Curse

A Leprechaun · Sep 23, 2007, 09:06 AM // 09:06

I have played ranger in alliance battles many times, mostly as a trapper, toucher or thumper. The few attempts I have had at playing a bow ranger I did not enjoy, so I played around with some skills and can up with this/these builds.

Skills

#1
Burning Ganksman

[skill]Point Blank Shot[/skill][skill]Zojun's Shot[/skill][skill]Burning Arrow[/skill][skill]Augury of Death[/skill][skill]Crippling Dagger[/skill][skill]Dodge[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill]

#2
Punishing Ganksman

[skill]Point Blank Shot[/skill][skill]Zojun's Shot[/skill][skill]Punishing Shot[/skill][skill]Augury of Death[/skill][skill]Crippling Dagger[/skill][skill]Dodge[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill]

#3
Poisonous Ganksman

[skill]Point Blank Shot[/skill][skill]Screaming Shot[/skill][skill]Poison Arrow[/skill][skill]Augury of Death[/skill][skill]Crippling Dagger[/skill][skill]Dodge[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill]

Attributes (All Builds)
Expertise ~ 13 (12+2)
Wilderness ~ 6 (5+1)
Markmasship ~ 14 (12+2+1)
Deadly Arts ~ 7

Armour

Insignias ~ Full Radiant

Runes ~ Major Marksmanship, Major Expertise, Minor Wilderness Survival, Superior Vigor, Vitae

Weapon

This is up to you, I use a:

Crippling Recurve Bow of fortitude.

With this set up you will have 500 health and 33 energy.

Usage

The builds work much the same so I will go over the main idea then give individual explanations in breif.

This build is designed to be close up and provide a lot of damage vs one foe, get close to you target and cast Augury of Death then start popping of your attacks (Will talk more about this later) when your foe get below 50% health, BAM! deep wound and you shadow stepped to him, which is great for Zojuns shot/Point black shot/Screaming Shot. This also helps against kiters, its great fun to see people think they've got away then they take damage and I'm on them again. If the foe is kiting use dodge then Crippling dagger, you can also do this when you shadow step but theres not much point as the foe will soon be dead. Use Whirling Defense when needed.

The main aggresive principle of the build is the deep wound, which the ranger primary does not include. Thus when you shadow step to your foe (after taking them below 50% health) you deal a deep wound and , if time correctly, a high damage Zojun's/Point Blank Shot, this acts as a spike and will make for easy kills.

In depth build usage:

#1
This was the first I made and my favourite, burning arrow is great for damage, just right to push your foe below 50% health then spike him/her down with your two other attacks.

#2
This is my least played build so I'm not entirely sure how good it is yet. The basic theory wa to improve its spike potential by following Point Blank/Zhojun's shot with a quick cast bow damage attack, this work very well, although i feel it loses a lot from losing the degen. It also contains an interupt which can be handy.

#3
This build is very effective, as you have to get in close for some of your other skills anyway the drawback of Screaming shot is no problem, easy long laster degen with a good spike finisher.

It may be different but its fun and works very well. I you have any questions or want to see it in action contact me ingame, my IGN's are to the left <-.

~A Leprechaun~

*ADDED*
Did some alliance battles with build number 2, although it may lack the raw DPS of the BA build, the spike potential of Point Blank/Zojun's Shot followed by Punishing shot is huge. Not sure yet which is best.

A Leprechaun · Sep 24, 2007, 10:46 AM // 10:46

Wow, up for a day and no responses.
Anyone got any comments?

~A Leprechaun~

distilledwill · Sep 24, 2007, 11:12 AM // 11:12

The only thing i would recommend is the use of some preperations. Unstrippable and powerful, they are one of the rangers best weapons.

A Leprechaun · Sep 24, 2007, 11:39 AM // 11:39

Yes, I agree entirly there, played around with kindle arrows and rapid fire, but found that the space on my bar would be better used for other things, what would you suggest replacing? Also casting a 2 seconds cast skill every 24 seconds or so is tiresome in the fast paced combat and capping of alliance battles, will play around with it some more and get back to you.

~A Leprechaun~

distilledwill · Sep 24, 2007, 11:58 AM // 11:58

For the burning arrow ganksman, the classic is apply poison. Its a well established dmg build and will get your target below 50% very quickly, and you can really pound them into the ground with PBS/ZS whilst under poison.
I'd replace crippling dagger, yes they may try to kite, but you have a bow afterall! after 2 point blank shots they may be out of range for you to hit them with another. but then hit them with burning arrow and maybe a couple more hits and they will go down. or use dodge and run after them. If you managed to get them below 50% with just BA and poison, the second 50% wont be too hard with deep wound and the immense PBS and ZS dmg.

bungusmaximus · Sep 24, 2007, 11:59 AM // 11:59

The bars lack the rangers strongest points imo (except for the punishing shot bar), and that's interrupts. No d-shot is bad imo. And why take poison arrow if there's apply poison? Frees up the elite slot for Broad Head Arrow or Cripshot. The shadow steps on the whole are a bad idea, I usually curse rangers in 5 languages because they are often too nimble to kill, and then there is this funny guy who hands over his ass on a silver platter?

A Leprechaun · Sep 24, 2007, 12:05 PM // 12:05

Lol, bungus you dont seem to see the point. Yes rangers can interupt, yes they can run away, but with this build you shouldn't need to interupt or run away, because your target will be dead anyway.
You see?

Yeah I think I will replace cripplign dagger, I dont use it as much as I could be using something else, will play around with apply poison in the BA build, its a sound principle. But I am not a fan of having to cast all the time. Hmm, will try it and see how it goes.
Thanks.

~A Leprechaun~

*added* see bottom of first post.

jesh · Sep 25, 2007, 04:06 AM // 04:06

Rapid Fire.. yes.
Just Rapid Fire and PB/ZS can match the dps of a Glass Arrows build, while still leaving a lot of room to play with. According to a recent post on here, anyway. Escape was the elite of choice since your IAS is taken care of, but I could see going with something else.
I too would get rid of Crippling Dagger. Really, you have a bow.
Even if you did want to keep it for some crazy reason, Siphon Speed is a better skill in every aspect.

distilledwill · Sep 25, 2007, 07:21 AM // 07:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by jesh

Rapid Fire.. yes.
Just Rapid Fire and PB/ZS can match the dps of a Glass Arrows build, while still leaving a lot of room to play with. According to a recent post on here, anyway. Escape was the elite of choice since your IAS is taken care of, but I could see going with something else.
I too would get rid of Crippling Dagger. Really, you have a bow.
Even if you did want to keep it for some crazy reason, Siphon Speed is a better skill in every aspect.

I have to say, i agree that the second two would be improved by adding rapid fire, probably over apply poison.

Im assuming you're talking about the recent discussion of the glass arrows/pbs/zs build I posted on the Best DPS thread.

Ive been thinking of modifying that build with augury of death and maybe siphon speed to see how it gets on. It already tears through most squishies and a lot of rangers/dervishes/sins. It can take a while to deal with wars, but they go down eventually.

bungusmaximus · Sep 25, 2007, 07:50 AM // 07:50

Signet of toxic shock comes in mind...

A Leprechaun · Sep 25, 2007, 07:57 AM // 07:57

Yes, I did use siphon speed but it only slows by 33%, and I wasnt sure if the +33% would stack with dodge, so I thought that cripple(-66%) + 33% run speed, would be better than -33% run speed + +33% run speed. But I may go back to using that, if any.

Has Augury of death been used on rangers much before? I hadnt seen it.

Yeah rapid fire was pretty good with PBS/ZS, may go back to it, but it doesnt last that long with my level of marksmanship ( I think 22s)

Thanks all.

~A Leprechaun~

Added.
About sig of toxic shock, at my level of deadly arts any of my bows attack could greatly out damage it anyway.

KazeMitsui · Sep 25, 2007, 04:11 PM // 16:11

may i suggest you drop marks a bit so that you can boost wilderness to at least 10 then you dont need dodge nor do you need whirling srsly cause then you have natural stride which you can keep up half of the game. provides def and run buff. then with 1 free slot you can keep your same attack skills and maybe add apply poison and then you can drop your whole poison bar and just go with punishing or burning. thats just my thoughts... cause srsly dont need 14 marks at all 10 is fine...

also you said this (didnt feel like quoting since i noticed it after the fact...)
Attributes (All Builds)
Expertise ~ 13 (12+2) <----12+2 != 13 just thought id throw that out there
Wilderness ~ 6 (5+1)
Markmasship ~ 14 (12+2+1)
Deadly Arts ~ 7

but yea maybe take my suggestion into consideration cause then you dont have to wait for dodge's long recharge of 30s for what 11s of speed boost? and whirlings 60s recharge for 18~19s of def? both of those are about 1/3rd of the time up while nat stride at 10 WS you get 6s of speed and def with only 12s recharge. then your trolls can actually heal you and you have room for a WS prep as in apply to add moreeeeee dps and degen

zling · Sep 26, 2007, 08:55 PM // 20:55

I'd use a preparation of choice instead of Dancing Daggers and put Crip Shot as the elite
thus you get an even more spammable cripple and extra damage from a good preparation.

Master Ketsu · Sep 26, 2007, 11:03 PM // 23:03

you can probobly take out both dodge and whirling for [skill]natural stride[/skill], and then use your empty skill slot for [skill]Read the wind[/skill] to add some extra damage to your bow attacks.

That would be my first try. Overall I Like the concept, mid range fighting is rare and fun.