Curse

Kosciusko · Apr 26, 2008, 07:58 PM // 19:58

Profession: Ranger/Elementalist

Name: Fiery Glass Spiker

Type: PvP - Alliance Battles

Attributes:
Expertise: 10+3+1
Marksmanship: 11+3
Fire Magic: 10

Equipment:
Fiery Recurve Bow of Fortitude
Krytan Armour Set
Insignias & Runes - 5 Survivors Insignias + 1 Superior Vigor + 1 Superior Expertise + 1 Superior Marksmanship + 2 Vitae Runes

Skills:
1. Marauder's Shot
2. Dual Shot
3. Needle Shot
4. Distracting Shot
5. Lightning Reflexes
6. Throw Dirt
7. Glass Arrows {Elite} [Expertise]
8. Conjure Flame

Summary:
This build is solely focusing on dealing high amounts of damage in a short period of time as well as finishing off weaken enemies in a quick way. Through the use of unconditional damage and spiking combined with excellent physical defense. However, there is no self-healing if needed. (Besides in Alliance Battles, monks should be able to heal you fine).

Offensively, by using both glass arrows & conjure flame, you have +34 unconditional damage. Combined with needle shots +29 unconditional damage, it all adds up to 63 damage. The amount of damage is quite high when needle shot is repetitively used because of it's instant recharge, however this is only possible if the enemy's health is 50% or lower. By using Marauder's Shot & Dual Shot, you'll find it easy that your enemy fall below that mark, especially in alliance battles when you have team mates attacking as well. To speed up the whole entire process, activate lightning reflexes to attack faster.

Defensively, Throw Dirt provides a very nice blind condition for a period of 18 seconds. Throw Dirt is a touch skill so it's extremely handy when up against warriors or assassins. Lightning reflexes is not only a offensive skill but a defensive skill as well, as it provides a 75% chance to block. However, even though this build defends against physical attacks well, magic attacks can easily go right through, however, distracting shot can provide some kind of resistance, as well as that it can stop the enemy from healing itself, for example warriors using healing signet. On the other hand, you should be able to finish off elementalists because of their low health before they finish off you.

Notes & Concerns:
The Fiery Glass Spiker is "weak" in terms of defending against hexes, such as empathy. The condition blind would definitely reduce the effectiveness of this build. Make sure that conjure flame is on at all times, however, make sure that you are not interrupted casting it otherwise it'll be a whole minute to recast it. In personal experience, this build works wonders for me, in terms of damage, i believe this build outweighs almost all. Rarley, do i find myself with energy management issues nor find problems when encountering warriors or assassins. Finally, this build is for alliance battles and mainly relies on the team's monk to help you out if you are under any dangerous conditions. (You can also solo-cap with this build, but I wouldn't recommend it unless your team-mates are mob-bing). Also, I only have Factions campaign so my skill set might be limited, however this build works great regardless.

Credits
Kosciusko

SnipiousMax · Apr 26, 2008, 08:12 PM // 20:12

If you actually calculate out the damages for 12 in Marks and 14 in Marks, you'll find the difference negligible. I'd drop the superior marks for a minor and save yourself a few hits. But it is for alliance battles, which means a free ressurect... so I guess it doesn't matter.

Tyla · Apr 26, 2008, 08:13 PM // 20:13

2 Superior Runes is a little stupid isn't it?

Alex the Great · Apr 26, 2008, 08:24 PM // 20:24

take out the marks sup rune, take out dual shot and maurauders, and add point blank shot and zojuns shot.

even though your at half range, the dps is sweet, and it is fun to use.

*caution* this is ment for fun, not serious pvp

Keekles · Apr 26, 2008, 08:26 PM // 20:26

First issue I see is... too many sup runes. A number of eles (mine included) have more health than your build. Health of people in AB varies greatly though, but your "you should be able to finish off elementalists because of their low health before they finish off you" clause is in a way, baseless. I'm fairly certain any of my AB ele builds could kill you before you killed it (of course you'll probably be blind the whole time).

This build comes out to having 470 health. Which really isn't very much at all. You're completely reliant on having a monk to keep you free of hexes and conditions, and keeping you healed. Not seeing how you're getting 18 seconds of blind out of throw dirt, expertise at 14 gives 14 seconds. Another concern of mine is that there is no movement speed boost (which can be quite important in ABs).

I'll have to say this build is not ideal, dropping the superior expertise and the marksmanship to minors would help out greatly. The amount of damage lost is almost nothing compared to how much health you would gain. Seems like a fun build, but I wouldn't run this instead of crippling shot or something else with a lot more flexibility.

Chthon · Apr 26, 2008, 08:36 PM // 20:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex the Great

take out the marks sup rune, take out dual shot and maurauders, and add point blank shot and zojuns shot.

even though your at half range, the dps is sweet, and it is fun to use.

I disagree. For AB, it's better to be able to fire from longbow/flatbow range so you can pick off the shrine NPCs without aggroing them.

Dr Strangelove · Apr 26, 2008, 09:34 PM // 21:34

I agree on too many sup runes and longbows in AB.

I wouldn't want to run an AB build without a self heal, given how heavily AB favors skirmishes. It's almost impossible to have a monk around 100% of the time.

Boogz · Apr 26, 2008, 10:31 PM // 22:31

get rid of sup runes, i'd say run forked arrow, dual shot and sloth hunter's shot for spike, and d-shot and savage for interrupts, or only dshot/savage.

Keekles · Apr 26, 2008, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boogz

get rid of sup runes, i'd say run forked arrow, dual shot and sloth hunter's shot for spike, and d-shot and savage for interrupts, or only dshot/savage.

Forked is useless because he has an enchant.

Aztec Mijo · Apr 26, 2008, 11:35 PM // 23:35

with conjure builds, i know ppl love fire for some reason but that can also weaken it.

i prefer running lightning or frost, especially in ab where ppl can easily have +10 armor vs fire sets.

also, from my experience with this kind of build, attack skills like marauder and dual are kinda redundant if ur already doing lots of dmg, i prefer stances or a weak troll to help me get to next shrine

MasterSasori · Apr 27, 2008, 03:51 AM // 03:51

Probably should drop one/both superiors. This after all still PvP even though there is much gang rape going around.

If you're going for a spike, I would use a hornbow when using Dual Shot+Savage Shot spike. Savage shot would be better than marauder's

You should also mention how this would be better than the two alternatives: Turret and Brutal Glass.

Adja1005 · Apr 27, 2008, 05:41 AM // 05:41

I have a few issues and pointers for you about this build...

1.) 2 Sup Runes is always a bad thing for any build in my opinion. The 150hp loss is far too much, especially for an AB build, and the bonuses from having 2 Sup Runes isn't really all that better than from say 2 Major Runes.

2.) No self healing, condition/hex removal skills and relying solely on monks to heal you. In AB its almost guaranteed that a group will split apart at some point during the match. So if your monk splits from the group then who is going to heal you?

3.) Take out [skill]Marauder's Shot[/skill] and replace it with either [skill]Sloth Hunter's Shot[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill] or [skill]Keen Arrow[/skill]. Sloth's can be used in combination with an interupt for large extra damage. Screaming has the bonus of causing bleeding to targets that get close to you like warriors or assassins. Keen can deal heavy damage when you get a critical hit which with 13 to 14 marksmanship you'll have no problem in achieving often.

4.) This is purely a personal thing but i'd take [skill]Savage Shot[/skill] over [skill]Distracting Shot[/skill] as Savage has a quicker recharge. While D-Shot disables a skill for 20sec it takes 10sec to recharge where as Savage takes 5sec. So in theory you could interupt 2 skills within the time it takes for D-Shot to recharge. Again this is purely my personal preference.

5.) Swap [skill]Throw Dirt[/skill] for a running skill, if melee targets start causing you problems just run away and let others deal with it. Assassin's can remove conditions with some of their skills so blinding them can be pretty pointless in AB. You're better off running away to safety and spiking them again from long range.

Keekles · Apr 27, 2008, 09:42 AM // 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adja1005

I have a few issues and pointers for you about this build...

1.) 2 Sup Runes is always a bad thing for any build in my opinion. The 150hp loss is far too much, especially for an AB build, and the bonuses from having 2 Sup Runes isn't really all that better than from say 2 Major Runes.

2.) No self healing, condition/hex removal skills and relying solely on monks to heal you. In AB its almost guaranteed that a group will split apart at some point during the match. So if your monk splits from the group then who is going to heal you?

3.) Take out [skill]Marauder's Shot[/skill] and replace it with either [skill]Sloth Hunter's Shot[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill] or [skill]Keen Arrow[/skill]. Sloth's can be used in combination with an interupt for large extra damage. Screaming has the bonus of causing bleeding to targets that get close to you like warriors or assassins. Keen can deal heavy damage when you get a critical hit which with 13 to 14 marksmanship you'll have no problem in achieving often.

4.) This is purely a personal thing but i'd take [skill]Savage Shot[/skill] over [skill]Distracting Shot[/skill] as Savage has a quicker recharge. While D-Shot disables a skill for 20sec it takes 10sec to recharge where as Savage takes 5sec. So in theory you could interupt 2 skills within the time it takes for D-Shot to recharge. Again this is purely my personal preference.

5.) Swap [skill]Throw Dirt[/skill] for a running skill, if melee targets start causing you problems just run away and let others deal with it. Assassin's can remove conditions with some of their skills so blinding them can be pretty pointless in AB. You're better off running away to safety and spiking them again from long range.

The bonuses from 2 major runes isn't really all that better than from 2 minors either

In an arena where quite a few people run builds that can do ~500 damage in one combo, hp is everything.

Depending on the group that you go with, you don't necessarily need self heals, though they help out a lot.

Agree with everything you've said there, though just running dual -> savage should provide a big punch.

I'd go a bit further and bring both savage and d-shot. d-shot a skill with a short recharge > hitting it with savage 2x imo. Having savage and d-shot gives you more flexibility, you can knock out key ones with d-shot, and save savage for adding damage from dual/savage or forked/savage, or use it as a hard interrupt for stopping sins from combo'ing you to death.

throw dirt = good for war shrine, and that's about it. Melee with monk support, sins with assassin's remedy, */mo with mending touch, */n with plague touch... the list goes on. Running skills are ftw in AB. Sometimes it's best to run rather than die and wait on res (even though res doesn't take long anyway)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterSasori

You should also mention how this would be better than the two alternatives: Turret and Brutal Glass.

I really can't see how much better this build is compared to Brutal Glass. Conjure lasts a bit longer, but with brutal you can use a vamp bow for a little bit extra punch. Turret has been nerfed, so this could possibly be stronger than the turret ranger.

Of course, I might be a bit biased... all I typically run in ABs on a ranger is cripshot or a variant on that basic template. Though I did run a brutal glass ranger a while back. Good fun, despite the complete lack of self heals. Turret was fun while it lasted as well, having guildies to do it with was even better.