Guild Wars Guru

Secondary for Ranger

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xzan
Ascalonian Squire
• #1
I've searched through a lot of these topics, but I'm having a hard time deciding which I should stick with. I just recently got ascension, and I was a R/Mo from 1-20. Then I switched to R/Me because barrage isn't available to my knowledge, so judge's insight isn't too great with its energy + short duration, not to mention I don't have the attributes to spend on healing.

With R/Me, something that's fun to do is apply poison (no poison arrow yet, plan on getting it), pin down, hope they start moving so that you can hunter's shot them and bleed them. Then I use epidemic to spread it to surrounding enemies, but the problem is they're rarely grouped together so a lot of times I end up wasting a skill slot and/or 15 energy. I also have used backfire (and put some attributes into domination in order to boost the damage), and it's useful, but only for casters that actually stand there and unload on spells while backfired (most smart ones realize that i used backfire and start running). I was thinking of other spells like fragility and conjured phantasm, but I can only really go with one as I don't have enough attributes to spread around to more than 1 secondary trait.

I never even gave a thought to R/N, but I was thinking about R/W or R/E, as I haven't tried those yet. Basically I would like some input from R/xx classes and some comments on how they do in PvP/PvE (post-ascension ones would be great too).

Thanks in advance.
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xzan
Ascalonian Squire
• #2
Bump~
S
SereneD
Ascalonian Squire
• #3
Since I and it seems all other rangers have been unable to find Barrage, I have ditched my Bow wielding R/N in favor of an axe wielding R/W.
Bow rangers are almost required to gimp their secondary professions because you need to have high Expertise and Marksmanship just to wield a Bow effectively. They can't put out the required DPS(without Barrage) and they are secondary in disrupting to both the Mesmer and Necro.

A caster primary also has better energy management for casting spells. Expertise does not effect spell casting from their secondary class.

I use apply poison with cyclone axe for the DPS, Troll for self heal, and a few traps just to be annoying. I found the Ranger/warrior to be a good combo, in both PvE and PvP. if you want to use a bow on the back lines, you can use frenzy without having to put any attribute points into your secondary class.
Frenzy and Barrage worked really well in the BWE.
A
Antyrrian
Pre-Searing Cadet
• #4
After you've ascended and done the secondary character quests to open up a new path possibility what happens to the skills you picked up with your original secondary class when you switched.

I started life as a ranger (mistake as I know see it) secondary path was an elementalist. Most of my game play comes from my secondary path as I've found the ranger class to be frankly poor in comparison. AS I can't shift my primary class and I rely on my secondary class heavily can you still use the skills from your original secondary class, or do you have to hunt around for more skills?

Secondly if you switch and decided you made a mistake can you switch back?

Thanks or the help
Z
Zetor
Ascalonian Squire
• #5
You get barrage from the boss at the Iron Mines of Moladune mission (post-ascension). It's a LOT easier to get than Hundred Blades, so fret not.

The problem with the Ranger class is its sub-par synergy with almost all classes. Warrior is "ok" since non-adrenal skills benefit from Expertise, but you won't have Strength armor penetration and if you want to use a shield, you'll have to spread your points mighty thin. Elementalist is pretty much a one-trick pony (conjure) and Mesmer is redundant. Never tried Necro myself... and Monk is just there for extra smitage with Barrage.

Personally I'm not THAT impressed with barrage; the best part about being a ranger, to me, are the traps. Mmmm traps.


-- Z.
Callander
Callander
Pre-Searing Cadet
• #6
Quote: Originally Posted by xzan
I've searched through a lot of these topics, but I'm having a hard time deciding which I should stick with. I just recently got ascension, and I was a R/Mo from 1-20. Then I switched to R/Me because barrage isn't available to my knowledge, so judge's insight isn't too great with its energy + short duration, not to mention I don't have the attributes to spend on healing.

Thanks in advance. Hehe your in my Guild buddy I have Barrage, why didn't you ask me. I'll let you know when TS gets up and running again.

a
ares416
Ascalonian Squire
• #7
I've had some luck with the premade flame build (Ra/E). I change some of the skills so I have:

Great Conflag
Conj Flame
pin down
hunter's
troll ungeant
meteor
apply poison
rez signet (I like to keep people alive!)

The GC and CF combo on paper only seems to add 9 dmg but for some reason is way more powerful than Fav winds which adds 6

I love poison, I try to poison everyone I can to keep the monks real busy.

if a group is meleeing my healer I drop a meteor on them which usually makes them run or die.

As I've said I've had a lot of success so far with this build although I'm new to PvP so that's relative. The one demise I have is DoT necro and mesmer spells - they end me every time as troll ungeant is not enough to counter.

Any thoughts on the GC, CF combo - is it just chance that I have had such luck with this or is there something I'm not seeing that makes it work well? Any other thoughts about this build? I've also tried the air attribute with gale and the blinding skill but it doesn't seem to be as effective - No GC, CF there.
G
Gh0sT
Frost Gate Guardian
• #8
I used to have R/E, but as i didnt have barrage yet... and since i can always switch back i decided to try out R/Me DoT build, and it really works neat...

Apply poison (planning on getting Poison Arrow to try that out sometime b/c lower energy cost) + Conjure Phantasm is a 9 arrow Degen (18 health degen/sec), it works great to support your warrior... and it keeps monks busy casting mend condition... it doesnt always work out this nicely, but at least i feel more valuable teamwise then i did with my R/E...

It also works nicely in PvE vs strong oppenents...

Maybe i'll add in fragility and try fragility + incindinary (sp?) arrows, sometime too... but i have to get IA first...
a
ares416
Ascalonian Squire
• #9
I tried the Ra/Me build too but had such a hard time against warriors that I switched. But, then again, I wasn't using conj phantasm, I was using empathy which barely does anything to them. I liked the combo with the availability to put backfire on monks and casters - maybe I'll give it another try using conj phantasm.

I'm holding out til I unlock conj lightning and a lightning dmg bow string. With the other air spells available - this would be very effective vs. warriors. You may be able to tell that I'm really hating warriors right now!

<edit> I just read on another post that conj lightning does not have armor penetration so its no better than conj flame. </edit>

I believe that Ra/Me premade also has poison arrow. But why is that better than apply poison? It has a lower energy cost but only affects one enemy. Apply poison lets you poison all 8 enemies with one application of 15 energy (or less with expertise).
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xzan
Ascalonian Squire
• #10
Thanks for the advice, but I got my perfect build working for me atm as a R/W, although the only W skill I use is frenzy.
piercehead
piercehead
Ascalonian Squire
• #11
One reason Poison Arrow can be better is that it doesn't remove existing preparations, so you can be using Ignite Arrows for AoE and throw in a couple of Poison Arrows while still doing AoE fire damage.
Also it's instantaneous, which is always good! Good luck hitting all 8 people in 12 seconds with Apply Poison too

Just comes down to using that valuable Elite slot on it or not....
a
ares416
Ascalonian Squire
• #12
Yes, I did see that after my previous post - that does seem to make it worthwhile. So I could use kindle or ignite arrows (since I haven't unlocked kindle yet) AND poison them. I checked ou the stats and the poison also lasts a few seconds longer with the poison arrow skill.

How to poison the whole team: tab-space;tab-space;tab-space; etc....

OK, maybe it won't last the whole time but I can get more than half of them and then just apply it again!

But... it may work out better to poison one, use hunter's shot to make him bleed, then epidemic to spread to all his neighbours, all the while pounding him with ignite arrows. That'll get his attention away from my healers.

Well, I'll have to test this out before I jump to any conclusions but it looks pretty good in theory.
Principa Discordia
Principa Discordia
Site Contributor
• #13
Thread moved to The Campfire (build discussion).
G
Gh0sT
Frost Gate Guardian
• #14
Quote: Originally Posted by ares416
Yes, I did see that after my previous post - that does seem to make it worthwhile. So I could use kindle or ignite arrows (since I haven't unlocked kindle yet) AND poison them. I checked ou the stats and the poison also lasts a few seconds longer with the poison arrow skill.

How to poison the whole team: tab-space;tab-space;tab-space; etc....

OK, maybe it won't last the whole time but I can get more than half of them and then just apply it again!

But... it may work out better to poison one, use hunter's shot to make him bleed, then epidemic to spread to all his neighbours, all the while pounding him with ignite arrows. That'll get his attention away from my healers.

Well, I'll have to test this out before I jump to any conclusions but it looks pretty good in theory. Well i finally got Poison Arrow (pretty easy to capture), and i must say it has its advantages and its disadvantages...

Its advantages are clearly that it costs waaay less energy, second it casts instantly, and it lasts longer... IMO its better if you want to keep that DoT on 1 person... On the other side, Apply poison is better if you want to poison multiple people, because it affects every arrow...but even then you need to apply it at least 2 times as in 1 turn (12 seconds) you can affect a max of 6 and thats only when u do it perfect... and the other teams monk will have it decast in seconds by then with mend condition...

So for now i keep it... Barrage isnt really an option anymore, since a mesmer doesnt have an enchantment to make barrage more worthwhile (right ?)... perhaps i could use it for the extra energy from zealous... but im not sure yet if thats worth giving up a slot for...

Ow and about epedemic, i tried it as well... IMO it sux... especially for rangers... for 1 they have to be in a like 6 foot radius of each other, and that wont happen that often... 2nd it costs 15 energy !!! ... now if expertise would affect that, but since it doesnt... its madness... 15 energy is half of your energy bar with druids armor... so i dumped it asap after i used it... maybe some other do have uses for it... i dont...

Only thing i still need to try out is the Incindiary arrows + fragility... but im not that far in the game yet (for IA)...

Im still looking for another cool mesmer skill from Illusion (as Conjure Phantasm is illusion magic), but i havent found that many yet...