Rangers In The Current PvP Environment
Originally Published by Inde
by JR-
Rangers In The Current PvP Environment
This guide is to help players understand the roles, benefits and drawbacks of different bows in a PvP environment.
First off I will explain the different classes of bow available.
For the purpose of this article, I have used these terms:
Draw time: The time it takes from the last arrow leaving the bow, to the next.
Range: The maximum range of the bow, with 55' being roughly the radius of the agro bubble.
Flight time: The time it takes for an arrow at a range of 55' to hit its target, assuming no additional effects.
AP:: The innate armor piercing statistic of the bow.
The Bows:
Bow Mods:
First off, Bow Grips. There are only two Bow Grips really worth looking at in my opinion, and that is Fortitude and Defense. They are the only choices available that provide you with any serious benefit. Some people prefer the extra armor of Defense, some people prefer the extra health of Fortitude. Personally I prefer Fortitude. The extra health can help you survive against degen for longer, and there is a lot of armor ignoring damage flying around. However, this may change, and there isn't really a huge amount in it.
As for Bowstrings, this is where it becomes more complicated. Different roles will require different strings. I will detail these with each section.
Bowstrings:
Bow Grips:
Armor:
Now we have the equipment explained, I will describe the most common uses of rangers in PvP.
At the moment, there are three main uses of PvP rangers. Cripshot rangers, Trappers, and Spike rangers. I will give a brief description of all three, with their uses, and the equipment you would probably want to consider using.
(The builds posted in this thread are purely suggestions, you may find you need to change the individual character builds to more suit your team build as a whole.)
Cripshot Rangers:
Common Cripshot Ranger build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (10+4)
Wilderness Survival: 8 (7+1)
Marksmanship: 11 (10+1)
Illusion Magic: 4
Domination Magic: 8
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Crippling Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival)
- Distracting Shot (Expertise)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Barbed Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Blackout (Domination Magic)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Common Cripshot Flag Runner build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Wilderness Survival: 10 (9+1)
Marksmanship: 9 (8+1)
Illusion Magic: 4
- Troll Unguent (Wilderness Survival)
- Crippling Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival)
- Distracting Shot (Expertise)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Storm Chaser (Wilderness Survival)
- Dodge (Expertise)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Cripshot rangers are used mainly for the effectiveness of Crippling Shot at snaring targets, with apply poison to cover the cripple and pressure the opposing monks to use up energy removing conditions. Obviously the main class you would be targetting is Warriors, but also other melee types such as 'Bunny Thumper' hammer rangers. Also very usefull to snare targets to prevent them from kiting out of range. Aswell as this you can disrupt opponents with the other skills on your bar. Interrupts are very usefull when you locate someone using a skill that is giving you a problem (like Aegis for example) or just looking out for people trying to use Ressurection Signets.
Blackout is also extremely usefull, allowing you to disable monks during spikes, or interrupt through Mantra of Resolve etc. Not to mention it works with Expertise (being a skill) and is on a character tough enough to get in touch range of characters.
As most of your damage is achieved through degen, you wont be overly bothered by direct damage; therefore 'AP' and refire rate are not that important factors when considering bow type. Interrupt skills also have a near instant 'Draw time' (although there is a slight delay if the arrow previously fired was also an interrupt) so this is a minor issue. Range again is fairly minor, but it can make it easier for your target to kite away from you if you need to stay quite close to them. In order to interrupt spells with shorter cast times, it is important that your arrow reaches the target in the shortest amount of time possible. Not to mention it is much harder for an opponent to strafe your attacks with a faster arrow speed.
With all of this in mind, we obviously want to look at the 'Flight time' of the bow:
Flight Times:
Recurve Bow: 0.5 seconds
Longbow: 0.75 seconds
Shortbow: 0.65 seconds
Horn Bow: 0.75 seconds
Flatbow: 1.0 seconds
From these statistics, we can clearly see that the Recurve Bow class would be the best choice in this situation, having the shortest flight time.
In the case of a Cripshot flag runner, you serve a utility role. For a general purpose bow, the Recurve class is again probably the best option. This will make it harder for the opposing flag runner to strafe your arrows, particularly Crippling Shot attacks. Your main damage is going to come from degen; poison and possibly bleeding, so there is no real reason to take anything else into account. However, it may also be usefull for you to take a Longbow class bow. This helps a lot when it comes to killing NPCs, as you might often be doing on flagger. You can degen to death them without agroing, and reach NPCs you might not otherwise be able to hit. As such, I would probably take a Recurve class bow in my primary weapon slot, and a Longbow class in my secondary.
Bow Mods:
As mentioned earlier, your main damage is poison degen. It seems fairly logical to take a Poisonous Bowstring, to lengthen the degen and pressure the opponent more.
Armor:
On a standard Cripshot ranger, in my opinion there is no real benefit from taking anything other than Druids; the larger energy pool can help when you need to spam a load of skills.
On a Cripshot flag runner however, a Studded Leather chest piece can come in handy. The main other type of flag runner at the moment is the E/Mo Ether Prodigy Air Elementalist with Heal Party, so the extra protection against lightning attacks will help here. I normally choose chest piece because that is where Lightning Orbs tend to land, and they are the big hitters.
Trappers:
Common Trapper build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Wilderness Survival: 12 (9+3)
Inspiration Magic: 8
Illusion Magic: 4
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Troll Ungent (Wilderness Survival)
- Spike Trap [Elite] (Wilderness Survival)
- Barbed Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Flame Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Dust Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration Magic)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Trappers are very usefull utility defense characters, especially agaisnt warrior heavy teams. They offer you an extra tactical advantage with ground controll, and can help to push opposing teams out of wards.
The build its self is fairly self explanatory, put up Mantra of Resolve, and start trapping. Distortion if you start to get beaten on, or if your Resolve gets removed with Wild Blow. You can either trap defensively around your backline, or offensively by pushing up into the opponents front/midline and spreading conditions and damage with your traps.
The strange thing with this type of trapper, is you probably wont want to use a bow. The +15 max energy you can get from using a staff helps a lot when you are throwing at traps fairly quickly, and there is no real benefit from using a bow. You can of course drop Spike Trap for Oath Shot, and spam the three remaining traps you have faster, but I find that is generally not as practical or efficient.
Bow Mods:
Well, actually Staff mods. I wont go too in depth here, as I don't want to get into a whole new weapon and modification options. However, I find an Insightfull Staff of Fortitude in my primary slot is the best option. As I mentioned before, the +15 energy helps quite a lot. In my secondary slot I would put a Hale Staff of Fortitude, should I hit an opponent running some form of spike the +60 health is very nice.
Armor:
Again, Druids. Energy with trappers tends to be fairly tight, so all the help you can get is a good thing.
Spike Rangers:
Common Spike Ranger build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Marksmanship: 16 (12+4)
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Read the Wind (Marksmanship)
- Dual Shot (Ranger other)
- Punishing Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Whirling Defense (Expertise)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
- Winnowing/Favorable
(If you are taking Winnowing, it may require using a superior Expertise rune aswell, so you can put points into Wilderness Survival and keep the breakpoint of 14 Expertise.)
'Ranger spike' is probably one of the scariest spike builds around at the moment. Using spirits, preparations, and orders to buff the damage of your arrows into something that can kill near instantly with just a few rangers.
Normally the spike is Dual Shot -> Punishing Shot, and then savage if the target is not quite dead yet. The target caller will usually pick the target and count down from three, some also call when to use preparations. On three the orders will be put up by the Necro, on one the rangers will all hit Dual Shot, and then Punishing. It is a very powerfull spike, especially in that Protective Spirit is fairly ineffective against it, due to the damage being in lots of small packets.
With this type of ranger your primary focus is purely damage, in one focused spike. As such, there are only two bow attributes which you should be concerned with, 'Flight time' (as slower arrows are easier to strafe dodge), and AP.
Flight Times:
Recurve Bow: 0.5 seconds
Longbow: 0.75 seconds
Shortbow: 0.65 seconds
Horn Bow: 0.75 seconds
Flatbow: 1.0 seconds
AP:
Recurve Bow: None
Longbow: None
Shortbow: None
Horn Bow: 10%
Flatbow: None
As you can see, there are two possible options here, the Recurve Bow class and the Horn Bow class. With a Recurve Bow you stand a greater chance of hitting your target, with a Horn Bow you will do more damage if you do. However, there are ways to decrease the flight time of your arrows, without having to change the attack skills used.
The first is by using the 'Read The Wind' preparation, which doubles the speed of your arrows. Also, it is sensible to use the spirit 'Favorable Winds' as it will benefit all of your rangers, whilst only taking up one skill slot.
As such, it would seem that for a spike ranger the Horn Bow class is the best choice. As for a secondary bow? Some spike groups like to get off a long range spike before the opponents can react, to do this you would want to use a Longbow class bow.
('Read the Wind' is currently bugged, in that it quadruples the arrow speed on its own, when it infact should just double.)
Bow Mods:
For a Spike ranger, there is an obvious choice for Bowstring. The Vampiric string will add an additional 15 lifestealing to a Dual Shot -> Punishing/Savage spike. Multiply that by however many rangers you are using and it becomes quite considerable. (Just make sure you have an empty slot to switch to when not spiking, so your health doesn't degen too far.)
Armor:
As with the standard Cripshot ranger and trapper, there is no real benefit from taking anything other than Druids at the moment. The larger energy pool is more of an advantage than taking Drakescale and hoping the opposing team has a fire Elementalist for example.
Whats left?
The Flatbow. The biggest drawback to this, would be the arc. It is very easy for opponents to strafe the arrows, due to how long they are in the air. It can be made more viable if you are using Read The Wind, but generally the only time you will be using that is if you are Spiking, in which case a Hornbow is still superior due to the 10% AP.
I hope this has been of some use, and thanks to Ensign for the usefull statistics he collected which I used in this post.
If you would like to leave comments, thoughts or feedback please see the forum thread: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121694
-JR
Rangers In The Current PvP Environment
This guide is to help players understand the roles, benefits and drawbacks of different bows in a PvP environment.
First off I will explain the different classes of bow available.
For the purpose of this article, I have used these terms:
Draw time: The time it takes from the last arrow leaving the bow, to the next.
Range: The maximum range of the bow, with 55' being roughly the radius of the agro bubble.
Flight time: The time it takes for an arrow at a range of 55' to hit its target, assuming no additional effects.
AP:: The innate armor piercing statistic of the bow.
The Bows:
Bow Mods:
First off, Bow Grips. There are only two Bow Grips really worth looking at in my opinion, and that is Fortitude and Defense. They are the only choices available that provide you with any serious benefit. Some people prefer the extra armor of Defense, some people prefer the extra health of Fortitude. Personally I prefer Fortitude. The extra health can help you survive against degen for longer, and there is a lot of armor ignoring damage flying around. However, this may change, and there isn't really a huge amount in it.
As for Bowstrings, this is where it becomes more complicated. Different roles will require different strings. I will detail these with each section.
Bowstrings:
Bow Grips:
Armor:
Now we have the equipment explained, I will describe the most common uses of rangers in PvP.
At the moment, there are three main uses of PvP rangers. Cripshot rangers, Trappers, and Spike rangers. I will give a brief description of all three, with their uses, and the equipment you would probably want to consider using.
(The builds posted in this thread are purely suggestions, you may find you need to change the individual character builds to more suit your team build as a whole.)
Cripshot Rangers:
Common Cripshot Ranger build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (10+4)
Wilderness Survival: 8 (7+1)
Marksmanship: 11 (10+1)
Illusion Magic: 4
Domination Magic: 8
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Crippling Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival)
- Distracting Shot (Expertise)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Barbed Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Blackout (Domination Magic)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Common Cripshot Flag Runner build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Wilderness Survival: 10 (9+1)
Marksmanship: 9 (8+1)
Illusion Magic: 4
- Troll Unguent (Wilderness Survival)
- Crippling Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival)
- Distracting Shot (Expertise)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Storm Chaser (Wilderness Survival)
- Dodge (Expertise)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Cripshot rangers are used mainly for the effectiveness of Crippling Shot at snaring targets, with apply poison to cover the cripple and pressure the opposing monks to use up energy removing conditions. Obviously the main class you would be targetting is Warriors, but also other melee types such as 'Bunny Thumper' hammer rangers. Also very usefull to snare targets to prevent them from kiting out of range. Aswell as this you can disrupt opponents with the other skills on your bar. Interrupts are very usefull when you locate someone using a skill that is giving you a problem (like Aegis for example) or just looking out for people trying to use Ressurection Signets.
Blackout is also extremely usefull, allowing you to disable monks during spikes, or interrupt through Mantra of Resolve etc. Not to mention it works with Expertise (being a skill) and is on a character tough enough to get in touch range of characters.
As most of your damage is achieved through degen, you wont be overly bothered by direct damage; therefore 'AP' and refire rate are not that important factors when considering bow type. Interrupt skills also have a near instant 'Draw time' (although there is a slight delay if the arrow previously fired was also an interrupt) so this is a minor issue. Range again is fairly minor, but it can make it easier for your target to kite away from you if you need to stay quite close to them. In order to interrupt spells with shorter cast times, it is important that your arrow reaches the target in the shortest amount of time possible. Not to mention it is much harder for an opponent to strafe your attacks with a faster arrow speed.
With all of this in mind, we obviously want to look at the 'Flight time' of the bow:
Flight Times:
Recurve Bow: 0.5 seconds
Longbow: 0.75 seconds
Shortbow: 0.65 seconds
Horn Bow: 0.75 seconds
Flatbow: 1.0 seconds
From these statistics, we can clearly see that the Recurve Bow class would be the best choice in this situation, having the shortest flight time.
In the case of a Cripshot flag runner, you serve a utility role. For a general purpose bow, the Recurve class is again probably the best option. This will make it harder for the opposing flag runner to strafe your arrows, particularly Crippling Shot attacks. Your main damage is going to come from degen; poison and possibly bleeding, so there is no real reason to take anything else into account. However, it may also be usefull for you to take a Longbow class bow. This helps a lot when it comes to killing NPCs, as you might often be doing on flagger. You can degen to death them without agroing, and reach NPCs you might not otherwise be able to hit. As such, I would probably take a Recurve class bow in my primary weapon slot, and a Longbow class in my secondary.
Bow Mods:
As mentioned earlier, your main damage is poison degen. It seems fairly logical to take a Poisonous Bowstring, to lengthen the degen and pressure the opponent more.
Armor:
On a standard Cripshot ranger, in my opinion there is no real benefit from taking anything other than Druids; the larger energy pool can help when you need to spam a load of skills.
On a Cripshot flag runner however, a Studded Leather chest piece can come in handy. The main other type of flag runner at the moment is the E/Mo Ether Prodigy Air Elementalist with Heal Party, so the extra protection against lightning attacks will help here. I normally choose chest piece because that is where Lightning Orbs tend to land, and they are the big hitters.
Trappers:
Common Trapper build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Wilderness Survival: 12 (9+3)
Inspiration Magic: 8
Illusion Magic: 4
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Troll Ungent (Wilderness Survival)
- Spike Trap [Elite] (Wilderness Survival)
- Barbed Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Flame Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Dust Trap (Wilderness Survival)
- Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration Magic)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
Trappers are very usefull utility defense characters, especially agaisnt warrior heavy teams. They offer you an extra tactical advantage with ground controll, and can help to push opposing teams out of wards.
The build its self is fairly self explanatory, put up Mantra of Resolve, and start trapping. Distortion if you start to get beaten on, or if your Resolve gets removed with Wild Blow. You can either trap defensively around your backline, or offensively by pushing up into the opponents front/midline and spreading conditions and damage with your traps.
The strange thing with this type of trapper, is you probably wont want to use a bow. The +15 max energy you can get from using a staff helps a lot when you are throwing at traps fairly quickly, and there is no real benefit from using a bow. You can of course drop Spike Trap for Oath Shot, and spam the three remaining traps you have faster, but I find that is generally not as practical or efficient.
Bow Mods:
Well, actually Staff mods. I wont go too in depth here, as I don't want to get into a whole new weapon and modification options. However, I find an Insightfull Staff of Fortitude in my primary slot is the best option. As I mentioned before, the +15 energy helps quite a lot. In my secondary slot I would put a Hale Staff of Fortitude, should I hit an opponent running some form of spike the +60 health is very nice.
Armor:
Again, Druids. Energy with trappers tends to be fairly tight, so all the help you can get is a good thing.
Spike Rangers:
Common Spike Ranger build:
Ranger/Mesmer
Expertise: 14 (12+2)
Marksmanship: 16 (12+4)
- Resurrection Signet ()
- Read the Wind (Marksmanship)
- Dual Shot (Ranger other)
- Punishing Shot [Elite] (Marksmanship)
- Savage Shot (Marksmanship)
- Whirling Defense (Expertise)
- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
- Winnowing/Favorable
(If you are taking Winnowing, it may require using a superior Expertise rune aswell, so you can put points into Wilderness Survival and keep the breakpoint of 14 Expertise.)
'Ranger spike' is probably one of the scariest spike builds around at the moment. Using spirits, preparations, and orders to buff the damage of your arrows into something that can kill near instantly with just a few rangers.
Normally the spike is Dual Shot -> Punishing Shot, and then savage if the target is not quite dead yet. The target caller will usually pick the target and count down from three, some also call when to use preparations. On three the orders will be put up by the Necro, on one the rangers will all hit Dual Shot, and then Punishing. It is a very powerfull spike, especially in that Protective Spirit is fairly ineffective against it, due to the damage being in lots of small packets.
With this type of ranger your primary focus is purely damage, in one focused spike. As such, there are only two bow attributes which you should be concerned with, 'Flight time' (as slower arrows are easier to strafe dodge), and AP.
Flight Times:
Recurve Bow: 0.5 seconds
Longbow: 0.75 seconds
Shortbow: 0.65 seconds
Horn Bow: 0.75 seconds
Flatbow: 1.0 seconds
AP:
Recurve Bow: None
Longbow: None
Shortbow: None
Horn Bow: 10%
Flatbow: None
As you can see, there are two possible options here, the Recurve Bow class and the Horn Bow class. With a Recurve Bow you stand a greater chance of hitting your target, with a Horn Bow you will do more damage if you do. However, there are ways to decrease the flight time of your arrows, without having to change the attack skills used.
The first is by using the 'Read The Wind' preparation, which doubles the speed of your arrows. Also, it is sensible to use the spirit 'Favorable Winds' as it will benefit all of your rangers, whilst only taking up one skill slot.
As such, it would seem that for a spike ranger the Horn Bow class is the best choice. As for a secondary bow? Some spike groups like to get off a long range spike before the opponents can react, to do this you would want to use a Longbow class bow.
('Read the Wind' is currently bugged, in that it quadruples the arrow speed on its own, when it infact should just double.)
Bow Mods:
For a Spike ranger, there is an obvious choice for Bowstring. The Vampiric string will add an additional 15 lifestealing to a Dual Shot -> Punishing/Savage spike. Multiply that by however many rangers you are using and it becomes quite considerable. (Just make sure you have an empty slot to switch to when not spiking, so your health doesn't degen too far.)
Armor:
As with the standard Cripshot ranger and trapper, there is no real benefit from taking anything other than Druids at the moment. The larger energy pool is more of an advantage than taking Drakescale and hoping the opposing team has a fire Elementalist for example.
Whats left?
The Flatbow. The biggest drawback to this, would be the arc. It is very easy for opponents to strafe the arrows, due to how long they are in the air. It can be made more viable if you are using Read The Wind, but generally the only time you will be using that is if you are Spiking, in which case a Hornbow is still superior due to the 10% AP.
I hope this has been of some use, and thanks to Ensign for the usefull statistics he collected which I used in this post.
If you would like to leave comments, thoughts or feedback please see the forum thread: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121694
-JR
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