Curse

ZennZero · Feb 07, 2007, 03:55 PM // 15:55

Expertise: 14 (12 + 1 + 1)
Marksmanship: 13 (12 + 1)
Beast Mastery: 4 (3 + 1)

Equipment:
Vampiric Shortbow and Zealous Shortbow recommended (15% > 50)
Radiant/Druids armor

[skill]Glass Arrows[/skill][skill]Forked Arrow[/skill][skill]Dual Shot[/skill][skill]Tiger's Fury[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Purge Signet[/skill][skill]Resurrect[/skill]
Note: GWG's pop-up descriptions haven't been updated to reflect this weekend's still changes yet. Click through to guildwiki for the GA buff.

Description:
Use Glass Arrows prep. Spam Forked Arrow and Dual Shot while keeping Tiger's Fury up as much as possible. Interrupt w/ Distracting Shot as needed. Switch to the Zealous bow if your energy runs low. The offense side of this build is pretty easy.

Defense is a little tricker -- especial in regards to energy management. Like most non-casters, blind will shut you down. Since you are dependent on Forked Arrow for maintaining your damage output, hexes hurt too. Purge signet will clear all hexes and conditions, but you may wipe you energy down to zero in the process (note you will not go below zero, no matter your current energy level or how many hexes/conditions are removed).

Having the option to switch to the zealous bow will help control these energy wipe scenarios and will also help in the event of an extended battle if you are using a lot of your supplementary skills. Obviously it is also helpful to use a an alt-weapon when not in battle so the vampiric bow doesn't degen you. Finally, warn your group to avoid long term enchantments on you, since that affects Forked Arrow as well.

Strengths:
- Huge, fairly sustainable DPS for a ranger bow build w/o needing orders, etc.
- Condition and hex-proof, at the expense of energy

Weaknesses:
- Like many builds, there is no real defense against e-denial. "Accidental" e-denial from Purge sig is a possibility.
- Damage output is reduced against enemies in defensive stances, but you will cause bleeding
- No self heal

I am looking for a little feedback. I think the build can be refined some. There are plenty of viable alternate configurations as well. For instance, if you are trying to be a little more defense-centric (at the expense of offense) and need a speed buff, use [skill]Read the Wind[/skill] instead of Glass Arrows and [skill]Escape[/skill] instead of Whirling defense.

Anyway, I haven't used this in PvP yet, but feel free to suggest changes to tailor it for that purpose.

Dutch Masterr · Feb 07, 2007, 05:08 PM // 17:08

use mending touch instead of purge signet.

ZennZero · Feb 07, 2007, 06:23 PM // 18:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Masterr

use mending touch instead of purge signet.

That was my first thought, and it is a reasonable replacement, but it offers no means of removing hexes, which cuts the damage output of Forked Arrow in half.

There is probably an argument to be made either way.

XvArchonvX · Feb 07, 2007, 06:37 PM // 18:37

Forked arrow is one of those skills that can be a really good skill, but it is entirely context dependant. It's only a good skill to use if you know that you don't have someone throwing around enchantments in your group. For this reason, it's really best suited for specific team builds. Personally, I would suggest that you drop it for [skill]Needling Shot[/skill], which synergizes really well with Glass Arrows. I also don't think that Purge is that great of an idea. The only way it could work is if you brought a negative energy set (-5 energy sword/axe with the -2 energy scroll from the Cities of Ascalon quest). Even then, losing all your energy just to be able to clear yourself doesn't do much good if it shuts you down as much as a hex/condition would.

Evilsod · Feb 07, 2007, 07:01 PM // 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZennZero

That was my first thought, and it is a reasonable replacement, but it offers no means of removing hexes, which cuts the damage output of Forked Arrow in half.

There is probably an argument to be made either way.

The argument of you having energy after using it *probably* beats having no hexes. Been as you can still use the rest of your skillbar.

Not really much point worrying about hexes... moment someone casts a prot enchantment on you Forked is screwed.

ZennZero · Feb 07, 2007, 07:20 PM // 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

moment someone casts a prot enchantment on you Forked is screwed.

I thought it would be sort of interesting to bring [skill]Contemplation of Purity[/skill] to that end. Of course it would be easier just to tell your group not to enchant you.

SnipiousMax · Feb 07, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

^ That's great if you have a well coordinated team with a Monk that can keep his spams in check. But honestly, Protection spells are just to valuble to just pluck off to make Fork halfway usable. Global Prot spells are especially frustrating to work around (ie... Aegis).

I like the suggestion of using Needling Shot in it's place. I think you'll enjoy alot more versitility with Needlling shot than you would with Forked. You can 3-4 needles in the space of time you need to use Forked, all while being exactly as precise as you need to be.

I DO like your choice of Distracting Shot over Savage shot in this build. Glass Arrows makes it a 30 something shot, and that's not bad at all considering it's primary effect.

Evilsod · Feb 07, 2007, 08:20 PM // 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZennZero

I thought it would be sort of interesting to bring [skill]Contemplation of Purity[/skill] to that end. Of course it would be easier just to tell your group not to enchant you.

It really doesn't work like that... Hench won't care. And real monks won't either. No way in hell are they gonna not cast Prot Spirit or Healing Seed, etc, on you if your taking damage. I guess CoP would work... but then you'd need an enchantment to remove anything.

Not like your entire skillbar is ruined if your enchanted/hexed...

ZennZero · Feb 07, 2007, 08:40 PM // 20:40

Yeah, I am thinking the strengths of Forked are probably outweighed by the hoops you have to jump through to keep it effective in most situations, unfortunately.

I will try to revise the build a bit later. I really do think since the buff that Glass Arrows is a good prep.

Mr Bartel · Feb 08, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51

why don't you play with Rt as healers, they use spirit and weapons to protect and can heal as well as monks. Then your team won't use enchants and you could take tranquility + natures renewal.
Bringing Rits in your team can also boost the spike if they use nightmare weapon or splinter weapon for an AoE spike (nightmare-Dual+savage spike really rulz, armor ignoring, magic ignoring

)

ZennZero · Feb 08, 2007, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Bartel

why don't you play with Rt as healers, they use spirit and weapons to protect and can heal as well as monks. Then your team won't use enchants and you could take tranquility + natures renewal.
Bringing Rits in your team can also boost the spike if they use nightmare weapon or splinter weapon for an AoE spike (nightmare-Dual+savage spike really rulz, armor ignoring, magic ignoring

)

That is sort of the point I made above -- with adequate coordination, the build works pretty well. I think at this point the only change I would make is to replace Purge Sig with [skill]remove hex[/skill].

I decided that conditions, though a concern, are less of a threat to your damage output than hexes, especially since most monks carry condition removal skills.

Having said all that, I also found a decent no-dependency alternative to this build, which I will post below.

ZennZero · Feb 08, 2007, 03:40 PM // 15:40

Equipment:
Vampiric Shortbow recommended (15% > 50)
Sentry's armor (or whatever, energy is really not a problem with this build)

[skill]Glass Arrows[/skill][skill]Dual Shot[/skill][skill]Heket's rampage[/skill][skill]Needling Shot[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Mending Touch[/skill][skill]Resurrect[/skill]

Apply prep, Dual Shot, then Heket's Rampage. By the time HR has expired, DS is about ready again. Repeat alternation of DS and HR until target is below 50% health, then Needle until dead.

The DPS from this build is decent, not as good as the original build, but it is a solid, dependency-free alternative. Just be sure your timing with Dual Shot is right so it doesn't cancel Heket's Rampage early.

The other nice thing about this build is that since your damage is still physical and you aren't concerned about enchants, it will stack with Orders. Throw in [skill]Favorable Winds[/skill] and you have a good alternative to Orders builds traditionally using RtW.

SnipiousMax · Feb 08, 2007, 05:32 PM // 17:32

^One last nitpick. Rather than use Ressurect... I'd suggest:

[skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill] (if you plan on using it in combat)

or

[skill]Rebirth[/skill] (otherwise).

Other than that, it's a great build! I really enjoyed it when I tried it out.

ZennZero · Feb 08, 2007, 05:53 PM // 17:53

Yeah, I really intended Resurrect to just stand in for "Generic Res of Your Choosing" -- sadly there is no attractive skill icon for that. Obviously there are lots of better solutions depending on the situation (like Res Sig).