Ranger lack of usefullness in random arenas?

I have a really tough time finding an actual use for a ranger in random arenas.

Without it's secondary as a warrior... what's it going to do?


The warrior's are pounding me.. so I use throw dirt and whirling defense..

while I'm struggling with energy consumption, I'm getting hexed like mad.. conjure phantasm, clumsiness, life siphon, faintheartedness

not to mention spells from ele's and necro's that whirling defense does nothing against.

Even with this build I find it tough to survive. And in random arenas.. you can't depend on monks.. I also have a huge tough time dealing any kind of damage..

kindle arrows and dual shot does basically nothing on a warrior. meanwhile he's pounding me into the ground.. and I'm getting hexed.

here is my build.

Oath Shot- to recharge all my skills like throw dirt and whirling defense so I don't die

Kindle Arrows

Dual shot

Troll Unguent

Distracting shot

Throw dirt

Whirling defense

(8th skill here.. prob rez)


you see? to survive for at least 15 seconds I have to use oath shot whirling defense and throw dirt just to keep the warriors off my back..

it does nothing against mesmers or necromancer's or ele's

see why I need help?

A wise man once said: "To get purpose, you need to make a purpose."

In other words, what roll your ranger does it dependant on you and you alone. Survivability in RA is more of a luck of the draw chance. If two or more enemy players focus on you, then no matter what class you are, you WILL have problems. So try to focus less on defense and more on a ROLL that you want your ranger to do.

For example, a ranger can do spike dmg, can degen, can spread conditions/degen, can interrupt/shutdown casters, can Trap, can even melee. The ideas are infinite, however again it is all on what you want to do. Once you decide "This is what i want to do with my ranger in RA." Then research. These forums are a great start! In this ranger forum section alone you can find MANY builds in the Ranger Basics and Ranger Build Directory Submissions. And if none of these suite your forte' then just get ideas from those areas...

Your build really had no focus other then survivability vs warriors. Try and look beyond that, and try out some submitted builds, to get a feel for the rangers REAL potential!!

Hope that all helped, tried to stay constructive! enjoy.

of course you can't deal any damage - you only have one bow attack, and it's not even qs ( the only bowshot that can work by itself).
with oath troll whirling throw you should be able to survive easily against warriors. This part is your fault, not the rangers' weakness.
we all have hard time enduring casters' high offense, but they have weak defense. In fact, casters that go offensive and sacrifice skills like kinetic armor/ armor of earth are easy targets for us rangers. I can usually kill a caster if I go kindle quickly, maybe 4/5 spikes.
I suggest use skills like punishing/qs/penetrating(if you really want damage)/savage to chain bow attacks.
Rangers aren't the first targets, casters are. Don't worry about defense. If you are targeted because there are no casters in your team, your team is screwed anyways.







edit missed one thing barrage works alone well too

I agree with what Batou of Nine has said, but beside knowing your role and your skills of chioce, there is another asspect is the over all method and tatics you can apply.

Such as, positioning yourself, the timing of your entry of battle, the target you pick which would effect their formation.

I use the advantage when warriors are comming for me, usually and hopefully, two would come after me, and I would try to lure them away from the battle, and hopefully, my team mates could kill thouse that left behind.

This might sounds a little strange, but even in a computer game, much has to do with the player's will, personally, I think may be the will and the tactical thinking could have more to do with it then the build.

I got into the game from the PvP weekend, which was the end of Jan, I was only using the per-made build and was using the the ranger trapper, and I was doing a lot of enjoyable stuff.

I'm personally fond of apply poison + crippling shot + hunters shot. Lead the warrior around the battlefield but he can't touch ya. Add in a distracting shot to take care of a pesky healing sig and without a monk the warrior is toast. That still leaves you 4 skills to make the build your own.

dood, rangers are good at anything. keep practicing, you'll get better at it

I have found that my ranger is perhaps my best faction farming character to use of all my 6 char (one of each prof), except for maybe my mesmer. Here's a build I have had a lot of success with. If you are still having trouble, try this one out and see if it works for you:

Attributes:

Expertise: 12 (10 + major rune)
Wilderness Survival: 12 (11 + minor rune)
Marksmanshit 14: 14 (11 + mask + sup rune)

Skills:

Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Hunters Shot (used to be penetrating shot, but I switched to this one thanks to helpful suggestions from good people in this forum)
Crippling Shot {E}
Apply Poison
Dodge
Troll Unguent
Rez Signet

Suggested Weapon:

I find a longbow works well with this build since having good range really helps in escaping warriors. Flatbows have the same range, but have a really long flight time, and without favorable winds or read the wind, will not be as accurate as a longbow. A composite, recurve, dead, or eternal bow may work I would think also at the sacrifice in range to provide faster flight time to allow better interupts, but I have not tried such.

Use and strategy of build:

Basically the role of this build is to poison and sometimes cause bleeding to the other team as well as interupt the monks and cripple enemies. Survival with this build is based largely on evasion. If there is a warrior running to attack you, use crippling shot (hopefully when apply poison is active), hunters shot, then heal yourself with troll. This will keep the warrior down at a crawl with health degen, while you are free to heal and interupt others in the mean time. If there are no enemies chasing you or your teammates, then interupting should become first priority while using hunters shot with apply poison when possible to also cause damage. Dodge is to be used only when crippling shot is not enough to escape enemies. It only evades projectile attacks, but since you are escaping crippled tanks, projectiles are really your only threat besides hexes and spells. Low recharge time of crippling shot makes this skill easy to spam often and since apply poison is a preparation, you can keep it applied even if it gets removed easily.

Weaknesses of build:

The biggest weakness I have found to this build are two things. Hexes and attack spells can cause a large amount of damage should you be in range and unable to interupt the skill. Conditions also can hurt this build since condition removal is available only through a third party (i.e. monk). However since there are only 8 skill slots no build is perfect.

Anyways, like I said, if you still have trouble with your ranger in RA, try this out and let me know how it works for you. Everyone has their own style of play, so while I may have great success with this build, it may not be what works for you, but hopefully it will help you learn what is best for you even if by teaching you what is not. As always, when trying a new build, even if its the one you posted, give it a good fair shot besides deciding on it's effectiveness. Even the best players can still fail quickly if the team joined is unbalanced, lacking, or simply not as effective as the opposing team. I wish you luck...

Quote: Originally Posted by Meneldil

^Agreed. I farmed a fair amount of faction in RA with a sword ranger. Anti Kiter, with some offense. Worked like a charm, if I had someone to back me up with better damage.

Was it the best build in the world? Heck no, I was playing to the secondary. But, it was fun to play, and it worked for the role I picked for him.

XvArchonvX's build is a very good build, it is one that most GvG rangers used, or simular to it.

However, with no FW, I would not go for a Long Bow, due to the slow flight, unless you are using Crippling Shot ALL the time.

But since you are useing Hunter Shot as well, flight time would be important.

I personally would rather take a composite bow, or other bows with the same status, 2.4 fire rate, fastest flight time, in exchange of 15 in range.

Quote: Originally Posted by romeo_longsword

i don't like ur build Arch... there is no need for Marks to be that high...

Expertise : 13 (12+1)
Marks : 8 (7+1)
WS : 14 (10+3+1)
Illusion : 4

- Crippling Shot {E}
- Hunters Shot
- Savage Shot
- Apply Poison
- Dodge
- Distortion
- Troll Unguent
- Rez Sig

use a Comp Bow... or any other class of of the Comp... and a Poisoners string for longer durations... go with a Armor +5 grip... full Druids as armor choice

I find it interesting that you use distortion....I haven't tried that yet. I like WD but distortion recharge time would be much better....

Have you had any problems with energy?

Quote: Originally Posted by Valerius

Quote: Originally Posted by Valerius

There is nothing wrong with your build Lady Lorwinia, and when you get the entire enemy team on you i think it show that rangers are damn good ;D

Quote: Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

Quote: Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

Quote: Originally Posted by Burakus Lightwing

fine fine... go with the builds u have... but ur Troll and Apply are just begging to be interupted... with Distortion the only time i've been interupted is from Gale or other KD spells

and nope... i usually have no energy problems with this build