Curse

Wenspire · Mar 21, 2011, 10:44 PM // 22:44

Today's ZV (Sparkfly Swamp). No changes to group builds. Two wipes from agroing two groups (one had that T-rex boss). I think this setup is pretty solid to do most material. Could still replace one or two of the necro's para skills; just can't think of anything to replace them with.

Quick question: does a typical VQing take around 1hr to do (without cons)? I can't seem to get it any quicker than that. I only started doing them recently so not sure how long they normally take.

Xiaquin · Mar 21, 2011, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wenspire

Quick question: does a typical VQing take around 1hr to do (without cons)? I can't seem to get it any quicker than that. I only started doing them recently so not sure how long they normally take.

For a couple wipes and no cons an hour is pretty good. Any group of multiple humans will have occasional AFK and general dumbness that can slow down runs. There are also some zones with patrols you miss or hidden enemies you run into (that you don't need to fight). The last VQ I was on with a PUG took over an hour and a half, I believe it was Ice Floe.

Wenspire · Mar 23, 2011, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Today's VQ (Kessex Peak). No problems what-so-ever; just rolled through it. Made sure I didn't have any Wanted quests active.

The change to Healing Burst elite seems like a permanent choice for me, along with the Mirror of Disenchantment on my prot monk's bar. Still not sure about Never Surrender though...

Wenspire · Mar 24, 2011, 01:45 AM // 01:45

Ferndale VQ, for the heck of it. Subbed in Fall Back in place of Never Surrender for a little added running speed boost while VQing.

Today's ZV Mourning Veil Falls. Traded back Never Surrender. I think this will be my final group setup as I think I would use it anywhere with the exception of a small handful of areas.

Wenspire · Mar 25, 2011, 03:33 AM // 03:33

Todays ZV was pretty much bad to test the build with (wurm-riding) so opted to do some frog slaying with the ZB (Bogroot). Didn't screen-cap 1st level but it was around 15 min to clear. Both levels were a breeze with the rangers. Healing plants went down very quick. I brought EoE for fun which helped out, I think.

Xiaquin · Mar 25, 2011, 04:52 AM // 04:52

Do you have any procedure with aggro (lay dust traps, launch pet/minions ahead) or do you just pull and go? Is that healing spring as well? Do they get interrupted often?

Wenspire · Mar 25, 2011, 06:22 AM // 06:22

I place SoS and create the spirits, then place the rangers behind the wall a bit. Lay one set of dust traps if I am anticipating scatter (no usable corner), then I go out and pull with a flatbow. I prefer favwinds up but don't wait for it to recharge usually.

The heroes use healing spring pretty well. They usually are able to get it off. I manually disable dust when I am going to fight all-ranged enemies.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Inspired from another thread in the Hero AI section challenging a Discord/Mesmer/Spirit-way setup, I wanted to see how usable the ranger group-build was in something like Vloxen Excavations HM for the heck of it. It did extremely well with only 1 death (Tahlkora). Times were Level 1-3 at 8/29/8.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 02:55 AM // 02:55

Forgot I wanted to sub in Well of Ruin in place of Never Surrender so tested it in Rragar HM; it worked well. Because of it's long recharge, didn't interfere with the OoV cycling as far as I could tell. The enemies rezzing were kind of annoying but not too bad.

A few deaths (mainly from AoE/DoT fire and RoJ + hero AI) and one or two wipes. One time I can remember is at the 2 Flesheater boss spawns on level 3. Times for Level 1-3 were 17/18/14.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 05:01 AM // 05:01

ToPK HM. Had to use 3 rez scrolls. E-Denial hurt, but not as much as the Dryders with hero-AI...

Times for level 1-4 were 5/24/13/18.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 08:02 AM // 08:02

Kathandrax HM. Subbed out prot monk in favor of an ST-prot rit for the party-wide protection. No wipes, but a few deaths. Swapped back Never Surrender. Times for level 1-3 were 20/18/18.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 10:00 AM // 10:00

Today's ZV (Vararjar Fells). Almost 500 enemies was not fun to do.

Decided to try an all-pet setup with the heroes. I wasn't expecting much but it did surprisingly well. Those pets are pretty durable. Not sure if I would use this type of setup in dungeons but I'll have to test it out sometime. I was pretty sad to find out that GftE, as well as OoV, did not affect pets.

Xiaquin · Mar 26, 2011, 05:06 PM // 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wenspire

I was pretty sad to find out that GftE, as well as OoV, did not affect pets.

OoV is party members only. GftE will affect pets, but I don't think pets' criticals work the same as players.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 09:24 PM // 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xiaquin

OoV is party members only. GftE will affect pets, but I don't think pets' criticals work the same as players.

I was not aware that they would get the effects, since I did not see the icon show up in their bars when I used the skill.

EDIT: Nevermind, just saw that it does show up in their effects bar. I must have looked a few seconds after I used it last time.

Wenspire · Mar 26, 2011, 10:28 PM // 22:28

Ooze Pit HM with pet-setup. Took an extra 2 min to mop up the mess after the chest spawned and I wiped. EoE had expired/died or I think I wouldn't have wiped.

Wenspire · Mar 27, 2011, 12:01 AM // 00:01

Forgewight HM. A few AoE firestorm wipes. Used ST-prot rit again.

At the dungeon door, you can kill the two groups behind the lock pretty easily as long as your rangers don't have a shortbow. Just aim for the enemy closest to the door and you should be fine. Also have to keep FS up and flag your monks/healers/prot behind your frontline.

At Forgewight, just have the SoS pre-splinter all the rangers up, target the centermost enemy in the group and let the barrage fly. You pretty much kill most of the group before they get to react.

Wenspire · Mar 27, 2011, 09:20 AM // 09:20

Decided to re-do Rragar HM with the pet-setup. It went better than with the earlier build with traps. A large reason for this was that the pets took a lot of the AoE/DoT agro instead of the party. Ended up with an easier and slightly shorter run of 18/14/11 minutes for the three levels. However, I did remember to bring blobby-food for level 1 (didn't have the extra 2 mes NPCs on first run) as well as had only one Flesheater boss spawn instead of two that I had on the previous run. I'm sure those may have made things easier a bit.

Also tried out Darkrime HM with the build. The jotun hexes were annoying and slowed down the killing efficiency a bit but didn't really do much else vs the team-build. Levels 1-3 times were at 21/18/6.

I can't think of any other dungeon or areas to try these builds with. I tried to pick the harder of the dungeons along with a few average ones. Two areas I definitely would not use this setup in are Shards of Orr (mass blind from skelly eles) and FoW (too much SS/Empathy hate). I don't know UW or DoA enough to want to try those two.

Wenspire · Mar 28, 2011, 10:23 AM // 10:23

Selves HM. Decided to mess around a bit and changed the SoS to a Barrage/Splinter rit. Without the spirit wall I figured I would go back to traps and ditch the pets for more protection. Needless to say, it was a rough run. That one hill area with the undead clerics up top gave me the most headache (and massive DP). It was pretty quick getting to that part though. After clearing it, my DP was sky high so the later groups ended up being tougher than normal. At that point, whether it was from the lack of a spiritwall and/or the excessive DP, it took a long time to complete. Did manage to finish it without the use of any cons though. At Selves himself, you just have to prep your rangers with splinter, lock onto the centermost enemy and barrage. They drop very quickly from the spike.

I will probably try to do the run again with the spirit-wall and pets and see how it goes.

Jaba tha hutt · Mar 28, 2011, 03:14 PM // 15:14

Long time lurker here, would you mind recording one of your runs? Kind of like EFGJack does for his warrior? Really curious to see it in action instead of screenshots. Always been a big fan of ranger-teams.

Wenspire · Mar 29, 2011, 12:10 AM // 00:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaba tha hutt

Long time lurker here, would you mind recording one of your runs? Kind of like EFGJack does for his warrior? Really curious to see it in action instead of screenshots. Always been a big fan of ranger-teams.

I'll try to do this. Though, I am not sure on the hosting process.

Selves HM#2. Attempted this time with the standard SoS rit and pet-setup. Went much better with no wipes, as well as completed in less than half the time of my last run. I did sub in Disrupting Shot in place of Savage Shot on all the rangers; this was purposefully done because of the longer recharge. I wanted them to prioritize the other interrupts over it due to the en-cost/en-gain aspect.

I did FRAPS this run so I will see if I can figure out a way to post it after compressing it; 32.1gb in raw form. lol

UPDATE: compressed at a fairly low bitrate but enough where you can at least read some text. The run is broken down into multiple files of 22mb each. Let me know if there are any problems with the links.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves1.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves2.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves3.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves4.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves5.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves6.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves7.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves8.avi

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20169...11+Selves9.avi