Curse

Clamatius · Jan 22, 2007, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Link.
I needed to practice playing a burning arrow ranger and RA was getting old quickly so I figured I'd put together a TA build round it. The idea is to provide straightforward PvP characters to develop player skills rather than to get massive win streaks (admittedly, always nice). Constructive criticism more than welcome.

I had the pleasure of being completely obliterated by Divineshadows amongst others last night, partially due to my uncanny ability to miss WaM with dshot. Which is why I'm practicing the ranger, I guess.

Franco Power · Jan 22, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Drop Troll ungent for screaming shot.

Why?

You don't need troll in TA imo, and bleeding + dmg is always nice to add on top of poison, cripple and burning.

EDIT: I forgot to add, if you are having problems interrupting, consider using savage shot and distracting shot bind to 1 and 2 so you can hit it faster. But it's all about reflexes really, how fast you react, I interrupt skills like punishing shot,healing hands, revearsal etc, because I have really good reflexes it's not skill so if anyone complains to you, don't feel bad.

Divineshadows · Jan 23, 2007, 12:33 AM // 00:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Legendary Ultimatum

Drop Troll ungent for screaming shot.

I agree with dropping troll, but screaming shot is pretty weak. Bleeding and weakness are the least scary conditions in the game. The expertise on the ranger is too low and wilderness survival too high. At 13 expertise, 5 energy skills cost 2 and 10 energy skills cost 5. At 14 expertise, the 10 energy skills cost only 4. I also don't like pin down as a skill. The recharge and energy cost just make it feel weak. I don't think you really need the snare since you already have knockdowns from the warrior and gale.

Here are some skills that are better options for the burning arrow ranger:
- mending touch (keep yourself and your warrior free from blind when your monk starts to get overwhelmed or even cure your monk from daze)
- debilitating shot (at 13+ marks its still one of the best ranger skills in the game)
- barbed trap (if you really want to be able to inflict crippled and bleeding and natural stride helps you not get interrupted while placing it)

If I were going to use a hammer warrior in TA nowadays for damage, I would definately want backbreaker and enraging charge. Backbreaker is just scary good against a monk and will net you kills where devastating will not. I also would not want plauge touch and heal sig on the warrior. These slots are taking the place of valuable damage skills such as mighty/fierce/irresistible blow/bull's strike/protector's strike that could really help the team's ability to get kills.

Lastly, you monk is using balanced stance, but you did not show in the build how much tactics you are going to use.

Clamatius · Jan 23, 2007, 12:33 AM // 00:33

I realise Troll isn't ideal in TA - occasionally handy against a degen build but too slow for TA, 3s ftl. The only reason I had it on there instead of another condition attack is that I was trying to keep that character as close to the GvG skirmisher as possible (also, it means I can play exactly the same bar in RA for more practice).

As for the interrupt issue, I'm just really out of practice with bows right now. Back when I was playing Ranger more frequently, it was all RA against boon prots where the interrupt target of choice was Guardian and I could at least get it reasonably reliably. I always have Distracting and Savage on Q & E so it's a small finger shift to hit the skill. I've been playing casters for months and I think getting used to being in the right position to cut the flight time as opposed to just avoiding warriors is the key mental adjustment I need to make.

You can't interrupt reversal and other .25 casts with reflexes, you have to guess when they're going to do it. For example, if you hit an interrupt just as a monk gets up from Devastating you'll often get something and sometimes it'll be RoF. It's more a matter of timing and watching patterns than twitch speed imho.

Thanks for the tips guys - maybe I'll switch out troll and switch the warrior to Backbreaker. If I remove touch from the warrior presumably I'll have to have draw on the ele though.

The tactics thing is an omission, I'll fix it.

{edit}:
Updated to a more TA-style build. Core build is now thumper, burning arrow, air ele w. draw & convert, ZB with glyph.

The thumper will have to be replaced when the skill changes go in, but the other characters should be ok.