What's better for a Broad Head Arrow Ranger

I can't decide which is the better skill to give Gwen to complement my BHA Ranger the best...

I'm stuck between [Fevered Dreams] and [Extend Conditions]

[Fevered Dreams]
Pros: Larger effect radius than Extend Conditions.

Cons: I'm pretty much stuck with Faster Casting, Illusion, and Inspiration (need some sort of energy mangement). Longer cast time (about 1 sec with Faster Casting) and longer recharge time. Hex spell removal. Biggest con: I would have to wait for this hex to go up before I could shoot my BHA. So I would have to micro Gwen to cast this hex first, then be able to shoot my BHA.

[Extend Conditions]
Pros: Instant cast spell. Faster recharge time. Since it is an inspiration attribute, I can vary my other attribution points in Domination or other; or I could just simply max out inspiration and faster casting. No micromangement needed. When spreading conditions, I would have a 30 seconds daze on other foes. Most importantly, I dont have to time my BHA, I can just run up and shoot it first and let Gwen do the condition spreading. Easier syngery.

Cons: Smaller effect radius; which makes Fevered Dreams a strong contender.



Thoughts? I am leading towards [Extend Conditions].

I'd go with Extend, because it's more on-demand than Fevered Dreams and is cheaper.

There's no real reason for [Extend conditions]. With a silencing bowstring you already have a 28-30 second condition length, the only time it would give any use is vs bosses and even then you only save yourself from a half second window of the boss not being dazed.

On the other hand I don't really see the need for [Fevered Dreams] honestly. Enemy casters really are pretty wimpy, the main use for BHA is boss shutdown and you never run up against 2 caster bosses at the same time. It might let you dispatch an all caster mob marginally faster but thats it. Unless you have other humans playing physical characters you wouldn't be able to reliably interrupt multiple dazed targets anyway, since h/h will generally only attack your target. Now if you had some kind of blind on another hero that your mesmer could spread to pwn the physicals that would make a great combo.

EDIT: whoops, forgot extend conditions was changed. My point about the +duration being redundant still stands, though I would say the ability to cast on demand instead of needing the hex first tips the scale in its direction. And I still think you will be much better off spreading blind.

I agree with the above, and would like to add that if you don't get much benefit from the extension (since with silencing, the daze of BHA lasts it's recharge) then you may be better off just going with epidemic.

I often go R/me myself with BHA and epidemic so that I can spread the daze most effectively.

Meh my goal was, since casters usually cluster up together, I could BHA, then Extend Conditions to surrounding casters, then unload volley to completely disrupt all the casters, from elementalist nukers to healers. The edge that Extend Conditions has on Epidemic is the effect radius, "nearby foes" versus "adjacement foes", plus Extend Conditions extend conditions . I dont know, I guess if I bring my Searing Flames Vekk it would make more sense to have Extend Conditions.

So what do you guys think? Should I just go R/Me and BHA + Epidemic and use another possibily more effective hero (MM, SS, etc)? But still, Extend Conditions is just her ult, she can do other things such as remove enchantments, remove hexes, etc.

[fevered dreams] for sure...

Extend is pretty bad....

Quote:

I'd go with Epidemic and sacrifice range for an elite.

Quote:

Put Epidemic on your Ranger.

If you just use epidemic on the ranger you can replace gwen with a better hero.

why not just give the ranger or the mesmer epidemic,problem with the ranger having epidemic is that he might get into energy problems,i usually use ranger henchman in eotn and give epidemic to one of mi heroes

If you're gonna use either one, put it on somethin that doesn't need it's elite, like an MM. And you'll get minions to help trigger the daze.

Neither. Hopefully you're not taking an illusion mesmer for degen or some other crap damage build.