Need feedback on my Glass Arrows Ranger

exo101

exo101

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2006

Somewhere...

[FU]

OK this is my build. Ive been using in in echovald it works pretty well. PLZ tell me if its good or if its just in my head that it is. ty in advance

R/x

Glass Arrows {elite}
Lightning reflexes
Distracting shot
Troll ungent
whirling defense
Charm pet
Comfort pet
some res

I use glass arrows then light reflex to speed it up while evading at the same time. i use ungent for health and whirling to keep myself alive. distracting is for interupting heals. plz i need some feedback

ty ~exo

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

Personally, my best advice would be to use another elite if possible. While GA isn't the worst elite out there, I would see Melandru's Arrows as a better choice. There are some advantages to MA at Guild Wiki (http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Glass_Arrows). You may be able to recieve better results by just simply bringing Kindle Arrows or Read the Wind and leave your elite open for something else. Also, I would discourage the use of Lightning Reflexes as an IAS skill unless you run Oath Shot or something like that since it has a really long recharge time. If you are running with a pet, take Tiger's Fury. This brings me to another point. If you are running with a pet, it's going to likely spread your attributes relatively thin and minimize the effectiveness of GA greatly as well as lower your attributes in Marksmanship which will thus lower your damage.

My assumption is that you are trying to find a fun non-barrage PvE build, so I would suggest the following elites to replace (assuming you have Prophecies for some of these): Poison Arrow, Punishing Shot, Meladru's Arrows , or Melandru's Shot.

Hope this helps ya.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Whats the point in the pet?

SnipiousMax

SnipiousMax

Perfectly Elocuted

Join Date: Sep 2005

Glass Arrows isn't a bad skill... but the condition that needs to be met in order to trigger the bleeding is pretty rare. The + damage is more than say Read the Wind, but I think you'll get more out of using a non-elite prep, and a few attack skills. And when you split your attributes into Marks and Beastmastery, expertise is the one you usually lower to make up the difference. Personally, I'd either focus on Beastmaster, with a little bit of marks tied in, or drop it all together.

As for Lightning Reflexes... it's really a bad skill unless you have something to recharge it. It works well with "On your Knees" or something like that, but it's really bad for a Bow Ranger build. Rather I'd take Tiger's Fury (as was suggested by Archon) as you don't need more than a few points in Beastmastery to get it up to a 7 second duration. I'd also look into either flurry or frenzy from the /w line.

Nivryx

Nivryx

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2006

Kenya

Mo/

similar to evilsod's comment, there really isnt a point of the pet - just a waste of attributes. if you want the honor of having a lvl 20 pet but it isnt there yet, just bring charm animal only. pets still get xp when they are dead and they don't have an xp range, so they'll still level, you just wont be able to see when they immdiately level. so thats at least 1 extra skill slot, if not two.

Sir Mad

Sir Mad

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Moe's Pub

Pigs Can Fly [Pigs]

R/

Concerning lightning reflexes:

with 9 expertise, it lasts 9 sec and recherges in 45 secs, so it's active 20% of the time.

Whirling defense with also 9 expertise lasts 15 secs and rechages in 60 secs. It's active 25% of the time.

That's not a huge difference...

platnium_playa

platnium_playa

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2006

the luxon scourge

W/

i dont really see the point of a pet in PvE to much or PvP for that matter except in some builds [email protected]" (beast mastery has more of a place with spirits toxicity,pred season, brambles, and lacerate to name a few), however if you are intent in keeping a pet i would suggest something along the lines of tigers fury. It has a much faster recharge hower it will be more energy to cast and you will have to come up with a way to keep it up. It will be more effective and last longer than light reflex (id do the math but a bit short on time). As for the elite i like glass arrows in PvP but i would have to agree with archon for mels arrows or even something like punishing and trying to be an interupter or going poisen arrow with kindle and focusing more on dmg its really up to you. Rangers are very versitile in the style of play and their wide skill range...

SnipiousMax

SnipiousMax

Perfectly Elocuted

Join Date: Sep 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Mad
Concerning lightning reflexes:

with 9 expertise, it lasts 9 sec and recherges in 45 secs, so it's active 20% of the time.

Whirling defense with also 9 expertise lasts 15 secs and rechages in 60 secs. It's active 25% of the time.

That's not a huge difference...
Whirling Defenses lasts six addition seconds (as you pointed out) and when used as an evasion stance, you cannot use % active as a comparison. The only time you will use an evasion stance is when you are taking more damage than your monk can heal, it's meant to get you out of a difficult situation, take some pressure off your healer, and get you to a point where you don't need it anymore. Looking at it like that, the additional six seconds makes it more useful than lightning reflexes.

BUT....

When used as an IAS, we CAN compare the % active. Tiger's fury is up 70% of the time at 4 Beastmastery compared to the measly 20% of Lightning at 9 expertise. Flurry and Frenzy are up 100% of the time at zero in an attribute. That is a VERY big difference. We weren't discussing the evasion end (while I would still say that Whirling is better do to the longer duration), we were discussing the IAS portion of the skill... which is easily outshined by other skills.

Sir Mad

Sir Mad

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Moe's Pub

Pigs Can Fly [Pigs]

R/

I definitely agree with the 2nd part of the post - no I wouldn't use it as a IAS... and also with the 1st one actually.

I wanted to focus on the defensive aspect of LR. What you pointed out in the first part of your post can also be an reason to bring LR. LR recharges faster than WD. Which means if the duration of LR is enough to get out of trouble, then LR > WD. Now of course it depends on the map, and on your build (the build of the team). In the tombs for example, with a competent group, the potential "danger" you have to evade would be a grasp escaping from the meat shield (well bone shield) that are the minions (and hope it won't use fingers of chaos - but I'm generally quite lucky with that). In this case generally the whole team focus on it and it doesn't last more than a few seconds. With WD you'd have to wait 60 secs to have another protection, with LR only 45 secs.

Now of course on many other maps you need a longer protection and in this case WD>LR.

On a side-note, I generally go with WD as well, but I played with LR and I wanted to point out that, depending on the nature of the "danger", LR is not that a bad skill, as a defensive stance.

SnipiousMax

SnipiousMax

Perfectly Elocuted

Join Date: Sep 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Mad
...LR is not that a bad skill... Good point, I guess it would be more helpful against larger mobs, that take longer than 45 seconds to kill off.

Another bonus that I didn't mention. If you are using an IAS pretty heavily (like frenzy as me and Archon tend to do lately) then the time you are in an evasion stance can cut into your damage. So using lightning reflexes as your evasion stance means you don't lose the advantage of a constant IAS. So I guess in that regard it can be useful as well.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

I actually have found LR to work well in choking gas builds. Since the IAS in a choking gas build is a bit more important than other builds, being able to keep up your interupts while under a bit of pressure can come in handy. Beyond this however, I'm not sure when else I would really prefer this skill over alternatives.

lennymon

lennymon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Seattle

Odin's Hammer [OH] - Servant's of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

I love to run GA, highest damage prep out there... I run 16 expertise, 7 WS, 12 marks and the skillbar *I* use is:
distracting shot, dual shot, hunters shot, savage shot, GA, whirling defense, troll ungent and res.

Awesome spike damage with good interrupt coverage. I also will swap out GA for read the wind and sub dual shot for melandru's shot, great energy management with high damage. When I do this I run 12 expertise and pump marks.

monkey grip

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2006

Nefarious Coterie [Cult]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by lennymon
I love to run GA, highest damage prep out there... i agree, i don't get into the mathematics, but it seems to pump out the most damage, Glass Arrows + Penetrating Shot +Sundering Shot with a Horn Bow with a sundering string.

i've been wondering for the past 2 months when Glass Arrows was going to be brought up.

tarnoks forgerunner

tarnoks forgerunner

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Sep 2006

R/

heres my glass arrows build i found it pretty good:

-Needling shot
-Penetrating attack
-Precision shot
-Hunters shot
-Glass arrows
-Favorable winds
-Whirling defense
-Healing signet

I was doing pretty good damage, but once the person had under 50%hp, with favorable winds and glass arrows, I was hitting about 41 or 47 (forgot which one lol) every like 1/2 sec with needling shot.