Curse

Urcscumug · Apr 06, 2011, 02:43 PM // 14:43

Belzebu, sorry I wasn't clear, I meant bow builds, with stuff from the secondary only used to complement bow attacks. I know you can go P or A secondary and achieve good DPS... but then you might as well go P or A primary.

As for Barrage, against Master of Damage and the fixed puppets the heroes don't seem to use it very often. Against Master of Healing they use it better. I will redo my tests.

As for Splinter Weapon, they attempt to maintain it indiscriminately for the entire time they attack, without caring whether they actually have 3+ enemies in close proximity to hit => they spend their energy fast then they just pew pew their bow. It can be effective if you micromanage it ie. enable it for them only when you know they're gonna have a ball of enemies to play with. It can also be effective when you have lots of enemies in closed spaces, such as you often get in Factions... but a Ranger is not usually my first choice of a teammate in Vizunah Square. Or, of course, you can put SW on an actual Ritualist.

On a side note, Splinter Weapon actually takes some skill to use, given the fact it's both time and attack number limited. You can't just slap it on there and expect it to work. It can be useful on a good melee (human!) fighter, with the ability to discern when to use it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belzebu

As others suggested IATS and EBSoH are almost mandatory to rise your damage, the nice thing about IATS is that it isn't time limited so you can cast before the battle, wait the energy regen then pull the mob then cast EBSoH.

The effect from IatS will be expended within 5 seconds or so. EBSoH is better, with less downtime... I just wish it was more readily available than from deep inside EotN.

Amy Awien · Apr 07, 2011, 09:15 AM // 09:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urcscumug

What Vazze meant is that you need to test those builds, and the Isle of the Nameless puppets are there exactly for this reason.

MoD is just good enough to test if a build can work, but it can not tell you how it will perform in the field, let alone to test how different builds compare to each other. And it's not just because of his low AL.

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You want high DPS over a long period of time (minutes, not seconds).

I disagree, a turret should be able to kill something fast - a bow gives you the advantage that you can switch targets without running around. Being able to kill something in 5 seconds is preferable over sustained (lower) DPS.

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Bottom line, if you don't have access to damage buffs your DPS will be crap on a ranger with a bow.

Definitely true - your damage comes from whatever bonuses you manage to add to your arrows, not the arrows themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urcscumug

I know you can go P or A secondary and achieve good DPS... but then you might as well go P or A primary.

/P is no good for damage, precisely because you have less options to add +bonus damage to spears.

Urcscumug · Apr 07, 2011, 12:25 PM // 12:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Awien

MoD is just good enough to test if a build can work, but it can not tell you how it will perform in the field, let alone to test how different builds compare to each other. And it's not just because of his low AL.

Actually, I'm starting to believe MoD is good for exactly what it does: a very simplistic count of DPS. I've discovered that heroes "hold back" when told to attack MoD and refuse to use many of their skills. If you pit them against Master of Healing, for example, it's a whole different business.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Awien

Being able to kill something in 5 seconds is preferable over sustained (lower) DPS.

I agree as well, what I said was I want high and sustained DPS. Rangers are perfectly capable of spikes as well as low constant DPS, and if I have to choose between the two I will also pick spikes. But that high + sustained DPS is still a pipe dream. I guess that's the price ANet chose to make us pay in exchange for the ranger's versatility.

PS: We're talking about humans playing ranger. I don't think hero AI is capable of spiking on purpose. I mean something like look around the battlefield, see a foe with an amount of HP left that sums up to its own attacks and spam them all on purpose to take it out.