Curse

Guardian of the Light · Nov 27, 2005, 05:45 PM // 17:45

I've been noticing a lot of posts saying "Y aren't rangers/nercos/mesmers picked for SF 5 man groups. I have news for you THERE ISN'T JUST ONE SF 5 MAN GROUP. Instead of complaining I suggest that you use your heads and come up another one that lets you get into a group.

In fact for rangers I'll come up with one for you.

Condition Nuke

1 Classic Stance Gear Warrior
1 Mark of Ragort + Fevered dreams Nuker
1 Condition Master Ranger
2 VIM monk or just regular monks

MoR+FD nuker

11 Fire Magic
9 Illision
8 Inspiration
8 Energy Storage

Glyph of Lesser Energy
Mark of Rodgort
Flare
Fire Storm
Fevered Dreams {E}
Energy Tap
Ether Fest
Res Sig

Condition Master Ranger

Throw Dirt
Apply Poisen
Hunter's Shot
Pin Down
Oath Shot {E}
Storm Chaser
Troll Unguent
Res Sig

Fevered Dreams will spread all condition that the target gets hit with. Use Pin Down to slow everyone in the area down then let the nuker cast fire storm. Once the fevered enemy starts moving uses hunters shot to get everyone to start bleeding.

Banebow · Nov 27, 2005, 06:24 PM // 18:24

You should never bring a ViM monk farming. If your monks are close enough to use ViM, I think you need to rethink your stratagy, as ViM does not provide infinite health or energy, just more of it. Sometimes more is enough, and sometimes, since the monks are under fire, it is not. I will never trust a gear tank to be capable of infinite aggro holding either, since things happen, and then you have your monks nice and close to the bloodthirsty stone summit.

Fevered dreams is also a fairly small aoe, last time I tried it. Add to that the fact that the skill is in an out-of-the-way location, in abaddon's mouth, and you are going to be hard-pressed to find a random ele who has it. If you know a guildie with it, someone who likes to farm, why are you worried about finding pugs?

The reason those classes do not get chosen for farming groups is because it is simpler for pugs to grab two eles, two monks, and one tank. Anything much more complicated will drive your average group into the dirt. Since the build most people are stuck on is the warrior/monks/eles build, a ranger leading a group for farming may have a hard time convincing others to join, since it would then take 6 players to get what everyone thinks of as the "needed" classes.

The best choice still remains henchmen and guild members, in my opinion. My mesmer has no trouble farming with lina, mhenlo, eve, and little thom.

Sereng Amaranth · Nov 27, 2005, 06:57 PM // 18:57

My 4 henchie green farming buddies never complain about me being a ranger.

M3lk0r · Nov 27, 2005, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sereng Amaranth

My 4 henchie green farming buddies never complain about me being a ranger.

Well said

chippxero · Nov 28, 2005, 03:21 AM // 03:21

Best thing to if you can't get invited in a group start one of your own,

Tank + Monk(or monks) + Ranger + Ele = green.

You don't need a necro for farming it just makes it easier but if you want to keep numbers down just don't have a necro.

A ranger dude was looking for a protection monk today for sf farming, i joined straight away, cause i don't care who's in my group as long as there arn't more than 5 people and it's got 1 warrior in.

We even found the other day you don't need a warrior if you can't find one that can understand '1 group' at a time.

My monk got us (myself, 1 ele, 1 ranger and another monk) through 4 of the bosses inside due to our warrior err7ing out, the +40 against physical on my backup armour really helped, myself and the other monk just cast all our enchantments on me while i held my lucky gear.

Rico Carridan · Nov 28, 2005, 04:01 AM // 04:01

As has been stated elsewhere, a team with barrage rangers can own pretty much anything in Sorrows with ease.

Rico

Beqxter · Nov 28, 2005, 06:55 AM // 06:55

Inspired by you folks I grabbed four hench and cleared SF tonight with my Ranger. 10 bosses, plus 3 outside, and not a single green dropped. Maybe Thom got them all, I dunno - is that unusual, or sort of par for the course?

I didn't mind TOO much, since I really want skill points and there are 2 easy 6k quests to do down there while clearing the place, so you get like 2 skill points doing the whole thing. But a SINGLE GREEN would've been nice...

VGJustice · Nov 28, 2005, 07:24 AM // 07:24

I've gotten more greens with 6-8 players than otherwise. I dunno, maybe I'm a freak or something. Greens confuse me.

Wasteland Squidget · Nov 28, 2005, 07:49 AM // 07:49

Fevered Dreams has a large radius, equivilant to a ward (or aggro circle.) It's certainly larger than the radius of Meteor Shower.

I proposed a similar idea (using Fevered to combat the AI changes, since it doesn't trigger the AoE code) some time ago, though your build has some issues.

For one, give your Me/El Blinding Flash. Most of the monsters surrounding your tank will be warriors, so Blind will serve as massive damage prevention.

Secondly, replace your Ranger with a Necro/Mesmer with this sort of lineup...

-Enfeeble
-Rotting Flesh
-Chiliblains
-Illusion of Haste
-Plague Sending
-Spiteful Spirit
-Power Drain
-Res Sig

This character will be able to give Weakness and Disease through obvious means. Poison and Cripple can be applied using Chiliblains and Illusion of Haste followed by Plague Sending. Bleeding might likewise be applied through Plague Sending, as it is applied by any opposing Ranger in SF. Spiteful Spirit will greatly add to the AoE damage, ensuring that you will bring them down considerably faster than 10 degen normally would.

The biggest problem with this build is that it would require a lot more coordination than your average PuG shows. All conditions have to be focused on the target called as having Fevered Dreams, energy has to be managed, ect.

However, in an organized group this is a great combo for just about any location.

Aurorae · Nov 28, 2005, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by chippxero

Best thing to if you can't get invited in a group start one of your own,

Tank + Monk(or monks) + Ranger + Ele = green.

You don't need a necro for farming it just makes it easier but if you want to keep numbers down just don't have a necro.

A ranger dude was looking for a protection monk today for sf farming, i joined straight away, cause i don't care who's in my group as long as there arn't more than 5 people and it's got 1 warrior in.

We even found the other day you don't need a warrior if you can't find one that can understand '1 group' at a time.

My monk got us (myself, 1 ele, 1 ranger and another monk) through 4 of the bosses inside due to our warrior err7ing out, the +40 against physical on my backup armour really helped, myself and the other monk just cast all our enchantments on me while i held my lucky gear.

Ever tried the tank + monk(s) + ranger + minion master combination? I find it as effective as any other 5-man combination. Slower start, but minions make great damage dealers and with an experienced tank and ranger, you don't need to worry about enemies running from the AoE spells of an elementalist.

It also makes things easier for the monks.

But yeah, I agree. The best way to get a group nowadays if you're a ranger/necromancer/mesmer is to start one yourself.

RTSFirebat · Nov 28, 2005, 12:43 PM // 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sereng Amaranth

My 4 henchie green farming buddies never complain about me being a ranger.

Well said, same for me. I take Healer/Protection henchmen and one warrior hench, suits me fine.

To hell with all the Warriors and Elementalists...

coolsti · Nov 28, 2005, 02:47 PM // 14:47

I go out with my ranger a lot farming in SF, but I usually take henchies if not with friends. I hate looking for a PUG group for SF farming because from my experiences, there is always 1 or 2 or more that suddenly say "oh, sorry guys, I got to go". When that happens a few times, suddenly that originally 5 or 6 man party is too few to continue. Waste of time.

Regarding getting greens: it is so random, and it makes no difference if with henchies or not. I have been in lots of human only parties that got no greens. I also got 4 greens one night when playing only with henchies.

I wonder about the poster above who suggested taking pin down as ranger. "Use pin down to slow everyone in the area" he said. Huh? Is that possible? Pin down has a recharge time, can't remember how long. Even oath shot has a 20 second recharge time. So how are you going to pin down "everyone" in the area? You can pin down at most one or two before the originally pinned foes are unpinned again.

Siren Danica · Nov 28, 2005, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by deolmstead

Inspired by you folks I grabbed four hench and cleared SF tonight with my Ranger. 10 bosses, plus 3 outside, and not a single green dropped. Maybe Thom got them all, I dunno - is that unusual, or sort of par for the course?

I didn't mind TOO much, since I really want skill points and there are 2 easy 6k quests to do down there while clearing the place, so you get like 2 skill points doing the whole thing. But a SINGLE GREEN would've been nice...

There are other threads on percentage of Green drops, green drops with henchies, etc., but summing them up, it's all random.

In my own personal experience, it makes no difference whether I'm in a group with henchmen or real players - I've gone through SF in groups of 5 real players, killing every boss inside and out, and not gotten a single green myself (others in the group did get green drops). And I've gotten several nice green drops with 7 henchmen (Drago's Flat Bow, Wroth's Icon, the Brimstone, the Bludgeoner, Thorgall's Shield).

The weirdest green drop I've gotten was the other night - we were in a PUG of 8 (1 hench monk, the rest real players), doing the Orozar quest. So one of the waves of enemies coming at us included Bortak, and he dropped his awesome Bone Staff for one of the members in our group. (Bortak's Bone Staff is going for 143K according to the latest price guide).

Anyway, I noticed the Bone Staff had dropped, and we were in a heavy battle, and the player the Staff was assigned to was getting killed in the action. Now, my son was home from college for the holiday break, so he brought his pc into the same room with me, and we were doing the quest together. When I saw the Bone Staff drop, I told him to keep his eye on it, since sometimes unclaimed items become available to other players. Sure enough, we all were killed (a couple times I think) and resurrected, and we resumed the duty of guarding Orozar. And my son saw the Bone Staff lying there, now unassigned so he picked it up.

He only knew it was a Necro weapon, and didn't know how much it was worth, so he gave it to me since I'm a necro.

After doing the price check, I told him I'd try to sell it and give him most of the cash, since he kept his eye on it, and snatched it when it became available...

Anyway, that was a weird way to get a green drop. I never even bothered to tell the player who it was assigned to, because I didn't have the heart. Plus I didn't really want to give it up - it's better for all involved that they never realized it.

Epinephrine · Nov 28, 2005, 04:06 PM // 16:06

Edge of Extinction works well in SF I find. Haven't tried it in a farming group as I really don't care to farm, but was very effective when I did the quests in there, there are many enemies often all of the same types, which makes EoE a powerful weapon.

Makkert · Nov 28, 2005, 04:20 PM // 16:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

Edge of Extinction works well in SF I find. Haven't tried it in a farming group as I really don't care to farm, but was very effective when I did the quests in there, there are many enemies often all of the same types, which makes EoE a powerful weapon.

note: be carefull with EoE with some of the quests. you don't want Orozar dying of EoE.

fiery · Nov 28, 2005, 05:15 PM // 17:15

um dude.. rangers have minimal damage vs monsters in SR. thus not chosen. RANGER is the best profession ever it owns, go trapper ranger, thus for NECROS, u havent been out much, spamming for MM for SF minionmasters, mesmers, not much use for em.. so go mes/war and kill crap ^^

ALSO my ranger owns with the 4 man henchie party.. but i found out a nuker elem works best as well.. monsters dont tend to run when devona is whacking at em.

Epinephrine · Nov 28, 2005, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makkert

note: be carefull with EoE with some of the quests. you don't want Orozar dying of EoE.

Well, I'm sure some observant healer would toss him a bone, right?

ecirbaf · Dec 20, 2005, 11:26 PM // 23:26

Hommm, what henchies do you take with your rangers ?

I've tried SF with 4 henchmen plus my Prot/Healer monk and it's hard.

Do you interrupt all the spellcasters in there ?

---

Oh, and I don;t know about the state of the game in US, but in Europe , most PUG groups I've been in for SF have been terrible.

Most groups won't lure down the first ramp, gettings adds, and getting at least one death before entering the Furnace... > <

Maybe I'm just not lucky.

Beqxter · Dec 20, 2005, 11:35 PM // 23:35

Thom, Eve, Mhenlo and Lina

I focus on interruption when I go: Read the Wind, Distracting Shot, Punishing Shot and Savage Shot, and just interrupt the hell out of everything you come across. As the henchman guide says, your job when henching isn't so much to do damage as it is to direct the damage, so careful pulling and target selection are key. Hench can damage, but they can't interrupt, so I take that job myself. Be sure you go as R/Mo and bring a hard res, preferably Rebirth, for Thom's aggro shenanigans.

Really good practice for interrupting one-second casts like Orison, too.

Armstrong084 · Dec 20, 2005, 11:37 PM // 23:37

whats a ViM monk?