Curse

Metanoia · May 25, 2006, 06:21 AM // 06:21

I know this isn't remotely original or anything but I couldn't find any recent builds and none at all in the Ranger Build Directory Submissions topic. If there's anything I missed or any mistakes, just post and I'll correct them.

Profession: Ranger/Mesmer
Name: Crip-shot Utility Ranger
Type: CompetitivePvP/GeneralPvP
Category: Support/Interrupt
Notes: Requires Prophecies-only skills.

Attributes,
Illusion Magic: 3 - Breakpoint for 3e Distortion.
Domination Magic: 5 - Breakpoint for 4s Blackout.
Expertise: 13 (9+3+1) - Breakpoint for 5/15e spells.*
Wilderness Survival: 10 (9+1) - Breakpoint for +8r Troll's Unguent.
Marksmanship: 10 (9+1) - Breakpoint for 6s Crippling Shot (8 with Crippling Bowstring).

With the leftover AP you can do one of the following...
- Raise Illusion Magic to 8 for 2e Distortions.
- Raise Expertise to 14 and Domination Magic to 8 for 5s Blackouts and cheaper 10e skills.**
- Raise Marksmanship to 12 for 7s Crippling Shots (9 with Crippling Bowstring).
- Raise Expertise to 15 which is the next breakpoint for 15e skills.***

Notes: You can squeeze a few extra AP out of Wilderness Survival if you feel you don't as much self-healing.
I'm too lazy to post all the different breakpoint combinations for that, though.

*Skill costs with 13 Expertise: 5e = 2e, 10e = 5e, 15e = 7e.
**Skill costs with 14 Expertise: 5e = 2e, 10e = 4e, 15e = 7e
***Skill costs with 15 Expertise: 5e= 2e, 10e = 4e, 15e = 6e.

Skills,
Crippling Shot{Elite} (Marksmanship)
Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
Distracting Shot (Expertise)
Troll Unguent (Wilderness Survival)
Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Blackout (Domination Magic)
Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival)
Ressurection Signnet

Notes: Ressurection Signet isn't necessary in Alliance Battles. You can replace it with Storm Chaser(Wilderness Survival) or Dodge/Zojun's Haste(Expertise) for mobility. If you're going to try flag-running, you'll want to drop Blackout for another mobility stance, too.

5e skills: Distracting Shot, Distortion.
10e skills: Savage Shot, Blackout.
15e skills: Crippling Shot{Elite}, Apply Poison.

Equipment,
Eternity: My personal advice for a PvP character is to bring a Poisoner's Recurve Bow of Fortitude and a Crippling Long Bow of Fortitude. The Recurve is used for general purposes and the Long Bow can be switched out to snipe an NPC or cripple a fleeing target.

Summary,
This is quite a versatile albeit 'fiddly' build. Best used on female Rangers as they're better at multi-tasking. I'll try and break it down into the different jobs you'll be performing.

Snaring - It takes practice and battlefield awareness to do this best. You'll want to be watching both your team's and your enemy's Warriors. If an allied Warrior is chasing a kiting enemy, cripple the kiting enemy. If an enemy Warrior is chasing a kiting ally, cripple the enemy Warrior.

Interruption - Interrupting anything you can is fine and all, but if you really want to pull your weight you're going to need to workout the weak links in your opponent's build. Your allies can help greatly here by calling important abilities when they see them.
Example: If you're facing an enemy that you know rely on dual Wards Against Melee or an Aegis chain to protect against Warriors, interrupting those vital spells is a huge boon to your team's efforts.

Disruption - Blackout can be used both offensively and defensively. With a little coordination you can time your Blackout on an important enemy character such as a Monk to coincide with a spike by the rest of your team. It can be used defensively as an unconditional interrupt and to drain Warriors of their adrenaline.

General - When you're not doing anything else, you can be spreading poison around the enemies. Apply Poison should be used when crippling targets as it acts as a cover condition.

Notes & Concerns: Crippling Shot Rangers are currently a little out of favour in the larger forms of PvP due to a lot of the counters being rather popular. Extinguish, Heal Party and Draw Conditions for example. Still, a well played Crip-Shot Ranger can be a valuable asset to most teams. In 4v4 situations, they're still very potent. They're one of the best counters to the plague of Touch-Rangers, too.

Eternity · May 26, 2006, 05:11 AM // 05:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metanoia

Best used on female Rangers as they're better at multi-tasking.

Lol, I love that line

.

Great overall guide, only a few points I thought should be mentioned:

- A lot of people look to guides for equipment suggestions. My personal advice for a PvP character is to bring a Poisoner's Recurve Bow of Fortitude and a Crippling Long Bow of Fortitude. The Recurve is used for general purposes and the Long Bow can be switched out to snipe an NPC or cripple a fleeing target.
- Another option for the attribute points is to raise Expertise to 14, which reduces the costs of Savage Shot and Blackout by one, both of which I use quite often as a Cripshot.
- The Cripshot can be used to great effect as a flag runner in certain builds; consider Dodge and Zojun's Haste as complementary skills, probably taking out Blackout and the Res Sig.

Other than that, looks great. Thanks for putting together a run-down of one of my favorite builds

.

Iraqalypse Now · May 26, 2006, 05:15 AM // 05:15

wildy survival is a bit high compared to most of the times I see it - usually its the 15 expertise/ 7 second cripshot setup, with like 6ish in wildy survival. The +8 TU is not that important unless you split off like mad, in which case you want a speed buff on the bar (probably storm chaser replacing res signet).

Metanoia · May 26, 2006, 07:39 AM // 07:39

@Eternity

The reason for pushing Expertise to 15 isntead of 14 was that you wouldn't have enough AP leftover to reach any breakpoints for anything else*. But since Iraqalypse Now suggested lowering Wilderness Survival, I'll see how it fits. I'll add the weapon suggestions, too.

*Whoops, missed that you could still get a 5s Blackout.

@Iraqalypse Now

I often use it in TA/RA just to spite all those Touch-Rangers. I'll admit the stronger Troll Unguent isn't as useful in TA, but it's nice to have in RA. I'll update with the option, anyway.