What do YOU think?

Rng/Elem

Barrage
Favorable Winds
Distracting Shot
Debilitating Shot
Pin Down
Dual Shot
(2 empty)

I was going to fill the last two with a conjure enchantment, but now I'm hearing word that it is very difficult to find a bow that supports conjuring. How true is this? If I am willing to look hard enough will it be worth it to keep a conjure spell or should I forget about it? One empty slot would be a conjure as already mentioned and the second would be one of three choices

Chain Lightning
Incendiary Bonds
Ice Spikes

I'm curious to see what people recommend for which element I chose. Thanks for all your help, I truely appreciate it.

Rez Signet? That should be a permanent position.

Rez signet is beyond a poor choice in PvP. In PVE, you could do worse.

As for the original question, I don't really like any of those skills, because they don't benefit at all from expertise.

Also, Incendiary Bonds is just flat out worse than Immolate. Seriously, immolate is the best skill in the fire line.

As for Conjure:
Making conjure work is not difficult. Your weapon needs to do the right kind of elemental damage before you can cast conjure. So if you want conjure flame, you need a fiery bow. (That requires a fiery bowstring upgrade part.) The problem is that the fiery/icy/shocking strings conflict with Zealous Strings, and Zealous Strings are the best mod in the game, hands down.

+1 energy on hit is terrific. +1 energy when using Barrage and Dual Shot is sickening. You can actually gain energy when barraging using a zealous string.

So the problem isn't that conjure element is underpowered/hard to do, it's just that it will always be second place (or worse) behind zealous bows.

Hope that answers your questions.

So what if I fill the two empty slots with
Incendiary Bonds and Immolate? or
Chain Lightning and Lightning Strike. Something along that line?

I realize that these aren't effected by expertise, but with the help of expertise I should have some spare energy to toss something big once in a while. Would I be better off switching Sub classes to fill the last two slots?

You have a bow. And bow skills. And Expertise to make those bow skills maddeningly cheap. And a bunch of Marksmanship with which to deal good bow damage.

So what are you doing casting 15 energy elementalist nukes with a low attribute?

Use Conjure Lightning and Gale. Ignore all of the nukes, because they're a complete waste of time and energy on your character.

Peace,
-CxE

would incendary arrows be considered as the "fire" required for conjure flames? What about kindle or ignite arrows? If that works you can have conjure and zealous bowstring

I'd be saving enough energy through expertise that I should be able to toss out the occasional high energy cost of Chain Lightning. However, I'm switching my sub to Mesmer and taking up Chaos Storm and Energy Burn to fill the slots.

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I would personally put sprint in there somewhere. Sprint gets you out of a lot of sticky situation and provides assistance when you are behind. BTW you got too many offensive skills in fact all offense, you need to throw in a few defence or protective ones.

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tektonik, sarcasm is MORE than annoying in a forum environment - if you are going to critique someone's build, use constructive criticism, such as "you should focus more on using bow skills, sprint isn't so necessary for a ranger as they have other snare skills" etc. the kind of comments you are currently making are expected from a Battlenet kiddy, so please don't rubbish other people's opinions because you *think* yours are better, consider what they are trying to do and give advice, don't attack them.

Personally, going with the mesmer seems a good way to go, for PvP at least. something like Energy burn can provide a nice damage dealer against casters, as well as leaking out their energy. seeing as your ranger build seems to be going for mainly DPS, consider Backfire to help shut down casters, or maybe power leak and power drain to keep someone denied of energy. its your choice, you have a few spare skill slots, so experiment.

At least you agree a Rang/Ele should consider http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content/sprint-id122.php as a skill and that in itself validates my post. Of course when I think mesmer I immediately think DPS and using 15 energy skills always compliments a ranger.

Wow thanks for all the suggestions. I won't be adding sprint for a couple reasons.
1: Hopefully as a Ranger I won't be singled out as often. I'm not healing anyone to draw major attention and I'm not casting massive AoE spells so I won't draw attention that way. Also, people don't generally think of a ranger as a massive dmg dealer. Basically it's one of the last classes targeted.

2: If I am being chased I'll have Pin Down. If a group starts chasing me and using Pin Down isn't helping enough, it's probably already too late anyway.

I could add rez signet if I play this character and see that it would be a major improvement, but for now I'm going to hope the Monk(s) are taking care of business.

Thanks for the skill suggestions Jia Xu I'll look into it.

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Because sprint is for cowards?
Because ranged attackers don't need to run as much?
Because R/El can't take a warrior skill?

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Rangers have sprint too...except theirs gives an avoidance %s.

"Dodge"

Dodge only lasts 5 seconds, Storm chaser lasts upto 16 seconds, in PvP when chasing or being chased (when your opponent has sprint) Storm Chaser is better.

In PvE you won't be chased often to start with.

res signet is hardly a poor choice.. though on a ranger a true res spell is nicer.. though /ele obviously cant bring it. I rarely take a true res on my monk primary though, only signet

edit: also, there is not much reason to /ele besides conjure, wards, or kd.. also elemental dmg strings arent expensive, 1k to 2k tops... but probably can get for even less

Z