Please help me, I'm the worst ranger ever.

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I figured I would say something. I use a Ranger/Monk.

The main skills I use are from Ranger. I have 10 expertise since I like the whole even thing and having a 40% reduction on majority of my skills. Then I have 9 healing prayers. 11 Marksmanship and 4 Wildnerss Survival. I also use the Marksmanship mask. My plans are to throw a rune of major vigor in that, and then use a major beast mastery so the health is cancelled out. And make my prep spell better. Then use a minor markmanship rune also for the boost and no negligents.

I have yet to find an effective self heal better then Troll Unguent.(Which I don't use oddly) But basic skill wise. I have nothing advanced. I have Hunters Shot....its sweet. Low cost, more damage then normal attack. Then go with a Dual Shot...its just there to be there. And Distracting Shot...this skill is like a must with the 20 second disable. Debilitating Shot is nice to switch over Dual Shot. Then I have a Prep skill there. Apply Poison more commonly. Thats 4 slots. 3 bow attacks and 1 prep. Then I go a Healing Breeze and Mending and Restore Life, and lastly a rez signet, I have two revives due to one being an energy revive and one being a health revive with low cast. Its not something common, but I do it.

I do have the pattern of 3 bow attacks, 1 prep, 2 heals, and 2 rezzes. Also something to note, in PvP characters. the crap I use is Marksmanship mask. Druids Vest and Druids Leggings then Drakescale Gloves and Studded Leather boots...just for the minor other resists. And having a 30 energy pool. I recently found out the Druids Leggings in RP give only one energy so I think I will switch those out with Studded Leather.

The ranger class is a jack of all trades and master of none.

And to comment, I have hit for 101 damage. I use a 15-28 damage bow, I am elevated and the mob is a wayy lower level then me. You would do like enhanced damage then a double from critical. So its possible, but lamely possible. Otherwise I have no clue, may be able to mix something in armor penetration yadda yadda.


On another note. I did think of something. Rangers do have the health boosts like every other class with the spirits. Those are useful in defending HoH, I have found that out making classes have like 1k HP or next to it with all the health boosts.

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Of course your ranger won't perform well if you don't have high expertise.

13 lets you use 5 energy skills for 2.
14 lets you use 10 energy skills for 4.

14 is the optimal number. Strive to get it however you can. 10+1+3 is the most efficient way but superior expertises are not easy to unlock though ocassionally you'll find idiots selling them for cheap prices cause they think sup. expertise isn't that great (in actuality one of the best runes there is).

12 marksmanship is a must if you are using a bow because otherwise you do not hit for 100% of listed damage. Past 12 marksmanship kinda drops rather quickly per attribute pt.

distracting shot is an absolute must-have on a ranger, even more so on a r/me, as that's obviously a ranger focusing on interrupts.

Rangers can mix in damage/interrupts very nicely.

Mind you, don't base everything off of arenas. Arenas are home to the solo-based character. thats why healing war monks are so popular, even though they suck royally in competitive pvp under most circumstances.

Apply Poison->This is iffy. the 4 degen isn't terrible but it's not that great either and imo isn't worth 10 seconds every minute to keep up.
Troll Ungent->for arena, you do need a self-healing, but once you start organized pvp'ing (assuming you want to), ditch this asap.
Dodge->not worth it with 60 sec recharge.
Hunter's Shot->iffy. bleeding is pretty neglible and you can find better skills imo.
Distracting Shot
Clumsiness
Conjure Phantasm->5 degen is not worth the 10 mana unaffected by expertise.
Rez. Signent->your personal choice, I'd say ditch it but it can be useful. Just not always enough to warrant it.

Things you should look at instead:
tigers fury->pretty much every ranger build has this in it if they're using a bow for +50% damage possibly 70-80% of the time.
Incendiary Arrows->Strong elite but only activated 1/3 of the time. Still it will interrupt and set on fire which is 21+ dps for that time, very effective.
choking gas->good interrupt on casters but uses 12 seconds every minute to activate so use it carefully.
debilitating shot->excellent cost effective energy shutdown. take away 10 energy for 4 of yours?
savage shot->damage/interrupt
kindle/ignite arrows->a damage buff is always good.
pin down->need some movement slowdown.

experiment. get with a decent pvp guild and play tombs or gvg.

As for getting wasted by warriors, I find the most effective strategy is pin down. If you can get them before they get to you, great, if not, just pin down, turn and run a little ways, then hunters shot. If you're using poison it's easy to tell when the pin down has hit, and the hunters gives you poison + bleeding, plus you're out of harm's way. You're in trouble if they gang up on you, but with practice you should be able to survive against most warriors one-on-one this way.

The reason serpent quickness or tiger's fury was that it depend on waht you want...

If you have energy crisis... you will want tiger's fury as you won't need to spam dual shot...

However, if your energy can supply... you should go serpent quickness to get as many dual out as possible. with that setup + serpent quickness... u can almost use dual shot dual shot rinse repeat without any regular shot in the middle... while tiger's fury alone wont be able to do that.

Pet damage are actually quite high... the only thing they are lacking is skills from themselves... However, if a ranger got high enough energy... and spam arrow skills and pet skills at the same time... the damage is actually outstanding. But then u wont have enough attribute point for 4 area to be 12 unless u use alot of superior rune... which u actually can as ranger are targeted as one of the last... especially in tomb.

Most pet damage range from 15-27 with attack speed of averge speed of a bow attack speed. Thats right... their regular hit are as hard as urs with marksmanship 12 and BM 12... over at gwonline.net ranger forum have a very nice pet study... take a look.

I should get around to getting penetration shot or something. Just neat how it has no modifiers. Then I guess it has nothing to do with elevation and the mobs being a way lower level. I mean like level 5 vs level 20.
Thats the only way I have managed to reach that high. In reality the skills I would believe to end up using in the end would be Hunters Shot, Penetrating Attack, and Distracting Shot. And either incendiary arrows or apply poison. Then mending. and either healing breeze or troll unguent. Healing Breeze is instant kinda with a higher cost and they both have around the same effect. Though Troll Unguent is cheaper and cast time. And the two rezes. If you are really after damage though, you would want to try something like R/E or so somewhere else recomended. It was Shock Sniper or something...read that somewhere.

I want to pose a question.

I see most of you stating 13-14 expertise. Currently i use 9 expertise. up to 11 expertise, there is no change in costs of 5 and 10 energy skills compared to 9. and 13 expertise brings a 1 energy cost less on those skills. If one uses mainly 5 and 10 energy skills, is the cost in attributepoints warranted?

Another question:
What is suggested in rune use in general? is one superior rune advised, or mulitple? does this not way heavily on health even with sup vigor?

a third question:
my ranger/mesmer has been doing fairly nice in random arena's, but an Illusionary Waririor (mes/war) just about kicks me so hard its a lost cause. Any tips against them?

Rangers have several of the best stances in the game. Use them. Whirling Defense and Dryder's Defense... And obviously Escape (but it's elite) are all great for staying alive. Rangers are great at conditioning. Throw Dirt, Poison Arrow, Apply Poison, Melandru's Arrows, and so on. Rangers have natural rituals which can save a team at the Hall of Heroes. Look at Fertile Season and Symbiosis and so on. Rangers have traps. Watch as their team runs head long into Dust Trap and Spike Trap and becomes blinded, bleeding, and crippled. Rangers have interupts in the form of Distracting Shot, Concussion Shot, Choking Gas, and Incindiary Arrows.

Now my view on rangers? I love them. But I don't know how they compare to other classes. Least not the Ranger/Mesmer. /Necro is probably better, if you were thinking of doing the quest to change it. But that's just my oppinion (I play R/Me but only use the /Me for unlocking stuff.)

I believe that - if you are going to have expertise - you need to have either 3, 8, or 13 in the attribute. Obviously exactly how much depends on how strong you want the skills from there to be as well, but those numbers are the ones that give you best bang for buck on energy savings.

I disagree. Unless all the skills you use are 5-energy skills, 4, 9 and 14 are better sweet-spots for expertise.
Personally, I have 14 expertise because most of my skills are 10-pointers so they only cost 4, where they would cost 5 with 13 expertise.

Once again... meaningfull values for expertise are as follows. (this assumes that the bulk of your skillbar is 5 & 10 with maybe a 15 energy or two in there... which amazingly enough is what your typical ranger bar looks like).

02: 10->9
04: 10->8, 5->4
07: 10->7
09: 10->6, 5->3
10: 15->9
12: 10->5, 15->8 (half round up)
13: 5->2 , 15->7 (half round down)
14: 10->4

Values between 2-7 are given for low level ranger... as a low level ranger I like to keep my points split between survival (most points), expertise at a 10 energy breakpoint, & beastmastery last (fluffy the wonder tank). Leverage your survival preps (I'm partial to ignite over kindle) to do most of your damage as opposed to your marksmanship (on a 25 energy budget and low expertise... you can't afford to chain bow attacks yet).

In PvP, you should never have less than 9 expertise if you're using ranger skills... Classic case of a build where 9 expertise can work well is a barragebot, 3 energy for a barrage is definately doable especially with a zealous string, saving more attrib points to go into your conjure or smiting skill line (typically I prefer to have someone else like a smiting el/mo to toss out the judge's insight if that's your poison since they can easily run up a full 12 ranks and keep it cast on 2 different players constantly). This ONLY WORKS if your bar is dominated with cheap 5 energy attacks.
If you have a significant number of 10 energy attacks... nothing less than 14 will really do... 12 is still serviceable though... if those extra 20 attrib points are really badly needed elsewhere.

Use skills from your secondary sparingly and only if you can leverage them to be worth the energy cost. If it's 5 energy it's normally a good deal but always remember your energy. 10 energy think long and hard. Exception to this rule is warrior since your expertise bonuses pass over... in which case go hog wild on all those delicious 5 and sometimes 10 energy skill attacks!

Warriors can be a tough ass to get rid of for a ranger but shouldn't be hard with the help of secondary professions skills like a necromancer.
Enfeeble + faintheartedness / shadow of fear and you'll be laughing at the warriors in their face, atleast until those hexes and conditions are removed but by then you could have pulled off a few hits and tricks. Also the classic example of a greater conflag + dreak scale = harmless warriors but that combo is too old and easily countered.

And now forget about secondary professions, rangers aren't just interupters but trappers too, lay down some traps in a way that the warrior will have to go past the traps in order to get to you. Now he can either wait for thet traps to set off on their own 90 sec which is beneficial to you or take the risk and come charging which is also beneficial to you.

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rangers aren't gimped lol

problems are:

1) abundance w/o the need
2) abundance of rangers that lack skills/runes
3) abundance of rangers that dont perform all that well
4) rangers perform better in team builds
5) the reasons 1-4 causing everyone to think rangers suck
6) everyone spits out whatever they hear.. someone says rangers suck, they believe it, and regurgitate it to everyone else, and those people believe it.. etc. and the same works in the opposite direction (such and such is good)

draw your conclusions

after all... without 3 air ele and 3 monks, everyone loses right?

.......

Z

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Once ive bothered to ascend, im gonna give this a go:

Ranger/x

Punishing Shot [e]
Distracting Shot
Savage shot
Serpents quickness
Hunters Shot
Pin Down
Choking Gas
Debilitating Shot

Try to stop doing damage, is my advice. Youve got a r/me, the two best classes for interrupting, yet your still trying to dish it out. Incendary arrorws is offensive, so is kindle, and so is bestial. With the build above, whilst running serpents quickness you can knock out an interrupt anything about once every 2 seconds or something like that. Debilitating Shot every 6/7 seconds as well. Personally, that is one hell of a monk shut down. Without timing, simply spamming, you can reduce a monks efficiency by 50%, more if you hit distracting shots right.
The ranger niche lies at the melee side of the mesmer. The mesmer cant shutdown as effectivly, due to hex removal being quite hot at the moment. However, when he does intterupt, o boy does everyone noitce. Just taking backfire, its quite punishing.
However, he can be shut down by another mesmer, whereas the ranger is trickier. Armour suited to elemental damage, and a high level of simple interrupts (without fanfare) allow a much more down to ground, yet more effective anti caster effect. Whatsmore, the arrows used interrupt 'all actions', which means if your bored you can do it on a warrior as well :S. While its not as punishing as a mesmers shutdown, you get much more stamina and reliabilty.

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