Curse

squido · Aug 10, 2005, 12:32 PM // 12:32

hey, i recently got guildwars and was checking out this site.

Everyone seems to talk abt builds with elite skills, seems to me they play lotsa PvP, but how abt at mid game or early/mid game stage in PvE, wat ranger builds work?

i'm a r/ele..

Enigmatics · Aug 10, 2005, 12:36 PM // 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bast

If you like dancing in presearing, then yes, Rangers are good.

Tell me your HoH winning build, and I shall tell you mine. By the way, he's a Ranger.

Epinephrine · Aug 10, 2005, 03:02 PM // 15:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by squido

hey, i recently got guildwars and was checking out this site.

Everyone seems to talk abt builds with elite skills, seems to me they play lotsa PvP, but how abt at mid game or early/mid game stage in PvE, wat ranger builds work?

i'm a r/ele..

Sadly, ranger builds aren't very strong mid-game.

A ranger at low levels will need to rely on doing damage via a preparation and his bow, and the attack skills used sparingly. You don't even get access to trap skill until much later. Pretty much all rangers at low levels end up using Ignite Arrows and Dual Shot as they are effective enough - the problem is that all the attack skills cost absurd energy until you can get your Expertise to 9 or more, and preferably to 13-14. Add that to the fact that you NEED to have marksmanship in order to do damage with a bow and you find that rangers are pretty much in trouble as they level up, since they don't have the points for a nice split of abilities.

My advice? Get a nice, cheap max damage bow (flatbow is nice for range, shortbow for up close) with a low requirement (I've seemn one as low as 8 marksmanship I believe), don't bother with mods and stuff for now, you don't need a collector's bow (though it wouldn't hurt...). Use the Marksmanship mask with a Marksmanship minor rune socketed somewhere, that'll make it easy to hit the 8 or 9 requirement for your bow at a nice low level. Use Favourable winds or Read the Wind to boost your damage, since you already have points in Marksmanship. Use Wilderness Survival for the Troll Unguent and probably Ignite Arrows, get it up to a decent level so you deal damage and heal fast enough. Later on you'll start to have more options for attacks, and you'll have the points to get to an 8 or 9 expertise, which is the minimum level you want if you are using bow attacks - at that point you can start using your bow attacks more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by knives

Its not that the rangers can function without using their secondary, its that rangers CAN only be efficient if they put all their points into expertise, marksmanship, wilderness survival, or beast mastery. Two attributes that you must have are expertise and marksmanship. Then others feel like the WS attribute is too hard to pass up, and since people don't want to spread their points too thin, they hardly have enough points to use their secondary to its full potential.

I think that's correct for the typical bow ranger - I don't think all rangers need to invest in Marksmanship though - in fact, you can be a very effective ranger using your bow for the non-damage based attacks and such. Choking gas, Distracting Shot, Poison Arrow, Apply Poison, Oath Shot, Debilitating Shot, Pin Down, Marksman's Wager and so on are all usable to good effect at low damage, and in fact a trapper style build using Oath Shot may be better off investing the points elsewhere since they can get away with only haveing expertise and WS; throw traps down cheaply and disrupt catsers in the meanwhile with Choking Gas; there is almost no need for damage off your bow, and the points might be better off being spent in the skill lines you really use - or in a secondary line that you could use to great effect - area damage dealing or something that benefits from the conditions that are inflicted by your traps.

I do agree that if you wish to be a damage dealer with your bow you are pretty much forced to have both Expertise and Marksmanship at high levels, which really forces you to have only one more line as support.