[Rylkan]

Seeing as the Wiki now has my damage based barrage build up somehow I am going to post it here to help the people of SeeD.

Usage
To Utterly Annihalate Large Mobs in One to Two hits, and then to provide moderate level damage to clean up the one or two remaining enemies while keeping your health up.

Class
Ranger/Ritualist

Skills
Splinter Weapon - Channeling Magic
Wielders Strike - Channeling Magic
Barrage - Elite Marksmanship
Nightmare Weapon - Channeling Magic
Essence Strike - Channeling Magic
Troll Unguent - Wilderness Survival
Favorable Winds - Marksmanship
Whirling Defense - Expertise

Point Distribution
Channeling : 12
Marksmanship: 9 + 1 + 2
Wilderness: 5 + 1
Expertise: 8 + 1

Outfit
Druids Armor

Strategy
Against groups
For this variation of this build, it is best if you have a team. Have your teams W/Mo, or other front liner bring a group together while you place favorable winds. Normally, you might want to place this far from danger,but you have to keep this spirit close by in order to keep your energy up. I reccomend staying near enough to it that they target you, but AoE cant damage the spirit.

Now, take a good look at the enemy team. Since this is the group portion of the build, we will say for the sake of argument that some enemies have clumped together. If you have a choice between softies and heavy weights, choose the softs. This build will devastate them much more than warriors (though, it works well on Melee types too.) Now, cast Splinter Weapon on yourself. Now, if you feel you have the time before they split up, I reccomend using Wielders Strike now. You will deal double damage to them while you have Splinter weapon on, and can be enough to kill the enemy after one barrage with this factored in.

Whether you use it or not, the next step is easy.Barrage them. Three of the arrows will cause splinters to fly out to every enemy around them. So lets say I had 6 enemies. I shoot 6 arrows. Now, lets talk about the targetted individuals. They will receive the damage of the arrow, and 2 splinters from the splinter weapon. Now, this may not seem like much, but look at the numbers. Barrage adds +15 to the arrow, and each splinter adds about 44 or so damage. So you just hit them for over 100 damage on top of your base. Which against softies can be quite good with a decent bow. Add an axtra splinter for those that didnt get hit by the splintering arrows, and you get around 150 extra.

In short, a break down against classes. The Armor level 60 characters can be brought down to around quarter health from one volley if they do not have enchantments or other such things. Warrirors lose a little less than half their health in some cases.

Very nice.

Now, to keep your energy up for continuous volleying, use Channeled Strike when it is available to regain a net 2 energy. May not seem like much, but it also causes damage, so it is worth it.

Single Opponent
Alternate between Nightmare Weapon and Channeled and Wielders Strike for moderate level damage. Not much else to say beyond that, with good timing, I take off around 50-60 each time I attack like this on level 29 and 30 enemies with high armor, and I dont go below 20 energy even after minutes of fighting.

Good Places to Use this
Trust me, try the tomb of kings, you'll be happy.


Build is no longer on the wiki, so dont let them see this :-p

[Ratty]

Dude.

That build is awesome.

Good thing I should be getting nightfall soon... And that my ranger is finally starting to get good =P

[Rylkan]

It is by far the highest group spike damage I have ever seen a ranger pull off.

Depending on the class, it can take off around 300+ damage on a Necro and 200 on a warrior. Also useful if someone brings winnowing as well, then the splinters themselves do more damage.

The wiki version doesnt have an energy management way of doing it either, and it can be a high energy build if not done right. You have to make sure to use channeled strike often, and avoid using splinter on single enemies, just a waste of energy.

And since they now have learned the joys of a R/Rt, maybe I'll share my barrage interupter as well.

[Goto]

Hehe, sounds pretty cool. Might be reason for me to ascend my Ranger and go unlock a few necessary skills.

[Rylkan]

Wiki took their variation on this down. I think they had energy management issues, but really, they just dont seem to of gotten it fine tuned yet, so may appear again.

It's a versatile build too, I can swap in and out some skills to bring interupts or degen or such, so it works quite well I find.

Maybe I will post my new 1 on 1 ranger build later. Good for PvP, -11 degen almost constantly, and fairly rspectable spike damage and good healing. Works well and makes people swarm me to keep their team alive

[Rylkan]

Seems they changed splinter a bit, now it can hit the next 4 attacks at level 12 channeling. Which means even more spike damage

[Neraphym]

Sounds awesome. I can't wait to get my ranger now...

[Unholy Maiden]

im gonna try that even tho i cant get barrage =[ is that proph or nightfall?

[Goto]

I believe Barrage is a core skill, so you can capture it in any campaign as long as you're far enough. Some of the other skills I'm not sure of off the top of my head, you'd probably have to check guildwiki for details of the skills.

[Neraphym]

Which type of bow is best for this? (Sorry if this fact was in there somewhere and I missed it.)

[Moogalite]

a zealous bow... shortbow is better so the groups get close and bunch up in front of you also a +30 health mod is probably your best bet for another mod

[Rylkan]

a zealous bow... shortbow is better so the groups get close and bunch up in front of you also a +30 health mod is probably your best bet for another mod

Actually, I find that you don't need the Zealous upgrade to manage energy well. Given the time isues, as well as the likelihood of getting a large bunch, you tend to regen most energy before you need to reapply the Splinter. Though with a spirit nearby, and channeled strike, energy works out okay anyways.

As for short versus long, depends on circumstances. I find since I am a R/Rt, I dont have the same buffs I would to tank, so I like to stay back. I start with a Lonbow to hit them before they aggro, so i get one initial spike definitely before they register I am there. Sometimes two if they are spellcasters or they like to use enchants before battle. Then i tend to let the tank take the heat and I provide cover for them, since they can take a large mob on them. If I am alone, I might change bows, but I prefer to remain far back for this one, especially since they may interupt my spells.

But depends on what you are doing and the situation.

If you guys want to interupt, you can switch out Wielders Strike for Warmongers weapon. With a longbow, it might be a bit slow on fire rate, bu with barrage, you can take out large groups of spellcasters easily, and get the damage from barrage you wouldnt with preps like chocking gas. Works great in places like perdition rock.

[Neraphym]

So ultimately, I'm in need of a zealous or sundering longbow of fortitude. They dont have a green for zealous, but a Zelnehlun's Longbow looks like it'll work as the sundering. I'll try and farm one next time I'm on. Actually, I could try and find a decent longbow skin and put a +5 energy mod, zealous, and fortitude. That shouldn't be too hard to find.