My Build, for better or worse

[Kereminde]

Tobias Trueflight
Ranger / Whatever

Notes: Secondary prone to change depending on what Elite Skill I'm hunting or if I need to pack a Resurrection skill personally.

Beast Mastery 7
Expertise 10 + 2
Wilderness Survival 7 +3 +1
Marksmanship 11
(6 Unused)

Notes: This is about where I want to be, though I might get two minor runes to bolster the other two attributes.

Beastmaster Traveler's Mask of Superior Wilderness Survival
Radiant Krytan Vest of Superior Vigor
Pyrebound Drakescale Gloves of Major Expertise
Pyrebound Drakescale Leggings of Vitae
Pyrebound Drakescale Boots of Attunement

Notes: See all that Pyrebound? That's a holdover from before Insignia; I saw lots of mobs using fire spikes or area-effect skills and decided Drakescale was where I wanted to put my money when buying my top armor set. Now I'm almost wanting to pull the insignias and put Beastmaster's Insignia there. What's stopping me? Not wanting to infuse a new set in case my salvaging ruins the armor!
Why the Krytan Vest? I like the coat . . .

Skills
Power Shot (Being experimented with recently; currently changed to Sloth Hunter's Shot)
Savage Shot
Apply Poison (Currently loaded Read The Wind since I wasn't fighting fleshy creatures)
[Open Slot] (Currently Troll Unugent for regeneration)
Broad Head Arrow (Stapled to slot 5)
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Never Rampage Alone (Sunspear Rank: Castellan)

Notes: I've been listening to the talk in another thread about Power Shot being inferior and trying some other skills. I'm not convinced YET of Sloth Hunter's Shot or Screaming Shot being more useful. (Sometimes I need a skill which doesn't rely on 'fleshy' status, like while in 75% of Tyria.)
Current pet is a Hearty Wolf from Pre-Searing. It has sentimental value.

Heroes NOT unlocked (It's easier this way): Acolyte Sousuke, Margrid the Sky, Master of Whispers, Goren, Norgu, General Morgahn, Razah.

I have all four 'games', plus the Bonus Mission Pack. I have finished the Prophecies Campaign (Proudly a "Tyrian Defender"), and have cleared Factions up to Tahnnakai Temple (Minus Master's for Vizunah Square), cleared Nightfall up to Kodonur Crossroads, and have two Asuran Main Quests left before descending to 'Heart of the Shiverpeaks'.

I'm not finished 100% with the other areas in GW:EN . . . The Bison Tournament has made me give up on it, and I haven't quite finished all the quests for the Ebon Vanguard, Shining Blade, or Asurans yet. I haven't gotten CLOSE to getting started clearing out Sorrow's Furnace (Grenth's Footprint is a deathtrap!), nor finished the other post-campaign quests available from Glint yet.

There you have it.

Edit: Corrected the Sunspear skill name.

I'm looking for advice on what to improve and what people think would be a better use of a Ranger. I'm not sure I agree with 100% of the comments but I'm willing to try some changes and see if there's a notable change in overall effectiveness. As far as Attribute Points go, I'm still a little uncertain of where to put them all as dumping them all into two "skill sets" doesn't seem to be a good answer to me.

[miskav]

You don't have to salvage an armour to put new insignea in it.
Just use it on the armour, it'll over-wride the old one.

[snaek]

wut was the point of this?
r u lookin for a critique?

ur runes/insignias look pretty random
sup wilderness? for an extra 3 seconds for [apply poison]?
and u should at least put on minor marks

btw, the pve skill is called [never rampage alone], not [rampage as one]

[Tyla]

A superior rune is a bad idea. Let alone a superior rune and a major.
You're also using it in a selfheal attribute.

The most commonly used setup for attributes, is:

Marksmanship 9+1.
Expertise 12+1+1.
Wilderness Survival 9+1. -- This is usually only for [[Natural Stride]. If you don't have it, don't bother and go for [[Whirling Defense] or [[Lightning Reflexes].

And the common Ranger setup of skills is:

[Put Elite Here][D-Shot][Savage Shot][Volley, or X Preperation][Secondary Profession Skill][Natural Stride][Troll Unguent][Resurrection Signet]

A smart secondary profession skill is [[Mending Touch] (Can also remove conditions from the party, extremely strong for non-elite.) and [[Epedemic] (Only good for long-lasting conditions such as ['s Daze.).

A good elite choice is:
[[Burning Arrow] for strong degeneration pressure and a little +damage.
[[Crippling Shot], mainly for PvP for the spammable and unblockable snare.
[[Broad Head Arrow], because it's the strongest skill a Ranger can bring on his / her bar in PvE.
[[Magebane Shot], instead of [[Savage Shot] on your common bar, replaced by [[Pin Down], or for PvE, [[Sloth Hunter's Shot] or [[Screaming Shot].
[[Barrage] is only good if you have Prophecies, which you do, so don't bother with it.

And a note about the insignias. Survivor's are [b]FAR better than extra armour insignias because they defend against any sort of damage.

[Joseph Leito]

Superiors aren't always bad, I run a superior in Expertise and it's perfectly fine.

[snaek]

Superiors aren't always bad, I run a superior in Expertise and it's perfectly fine.

no, they're not in pve...
but sup expertise is a pretty bad option
10en skills get cut-off @ 14expertise...so havin it any higher will have no effect

sup marks makes sense in pve, if u want to be able to do as much dmg as possible
but rangers tend to be more shutdown, than straight dmg dealers

[Kereminde]

What was the point of this, Snake? Well, it was because the other topic and post was getting into my build more than the topic. And nobody else seems shy about asking for advice or input. I thought "what the heck, I'm not despised as a n00b enough yet. Let me pull some real n00bish s*** and then I can live down to the mark!" Though I think I'm more a newb than a n00b . . . ill informed as opposed to screaming obscenities and believing I know better . . .

Yes, I'm throwing this out there and going: "So, suggestions for improvement, what would you do differently . . . and why?" That last bit is important, you know, because simply saying "X Skill sucks and everyone knows it" is lame. I want to know reasoning why some people do X over Y, or sometimes they do Z. I need to know that to evaluate it myself and go: "Okay, you have a valid point".

Why are my Insignias random? Told you, I set my armor up before Insignias and they inherited what I had made armor for. I anticipated needing extra armor vs Fire more than Druid's "Radiant" ability. Now that I HAVE options, I'm not sure what to work with so much. I thought about Beastmaster's because I have a pet all the time and having an extra 10 armor might help out a bit.

I can see the point of Survivor's but I thought a +10 armor boost is not negligible against damage . . . as opposed to having more health to get eaten up, I'd rather have higher armor and soak a bigger piece of damage pie. I may be wrong on this, sure . . .

Why the runes? Well they're what I happen to find through play. Not proud of it, not ashamed of it either. I suppose it'd make sense for me to knock my Superior Rune down a notch but I don't see an attraction to getting that health back. I'm not running too badly with the health and when I die it's usually not going to make a difference to have an extra 30 health or so. It's because everyone else is dead, or I ate an attack or some spike of INSANE damage.

@ Tyla
As far as elites go, you've listed a fair amount of what I've used. But you're not listing very many others of the elite skills. I like Burning Arrow, that's why Acolyte Jin or Pyre Fierceshot has it loaded :) I've also used Incendary Arrows from time to time. I've never looked at Barrage and gone: "Darn that's a useful skill" until I started doing Hard Mode and almost any ranger mob in the world started firing it off repeatedly. I haven't YET captured Magebane Shot but I think I will sometime soon now. Crippling Shot doesn't seem useful at ALL in PvE. Heck, Crippled doesn't seem as useful as Poison or Dazed . . .

@Miskav
Well, if I salvage the Insignia, I can resell them to the Rune Trader for a little extra money . . . or keep them in storage in case I want to go back.

[Age]

Barrage is a core elite in all campaigns anyway instead of using powershot use keen arrow.It has been fixed and using a pet go full BM or not at all.

[the savage nornbear]

Your build minus the pet minus the major rune minus the superior rune+[[distracting shot]=semi acceptable

[snaek]

well i was jus wonderin...
cuz in the op, u never aksed for advice or never really stated whether u jus wanted to show off ur build or sumptin
so i was confused how to reply to it 0__o

but if u want some tips...

for armour insignias:
spells will always target the chest piece (unless its a projectile spell)
so its best to put pyrebound on ur chest only

the only time u'll have to worry bout fire dmg from other sources
is from wanding and fire dmg martial weaps (i.e. [conjure flame])

so if u really want an armour buff
jus stick on the chest only (and maybe legs)
and then everything else survivors

and if u use a perfect salvage kit, u can get the insignia off 100% without breakin it
but tbh, the only thing really worth savin in ur equips is the sup vigor & radiant

for attribs:
spreading accross 4 attribs in most cases is not a very good idea
im a pet person myself (even tho in many cases, they'll be regarded as useless)

focus on expertise+marks+beastmastery (11-10-10 or 12-10-8 r the most common spreads)
and take out everything in wilderness (asside from leftover pts)
[apply poison] can still work @ a low wilderness stat
if u really really want poison, the other alternative would be [poisonous bite]
altho its not that great, it'll atleast allow u to run a different prep

[Kereminde]

@ Snake

It's not so much spread over four, as I put my Marksmanship to 12, discovered there wasn't a huge difference between 11 and 12 for that and took a rank down, put that into the others. Expertise seemed to be most balanced between investment and usefulness at 12 so I put in a rune and used the points I didn't use to support my pet.

Wilderness Survival was mostly being used because Troll Unugent works rather well for keeping me on my feet; it overcomes 90% of the health degen mobs stack on me long enough for H/H monks to get to removing the cause.

But, looking around at the posts here, people seem to be saying there aren't any Insignia worth using except Survivor's . . . or is it just for Ranger?

[Lykan]

If your always going to stick with apply poison or read the wind you could go for Scouts Insignia's or otherwise your best bet for pve is probably survivor or radiant if you have energy problems. You wont lose the armour just over apply them.

Your runes really need work, you should work on getting new ones, they dont cost much. I suggest:
Expertise Mask + Expertise Minor Rune so you can spec 14 Exp if needed.
Major Marksmanship, Minor Wilderness and Minor beast if you insist on having a pet with you.

As for skills [savage shot][distracting shot] add these two to your bar, never take them off.
[keen arrow] and [sloth hunters shot] are good for pure damage so look at them and if your really dependant on [troll unguent] in pve then your monk hero skill bars are probably in need of work, selfs heals are rarely necessary in pve.
Tyla added some nice elites i wont talk about them.

As for the pet, im sure it might have some sentimental value but you might want to consider getting rid of it unless you take a full beastmaster build or are doing barrage/pet or RaO, its just a waste of 2 skill slots.

[Kereminde]

I edited the main post, just to correct my skill name.

I've also replaced the Sup Wilderness Survival rune with a Maj Marksmanship Rune I had laying around on an alt. Been clearing out some old junk this morning, not really finding a home for a lot of it but it's been tossed out anyway.

I'm not noticing many energy problems, I have thought about replacing the Radiant Insignia in the chest with Survivor's. The only time I reach energy problems is when a fight goes on for over a minute; this mostly would be GW:EN dungeons or a couple mission sticking points. I've also listed my thought about putting Beastmaster's in there for the armor boost.
(What exactly is a "good Beastmaster Build", and is it a viable option? Well, more useful than this one at least . . .)

I've not been using Troll Unugent much in a normal day, but when I do use it I'm glad it's there. I probably DO need to work on my monk heroes but I don't have a good touchstone on what would be decent as far as skills for them go.

(Isn't it obvious I don't know good skills? :) )

[Tyla]

Superiors aren't always bad, I run a superior in Expertise and it's perfectly fine.
You can get away with alot of things in PvE, and that is the beauty of it.
Tell me, is -75 health worth any amount of extra energy management worth it?

Just because something works in PvE, doesn't mean that it isn't bad.

[snaek]

Wilderness Survival was mostly being used because Troll Unugent works rather well for keeping me on my feet; it overcomes 90% of the health degen mobs stack on me long enough for H/H monks to get to removing the cause.

But, looking around at the posts here, people seem to be saying there aren't any Insignia worth using except Survivor's . . . or is it just for Ranger?

[never rampage alone] is all the health regen u'll ever need

so u dun need [troll unguent] and therefore dun need the points in wilderness survival

like i said earlier, [apply poison] works jus fine at a low spec

as for +armour
i think they're worth it in pve
in pve, armour dmg can actually be more dmg than armour-ignoring dmg
and dun forget, more dmg = more dmg reduction from armour

plus as an added bonus, enemy ai usually target the ones wit the lowest armour/hp

which is also a reason not to use sup runes--ur makin urself a priority target
the only reason to justify a sup rune in pve is for more dmg (or to meet a cut-off point for a skill)
a sup wilderness will not achieve this...at least not wit ur build, maybe if u were runnin [incendiary arrows]
even then, 1 sec is hardly justifiable

[Rift]

You seem to be all over the map with your build. You need to figure out what the focus of your Ranger will be. Is it DPS (Power Shot), Interrupt (Savage Shot), Condi-Pressure (BHA + Apply), Beast Master?

After you've figured it out, you should rework your attribute lines. You should only invest in 2 or 3 attributes, never 4. Since you're a ranger, you'll have no other choice than to put some in Expertise, which leaves you a max of only 2 others.

I would personally drop the pet for PVE. I know it's a hard thing to do to let Fluffy go, but since its corpse isn't even exploitable anymore, he does very little in terms of helping your party. If you're looking to create a buffer between your party and the enemies, a necromancer Jagged-Minion Bomber does this job much more efficiently. In fact you should strive to unlock all the Necromancer heroes since they'll be very helpful throughout your PVE experience.

That said, here are a couple of PVE builds that I like to use.

Pure DPS:

[barrage][finish him][distracting shot][splinter weapon][flesh of my flesh][pain inverter][nightmare weapon][triple shot]

Interrupt + CondiPressure

[savage shot][finish him][distracting shot][burning arrow][pain inverter][apply poison][mending touch][rebirth]

Notice that I dropped most Wilderness Survival and all Beast Mastery, to focus on the core attributes of each build.

If you want to hold on to your BHA for shutdown, I would consider looking into Epidemic to spread the Daze.

If you want to use your experience in PVE to practice for PVP, the standard BA bar works fine too, without PVE-only skills. Only keep rebirth to save your stranded heroes (this would otherwise be a rez sig)

[savage shot][troll unguent][distracting shot][burning arrow][natural stride][apply poison][mending touch][rebirth]

or use the Magebane build provided posts above without the snare (not that important in PVE).

[Kereminde]

It's a strange thing, you say corpse isn't exploitable but I've had those . . . frigging . . . Stone Summit Gnashers pull up Bone Fiends from poor "Fluffy" :)

I'll be giving some of these a whirl. Mostly the points got dropped to Beast Mastery (It HAD been at 3 for the longest time) because I couldn't get enough to make another attribute rise.

Oh, I don't have "Finish him!" because Magni keeps leaving me on the floor broken and . . . well, lifeless. Nothing has worked (not even Ursan; I'm probably doing that wrong, not being a melee class in the first place) and I've been seriously contemplating doing the cheesy/shady Ritualist spirit-spam. Except so far my build has done almost no trouble against the enemies to this point. (Save the nice Kurzik monk who breaks the rules. Those two rot wallows . . .) I never, ever, had problems shutting down Mhenlo or some of the others . . . it's Magni and Kahmu who give me notable problems . . .

[Rift]

I don't know how long ago you've visited the Far Shiverpeak's, but since November, I'm afraid Fluffy doesn't leave a corpse: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Game_updates/20071113

For Magni, the spirit build works, but if you prefer a more Ranger approach, consider dshotting his form and degening him to death while kiting his attacks:

[savage shot][troll unguent][distracting shot][crippling shot][natural stride][apply poison][mending touch][screaming shot]

[Age]

I edited the main post, just to correct my skill name.

I've also replaced the Sup Wilderness Survival rune with a Maj Marksmanship Rune I had laying around on an alt. Been clearing out some old junk this morning, not really finding a home for a lot of it but it's been tossed out anyway.

I'm not noticing many energy problems, I have thought about replacing the Radiant Insignia in the chest with Survivor's. The only time I reach energy problems is when a fight goes on for over a minute; this mostly would be GW:EN dungeons or a couple mission sticking points. I've also listed my thought about putting Beastmaster's in there for the armor boost.
(What exactly is a "good Beastmaster Build", and is it a viable option? Well, more useful than this one at least . . .)

I've not been using Troll Unugent much in a normal day, but when I do use it I'm glad it's there. I probably DO need to work on my monk heroes but I don't have a good touchstone on what would be decent as far as skills for them go.

(Isn't it obvious I don't know good skills? :) )
I would stick with radiants and drop the major in Marks I use two masks one in minor and one in sup.Beast Masters are good in explorable areas not to be brought in coop or elite missions.

I will never understand the Pet/Barrage Ranger thing as there are better elites to use in the situation.

[Arkantos]

Radiant armor on a profession with their primary attribute being energy management is, well, really stupid.

Don't spam skills and you won't run into trouble. Use a zealous bow if you have to. But don't run +energy runes. Energy management > energy pool.

[Age]

Radiant armor on a profession with their primary attribute being energy management is, well, really stupid.

Don't spam skills and you won't run into trouble. Use a zealous bow if you have to. But don't run +energy runes. Energy management > energy pool.
Before insignias came out and the introduction of survivor all Rangers used mostly radiants or druids armour as it was back then.This is because even with expertise at 10 or 13 there are some skills that require more energy take dust trap for eg. and apply is 15@ 13 in expertise it will cost about 8 or 9e. if you only have 6 or 7 in wilderness survivial it will last about 4 to 6 sec. in duration.

[Adja1005]

Radiant armor on a profession with their primary attribute being energy management is, well, really stupid.

Don't spam skills and you won't run into trouble. Use a zealous bow if you have to. But don't run +energy runes. Energy management > energy pool.

QFT!

I never know whether i should laugh or cringe when i see other Rangers pinging their energy and health. 30+ energy and health lower than 500 in PvE on a Ranger is just plain stupid. Not to mention that no matter what build you run you should always have good investment in Expertise. It has some good skills to offer and provides great energy management, so why ignore it?

I would suggest if running a build focused on bow attacks then put a minor Marksmanship rune on your headgear. And if running a beastmaster build then do the same but with a minor Beastmastery rune. You should always keep an Expertise rune, either minor or major, on one piece of armour.

If running a condition build then you should take a minor Marksmanship headgear. That way you can afford to swap points into Wilderness and still have energy management and a higher critical chance from bow attacks.

Personally i usually always have a major rune of Expertise on my gloves as i like to keep my Expertise at 14. It really helps to reduce energy costs no matter what build i run. The other other slots on my armour i fill with health runes and insignias.

[Arkantos]

Before insignias came out and the introduction of survivor all Rangers used mostly radiants or druids armour as it was back then.This is because even with expertise at 10 or 13 there are some skills that require more energy take dust trap for eg. and apply is 15@ 13 in expertise it will cost about 8 or 9e. if you only have 6 or 7 in wilderness survivial it will last about 4 to 6 sec. in duration.

They used druids because 1) there were no other good armors until Factions and 2) druids looked cool and every pve player wanted to look cool.

Also, I have no clue what apply poison you're talking about. Apply poison lasts for 24 seconds, regardless of your attribute. At 12 expertise, it will cost ~9e, which has to be used every ~22 seconds. 9 energy every 22 seconds with 3 pips of energy regen (or 2 pips of energy regen and 1 energy every hit if you really need more energy management) on top of other skills is very manageable as long as you don't spam skills (which a ranger shouldn't doe unless barrage + zealous).

[Improvavel]

People can get away with a superior rune in PvE cause nothing prevents u to swap it for a minor after u get dp.

So if u are playing in a area where most mobs are physical and none will hit u for 200 or so, the only reason why you wont be using a superior rune is lack of space for both a minor and a superior rune headpiece.

If the area where you are playing is full of roaring ethers or djinns and their like, that hit hard and massed, able to kill u in a moment, the minor rune headpiece is the optimal choice .

So, players withs space and money have both a minor and superior setup. They use it and swap it accordingly. Those without money/space use minors cause even in the situations superior runes are optimal, minor runes only perform slightly worse.

[Age]

They used druids because 1) there were no other good armors until Factions and 2) druids looked cool and every pve player wanted to look cool.

Also, I have no clue what apply poison you're talking about. Apply poison lasts for 24 seconds, regardless of your attribute. At 12 expertise, it will cost ~9e, which has to be used every ~22 seconds. 9 energy every 22 seconds with 3 pips of energy regen (or 2 pips of energy regen and 1 energy every hit if you really need more energy management) on top of other skills is very manageable as long as you don't spam skills (which a ranger shouldn't doe unless barrage + zealous).You have no clue on what apply poison I am talking about even though you mentioned it.When my Wilderness Survival is at as at 7 apply doesn't last that long and that is where mine is 14 Marks,13 Expertise and 7 in WS.It costs 9e @13 Expertise not to mention other skill you will be using so in the end radiants aren't bad.it wasn't the look why those who chose druids it is because it was the only energy based armour much like gladiators was for Warriors.

I use +e bow as well and it doesn't take me long to get down in energy.

[Tyla]

Age, how does that make radiants not bad?

A ranger should be able to deal with their energy with 14 expertise, AKA the common digits. No +E, or other energy management.

And yes, I do not encounter energy problems while playing properly.

[Age]

I have 13 in Expertise not 14 as that is in Marks.I specc in Marks WS maybe my next one with a 12+1+1.

[Tyla]

And I have 12+1+1 expertise, 9+1 marksmanship and 9+1 wilderness survival for Natural Stride.

Try that out. Energy shouldn't be screwey unless you're bad.

[Age]

I am not bad but I would rather stick to my current set up with 12+1 in expertise as I use more in Marks.

[Kale Ironfist]

You have no clue on what apply poison I am talking about even though you mentioned it.When my Wilderness Survival is at as at 7 apply doesn't last that long and that is where mine is 14 Marks,13 Expertise and 7 in WS.It costs 9e @13 Expertise not to mention other skill you will be using so in the end radiants aren't bad.it wasn't the look why those who chose druids it is because it was the only energy based armour much like gladiators was for Warriors.

I use +e bow as well and it doesn't take me long to get down in energy.
Apply Poisons' duration is fixed - 24 seconds. What you're talking about is the poison duration per hit... but that gets refreshed when you attack them again. You have 9 seconds to do so, so you can reliably keep 3 people poisoned, with a possible 4th if you're using a short/flatbow.

Also, um, did you look at the other armors? Conditional armor bonuses weren't wanted. You're better off having more energy than those conditional armor bonuses. Then there's the farming aspect...

I am not bad but I would rather stick to my current set up with 12+1 in expertise as I use more in Marks.
That indicates that you're using Marksmanship attack skills. Most suck, which is why the 12+1+1 Expertise, 9+1 Marksmanship, 9+1 Wilderness Survival attribute spread is advocated. Also, if Expertise is not enough energy management for you, extra max energy (which isn't energy management) won't help you. You'll get, at most, two extra skills off.

[Tyla]

I am not bad but I would rather stick to my current set up with 12+1 in expertise as I use more in Marks.I did not imply you were bad.

And adding onto what Kale said, the only decent build for pure damage was the Ranger Turret, which died, because it was extremely degenerate, and can manage to take down NPC's after the first Prepshot.

[Arkantos]

You have no clue on what apply poison I am talking about even though you mentioned it.When my Wilderness Survival is at as at 7 apply doesn't last that long and that is where mine is 14 Marks,13 Expertise and 7 in WS.It costs 9e @13 Expertise not to mention other skill you will be using so in the end radiants aren't bad.it wasn't the look why those who chose druids it is because it was the only energy based armour much like gladiators was for Warriors.

I use +e bow as well and it doesn't take me long to get down in energy.

[apply poison]

Take a good look, 24 second duration. Poison on the enemy may last that long, but that has nothing to do with the nergy cost.

Yes, warriors used gladiator's armor. Guess what? They also used 15k ascalon helmets. Do you think they did that for the +1 in tactics, or because 15k gladiator's and 15k ascalon helm was a good looking combo?

if you use radiant insignias, a +5 energy bow, 13 expertise and it doesn't take long to get down to little energy, you're doing something horribly, horribly wrong, and you might want to learn about something called energy management.

[Kereminde]

So, trying to read through this latest bit . . . spent a couple days peeking in and not playing my Ranger until I had a better 'grasp' on what I wanted . . .

I get it, drop Radiant out of the chest armor (possibly, what, give it to one of the Monk Heroes?) and put something in its place. Beastmaster if I plan on using a pet, or whatever other "conditional bonus" I feel I want more since the spells largely target JUST chest armor. Every other piece gets Survivor's for the health boosts?

I HAD started using Sloth Hunter's Shot . . . it's not performing quite where I like it though. Distracting Shot is giving me some good results but given I'm getting a lot of mobs which like b locking stances I'm thinking of sticking Seeking Arrows in the slots so I can actually HIT SOMETHING to land conditions at all.

Especially annoying are Hard Mode ranger-types who love those stances (and Barrage) . . . Hard Mode warriors, and Assassins. I mostly get to stick my H/H team on them while I target something else with my pet and split the damage. Normally I feel it's not a safe idea but when I am mostly hitting air? Why waste my shots . . .?

Any case, the advice and explanations here are starting to make me more comfortable with my choices. Sure I'll NEVER be a "True Ranger" . . . I'm too sloppy in places to own the role. But I'll at least have fun carving my needlessly-difficult way through missions/areas/dungeons and coming out the other side alive.

Maybe next I'll ask for advice on bows/other gear. But seeing the threads already in progress makes me notice there's a huge divisive opinion on "better" or "more effective". I'll stick to the Shocking Mursaat Recurve for now :)

[Kale Ironfist]

I get it, drop Radiant out of the chest armor (possibly, what, give it to one of the Monk Heroes?) and put something in its place. Beastmaster if I plan on using a pet, or whatever other "conditional bonus" I feel I want more since the spells largely target JUST chest armor. Every other piece gets Survivor's for the health boosts?
All spells get hit location too. They don't auto-hit chest armor. A while ago, projectile attacks (including spells) didn't hit the hands, but that has since been fixed.

[Cebe]

When my Wilderness Survival is at as at 7 apply doesn't last that long.
Do you mean the poison condition (from Apply Poison) itself doesn't last long at 7 WS? (As opposed to the preparation not lasting long.)

Also, I beg of you...please use a space after a full stop.

[Adja1005]

And adding onto what Kale said, the only decent build for pure damage was the Ranger Turret, which died, because it was extremely degenerate, and can manage to take down NPC's after the first Prepshot.

Agreed. There hasn't been such a good pure DPS build for Rangers since the good old "pew pew pew" turret build. God i miss it, as retarded as it was, i still had fun using it in PvE and PvP.

[Proff]

You have no clue on what apply poison I am talking about even though you mentioned it.When my Wilderness Survival is at as at 7 apply doesn't last that long and that is where mine is 14 Marks,13 Expertise and 7 in WS.It costs 9e @13 Expertise not to mention other skill you will be using so in the end radiants aren't bad.it wasn't the look why those who chose druids it is because it was the only energy based armour much like gladiators was for Warriors.

I use +e bow as well and it doesn't take me long to get down in energy.

Preparation. For 24 seconds, foes struck by your physical attacks become Poisoned for 3...13...15 seconds.

Duration for AP is always the same.

[Kereminde]

Earlier someone posted about Chest armor being the only one worth putting +AR mods in . . .

So, well, is that now a fallacy and if I want protection it should go all over?

[Age]

Do you mean the poison condition (from Apply Poison) itself doesn't last long at 7 WS? (As opposed to the preparation not lasting long.)

Also, I beg of you...please use a space after a full stop.
No.The preparation itself will only last 7 to 8 sec. with 7 in WS .This is no more different than stormchaser the more you have in WS the longer it lasts.

I thought having 14 in Marks was good number for the elites in Marks?

I can't read skill tags with my ad blocker on and no script on.

[Tyla]

The majority of Marksmanship skills work like a charm at 9+1.

BHA lasts the full 15 seconds, 100% upkeep with a Silencing Bowstring.
Cripshot lasts 6 seconds, 8 seconds with Crippling Bowstring. (Although, more PvP oriented at the elite.)

Although I still don't understand you about the durations. Do you mean the 24 seconds, or the duration of poison?

Because no offense, but your grammar is quite confusing...

[Age]

This is what I mean (As opposed to the preparation not lasting long.)


I thought you can shoot farther with more in Marks as well?What about accuracy?

[Tyla]

The preperation lasts 24 seconds regardless of your Wilderness Survival rank.

And the range of the bow depends on the bow type. Same for accuracy.

If not, it would be stated otherwise.

[snaek]

I thought you can shoot farther with more in Marks as well?What about accuracy?

no, this isnt maple story lol

all attacks r 100% chance to hit, unless:
the enemies 'block' thru a stance or enchantment (i.e. [aegis])
cause ur arrows to 'stray' by dodging/strafing
or cause u to 'miss' by blinding u (i.e. [blinding surge])

higher marks means:
1. higher base dmg
2. better skill bonuses
3. higher chance to critical

(hope i didnt miss sumptin?)

[Kale Ironfist]

(hope i didnt miss sumptin?)
Apart from breaking the rules of the forum with your spelling, that's right.

Distance is affected by bow type and height. Accuracy (the actual hit) is only affected by skills whereas accuracy (flight arc) is determined by bow type and affected by a few skills. Preparation duration is stated in the skill description; about a third of them are actually affected by an attribute, and only two of those are in Wilderness Survival - Choking Gas and Incendiary Arrows.

[Arkantos]

No.The preparation itself will only last 7 to 8 sec. with 7 in WS .This is no more different than stormchaser the more you have in WS the longer it lasts.

Multiple people have proved you wrong with multiple sources.

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Apply_Poison
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Apply_Poison

The preparation lasts 24 seconds REGARDLESS OF YOUR WILDERNESS SURVIVAL. Log in and take a look. It will say:

Preparation. For 24 seconds, foes struck by your physical attacks become Poisoned for 3...13...15 seconds.

Now please, stop posting crap trying to say it doesn't always last 24 seconds, because you're wrong.

[Sprites]

[Light of Deldrimor] this can make hits on my energy bar ^^

(useful on dugneons to find hidden chests , but 80 AOE damage is always nice ;) )

[Kereminde]

Yes, yes, that does take nice bites out of Energy. Which is why it stays there ONLY until the end of a Dungeon :)

[Fire The Nutter]

Ok so the general concensus, as its always been with the exception of very rare builds

1) Stick to just a few attribute lines if I can manage it, jack of all trades doesnt work
2) Drop the pet

My two penneth would be, whats your team build like?
I used to look at my build in isolation, I now know to try and consider it as part of the team as it makes things more effective.
Blocking a problem (stances) ? Take a warrior with [wild blow] or a necro with [rigor mortis]
Blocking from ench's (Aegis)? Mesmer with some ench removal, personal fave of mine against raptors and the like used to be [Mirror of Disenchantment] as it removes from the whole party not just adjacent or something like other removals. Another option is [well of the profane]

Mostly you'll find people either recommending conditions or interrupt based combat for a ranger as thats more their niche (not to say they cant do other things).
My favourite is interruption and for my money you cant do better than [Broad Head Arrow], i tend to add [savage shot] and [distracting shot] and the rest of the bar is yours to play with. Got a necro on the team or any other source of cracked armor? [Body shot] handy for extra e management if you happen to need it (imo when is more energy a problem?)

Also if you can fit it in somewhere, [epidemic] is a good idea whether its on your bar or another characters (AI tends to use this well in my experience), spreads the daze if you are running BHA, if not it can spread the conditions out there. An old team build I ran for a while was a Necro with [virulence], me as a fire and poison [burning arrow] + [apply poison] and someone with [epidemic]
How about taking a para with [go for the eyes] and use [keen arrow] (recently fixed) ? Its all about the synergy.

At the end of the day, contribute to the team as it isnt a solo build (unless I missed something???) and stick to what rangers do the best if you want the best results

[Age]

Multiple people have proved you wrong with multiple sources.

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Apply_Poison
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Apply_Poison

The preparation lasts 24 seconds REGARDLESS OF YOUR WILDERNESS SURVIVAL. Log in and take a look. It will say:

Preparation. For 24 seconds, foes struck by your physical attacks become Poisoned for 3...13...15 seconds.

Now please, stop posting crap trying to say it doesn't always last 24 seconds, because you're wrong.
Ok.I was wrong it does last 24 sec it is just the amout you become poisoned for.I couldn't get online to test untill I was at home.I do like radiants for UW trapping.

[Kereminde]

I can't really attest for the builds of the Henchies, but my Heroes are largely designed to do one thing each and do it well.

Tahlkora has her points in Healing Prayers and Divine Might (Or whatever it is called?) with the rest hanging on stuffed into Protection. Her skills are set up for healing mostly, elite being Light of Deliverance. She has Resurrect as opposed to anything else (I haven't spent skill points to teach her something else). My choice on Monk skills is . . . kinda limited until I start putting down Skill Points and Platinum.

Jora is benefiting from the original choice I made (a bad one) of doing R/W. (At the time I thought it would be kind of cool to switch between ranged and melee as some things were extremely hard to land bow hits on after stances.) She's gone full Swordsmanship to 11 and Strength to 10. I put the rest to Tactics, and she makes use of Healing Signet (except when I turn it off so she doesn't get spiked to death). She's set up to go for bleeding and bonus damage once they dip under 50% health.

I usually go out with Acolyte Jin, who has all my interrupt skills, Favored Winds, and Burning Arrow. Sometimes I give her Apply Poison; it helps keep degen stacked on targets. No pet, she's ALL about the bow. Pyre is a clone almost but he gets fire-based skills. (He's a Charr, it suits him.)

I haven't used many other heroes much. I've neglected Olias since I got him, and Melonni. I haven't done ANYTHING with Livia, Vekk, Ogden, Zhed, Hayda, Zenmai, Kahmu, or Xandra. I just haven't focused too much on them . . .

[Luminarus]

No comment ;)

[Adja1005]

- long post -

Oh dear god...

[Fire The Nutter]

Best advice there is if you intend to H/H a lot then get over to the Heroes and AI section.
There is SOOO much more you could be doing with them, not to mention swapping them out for other ones you list and trying to make a good TEAM.
Lots of people are running 3 necros in recent months (Sabway as its generally termed), there are good 3 para builds that might fit ok with you if you went R/P, i run a mix based on area and what team mates are bringing but look for things like
Blind
Weakness
Damage reduction (Talk as full heal isnt great, look for prots and heals, prot > heal)
Party wide healing (not LoD except real specialist builds, Life spirit is a good example)
Good spot heals for spikes (WoH, or ZB but I find WoH works better)
Hex removal (hex eater sig, lots of mesmer skills for this, hexbreaker aria on a para etc)
Interrupts (you of course ;o)

No offence but it sounds like you are where I was approx 6-9 months ago, invest that plat and time, you will reap the benefits! Mind you that said, lots of my hero skills have been bought with balth faction, trapping ftw!

[Kereminde]

No comment ;)

Oh dear god...

If that's the best you folks can come up with to be demeaning you need to work a little harder. :P

Yes, I'm WELL aware now I should have not wasted all your time and energy to read this topic, AND THEN expected actual help. God knows this is a forum for the L33T folks, not schmucks like me. I should hand my account over to someone who knows already, instinctively, how to play the game rather than . . . actually try to learn more.

So far, this has worked for what I've done. H/Hing it with this method has managed to get me through Prophecies, the first third of both Nightfall and Factions, and roughly 75% of the main quest content in Eye of the North. But for a couple of areas it's not working so hot.

Now, I've picked up a couple things from here. And if the advice is done, then I suppose that'll just have to do. Those who actually tried to help, thank you (even if you now regret trying). Those who didn't, or just shook your heads in dismay . . . well, good game. I'm certain you're doing a lot 'better' than me, for whatever value you define 'better'.

(No, no sarcasm there; if you feel so secure, you must be doing something right.)

For me, I'm going to go back to trying to grind my way blindly through the missions. I've gotten this far, I'll finish it.

Until next time!

(Moderators, feel free to lock the thread, ban my account, whatever you feel is justified)

[arual]

They used druids because 1) there were no other good armors until Factions and 2) druids looked cool and every pve player wanted to look cool.

Too true. My Elite Druid, as it is now called, still has Radiant Insignias on it a year (or so) after it was made 'Insigniable' purely for the reason that 'radiant' was the only way to get 'cool' looking 15k Armor (Female Ranger) back in the day, in my opinion at least.

[Fire The Nutter]

Kereminde: Im quite happy to help, true the previous two comments werent great but in my experience you have to get used to a little of that as its a forum and not everyones posts are "nice"

So what help would you like? team building? just your build?
Feel free to PM me here or in game if you want a hand, I can send builds or suggest threads in here for you to read that I felt helped me.

In general though people here are great but you need to be lucky about who does what, Rachtoh is more team/para based, Mr Kotte is v.good at Ele, Antithesis/Dark Spirit have great overall understanding and seem to help more with heroes and teams. My forte, if i have one, is rangers as my primary is a ranger and has done everything in NM and is working to HM completion slowly although I now have most char classes except Derv and Assassin so getting a better understanding on how those classes work.

Oh yer and if you havent already, look for Rangers Beacon 2 (I can send url) v.good help there.:D

[snaek]

I can't really attest for the builds of the Henchies, but my Heroes are largely designed to do one thing each and do it well.

Tahlkora has her points in Healing Prayers and Divine Might (Or whatever it is called?) with the rest hanging on stuffed into Protection. Her skills are set up for healing mostly, elite being Light of Deliverance. She has Resurrect as opposed to anything else (I haven't spent skill points to teach her something else). My choice on Monk skills is . . . kinda limited until I start putting down Skill Points and Platinum.

Jora is benefiting from the original choice I made (a bad one) of doing R/W. (At the time I thought it would be kind of cool to switch between ranged and melee as some things were extremely hard to land bow hits on after stances.) She's gone full Swordsmanship to 11 and Strength to 10. I put the rest to Tactics, and she makes use of Healing Signet (except when I turn it off so she doesn't get spiked to death). She's set up to go for bleeding and bonus damage once they dip under 50% health.

I usually go out with Acolyte Jin, who has all my interrupt skills, Favored Winds, and Burning Arrow. Sometimes I give her Apply Poison; it helps keep degen stacked on targets. No pet, she's ALL about the bow. Pyre is a clone almost but he gets fire-based skills. (He's a Charr, it suits him.)

I haven't used many other heroes much. I've neglected Olias since I got him, and Melonni. I haven't done ANYTHING with Livia, Vekk, Ogden, Zhed, Hayda, Zenmai, Kahmu, or Xandra. I just haven't focused too much on them . . .

monk:
[resurrect] is a terrible skill
i wouldnt even bother to bring a res on a monk
maybe [rebirth] shift+click disabled
unless its a [healer's boon] monk, then go wit any of teh healin prayer resses

reason: a monk will cast a 6s res on a dead teamate, only to let another teamate die while doin so

if anything tho,
jus bring teh henchie monks
and ur heroes save for the dmg dealers/support

(oh and its divine favour)

and y would u be banned? 0__o
dun mind teh leetists -___-'

[Miska Bow]

As suggested a bit before, invest in your heroes. You can work 60 hrs a day on becoming the best ranger ever; but with crappy heroes you always be eating dirt.

I gave sabway a shoot 6 weeks ago. still running them most of the time. With a friend ranger we both run it as (insert conjure,dmg type here) barrage+volley spammers. We adapt Sabway to whatever we are doing. We also adapt our type of dmg to the area we are hunting in. Shard of Orr is a walk in the park with [Heart of Holy Flame].

You seem to really like your lightning bow,go with[Conjure Lightning].

Have a hero with you with [thunderclap] and [Shock Arrow] to try to counter the energy lost., or [Glimmering Mark] for more physical foes. Combine this with barrage and/or volley and you got yourself a group of foe that's elther sitting down or walking around with white canes.

But the key here is not to have the most uber leet skill bar, but to have a well synergize team.

One last tip: when trying out new builds on heroes, always leave there skill bar showing and watch how and when they use skills. I had [Gaze of Fury] on my N/Rt healer and my friend had a healing spirit. heroes are dumb enough to destroy friendly spirits so it was in my hero's bar for less then 15 min. GoF is a good skill, heroes just cant seem to use it right with friendly spirits around.

but the most important skills you should have on your bar are the one you enjoy using. Have fun and dont die too much.:)