Curse

Stealth Bomberman · Dec 04, 2008, 12:48 AM // 00:48

[expert focus] vs. [read the wind].

when it comes down to it, which is your prep of choice between these two? I personally like expert b/c of energy reduction and dmg is same as RtW anyways. only difference is speed in arrows.

expert will allow you to spam skills like [burning arrow] and [savage shot] w/o worry of energy.

RtW will let you hit skills like [melandrus shot] easier.

So who likes what?

Arcane Spark · Dec 04, 2008, 01:33 AM // 01:33

PvE, probably Expert's.

PvP, definitely RtW.

zelgadissan · Dec 04, 2008, 01:38 AM // 01:38

For the longest time I thought Expert's reduced the energy even more past Expertise. What it actually does is make (for example) a 15e skill have a base of 13e, then it applies Expertise. So it really doesn't do all that much; in fact it works best at 8 Expertise, which I personally would never drop that low. To be fair, if you run 10+1 Expertise, which I could see people actually doing, 10e skills would only cost 4e which can be very useful.

Once I figured that out, I only really use Read the Wind and Apply Poison.

dilan155 · Dec 04, 2008, 01:46 AM // 01:46

expert is ok for PvE and RtW is more helpful in PvP, ofc Apply Poison beats both of these everywhere.

the savage nornbear · Dec 04, 2008, 04:02 AM // 04:02

[[apply poison] ftw

Shayne Hawke · Dec 04, 2008, 05:06 AM // 05:06

The only builds that would seem to reasonably benefit from Expert's are builds with a few spammy attacks, which doesn't sound like a very good build to me unless you're going all-out-turret Ranger. I like RtW because it allows my interrupts to be there when I need them, instead of having to make so many predictions on when my enemy will use something important.

Skyy High · Dec 04, 2008, 06:51 AM // 06:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelgadissan

For the longest time I thought Expert's reduced the energy even more past Expertise. What it actually does is make (for example) a 15e skill have a base of 13e, then it applies Expertise. So it really doesn't do all that much; in fact it works best at 8 Expertise, which I personally would never drop that low. To be fair, if you run 10+1 Expertise, which I could see people actually doing, 10e skills would only cost 4e which can be very useful.

Once I figured that out, I only really use Read the Wind and Apply Poison.

Huh, really? That's kinda silly; it can only ever save you 1 energy at any reasonable spec that way. I mean, I didn't often use the skill before, just when running some silly quick shot / needling shot build, but it's never hitting my bar again now...

valence · Dec 04, 2008, 07:11 AM // 07:11

Expert can act like a zealous wep (and making your BA 1 nrg) but it can also do something else. Giving you free attribute points! At 11 expertise (3 less the the usual) Expert reduces BA or other 10 energy bow attack skills to 4 nrg.

That said expert and rtw serve different roles but in the end do something simialir. First off you should know that expert only reduces attack skills, therefor expert itself cost 6 energy (at 10+1 expertise) and every stance basically cost 1 or 2 nrg more then the usual. But with the free attribute points you can take something like a Conjure.

In the end they do the same, but in between not.
[Expert + zealous + some rit skill that gives nrg on hit means a non stop turret ranger, fun for 10 minutes]

Ben-A-BoO · Dec 04, 2008, 08:00 AM // 08:00

One of the main reason's I favor [[read the wind] is that allows me to use a (vamp) Flatbow, with an arc comparable to a recurve bow ... Even if kiting is less a concern in PvE it still gives me the best refire rate while maintaining control over a bigger radius.

I favor this over any bit of two or three less energy any day.

MegaVolti · Dec 04, 2008, 12:55 PM // 12:55

I find the 2s downtime every 24s to be very annoying. That's 10% of my time I can't do anything. Preps should last longer or activate faster.

The Meth · Dec 04, 2008, 03:09 PM // 15:09

For PvE expert focus might have a chance, but remember RtW lets you use a flatbow for the highest DPS, range, and almost no chance of missing, so that balances out the slightly greater amount of energy you use. For PvP RtW totally trashes Expert because arrow time is your interrupt lifeline (both are trashed by apply poison though).

ac1inferno · Dec 04, 2008, 04:11 PM // 16:11

[[Read the Wind], shots will be more accurate and harder to dodge. [[Expert Focus], the energy reduction is applied before Expertise.

Kumlekar · Dec 12, 2008, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Experts focus is excellent with needling, point blank, zonjun's shot, hunters shot, or any other 5 e bow attack. Hear me out here. I'm assuming that expertise is reducing 60% of the cost for this example.
5 energy -2 =3
3-(3*2/3rds) = 1
Zealous bow = 0 energy spent.

That said, point blank and zojuns are usually used with glass arrows. It would be best with a ED build, but as said above, doesn't allow flatbow use (the other option is to bring favorable winds). Its limited use, but can be excellent in certian builds. In most cases RTW is better though.