Galeshot - Galeburst - MetaBattle

Galeshot basics

Rangers with the Galeshot elite specialization gain access to a new set of skills with 召唤旋风之弓. This acts similar to an Engineer weapon kit - you can swap in and out of it anytime you want, there's no CD, and your weapon skill bar will be repalced by the Cyclone Bow's.
- Equipping and dropping the bow counts as weapon swapping for sigils for traits and sigils.
You can't use weapon stowing to cancel skill casts while on the Cyclone Bow.
Every Cyclone Bow skill costs at least 1 Arrow (aside from the auto), which is a new resource. Arrows are passively generated over time.
Using skills with an Arrow cost grants you stacks of Wind Force. At 5 stacks your autoattack becomes 鹰眼射击, a powerful ranged burst skill.
- Wind Force Stacks are lost upon leaving Cyclone Bow.

General

Both weapon sets have great damage, but Sword/Mace is your more defensive/utility focused one and Spear is geared towards offense.
Pet swapping acts as a Blast finisher thanks to 野性号角. Being instant, you can have Smokescale place a 障目烟云 under you (even while you're stunned), and swap pets for AoE stealth.
Smokescale's F2 障目烟云 is a useful combo field:
- Projectile finishers like 猎鹰猛扑 could 目盲 your target, increasing your sustain.
- Both weapon sets have leap finishers for stealth stacking.
喷射蒸汽 gives you a baseline passive movement speed boost, but it's not as good as . If you're about to leave combat and move to the next fight, consider swapping pets or weapons (or equipping Cyclone Bow). Both of these actions proc Swiftness from traits.
adds massive utility value to the build by allowing you to revive downed allies from range.

Spear

Spear's gimmick is stealth attacks - whenever you're stealthed, stronger versions of skills 2-5 become available. As striking an enemy reveals you, you only get to use 1 of these skills per stealth window.
- Stealth attacks share a CD with their regular versions! If you combo stealth with (which is a leap finisher), will be on CD so you won't get to use it as a followup.
Skills 2-4 deal heavy damage while #5 (Panther's Prowl) fills a utility purpose.
is perhaps the most important skill on this weapon, as it's an easy way of obtaining . Not only that, but it allows you to use stealth attacks even when you're ! So this could even fit into burst combos - in case you've just revealed yourself by doing a stealth attack, Panther's Prowl could unlock other stealth attacks without having to wait for Revealed to fall off.
Skill #2 on Spear, is a simple melee cleave with high damage. Works fine as a followup to skill #4.
- Stealth attacks: adds an extra strike at the end, increasing its damage significantly but also its cast time. Works best when the target's CC'd and can't fight back. It's the go-to option if raw damage is all you want.
Skill #3, is a solid ranged attack. You can extend its range and make it unblockable by stealthing up.
Skill #4, is a highly versatile skill and the primary candidate for stealth attacks. Works as a leap finisher, mobility tool, has good damage and could targets if stealthed. If you can get stealth from other sources, use this in stealth. If you can't, use this to gain stealth by comboing with your Smokescale.
Both pets can help you with obtaining . On Smokescale you need to work for it by doing combos in the smoke field, but on Panther you just press .

Damage

Cyclone Bow (CB) is where most of the burst comes from.
Much of the CB playstyle revolves around , a hard hitting ranged skill. You can reset its CD by using and , so you should chain your skills with that in mind.
- The only skill (aside from the autoattack) that doesn't recharge Bluster is , but that's fine since that's your only defensive skill on this set and you wouldn't want to use it in burst combos anyway.
is for single target damage, is AoE but good for single target too, and is better than both but makes you stationary - in exchange it CCs targets. All of these skills give you Wind Force stacks.
At 5 stacks of Wind Force your autoattack becomes , the true burst skill of this set. While it's AoE, it deals increased damage to your main target.
We've covered Spear already, so let's talk about Sword/Mace.
is the hardest hitting skill here, and one that works best when used after , as SS can boost Pounce's damage by applying a movement impairing condition. SS also has a longer leap, so you can use this as a gapcloser.
Weapon swap gives you , and Fury refreshes Opening Strikes via the trait . This casues your first attack to deal more damage following a weapon swap. This only covers 1 hit, not the entire skill.
- Swapping pets procs Clarion bond which also gives you Fury, so you can instantly boost the damage of your next hit by swapping pets.
If you're swapping to Sword and immediately do a , it'll do more damage because of Remorseless. Then you can boost 's damage too with a pet swap.
does less damage than the Sword skills but still hits relatively hard, and it has the shortest cast time on this set which makes it easy to fit into burst combos.
is harder to pull off because of the long cast time, it's best used for situations like downed cleave, or if you have or .

Sustain

You don't really have much in terms of consistent damage mitigation, but you do have tools for avoiding bursts, mainly in the form of evade frames. You'll find them on both weapons, Cyclone Bow, and even among your utility skills. These can even be used to avoid incoming attacks when you're d, whereas you couldn't use regular dodges there.
- on Sword.
- on Spear.
- on Cyclone Bow.
- on your utility bar.
acts as a panic button. While it doesn't break stuns, it can be used while stunned and protects you from incoming strike damage for its duration.
fills a similar role as Signet of Stone as it mitigates incoming damage and even absorbs some of it, but it's not quite as good. However it does break stuns.
- If another stunbreak or at least the signet is available then you're free to use it for just mitigation, but otherwise you should keep it for emergencies.
- The barrier can be used to soak condition damage too.
is perhaps the best defensive skill in the build. Not only does it break stuns, it repositons you while evading incoming attacks and even grants to help kite or run to a safe spot. Being a Squall skill it also removes all movement impairing conditions + another 1 via trait synergy.
Condition cleansing in the build is rather bad. You mainly rely on not getting hit, but there are a few cleansing tools you could use when in trouble:
- makes Squalls remove , and + 1 other condition. If you have a lot of conditions on you, consider using any Squall first in order to get rid of a bunch of non-damaging conditons. This is going to increase the odds of you cleansing damaging conditions with your remaining condi removal skills.
- (healing skill) is your best cleanse, removing 2 conditions on top of having Squall synergy.
- Then comes and on Sword/Mace.
Consider using from pets and disengaging a bit if you're really pressured, of if you've used up all your cleanses.