Curse

Howling Wind · Jun 06, 2005, 11:34 PM // 23:34

I was just wondering if there are a few people who manage to farm with their rangers on certain areas quite well or regularly?

I tried going a R/Mo and doing the whole balthazars spirit and zealots fire strategy but its quite energy heavy for a ranger even with barrage and a zealous bow.

I've also tried stacking up enchantments that constantly stay like live vicarously and mending continously + using another enchantment vigorous spirit to give around 18 hp per arrow hit, so with barrage thats a MAX of around 45 hp with 3 arrows of constant hp regen too, its not too bad and works with around 3 or 4 enemies at riverside province but again drains energy too quick, especially while maintaining those enchantments.

I'd like to know other people who can farm with their Rangers and their class builds and strategy and also the place that they can farm at.

Falconer · Jun 07, 2005, 12:17 AM // 00:17

Try using a trapper build...

Using oath shot*, distracting shot, whirling def, throw dirt, troll, then say flame trap, barbed trap, plus another swing skill (such as glyph of concentration so the traps can't be interupted). If you do this right you CANNOT be disenchanted and have your enchants used against you... you won't get hit much at all. Make sure your survival is at a full 12 ranks. Oath shot accomplishes two important points... instantly recharges whirling def and throw dirt every 20s, and increases your trap laying speed. Also remember you can mine an area ahead of time, lead things into it, then just keep them chasing you in circles while you lay more traps and use the barbed trap cripple to maximum effect.

Another good way is to do the same thing as above... but to leverage it off barrage*. Again load up with the evasion goodies... Lightning Ref, whirling, dirt, dryder's def. (with lots of barrages... especially with a +5 vampiric string... you'll be healing say 10-30 points per barrage). You can do decently. Again a build like this you can leverage in some traps for some extra damage. (remember a 20s bleed is 120 damage there in it's own right, and flame trap with 12 ranks is good for 70-80 on it's own).

If you're after casters like hydras... you may need both troll unguent and healing spring to be able to heal their damage even with your heavy anti-nuke armor.

Thing is you need AoE's and good defense/self healing. Distracting shot is there to allow you to make use of baddies using ether feast, healing signet, or troll unguent of their own. Or to stop other nasty things like plague signet from being turned back on you.

Also against some critter types you can get into extreme ranger archery duels... in which case the AI doesn't play quake style... using rocket duel/dodging fights. EG: dodge penetrating... dodge dodge penetrating...

Kiru Malkav · Jun 07, 2005, 11:10 AM // 11:10

Trapper builds are by far the best I've tried so far. I'm still trying to unlock enough skills to give various other things a try.

So far I've tried a Crippling AoE R/E, a Smiting R/Mo, an Evading R/W (Stances baby) a Beastmaster (HA!) and the Trapper.

I use a different kind of trapping to the one mentioned above, I go for a DoT Trapper Combo, with Poison Arrow and the Mesmer's Conjure Phantasm thing (10 second -9 degen with another 12 seconds at -4 degen, then with the blinding, bleeding and crippling from the traps they usually keel over quite fast).

I just wish you could see where you put your traps.

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 02:42 PM // 14:42

I so far i've only tried smiting or barrage healing but then again thats trying to copy a M/XX farmer strategy (except the barrage healing is kind of unqiue to rangers though). A trapper, I haven't thought much about it but the thing is, the way you we build up or plan our strategies isn't exactly how things turn out in reality. For example barrage doesn't always hit 5 enemies since you won't always find them clustered together.

I'll give trapper a go, I just hope they don't avoid it...

So no one else uses different types of farming methods with other classes and yeah I would like farming strategies against those damn hydras, they nuke very hard, best way I see is to try and land a distracting shot and put up a trap but you can't use this strategy on multiple hydras and so its not really efficient farming then. If you try to take on like 4 or 5 and they all cast, then your literally screwed.

Lasher Dragon · Jun 07, 2005, 02:56 PM // 14:56

I have farmed the hydras outside Ember Light Camp pretty efficiently with a trapping/poison build. They drop some nice weapons now & then, the best I got was a max damage gold flamberge, +14% damage when health is above 50%, sundering, armor +4. I sold it to the first bidder in LA for 15k.

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Hmm seems traps are quite good for farming... I hardly use traps, so i'm gonna have to experiment and get used to it.

so whats your strategy with your trapper build against those hydras? Are you a R/Me with 12 wilderness?

Lasher Dragon · Jun 07, 2005, 03:30 PM // 15:30

No, actually I have 12 expertise, 11 wilderness survival, and 13 marks. My secondary is Necro at the moment, but it doesn't get used.

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 04:24 PM // 16:24

And so your strategy is just to put on loads of traps like flame trap, barb trap and then let the hydras go over them and then put some poison on them..?

Lasher Dragon · Jun 07, 2005, 04:28 PM // 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howling Wind

And so your strategy is just to put on loads of traps like flame trap, barb trap and then let the hydras go over them and then put some poison on them..?

Pretty much, then run like a little girl, lay more traps, apply more poison, and so on. I just got crippling shot last night, and that helps too.

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 04:44 PM // 16:44

Lol seems like a pretty fun strategy, I actually did try that in other places like riverside province but its like a wild chase, put some flame traps and then barb traps, then repeat.

The farming I have alot of fun with is a R/Mo healing but it takes tooo long to kill but its fun to watch about 30 numbers flying on top of your head and where 3/4 of them are healing you and the rest your dmg + enemy dmg, with a little practice and use of throw dirt and whirling defense I can continue the sequence for few mins and it does take me like up to 2 mins to kill those justiclars. Not very efficient.

Well the point of this thread was to see some farming attempts by others with raners but doesn't seem there is too many, just didn't want to play my m/w up to droknars forge coz thats quite long...well atleast for me now since I don't get much time to play.

Lasher Dragon · Jun 07, 2005, 04:54 PM // 16:54

I agree... for the most part, farming with ranger = suck. Last time I checked I think I have around 300 hours into this game, and I have unlocked ZERO superior runes. I have 4 or 5 nice bows... know how many of them I found? ZERO. I have found Hundreds of max damage swords, axes, hammers, wands, staves, etc. - but I'll be god damned if I can get one good bow drop.

Nahhh not bitter...

Tactical-Dillusions · Jun 07, 2005, 05:32 PM // 17:32

I farm undead with my ranger/monk.

Skills used... Barrage, Banish, Symbol of wrath, whirling defense, healing breeze, live vicariously, balthazars spirit, mending.

Barrage is for doing the majority of the killing, live vicariously gives me the main boost to health when in conjunction with barrage on multiple targets.
Whirling defense i use in conjunction with symbol of wrath for when i get surrounded or just dive in like a crazy person.
Banish is for the skeleton sorcerers and their below-the-belt blinding tactics.
Healing breeze for when the heat is on and balthazars spirit to gain extra energy for each hit i take.

I can successfully turn every hit into energy and then turn it back into attacking power. A complex setup but it works great.
Works brilliantly on masses of scarabs too. Except in that situation, i would replace the smiting skills with more evasive items such as dryders, throw dirt or lightning reflexes.

EDIT - 6 great bows found so far, 3 superior runes, around 20 majors and countless minor.

Lewick · Jun 07, 2005, 08:15 PM // 20:15

I farm with my R/Mo. I typically use the following:

- Zealot's Fire
- Healing Breeze
- Shield of Judgement
- Balthazar's Aura
- Symbol of Wrath
- Blessed Signet (for recovering)
- Balthazar's Spirit
- Essence Bond

With Balthazar's Spirit and Essence Bond up, I regen 2 energy for every physical hit I take. The build works as long as you're fighting meleers. Casters, especially ones that carry Shatter Enchantment, will kill me quickly. I carry around a Smiting Staff that has 10 energy with an insightful staff head +2. I also have a staff wrapping of enchantment +20% to give all of my enchantments an extra 20% enchantment time.

In Riverside, I usually kill 6 at a time. In areas by Maguuma Jungle, I find locations that have a large number scarabs, then let them pop up out of the ground and I kill them. Generally I can kill 12-15 at a time this way, but I usually end getting bored and only take on 9-10 at a time.

I still have yet to find a decent anti-hexer build. I do have one build I thought up that includes Smite Hex, but it's somewhat iffy and requires a lot of running to group mobs up. That's really the hardest part of trying to farm casters and rangers. Getting them grouped together well enough to allow AEs.

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 11:41 PM // 23:41

Hmm yeah I used a similiar strategy to the above post before but its so monkish you know what I mean? Its pretty damn annoying to see monk or anything monk to be the only good farmers, its good to see using skills from other professions to do some decent farming. I've was first R/E then to R/Mo and to R/Me (not for farming just to unlock) I might go R/N later to see if I can use mark of pain combos in farming.

And the strategy posted by Tactical Dilusions above is sort of what I currently use but I use a bit more things to buff up even more, that is I use symbiosis and Predatory Season. Its fun to use but not good at killing fast.

Tactical-Dillusions · Jun 08, 2005, 10:33 AM // 10:33

Symbiosis is good when having so many enchantments, lol. I was fighting some bladehand/centaurs last night and they use it alot. My health went over 1000 for the first time

Howling Wind · Jun 08, 2005, 11:36 PM // 23:36

Yeah Symbiosis helps alot but not good when other enemy rangers around...it just delays the killing.

Well I guess i'm gonna have to go back to a all monk build with shield of judgement, zealots fire and symbol of wrath offense to farm effectively will try and play around more and come up with a better strategy revoving barrage.

x-todd · Jun 15, 2005, 06:58 PM // 18:58

hey Tactical-Dillusions,
where do you do your undead farming at?
Im a R/Mo as well... well i was a R/N but changed to Monk.
thanks

The Shrodekill · Jun 15, 2005, 09:02 PM // 21:02

i can farm nooby world pretty effectively w/ my ranger but thats about it. (i found 2 red dye, a black dye, and blue dye within an hour) i dont have enough patience to lay tons of traps etc. i also cant farm well w/ my elementalist OR my monk... o well