Curse

Sting · Jun 13, 2005, 07:31 PM // 19:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by mostro

When you play a mesmer and find that all 3 monks on the enemy team are protected by spell breakers, you'd wish you have a ranger on your team too...

Why? Im sure they will have Mend Ailment and since Poison/Bleeds are rangers primary damage at most youll just be more of an anoyance than a threat.

Dreamsmith · Jun 13, 2005, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sting

Why? Im sure they will have Mend Ailment and since Poison/Bleeds are rangers primary damage at most youll just be more of an anoyance than a threat.

"Primary damage"?! It'd be a pretty pathetic ranger who did more damage with poison and bleeds than from his or her attacks, buffs and skills.

Epinephrine · Jun 13, 2005, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComMan

This brings me back to the same question I've asked over and over without getting a response:

Why take a shutdown Ranger over a shutdown Mesmer? I've yet to see any reason why a Ranger can do the the job even as well, much less better, than a Mesmer can.

Which turns me back to the question that still nags me, why have a Ranger in your party at all? What are they good for? What can the Ranger do well that no other class can outshine them at?

Rangers can shutdown skills better than Mesmers. Mesmers can shutdown spells better than rangers. As a ranger you can very easily hit the Healing Signet, Troll's Unguent etc. as well as hitting longer spells - if you go R/Me and dip into illusion you can pick up arcane conundrum to shut down almost any spell - after all, 2 second casting times are pretty easy to hit, you get to try every 10 seconds or so, which is more frequent than a mesmer.

Rangers can sap the energy out of a person more efficiently than a mesmer. Debilitating Shot knocks off 10 energy per hit with about 4 energy spent per shot - that's not shabby, and it cycle faster than the mesmer energy drains (every 5 seconds!). Even without using any Serpent's Quickness you can be doing 6 pips of energy degeneration with this skill alone. Distracting shot cycles every 10 seconds, making it faster than any mesmer interrupt, and can be sped up to every 6.66 seconds using SQ - for only 2 energy per shot.
Hard to argue with those. Choking gas interrupts spells in an area, and can be fired repeatedly at folks. Incendiary arrows interrupt actions (including attacks). aRangers are good at what they do, and they combine wonderfully with Mesmers.

ComMan · Jun 13, 2005, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreamsmith

"Primary damage"?! It'd be a pretty pathetic ranger who did more damage with poison and bleeds than from his or her attacks, buffs and skills.

I agree, but this is actually a common conception about Rangers. I ran a Poison/Bleeding/Conjure Phantasm build for a while, because I thought it was possible to stack more than 10 arrows of degen. After being schooled enough times in the arenas, I decided it was time to find an approch that didn't focus on out-damaging the opposition. I have yet to find one that works.

Mesmers have more than 1 interrupt though, and they're faster than yours and they does other stuff too. They also have a whole bunch of Energy drains. Just Distracting Shot or Debilitating Shot doesn't account for a Mesmer with 3-5 Energy Denial/Interrupting skills. I can see Energy Denial working with QZ and multiple rangers shooting Debilitating Shots, but I'm trying to figure out what 1/2 Rangers can do for a more rounded team (like a pick up group.)

Lasher Dragon · Jun 13, 2005, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

Rangers can shutdown skills better than Mesmers. Mesmers can shutdown spells better than rangers.

That's what I was going to say. Distracting Shot will shutdown anything on the enemy's skill bar, if you have good timing.

Sting · Jun 14, 2005, 04:38 AM // 04:38

*****

KonohaFlash · Jun 14, 2005, 11:04 AM // 11:04

if you plan to be a distracting ranger. try to get a list of skills and keep in mind those that take long casting times and save your distracting shot for those skills. my personal favorites(to distract) are troll unguent, rezz signet, healing signet, maelstrom, meteor shower, rituals and all the other rezz spells. oh and dont even bother interrupting warrior skills

Psykewne · Jun 14, 2005, 11:55 AM // 11:55

lets put it this way. When my guild makes up a group for HoH, they WANT at least one ranger.

Wilderness survival is your attribute of choice for sheer versatility and you can amx it while still hitting 10 in expertise (optimal imo for cost redux and the skills) and 10 marksmanship for using your bow of choice and the skills in that line effectively enough.

21 second poison arrow
25 damage kindle arrows
long lasting spirits that can take several hits to kill
72 damage barb trap with 25 second cripple and bleed
72 damage dust trap with 11 second blind
31 dmg every second for 3 seconds flames trap with 3 second burning
+ 10 regen troll unguent
Whirling defence 16 seconds
Throw dirt 11 seconds

(the troll unguent thing is amzing, being a skill it cannot be removed from you once you cast it)

Heck i rarely get into marksmanship skills because wilderness is so good. You won't take too much fire in the early battle so use barb trap and whirling defnece to guard against random hits to place barb traps directly under targets. Being mesmer use epidemic to spread poison, blindness, bleeding and cripple across the field. Then tigers fury and kindle arrows can turn you into a mean machine gun.

Spirits can twist damage types, lengthen cast times, increase recharge times.

Rangers also have what i think is the nicest armour. 70 al with an extra 30 vs elements (with a potential + 15 to fire, cold or air), with troll unguent, throw dirt and any one of a number of awesome defensive stances rangers survive better than many warriors in many situations, and one on one a good ranger will beat a most warriors.

A ranger is a support character, he can alter the battle field with traps and spirits to turn it into a playground for a well built team, or dish out so many varied effects it is scary. This doesn't even get into the interrupt side of the ranger which offers daze effect and a 20 second disabling effect on skills.

Sadly beast mastery is of low utility certainly for pvp but the pet can become very dangerous with focus and practice too. The beast mastery spirits while not as overall good as the wilderness ones also offer some really interesting options.