Curse

Meta Physical · Sep 16, 2006, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Ah, thanks for answering my question - I'll know what not to run for the whole game

Also, I wished to say I'd like to referrence this guide (with a link, nothing else) to a little nooblie on the gamefaqs.com boards who are having Ranger problems, as it SURE helped me out.

You'll just be getting a larger crowd, is all :P

-Meta

cush29 · Sep 17, 2006, 12:33 AM // 00:33

Really liked your article.....was very informative since i am a fairly new player
what i didn't understand was your attributes
for instance you had
example
expertise 11+1+1
i know the 11 is what you put on your char
what i don't understand is the +1+1
also what is the difference between
Druids 70 armor (infused) and (accended)
15k armor
they both look the same to me

Thanks

SnipiousMax · Sep 17, 2006, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by cush29

...what i don't understand is the +1+1

+1 point for a mask that gives a bonus to the attribute
+1 point for a Rune that gives a bonus to the attribute

Quote:

also what is the difference between
Druids 70 armor (infused) and (accended)
15k armor
they both look the same to me

Infusion doesn't add any armor... you just need infusion for the later levels of Prophecies.

There is also no difference between 1.5k armor and 15k armor besides looks.

Sha Noran · Sep 17, 2006, 02:30 AM // 02:30

Meta: Ah, good ol' gamefaqs. A link is fine, but no excessive copy-pasting without citing your sources. ;-)

cush29: Glad you liked it, and I'm glad it helped. It looks like Snipious has summed up answers to your questions rather nicely. Thanks Snipe. ;-)

Meta Physical · Sep 17, 2006, 01:19 PM // 13:19

No Copy+Paste at all, here, unless you count the link.

In fact, here is the direct link: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gen...topic=30578115

And here is a damn-near thesis thingy I wrote for someone deciding between a Ranger and an Ele: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gen...0550699&page=1

Err... enjoy?

-Meta

Sha Noran · Nov 20, 2006, 04:06 PM // 16:06

Well it's been a while since I've checked up on this, but I finally got around to updating the good ol' guide with Nightfall information and skills. Hopefully this guide continues to help people as it has been. :-D

Sir Mad · Nov 20, 2006, 04:53 PM // 16:53

^ As we're talking about NF skills/equip/etc, there is one skill pretty much unoticed by rangers (except when I spam about it in this forum - erm...): Flail. This is a strength skill, with means rangers won't be able to boost it, but it doesn't matter for 2 builds I'm going to post.

Description (at level 0): For 5 seconds, you attack 33% faster but move 33% slower. it costs 4 strikes of adrenaline to cast.

With those 2 builds you can keep it up all the time:

16 markmanship
13 expertise

Read the Wind
Quickshot
Needling Shot
Savage Shot
Favorable Winds (to maximise the damage of needling shot)
Whirling Defense (or even LR if you wanna keep the IAS for a short time)
Flail
Rez

A vampiric shortbow is a weapon of choice for this build: a vamp string + FW + RtW = 41 damage with needling hot. Add an order necro (Awaken the Blood + Order of the Vampire), and it's getting insane (I'm sure Abaddon remembers my last raid

).

Note: heroes aparently can't handle highly spamable skills like needling shot / quickshot, so I'd keep this build for human players.

The other Flail build is obvious:

Barrage
Savage Shot
Spirit / Distracting Shot
Flail
Optional (throw dirt, dust trap, stance, etc)
Whirling Defense
Troll (or optional)
Rez

Or for B/P (however I don't feel comfortable without a hard rez in the tombs of FoW):

Barrage
Savage Shot
Flail
Rez
Whirling Defense
Troll or Spirit
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal

Sha Noran · Nov 20, 2006, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Ha, yea that's a really good catch Mad. I've been an advocate of the skill on Warriors and never even considered it for Rangers. I would say you should definately have another Stance (a speed boost ideally) as a cancel for Flail should the situation you're in go south. Dodge would probably be better than Sprint, but you may have just said Sprint as an indication of SOME speed boost rather than just the actual skill Sprint. Self-snare ftl. :-)

Sir Mad · Nov 20, 2006, 05:24 PM // 17:24

^ Hmm yeah indeed, however with a minimum of experience it's not that a big deal: the skill lasts only 5 secs, so if you see things are going bad and you're team may be wipped out, just don't recast it. Actually whenever I used this build, there were other rangers in the team (including my heroes, with another etup) so I didn't have to bring FW, and I went with LR I believe.

EDIT - I didn't talk about Sprint, did I? If I did, that was a lapsus for erm.. something else and means it's time for me to take a break

Jeff Highwind · Nov 20, 2006, 05:27 PM // 17:27

Quote:

Burning Arrow Build:
-Savage Shot
-Penetrating Attack
-Burning Arrow
-Kindle Arrows
-Troll Unguent
-Whirling Defense
-Storm Chaser
-Ranger Variable

Notes on Burning Arrow Build: Burning Arrow (Nightfall) is a really, really powerful skill. It's easily more damaging than any other bow attack I can think of, dealing +31 damage and causing your target to burn for 5 seconds at 16 Marksmanship. With a recharge of 5 seconds, that's nearly indefinate Burning. I originally used Apply Poison in this build, but really the additional damage from Kindle is a bit better, as you don't really have the opportunity to spread Apply around.

Attribute Points:

Marksmanship: 12+1+3
Wilderness: 10+1
Expertise: 8+1

I must interject with a few variations I run. I use Burning arrow for the degen more than the damage, but if you plan to have the highest damage I am suprised you havent included Screaming Shot. Screaming, next to Burning, has the highest possible damage of an arrow without being an elite, so you can get alot more bang for your buck with Kindle and Burning+Screaming+Savage.

I must say though Energy Management and recharge are main problems with my variation. To compensate I put more into Expertise than WS, and I also weild a 5e Bow and Druids armor to supply energy; Also I added Serpent's Quickness, which gives you 22 seconds of faster recharge. The monk hate I provide from my damage and consistent degen is great.

XvArchonvX · Nov 20, 2006, 06:42 PM // 18:42

Hey Sha, I like the update. I agree with almost all of it, but would like to make note of two things. The first is that you mention Splinter Weapon giving more than double damage with barrage in your R/Rt build, but as even you said in another thread, Splinter Weapon only triggers on one arrow, so the damage bonus is actually less than double since Splinter does less damage than barrage usually and does not affect the targetted enemy. Also, you might want to suggest using Conjure Flame with Glyph of Lesser Energy and Mark of Rogdort on your conjure build. Since these skill have been buffed a bit since your last update, they can make a pretty good combo. With these points aside, I like your modifications.

Sha Noran · Nov 20, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Jeff: Screaming Shot is cool, but because of it's range requirements it can force you into some undesirable positions. Penetrating is solid damge without forcing you into potentially dangerous positions for enemy AoE. That said, I can see where you're build is coming from, and to help with the Energy problems you're having I would recommend only reapplying the Screaming Shot Bleeding when it's getting close to low.

XvArchonvX: Now hold on, I never said anything with Splinter Shot, I was talking about Splinter Weapon. Splinter Weapon on top of Barrage does effectively double your damage if you're careful with attribute expenditures (and are using the combination against an appropriate number of foes).

Glyph and MoR did recieve an impressive buff and I should indicate so in my comments on the Conjure build. You probably don't really NEED the Glyph, but it does work well enough to mention at least.

XvArchonvX · Nov 20, 2006, 09:47 PM // 21:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

XvArchonvX: Now hold on, I never said anything with Splinter Shot, I was talking about Splinter Weapon.

Typo on my part, but I fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

Splinter Weapon on top of Barrage does effectively double your damage if you're careful with attribute expenditures (and are using the combination against an appropriate number of foes).

hmm, I'm still not quite sold on the whole idea of using weapon spells as a buff for Barrage. From my experience Barrage does more than 35 damage per hit (although that is admittedly variable depending on target's defense, chance of critical hit, etc.), but since splinter weapon takes 1 second to cast in order to prepare for a barrage shot, is not affected by expertise, and does not do damage to the targeted enemy, but only to those adjacent to him. I wouldn't say that it's a completely bad idea, but I don't think I see enough advantage to this to choose it over a conjure build (especially since Glyph of lesser E and Mark can result in AoE burning in addition to the conjure bonus).

Sha Noran · Nov 20, 2006, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Really the primary bonus using a Weapon Spell with Barrage gives you is access to other support skills from the Ritualist line, i.e. hard rez, etc. Yes, you can deal more damage as R/E, but both R/Mo and R/Rt give you access to a good deal of support skills that are simply not there for an /Ele.

... honestly, for damage, 15% Stanced bow with Frenzy is ftw, since you can run "Watch Yourself!" with it. WY charges basically everytime you hit Barrage so it doesn't take a large Tactics investment to make it very good support for your team. MoR gives it a run for it's money with the buff and I really haven't tested it a lot.

Now that I think about it, you can also run R/P with Barrage and "Go For The Eyes!" and have that charged basically everytime you hit Barrage too. Now that's a pretty sexy idea...

XvArchonvX · Nov 21, 2006, 01:27 AM // 01:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

Really the primary bonus using a Weapon Spell with Barrage gives you is access to other support skills from the Ritualist line, i.e. hard rez, etc. Yes, you can deal more damage as R/E, but both R/Mo and R/Rt give you access to a good deal of support skills that are simply not there for an /Ele.

Aye, I can see that advantage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

... honestly, for damage, 15% Stanced bow with Frenzy is ftw, since you can run "Watch Yourself!" with it. WY charges basically everytime you hit Barrage so it doesn't take a large Tactics investment to make it very good support for your team. MoR gives it a run for it's money with the buff and I really haven't tested it a lot.

Agreed here, but now that NF is here, I think I'll be running Flail instead of Frenzy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

Now that I think about it, you can also run R/P with Barrage and "Go For The Eyes!" and have that charged basically everytime you hit Barrage too. Now that's a pretty sexy idea...

I've thought about that and will have to try it out sometime.

Sha Noran · Nov 21, 2006, 01:34 AM // 01:34

Wait, did you just agree with me? Wtf...

;-)

ShadowbaneX · Nov 21, 2006, 06:41 PM // 18:41

as an old Diablo2 player, especially one that played amazons, I just feel the need to point out an error in your nomeclature. If you've got a bow, it's a bowazon. A 'javazon' should probably be A/P. The Magic & Passive skill tree is more reflected with Critical Strikes and Shadow Arts then anything the ranger has.

Evilsod · Nov 22, 2006, 01:49 AM // 01:49

Wondered how long it'd be till my post about Flail barraging before the release of NF was taken note of.

Quote:

Jeff: Screaming Shot is cool, but because of it's range requirements it can force you into some undesirable positions. Penetrating is solid damge without forcing you into potentially dangerous positions for enemy AoE. That said, I can see where you're build is coming from, and to help with the Energy problems you're having I would recommend only reapplying the Screaming Shot Bleeding when it's getting close to low

You really do need to remember that there are bows in this game beyond the Longbow. The edges of the agro bar are not 'dangerous territory'. You have the best defensive skills in the game along with high ele AL for christ sake.

Sha Noran · Nov 22, 2006, 04:22 AM // 04:22

Sure, you can use something else, but it's really just not worth it. It's not like by sacrificing your range you're dealing "uber zomg wtf pwn" damage. It's like, what, a few additional points of damage? You're better off being alive to finish things off. Of course, you can kite damage should you get targeted, but have fun kiting quad Met Showers off of Dryders, or some of those nice Water hexes the Rain's toss around.

If you're focusing primarily on the degen you can cause and not really directly the damage, Barbed+Poison Arrow>Apply+Screaming. You just can't spread Screaming enough with its recharge at 8 and its cost at 10.

XvArchonvX · Nov 22, 2006, 06:23 AM // 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

If you're focusing primarily on the degen you can cause and not really directly the damage, Barbed+Poison Arrow>Apply+Screaming. You just can't spread Screaming enough with its recharge at 8 and its cost at 10.

hmm...I don't think I agree here. Personally, I don't think barbed is usually that great of a choice. Since it has been lowered to 10 energy, it is a better choice than it was before, but having an easily interuptable prep is going to make recasting it a pain. Also Apply + Screaming gives you an elite slot to allow you to do more than just degen. Screaming + Apply also gives you a damage bonus that running Barbed + Poison Arrow doesn't. If your defense is that a longbow is a better choice then I would argue that restricting yourself to only one bow is really limiting your options.

Im summary: Apply + Screaming allows greater damage from both the damage bonus of screaming as well as the increased attack speed of a shortbow should it be used. The fact that it frees an elite slot and does not suffer from being easily interuptable makes it a legitamate option.