Curse

bobrath · Nov 21, 2007, 06:00 PM // 18:00

For better or worse, I've really gotten addicted to ABing with my Ranger.

Been running a Burning Arrow/Poison build and for the most part can keep up with capping groups and reasonably pick off stragglers. My only real problem is Assassins. I've gotten pretty good with Dshorting their initial attack, but that's not nearly as reliable as I'd like.

I'm going with /Me right now just to bring along Lyssa's Balance to knock down some of the more annoying enchants I'm seeing.

(Actual build bar has [skill]Burning Arrow[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Apply Poison[/skill][skill]Natural Stride[/skill][skill]Lyssa's Balance[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill][skill]Storm Chaser[/skill])

Any suggestions to help me out?

Thanks!

TheOneMephisto · Nov 21, 2007, 06:10 PM // 18:10

Run mending touch. You really don't need lyssa's balance, as most enchantments aren't a problem or you can dshot them. Running mend touch/troll will allow you to easily survive most assassins in combination with natural stride. Simply pre-troll if possible, time mend touch to immediately remove deepwound (whether from twisting or impale), and then kill them.

On that note, a cookie-cutter BA bar would probably be better. Something like:

BA
dshot
savage
apply poison
natural stride
mend touch
troll
pin down (you could slot storm chase here if you really needed the speed boost, I prefer pin down because snares own AB)

Master Ketsu · Nov 21, 2007, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Technically that bar should survive a sin spike. If you activate natural stride after the hex, and try to intterupt them you will usually win. Its timing on your part.

The main thing I see is that you dont completely need storm chaser. You can get away with just simply spamming Stride for running, and switch in Throw dirt which will always stop a sin in his tracks.

Another thing you can do is Go /N. I can see your purpose is to remove enchantments, So you can drop storm chaser and use...

[skill]rip enchantment[/skill][skill]Plague touch[/skill]
( rip got a buff awhile ago, so you dont need that many points in it. )

Plague touch will save you against sins. Half their spike is the conditions, if you take Deep wound off yourself and place it on them you will eliminate the bulk of their damage.

Or you can simply give up your enchant removal and go /mo for mending touch like every other ranger. Which, like panda said...is better.

iridescentfyre · Nov 22, 2007, 05:47 AM // 05:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobrath

Any suggestions to help me out?

Lose Lyssa's Balance. Its use is just not justifying its place on your bar. Bring Mending Touch and Troll. If your interrupt misses the Assassin's lead attack, throw Natural Stride up.

Also, what rune setup are you using? 550-600hp should survive a single AB Assassin spike even if you've fallen asleep at the keyboard.

SilentDaunt · Nov 22, 2007, 06:13 AM // 06:13

What type of sin are you talking about? Mending touch for Lyssa's Balance is your best bet. With the recent nerf on TO,HoTO and impale regular sin spikes have become easier to deal with. Just by removing deepwound and cripple while give you alot of edge against a sin, not to mention it can remove poison making it that much harder for an assacaster to spike you.

Another option is switch out LB and NS for Dryder's Defenses/Lightning Reflexes and Pin Down. This will seriously mess up any sin that doesn't have unblockable combos or condition remove which serve as a backup should u fail to interrupt their attacks.

The real question is actually not the build but training yourself to be prepared for that sudden sin spike. Smarter sins will study your build first and wait for you to have either exhausted your interrupts, become preoccupied, or low health before striking.

Syntonic · Nov 22, 2007, 10:43 PM // 22:43

I've been running magebane shot ranger recently and really like it. It's basically your standard BA/Cripshot/replace your elite here variant. For your skills, you use magebane shot, d.shot, sloth's hunter, apply poison, pin down, mending touch, natural stride, troll ungent.

Magebane shot only adds seconds to recharge against spells BUT it interrupts anything PLUS it goes through block. Sloth's hunter shot is a fairly nice spike in damage if you see the enemy not doing a thing or moving around because you are interrupt heavy. I suppose point blank/zojun's might work just as well if you are up close and personal to make sure the arrow reaches the target faster for interrupts. I never found this necessary - you should be able to dshot stuff like burning arrow if you are on the ball. You could go with a third interrupt but that's pushing things a bit and there's only a few scenarios that would be necessary due to the recharge time of magebane. You won't be able to watch life bars go down as fast without BA though.

I find most sins these days are running a Deadly Arts build so interrupts are far more devastating to them especially when they can't get parts of their skills off.

moriz · Nov 22, 2007, 11:44 PM // 23:44

i've run a similar magebane shot ranger, except with hunter's shot instead of pin down.

it's straight up damage is about the same as a standard BA ranger. to me, the additional degen from hunter's shot is worth more than the cripple from pin down, simply because pin down is an unwieldy pos.

MasterSasori · Dec 04, 2007, 04:59 PM // 16:59

Lightning Reflexes would be the best move. A good sin would probably kill an unsuspecting, vulnerable Ranger very quickly without a stance.

Lyssa's balance isn't needed. Just use the standard BA build everyone is using or try something new.

Aris the Accurate · Dec 04, 2007, 05:33 PM // 17:33

sloth hunters shot+ vamp flatbow=gg shrines

bobrath · Dec 04, 2007, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

Just use the standard BA build everyone is using

I guess I just don't want to be "the same ranger as everyone else". Yah, I know that the BA build has been honed by millions of hours of in depth research and .... well you know.

I did end up switching in Mending Touch and Troll Unguent for this past weekend - and yes my Ranger was much more likely to survive an assassin encounter (or could this be because we had more PvE sins playing in AB?).

I'd still like to run BA, but have a nice enchant strip along - to make the Mystic Regen eles and MMs have a bad day every once in a while.

Hookecho · Dec 04, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Recently I have been running a crip shot ranger and loving it. I really dont have a problem with Sin spikes if they dont have a slow hex on me. When they step to me, I hit Lightning reflexes and dshot their 1st chain, apply poison while they wiff, crip them, poison them and run away, and if I can add another dshot to interrupt their next step or if they chase me, I just run, whirl and crip...then run some more....rinse and repeat

MasterSasori · Dec 04, 2007, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobrath

I did end up switching in Mending Touch and Troll Unguent for this past weekend - and yes my Ranger was much more likely to survive an assassin encounter (or could this be because we had more PvE sins playing in AB?).

I'd still like to run BA, but have a nice enchant strip along - to make the Mystic Regen eles and MMs have a bad day every once in a while.

I found the double fac weekend to be full of Sins that use Critical Defenses and Wild Strike which caused a bit of problems. Still, dealing with such sins aren't terribly difficult so you should always have a decent chance when dealing with sin if you use BA.

You want a nice enchant strip? Go necro and use Rend Enchantments or Gaze of Contempt instead of Mesmer.

Shuuda · Dec 06, 2007, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Distracting shot, and maybe natural Stride and Mending touch for backup, are the only things you will ever need to beat scrub sins. I can't go into how much fun I had, having three assassins on grenz spending the entire match trying to load a combo on me, well, I did have to taunt them a tad to target me.

If they have Critical Defenses on them, just kite with stride until it ends, no shame in outsmarting (or n00b ruunzer as they call it) people.

Edge Martinez · Dec 13, 2007, 10:42 AM // 10:42

As a sin player, Typically we're just looking for casters (including Para's and Dervs) or other sins to kill. My lead is usually Iron Palm, so to get the KD from it, if I were going after a ranger I'd typically use a hex. If the ranger reacts to the hex, I just leave him alone. If his attention is still elsewhere, I'll teleport to him and start the chain. His options at that point are limited, because the 1st and 3rd attacks knock him down.

What will mess a sin up? Whirling Defense. It interupts the chain and gives you the chance to get blind up/run/whatever. It's a great skill, because even a trapper can use it to rush a shrine with a necro, mesmer, and ritualist, and just start laying traps while they attack you and hurt themselves.

Aris the Accurate · Dec 13, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

What wont you find on a good ranger?

Whirling Defence

Its not a great skill..natural stride is far superior

Bobby2 · Dec 13, 2007, 10:45 PM // 22:45

Lightning Reflexes messes my Sin up quite badly... or take Escape

Aris the Accurate · Dec 14, 2007, 04:21 PM // 16:21

escape is actually good in ab because it is a speed buff as well as a block stance that can be kept up over 1/2 the time. AP+screaming shot is all the degen you need

distilledwill · Dec 14, 2007, 04:59 PM // 16:59

Im not sure if you're just looking for improvements on your BA build or just looking for a build that can survive a sin spike. So here's what Ive been having fun with recently:

[card]Broad Head Arrow[/card][card]Distracting Shot[/card]Sloth Hunter's Shot[card]Apply Poison[/card][card]Lightning Reflexes[/card][card]Mending Touch[/card][card]Natural Stride[/card][card]Troll Unguent[/card]

Your build has the same elements but it needs more Mending Touch, and Ive found that with BHA, Distracting Shot and Sloth Hunter's I can take down pretty much any foe that comes against me.
Sins are especially easy as they rely on several fragile things for their builds to work:

1)Being able to hit you and get off their chain, hence: Nat Stride + LR
2)Getting their hexes on, hence: BHA
3)Having enchantments on themselves, ie, shadow refuge etc, hence: BHA
4)Inflicting conditions on you, hence: Mending Touch

The kill potential isnt as high as BA rangers, but under pressure, i think it can survive better, and can take down powerful spellcasters.

Edge Martinez · Dec 15, 2007, 11:57 AM // 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aris the Accurate

What wont you find on a good ranger?

Whirling Defence

Its not a great skill..natural stride is far superior

I'd disagree there. Alot of good sin builds use hexes, which would drop NS. Whirling or Lightning Reflexes would still stop the majority of the strikes.

Sakura Az · Dec 15, 2007, 04:59 PM // 16:59

use crip shot on them, its even better to prevent them from even being able to get close to you. i've been running cripshot in AB recently, so much fun, ,i can't kill nearly as well as burning arrow, but i help my team out alot more with the snares.

apply poison>cripshot>hunters shot now just back up and reapply crip shot about 5-7 seconds later depending on if you have a crippling bow.. which you should when running crip shot. dshot thier self heal, and its gg for the sin.

if that fails, natraul stride away mend touch and then crip shot them , then run a little more and hit troll.