Curse

topple · May 24, 2005, 01:57 AM // 01:57

man i don't know about the 15 lvl 9 horrors, maybe im doing something wrong but i can only reliably get maybe 6 - 7 up and thats pushing it, and im raising lvl 18 bone horrorsso their lasting alot longer that the lvl 9's would :P

doomhorn · May 24, 2005, 06:09 AM // 06:09

My rareness: W/R Berserker Beastmaster :P

mosconi · May 24, 2005, 01:46 PM // 13:46

I have a level 15 N/R. I am focusing on Soul Reaping, Death Magic, and Beast Mastery. I made it specifically to see if the Ranger spell Fertile Season would affect the Bone Horrors I have been raising.

I have not seen anyone say that they have tested this and knows for sure that it will or will not work.

I was hoping to find that I could boost my party's HP AND minions as well, by a bunch, keeping everyone alive longer.

I also am working on a level 8 E/Mo with the focus on Energy Storage and healing prayers, in the attempt to make a pure Healer with a massive Energy pool. Right now, it seems to be working out OK.

rangerguy · May 24, 2005, 04:26 PM // 16:26

Does anyone use R/Mo? I think I've only ever seen one person comment on it.

Ripper · May 24, 2005, 06:08 PM // 18:08

I'm a R/E. We are definately underestimated. Funny comment some guy made to me last night. We were making our 5th attempt at reaching the Forge via Lornars Pass. The whole crew was basically wiped out at some point during all 5 attempts except for me. Each time they asked me to run back (or just die) and zone so we could start again.

At the end of the night this guy said to me. Man, you Rangers have a knack for surviving...

I told him. Yup. We are built for this S&%t.

Axehilt · May 25, 2005, 03:17 AM // 03:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ripper

We were making our 5th attempt at reaching the Forge via Lornars Pass. The whole crew was basically wiped out at some point during all 5 attempts except for me. Each time they asked me to run back (or just die) and zone so we could start again.

At the end of the night this guy said to me. Man, you Rangers have a knack for surviving...

I told him. Yup. We are built for this S&%t.

That's a tricky subject. With many classes you can build them so defensive and selfishly that you're the last guy standing while your group is dead (Rangers and W/Mos in particular.) but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a worthwhile group member. I'm not calling you a newbie - I've never seen you play - but just because you're the Last Man Standing that doesn't necessarily mean you were a quality teammate.

That said, Rangers have tons of extremely powerful/useful skills and I'll always welcome a capable Ranger into my groups. One particularly effective group of mine was composed of 4 rangers who stacked Rituals to help each other out. Pretty awesome to see in action.

Regarding Necro/Warriors, I heard one player comment that they were the best tank in the game. I wouldn't go that far, but I could definitely see how a Blood Magic warrior could really lay down some damage while being a resilient frontline fighter (through healing damage, rather than offsetting damage through armor.) Pretty rare overall though.

Monk/Warriors are probably one of my favorite healer classes - mostly in their utilization of Bonetti's Defense/Balthazar's Spirit.

Ranger/Warriors can be pretty fun with Apply Poison. Either using Axes to apply it in an AOE, or using Swords to do both Bleeding and Poison. Never figured out a really solid build, but it was still pretty fun.

WyvernWraith · May 25, 2005, 07:57 AM // 07:57

My Current character is R/Mo. granted its only the second one I've made but I've found it quite reliable. at level 11 I can solo most areas that I'v gone to(as long as i pick my fights)
I'v gone with a marksman, beast master and healing build so both me and my wolf can tank it when necersary and still do decent damage.

Axehilt · May 25, 2005, 10:15 AM // 10:15

Speaking of Mesmers, I never felt quite so effective as when I took dual spell interrupts and Backfire into the Ascension area when facing Hydras.

Not only would I prevent the party from getting owned by Meteors, I would do some significant damage (or drain energy) in the process! Very effective. (:

Epinephrine · May 25, 2005, 01:27 PM // 13:27

Mesmers are great, but few good mesmers out there. Many of them simply throw conjure phantasm at everything instead of using the interrupts. What a difference it makes to knock out a key spell. In some ways I like the ranger distracting shot better though, sure, only 20 seconds with out the spell, but at a cost of 5 (as low as 2 with expertise) it's cost effective.

I'd agree that the real mesmer builds are underplayed and undervalued by many. The damage is not very visible often (Heck, youcan't even see your own damage from hexes, you just know it is happening when their health bar drops), and players don't realise that a fight seems easier because the enemies spells were being stopped. Several fights I've been in people have said "well that was easier than last time", not realising that shutting down a few key spells makes all the difference.

Lim-Dul · May 25, 2005, 03:43 PM // 15:43

Yeah - it's soooo funny when the group wonders where their hexes go when a mesmer is dispelling them (with Shatter Hex and Inspired Hex) and then they wonder why those uber-creeps don't do shit to them, why they cast spells, use skills etc. I love being the man in the background when it comes to pure gaming-strategy.

Btw. Conjure Phantasm is good as a counter for healing spells. It may not do much damage, but many healing spells are way to fast to counter them directly. That's when Conjure Phantasm comes into play. No one should treat it as a damage-dealing spell in the first place though. =)

Ah! And in PvP? It's soooo sweet when you meet a Mesmer-Underestimating Group out there. They die and flame their monks for not healing them... Well - it's not the monk's fault of course - just their skills got locked for like 20+ seconds, their mana was drained and their spells interrupted. ^^ The same thing happens to elementalists if they don't know better. I usually specialise more in the anti-caster part of mesmerizing, than in the anti-warrior part. That's why I like to have some necromancers (doesn't matter if they are primary or secondary necromancers) around in the party.

HeHateMe · May 25, 2005, 04:50 PM // 16:50

pvp id have to say mesmer, though if the other gorup knows what they are doing the m should go down fast.

for pve, id say smite monk is way underrated. most devastating mob killer there is.

Lim-Dul · May 25, 2005, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Well - there are always two sides of the story - if you concentrate on killing the Mesmer, which is hard enough, cause he might just start defending himself and generally he is able to do that better than e.g. the monk (a monk can just heal - it's a very defensive approach - a Mesmer can stop you from whatever you're doing), and at the same time you will be diverting your attention from the monks/damage dealers in the party and this might be deadly. =) Generally I don't see a way to defeat another way unless you lock/kill its monks first.

Daquiri Gladerunner · May 25, 2005, 11:04 PM // 23:04

I have an R/E who uses air magic and does his job quite well... but I won't let out the specifics

)

DismalClown · May 25, 2005, 11:42 PM // 23:42

Not an uncommon class combo but probably uncommon build (but I don’t know it could be very popular). A Mo/Me Domination / Smiting with a little healer prayers thrown in. I love playing this way and when I join a group I tell them I’m build for damage and I'm out of refund points.

I started a Me/N but I started feeling useless once I hit the higher level. So I switched to Mo/Me and I'm very happy I did. Almost wish I went Me/Mo just so people don’t expect me to be a pure healer but I can't stand the river dance and I love the monk dance.

Falconer · May 26, 2005, 12:04 AM // 00:04

The problem with rangers is that they're improperly billed as a beginner class. As the one poster points out so nicely... they are basically second best at everything... This means they don't do anything exceedingly well but can fill almost any role asked of them in a pinch. I think they should be placed with mesmers and necros as classes to be taken by those more familiar with the game. A lot of people disregard rangers because they haven't seen well played ones, especially in PvP.

I gave up ages ago trying to correct peoples rangers builds. Though almost every time I see one posted I cringe. Also, they're really only balanced for high levels and end up underpowered at low levels. Requiring far different attribute point distributions at low levels than at high levels. Also knowing expertise cost breakpoints is critical for properly setting up the character.

As others have observed (semi-suprisedly to them)... probably the best way to learn the ranger is by sticking with a pure ranger... and only adding skills from your secondary slowly and with practice. If you're just learning ranger... stick with expertise/marksman/survival. A pet makes a nice distraction at low levels... but unless you really like beastmasters and dire pets... I'd recommend against. (personally I'm quite happy with my lvl20 hearty wolf, it tanks like a pro).

Mo/R can work exceedingly well. I know a few who take divine/healing or prot/then round themselves out with survival skills.

For those looking at Ra/W... I wouldn't recommend it until you have some gametime in actually playing a warrior primary. I've always referred to this combo as a berserker... the power of it is that unlike a warrior you don't need to take time to build up adrenaline to do serious damage... You simply load up your skill bar with energy attacks a warrior would have to think long and hard about, and use em early and often. The drawback is that as a ranger is to an elementalist... a Ra/W is to a warrior... you can deal more damage faster... but you don't have nearly the same armor. The key to a Ra/W is the right mix of expertise/choose *ONE* weapon/then survival or tactics to round it out. Trying to get both bow and melee attacks I've never seen work on any serious team build.

In it's current state, I cannot recommend the Ranger as the basis for an 'armored caster'. Expertise works extremely poorly with any crossclass except warrior. And your energy problems are nothing short of legendary. I've tried long and hard to make this work with very limited success. You also short yourself the use of runes in any of the cross-class skills. Also, you need to make sure the chosen line from the secondary has at least a focus/rod combo, or a stave. Or you will find yourself without any weaponry options (inspiration lacks weapons, only focii, same goes for monk healing/protection rackets...).

Someone asked about R/Mo... this is a solid combo... There's really no bad pick for a ranger secondary. (R/N's make good picks to bring rend... R/Mo make good rezzers or even hex removers... you can even hide a word of healing on them for emergency healing support, or a conditoin remover. R/El decent to enhance your damage output... R/W see above comment about berserkers... R/Me combine the utility class with it's own strong disruption ability with a mesmer for energy management or more disruption or more utility.... In all those cases except Ra/W, if more than 2 skills on your bar are from the secondary... you've probably made a mistake.

funbun · May 26, 2005, 01:50 AM // 01:50

I think Warrior/x, in general, is the most over used. You get to the ascension quests and and it's 90% warriors 10% everyone else. It is very difficult to put together a balanced group with those odds.

Ranger/Mo would be goo because you could pump your pet full of protection spells and tuirn him into a super tank while you sit back an snipe.

Axehilt · May 26, 2005, 02:20 AM // 02:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falconer

As others have observed (semi-suprisedly to them)... probably the best way to learn the ranger is by sticking with a pure ranger... and only adding skills from your secondary slowly and with practice. If you're just learning ranger... stick with expertise/marksman/survival. A pet makes a nice distraction at low levels... but unless you really like beastmasters and dire pets... I'd recommend against. (personally I'm quite happy with my lvl20 hearty wolf, it tanks like a pro).

I'd definitely agree that newer Rangers should stick with Expertise/Marks/Survival builds, but players with a more strategic mindset can still be amazingly successful with good pets - at least after you get Call of Haste to give your pet some decent damage output.

WyvernWraith · May 26, 2005, 07:12 AM // 07:12

just an interseting note yesterday when I was playing I ended up doing a mission with a party with two R/Mo including my self a M/Me and a M/mo.
it seems strange that it happened considering they all seem to be rare classes

pHobac · May 27, 2005, 02:23 AM // 02:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by WyvernWraith

just an interseting note yesterday when I was playing I ended up doing a mission with a party with two R/Mo including my self a M/Me and a M/mo.
it seems strange that it happened considering they all seem to be rare classes

A little confused here, do you mean Mo/Me and Me/Mo? Just putting a capitol M can be confusing. The first thing that comes to mind when I see M/Mo is that you made a typo trying to say N/Mo. Just wanted to mention it in case you didn't notice.

Ichorspring · May 27, 2005, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus

The most under used (I am not sure about under rated) build I see is Me/anything. I am not sure if it's the low AL, the fact their skills have little VISUAL effect on a battle, or that fruity-tootie River Dance that is putting people off of playing a Mesmer.

My primary is an Me/R but I've found that after hitting level 20, I've gone completely Mesmer for my skill selection and no longer bother with the Ranger stuff. I still have a level 20 pig, but I don't bring him along anymore.

Don't know if its the same with other class combinations, but I found it much more effective throw everything into my mesmer skills and leftover points into Fast Casting. The mesmer skills compliment one another and the only thing I find lacking is the healing. Ether Feast, even with 9 in Inspiration Magic still doesn't keep you going for very long. However, if I play smart and stay out of the fray, I can handle the dots that get dropped on me.

It's too bad that mesmer skills don't have more of a visual component since a lot of the groups I play with think I'm dogging it. They have no indication that I'm generally dealing out more damager per second than anyone else. The only visual spell I use really is Chaos Storm and it is easily overlooked with its tiny AOE.

Anyways, in my opinion, an Me/anything is still just and Mesmer waiting to bloom.

And yeah, the dance is gay...but the ladies are knockouts...