- Pounce¾Leap at your foe, striking them. Your pet gains might.Damage: 235Might: 5 sRange: 430
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- Monarch's Leap¾Leap back into the fight, crippling your foe.Damage: 336Crippled: 3 sCombo Finisher: LeapRange: 600
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- Nature's Renewal120Command your spirit of nature to revive and cure conditions on nearby downed allies.
Weapon and Skill Details
Shortbow
This is your primary damage weapon
Skill 1 -- Crossfire
This is the ability you will spam to do most of your condition damage. The immobilize of spike trap and spiders allows you to get around the side of the enemy and get a lot more bleeds off. You can maintain 8-12 stacks of bleed on an enemy which does 944-1416 DPS through just bleeds.
Skill 2 -- Poison Volley
This ability is decent for applying poison on your enemy. When using this ability it is advisable to be close to the enemy because the closer you are the more arrows will hit. If you are point blank you will get off 10 seconds of poison but if you are far away it may not be worth using unless you do not have poison and need to keep up the healing reduction. If an enemy is healing and you have no interrupt, use this ability because it will reduce their healing by 33% and they will most likely not have time to cleanse, unless they are using a heal with condi removal.
Skill 3 -- Quick Shot
This ability is very powerful and should be used to evade damage. This is very good for avoiding the mesmer sword immobilize combo even if you are immobilized. It also acts as a third dodge, which should only be used when you have no endurance to dodge. The swiftness is a bonus.
Skill 4 -- Crippling Shot
This ability is great to use in combination with Flame Trap because it is a projectile finisher. It is also good to use when chasing or kiting an enemy while immobilize is down. The bleeding on your next pet attack is a minor bonus because your pet has crap condi damage.
Skill 5 -- Concussion Shot
This is one of the best abilities of short bow. It should be saved for interrupting important abilities.
Sword & Dagger
This a much more defensive damage set and can be used to keep you alive while traps recharge and is the only reason this spec can do 2v1s
Skill 1 -- Slash, Kick & Pounce
This ability is not used very much. It is only used while others are on cooldown or if you have to keep up with a faster enemy due to pounce.
Skill 2 -- Hornet Sting & Monarch's Leap
Hornet Sting is to be mostly used for evading and acts as one of the three extra dodges this weapon set provides. The monarch's Leap ability is a lead finisher and can be used in tandem with Flame Trap. The other use of ability is moving much faster than normal running. This can be done by turning around hitting 2 then turning back around and hitting 2 again to allow you to make hornet Sting a forward movement ability, rather than a roll back.(binding about face to a key near your other keys is a good idea)
Skill 3 -- Serpent's Strike
This is the second evade ability of this weapon set and is to be most used as such. The poison is just an awesome bonus.
Skill 4 -- Stalker's Strike
This is the third and final evade ability of this weapon set and is to be used as such. When used in tandem with skill 3 you can keep up almost permanent poison.
Skill 5 -- Crippling Talon
This ability is your only and ready good damage ability of this weapon set. You should try to make sure you can hit. It also is a projectile finisher and in tanem with Flame Trap it does a lot more damage.
Healing
Your ability should change dependent upon the team your are facing and the availability of blast finishers from your teammates
Troll Unguent
This is the best healing skill by far against direct damage because it provides the greatest amount of healing out of any ranger heal. This Skill should be used early because if you are to late a bursty class can out DPS the heal and take you down.
Healing Spring
This ability is great against a condi user because of its condition removal. The other great part is that this ability is a water field. If you have team mates like an S/D ele who has a ton of blast finishers they can make this ability a much greater heal than Troll Unguent plus the healing is AOE. You could also switch out a spider for a drake and have it use its blast finisher in the field.
Utility Skills
The first three are base traps you will use.
Flame Trap
This ability provides burning which does 703 Damage a tick which helps a lot with bringing down enemies. This ability is also a fire combo field and using it for might with teammates or burning is very important.
Viper's Nest
This just provides more poison damage and helps you keep up the constant 33% reduction on healing
Spike Trap
This is the most important trap. The immobilization allows you to hold the enemy in your other traps and get your Short Bow 1 skill's bleeds off. (The immobilize is given from the Trapper's Expertise trait which does not list it)
Frost Trap
Frost trap does not damage but is amazing CC. If you are fighting a hard to CC group it may be good to swap out. It is also a decent team fight trap due to the ice field is makes. The ice field can be used to get frost armor which reduces incoming damage by 10% and give 1 second of chill out when hit.
"Sic 'Em"
This ability is supposed to be changed in the Oct 15th patch to add 4 seconds of reveal to an enemy. This ability should be run if you are going to have to fight a thief running a lot of stealth, like Cruuk. Replace Viper Trap because poison up keep is not a problem with this build.
Elite Skill
Your elite skill will depend upon the what you team needs as well as what the other team has.
Spirit of Nature
You will use this skill the most. It gives out a constant healing and the rezzing capabilities makes it an OP elite imo. You will mostly only use it for rezzing, the condi removal is nice but not nearly as good as the rez. You can self rez using this spirit by hitting the ability right before you get downed causing its rezzing ability to go off after you go down because the spirit has a short cast time for its ability.
Rampage as One
This is only useful if your team lacks stability for stomps or you are going up against a high CC team which will nullify spirit rezzing and stun lock you. If the other team has a mesmer do not run this ability. They will strip it making it a useless elite.
Entangling roots
This ability is amazing for damage but against any power class it is a waste and in a team fight the roots will die really quickly. The only use for this ability is against a heavy condi team because the roots are unaffected by conditions.
Pets
SPIDER SPIDER SPIDER (Jugle spider and the black widow share the same venom cooldown so you cannot stack them)
but if you wish to run something else because you do not like a ton of immobilizes and poison, you can run any of these other pets
Wolf
Does decent damage but the fear and knockdown are what you use this pet for. Those 2 abilities can be used to counter being stomped and maybe allow a teammate to rez you. The knock down is 2 seconds with a 40 second cooldown.
Drake
I would recommend marsh or river because the cone attacks of the other drakes are really hard to land. They have a blast finisher so you can swap into them to get 3 stack of might from the flame trap, healing from healing spring or frost armor from frost trap.
Krytan Drakehound
I would recommend this pet over slider for team fights because he offers AOE immobilize which can assist you team in landing attacks. He also has the same knockdown as wolf.
Porcine
This is a weird one but can work. Their F1 skill is forage and it can get you any steal a thief could ever get. This can result in you getting the mesmer super buff steal or the engi steal which is bad for a thief but amazing for this build because it lets you make a ethereal combo field. All porcine also have a 3 second knockdown with a 40 second cooldown.
II. Traits
Marksmanship
Skirmishing
Wilderness Survival
Nature Magic
Trait Details
The 30 in Skirmishing and Wildness Survival are mandatory for a Trap ranger.
Variation
Skirmishing Adept.
- Trapper's Defense is good because it provides some condi cleave on enemies trying to stomp
- Primal Reflexes is good is you want a little more dodging because of the protection on dodge and more dodging is always good.
- Sharpened Edges is also decent. It provides 2 seconds of bleed with a 66% chance to apply on crit.
The left over 10 points are up to personal choice. imo 10 in Marksmanship is best because of the Sharpened stone which allows for a lot more bleeding. If you wish to use something else I would recommend 10 in Beastmastery.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 15922 (+0)
- Vitality 916 (+0)
- Armor 3280 (+1300)
- Toughness 2216 (+1300)
- Attack 2007 (+100)
- Power 1016 (+100)
- Critical Hit 57% (+57%)
- Precision 2116 (+1200)
Secondary Stats
- Condition Damage 1786 (+1786)
- Condition Duration 10% (+10%)
- Critical Damage 20% (+20%)
- Damage 991 (+0%)
- Defense 1064 (+0)
- Endurance Regeneration 25% (+25%)
- Ferocity 300 (+300)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
You have 1502 Condition damage which is some of the highest possible and is very good because short bow bleeds have low duration and are not helped very much by condition duration. This condition damage also allows you to do a very high burst.
You health is about 15k, so you are very sustainable to condis.
IV. Runes, Sigils, Accessories & Jewels
Armor & Runes
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
Rune Stat Totals
- Condition Damage 175
- Toughness 100
Rune Bonuses
PvP Rune of the Undead- Condition Damage: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Condition Damage: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Condition Damage: 100
- 7% of toughness is converted to condition damage.
Accessories & Jewels
- Condition Damage: 0
- Precision: 0
- Toughness: 0
Accessory Totals
- Precision:900
- Toughness:900
- Condition Damage:1200
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Superior EnergyYou gain 50% of your endurance when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 9s)
Sigil of Minor CorruptionYou gain +10 condition damage each time you kill a foe. (max 25 stacks and ends on down)
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Weapon Strength: -
Weapon Set II
Sigil of Superior Earth60% chance to do a 5s bleed on critical.
Upgrade Item Details
Rune of the Undead in tandem with your very high toughness allows for an almost 100 point bonus in condition damage. Going for condition duration is almost useless due to the short duration of bleeds and they are your primary damage. In PvP most good enemies will cleanse your condis quickly and doing the extra damage is very nice.
The sigil of energy on sword is a preference of mine. If you wish to switch it out leeching or hydromancy may be a good idea.
Sigil of earth counts trap ticks as well
V. Basic Gameplay
You will most likely be put at home point and in doing so you can lay all your traps wither on an entrance to the point or on your character. Your traps will recharge while others are set but you can only have one instance of any trap down at a time so do not use them after they are set.
Once you are attack you want to kite the enemy into the traps, then use your traps again, because they should be off cooldown, if done correctly this will allow you to have 2 instances of each trap on the enemy.
For the extended fight make sure to kite the enemy through a combination of spiders and Spike Trap. If done correctly you should not ever get into melee range, but if you do switch weapons and use the enhance mobility to regain your range and inter lay traps to sustains some damage.
During fighting you must get troll unguent out so you are never to low on health or make sure your healing spring is used to also remove condis in order to maximize the effect of the heal.
Main Skill Rotation
Spam 1
It seems simple but you get more bleeds if you can position to the side of your enemies so it is advantageous to move around the enemy as to keep them always facing you with their side.
Trap Rotation
This is your main damage rotation with traps.
- Flame Trap
- Hit from the side in order to stun the enemy (the shot will also apply burning)
- Viper's nest
- Spike trap
- Crippling shot (if the combo is done quickly this attack will also apply burning)
Pet Rotation (Spider)
This will create a long period in which the enemy is controlled. During the period you can lay your traps down freely and get about 10 stacks of bleed with short bow.
Healing and survival
This should keep you evading for 2 seconds and then you can add as many dodges as you want into it due to the endurance you gain upon swap. This will allow troll unguent to get off a little healing and keep you almost invulnerable.
Movement
Bind "about face" to one of your keys or get really fast at turning your character.
This allows you to about face hit hornet sting, about face and then monarch's leap in order to move much faster than normal running. If you do not do this, you will move a lot slower.
When traps are triggered
WAIT!!!
The worst thing you can do is throw you traps right back down double stacking and losing all your damage to a condi cleanse. You should only burst with traps against a spec you know cannot keep up with your condi application or you can negate the condi removal.
If you do chose to spike the best is to reapply in the order I am showing because it will let you keep them in their for as long as possible and force them to eat a lot of condis.
Pregame Swiftness
You equip warhorn before the game starts and blow it in the last 2 seconds then switch to dagger. Allows you to get the swiftness and not have to take warhorn.
VI. Game play v. Specific Professions
Necromancer
You must watch out for any one like a necro who can send the condis to you because you will die if you have to deal with your own condis. While fighting you must watch for the dagger 4 of necros and staff 4 both of which can be avoided and if you do, you can beat a necro, but if not, you lose.
Guardian
Guardians have a lot of condi removal and therefore you must coax them into wasting it early and then spiking them. Other than the basic spiking and waiting guardian is a fairly straight forward fight. On a side note, Guardians seem to never understand they cannot black your traps and I have seen too many heal while in the poisin trap.
Ranger
Everything but spirit rangers are easy enough to beat. Spirit rangers running a more tanky build are almost impossible to down. You will spike almost all their spirits down with traps so the main problem is the ranger and the conditions they apply. During the downtime between spirits it is a good idea to go as offensive as possible because you will be stronger than the other ranger.
Warrior
Stun lock warriors are the only serious problem but they can usually be nuked down and easily kited. If most of the enemy team are warriors you may want to switch out your elite for Rampage as One because the 20 seconds of stability make you unstoppable. Warriors telegraph everything so just what hat they are doing and dodge when appropriate.
Engineer
You have to stay very mobile and unpredictable so they do not land grenades. If they do not run grenades it may be wise to let them neutralize the point and nuke them down with traps while they stand in the small area. Engineers are the most dangerous things in game for 1v1s so do not expect to win all the time.
Mesmer
Mesmer's lack a lot of condition removal and therefore you can kill them if you hit them. You pet will never get tricked by clones and will stay on the mesmer, so spiders can still get off webs and control the mesmer so you can land traps. If possible you should hide in or around the base so the mesmer is obstructed and cannot summon any clones who would trigger your traps.
If you see a portal you can cover it in traps. This will make the fight really easy and make the mesmer have to go very defensive and sometimes run from the point entirely.
Theif
This is the easiest match up because most thieves run a burst build with berserker ammi. If you get your traps off correctly they will have to blow a lot of cooldowns to stay alive and then for the extended fight you must play it patiently. When a thief gets hit by your traps the will most likey shadowstep then try to regain stealt, to counter this right after the thief shadowsteps, fire a concussive shot. You sit inside your traps and when the stealthed theif triggers them you spike him. You rinse and repeat until until a dead theif appears.
Elementalist
Elementalists are easy to fight, especially fresh air eles, because of their limited health pool and their condition removal is primarily dependent upon the water attunement or an easily interruptable heal. So the easiest way is to go for a quick burst kill but if they are able to survive that wait until they enter and then leave water attunement to do you next spike. You should also consussive shot any attempt to heal inorder to extend their period in your condis.
VII. Final Comment
I love this spec. It imo is the funnest ranger spec.
I made this guide because I want to see trap rangers again. I miss them.
If you wish to contact me in-game my account name is Hehk.8705. You can ask me questions, profess your love or profess you deep-seated hatred.
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@ 08:06 AM, Thu February 06 2014
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