Curse

around · Mar 17, 2007, 03:40 PM // 15:40

I'm trying to set up my PvE ranger ready to do PvP, but there's a few slight difficulties. I know what weapon sets I need (+60 staff, crippling recurve bow, poisonous longbow) but it's the armour which really gives me a headache. Will I need survivor insignias on all my armour, which entails buying a new set of Elonian armour and upgrading it, or will Druid's do for now?

Div · Mar 17, 2007, 04:39 PM // 16:39

It depends on how picky you are with your armor sets. If it's just casual HA, then any armor set would be ok, though it's preferred you get multiple sets for different occasions (high expertise, high marks, etc). If you're going into top 50 gvg, then it's better to have all the sets so you can perform your best and not be greatly held back because your weapon/armor sets make you end up with 40 less health and 10 less armor...

Lykan · Mar 17, 2007, 06:51 PM // 18:51

+ Energy armour really is best for a ranger imo.

around · Mar 17, 2007, 06:54 PM // 18:54

I have all the masks I need (although they all have Superiors, need to change that). I was just wondering if I needed +health armour instead of my trusty pink Druid's set. Seems not then, since my (current) guild are just getting into GvG (rank 1k-ish).

*only 10k more for a sup vigor!*

Barbie goes guru · Mar 18, 2007, 04:48 AM // 04:48

if running 13 expertise (with 13 and 11 being the break points for skill costs) only crip shot would need +energy armour. BHA + BA would not need + energy armour. + Armour vs physical is a fav of mine as you already have such a high resistance to ele damage.

Ronin Rangerin · Mar 18, 2007, 05:44 AM // 05:44

Cripshots should have 14 expertise minimum, Ill go with 15 if I dont have to invest to heavily into other attribute lines, and a + 5 energy bow.

I usually have a mix of health, energy armour, with vitae runes where I can fit them in.

Thom Bangalter · Mar 18, 2007, 07:34 AM // 07:34

Rangers can wear superior expertise on crip shot because if you die on ranger, you suck. Natural stride>everything.

JR · Mar 18, 2007, 10:28 AM // 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin Rangerin

Cripshots should have 14 expertise minimum, Ill go with 15 if I dont have to invest to heavily into other attribute lines, and a + 5 energy bow.

I usually have a mix of health, energy armour, with vitae runes where I can fit them in.

15 is the breakpoint for expertise on a Crip-shot, so it makes sense to take a major expertise rune. Superiors are overkill.

As for armor, combinations of health and energy as you see fit.

Franco Power · Mar 18, 2007, 01:24 PM // 13:24

If you really want to play all kinds of builds for a Ranger in PvP, I suggest you get:

Druids/radiant armor,

a +5energy bow+30hp recurve bow (rotwing is fine),
a longbow/30hp (archers, first spikes, pulling knights,etc),
a vampiric hornbow/30hp(spiking),
and any shortbow/30hp (choking gas),

this really should be all you need, if your guild gets into specific builds for example ebon dust ranger, then you'll need a ebon bow, but most important thing is to know what you're doing and know what to play, your equipment really doesn't matter if you can't play your cards right, for example if you have trouble interrupting a hard rez, or a diversion or a avatar (other examples like this are valid too), then you shouldn't be playing ranger anyway.

About the 15 breakpoint for crippling shot, I think 13 is enough for any ranger build, ofcourse it depends a lot in what skills you bring, but if it's just the common crippling/apply with a couple of interrupts then if you need 15 in expertise, you obviously doing something wrong and spamming skills too much when they're not needed, although I'd say the most common build for ranger now in gvg/ta is Burning Arrow or Broad Head.

To put it simple, if you already have druids armor, keep that, get a rotwing recurve bow and you should be fine, practise makes perfect.

TheOneMephisto · Mar 18, 2007, 01:38 PM // 13:38

There are quite a few bows you should actually have. To play almost any ranger build, I would suggest:

+5e/+30 recurve
15>50 +30 recurve
+5e +30 longbow
15>50 +30 flatbow
15>50 +30 shortbow

I would suggest having a crippling and poisoning version of each of those bows, depending on the build and variation you're using.

Patrograd · Mar 18, 2007, 02:53 PM // 14:53

For me, the maximum energy pool on either a ranger or indeed anything else is kind of irrelevant. Power eles need alot of initial energy, but other than that, I cant think what difference it makes as 90% of the time you operating off very low energy, well below your maximum. This is why monks can get away with running as their default weapon set a spear and shield and less than 30 energy max, as most of the time they are working with 5-15 energy anyway or less. If energy is an issue on a ranger, and some builds are quite tight, bring a +energy bow, and switch into it when you need to get that key interrupt or crip off.

So personally I would always bring high health armour on pretty much anything really, and use weapon swapping for energy management

TheOneMephisto · Mar 18, 2007, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrograd

For me, the maximum energy pool on either a ranger or indeed anything else is kind of irrelevant. Power eles need alot of initial energy, but other than that, I cant think what difference it makes as 90% of the time you operating off very low energy, well below your maximum. This is why monks can get away with running as their default weapon set a spear and shield and less than 30 energy max, as most of the time they are working with 5-15 energy anyway or less. If energy is an issue on a ranger, and some builds are quite tight, bring a +energy bow, and switch into it when you need to get that key interrupt or crip off.

So personally I would always bring high health armour on pretty much anything really, and use weapon swapping for energy management

The thing is that on ranger you can't rely on weapon-swapping as much, as all you can get is +5 energy since you can't use a focus. Also, rangers are practically invulnerable with natural stride + high armor, making +health a little less needed.

Franco Power · Mar 18, 2007, 03:55 PM // 15:55

Rangers aren't being targeted most of the times anyway, usually priorities are monks, warriors/assassins/dervishes/ , runner and then ranger or other,
You have 100al vs Elementalists and a Natural stride, Energy armor is better then health for ranger.

And what kind of weapon swapping are you talking about, Bows don't have +12 energy, we don't do sword/shield, since I doubt your ranger will be using a one handed weapon, bows only have +5energy. Which you can swap from 15^50 when you need it, but it's not going to get you anything more then a Mending touch or savage shot before you're low on energy.
Play smart and you shouldn't have energy problems with a ranger, expertise is the best primary after Soul reaping for energy imo.

around · Mar 18, 2007, 04:04 PM // 16:04

What sort of health do you guys usually run at? Is something around 540 good?

Patrograd · Mar 18, 2007, 04:14 PM // 16:14

I would think that any character designed to go solo/skirmish needs as much health as he can get to be honest. The longer you can go without having to stop for three seconds and use troll the better imo. I still dont understand why you believe that having a maximum energy of say 35 is going to help you when you dont have any energy any more than having a maximum pool of 25 will. What matters isnt what your max "natural" energy is, what matters is how much energy you can get your hands on when you really need it and how you handle things when you have zero energy.

I havent played ranger much recently - but surely if you run a -5 energy bow (do these still exist?) and a +5 energy bow you actually have a spare pool of 10 energy, which can allow you to get up that apply/troll, or allow you to get a vital natural stride/mending touch off that will save your life. Maybe this is just me though

Llint · Mar 18, 2007, 09:54 PM // 21:54

I find most builds I use for rangers, expertise usually cover my butt energy wise. Only time I've rolled a +5 energy bow was running a crippling shot.

Iotan · Mar 19, 2007, 10:50 PM // 22:50

I like running +energy for most or all of my armor. With crazy skills like Natural Stride and Mending Touch you should almost never die, and the times when you would die (water snared on a split or something) they will have more than ~30 more damage than your health to kill you. In a ranger vs. ranger fight the winner if there is one will be the person who d-shots MTouch first and not who has the highest max life.