Curse

Ensign · Apr 14, 2005, 05:10 AM // 05:10

In an ongoing effort to make these forums as useful as possible, we've decided to re-vamp our profession guides and knowledge bases.

In addition to needed help with our profession overviews, we're looking to create a build FAQ in this forum for new users. This should outline the common builds in a class, what works, what doesn't, and generally just go over the material that everyone should know before diving into the forum proper. For this, we need your help.

As the title suggests, this thread is for the basics of the Ranger, and the various ways to play one. To flesh this out, we need generic Ranger builds of all types, as well as class specific questions about skill interactions. While I'm going to try and lay out a skeleton myself, any help fleshing out the content would be appreciated. So if you have a question about how the Ranger works, know of a common build that everyone should be familar with, or have any suggestions for our profession overviews, please post them here.

Barragebot
Ranger/Monk

Expertise 10, +3 Rune, +1 Hat
Marksmanship 11, +1 Rune
Beastmastery 3, +1 Rune
Smiting Prayers 7
Healing Prayers 7

Barrage
Penetrating Attack
Hunter's Shot
Debilitating Shot
Pin Down
Tiger's Fury
Judge's Insight
Restore Life

Shock Sniper
Ranger/Elementalist

Expertise 10, +3 Rune, +1 Hat
Marksmanship 11, +1 Rune
Beastmastery 1, +1 Rune
Air Magic 10

Penetrating Attack
Hunter's Shot
Punishing Shot
Pin Down
Read the Wind
Favorable Winds
Tiger's Fury
Conjure Lightning

Enchantment Hate
Ranger/Necromancer

Expertise 10 +3 Rune +1 Hat
Marksmanship 11 +1 Rune
Survival 8 +1 Rune
Beastmastery 3 +1 Rune
Curses 6

Melandru's Arrows
Debilitating Shot
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Tiger's Fury
Barbed Trap
Flame Trap
Rend Enchantments

Offensive Trapper
Ranger/Necromancer

Expertise 11, +3 Rune
Wilderness Survival 11, +1 Rune, +1 Hat
Marksmanship 8, +1 Rune
Curses 3

Oath Shot
Distracting Shot
Barbed Trap
Flame Trap
Healing Spring
Whirling Defense
Throw Dirt
Shadow of Fear

Aragorn is teh s3xah
Ranger/Warrior

Expertise 10, +3 Rune, +1 Hat
Swordsmanship 12
Tactics 8
Beastmastery 2

Hundred Blades
Pure Strike
Savage Slash
Hamstring
Tiger's Fury
Throw Dirt
Shields Up!
Watch Yourself!

Peace,
-CxE

Scaphism · Apr 14, 2005, 05:44 AM // 05:44

Any ranger guide needs a link to the Expertise Guide with an explanation of how expertise works. Currently it reduces the energy cost of the following types of skills by 4% per rank:
-Attack Skills
-Pet Attacks
-Stances
-Shouts
-Traps
-Preparations
-Glyphs

It has no effect on spells or signets.

Here is a trapper build I've had a lot of success with in PVE and had fun with in Tombs as well.

Oath Shot {E}
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Point Blank Shot
Whirling Defense
Troll Unguent/Healing Spring
Barbed Trap
Flame Trap

Attributes were:
12+1 expertise
10+1+hat wildnerness survival
8+1 Marksmanship

General Strategy: Activate Whirling Defense as you run towards your enemies, giving you a 75% chance to block their attacks, also conveniently protecting you from most attacks that would interrupt you. Position yourself in the middle of a group, then drop a flame trap and barbed trap at their feet, the order doesn't particularly matter.
Fire point blank shot at the enemy you have targetted, followed by oath shot, recharging every skill on your bar. When you're up close to an enemy it will be nearly impossible for them to dodge your Oath Shot.
Drop another 2 traps and watch enemy health bars plummet with glee. Reactivate Whirling Defense as needed.

I love this build because it doesn't need any other profession to make it work.
Troll Unguent is generally better than Healing Spring if you're playing solo, because you can run away and it continues to heal you. I bring a lot of interrupts because it can be very difficult to kill bosses with self-healing without them.

PvP: You can easily drop an interrupt, healing, or your damaging shot to bring something from your secondary for more versatility, especially when your monks can handle the healing for you.

---------------------------------------------
Ranger/Warrior melee fighter

Expertise: 11+1+hat
Beastmastery: 3+1
Swordsmanship: 11
Tactics: 8

Skills:
Pure Strike
Savage Slash
Hamstring
Final Thrust
Hundred Blades {E}
Throw Dirt
Tiger's Fury
Bonetti's Defense

Just a duelist. It's your chance to look like Aragorn from LOTR™! You too can wear disheveled clothes with leaves in your hair, call yourself a ranger, yet use a sword!

BlackArrow · Apr 14, 2005, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Here's a Ranger/Ele that might fit your conjure reqs.

Expertise 11, +1 Rune, +1 Hat
Marksmanship 10, +3 Rune
Beast Mastery 1, +1 Rune
Fire Magic 10

Glyph of Energy
Mark of Rodgort
Conjure Flame
Favorable Winds
Tiger's Fury
Precisoin Shot
Penetrating Shot
Hunter's Shot

Idea is to hex with Glyph and Mark then buff with Conjure, Favorable, and Tiger's fury. Then just cycle through the 3 attacks, casting Fury when needed.

Can be switched to Air for Glimmering Mark, Conjure Lightning and 1 non-elite skill of your choosing.

Davion · Apr 14, 2005, 07:37 AM // 07:37

Ranger/Mesmer Solo PvE (can party good if chooses as well)

Expertise - 10 (+1)
Marksmanship - 10 (+1/ +1 mask)
Wilderness Survival - 5 (+2)
Inspiration - 10

Pre-Sear starter skills :

Energy Tap
Ether Feast
Read The Wind
Powershot
Dual Shot
Ignite Arrows
Charm Animal
comfort Animal / Phantasm (from illusion)

Post-Searing :

Hunter's Shot
Penetrating Attack
Read The Wind
Practiced Stance (elite)
Troll Ungeunt/ Healing Spring
Power Drain
Spirit of Failure/ Revive Animal (if no monk henchman)
Charm Animal

Flatbow/Short bow (personal preference)

Basic Strategy : In an attempt to keep yourself suitable for combat for lengthy periods of time, use Practiced Stance , Read the Wind, then alternate as needed/required between hunter's Shot, and Penetrating attack, throwing in a quick Power Drain, for an energy steal or Spirit of Failure for a similar steal against melee opponents. If you need a heal you have your preference of choice between Troll Ungeunt or Healing Spring.
There are no points in Beast mastery in this one but is run with a pet as a gimp target focus off of yourself.
This is a build I have been running in PvE quite successfully. Very rarely (2 times total) has this one failed me in explorations.

If coming upon instances where a party is needed requiring the use of henchmen, then I usually add a ranger, monk, and warrior to round out the 4 member party for missions. With the monk henchman(woman actually) providing the bulk of any extra healing required in detrimental situations.

A PvE Solo similar class Ranger/Monk might be a variation of this one to be included as well.

Xellos · Apr 14, 2005, 12:24 PM // 12:24

Umm, can I assume that somehow the recent changes caused hunters shot/penetrating shot to be stronger then power shot overall? Hunters I can somewhat understand with the high efficiency rate, but I never understood how penetrating shot worked with the +5?/20% thing.

Draken · Apr 14, 2005, 04:42 PM // 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scaphism

Ranger/Warrior melee fighter

Expertise: 11+1+hat
Beastmastery: 3+1
Swordsmanship: 11
Tactics: 8

Skills:
Pure Strike
Savage Slash
Hamstring
Final Thrust
Hundred Blades {E}
Throw Dirt
Tiger's Fury
Bonetti's Defense

I personaly preffer Whatch Yourself! to Bonetti's Defense because "Bonetti's Defense ends if you use a skil". Since it will give you 100 vs physical and 120 vs elemental with the leather set. Which is crazy damage reduction for everything where as bonettie's only affects melee. Also Watch Yourself! helps the team.

Sausaletus Rex · Apr 14, 2005, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xellos

Umm, can I assume that somehow the recent changes caused hunters shot/penetrating shot to be stronger then power shot overall? Hunters I can somewhat understand with the high efficiency rate, but I never understood how penetrating shot worked with the +5?/20% thing.

Hunter's is better than Power Shot because it does the same amount of damage with a chance to cause bleeding for an extra 6DPS with 1 second less recharge time and 5 less energy before you get to Expertise.

Penetrating is better because with 20%AP you're getting close to that amount of damage on a 60AL target (That's 12AL off for a base of 48AL which means you'll deal something like 12~15% more damage enough to put you right close to the +25 on Power Attack.) with 1 second less recharge and it gets better the more armor your target has. It's a closer case but Penetrating is superior depending on your targets and tactics. Not the best attack skill ever but solid enough to make the cut.

Scaphism · Apr 14, 2005, 10:14 PM // 22:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draken

I personaly preffer Whatch Yourself! to Bonetti's Defense because "Bonetti's Defense ends if you use a skil". Since it will give you 100 vs physical and 120 vs elemental with the leather set. Which is crazy damage reduction for everything where as bonettie's only affects melee. Also Watch Yourself! helps the team.

The build took about 4 minutes to come up with, but I'd still argue for Bonetti's Uberness over Watch Yourself Uberness.

At first it looks like free energy vs free armor, which might be debatable.

However, this character is intended as a duelist, and frontline fighters rarely take a ton of damage- until their monks go down. Your armor is decent enough to soak up most incidental damage, especially since a lot of it will be elemental damage, where you are actually a better tank than any warrior.
You have Throw Dirt to help with one or two attackers bothering you, but it has a long cooldown.
Watch Yourself is nice, don't get me wrong. It's brokenly good. If I had room for it I'd bring it. But it's basically "nice, great to take if you can fit it, but it won't save your life."

You activate Bonetti's Defense in 1 of 2 situations:
1) You're out of energy and you need a quick refill.
2) You're coming under heavy focus fire.

In those situations, bonetti's shines, while watch yourself doesn't help you at all with #1, and is certainly welcome, but not a lifesaver, in #2.

The Knights Templar · Apr 14, 2005, 10:50 PM // 22:50

What do you guys feel would be an efficient farmer? I'm thinking between a W/Mo and a R/Mo, but the Ranger would be SO much faster with Tiger's Fury. I don't really consider killing slowly to be an effficient method of farming.

Xellos · Apr 17, 2005, 06:00 PM // 18:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sausaletus Rex

Hunter's is better than Power Shot because it does the same amount of damage with a chance to cause bleeding for an extra 6DPS with 1 second less recharge time and 5 less energy before you get to Expertise.

Penetrating is better because with 20%AP you're getting close to that amount of damage on a 60AL target (That's 12AL off for a base of 48AL which means you'll deal something like 12~15% more damage enough to put you right close to the +25 on Power Attack.) with 1 second less recharge and it gets better the more armor your target has. It's a closer case but Penetrating is superior depending on your targets and tactics. Not the best attack skill ever but solid enough to make the cut.

I was basing this question off March BWE, so that might be the confusion. Or were you saying the old +17 hunters shot > 24+ power and +5/20%Pen > 24+ power. Right now, power shot is only at 18+, which makes it utterly useless in my eyes, when penetrating shot does 14/20.

Just a question, would it be stronger if the barrage bot didn't use judges insight, yet somehow made up for the fact that he constantly has the 15%+ extra damage caused by the modifier? Overall I mean.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's definately weaker. Err actually after testing both, I'm not sure.

New question: For these builds that you guys post, could you guys put the ideal item modifiers too? :P

Loviatar · Apr 18, 2005, 01:57 AM // 01:57

how much of a nerf is the 5 to 10 recharge of Tigers Fury?

in real life terms so to speak.

MoldyRiceFrenzy · Apr 20, 2005, 04:01 AM // 04:01

hmm well i did this for ranger/w

because i liked how the ranger looked.... lol

Hundred blades
dirsupting shot
(somthing else i forgot)
endure pain
other pain thing for warrior
lightning reflexes.
thats pretty much all

but then i realized that if i used a w/r its 10XXXXXXXXX better...
... because i get like 200 health each time i use endure pain even though it goes away its like a instant boost of nice life if u put skills in strgth
i pretty much all i did was max out strg and swordmanship lol turned out great but sorta boring because well i mean its a warrior... theres not much skill or fun using a 100% warrior...well to me..

Xellos · Apr 20, 2005, 12:42 PM // 12:42

Ensigns Aragon doesn't work using PVP character because the shield requires 9 tactics not 8

Oh Noez! Going to have to use the 11/10/10/1+rune trick now

Weezer_Blue · Apr 20, 2005, 12:47 PM // 12:47

Here's one that worked fairly well for me...

Interupter/ Pure Ranger

Expertise: 12
Marksmanship 12:
Beast Mastery: 11

Hunters Shot
Distracting Shot
Throw Dirt
Pin Down
Incindiary Arrows (E)
Choking Gas
Whirling Defense
Troll Unguent

It's mostly for interuption and pin down and throw dirt are for disabling my opponents so they can't damage be at all.

Insomnia · Apr 20, 2005, 04:54 PM // 16:54

Hi, i'm searching for a ranger build to do as many dmg as possible with my bow in a period of time. But i'm having a problem with the not-stacking of stances, i was thinking about tiger's furry and practiced stance, wich one would you recommend? bigger speed or longer preps (+shorter casting times)

Xellos · Apr 21, 2005, 09:30 AM // 09:30

Question, which does more damage, Shock Sniper, or Barrage Bot in terms of single-target damage? Is Punishing Shot still worth it after the nerf?

Ensign · Apr 21, 2005, 05:16 PM // 17:16

Shock Snipers, definitely. That build is all about single target damage, and lots of it.

Barrage Rangers are for dealing out a lot of damage to people who get too close to each other. They do decent to good single target damage but nothing close to what a shock sniper dishes out.

Peace,
-CxE

Weezer_Blue · Apr 22, 2005, 10:14 PM // 22:14

Fragility Ranger/Mesmer

Expertise: 12
Marksmanship: 12
Illusion Magic: 11

Incindiary Arrows (E)
Hunter's Shot
Throw Dirt
Pin Down
Fragility
Conjure Phantasm
Apply Poison
Phantom Pain

Since Fragility is triggered both when an enemy suffers and recovers from a condition, you want to make it last a very short time and then do it to them again. Incindiary Arrows is perfect for this. It interupts, it causes a condition for only 1 seconds, and for that one second, they have a ton of health degeneration from being on fire.
Hunter's Shot causes bleeding for quite some time, but it's still worth it for the extra damage, the triggering of fragility, and the degen.
Throw dirt is yet another condition that will blind everyone near your target. One of my favorite skills in the game.
Pin Down immobalizes your enemies which allows you to punish them more. And quite often, your enemy is stupid enough to keep trying to move around. Bleeding for you!
Apply Poison is to be used while incindiary arrows is recharging - which isn't that long but it's nice to have a back up... and lots of degen. I suggest having a slow firing bow for when you use this to allow it to be enacted, and then be cured by your next shot.
Conjure Phantasm isn't a condition, but it will put massive degeneration on them, and it's a great skill.
Phantom Pain is yet another condition.

valorien · Apr 23, 2005, 07:48 PM // 19:48

Looks like it could be a great build. Hope it works out for you.

Raumoheru · Apr 23, 2005, 10:21 PM // 22:21

i am assuming those stats are after you add items?