Ranger needing tinkering

Hi, Im new to this forum. Im a seasoned GW player, pretty good level 18 R/E. Ah, scratch the whole pretty good thing. My build is CRAP! I can barely go out of Lions Arch to kill stuff without being eaten alive by Fire Imps! I knew something was wrong, and I suspected it was my build. I don't even have a build. I sorta... threw my character together. I began seeking some building help, when I came here. Looks good enough, so I think I'll join.

Anyway, right now, I have these skills. Power Shot, Hunter's Shot, Pin Down, Apply Poison, Troll Unguent, Charm Animal, Feral Lunge, and Fire Storm. I don't even know if that is a build. But, Im seeking on some good advice for a brand spankin' new build, good for soloing outside, killing stuff and not getting ownd by mobs of level 13's.

So, any advice?

First of all, you've fallen into the trap that many new players fall foul of; attempting to make a character what they are not. You're going to have to lose the firestorm, you are a ranger, not an elementalist.:P
Your build, other than that, is ok. The combination of apply poison and hunters shot is a popular early game choice, applying bleeding and poison for some pretty nice degen.

Power shot should probably be replaced with something like [card]Penetrating Attack[/card], its well documented that it gives quite a bit more damage for your energy.

Make sure you invest in expertise, it makes your attacks more spammable as they cost less energy. Furthermore, you might want to slip a ranger stance in there, [card]Natural Stride[/card] is a popular choice, providing good dogding capability with a short recharge and quick speed boost.

Other alternatives are whirling defense for a longer dodge stance, lightning reflexes for an increased attack speed, or even storm chaser, for a nice sturdy speed boost.

Having a pet is useful, but seeing as you dont have a pet heal in there, once he dies, hes out for the count. So its either you replace feral lunge with comfort animal, or you lose the pet altogether, redistribute whatever points you have in beastmastery into other areas and add a couple of interupts.

Interupts is where the ranger shines, [card]Distracting Shot[/card] is a favourite of seasoned rangers, disabling the interupted skill for 20 seconds, with only 5 energy base value, the only downside is the longer recharge time. Other rangers go for [card]Savage Shot[/card] - better for damage, and releasing it straight after a powerful attack like penetrating shot can provide a nice damage spike.

hmm.. ive rambled on quite a lot.

hope i was of some help,

Will

Ok... so first of all, are you attempting to solo or are you bringing henchmen/other players? Even as a level 18 until you have max armor and some better skills you should probably stick with a full party. As for your build... first of all ditch Firestorm... expertise does NOT lower its cost and it's a garbage skill anyway. Next, bring Comfort Animal on your bar so you don't have 2 wasted slots as soon as your pet dies. If you want my advice you would remove the pet entirely... builds usually need to be devoted entirely to beast mastery for a pet to be effective unless you're running a gimmick like a thumper, IWAY warrior, or B/P ranger. But you won't have to worry about any of that until much later on. So if you do decide to ditch the pet, here are some thoughts. I'll assume you have the ranger skills from pre-searing up to LA from the skill quests.

[skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Dual Shot[/skill][skill]Ignite Arrows[/skill][skill]Troll Unguent[/skill][skill]Whirling Defense[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
I've left you with an optional slot... you could bring another attack such as [skill]Hunter's Shot[/skill] or [skill]Penetrating Attack[/skill], or you could bring another utility such as [skill]Favorable Winds[/skill]. I've included Distracting/Savage shot because now is as good a time as any to start practicing interruption, and it should help against those pesky fire imps.

Once you progress further through the game, you should acquire more skills. Most R/E's use [skill]Conjure Frost[/skill] or [skill]Conjure Flame[/skill] or [skill]Conjure Lightning[/skill] in conjunction with [skill]Barrage[/skill]. From there you can explore and find other builds that suit your style.

Edit: Damn you beat me to it. However I don't think he'll be getting Natural Stride since it sounds like he's a new prophecies player.

good point about nat stride, I used storm chaser when i was a newb running thru prophecies, then whirling defence through most of factions. Ive moved onto using a PvE version of the hero battle Packhunter build, pet + spear = fun.

Good point about dual shot and ignite (taking a leaf out of the charr rangers books there), i also used ignite arrows a lot in my early days, mainly because its quite impressive. as well as appearing to do devastating damage, thought it doesnt really, and is often outclassed by kindle.

hey Demon, which campaigns do you have? as you can access whichever campaign you want (as long as you own it) from lions arch, we could give you a much wider range of info if we knew which skills you had access to.

Kindle is quite a good alternative, but I didn't want to make him spend money on skills that he likely won't use that often once he hits the southern shiverpeaks

All I've got is Prophecies. No Factions, No Nightfall. Right now, I think I've got pretty good armor for just Prophecies. I have Droks Forge armor, which I hear is one of the best in Prophecies. I'll try to throw in some of these skills, and see how it works out. What I was trying to do with my skills, is kinda make someone bleed and give them poison, taking them down quickly. I have the bow Stinger, which is good for poison, and another bow for bleeding duration. I'll try these, though. Thanks.

P.S: Your totally right. Fire Storm is crap. I just had it in there because I liked to hit alot of enemies, but I learned it was crap. And, Im thinking of ditching my animal, but im not sure if I should. Should I? Like, If I get rid of it, I can get a few points to upgrade Expertise, and put it a couple of skills. I usually use my pet Wolf to tank and take hits for me though.

degen tends to become considerably worse as you go through the campaign because of the steadily higher hp totals. however, if you can either delivery maximum (-10) degen consistently, or can apply degen to a lot of targets at the same time, then it's still good.

as for ditching your pet, let me put it this way: i've played my ranger through all the campaigns, as well as the preview weekend, without ever using my pet except for when i aquired it. the dire white tiger does look very good, but it's kinda useless and have a tendency to die. i heard the new GW:EN beastmastery skills are good, but until then, ditch the pet unless you are playing in a barrage/pet group.

Since you're in the LA area, if purchasing a skill is an option for you, I would suggest getting Apply Poison from Captain Greywind in the Ascalon Settlement (there's a quest outside of LA that leads you to it, in fact...the one that tasks you with leading Devona, Cynn, Mhenlo, and Aiden there.)...it's fairly energy-intensive, but being able to poison multiple targets in a fight is something I've found useful throughout my time with my Ranger. (Just "tag" each target, poison by itself isn't significant degen, but it helps wear down the whole group, and with a decent helping of Wilderness Survival (which you probably will have points in for Troll Unguent anyway) it lasts a decent amount of time)

Of course, this doesn't work on most undead or other "non-fleshy" creatures (elementals, spirits), as they're immune to bleeding/poison/disease, but it helps dramatically with the fire imps and tengu.

I would tend to agree with the points made about your animal companion...takes up two skill slots, and does little more than provide an extra target for enemies unless you're running a Beastmastery-focused build...I would suggest grabbing a couple of those lonely henchmen sitting by the exit in LA, they do cut down on XP gain and drops, but they'll help you speed through encounters faster. Soloing isn't really efficient unless you have a focused build set up specifically for soloing.

Well, Im thinking of going and getting Kindle Arrow and Conjure Flame, and getting a flame damage-based bow. I could dish out some massive damage with Double Shot if I had those two. One question. Do Kindle Arrow, Conjure Flame, and Ignite Arrow not get rid of eachother?

Well, Im thinking of going and getting Kindle Arrow and Conjure Flame, and getting a flame damage-based bow. I could dish out some massive damage with Double Shot if I had those two. One question. Do Kindle Arrow, Conjure Flame, and Ignite Arrow not get rid of eachother?

Oops. Sorry about double post. Stupid internet....

Kindle arrows and ignite arrows do 'get rid of' eachother, because you can only have one preperation at a time.

If your running kindle arrows and conjure flame, then you dont need a fiery bow, as kindle arrows makes your bow count as fiery.

As it has been mentioned, apply poison is a nice skill, or, I am assuming you got a run to droknars forge (since you said you have Droknars forge armour), I would reccomend taking some level 20 henchmen from there, taking a signet of capture and going out into whitmans folly to try and capture poison arrow (From Salano Pippip I think). Its a pretty good elite skill, especially if you have only prophecies.

I would agree, drop the animal, they rarely make it worth the attribute points, letalone the skill slots, unless you run a full beast mastery build.

Well, as we speak, im gonna try and get Meladru's arrow. Im pretty much gonna burn people, make em bleed and poison em all together.

You can't use multiple preparations together so that won't work... And Poison Arrow is a better elite for degen I think though Melandru's is nice for a bit of added damage vs enchanted foes.

The real problem with your target build (some sort of degen ranger it seems) is that without nightfall, you lack many key skills. Burning Arrow+Apply Poison is probably the best degen combo on a ranger, but you can't get Burning Arrow. Personally with only prophecies I'd focus on a different type of build... Conjure+Barrage is popular. You could also try making an oath shot trapper, or perhaps a build using Punishing Shot ala the old Rangerspike.

Thing is, Poison Arrow is probably too hard to get. Melandru's Arrow is easy. Get a run to Thunderhead, do the mission with a bunch of pro's and NOT get killed, If Uldar shows up, Signet of Capture. Tadah! Melandru's Arrow. Or, do the whole fire thing. I could try a Fireslinger, but im not too sure bout that. Conjure+Barrage sounds good. Or Rangerspike. What are they?

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Yes, but Salani Pippip is a level 28. Im only 18. I think he would pretty much maul me, along with all those Crones around him. I guess though, I should get Conjure Flame, since Kindle Arrow just gives you fire damage, and I already have a fire bow. I could dish out some serious damage with Ignite Arrow and Conjure Flame. Then, I could try and throw in Melandru's Arrow, along with Apply Poison. I've already got a bow which lengthens poison pn an enemy, and another which lengthens bleeding on an enemy. Question though. Is there a Ranger skill that sets the enemy on fire?

Burning Arrow, but it is a Nightfall skill.

On a different, yet equally important note...it sounds to me that your general approach to the game is not quite what the developers intended. By being run to Droknar's Forge, you skipped at least a third of the storyline.

Yes, it is helpful to have max armor and a handful of elite skills from which to choose. The other side of the coin is that many non-veteran players, in the process of obtaining these things, never really learn how to play. The fact that you would rather leech off a mission group than cap a skill on your own is a prime example of this problem.

To be honest, you are better served by returning to Kryta or Maguuma or wherever you left off and continuing the storyline. Ascend in the desert, proceed through Dragon's Lair, and then you will arrive back in the Shiverpeaks as you are supposed to do. Afterward you can worry about tweaking your build. Until you have completed both attribute quests, it is a moot point anyway.

p.s. I'm not trying to be insulting. However, saying that you "hear [Droknar's armor] is one of the best in Prophecies" is a dead giveaway that you probably don't have as much experience as you initially claimed. It is better, at the very least for your first character, to play through the entire campaign. Not just the parts that are convenient.

Although it may not be your cup of tea, I tried a few setups and found that conditioning w/ [skill]Epidemic[/skill] works wonders if you can work with multiple conditions. Unfortunately it only transfers remaining time, so "burning" is out of the question, but it works nicely giving a not-even-so-tightly-packed group poison + bleeding... I only have Nightfall so I tend to use
[skill]Screaming Shot[/skill] and [skill]Apply Poison[/skill], perhaps there are some good conditioning skills in Prophecies?

...ah but this is only if you're willing to give up Elementalist..

Luckily, I didnt have to skip to Thunderhead. I just got it in Grenths Footprint.

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