Advanced Ranger Concepts

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Lasher Dragon: You implied that the reason for the enemies continual spamming of a skill after I interrupted it with Distracting Shot as "You missed." Wrong. I didn't miss. I'm stating facts and you're telling me I missed. It's pretty damn obvious whether or not you hit an interrupt. I don't even care if you believe me anymore, but yes, it is a fact, some higher level monsters have multiple copies of certain skills, making Distracting Shot less effective.

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It doesn't happen everytime, it's not like, "every x monster has 2 of x skill", but there are a few places you could check if you'd like...

I've seen Monk bosses in Sorrows with two copies of Orison.

I've seen Stone Summit Gnasher's with two copies of Plague Touch.

There's two easy ones you can go and try to find in one general area. As I've said, I don't care if you believe me, but I'm not just crazy. I've had other people confirm it. It could be something waky, like, the monster got lucky and spawned with a 1/2 Skill Recharge staff or something, but that's unlikely.

Happy hunting, I'm done discussing this in particular.

I've never seen any Gnasher with dual Plague Touch, and believe me I've killed my share of them. In fact, if any of them would have had 2 copies of Plague Touch I would quickly realize it, as my preferred method for dealing with them involves laying traps, then shooting them with Apply Poison, and watching them waddle their fat little asses up to me, only to Distracting Shot their Plague Touch just as my traps go off. I have repeated that exact sequence of events hundreds, if not thousands of times, and never once have I seen a Gnasher use Plague Touch after a successful Distracting Shot. Sure, I have MISSED the Plague Touch, and he of course spams it again, giving me Poison and usually Burning back, but that is not because he has two copies of Plague Touch. Luckily, I usually have Oath Shot, so I simply Oath, then catch his next Plague Touch with my newly recharged Distracting Shot.

lasher ... maybe i wasnt clear there ... i did not say it has a longer range than a longbow ... i said it has the longest range (along with the longbow) AND the highest arch .. thus making it a better choice for pulling than a longbow based on common range, and the ability to get tthe shot off and get out faster based on the .31 seconds longer flight time to target on the flat

Lasher Dragon: I certainly don't doubt what you say, but I'm not crazy and neither are the people who have confirmed that it's happened (in general, not just Plague Touch). I know what I saw. The only conclusion that I can reach is that it's some sort of bug... I didn't just miss, and they used the skill again before the 20 seconds was up. Don't ask me, but I know it happens.

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Very nicely explained guide. Just thought I'd give out props

Sha and Archon,

I just wanted to say thanks for both of your responses and advice.
While these discussions may get heated and cause frustration, it is doing us that read them the greater good. Just thought you guys should know.
We appreciate it.

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Thanks Sha for the guides. Good reading at work! And thanks XvArchonvX for the stimulating debate. You both have me thinking about how to better the builds I have. However this distracting shot thing still has me confused. My understanding of this is that 1) it WILL INTURUPT both a skill and a spell but 2) ONLY make a SKILL wait 20 seconds for the recharge. so SPELLS like plague and orision WILL be inturpted but STILL could be used immediatly afterwards....You guys seem to think this is not the case though...is that right? or am i reading what you are saying wrong?

I'm really glad it's helping. That's the idea after all. :-D

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Solvi: Sorry, you posted as I did. :-)

Distracting Shot will interrupt everything. It will also "distract" the skill interrupted for 20 seconds. This is a proven fact.

The debate we're having regarding that skill is that occassionally, for whatever reasons, some monster's skills will fail to be distracted, and they will use them again almost immediately after interruption with Distracting Shot. The conclusion that my guild and I cam up to regarding this was that some enemies must have multiple copies of certain skills, but this is not proven; it is more likely, admittadely, that this is some sort of bug.

And Plague Touch is a Skill, not a Spell.

I'd like to back up Sha Noran and make another point disagreeing with him at the same time. Don't take it personally, buddy.

First off, the monk bosses in Sorrow's Furnace do indeed have two copies of Orison on their bar. I've played the interruptor down there enough times to know. When you hit Orison with Distracting Shot, you know it. You see the progress bar do all of its "I've been interrupted!!" stuff, and when you're the only interuptor on the team there's no question as to what happened. Regardless of this, the boss will keep casting Orison until you Distracting Shot that one too. If you're good/lucky enough (usually the latter for me, but I have done it) to get the second one as soon as Distracting Shot recharges, you'll find that the boss does stop casting Orison for a while.

So clearly the boss has two copies of Orison. No more and no less. I'm actually surprised at the number of people arguing the point here. I thought it was common knowledge, since I remember the very loud griping going on here when that was first discovered.


Now then, back to the flatbow issue. To put it a bit more in perspective, the difference between the longbow and the flatbow's attack rate is almost exactly the same as the difference between the sword/axe and the hammer's attack rate. If a hammer had the same damage range as a sword or axe, it would be laughed completely out of the game for a damage weapon. I see the longbow in the same light. (Heck, it's almost as bad as the attack rate difference between the bear and any other pet, we all know how seriously people take the bear as a damage dealer) If a weapon has the same damage range but a terribly slower speed then it simply isn't worth it. On top of that, flat bonuses (bonuses on a per-arrow basis) such as preparations or vamp/zealous strings benefit incredibly more from the Flatbow's higher rate of attack.

To address your (much) earlier rebuttal about a warrior running from caster to caster in the backline tearing up your softies while you can't hit, I'd like to point out that when that happens it's almost your duty as a harder target to be right in there with your casters standing still in hopes an enemy will switch from a kiting softie to you. In that case you're more than close enough to hit even a moving enemy with a flatbow, and if you still didn't feel comfortable you could easily switch to a shortbow at that range.

The real power of the flatbow is that it allows you the offensive power of the shortbow with the flexibility and range of the longbow. The fact that enemy AI isn't yet smart enough to take advantage of the poor flight-time means that a faster flighttime isn't necessary in the vast majority of cases. I'd rather have a bow that outperforms in those vast majority of cases and which I can force to work just as well (through positioning, not RTW/FW) in a bind, than to have a bow that will always be substandard but reliable. It comes down to a gamble which I for a long time was unwilling to make, like you. However, one time of sitting side by side with a Flatbow user and watching us hit all of our attacks while he was firing arrows off so fast I might as well have been a granny, and I've never gone back. The little bit of gamble is more than worth the rewards you reap if you learn to force your hand a bit.

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I told you I wasn't crazy.

Is there any good reason to have the ranger pull? Can't a warrior put a longbow on his F4 slot and pull with that? You don't want agro on the ranger, so why have the ranger pull? It makes only slightly more sense than having a sin, mesmmer, etc pull.

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In some places, yes, it is better if the Warrior pulls because agro on anything else would be fatal. On some occasions, however, it is best to have the Ranger pull back to the Warrior, i.e. if the Warrior needs to block the enemies on a corner, the Warrior can stand his ground and the Ranger can pull them back to his spot.

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