Curse

Static Sharpie · Jul 12, 2005, 01:15 AM // 01:15

I see alot of people posting they are making R/Mes but i never see anyone making a R/Ne. Are the R/Ne any good? Or would you be better off to go Ne/R? Been thinking about it, and i wann be able to use the bow and still be able to get off some spells. Any help would be useful. Thank you in advance

Tellani Artini · Jul 12, 2005, 02:16 AM // 02:16

If you want to cast spells and maybe shoot things, go N/R. If you want to shoot things and maybe cast spells, go R/N. Your secondary should support your primary in most cases, so stick to what your primary does best, whether it's casting spells or shooting things.

As an R/N, there's a few obvious choices to beef up your damage potential: barbs, weaken armor, rigor mortis. Blood magic is a decent utility-survival line to consider too.

As an N/R, you won't have expertise, and it's pretty widely accepted that /R marksmen are nowhere near as good as R/ marksmen. There are a few wilderness survival skills that could help though.

Neo-LD · Jul 12, 2005, 03:05 AM // 03:05

R/N is also useful for rend enchantments.

Minwanabi · Jul 12, 2005, 03:22 AM // 03:22

R/N is my ranger of choice, expect in certain specialized situations where I prefer R/Me, but to answer your question, yes, it's a very viable combo, with a lot of build options available to it.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 03:02 PM // 15:02

Are you wanting to do pvp or pve? or both? for pvp r/n isn't the best damage dealer but can be pretty versatile. Curses are good like: faitheartedness, weaken armor,enfeeble,shadow of fear,insiduous insiduous parasite, price of failure, and mark of pain is nice for pve mobs. Blood is tempting too, with Life syphon, unholy feast,vamp gaze, and well of blood which is nice for pve. Plague touch can be handy too in pvp, it transfers a condition to a foe. With Ranger though it's hard to find more than 1 or 2 skills to add to your ranger skills since you have such a variety of good ranger skills.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 03:07 PM // 15:07

Minwanabi do you think Life syphon would be almost as effective as r/me using Conjure ph? I know you dont get as much life degen on them but it lasts longer and you get life regen for yourself. or would you suggest curses for pvp?

BTW anyone know how much Weakness lowers a foes damage?

IcyFighter · Jul 12, 2005, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Weakness lowers damage by 66%. People under Weakness only do 1/3 of their base damage.

Minwanabi · Jul 12, 2005, 06:17 PM // 18:17

Life siphon's not a terrible choice for a r/n, although I do suggest curses, but if you're trying to play a massive degen build, something along the lines of poison/bleeding from the ranger line, and either a degen hex or disease from the necro line can be vicious. With the defense, damage reduction, and protective enchantments being more popular than ever, degen, when played well, can be a really effective tool.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 07:25 PM // 19:25

k so which do you think would be more useful vs other rangers and warriors? Enfeeble- 17 seconds of weakness ( 5 energy) or Faintheartedness- up to around 30 seconds foe attacks slower and has degen of -3 ( 10 energy to cast) ? I don't usually bring Weaken armor since i use elem bow vs warriors...weakn armor only gives armor penalty of -20 vs physical damage.

Minwanabi · Jul 12, 2005, 07:48 PM // 19:48

Weakness is a great condition to be able to inflict, but will also be removed near instantly. If your team is a huge condition spammer, just hoping to overwhelm the enemy monks, bring enfeeble, but if they're relatively light on conditions, weakness will be removed in seconds. You also run into the problem of the enemy having a martyr character, rendering this skill basically useless. Faintheartedness is good, but in lieu of that, I suggest shadow of fear.. you get AoE attack slowdown, making it an absolute pain to remove, and the health degen you don't get is really not much... essentially 6 DPS less.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 07:56 PM // 19:56

Yeah i've considered shadow of fear, but since I know from experience that getting psn or bleeding w/ a degen like conjure phantism can really hurt if you dont heal or remove conditions, because of this i was interested in using something with the life degen such as Life syphon or Faitheartedness. Does attack slow down effect only physical attacks? or does it also effect casting of elem spells and such? Darn can't decide...being ranger makes it hard since ranger class alone has enough good skills to fill your 8 slots. For pvp do you think mostly pure ranger using pretty much the 4 ranger attributes would be better or using 3 of them and putting some in curses and bring a curse or two?

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 07:59 PM // 19:59

So far in pvp i am R/N but only use ranger skills like: Melandrus arrow, Tiger fury, dual shot, distracting shot, pin down, throw dirt, troll, and either RES/ Barb Trap/ or Charm animal for my SPIDER. Do you think i could improve on this using some Necro skills or keep as it but maybe sub kindle or psn arrow in?

Kishin · Jul 12, 2005, 08:01 PM // 20:01

Most people do heal and remove conditions though, at least in organized play. You have to hope for overloading the Monks, as Minwanabi pointed out.

I would second the recommendation of Shadow of Fear (Though to answer your question, it only effects attacks, not spellcasting) and the Curses line in general. Its very synergistic with the standard Ranger playstyle.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 08:05 PM // 20:05

So maybe put a few or no pts in curses and only bring Shadow of fear (still 20 second curse with no pts in it) and try to fit it into my ranger style of play? How big is the AOE? unless they are grouped together only 1 or 2 will get the curse and it costs more than faitheartedness without the degen.

cdepue79 · Jul 12, 2005, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Where do i go to change my secondary? I heard the dessert but where? I might just change my 2nd class to mo so i can bring a RES spell and maybe JUDGES insight for holy damage and the 20% armr penetration since Direct damage is harder to neglect than conditions, especially shadow or holy damage.

drowningfish999 · Jul 12, 2005, 08:16 PM // 20:16

You can change your secondary once you reach Droknar's Forge actually, which is after the desert. There is a quest there from Vanyi or something that sends you to the 3 towns where you can change your profession.

supperman · Jul 12, 2005, 08:46 PM // 20:46

Hi tried a R/N for PvE, just because it's not that common, and the build that works for me so far is as a minion master. IMHO, rangers like warriors make sub-standard casters because they don't get that much energy and you can't use an artifact. I'm always having to decide whether to conserve energy for spells or to let it rip with my marksman skills. Animate bone horrors on the other hand can be done after the battle and you don't have to (you can't anyway) use more energy to maintain them.

Neo-LD · Jul 12, 2005, 09:10 PM // 21:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by supperman

Hi tried a R/N for PvE, just because it's not that common, and the build that works for me so far is as a minion master. IMHO, rangers like warriors make sub-standard casters because they don't get that much energy and you can't use an artifact. I'm always having to decide whether to conserve energy for spells or to let it rip with my marksman skills. Animate bone horrors on the other hand can be done after the battle and you don't have to (you can't anyway) use more energy to maintain them.

Minion Masters are better off as N/R. As for Rangers beig substandard, you should go find one of they "why do rangers suck?" threads. I will just tell you that warriors do not need very much energy b/c of adrenaline and everything costing like 5. Rangers dont need 4 pips of energy because of expertise. In fact, expertise is so efective that rangers can go the longest without running low on energy than any character except maybe an energy drain mesmer.

cdepue79 · Jul 13, 2005, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Last night made a pvp char using MELANDRUS arrow, Judges Insight, Tiger fury, dual shot, penetrating arrow,distracting shot/or pin down,throw dirt, troll, res and it worked out pretty well. With this i was getting really good damage per arrow, and some conditions like bleedinng,cripple, and blind. It worked pretty well the only problem was i had my attributes spread pretty thin, but a grip of Enchantment helped my Judges Insight last longer. Any opinions/advice on this? I think it might be better than R/N since i could never decide on a good nec skill to bring. Or would something like R/Me just for conjure phantasm + psn/bleeding be better overall for pvp?