Curse

Silvia Shadowback · Mar 15, 2010, 01:47 AM // 01:47

Hi, i'm hoping to get a few questions answered on how i can improve my skill level as a ranger in HA.

1. Should I be focusing on a monk to try and catch healing skills with my interrupts or an ele to try and catch the big damage skills or just cycle through enemy team spreading poison and looking for opportunities on each opponent to interrupt skills?

2. Is it ever wise to fire off a random interrupt in hopes of getting lucky?

3. Should i be running up close to enemies to make interrupting easier or is it smarter to hang back and try to catch the skills from farther away?

Also if you have any general tips on how to play a ranger better in HA feel free to post them as well.

Thanks

fenix · Mar 15, 2010, 01:56 AM // 01:56

Wrong section, mooovvvveeedddd

Ninja Ninja · Mar 15, 2010, 02:28 AM // 02:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvia Shadowback

Hi, i'm hoping to get a few questions answered on how i can improve my skill level as a ranger in HA.

1. Should I be focusing on a monk to try and catch healing skills with my interrupts or an ele to try and catch the big damage skills or just cycle through enemy team spreading poison and looking for opportunities on each opponent to interrupt skills?

2. Is it ever wise to fire off a random interrupt in hopes of getting lucky?

3. Should i be running up close to enemies to make interrupting easier or is it smarter to hang back and try to catch the skills from farther away?

Also if you have any general tips on how to play a ranger better in HA feel free to post them as well.

Thanks

Focus on Ventrilo, people call targets and do countdowns for spike.

Silvia Shadowback · Mar 15, 2010, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninja Ninja

Focus on Ventrilo, people call targets and do countdowns for spike.

Ok, but since I have no rank yet i am playing with randomway groups, so there isn't really an organized spike. I am wondering how i should play in these groups for now until i can find a guild.
Will go get vent though, thanks.

Nadia Roark · Mar 15, 2010, 03:03 AM // 03:03

The best thing I can say (and this is ironic advice coming from someone who has pretty much only ever played monk) is to not tie yourself down to "Ranger" (with a bow). They have their uses, but what you're really asking here is how to be a better interrupter.

But to answer your questions in very general terms:

1) Interrupters in HA generally focus on specialty and/or midline spellcasters like mesmers or ritualists. Most of the time, you won't be expected to interrupt monks unless their casting is somehow slowed (in which case it will be easy enough anyway. Most monk skills cast too quickly, but there are still a lot of exceptions. D-shotting a Shield of Absorption in a holding situation can be clutch.

2) It depends. Sometimes you're watching for a specific skill, and if you're camping an ele, a necro or a rit he can have a rather long cast time.

3) Stay at range whenever possible. This will make it easier to see what the other team is doing. The travel time of your arrows rarely make a difference; the two bow interrupts you're likely to carry at all in HA (Distracting Shot and Savage Shot) fire instantly.

Ariena Najea · Mar 15, 2010, 03:55 AM // 03:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nadia Roark

The best thing I can say (and this is ironic advice coming from someone who has pretty much only ever played monk) is to not tie yourself down to "Ranger" (with a bow). They have their uses, but what you're really asking here is how to be a better interrupter.

But to answer your questions in very general terms:

1) Interrupters in HA generally focus on specialty and/or midline spellcasters like mesmers or ritualists. Most of the time, you won't be expected to interrupt monks unless their casting is somehow slowed (in which case it will be easy enough anyway. Most monk skills cast too quickly, but there are still a lot of exceptions. D-shotting a Shield of Absorption in a holding situation can be clutch.

2) It depends. Sometimes you're watching for a specific skill, and if you're camping an ele, a necro or a rit he can have a rather long cast time.

3) Stay at range whenever possible. This will make it easier to see what the other team is doing. The travel time of your arrows rarely make a difference; the two bow interrupts you're likely to carry at all in HA (Distracting Shot and Savage Shot) fire instantly.

Good to see you back Nadia!

I must disagree though on points #2 and #3. Firing off a random interrupt is almost never a good idea, as you should only be interrupting skills you know you can stop, or when you can anticipate a skill being used. The latter is of course the most challenging component of interrupting to learn, but as general rules, you can expect most Monks to try to heal immediately after getting up from a knock down, most other casters to use skills on recharge, etc. When playing against more skilled players, you need to watch more.

For #3, it really depends on the situation. If you need to be catching 3/4 or 1 second skills, it helps to be closer (around half range) to reduce your arrow's flight time. Staying out of your own backline will generally also help your Monks target more effectively, and prevent the enemy frontline from changing targets to/from you as easily.

Nadia Roark · Mar 15, 2010, 04:54 AM // 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariena Najea

Good to see you back Nadia!

I must disagree though on points #2 and #3. Firing off a random interrupt is almost never a good idea, as you should only be interrupting skills you know you can stop, or when you can anticipate a skill being used. The latter is of course the most challenging component of interrupting to learn, but as general rules, you can expect most Monks to try to heal immediately after getting up from a knock down, most other casters to use skills on recharge, etc. When playing against more skilled players, you need to watch more.

For #3, it really depends on the situation. If you need to be catching 3/4 or 1 second skills, it helps to be closer (around half range) to reduce your arrow's flight time. Staying out of your own backline will generally also help your Monks target more effectively, and prevent the enemy frontline from changing targets to/from you as easily.

Thanks. Its good to be back

As far as point 2 goes, I dont play an interrupter in HA so I can see what you're saying, but anticipation is key. A 'random' rupt might be called for when/if the party leader calls for you to pressure a target on which you wouldn't otherwise focus. Especially against builds with a lot of defense, I can see throwing some random rupts at a monk in the hopes of d-shotting a clutch fast-cast skill. But it all depends on how the match is going, how much energy you have, if your primary target is dead, etc etc. But I've lost some matches because a random d-shot rupted something stupid like a Spirit Bond or a PnH.

Then again, that happens rarely enough that it probably wasn't necessary to bring it up in this context. I do random rupts sometimes in AB, but take my HA advice with a grain of salt, since I've not really done much interrupting there... I've just been the victim of it!

superraptors · Mar 15, 2010, 06:08 AM // 06:08

spreading poison, mainly interupting weapons, pots, life

interupting fire damage and d shotting diversions and shames is pretty much all u have to do.

random savages are fine to spread poison. but dont random too much.

BoxOfCox · Mar 15, 2010, 06:10 AM // 06:10

If you Dshot someone else's Spirit Bond it's anticipation.

If someone else Dshots your Spirit Bond it's random spam.

*lemming* · Mar 15, 2010, 06:11 AM // 06:11

1. On ranger, you need to interrupt based on current priorities as needed while spreading poison. As you get more experience, you'll be able to judge for yourself what needs to be disrupted, but a good place to start is what your guild is complaining about the most.

2. In matches where you're trying to kill the other team, you'll probably be spreading poison with savage shot quite a bit.

3. If there's something you absolutely need to interrupt at the moment (ritualist weapons/party healing and snares on relic runs come to mind), by all means get next to the guy.

Adriaanz#Shiro · Mar 15, 2010, 08:29 AM // 08:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvia Shadowback

Hi, i'm hoping to get a few questions answered on how i can improve my skill level as a ranger in HA.

1. Should I be focusing on a monk to try and catch healing skills with my interrupts or an ele to try and catch the big damage skills or just cycle through enemy team spreading poison and looking for opportunities on each opponent to interrupt skills?

2. Is it ever wise to fire off a random interrupt in hopes of getting lucky?

3. Should i be running up close to enemies to make interrupting easier or is it smarter to hang back and try to catch the skills from farther away?

Also if you have any general tips on how to play a ranger better in HA feel free to post them as well.

Thanks

For a Ranger, coordination with another shutdown character in your group is important. This will probably a Mesmer.

Now, for answering your questions:
1. Rangers mostly go for Ritualist Weapon Spells. When under pressure, you are going to interrupt the source of alot of damage, mostly Elementalist Fire Spells or Snaring opposing melee characters.

2. Interrupting random is almost never as useful as interrupting non-random.

3. Getting closer to enemies as a ranger shouldn't be a problem, because you have a defensive stance (Natural Stride) and your high armor-level. Also, the positioning of your team should be so that your monks will always be in your range, even when you're next to an enemy caster.

Edit: As for range, when you stand next to the target you want to interrupt, you'll also mentally pressure him. You let him know you're there to interrupt his next spell, which will make him more on guard, less spamming spells, which is also positive for your own team.
Cheers

Gift3d · Mar 15, 2010, 11:16 AM // 11:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvia Shadowback

Hi, i'm hoping to get a few questions answered on how i can improve my skill level as a ranger in HA.

1. Should I be focusing on a monk to try and catch healing skills with my interrupts or an ele to try and catch the big damage skills or just cycle through enemy team spreading poison and looking for opportunities on each opponent to interrupt skills?

2. Is it ever wise to fire off a random interrupt in hopes of getting lucky?

3. Should i be running up close to enemies to make interrupting easier or is it smarter to hang back and try to catch the skills from farther away?

Also if you have any general tips on how to play a ranger better in HA feel free to post them as well.

Thanks

1. woh/guardian/soa are the main ones to look out for, but you shouldn't be camping anything. and i don't know why most people do not understand the offensive and defensive switches between interrupts so i'll explain it cause it's really simple. basically interrupting is entirely situational.

-your team is taking lots of pressure, more so than the enemy. you interrupt defensively (aka the enemy's offensive skills) to reduce pressure.
-the enemy's team is taking lots of pressure, more so than you. you interrupt offensively (aka the enemy's defensive skills) to push them over the edge.
-both teams are taking the same amount of pressure, this is where you have to put your brain to use and interrupt whatever you feel the biggest opposing threat to your team's build is.

if you can't afford to pay attention and you find this method does not work out for you just interrupt diversion and shit.

2. no.

3. you will not catch a woh from an aggro bubble away. you will certainly catch a diversion from an aggro bubble away. do the math, position yourself to facilitate accomplishing whatever your goal is.

and don't be a noob and forget to pew pew all the time.

Nerf Me Haha · Mar 15, 2010, 01:07 PM // 13:07

If you have no rank or major amount of pvp exp in other competitive formats you should forget about playing a Ranger with a Bow in HA in my opinion. The only real build that uses ranger with a bow is Balanced (or Rspike) both of which require quite abit of skill to run, and if you have no rank or experience(or a good guild) your chances to get into a decent balanced are pretty low (I'm not saying rank means much though), and Rspike is quite out of the meta and is rarely pugged.

You can ofcourse ignore my post and go forward trying to play as a bow Ranger, but trust me, you'll be able to get into so few teams it's better off to switch to something else, untill you get osme more exp or preferably a nice guild.

X Ghoul · Mar 15, 2010, 03:44 PM // 15:44

Skimming through most of everyone's ideas I am surprised nobody said anything about interrupting hard res' when someone dies on the other team. This only if your the only interrupter in the group or if your mes is really bad.

Warvic · Mar 15, 2010, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silvia Shadowback

Hi, i'm hoping to get a few questions answered on how i can improve my skill level as a ranger in HA.

1. Should I be focusing on a monk to try and catch healing skills with my interrupts or an ele to try and catch the big damage skills or just cycle through enemy team spreading poison and looking for opportunities on each opponent to interrupt skills?

2. Is it ever wise to fire off a random interrupt in hopes of getting lucky?

3. Should i be running up close to enemies to make interrupting easier or is it smarter to hang back and try to catch the skills from farther away?

Also if you have any general tips on how to play a ranger better in HA feel free to post them as well.

Thanks

1- Dont even try. In RA it's easy to camp a monk and rupt gaurdian, remove hex and WoH for example. In HA it's a waste of time. Like others said, rupting mesmers, ritualists, eles etc is good. Spread your poison and keep melshot rdy for the spike.

2- I wouldn't do it. Also just to unlearn it xD It's a waste of energy 99% of the time. A random shot on a monk who is really near death could result in a rupt tho. But try this in RA, and see for yourself, how good ur predictions are.

3- Rupting from closer does help alot. For me it's almost impossible to rupt an WoH on max distance. From a close distance I can do it. Ping also plays an important role ofcourse. But like others said. Having a good view on the field is also good, to rup RES etc.

Also stop joining random groups. If you want fame you either have to play builds that can win or get a HA guild. low rankged pugs/guilds mostly play hexway, rtl, iway and something that requires alot of eles ;D So the problem is, not much ranger involved in that. The higher ranks tend to play more balanced stuff. So a ranger is needed.

Don't forget that the ranger has to snare mostly in HA (also as oath). Something I really hate >.>

I'm by no means a high end pvp'er. Never been interested in doing high end pvp. I'm playing this game since 2005, So I do have some experience with the ranger ;D So I hope this info is helpfull.

Silvia Shadowback · Mar 15, 2010, 08:08 PM // 20:08

Thanks for all the responses, really good information.

Nadia Roark · Mar 15, 2010, 08:24 PM // 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warvic

3- ... Ping also plays an important role ofcourse. But like others said. Having a good view on the field is also good, to rup RES etc.

I feel kind of silly for not mentioning that in my post; I personally have found arrow flight time is generally negligible, but that may only be because I generally enjoy good ping to ANet's servers. Only rarely will I go over 200 or so ms, which seems to be pretty good by GW standards.

jaximus · Mar 15, 2010, 08:37 PM // 20:37

there are a few things that other people havent said yet that id like to throw in. as ranger your interrupts are prone to obstruction. be very quick to tell your team if the mesmer or rit from the other team is up on a bridge, hiding behind stuff, etc, so then your team can reposition. dont allow the other team to have advantages like that. if your team scores a kill, try to jump on their mez and savage the diversion thats gonna get thrown at your mez. you gotta keep that down so your mez can pd the sigs. then throw a d shot at the hard rezzer. the monk bars in ha, aside guardian/channeling are really loaded with quick casts so its best to just avoid them, or just d shot the prots guardian. aside the usual diversion/shame/warding/life/occasional rodgorts rupting, keep an eye out for rend, if you keep that down your monks will love you.

also this is a huge point that i cant stress enough, and almost every ranger i play with i have to remind them of this. dont be afraid to talk. tell your team when you d shot diversion/shame/warding/life/etc. knowing key skills are down for a while creates opportunities. but also very importantly, you should NOT BE AFRAID to tell your team something got off. its better to say 'watch diversion, fast casted/missed' than to try and hide that it got off. then your monks can cancel a skill or wait just a fraction of a second to see who its on. people will know if it got off, so just man up and save your team the trouble.

Krill · Mar 15, 2010, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nadia Roark

I feel kind of silly for not mentioning that in my post; I personally have found arrow flight time is generally negligible, but that may only be because I generally enjoy good ping to ANet's servers. Only rarely will I go over 200 or so ms, which seems to be pretty good by GW standards.

With 200 ping I usually have to be really close to someone to reliably hit 1s skillsy, rit weapons, many necro hexes, etc.

The Accent

1v1 death match / priest deathmatch (first 3 maps) - Against balanced usually go for WoW and Diversion, help with rez control. Against hexes usually go for LC or other necro hexes (assuming you have a mesmer on their mesmer). Against IWAY, don't use poison, mostly focus on snaring and d-shot weapons / prism spirits if possible.

Unholy Temple (relics) - If they send a mesmer to harass your snaring, try to d-shot diversion. If one of your warriors is with the snare team try to coordinate knockdowns on the mesmer to get wards up. Try to interrupt fire eles bombing your body blocks.

Forgotten Shrines (cap points) - Watch for prot lifting veil for grasping, many will immediately renew it so just spam a d-shot after it's lifted. Some prots don't pay any attention to the path of the ghost, if you can get them to angle towards a wall you can solo block it and make them come back around to bring the ghost around you. Pay attention to the enemy snare or any other players at the bottom, sometimes you can solo gank a snare that gets too far away from their prot if your ghost is attacking them.

Golden Gates (priest deathmatch) - If a non-ranger snare drops a ward in the path to the priest, one of the funniest things to do is cut across the bridge and snare them with a bow attack, maybe even get your hammer warrior over there too. Groups without vent sometimes pay no attention and get completely out of position if this happens and lose before the match even starts. I'm sure everyone has had a lolwtf game on golden gates.

Courtyard - All about blocking ghost at the start, although some teams prefer to let another cap first. Watch the timer after an enemy ghost dies, the oldest trick in the book is to close the gate switch on an enemy ghost coming back down to the alter and make a team go all the round the long way. When your team is holding you want to be fully defensive, the biggest skills to watch for are diversion and well of profane.

Antechamber - Usually you will go with another player to block the enemy gate switch to the middle. Watch for a fire ele dumping their skills on the block, the goal is to hold out until your monks get through to the middle and can heal you. After that you just need to be watching for solo splitters or trying to slow down their ghost if they try to move it to your side to cap.

Hall of Heroes

Cap points - When you're not needed on the center you should hang back to deter anyone from trying to to ninja your base. You ALWAYS need to be watching the radar for people trying to do this. Rangers are also the best characters for ninja capping or just trying to make them split people off the main team. At the start of the match you should assess if the opposing attack team (red or yellow) is bad and try for a ninja cap if the middle is a stalemate and you think you can get a point or two off it.

Relic runs - There are basically two positions for placing wards in HoH relic runs. The first is right in front of the alter, here this makes a player go around and if they don't you can easily solo block them for a bit depending on fast they spam stuck. The second is on the stairs, if you place it in the middle if forces them to the edge where a body block can be setup and if you place it more towards a side it forces them to go around or possibly be snared in the ward. Snaring is mostly experienced based and this is one point you should observe other players on because a good snare is absolutely devastating to bad teams.

King of the Hill - Pretty much the same as courtyard, be defensive when holding, if it's going to make a difference slow down a ghost coming back down the alter.

General Tips

HA has a lot of obstructions that make it a pain the ass to play ranger. One of the reasons good teams will fall back and rush on UW is so the opposing team doesn't have a chance to scatter all over the bridge area and you can get right to business. Because HA is often an 8v8 spamfest I don't ever tab poison, I always click on players to spread poison and keep my own priority target pinged so I can quickly get to it.

This gives you much better field awareness; for instance if someone is camping up on the bridge on UW and a little overextended you can tell a warrior to fish them out of there or spike them and make their monks move out of position save them. Rits will often camp this area to keep their life spirit safer and be gay with bridge obstructions. You'll also notice that signets and GoLE have a large overhead animation, beckoning you to d-shot something by quickly clicking on them. In general, and I'm sure other people will say otherwise, I find tabbing makes me practically useless and I miss a lot of stuff.

bitchbar player · Mar 16, 2010, 01:20 AM // 01:20

you might want to add that you need to interupt SoC and the ghost aswell, both in courtyard as in koth HoH and rangers shouldnt use tab at all whatch skill animations