Ranger questions

Hi all,

I'm a lvl 15 r/me that just reached Lion's arch. I seem to be doing fairly well, but I have a few questions. Thanks to all who posted in the ranger sticky above - it answered alot of questions in advance.

my current skill bar is:

Hunter's shot - for bleeding
pen shot - for those pesky armored types
serpent's quick - to get things moving along
read the wind - to add a bit of umph and reduce dodging of my shots
troll ungent - to keep me alive
kindle arrows - for a bit of extra umph (and i have no poison skills yet)
lightning reflexes - for damage avoidance and faster attacks
backfire - to ruin caster's days

My questions:

I understand that bleeding will not stack with bleeding if I should - say - hit someone with hunter's twice - however, will it effectively increase the duration by 'starting over'? Or, will the second bleeding be ignored al together until the first ends?

Lightnig reflexes seemed better than whirling def as it made me attack faster. Is the deflection ability of whirling really better?

Pin down seemed cool, but (until last night when i got Druid armor and the resulting energy bonus) the 15 eng cost seemed obscene and it seemed only useful against melee enemies - pinning archers and casters doesn;t seem to make much sense.

I was just looking for suggestions as to what might make me more effective.

Attributes(including runes)

Marks - 10
wilderness - 5
Expertise - 7
Domination - 5

Weapon:
shocking horn bow of warding
14-27 dmg
dmg +12 while enchanted
armor +6
dmg +20% (customized)

First, hunter's arrow only cause bleeding if you hit a target that's moving, so most of time it doesn't cause bleeding. But hunter's arrow is good because 1) it's cheap, and 2) it has only 5 sec recharge time and 3) it causes quite a bit of damage. So it's a great skill for any ranger using a bow. If you are looking for bleeding, melandru's arrow (elite) is better, but you'll need to reach later part of game.

Lightning reflexes, some people like it but others don't. It tries to do 2 things simultaneously, which can be better achieved with Tiger's Fury or Whirling Defense. Lightning reflex has a long recharge time and last only 11 sec at most. Whirling defense is nice not because it causes damage which is minor, but because it lasts longer. Tiger's fury is loved because it recharges fast and all you need is 3 or 4 beastmastery to make it worthwhile.

Apply poison skill is at Captain Greywind at Ascalon Settlement I think, so doing Lion Arch merchant's quest should get you there.

For a ranger aiming to disrupt in pvp, distracting shot, concussion shot or choking gas may be better. For one thing, you can put more pts on ranger's attributes to make other skills currently in use better. Backfire doesn't disrupt, it prevents. Many good teams would remove it before it causes any real damage. But in pve it is still a good skill against those pesky monk monsters.

Finally, pin down is a great pvp skill, and it makes sense even against rangers and monks, as they have the tendency to run when things go bad, and you'll do your team's warriors a great favor in crippling them. Just my 2 cents.