Curse

tuperwho · Jul 01, 2006, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Hi all. Looking for a suggestion for a beastmaster build to be used while enjoying PvE. Currently, I use:

16 beast mastery
9 expertise
11 marksmanship

charm animal
comfort animal
call of haste
call of protection
brutal strike
predator's pounce
feral lunge
barrage

I'm very happy with how it works, as both my pet and I do good damage. Fluffy also has good survivability with the 2 heals and call of prot. However, I'm looking for suggestions on a few of these skill spots. I just capped enraged lunge, and it looks pretty sweet. However, I don't know if it's worth losing barrage. As it stands, brutal strike hits for +74 damage, and does not use my elite spot, allowing me to be fairly effective as an archer (with vamp sting and zealous, depending on the situation). Bringing enraged lunge would let me drop the other pet attacks and be doing about the same damage as brutal strike (since I would always have both calls and at least enraged recharging).

I'm also wondering if I can do better than feral lunge. The damage and bleeding are good. I had initially wanted an interrupt here, but was not happy with disrupting lunge, as I ended up using it spammed like a normal attack, since it's hard to get a pet interrupt timed right. That's why I went to a stronger attack skill instead. I also played with distracting shot here, but am not totally happy, as I don't have a arrow speed boost, so the delay is hard to get interrupts off in time.

So basically, looking at the 3 spots (barrage, brutal strike, and feral lunge), can I be doing better? Should I sub in Enraged lunge, and if so, what else should I change? Thanks for the help. Oh, and I would like to keep charm, comfort, both calls, and still feel effective with my bow. Thanks!!!

Horible · Jul 01, 2006, 03:44 PM // 15:44

If i Go strictly BeastMaster my build is as follows:

16 Beast Mastery
13 Expertise

I use a +15 energy staff and full druids armor

skills:
Ferosious strike
Melandru's Strike
Brutal Strike
Call Of haste
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Symbiotic Bond (I think, the one that redirects damage to you)
Call of protection

Basically with my spider I just keep Call of Haste up and keep spamming melandrus and f-strike until they are <50. Then i hit them with brutal strike and I do upwards of 150 damage. Pretty powerful soloing build for me.

Horible

Jenosavel · Jul 01, 2006, 03:52 PM // 15:52

I'm absolutely enamored with the following build right now, and it seems along the lines of what you're looking for.

Beastmastery: 12 +1 +2 (16)
Expertise: 8 +1 (9)
Marksmanship: 10 +2 (12)
Tactics: whatever's left (3? it doesn't really matter, as this can be swapped around)

Enraged Lunge {E}
Watch Yourself (or skill of choice)
Call of Haste
Predatory Bond
Call of Protection
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Res Sig

There's very little waste or overlap skill-wise, as this puppy is geared for hitting the max damage Enraged Lunge has to offer as often as physically possible. The Marksmanship attribute points could be placed elsewhere to support something besides Watch Yourself in that spot (as needed), but if you've no other dire use for them, Marksmanship is as good a place as any for the points.

Stranger The Ranger · Jul 01, 2006, 06:21 PM // 18:21

I use this build :>

BM: 16
Exper: 9
WS: The Rest

Poisonous Bite
Brutal Strike
Enraged Lunge (E)
Call Of Haste
Troll Unguent
Comfort
Charm
Res Signet/Scavenger Strike (Scavenger only for Aspenwood/AB's ect.)

Poisonous Bite - to poison your foes :>
Scavenger Strike - to follow Poisonous and do around 60 dmg
Brutal Strike - Do massive damage when the target's below 50% health
Enraged Lunge - To finish your targets off
Call of Haste - a must in every pure BM build
Troll Unguent - Some Self-heal
Comfort Animal - O rly?
Charm Animal - Ya rly
Res Signet - Eh....Duh? :>

Jenosavel · Jul 01, 2006, 07:17 PM // 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stranger The Ranger

Enraged Lunge - To finish your targets off

I see this commonly, and completely disagree. Enraged Lunge does excellent damage in and of itself when properly supported, so why reserve it for a finisher when it could be shredding enemies the entire battle?

To take a good look at which skills are better to use for dealing damage, here are the stats over time of the three hardest hitting beast attacks: Enraged Lunge, Scavenger Strike, and Brutal Strike. I assumed 16 beastmastery and both 9 and 13 Expertise. I looked only at the armor ignoring added damage of the attacks, since the base damage will vary by pet evolution and not by which of these attack skills you're using. This also assumes that conditions are perfect for each attack (ie: you've got enough recharging skills for Enraged, your foe is conditioned, and below half-health); I'll take a look at how easy it is to fill those conditions after the numbers.

Enraged Lunge
Energy burden: 1.8 pips with 9 Expertise, 1.2 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximage damage output: 13.33 damage per second

Scavenger Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 7.0 damage per second

Brutal Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 12.33 damage per second

From the numbers alone, Enraged Lunge would not only out-damage the other two skills, but it has exactly half of the energy costs. This means you'll be able to use it for longer periods of time and thus have more endurance. In addition to this, when you look at the requirement you must meet in order to get the maximum damage from the skill, the one you have the most control over is Enraged Lunge.

Enraged Lunge requires you to have 4 recharging beastmastery skills on your bar (note: beastmastery skills not beastmastery attacks as it is often misread as). Since the check is made when your pet performs the attack and not when you yourself use the shout, this means that for the vast majority of times, Enraged Lunge will actually count as one of those recharging skills which is powering it up. This means you only need 3 other recharging skills on your bar. Considering that Call of Haste is already an absolute must for a damage dealing beastmaster, that leaves only two other recharging beastmastery skills needed to keep Enraged Lunge performing. Nearly all of the pet buff shouts have incredibly long durations and recharges which play right into Enraged Lunge's hand, so it's no trouble to pick two. This means you'll be able to easily keep Enraged Lunge dishing out its maximum damage. You are in complete control of when it is charged and when not, as it is completely unreliant upon enemy actions (such as condition removal or healing which could happen split-second and neuter the damage of your Scavenger Strike or Brutal Strike).

Scavenger Strike, on the other hand, requires the enemy to be suffering from a condition. Conditions are easy to inflict, however they are also easy to remove and must be inflicted on each and every new enemy. Thus, the better a job you are doing and the faster enemies are dying, the more of a demand Scavenger Strike will make, as you will be required to reapply conditions more frequently. So not only will Scavenger Strike alone put you into a negative energy regen, but it requires additional energy eating skills to be used frequently for it to be operating at maximum efficiency. Thus, Scavenger Strike really only pairs well with Ferocious Strike as an elite, for it is a very demanding attack skill to use.

Brutal Strike requires the enemy to be below half health. This means you won't be required to waste energy keeping it ready, but you will have very little control over when it will and won't be able to deal its maximum damage. Again, the better you perform and the faster enemies die the lower Brutal Strike's efficiency gets, because it becomes harder and harder to time the attack to coincide with when an enemy is below half health. This is especially true if you have a good assassin or axe warrior on your team, as deep wound already makes the lower half of an enemy's health melt away quickly.

The short of it comes down to this: Enraged Lunge is elite because, like most other elite skills, it out-performs the normal skills of a similar nature. It will take up a full half of your pet's attacks and thus does not need to be paired with other attacks skills to do nice damage (and I would advise against stacking your bar with pet attack skills while using Enraged, as you likely won't have the time to use them all).

tuperwho · Jul 01, 2006, 10:21 PM // 22:21

Thanks for all the feedback so far, guys. I still feel like I could use some more, though. Namely, while I appreciate the builds, they're not really what I said I was looking for. Please keep in mind I still want to be doing decent bow damage. I understand that enraged lunge would be doing the most consistent high damage, but still feel like the use of the elite spot is a hindrance. Barrage is pretty much self sustaining for my desires to do bow damage.

So, if you could keep the suggestions coming, here's a bit more focus:
I want to leave my attributes at:
16 beast
9 exp.
11 marks.

I will leave the following on my skillbar
charm
comfort
call of haste
call of prot.

What I'm looking for is the best output for the last 4 spots on combined damage between me and my elder black widow. Be that enraged lunge and 3 bow attacks, or barrage with 3 pet attacks, or anything in between. Thanks again.

Stranger The Ranger · Jul 02, 2006, 12:56 PM // 12:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenosavel

I see this commonly, and completely disagree. Enraged Lunge does excellent damage in and of itself when properly supported, so why reserve it for a finisher when it could be shredding enemies the entire battle?

To take a good look at which skills are better to use for dealing damage, here are the stats over time of the three hardest hitting beast attacks: Enraged Lunge, Scavenger Strike, and Brutal Strike. I assumed 16 beastmastery and both 9 and 13 Expertise. I looked only at the armor ignoring added damage of the attacks, since the base damage will vary by pet evolution and not by which of these attack skills you're using. This also assumes that conditions are perfect for each attack (ie: you've got enough recharging skills for Enraged, your foe is conditioned, and below half-health); I'll take a look at how easy it is to fill those conditions after the numbers.

Enraged Lunge
Energy burden: 1.8 pips with 9 Expertise, 1.2 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximage damage output: 13.33 damage per second

Scavenger Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 7.0 damage per second

Brutal Strike
Energy burden: 3.6 pips with 9 Expertise, 3 pips with 13 Expertise
Approximate damage output: 12.33 damage per second

From the numbers alone, Enraged Lunge would not only out-damage the other two skills, but it has exactly half of the energy costs. This means you'll be able to use it for longer periods of time and thus have more endurance. In addition to this, when you look at the requirement you must meet in order to get the maximum damage from the skill, the one you have the most control over is Enraged Lunge.

Enraged Lunge requires you to have 4 recharging beastmastery skills on your bar (note: beastmastery skills not beastmastery attacks as it is often misread as). Since the check is made when your pet performs the attack and not when you yourself use the shout, this means that for the vast majority of times, Enraged Lunge will actually count as one of those recharging skills which is powering it up. This means you only need 3 other recharging skills on your bar. Considering that Call of Haste is already an absolute must for a damage dealing beastmaster, that leaves only two other recharging beastmastery skills needed to keep Enraged Lunge performing. Nearly all of the pet buff shouts have incredibly long durations and recharges which play right into Enraged Lunge's hand, so it's no trouble to pick two. This means you'll be able to easily keep Enraged Lunge dishing out its maximum damage. You are in complete control of when it is charged and when not, as it is completely unreliant upon enemy actions (such as condition removal or healing which could happen split-second and neuter the damage of your Scavenger Strike or Brutal Strike).

Scavenger Strike, on the other hand, requires the enemy to be suffering from a condition. Conditions are easy to inflict, however they are also easy to remove and must be inflicted on each and every new enemy. Thus, the better a job you are doing and the faster enemies are dying, the more of a demand Scavenger Strike will make, as you will be required to reapply conditions more frequently. So not only will Scavenger Strike alone put you into a negative energy regen, but it requires additional energy eating skills to be used frequently for it to be operating at maximum efficiency. Thus, Scavenger Strike really only pairs well with Ferocious Strike as an elite, for it is a very demanding attack skill to use.

Brutal Strike requires the enemy to be below half health. This means you won't be required to waste energy keeping it ready, but you will have very little control over when it will and won't be able to deal its maximum damage. Again, the better you perform and the faster enemies die the lower Brutal Strike's efficiency gets, because it becomes harder and harder to time the attack to coincide with when an enemy is below half health. This is especially true if you have a good assassin or axe warrior on your team, as deep wound already makes the lower half of an enemy's health melt away quickly.

The short of it comes down to this: Enraged Lunge is elite because, like most other elite skills, it out-performs the normal skills of a similar nature. It will take up a full half of your pet's attacks and thus does not need to be paired with other attacks skills to do nice damage (and I would advise against stacking your bar with pet attack skills while using Enraged, as you likely won't have the time to use them all).

Ya ok, I agree with you, I didnt say you had to wait until the target's almost dead...and....

Argh, forget what I said back there, Enraged Lunge ftw =)

Sagaris · Jul 02, 2006, 12:59 PM // 12:59

I use:

Predator's Pounce
Enraged Lunge
Brutal Strike
Symbiotic Bond
Troll Ungeant
Charm/Comfort
Res

Jenosavel · Jul 02, 2006, 03:36 PM // 15:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuperwho

Thanks for all the feedback so far, guys. I still feel like I could use some more, though. Namely, while I appreciate the builds, they're not really what I said I was looking for. Please keep in mind I still want to be doing decent bow damage. I understand that enraged lunge would be doing the most consistent high damage, but still feel like the use of the elite spot is a hindrance. Barrage is pretty much self sustaining for my desires to do bow damage.

So, if you could keep the suggestions coming, here's a bit more focus:
I want to leave my attributes at:
16 beast
9 exp.
11 marks.

I will leave the following on my skillbar
charm
comfort
call of haste
call of prot.

What I'm looking for is the best output for the last 4 spots on combined damage between me and my elder black widow. Be that enraged lunge and 3 bow attacks, or barrage with 3 pet attacks, or anything in between. Thanks again.

Based on your strict parameters, the best build I could suggest would be

Barrage {E}
Predator's Pounce
Disrupting Lunge
Call of Haste
Call of Protection
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Res Sig

If you're going to go with Barrage as your elite, you limit your choices of pet attack skills somewhat heavily. Predator's Pounce is hands down the best low-cost pet attack skill as it not only gives a high DPS (when compared to the non-elite pet attack skills) but also heals your pet, leaving more energy free for further attacks. Disrupting Lunge is also a great pet attack skill to have under these circumstances. It has an average DPS, but also has the added benefit of working like a Distracting Shot when it hits enemies using skills. The key of this one is that it does increase your DPS, so you should be using it as often as possible. Of course, if you're using it as often as possible, it becomes very akin to a slower version of Choking Gas (firing every ~5 seconds instead of every 2) which also disables any skills it catches. Also, with the quickly recharging Predator's Pounce and Disrupting Lunge you're coming very close to covering all of your pet's attacks with an attack skill.

Also, since you are using Barrage quite heavily, I would suggest considering a Superior-Major rune combo so that your Marksmanship would reach 12 instead of 11.

oOWakleonOo · Jul 03, 2006, 01:12 AM // 01:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuperwho

Thanks for all the feedback so far, guys. I still feel like I could use some more, though. Namely, while I appreciate the builds, they're not really what I said I was looking for. Please keep in mind I still want to be doing decent bow damage. I understand that enraged lunge would be doing the most consistent high damage, but still feel like the use of the elite spot is a hindrance. Barrage is pretty much self sustaining for my desires to do bow damage.

So, if you could keep the suggestions coming, here's a bit more focus:
I want to leave my attributes at:
16 beast
9 exp.
11 marks.

I will leave the following on my skillbar
charm
comfort
call of haste
call of prot.

What I'm looking for is the best output for the last 4 spots on combined damage between me and my elder black widow. Be that enraged lunge and 3 bow attacks, or barrage with 3 pet attacks, or anything in between. Thanks again.

I would say combine expertise, WS, and BM

WS would give you some good bow attacks poison arrow, ignite arrow, etc, along with healing and some spirits to support your pet.
Of course BM for your pet and of course Expertise for you

tuperwho · Jul 03, 2006, 02:49 AM // 02:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by oOWakleonOo

I would say combine expertise, WS, and BM

WS would give you some good bow attacks poison arrow, ignite arrow, etc, along with healing and some spirits to support your pet.
Of course BM for your pet and of course Expertise for you

Problem with that is I need at least 9 (8+1) in marksmanship to do the bow damage I mentioned. Then I'm spread between 4 attributes, which I don't want to do. Also, the spirits in WS add very little to a pet build, and while the preps would be good, I again cite the bow requirement. Poison Arrow is a good idea, except that it steals the elite, and I don't think it would be better than enraged lunge or barrage.

Jenosavel · Jul 03, 2006, 04:00 AM // 04:00

I see many people using beastmasters with Wilderness Survival. However, I'm definitely against it. Strongly. The only thing which Wilderness Survival really offers a pet build is Troll Unguent (I dare say that 90% of the time, the WS using pet rangers have that as their only WS skill), and Predatory Bond will do the same thing without requiring you to spec into an additional attribute. In fact, at 16 Beastmastery and with Call of Haste Predatory Bond will heal you 17.5 health per second at a cost of .6 pips of energy. If you somehow manage to spare 10 points to put into WS Troll will only give you 12.3 hp per second at a cost of .7 pips of energy and a considerable (and recurring) cast-time during which you can't be dealing your bow damage. A more likely, and much worse, case is having WS between 6 and 8. Then Troll drops to 9.2 health per second and 10.8 health per second respectively.

The WS preparations do add to your player damage, but then so does RTW again without requiring you to split into another attribute line (since as tuperwho said, if you're dealing bow damage you need marksmanship). RTW will do just as much damage as Kindle when you're considering high armored enemies, since RTW has armor-ignoring damage and Kindle does not.

So yeah. I highly recommend not splitting your attention further by using WS while playing a bow-beastmaster.

Munanko Roha · Jul 03, 2006, 12:53 PM // 12:53

Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Call of Protection
Symbiothic Bond
Predatory Bond
Call of Haste
Enraged Lounge
Tiger's Fury

Attribute points:
Beast Mastery 16
Marksmanship 11
Expertise 10

This is the build I use as a beast master. With a long bow I'm always out of range of enemy's attacks and I can keep dishing out bow damage quite quickly thanks to Tiger's Fury, in the meantime my pet is dishing high dps thanks to Enraged Lounge (it's always completely charged due to the high recharge of Calls and Bonds, Tiger's Fury gives a little help if needed).

I find it quite useful, the only drawback is if my pet is blinded I become completely useless!

Jenosavel · Jul 03, 2006, 03:35 PM // 15:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munanko Roha

Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Call of Protection
Symbiothic Bond
Predatory Bond
Call of Haste
Enraged Lounge
Tiger's Fury

Attribute points:
Beast Mastery 16
Marksmanship 11
Expertise 10

This is the build I use as a beast master. With a long bow I'm always out of range of enemy's attacks and I can keep dishing out bow damage quite quickly thanks to Tiger's Fury, in the meantime my pet is dishing high dps thanks to Enraged Lounge (it's always completely charged due to the high recharge of Calls and Bonds, Tiger's Fury gives a little help if needed).

I find it quite useful, the only drawback is if my pet is blinded I become completely useless!

Not a bad build, to be sure, but I can offer a few points.

First, Enraged Lunge will count as one of the four skills you need recharging to get the full power out of it, so you only need three other skills to keep in recharge. You have four pet buff shouts, and thus could feel free to remove one for something else if it became needed. I'd suggest Symbiotic Bond be the one to go, but then I tend to dislike Symbiotic Bond more than most people.

Secondly, as a ranger in the backline you'll be one of the last people to fall usually and thus yours is a prime spot for a res. If you can squeeze one in it'd be quite helpful to your team, especially since in a pinch you can res while your pet continues to dish out the high damage of Enraged Lunge.

Thirdly, if you're in PvE then switch out your Longbow for a Flatbow (a vampiric one works beautifully). The faster attack speed of the Flatbow will combo with Tiger's Fury and a Vampiric mod incredibly nicely. Most people go the longbow route because they fear misses with the Flatbow's arc. However, in PvE your first targets tend to be the softies - the casters. In PvE casters rarely move, and a still target can be hit by all bows equally thus making the Flatbow outperform the Longbow in this instance. Then, by the time all the casters have fallen the warriors and such should have settled on a single target which again means they'll be a still target. Additionally, they tend to be near enough to you to negate any difference in flight-time so that kiting teammates and moving warriors doesn't hurt your ability to hit. Afterall, a high arc doesn't hurt at all if the enemy is standing nearby.

From personal experience, I can say that an Enraged Lunge ranger is one of the few builds that can throw the soft-targets-first rule out the window. Enraged Lunge does damage equally to all armor ranges, and you'll kill warriors just as fast as you'll kill anything else. Thus, it can sometimes be advantages to put your pet in the enemy warriors faces 1) because its a very hard target among the casters to possible absorbe some damage for them 2) because by the time your teammates kill all of the casters you'll have several warriors down 3) taking out the warriors early means less damage your monk has to be healing.

And last but not least, if you choose to still not put a res on your bar (such as you're using this for a solo build or know your team already has plenty of reses for what they'll need), then I would highly suggest sticking RTW on your bar. With your attribute spread RTW will add some nice damage, especially in combination with Tiger's Fury. My favorite pet solo build relies on a pet damager plus a Tiger's Fury - RTW bowman. Then, if you can further add a Vampiric Flatbow to the mix, you'll be amazed at the damage your bow can deal without a single bow attack on your bar.

Munanko Roha · Jul 04, 2006, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Thanks for the tips!

Any advice for the blinded pet? I don't want to rely on a monk secondary to take care of it, is there any other way?

Jenosavel · Jul 04, 2006, 01:54 PM // 13:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munanko Roha

Thanks for the tips!

Any advice for the blinded pet? I don't want to rely on a monk secondary to take care of it, is there any other way?

Not really at the current point in time... I keep hoping that someday Comfort Animal will remove conditions too, but I'm not holding my breath. In the mean time, I've been lucky enough to have a monk who I can play with regularly who knows how much my pet can do and usually protects it better than he protects me.

Epinephrine · Jul 04, 2006, 04:39 PM // 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenosavel

I'd suggest Symbiotic Bond be the one to go, but then I tend to dislike Symbiotic Bond more than most people.

hehee, we all have different biases

I agree with basically everything Jenosavel says, she's spot on about targeting - I'll just post another enraged lunge build as food for thought - the build Jeno posted is great, I just run a slightly different version.

BM 15
Marks 12
Exp 9

Read the Wind
Tiger's Fury
Predator's Pounce
Enraged Lunge
Predatory Bond
Symbiotic Bond
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal

As you can see, it's very similar;
With Predatory and Symbiotic recharging you can get maximum damage simply by having Predator's Pounce recharging when you attack; thus you can open by using RtW for yourself, the two pet buffs and hitting TF and Enraged Lunge, gives a full damage hit; then alternate Predator's and Enraged; since Predator's will then be recharging whenever you use Enraged you get 4 recharging with every attack, so you have +80 each time you use Enraged.

While I used to feel negatively about Symbiotic Bond I've grown to like it, in part thanks to the Predatory Bond - it helps a great deal with the damage from Symbiotic Bond. The other reason I like it is that the Canthan bosses hit HARD. Call of Protection is great versus the zerging hordes that you often face, but the deadly spiking that occurs in Cantha is just nasty - waves of afflicted exploding, Canthan bosses opening fire with double damage attacks... these are hard things to deal with as a monk. Symbiotic Bond spreads that damage across two people, halving the spikiness of the damage really; giving a double sized health pool in effect.

Of course, taking damage myself isn't always a good thing, and I have no self preservation in the build save my pet's bond to me, but I find that monks often aren't great at watching the pet, but will deal with my health - this forces them in effect to be healing my pet's damage, since it shows up on me :P

The Predator's Pounce is one of the strongest attacks out there, in terms of usefulness. You'll note Jenosavel includes it in her builds too - it's simply amazing. At 15 BM it does a huge +35 damage for 3 energy (thanks to expertise) which is already a good ratio, but it also heals for 50. That's an 85 damage differential on 5 energy (3 energy really) which is insane - if it were a necro life steal it'd be on everyone's skillbar; to put it into perspective, Vamp Touch would deliver a ~128 health steal at that price, or Vamp Gaze would be 85 or so damage. It's a seriously effective skill. Between half damage to the pet, the self heal from PP and a Comfort Animal here and there the pet is pretty resilient.

Edit: Yeah, there's no res signet; I don't tend to have much trouble though, this build got Master's on Arborstone for example with an all henchman party. Provided you have sufficient rezzes in the party it isn't needed. If you really want a rez you can sacrifice a skill. Not sure which, it'd take some choosing - probably a toss up between the Predatory Bond (if you are comfortable with your healing from the team) and the RtW.

Skyy Forn · Jul 04, 2006, 05:22 PM // 17:22

As much as I personally love the symbiotic bond + pred bond combo, it does have the weakness of leaving you very stranded if you pet is blinded. However, in PvE, you can generally tell ahead of time if you are going to run into mobs that can blind you.

IIIBNIII · Jul 04, 2006, 10:52 PM // 22:52

Whats all this exp 9 business?

If we multiply 9 by 4 and get 36, the multiply by 5 or 10 (skill costs) and divide by 100, we get either 1.8 or 3.6 off of the skill cost. Why not simply put another point into BM, to get 2 or 4 off of the energy cost?

BTW, I've found the Enraged Lunge + Brutal Strike combo great in PVE, for with the help of your allies' attacks and following your first lunge (including the time your pet takes to run down there), the opponent's health should already be down to less then half. Here is something close to what I run in PVE...

I've also been experimenting with the BM KD skill combinations in AB. It is kind of hard to get the timing down (especially with bears' brutal mauling), but it works great at confusing single enemies...

Epinephrine · Jul 04, 2006, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by IIIBNIII

Whats all this exp 9 business?

If we multiply 9 by 4 and get 36, the multiply by 5 or 10 (skill costs) and divide by 100, we get either 1.8 or 3.6 off of the skill cost. Why not simply put another point into BM, to get 2 or 4 off of the energy cost?
...
I've also been experimenting with the BM KD skill combinations in AB. It is kind of hard to get the timing down (especially with bears' brutal mauling), but it works great at confusing single enemies...

Costs round, thus not bothering with even numbers. 1.8 off a 5 cost skill is 3.2, rounded to 3. Likewise, 3.6 off of 10 leaves 6.4, which rounds to 6.

As for bears, don't use them :P Unless you really like the look they are simply reduced damage pets.