Ultimate Stacker? Fireborn R/E

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

I want to stack as many buffs as believably possible on my new ranger.

My character slots [if there's 6 of them are as follows]

R/E [formerly R/M, gah]
A/N
W/N
Mes/N
Nec/? [want a good minion user but ranger/ele secondaries are taken, I think I would go Nec/Rit since Minion Master army does benefit from Spirits?]
6th slot? I don't know, i HATE playing a traditional caster style [ele or monk I detest as primaries, never matched my style before, never will now...] I want a different primary for each slot. I guess I might be forced to go Ele/Mo lol [maybe as a smiter type? yeah! ^^ ]

Ok, buff stacking ranger style!

9+1+3 Expertise
11+1 marksmanship
6+1 Beast Mastery
10 fire Magic
rest to wilderness survival

Dual Shot
Savage Shot
Hunter's Shot
Tiger's Fury
Kindle Arrows
Favorable Winds
Conjure Flame
Mark of Rodgort [or other fire hex that might be cheaper *_*]

Idea?

stacking: stance, preparation, skills, enchantment, spirit, and hex to deliver more damage per arrow volley than any other class in the game!!! [yay for Zealous bowstring]

This is obviously a team build since it lacks any defense whatsoever and should be used with a Flat Bow from a high area to make things more dangerous. [Spirit will negate arrow lag time]

I want my Ranger to snipe people with extreme hate damage....

Is there a way to do even more damage? or is this the buff ceiling?

Note: removing defenses on my target will be up to my mesmer or teammates, I'm assuming they know how to play [yeah right...] and I'm firing upon a target with little to no chance of defense...

Any idea on how to make the damage this guy pumps out even stronger?

krusader

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2005

R/Me

Looks kinda similar to my favourite spike build -
fw+conjure flame+kindle arrows then dual shot + punishing shot.
only tried this in random arenas so far, but it seems to work pretty well for killing anything with weak armour. i reckon if you got 2 or 3 R/E doing this with maybe a winnowing aswell as fw and a well timed order of pain that would be an instant kill on most things :-D

as for mark of rodgort - 25 energy is a bit too much for me

Elurian

Elurian

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Infection X [HacK]

Mo/

It could work I just don't think spreading across 5 attributes is a good idea. I'd probably switch to Lightening reflexes if you were wanting an IAS. As a note winowwing would not work as it triggers only on phsyical damage.

Winnowing
Create a level 1...8 Spirit. For creatures within its range, creatures take an additional 4 damage whenever they take physical damage. This Spirit dies after 30...126 seconds.

Killsmith

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

I had a similar idea a while back, but I just used Melandru's Arrows and Mark of Rodgort to get max degen on my target while using a fiery bowstring. If I were you, I'd take all of the points out of beast mastery and put them into wilderness survival. Your preps aren't going to be very strong if you don't.

Then you would replace tiger's fury with something else that'll help with energy or a defensive skill. Marksman's Wager might be a good one to use. (It's a pain to reapply your other prep, but at least you'll have enough energy to use MoR) Using dual shot with quick shot might work well for really fast damage. Or you could pick up some sort of defensive stance or Lightning reflexes like Elurian said. The choice is up to you.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

Lightning Reflexes sounds good, darn that downtime though...

Hmm, OATHSHOT?!

going more wilderness does sound like a good idea. I shouldn't stay in one place too long anyway so good point on removing Tiger's Fury... Save dem points...

so 13 expertise
12 marksmanship
10 fire magic
rest to wilderness? +1

Sounds good, instead of mark of Rodgort, someone mentioned Meteor, thanks to it's now lower cast time/cost, despite exhaustion, I don't see it as a bad idea... Running away? grab a meteor...

Dual Shot
Savage Shot
Oath Shot {E}
Lightning Reflexes
Kindle Arrows
Favorable Winds
Conjure Flame
Meteor / Res Sig

Thanks a ton peeps! Reusing Dual/Savage Shot under Favorable Winds makes it more like a Spiker Doom build ^_^

Bonus damage from Savage Shot/Dual Shot, +dps from L. Reflex, + Favorable Winds, + Kindle Arrows, + Conjure Flame...

Hot hot HOT stuff!

Using Oath Shot {E} at the end of L. Reflexes let's it double L. Reflex duration right?

Mr Fizzle

Mr Fizzle

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2005

W/E

Yes for example you use lighting reflexs,its in your upkeep bar or enchantments or w/e x.x.So its recharging you throw a oath shot,savage,and then dual shot.And your LR is recharged fully so as soon as LR's duration is over you can re use it.

VGJustice

VGJustice

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

Tyria, cappin' ur bosses

Boston Guild [BG]

R/W

Are you absolutely sure you need that Zealous bow string? You'd be able to pull off higher damage per arrow with a 5/-1 Vampiric string.

Katari

Katari

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Upstate

Me/

Quote:
so 13 expertise
12 marksmanship
10 fire magic
rest to wilderness? +1 That should give you 11 damage from Conjure Flame, 10 from Kindle. If you were to skip out on fire altogether, at 12 Wilderness, you would have +18 bonus damage. Three less damage, with the benifit of not being even partialy dependent on an enchantment, and you could use some other nice wilderness skills.

Personaly, I like to use two sups on a ranger.
10+3+1 Exp
11+3 Wilderness
10+1 Marks

Dual Shot
Savage Shot
Distracting Shot
Punishing Shot
Kindle Arrows
Troll's Urgent
Whirling Defense
Res Sig

Now, that build is proabably a bit heavy on the interupts, so it might be a good idea to take one out and put in a speed boost, defensive skill, or Pin Down. At 14 wilderness Kindle will add +23 damage. I think conjure+kindle has a slightly higher damage potential, but not a signifigant one by any means.

LordMahal

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

Germany

R/Mo

How about kindle arrows, judges insight, dual shot... all with a Horn Bow. Im thinking the +23 from kindle combined with the 10% AP Horn Bow+20% AP from judges, and then dual shot. Im not sure if the AP would offset the difference in damage from not having conjure flame, but Ill try this at home later.

And the trouble with Mark of Rod is... its 25 energy and normally the guy you put it on is the main target. Hes long dead before this spell can really be effective. I tried using Glimmering mark once. By the time i cast it, and make it work, the target is toast. Just not effective.

Killsmith

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

Isn't Mark of Rod a one second cast though?

J1000

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/E

This works pretty well (like what someone posted above):

Melandru's Arrows (elite)
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Mark of Rodgort
Tiger's Fury
Pin Down
Favorable Winds (if you like flatbows like me)
Troll
Res

Use the first 5 skills in the order shown. It's 10 degen, but you have to keep hitting them, otherwise it drops to 3 degen. So it's not as fire-and-forget as condition + Virulence. That's why I recommend a longbow or a flatbow and Pin Down. Your attributes will be a bit thin, but it works well enough regardless.

Nero

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Sunset Riders [Ride]

Mo/

Favorable Winds
Kindle Arrows
Conjure Flame
Dual Shot
Quick Shot
Mark of Rodgort
Troll Unguent
Rez



Dual Shot and Quick Shot end up hitting at the same time pretty much, it's nice

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

These builds are all well and good but some of you are missing the point:

damage stacking... via buff stacking... What are they?

Skill dmg
Stance DPS dmg
Enchantment Damage
Prep. damage
Spirit Damage
Hex Damage

That's 6 buffs overall. If ele has a hex that can add a ridiculously large amount of damage, I'm all ears, but the hex 'buff' so to speak is probably the most unstable of the buffs since it's the easiest one for my foes to take out...

Still, if Mark of Rodgort was feasible, I wouldn't mind chucking in a Glyph of Lesser Energy...

I like my zealous strings since it keeps my energy flowing, vamp string isn't a bad idea but it's a drawback buff which I'd rather not impose... Just preference... The other buffs are easier to control and attain.

Would using an extra hex be an idea? 2-3s. of On Fire isn't useless, especially if stacked with perhaps, teammate degen? Would there be enough room for something like this perhaps?

9+1+3 Expertise
11+1 Marksmanship
10 Fire Magic
rest to Wilderness Survival

Dual Shot (150% dmg )
Oath Shot {E}
Lightning Reflexes (stance buff)
Kindle Arrows (prep)
Favorable Winds (spirit)
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Mark of Rodgort (hex)
Conjure Flame (enchantment)

Well, we lose a bit of arrow skills, but this is in effect, a 'passive' high damage build where instead of launching arrows with a few bonuses, each and every arrow has a piling of 4 bonuses on it with IAS and the occasional 150% dmg spike that is Dual Shot. When things get hairy, Oath Shot {E} and run with L. Reflexes to another safe sniping zone. I'd definitely be running a Zealous Flatbow with this since it has a higher crit rate due to most of its shots curving for the skull... [if locational damage is true] Thanks to F. winds, it's time-to-target is faster than the other bows...

Any other way to stack up damage? R/Mo's Judge's Insight is bad since it's energy efficiency is in the toilet when compared to a Conjure element. Of course it won't work on mesmers with ele. resistance or fire armor types but all monk armor dislikes fire... if you get my drift...