Curse

Keelya · Jul 15, 2005, 01:22 PM // 13:22

here is the basics of what I'm looking at, any feedback is appreciated.

GUILDWARS character summary from gw.coldfront.net
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Classes:
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Ranger
Elementalist

Items:
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Marksmanship Mask
Superior Rune of Marksmanship
Minor Rune of Expertise
Minor Rune of Wilderness Survival
Superior Rune of Vigor

Attributes:
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[] Expertise: 8+1
[] Marksmanship: 9+3+1
[] Wilderness Survival: 8+1
[] Fire Magic: 11

Skills:
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Conjure Flame
Attribute: Fire Magic
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* Lose all Enchantments. For 60 seconds, your attacks strike for an additional 5/19 fire damage
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge Time: 60

Barrage
Attribute: Marksmanship
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* All your preparations are removed. Shoot arrows at up to 5 enemies near your target. These arrows strike for 1/16 more damage if they hit.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge Time: 1

Dual Shot
Attribute: Marksmanship
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* Shoot two arrows simultaneously at target enemy. These arrows deal 25% less damage than normal.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge Time: 5

Glyph of Sacrifice
Attribute: General
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* Your next spell may be cast instantly, but takes an additional 120 seconds to recharge.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge Time: 15

Fire Storm
Attribute: Fire Magic
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* For the next 10 seconds, the area around target enemy is bombarded with a rain of fire that strikes for 5-24 fire damage each second.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge Time: 30

Fireball
Attribute: Fire Magic
Description: *Updated 4-19-05* Fireball flies toward the target foe and explodes on impact, striking for 7-112 fire damage in an area.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge Time: 10

Dryder's Defenses
Attribute: Wilderness Survival
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* For the next 5/12 seconds, you gain 75% chance to evade attacks and 34/57 armor against elemental damage.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge Time: 60

Troll Unguent
Attribute: Wilderness Survival
Description: *Updated 1-06-05* For the next 10 seconds, you gain health regeneration +3/+10
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge Time: 10

Explanation:

Primarily PvE build for Ranger/Elementalist, based around AoE damage capability. After Conjure Flame, Glyph of Sacrafice/Fire Storm would be used (when available) as the first wave of attack followed by barrage attacks. Fireball would be used as supporting fire between Fire Storm recharges. Obviously a fire bow would be the best choice with this set up and avoiding areas strong vs. fire. The major potential downside to this build is the lack of serious single target dmg, would consider dropping either Dryder's or Unguent for a means of inflicting concentrated dmg when the situation calls for it. Any ideas/comments?

Archaeus · Jul 15, 2005, 03:33 PM // 15:33

Did you see the Alpha Roundtable R/E build? It looked something like this:

Air magic: 10
Marksmanship: 10+2
Expertise: 11+1+1
Beast Mastery: 1+1

Barrage {E}
Dual Shot
Tiger's Fury
Conjure Lightning
Distracting Shot
Debilitating Shot
Pin Down
Favorable Winds

Equipment:
Druid's set
Minor Runes of Beast Mastery and Expertise
Major Rune of Marksmanship
Hunter's Mask (+1 Expertise)
Lightning Shortbow (or Flatbow if you prefer the range, but remember to use Favorable Winds if you do so. The long flight time of a flatbow makes its shots easy to dodge)

-Stacks Conjure with Barrage, just like your idea, and the Alphas say that any element will work as a conjure, but personally I like air magic due to some anti-warrior utility skills (blinding flash, enervating charge, etc) for PvP and the fact that it's more common to find a fire resist in the game than a lightning resist. Conjure+barrage+favorable winds is VERY nice AoE damage for 2 energy, IMO, especially with tiger's fury thrown in the mix.
-Even with 2 beastmastery, tiger's fury will last for 6 seconds, which is enough time to get off around ten shots with your short/flatbow. It looks so cool to see your ranger spazzing out on the bow...reminds me of D2.
-13 expertise gives us Barrage at 2 energy. With Druid's set, you can spam it all day and all night and never run outta energy. w00t.
-Use Debilitating and Distracting shots as needed. You never know when you're gonna find that annoying self-healing boss that just WON'T DIE! Anyone who's done the Ring of Fire mission probably knows the most annoying one, but they also come in handy at Thirsty River for the last enemy priest and his monk boss companion.
-Personally, I switch out Pin Down for a resurrection signet, but Pin Down could be used quite effectively if you're nuking a single target who's running away in PvP... or if you're the one running, you could slow down your chasers. But, since this is a PvE build, it's not a big deal.
-Favorable winds makes things even better by adding yet more damage to every arrow and making your hit their target faster, therefore making them harder to block and evade. Very useful IMO.
-The Alphas also suggested using Water Magic instead, with Conjure Frost in place of Conjure Lighting and Ice Spikes in place of Tiger's Fury. Personally, I would keel Tiger's Fury and slot in Ice Spikes instead of Debilitating Shot or Pin Down. The purpose of Ice Spikes is to keep your targets clustered together while you pound them with conjured+favorable winds dmg. I say bring tiger's fury because Ice Spikes doesn't last long, and you want to get in as many shots as you can before the hex expires.

I played this build for a long time, and had a great deal of fun with it. However, I am beginning to see a few shortcoming of it:
1) No team support. I'm currently trapped at the Thunderhead Keep mission because most of the PUGs are stupid, and because I can't go it alone with the henchies because I can't keep the king alive. (My E/Mo used Mark of Protection when the king got low to keep him alive)
2) No self healing. This isn't as big of a deal, since your armor virtually negates any elemental damage and the monks usually do a good job of keeping you alive when you take physical damage (which won't be often, since you're not on the front lines)
3) DPS vs. single targets. I know you're looking for AoE here, so this isn't a big deal, but since I'm used to being an air elementalist, I rather miss the single target DPS that this build somewhat lacks (Tiger's Fury helps a lot, though).

BTW, you aren't planning on soloing, are you? If you are, then screw this build, get a monk secondary, and tool with it. You can use your ranger attributes for damage and your monk ones for defense (expertise+marksmanship+protection/healing), or the other way around if you want (smiting+wilderness survival).

There's my (and GWGuru's) two cents.