Curse

perafel · Apr 03, 2006, 01:42 PM // 13:42

I read up on these two professions and I found both of them to have their weaknesses and strength. For running a PVE build, which of the two secondary professions should I choose?

Mesmers under inspiration line and also echo plus the doppleganger is easy to beat

Rangers unders wilderness survival line to make skills cheaper (EW) and winter is quite useful rite?

Cherno · Apr 03, 2006, 01:50 PM // 13:50

You can always change your secondary later on.

Concentrate on a secondary that will help you get through the game the normal way (if that's what you're doing). Monk is good for reusuable res and some healing. Mesmer is good for archance echo mid game (beetletun quest I believe).

Expertise makes skills cheaper, not wilderness survival and not that expertise doesn't affect the ele spells you will be casting. Winter is useful later in the game, but there are usually rangers that have that when it is needed, and you can change your secondary by that time anyway.

Dopple on Ele is easy to beat as well without regard to your secondary.

I have a guildie who will almost always go monk secondary for the simple reason of avoiding having to do "the monk's path" quest later in the desert.

LightningHell · Apr 03, 2006, 02:03 PM // 14:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cherno

I have a guildie who will almost always go monk secondary for the simple reason of avoiding having to do "the monk's path" quest later in the desert.

Quoted for truth. However, I just LOVE killing that boss, he/she/it was always so annoying (for TM'sP) it's enjoyable to kill it.

For Mesmer:

You have Arcane Echo in the Desert on.
You have E-Management early on in the game.
You get in groups a bit more easily.
You beat your doppleganger easily under 20 seconds when you're level 10.
You get to unlock the most 0wn4g3 PvP profession while you're at it.

For Rangers:

You get to use a decent weapon.
You get Barrage.
You get a Pet.
You get spammable interrupts, something always welcomed for a newbie.
You get Wilderness Survival.

All I can think of right now.

Armageddon · Apr 03, 2006, 05:17 PM // 17:17

with a Ranger secondary you can also get permanent Mist Form or Obsidian Flesh - making you immune to either spells or attacks (unless they interupt them)

mint · Apr 03, 2006, 08:06 PM // 20:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cherno

Expertise makes skills cheaper, not wilderness survival and not that expertise doesn't affect the ele spells you will be casting.

Expertise is a primary attribute, it has nothing to do with a ranger secondary. Generally, elementalists only utilize one or two skills from their secondary....things that can easily be aquired after ascension. Personally, I just chose the secondary line that I needed skill unlocks in

Cherno · Apr 03, 2006, 08:22 PM // 20:22

True, I was have a brain fart. EW might not be something you want as it makes things cheaper but does have a drawback that your team wouldn't appreciate.

Nyagan · Mar 10, 2007, 11:19 PM // 23:19

I have played E/R for the whole game, i don't think it is too usefull because you will want to focus on a single element (fire, air, water, or earth) and energy storage. The bad side of having a pet would be taht when you die all of your skills need to recharge, witch is a real burden. And the only skill I used was troll ungent. One of my freinds has an E/Me and i think it would be a better combo because you get echo and various energy draining skills along with it. But i think the best would be E/Mo because you can bring along healing breeze and a reuseable resurection spell and you will be good to go.Hope I was a help!

Dr Strangelove · Mar 12, 2007, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Only reason to go ranger is for winter and serpent's quickness. Mesmer has some nifty stuff that can be useful for filling slots when you're low on skills. If E/mo isn't a possibility, I'd choose E/me just for the skill unlocks and slightly better skills for a secondary ele.

Pick Me · Mar 12, 2007, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Rangers: Melandru's Resilience (e) - because you have no way of removing hexes or conditions placed on you.
: Serpents of Quickness
: Defensive stances - when you need to escape melee monsters (because the tank can't hold aggro)
: Antidote Signet (to remove poison & disease)
: Winter & Greater Conflaguration (elemental manipulation)

Mesmer: hex removal
: Ether Lord + Ether Renewal? (e) (the elite that damages you if you have any energy left after it ends)
: archane echo, echo (e), arcane mimcry
: mantra stances

It is a hard decision, that only you can make. Hope this helps give you more considerations to your dilema.

Falconer · Mar 12, 2007, 11:55 PM // 23:55

Assuming that this is a PvE prophecies character...

I'd go w/ el/mes as the starting arrangement over el/r.

Rationale: you'll unlock more usefull spells from all the mesmer attribute lines as you go through the game. You'll better be able to use the mesmer skills than the ranger skills for the majority of the game. And it's very easy to unlock ranger later and then simply buy those few skills you need/like from wilderness survival and beastmastery. The skills you'd get from the ranger quests generally aren't in wilderness survival and beastmastery as well. But mind you the reason I'd go el/mes first is simply because it makes unlocking skills more efficient (you can get a lot of them for free to little cost this way, as opposed to buying everything like you do in factions or nightfall).

Now to defend the elly/ranger. As elly/ranger you're really only after 2 of the rangers support lines, wilderness survival, and beastmastery. One of the large reasons for this is ranger effects are greatly overpriced because they assume heavy expertise investment (13+), however you also have 25% expertise w/ zero rounding problems built-in due to your 4 pips regen though at no cost.

As others have noted, your skills of interest from the ranger have to deal w/ recharge times mostly. If you go w/ wilderness survival, this will mostly be skills like serpents quickness, if everyone's setup for it quickening zephyr. And troll ungent is a pretty decent heal compared to the elementalist primary offerings. Natural stride is quite usable as well, though you won't use it w/ SQ on the bar. Similarly, trap skills like snare are cheap and functional for protecting yourself and others in the backline. Brambles synergizes quite well w/ knockdowns from the earth, fire, and air lines.

Beastmastery lets you add a pet, but it also has some interesting nature spirits which can be usefull in the build. Energizing wind being a premier one (all your skills now cost 10 energy for better or worse), but w/ a 25% recharge. If you're energy limited but not recharge limited this isn't a bad trade. Similarly, symbiosis and fertile season have some interesting uses w/ even a moderate spec. And again, pets aren't bad, and can add reasonable pressure DPS but are space hungry on the bar, so generally they're only used to add extra DPS to an already high DPS setup (which most spellcasters are NOT, the pets roughly equivalent in this use to full time wanding while you cast).

But final note, remember this is a game to have fun. It can be a lot of fun to experiment w/ all the secondaries. There's no reason to lock yourself into El/Mes, or El/R... El/Der isn't bad even As a game, you don't need to run the same build all the time, there are a lot of 'effective' builds, feel free to experiment a little. (not all of them are most effective, but for PvE having fun purposes, effective is the operative word).