Ranger PvE | Dungeon Sword/Warhorn, Longbow | Damage Sword Ranger for Optimised Dungeon Groups

The Sword

The ranger's sword is the highest DPS weapon the class has access to. It's also one of the most difficult weapons to use in the game (if not the most).

Advantages:

• Auto-attacks are fast and will give more chances to trigger procs (on crit effects like Companion's Might or Sigil of Battle). With a high attack rate, it should stack a large number of might stacks from crits.
• The third attack in the chain grants Might to the pet.
• Highest DPS weapon the class has access to.
• It's a melee weapon so it will be close to allies to benefit from their limited range boons as well as allow your limited ranger boons to benefit your allies.
• Both Hornet Sting and Serpent's Strike can be used as evades, although the former has a slower animation time and requires advanced prediction.

• The auto-attack chain restricts your control of your character. This will often get you killed or force unconventional play to survive.
• It's melee so sometimes it can be harder to use than ranged weapons (not as often as you think though, especially in an optimised group).
• When stacking for some encounters (like the Spider Queen in Ascalonian Catacombs) the leap animation can cause you to leap away from the stack location resulting in the strategy failing and causing a group wipe. It's possible to avoid this through careful management but it's often better to swap to a greatsword for this fight.
• It's very fragile. Ranger's have lower base armour than heavy classes so you can run into trouble more easily. You will be relying on skill to survive even small hits and the sword control issues work against this.
• Will often give you trouble in pugs. If you have trouble, drop the sword/warhorn for the greatsword.
• Will sometimes leap off of a cliff if your mob dies mid attack chain and your leap no longer has a target to leap into. If you don't have a target selected you will leap all over the place (even if your enemy is alive).

Using the sword:

• Learn the attack rhythm and when you can dodge. It's a lot of work and the end result is still less control for the same DPS that a warrior using the axe for the first time will get, but it's necessary if you want to run the sword in dungeons without being a burden.
• Consider disabling auto-attack. This isn't a perfect solution but it slows down the attacks giving you more time to dodge between them. You still can't dodge during certain animations but you have more time to dodge between them. Obviously this will lower your DPS and probably give you RSI from pressing "1" all the time.
• Rely on Hornet Sting and Serpent's Strike as evades. They won't have the up-time of the dodge mechanic but they are reliable when they are off cooldown.
• Learn how to force a "break" in the attack chain. There are ways to force a disruption in the attack chain giving you a chance to dodge, things like a weapon swap or the warhorn skills will disrupt your auto attack and return priority to allow you to dodge.
• Try not to pug. This build (and the sword in general) are optimised builds. In a high DPS party that uses all the AI exploits you will rarely run into trouble. Enemies die very quickly and dodges become less important. If your pug has low DPS or less optimal builds and strategies (or even just less experienced players) the sword (and this build) has its limitations and you will find yourself very frustrated.

The Warhorn

The warhorn is primarily for one thing - Fury. When playing in dungeons, Fury is one of the most useful boons in the game. The extra 20% crit chance can dramatically increase the party's DPS. Most builds won't reach 100% crit chance on their own and will rely on Fury to cross that line, especially in a pug. The current meta involves lots of players bringing crit damage but most optimal class builds don't have a source of Fury. The warhorn allows you to give your entire party a valuable boon.

Call of the Wild is also a blast finisher. This adds another support element to the weapon and depending on your party composition it can give you a lot of options based on the combo fields available. Usually you will use it to give AoE Healing from your own Healing Spring's water field or someone else's fire field for AoE Might (you could bring a torch on swap or Fire Trap to create one yourself but I don't consider it worth the investment), but if you learn your combo fields you will find a lot of options to add support depth from this weapon.

The Swiftness is also great for running and skipping in dungeons.

The Longbow

This is your go to ranged option for when you need it. Most optimised dungeon groups will want to melee a mob down because it's faster and, with the right group, it's also generally easier (due to the maximised DPS, the OP state of crit damage and the luxury of resing people quickly) but sometimes it will be necessary to use a ranged weapon.

• The longbow has slightly lower base DPS than the sword (if you don't count boons you miss out on for being at 1,200 range) if you maintain maximum range. If you are using the longbow you should generally try to maintain 1000+ range, although try to be aware of how that impacts on your enemy's location and aggro. Sometimes it's better to take a DPS loss than negatively impact the battle field through bad positioning.
• The 10 stacks of vulnerability becomes a 10% DPS increase for your party.
• Barrage is a great AoE DPS skill and it's also great as a control skill.
• Point Blank Shot can be used defensively (try not to use it unless it's necessary) and it can be useful for encounters which involve pulling or pushing mobs to certain locations (be careful not to DPS them too much).
• Hunter's Shot is a get out of jail free card. Use it when your low and draw boss aggro. Use it if you need a few seconds of no aggro during a skip in a dungeon.
• Piercing Arrows allows this weapon to hit multiple targets in a line. Target the mob at the back and line your targets up between you to hit at least two targets at all times. Disable auto targeting and aim your camera right with no target selected and you can also hit multiple targets although this is often harder.

Healing Skill:

I generally use Healing Spring always. It's the longest lasting water field in the game and water fields are incredibly valuable. With blast finishers (or leaps) they can provide your party with a large amount of healing. The pulsing condition removal is also incredibly useful for your party as many builds don't have easy access to condition removal. It's one of the most powerful support skills the class has.

Utilities:

Most of the utility skills are situational. Generally bring what you want or what suits the situation. The only truly recommended skill would be Frost Spirit but I often don't run it simply because I don't enjoy its fragility and static gameplay.

• Frost Spirit is something you will generally want when optimising. The unique buff boosts the entire party's DPS by approximately 7% which is huge. Place it out of the way so that it won't be hit (it won't survive many attacks) but close enough that it boosts your party. It's active will usually be useless. Two traited spirits won't stack, but a second untraited spirit will (but it has a low proc rate and probably isn't worth bringing). Expect it to die during many encounters even with careful placement, especially in a pug.
• Quickening Zephyr is a generic DPS boosting skill. Use it in conjunction with Rampage as One for multiple might stacks for you and your pet (both you and you pet give each other might on hit and quickness causes you to hit 33% faster). Quickness is also good for resing or other strategies which rely on you completing animations faster to survive.
• "Protect Me" is your "Oh Shit!" button. Hit it when you are going to take a hit (or a few) and can't avoid it. Its usefulness depends on the pet - a tanky pet like the bear will work better than a cat because the pet needs to be alive to absorb damage - but generally it can save your life at the cost of your pet's life.

Elite:

Most of the time you will want Rampage as One for the generic DPS boost. It's also a great source of Stability for some of the more dangerous dungeon skips (like the knockdown spam from Nightmare Courtiers in Twilight Arbor or Gravelings in Ascalonian Catacombs). With Rampage as One you will survive through most runs with little to no effort.

Entangle is good as crowd control on trash mobs (if you fight them for whatever reason). The Nightmare Hounds in Twilight Arbor are a good example of this.

Spirit of Nature is great for reviving party members. If you notice your group going down too much, try bringing this to relieve some of the pressure. The DPS loss is usually balanced by the ability to have yourself able to DPS (instead of reviving people) and allies revived instead of being downed.

Pets:

This is mostly a free choice area, lots of pets can be used as much of your pet DPS comes from might stacks.

• Red Moa: Furious Screech is one of the best pet abilities in the game. Party wide Fury is rare and incredibly valuable in dungeons and the Red Moa can give a lot of it on a relatively short cooldown. Combined with the warhorn the ranger can almost be your party's sole source of Fury. The AoE heal from Harmonic Cry is also very useful to the party and moas have fairly bulky bodies so they can survive a bit better than other higher DPS pets. Group Fury is worth the DPS loss from bringing a moa imo.
• Cats: Cats are the highest DPS pet of the class although very fragile. I personally like the Jungle Stalker for the might stacks, but the Jaguar's stealth skill puts out some of the best DPS the class has.
• Drakes: Good DPS, one of the only AoE pets in the game, a blast finisher and fairly bulky. The drakes are generally solid options.
• Spiders: If you have to go ranged with a pet in a dungeon (and you can be bothered to switch) spiders are a solid choice. They have good DPS and decent vitality (still very fragile though). The immobilise can be good (one RNG one and one that is an F2 skill). Devourers are fine but lower DPS. Generally you will want a spider in optimised situations.

Underwater I usually bring a devourer for poison and ranged DPS and a reef drake for the Feedback F2. Jelly fish are solid options as are sharks or cats.

The point distribution focuses primarily on desired DPS traits while also trying to ensure stat points focus on power, precision and crit damage.

Marksmanship:

• Steady Focus to boost your base DPS. This is an optimised build and you hopefully will have full endurance most of the time any way.
• Spotter is a unique party buff, something no other class can give and one of the biggest advantages to bringing a ranger. The 170 precision goes a long way to boosting party DPS and ensuring lots of crits.
• Piercing Arrows is almost essential for using a bow in dungeons. Against boss mobs it usually won't matter but against groups it can dramatically increase your total DPS and is a make or break trait for the longbow. If you don't want it for some reason, drop five points in Marksmanship and throw them into Skirmishing for Hunter's Tactics (10% more damage when flanking) or into Wilderness Survival so you can bring an Adept Trait.

• Companion's Might gives your pet a lot of Might stacks which greatly increases your DPS.
• Pet's Prowess makes your pet hit like a truck. With Fury this should trigger on most of their attacks especially if you are using a cat.

• Natural Vigor is a fantastic skill for survivability. Increased endurance regeneration is too good to turn down at five points.

• Spiritual Knowledge is used to make Frost Spirit work. It doubles the proc rate (from 35% to 70%) and doubles the survivability (from wet paper to slightly wet paper). This trait is almost essential if you want to use a spirit (and in an optimised build you will want Frost Spirit most of the time) because of the proc rate boost. If you drop Frost Spirit from your bar (I drop it often) swap this trait for Concentration Training to boost your pet's boon duration by a massive 50%. If you don't run boon pets (like the Red Moa or Jungle Stalker) consider bringing Strength of Spirit for a power boost.
• Fortifying Bond is so good I try to invest 15 points into Nature Magic just to get it in most of my builds. Boons have a maximum limit of five allies they can be given to and pets take a lower priority than players. This means most of the time your pet won't receive a boon. This trait ensures that any boon the ranger gets, the pet will also get (using recalculated durations detailed in the trait tool tip and the ranger's boon duration stat). This makes Fury have 100% of its usefulness on the ranger while other boons like Might will have double their usefulness for the ranger. In general, this trait will mean your pet recieves far more boons in the long run resulting in greater survivability and higher DPS.