Curse

Loot Junkie · Feb 03, 2007, 02:11 AM // 02:11

I've had alot of success with this build, but remember that the most valuable skill on your bar is barbs, not SS. This build used with 4 B/P rangers, orders necro, MM, monk cuts alot of time off a tombs run as opposed to going with 5 rangers.

Attributes - curses 16, soul-reaping 13

Weapon set has 2 20% HCT mods to help speed up the casting since some skills have a pretty long casting time, its a beautiful thing when you see weaken armor cast in about a second instead of 3. Your weapon set doesnt need energy mods, I do just fine with an energy pool of 41 because of soul reaping. A 20/20 one-handed weapon and a 20/20 offhand would be a great set for this.

Skill Bar - spiteful spirit, reckless haste, parasitic bond, barbs, weaken armor, enfeebling blood, mark of pain, rebirth

Here's how to use this build properly. Your team draws agro, cast barbs and parasitic bond on the NEAREST enemy which is almost certainly a grasp of insanity. Every physical damage to that enemy from rangers, their pets, or minions will trigger an extra 16 damage which adds up very very fast. Target the next grasp and hex him with weaken armor and parasitic bond. Even though you dont get to see the damage numbers, weaken armor causes an extra 20 damage when hit with physical damage. Try to cast enfeebling blood on a grasp when other grasps are close to him so that you weaken all of them. Since the damage from barbs and weaken armor is vastly superior to spiteful spirit, I tend to cast it when barbs and weaken armor are unavailable. Target the 3rd grasp and cast SS, reckless haste and cover with parasitic bond. An alternate way to play this is to cast both barbs and weaken armor on the first grasp and the SS/reckless combo on the 2nd grasp, then barbs and p-bond on the 3rd grasp (weaken armor won't be recharged yet). Cast barbs and weaken armor on wurms for a very fast kill. Just keep targeting and casting as efficiently as possible, the energy never ends lol. Use the tab button to quickly change targets.

Mark of Pain does no damage to the foe hexed with it, but it does do 42 damage to adjacent foes, so use it on the NEAREST foe in a tightly packed mob and watch your screen fill with yellow 42's. The best spot for this is the descending staircase on the 4th level, if your ranger is brave enough to pull the entire mass of enemies at the bottom of the stairs.

I use parasitic bond to cover the hexes that matter since the enemies in tombs can use "Fingers of Chaos" to lose hexes. The other benefit is that every time a copy of p-bond ends, the caster is healed for 126.

Try not to ignore using enfeebling blood on the grasps, it minimizes damage to the team and more importantly, to the minions, which are not being watched and healed by the monk.

Just remember that for the most part, you are not a damage dealer, you are a physical damage booster. This means casting your hexes on the nearest foes that your team is fighting so learn to use C/spacebar if you havent already. Remember that your most valuable skill is barbs due to its high damage/quick cast/quick recharge, give it top priority.

For those people out there who think that arcane echo/SS is the way to go, give this build a try, it is way faster. Please give me any feedback on how to make this build better, just remember that it is specifically intended for tombs.

Carmine · Feb 06, 2007, 12:22 AM // 00:22

With so many rangers spamming barrage every 2-2.4 seconds, mark of pain will outdamage SS and barbs easily.

Grasps will attack every 1.33 seconds, so you'll see -37s every 1.33 seconds. Your rangers are hitting 5-6 times every 2-2.4 seconds, so a terrible underestimation gives 5*42=210 every 2.6 seconds, as compared to 2*37=74 or 5*16=80 every 2.6 seconds. If your group includes a minion master, the Mark of Pain numbers will increase a bit more. Thus, we're talking triple the damage of SS, or nearly triple the damage of barbs...but even better, on multiple foes. Barbs and weaken armor are brilliant to wipe out one foe (pot scrapings, loners, and most importantly, those nasty fecking wurms).

Enfeebling blood and reckless haste are highly win for helping to keep that meatshield thriving.