Curse

Lalita · May 05, 2006, 08:46 PM // 20:46

Ok first off let me say...yes I'm a nOOb at playing ranger.

I was not born with the l33t skllz that so many must have been born with, because I rarely see anyone admitting to not knowing everything.

So please bear with me if I make some beginner mistakes and such, though if you must flame my newbie ness do it in the first line of your post, will save everyone time.

You can do something along the lines of 'NEWB NEWB NEWB god your such a NEWB I'm not a NEWB I'm cool, you know how I know that? Because I called you a NEWB so I must be cool!'

That said, I picked R/Rit as my profession for my Factions baby. I'm just learning how to not die constantly as a Ranger, but I get the feeling that I'am under utilizing my Rit potential. Right now I just use it for setting a few healing spirits around me.

For you more experienced/imaginative Rangers out there, do you have any build suggestions for Ranger/Rit? I have a bunch of skill points saved up and I would rather use them to get skills that would be benificial to use for different builds, rather than in skills that I just think look nifty and end up sitting in my skill bar.

So thank you very much for your time in advance, myself and I'm sure others out there that will read this post appriciate your time and help.

Iskrah · May 05, 2006, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Hey there. I don't think the Ranger forum is infested with elitist people, so noob-calling is unlikely. Mistakes are just mistakes and we've all done quite a bit (I remember when I was a Conjure Barrager with Meteor Shower at the very beginning...).

A secondary is just that, a secondary. It should not be more than 2 skills at most on your bar. And baring the fact that you're playing a tricky build with Expertise, it should only be complimenting what you do elsewhere.

In PvE, a lot of people only use Ranger skills. R/Me is nice for armor-buffing. R/M is taken to carry a hard res mainly. So I guess you could take Flesh of the Flesh as your #8 skill (no points in Restauration required)

I started a Rt for Factions and I must say not many skills are energy friendly. So it limits your possibilities, and I think R/Me still is the best choice in most configurations... But still you can have some fun.
Vital Weapon is a good option. You can easily get +100hp with a few points in Communing. You can maintain it constantly, it's cast fast and it costs only 5e. I know I would take it for Tombs group in Prophecies.

Always take Distracting Shot and Savage Shot. Practice on it. If you want to be a damage dealer, go Barrage, if you want to use poison that's a great option too if you constantly switch targets.

Someone proposed to use Rt's ability to buff your attacks. I've seen it, it's not too far down the forum but I think it's too energy-consuming compared to other similar options with other secondaries.

Anyway if you find something cool, don't hesitate to post.

Lalita · May 05, 2006, 10:58 PM // 22:58

Thanks for the advice!

If I can ask, why prac distracting and savage shot alot? Should those be part of a good primary build? For a good distraction would this following Factions Ranger Skill be handy as well? I've started using it but only against game controlled agro so not too certain as to its effectiveness.

Chocking Gas
Description For 1-10 seconds, your arrows deal 1-7 more damage and spread Choking Gas to all adjacent foes on impact. Choking Gas interrupts foes attempting to cast spells.
Energy Cost 15
Casting Time 2 seconds
Recharge Time 24 seconds
Skill Type Preparation
Linked Attribute Wilderness Survival

Str0b0 · May 05, 2006, 11:27 PM // 23:27

I posted an interesting barrage/splinter weapon build that I'm having an awful lot of fun with. It absolutely devastates groups, sometimes if they cluster you can take them out in one hit. I originally designed it as a tombs alternate build but it works well anywhere to tell the truth. Also choking gas canbe useful but it's usually more effective to focus your interrupts on a single caster. Savage shot does a fine job of this and it has a pretty fast recharge time which helps.

Inferno149870 · May 06, 2006, 03:09 AM // 03:09

the fact of the matter is no one knows the rit class well enough to pull this off... if someone buckles down withe rit class and assumes the ranger in question has druids armor, i think they could find some relatively beastly combo... ill look into that splinter combo

XvArchonvX · May 06, 2006, 06:06 AM // 06:06

When I took my R/Mo to Factions I switched him to R/Rt. However the only reason I did this is to switch out Ressurect for Flesh of my Flesh as my rez. I personally don't like to use secondaries much since I don't like my attributes spread to thin, but rez spells always come in handy. R/Me used to be nice when trapping before the Mantra of Resolve nerf, but I just stick with all ranger skills and a rez spell now.

If you care this is the build I use (I did cap this Elite outside Camp Rankor in Tyria, so that might limit you if you want anything similar)

Att:

11 Marks
13 or 12 Expertise (I don't remember exactly offhand)
14 Wilderness survival

Major Exp and Sup Wilderness rune with Wilderness mask used

Skills:

Penetrating or Hunters Shot (based on preference)
Savage Shot
Apply Poison
Flame Trap
Escape {E}
Cap Sig or other skill of choice (I prefer Barbed trap if not using a sig)
Troll Unguent
Flesh of my Flesh

Basically just use Escape, run in a mob, drop a trap, then run back to safety and poison/interupt/cause damage. This has been a pretty reliable and versatile build for me.

Reikai · May 06, 2006, 09:44 AM // 09:44

Honestly, if your starting off ranger for the first time, keep it simple, with 3 of your main attributes, Marksmanship, Wilderness Survival, Expertisem and go a "pure ranger". This way you will learn the basics of "ranger'ing".

Try for something like this:

R/Rt
Equipment: Druid's Set, Hunter's Mask
Runes: Sup. Vigor, Sup. Expertise, Minor Marksmanship, Minor Wilderness Survival
Weapons:
Sundering recurvebow of Fortitude

Attributes:
Expertise: 10+4
Marksmanship: 11+1
Wilderness Survival: 10+1

The reason i've picked the recurvebow class, is that to me, its the "all round" bow. With decent range, and attack speed. It should help you learn a few things about ranger'ing as well.

Starting with this basic equipment and attribute setup, you can start looking into some ranger skills. A standard "beginer ranger" skill setup could be, but is not limited to:

Poison Arrow [E]
Hunter's Shot
Penetrating Shot
Distracting Shot
Whirling Defense
Res. Sig
Troll Unguent
Read the Wind

Because you have a ritualist secondary, and are playing in PvE, you may wish to change res. sig for Flesh of My Flesh, or another similar skill.

Once you have gotten the basics of how to play a ranger, and survive as a ranger, then start looking into ritualist skills, and adapting your current build with other ritualist skills you may wish to add. Or, starting totally from scratch and designing a totally new build.

Lalita · May 06, 2006, 10:56 AM // 10:56

Good ideas! Thanks so much for the input, I'm going to try out those builds today

how786 · May 06, 2006, 01:39 PM // 13:39

I would think that a ritualist summoning skill or 2 might be useful to fight alongside one's pet. I've got a baby Ra/Ri who does this. (9) Wouldn't this give you a small 'army' to help out? I'm new to GWs so probably wrong but this thought struck me.
BTW, is there a list somewhere showing where we can purchase skills?
Best
How786

SnipiousMax · May 06, 2006, 02:59 PM // 14:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lalita

Thanks for the advice!

If I can ask, why prac distracting and savage shot alot? Should those be part of a good primary build? For a good distraction would this following Factions Ranger Skill be handy as well? I've started using it but only against game controlled agro so not too certain as to its effectiveness.

Chocking Gas
Description For 1-10 seconds, your arrows deal 1-7 more damage and spread Choking Gas to all adjacent foes on impact. Choking Gas interrupts foes attempting to cast spells.
Energy Cost 15
Casting Time 2 seconds
Recharge Time 24 seconds
Skill Type Preparation
Linked Attribute Wilderness Survival

I try to have at least one of those (either Distracting or Savage) on my skill bar the entire time, unless I'm playing a trapper. And most people prefer the precision of hard interrupts to the jackpot feel of Choking Gas.

Reikai · May 06, 2006, 04:14 PM // 16:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnipiousMax

I try to have at least one of those (either Distracting or Savage) on my skill bar the entire time, unless I'm playing a trapper. And most people prefer the precision of hard interrupts to the jackpot feel of Choking Gas.

this is true, however, I find that most rangers are incopetant manual interupters...

to me, unless you can consciously intRerupt say... eversal of Fortune or Infuse Health at at least 50% chance.... stick with Choking Gas...

(it IS possible to do this. Just need alot of training, and be able to give a good estimate when he/she is going to cast... and interupt it.)

Str0b0 · May 06, 2006, 04:23 PM // 16:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by how786

I would think that a ritualist summoning skill or 2 might be useful to fight alongside one's pet. I've got a baby Ra/Ri who does this. (9) Wouldn't this give you a small 'army' to help out? I'm new to GWs so probably wrong but this thought struck me.
BTW, is there a list somewhere showing where we can purchase skills?
Best
How786

the ritualist summons are less useful than necro summons for a ranger. Ritualist summons have nice effects but they are stationary. I'm sure it works well in the beginning but eventually the utility of the spirits comes into question particularly against the more varied and intelligent mobs on the mainland. personally the ritualist weapon enchants are some of the best things a ranger can have. They allow you to run a preparation and a weapon enchant and, if you have an ele in the party, a conjure simultaneously for good effect. Even by yourself you should believe that a vampiric bow, dual shot, kindle arrows and brutal or nightmare weapon rocks. Nightmare weapon is good because it takes 50 damage off your physical, which can be mitigated by armor, and changes it to significant life stealing damage which can't be mitigated by armor.

how786 · May 07, 2006, 02:03 AM // 02:03

Thanks for the excellent advice Strobo.
How786