Is a ranger/paragon a viable combo, and if so, are there any builds for one?

Col. Angus

Col. Angus

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2007

Fraternitas Adamanteus

W/Mo

I have a R/P and mainly use it for pure ranger, but was wondering if there were any sort of skills that would make this a good combination.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

With a build that uses attack skills that benefit from expertise, which is the primary use for many R/A's, R/W's and R/N's, something might be done.

Utaku

Utaku

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2006

Paris, France

We eat pancakes [Yumy]

Me/

If you are using barrage, you can fuel adrenaline shouts like "Go for The Eyes!" really quick and spam them.

blue.rellik

blue.rellik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Melbourne, Australia

None

W/

GftE is the main skill I'm thinking of, it's a great damage bonus.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Other than Go for the Eyes and maybe Find There Weakness, /P doesn't really have much use.

I guess you could be nice to people and use Hex Breaker Aria if your in a hex heavy area, should get plenty of adren for that.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

R/P spear builds used to be REALLY strong back during the preview event of Nightfall before they nerfed Tiger's Fury along with a few spear attack skills, but it's not what it used to be now.

As Sir Mad said, the best use for one now is really with GftE and Find Their Weakness.

clawofcrimson

clawofcrimson

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2006

Crimson Claw

W/

the only way to really apply deep wound with a bow

also I have been using this build on my paragon and it works pretty well as a ranger too... (although I favour paragon for different reasons)

[card]tiger's fury[/card] [card]poisonous bite[/card] [card]barbed spear[/card] [card]blazing spear[/card] [card]disrupting throw[/card] [card]heal as one[/card] [card]charm animal[/card] [card]resurrection signet[/card]

Jetdoc

Jetdoc

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Jul 2005

The Eyes of Texas [BEVO]

D/A

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evilsod
Other than Go for the Eyes and maybe Find There Weakness, /P doesn't really have much use.

I guess you could be nice to people and use Hex Breaker Aria if your in a hex heavy area, should get plenty of adren for that. You haven't played with it enough then....

I almost solely use a R/P build, as I find it synergizes very well. That being said, as with most of my characters, I only use 1-2 secondary skills in order to save my attribute points for what my character does best.

Some of the skills that work great off the top of my head are Go for the Eyes (along with anything that adds effects if you critical), Glowing Signet (a free Burning Arrow!), Signet of Return (hard rez), Soldier's Fury (forget Lightning Reflexes - how about a PERMANENT 33% IAS!!!), Crippling Anthem (puts Crip Shot to shame), Anthem of Guidance (makes your interrupts unblockable), etc...

Col. Angus

Col. Angus

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2007

Fraternitas Adamanteus

W/Mo

Cool, ill have to try some of those suggestions. My character is not very far yet (only lvl 16), but i like to have an idea of where im taking a character before i get to far with 'em.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetdoc
Some of the skills that work great off the top of my head are Go for the Eyes (along with anything that adds effects if you critical), Glowing Signet (a free Burning Arrow!), Signet of Return (hard rez), Soldier's Fury (forget Lightning Reflexes - how about a PERMANENT 33% IAS!!!), Crippling Anthem (puts Crip Shot to shame), Anthem of Guidance (makes your interrupts unblockable), etc... I'm not sure I see where it would be wise to use Glowing Signet. A decent investment into Expertise leaves a Burning Arrow build (even with Apply Poison) plenty of energy management and using a skill slot for this reduces either damage output or utility. Signet of Return is one of the weaker hard rezes available, especially without the use of "We Shall Return", which would take up an additional skill slot. Soldier's Fury will only give 10 seconds of IAS since a ranger can't invest into Leadership and requires the user to be constantly under a shout/chant. It also requires a 1 second cast every 10 seconds to renew. I honestly don't know of a single legitamate shout or chant that a Ranger can bring and keep up that would allow for a good usage of Soldier's Fury. Crippling Anthem may be much more energy efficient than Cripshot, but requires a 1 second cast before the crippling can be applied. I would argue that Harrier's Grasp would be a better choice since it can provide longer crippling without taking up an elite slot. Anthem of Guidance is a decent choice to prevent blocking, but there are a lot of other skills I'd rather spend my elite slot on.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by XvArchonvX
R/P spear builds used to be REALLY strong back during the preview event of Nightfall before they nerfed Tiger's Fury along with a few spear attack skills, but it's not what it used to be now.

As Sir Mad said, the best use for one now is really with GftE and Find Their Weakness.
I'm not Sir Mad

I'm assuming this entire thread is based around PvE.

Quote:
Some of the skills that work great off the top of my head are Go for the Eyes (along with anything that adds effects if you critical), Glowing Signet (a free Burning Arrow!), Signet of Return (hard rez), Soldier's Fury (forget Lightning Reflexes - how about a PERMANENT 33% IAS!!!), Crippling Anthem (puts Crip Shot to shame), Anthem of Guidance (makes your interrupts unblockable), etc... Thats more because their use is debatable. As Archon already said... investing enough into Glowing Signet to make it worth using, you'd probably save more energy speccing higher in expertise with those skill points. The glory of Lightning Reflexes is you can use it under pressure to keep up your damage. The problem is 3 of the choices you said are all elites. Anthem of Guidance is, tbh, almost useless, an elite slot for getting 1 interrupt through block (which are very sparse in PvE anyway), more importantly the only real enemies that bring it are demons and can be interrupted via Lightbringers Gaze (not as fast but wtf).

As for Crippling Anthem... if you really want an insane crippling skill, look no further than Grenths Grasp. I almost managed to kill 3 Touch Rangers alone before i finally ran out of steam (energy and health ). But cripple isn't exactly that useful in PvE.

The best you'll get from a /Para is the addition of Deep Wound to a rangers repitoire (i hope thats spelt right...). But it doesn't come cheap...

I quite like Signet of Return tbh. I tend to run Renew Life or a Res Sig if i don't need my secondary, but SoReturn is much better than Rebirth for a midbattle res...

edlittle

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

Argh

R/

I use RaO with spear attacks.

roblethal

roblethal

Academy Page

Join Date: Mar 2006

USA (EST)

Ultimate Genesis [GEN]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilSod
As Archon already said... investing enough into Glowing Signet to make it worth using, you'd probably save more energy speccing higher in expertise with those skill points.
You can't spec into Leadership. A R/P will never get more than 5e from this one I'm afraid.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilSod
The problem is 3 of the choices you said are all elites. Agreed. I'm not sure there's a build using a Paragon Elite I'd like to run as a R/P...

Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilSod
I quite like Signet of Return tbh. It's handy, but I prefer Death Pact Signet these days.

Personally, I think the Command line is about the only thing I get use out of as a /P. I find that "Stand Your Ground!" is a great skill for Rangers. Also the aformentioned GftE, FtW are great as noted. "Fall Back!" is a well thought out skill, with not-so-well thought out energy and recharge reqs. Could have its uses in a Ranger bar somewhere I'm sure.

Fallen Nephilim

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2007

R/Mo

Find their weakness
go for the Eyes
Keen Arrow
Punishing shot

Is a pretty sweet spike. i usually go for seeking arrows / RtW as a prep, as you dont have enough wilderness survival to make kindle of any use.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by roblethal
You can't spec into Leadership. A R/P will never get more than 5e from this one I'm afraid.
Is it? /doh... I don't know why i didn't guess it was in that... I guess you could run it... free 5 energy, would make Burning Arrow pay for itself. But then again, with its 20 second recharge. Besides Prepared Shot > Burning Arrow

Quote:
It's handy, but I prefer Death Pact Signet these days. Meh, i've occasionally looked at it. But never decided it been actually worth using. I mean fair enough, once the fights over it'll probably be 120 seconds till that player dies again so your safe. But is it worth the risk? I mean its a very bad idea to use it on heros... who are likely to die again... same goes for pugs.

Quote:
Personally, I think the Command line is about the only thing I get use out of as a /P. I find that "Stand Your Ground!" is a great skill for Rangers. Also the aformentioned GftE, FtW are great as noted. "Fall Back!" is a well thought out skill, with not-so-well thought out energy and recharge reqs. Could have its uses in a Ranger bar somewhere I'm sure. Stand your Ground and Fall Back are just too expensive for a ranger if your not running an energy management elite. It's practically half your energy in 1 cast for something that requires significant investment to be worth using.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evilsod
I'm not Sir Mad Oops! I guess it's a bad sign when you start confusing people with others who haven't even posted in the same thread.

@ edlittle
Tbh, I haven't played around with RaO much since the nerf, but spear mastery would probably go well with RaO since it's more costly now than it used to be with it's shorter duration and recharge.

Keithark

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2006

Be Aggressive B E Aggressive [AGRO]

E/Me

Pre-nerf RaO with barbed spear, burning, poision, etc worked great..but now you cannot keep it up and if you try to use apply poison and Rao that is like 100% of your energy right there

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Yeah i don't think i've used RaO much since they completely screwed it up e-cost wise... But i guess if you used a Zealous Spear you could probably get away with it. Most spear attacks are adren based. Maybe throw in a Poisonous Bite if your so desperate to achieve -14 degen via Poison...

drupal

drupal

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2006

I'm using a R/P barrage GftE and a SaO Spear build, it's fun

Yobz

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

N/Me

G4te works best if you have many attack skill based party members, (eg assassin, warrior, rangers, paragon) as it will apply to all.

G4te / Keen is not a bad combo.
Barrage to power G4te spamming
Anthem of Envy can also be good.

I sometimes use a Ranger/Paragon in the tombs:
Barrage
G4te
Distracting Shot
Throw Dirt
Never Surrender
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
(res)

The thing to remember is that most paragon shouts only apply to the "next attack" therefore only affect one arrow in a barrage.

Marverick

Marverick

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

RaO takes up all your energy but spear attacks cost adrenaline so you can still load up on spear attacks. Although I normally bring Razah with Weapon of Fury so I can spam adrenaline and energy skills without a problem.

Beast Mastery 10+3+1
Expertise 8+1
Spear Mastery 12

Rampage as One {e}
Barbed Spear
Blazing Spear
Merciless Spear
Scavenger Strike (if using zealous spear or WoF) / Wild Throw (if not)
Call of Protection
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

you would be energyless in less then 5 seconds....


9 expertise is suicide imho

lakatz

lakatz

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2006

I got this build from a thread LordHelmos created about a hero team build using a hero ranger, monk and Gen Morgahn that works really well (even after nerfing). But I got into a situation where I couldn't use one of my hero rangers and wanted the benefit of this team build, so I used it myself, and it worked well.

R/P Barrage Commander

Command: 9
Marksmanship: 15 (sup marksmanship)
Expertise: 9 (minor expertise)
WS: 9 (minor ws)

[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]"Go for the Eyes!"[/skill][skill]"Stand your Ground!"[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill][skill]Signet of Return[/skill]

Here's a link to his archived thread: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/a...-10081126.html If you read his comments on this build you will see that R/P is indeed a viable combination.

zling

zling

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

R/P is probably 1 of the best combos for a Ranger primary, maybe besides the R/Rit Barrage+Splinter... Paragorn allows you to put your adrenaline to very good use, protecting your party with shouts and chants while you continue pounding your enemies, shouts dont have a cast time so you can use them while attacking, and Expertise affects the energy cost of the non adrenal shouts/chants. you could also use it for the best IAS in the game, [skill]Aggresive Refain[/skill] even with 0 leadership, as long as you have a spammable shout such as [skill]Go for the Eyes![/skill] you'll have a constant unstripable IAS!
basically I'd go 12+1+1 Marksmanship 8+1 Expertise 9 Command/Motivation whichever you preffer

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Only a paragon can keep Aggressive Refrain up, end of story.

Quote:
you would be energyless in less then 5 seconds....


9 expertise is suicide imho He said Weapon of Fury, which acts like a zealous. He also has the option of running zealous himself. Theres nothing suicidal about it.