Ranger in Diessa Lowlands

I have a level 11 R/M and I am getting TROUNCED in the Diessa Lowlands. I can't remember all the names off hand, but the skills I use are:
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Troll Unguent
Read the Wind
Bane Signet
Restore Life
(can't remember name of this one, does 30 damage, smiting)
(can't remember this one either, does 14 damage for 5 secs, smiting)

My bow does 20 dmg and I usually have 3 henchmen and my stalker.

Suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks!
~Absynthe

This is one of the toughest areas to be out in at that stage. You might want to take along ignite arrows because of the groupings. However, I found that I could not do any of the quests out there without at least one team member (real person) or coming back after I had leveled and got a few skills. The point though for me was that my power shots and hunter shots would kills most of the charr in one or two shots. Whereas your smiting might be able to do that at some point.

This may not help you atall but what henchmen are you using, myself, i always take a healer a mage and a fighter and/or a brawler. Take the melee fighters to stop them getting close to you. Drop a few monk abilities for some skills like Lightning Reflex and perhaps add Ignite arrow or Kindle arrow to your skill bar. If your certain they are comming for you, after the 1st attack start Troll Urgent and if they are hitting to hard also activate Lightning Reflex. Against the harder mobs ill keep Troll Urgent running all the time. Make sure your on high ground, you can attack from a greater distance giving you plenty of time to escape if it all goes pear shaped, perhaps add res to your bar to revive the henchmen when they all die.

My set up is
Kindle Arrow
Penetrateing Attack
Duel Shot
Pin Down
Lighting Reflex
Throw Dirt
Res
Troll Urgent

and all my skill points go into Expertise, Marksmen and Wilderness Survival any left over ill temporarily put them into healing.

With this you'll have decent attacking power and also the ability to evade or stall the attacks of the enemy.

Anyway, hope it helps in someway.

Thanks for the quick replies! So far I have more been using my smiting spells, rather than my arrow attacks, maybe if I switch up and use some of the power or hunter shots I'll have better chances.

My Restore Life spell is a resurrect spell, btw, but unlike the signet it can be used however many times...trust me, I've used it an untold amount of times per mission. Oh, and the henchmen I use are usually the fighter, archer and healer.

I'll have to remember to try to stay on high ground, I read on here somewhere that you get more damage that way, I think.

Thanks again for the suggestions, I'll have some things to try out tonite!

~Absynthe

As a general rule, always take the henches that don't correspond to your class. I'd suggest dropping the Archer and taking the Mage for some AoE damage.. his Fire Storm will come in pretty handy.

I had the same problem as you. I ended up dropping my pet and getting a refund on beast mastery. I then used those points into my other skills. Now things are much easier! I use henchmen all the time. I go warrior/healer/ranger. I am a ranger but I found the elementalist henchman was dying ALL the time. The ranger will use troll unguent when she needs it.

About henchies....

Fighter and Healer are a must after that Orion [mage] is your friend. Orion will die alot but his AOE is more useful than the archer's single target damage. Once you can get more, I add the brawler and the cultist. The mesmer guy doesn't do too much and the archer always dies quickly.

Yeah? I find the Archer's actually one of the more resilient henches.. My little henchwarrior dies more often cause he likes to aggro everything in sight and then get right in the thick of it...

Ssnider: I had the same thing happen. After I dropped my pet and Beastmastery altogether, my killing power went up by leaps and bounds - especially since I then had room on my skillbar for more useful things like Favourable Winds.