Arhurt's All around support Ranger

WIP

(pls, if you have the time to correct any grammar or spelling mistakes, feel free to do so)

Intro

Hi all! This guide is supposed to give some insight into my own discoveries about the support ranger class. I have been using this build through the mid part of the game, finally getting ascended and ready to make the Elite Runs.

This build is made for that. It does not require Storm Bows, does not require heavy armors neither any Elite Skills. It is simply a collection of strategies/skills I used through most of the mid-part of the game, with great sucsess.

Ok, lets get to the basics then:

Being the support

Support in GW is what makes a group viable against a number of different situations. So, as a support ranger, you must be ready to make decisions on the fly, or else find that your character feels kind of "useless". That is becouse any group could go by without support troops, they just need to be tougher, play better or have good luck. The presence of a support ranger will make the life of the party a little easier, as it helps everyone, be it keeping them from harm, helping the monks heal or disrupting the enemy's key skills.

Thus, you must keep in mind that while you are not the engine of the group, you are a key piece that will make everyone's life a little bit easier.

Skills

Instead of listing eight skills that will make you "teh besto ranger" (tm) I rather comment on the few skills I have been using regularly, and then comment on a few sucssesfull builds.

Expertise

Distracting Shot - The must-have skill for the support Ranger. This skill will interrupt ANY action the target was taking when the arrow hits. If that action was a skill, that skill is interrupted and is disabled for 20 seconds. Ok, the damage is a little low, but who cares for damage? Save this skill for the nastiest skill the enemy can use (eg.: Hydra's Meteor). Sometimes it is a little tricky to use this skill. It is a tricky skill to use, some good advice on it here.

Whirling Defense - Stance - Use this stance for casting traps near the enemies, or when your group really needs the trap placed at that time. This skill takes a while to recharge, so be sure it is the right time to trigger it. I usually prefer to save this skill to use in conjunction with Healing Spring when facing Area of Effect heavy attacks, or when facing mass party-poison, bleed or disease.

Marksmanship

Determined Shot - Cheap extra damage, and is useful even when the enemy can avoid your attacks. Use it as one of your attack skills for the extra cheap damage.

Favorable Winds - If you have one or two extra rangers in your party, be sure to be you carrying this skills, unless the other rangers are support as well. A Marksman ranger will benefit more carrying more attack skills than you, and you can have the time to recast the spirit if it happens to die. If it's only you, then there is no point in taking this skill, as it will eventually benefit enemy rangers more than it benefits you.

Wilderness Survival

Apply poison - A very good skill to use, especially against numerous weak enemies. It is better to cast it and then star firing one arrow at each of the enemies for mass poison on the opposing party. Tough as a support ranger you might not have the time to shoot at every enemy before you need to cast a trap. Use this as personal taste (I prefer Dual Shot + Ignite Arrows)

Barbed Trap - The poor man's love trap. Barbed trap will deal a small amount of piercing damage, cripple and bleed those caught on it. With good team work it is easy to set traps so that the opposing party runs right trough it. You can either combat cast or set it to protect monks and elementalists after engadgement. Check my Trap setting guide for details.

Choking Gas - Great for facing spellcasters, especially since they tend to stay close to each other. The duration is limited tough, so be sure to use it on crucial moments. Know the trend of the opposing party casting system, so that you can Choke them after they have used their utility spells (such as Elemental Attunement's) and interrupt the spells they where preparing to cast. Works great to shut down mesmers and necros, not to mention elementalists.

Healing Spring - The surprize box of the support Ranger, the healing spring is a must-have ability. You can use it to make the life of your monks better, you can help Minnion Necromancers keep their minnions alive, but the great use of this skill comes when the opposing party manages to shut down one or two of your monks. Be sure tought to use Whirling defense when the casting of Healing Spring can decide the fate of your warriors. Also, as you usually are behind the lines, you can cast it near your monks before they are engaged by the opponents, so when they are, they have the extra healing to sustain the attacks that would be going towards your Meatshields.

Ignite Arrows The bread and butter of the support ranger in terms of damage, since your main support skills (traps) are based on Wilderness Survival. Combine this skill with dual-shot to increase your damage massively. Always target to the middle of the enemy group, instead than towards the edges, so that you can emulate AoE spells by affecting the most targets possible.

Serpent's Quickness - Very useful stance for when you need to reuse your skills regularly, such as when you face 2-3 hydras and need to shut down many Meteors. Using this skill can both boost your damage (especially with ignite+dual shot), can make traps easily combat-cast ready during a fight, but will also drain your mana reserves.

Troll Unguent - With high wilderness survival this skill can negate many of the damage over time effects. Use it if you are facing enemies that attack you constantly, as rangers are mainly seen as an aanoiance rather than a treath, and thus are many times ignored until the other party members are dead (in PvP).

General Skills

Dual-Shot - An awesome skill if used in conjunction with Ignite Arrows, as the explosions will be doubled as well. Fire with your explosive arrows with Dual Shot in a tight enemy formation and be amazed at the number of damage counters that will rise from them.

Skill Sets

The all around Support Ranger

Determined Shot | Distracting Shot | Dual Shot | Ignite Arrows

Healing Spring | Barbed Trap | Serpent's Quickness | Whirling Defense

This build will do it's job well in any circumstances, and is the one I find myself using the most of the time. Mostly I will beforehand cast Barbed trap. I will then pull the monsters towards the group, having them wait and let the mobs go over the trap. This will ensure that the most of them are crippled and will have a hard time getting to the fragile members of the party. While the mobs fight I cast Ignite arrows, target one of them and Dual-shot followed by Determined Shot, rinse and repeat. If I see that we are taking the advantage, I cast Serpent's Quickness to increase the damage output. If we are facing skill-famous monsters (Hydras) I concentrate on using Distracting Shot on them, if not, I just target their healer and try to disable the main healing engine. Now, here comes the support part. If the enemies are outdamaging the healers (and that happens a lot, otherwise we would not die at all) I proceed towards the assailed party members and cast Healing Well near them. It is important to let everyone know what are you doing before the battle, as the Spring is stationary and people that are recieving damage tend to run from their assailant. The extra healing usually gives time for the healers to cast their more powerfull healing skills or wait those few seconds for it to recharge, saving your party member life, and possibly avoiding an entire party wipe.

This build helps a lot the party: a) It can punch a lot of damage sometimes. b) It helps the healers out in tough situations. c) It keeps the opposition away from fragile party members (barb trap)

The Caster's bane

Determined Shot | Distracting Shot | Dual Shot | Ignite Arrows

Healing Spring | Choking Gas | Serpent's Quickness | Whirling Defense

This build is used when facing caster heavy missions or areas. It was thanks to it that I could clear the desert area with hundreds of Storm Chasers. Basically you act as the all around ranger, but when facing caster heavy groups you focus on kepping all of them Choked. Serpent's Quickness is especially useful here to allow you to use many instances of Choking Gas. You will cast Choking Gas just as the opposition casters are getting the interrupted spells back, thus you can keep them from casting indefinetly if you do a good job in targetting them (if they keep a tight group the job is even easier)

This build is weak against melee opponents, as they won't be caught in the Barbed Trap. You can swap one of your attacks and keep the Barb Trap on, but the mana cost of Choking Gas and it's short Duration will eat your mana pool rather quickly.

Attribute points and Runes

To run the Suppor ranger, your most important skill wiould be Wilderness Survival. You won't need more than 10-12 ranks in it tough, as the traps damage increase is negible, you use them for teh conditions, and 20 seconds bleeding and crippled is already enough. The healing from healing spring is already good for it's intended purpose at that high ranking: It is supposed to buy the healers some time, not keep the party alive trough the lenght of battle.

I'd say that the second attribute of importance would be Expertise. Expertise at 8 will keep most your skills at a good energy price, but the higher you go, the cheaper the skills become, especially the high cost ones such as Barbed Trap and Choking Gas. This is especially usefull for boosting your whirling defense duration as well.

Marksmanship is best left at your bow prerequisite.

Runewise, I personally like Superior Runes for my support rangers. It boosts my attributes up to +3 and costs me 75 health. Yes it is a lot, but as a support troop, you must know that when the enemy is attacking you, it is not attacking your party members. Run as far as you can, if they keep pursuing you, let them come, if they stop, turn around and keep shooting, disrupting and healing. Barbed Traps and Healing Spring are usually considered an annoiance by many players in PvP, so use that at your advantage.

I usually go with a Superior Rune of Wilderness Survival and a Superior Rune of Marksmanship, I then use a Fortitude bow grip and a minor Rune of Vigor, so that in the end the second Sup Rune is coming at a really cheap price. Again, mobs and players tend to ignore you, as Barbed Traps are considered "indirect" damage, and Healing Spring is Hard to notice.

Bows

Still incomplete

I like Long and Flat bows to keep myself away from the action, but this makes it difficult to use Distracting Shot and Healing Spring at the right moments without resorting to my "instincts"

If you prefer to use a short bow, so that you can react better to the events, I'd drop one of the Superior Runes, as you will be more exposed to damage this way.

Secondary Profession

I have no cle here, must play with the other classes and see what fits ok

Monk

Mesmer

Mesmers have a number of interrupting spells such as cry of frustration, power spike, power leak, and others that can add more flexibility do the ranger distracting skills. (Minnionman)

Necromancer

Death magic can be used for mass minions, I would probabbly take away points from Expertise and take along fewer bow attacks (probabbly only Ignite and Distracting Shot). Minions can be kept safe with Healing Spring.
Blood magic can be used to assist monks and elementalists keep their mana high, but that also means that you will need to stay out of combat and lay your traps in a defensive manner (as a low health, blood sacrificing ranger is a big target for the opposition to ignore). You can Also use Order of Pain to increase the damage output of Warriors, and be always around to cast Healing Spring. Use Strip Enchantment on this situation, as far as it goeas, it's as good as interrupting the skill, but you gain some health.

Warrior

The various stances of a warrior can help you even more on combat casting traps, especially Bonetti's Defense, that will also increase your mana pool for fututre casts.

Elementalist

General Strategies

Use the range of your bow to pull mobs: Lay traps down, then shoot an arrow in the nearest enemy. Fall back and wait fro them to step on it. If they are caster or ranged attack mobs, fall back a little further. Be sure to coordinate this with your party members, otherwise, you will find yourself obligated to combat-cast traps.

Be patient: Altough you might feel the urge to cast Healing Spring Right at the start of the battle, and use Distracting Shot as soon as the enemies start using their skills, try to remember these guidelines: Stop, Think, Act. Triggering your skills at the right time is much more useful than having to wait for them to recharge while being hit by an Ettin's Club.

Time your attacks: The ranger has a very slow attacking animation, especially with long and flat bows. It will a) draw an arrow b) ready it c) take aim d) shoot. If you are using bow attack skills such as Determined Shot, wait until after the arrow is released in order to cast it. If you use the skill during the "aiming" of the animation, ffor example, your ranger will start from step "a", loosing the almost shot arrow.

Credits

Guide made by Arhurt, from The Amazon Basin (www.theamazonbasin.com)

Thanks a lot for Guild Wars Guru (http://www.guildwarsguru.com/) for Skill listings.

Thanks to Minnionman for the mesmer information.

Thanks to all the contributors of the many bow discussion Threads in the forums.