Ranger Builds, Guides, and Tips

A build I typically use for my ranger when I'm doing an all-around group-oriented technique is:

Power Shot
Barrage {Elite}
Distracting Shot
Apply Poison
Conjure Phantasm
Troll Ungent
Ressurection Signet
Charm Animal

It is made specifically for a R/Me and is based on combining Barrage with massive health degeneration and using a pet to keep most enemies off of you while you cast spells and shoot the enemies to death. I know it doesn't come anywhere close to the best ranger build, but it's working very well for me in PvE group situations. ... *cries*

1. Barrage is a spammable bow attack. Do not take another bow attack in combination with it (unless it's to be used for utility purposes), especially such a horrible bow attack as Power Shot.

2. You've split yourself up into 5 attribute lines. Welcome to fail.

3. Since we're discussing PvE, you absolutely need a pet res to consider bringing your furry friend along.

4. Barrage eats Apply Poison for breakfast. Don't take them at the same time or it just might eat you too.

This may or may not have been your first build, but bluntly put, it's aweful. Really think about how things go together, because PvE is easy. Anyone can beat it. Therefore, whether or not you seem to be getting along fine in PvE is relatively meaningless when it comes down to how good your build is. Start trying to streamline things. What is necessary and what isn't? Where are you spending points for a single skill and is that skill really giving you an output that's worth it? Do some damage calculations to see how your various sources of damage compare to one another so that you can judge which ones are poor and which ones you should keep.

... *cries*

1. Barrage is a spammable bow attack. Do not take another bow attack in combination with it (unless it's to be used for utility purposes), especially such a horrible bow attack as Power Shot.

2. You've split yourself up into 5 attribute lines. Welcome to fail.

3. Since we're discussing PvE, you absolutely need a pet res to consider bringing your furry friend along.

4. Barrage eats Apply Poison for breakfast. Don't take them at the same time or it just might eat you too.

This may or may not have been your first build, but bluntly put, it's aweful. Really think about how things go together, because PvE is easy. Anyone can beat it. Therefore, whether or not you seem to be getting along fine in PvE is relatively meaningless when it comes down to how good your build is. Start trying to streamline things. What is necessary and what isn't? Where are you spending points for a single skill and is that skill really giving you an output that's worth it? Do some damage calculations to see how your various sources of damage compare to one another so that you can judge which ones are poor and which ones you should keep. Uh, yep, Jeno summed it up quite well.

SnipiousMax: Thank you for your now very much more constructive comments. The only thing I would say is that your quote of me regarding Oath Shot is now a mis-quote, as I have edited that portion of the guide. Check it out and see if it's better now. :-)

Epinephrine: I appreciate your list of things that might be changed for the better. Let me see here...

At the end of my comments regarding Storm Chaser, I will list other possibilities, i.e. Run As One/Dodge/Zojun's Haste/etc. I list Storm Chaser in my builds generally because they do spec into Wilderness Survival.

I think I'm going to dump Called Shot. I was sort of nub when I thought that was cool. >.>

Hmm, I think you misunderstand the purpose of the "NEVER" section. There may be extremely situational uses for having two preps (for example) but for someone relatively new to Ranger, I would rather make it very clear that its just a bad idea in general. I'll add footnotes regarding the potential of rare instances of value coming from spreading points into an attribute for one skill/having two preps, but again I would say that it's a bad idea 99% of the time.

As far as Otyugh's Cry, it could potentially be a "Watch Yourself!" for pets if you're group has multiple competant Beast Masters... but if you're group has multiple competant Beast Masters, they probably already know that. Generally it's horrible. :-P

If you are very careful about spec'ing into the appropriate attributes for Tiger's Fury it can potentially be useful, but I've still never liked it. Running it with a normal build to just fire faster is silly... which is what 99% of Rangers try to do, not a very specific Barrage/Tiger's combo. I suppose I'll ease up the hate a bit, but it still is a bad idea for average Joe Ranger.

It is possible to run a R/Rt spirit spammer with Oath Shot and reduced cost of spirits through Expertise... but you can't Oath Shot enough to keep up your spirits as consistantly as you would have to for it to be really a big help. I have tried it, but I found it to be ineffective.

As far as Practiced Stance/Choking Gas... there's another use for Practiced Stance that's really pretty absurd, and wouldn't work in a normal group. You would need two pretty experianced Rangers, if that's a hint. ;-)

Amber/Jade/Bramble/etc. bows generally say their bow type in their name, which is why I felt it unnecessary to list each. (I.E. Bramble Longbow, Bramble Shortbow, Bramble Recurve Bow, etc.)

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That pretty much covers what you said, not respoding to the things you either agreed with or just had a different opinion on. I'll edit the guide here in a minute, so check back and see if the edits make it better or what.

As far as Practiced Stance/Choking Gas... there's another use for Practiced Stance that's really pretty absurd, and wouldn't work in a normal group. You would need two pretty experianced Rangers, if that's a hint. ;-) Well, as a R/Me using Arcane Mimicry, there is:
Practiced Stance + Incendiary Arrows
Practiced Stance + Melandru's Arrows
Practiced Stance + Glass Arrows
Practiced Stance + Marksman's Wager
Practiced Stance + Trapper's Focus

Now, a lot of those would just be like "WTF?", but a few I can see would be quite devastating - Incendiary Arrows in particular. I've gone out with all ranger/mesmer groups, all using a different elite. It was an absolute blast... of course, I think I had the better end of the bargain as I was the one carrying Oath Shot , but anyway, once you get the hang of who has what elite, it is awesome. Oh, I need defense, BAM there's Escape on my bar. Wow, nobody's paying attention to little old me, BAM Spike Trap is on my bar. Poison Arrow, Crip Shot, whatever you need at the time. If you aren't the ranger with Oath Shot, bring SQ to reduce the recharge on Arcane Mimicry.

Good times - as a matter of fact, I'd be interested in doing it again sometime, if anyone wants to go out and have some fun with it.

Well, as a R/Me using Arcane Mimicry, there is:
Practiced Stance + Incendiary Arrows /yes
/cheer

I thought since this thread had the attention of Jenosavel, I would abuse this to ask her a question. Since others might be interested in, or have input on this I thought this would be better here than in the form of a PM.

I know that using a hornbow with Tigers Fury and Barrage has a greater damage output than Barrage with a Flatbow (even if Tigers Fury is used in conjunction), but the need to spam Tiger's Fury so much seems to guzzle energy so much I have yet to find a decent use of this combination.

Tonight when I was playing I was debating on whether to put a new vamp string I got for one of my rangers on a flatbow or hornbow I had. I had tried Tigers Fury with barrage briefly before, but not much. After experimenting around with it a bit more tonight, I just couldn't seem to find a way to maintain a decent amount of energy. I decided to keep 9 att in expertise since the next increase that would do any reduction would be 12 and only reduce TF by 1 point. Since I had to have attributes in Beast Mastery and Marksmanship also, I didn't have much option in splitting up the attributes any more since it would result in downtime with TF or reduced damage with Barrage.

While I suppose it is possible to use a zealous string, the extra energy would rely on barrage hitting multiple targets everytime and the overall damage output would be reduced by the lack of a vamp string.

Basically I ended up putting the vamp string on the flatbow and giving up on the TF Hornbow build since I couldn't maintain enough energy to use TF more than about 3 times before running so dry I had to space out my barrages since I kept hitting 0 energy. What I was wondering is whether there is some factor I'm not seeing that can allow this build to last through a full battle or if it is basically limited to very short durations. I've had quite the same problem, myself. Tiger's Fury and Barrage together demand quite a lot of energy, and while I still play around with it from time to time, I'm not sure I'll find a good way to use it any more. It's the reason why every time I mention Tiger's Fury + Barrage + Hornbow I phrase it "if you happen to be using Tiger's Fury and Barrage together, then grab yourself a Hornbow" rather than something suggesting that set-up over others. I'm beginning to notice lately just how energy consuming Tiger's Fury is when not combined with Ferocious Strike. My Enraged Lunge builds suffer from lack of energy every time I try to introduce Tiger's Fury, and that's a point I've been working on for a while now.

My Enraged Lunge builds suffer from lack of energy every time I try to introduce Tiger's Fury, and that's a point I've been working on for a while now. Yea, I've noticed that too. I've gone back to not using Tiger's Fury with Enaged.

But I've really not had too many energy problems with Tiger's Fury/Barrage. I'll post my specs when I get home...

Same comment for Judge's insight I'd say. Even with 9 smiting prayers (which is a damn lot for one skill - well take smite hex if you do so, but still...) you gotta recast the enchantment every 15 secs: 10 energy points, and there is of course no expertise reduction here. With 3 smiting prayers, that's every 10 secs. That's why I think the barrage /JI build id quite hard to use. I'd still go with JI against skelletons, but I wouldn't use it against other foes. You can keep it active all the time while spamming barrager, but that's all. You're very likely if you do so not to have enough energy for a savage shot for example when you need it, or a stance. +Essence Bond

In most of the places where this build is great, there's a Tank with all the agro (ideally). Toss Essence Bond on him and the only time your energy will even dent is when you reapply JI.

... and why are you guys using Tiger's Fury with Enraged? You're spreading yourself out too much I think.

[sarcasm]give ur tiger zealous claws!!!1[/sarcasm]

:-P

give ur tiger zealous claws!!!1[/sarcasm]

:-P TIger's Fury disables all non attack skills (thus forcing a recharge) so two staple skills that never leave a beastmaster skill bar (Charm Animal, Comfort Animal) become fuel for Enraged Lunge. On top of that, Tiger's Fury + a Flatbow help your Ranger to dish out respectable damage in addtion to what your pet is dealing. The problem is that you are required to take points out of Expertise to put into marks, and that's where the energy problems come in.

If I were to make a beastmaster what would my secondary class be? It really doesn't matter much since you'll have a hard enough time deciding what skills to pack in your bar after Charm and Comfort Animal take up two spots. I'd suggest monk or ritualist secondary myself, but only for the hard rez.