Curse

LaserLight · Dec 19, 2005, 10:48 AM // 10:48

Hey all. Been reading through lots of various Ranger threads, trying to get a better idea of how my favorite profession works, and I ran across something in the 'R/W Builds of All Kinds' thread which gave me an idea. However, it's an idea I'm having a devil of a time refining, so I'm going to ask all you kind, caring, loving souls - all two of you :-P - and everybody else to maybe help me out?

Ranger/Warrior
Boost Gunner
PvP (though I'm currently unable to test it anywhere but CA)
Rapid Attack Specialist

Attributes
Expertise 13 (10 + Superior Rune)
Marksmanship 12 (10 + mask + Minor Rune)
Tactics 11

Skills:
Penetrating Attack
Crippling Shot [E]
Frenzy
Throw Dirt
Sprint
Rush
"Watch Yourself!"
HealSiggy/ReSiggy

Armor: Druid's suit, Marksmanship mask

Weapon(s):
F1 - Zealous Shortbow of Sheltering
F2 - Sundering Horn Bow of Sheltering
F3 - Zealous Recurve Bow of Fortitude
F4 - Zealous Recurve Bow of Warding
Note - bow setup is anal-retentive in the extreme, and is ideal anyways - right now I've got the Short, most of the Horn, and half the second Recurve and that's it :-P

Runes: Superior Expertise, Minor Marks

Summary: The Boost Gunner is, essentially, an attempt to create a phantom of the battlefield, a character agile enough to bypass enemy defensive efforts and strike where it really hurts - an enemy team's vital squishies. No messing around with Warriors here, folks. Between dual speed buffs and Crippling Shot loveliness, nobody is going to catch you. This gives you the opportunity to indulge in Frenzy, which punches the dps up remarkably on this sucker. "Watch Yourself!" is cheap, spammable defense which stacks with stances instead of cancels them out, a godsend for this sort of build. Not to mention your own vital squishies, if any are nearby, will thank you for the help :-P. Various Siggies are self explanatory.

Problems are twofold. One is that, basically, I suck and can't yet take advantage of the build's full capabilities. This tends to result in my Guild getting pissed off at me and telling me to go back to Necro secondary. This will lessen with time and copious practice/counter-pissoffedness though.

The real issue is Frenzy. It's a great stance, but the whole doubled-damage thing really bites. Unfortunately it's also the only IAS stance which will actually do the job. Flurry allows for the same speed boost, but is more energy intensive and largely negates its own DPS boost with the damage cut. Great for IW, lousy for Boost Gunners. Tiger's Fury...no WAY. I have two lousy attack skills; spamming Tiger's Fury will lock down three quarters of my skill bar, and most of those skills need to be spammed almost as often as the attacks in order to properly do their jobs. Lightning Reflexes just recharges to bloody slow. So...I'm stuck. Not a single optimal IAS stance when an IAS stance is pivotal to the build's working properly.

Any clues on how to fix that? I'd really enjoy not having to disengage and retreat from an attack any time an enemy even comes close to engaging me, but currently it's either that or get my rear reamed. Anyone know a good way to avoid either option?

wat my name is · Dec 19, 2005, 10:27 PM // 22:27

I would take out crippling shot and put in evis and axe rake. I say if u take out any other skill it should be frenzy becuase it sucks big assssssssssssss

LaserLight · Dec 20, 2005, 03:52 AM // 03:52

Uh-huh. Nice to know you actually understood what I was trying for before you suggested alterations...*BONK*.

Axe skills? Why in God's name would I use axe skills? If I wanted to use Axe skills I'd play a Warrior. And as I said, an IAS stance is vital to the build, so if you want Frenzy gone, help me find a suitable replacement.

Anyone with a different opinion?

Pinch · Dec 20, 2005, 03:59 AM // 03:59

Quick Shot

also, change tactics to 8, get 12 marksmanship.

pagansaint · Dec 20, 2005, 05:23 AM // 05:23

You can accomplish all of that as a R/N except the armor boost.

Penetrating
Crippling
Tiger's Fury
Throw Dirt
Stormchaser
Read the Wind, Ignite Arrows, Choking Gas, Apply Poison, Any preparation...
Plague Sending, or to get EXTRA nasty, Weaken Armor.
Res Signet

Bam R/N that can sprint past and around anything, all points spent in Primary, where you can boost with runes, with the left overs, if any, in curses for more damaging attacks.

Hendorr · Dec 20, 2005, 06:56 AM // 06:56

Pagansaint's build looks better to me, frenzy is not that good, the double dmg :S
It can be good when you're not targeted, but take Tiger's fury (it's better).
Amd I would say weaken armor nog plague sending, can be good though, but you wanted to be a support ranger. You're team will like weaken armor.

LaserLight · Dec 20, 2005, 08:45 AM // 08:45

Problem of Tiger's Fury locking down three quarters of my skill bar still remains. I admit that Storm Chaser alone, with high WS, gets me more total run time than Sprint and Rush combined, but it doesn't afford the same tactical flexibility. And besides, with Tiger's Fury making sure I never get to do anything but attack, everything else on that bar is virtually useless anyways. Hmm...

I believe I will look into Necro secondary builds. This is workable, but is just to blasted fragile. Really kinda bites. Ah well. Perhaps a few of my other projects will pay off better.

pagansaint · Dec 20, 2005, 08:33 PM // 20:33

during the time that your skill bar is "locked down" you should be shooting anyways. You just activated your IAS ffs. That and the skills are only locked down for 5 seconds and you can have a 10 second duration TF running...

marzabadjeh · Dec 20, 2005, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by wat my name is

I would take out crippling shot and put in evis and axe rake. I say if u take out any other skill it should be frenzy becuase it sucks big assssssssssssss

DUDE u have no idea.. frenzy is like 8 secs of pure pleasure for 5 energy.. the only disadventge is that u tak double dmg... but if ur a ranger... ur not supposed to take dmg!

dargon · Dec 21, 2005, 12:14 AM // 00:14

To the banned, just incase he's managed to atleast view the forums.

If I notice someone use frenzy, they become my target, simply because in that 5 seconds I can dish a lot of damage out to them and not every monk in the game can keep up

dry · Dec 21, 2005, 04:37 AM // 04:37

ummm...you should be a writer. I like your description. But in reality, i doubt that the build is working great. After all that's why you're in here.
I'm supposing you want to be a damage dealer who "bypasses defenses" or a "phantom" as you put it.
Sprint AND Rush are wastes on a bow ranger. I wouldn't use one of them on my bow ranger. I mean, in CA, TA, and even HoH, when will one of the teammate running faster get the team to win? Very rarely. Maybe as a runner, but that's not what you want. You will find that you won't find occasions where you need sprint. Just use pindown - instead of you being faster, it cripples your opponent and your whole team can rape him for the duration.
You will say you have crip shot. But crip shots are mostly for condition spammers. I mean, with arsenal of punishing/quick shot, or even poison shot, something that can be substituted by a regular skill like crip shot isn't all that appealing.
And why do you waste god knows how many attribute points in tactics? Watch yourself won't absorb the double damage resulting from frenzy. I mean, you get targeted, you're dead. Do you equip a shield? no. just get 11 onto Beast mastery and use TF. I mean, +20 armor w/ double damage or no consequences just as fast attack speed? TF does block your skills for a short time, but i mean, DOUBLE DAMAGE? Even warriors get put down quickly with frenzy on, and they usually have +16 from shield and 10/15 armor always. I wouldn't use tacts EVEN if i was using a melee ranger (as of now, of course, because something good might come up that I'm not aware. But tactics isn't my favored attribut as a r/w).

Now, I use a purely offensive ranger bow w/ 2 sup runes and Tiger's fury (in CA only of course). 371 health. You may mock it, but whenever you're using frenzy and I don't, that means I have 742 health.
Other people will flame me for this, but hey I'm content with the results and I'm a glass sword type of person.
And the guy who told you to use axe, is saying that tactics is MINIMALLY beneficial to bow rangers, so just go as a melee ranger.

There was my constructive criticism with some dramatic icing. And you'll probably ignore it.

But you know what? if you like the build, then use it. I don't care as long as that specific ranger isn't in my team.

And Really, hunter's shot and debilitating shot will do more for you in games than sprint/rush ever will. Unless you want to be one of those annoying runners who just pisses all over the game's pvp experience.

EDIT: oh and Healing sig? It won't do much for you with or without frenzy. If your health is low enough for you to use it, with 70-40 armor you'll die quicker than you can get interrupted(which is pretty darn quick with a skill that takes forever to use).

EDIT #2 : I'm sry if I sound too criticizing..but when i saw 11 tactics on a BOW ranger I was like huh...wtf? Good descriptive writing though.

LaserLight · Dec 21, 2005, 05:07 AM // 05:07

Heh...yeah, don't worry Dry. Like I said, the concept ended up falling through, it just turned out as unworkable. As for sounding acidic, well hell, everyone does that sometimes. And whether he meant Tactics sucked or not, anyone who tells an obvious Bow ranger to go with axe skills needs a checkup :-P

The big objection I have to Tiger's Fury is that it forces you to be absolute pure offense, even if that's not the role your team needs in this battle. Admittedly this isn't an incredibly tactical ranger and the point is most likely moot, but on most any other build (and I get told often that I'm not a Ranger if I don't play TF, which pisses me off >_<), you have to lose a good deal of your beneficial support skills to mantain Fury, since no one who's completely in their right mind pours ten, eleven levels into BM solely for one single flawed skill. And yes, I see the corelation between that and my use of tactics above. So sue me, I know nothing of Warrior-ness :-P. Anyways, while it's true that you should be shooting when Fury is active, it also locks down the stances and, in this case, Shouts that you can use while shooting to bolster your effectiveness. Though, since I've got a good strong auction bid going for a +stance Eternal Bow, I may have to see about Fury anyways.

Thanks to most everyone who commented on this thing and managed to beat it past my thick skull that it was basically trash. Great idea, unable to execute properly. Consider this particular idea Junked.