Would appreciate a bit of commentary on this build if you don't mind.
Let me preface by saying that as of right now, I'm purely a casual pvp'er. I plan to take this into the random arena where the teams don't work together worth a darn, so I realize that this build may not be horribly effective in more serious pvp play, but that doesn't concern me yet. It's kind of tuned to what I've seen in the LA arena after getting beaten down a few times.
Attributes:
Expertise (needs 14)
Marks
Inspiration
(distribute the points as you wish, you just need the 14 in expertise since debilitating shot is one of the core skills of the build.)
Skills:
1. Distracting Shot
2. Concussion Shot
3. Debilitating Shot
4. Physical Resistance
5. Energy Tap
6. Energy Drain {E}
7. Spirit Shackles
8. Rez Signet
Ok, so obviously this is an anti caster build, and not one that deals a whole lot of damage. So this guy is going to play an unseen, unsung support role more than anything glamorous.
Distracting shot you'd use as normal. Nothing too interesting to say there, except don't camp a target, you need to be doing other things, just spam it and hope you hit something.
Use Energy Tap and Energy Drain as much as possible against casters, pref monks I suppose (at least while they still have energy). Try to use one of them every 10 sec, alternating between the two to keep a nice steady stream coming in. Use all the excess energy towards using concussion shot a bit more than you'd naturally be prone to in a typical ranger build. Feel free to fire that sucker off / spam at the monks, since you're gonna need to use the energy or risk wasting it, and there's nothing better to bring a team down than a dazed monk. This is your energy sink skill, don't be afraid to use it.
Compliment the energy stealing with debilitating shot, between this and the two energy stealing skills, you should be able to really irritate more than one caster. Switching targets often is going to be key in this build, since you hopefully don't want to waste the steal skills against an opponent who's close to run dry. Debilitating is fine to keep them depressed.
Spirit Shackles seems an odd choice, until you stop to think that every other idiot in the world (like me) seems to have a R primary in the random arena, and spirit shackles is an excellent anti R skill. (if you can get it off without being interrupted) If you don't have an abundance of Rs to use it on, you can always use it to piss off some Warriors.
The idea is to shut down as many as possible and make it possible for the rest of the team to win. Hopefully at the end of the battle, the W/Mo on your team gets to say, 'Wow, I really pwned them, lolz' and you can just smile to yourself.
(I'm not really cynical/bitter I just think I'm funnier than I really am
)The main thing lacking in the build is anti warrior defense. I could use some suggestions here. Normally I like something like a:
1. throw dirt, followed up by a barbed trap, or
2. if you only have one slot, a pin down
either followed by a healthy dose of running.
I haven't found either of these to be too effective in practise, so I decided to give phys resistance and just sitting still a shot. I figure, at least if the warriors are banging on poor old me, they aren't beating on my casters. I don't make the ideal tank with 70 AL + 40 from phys resistance, but it's not terribly shabby. Hopefully there's a monk in my party, since I won't be able to last long with no self heal. I just think bringing troll ungent screws the build up by adding another attribute and I've never found it to be that effective in pvp anyway.
I dunno, maybe t.u. combined with phys resistance is tenable, in that case I'd probably drop spirit shackles.
Any comments?
Cheers.
