The PlaugeSpreader

Hi there folks.

I was experimenting with my ranger and was just testing some builds.
Been playing like a monk awhile and found out that conditions are really are a pain in the arse.
Coz i like playing with my ranger, mostly PvE, I was figuring out how to annoy those pesky monks wherever in Elona, Factions or Prophecies you are..
I came up with this:

Attributes:

Expertise 8+1
WS 12+4
Marks 10+1

Skills:

Poison Arrow {Elite}
Barbed Arrows
Natural Stride
Epidemic
Distracting shot
Troll Ungent
Antidote Signet
Res/Rebirt Sig


How it works:

Fire up Barbed Arrows ---> spam Poison arrow.
With WS boosted to 16 foes get a nasty degen (-7) for 16 sec (bleeding duration) and additional 5 secs poison.

Use epidemic to spread the degen around to foes adjectant to your target.

Natural stride gives you 8 sec 33% faster movement + 50% chance to block attacks. Its Recharge is 10 sec so you can keep it up for allmost all time.

Distracting shot is in this build for the simple fact that it is a nice interupt, wich disables the interupted skill for an aditional 20 sec.

Antidote sig: removes poison, desease and blindnes...

Troll and res are kinda self explainatory..


This build is mainly for giving the enemies a har time, even extuinguish wont bite on this.
Imagin whole your team with -7 degen! :O

I use this build to take out some bosses solo.
I use henchies to clear enemies around the boss, then flag them out of your radar screen.

For meele based bosses use Natural Stride to kite them and Barbed+poison to degen them. Distract bosses selfheal if needed. (not everyone have one).

For ranger and paragon just find something that obstructes ther arrows/spears and give them poison/bleed accationally, with Natural Stride on ofc.
You might consider a spellbased interupt like Leech Signet.

I tried to take some spirits with me to, in my travels:
Toxicity. It would be gread but then you have to put points to BM.
Pestilence. Sadly it works both ways. If a creature dies, conditions on that creatur is spread to all creatures in the area. Including your team members...

I have a teori that a mesmer with Fevered Dreams would help spreading degen, but its really noy nesecery to have a mesmer to do that. There are better way to use the.

If you have a second ranger in your team one might consider Cripshot and Concussion shot, for more conditions to spread around.
Enemies will be dazed, crippled and have -7 degent at the same time.

Cons & notes:
A good overall pressuring/damage build.
Only consern is that some enemies are spirits, elementals, and other kinds of stuff that cant bleed.. for these enemies ---> cripshot+concussion or BHA+PinDown..

Credits: Me and "The Razor Edge" for helping me out testing this build out, and giving me ideas.
My IGN is "Arwen Erina", msg me if you want a demo, or if you simply just have some questions about something.

Feel free to come with constructive critics/ideas and stuff.

Good luck and have fun.

What about using Apply Poison and Screaming Shot, that would give you a chance at using a non-crap Elite. You also get a non-easily-interruptible preperation, and the only limitation is earshot range, which isn't hard. You can now stick Cripshot in.

I would suggest using Savage Shot, as well, if you have an extra slot. It's very useful. Use Mending Touch instead of Antidote Signet.

I suggest something like this:

Ranger/Monk
Expertise: 12 +1 +1
Marksmanship: 9 +1
Wilderness Survival: 9 +1
Protection Prayers: 3

Crippling Shot {E}
Screaming Arrow
Natural Stride
Apply Poison
Distracting shot
Troll Ungent/Savage Shot
Mending Touch
Resurrection Signet/Sunspear Rebirth Signet/Rebirth (for PvE)

Attributes can be adjusted. For example, you can have 11 +1 +1 Expertise and 10 +1 in Marksmanship and Wilderness Survival. The Protection Prayer points are because there isn't anything else to put points in, and putting it in Prot gives some health game whenever you use Mending Touch. Not something you'd dive in majorly, but what else can you put the extra points in?

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Epidemic builds have been suggested many times with many different variations and they are all relatively weak since Epidemic is a very costly skill with a very small range of effect. If you want to spam conditions, do so by attacking multiple targets or by using Pestilence (assuming you have EXCELLENT condition removal in your backline that can justify this).

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Poison Arrow is horrible.

Apply Poison rapes it.

End of story.

Thanks,
Program~

Yeah, "End of story" is a really nice explaination, indeed.

May I remind you the reason why Poison Arrow is an elite is because it's a spammable bow attack, not a preparation?

Well, it depends how you play it really.
As for me i normally stay in the outskirts of the battle area, spamming poison + bleeding to foes in reach. It is afterall the tanks jobb to take most of the heat. Making it rather peacefull to fire up Barbed Arrows out of agro and under cover of Natural Stride, just in case.

And IMO poison arrow rocks becouse it is spammable.
The thing with this build is to spread -7 degen to as many foes as posible, as fast as posible.
Screeming Shot has a 8 sec recharge, (correct me if im wrong) making it less effective to spread bleeding around.

As for Epidemic, when the tank takes the agro, warriors and dervishes jump him. Epidemic helps to spread degen faster so you can concentrate on other foes, nukers, monks, mesmers ect.

When it comes to Apply Poison vs Poison Arrow I chose Poison Arrow because there is no SPAMMABLE bow attack that couses bleeding. HunterShot, moving targets? naa, Screeming Shot, 8 sec recharge? naa, dont think so.
I was not trying to make a build for singletarget spike, but for a whole enemy team putdown.

Im not trying to flame your suggestion/opinion about this build, LightningHell, but the build works great for me.
I suggest you guys give it a shot if you havnt done it yet, you might just be surpriced.

Greets, Arwen.

If not for Burning Arrow, I would still be useing Posion Arrow alot.

I say Apply is better than Barbed (due to length of Prep)

With Posion Arrow and Screeming/Hunters you have opportunity for whatever Prep you want. I dunno, I use Apply+Hunters+Burning

Tab around spamming Hunters and Burning

But hey, thats just me

Apply + Hunter's Shot really shines in a crip shot build since a crippled enemy is easy to nab with a hunter's shot.

burning + apply rocks...


and burning is surprisingly spammable...

expertise 14
marks 16

burning for 5 seconds...elite costs 5... recharges in 5... zealous bow...

bring hunter's/screaming and you have your own self made (4+7+3) 14 degen in a good spammable way...

at least that is what i think...


btw... poison arrow simply rocks because you farm fow forest with it

i like the build erina...gratz

Yeah, as said before, Poison Arrow is nice when you want to spread poison on multiple foes. If you're targetting only one foe, then there are better elites (Burning Arrow for example outdamages it by far - same with Punshot and many other elites - even Barrage). However, when you wanna spread poison around, Poison Arrow let you use another preparation to either increase your damage (Kindle is generally a good choice), or do add more degen (Barbed Arrow - Arwen is right when he says Screaming Shot can't be spammed this way), or even Seeking Arrows if you know you're going to fight a bunch of ennemies with evasive stances.

[skill=big]Poison Arrow[/skill]

This elite is popular among Tyrian/Original Ranger players. It was all we had except Barrage for a long time.

[skill=big]Apply Poison[/skill]

This core skill is a staple of ranger play on all continents. Whether a melee or bow weilding ranger, this will work for you.

Numberswise, the two skills don't have much of a difference by first glance, but PA has a longer duration than AP at the same attribute standards. Also, if you go by seconds per use, AP is better energywise than PA and can be used in very similar fashion to spread poison around a whole enemy team.

When it comes to causing serious degen damage, let's look at condition preperations.

[skill=big]Barbed Arrows[/skill]

Easily interupted? This puts this skill in jeopardy from the moment you read the description. If I want to be easily interupted,I'll bring barbed trap instead.

[skill=big]Screaming Shot[/skill]

I must admit,I prefer this skill over the previous,but bias being put aside, these two have a big difference in practical application. The preperation would possibly be prefered if it wasn't easily interupted(I.E. Wand me/you, and no prep). That being the case, we go for the definite bleed skill that will "stick".

Screaming is instantaneous and unstoppable if within earshot, which is the largest area range in the game, meaning you are going to definitely bleed if a ranger shoots at you. This skill, plus AP makes for serious degen and a headache for any monk trying to remove the degen. Essentially, every 3rd to 4th shot is poison+bleeding if you count recharge, and you still have an elite slot to play with. So, let's talk about it...

[skill=big]Incendiary Arrows[/skill]

This would be so nice if it could last longer than 8 seconds or recharge faster than 24 seconds. Maybe at 15 seconds recharge this would be very viable in the sense of burning/interuption.

[skill=big]Burning Arrow[/skill]

This is THE degen elite imho. Constant spammable burning damage,plus impact damage that is comparable to the best hits in the ranger lineup. This is the premier ranger elite atm,and it speaks for itself.

Also,AP works with BA, so I am all for AP over PA in this scenario of Degen builds.Burning+poisoning+bleeding+Damage+ a well place Savage Shot=GG.

I hope this sheds some light on degen builds. Some may know,some may not, but all benefit from the sharing of knowledge.

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