Ice and fire - Ranger solo build for the Forest of the Wailing Lord

Video of the run (alternative link)


Ranger / Mesmer

Attribute points:

Expertise: 8+1
Wilderness Survival: 9+1
Marksmanship: 11+3+1
Inspiration Magic: 8


Skills:

Burning Arrow: 6 energy to cast (after expertise reduction), 5 secs recharge, strike for +30 damage and cause burning for 5 secs.

Distracting Shot: 3 energy to cast, 10 secs recharge, interrupts target actions and disable any skill for an additional 20 secs but deals only 10 damage. Some players may prefer Savage Shot instead for the extra damage, but the skills you have to interrupt (Troll Unguent, Apply Poison, eventually Healing Spring) have a short recharge time so the extra 20 secs recharge when distracted is much appreciated. It's a matter of taste I guess.

Apply Poison: Preparation. 10 energy to cast, 12 secs recharge, for 24 secs, foes stuck by your physical attacks are poisoned for 11 secs (actually the description is wrong since it works with Conflagration or weapons with an elemental string).

Storm Chaser: Stance. 6 energy to cast, 30 secs recharge, for 16 seconds, you move 25% faster and gain 4 energy whenever you take elemental damage.

Troll Unguent: 3 energy to cast, 10 secs recharge, +8 health regeneration.

Conflagration: Nature Ritual. 3 energy to cast, 60 secs recharge, convert arrows damage to fire damage for 110 secs.

Winter: Nature Ritual. 5 energy to cast, 60 secs recharge, convert elemental damage to cold damage for 110 secs.

Mantra of Frost: Stance. 10 energy to cast, 20 secs recharge, for 62 secs, cold damage on you is reduced by 39% and you gain 2 energy whenever you take cold damage.


Equipement:

Radiant or frostbound armor (energy is not a problem)

Marksmanship mask of Superior Marksmanship and eventually a WS mask of sup WS for the run to the forest, to increase the duration of Storm Chaser and have a +10 troll unguent.

Any kind of long ranged bow - I guess the best would be a Poisonous Longbow of Prunning +15 while in a stance, but anything could do the job, really. A flatbow is probably ok as well but keep in mind you will have to interrupt with it, despite its high arc.

A Shortbow would make a nice addition as well, but it's not absolutely necessary.


Concept:

You've probably already guessed how it works. Everything in the forest (except the skelettons) deal either elemental damage or send out projectiles considered as arrows. So the idea is to use both Winter and Conflagration to convert any damage taken to Cold damage. With a base armor vs elemental of 100 and an extra 39% damage reduction, you can easilly tank anything. But there is more. Spirit Shepherds use Iron Mist and most likely will keep it up on you all the time. It immunes you to any damage but lightning damage, and since everything there deal cold damage with your spirits, you don't take any damage at all when you have this hex on you and are quasi-immortal for110 secs (untill your spirits die). See below for details.


Getting to the forest:

First, if you have a +1+3 WS mask, equip it instead of your marksmanship mask to increase the duration of Storm Chaser and have a 10 arrows unguent. A +60hp staff or a sword of fortitude/defense and a shield +30/-5/20 or +54/-2 in a stance may help but it's not required.

Here is a map of the run:



Run to the right side through a 1st group of shadows. Have a break by the hill to recast Troll Unguent, then run east, through a patrol probably, to the 2nd point marked on the map. This is the only tricky part of the run. There is a kind of corridor blocked by 3 shadows (2 elementalists and one mesmer) and further a group of skeletals. Aggroing the skeletals means certain death. If you can pass without aggroing them, then there is no problem. But most of the time it's impossible. You would then have to run through the group of shadows, use a longbow to pull the skeletals, and run back. The shadows and the skeletals will start fighting for a short while and will ignore you while you go through. For more details, check Remmeh's guide where you will find another map of the run with the patrols marked.


Soloing the forest:

Here are the various mobs you will encounter:

3 Spirit Shepherds: there are 2 strategies for the Shepherds. Both have their advantages and inconvenients. In any case, use Winter and Conflagration before you engage them, and try not to stay close to your spirits or they will quickly die with the AoE skills of the shepherds. Ideally, they shouldn't be in the aggro range of any bugger you fight in the forest.

Remmeh's strategy: use a long bow / flat bow to stay out of their spell casting range - they won't get any closer and won't use spells at all. With Mantra of Frost active you won't even need Troll Unguent to survive, and you will gain 2 energy whenever they hit you.

Alternative Strategy: Leeroyig them. As said earlier, the 1st skill they will use on you is Iron Mist, which immunes to any damage but lightning damage. And since Winter and Conflagration are up, you are immuned to any damage. However this strategy has 2 inconvenients: 1/ they use Aura of Retoration and as they still keep casting spells they can actually heal themselves this way - spreading poison won't work then: you need to take them one at a time, and preferably interupt Aura of Restoration (it's not a big deal if you don't, provided you focus on one shepherd, but it makes it a bit faster). 2/ Iron Mist lasts 16 secs - they will recast it as soon as you're no longer hexed, but there is a 2 secs casting time during which you're vulnerable, and especially if you're fighting several groups at the same time (6 shpeherds) one or two of them is likely to use Chain Lightning (66 damage) or Lightning Strike (38 damage) then. You won't die from them, but you will have to use Troll Unguent right after.



3 Spirit Shepherds and one Spirit Wood: same strategy than for 3 Shepherds. Even if you use the 1st strategy (stay out of the spell casting range of the Shepherds), the Spirit Woods will deal 7-14 damage on you so they're not really dangerous. All you have to do is to interrupt their Troll Unguent - burning + poison make them die really fast.

2 Spirit Woods: Again, there is not much to say - use Troll only if you need it, interrupt their Troll Unguent, take them one at a time, and you're done. You have 100AL and 39% damage reduction against their attacks, so they're not a threat. You can tank both and not use Troll Unguent untill you have killed one. So the best is to use apply poison, then Burning Arrow on one (forget the second one), watch for Troll and distract it and finish it off with burning arrow. Once dead, cast Troll Unguent, renew Apply Poison, and kill the second one the same way.

Rock Borer Worms (pops): The easiest mobs you will come across. They don't attack you unless you try to run or, sometimes, come at a melee weapon range. Keep them all poisoned, spam Burning Arrow as soon as it's recharged, and you're done. If there is another patrol around when they pop, you can just ignore them until you have killed the patrol.

Armored Cave Spiders: These little buggers have 2 annoying skills: healing spring and apply poison, and strike pretty hard. They come by groups of 3 but it's possible to make only 1 pop. It's possible with this build to tank 2 of them, but it's much easier to fight them one by one, so if 2 of them have spawned, try to pull one. The first skill they will use is Healing Spring. It's a trap so a normal attack will interrupt it - if you're not confident with that, use distracting shot to interrupt it. If you interrupt it with a normal attack, then you can use distracting on apply poison, and it's gonna be a poc. A short bow help against them, since its 2 secs refire rate matches the 2 secs casting time of Healing Springs, so you should catch them all. Alternatively, if you have a hard time pulling them one by one, you could lure a patrol of Shepherd and take all the spiders at the same time while protected by Iron Mist (you will still have to deal with the poison, but that's it). However, you need a good timing as you'd have to kill the spiders and the patrol lured within 110 secs (the duration of your spirits).

Note: Big thanks to Remmeh for the brilliant R/Me build. I'd advice anyone willing to use my build to watch the video posted in that topic if they're not familliar with the forest already, to watch the path used in the forest. The build I've posted is not meant to be a replacement for Remmeh's build - it's a different build with its own advantages and inconvenients. Tanking is much easier with Winter/Conflagration especially vs spiders - but the build also lacks of the extra damage from fire attacks vs plants. It's a bit faster vs spiders, probably simillar vs spirit woods, and a bit slower vs shepherds. At least it's how I perceived it. This build is also available for the owners of Factions and NF who don't have the original flavour of GW.

EDIT - For those who are not used to soloing the forest, here is a screenie of the path you should use: kill the first mobds and patrols (watch for the 3 spiders poping up at the junction), then go to the left side, kill the 2 patrols of 3 shepherds, and the 2 spirit woods on the hills (there are also wurms somewhere), then run past the skellies to the right side - stop as soon as you can, a few spiders may pop (well, they will anyway if you move), and clear it - just be careful at the begining of this part, there are several patrols and spiders. You don't have much room to move there, but try not to stay next to your spirits or the lightning will kill them if you are in the spell casting range of shepherds. If you move slowly, it will be ok.