Trying to break into PvP, build help

Alderon2765

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2005

Pucker's Penguins

E/Me

Alright, I've been wanting to PvP, and have been running R/Me and E/Me builds. I don't think my builds are the greatest though, and really need some help with em.

R/Me
- Apply Poison
- Conjure Phantasm
- Phantom Pain
- Distracting Shot
- Savage Shot
- Troll Unguent
- Pin Down
- Res Signet

Marks - 9 (+1)
Wilderness - 11 (+3)
Illusion - 11
(Those might not be right, but they're close)
I was going for an "Annoy the hell out of everything that moves" build with this. I just can't help but think I didn't do it right though.


E/Me
- Fireball
- Meteor
- Meteor Shower
- Mark of Rodgort
- Fire Attunement
- Elemental Attunement
- Mantra of Resolve
- Res Signet

Fire Magic - 12 (+3/+1)
Energy Storage - 12 (+2)
Inspiration Magic - Whatever's Left

Fire Nuker build. Once again, not sure if I made this build right.


I'm new to PvP, so I don't know what's good and what isn't. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rico Carridan

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Eternal Comrades

E/Mo

Ok, let's see...

Ranger build:

I think you have *way* too many points invested in wilderness survival for this build. You're only using it for apply poison and troll urgent anyway, the former of which you can reapply the poison whenever you need to anyway, and the latter of which can be tricky to use unless you're in a safe spot anyway. If you want to keep wilderness, you might want to look something like incendiary arrows, for example (although this doesn't stack with poison), or storm chaser to get away from enemies.

I think energy will also be a problem with this build. You may wish to re-invest some points from wilderness survival into either expertise or inspiration to help your energy woes.


Elementalist build:

I'm going to say this right now, I don't like fire nukers in PvP. AoE spells are generally of fairly limited use, since people are smart enough to run out of them, and since most of the casting times on your spells are really long, you'll either have be running mantra of resolve on basically every spell, or you're going to risk being interrupted. This is additionally a problem since you don't have any self healing or defensive skills, so if someone starts pounding you, you might have to cancel that 25 energy meteor shower because you need to run away or change targets. If you really want to stick with fire, I'd recommend looking at spells that are more high damage, single target ones, like phoenix, inferno, etc., or bring along some snares (slowing attacks) so people get stuck in your aoes. Most of the water snares are, I think safe to use with fire, with maybe one or two exceptions. If not you could take some mesmer snares.

Rico

Kwisatz_Haderach

Kwisatz_Haderach

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2005

first off all i would like to say that the easiest way to learn how to play pvp i s just to get out there and do it. You can revise your builds as you see fit and also come up with some crazy ones noone has ever heard off.

After that i would have to agree with rico on the ranger build. your going to be runnin itno some major energy issues. drop 2 points wilderness survival and 1 point illusion magic and put all points in expertise so you should have 10+1 cause or rune. This will give you -44% off every but your spells so you can spam to your hearts content.

About the fire magic, i think it can be incredibly useful in pvp IF you know how to use it. You need a self heal so drop fire attunement for aura of restoration. Aura is great for fire magic cause your typically throughing out 25 energy skills so you can get 75-100 health depending on your skill. Also i see you like Mark of Rodgort, the best skill in the game combined with this skill is firestorm. Pretty much with those 2 combined you get 14 secs of -7 health degen +10 secs of about 20 dmg per sec. Add it all up and thats 298 overall dmg add in a fire ball or two and you've taken down most of the builds in the game that don't have a reliable self heal or a healing monk standing watch. So I'd drop meteor for firestorm.

Other than that I like where you thinking is going so just experiment with what you like and have fun.

Alderon2765

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2005

Pucker's Penguins

E/Me

I haven't messed around with the E/Me yet, but i have been changing the Ranger build some. I have enough points in Expertise to make my 5 En. skills into 2 En. skills, so energy isn't a problem anymore.

This is my new skill set-up:
-Distracting Shot
-Savage Shot
-Apply Poison
-Conjure Phantasm
-Phantom Pain
-Debilitating Shot
-Concussion Shot
-Res Signet

Really fun to play. What I'm basically doing is causing massive health degen to a target, then interrupting the hell out of it when it tries to null the degen effects. I've only used it in CA as of now, so I'm not sure how it'd do in Tombs.

So, is this any better?

Man With No Name

Man With No Name

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Manchester, UK

W/

You really could do with adding an elite skill and then build around it.

As a general rule of thumb put your Expertise at 13 or 14 -- depending on how many 10e+ skills you'll use. If you've not done already check here:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...sts-id1154.php


For information between the different bow types, check here:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ies-id1092.php

Personally I like to use a Flatbow and a Vampiric Shortbow -- the Flatbow's shots tend to miss without "Read The Wind" or "Favourable Winds" though -- this is balanced by the fast firing speed and long range.


As for skills...

I'll usually pick Choking Gas paired with Prepared Stance (E) if I wish to make an interupt ranger.

Most times however I'll make a Ranger focused on dealing damage, so I use something like this:

R/E

Expertise 14
Beast Mastery 7
Wilderness 10
Marksmanship 9
Air Magic 7

Rez Sig
Favourable Winds (Nature Ritual)
Conjure Lightning (Enchantment)
Melandru's Arrows (E) (Preparation)
Tiger's Fury (Stance)
Dual Shot
Pin Down
Distracting Shot

That can hurt casters and anyone in fact that uses Enchantment spells, which are plenty. Melandru's causes Bleeding, which you can spread to the whole team.


There's so many things you can do with Rangers. R/Mesmers can be good with Echo (E) and Debilitating Shot. R/Elementalist's can do massive damage. You can even make pure Rangers to either interupt or trap.

Keep on experimenting in CA and find your niche

Alderon2765

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2005

Pucker's Penguins

E/Me

Hmm, I never even thought of using Echo for something like Debilitating Shot. I'm going to try both a damage dealing Ranger and the pure interrupt Ranger and see which one I like more. I'll probably just go with interrupt, due to the fact that it's great fun to see casters start panicing when all their best skills are being stopped