Curse

Danax · Jun 02, 2007, 09:37 PM // 21:37

I decided to create a thread to post Builds for Rangers that do fairly well in Hard Mode. Simply post your build that works and give a little detail on it.

Edit: Edited Title.

I'll Start:

Broad Head Arrow {Poison}
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Wilderness 8+1, marksmanship 11+1+3, Expertise 11+1

Skills:

Broad Head Arrow
Apply Poison
Favourable Winds
Distracting Shot
Throw Dirt
Whirling Defense
Troll Unguent OR Lightning Reflexes OR Dodge.
Rebirth OR Sunspear Rebirth Signet

Use Favourable winds before pulling, (May want to skip if you're in a timed mission or confident that your BHA will hit.)

Use Apply Poison. Pull.

Target Key Spellcaster (Monk or Ritualist or Fire elementalist). Use Broad Head arrow.

Notes:

Keep apply poison up. It is the only real use you have other than Daze.
Distracting shot can be used for Recharging Dazes, and general interrupting.
Whirling Defense if you start taking damage.
Always carry a Rebirth-like Res.

Evilsod · Jun 02, 2007, 10:04 PM // 22:04

I think you mean Edition.

Smoke Trapper
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Smoke Trap
Barbed Trap
Dust Trap
Tripwire
Trapper's Speed
Whirling Defences
Healing Spring
Renew Life

Can change out Healing Spring for Flame Trap if you use SF eles. Healing Spring is more for minions.

I really doubt this needs an explanation... its a trapper. If its small, lure, trap. If its big, trap, lure, if its big and nasty, trap and trap more, then lure.

Done me proud vanquishing S. Shiverpeaks and other areas.

letshuntx · Jun 02, 2007, 10:50 PM // 22:50

i just got legendary guardian and there are a few variations that i use.
BHA + epidemic, screaming shot is also useful in there with apply poison also.
but that works best if you got a silencing shortbow specially for bosses cause conditions dont last long in hardmode.
Splinter Barrage for areas with bunched up enemies.
Burning Arrow is also useful for single target damage but i prefer glass arrows.

just make up your own builds, there are no real cookie cutter builds

lennymon · Jun 03, 2007, 06:16 PM // 18:16

Lol, both the OP's build and Sod's are ones which I frequently use

I never use favorable winds though with BHA as it has no effect on the BHA arc, so I add needling shot for the broken bha/needling combo.

Sod: beautiful, I didn't think anyone else *ever* used smoke trap in pve..you just made my day

ArKaiN · Jun 03, 2007, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by letshuntx

Burning Arrow is also useful for single target damage but i prefer glass arrows.

What? Why?! Bleeding sucks, and every foe in the game burn.

Evilsod · Jun 03, 2007, 11:22 PM // 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by lennymon

Sod: beautiful, I didn't think anyone else *ever* used smoke trap in pve..you just made my day

Been using it for weeks. I've been urging people to use it since before my 3 week ban ^^

Finally got myself a Silencing Spear to go with it too. Nothing beats a group of henchman (usually monks cos they've got nothing to do yet) wanding a Dolyak Master after everything just got caught in a trap stack, interrupting its MoP and watching it die from SF. Made Dreadnoughts Drift/Lornars Pass/Ice Dome a freeze.

Of course it does occasionally backfire. Outcast Deathhands Plague Touching everything back onto the monk and cutting it down happens alot. But that tends to make things all the more amusing, hehe. Of course there are the Contagion Heket and the Plague Signet Grawl, does get a tad annoying having a 26 second cripple when your hench don't have condition removal. Man that made Frozen Forest take so long, i hate Pinesouls!

XvArchonvX · Jun 03, 2007, 11:37 PM // 23:37

@ Evilsod: Why Renew Life? I always thought it was one of the worst rez spells in GW for anything other than a monk using Holy Haste and primarily healing prayers.

Evilsod · Jun 04, 2007, 12:26 AM // 00:26

I just prefer it. It casts at the same speed as the other ressurects, has a pretty small cooldown (which *should* only matter after battles), and acts as a Heal Party during mid battle. Since its a touch skill it doesn't cost all that much. You can't trap constantly anyway, so while you ressurect people who need it everyone else can carry on killing.

Even at 3 in HP it heals for 70, which isn't that bad, especially with degen spells been so strong vs hench.

Epinephrine · Jun 04, 2007, 01:18 AM // 01:18

Used Fevered Archer setup a few times, works well

10+2+1 Expertise
10+2 Marksmanship
10+1 Wilderness Survival
5 Illusion

Fevered Dreams [E]
Screaming Shot
Pin Down
Throw Dirt
Concussion Shot
Apply Poison
Troll Unguent
Resurrection Signet

Have Silencing, Crippling, Posionous and Barbed bows, depending on what's most important. Might seem odd, but has been very useful, can mass daze casters, mass cripple and blind attackers, spreads 7 pips of degen on petty much anyone and allows your party to spread stuff easily too (burning and weakness for example, easily weakening or burning many enemies). The concussion shot still requires actually interrupting the enemy, but because you are using an AoE effect you can even daze a hard to interrupt boss by targeting a caster beside him, spreading the daze. Interestingly, the +33% modifier for conditions is applied once to the main target and compounded when spread to the other targets, so you in fact deliver +77% duration on the AoE conditions (thus 21 seconds of poison, 30 seconds of bleeding or daze or 23 seconds of cripple at these levels)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

Finally got myself a Silencing Spear to go with it too.

Have they changed traps? I tested Barbed trap about 6 months ago (date is hazy, it was pre-nightfall) and neither the bleeding nor the cripple durations were affected by crippling or barbed modifiers.

Edit again: Tested Smoke trap, the daze is not affected by Silencing mod, but interestingly the Barbed trap seemed to be affected by a crippling mod - while the blind and dazed disappear at the same time, the bleeding and crippled don't. Possibility? I wrote in and complained about the traps not being affected by the mods, but before Nightfall. They fixed the traps, but didn't include the fix in the new trap?

phool · Jun 04, 2007, 07:59 AM // 07:59

EDA builds are perfect for areas like ruins of surmia where teams are small.

13 expertise
about 9 marks
about 9 ws
about 8 earth

called shot
distracting shot
(savage shot)
(screaming shot)
ebon dust aura
apply poison
enchant cover, defensive stance, etc
res

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArKaiN

What? Why?! Bleeding sucks, and every foe in the game burn.

glass arrows isn't used for the bleeding but rather that nice +18 or so armour ignoring damage. It's used for spiking normally though, skills like prepared shot are a better choice for dps.

burning arrow's very OU outside of splits which is is the only place it's really strong. People who copy builds like solo ganking builds off obs cheese me off a little, especially when they don't even replace skills like mending touch.

Evilsod · Jun 04, 2007, 09:53 AM // 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

Have they changed traps? I tested Barbed trap about 6 months ago (date is hazy, it was pre-nightfall) and neither the bleeding nor the cripple durations were affected by crippling or barbed modifiers.

Edit again: Tested Smoke trap, the daze is not affected by Silencing mod, but interestingly the Barbed trap seemed to be affected by a crippling mod - while the blind and dazed disappear at the same time, the bleeding and crippled don't. Possibility? I wrote in and complained about the traps not being affected by the mods, but before Nightfall. They fixed the traps, but didn't include the fix in the new trap?

I've heard mixed answers. While using Smoke Trap it didn't seem that Silencing was making any difference at all. I made a thread asking this on GWO because i've never been sure, seems people all used Crippling/Bleeding mods to test it out on Barbed Trap but didn't use Smoke Trap. I guess we need a new bug report in that case.
Its not a total loss, +5e +5AL spear is sure as hell better than the random +15/-10 +5AL sword i was using before hand just because i could never be bothered to get a new 1.

XvArchonvX · Jun 04, 2007, 01:46 PM // 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evilsod

Since its a touch skill it doesn't cost all that much.

Ahh, yes, it's cheaper since touch skills are affected by expertise, I missed that point. *goes to get Renew Life for his rangers now*

Sophitia Leafblade · Jun 04, 2007, 02:56 PM // 14:56

Generally in Hardmode so far ive been using 1 of 3 dif builds depending what kinda mission it is I have:

My Broad Head Arrow Build for Areas with Nasty Bosses or Eles like Abaddons Mouth
[skill]Broad Head Arrow[/skill][skill]Read The Wind[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Keen Arrow[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Comfort Animal[/skill][skill]Charm animal[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

My Archers Signet Build for areas that need a high dps rate or where energy is low like Ring of Fire
[skill]Archer's Signet[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Marauder's Shot[/skill][skill]Penetrating attack[/skill][skill]Read the Wind[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

MY Greater Conflaguration Build for Areas where i know theres going to be long battles in specific place (combines well with adding Mantra of Frost on all Heros) like Sanctum Cay
[skill]Greater Conflagration[/skill][skill]Winter[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Keen Arrow[/skill][skill]Kindle Arrows[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

ZystD · Jun 09, 2007, 11:06 PM // 23:06

I got legendary guardian and vanquisher on my ranger. I only ran one build most of the time too (bha, frustration, screaming shot, lightning reflexes, res sig, read the winds, epidemic). I always cleared with a anti melee earth ele who could KD alot, or blind and weakness, If there were huge groups of melee or casters, epidemic would spread the blind or daze all over and minions could do the interrupts. Uh, It worked pretty much anywhere.

If i had to solo clear i'd more often set BHA build to a hench, or bring norgu to interrupt with frustration, archane conundrum, web of disrpution, power return and all, and run ebon duster/interrupt myself to blind all the melee and do a few interrupts on occassion.

For the record, I've always hated traps, but I can see how they'd be useful.

I also LOVE using my pet in pve, but whenever i brought pet or tried to do splinter barrage nuking etc. things never seemed to work out. Uh, hope that helped.

Sir Mad · Jun 10, 2007, 12:36 PM // 12:36

Apparently BHA is number 1 in HM...

Here is the setup I use generally:

BHA
Distracting Shot
Penetrating / Sundering Attack (I figured I do more damage with this single skill than with RtW instead)
Throw Dirt
Serpent's Quickness (for spamming BHA and Throw Dirt)
Troll Unguent
Whirling Defense
Rebirth, generally.

Sometimes I pack Epidemic, especially when I use a hero barrager.

I mainly use this build for vainquishing with heroes. When doing mishes with other players I just try to bring what the team lacks.

HalPlantagenet · Jun 10, 2007, 01:31 PM // 13:31

I've finished the Tyria missions and bonuses and am half way through Elona using the following alternating with an [skill=text]Archer's Signet[/skill] - [skill=text]Concussion Shot[/skill] build not unlike the one's sited above. However, most of the time I use the following:

[skill]Burning Arrow[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill][skill]Penetrating Attack[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Needling Shot[/skill][skill]Frenzy[/skill][skill]Apply Poison[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill]

Interuption is left to a shut-down Mesmer or a ranger with a Broad Head Arrow or Concussion Shot build (augmented by a well-equipped Olias MM), either of which is usually, but not necessarily, human. BTW, we chose Elona next, rather than Cantha, because of the rumours that Vizunah Square is particularly unpleasant without human teams on both sides.

For the most part, I still find HM quite enjoyable, however, I miss the greater variety of interuption strategies that have been made all but obsolete by the increased monster cast speed.

Epinephrine · Jun 10, 2007, 01:36 PM // 13:36

For Arborstone HM I used an Enraged Lunge pet build; the armour ignoring bonus damage is nice, and because the pet attacks are shouts they aren't interrupted by ceiling collapse. Bit of a niche build, but it worked.

XvArchonvX · Jun 10, 2007, 03:28 PM // 15:28

I really don't understand why anyone would ever choose Archer's Signet when you can bring Prepared Shot instead...

Amy Awien · Jun 10, 2007, 04:14 PM // 16:14

Ask them. And if it is your opinion that one is better then the other, state as much.

Archers Signet may save 5 or 6 times 16-13 energy (concussion shot) every 45 seconds yields 80-78 energy (something like 1.8 E/sec) and that is more then the 8x7 you'd get from Prepared Shot in a similar timespan (around 1.2 E/sec).

Perfected Shadow · Jun 10, 2007, 05:19 PM // 17:19

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Concussion Shot[/skill][skill]Epidemic[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Throw Dirt[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Energy could be tight but a zealous bow would fix that, non-adjacent casters suck : (

On second thought BHA is probably the way to go, since interrupting HM mobs with their increased casting speeds is a pain.

Razah can be equipped with Splinter Weapon or an MM might be better. Two rangers can probably be taken, one with Barrage, pet, and Tiger's Fury, the other one with BHA and epidemic.