Curse

Falconer · Aug 24, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

Some oddball experimental builds I've been screwing around with now in GW:EN.

Prepared Shot, Expert Focus. You litererally regen energy as fast or faster than you can fire w/ expert's focus and 10/5 energy attacks w/ expert focus. This has enabled one of the more unorthodox approaches to PvE... the heal party ranger

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12/14 marks, 13-14exp, 11 healing prayers
Prepared Shot, energy engine good +dam attack
Sloth Hunters Shot: I'm regularly cracking targets for 100 point hits w/ this @ 14marks.
Lightning Reflexes: defensive stance/IAS
Concussion Shot/Savage Shot: area prefernece... I just love the warm fuzzy I get when dazing casters especially ice imps.
Distracting shot: never leave home w/o one hard interupt
Expert Focus, nice +dam and energy reductions
Heal Party: 63 point heal party, you should be able to hit it roughly every 10s.
Rez Chant/Renew Life/rez: Rez chant is half ranged and usefull, but renew life continues the wide area heal motif... (you bring them back at 50% health, then hit them and everyone else within earshot w/ a 110 point heal, and best of all renew life is reduced by expertise now).

Use the same technique as above but substitute spinal shivers for a hard hex interupt and the energy to fuel/cast it. Nice thing about this as opposed wager/shivers is you don't lose energy for misses and the prep does RtW grade +dam. And it costs you nothing to spam needling shot 5->2 (-2) == 0. Downside, no self heal... limited defense (you have 11s of lightning reflexes... use it well).

It strikes me that the prepared/expert combo opens up quite a few spell possibilities. Smiting looks to be very interesting w/ it's offensive buffs/debuffs. (scourge healing/enchant, judges insight, smite hex, and now smite condition as good candidate skills) since you've effectively made your bread and butter bow attacks 'free'. (2 energy for a bow attack which takes 2s to execute, means you've regened 2 energy in the time it took you to use it). You've opened up a lot of energy to actually utilize spells WITHOUT SACRIFICING OFFENSE (which rangers have never been able to do outside of the touch variety).

Axe Trapper:
I've always wanted to play around with a sword/axe build like this but have alwaysbeen limited by the lack of a good offhand item. If you enter the norn tourney (reasonably easy w/ a PvP Burning Arrow build despite it's 'master' difficulty flag), you win the norn cup... for rangers all you care about is it's +5 armor, +6 energy, +30 health offhand (something rangers really lack for). It's not the best offhand, but it beats NO offhand by a longshot.

But the basic premise is it's a fairly robust stance tank, w/ decent AOE offense. You could also do reasonable single target damage using barbed trap for bleed and gash for deep wound

8+1 expertise, 12 sword or axe, 10+4 wilderness
Lightning Reflexes: 9s of IAS/75% block
Whirling Defense/nat stride: 15s of 75% block/projectile AOE damage, 50% block w/ faster recharge better uptime and kite/run skill to boot
Cyclone Axe:
Triple Chop:
Apply Poison
Barbed Trap (AOE snare/bleed)
Flame Trap/Dust Trap (preference, if there's a SF elly already I tend to go for dust since you can't stack burns)
Troll

Basically you can go in, use lightning reflexes first... cover for lightning reflexes w/ whirling defense while it's recharging, and then use lightning again after whirling ends. At this point if you haven't blinded them AOE w/ dust trap you' may need to kite a bit or simply rely on troll/monk to tank. Between barbed and apply you should have everything in your near vicinity at -7 degen.

Basically hard part w/ a build like this was finding a spot to fit in a rez... since there's quite a few attacks/traps/etc. you'd like to bring but you're limited to 8 slots. Also generally you'll be the one lying dead if things go badly as well since you should be holding some aggro.

Again, thanks to the norn cup... pet builds utilizing a sword or axe instead of a hammer since you now have a viable offhand. I don't think there's much room for these... hammer has the benefit that it's the energy intensive of the warrior weapons so benefits ranger the most to use (since 2 handed w/ no offhands available anyhow is no drawback). But Axe is best warrior AOE, and sword is decent now since nightfall...

I'm curious to see what options the expansion has opened up that others are eyeing.

SnipiousMax · Aug 28, 2007, 07:33 PM // 19:33

Personally, I like Sloth Hunters shot + daze. Interrupt registers first, so the damage from SHS will always trigger.

MBP · Aug 28, 2007, 08:22 PM // 20:22

I was running Burning arrow/apply poison/interrupt on Magrid and she was pwning face.

liner · Aug 28, 2007, 10:39 PM // 22:39

new tombs team gimmick build:
* splinter barrage
* "Go for The Eyes"
* Orders
* "I Am The Strongest"
(shouts do stack do they?)

MBP · Aug 28, 2007, 11:46 PM // 23:46

yes I believe shouts and chants can stack

distilledwill · Aug 29, 2007, 06:50 AM // 06:50

Im not sure about a whole build, but i found "you move like a dwarf!" to be a very effective interupt, damage and cripple, with the ability to activate halfway thru any action, meaning you dont have to allow a prep to run out as you are anticipating a skill.

Pericles · Aug 29, 2007, 12:40 PM // 12:40

All fellow barrage-rangers, take a look at this skill:
'Dodge This!' Shout. For 12...20 seconds, your next attack cannot be blocked and does +10...20 damage.
Affects ALL your arrows, and recharges itself if you hit at least 4 foes.
I know what i'll be using in EotN

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And look at this skill, it may give your arrows knock down!:
Great Dwarf Weapon -Target other ally's weapon strike for +X damage and has a Y% chance to cause knockdown.

And theres this:
You plant an Ebon Battle Standard of Honor at your current location. For 10...15 seconds, non-Spirit allies in this area strike for +8...15 damage and an additional +15...24 vs. Charr.

Retrieved from "http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Ebon_Battle_Standard_of_Honor"

Not bad huh? We'll be able to do tombs HM with only 4-3 barrage rangers, and no orders necro.

MBP · Aug 29, 2007, 08:50 PM // 20:50

you might be able to go to 4 rangers

I dunno about losing the orders necro...it's still very helpful...and you'll still need a br source for the monk..not to mention order of the vampire helps keep the rangers alive

that great dwarf weapon will probably see more effective use on the orders necro as well if it affects all arrows.

neat stuff

Vincenzo · Aug 30, 2007, 11:17 AM // 11:17

For most of the preview, I used [skill]Barrage[/skill] and Volley with [skill]Brutal Weapon[/skill], Dodge This!, Finish Him! and [skill]Favorable Winds[/skill].

Was great fun

lennymon · Aug 31, 2007, 12:16 AM // 00:16

nice one Snipious! I'll have to load the sloth for vanquish mode with my BHA build, and spike out those bosses a little quicker

Evilsod · Aug 31, 2007, 05:26 PM // 17:26

Right... the interrupt from Warmongers Weapon registers after Avatar of Lyssa activates so you get +53 damage AND interrupt casters. And now it turns out Sloth Hunters activates after the interrupt so we still get damage!

SOME CONSISTANCY WOULD BE RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOING NICE!