Ranger / ?????

Heya all,

I was wondering what would go better with a ranger, ellementalist or a Warrior? i also have a Q: Can you Fire arrows on the run?
Thank you

Elementalist - at least you get Conjure. Warrior adds nothing to a Ranger. But know that you're choosing between the two worst secondaries for a Ranger, so you're not picking between much.

You cannot attack while moving.

Peace,
-CxE

well there are people who enjoy ran/war. I'm not one of them and I think a ran/ele is just a waste, but again that's just my opinion.

I'd much rather run a ran/nec (which is what I run), a ran/mes, or a ran/monk anyday.

Aladdar, just curious... what kind of build do you run with that Ranger/Necro?

I've been trying to piece one together and I was wondering what you used or, at least, had in mind.

thanks

Ensign has a point there... he usually does! On the other hand though you can make yourself into many different things (character) and be successful at whatever you do. What I'm about to say next I would love to get some opinions on myself (especially from Ensign or other administrators or alpha players). So, with no further delay...

I have been trying to think of an awesome build for a ranger too. I don't know the stats, so I won't get into that. I just felt that every other option available (except Elementalist or Warrior) would be a great add to that build. A monk can heal and keep enemies off him with his pet while he does the work he needs to do. Same with Necro and Mesmer, except they would hex enemies and add more support to the team. All the while, if they had/have a strong pet, they'd have plenty of time to do what they needed.

There! Done! Now... Opinions please! I accept criticism as well as critique. All of its gonna help this semi-n00b get even better!

I could be wrong, but I've been under the impression that the term "Strong Pet" was an oxymoron... I don't often see too many Ranger Builds suggesting the Beast Mastery line, unless for Tiger's Fury or if the Build is focused around that (pets).

You could run the ultimate Ranger/Monk build, I have a Sharpshooter that I have built with Monk as secondary. Another to choose as second is the Mesmer, the illusion is pretty good.

I can send you what I run, if you want to take a look at it. Peace.

Pets are.. something of a novelty. Fun to mess around with, but not terribly effective. As for Ranger setups, lately i've been having considerable success with an R/Mo variant that uses Judge's Insight + Barrage.

Well, always remember that you can effectively play a pure class and just take one skill from your secondary - that can give you some odd class combinations that aren't fundamentally strong or deep, but work for that specific character.

That's basically what the Ranger/Elementalist is - a Ranger with one of the Conjure Element skills and nothing else to speak of from the secondary. Outside of Conjure the Elementalist has very little to offer a Ranger - Expertise lowers the costs of non-spell skills, the Elementalist has a bunch of spells. The Ranger has a limited energy pool but cheap attack skills to use with a bow - the Elementalist has a bunch of high energy nukes tha drain your energy quickly. There are still some things you can do besides the Conjure - PBAoE isn't all that bad if you expect to spend any time in the front lines, and Earth can help out with Armor of Earth and Wards. But generally there isn't a whole lot for you here.

I don't know of any good way to play a Ranger with Warrior as a supporting secondary. I do know of 'interesting' Warrior builds that use a Ranger primary, for Expertise. Expertise lowers the energy costs of Warrior attack skills, so the Ranger/Warrior is an odd character that takes advantage of this to play a more energy heavy Warrior. The problem is that a lot of the attack skills that you want to use are either adrenal, meaning you get no benefit from Expertise, or linked to Strength, meaning they'll never be any good. It's a bit of an oddball character that I treat as a novelty - you might enjoy messing around with it in PvE but it'll never match up to a real Ranger or Warrior.

Ranger/Mesmer is a pretty popular combination, though I'm not a big fan of it for general use. Ranger and Mesmer are the two most similar classes in the game - lots of disruption and caster hate. As such it ends up being pretty good in specific roles, like dueling and soloing Monks, but it really doesn't do anything special outside of that. In PvE you're going to be taking eight Ranger skills and pretty much ignoring the secondary - in PvP you'll be grabbing Power Leak and similar skills and just bombard someone with energy denial and interrupts. If this is what you want to be playing then by all means grab this combination, but if you want something a bit more flexible I'd avoid it.

The other two combinations I happen to like quite a bit. Ranger/Monk just plays like a Ranger with some healing backup if someone starts to get rocked. Healing is most obvious - a quick Breeze or Infuse can bail a teammate out quickly, you have Resurrection potential in case of failure, and you can protect yourself with the Orison/Breeze combination if you're off on your own. I think Protection shines even brighter, though. Tossing a Life Bond on whoever is going to take the brunt of the damage is a huge help and lets you continue to fire, and Shielding Hands gives you some time to breathe in a pinch. It's a straightforward combination that lets you play a Ranger while supporting the team and adding significantly to durability. What's not to like?

The Necromancer combo is a bit more interesting and potentially just as good as Ranger/Monk. It's a more proactive character, with more raw synergy than the Monk secondary - but a bit less versatility. The primary thing that a Necromancer can do is shut down physical attackers - between Shadow of Fear and Enfeebling Blood, you should have little to fear from a small pack of Warriors heading your way. That combines extremely well with a Ranger primary that is naturally strong against casters. You also get access to Weaken Armor and Mark of Pain for ripping through bosses and packs in PvE, respectively, and skills like Rend Enchantments to let you bust through defenses in PvP. There are also a ton of self-healing options in the Blood line, and you could even raise your own meatshields with Animate Bone Horror if you really feel like it.


Again, any of these combinations can work fine for a specific build. But if you're looking for a character that has the versatility to survive nerfs, balance changes, and a variety of situations, while adapting well to additions from expansions and other new content, look at the Ranger/Necro and Ranger/Monk. Or take the Ranger/Mesmer if you're really interested in just manhandling casters for years to come.

Peace,
-CxE

I made a Ran/Mes and so far, I love it. Good to slow your enemies down while u totally ruin them, and on top of the "imagine burden" you also have "Pin down" I don't know if anyone else has gotten to the point of testing this, but it might be possible to stack both "imagine burden" and "pin down" and slow your enemy to the speed of my great grandpa! Slowing your enemies is fun, but I also love the other skills. Conjur phantasm is probably one of my favorites too. Just my 2 cents =)

ive been trying to maximize damage on a ra/ele build by stacking conjure flame/read the wind with glyph/mark of rodgort but running through the calculations, after firing a few +dmg shots i tend to burn out..

I'm going to try a Ranger/ Mesmer this weekend. That will mean the only thing I have yet to test as a ranger secondary will be Necromancer. But if I have too much fun with /Mesmer I might not get around to that.

Regarding Imagined Burden + Pin Down: the percentage you can slow another character will only go so high, so taking both of these skills is redundant. You'd be better served by choosing one or the other and freeing up a slot for something else.

The Ranger and Monk, my two favourite professions, and yet the idea of playing a Ranger/Monk doesn't really have me all that excited.

I can't deny their usefulness as a monk aid, such as taking on rezzing or hex removal duties, but the overall feel seems to be kind of bland to me, and those that take it for Judge's Insight aren't that much different than Ra/El's.

It's been so long since I played due to planning a wedding that I honestly can't remember. I'll try and login over the next few days and give you my build.

I'd look it up and recreate it but we're really busy at work right now.

Rangers, can be tricky.

In the last BWE in the Hall of Heros, we lost one of our games becuse we couldn't kill their healers. We realized too late that the Ranger/Mo was healing the monks. It didn't make matters better that their two R/W finished of me (Monk), they dazed, slashed and hacked me to pieces, after their necro/mesmer drained and degened me to nothingness.

Rangers with their primary armour and a wise chocie of secondary are usally the charachter that throws you the biggest surprises.

Ratatass

Hey I made up a new word : degened!

yep, I've seen builds run a ran/monk as their primary healer who happened to do a rather good job. They used a smart mix of marksman's wager to keep energy up. There were other secondary monks spread around to help, but it was a little confusing trying to figure out who their main monk was, and having it on a ranger was frustrating as they're not easy to take down.

i'm running w/ a ran/war build. i like it because not all enemies are ranged. so when they come in close i can pull out the sword and hack & slash. unfortunately i have all attributes set pretty much evenly..but am planning on changing that this BWE to up marksmanship & Expertise. Also up-ing the Swordsmanship & tactics skills. Like i said i like being able to make the switch when an enemy uses melee attacks.

Ok, here's my build I've been running.

Ran/Nec
I've got several runes on this character as well so his current attributes are
Curses 10
Expertise 13
Marksmanship 12
Wilderness Survival 1

Read the Wind
Concussion Shot
Pin Down
Punishing Shot (E)
Lightning Reflexes
Troll Unquent
Rend Enchantments
Shadow of Fear