Curse

bokken · Dec 05, 2007, 08:58 PM // 20:58

I have not played much Hard Mode with groups.

Most of the Hard Mode that I have done I have grouped with Heroes and Hench. This includes missions, GW:EN dungeons and some vanquishing.

However I have joined a guild whose members group up quite a bit for HM dungeons. I have a few builds that I have used but tend to run a poison interrupt build.

I have learned that what works with heroes and henchies is not always successful in a full group of live players. Plus in Hard mode more damage seems to be better.

I am hoping that some of you more experience Hard Mode Rangers might share a few of your more successful builds, or partial builds.

I have all ranger skills and all 3 chapters and GW:EN, so anything you suggest is available to me.

Thanks for any suggestions

mrmango · Dec 05, 2007, 11:47 PM // 23:47

Broad Head Arrows + epidemic (mesmer no attribute spell) is good for owning casters + bosses. Also barrage + splinter weapon is cool.

distilledwill · Dec 06, 2007, 02:41 AM // 02:41

Id agree with Mango:
[card]Broad Head Arrow[/card][card]Epidemic[/card][card]Distracting Shot[/card][card]Savage Shot[/card][card]Apply Poison[/card][card]Natural Stride[/card][card]Troll Unguent[/card][card]Resurrection Signet[/card]

It ruins caster bosses, and in dungeons caster bosses are ridiculously difficult. Daze is the new black.

If you dont fancy Epidemic, swap to Secondary Monk and take [skill=text]Mending Touch[/skill] instead.

Nornagest · Dec 06, 2007, 07:14 AM // 07:14

In HM I run BHA+Epidemic most the time too. You can add some useful PvE skills like Pain Inverter, Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support, Ebon Vanguard Battle Standart of Courage and so on.

LudLabud · Dec 06, 2007, 07:28 AM // 07:28

i think that build u post Dist is clasic pvp build ,not good for pve bicuse r depends of paarty usualy go with splint barage interupt build for masive dmg and interupts
clasic build for r/rt is barage/splint/whiling defence/throw dirth/flesh of my flesh/and u have 3 free slots depends wher u goin.i use dwarf armor bicuse nice armor and hp bonus for me and i can use that on party members in emergensy,ebon sin is good to stop mob rush on ur party and for 1 on 1 kd/dmg bicuse mobs usualy dont atack ebon sin and he make nice dmg and lil confusion, other skils i use depends of situation but now i roll ursan with full hp armor, +wep bonus HP and energy with 60(75)hp bonus and +5 energy .
R is good for Ursan bicuse have nice armor vs eles usualy main dmg in this game

Wakka · Dec 06, 2007, 09:35 AM // 09:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by distilledwill

Id agree with Mango:
[card]Broad Head Arrow[/card][card]Epidemic[/card][card]Distracting Shot[/card][card]Savage Shot[/card][card]Apply Poison[/card][card]Natural Stride[/card][card]Troll Unguent[/card][card]Resurrection Signet[/card]

It ruins caster bosses, and in dungeons caster bosses are ridiculously difficult. Daze is the new black.

If you dont fancy Epidemic, swap to Secondary Monk and take [skill=text]Mending Touch[/skill] instead.

This is the build I use for all my HM ^^

Also this is not a great PvP build, infact its quite poor lol

MisterB · Dec 06, 2007, 11:20 AM // 11:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by distilledwill

Id agree with Mango:
[card]Broad Head Arrow[/card][card]Epidemic[/card][card]Distracting Shot[/card][card]Savage Shot[/card][card]Apply Poison[/card][card]Natural Stride[/card][card]Troll Unguent[/card][card]Resurrection Signet[/card]

It ruins caster bosses, and in dungeons caster bosses are ridiculously difficult. Daze is the new black.

If you dont fancy Epidemic, swap to Secondary Monk and take [skill=text]Mending Touch[/skill] instead.

I run this myself, too, or something like it. Personally, I don't find two interrupts all that useful in HM, though. With 1/2 skill activation, I just can't hit the skills unless they are dazed, and if they are dazed, why spend a Dshot/Savage on them? I sometimes swap in [skill=text]Needling Shot[/skill] or Volley(won't work with AP, I know) in place of one of the interrupts instead.

Wakka · Dec 06, 2007, 12:07 PM // 12:07

Im still accustomed to bringing 2 interupts even in HM with daze ^^ Not sure why, useful for skills rather than spells.

Nornagest · Dec 06, 2007, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Oh I forgot: bring Frozen Soil.
Especially against Charr groups and others with many rezzes it helps alot.

Wakka · Dec 06, 2007, 12:33 PM // 12:33

Always good to bring [skill=text]Gaze of Fury[/skill] with FS just insance it goes horriblly wrong ^^

ZystD · Dec 06, 2007, 01:40 PM // 13:40

BHA builds are best for a player to run, because of judgement reasons, but instead of taking quick hitting interrupts, my own suggestion is to go 11 marks/10 expertise/10 illusion magic.

BHA/frustration/lightning reflexes/experts focus/needling shot/body shot/distracting shot/res

Uh, deal with body shot is that i always have a air ele along to crack armor/blind/weaken/epidemic because personally im no good at epidemic'ing and they usually follow your target. Deal with frustration? Well you see how often those casters try to cast something? superhuman reflexes and all...punish them for it with 35 damage an interrupt, and even the worst group can usually interrupt a mage boss full time with 3x casting time. Needling shot is also your greatest ally with daze on, nothing like a 0 recharge quick firing skill to get some great dps and interrupting in.

That being said, rangers dont seem to be able to 'ace' most areas now with this build, you need melee enchant removers and blinders, and i dont know what for the charr areas, 2 shields up characters didnt seem to help much vs archer spikes. Rits and paragons seem to be very useful in vanquishes lately, tho. Tried a few with splinter/nightmare/healing and a splinter/nightmare/channeling rit and it worked nice, so did a paragon with motivation build to help all the casters (and you since you have frustration). Managed to clear a zone w/o MM that way.

As for a damage build....
Glass Arrows, body shot, needling shot, distracting shot, lightning reflexes, res, charm & comfort

Well, always best to use your own judgement, never forget to shop other classes' skills for great synergy builds (as frustration and daze were meant to be together...tho i wouldnt advocate adding a mesmer in HM persay)

Nornagest · Dec 06, 2007, 01:56 PM // 13:56

Frustration is very nice, a guildmate often brings it, his main char is a mesmer. My team in HM usually consists of me, with the mentioned build, Sabs 3 Necros, Talon, Herta, Mhenlo and Lina. That works pretty good most of the time.

BTW: casttime cap is at +100% afaik (Migraine or daze reach the limit)

Aris the Accurate · Dec 06, 2007, 03:24 PM // 15:24

dont run 10 illusion..you might as well bring conjure phantasm

btw..never bring conjure phantasm

bokken · Dec 06, 2007, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Thank you all for the information. There are some good ides I will work with.

Lately I have been adding PvE skills to my bar especially pain inverter.
Someone suggested also taking one of the Assura skill summons ( ice imp, mursaat etc.) that you get through polymock.

I wonder what people here think of adding the summons to their bars.
I just got the four summons after a long, painful, obsessive session of (ugh...) polymock and I took the mursaat out on a few quests.
Beside the fun factor :

: it did seem a nice addition to the group.
In your experience do you feel they are a benefit in NM and what about HM?

ZystD · Dec 07, 2007, 03:21 AM // 03:21

Daze caps it out at 100%? I've noticed a difference in casting times using epidemic + daze in HM (tho not in NM true) since some protectors and mesmers were hard to interrupt with just daze and became alot easier with frustration...or maybe was just psychological?

So far as pve skills, pain inverter on a ele will outright kill it, summons such as ice imp are good for slowing down melee mobs when pulling, mursaat ele is good if you dont have an air ele for some basic weakening, flame djinn and naga shaman I havent tried to use, my builds are usually weak vs melee groups so those other two help round out my own builds more. If you have a hammer warrior in party (like devona) Great dwarven weapon is nice since they have stonefist stuffs. Course vs destroyers you're going to want to bring alkar's acid. Ebon vanguard sin? Well...its a sin with a generally worthless skill set unless you're fighting things that block a ton (in which case why not bring wild blow) but the summon skill is still 200% better than bringing zenmai or anton along, so yea. If you're a mesmer theres always the gimmick to summon 2 lvl 21 sins. Against undead I tried 'cant dodge this' and 'i am the strongest' combined with glass arrows and holy damage, damage in HM was around 190-250 per arrow (longbow to avoid blinders, made shards of orr dungeon a bit easier at least)

If you see me in game (Zyst Dragonbane) and im not too busy I can ping you a few builds per class, tho havent updated some of the 'classics' since NF, gotta get around to that. (things like warrior builds which i rarely play so not aware of how to improve on the old builds all that much. Can't login atm due to video card blowing up (or i'd be in game and not here) so would be awhile to see me.

MBP · Dec 07, 2007, 06:04 AM // 06:04

I'd bring volley/splinter in addition to bha..enemies still clump up a good amount

[skill]broad head arrow[/skill][skill]distracting shot[/skill][skill]volley[/skill][skill]splinter weapon[/skill] then your typical last 4 skills.

Nornagest · Dec 07, 2007, 06:24 AM // 06:24

ZystD: I'm not sure if it takes the casttime bonus from HM into calculations, if it does Frustration should indeed slow them further down.

LudLabud · Dec 07, 2007, 10:15 AM // 10:15

if u go in HM anywher u need masive power bicuse mobs usualy go in large grups and if u make 1 on 1 build u cant help ur party alot,best way is to use splint-barage mixed with other skils depending of situation,then u have max power and u stil can eqip interupts or som other 1 on 1 skil+ r/rt have fast hard res
and any way if u go in ppl party usualy all take som tipe of interupts or somthing like that expetialy gwen skils like mowe like dwarf or ebon sin then u dont need to be full interupt any way,party usualy have more use from fast masive dmg +interupts or spirts suport from u.and if u have plan to use gwen skils 1 max ur titles ,is usles if u have skils without title rank bonus on them

Wakka · Dec 07, 2007, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Quote:

if u go in HM anywher u need masive power bicuse mobs usualy go in large grups and if u make 1 on 1 build u cant help ur party alot

While AoE is great, that's what other professions are for imo. In hard mode if theres a monk heavy team (e.g. Shards of Orr) your really going to need someone to bring them down otherwise you will have a very hard time defeating the mob.

Nornagest · Dec 07, 2007, 11:26 AM // 11:26

I agree with Wakka, other professions can do a lot of damage, as a ranger you can be more useful by making sure this damage really counts - by dazing and prevent rez e.g.. And you have AoE by using Epidemic.