Curse

Rajamic · Jun 25, 2005, 08:04 AM // 08:04

Team made of largely beastmasters with one of them having Call of Haste, Call of Protection, and Otyugh's Cry (these are all shouts, so could be applied to all pets!). A pack of pets with roughly normal bow damage, 1600HP, 25% faster attacks (almost Tiger's Fury caliber) and 33% faster movement, -15 damage recieved, and +20 AL. And most of the team would still have plenty of skill slots for attacks. Have a few bring Revive Animal (It's got an area effect too!)

That would be scary, and I may have to finish leveling my pet so I can try this out with some people. If only pet attacks could be used while moving...

Tellani Artini · Jun 25, 2005, 08:23 AM // 08:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nidhogg

Changed my build slightly, but I may switch Ferocious Strike for Crippleing Shot depending on a test to see if Feral Lunge will bleed people using attack spells as well as weapon attacks, unless anyone else knows for sure?

"Attacking" means with a weapon. "Casting" means with a spell, including attack spell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rajamic

Team made of largely beastmasters with one of them having Call of Haste, Call of Protection, and Otyugh's Cry (these are all shouts, so could be applied to all pets!). A pack of pets with roughly normal bow damage, 1600HP, 25% faster attacks (almost Tiger's Fury caliber) and 33% faster movement, -15 damage recieved, and +20 AL. And most of the team would still have plenty of skill slots for attacks. Have a few bring Revive Animal (It's got an area effect too!)

Call of Haste and Call of Protection don't affect other allied pets, it seems. Only Otyugh's helps the whole team.

I don't think revive animal is worth it, really. 6 second cast time, and it's only going to be useful when all the pets are dead. If this happens you're gone. If the owners all skipped comfort animal and one person brought revive, with monks healing the pets, it could save some skill slots. But comfort animal is, imo, too powerful a heal to leave behind. Any more than 4 pets on a team seems a bit far fetched, but we'll see.

Gydion · Jun 25, 2005, 10:24 AM // 10:24

I've read through all of this thread and a couple others. I have a few questions yet; please keep in mind I'm fairly new (only level 6.5) and I'm playing a Ranger/Mesmer. I mainly play with my wife and early on we encountered way to many creatures that would cast healing on themselves so I switched from Illusion to Domination for the interupts and it's worked wonderfully. But now that I've read more it seems that there are great many Ranger interupts that work just as good if not better than the Mesmers. So... Help! Should I switch back to Illusion to get some more DoT effects (phantasm & poison arrows etc...) or stay with my current counter-healer build? FYI my wife is playing an Ele/Necro

My eventual build:

(I went with the four attribute build detailed in an article on this site)

Marksmenship: 10
Expertise: 10
Domination: 9
Wilderness: 7

I tend to use favorable winds and power shot when I can set the Winds up. I use power leak, that may be the wrong name though, for counter (such a long recharge time). I'll use Troll Ungent if really needed but I can generally hold my own. I've just gone to pulling targets after reading how to Call Target and that has really advanced our game quite a bit. It's much nicer to take critters one by one than 7 at a time.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated, thanks in advance.

burianek · Jun 25, 2005, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Honestly, I think how you use your character will change again and again over the course of the game as you respond to the situations you find yourself in.
I started out with almost no ranger skills for my R/Me in the early game and now, in the late game, I have almost no mesmer skills.

You'll have to reinvent your character and how you use him many many times, so don't get too worked up over the late game build yet. It will come later.
Trying out different things lets you learn how to play in a variety of styles, which isn't a bad thing.

Cheers.

Kurow · Jun 27, 2005, 07:07 AM // 07:07

Actually, through further exploring of this build via PVP, ive found it to be excelent. It really brings those warriors down to size, most of the time they dont get more than a couple seconds of actually hitting.

Stats are something like
Wilderness Survival: 12
Swordsmanship: 12
Tactics: as high as i can get it

Apply Poison
Seeking Blade
Sever Artery
Gash
Deadly Riposte (considering changing to normal riposte due to energy)
Gladiator's Defense [E]
Troll Unguent
Resurrection Signet

If you couldnt tell this build is based on health degeneration. The gladiator's defense and riposte skills are to elongate the life of my guy, seeing as hes not as tough as the warriors on the field. And seeking blade is just a bread and butter move to add damage, along with the no miss part. I dont know about the whole rune thing since i havent started using them, due to not having the armor i want yet, just assume that the starts are what they should be for this build, and then tell me them :P

IndyCC · Jun 27, 2005, 05:18 PM // 17:18

Question/Curiosity:

Now I know that ranger pets aren't really used for pvp, but curiosity has gotten the best of me and I was wondering something.

So for chits and giggles say you make a pvp only ranger. So you start at lvl 20 and only have access to the pvp arenas. Say you put 16 points worth in beastmastery (and the rest in marksmanship or something, its not really relavant to the question). You equip your charm animal skill so that Pet X will join you in the fight. But, here is the question, how do you charm an animal for pvp when to my knowledge there are none around in the arenas to charm to take in?

PippinTook · Jun 27, 2005, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyCC

Question/Curiosity:

Now I know that ranger pets aren't really used for pvp, but curiosity has gotten the best of me and I was wondering something.

So for chits and giggles say you make a pvp only ranger. So you start at lvl 20 and only have access to the pvp arenas. Say you put 16 points worth in beastmastery (and the rest in marksmanship or something, its not really relavant to the question). You equip your charm animal skill so that Pet X will join you in the fight. But, here is the question, how do you charm an animal for pvp when to my knowledge there are none around in the arenas to charm to take in?

It gives you a lvl 20 elder wolf for free

Enigmatics · Jun 30, 2005, 02:21 PM // 14:21

Ensign, thanks for the awsome builds. I'm testing a shock sniper right now, and I wonder what type of bow should I'd be more effective with. I have a halfmoon and storm bow (long bow specs), both max damage. I believe the first one has shortest range and fastest speed, while the latter has longest range and slowest speed. Before, i've been using the halfmoon for barrage with a zealous upgrade, but i'm doubtful it would be as useful with such an upgrade in pvp. Anyone have suggestions as to which bow I should use?

Stormer · Jun 30, 2005, 09:20 PM // 21:20

storm bow has the 2nd-highest critical out of all weapons ingame, the first place being taken by the hammers. storm bow is THE best bow ingame.

Enigmatics · Jun 30, 2005, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Thanks, that was helpful. Can't find weapon critical info though, any sources on that?

knives · Jun 30, 2005, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by UsagiNoSenshi

i would just like to say... I am a Beast Master...

:: prepares to be flamed::

So many people say how useless my build is T_T it makes me sad beacuse i think i've done rather well, i mean i've acended already. I've only had to take my pet out for fighting my mirror self, that's it. I'm not big on PvP so i'm not worried about that.
I have a pet strider, named Mr. Feathers.

Beast Mastery- 13
Marksmanship- 13
Expertise - 8
Wilderness Survival- 2

Power shot
Call of Haste
Feral Lunge
Predator's Pounce
Troll Ungent
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
(random res or capture signet)

and no i have no clue why i have the random 2 Wilderness. Any suggestions? should i mess with some more runes?

I am really liking your build. ^^ But I was just wondering, wouldn't it be better if you just used read the wind instead of power shot? +10-18dmg for 10 energy and a 6sec recharge time for one shot, compared to faster moving arrows for 12 sec, for 5 energy, 12 sec recharge time (enough time for the spell to end, and start again), to variably do more damage? The only downside is the 2 sec casting time.

Enigmatics · Jun 30, 2005, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Beastmasters are horribly underrated, because people just think the idea is ridiculous in its seriousness; without looking at the skills and damage they can do.

knives · Jun 30, 2005, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Ok, I am having trouble with spending attribute points.

I want to do

Beast Mastery
Marks

For sure.

Now, I am torn between 3 things. Expertise, ele dmg, or smiting.

Expertise for obvious reasons, ele dmg if I want to use conjure + ele dmg bowstring, or smiting for judges insight + read the wind + a sundering bow upgrade. Which would you go for preferrably? I am leaning towards expertise or smiting, and I can't really decide.

This is for PvE btw. And my skillset will resemble..

Read the Wind
Call of Haste
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Feral Lunge
Predators Pounce
Bestial Pounce
Rez Sig (if I go expertise) / Judges Insight (if I go monk)

This is a beast mast build btw. I just wanted to see if expertise was all that important, and was wondering I drop it for judges insight, would it be more effective?

Enigmatics · Jun 30, 2005, 10:28 PM // 22:28

Most all ranger builds level expertise to 11 and boost it to 14. Generally a conjure element is better for single targets. I have no idea why it isn't used with barrage though. Most rangers that use barrage use judge's insight.

SPARTACVS · Jun 30, 2005, 11:42 PM // 23:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enigmatics

Beastmasters are horribly underrated, because people just think the idea is ridiculous in its seriousness; without looking at the skills and damage they can do.

No, the problem with beastmaster is when your pet die. Losing your skills for 8 sec when you resurect pet is fine with me but when it dies it put you in a 2x bad situation (no more pets and no more skills). Don't let it die? Well if the healing skill was better...

Doof · Jul 01, 2005, 03:35 AM // 03:35

Im kinda new here, and ive been working on a R/Mo build, tryign to read up on it and apply it to my ranger.

Still havent done the second 15pt attribute quest
Healing-7
smite-5
beast-1(rune)
expertise-13 (+2 rune +1mask)
Mark-12(+1 rune)
Sup vigor

so i have 504 health and with druids set i have 32 energy

Judges Insight
Barrage
Hunters Shot
Penetrating attack
debilitating shot
tiger's fury
whirling defense
Mending

I use mending because i have a 5:1 vamp ascalon bow with +24 health
the -1 degen is why i need to use mending.

the -1 energy from mending is killing me while trying to maintain judges.

i can manage to take on one hydra solo no problem, but my ranger has serious problem s with multiple creatures. Anyone have any suggestions on a bow i should be using and maybe a change in skills??

Enigmatics · Jul 01, 2005, 12:51 PM // 12:51

Barrage is for multiple enemies, less effective against 1. You might want to get a zealous bow on switch, so you don't have to maintain mending. your skills seem okay.

One thing, is there a better elite then punishing shot to use for a shock sniper? Seems almost like power shot would be an easy replacement.

s0m31 · Jul 04, 2005, 09:55 AM // 09:55

Degen Ranger for 4v4 random
R/me- doesn't focus on immediate damage but instead on DOTs which kills of runners often ^_^.. Pls share ideas on how to improve this build

illusion- 9
inspi- 8
wild- 8+2
marks- 7+1+2
experise- 8+2

Skills:
poison arrow
conjure phantasm
pin down
spirit of failure
inspired enchantment
troll unguent
rez sig
distracting shot
how to use it:

Use spirit of failure on a warrior or ranger as soon as possible and as often as possible. If theres none then too bad.

Cast conjure phantasm and poison arrow on called target and try to keep it on him as much as possibe. If they try to run use pin down and if they have enchantments on them like healing breeze which cancels all your degen then use inpired enchantments.

If you are being attacked use troll unguent immediately to avoid serious damage and keep using it. Use pin down on a warrior attacking you also

Use distracting shot on anyone who tries to rez or a healing monk who heals himself too much.

PippinTook · Jul 04, 2005, 12:39 PM // 12:39

Sounds good to me. Debilitating shot can drain energy fast so you might want to try it a little bit.

Enigmatics · Jul 04, 2005, 01:03 PM // 13:03

Degen is different from energy denial. However since most all warriors pack mend ailment, you won't be doing much damage with poison arrow. And some monks have smite hex, so...