Curse

Arathorn5000 · Aug 28, 2005, 08:33 PM // 20:33

To start off, I'm looking for a competition arena build that I can consistantly win with for time spent away from HoH/GvG. I can play most classes, except for mesmer. I'm best with rangers, as that's what I have most skills unlocked. And it seems to me that rangers are great in competition arenas, as they're fairly self-reliant and useful. I try playing monks (with the pvp pre-mades), but I feel too dependant on my teammates' ability to deal damage, and don't seem to win consistantly.

Anyway, this is the build that I seem to have the most success with, but I'm looking for tips to improve it, or even give me a better build (however drastic, don't worry...I won't flip out if you post "elitist" comments either

)

R/W

Attributes:

13 expertise (10 + sup rune)
14 wilderness survival (12 + mask + minor rune)
9 marksmanship (8 + minor rune)

Skills:

Distract shot
Choking gas
Practiced Stance {E}
Frenzy
Whirling defense
Favorable Winds
Troll Unguent
Rez Sig

Gear:

Ebon PvP Short Bow of Fortitude
Druid's armor set (let's face it, the others suck)

So you can see the basic idea, keep choking gas up all the time by using practiced stance, and target a spellcaster. Simply using Warrior secondary for frenzy for more constant interruption without needing any attribute points. Whirling and troll unguent to keep me alive (it's random arenas, and even if I get a monk it's nice to not put any more pressure on him). Troll unguent is healing me for 200 HP over 10 seconds, not too shabby. Distract shot is for interrupting skills instead of spells, most importantly rez sigs. Favorable winds is for faster arrow speed, so I think that will help choking gas interrupt better? Not really sure if I need it, but I put it down when my team has as many or more rangers than theirs.

Frenzy doesn't seem bad at all, because the only real damage I'm looking at taking is from rangers and warriors (I'll be interrupting eles too much), so I just stance cancel to whirling defense (which I would have done anyway) when they start attacking me.

13 expertise is a nice breakpoint for all those 5 and 15 energy skills, and it's linked to whirling and practiced stance. Wilderness survival as high as possible for a long choking gas. Marksmanship at the minimum for using the bow.

For my bow, I don't see how any of the upgrades would really help my build, so I just went with earth damage and 30 extra HP

I really like when there's an ele on the opposing team, I can really shut them down with the CG. Mesmers and Necros are also really fun to shut down. I find that monks are harder....their heal skills fire off so quickly that if choking gas isn't perfectly in sync to screw them up, it usually misses. The new distract shot is nice though, I can actually pick off orisons now.

I've really tried to fix builds to use incendiary to deal some actual damage, but I just come up with too much downtime even with serpents, without using QZ (which I'm not about to bring and piss off my teammates). I've tried going the damage route, using conjure lines or mark of rodgort + kindle, but it just doesn't seem to work consistantly and I usually have energy problems. So, any tips for me?

(after looking at my attribute setup, it looks like I didn't optimize it....Can someone confirm that? I'm just used to always going for the 13 expertise breakpoint with a sup rune.)

pagansaint · Aug 28, 2005, 08:42 PM // 20:42

You can drop expertise to 12 for the exact same benefit of 13 expertise, the break points are 10/12/14 from everything I've read on how the game rounds. 4% (odd numbered expertise) rounds down while 8% (even numbered) rounds up.

Eet GnomeSmasher · Aug 28, 2005, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Hmmm having both Practiced Stance and Frenzy is a bit of a waste because both are stances and both stances can be spammed... You can't stack stances. You have to choose either to be hitting faster or to have your preparations ready faster.

And I'm not sure you need Distracting Shot if you're going to have Choking Gas up all the time. That's also a little bit redundant there. Hope that helps.

Arathorn5000 · Aug 28, 2005, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by pagansaint

You can drop expertise to 12 for the exact same benefit of 13 expertise, the break points are 10/12/14 from everything I've read on how the game rounds. 4% (odd numbered expertise) rounds down while 8% (even numbered) rounds up.

That's actually not how it works...please check the awesome expertise table under the guildwarsguru guides

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eet GnomeSmasher

Hmmm having both Practiced Stance and Frenzy is a bit of a waste because both are stances and both stances can be spammed... You can't stack stances. You have to choose either to be hitting faster or to have your preparations ready faster.

The trick is, practiced stance only needs to be active when you first activate your preparation. So I go: practiced stance -> choking gas -> frenzy -> practiced stance -> choking gas -> frenzy...etc.

While it can be called inefficient, you're gonna be recasting practiced stance almost every cycle anyway, and both stances are only 2 energy, so it's not completely a problem. That is something to think about for me though, maybe I can make better use of the frenzy skill slot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eet GnomeSmasher

And I'm not sure you need Distracting Shot if you're going to have Choking Gas up all the time. That's also a little bit redundant there. Hope that helps.

Not redundant, choking gas only interrupts spells. I'd say one of the biggest benefits for playing a ranger in arenas is use of distracting shot to interrupt rez sigs, which can give huge swings to the game when your side is rezzing and theirs isn't.

Arathorn5000 · Aug 28, 2005, 11:58 PM // 23:58

nothing else? Hrm

Aniewiel · Aug 28, 2005, 11:59 PM // 23:59

Might also read through the links in this post:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=52996

ElderAtronach · Aug 29, 2005, 12:09 AM // 00:09

It would really really help if people would specify whether they're using bow or melee in a R/W build...lol. I was sure this was another R/W melee build just from the amount of those that's floating around these days.

Arathorn5000 · Aug 29, 2005, 12:14 AM // 00:14

Yes, I was afraid of that. I tried to change the topic (as you can see), but it doesn't change the real topic title....guess it's not much of a R/W anyway, maybe a different second profession could work. Might have to drop marksmanship and just deal awful damage with my bow to make room for attribute points though. Though I do like choking gas + frenzy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aniewiel

Might also read through the links in this post:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=52996

Hmm, doesn't really help at all. What do any of those have in common with my build other than the profession choices?

Eonwe · Aug 29, 2005, 01:34 AM // 01:34

Looks good

. Personally I like Vampiric bows though.

Arathorn5000 · Aug 29, 2005, 01:42 AM // 01:42

Yeah, but I'm not sure if I have a bow to switch in while not fighting...and would it put too much extra strain on my monks with the degen?

edit: just rememberd I have a gold vampiric storm bow I've been trying to sell....req. 8 marksmanship, maybe it is the answer to my problems

Eonwe · Aug 29, 2005, 01:44 AM // 01:44

No, not at all. Just switch to a different bow while you're not attacking. It's an extra 5 dps for free

.

Bast · Aug 29, 2005, 02:52 AM // 02:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arathorn5000

edit: just rememberd I have a gold vampiric storm bow I've been trying to sell....req. 8 marksmanship, maybe it is the answer to my problems

Sell it to some silly dress-up Barbie noob and then make a PVP character. Storm Bows are inferior.

Arathorn5000 · Aug 29, 2005, 03:17 AM // 03:17

indeed, I really prefer the short bow for choking gas

Shelann · Aug 29, 2005, 01:05 PM // 13:05

Why don't you use incendiary arrows (instead of practiced stance) AND choking gas? When IA finishes, you put choking gas on. Their durations and recharge times complement nicely. You will only have a few seconds of non-interrupting downtime.