Curse

Yukito Kunisaki · Jun 24, 2005, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Ok, as luck would have it, the Icy Bowstring I thought I'd never use ends up in my max dmg Icy Stormbow of Marksmanship... So, the new build I've worked on for a super high dmg Ranger/Elementalist is as follows...

stats:

Expertise: 7+1
Marksmanship: 10+2
Beast Mastery: 9+1
Water Magic: 10

[goal: maximum dmg as fast as concievably possible

]

Penetrating Shot
Dual Shot
Power Shot
Precision Shot
Marksman's Wager
Tiger's Fury
Conjure Frost
Frozen Burst

In the inevitable event that someone gets close enough to swing a melee weapon at me, Frozen Burst should hit them hard enough and slow them down for 9s. Plenty of time for me to get to the safety of some nearby [hopefully living] teammates...

This is my battle system/engine. Can anyone give me thoughts on how to increase damage output while still managing energy?

burianek · Jun 24, 2005, 07:33 PM // 19:33

I'd sacrifice whatever needed to get expertise up to 14
(10 + sup rune + hat)
That's pretty much a requirement imho to be able to continually use those 10 energy attack skills you want to use.
I know you have wager in there, maybe I'm just not any good with it, but I've never been able to use it effectively to maintain my energy. It works in theory, just in practise I haven't been able to make it work. Maybe you're better at it than I am.
Take beast mastery to 4 (3+1) that gives you 7 seconds on tiger's. That's pretty decent at a very low attrib point cost. You can use those attrib points better elsewhere.

If it were me (this is off the top of my head, so it may not be right, but I think it is):
10+4 expertise
11+1 marksman
9 water
3+1 beast mastery

for those skills

Cheers.

ICURADik · Jun 25, 2005, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Why not 16 Marksmanship?

Slade xTekno · Jun 25, 2005, 03:52 AM // 03:52

If you want to be able to keep that damage up, you'll need 14 expertise. You do not need 9 Beast Mastery to make Tiger's Fury work. Reduce it to as low as 1 [+rune]. 3+1 should is recommended, but Expertise takes precedence in importance.

Your damage should be very good. However, in the Gladiator's Arena forum you will find a second addition to the Combat Mathematics, which says that if you can get your weapon attribute higher than 12, it will do much more damage, especially on crits. I'd take a Superior Rune over a Minor. Rangers are one of the last targets, and that should give you plenty of time to do damage. You already have the "of Markmanship" on your bow.

I see that you're using Wager to offset your low Expertise, but if you do end up raising it, you should settle with a good Zealous string due to Tiger's Fury.

This is just personal, but if you did everything I listed above, I'd replace Marksman's Wager with Favorable Winds and Frozen Burst with Crippling Shot.

MasterKaChun · Jun 25, 2005, 05:51 AM // 05:51

doesnt zealous mean getting rid of the icy mod that he has thus making conjure useless? just wondering.

Yukito Kunisaki · Jun 25, 2005, 08:03 AM // 08:03

Yeah, then I'd lose the reason i do so much dmg altogether...

Hmm... Perhaps if I rearranged my stats then to be more like this?

10+2 Marksmanship
9+1 Expertise
7+1 Beast Mastery
10 Water Magic?

Flip flop the expertise with Beast Mastery eh? Hmm... I had another idea in the mix where I bring Called Shot for a nearly guarunteed hit instead of Power Shot. That would at least give me a 'desperate' boost to energy should I need it.

Stormbow has Longbow range and also longbow time-to-target speed. Arrow flies more straight than in an arc like a Flatbow... [sadly, you lose head shot percentage due to that but at least accuracy is high]

I honestly don't like using anything that would cause me to lose hp due to a skill because, I'm picky like that. however, this build has 3 stats that are 10+ so I know it's not 'weak'. It's just lacking Xtreme Strengths [that are easy to counter]...