Frozen Soil, is it any good?

since the new patch was instituted i've noticed that alot of 4 x4 teams rez much faster than before, or is it my imagination? anyways, how good is the ranger skill Frozen Soil in preventing what seems like mass rezs'? is the range good? or do i have to cast the spirit right where the enemy fell? my team is losing matches when they're up by 3 members when all of a sudden the other team is like up and battling again. please help.

Since your team cant rez either, it's a two-sided blade. Nature rituals are for specialized parties; frozen soil might work if you didn't have any rez users in your party -which would be bad anyway.

the range is huge. i mean, cast it as your a few seconds from engaging and itll well cover the main fighting area. its the same range as a normal nature ritual. nature rituals are good for spike teams, since basically you kill them and theyre screwed, or theyre for tanker teams that like to stand around forever and not die. whenever i see frozen soil in pug tombs my group always gets a bit hesitant. especially since its usually from spirit spammer groups and there are about 50 of the things.

Ah, yeah I didn't think of that. Go worm yourself in a all air ele team and have some fun.

sorry for the n00b question but what is pug?

i use frozen soil regularly, i keep it in my skill block, after we kill the monk i cast it then we move forward to stop any smart asses killing it, that seems to work most,

Quote: Originally Posted by Calnaion Blackhawk

Pug = Pick Up group... ranging from just adding whoever says "LFG", or inviting people randomly and hope they join. Almost the same as just randomly pairing up people in competition arena.

As for frozen soil... I'll just pre-warn that my view on spirits advantageous parts requires planning and a strategy. If you really want to use a spirit to your advantage, you need to prepare to use the effects to the fullest against your enemy, while making the side-effects as little as possible. Frozen soil can be useful in a spike group whereas your party is focused on killing them as soon as possible. If you can make sure yours opponents die before any of your teamates, then frozen soil is a pure benefit, if both teams have 2 dead people, then it'll prove to be a possible side-effect.

This is the worst quesiton ever. I drop from any Tombs group that doesn't have Frozen Soil (if I'm not playing my Ranger or I have to use Beast Mastery for Fertile Season). It is not only good, but NECESSARY.

It's a good skill when you winning, or if you have an advantage at the start.

Usually set when your team is winning and have killed a few of theirs, then they just try to waste time rezinng and no good, theyve lost.

In my opinion, frozen soil is that its bad for a couple reasons. First, it is an enormous risk you take by laying it down. Whichever team loses a man first just loses the match outright.

Also, it requires wilderness. The other wilderness skills are nothing too impressive if you ask me, unless you plan to spam even more spirits or lay traps, and netiher of those particularly helps you to kill the enemy first, which, as previously stated, is the most important thing.

It would be great if you could cast it after an enemy died, to keep them down and out. But a 5 second casting time compared to 3 for a res sig wont get the job done, you would finish too late. You could start the spell early in anticipation of their death, but your absence of firepower on the target only makes it more likely that they will survive.

Wilderness skills aint too impressive?

Erm, how you figure that one, Bleeding, Fire, Poison are all great. Not to mention spirits, and traps. Anyway, thats the point, first team to get a few enemies down wins, and it works, thats why you use it if you know you can do that. An Air ele team goes out with it set, fresh energy, chains a few people, viola.

Oh man, Wilderness survival totally sucks! I mean, how pathetic is the +24 damage from Melandru's Arrows, the half casting times of Quickening Zephyr, and the obviously pathetic effects of poison.

What teams have you been playing that don't rez until everybody's dead!? When I go into Tombs, most teams have 3 monks, and they get rezed the second they go down. Without Frozen Soil 2 teams that each have 3 monks can fight it out for a freling eternity.

Saying Frozen Soil is anything like "bad" means one of two things:

1. You play the unorganized arena, where it isn't as useful. So if this is the case, you're right.

2. Your Tombs teams haven't been very good.

The post was intended for 4 vs 4 team arena events where you select your team. Having now played with my guldies using frozen soil I find the skill excellent - provided you're ahead and you're using a spike build. As for Wilderness Survival "sucking", I beg to differ. I've pumped this att up to 14 and can take out a very strong warrior or ele in about 30 seconds using various combos (can't say which ones ). The fact is with a team consisting of a trapper, hi damage ranger, mesmer/interruptor, and of course a first rate monk, we've pretty muched owned in 4 vs 4.

I hope you weren't talking about a pre made trapper, because air eles can kill warriors in less then 10 seconds.

Now guys comon I didnt say Wilderness sucked, I said It wasnt that impressive to me. If your team uses frozen soil, your entire team must focus on taking out one target immedeatley. Now, the other wilderness skills:

Traps: Do not kill quickly, nor do they do impressive damage to a single target. They are impressive when they hit several enemies at once, but that doesnt matter in a frozen soil build.

More Spirits: Wow, standing there for 5 more seconds at a time casting more spirits is REALLY gonna help kill the enemy faster, huh? please.

Preperations: These must be the only wilderness skills which could possibly go along well with frozen soil. They do help kill the enemy faster, but not as fast as the air elementalists on the other team.

All the other moves are defensive or regenerative, which do not help at all. All Im saying is that by laying down frozen soil, you take a gamble that you stand a very good chance (more than 50% chance) of losing. If the enemy loses a man first, thgey can kill frzen soil and get their guy back. If you lose a guy first, your stuck.

Quote: Traps: Do not kill quickly, nor do they do impressive damage to a single target. They are impressive when they hit several enemies at once, but that doesnt matter in a frozen soil build. We are talking about 4 vs 4 team battles right? I have on several occasions witnessed warriors rushing toward me oblivious that they were poisoned, step into my trap and die on the spot. My teamate/trapper never intends to hit several players with his traps but by setting up many he causes mistakes and confusion.

Wilderness Survival, if used correctly, can be an extremely powerful little setup. I've seen plenty of Ranger builds in Tombs that can throw out stupid damage, and thanks to Greater Conflagation and winter, almost all damage done to them is against high armour, as they are all taking cold damage. Also, if you have a good protection monk (i.e. better than the opposing teams prot monk) Edge of extinction becomes an extremely powerful spirit. (It's also useful against the occasional Bone Fiend build). Any Secondary Ranger isnt going to take marksmanship - without expertise, it isnt very good. Also, beast mastery is a bit smelly in PvP to be quite honest, and traps can be very good in the right situations - especially if someone has fragility on them, the conditions can be brutal. Almost all the skill trees in this game can be very powerful, they just require different playstyles.

I dunno if it was just me but when I was playing in tombs i layed down a frozen soil and it seemed that rebirth works when the rebirther is out of range of frozen soil while the body is in it....or something else freaky happened but the other team somehow managed to res...?!

You cast frozen soil AFTER the battle has started. Casting it before hand, unless your a tank heavy team is silly verging on ****y. If you're winning you cast it if you're losing you don't, theres little disadvantage to having it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Neo-LD Now guys comon I didnt say Wilderness sucked, I said It wasnt that impressive to me. If your team uses frozen soil, your entire team must focus on taking out one target immedeatley. ...this is what you should be doing anyway.

Quote: Originally Posted by Neo-LD
Traps: Do not kill quickly, nor do they do impressive damage to a single target. They are impressive when they hit several enemies at once, but that doesnt matter in a frozen soil build. I agree. Traps are overrated in PvP.


Quote: Originally Posted by Neo-LD More Spirits: Wow, standing there for 5 more seconds at a time casting more spirits is REALLY gonna help kill the enemy faster, huh? please. Oh man, casting that Winnowing before going into battle really hurt my team. I mean, who wants to do more damage!? Plus, those Fertile Seasons that keep your team from getting spiked to death, and that Predatory Season that works against Healer-based teams and for protection based teams, terrible. Just terrible. Spirits totally suck man.

Oh wait, spirits are easily the best skills Rangers have. Possibly even the best skills ANY class has. Problem is they're tailored to organized play, not the Area's, "Teh uber wamo not hurt by lava!" charges.