Curse

LifeInfusion · Jun 18, 2007, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Ranger/Paragon
Level: 20

Expertise: 15 (11+4)
Marksmanship: 12 (11+1)
Motivation: 8

- Expert's Dexterity [Elite] (Expertise) <-- makes attacks +150% more expensive, but 75% faster recharge on attacks
- Distracting Shot (Expertise) <-- 2.5 recharge D-shot

- Determined Shot (Marksmanship) <-- to cover for when Distracting shot misses, since it can be used to recharge all attack skills under blind/miss chance hexes
- Needling Shot (Marksmanship) <-- 1 recharge Needling shot even if target is over 50% HP (armor ignoring) effectively means you can damag when interruption is not wise
- Lyric of Zeal (Motivation) <-- when in a jam, use this with Remedy Signet to gain energy
- Remedy Signet (Paragon Other) <-- remove blind, etc. and use to trigger Lyric of Zeal
- Leader's Zeal (Motivation) <-- when under Rust or Lyric of Zeal is inavailable for the energy gain
- Sunspear Rebirth Signet () <-- res

The Sideboard
- Keen Arrow (Marksmanship) instead of Crossfire, given the high chance of critical if you spam attack skills (especially with Go for the eyes active)
-Signet of Synergy (Motivation) instead of Remedy Signet, for a more support based role but having 10 cooldown for the Lyric of Zeal trigger

THROWN out:
- Crossfire (Marksmanship) <-- 1second recharge Crossfire is nice but not sustainable and the gains are minimal over normal usage
- Hunter's Shot (Marksmanship) instead of Determined Shot, for conditional bleeding (although it has diminishing returns given the reapplication of bleeding is pointless)

The obvious questions:
Why no wilderness survival?
Only one prep can be used at a time anyway. Traps aren't too useful on a bow ranger either.

Why 12 Marksmanship:
If you wanted pure DPS, Expert's Dexterity is by far the worst elite you can choose. You are better off running Maruader's shot for DPS (especially under Serpent's Quickness). As such, the best use for Expert's Dexterity is Expertise based bow atatcks with 5 energy cost. Given the only such skill that fits that description is Distracting Shot, it was a 100% must have for the build.

what equipment?
Zealous bow is a recommended weapon. 150% more energy cost means you need 15 expertise to get a 1:1 ratio on all 5 energy skills and Zealous makes it more workable with a fast refire bow such as the shortbow.

Why no 10 energy attacks?
10 energy attacks are not sustainable under Expert's Dexterity.
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R/P Expert's Dex : the pet version

This is less effective as far as energy management goes since you can carry a staff to circumvent the immense energy strain of the attacks but you cannot wield a zealous mod.

Ranger/Paragon
Level: 20

Expertise: 15 (11+4)
Beast Mastery: 12 (11+1)
Motivation: 8

- Expert's Dexterity [Elite] (Expertise)
- Disrupting Lunge (Beast Mastery) <-- interrupts every 2.5 seconds
- Savage Pounce/Bestial Pounce (Beast Mastery) <-- knock down spell caster every 2.5 seconds
- Bestial Mauling (Beast Mastery) <-- daze spell caster after the knockdown
- Leader's Zeal (Motivation) <-- energy
- Charm Animal (Beast Mastery) <-- for the pet
- Comfort Animal (Beast Mastery) <-- to res/heal the pet
- Sunspear Rebirth Signet () <-- res

Sideboard:
- Predator's Pounce (Beast Mastery) and (Beast Mastery) instead of Savage Pounce/Bestial Pounce and Bestial Mauling when foes cannot be knocked down
- Feral Lunge (Beast Mastery) and Poisonous Bite (Beast Mastery) instead of Savage Pounce/Bestial Pounce and Bestial Mauling when foes cannot be knocked down for 7 degen (less advantageous than first set of sideboard)
- Call of Haste (Beast Mastery) and Otyugh's Cry if blocking and moving foes is a concern

CONSIDERATIONS that were thrown out
- Pounce (Beast Mastery) was considered but the advantages are far too low compared to say a warrior with Bull's Strike even if the 20 recharge is cut down to 5 seconds since the pet AI is horrible when it comes to attacking a moving target

As seen here, two slots just to carry the pet is pretty costly.

SUMMARY
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The elite Expert's Dexterity on its own is pretty luring at first, but then it comes to you that at 3 pips of energy, you can only afford the 5 energy cost attack skills under Expert's Dexterity when they have 5 recharge or more. The AVAILABILITY of the skill for use (as in not greyed out) is different than the ABILITY to use the skill. (3 pips of energy = 1 energy per second)

If you use a Zealous bow, and it is a short bow it probably will be more advantageous. Assuming you don't even shoot the Zealous bow when you aren't using an attack skill (yeh right) then the skills can be afforded every 6 seconds. The cost is effectively 4 since when you hit, you get 1 energy back on your 5 energy skill.
Or in numerical form:
4 energy/(2/3 energy per second) = 6 seconds
The thing is, this is a worst case scenario since most likely you will be plinging away with your bow even when not using attack skills.

The elite effectively forces you into having 0 expertise when using attack skills (at 15 expertise) and at lower expertise than 15 it makes skills even more costly than their base cost. The only way to mitigate this extreme energy strain is Energizing Wind, which is by no means reliable whether in PvE or PvP.

The elite's shortfall is the fact that with this theoretical 5-6 second in between time for attack skills, you might as well not use the elite since only a handful of skills are greater than this downtime in recharge and those that are greater than 6 second recharge tend to be 10 or 15 energy anyway. The exception is the frontloading of energy via a staff on a beastmastery build.

THE INNER WORKINGS
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NONELITE Bow attacks with more than 6 second recharge:
- Concussion Shot (25 energy, 5 recharge) <-- no one in their right mind runs this even in a regular ranger build
- Pin Down (15 energy, 15 recharge) <-- notice this cannot be used in any way with Expert's Dexterity
- Debilitating Shot (10 energy, 10 recharge) <-- notice the 10 energy cost
- Screaming Shot (10 energy, 8 recharge) <-- notice the 10 energy cost
- Precision Shot (10 energy, 6 recharge) <-- 10 energy
- Power Shot (10 energy, 6 recharge) <-- 10 energy
- Splinter Shot (10 energy, 5 recharge) <-- 10 energy
- Savage Shot (10 energy, 5 recharge) <-- 10 energy
- Forked Arrow (10 energy, 5 recharge) <-- 10 energy

- Distracting Shot (5 energy, 10 recharge) --> the one skill that shines under Expert's Dexterity
- Pounce (5 energy, 20 recharge)
- Bestial Mauling (5 enegry, 20 recharge)
- Savage Pounce/Bestial Pounce (5 energy, 10 recharge)
- Feral Lunge (5 energy, 10 recharge)
- Disrupting Lunge (5 energy, 10 recharge)
- Poisonous Bite (5 energy, 7 recharge)
- Determined Shot (5 energy, 10 recharge)
- Marauder's Shot (10 energy, 6 recharge)
- Keen Arrow (5 energy, 6 recharge)
- Arcing Shot (5 energy, 6 recharge)
- Hunter's Shot (5 energy, 5 recharge)