Curse

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 08, 2012, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Hi All,

As I've mentioned My 'Ranger' Claudia recently Ascended; which has allowed me to play around a little with Alternate 2nd Professions; and Farm some Elites for my Mercs;

Meaning I've had to play Claudia more as a 'Ranger' than ever before and the results have been honestly disappointing. While I have beaten Thristy River and Elona Reach with A Ranger focused build; my team absolutely got our butts kicked by the Mobs of Hydra's leaving Destiny's Gorge; and Yes I know someone will say; well you probably did not do a good enough job of pulling and picking off the Mobs; likely true.

But these same mobs who nearly wiped my team on the first enounter and did on the 2nd; fell like so much cordwood when I brought Claudia back Kitted out with her Fire Fly Build.

Some of it I'm sure is me not playing like a typical Ranger to date; some of it is I'm sure my Build; I know the conventional wisdom is a Player is supposed to be best in their primary class; but at the end of the day I honestly have become convinced that no matter how well I build Claudia as a Ranger, she will never come close to the fire power of my Baseline 'Fire Fly' build.

Fire Fly
OgYWgSFbjbgjMOImHj5AnpLQGDxhBA

Claudia Pure Ranger.
OgAUYxbilMHI+xKmxue33m2A

Last week when I posted I was having some troubles with Thristy River bosses someone posted well I sould be equiping BroadHead Arrow a Factions Skill (that I may have to make a side trip to collect) or Barrage, an elite I can't capture before Iron Mines of Moladune... T

I can see how easy it is for players who have been tooling around hard mode for a while to remember just how limited the Tool Box is, even at Level 20 Especially in the Elite Dept; but I am dealing with a pretty well core group of skills; I do have most the skills the Trainers 'Offer' and any I'm actually interested in at this time. Like I don't have any of those silly trap skills; lets see I lay out a trap and then hope a mob stumbles into it- of I walk up to said mob and drop a Lava Font. Hard Choice. Not meaning to be too snarky, just in a off mood today.

Still Your Thoughts, and or Build/ Other suggestions would be appreciated; but lets keep them real; the Only Not Prophecies skill I carry is Double Dragon; and that does not apply here.

BTW DD + Lava Font = Crispy Critters. ; ) Blessings, BB.

Not New · Mar 08, 2012, 09:40 PM // 21:40

Rangers are simply gimped... Barrage is the only good Prophecies skill to use. Your kinda stuck with your "firefly" build until then.. sorry

The builds on heroes (if you have any, seems you do not) are more important than your build really. Since facerolling dessert monsters in pretty easy with them.

Voodoo Rage · Mar 08, 2012, 10:27 PM // 22:27

I wouldn't blame it on the ranger (was that a Milli Vanilli song?), hydras ARE a tough foe and are a good lesson for avoiding AoE damage and interrupting. You did mention mercs, so you have heroes. The best thing you can do is to work on developing their skill bars (more important than your own right now) since they are really going to make or break your team. I understand your available skills might be limited but keep in mind that you can unlock skills in the Great Temple of Balthazar too via Balthazar faction (you can buy flames of balthazar). Also make sure your heroes are properly equipped with runes. Make you that you have max armor (max armor can be purchased at Kaineng Center if you don't already have it).

I'm currently taking my ranger through the new Winds of Change content and I disagree about the ranger being gimped. With your heroes complementing you the right way, the ranger can be a very powerful ranged damager.

Cuilan · Mar 08, 2012, 10:35 PM // 22:35

Typical ranger uses a stance while running away from foes or spams self heals and stances when not taking damage. If those tactics work for other rangers, they might work for you.

Fay Vert · Mar 08, 2012, 10:35 PM // 22:35

Yup, rangers have been so underpowered for a long time. About the best you can do is apply poison and hunters shot with at least two interrupts and self defence/heal/res.

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 08, 2012, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voodoo Rage

You did mention mercs, so you have heroes. The best thing you can do is to work on developing their skill bars (more important than your own right now) since they are really going to make or break your team.

Well right now my Mercs Builds are pretty well modeled on appropriate Henchmen; so Pandora and Engaria my Fighters both Started with Koss's Build; but I may need to revist those as I've moded them fairly extensively.

My Aleshia is began as a Straight Clone - (Now with Word of Healing), and Cynn; Well Cynn is pretty Much my own build because I feel I understand Elms pretty well and I know what I want her to do to Complement Claudia. All are pretty well runed up an have near perfect weapons.

Still not trying to be defensive here; I'm sure they all need some work simply because Claudia is the only Toon I've nearly completed a campain with and I've lots to learn about the other classes.

Engaria - Crippling Scimatar of Wardging(G) OQAUEVZQ3qGC1vBNAbtoAVAA
Pandora - Cruel Axe of Shelter(G) OQMV0SnFT5WnJAgSEKUFtCYUjETA
Aleisha - Protective Rod HC20% OQMV0SnFT5WnJAgSEKUFtCYUjETA
I've loaded her down with healing, but she needs toooo much Mircoing to get her to do her Job.
Pandora will be Rezing someone while Aleshia's dancing; no joke I've seen it happen Akkk.
Cynn de Surmia Def Air Staff of Fortitude. 18%HRchg OgBFgaKKuBzj5wbgz0FjihYREXA

Voodoo Rage · Mar 08, 2012, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Yeah, your heroes are the problem not your ranger. The Warrior/Monk concept just isn't going to work. The very best thing you can do for yourself is to dump all of those mercs and make a Necro, Ritualist, and a Mesmer mercenary team. The way you do that is to roll a PvP character which will automatically be level 20 and then register them as a merc and then delete them. That way even if you have no interest in playing those professions, you can still instantly get level 20 mercs out of them.

Your ultimate goal will be something like this:

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Player_Support

But in the mean time you should be able to unlock a lot of the basic skills to get yourself going. You want your necro to make minions which are awesome in this game for both absorbing damage from attacking foes (like those hydras dropping Meteors on you) and dealing significant damage when they attack in groups. The Mesmer is going to shut down most of the spells cast by the enemy AND generate a lot of damage in the process. The Ritualist can generate spirits which like the minions, will deal damage and absorb damage (and the spirits can fuel the energy of the ritualist to be a fairly effective healer). It's probably worth the expense for you to just pay for Balthazar faction to unlock the key elite spells for each of them if they aren't readily in an area you can capture them.

Warrior heroes are just terrible in this game, I would avoid them entirely. A reminder that if you plan on deleting a merc, be sure you salvage all the runes and weapons of of them first.

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 09, 2012, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voodoo Rage

Yeah, your heroes are the problem not your ranger. The Warrior/Monk concept just isn't going to work. The very best thing you can do for yourself is to dump all of those mercs and make a Necro, Ritualist, and a Mesmer mercenary team. The way you do that is to roll a PvP character which will automatically be level 20 and then register them as a merc and then delete them. That way even if you have no interest in playing those professions, you can still instantly get level 20 mercs out of them.

Your ultimate goal will be something like this:

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Player_Support

Thanks for the tips and the Links; will have to take a longer look at it; but honestly looking at the Builds Page really Boggles my little bird brain; because of course its almost all symbols I have not seen before; So I've bookmarked the page.

I do generally travel with a Mesmer Henchie, and have been running up a NecroMesmer in the background. But I have to admit; while I respect what Mesmers do in PvP; god knows they've Jammed me the few times I've tried that format. As I mentioned on another thread, I have never seen my Mesmer Henchman do anything but wand. I expect its just it's hard to see the Mez doing what s/hes supposed to because he's jamming casters, but it's hard to get excited about tossing the invisible man into one of 6 precious slots; 8 man teams a little less so. When I drop into factions I always pick up the Minion Maker; at the very least they look really cool.

To be fair to my current team though, like I said with Claudia in FireFly mode we did tear through the Hydra's like they were made of flash paper; the FireFly is in many ways the opposite of your team; which seems to be all about distance, while with FireFly I play Claudia real close to the Warriors where I can drop DD and Lava fonts delivering heavy fire power at the tip of the spear, so it's a Melee oriented concept.

Don't get me wrong I do respect your the advise and I do expect that to work Claudia as more of a Pure Ranger she will need a different supporting cast. Thanks again for your time, and the tips. BB.

Doug4130 · Mar 09, 2012, 02:39 AM // 02:39

I've had a lot more fun playing my ranger based around my second class. A dagger ranger with enraged lunge or expert's dexterity is a loto f fun, and I like bringing my pet along. Right now I'm running a ranger/warrior with triple chop as the elite, with dwarven stability and lightning reflexes I have almost a permanent 33% attack speed increase and great party support with "save yourselves". If you want to be more ranger-ish, you can always go barrage or kindle arrows with incendiary arrows and double/triple shot

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 09, 2012, 02:56 AM // 02:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug4130

I've had a lot more fun playing my ranger based around my second class. A dagger ranger with enraged lunge or expert's dexterity is a loto f fun, and I like bringing my pet along.

Oh believe me I have alot of fun playing the FireFly; I was in V. Square today and my Partner probably had no Idea I was a Ranger; racing about Long sword in hand DD Blazing burning down great packs of afflicted; Came so close too, but Togo had to go and die

but I've beat the mission before and was just there to capture Broadhead which I did; so my Mission accomplished.

Still when I am skills farming I would like to be more effective when I have to slip into a more traditional ranger role and that I'm sure is going to take some adjustments. So I appreciate all the advise. : ) BB.

lord norke · Mar 09, 2012, 06:26 AM // 06:26

if you want to play a ranger bar with limited access to skills (elites and outside of proph ones), this seems to work at least half decently
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although, if you like the fire build more i would suggest you reroll to a ele, as eventually the problems that come from running an ele build on a ranger should come up.

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 09, 2012, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord norke

although, if you like the fire build more i would suggest you reroll to a ele, as eventually the problems that come from running an ele build on a ranger should come up. .

Oh yea,
I've been thinking I'll eventually create a Claudia 2.0 E/r vs r/E for Nighfall; but I'm going to see if I can complete Prophecies with her first. I really hate repeating content; and it took 3 months to get here so even two months to get back would be tooo long if it proves out she wins through.

After all, A player wins through gets such cool weapons and skills; they roll a new character and are expectrd to start with a butter knife and tee shirt for armor. It's like handing a Ferrari owner the Keys to a Yugo; and It's one thing about the games design Philosopy I'll simply never get myself; but I guess thats another thread entirely.

Will definatly copy and test drive your build though TY much. BB.

Menelmacar · Mar 09, 2012, 12:07 PM // 12:07

As a poor man's (or woman's) alternate to Broad Head Arrow - Elite you can try disrupting accuracy which is a Hero Skill acquired in the Sunspear Great Hall.

I use it on my ranger (Tillion) and have a fair amount of luck interruping with a 13 Marksmanship.

Maya Cerestiez · Mar 09, 2012, 05:14 PM // 17:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbirdx61

Oh yea,
I've been thinking I'll eventually create a Claudia 2.0 E/r vs r/E for Nighfall; but I'm going to see if I can complete Prophecies with her first. I really hate repeating content; and it took 3 months to get here so even two months to get back would be tooo long if it proves out she wins through.

After all, A player wins through gets such cool weapons and skills; they roll a new character and are expectrd to start with a butter knife and tee shirt for armor. It's like handing a Ferrari owner the Keys to a Yugo; and It's one thing about the games design Philosopy I'll simply never get myself; but I guess thats another thread entirely.

Will definatly copy and test drive your build though TY much. BB.

As someone pointed out, it's all in your hero builds. The human player can use any profession with an empty bar and still roll all of nm campaigning, it's all in the heroes' bars. If you find a ranger underpowered for PvE you can always use him as a spirit spammer. Rangers are top3 SoSers thanks to expertise and high armor.

Don't really get that second part. You mean that if you roll a new toon, they should automaticly have all the skills, weapons and ranks as your first toon? I think that's perfectly logical for PvE toons, the way it is. They are PvE toons for a reason and that's to play against the environment. What fun would half of prophecies be if you were max eotn rank lvl 20 with everything from the start. Also, Xunlai Chest ...so no butter knives =P

Please stop using your own names for things. Instead of giving us the names of your toons, just say what prof of hero your using. We have no idea what your toons are. Also it sounds like that FireFly thing is some "official" GW lingo which I think it isn't. It's easier for us to help you if you're more clear and simple.

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 10, 2012, 12:49 AM // 00:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maya Cerestiez

Don't really get that second part. You mean that if you roll a new toon, they should automaticly have all the skills, weapons and ranks as your first toon? I think that's perfectly logical for PvE toons, the way it is. They are PvE toons for a reason and that's to play against the environment. What fun would half of prophecies be if you were max eotn rank lvl 20 with everything from the start. Also, Xunlai Chest ...so no butter knives =P
.

Yes I should have access to everything I've earned and yes I should roll if not a Lv 20 at least a 16 or so;

I've been running up a N/M in Factions, and she's getting close to useful; but whats the challange of killing bugs that dont fight back, and listening to Togo blather on about really basic game mechanics is simply excruciating.

Yes!! A player should have the option of at least skipping the lower level Tutorial Content. After all its the post landfall content that I think most of us are here for ... Again its a matter of Design Philosophy, that I simply dont agree with myself.

As to the Firefly build, someone had to name all the builds out there that have given names and that just what I call that it. Sorry if it tweaks you.

nuff said. BB.

Fay Vert · Mar 10, 2012, 11:05 AM // 11:05

Forget Broad Head Arrow. It is a very very poor elite (most over rated skill in the game) with just a few uses (big party wipe bosses and insane healers). You are far better off taking interrupts and learnning to use them (skill!)

Amy Awien · Mar 10, 2012, 11:33 AM // 11:33

I rather enjoy going back this time with a new character, through all of pre and early post-searing, even more with no-death (survivor) and restricted access to those +power items and skills.

But if you don't like pre-20, Factions should bring you to ascended level 20 in a matter of hours. There are (elite) skill tomes for skills on your new power-char and your existing characters should have little problem equipping him or her with maxed out gear

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 10, 2012, 12:57 PM // 12:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Awien

I rather enjoy going back this time with a new character, through all of pre and early post-searing, even more with no-death (survivor) and restricted access to those +power items and skills.

But if you don't like pre-20, Factions should bring you to ascended level 20 in a matter of hours. There are (elite) skill tomes for skills on your new power-char and your existing characters should have little problem equipping him or her with maxed out gear

Well I did say one should have the choice; certainly we all have individual tastes about these things.

While I don't think my game is up to Reaching Ascention in a matter of hours;* she is closing in, in much less than 1/2 the time it took my prophecies toons. That I do like about Factions. BB.

-----------------------------------
*Without 'Power leveling' and soaking up someone else's xp.

Amy Awien · Mar 10, 2012, 01:48 PM // 13:48

I don't think there are many mmo's rpg's that allow you to go past/through tutorial and low level content into end-level content as fast as Guild Wars. But playing the regular way does give a sense of the story and lore.

Anyway, Prophecies' ranger elites include Barrage and Incendiary Arrows, which can both be used to great effect, but neither are available until after the desert (Double Dragon isn't either...). Most other elites have had builds focussed around them, some effective, some not so.

Thirsty River is hard, as are the other desert missions, for characters that come there on their regular path through Prophecies. Even back in the first year, with plenty of players to form group, many PuG's failed on Elona Reach, and Thirsty River. You'll enjoy Thunderhead Keep

Conjures have been used by many rangers, Kindle + Conjure fire should still pack a bit of firepower. Pets may work, if you figure out how to handle them.

Blackbirdx61 · Mar 10, 2012, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Thankyou, I do Appreciate the Guidance Amy, actually the one rather big plus to playing a more Ranger Focused build lately is I did put some points into Beast Mastery and got to take my Wolf out again, he was in semi-retirement.

For what it's worth - I did try Thirsty River this morning with my New MesMerc, and my NecroMesmer - so a Mes and a Half; and beat my best previous time by a full Minute I'm sure; with very little Micromanagement so that was an interesting experiment.

Yea I bumped into the Dragon by accident shopping for armor in Cantha. that was an experience. ; )