Curse

gw_poster · Jul 30, 2009, 05:58 PM // 17:58

So, I was getting bored as hell with Ferndale runs trying to max my Kurz title, I decided to switch gears a bit and do a little pvp for faction (and balth, too). I remember doing a bit of JQ during one of the 2x weekends a while back so I went with that. I still had the meta-build loaded for ranger which is the mel-shot bar, etc. and was having some fun, when I realized this, too was quickly getting boring. So I came up with this bit of fun:

[Poison Tip Signet]
[Barbed Trap]
[Dust Trap]
[Melandrus Shot][E}
[Lightning Reflexes]
[Stormchaser]
[Antidote Signet]
[Troll Unguent]

WS 12+3+1
Exp 10+1
Marks 10

Pyrebound Armor with attunements and major vigor. Johon's Longbow

Apply poison tip signet, zone into green quarry, mel-shot the death bomber runner who'll undoubtedly be coming down the stairs across from you...run up the stairs and trap the spawn point, apply poison tip and mel shot the longbow across the way and stay busy patrolling the cliff for runners down below and turtles...poison who/what ever you can, check back on spawn point to lay more traps as they become available (they last 90 sec)...and then for the best part..laugh uncontrollably at the poor sap who spawns on top of them!! Usually it's a mo/p who will immediatly bane sig you for -58hp then immediately try to jesus beam you s they sit there disoriented, crippled, bleeding and blinded...just step a few paces left out of the RoJ beam of death and continue to apply poison tip and mel shot. What's really fun is when it's a leeroy zombie warrior or sin who gets trapped on then continues to pursue you while limping, etc. Run circles around them shooting poison tipped arrows and mel-shotting, if you get far enough ahead, typically at the bridge, lay a trap or two there and they will always pursue and run over those too. Ah, good fun. With a pyrebound set and troll active you can go straight-up against a fire ele or survive a jesus beam or two pretty easily.

I dunno, I'm bored. Any comments/suggestions are welcome..or just flame if you like.

Legendary Jamie · Jul 30, 2009, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Is it you just don't have a sup vig unlocked yet, or am I missing something.

Other than that, your build looks fine to me, I mean it's only JQ so builds aren't super important, however your obviously benefiting your team with snares etc.

EDIT: you could always throw a few interrupts in there to interrupt the inevitable jesus rays.

Pony Slaystation · Jul 30, 2009, 06:45 PM // 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Legendary Jamie

Is it you just don't have a sup vig unlocked yet, or am I missing something.

He was probably using a PvE character, in which case he didn't want to spend the money for a sup vigor rune. I use mostly major vigor runes on my characters, since the difference is only 9 hp, but about 15k in price.

Breakfast Mc Rit · Jul 30, 2009, 07:01 PM // 19:01

First things first, get rid of Dust Trap; casters notice blind as much as melee notices Backfire. Second, Melandru's Shot does what Barbed Trap does for far less energy and a faster recharge; usually fast enough to snare priority targets like smiters and bombers.

Having interrupts in your bar means you don't have to rely on armor to survive an ele attack, much less an RoJ (tell me you aren't standing in the beam .-.) It's good to have that armor, but if you're up against a Distortion ele, you might as well switch to your fire defensive shield and snare/kite until you have enough health/energy/support to get rid of it.

IronSheik · Jul 30, 2009, 07:44 PM // 19:44

I will admit trapping teleporters in JQ is hilarious, but not always useful.

Shayne Hawke · Jul 30, 2009, 08:48 PM // 20:48

The meta bar is still better.

- Poison Tip won't be great against players that will dodge your arrows, which do exist.
- Traps are useless. Won't be of much good against casters, you have to get in the way of the carrier if you want them to take the hit, and against melee, it's nothing that Natural Stride won't solve over half the time. It would be good to replace these with D-Shot and Savage Shot, as you're pretty much not even a PvP Ranger if you have no 'rupt.
- Not crazy about Lightning Reflexes, but meh. I use Needling Shot if I wanna go pew pew on something.
- Storm Chaser for Nat Stride. If you have this for energy management, you're not using your energy effectively in the first place.
- Antidote Sig is okay. I use Mending Touch. They've both got their ups and downs. Wouldn't be a problem to make the switch, as the skill doesn't really need a point investment to be useful. Antidote will probably only be more useful against Necros with Virulence, or someone who covers their Poison/Blind condition with a bunch of other junk.
- Trolls is good.

Also, if at all possible, use a PvP character, unless you've got humongous amounts of cash spent on decking out your PvE character for all necessary PvP scenarios, which I doubt.

Bobby2 · Jul 30, 2009, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Run Magebane.

gw_poster · Jul 30, 2009, 09:20 PM // 21:20

yeah, just doing this build for the lols originally, but it's actually fun and effective, at least during the hours I play JQ which is night-time PST when luxons are nothing but bots and lamers...typical win is 10-1, with it rarely going past 10-4...I know the meta is better which is why it's meta, but it's fun to play outside the box once in a while. btw, traps work from above as well...trap the middle of the bridge and the runner below gets dinged, same goes for trapping the base of an NPC shrine cliff...lay the trap below and they get dinged above

REDdelver · Jul 30, 2009, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Yea dump the traps.

Traps really are only as good as your team situation. If you have a lot of pressure from allies with you.....traps are effective. You need to think in terms of being able to use your build all over the map. That means solo, that means tag teaming, shrines, juggies/turtles..etc.

We all can build a great offensive build and just smush shrines right? But I've always had so much more fun with a balanced build that I can break off in situations to solo shrines/juggies/pressure high damage opponents/etc.

The two traps should go for dshot and savage shot. I really dont see the point of being a ranger without at least one of those 2 interrupts on your bar.

wilson · Aug 07, 2009, 09:05 AM // 09:05

I think you should start with fixing your attributes. This is what you got :

Quote:

Originally Posted by gw_poster

WS 12+3+1
Exp 10+1
Marks 10

The attribute point distribution you have there is, by the way, impossible. You use a total of 219 points : 12 Wilderness Survival = 97 ; 10 Expertise = 61 ; 10 Marksmanship = 61. So I presume you meant something like :

Quote:

Originally Posted by gw_poster

WS 12+3+1
Exp 9+1
Marks 9+1

IMHO Expterise should always be your highest attribute. In your case, the 10 Expertise is only a breaking point for 2 of your skills : Dust Trap (25 energy -> 15 energy) and Barbed trap (15 energy -> 9 energy).

Quote:

Originally Posted by standard attribute distribution

Expterise :14 (12+1+1)
Wilderness Survival :10 (9+1)
Marksmanship :10 (9+1)

While this is the standard distribution, it is so for a reason. Your 10 (-> 5 energy after Expertise at level 14) and 5 (2 energy after Expterise at level 14) energy skills both get reduced. The damage and condition duration from your traps will be slightly reduced, but you can use your skills more often making your character more enduring.
I would also strongly advise not to run any superior (or major) runes at all, both in PvE and PvP. The health loss does not make up for the higher attribute level. Again, higher health means that your character will be a lot more enduring and tougher to take down.
Only exception to this is of course a Superior Vigor, which I suggest you should get right away.
Next, I would drop the Pyrebound Insignia. Rangers already have a huge armor bonus vs. elemental damage : 70 base armor level +30 versus elemental damage. In addition to that, Pyrebound is too narrow : it only works vs. fire elementalists (and players wielding fire weapons). While it may be great if you know you will only fight fire damage dealing mobs (like during farming runs), you limit yourself in any other situation. Personnally I would stick with Survivor or Radiant insignias. Survivor makes you harder to kill. Radiant can keep you going for longer.
You should also consider defensive shield sets with a +10 armor vs. X damage inscription (if your afraid of fire elementalists that much, only get a +10 vs. fire damage to get started). You can swith to the shield set when using Troll Unguent, your preparation or just running away (yes, moving IS NOT noob). You can also equip it when you see the big hits coming but for some reason you cannot interrupt the spell (blocked line of sight, recharging interrupts, hexed up, blinded, out of position etc.).

Quote:

Originally Posted by gw_poster

Johon's Longbow

I would advise you to get more bows. Your limiting yourself with only one weapon. Get a Flatbow to attack shrines outside aggro range (vampiric, +15^50, +30 health) (Flatbow is better than a Longbow for thejob : NPCs don’t run around when attacked outside range, they won’t dodge your arrows plus the Flatbow has a higher attack speed) , a short bow (vampiric, +15^50, +30 health) to take out crippled melee chasing you down and a couple of recurves (poisonous, +15^50, +30 health and poisonous, +energy, +30 health) for interrupting and general use. If you run Pind Down or Crippling Shot, get the same recurves with a crippling string. I would only use the longbow at the very start of a fight. The long range and relatively short arrow flight time (compared to the Flatbow) allows you at times to interrupt preperations or attunements or any other long cast time skill players apply before they engage. After that, I would immediately switch to a recurve bow. It is the best all around bow when it comes to range, arrow flight time, arrow arc and accuracy (harder to dodge since arrows fly faster).
Again, I would strongly suggest to get the best equipment available. I’d pick a perfectly modded but crafted recurve bow any time over a bow with a fancy skin but crap mods. I also encourage you to customize all your weapons. The +20% damage on customized weapons is a nice and cheap "mod". The argument that you can’t sell it anymore is a moot point IMHO. Either you keep the weapon, or you get rid of it right away.
Having the optimal gear is very important. And in a game like GW where you can get everything you need quite easily, there is just no reason not to do it. If you can’t afford the equipment, roll a PvP char.

I’d also suggest rethinking your skill bar. Many skills in GW don’t see use for a reason. They are just not as good as other available options.
We all get bored sometimes even with our favorite professions. But I think it’s more advisable to play a different profession in that case, rather than gimping yourself with outside-the-box builds.
That said, I found an Incendiary bar very useful in JQ when I still played there, which I haven’t done for quite some time now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by my suggestion

1. Distracting Shot
2. Savage Shot
3. Incendiary Arrows
4. Apply Poison
5. Pin Down
6. Natural Stride
7. Mending Touch
8. Troll Unguent
Expterise : 13 (11+1+1)
Wilderness Survival : 12 (11+1)
Marksmanship : 9 (8+1)
Protection Prayers : rest

I’d run this build.
Rangers rise and fall with interrupts. Distracting and Savage Shot are two staple skills that should find their room on any bow Ranger’s bar (unless you'r running Magebane Shot of course, then you can drop Savage). Interrupts are very strong and not only in JQ. Defensively used you can shut down nukers, ROJ monks and bombers. Offensively you can harrass their Mo/Ps trying to heal carriers. You can disable self heals.
Incendiary Arrows and Apply Poison are excellent AoE damage. You can clear shrines and mines with just a couple of shots (three IIRC). When clearing mines, switch targets to attack a maximum of NPCs. NPCs have very low health, they die of degeneration very quickly (can’t seem to find the exact figure atm).
Pin Down is a very flexible snare, more than Barbed Trap at any rate. Use it to cripple carriers, melee, bombers etc. Sometimes you can slow down healers long enough to allow your NPCs/party members to kill a carrier.
Natural Stride has a 7 second duration at 12 Wilderness Survival. There is absolutely no need for a second defensive stance seeing that you get many other tools that help you survive : Troll Unguent, Mending Touch, Pin Down and interrupts.
Use Troll Unguent before the fight. Using it when you already took a lot of damage is too late. If used before the battle, it gives you a 13 second advantage over your opponent.
If you have a flexible secondary profession, I’d always bring Mending Touch over Antidote Signet. Mending Touch heals for removing conditions. It has a shorter cast time making it harder to interrupt. Biggest advantage is that it can be used on allies.

When playing Ranger in JQ, use the terrain to your advantage.
You should s stay as much as possible on the higher ground. This adds to your range and damage.
You can move around the map quickly with Natural Stride. If the situation gets stuck somewhere, disengage and try something else.
Use your skills to your advantage. For example, the Incendiary bar I used was somewhat weaker at ganking carriers. So instead of focusing on the carrier I’d just cripple it and proceed to clear the Ranger shrine on the carriers way to the enemy base. The added damage from the shrine helps to kill the carriers so much faster.
That said, a Ranger is very flexible in many situations. Try to have a build that lives up to that and then try to make the most out of it. That’s where I get my fun from.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text and my old-man-ramblings.

gw_poster · Aug 10, 2009, 02:35 PM // 14:35

^^ damn, bro - that's a lot of advice!

I think I stated in my OP that it was kind of a joke build, with the punchline being that I was trapping the spawn points (mainly on the green quarry hill), which is great fun at night PST (GMT-7) when I play because the bots will inevitably go to the same spawn, over and over again. Just camping the cliff taking out the NPC longbows across the way, tagging turtles and killing whatever spawns is fun. I was bored as hell with vanqing the forest for faction so I was doing JQ which got real boring, too, hence the gimmicky build. Didn't matter much anyway, as I think I've lost once in about 40 matches and the closest the luxons ever got beside that one was about 10-4 or so.

To respond to some of your points (w/o quoting as I'm not entirely sure how to quote numerous times in same post lol) -- My main is a PvE toon which is why I don't have the superior rune of vigor - I'm too cheap to actually buy it and when I get one as a drop I always sell it (18k is worth more than 9 hp to me). The point distribution may have been wrong as I was going off of memory, but the point in that build is that I had WS on high for the poison duration and trap effectiveness. In most cases in PvE I run radiant/attunement armor (with 4 other sets of armor setup for specific builds - earthbound, pyrebound, etc.) my expertise is at 15 and marksmanship 13 with a few points leftover unused.

As far as bows - I've got about 15 different bows, all customized, and most very specific to certain builds I like to run, and for different areas (charrslaying, deathbane, pruning, warding grips for instance) and situations (longbow for pulling, shortbow for melee/close attacks, recurve for general purpose, etc), and finally string setups for different builds (poison for..umm poisoning, zealous for barrage, silencing for BHA, etc.). In short, I'm definitely not as noob as that fun (for me) JQ bar might suggest, but I do appreciate the information and helpful advice.