what is the best elite for a pure ranger spiker?

I think that the ranger is lacking in the elite skill department for pure spiking...
I wonder what you guys use for a pure ranger spiker and why...
as I see it there are only a few possibilities and non are too great.

punishing shot- a very popular elite for a pure spiker but I really wonder why... ~20 extra damage alone isnt worth the elite slot and the interrupting of a skill is very very conditional for a spike team. it is an excellent elite for an interrupt ranger, true, but not for a pure spiker...

quickshot- another popular elite, dont have experience with it and from the skill description I cant determine whether it is a total waste of skill, not just an elite, or a very very good skill as some say...

melandru's arrows- bleeding alone isnt worth the elite and the extra damage is way to conditional, especially for spikes when you usually remove the enchantments from the spike target before you spike

melandru's shot- ~35 extra damage is nice but can be achieved with a non elite as well and the energy return is way to conditional, same issue as melandru's arrows.

glass arrows- only ~16 extra damage and bleeding when blocked, useless...

Punishing Shot is the ONLY elite for a ranger spiker. I guess Glass Arrows and using Savage Shot is an option... but Punishing Shot is far the best.

The point is to hit quickly... nothing but Punishing Shot adds damage always and fires quickly and it has the massive bonus of interrupting whatever the target intends to do to save themself (if its not Distortion of course).

Punishing shot is PERFECT for a pure spiker. I'm not sure what more you want, Dual Arrows and Punishing land almost on top of each other.

I would have to argee that Punishing Shot is the best and only eilte for a pure ranger spike. With Dual Shot, or Forked Arrow when Nightfall comes out, and Punishing Shot, you can usually land well over 150 damage if your Marksmanship is at 16.

Add Read the Wind and Orders and you get quite a bit of damage.

The fact is, Ranger is not a solo spike class, Ranger spike comes from a well cohordinated team.

The whole point to useing Punishing shot in the Spike is the release time, the 1/2 sec cast often followed by Savage shot, also 1/2 cast.

So Dual + Punishing + Savage = 4 arrows in less than 2 secs

Multiply that by 5 (or your number of spikes at the time)

so thats 20 arrows hitting a target all in about 2 secs

Mind you now, all these arrows are loaded up with Favorable Winds, Read the Wind, Winnowing, and an Order of some sort, A vamp bow string on an +AP Horn Bow.

Not too many folks around that survive the spike, nor too many that can heal the target fast enough.

Switching out to any other Elite slows down the time between arrows landing, regardles of a faster attack stance, its still to slow. The target will have time to evade or get healed before the spike ends therefore staying alive.

@Milk - Welcome to 2006 :/

Aftercast?

why are you assuming that Punishing, Savage and Dual fire up instantly 1 after the other? if you consider them as attacks than there is the bow's attack speed and IAS stances will improve that but it wont be instant, if you consider them as spells than there is a normal aftercast between spells...

I heard something similar to this arguement but with Quickshot, which is what made it so elite, was it like that and got nerfed, is it still like that, is it the same case as punishing?

Punishing Shot and Savage Shot ignores the reload speed of bows. The arrows will always release at 1/2 a second and with RtW, the arrow flies pretty fast. However there is that little delay time after you use any interrupting shot, therefore slowing down the Savage Shot release time after you use a Dual Shot and then a Punishing Shot.

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