Hi all hoping for some help here. Usual story been away but back now and loving being in the game again. Trying to get back on with my Ranger and I'm so lost as it's been a while. I'm level 26 but was looking for some help and advice on a skill cycle routine to get the best dps. I'm starting in Stealth and going Crit Shot. Then have the choice of Shocking Arrow, Poison Arrow, Deadly Shot or Crippling Shot. I'm struggling with CRippling shot as it says it pushs a mob out of a stance? I don't know what this means. Also I know I can do Dead eye and this is doen by Deadly Shot twice, should I do this for Deadeye then unless my Crit Shot? I'm having lots of power issues in long fights too, how can I prevent this, got HL gear full set. Finally I see that I have 3 slows, which should I be using to get the best from kiting. 1 small issue my power is on 100% but it always drops to 99% then back to 100% every second, like something is draining me. Welcome any help
Sunstroke@Halgar wrote: Certain mobs in the game are going to put up a stance buff... similar to the rangers "Ranged and Melee" stances. You have the ability to push them out of that stance into something else... Some fights this is very helpful decresing the amout of damage a tank my be taking or increasing the damage a mob might be able to take. My Ranger is only 40 so take it for what its worth... I am totally geared for Ranged and no melee at the moment. Almost full Drakgnal gear from Darguns and my Dex is pushed as high as I can get it. My rotations depend on the fight. I generally stealth and open with crit shot, following with poison arrow. From here depends on my Tailsman, Raven or Hawk I believe, not sure of name... One just boosts ranges dps by 15% and other makes shocking arrow hit 2x and boosts mana regen. This last one is usually what I run while crawling a dungeon... So then, if the fight is gonna be a short one its straight to Shocking arrow... if its going to be a long fight I do 2 deadly shots followed by a shocking arrow. That opens a crit chain... but I first do a deadly shot for the forced crit of the first chain, another deadly for a forced crit on the second chain... rinse and repeat always keeping poison arrow up and rotating a deadly shot in between everything. I will have agro on the 2nd rotation most fights even waiting till 80% to start... Like I said this may not be the best rotation but it is what works for me when I play this toon... not much for melee, I have a bow! Oh and welcome back!
Thank you that is really useful. So if I have understood correctly, I should do deadly shot x 2 in between every other shot, i.e. Shocking arrow, then 2x deadly the poision etc? How do you cope with power? I'm just chugging through it. Also what stats should I spec for, like you I'm ranged. Do I go full on DEX?
Sunstroke@Halgar wrote: Once you do the first 2x deadly, if you do it after every other shot it will only take 1 deadly to put up the crit buff. I don't believe it will buff the duration of the poision shot only the first hit. But if you don't use the deadly 1 rotation you have to start over and do 2 deadly's to get back into the swing. If I remember correct its the Raven's Tailsman that boosts mana regen. You may not have it yet don't remember what level it is. I am running with these stats, dex for dps and vit for regen. I add to wis to increase my pool with whats left but I don't know if thats an accepted setup or not, just what I have done. but I don't need strength because I don't melee at all... at 40 I think I am pushing 600 dex already but I do have the Drakgnal gear from Darguns... its full ranged and hard to get it all. With this setup I rarely have mana issues... Hawk Tailsman may produce a little more dps but I don't like running out of mana.
My ranger is only level 20, but this is what i do when I am soloing. I stealth and send my pet in. Crit shot > shocking arrow > deadly shot x 2 > Dawn arrow Crit shot almost always crits out of stealth, triggering dawn arrow. you have just enough time get through shocking and the 2 deadly shots to pull off Dawn Arrow. This way, you apply the Static Surge combo DoT and can crit the Dawn Arrow. Normally for a 3 dot I go through this and it only takes a few melee hits to down the mob. for 4 dots I do the same thing, but apply the melee combo dot (cripple > blade of winter > blade of summer) then snare the mob and kite it hope this helps a bit
This is pretty old, pre level 55 increase, but it gives you an idea of how to organize and optimize the ranger damage cycle as you level and gain skills and attacks.
Unfortunately, back in the day, this logic flow got Rangers nerfed when I started running up huge dmg during raid testing. But that was years ago and much has changed. I do not have top level gear any more, so not really familiar with what rangers can do dmg wise any more. But I suspect days like this may be gone. This was at level 50 with pre pota gear.
Thanks for this, this is really useful. I'm new to all these macros so I'm not fully sure what they do? Do they fire all my skills off at the same time or something? Is that allowed by the game or is it cheating? Don't want to get banned. I'm going Ranged as it's easier so will take that advice, where do I get levitate from? Thanks
Hi sunstroke. A macro wont fire off all of the abilities you have listed in it at once. Basically you set up a macro so that you can put several abilities on one key. Example: I want to make a macro that will allow me to push 1 button for Fleet blade, windsong, blade of the equinox and blade of winter. I'll put fleetblade first because it has an increased chance to crit, which will allow me to use blade of the equinox and windsong. So my macro will look like this: /cast "Fleetblade I" /cast "Windsong I" /cast "Blade of the Equinox I" /cast Blade of Winter I" So when I push the button for this macro, Fleetblade will be executed and then say it crits and triggers my chains. I push the button again after the global cooldown and it triggers windsong. then if i push it again after the gcd blade of winter will fire off, and say it crits, then i can hit the same button again and fire off blade of the equinox. If i haven't been clear here then maybe this thread will help http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/p...?topic_id=58315
I would just add that the flowcharting thingy I did could be applied to many classes. It just takes a bit of time carefully reading through the attacks and buffs you have available, test their damage, test the energy they take, test their refresh, and then do a lot more testing. The basic underlying philospy to that flow chart was to maximize DPS in a raid scenario, going toe to toe with a target. So that meant I was always hitting with the combination that did the most damage that was currently available. Develop some macros, learn how to run and read log files, and test your macros against mobs that stay alive long enough for you to get a good sample on, but not too powerful to kill you quickly. If there are any BotS members still out there from when I joined, they may remember I sucked at DPS, as I had never really learned the Ranger class I was a *gasp* button masher. After getting emberassed in raid results I said I need to do something. So as I am somewhat analytical I determined I should be able to at least make some improvement. The result of actually only maybe 4-6 hours of testing and adjusting, I eventually became one of the top melee DPS members of BotS. It is not so hard, anyone can do it. And I actually found it fun when I saw real results.
Abelas wrote: For a soloing Ranger, I'm looking at DEX / STR / CON / WIS. Upon release I rolled a Varanthari for aesthetic and RP reasons, but noticed recently that when I do the numbers, he'll be light on DEX compared to most other classes. He WILL get higher STR and CON, with a much better base WIS than the rest. My question... will having lower DEX (250 base vs Halfling 350+ base) be a detriment or do the benefits of STR/CON/WIS make up for it?
Lorant wrote: Less dex = less ranged damage and/or less melee crit. Why one would want to spec dex/str/con though is beyond me. Either you spec ranged (dex) or melee (str), mixing both is just going to make you a medium spec in both which sucks. And since you say you plan on soloing you are better off going ranged and keep the mobs away from you with your snares.
