Curse

Lux Aeterna · May 08, 2009, 01:52 PM // 13:52

Why do people use this ?

It doesn't seem as cool or effective as a RaO hammer/axe.

Spears are easily kited, and an RaO axe is going to put out much more pressure.

Stop using this.

distilledwill · May 08, 2009, 02:00 PM // 14:00

Huh? spear thumper?

A thumper was (and, i suppose, sorta is) a ranger with a hammer. It was used with Rampage as One as it could provide constant IAS and IMS with high powered skills with reduced energy cost. The pet added a little more damage too i guess (also allowed for daze to be applied.)

A spear ranger uses a spear, funnily enough, used to be called packhunters (as people would use 3 of them and there would be 3 heroes and 3 pets). In HB they often use [[heal as one] rather than [[rampage as one] and, in conjunction with blocking stances and [[antidote signet], makes a very very sturdy hero shrine capper which easily spreads poison and bleeding with [[barbed spear] and [[apply poison]. In other (low end) pvp places you might sometimes find a spear ranger with no pet, but it doesnt strike me as being as effective.

Gift3d · May 08, 2009, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Because it's extremely defensive and is incredibly annoying. That's the golden combo in guild wars, if you can defend and annoy, the kids LOVE it.

Archress Shayleigh · May 08, 2009, 02:51 PM // 14:51

A. It's spear CHUCKER / packhunter.
B. It's for pressure, not damage.
C. Conditions are awesome.
D. C'mon dodge MY spear!

Thats Too Bad · May 08, 2009, 03:07 PM // 15:07

It actually IS damage.

Theyre called Enraged Chuckers

[merciless spear][enraged lunge][run as one][feral aggression][Otyugh's Cry][charm animal][comfort animal]

Krill · May 08, 2009, 04:05 PM // 16:05

I'm just assuming this is a TA related thread.

The rao spear can pressure with poison and bleeding super easy, the e-lunge spear can lock pet onto monks and do fairly big and unblockable damage while also pressuring with conditions. Those builds are generally used in hex pressure builds. The rao axe build pressures with interrupt spam and is usually used with 2 thumpers / 2 monks and functions differently than the spear chucker.

I would agree they are both equally retarded though. In regards to the e-lunge beastmaster people play them because it's somewhat broken (otyugh's cry + e-lunge), takes absolutely no skill to use and divides your damage (ranger spreads conditions, pet does damage).

Lux Aeterna · May 08, 2009, 04:24 PM // 16:24

Does this do more or less damage than a hammer war / burning arrow condition ranger ?

Reverend Dr · May 08, 2009, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lux Aeterna

Does this do more or less damage than a hammer war / burning arrow condition ranger ?

Yes DEE PEE ESS is the final say. Especially comparing three builds whose highlights are condition pressure, knocklocking, and disruption/spike respectively.

They deal decent damage and have a gimmicky way of going around normal defenses. They are alright until someone figures out a way around the gimmick then they don't function nearly as well.

[barbed spear][merciless spear][otyughs cry][tigers fury][enraged lunge][charm animal][comfort animal] imo, no need to overload on pet buffs, get tiger's IAS which also fuels enraged, spread some bleeding

Zzes Tyan · May 08, 2009, 07:49 PM // 19:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lux Aeterna

Spears are easily kited

lol? Hammers are alot easier to kite. just dont suck.

Reverend Dr · May 08, 2009, 08:38 PM // 20:38

Spears are easy to kite. See the ground next to your characters feet? Click it. Now click where your feet were. Repeat as necessary. Congratulations you just dodged a whole para-spike.

Zzes Tyan · May 08, 2009, 09:11 PM // 21:11

and you can just walk away from a hammer thumper. its called not having a fail team, theres these things called snares and they make epic anti melee

Reverend Dr · May 08, 2009, 09:31 PM // 21:31

The difference is that your team has to contribute snares and such to escape from the hammer, movement alone is not enough. Furthermore the hammer user's own positioning can fight back against snares and kiting, the team can shut down your snares/blinds, their monk can remove hexes/conditions. Against spears the constant juke stepping will dodge every spear and there is no amount of placement or individual skill the spear thrower can use to prevent this.

I consider only having to use one simple movement trick to be easier than having to use skills and having to outplay your opponent.

kvndoom · May 08, 2009, 09:39 PM // 21:39

In RA (and only RA) I will run [holy spear] in that build (probably drop Barbed), because you stand a much higher chance of running into spirit shitters. It's a niche skill for sure, but when you get to use it to its full benefit there's nothing else quite like it.

Lux Aeterna · May 09, 2009, 03:15 AM // 03:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zzes Tyan

lol? Hammers are alot easier to kite. just dont suck.

Spears don't teleport and chain knockdowns, spears don't bull's strike in flail.

I'm curious because this seems a bit of a random fad, I've been seeing lots of them lately (Seems like about 40% of the ranger population in RA/AB is doing this).

As far as kiting spears go, they seem to have a very slow flight time compared to arrows. Many times when I'm trying to build adrenaline at the start of a fight, people will just run back and forth via click to move, cutting my adrenaline gain by 80-90%.

So basically, pets do more damage than you'd think and are unblockable. I've never played a caster in pvp, pets hit me for less than 10, so this seems like kind of a weird trend.

I have a lot of respect for axe/hammer rangers, though. Seems a bit less static, and everyone knows how overpowered an IAS/IMS combined is.

You absolutely cannot just walk away from a hammer thumper. You try to walk away, and find that the hammer thumper runs faster, resulting in moving crits and potential bull's strike, after which you are dazed.

It's like saying you can just walk away from a [primal rage] axe.

Also where's your dshot?

Seraphim of Chaos · May 09, 2009, 04:48 AM // 04:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend Dr

Spears are easy to kite. See the ground next to your characters feet? Click it. Now click where your feet were. Repeat as necessary. Congratulations you just dodged a whole para-spike.

i herd this works with lorbs too?

Wish Swiftdeath · May 09, 2009, 06:12 AM // 06:12

i herd there's someplace called dragon arena's?

Xyon the Greatest · May 11, 2009, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Actually I would say in 1v1, HaO Packhunters are overpowered.

They can do an easy -7 degeneration every 3 seconds (So you cant really get it off of u) And they also use things like whirling defence and [lightning reflexes] to get a huge amount of blocking in, not to mention [heal as one] and [antidote signet] to keep yourself healed up.

Packhunters can do a lot of pressure and survive longer than a normal player.

Thats Too Bad · May 12, 2009, 12:01 PM // 12:01

They also do little damage and have no interrupts as a ranger. Btw blocking isnt imba, in this meta almost every necro packs [defile defenses][foul feast] and dervs have [wild blow]

360° · May 12, 2009, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thats Too Bad

and dervs have [wild blow]

What dervs?

Gforce · May 12, 2009, 02:19 PM // 14:19

This thread is kinda stupid since the OP didnt specify what area this is about.

I find R/P to be the biggest problem in the team arena's because (as arienrhode said already) they deal stupid dps through conditions and unblockable dps. Dodging is a good way to limit spear dps, but since you cant be always dodging the R/P should be able to hit people all the time by switching targets.
A big part of the damage comes from conditions and from the pets aswell. FF does help against the conditions but since the barbed spear buff a while back it doesn't really keep up with the condi spam especially when your necro gets diversion spammed.