Curse

Canine Guidance · Feb 04, 2011, 05:22 PM // 17:22

Hey, i have decided to make a new ranger character to play through each of the campaigns of guild wars, one buy one. Just recently i captures the elite skill 'barrage' and was wondering of any really good combinations of skills to go with it. PvE skills are fine and if anyone could also tell me the runes/headset they use. Any suggestions would be great!

Slowpokeking · Feb 04, 2011, 05:45 PM // 17:45

Barrage is super good in some situation(Mobs stack together), especially with Mark of Pain and Splinter weapon. Its greatest advantage against other aoe ranger skills is 1sec CD.

FengShuiDove · Feb 04, 2011, 06:03 PM // 18:03

Anything that abuses those multiple attacks. Splinter Weapon is the classic example, as you can get massive amounts of damage to a grouped mob. The various Ele Conjure skills can also be used to decent effect, as the bonus damage is applied to each arrow from Barrage. Bringing along Favorable Winds also buffs your damage with the added benefit of increased arrow speed.

My personal favorite build that incorporates Barrage (besides A/R CritBarrage <3) is:

Splinter Weapon
Barrage (E)
Nightmare Weapon
Triple Shot (PvE)
"By Ural's Hammer" or "I Am the Strongest!" (PvE)
Spirit Siphon
Favorable Winds
Summon Spirits (PvE)

Variations are many, but this has great energy from Spirit Siphon when needed, Splinter + Barrage, Nightmare + Triple for a big single target spike, and our best friend FW.

But don't get locked into just one thing either.

LifeInfusion · Feb 04, 2011, 06:28 PM // 18:28

"Save Yourselves!" I think.
Asuran Scan is for single targets, such as bosses.
Ebon Vanguard standard of honor
BuH (By Ural's Hammer) doesn't have as much synergy due to the cooldown, but you get about 50 uptime.
"I am the strongest!" is ok too. It just doesn't have a low enough cooldown.

Conjures are usually bad if you have a necro in the team running barbs/Mark of pain.

Rt/R does the Splinter weapon thing better so I wouldn't recommend splinter. If you run with heroes bring a SoS hero with 14+ spec Splinter. Splinter weapon is all about the 164-235 damage spike (12 and 14 channeling, respectively). You can get 265 with 16 channeling, but only 140 with 10 channeling.

It's a shame technobabble is 10 energy. daze + barrage on adjacent range would be decent.

EDIT: http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:R/any_Barrage_Ranger

P.S. staple d-shot (distracting shot) to your bar.

Deadly addiction · Feb 04, 2011, 06:43 PM // 18:43

First of all, use a zealous Flatbow and keep Expertise at 13 or 14 so you won't need any additional energy management skills. That means an Expertise headset with a minor/major Expertise rune and a minor/major Marksmanship rune on the armor. Use radiant insignias for more energy. Personally, my attributes are like this: 11+1+2 Expertise, 10+1 Marksmanship and 10 Channeling.

When it comes to skills, like FengShuiDove already said, variations are many, so you can change the build according to the quest/mission/area you're doing. Among the PvE skills worth taking, I'd also mention Pain Inverter, Technobabble, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, Dodge This. Also, don't overlook Distracting Shot

Kunder · Feb 04, 2011, 07:28 PM // 19:28

R/W

Barrage
Distracting Shot
"Save Yourselves!"
"For Great Justice!"
Ebon Battle Standard of Honor
"By Ural's Hammer!"
2 open skills

Abuse the adrenaline to make your party invincible. EBSoH increases your entire groups damage output while By Urals Hammer greatly increases your own, improving all damage you do including +damage from buffs.

Rt Hero (ensure 16 channeling)
Splinter Weapon
Ancestors Rage
Signet of Spirits
Spirit Siphon
4 open skills

Casts Splinter Weapon on you because its gewd and its what makes things die when you shoot at them. Ancestors rage is also respectable armor ignoring damage while SoS + Spirit Siphon delivers high damage while serving as an energy battery for whatever else you want to run. Half your attribute points are left open so you can pick and choose from almost any skill line from any attribute either in your primary or secondary and use it effectively.

Roen · Feb 04, 2011, 07:50 PM // 19:50

If I solo (or bring a healer hench or hero only) I typically go something like:

OggjcpZroSYHYMLGPGqGzktSFH (runed appropriately)

The two extra interrupts are useful. As a ranger you should almost always have d-shot in your builds (barring a mesmer on board who are better at interrupts at the moment). Some do not like needling shot but I do. Although it is one I frequently swap out based on the area. Poison tip signet or hunter's shot in areas with fleshy enemies for condition spreading, keen arrow in areas where I'm shooting down at enemies a lot (increased crit rates), point blank if I know I'll be all up close and personal with the enemy (also consider changing lighting reflexes to whirling defense in those cases),

If there's a rit in the party, let them bring splinter, invest your attribute points back into expertise and marksmanship and bring another interrupt, EVAS, I Am Unstoppable! or Dwarven Stability to increase stance duration (disable post processing video effects and get your toon drunk) and/or counter knock-downs.

Also: what Kunder said.

Rites · Feb 04, 2011, 07:54 PM // 19:54

personally my barrager runs with a pet, using scavenger strike if i ever run low on energy

my heroes include a N/Rt for splinter, a smiter with strength of honor (disabled and macro), and another necro with barbs and mark of pain

i use a perfect vampiric bow during battle, but have a zealous bow as backup

"i am the strongest" is stapled on my barrager bar for that lil extra oomph

LifeInfusion · Feb 04, 2011, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roen

If I solo (or bring a healer hench or hero only) I typically go something like:

OggjcpZroSYHYMLGPGqGzktSFH (runed appropriately)

The two extra interrupts are useful. As a ranger you should almost always have d-shot in your builds (barring a mesmer on board who are better at interrupts at the moment). Some do not like needling shot but I do. Although it is one I frequently swap out based on the area. Poison tip signet or hunter's shot in areas with fleshy enemies for condition spreading, keen arrow in areas where I'm shooting down at enemies a lot (increased crit rates), point blank if I know I'll be all up close and personal with the enemy (also consider changing lighting reflexes to whirling defense in those cases),

If there's a rit in the party, let them bring splinter, invest your attribute points back into expertise and marksmanship and bring another interrupt, EVAS, I Am Unstoppable! or Dwarven Stability to increase stance duration (disable post processing video effects and get your toon drunk) and/or counter knock-downs.

Also: what Kunder said.

Even with a mesmer on board, you should still bring d-shot. Leech signet/cry of frustration/cry of pain/complicate/tease/psychic instability/Web of Disruption is the only thing that works on non-spell stuff and you can't rely on panic for a reliable interrupt. Leech signet can go past Vow of silence but so can d-shot. Since none of them give +20 recharge, d-shot is a solid skill.

For example, if a mob is using Signet or Return or death pact signet, you want to d-shot it rather than interrupt it with cry of frustration/etc. The shorter the recharge, the better d-shot gets.

There's no other ranger skill that is iconically ranger. In fact, d-shot is the only thing that stops Soul twisting ritualists.

I'm not a fan of needling shot since it is armor ignoring damage that doesn't add on top of base damage. It's got the same problem as powershot. If you want big damage go sloth hunter's. If you want quick activating +20-30 damage go Penetrating attack/sundering attack. Unless your bow base damage is less than 5 with Penetrating attack/sundering attack, there's no reason to use needling shot.

The Baphomet · Feb 05, 2011, 12:03 AM // 00:03

Take primarily skills that increase the damage of Barrage. IE "I Am The Strongest!", "By Ural's Hammer!", Conjure Flame/Lightning/Frost, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, and so forth. Also you can take even more buffs on your heroes such as Splinter Weapon or Brutal Weapon, Order of the Vampire/Order of Pain, Judge's Insight etc.

Consider an interrupt such as Distracting Shot or Savage Shot.

I think that taking 5 second cast spirits is very annoying, and if you want to drag them around you need to waste a second skill slot for Summon Spirits. Winnowing and or Favorable Winds is still considerable though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

*LOOOOOOOOOONG speech about dshot*

I generally assume that a pver who is asking for advice on an ancient build cannot properly land interrupts. Just having a skill on your bar doesn't help you if you aren't going to use it properly. I suggested it anyway just in case, but I think your speech was unnecessary.

LifeInfusion · Feb 05, 2011, 04:16 AM // 04:16

Strength of Honor only works on melee.

The Baphomet · Feb 05, 2011, 08:42 PM // 20:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

Strength of Honor only works on melee.

Yep, I'm dumb.

NerfHerder · Feb 06, 2011, 02:10 AM // 02:10

I use a +2 Marksmanship on my headpiece and a +1 expertise elsewhere, +1 beastmasters, Sup Vigor, and vitae rune. I always use a pet with scavenger strike to help me maintain NRA, EBSoH, and Barrage spamming. So I use beastmasters insignia. And no the pet isnt useless, if you know how to use the pet control UI. This is the build I use, its probably not the best but I think its fun...

Barrage Pet

I use an SoS rit with splinter weapon.

MasterSasori · Feb 08, 2011, 02:50 PM // 14:50

If you run Barrage, you must also have someone run Great Dwarf Weapon. AoE KD is just silliness. EBSoH is also quite nice.

If you're going solo, splinter will do.

Honestly you could get away with a +3 marksmanship rune but if you don't feel comfortable, go with a +2 instead.

Slowpokeking · Feb 10, 2011, 05:01 PM // 17:01

Which type of bows is the best for Barrage?

Roen · Feb 10, 2011, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slowpokeking

Which type of bows is the best for Barrage?

In order of preference (for me): longbow, flatbow, shortbow.

I don't like recurve bows, period.

Most people will say their order of preference is: flatbow, longbow, shortbow.

Essentially, you use a flatbow or longbow from a distance. If enemies make it up close and personal, switch to a shortbow. If you use a flatbow, bring favorable winds.

Chthon · Feb 10, 2011, 09:34 PM // 21:34

Barrage, SY!, and EBSoH is going to be the core of just about any Barrage build.

You will probably find that 10e/20sec for EBSoH is quite expensive for a ranger. So the next step is to either run 13 Expertise and confine the rest of your build to inexpensive options, or run some BM and Scavenger Strike. (Sorry guys, that's the best non-elite e-management rangers get.)

Round out the build with 1 more PvE skill, an interrupt or two (I suggest Savage Shot under the theory that its got the best recharge of ranger interrupts, and most things don't live long enough for DShot or Concussion Shot to really pay off), and a single-target damage skill or two (Sundering/Penetrating and Needling are old standbys; and savage+slothunter isn't a bad combo either).

IAS is up for debate. Refire speeds slower than 2.0 need IAS to bring them down at least near 2.0. Further IAS has rather marginal benefit for a Barrage build.

NerfHerder · Feb 11, 2011, 12:21 AM // 00:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slowpokeking

Which type of bows is the best for Barrage?

Some say Recurve, but Longbow has always worked best for me. Recurve has more damage potential, but gets obstructed easier, and you dont get the distance and safety of a Longbow.

I would also go with a Zealous Bow, for energy gain and maintaining EBSoH. 15^50 and +30 usually round it out nicely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

Barrage, SY!, and EBSoH is going to be the core of just about any Barrage build.

You will probably find that 10e/20sec for EBSoH is quite expensive for a ranger. So the next step is to either run 13 Expertise and confine the rest of your build to inexpensive options, or run some BM and Scavenger Strike. (Sorry guys, that's the best non-elite e-management rangers get.)

True and Truer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

IAS is up for debate. Refire speeds slower than 2.0 need IAS to bring them down at least near 2.0. Further IAS has rather marginal benefit for a Barrage build.

I find IAS is always beneficial. /twocents

PurpleFission · Feb 13, 2011, 12:14 AM // 00:14

Try toy around with different 2ndary professions, you can make a half decent build for any 2ndary, but my favourite is R/W, because SY!, For great justice have no activation time and require no attribute points to use. Allowing you to put 12 & 12 into Marks and Expertise.