My R/W AB Build ~ Pls Dont Shout At Me ^^

Ok well this may not be the best thing ever but I find it works quite well and is really, really fun to play.

Equipment:
Zealous PvP Axe of Axemastery +1(20%)
any tactics sheild
brawlers armour

Attributes:
Axe mastery - 12
tactics - 9
expertise - 12 (9+1+2)

Skills:
magehunter strike
protectors strike
critical chop
swift chop/furious axe
dismember
executioners strike
dodge
healing signet (107 heal)

Even though you have no points in strength maghunters + protectors + critical = 3 strikes in 1.5 seconds not only doing a lot of damage to squishies but also making quick adrenaline. This build will not beat a warrior on its own, but vs squishy targets it rocks.

it also works for sword:
critical -> hamstring
swift/furious -> pure/ jaizhengu strike
dismember -> sever artery/ barberous slice
executioners -> final thrust

and hammer:
critical -> irresisatable blow
swift/furious -> crushing blow
dismember -> mighty blow/ staggering blow
executioners -> hammer bash


pls dont flame about how lame it is, because i know it works well, but if you have any constuctive comments or critisism pls post ^^.

~A Leprechaun~

You don't have WD? Dodge alone won't save you against mobs of (insert opposing faction). Also Blind is gonna screw you over as well, and since you are just R/W you only have access to Antidote Signet. Drop 2 offensive skills and insert those in so you have SOME survivability.

I would recommend IAS but Axes are pretty fast attack speed.

^
i have thought about all of those problems but when i play it they dont seem to be an issue ^^ .....weird, but i see where your coming from. If you are with a few other people the enemy dont seem to target you.

~A Leprechaun~

Idk, I find that dodge can work well defensively. It doesn't have the same advantage of evasion against melee, but the running skill can be helpful to catch kiters and get out of range of other rangers as well as spell casters. Normally I would reccomend WD over Dodge since dodge is pretty useless if you get snared/crippled, but in a melee build it might be advantageous to have a good running skill.

i wouldnt use tactics. use 10 wilderness survival, 12 axe, and 13 expertise. use the elite skill escape and also whirling defense. use troll unguent instead of heal sig because of the -40 armor and a 107 heal isnt much. use any shield though, but use it for the +30hp and other mod on it as you wont need the defense with escape and whirling defense. if you want, you can use escape, whirling defense and lightning reflexes and have 75% blocking at all times. put wild blow in there along with any cripple skill and youll beat just about any warrior (except ripostes =P)

@ dutch masterr ~ ok first the +16 armour from a shield is ever-so helpful when using a ranger, also why would i use escape when the key to the build is magehunter strike?
I never really heal when in combat due to the amout of intterupts floating about in AB, so out of combat 107 hp every 6 seconds seems to do fine for me. Even with wild blow and a cripple how do you reason that this will beat a warrior? ^^

@XvArchonvX ~ ty for the feedback, yes i find dodge ever so helpful for catching kiters and the evasion against arrows is very handy when running in/away for a fight as there are so many rangers in ab. also this build is supposed to be very mobile and fast i try not to get bogged down in melee but take out a fuw casters and retreat. ^^

thanks everyone! more feedback would be great! anyone tryed it yet?

~A Leprechaun~

escape can help you catch enemies while evading attacks. wild blow takes off stances, that casters sometimes use too, and cripple to slow your target to either run away or attack. at 9 strength, magehunters stike only does +14 damage. there are other sword skill, like seeking blade, that do more damage and are non-elite. magehunters would only be good against monks using blocking skills, but if your up against a good or fairly-decent monk, its hard to outdamage their healing even if your a warrior. i would just suggest wild blow, escape and hamstring because youre more than likley to have a warrior charge you, and you would also be able to take out another ranger using whirling defense and other stances very easily with those skills.

Magehunter strike is a horrible elite, even more so on a ranger. Elite version of IB that isn't even as good as the non-elite. Granted you don't need a hammer and it has faster activation and recharge time. However you can't add attribute points to make it stronger (unlike IB), and it doesn't give you the conditional knockdown of IB, instead only a conditional cannot be block/evaded which IB already has...

Here's what I would change, take expertise down to 9 and put the extra points and those from tactics into Beastmastery. Bring RaO, Charm Animal, Comfort animal. Keep Dismember and Critical Strike. I would switch protector's strike for either Bull's Strike or a Pet Attack.

Even if you don't want to make an RaO ranger, I would take an axe elite over magehunter's strike.

yeah i have thought about taking an axe elite and will try it, but from using magehunters quite a bit i have found it to be very effective,at first looking at it on paper it looks lame but being able to do maghunters->protecters->critical in the sapce of 1.5 seconds really hits hard and is very fun^^

~A Leprechaun~