Curse

Evilsod · Jan 24, 2007, 01:33 AM // 01:33

The problem with running R/Rt is that you don't get any effect from Expertise on the weapon skills. Now either you use another elite instead of Barrage to maintain your own energy, losing the reason you were running /Rt in the first place, or you run out of energy fairly quickly. Specing in even more high cost Rt skills would hinder you more than help, so the 12 points in Channeling would seem a bit wasted.

If you intend to get a spike to work it will always need manual intervention. I've been running FW/Winno/RtW/Maruaders/Punishing on Jin, Marge and myself through almost all of Nightfall. Without intervention the spike would be hopeless. With it, the first target in a mob usually drops dead. Forcing your heros to precast RtW, then set them ready with Marauders as next skill, and activate Punishing once they've started (since you can't cancel bow attacks) and they followup perfectly.

I was intending to try it out this morning but sadly they removed the test weekend out... leaving me to find another use for my newly acquired Razah. Simply using a Rit hero with a specialised build and controlling it all yourself (a bit of hastle i know, but hopefully it would be worth the effort) could end fights in a matter of seconds.
The enemy mob won't flinch until the arrow hits, unlike a projectile spell. If you get 3 Lvl16 Splinter Weapons onto 3 Barrage Rangers prior to initiating battle your first wave would hit with an extremely hard kick. If all 3 of you hit with all 5 arrows against a mob of 5 then you hit for combined amount of 53x4x3 = 636 damage, before taking the arrows themselves into account. If the maths is right of course... but dealing a bonus 636 damage to those already hit by Barrage and maybe 1/5th of that to things unaffected by it is a very good way to win a fight before its even begun.

I hope Anet decide to implement this. There are a variety of reasons against Nightmare Weapons modification, as it would create an unstoppable life stealing spike in PvP, but in PvP, Splinter Weapon means nothing and would only be used for gimick builds in PvE.

centur · Jan 24, 2007, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Umm IMO Ritualists is most synergy class for rangers.
Im using R/Rit since my R was born =).With splinter weapon there is good option to do inital damage. But for constant high damage I prefer Brutal weapon ( and if the latest patches will be put back - it will have prolonger duration) - brutal weapon also synergy good with needling shot ( i know a lot of ppl think Needling shot is gimp - but it works perfect in some kind of situations) - BW adds armor ignoring damage to needling shot. So with 16 marks, 9 communing and vampiric bow - needling hits for 21+11+5 = 37 armor ignoring damage. If you take quick shot as elite - u can spam that 2 shots on low hp targets indefinately. I completed Glint bonus and made Shiro masters with that trick. On the Glint it was impressive =)

roselan · Jan 25, 2007, 10:15 AM // 10:15

why Brutal Weapon when Conjure flame is more cost efficient (last 60 sec) for the same damage bonus, and isn't conditional? (i'm don't about armors ignoring difference between them)

ZenRgy · Jan 25, 2007, 10:36 AM // 10:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by roselan

why Brutal Weapon when Conjure flame is more cost efficient (last 60 sec) for the same damage bonus, and isn't conditional? (i'm don't about armors ignoring difference between them)

That requires you to run a fiery bowstring which means you lose 5 damage per target, or a huge source of energy if you wish to run a zealous, plus a lot of mobs have armour vs. fire.

That said, this damage is insane.

If you go again or still need people I am in.

Amy Awien · Jan 25, 2007, 01:31 PM // 13:31

Another reason could be that enchantments can be removed, weapon spells not.

ubermancer · Jan 26, 2007, 03:58 AM // 03:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by roselan

why Brutal Weapon when Conjure flame is more cost efficient (last 60 sec) for the same damage bonus, and isn't conditional? (i'm don't about armors ignoring difference between them)

Great Ascalonian Squire, it seems you need to review the skill description of Brutal Weapon.

centur · Jan 26, 2007, 11:57 AM // 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by roselan

why Brutal Weapon when Conjure flame is more cost efficient (last 60 sec) for the same damage bonus, and isn't conditional? (i'm don't about armors ignoring difference between them)

your question was replied. I will add one small thing to this all - also if you have Rit as secondary - you can take a Vital weapon from resto line (have 9 in communing and 2 in resto) - for 30 secs its add ~130hp . Kinda usefull to cast at tank or on urself if you under attack - help to survive a little more...
I reads a lot about skills that can synergy good from secondary profession and i found that Rits have much more viable chooses, including weapon spells and spirits, heals etc. As example - i prefer Urn healing (Tranq smthing) over Trolls cause its faster to cast, add your hp untill drops and heals overal more that trolls ... but its up to you what you prefer to use from your secondary profession

glountz · Jan 26, 2007, 04:11 PM // 16:11

I can understand choosing Brutal weapon over Conjure flame however, there's no interest choosing one or the other agains an Order Necro (which fuels B/P teams).
I largely prefer Conjure flame/lightning/frost over Brutal weapon. Many heals or prot enchants will completely mess up brutal weapon efficiency, whereas Conjure flame will deal damage in a lot more constant way. Add to that that BW is a lot more energy intensive than Conj. Flame.
The armor Vs Flame argument is also somewhat inconsistent. Get a set of different bows, and use the proper Conjure to match the elemental weakness of your opponents (for instance, Lightning against grawls, Frost against burning titans, Flame agains Ice Golems).
However, if tou can fit an order necro in your team PVE build, that's really the better choice, as it will focus attributes points in Marksmanship and benefit to any physical attacker in your team.

HalPlantagenet · Jan 26, 2007, 06:44 PM // 18:44

Interesting post, glountz. I haven't played what you might call the "elemental" strategy in some time even though my quiver includes a grundle of properly equipped collector bows simply because my sense is that I do better with another mod, usually vampiric, in terms of sustained damage. Obviously, it's compatible with use of the ritualist weapon spells.

These days, I'd only bring along a bow with an elemental bow string in PVE only if I knew I were facing antagonists particularly suseptible to that kind of damage. That seems to be less and less the case in Nightfall.

Your post makes me wonder if I've missed something. (Thanks Centur for the precis of useful ritualist skills in your previous posts.)

HalPlantagenet · Jan 26, 2007, 07:00 PM // 19:00

And thanks Centur for your precis on synergistic Ritualist skills in your previous post.

Horseman Of War · Jan 26, 2007, 07:06 PM // 19:06

well im seeing barrage talk. Let me just mention something I see all the time in tombs...

as an Orders necro, Id just like to remind you that elemental bowstrings will not work with Orders. If all you have is an elemental bowstring, youd be better off bringing candy bow.

Thats all.

Ariena Najea · Feb 04, 2007, 05:04 AM // 05:04

I'm utterly speechless...

I'm up for Urgoz on my Monk O_o
Message me in-game @ Ariena Najea

hiei52 · Feb 10, 2007, 02:37 PM // 14:37

Hm... I'm up for something like this too. Especially with the weekend even going on... IGN: Ayu Inspire

meat shield · Feb 10, 2007, 03:20 PM // 15:20

have you seen:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...4&postcount=42

4 baragers+ ritu=killer?(as long u wont get struck whit one enamie left)

Evilsod · Feb 10, 2007, 03:33 PM // 15:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by meat shield

have you seen:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...4&postcount=42

4 baragers+ ritu=killer?(as long u wont get struck whit one enamie left)

If it worked properly. There wouldn't be any left. Splinter Weapon wouldn't make a difference since it hits em all for 5 and the 5 it activates off for 4 times. Mark of Pain would only hit the the other targets... for maybe 300 extra with either a Curses nec or extra barragers hitting MoP. All of which is completely nullified by the huge EoE bomb afterwards from 17 dead stygians.

FrazzAZA · Feb 13, 2007, 08:53 PM // 20:53

so is this buld still working? and is it good for tombs?
just capped barrage .... i am noob ranger... gonna try this asap!

Evilsod · Feb 14, 2007, 12:32 AM // 00:32

Me and a few guildies/friend of guildy took this to Stygian Veil earlier. Alot more reliable than with heros.

We used 3 Rangers, 1 Rit. I ran R/N with Mark of Pain, and a few WS spirits. Had a BM Spirit Ranger and a WS/FW Spirit Ranger. Rit brought several Communing and Channeling spirits w/ Splinter Weapon.

Using the Spirits as a blockade, as this was purely a 4man test to get the basics worked out, we managed to fight out way to the second Underlord. Where DP and the need to meet up with a trader ended the run. The obvious problems were that vs Single foes or a limited number of Fiends... things became tricky. Everything could be killed solo if Pin Down was kept up or hit n run tactics worked.

All in all it worked out quite well. We're hoping to advance towards a full 8man trip with a *proper* tank (Monk most likely), along with a proper Curses necro who could bring Mark of Pain, Weakness, Various other skills and Vocal Minority (For Shields Up) and 2 monk healers/bonders.

Also i brought Razah along with me for an FoW trip earlier. Proved to be extremely powerful, even with 3 heros in the whole trip we only had 1 death (at the start when Razah was spiked down instantly...) even with many overlures and the only healer been a hero. Spamming Splinter Weapon onto various people, allowing the warrior to take agro and spiking them down cleared alot of mobs extremely fast. Even without Meteor Shower (My Sousuke was Dual Att. Earth).

lennymon · Feb 14, 2007, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by centur

your question was replied. I will add one small thing to this all - also if you have Rit as secondary - you can take a Vital weapon from resto line (have 9 in communing and 2 in resto) - for 30 secs its add ~130hp . Kinda usefull to cast at tank or on urself if you under attack - help to survive a little more...
I reads a lot about skills that can synergy good from secondary profession and i found that Rits have much more viable chooses, including weapon spells and spirits, heals etc. As example - i prefer Urn healing (Tranq smthing) over Trolls cause its faster to cast, add your hp untill drops and heals overal more that trolls ... but its up to you what you prefer to use from your secondary profession

Actually [skill]Vital Weapon[/skill] is communing....so it does work nicely with a communing build.

BoondockSaint · Feb 24, 2007, 06:30 AM // 06:30

So how well did this work in the Deep, has it been tested? I would love to go some time even just for testing.

In game St Raphael

Evilsod · Feb 24, 2007, 09:51 AM // 09:51

We sorta did it in Urgoz yesterday, 3 rangers, 1 with Barrage and Razah had Splinter (with a full team of course). Against the Dredge its still a pita... shields up is a major bummer and they don't group up all that well.

Against the Thorn Wolves and Greater Blood Drinkers, moment they group up they get torn to shreads. Then again Blood Drinkers were never actually a threat to begin with vs a Barrage team. Aslong as you have a proper frontline bodyblock with spirits + Dust Trap, Thorn Wolves go down extremely fast.

The Wardens... if you could get them to group up Splinter would annihilate them. We had a tank, bodyblocked a mob on the corridor, a single Barrage seemed to cut there health in half... sadly that was the end of the trip... the other 2 mobs had weird agro and chased us too far back.... and we got a huge warden spawn on top of us