Curse

I Genetic I · Feb 08, 2006, 03:06 AM // 03:06

Could some1 tell me the Barrage/Pet build that they find most successful please? (skills, attributes, type of pet)

Batou of Nine · Feb 08, 2006, 04:28 AM // 04:28

16 Marksmanship (12+3+1)
10 Expertise (9+1)
9 Beast Mastery (8+1)
3 Wilderness Surival (2+1)

Barrage (E)
Distracting Shot
Throw Dirt
Ressurection Signet
Call of Protection
Call of Haste OR (Wilderness Survival/Disrupting Lunge)
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal

Basically a descent PvE build with 2 sources of interrupts, fair damage spread, fair self protection and fair animal protection. This build is also often used in a group build for PvE Tombs/the "New" UW (sorry to call it that, lol). Probly lots of posts about this group build too...

In fact my guild just did a run with this setup its real affective and fun! 4 barrage/pet rangers (one with FW one with Winnowing), 1 MM Necro, 1 Orders Necro, 1 Interrupt Mesmer or Dmg Spiker, 1 heal monk. Pets are sent in for a short duration meat shield, then die to provide the MM with corpses, all the while the rangers are Barraging the crap out of the mobs. 1 Heal monk, cause if done correctly there should constantly be a meat shield up.

Anyway, enjoy!

Jenosavel · Feb 08, 2006, 05:51 AM // 05:51

I use something a little different, and I like it quite a bit.

Beastmastery: 11 +1 (12)
Marksmanship: 11 +1 +3 (15)
Expertise: 8 +1 (9)

Barrage
Disrupting Lunge
Predator's Pounce
(skill of choice)
Call of Protection
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Ressurection Signet

The two pet attacks do some decent damage on top of keeping those fire eles at bay, while the pet can survive for quite a while as a front line defense to keep Fingers of Chaos from reaching player characters on whom it wreaks all kinds of havoc. I understand the use of having the pets die to fuel the necro's corpses; however, the pet will still die with this build. Any extra time bought before the front line collapses, especially at the beginning of maps, is welcome as far as I'm concerned.

I prefer Disrupting Lunge to Distracting Shot because of its short recharge time. When dealing with 3 (or more) fire eles at a time, having an interrupt that tags on 20 seconds to cool down and can be repeated every 5 seconds is invaluable. Its true that Disrupting Lunge isn't as precise as Distracting Shot; however, any spell with a casting time over 5 seconds will be shut down and most long casting spells will get hit anyway. I have yet to let a Meteor Shower (or Wurm Siege for that matter) get through from my target, and a fair number of Fireballs were netted as well. If it was one-on-one fighting then I'd prefer the precision of Distracting Shot, but when the enemies come in numbers I really want something that can be used more often.

Additionally, Disrupting Lunge will add in the neigborbood of half of the DPS that Call of Haste would while also doing all that lovely interrupting. It's not a skill to be glossed over.

Also, I believe 10 is a poor number to have in Expertise. The cost benefits of 10 expertise over 9 are only seen when you're dealing with expensive skills. Since all the skills here are relatively cheap, 9 is a much better place to have your attributes (unless, of course, you want to pump it up to 13~14).

The points I have in Beastmastery and Marskmanship vary, though I never have more than 15 in one and never less that 12 in the other. I think you lose out on a fair bit of both offense and defense of your pet if you drop your Beastmastery very low.