Curse

sage971 · Feb 21, 2007, 02:48 AM // 02:48

I did a B/P tombs run earlier, and I didn't know whta I was doing, so could someone tell me what skills I need and what strategy I could use?

Citan Uzuki · Feb 21, 2007, 06:47 AM // 06:47

Well the basic strategy for a B/P tombs run is this:

The team setup is usually 5 B/P's(Barrage/Pet Rangers), 1 MM, 1 Orders Necro, and a Monk.

Rangers use pets to tank enemies and provide corpses for the MM. While the pets and minions form a wall to prevent enemies from getting to the Rangers, the Rangers use Barrage to damage the mobs(With the help of Orders to increase damage).

The skills that all the Rangers must have are: Barrage, Charm Animal, Comfort Animal, and a Hard Rez.

After that, you'll need 2 Rangers to Carry Favorable Winds and Winnowing, for extra damage.

For the rest of the skills, I would suggest:

Savage Shot - This skill is GODSEND once you get up to the Wurms in the Tombs. Their Wurm Seige is probably one of the most annoying things to face in there.

Distracting Shot - Another interrupting skill, it has a longer recharge than Savage, but it also desables the skill you interrupt for a hefty amount of time. I always have both on my skillbar for B/P Tombs runs.

Splinter Weapon - A great skill when combined with Barrage. It deals MASSIVE Area damage with high Channeling and has a cool effect and sound.

Throw Dirt - This skill works wonders for any Grasping Darkness's that break through your team's wall and head for either you or your spellcasters.

Vigorous Spirit - This provides a nice Self Heal if you're hitting multiple enemies with Barrage(Which you should be).

Troll Unguent - It's worth it to invest some points in Wilderness Survival for this skill. If Vig. Sprit isn't cutting it for you, this is always a nice back-up.

And remember, DO NOT bring defensive stances if you're a ranger. All the enemies in the Tomb have a monster skill that renders your stances useless.

The MM just needs to focus on maintaining an army and keeping a solid wall to prevent any monsters from rushing to your backlines. It's for this reason that Bone Fiends are seless for B/P groups. Keep an Eye on your Party Window. The moment you see a pet drop, start rasing minions. After you've exploited all the pet corpses, let the Rangers know so that they can revive their pets. I don't have much to say about MM's because I don't use one.

I have no idea how to use Orders, other than spam the order's skills while in combat to help the Ranger kill faster.

And I doubt that I have to explain anything about Monking.

XvArchonvX · Feb 21, 2007, 07:06 AM // 07:06

There are a lot of threads asking for builds in Tombs. The standard build you will find most people running is:

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill]Spirit of choice or some defensive skill[skill]troll unguent[/skill][skill]comfort animal[/skill][skill]charm animal[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]

However, [skill]Concussion Shot[/skill] is a MUCH better choice than Savage Shot imo. If you use a bp in Sorrow's Furnace, then use Concussion against monks using Ressurect (since distracting shot won't disable it) or Life Attunement. If you go in Tombs, then use it against Terrorwebs using Meteor Shower or Fireball.

As a side note, Concussion Shot also works against seige worms if you are unable to use Distracting Shot.

[skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill] can be fun, but in the end, the ability to interupt effectively will make a group move along faster than a damage boost will. Good interuptions will give your MM more corpses (or at least keep him from losing minions) and keep enemies from keeping themselves alive.

Citan Uzuki · Feb 21, 2007, 07:17 AM // 07:17

I dislike Concussion for it's high energy cost. Even with decent expertise, it's not something that you can use whenever you want without worries. I suppose if every Ranger on your team had it and you had good coordination, it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

But imagine every ranger using Splinter Weapon+Barrage *Drools*. I think that they can be able to take a group down MUCH faster and put less strain on the monk and MM. But this would mean every Ranger having to take Flesh of my Flesh as a rez instead of Rebirth......

The sexiness wins IMO

Sophitia Leafblade · Feb 21, 2007, 11:28 AM // 11:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

There are a lot of threads asking for builds in Tombs. The standard build you will find most people running is:

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill]Spirit of choice or some defensive skill[skill]troll unguent[/skill][skill]comfort animal[/skill][skill]charm animal[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]

However, [skill]Concussion Shot[/skill] is a MUCH better choice than Savage Shot imo. If you use a bp in Sorrow's Furnace, then use Concussion against monks using Ressurect (since distracting shot won't disable it) or Life Attunement. If you go in Tombs, then use it against Terrorwebs using Meteor Shower or Fireball.

As a side note, Concussion Shot also works against seige worms if you are unable to use Distracting Shot.

[skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill] can be fun, but in the end, the ability to interupt effectively will make a group move along faster than a damage boost will. Good interuptions will give your MM more corpses (or at least keep him from losing minions) and keep enemies from keeping themselves alive.

[skill]Warmonger's Weapon[/skill] works nicely as a AoE interrupt and if another ranger has [skill]Wailing Weapon[/skill] then you can interupt practically anything in the AoE effect which works wonders

XvArchonvX · Feb 21, 2007, 03:35 PM // 15:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citan Uzuki

I dislike Concussion for it's high energy cost. Even with decent expertise, it's not something that you can use whenever you want without worries. I suppose if every Ranger on your team had it and you had good coordination, it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Considering that Concussion is really only used once per mob on a single critical enemy target, there really shouldn't any energy problems since barrage is almost paid for by regen at 9 expertise. If you try throwing out two Concussions or are simply constantly rezzing your pet, you might have to skip a barrage or two, but a zealous bow can also be switched to which can counter any energy problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citan Uzuki

But imagine every ranger using Splinter Weapon+Barrage *Drools*. I think that they can be able to take a group down MUCH faster and put less strain on the monk and MM. But this would mean every Ranger having to take Flesh of my Flesh as a rez instead of Rebirth......

The sexiness wins IMO

The problem with this is that single enemies that are spread out won't mean anything to a ranger with Splinter Weapon and in general, the individual spread out enemies are what really slow down bp groups. As long as you have enough shutdown power to keep these enemies from staying alive, there's nothing wrong with having Splinter Shot, but if you overdo it, the team could be burdened down a bit.

Perhaps the best way to deal with this situation would be to find some sort of ritualist healer build that could bring the weapon spells for the rangers.

Citan Uzuki · Feb 21, 2007, 10:24 PM // 22:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

Considering that Concussion is really only used once per mob on a single critical enemy target, there really shouldn't any energy problems since barrage is almost paid for by regen at 9 expertise. If you try throwing out two Concussions or are simply constantly rezzing your pet, you might have to skip a barrage or two, but a zealous bow can also be switched to which can counter any energy problems.

Usually, Terrorwebs are in groups of 3. That means that at least 3 Rangers have to bring Concussion. But I guess it would work if 3 were concussion, and the other 2 were Splinter Weapon. But you wouldn't need Concussion Shot since their castings are slow enough to be interrupted by Savage/Distracting.

Quote:

The problem with this is that single enemies that are spread out won't mean anything to a ranger with Splinter Weapon and in general, the individual spread out enemies are what really slow down bp groups. As long as you have enough shutdown power to keep these enemies from staying alive, there's nothing wrong with having Splinter Shot, but if you overdo it, the team could be burdened down a bit.

But usually the dangerous enemies that stray from the big group are Grasping Darknesses, and Concussion won't do much against them. But having Concussion and 2 interrupts is unnecessary, so you can always swap out Distractin/Savage and put in both Splinter and Concussion.

Quote:

Perhaps the best way to deal with this situation would be to find some sort of ritualist healer build that could bring the weapon spells for the rangers.

Not really. Because then he'd have to be doing two jobs, and his healing might not be good enough to keep the team alive.

@Sophitia-

Warmonger's weapon is too energy extensive.

Wailing Weapon works really nicely though.

Amy Awien · Feb 21, 2007, 11:55 PM // 23:55

With points in channeling you might consider bringing nightmare weapon for those solo targets.

HalPlantagenet · Feb 22, 2007, 01:41 AM // 01:41

Lately I've been doing Tomb runs with heroes and henchies, with a necessarily modified B/P team. Here's a summary:

R/Rt with barrage and Splinter weapon (no pet equipped)
Hero ranger Jin - standard B/P configuration
Hero ranger Margrid - standard B/P configuration
Hero Olias - MM
Two healer henchies
Ranger henchman
elementalist henchman

All in all it works quite well. The Terrorwebs are the only real challenge as I take only two interupts, personally, Savage and Distracting, which means I can only interupt 2 of the 3 Meteor Showers, but more often than not Margrid or Jin takes care of the third. The Siege Worms are trivial to interupt; the only issue is finding an approach which doesn't entail taking on a patrol simultaneously.

Oh yes, I take Nightmare Weapon as well but don't find myself using it often.

XvArchonvX · Feb 22, 2007, 03:26 AM // 03:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citan Uzuki

Usually, Terrorwebs are in groups of 3. That means that at least 3 Rangers have to bring Concussion. But I guess it would work if 3 were concussion, and the other 2 were Splinter Weapon. But you wouldn't need Concussion Shot since their castings are slow enough to be interrupted by Savage/Distracting.

You don't have to keep every single terroweb constantly dazed, lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citan Uzuki

But usually the dangerous enemies that stray from the big group are Grasping Darknesses, and Concussion won't do much against them. But having Concussion and 2 interrupts is unnecessary, so you can always swap out Distractin/Savage and put in both Splinter and Concussion.

Since when were there Grasping Darknesses in Tombs? o.O

Terrorwebs are good to shutdown since their AoE really slows down a MM. Why just interupt one spell when you can cause dazed and shutodown an enemy instead. I'm really confused at what drawbacks you see to bringing Concussion shot.

[QUOTE=Citan Uzuki
Not really. Because then he'd have to be doing two jobs, and his healing might not be good enough to keep the team alive.[/QUOTE]
yea, I don't think it's something to do in a PuG, but I wouldn't be surprised if a good guild team could pull it off. Perhaps a N/Rt orders would be a possibility however.

roblethal · Feb 22, 2007, 04:19 AM // 04:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by HalPlantagenet

Lately I've been doing Tomb runs with heroes and henchies, with a necessarily modified B/P team. Here's a summary:

Hero Olias - MM

I'm not sure how you run your MM, but as a Ranger, I run in PvE with both Hero Rangers most of the time, and an MM. When I run a 3-man barrage set-up, I set Master of Whispers up with the following skill bar, and it has great synergy with the rest of the team:

Death: 16 (12+3+1)
Blood: 11 (10+1)
Soul Reaping: 5 (4+1)
Inspiration: 7

Order of the Vampire
Animate Shambling Horror
Animate Bone Fiend
Blood of the Master
Dark Bond
Power Drain
Leech Signet
Resurrection Signet

This set-up gives my team 2 more interrupts, increased damage with OoV, increased healing with OoV, and minions to boot. I really don't think much is gained by bringing Animate Flesh Golem (in most situations anyhow).

HalPlantagenet · Feb 22, 2007, 02:55 PM // 14:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by roblethal

I'm not sure how you run your MM, but as a Ranger, I run ...This set-up gives my team 2 more interrupts, increased damage with OoV, increased healing with OoV, and minions to boot. I really don't think much is gained by bringing Animate Flesh Golem (in most situations anyhow).

I've been taking Animate Flesh Golem, but I expect you're right, more is to be gained with OoV, which I'll try the next time I do the run. Many thanks.

BTW, the grasps don't pose much of a problem once the minions are built. An entire, successful run from Tombs to Tombs takes me between an hour and an hour and a half currently.