The 'standard' Barrager

I was wondering how it would look like..
I came up with this:

* Barrage
* Savage Shot
* Troll Unguent
* Favorable Winds
* Res Signet
* Antidote Signet
* Distracting Shot
* Whirling Defense

But I'm not a ranger expert, so I'd like to hear what you guys find the most suitable, enduring Barrage ranger.

Cheers

If you want faster Barrage swap out Whirling Defense for Lightning Reflexes, and Rebirth/Ressurect is a better Res, if R/Mo

You don't really need antidote signet since a barrager is a team based builds and teams usually have monks that can remove your conditions. I would replace it with Tiger's Fury and put a couple points into BM to raise the duration to 7 seconds. This would also allow you to keep Whirling Defenses in case some aggro gets into your backline.

Personally, I find that I have less chance to interupt when running a barrage build because half the time a skill comes up to interupt, I miss it since I'm in the middle of spamming barrage. The interupt really only comes in handy when you know there's a critical skill you need to interupt (i.e. heal or attack skills on a boss), therefore if I were you, I would drop one interupt in favor of a rez of some sort.

Some people often suggest that Tiger's Fury is best in a barrage build, but in practice you will generally find that spamming both Barrage and TF will drain you within just a few rounds of TF, depending on how much Expertise you are running. The only way to get a TF build to be able to last a battle is to either drop your Att in Marks or completely disregard Wilderness Survival in favor of Expertise. If you do the former of the two options you will be lowering your damage output and thus nullifying the usefulness of TF. If you run a zealous bow string for energy management you lose the opportunity to run a vamp string (which really shines with barrage) and thus lower your damage output.

If you do decide to bring Tiger's Fury, use a hornbow since it will allow you to increase your damage output as much as possible. If you decide to go without it and bring Fav Winds, bring a Flatbow as it will allow the fastest refire rate. SnipiousMax and some others had a good discussion on bow types for barrage discovered why these bows work best in these situations. Here's the link if you would like to read up on it:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=136832

As for your defensive stance, I would find Whirling Defenses to be fine, although Lightning Reflexes would be a suitable alternative should you wish as well.

Some would argue that you should drop Trolls and put your attributes in WS into either Exp or Marks since there is generally a monk healing you, but I have still found this skill to be useful in either casting before pulling or also as a backup for when the monk dies, d/c, runs out of energy or is out of range for whatever reason. However you should still function fine without Trolls in most circumstances.

Antidote Sig might come in handy some places, such as when confronting the Afflicted that use Throw Dirt, but I would personally suggest Purge Conditions if you have monk secondary since it is a much faster cast and the infrequency of conditions such as blind would justify the use of a such a skill with a 20 second recharge time rather than the 8 second recharge on Antidote Sig. When you compare the 2 second cast of Antidote to the 1/4 second cast of Purge, it is clear that the latter will get you back into battle faster. There is also the debate that the monk should take care of conditions, but if joining a PuG, it is generally safe to cover your own butt just in case.

Overall I would say that your build is fine, save for the need to bring a rez. Many people use very similar Barrage builds, but the minor variances generally come down to minor preference. There is not one end-all build for Barrage, so go with what you are most comfortable with.

My barrage/trapper carries lots of counters and pressure relief:

1. Distracting Shot
2. Barrage
3. Concussion Shot or Dust Trap
4. Throw Dirt or Dust Trap
5. Whirling Defences
6. Healing Spring
7. Troll Unguent
8. Resurrection Chant or Flesh of My Flesh

A typical PvE R/Mo Barrager is as such:

Barrage
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Whirling Defense
Throw Dirt
Troll Unguent
Mend Ailment
Rebirth

I agree with the poster that said sometimes Barrage can mess up ones ability to disrupt casters, due to excessive spamming. This can be avoided if you watch your interupts cool down times. I believe Distracting is 10 seconds and Savage is 5 seconds. The only time I spam Barrage is when they are recharging. When they are ready for use I discontinue barrage and just shoot regular until they give me something to disrupt.

Whirling defense should be used when you have ranged attackers aiming at you, and throw dirt at attacking melee foes. Troll, mend, and rebirth are all self explainitory.

Just put yourself in the opponent's shoes. If you were constantly being bombarded by a Barrager, when would you feel desperate and sense an urge to perform a critical spell? How long would it take for Barrage to piss you off enough to perform a critical skill? Not easy, but this can be done with experience and long training.

I think 2 interrupts is good. I normally alternate the 2 interrupts in between spamming attacks. Don't stress yourself as to when your target is gonna use a skill. Just do it. With 2 interrupts you should be able to interrupt him once every 1-2 cycles.

Personally, I still like the "classic" barage/pet build:

1. Distracting Shot
2. Barrage
3. Tiger's Fury
4. Throw Dirt (or Viper's Nest in some cases, such as Urgoz's)
5. Favourable Winds (or EoE, or Healing Breeze, again depending upon the situation)
6. Comfort Animal
7. Charm Animal
8. Rebirth

Attributes:
Marksmanship - 14 (11 + 1mask +2major rune)
Expertise - 13 (11 + 2 major)
Beast Mastery - 9
Wilderness Survival - 4 (minor rune + leftover points)
Healing Breeze - (left overs)

Some of you would argue that Marksmanship is too low and/or Expertise is too high, but after some experimentation, I've settled on this. With Expertise at 13 the energy cost for Barrage becomes only 2 and Tiger's Fury is only 5. I can continously spam Barrage/Tiger's without ever running out of energy - in fact, I gain energy as I Barrage. I can even Rez my pet whenever necessary without running out of energy. The extra ability to constant Barrage outweighs the slight loss of damage output from the lower Marks IMHO.

I equip 4 bows - Urgoz's Flatbow (same as Drago's), Urgoz's Shortbow, A Zodiac Longbow (for bling) and either Drago's Vampiric Flatbow or Elwyth's Recurve.

Generally, if I'm not running a pet, I run a interrupt build instead of Barrage.

Quaker, why have points in WS if you have no skills linked to it?

barrage
savage shot
distracting shot
whirling defense
lightning reflexes
favorable/throw dirt
troll
res

Cycle: Barrage > Savage > Barrage > Distracting > Barrage > Savage, then wait for cool down.

Quote: Originally Posted by ShaneOfMach

Noone using thier secondary for Conjure or Judge's Insight? I thought that was pretty common but could never get it to work satisfactorily for my ranger.

swap antidote and rez sig. i preferably use throw dirt and rebirth in place of those. since rangers normally stay out of harms way. rebirth can bring your teammate to safety alongside you.

Barrage
needling shot
called shot
sundering attack
distracting shot
savage shot
whirling defence
throw dirt

depending on where you are or what your doing called and needling can be replaced with res and/or self heal

Marks 16
Exp 13
Wild 4

this is what I use most of the time, changing slightly depending on where and what I'm doing. Works for me.