barrage question

hi i am looking to run a b/p build on my ranger. i have a storm bow with a zealous bow string, fortitude mod, and a strength and honor inscription. i was wondering if i should use splinter, i am the strongest, or mark of pain to increase my damage. has anyone done tests?

IATS! will work with splinter. Just remember the splinter/barrage together will typically trigger the (max 8) attacks from IATS! and then some so you'll only get the benefit on the first 8 "attacks" of the splinter/barrage combo.

Anyway, splinter is widely considered the best with barrage, but no I've not done any actual number crunching. Furthermore, I think one of the problems with MoP is as soon as you cast it on an enemy the battle has begun. Whereas with splinter, the first hit from the splinter/barrage combo is what starts the fight. MoP is fine to apply once the fight has started as splinter and/or barrage will trigger it.

IATS + splinter is good

i run a b/p as my main, usually throw splinter on 1 hero and mop on another

having a hero with SoH (disable and micro) helps too


also i use perfect vamp string during battle and switch to zealous when i need energy, but scavenger strike from pet is usually faster

If you mean barrage/pet; then don't run a secondary profession.

Splinter is a waste of attributes when you can have it cast on you by a hero or player Rit/nec/monk whatever! You should just constantly be autoattacking and spamming Barrage.

By Ural's Hammer, Dodge This and your pet IAS.

I'd basically go with this too. Splinter looks good in theory, but there are several things against it.

I use "By Ural's Hammer" and "Never Rampage Alone". I use a shortbow, btw. The main thing about B/P is damage, so you want to fire as fast as possible, meaning either a Shortbow or, a Flatbow + Favorable Winds.

MoP is good for minions and in phys heavy teams, but not for direct use with Barrage. Each Barrage only hits the hexed target once, triggering MoP only once. However if you run something like 1. Splinter 2. Barrage 3. Nightmare Weapon 4. Triple Shot, you can get a really heavy spike out of Triple Shot + MoP. But MoP will always be better with a Hundred Blades Warrior and with a human Necro calling target and using AP for recharge.

So in your situation, I'd say either personal buffs like IATS or Splinter.

I Am The Strongest does not affect Splinter Weapon, only Barrage. Its usually better to just take EBSoH to buff your whole team and yourself permanently. Also, take By Urals Hammer, which DOES affect the damage from Splinter Weapon triggering.

Strength of Honor only works on melee, sadly. Don't confuse with the similarly named Strength and Honor inscription, everyone uses that of course.

Never Rampage Alone is basically useless. IAS is nigh-useless when barraging unless you spam the key 100x a second, in which case you might shoot a barrage off 10% faster. It also takes up a valuable PvE skill slot and requires a pet with crappy AI.

Mark of Pain is a skill that is only really useful when you both micro it well and pull enemies into stacks since its triggers off both Barrage and Splinter Weapon. But when you are stacking enemies it only takes an extra 1 or 2 splinter barrages to completely clean up a group anyway, so I don't think its worth taking on a hero compared to the relative trouble of using it, uselessness in most fights, and otherwise mehness of the curse attribute. Go ahead and take it as a secondary if a caster has attribute points to spare though.

Best general usage build is to have the Ranger be something along the lines of R/W with Barrage/Save Yourselves/EBSoH/By Urals Hammer!/other. Have a Rit hero with 16 Channeling bring Splinter Weapon. Depending on your title ranks go ahead and bring For Great Justice on yourself and/or Dark Fury on the Rit to enhance Save Yourselves.

Not sure why you're even considering MoP on your ranger bar with Barrage; if you were to take it, you'd be using a Sniper bar to needle the MoP'd target down.

Run IATS with barrage. You can bring splinter on a hero, but if you are not the only physical you run the chance of not having it on when you want it unless you are one of the 1% of players who feel comfortable microing everything.

One of the benefits of R/Rt is splinter on yourself, on demand, and resusable rez (FomF)

MoP is one of those skills that's best used by a human supporting you but heroes are not hopeless with it. Like Rites said, a hero with SoH will work wonders as well...particularly when facing undead (Razah as SoS hybrid is perfect for this). Just don't forget to reapply after facing mesmers.

No sense in reinventing the wheel here, B/P rangers have been around since the first players got to Markis with a cap sig in their bar. Anything that isn't a prep that makes your attacks stronger works.

Fav. winds, never rampage alone, conjure elemental with elemental string, are also old tricks. All of which are somewhat overkill and are situational.

Bolded for emphasis. Do I wish SoH worked on rangers? Yes. Is there any reason for it not to now that we have a PvE split and it can't be abused for R-spikes in HA/GvG? No. Should it be changed ASAP? Yes. Does it actually have any effect on a ranger's damage output currently? NO