Curse

Kak Worm · May 15, 2005, 12:20 PM // 12:20

Marksmanship 11
Expertise 10
Illusion Magic 10

Hunter's Shot
Pin Down
Incendiary Arrows
Apply Poison
Throw Dirt
Fragility
Conjure Phantasm
Antidote Signet

This is what I plan to do with this build:
At the start cast conjure phantasm and fragility. Then use Incendiary Arrows and fire away. If there is enough energy and the foe is moving, use pin down followed by hunter's shot. Use apply poison when Incendiary runs out. Recast fragility at the next chance followed by conjure phantasm.

If enemies get too close, use throw dirt and run.

What are your views? Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Vusak · May 16, 2005, 01:51 AM // 01:51

im running that build atm.

or atleast a very similar build.

basically it goes like this:

apply poison
wait for team to call target (energy regen)
pin down on called target
(they usually start running)
hunters shot
conjure phantasm

now they are bleeding, poisoned, hexed, slowed

this works the best at the initial contact with enemy, because they are all bunched up

epidemic

suddenly conditions are transferred to everyone in that tight group your facing.

the hardest part about this build is energy conservation, even with all druid armor, you cant maintain all effects consistently during battle on each called target, however you can maintain poison, and with luck have enough to pin down the next called target, phant comes next.

fragility is also in there, though its a harsh energy cost, its mainly useful vs. selfhealers, because it adds that little bit extra, however an interruptor would probably work much better ive found.

its hard because you can only really afford 1 mesmer attribute line.

while domination affords useful anti healing skills like backfire and diversion, which works very nicely vs. healers, and casters in general

illusion offers phant and soothing images, which affects the more melee oriented quite nicely. and just has more DoTage (5 more degen).

however inspiration has leech signet and mantra of signets, coupled with concussion shot, could be a nice closed energy loop strategy to shutdown a healer.

so yeah the main point im making, is that it really hurts anyone with mediocre healing abilities or no support - infact you sometimes find yourself fire/forgetting because you know that your target will be dead in the next 5 seconds no matter what.

vs. healers it can shutdown their usefulness (except area heals), but wont normally kill them.

Serafita Kayin · May 16, 2005, 03:35 PM // 15:35

My build too, it's wicked effective, even when I don't have all those skills yet.

Rahl · May 16, 2005, 05:05 PM // 17:05

Right now my skills are:

Ether Feast (+13)
Inspired Hex
Incendiary Arrows
Power Shot
Penetrating Attack
Hunters Shot
Antidote Signet
Troll Ungunet

I'm mostly PvE'ing right now, that's why I have the two healing skills, if I didn't, I'd take something like Spirit Shackles/Conjure Phant and another Ranger apply poision/ other bow attack

taion · May 16, 2005, 07:38 PM // 19:38

As a PvE build, this isn't especially organic, because you can't get Incendiary Arrow until very close to the end of the game, and Fragility doesn't have the same amazing synergy with, say, apply poison as it does with incendiary. My build is pretty similar, the only differences being replacing antidote signet with Tiger's Fury and 12 points in illusion.

With a shortbow/halfmoon/flatbow, Fragility + Incendiary + Fury by itself is a scary, scary combo. At 0 wilderness survival, you're doing 70 or so damage per shot through armour, plus however much damage your arrows do, plus each shot is an interrupt. A lot of things have a tendency to sorta die after taking that much damage.

What I don't see is how this build focuses on DoT. Since I assume you're running 0 survival to take full advantage of the preparations in conjunction with fragility, the preps serve much more as damage buffs than as DoT effects, so the only real DoTs are hunter's shot, which only sorta counts, and conjure phantasm.

Regardless, though, fragility and incendiary arrow is a scary combo without a healer or some hex removal to save you.

Rahl · May 17, 2005, 02:21 AM // 02:21

On just about all targets below level 12 I do base damage of 60-70+ with my bow, then I put on Kindle Arrows/Penetrating Attack/Power Shot/Hunter's Shot and I easily get over 100 damage on every hit. (It also depends on what you're fighting, cause some have waay better armor than other baddies.)

I stopped using most of my Mesmer skills in favor for bow attacks, but I don't know if it was such a good idea since I can't interrupt at least 3 spells in a row.

But everything dies quicker