Rangers In The Current PvP Environment

[Triplexx]

ALL credits goes to JR- of guildwars guru for this!!!

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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.

[joef88112]

mabinogi gold swg credits warhammer gold warhammer gold warhammer gold

[theryl2002]

That guide posted by JR on the guru forums was a joke. GWGuru is a predominate PvE forum, if you want to link and sticky real pvp guides visit [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (aka: QQ forums) YUE has one of the best ranger guides posted up there. QQ is also the source of all high-end PvP discussion for guildwars.

All Credit Goes to YUE of QQ Forums

Introduction

Though the audience for this guide is intended for the novice and intermediate level, more experienced rangers (or players of other classes) may find useful insights from the game being played from a different perspective. Note that the information provided here is mostly my opinion, though I have attempted to be as thorough as possible. Also, everything provided here is based on the current metagame, and may be updated periodically.

Objectives
There are three main objectives to having a ranger in your build. If you don’t plan on meeting these three objectives, then you probably shouldn’t be running a ranger.

1) Disruption- the interruption of key skills with the correct skills on your bar, and at the correct times.

2) Pressure- the application of pressure through conditions, as well as position control.

3) Skirmish- providing your team with solid split capabilities: both offensively and defensively.

There are, however, some basic exceptions (ie. Rspike, omegaspike, etc), but they are fairly irrelevant in that the discussion of a ranger’s role in those builds does little to nothing to improve play.

Setting Up
To begin, user interface and key setup is very important in maximizing your effectiveness. Like all classes, having an enlarged compass is a necessity. In addition, an increased skill activation time bar is very useful in augmenting your interrupt speed. The default bar is fairly small, and it can be difficult to recognize a skill visually. Because there are many important skills to interrupt that are 3/4s-1s long, it is important to be able to recognize skills based on visual cues. This is most often done by recognizing skill icons. Increasing the skill activation bar will increase the icon size, and allow you to better recognize what skill is being used. In addition, elongating the activation timer is also important. Though different people have different sizes they work well with, a general rule of thumb is to not increase the activation bar to the point where you need to shift your eyes in order to see the entire thing. Ensure that the activation bar is within your field of vision, since not being able to take in an image in its entirety at a glance increases the time necessary to process it substantially (whether it be subconsciously or not). Key setups are more varied between different players, but it is important to position interrupt keys in an easily accessible location. Find the positions of keys that you can reach most rapidly from reflex, and set those as your interrupts.

Bows
Bow selection is often overlooked by most people, but is significant in clutch plays for an experienced ranger. We’ll start with a basic overview of the types of bows. Though you can get the more technical information from wiki, what I provide should be enough for you to setup your bowsets.
From this table, 1= shortest range, lowest arc, and slowest refire rate. 4= the greatest of each, respectively.

Rankings are listed in order of range, arc, and refire rate.
Flatbow 3 3 4
Longbow 3 2 2
Recurve 2 1 2
Shortbow 1 2 4
Hornbow 2 2 1

For pvp, the most commonly used bow is the recurve bow. However, each bow has its uses in certain situations. The following provides situations where each may be used. Hornbow’s aren’t included since the only time you’ll ever use one is if you’re ranger spiking.

Recurve Bow: Its high accuracy and decent range makes for it to be the best choice for interrupts and cripshot. The best all around bow. Use a +30hp grip, and for each set of strings, make sure to have a 15^50 and +5 energy copy of the bow. So, for example, if you have a crippling recurve bow, have one be a 15^50, and another +5e. Start in your 15^50 set, and move to a +5 when necessary. If you're running burning arrow, use a poison recurve with 15^50 and etc.

Flatbow: This is pretty much only used for taking down archers. You’ll want a vamp flatbow (5/1) with a 15%/-5 energy mod and +30hp, since taking down archers is optimal with the highest possible dps. Accuracy isn’t important. Also, if you're running broadhead arrow, be sure to have a silencing flatbow, since arc is irrelevant when using BHA.

Shortbow: Useful for taking out close range targets like knights or snared targets like flaggers. Can also sometimes be used at the stand in close quarters, where they have a better cooldown time between attacks, so interrupts can be timed more appropriately. However, they also have reduced accuracy, making them fairly easy to dodge. For shortbow mods, use the same as you would with your recurve, except also have a 5/1, 15%/-5e copy for knights and footmen.

Longbow: What you should be using right as the match starts. Most teams put up their forms, aegis, preps, and etc outside of your normal range. Rushing with a longbow gives you the chance of getting an early interrupt, and thus an early advantage. In addition, longbows are useful for crippling targets just out of range, or finishing a target that’s almost dead by reapplying duration of poison. Even though the accuracy is significantly lower than that of a recurve, the longbow is still useful in very specific situations. For cripshot, a 15^50, poisonous longbow w/ +30hp is optimal.

Hornbow: Pretty much never used in pvp outside of spike. Don’t bother.

Though an equipment discussion isn’t entirely necessary, the weaponset I use is spear/shield, recurve, longbow, and flatbow as my main weapon swaps. Some rangers may prefer a shortbow in place of the longbow slot, and etc. That’s really all a matter of preference so long as you have the right types of bow at your disposal for swapping into if you’re forced to use something outside your primary swaps.

Also, keep in mind that positioning makes a difference in the range and damage of your bows. Higher ground increases your maximum range, lower ground reduces it. The same goes for damage. When possible, always try to attain a position of higher ground.

Armor
I'd go with full druid (energy inscription) armor. Health armor isn't really necessary on a ranger, and the energy for a few extra cripshots or interrupts makes a big difference. As for runes, use your basic minor expertise, marksmanship, and wilderness runes. Have a sup vigor, and the last rune is fairly flexible. If you're going to be playing on burning isle alot, use a cripple rune. Otherwise, go with either an attunement, vitae, or blind reduction rune. It's really a matter of preference at that point, and also what you think the opponent is going to run. No real point in doing a blind reduction rune if you know your opponent isn't running a bsurge, for example.
Your Toolbox
This is the standard cripshot bar:









Core
Apply Poison

• 12
• 2
• 15

Preparation. For 24 seconds, foes struck by your physical attacks become Poisoned for 3..13..16 seconds. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)











Prophecies
Crippling Shot

• 1
• 10

Elite Bow Attack. If Crippling Shot hits, your target becomes Crippled for 1..7..8 seconds. This attack cannot be blocked. (Attrib: Marksmanship)











Core
Distracting Shot

• 10
• ½
• 5

Bow Attack. If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 1..13..17 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds. (Attrib: Expertise)











Core
Savage Shot

• 5
• ½
• 10

Bow Attack. If Savage Shot hits, your target's action is interrupted. If that action was a Spell, you strike for +13..25..29 damage. (Attrib: Marksmanship)











Core
Troll Unguent

• 10
• 3
• 5

Skill. For 10 seconds, you gain +3..9..10 Health regeneration. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)











Nightfall
Mending Touch

• 6
• ¾
• 5

Spell. Touched ally loses two Conditions and is healed for 15..51..63 Health for each Condition removed in this way. (Attrib: Protection Prayers)











Nightfall
Natural Stride

• 12
• 5

Stance. For 1..7..8 seconds, you run 33% faster and have a 50% chance to block incoming attacks. Natural Stride ends if you become Hexed or Enchanted. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)










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Core
Resurrection Signet

• 3

Signet. Resurrect target party member. That party member is returned to life with 100% Health and 25% Energy. This Signet only recharges when you gain a morale boost.






Attributes: 10 marksmanship, 14 expertise, 10 wilderness survival,

For the remainder of this discussion, this template will be used to present how skills should be used.

We’ll begin with an overview of each skill individually:









Core
Apply Poison

• 12
• 2
• 15

Preparation. For 24 seconds, foes struck by your physical attacks become Poisoned for 3..13..16 seconds. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)




- This is your primary means of pressure. Your arrows by themselves do measly amounts of damage, so your primary method of pressure involves the application of conditions to various targets. Your goal while this skill is active is to spread poison on as many members of the opposite team as possible. While this not only provides a cover for other conditions such as deep wound, blind, and cripple, the duration and number of opponents that remain poisoned provide a gauge as to many much pressure the other team is taking. Though you may not see your poison stick initially, if your team is applying sufficient pressure, you will notice that there will be fewer and fewer targets clean. It is very important to pay attention to your apply, since when that is interrupted there is almost no reason for you to be swapping attack targets anymore. Make sure you have natural stride up while using and apply poison, and also keep in mind that you do not need to reapply on recharge, since the duration of the skill lasts twice as long as its recharge. Although that sounds fairly obvious, there are many people who make the mistake of burning their energy out from spamming apply poison.
Advanced Tactics: In the event that your apply does get interrupted, autoattacking a specific target can be an effective way to still pressure while you are unable to spread conditions. Because much of your job is psychological, forcing an opponent to believe that you are camping them when you are actually not discourages them from using certain skills on their bar, allowing you to provide shutdown while not actually interrupting anything.









Prophecies
Crippling Shot

• 1
• 10

Elite Bow Attack. If Crippling Shot hits, your target becomes Crippled for 1..7..8 seconds. This attack cannot be blocked. (Attrib: Marksmanship)




- This is one of the most powerful skills on your bar. Used correctly, and it can singlehandedly turn the tide of matches. One of the merits of this skill is that it can be used both offensively and defensively. When at the stand, crippling warriors in your backline provides your midline and backline with more room to kite, and usually forces warriors off their current target and towards another one. In addition, it makes following spikes much easier for your monks. Crippling offensively is to follow the path of your own warriors. Find the targets that they are chasing, or targets that may attempt to kite away from them and crip accordingly. Though this skill should be used often, spamming it will not only reduce its overall effectiveness but also rapidly burn out your energy pool. Even though you may have expertise, a ranger’s energy pool is not unlimited. Monitoring the duration of your cripshot is vital in flag pushing and controlling movement of the opposing frontline. Using cripshot on paragons is generally not very effective since they don’t depend on moving to apply damage and also don’t kite often anyway. Also be careful when using this skill while the enemy team is wiping or when you’re on a split. A good ranger will be watching to dshot your cripshot especially on a split, so use cripshot conservatively and under natural stride if possible in skirmishes.
Advanced Tactics: Because of the power of cripshot in movement control, you can use it to force mismatches both at the stand and away from it. One common method of doing this is to follow the position of the opposing frontline and backline. Often, warriors will be overextended and frenzied on your backline. When that occurs, pushing their backline and then crippling them allows your damage to fall back on their frontline, which will net high rates of success in frontline kills if spikes are used to take advantage of that kind of positioning. On maps like frozen isle where there are greater distances between portions of the map, taking advantage of this tactic is an easy way to generate kills.









Core
Distracting Shot

• 10
• ½
• 5

Bow Attack. If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 1..13..17 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds. (Attrib: Expertise)




- This is probably the most powerful skill on your bar, next to cripshot. The use of dshot is another skill that can be gamebreaking, and a more thorough discussion of its use will be made in a following section on interrupts.









Core
Savage Shot

• 5
• ½
• 10

Bow Attack. If Savage Shot hits, your target's action is interrupted. If that action was a Spell, you strike for +13..25..29 damage. (Attrib: Marksmanship)




- The second interrupt skill on your bar. This skill’s versatility lies in its use as spike assistance, skill interrupt, and condition spam. Although bow damage is negligible, a normal attack followed up by a savage shot deals around 50 damage to a soft target (in addition to applying a cover condition for deep wound), and may or may not be the difference in finishing a target. Tossing a savage on a spike directed towards a monk may also disrupt a skill used in self preservation. This actually happens fairly often. As an interrupt skill, this is inferior to dshot in that it does not disable a skill, but is useful for interrupting skills with longer recharges (aegis, wards) or spikes (lightning orb, esurge/burn) and etc when dshot is not available. The most frequent use for savage shot comes from its ability to spread conditions. More on this later.









Core
Troll Unguent

• 10
• 3
• 5

Skill. For 10 seconds, you gain +3..9..10 Health regeneration. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)




- This is probably one of the worst self heals in the game, and sitting around for three seconds to troll might seem like a waste. However, the strength of this skill lies in its inexpensive cost and unremovability. Though there are people who believe that troll unguent is not necessary on a ranger’s bar, I disagree with that. Troll unguent is a necessity for splitting, and when playing with euros I find that a lot of teams want the skill off the bar because they believe you won’t be away from the stand much. They’re bad. Though you might not use troll unguent much at the stand, pretrolling on splits allow you to be much more aggressive in a push. The ability to tank damage for a short period of time is not something to be overlooked. Since you will most likely not be able to use troll during a skirmish, the initial damage that you negate with pretrolling can make a big difference in the outcome. Also, taking a page from the Koreans: if you become locked in a situation where your physical attacks are ineffective or its use undesirable (such as being chain blinded while your mtouch is recharging, having a hex stack on you), take a time out and use troll. Since you are not going to be really much use in that state anyway, it’s better to at least be useful in some way and take some pressure off your monks with self healing.
Advanced Tactics: One important use of troll unguent on a split is for faking out another ranger’s interrupts. For example, when the need arises to use apply poison and your natural stride is down, using troll often motivates the other ranger to burn interrupts on you. Though a lot of people try to fake out by canceling apply poison, burning the opposing player’s interrupt on your troll (which costs nearly nothing to cancel spam) saves energy and is usually easier to do.









Nightfall
Mending Touch

• 6
• ¾
• 5

Spell. Touched ally loses two Conditions and is healed for 15..51..63 Health for each Condition removed in this way. (Attrib: Protection Prayers)




- This skill is one of the two main reasons for a ranger’s high survivability potential. Though the skill itself is a spell, it only costs 2 energy under normally specced expertise. There’s really not too much to explain in the proper use of this skill, other than being careful with not having it interrupted. For example, against another cripshot, try to delay your touch somewhat after a cripshot hits you to throw off another interrupter, or use it before the cripshot lands so that the other ranger won’t be able to catch your mtouch with a followed interrupt.









Nightfall
Natural Stride

• 12
• 5

Stance. For 1..7..8 seconds, you run 33% faster and have a 50% chance to block incoming attacks. Natural Stride ends if you become Hexed or Enchanted. (Attrib: Wilderness Survival)




- The primary survival skill of rangers. The best way to learn to use this is really through experience, but there are some basic guidelines you can follow. Primarily, try to always have it up for your preps. Use natty for cripshot in skirmishes that involve an opposing ranger, and the same with mendtouch. Depending on how your monks prot, you’ll also want to determine how you use natty at the stand. However, it’s important to note that the stance is only available for 6 seconds at a time, and outside of that you’re still pretty spikeable.

Alternative Elites- While cripshot is currently the most popular elite, there are a few other ones that are used and worthy of discussion.








Nightfall
Burning Arrow

• 5
• 10

Elite Bow Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for +10..26..31 damage and cause Burning for 1..4..5 seconds. (Attrib: Marksmanship)




- Before the cripshot buff, this was one of the most popular ranger elites. A solo BA ranger is amazing for ganking bases, and provides a decent amount of pressure at the stand. Use it on spikes and low targets. Its fast recharge makes the skill fairly spammable, and spamming it applies a lot of pressure.
[Melandru’s Arrows]- Used most often in dual ranger/condi pressure builds. On a MA build, 11 Marks, 13 Expertise, and 10 Wilderness is more appropriate, allowing you to benefit from a -8 energy debilitating shot. You’ll usually have no trouble with energy on an MA ranger, so spamming the crap out of bleeding shouldn’t drain you that much. Also, the added damage from enchantments isn’t to be taken lightly. A couple extra hits on a spike can easily add 100+damage, and most of the time your damage will be under spirit bond as well.








Nightfall
Magebane Shot

• 10
• ½
• 5

Elite Bow Attack. If this attack hits, it interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a Spell, this attack instantly recharges.




- From a recent buff, this skill’s pretty amazing now. And somewhat overpowered. I see it as a big **** you to shields up. When running this elite, replace savage shot with it since having both is unnecessary. When using this skill for the first time, it’s normal to be naturally more conservative with it than savage shot. However, you should use it like you would savage shot. Use it to interrupt hard rezzes or aegis’s through shields up/prot, since it should usually be available on demand. While running this skill, you have a free slot from removing cripshot. Some skills you can place in it: sloth hunter’s shot, debilitating shot, pin down, concussion shot. Attribute spread for a MB build should be the same as with MA (11M, 14E, 10W).









Nightfall
Prepared Shot

• 6
• 5

Elite Bow Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for +10..22..26 damage. If you are under the effects of a Preparation, you gain 1..7..10 Energy. (Attrib: Marksmanship)




- The real benefit from running prepared shot is either to power concussion shot or a spike. While there are many different builds you can use that involve prepared shot, a fairly typical one is the standard cripshot bar, with CS replaced by PS. Remove the rez sig, and put in concussion shot. Attribute spread would be the same as MA and MB, since an 11M prepshot would net 5 energy (2 cost, 7 return) each time under a preparation. Not to mention, its spammability adds a decent amount of pressure damage.









Factions
Broad Head Arrow

• 15
• 15

Elite Bow Attack. You shoot a broad head arrow that moves slower than normal. If it hits, target foe is Dazed for 5..17..21 seconds, and if target foe is casting a Spell that Spell is interrupted. (Attrib: Marksmanship)




- This skill was fairly popular a while back, before everyone starting running draw conditions and blockway. While it's still very viable in RA, it's pretty much gone from GvG. To properly use this, coordinate your usage of the skill with your frontline. The best times to use this are on KD'd or snared targets, so coordinate your use of the skill with a warrior's shock or etc. A well timed BHA can wipe a team. Keep in mind that when your target is dazed, skills like dshot or dchopt will not trigger the additional disable time. The daze efffect triggers before the dshot/dchop's conditional effects. Also make sure that when you use it, use it on the prot monk. While running this skill, make sure to use a bow with a +daze duration string, and also a flatbow. BHA travels in a maximum arc, which is the same arc as that of a flatbow. However, the skill itself is not affected by bow type, meaning it will use the maximum arc no matter what bow you use. Thus, it's better to just use a flatbow for the faster skill activation and range (even though you're probably never going to land a max range BHA).
Interrupting
Skill interruption is one of the important jobs of the ranger, and also a primary measure by which rangers are judged. How reliable the ranger is with interrupts, and the skills they set as priority interrupts are all important factors when viewing the effectiveness of your ranger. There are 3 ways to interrupt: reflex, prediction, and luck. Reflex and prediction depend significantly on ping, with reflex more so. The in game timer is one of the most useful tools for interrupting, allowing you to keep track of skill usage passively. Certain skills like wards, DA, apply/melandrus arrows, avatar of melandru, and etc are easily taken care of by using the timer.

One thing to keep in mind is that it’s generally detrimental to let your target know that they’re being camped. Though it puts pressure on them, it nonetheless makes your job more difficult if the target is intelligent, since they will try to fake you out. To avoid this, get used to shift clicking. While tabbing through targets is an effective means of scoping for interrupts, mouse clicking also works very effectively. Hold down the shift button and click targets so that you will be able to select someone without giving yourself away. Also, make heavy use of secondary targeting. Use shift+control+space to call your own targets, so that if you switch to another person, you can quickly get back to the person you want to be watching without the risk of misclicking if the battlefield is cluttered. While this may annoy some teams since you might end up overcalling warriors, if you’re in a good team this shouldn’t be a problem. If it becomes a problem, get everyone used to it since it’s an important asset that rangers can utilize.

For a lot of people, when they see a ranger tossing savage shots or autoattacking them, they’ll be under the impression that they’re getting camped. You can use this psychological play to your advantage by autoattacking one target, while your cursor focus is on another (the target you actually want to interrupt). Chances are the person you’re attacking will say on vent that they’re being camped, and the target you’re actually watching will feel that it is safe to cast. This is just one example of how you can implement psychological warfare in trying to accomplish your task.

Reflex Interrupts: Certain skills can only be interrupted within a low ping range, and it’s important to keep track of your ping so you can more accurately determine interrupt reliability. In terms of reflex, we’ll go with a standard of <100ping. Though ping and reflex speed vary between individual players, a good ranger will typically be able to achieve the following: when within that ping range, interrupts on 1s skills are attainable within an aggro circle, interrupts on ¾s spells are attainable within half aggro. With 200-300ping, 3/4s skills become significantly more difficult. Though many people use the skill monitor to determine interrupts, there is another method that many people don’t use, and is more effective for interrupting ¾-1s timed skills. Sprite animation (the animation your character uses for casting), is an excellent visual method of interrupting. For example, when a monk is using RoF, the animation is of the character leaning forward and straight, while the animation for a ¾s+ skill is of the character raising their weapon upwards. By getting used to noticing sprite animations, you will know the cast time of the skill before what the skill used is. Though using the skill monitor is good for disabling skills selectively, there are situations when all the skills you would want to disable are within the ¾-1s range. For example, when pushing a ritualist flagger, all the spells worth interrupting are within that cast time. If you pay attention to simply the skill monitor, then you may be deceived by the use of certain skills and miss interrupts. In addition, it is easy to miss interrupts on weapon-triggered fast-cast spells. In these cases, interrupting by sprite animation is superior. Also, for 2s+ skills, mouseclicking may be more effective. You’ll usually have plenty of time to select your target (even if the field is cluttered), and recognizing the icon above the caster’s head will let you know if it’s important to shutdown or not. For example, signet of humility give off a purple ball over the mesmer’s head while it’s being cast, and you’ll be able to catch it in time just by noticing the animation, click the target, and tossing the interrupt.

Predictive Interrupts: While many people place heavy emphasis on being able to reflex interrupts, the reality is that most good players can reflex 1s skills fairly easily. However, some of the most important skills aren’t easily interruptible, and rely more on prediction than reflex. For example, you won’t always (and often won’t) be able to be in a position to interrupt bsurge, word of healing, or restore conditions on reflex. To deal with this, you will have to predict the timing of the skill used. This is big in separating good rangers from bad ones, and while there is luck involved, there is a lot you can do to maximize the probability of your interrupt landing from estimation. Because ranger interrupts are so disposable in comparison to mesmer ones (and the fact that there is flight time and distance involved), being able to land predictive interrupts is an important skill to learn. Keep in mind that no matter the distance, there will be a arrow flight delay from when the interrupt leaves the bow to when it hits the target. Though it might seem like a big deal at first, after playing ranger for a while, flight time calculations should be subconscious.

The best way to increase the accuracy of predictive interrupts is to learn the patterns of individual players or patterns of classes in general. For example, for most casters, one of the first things they try to do after getting back up from a KD or after spellcasting is to kite, which often provides an easy setup for bull’s strike. Likewise, monks will usually cast a spell right after getting up, giving you a window for an interrupt. In addition, you can force targets to use spells as well. For example, you can cripple one monk, and then proceed to the other monk to dshot their rc. While different monks have different behaviors to react to these small situations, most players do have a reaction pattern that you can determine over time. Another example is if you want to shutdown rc or WoH, you can ask your frontline to call a spike on a certain target, and time your dshot for the monk on the spike. This is similar to mesmers toss shame or diversion on a monk during a spike, and requires some basic coordination. Remember, GvG is a team game, and there is nothing wrong with requesting assistance in shutdown. The ability to force skill usage is a powerful tool.

It is usually much easier to play ranger against people you know (or people in your own guild), since you have enough experience with them to recognize their playstyles. However, in some cases it may be harder to predict the behavior of bad players than good ones, since bad players might perform skills fairly randomly. This is often the case with bad monks, since they may be late on using RC/WoH for spikes. Again, while there are certain reactions take that are similar over all classes, the real best way to improve the accuracy of predictive interrupts is to get in the head of the opponent.

Interrupt Priorities: Though the priorities on what to interrupt vary from ranger to ranger, as well as build to build, there are several skills which are key to shutdown. These include:






Core
Diversion

• 12
• 3
• 10

Hex Spell. For 6 seconds, the next time target foe uses a skill, that skill takes an additional 10..47..59 seconds to recharge. (Attrib: Domination Magic)




,






Core
Aegis

• 30
• 2
• 10

Enchantment Spell. For 5..10..11 seconds, all party members within earshot have a 50% chance to block attacks. (Attrib: Protection Prayers)




,






Core
Ward Against Melee

• 20
• 1
• 15

Ward Spell. You create a Ward Against Melee at your current location. For 5..17..21 seconds, non-Spirit allies in this area have a 50% chance to block melee attacks. (Attrib: Earth Magic)




,






Nightfall
Defensive Anthem

• 25
• 2
• 15

Elite Chant. For 4..9..10 seconds, each party member within earshot has a 50% chance to block incoming attacks. This Chant ends if that party member hits with an attack Skill. (Attrib: Leadership)




, forms (ie:






Nightfall
Avatar of Melandru

• 30
• 2
• 25

Elite Form. For 10..58..74 seconds, you have +100 Health, you are unaffected by Conditions, and your attacks deal earth damage. This Skill is disabled for 120 seconds. (Attrib: Mysticism)




),






Core
Signet of Humility

• 20
• 3

Signet. Target foe's elite skill is disabled for 1..13..17 seconds. (Attrib: Inspiration Magic)




, and






Core
Heal Party

• 2
• 2
• 15

Spell. Heal entire party for 16..67..84 Health. (Attrib: Healing Prayers)




/






Nightfall
Light of Deliverance

• 5
• 1
• 5

Elite Spell. All party members under 80% Health are healed for 5..65..85 Health. (Attrib: Healing Prayers)




/






Nightfall
Song of Restoration

• 15
• 1
• 5

Elite Chant. For 10 seconds, the next time each party member within earshot uses a Skill, that party member gains 30..78..94 Health. (Attrib: Motivation)




. Interrupts on resurrects (primarily hard rezzes) are clutch in forcing chainkills. These include:






Nightfall
Death Pact Signet

• 8
• 2

Signet. Resurrect target party member with your current Health and Energy. The next time that ally dies within 120 seconds, so do you.











Factions
Flesh of My Flesh

• 4
• 5

Spell. Lose half your Health. Resurrect target ally with your current Health and 5..17..21% Energy. (Attrib: Restoration Magic)











Factions
Resurrection Chant

• 15
• 6
• 10

Spell. Resurrect target party member with up to your current Health and 5..29..37% Energy. This spell has half the normal range. (Attrib: Healing Prayers)











Nightfall
Signet of Return

• 20
• 5

Signet. Resurrect target party member with 5..13..16% Health and 1..3..4% Energy for each party member within earshot. (Attrib: Leadership)




. While most of these skills can be interrupted with a savage shot to force enough time to give an advantage, a dshot of flesh and death pact signet is preferable due to the fast recharge of death pact, and the lack of recharge time for flesh. Some teams use






Prophecies
Glyph of Sacrifice

• 15
• 1
• 5

Glyph. For 15 seconds, your next Spell may be cast instantly, but it takes an additional 30 seconds to recharge.




+






Factions
Resurrection Chant

• 15
• 6
• 10

Spell. Resurrect target party member with up to your current Health and 5..29..37% Energy. This spell has half the normal range. (Attrib: Healing Prayers)




. In this situation, you will probably miss the first hard rez to find out that the other team is carrying this method of hard rezzing, and be prepared for an interrupt on glyphsac when the next foe dies. This is also where interrupt selection comes into play. For skills with a fast recharge, it is almost always preferable to use dshot rather than savage shot. However, dshot should be a skill used when you can either guarantee a reflex interrupt, or have a high probability of landing a predictive one. Wasting a dshot is wasting a lot of efficiency, though that doesn’t mean you should play it entirely conservatively. Skills like wards, bsurge, sig of humility, song of resto, and etc are better interrupted with dshot. Depending on the build your team runs, your interrupt priority may differ. For example, if you have another midliner to shutdown bsurge or wards, then you may shift your focus elsewhere. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your interrupts on those skills as they come up. The best method of keeping track of skills without camping targets is by using the in game timer. For skills like DA, this is very reliable since there is no fast cast/recharge weapon sets for DA. Simply look at the timer for the next time DA goes up, or when you interrupt it, and make a mental note of what the timer would be 25 seconds later. It’s also useful to call the time that the skill was used, since that allows the rest of your midline to coordinate shutdown in the even you aren’t able to interrupt the next cycle. I’m not going to make a list of all the skills you should be interrupting, but your priorities should lay in shutting down defense. Use common sense, and play accordingly. For example, if your team is falling back, make sure to dshot their cripshot, diversion, and etc. If your team is pushing, keep their defense shutdown and apply pressure to the monks and the party healer. Also, interrupting rezzes can make or break games. Shutting down hard rezzes forces the other team to burn signets, while if the opposing team is taking a lot of pressure and you’re caught between either interrupting a flesh or rez sig, it’s better to take down the sig so that you can easily finish the hard rezzer and his target right after he fleshes. If the mesmer is causing the team a lot of trouble, take some time out and take down a few skills on it. Keep track of vent chatter to realize the biggest threats, and play accordingly. Again, playing intelligently is key.

Condition Spamming
One of the primary modes of pressure from rangers, condi spamming is important to learn. One of the main problems that newer rangers run across is how to effectively interrupt and spread conditions at the same time. Though this is also varied between different rangers as there are multiple effective means of doing this, I will describe one that I use.

For one, tab through targets when you’re autoattacking. A simple tab+space is sufficient if you don’t have any other skills available. Constantly cycling through targets not only gives you a better idea of how much pressure the other team is taking, it also provides you with the best method of condispam. The most basic form of condi spam is space, tab+savage, tab+space, tab+savage, and etc. Dshot should not be used for condispamming unless the additional speed at which you apply poison to will overpower the party healing or condi removal. This is usually not a good idea until rc, lod (prenerf), or heal party or dshotted. To maximize efficiency for condi spam and interrupting, target casters with the savage shots you would use for poison application. In addition, constantly tab through targets and autoattack targets that aren’t poisoned since the opponents under poison will be staggered and not in the order that you condispammed.

Skirmishes
Skirmish skill is the other primary measurement of rangers. Skirmishes can be anything from splits, 1v1’s, to small unit stand battles. Though much of it depends on experience, there are several things that are useful to keep in mind when engaging in skirmishes. As an example, we’ll use a typical 3v3 engagement of a rit flagger, warrior, and a cripshot mirror match. In such a situation, using your head is very important. Be very careful when using your cripshot and apply during a skirmish, since both are very strong in small unit matches, and there are usually not many obstructions you can exploit while using those skills. Using nat stride for cripshots, or trying to maintain distance between yourself and the other ranger is key. Likewise, shutting down the other team’s cripshot and apply reduces a lot of pressure off your own team and allows your warrior to push much harder. Weapon of warding and weapon of shadow are two key interrupts, and using dshot and savage shot on them respectively should allow you to finish the skirmish quickly. Also, make sure to use your mending touch (a very strong skill in scrims) supportively. In a mirror match like the one described, the ranger is usually not the person who needs conditions removed. Taking deep wounds off your own rit or warrior as fast as possible is clutch. From an alternative perspective, if your warrior has just eviscerated someone on the other side, and you see their ranger running towards them, it will almost always be because of a queued up mtouch. Tossing a dshot when the ranger reaches the target will often catch their mtouch. Again, these notes are for the example skirmish given, and you won’t always run into such matches. Some teams run water flaggers, and etc. Experience is by far the best way for learning how to deal with such matchups.

Pushing flaggers is an important responsibility of the cripshot, and knowing when and where to push can be difficult. On maps like druids isle or frozen, flag pushing is a very strong play to use and should almost always be utilized unless you’re guaranteeing kills with the main team. For pushing flags, you don’t necessary have to kill the flagger. Slowing them down enough for you to get ahead on flags can force them to dual run flags and give you a temporary mismatch. In addition, pushing flaggers often opens more avenues of error for the opposing team, so a good push can get kills fairly easily. When to push flags can differ greatly depending on the match, though usually if you’re having problems against a highly defensive team, pushing flaggers can give your team openings for kills. Defensive teams are anchored within their defense ball, so pushing flaggers will force them to move, thus spreading out their defense, which may allow you to attain kills and positioning.

Ganking involves the killing of npcs, and though it may be fairly easy, there are many ways to optimize the killing of npcs. For example, since most npcs are archers and aren’t mobile, accuracy doesn’t really matter. Using a vampiric flatbow for maximum dps will attain the fastest kill rate. In addition, you can usually take down 2 npcs at a time. Poisoning one archer while working on the other will allow you to make use of passive damage and can increase your kill rate by about 50%. Also, keep in mind that if you’re barely within an archer’s aggro circle, they will not attack you until you attack them. Thus, using a normal shot followed by an interrupt will always catch the pin down that follows. If you’re making your way through archers and cannot risk getting crippled, use the knowledge that the archer’s passive aggro range is slightly smaller than a full aggro bubble, so tossing a savage at an archer about .5s after entering their aggro range will allow you to catch their pin down without being forced to reflex at max range. When engaging units like knights and footmen, a vamp shortbow may be a better choice since even under cripple, mobile npcs can still avoid your shots. With experience, you can learn the intervals at which npcs use self heals through intuition. However, a good rule of thumb with health bars is that archers will use troll unguent at ~75%hp, and knights will use heal sig at around 30%hp.

What Stops You
While you might have a fun job when you’re guaranteed to land all of your hits, the reality is that there is a lot preventing you from doing what you need to do. Following is a short list of the biggest annoyances to a ranger:









Core
"Shields Up!"

• 30
• 10

Shout. For 5..10..11 seconds, you and all party members within earshot gain 24 armor against piercing damage and 50% chance to block incoming projectile attacks. (Attrib: Tactics)











Nightfall
Defensive Anthem

• 25
• 2
• 15

Elite Chant. For 4..9..10 seconds, each party member within earshot has a 50% chance to block incoming attacks. This Chant ends if that party member hits with an attack Skill. (Attrib: Leadership)











Core
Aegis

• 30
• 2
• 10

Enchantment Spell. For 5..10..11 seconds, all party members within earshot have a 50% chance to block attacks. (Attrib: Protection Prayers)




: The holy trinity of gay shit. While a couple of these skills affect warriors, shields up is by far the most frustrating since there is pretty much nothing you can do about it. With DA, you can still land hits for condi spam on offensive targets, and you can always interrupt it on the next cast. With aegis, you can call for strips on the target you’re on or have your team use mirror if it’s available. However, shields up is plain gay. It kills the reliability of your interrupts, and you pretty much have to just deal with it. The biggest problem is that shields up is the foundation for the other forms of defense. Once that goes up, aegis, wards, DA, and etc are pretty much up to your mesmer. Once that defense stacks, you’ll have to essentially wait until shields up goes down before you can reliably attempt to dismantle defense.









Nightfall
Blinding Surge

• 4
• ¾
• 10

Elite Spell. Target foe is struck for 5..41..53 lightning damage and Blinded for 2..7..8 seconds. If that foe is under the effects of an Enchantment, all adjacent foes are also Blinded for 2..7..8 seconds. This Spell has 25% armor penetration. (Attrib: Air Magic)




: A really big annoyance. An even bigger one of it’s the kind that likes to try to gale your mtouch. If they’re spamming it on you, you can have your mesmer toss a diversion or try to dshot it yourself. If they’re not, then you’ll pretty much have to deal with it until you either do something about it yourself or your mesmer does his job.









Core
Guardian

• 2
• 1
• 5

Enchantment Spell. For 2..6..7 seconds, target ally has a 50% chance to block attacks. (Attrib: Protection Prayers)




: Not much you can do other than call for enchant strips. Either that or pretend to camp someone and dshot the monk when they attempt to put it on them.









Core
Blurred Vision

• 12
• 1
• 10

Hex Spell. For 4..9..10 seconds, target foe and adjacent foes are Hexed with Blurred Vision. While Hexed, those foes have a 50% chance to miss with attacks. (Attrib: Water Magic)




: Really gay. Good thing everyone runs hex eater now. While it’s nice in some ways that it expires much faster now, if it sticks, it can become a huge annoyance since the ele will be able to practically maintain it on you if you don’t get lucky. Try to dshot this, since it will make everyone happy.









Core
Faintheartedness

• 8
• 1
• 10

Hex Spell. For the next 3..20..25 seconds, target foe attacks 50% slower, and that foe suffers -1..3..3 Health degeneration. (Attrib: Curses)











Prophecies
Price of Failure

• 20
• 2
• 15

Hex Spell. For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks and takes 1..37..49 damage whenever that foe fails to hit in combat. (Attrib: Curses)











Factions
Reckless Haste

• 12
• 1
• 15

Hex Spell. For 6..11..12 seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes are Hexed with Reckless Haste. While Hexed, they attack 25% faster but have a 50% chance to miss with attacks. (Attrib: Curses)




: Sucks, but you have to deal with it. Faintheartedness is really annoying just because it slows down everything. Makes it harder to time your interrupts, and 2s cripshots are no fun. There’s not much more depressing than being the poor bastard who has to sit through a 2s cripshot because you had faintheartedness on you and diversion landed right as you started the skill.

Conclusion
This is as much as I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll update it if I can think of anything else, and any additions or suggestions to improve this article are welcome. Again, keep in mind that most of the information provided is from my own experience and opinion, meaning different players may do things differently from me. However, most of the information provided should be fairly consistent with other rangers. I hope this can be useful in helping newer players master the class, and perhaps shed some light for anyone else on the inner workings of playing a ranger.

[Blagol]

Hmm, Team Quitter - I should check that out.