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My ranger tricks (for high crit rate)

Fine
Chounard
Fine
Posted On: 10/01/2012 at 03:09 PM
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I was talking a bit about this in guild chat earlier (on Bengalis) and some people were curious what I was going on about, so here is a bit more information.

Bengalis is built as a glass cannon ranger, with full Berserker (power, precision, crit damage) gear. I exclusively use shorbows, and my trait points are nearly all spent toward extra damage. (30, 30, 5, 0, 5.)

Now, here's the trick I found that adds a nice chunk of damage. In the ranger's skirmishing trait line, we get two bonuses that give us swiftness and fury for six seconds every time we swap weapons. I want that bonus, but I want to stick with shortbow. So I have two of the same bow in each weapon slot, and I swap weapons as soon as the cooldown lets me.

That give me 20% extra crit for six seconds out of every ten. Great, but it gets better.

I installed Superior Sigil of Battle on each shortbow. That gives three stacks of might for 20 seconds every time you swap weapons. Since I swap every ten seconds, and might stacks, that gives six stacks of might nearly all the time during a long fight. (Might increases both regular damage and condition damage, which you get a good amount of using shortbows.)

Next, I add in Battle Roar (a Charr racial that gives fury for 6s and 2 stacks of might for 15 seconds, 35 second cooldown) between the weapon swaps. Since fury stacks duration, this means that I have 20% extra crit for the first 18 seconds of a fight. (Rampage as One makes it much, much longer, but the cooldown is not as friendly there.)

Finally, the last bit is just something I added today. If you get a set of 25 stacks from Superior Sigil of Perception, it continues to work even after you unequip the item it was gained from. (I believe this is by design, which is why it doesn't stack with Sigil of Bloodlust.) So I have an axe and torch in my bag, each with the sigil. After 13 kills, I have 25 stacks, then I put the shortbows back on.

With only six exotic items (2 armor, 1 weapon, 3 trinkets) and the Sigil of Perception I have a constant crit rate of 64%. With fury up, it's to 84%. Crazy! Of course, I die if a light breeze hits me, but that's not the point! :)

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Response:

Ridire de na Capall Gorm
Lothien
Ridire de na Capall Gorm
Replied On: 10/01/2012 at 06:45 PM PDT
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Yeah! This is crazy. =)

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Saighdiuir de na Sailetheach
Cedar
Saighdiuir de na Sailetheach
Replied On: 10/03/2012 at 03:54 AM PDT
  • Steam

That sounds pretty gnarly, I will definitely try this setup when I hit 80. Question though, aren't you losing DPS by not having two sets of cooldowns to use?

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Fine
Chounard
Fine
Replied On: 10/03/2012 at 05:01 AM PDT
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Perhaps a little, but shortbow is all about the auto-attack. (People have complained about how little skill is required to get high damage out of a shortbow ranger, and I can't argue with them.) SB1: Auto-attack that adds bleeds when flanking. (No cooldown.) SB2: Is a spread poison attack. It's okay, but my condition damage is pretty low. SB3: Is an evasion move that gives swiftness. SB4: Cripples the target. My pet generally holds their attention long enough. SB5: Dazes/Stuns the target. Just reduces damage to your pet or interrupts an ability. Now, I might get better DPS using longbow/shortbow instead of shortbow/shortbow. I just hate managing the distance, and longbow damage falls fast when the target gets close. However, I do miss quickened Barrage + Rapid Fire. (LB5 and LB2.)

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Ridire de na Capall Donn
Wonderloss
Ridire de na Capall Donn
  • GW2: wonderloss.7013
Replied On: 10/03/2012 at 08:47 AM PDT
  • Twitch

I was not paying attention and got a longbow instead of a short bow as a quest reward. I have not actually compared the damage, but the slow firing rate makes it feel like I am doing less damage regardless. Barrage is nice, but I miss the short bow. Longterm I will probably swap between the two depending on whether I am going against a group or individual. I am fairy certain the better LB range as well as AOE will be beneficial when defending in WvW.

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Caomhnoir de na Fhiaigh Gorm
Mulch
Caomhnoir de na Fhiaigh Gorm
  • ESO: @mulch
Replied On: 10/03/2012 at 11:02 AM PDT

Interesting! Because of the poisons and bleeds, I was looking to add more traits in the condition/toughness traits ("wilderness survival"). Longbow is a functional weapon, too. It is slower, and that you have to wait a second for it to shoot is a second with no damage, right at the start of each target, and leaves me concerned I'm clipping my #1s when I activate one of the others. If you activate an instant shot 3/4 the way thru an autoshot, you lose that progress. Regardless, something I notice is I die less with a shortbow, because of the extra evade+swiftness, and I think the pace of the weapon makes me (the player) more reactive. With LB, both barrage and rapid fire are channeled, so I'm hesitant to evade and waste their cooldown.

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