IW Rangers

This Works in both RA/TA and AB, The DPS is pretty amazing and almost no one thinks to enchant strip a ranger. Hehe, I do. When I hear the IW skill's sound or see the animation... I strip it right away. But then again, who brings enchant strips to RA besides me. As for TA and AB... a lot of people strip enchants.

I guess I'm trying to understand the build. Do you add IW just so you can do a lot of damage along side your pet? How do you avoid death without any evasion? (Since you're obviously up front using your IW.)

I've never played my ranger with a mesmer secondary, nor have I capped IW simply because the formal description never looked that interesting (not a sufficiently good reason, I know.) Nevertheless, from the description I would expect that the damage over time would not be competitive with a high-damage set of skills augmented by preparations and ordinary shots in between.

I'd be very interested if anyone could provide some specific comparisons. Thanks all. This can be debated, but it's useless unless anybody comes up with some acutal stats.

At 12 Illusion magic doesn't it do like 35 or 37 damage? Didn't check, just throwing out a guess.

So we'll say that it does 35 damage...with Tigers Fury then your attacking faster, which is basically then going to be the same as a bow with Tigers Fury but much harder to kite. Also then, you add in the pet which IMO is basically like preperations + extra damage output. Becuase they can cause the conditions, or do the extra damage. So IMO this would be higher damage than a regular high damage ranger.

Add in the element of surprise, and this is a decent build.

Add in the element of surprise, and this is a decent build. Now theres the bit people don't get... i fought 1 yesterday in an AB. He spectacularly did everything he could wrong.

1. He was the first into battle, therefore got poisoned first.
2. Tried to use Troll Unguent.... standing at the bottom of a hill below the ranger who just poisoned him, distracting shot ftw.
3. He started to walk upto us... been as there warrior was still at the back, i cripshotted him.
4. He carried on limping towards us... finally getting close and used Illusionary Weapon.
5. Died 2 seconds later due to no evasive stances.

I don't see how this is more powerful than a Bunny Thumper or Touch Ranger. A touch ranger has evasive stances and speed boosts, a bunny thumper has knockdown and deep wound. What does the IW ranger have? All i see is a weakness to both enchantment removal and conditions.

If you say that 'no-one thinks to strip a ranger', no-one needs to... but the moment you see a Me/W coming towards you you don't strip straight away do you... if they're quite obviously using IW, then you strip it.

Now theres the bit people don't get... i fought 1 yesterday in an AB. He spectacularly did everything he could wrong.

1. He was the first into battle, therefore got poisoned first.
2. Tried to use Troll Unguent.... standing at the bottom of a hill below the ranger who just poisoned him, distracting shot ftw.
3. He started to walk upto us... been as there warrior was still at the back, i cripshotted him.
4. He carried on limping towards us... finally getting close and used Illusionary Weapon.
5. Died 2 seconds later due to no evasive stances.

I don't see how this is more powerful than a Bunny Thumper or Touch Ranger. A touch ranger has evasive stances and speed boosts, a bunny thumper has knockdown and deep wound. What does the IW ranger have? All i see is a weakness to both enchantment removal and conditions.

If you say that 'no-one thinks to strip a ranger', no-one needs to... but the moment you see a Me/W coming towards you you don't strip straight away do you... if they're quite obviously using IW, then you strip it. Touchies and Bunny Thumpers are a different matter altogether, they may be a bit better than this build (though i think this build might be able to kill a touch), but they are completely irrelevent. If you saw somoeone using a build incorrectly, open your eyes man, EVERY build has people with no clue how to use it, people who do everything wrong.

The IW ranger has a few things A: IW hits through blind, evasive stances, and anything else that makes a melee attack miss. It retains constant damage, with an enchanting sword, it can be kept up constantly if no enchant removal is used. He does have a point in saying no one thinks to enchant strip a ranger at first, thats a small advantage at least.

Now theres the bit people don't get... i fought 1 yesterday in an AB. He spectacularly did everything he could wrong.

1. He was the first into battle, therefore got poisoned first.
2. Tried to use Troll Unguent.... standing at the bottom of a hill below the ranger who just poisoned him, distracting shot ftw.
3. He started to walk upto us... been as there warrior was still at the back, i cripshotted him.
4. He carried on limping towards us... finally getting close and used Illusionary Weapon.
5. Died 2 seconds later due to no evasive stances.

I don't see how this is more powerful than a Bunny Thumper or Touch Ranger. A touch ranger has evasive stances and speed boosts, a bunny thumper has knockdown and deep wound. What does the IW ranger have? All i see is a weakness to both enchantment removal and conditions.

If you say that 'no-one thinks to strip a ranger', no-one needs to... but the moment you see a Me/W coming towards you you don't strip straight away do you... if they're quite obviously using IW, then you strip it. Your entire argument seems to hinge on the fact that you played against one terrible player. Or someone who did somthing wrong once.

Advantages:
1. I Enjoy it.
2. Evasion/Blinding Mean nothing too it.
3. With Illusion of Weakness I have a large chunk of hidden health.
4. Suprise. I wonder why the total times I have been stripped adds up too less then ten. maybe because people don't expect it and you dont have to go straight for the monk with this build.

By the way, 1v1 This build is a monster against anything without an enchant strip. (I.e. a good 80% of the builds) Sure cripshot will beat it, but cripshot should beat most melee builds unless their absolutly terrible. The advantage over bunny thumpers is the DPS and the fact that you effectively have an extra 202 health in reserve.

Your entire argument seems to hinge on the fact that you played against one terrible player. Or someone who did somthing wrong once.

Advantages:
1. I Enjoy it.
2. Evasion/Blinding Mean nothing too it.
3. With Illusion of Weakness I have a large chunk of hidden health.
4. Suprise. I wonder why the total times I have been stripped adds up too less then ten. maybe because people don't expect it and you dont have to fgo straight for the monk with this build. Good points, some prefer the traditional IW mesmer, for the extra dmg and healing. If they use Flurry and IW at the same time, flurry doesnt reduce dmg. It's a more effective stance than Bestial Fury or Tiger's Fury, because they have effects that can harm you, such as disabling healing skills.

I suppose this may defeat the traditional IW due to the increased dmg from pet attacks. I believe an interrupt to be important, so this build has that over the traditional IW too.