Help improve my melee R/W

Fallen_Angel

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Well I'm fairly new to PVP however have been having a fair bit of success in random & team arenas with this build. With the double health degen and final thrust at the end it's quite effective on casters and can even solo most warriors 1v1. Build is as follows:

1. Resurrection Signet
2. Troll Ungent
3. Apply Poison
4. Tiger's Fury
5. Hundred Blades
6. Sever Artery
7. Gash
8. Final Thrust

Swordsmanship: 10
Beast Mastery: 7
Expertise: 7
Wilderness Survival: 14

The problem is that trying to get into any tombs parties I pretty much get ignored (along with any other builds I play) except for building an IWAY warrior just to get a party. Although that got boring real quick as there's little tactics involved and you either destroy or be destroyed. Is there anyway to improve on this to make the character more appealing to tombs parties or do I simply give in and become yet another IWAY warrior just to find a party?

Epinephrine

Epinephrine

Master of Beasts

Join Date: Mar 2005

Ottawa, Canada

Servants of Fortuna [SoF]

Well, being good 1 on 1 vs warriors isn't the point of tombs PvP, and while conditions can be useful they are wasted in a sense on a melee player when as a ranger you could be putting 7 pips of degeneration on everyone, not just one player. Hunter's shot/apply poison and you've got a decent way to start poisoning multiple people.

Tombs is very different from 4v4 and demands different things from you. If you want to inflict conditions the best ways are through the traps or through arrows, trying to spread them by hand involves chasing around and wasting time.

Tevash Szat

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

None

There are some serious problems with your build. First, take out most of your p[oints from wilderness survival, it only increases the duration of ythe poison not rthe actual preparation so it will be redundant as you are reapplying the same poinson every few secs. You might say it is for troll, but no respectable melee build would have a heal with them in tombs that what monks are for. If you need to heal youreself in tombm then your team is bascically screwed. I would suggest get swordsmanship[ to 12 or even better, switch to axe for the evis/pen or something else adreneline spike. After the 12 in your weaopn attribute, might want to have some in bm too for tf becasuse you wont be needing much in expertise. The best possible choice fo you is to simply dont goi meleeing with a ranger, its for warrior. Go qs, traping, spirit spamming, or distracting and you'll get into tomb groupos alots easier.

pagansaint

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

Start by shifting some points from Wilderness until you get 12 in Sword. It will improve your damage by a good bit.

Other then that, play around with the sword skills until you find a combo that you like. Most people that play a sword R/W use mostly energy skills allowing them to spam them due to Expertise and not rely upon having adrenaline.

So pumping expertise up a decent bit will also help. Keep in mind at 13 expertise 5 energy skills drop to 2 energy each to use. And its 10 Expertise to get them to 3 energy each.

Like Tevash said, dropping Wilderness really low won't hurt your build too badly because it is really only offensively for Apply Poison. Troll's Unguent will probably take a hit but it can still be useful to counter a decent chunk of degen or you can drop it and get Throw Dirt, which can help MUCH more against warriors and rangers.

I use this attribute split for a TF using R/W

Sword: 12
Expertise: 10+3
Beast Mastery: 6+1
Wilderness: 6+1+1

That nets you full crit and damage potential from your weapon, reduces 5 energy skills to 2 energy, a 8 second duration Tiger's Fury and a 7 pip Troll's Unguent.

Also I'd look at Seeking Blade and Pure Strike to run alongside Hundred Blades. Both are 5 energy skills that add a decent bit of damage and you can easily spam all 3 without running out of energy even using TF and Apply.

Also Wildblow is another decent damage skill at 5 energy that you can spam if you aren't using adrenaline skills.

It would look something like this:

Apply Poison
Tiger's Fury
Seeking Blade
Pure Strike
Hundred Blades
Wildblow
Troll's Unguent/Storm Chaser/Hamstring
Res Signet

I'd also use a Poisoner'r Hilt and the Fortitude Pommel

Manfred

Manfred

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2005

Yeah, you also might try a disrupting-type beastmaster using something like disrupting chop or whatever, and distracting blow, combined with the 2 disrupting pet spells. It's what I personally always advocate for r/w.

Fallen_Angel

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Many thanks for the comments. It's become obvious that I'm still stuck in 4v4 mode and not thinking about tombs the right way. But at least now I have a few ideas to work with whether that be tweak this current format, pick up a bow or create a warrior instead for the same job. Either way it'll be fun experimenting for a bit. Thanks again guys