Ranger building and managment - Getting a skill at rank 16

Hello, n00b here, I have read a lot on theis fourm, on build and gear managment, however, I still cant quite manage to achieve the standard that flows here on this community.

I have read many build that, one of your main skills should be buffed to 16, while the other two are still above 10.

I am a ranger, I current wear the dorks armour, with:
+1 experitise mask with +3 experitise rune

+1 markmanship gloves

+1 wildness boots.

And with: (including bonus)


14 expertise
11 wildness
12 marksman

I dont see how I can boot one of these to 16, while the rest above 10 or 11, could sombody give me some advice?

This link will help you: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...tion-id270.php

It seems to me that getting 16, 10+, and 10+ would be a factor of multiple major or superior runes.

Also, you may want to look at your skillbar, and rethink having that much expertise. It can be useful, but you could boost your other attributes more if you lower it. http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...sts-id1154.php

First, you need to do the 2 attribute quests, both are found after ascension. One in the desert, one in the southern shiverpeaks. That will give you 200 total attribute points.

Then use the appropriate "helm" (helm, mask, head tattoo, etc) for the +1, and add a superior rune for another +3.

Max attribute without helm or runes is 12, then +1 for helm, +3 for sup rune.

2 attribute quests, Markminship Mask +1 and a sup Marksminship +3

I do have total of 200 points, I remember I done the hero quest, but since I do have 200, I would think I have done the other one also.

I can indeed reach 16, however, reaching 16 leaving a bunch of skill points left unused, so what I did here is, I take it dow to 15, and pump the the two up, and atm, it looks like this:


Markmanship 15
Wildness 11
Expertise 11

with 1 skill extra, all with the gear stated above in the first post, but only now focus on markman to try it out.

Is this a comming decesion I have made? Or would people push all points to make 16, and spread the rest to more then three skills?

Added: My problem is that, I could make a skill atay at 16, but some would be below 10, which can be boosted using another rune that would cost me health. So, would this be worth it to take -150 health for having a max max skill for a ranger?

Check this table to see what points to put in expertise:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...sts-id1154.php

Notice the key break-point at 13 expertise. I personally never leave home without my 13 expertise, but you may find 9 is another good breakpoint. Check the table, and you won't waste too many points.

It looks like you're on top of things as far as runes and attributes. As far as if 16 (or even >12, for that matter) is worth it, here are my thoughts: it depends on what roll you want to fill, and what skills you have chosen. On my warrior, for example, I have the bulk (prob. 5 or 6 skills) of my skillbar for hammer skills. Thus, since most of the skills i'm using will be hammer, I boost it as high as possible. Similarly, when my mesmer is using predominantly illusion, I take it to 16. However, if my skillbar is reflecting more attribute lines, I consider 12-14 more appropriate, as it allows me to get better function out of a wider variety of skills. I find that if I have 2+ skills from 3 attributes rocking, than its probably better to try to get them all around 12.

So, sorry this is a little vague. Hope it makes sense, and if you post your skills and your overall strategy, I'd be happy to try to give some more appropriate help.

Tuperwho

Edit: and Mishkin, I had already posted that link. I didn't, however, suggest breakpoints, as these are not absolutes. What I mean by this is that it depends on the energy required for equipped skills. It varies too my by character to simply suggest 13 or any other number, imo.

From much experience unless you're running a very specialized ranger build I've found the most efficient point distribution to be;

expertise 13
wilderness 11
marksmanship 12

Obviously if you're not using any wilderness skills or marksmanship skills those can be dropped to a lower point. i wouldn't recommend any less than 13 in expertise though as 13 makes your skills cost 50% less

don't expect to not move them around though. I *usually* have 16 wilderness, 11 expertise and 9 marksmanship (dont use skills so just need enough for the dmg from the bow)

However if I need some more in Marks or my secondary, i drop wilderness to about 12 or 13. It totally depends on where you are and what you're doing.

Back out all of your attribute points just to make sure.

You can always go:

Expertise: 13 (12+1minor)
Wilderness: 16 (12+3sup)
6 leftover (gives you 3 in misc.)

Then get the staff from "Fires in the East" to give you 49 energy with druid's armor...

now you're set to trap

12 9 9 + runes gives you 16 10 10

yea, you'll (being a ranger) wanna put a minor rune of every skill except beast mastery (unless u wanna) in a piece of ur armor

how much damage does 2 more points (16 as opposed to 14) in marks even add? seems like a waste of health to me

Depends on your build. If you're in a trapping team, it can boost one of your traps up to 68 dmg; consider that a trapping team will be putting down approx 30+ traps at once (probably more), thats a LOT of damage. Expertise I'm not sure how it works out, but it's probably pretty worthwhile, and for Marks its always good as it increases the chance of critical hit

Plus being a ranger, you should be out of melee range most of the time anyway, and things like Dryders Defense or other evade/block/dodge skills will mean that loss in health isn't so bad. Or you can go like me, minor in all, sup in one and then a vigor rune (i only have a minor in) so I have around 435 hp. I can go round SF with 4 henchies and generally avoid dying so its not that much of a big deal.

A ranger's stat allocation is defined by the Expertise attribute. If you're mostly using skills with a 5 energy requirement you'll want 13 expertise. If you're using 10e skills, you'll need 14 expertise for the maximum benefit.