Archer/Beastmaster Build - suggestions?

I'm pretty new to this game, so I'm still trying things out, so any suggestions here would be much appreciated. I have a Ranger character who's main focus is archery, but I wanted to add some beast skills mainly because its nice to have your own minitank. The character is currently level 8, in the post-sear area, and I'm pretty much strictly a PvE player. Anyway, here's my current stats and skills:

Lvl 8 R/W
Marksmanship 7 +1(Mask)
Beast Mastery 4

Skills:
Penetrating Attack
Power Shot
Hunter's Shot
Read the Wind
Favorable Winds
Feral Lunge
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal

I realize this is probably not the best combination I could be using, some of these skils are recently acquired and I'm still testing them out for effect (like favorable winds). I took Read the Wind over Ignite Arrows because it has half the energy cost (although it only lasts half as long), and because Ignite Arrows would require another attribute to train(Wilderness Survival). However, I have also found the Ignite Arrows/Dual Shot combination to be useful in dealing some area damage, although not much. Anyway, I'm still experimetning, and any ideas from those with more experience would be a great help. My general idea is to try to have 5 skills that would make me a competent archer and reserve 3 for beast skills. I'll continue to update this as my character grows and changes.

well when you get higher level put more points into beast mastery, for now your build is fine. pick up some more skill later on, like preditors pounce.

where....is....the....expertise!?!?!?!!?

He's level 8, there's no point to it yet. Seriously? What is one point off a 10 energy skill at the expense of damage? Expertise takes off later on, at level 8 there's little need for it. No point until you can hit a decent breakpoint and not be costing yourself too much offensive power. I suppose 3 expertise might make some sense, but then you just leave it alone till you can bump it to 8-9 expertise.

Once you get out of Ascolon you should have enough attribute points to get by without the pet. It's helpful early on, but you'll want to get rid of it sooner than latter. Wilderness Survival skills will go much further until way late in the game when a few Beast Mastery skills will become useful.

You can use GWG's Interactive Map to find a plce called Grendrich Courthouse. There you can get Kindle Arrows, which does more damage than Ignite, costs 5 instead of 10, and lasts just as long. It doesn't do damage over an area, but it's generally considered better than Read The Wind.

I was really trying to go beastmaster until i discovered my pet is not rezzed with my group! Whats up with that?? Your group is totally wiped, and there your pet is laying the middle of a horde and if you were actually dependent on beastmaster skills for damage you are so screwed right there, half your skillbar suddenly becomes useless.....

[Case: Altheas Ashes, Pet dies on the "platform", there is just no way in hell you can rez your pet again, and it's not rezzed when your team is wiped either?!. You [and your team] of course will pop back at the shrine.....]

In the end, simply having :

1. Ignite Arrows [or Kindle, but i prefer Ignire due to area damage]
2. Dual Shot [obviously combo-ed with Ignite you get one heck of show :P]

..i could do so much more..just 2 skills on my bar.

Well, I don't know if anyone is still looking at this thread, but after some experience in the game and a few more levels I've made some adjustments to this build.

My character is currently level 14. Actually, around level 9, I changed the build completely, getting rid of beast mastery and putting points in marksman, survival, and expertise, and using (among other things) the dual shot/ignite or kindle combo. It worked all right for a while, but I started running into problems once I hit the shiverpeaks, so at level 13 I revisited the archer/beastmaster idea, and its been working real well. Here's the build as it currently stands:

Ranger/Warrior Lvl 14
Marksmanship 8 +1 mask +1 minor rune
Expertise 5 (20% energy reduction)
Beastmastery 7
Minor rune of vigor (+30 health)

Skills:
Power Shot (10 energy, 8 with expertise)
Penetrating Attack (10 energy, 8 with expertise)
Read the Wind (5 energy, 4 with expertise)
Favorable Winds (5 energy, 4 with expertise)
Dodge (5 energy, 4 with expertise)
Feral Lunge (5 energy, 4 with expertise)
Comfort Animal (10 energy, 8 with expertise)
Charm Animal (10 energy, 8 with expertise)

One thing I really like about this build is its energy use. Half the skills are 5 energy, half are 10, but two of the four tens aren't used that often: charm animal, which is never used in an energy intensive situation (heck, I don't think i'll ever 'use' it again), and comfort animal, which i've used occasionally in battle, but it's not like its a spam attack, so this setup really works with a low energy output.

My pet is currently a level 11 stalker. I have a couple of different bows I use depending on what I'm fighting, but both have a +5 energy, which with armor bonuses gives a total of 30.

I've found feral lunge to be very helpful because of the bleeding, and it's been more useful than hunter's shot since it seems that it's been more likely that I've hit a target while its attacking than while it's running.

I put read the wind in so I'd have a constant damage increase in place of kindle, but its a little more difficult to manage as it only lasts for half as long (12 seconds). I may swap this one out for something, any suggestions?

Dodge has been somewhat useful - if i've had to try to run from a tight situation, and there aren't hordes of monsters blocking me from actually being able to get out in the 5 seconds that it lasts. I've managed to get away like this a few times. However, it usually leaves me as the only living member of my party with no power to rez anyone, so I either end up dying anyway or reloading the area. I may replace this with troll ungent, even with no points in survival, +3 health regeneration could be useful.

I'm trying to figure out what to use for a third rune. One more point in expertise wouldn't do me a whole lot of good atm, but later on it could be usefull to get that one point that would boost it into the next effective percentage range (correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems to me that expertise affects 10 energy skills at 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, and 5 energy skills at 5, 10, 15). My understanding of runes is that they save you the most skill points when placed in the higher ranking attribute. I'll probably want to take expertise to a max of 10, so I guess it really depends on where I want Beastmastery to end up.

Anyway, that's how things stand, I'd appreciate any feedback on how this build may or may not work. So far it has done pretty well for me, but is there one or two things I could tweak to improve on it? Thanks for the help!

well, here's my 2 canadian cents :

seeing as you're a ranger/warrior, why not ditch the markmanship, grab a sword/axe/hammer, put on a few adrenal skills and go nuts with your pet by your side?

this would free up almost all your energy for the pet skills and still allow you to whack away with the adrenal skills of your warrior side.

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