I'm thinking of creating a ranger, some build basics?

Again, I see how both could be good and I just use Whirling Defense because it can last a lot longer so if that emergency situation lasts longer than 10 seconds, you are still covered for a little bit. But the IAS with Lightning Reflexes is definitely a plus and it recharges in half the time Whirling Defense does.

hmmm, it's still 45 secs, so I imagine [skill]Whirling Defense[/skill] would be the better skill since the recharges are not very important...

Yay, I finished my Build ^_^

But for the sake of continuing, how can I incorporate a pet into the mix without ruining the build?

I don't think it's really possible unless you get rid of Lightning Reflexes and Favorable winds and take quite a few points out of wilderness survival to put into Beast Mastery. When you get rid of Lightning Reflexes and Favorable winds, you would put in [skill]Charm Animal[/skill] and [skill]Comfort Animal[/skill] so you can actually have the pet with you and be able to res it. I think that's the only way you can stick a pet into your build without completely changing it from the ground up, and all the pet would do is maybe tank for you in a more solo situation or just smash stuff and add a little more damage.

I agree, Whirling Defenses is far better than Lightning Reflexes, due to the duration. But, I don't think pets are worth the skill slots without a large investment in Beast Mastery. Otherwise, they deal such insignificant damage.

Zehnelun's Longbow and Drago's Flatbow are cool (well, and the out of reach Urgoz's Longbow) but I think vampiric bows are where it's at! Just my opinion though, so have a look and see which you prefer. If you wanna use vampiric, I'd recommend Elswyth's Recurve Bow, since it's cheap and comes with 15^50 and +30.

Yea, vampiric bows do more damage (there's an old post somewhere that I don't feel like digging up ATM, it showed the math behind how vampiric actually deals more damage) but a lot of PvE people freak about about the degen associated with it. I'm kind of trying to keep things a little more simpler, but if you wanna bring vampiric mods into the equation, [wiki]Elswyth's Recurve Bow[/wiki] is a good recurve bow and [wiki]Ironwing Longbow[/wiki] is the same bow but with longbow range and is free when beating Factions.

I never really considered a different preparation. And I thought, with 15 Marksmanship, I can do 10 extra dmg/arrow with [skill]Read the Wind[/skill]

Also, what do you guys suggest as far as using a different skill than Power shot?

what do you guys think?

Vampiric deals more damage because it steals 5 life (armor ignoring and it's on top of the damage done by the arrow) with every hit.

The math comes in when you set out to prove that it's even more effective than a 20/20 Sundering bowstring (which it is).

I was also thinking about creating a Ranger. Actually, I already have a Ranger, but it is still low lvl and it only has the skills that where given to me in the beginning of the campain (Power Shot etc.)
Because I have already to many characters, I stopped using it. Until I found myself a, imo, nice bow:


Not the best bow ofcourse, since it doesn't even have max damage. It also doesn't have the beste mods (Improved sale value, wow!). But in PvE it will do fine, until I find a better bow that is.
Yesterday I also discovered that in Nightfall it is pretty easy to get Barrage, at the end of the mission where you need to free Koss.

But to get to the point: Would a R/E work (Conjure Lightning), or is it better to just go for a normal Barrage-build?
I was planning on using the following skills:
[skill]Barrage[/skill][skill]Dual Shot[/skill][skill]Conjure Lightning[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Favorable Winds[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Dodge[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
Perhaps it is better to drop Dual Shot and use Penetrating Attack and drop Dodge and use Troll Unguent.

Expertise: 9
Marksmanship: 12 + 1 + 3
Air Magic: 9

or

Expertise: 10
Marksmanship: 8 + 1 + 3
Air Magic: 12

Edit: If the bow isn't worth using: How much gold does a good fire/lightning/water bow cost? I also have a 20/20 upgrade for a bow, so I could use that too and maybe reducing the costs...
Edit2: Hihi, first post on this forum