High I Just Started This Game...Help Please

I started a ranger today and just leveled to 2. What should I put my attributes on? I'm not really sure what kind of Ranger to start off on. Any help/advice on Rangers would be nice. Thanks

Marksmanship is a sure and steady source for early damage, since your bows will be marksmanship-based

if you dont like you're stats you can always chane them too

one word: experiment.

these might be of good general help getting started

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...-10-id1195.php

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...lon-id1264.php

First, put down the drugs. Then, decide what you use most. At levels less than 10 it's not gonna make much of a difference (especially since you can change them). I'd recommend either marksmanship if you use mostly bow skills, or the pet attribute if you use pet skills more.

Marks and Expertise are lines you'll always have a significant amount of points invested in. Unless you go Beast Mastery close to the endgame and then it will be Expertise and Beast. Other than that, it depends on you build.

can you make a good hybrid between beast/marksman? cuz i wanna use both pet and bow

u can... but u won't be very effective...

You can make a decent hybrid between beast/marks, but you will find it tricky due to the number of skill slots pets start to eat up as you go along. As long as you keep your attribute points within 2 to 3 attributes (possibly a 4th later on), you'll be good. So you can get away with Marks/Beast/Expertise alright. Another thing I'd like to make mention of is that you're making an even beast/marks mix it greatly impacts your pets' evolution. You're probably not concerned yet with that stuff, as you won't notice its effects until your pet hits at least level 11, but you might want to keep it in the back of your mind for further down the road.

If you're the type of person who likes to read up on stuff ahead of time, there are two very nice pet guides in the Community Works section of the forum that you might want to take a look at. Otherwise, I say just play the game and experiment. You'll find what works and what doesn't. You can always relocate your points later if you think should have spent them differently. There's no penalty for trying something that ends up not working out for you.

if you just make a beast mastery ranger then does your bow pretty much useless?

imo... if u want to be a Beast Master... don't use a bow

something like 12 BM and 14 Exp works well... maybe go /Mo secondary and put some points into Smiting Prayers to increase pet dmg ( Balth Aura and Judge's Insight ) or maybe put ur points into WS for stances and a high hp pip regen TU

i gotta deinfetely read more into this. but just for starters, how should i evenly distribute my points for now? to make a good bowman?

put them all into marks for a good bowman....

just marks...?

i basically want to use my pet. but at the same time want to attack.

The thing about the pet is that it really is a weapon in and of itself. While you can use both Beast and Marks, I don't think anyone would recommend it. Play around with each until you find which you like better and then drop the other one.

A problem that arises while trying to do both a bow and a pet is that for the pet to not be a disadvantage you'll need to spend at least 3 skill slots on it (Charm Animal, Revive/Comfort Animal, Call of Prot/Haste). Add a pet attack or two on top of that, the mandatory rez, a preparation, some stances, some bow attacks.... well, you run out of skill slots extremely quickly. I've run builds before that used only the elite skill Barrage from the Marks side, and since Barrage removes preps and is spammable it helped lessen the burden on skill slots. However, I really wouldn't recommend such a build. It doesn't work nearly as well as more focused ones, despite the fact that you're using two weapons instead of one. Afterall, the saying goes, "jack of all trades, master of none."

The best pet-related advice you could get is that if you want to use the pet, focus on the pet and forget your bow. If you want to use the bow, focus on the bow and forget the pet. Trying to continue using one when your focus is mostly on the other becomes a drain on your resources.

after reading through some links i decided to concentrate more on being a good bowman. heres some things im not clear on:

1) how should i evenly distribute my points?

2) whats better (include the situation please): r/Me or r/E

3) what exaclt are traps and what do they do?

- thanks a lot guys, your making this game a lot easier to understand

If you want to go pure bow, I'd get a bow, one you think you'll be keeping, upgrade it with grips and bow strings as they're pretty inexpensive <minus the perfect ones and vampiric stuff>. Then customize said weapon for an additional 20%. It means you can't sell it, but think! You'll be hitting 20% harder in the long run ontop of your upgrades. For cheap ones I recommend maybe a firey bow string for early in the game <It'll be useful in the shiverpeaks, a good chunk of the game> and for points I'd do it as follows:

Marksmanship: Whatever your poison may be, whatever bow you may be using, amp marksmanship up to max<Max for the bow you're using that is>+1. In the early stages, anything marks max+1 is frivolous damage. I'm currently a level 11 R/E, and I spent a good deal in marks max +1 <9 to be exact>. It isn't hard to achieve with minor runes being inexpensive. But if you're going hardcore bow, make sure it's 12+minor runed/major runed/sup runed.

Wilderness Survival: I keep usually 3-4 in this at any one time due to: I like to solo. I mean alot. So I need my Troll unguent. I lova me somea Trolla Unguenta. Gotta love regening. This is also tied to poison arrow and apply poison later on <very NICE ranger skils>l

Expertise: I always have at least 5 or more points in this at any one time as I use alot of preps and whatnot. With increase here, it decreases mana on preps <which frees me up for my firestorm elementalist style>

Beast Mastery: anywhere from 4 to 8 points, varying as i need points elsewhere. My pet is nice, a level 11 melandru's stalker named "Callandor"
he does usually 11-21 with his attacks, nicely complementing my bow and nuking.

Fire Magic: anywhere from 1-6 points right as of now, allowing for when I see fit to fluctuate the spells "flare" and "firestorm" <-The two skills of fire that get my attention early on. This allows to me to pin enemies down and make sure callandor has them in a tight group, I release firestorm and WOMP things go boom and die.


Thats my build, take it as you will. Now to answer your question specifically:

THIS INFO IS FOR STARTERS
please do not flame me with "this is not a cool way to go"
1.
A. For a Bowman wanting nice damage and reduced energy:
Max Req on your bow+2, and expertise at level 6 or greater.
B. For a bowman wanting a pet, max req on your bow+1, 5 or greater in beast mastery.
C. For a bowman wanting a second class to be overly proficient then primary, max req in bow+1 and whatever other skills you want for secondary.

2. For a Bowman wanting to second class a profession with mesmer and elementalist, I'll try to give an unbiased description for you: Think. Yes, think on it. What do you want? Area effect spells, or dehabilitation skills to use ontop of poison. What else? This: Think: If you're going to be mainly a support character and take this "lightly" soloing for any amount or short periods, R/Me works fine. Because of how you can make people suffer with a mesmer and the extra crippling of a ranger, you are the perfect support character to compliment many a group.

However, if you're like me and want crowd control while pinning something down, I prefer R/E, for read the wind/<any other arrow shot, like dual shot>, and fire magic for flare/firestorm <and glyph of lesser energy makes a free firestorm, not too shabby> In doing this, you can be doing nice damage to single targets with a larger AE<area effect spell> hitting on other targets. A great example: Got a group of charr surrounding you? Carpe Diem my friend!
Firestorm them, causing nice damage <even though they're a little resistent to fire, and by the time you switch perm targets to another charr, he's already at half-life or lower. For Crowd control and easier soloing, I recommend this.

3. Traps are great! From crippling enemies, to constant damage, traps are nothing short of ranger genious. In PVP traps can own if set in pivotal places <IE: bridges, sharp cornering> and Traps also incur various effects, from poison/crippling to constant damage on who triggers it. I recommend traps all around if you spare spots on your skillbar.

These are my words, take them as you will my friend, but may you have many a fun experience on guildwars and may the evil god of lootius stay clear of you!

so basically keep a few points on expertise and wilderness and max on marksmanship for a good bowman? how can you get a good bow exactly?
and how come when i got 5 attribute points when i leveled to 6 and i spent 1 point on marksmanship to make it to 6, i had no more attribute points?

i am always looking to go hunting with other rangers, so i will save you a good bow that i go farming for. get in touch with me later and i can help you some. but remember i just started out to not to long ago. later, happy killing...
ign: jersey archer

Since you really seem keen on using a pet (and I understand the appeal completely), I suggest that you get a pet that appeals to you as soon as possible and keep it with you at all times during your early training and leveling.
This way you can ensure that your pet is leveled at the same rate you are and you won't have to worry about taking the time to level it later in game. Plus, in early missions and quests, especially if you solo a lot, your pet is invaluable. Not only can he take the brunt of the damage from foes, he also continues to fight in the event of your death, this can be very handy for clearing stray mobs on a path to a goal.
My ranger still has his wolf from pre-sear and its great having a huge, well trained level 20 beast at my disposal in scenarios that are appropriate or it.
It is especially early on to experiment with combos. Beast and Bow can be very effective and fun to run. Try to keep an damage cast handy to use so as not to distract your pet from its target.
By the time you get to the higher level more difficult MOBs, you will have a really good idea of how to run your build.
Remember: Nothing is permanent & you can always try again.

i was gonna say to do both you should split them as evenly as possible..... half and half yet for an effective pet your skillbars gonna have mostly pet skills and like was mentioned above its hard to be effective and do both.... i stayed with marks with a few points in wilderness survival for a couple traps and troll unguent.... and expertise for less energy costs....

Keep a few points in each category but max marks and fluctuate the others as you gain new skills/or want to try different builds. As for a good bow, I bought a "clean" half moon, max damage, req 8 for like 600gold <clean means no mods on the weapons allowing you to upgrade the bow with a bowstring of whatever and a bow grip. This allows you to customize the bow with upgrades as you see fit. Plus if you're like me and customize a weapon that you made IE: My "Fiery Half Moon of Fortitude" < Fiery bowstring and a +10 hp bow grip> and I customized it at a [Weapons] Guy for an extra 20% kick. I don't have to worry because I can always salvage one of the parts from it, and I'll be the only one using it, so you can upgrade and customize. I recommend it.

And the reason about attibute points: As you continue to pump more skillpoints into a category, it keeps upgrading how many att. points you need for your level

In Example:

Take bob, he's a level 3 archer. Bob just levelled to level 4. Bob thinks he'll spend his attribute points now. So bob enters his hero menu <aka the "H" button>. Bob thinks he'll put another point in marksmanship! But bob's marksmanship is already 3, and it requires more then 1 skill point to up Bob's marksmanship to the next level. In fact, It requires just as many points as Bob earned during his level to upgrade another slot in marksmanship. Thus, Bob ends up with 0 attribute points to spend on other slots. Oh no! But don't freak out, Bob! Bob just needs to enter a city to respend his attribute points on a different "build" and it's cost-free! A build refers to how a character is going with his/her model. From "Blood necros" to "healing primary monks" everyone has their poison, and special way of play they swear to. So Bob now knows what to do! He'll respecialize a way he really wants to try.



Hope this helped you man, I tried to put it simply as I could. enjoy your character and explore, it doesn't hurt!

--The shim.