You show the feats for the PVP pathfinder but not the Stormwarden (which to my knowledge is the only set that has Twin Blade Storm. correct?) If you posted the feats for the SW and I missed it, then my bad.
I do ZERO pvp (Not a fan..), so should I go with Stormwarden or would Hunter's Teamwork on the Pathfinder work better for me?
Interested in joining a game with yourself, or the guild you are in. Frankly not getting the love from my current guild as they scoff at the idea of a Hunter Ranger for Castle Never.. it's frustrating..
I'm a level 59 Hunter Ranger but I'm obviously not very good using this character as my feats and powers are the same yet I am doing rubbish when doing dungeons etc, I just get blitzed! I'm usually 3rd or 4th place scoring about a 3rd of the top players score!
I'm not sure how you play this character as I seem to keep having to use my At Wills due to the cooldowns taking about 15 seconds or so to reload, I use Foxshift when in Bow mode and it just flashes a fox above my characters head, what exactly does it do?
Should I be in knive mode or bow mode?
What am I doing wrong, other than playing badly?
I made a Trickster Rogue and am more often than not at the top of the leader board, I go straight into fights instead of sitting back, I've leveled it to 35 so far.
Thanks for all the tips
If you are my build you should never lose in dungeons. You should never use at wills nor have cooldowns on your abilities. Honestly you need to take time to learn the class itself with the " I use Foxshift when in Bow mode and it just flashes a fox above my characters head, what exactly does it do?" you need to take time to learn your abilities. A build will take you far, but having knowledge on how to use it effectively seperates the good players from the bad ones. My suggestion is keep practicing, you will get it eventually.
You show the feats for the PVP pathfinder but not the Stormwarden (which to my knowledge is the only set that has Twin Blade Storm. correct?) If you posted the feats for the SW and I missed it, then my bad.
I do ZERO pvp (Not a fan..), so should I go with Stormwarden or would Hunter's Teamwork on the Pathfinder work better for me?
Interested in joining a game with yourself, or the guild you are in. Frankly not getting the love from my current guild as they scoff at the idea of a Hunter Ranger for Castle Never.. it's frustrating..
I have a build with powers and feats on like page 4 or something that someone requested, need to add it to the main post. But no i only have one but i use the same powers for both pvp and pve only changing features and dailies. Feats are exactly the same for pvp and pve except for the first teir of trapper, you would take the 5% ap increase instead of 10% move speed. My suggestion is stormwarden (i ahve yet to test the difference aspect of the pack vs twin blade storm but you can place yourself with combat advantage or a mage can give it as well thus making that ability kinda meh) for pve. I am currently not in a guild, just left my last one because it was mostly low level players and i am friends with the few that werent so we can play together aside from that. I know the feeling of ppl looking down on hunters, my suggestion. Copy my build, run a few t2 instances, makes sure you never lose in damage. After that get a guild group going for a t2 instance like spellplague, ask to do castle never afterwards as well and tell them that you will beat the next person by a minimum of 5mil damage. Then smile when they realize what a real build can do.
I got lucky and ran into my pve group through a friend and locked my spot in when i finished castle never with 47 mil the first run and 48 the second finishing first place and beating the #2,4,5's combined damage. Its all about proving yourself and letting them know they can never beat your damage. no matter how hard they try.
I agree Vorpal is going to be more overall DPS simply because this game revolves around mass amounts of adds + trash mobs, and the majority of both die so quickly to burst damage that it's unlikely you can get the full value of plaguefire on them since your party will most likely burst them down before waiting for a defense down debuff. Even if they did wait, then the wait would be a dps loss in itself, so vorpal wins in any MLG geared + skilled party make-up.
I'm trying to save up for a normal vorpal enchantment myself for both PvP and PvE.
I just picked up a greater vorp, i like the damage in pvp for sure, ive yet to run a CN again since i picked it up. Top damage (one shotting every boss and in around 45-55min) is 47-48mil with the wiz coming in at 26, so will be interested to see if my damage goes up because as you said when ppl are geared well the trash dies instantly so am very interested to see the damage numbers, will get back to you on it.
I just picked up a greater vorp, i like the damage in pvp for sure, ive yet to run a CN again since i picked it up. Top damage (one shotting every boss and in around 45-55min) is 47-48mil with the wiz coming in at 26, so will be interested to see if my damage goes up because as you said when ppl are geared well the trash dies instantly so am very interested to see the damage numbers, will get back to you on it.
I know we run similiar builds but i have yet to drop below 80 mill on castle never runs and with no wipes. Thats with rogue, spellstorm, healer and tank. I wonder why the discrepency is so big.
I've re-skilled and I wanted to thank you for this build. I've tried it only in PvP so far and it is amazing. My teams won the last 5 matches(since re-skilling) and I'm sure this build contributed to those wins and this was just 1-2 hours playing that build with a mix of blue lvl60 equipment and grim PvP-gear. With more experience and better gear this will surely get even better. Already had a soulforged enchant and now I'm trying to get a vorpal.
I know we run similiar builds but i have yet to drop below 80 mill on castle never runs and with no wipes. Thats with rogue, spellstorm, healer and tank. I wonder why the discrepency is so big.
Im not sure, no one is my group is near my damage (20mil btwn me and the next), maybe your group isnt as good at clearing adds as mine. On the last boss we almost never have adds up and pulls last maybe 2-4 rotations for me. Our damage is dependant on our pary, meaning the better they are and the better gear they have the less damage we will do because adds wont live as long. And the longer the run takes the higher our damage goes.
i think i kinda wanna go stormwarden just because im not sure about aspect of the pack for pathfinder.
If you only pve i would, pack can give you CA but if you go SW u can put on TBS and then position yourself to get combat advantage thus increaseing your damage more. Plus a lot of classes have abilities that give them CA.
I've re-skilled and I wanted to thank you for this build. I've tried it only in PvP so far and it is amazing. My teams won the last 5 matches(since re-skilling) and I'm sure this build contributed to those wins and this was just 1-2 hours playing that build with a mix of blue lvl60 equipment and grim PvP-gear. With more experience and better gear this will surely get even better. Already had a soulforged enchant and now I'm trying to get a vorpal.
If you only pve i would, pack can give you CA but if you go SW u can put on TBS and then position yourself to get combat advantage thus increaseing your damage more. Plus a lot of classes have abilities that give them CA.
yea im pretty sure going to go that route after i gear up more.
Thank you for such a detailed post! I played the game very shortly when it came out on PC, and I'm just trying it out on the Xbox. I have read your post in full, and I thank you for the enlightenment on how this class shapes up! I was just about to give up on it, as I'm only level 30 and was having a very hard time figuring out how and when the HR class started to blossom into something awesome.
I've got three questions for you:
1. In your original post, you talked about Aimed Shot being used for the dot - but you don't have any allocated points to Aimed Shot in your talent build. Am I missing something on that, or am I just reading it wrong?
2. You talk about changing builds a lot for what you are doing in the game. Are you respeccing every time, or is there a mechanic I don't know about that allows this to happen?
3. Are there any good guides that you can recommend on going from 1-50 (or rather 30-50) that you could recommend, or anyone else recommend that has a basis in the game as we are playing it today? I'm having a hard time finding answers for the lower level game play, and obviously your amazing guide is for 50+ lvl.
Thank you for taking the time with the guide and allow us n00bs to learn more about this amazing class from someone who clearly gets the mechanics perfectly.
Thank you for such a detailed post! I played the game very shortly when it came out on PC, and I'm just trying it out on the Xbox. I have read your post in full, and I thank you for the enlightenment on how this class shapes up! I was just about to give up on it, as I'm only level 30 and was having a very hard time figuring out how and when the HR class started to blossom into something awesome.
I've got three questions for you:
1. In your original post, you talked about Aimed Shot being used for the dot - but you don't have any allocated points to Aimed Shot in your talent build. Am I missing something on that, or am I just reading it wrong?
2. You talk about changing builds a lot for what you are doing in the game. Are you respeccing every time, or is there a mechanic I don't know about that allows this to happen?
3. Are there any good guides that you can recommend on going from 1-50 (or rather 30-50) that you could recommend, or anyone else recommend that has a basis in the game as we are playing it today? I'm having a hard time finding answers for the lower level game play, and obviously your amazing guide is for 50+ lvl.
Thank you for taking the time with the guide and allow us n00bs to learn more about this amazing class from someone who clearly gets the mechanics perfectly.
Sincerely,
Rhickter
I only used aimed shot if I'm stormwarden.
I will change my features (passives) and dailies depending if I'm pvping or pveing, haven't bought a respec token in a long time.
IMO, 1-59 doesn't matter, just quest and do dailies, dungeons aren't worth it so only do your dailies. I ran this feat set up from 10-60, the damage is ok, like 1-3 on damage charts in dungeons and u kill stuff fast enough that I r felt gibbed..
What's your question about low level game play?
N its np, I enjoy helping others do better, in this game your build is 50% of your damage bad build, bad time.
If you are my build you should never lose in dungeons. You should never use at wills nor have cooldowns on your abilities. Honestly you need to take time to learn the class itself with the " I use Foxshift when in Bow mode and it just flashes a fox above my characters head, what exactly does it do?" you need to take time to learn your abilities. A build will take you far, but having knowledge on how to use it effectively seperates the good players from the bad ones. My suggestion is keep practicing, you will get it eventually.
I'm trying to learn but can you explain just how you don't have any cooldown issues? If I use all 3 encounters I still have to wait about 10 seconds for one to be available again! How do you prevent this or do I have something set up wrong?
Edit - Switch from one stance to the other and keep doing so! Is this the nail being hit on the head?
I will change my features (passives) and dailies depending if I'm pvping or pveing, haven't bought a respec token in a long time.
IMO, 1-59 doesn't matter, just quest and do dailies, dungeons aren't worth it so only do your dailies. I ran this feat set up from 10-60, the damage is ok, like 1-3 on damage charts in dungeons and u kill stuff fast enough that I r felt gibbed..
What's your question about low level game play?
N its np, I enjoy helping others do better, in this game your build is 50% of your damage bad build, bad time.
On your aimed shot if your stormwarden, I figured out why I was confused. You have two updated talent/feat links a couple pages back, and each link is the same - so i'm assuming what is posted for the stormwarden and pathfinder is the build for pathfinder. I didn't notice both links were pathfinder links. Do you think its possible to repost the stormwarden setup for me please? That seems to be the one i'll be using and trying to get used to the class with.
Don't worry about the less than 50 level guide. I went from 30 to 38 yesterday, so i'll be 50 very quickly. I'll do as you say and just grind it out.
@j0kerspsycho thanks for your guide. I waited to Lvl 60 and respecced using your advise (Stormwarden for PVE) and its made a massive difference to my single player experience and in group situations. Only thing I've done differently is use split strike rather than rapid strike as I'd got used to the former. And reading up on what fox shift does is also very useful ;-). Thanks.
I'm trying to learn but can you explain just how you don't have any cooldown issues? If I use all 3 encounters I still have to wait about 10 seconds for one to be available again! How do you prevent this or do I have something set up wrong?
Edit - Switch from one stance to the other and keep doing so! Is this the nail being hit on the head?
Thanks
Yes u must switch stances. Dont think of this as a class with a ranged OR melee stacne. This is a class with ranged AND melee.
On your aimed shot if your stormwarden, I figured out why I was confused. You have two updated talent/feat links a couple pages back, and each link is the same - so i'm assuming what is posted for the stormwarden and pathfinder is the build for pathfinder. I didn't notice both links were pathfinder links. Do you think its possible to repost the stormwarden setup for me please? That seems to be the one i'll be using and trying to get used to the class with.
Don't worry about the less than 50 level guide. I went from 30 to 38 yesterday, so i'll be 50 very quickly. I'll do as you say and just grind it out.
Both guides are right for me, at least on the original post it was. (has the paragon name next to it)
@j0kerspsycho thanks for your guide. I waited to Lvl 60 and respecced using your advise (Stormwarden for PVE) and its made a massive difference to my single player experience and in group situations. Only thing I've done differently is use split strike rather than rapid strike as I'd got used to the former. And reading up on what fox shift does is also very useful ;-). Thanks.
Its no problem, glad i could help. I rly dont use my at wills so honestly u can use whatever u want xD hope you continue to improve.
well i heard that their is going to be like a pvp dungeon thing in future so pvp gear is needed. what set you like better?
its more like a zone if i recall. 20v20 domination basically. I got the archers set, honestly i dont notice the 4 set at all and may buy 2 other pieces of profound to get that free 900 armpen, but aside from that, i feel we lose the elast amount of stats with that set.
I would probably go with the Royal Guard set. The reason being that i never use my at wills less im using hunters teamwork as pathfinder (once every 3-5 rotations) or aimed shots melee for the dot if im stormwarden (again 3-5). And although we dont need cdr much it is nice for straight single target fights or if you mess up a skill (i do this, A LOT) and switch only to find you screwed your rotation up and now have cooldowns. So IMHO having the chance to reduce all cooldowns by 30% by just doing damage (which trapper hr does so well lol) is much better than a damage increase of 1700ish for critting with an at will which if you are playing right you shouldnt even need to use all that often so the 4 set would be somewhat void. On top of that the 2 set for RG set is armor pen which is more important than crit in my book.
Just a little confused here. You mention the royal guard set is the better 4 set, but on the first page near the bottom you mention the stats to strive for.
With the royal guard set, there is no crit strike. Yet you give 2,800 -3,200 as a base to shoot for.
So the Royal Guard set has
++Power
++Armor pen
+Defence
+Deflection
+Regen
With my current gear, 3/4 glade stalker set (same set bonus but 20% instead of 30% as royal and just a few less of the same stats). I am only sitting at 600 crit strike. Even gemming my offencive slots with crit strike, I'll get nowhere close to the 2,800 - 3,200. But I'm sitting at around 2,000 armor pen.
If I look at the Grand Warden set
++Power
++Crit strike
+Defence
+Armor Pen
+Recovery
This set would allow me to boost to a close range of the crit strike. And then socket for armor pen to bring it close to the 2,400 - 2,600.
So after looking at these, I understand the Royal Guard has the better set as the Grand Warden will hardly be used, but if Royal can't get us the stats we are looking for, why use it? I'm sure I'm missing something so thats why I have come here to ask. Please know I am not trying to insult anyone as you have put so much time into this, I'm just trying to understand.
The grandwarden set is better IMO. There's no point for the royal guard set because if you do your rotations right as a pathfinder trapper then 95% of the time your encounters will be reset by the time you switch to the next stance anyway. You just need around 1,000 - 1,200 recovery (something like that) and not make mistakes.
I personally use the grand warden set and find myself using at-wills fairly often in PvE when hindering shot runs out of charges. I believe hindering shot-- or to be more exact, encounters with charges-- are currently bugged and don't work correctly with our cd reduction feat. So when you run out of HS charges you're down a 3rd ranged attack for awhile and the only way to fill the gap is to start using at-wills (assuming you already set up careful attack).
The grandwarden set is better IMO. There's no point for the royal guard set because if you do your rotations right as a pathfinder trapper then 95% of the time your encounters will be reset by the time you switch to the next stance anyway. You just need around 1,000 - 1,200 recovery (something like that) and not make mistakes.
I personally use the grand warden set and find myself using at-wills fairly often in PvE when hindering shot runs out of charges. I believe hindering shot-- or to be more exact, encounters with charges-- are currently bugged and don't work correctly with our cd reduction feat. So when you run out of HS charges you're down a 3rd ranged attack for awhile and the only way to fill the gap is to start using at-wills (assuming you already set up careful attack).
I have actualy found that the daily power fills up that hole in the rotation quite well and benefits from our many buffs. I never find myself short of available powes (disruptive being 25% action and not 100%) and so never use at wills unless bored. I use a mix of 2 sets to gain the 450 buffs these give me allowing me to gear around it and gain more defense and deflection.
Just a quick question. I got my first artifact bow two days ago from the box in the campaign. I received the Pathfinder of the Gold Dragon and thought "Yay!" since I respec'd to pathfinder the extra damage from the at will will be useful. Since upgrading it to blue and realizing the stats are meh (in my opinion), my question is what would be the "best" artifact bow for the pathfinder trapper build. I could be wrong in assuming that the bow I got is garbage. Please let me know.
I have actualy found that the daily power fills up that hole in the rotation quite well and benefits from our many buffs. I never find myself short of available powes (disruptive being 25% action and not 100%) and so never use at wills unless bored. I use a mix of 2 sets to gain the 450 buffs these give me allowing me to gear around it and gain more defense and deflection.
that doesn't make up the gap when hindering shot runs out of charges. the daily doesn't reduce the melee cooldowns so you will always be a second or two off at some point when disruptive is still on CD.
that doesn't make up the gap when hindering shot runs out of charges. the daily doesn't reduce the melee cooldowns so you will always be a second or two off at some point when disruptive is still on CD.
It does if you use Stormstep Action as one of your Features. Every time you use a Daily it reduces the cooldown on all of your Encounters by 1 second (2 seconds at rank 3). My rotation is, Hindering Shot, Constricting Arrow, switch, Fox Shift, Steel Breeze, Hindering Strike, switch, Fox's Cunning, Constricting Arrow, Disruptive Shot, Hindering Shot, switch... and so on. I never have to use an At-will, and I never have to wait to use my next encounter.... unless I get dazed and/or screw up my rotation.
Comments
You mention 2 builds.. a PVE and PVP one.
Does that mean you have 2 Hunter Rangers then?
You show the feats for the PVP pathfinder but not the Stormwarden (which to my knowledge is the only set that has Twin Blade Storm. correct?) If you posted the feats for the SW and I missed it, then my bad.
I do ZERO pvp (Not a fan..), so should I go with Stormwarden or would Hunter's Teamwork on the Pathfinder work better for me?
Interested in joining a game with yourself, or the guild you are in. Frankly not getting the love from my current guild as they scoff at the idea of a Hunter Ranger for Castle Never.. it's frustrating..
I go with all offense boons with one defensive, that being deflect.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
If you are my build you should never lose in dungeons. You should never use at wills nor have cooldowns on your abilities. Honestly you need to take time to learn the class itself with the " I use Foxshift when in Bow mode and it just flashes a fox above my characters head, what exactly does it do?" you need to take time to learn your abilities. A build will take you far, but having knowledge on how to use it effectively seperates the good players from the bad ones. My suggestion is keep practicing, you will get it eventually.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
I have a build with powers and feats on like page 4 or something that someone requested, need to add it to the main post. But no i only have one but i use the same powers for both pvp and pve only changing features and dailies. Feats are exactly the same for pvp and pve except for the first teir of trapper, you would take the 5% ap increase instead of 10% move speed. My suggestion is stormwarden (i ahve yet to test the difference aspect of the pack vs twin blade storm but you can place yourself with combat advantage or a mage can give it as well thus making that ability kinda meh) for pve. I am currently not in a guild, just left my last one because it was mostly low level players and i am friends with the few that werent so we can play together aside from that. I know the feeling of ppl looking down on hunters, my suggestion. Copy my build, run a few t2 instances, makes sure you never lose in damage. After that get a guild group going for a t2 instance like spellplague, ask to do castle never afterwards as well and tell them that you will beat the next person by a minimum of 5mil damage. Then smile when they realize what a real build can do.
I got lucky and ran into my pve group through a friend and locked my spot in when i finished castle never with 47 mil the first run and 48 the second finishing first place and beating the #2,4,5's combined damage. Its all about proving yourself and letting them know they can never beat your damage. no matter how hard they try.
Edit: updated main post for new builds
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
I just picked up a greater vorp, i like the damage in pvp for sure, ive yet to run a CN again since i picked it up. Top damage (one shotting every boss and in around 45-55min) is 47-48mil with the wiz coming in at 26, so will be interested to see if my damage goes up because as you said when ppl are geared well the trash dies instantly so am very interested to see the damage numbers, will get back to you on it.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
I know we run similiar builds but i have yet to drop below 80 mill on castle never runs and with no wipes. Thats with rogue, spellstorm, healer and tank. I wonder why the discrepency is so big.
One clip and some end-screens from 3 matches:
http://abload.de/img/screenshot-original304vu3c.png
http://abload.de/img/screenshot-original31xtunf.png
http://abload.de/img/screenshot-original32quulj.png
https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/TheKeyPit/video/1642826
I appreciate your work on this build. Thank you.
Im not sure, no one is my group is near my damage (20mil btwn me and the next), maybe your group isnt as good at clearing adds as mine. On the last boss we almost never have adds up and pulls last maybe 2-4 rotations for me. Our damage is dependant on our pary, meaning the better they are and the better gear they have the less damage we will do because adds wont live as long. And the longer the run takes the higher our damage goes.
If you only pve i would, pack can give you CA but if you go SW u can put on TBS and then position yourself to get combat advantage thus increaseing your damage more. Plus a lot of classes have abilities that give them CA.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
You will def do better with more gear and experience. Atm you would be a newb to this spec, results can only improve from here!
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
yea im pretty sure going to go that route after i gear up more.
Thank you for such a detailed post! I played the game very shortly when it came out on PC, and I'm just trying it out on the Xbox. I have read your post in full, and I thank you for the enlightenment on how this class shapes up! I was just about to give up on it, as I'm only level 30 and was having a very hard time figuring out how and when the HR class started to blossom into something awesome.
I've got three questions for you:
1. In your original post, you talked about Aimed Shot being used for the dot - but you don't have any allocated points to Aimed Shot in your talent build. Am I missing something on that, or am I just reading it wrong?
2. You talk about changing builds a lot for what you are doing in the game. Are you respeccing every time, or is there a mechanic I don't know about that allows this to happen?
3. Are there any good guides that you can recommend on going from 1-50 (or rather 30-50) that you could recommend, or anyone else recommend that has a basis in the game as we are playing it today? I'm having a hard time finding answers for the lower level game play, and obviously your amazing guide is for 50+ lvl.
Thank you for taking the time with the guide and allow us n00bs to learn more about this amazing class from someone who clearly gets the mechanics perfectly.
Sincerely,
Rhickter
I will change my features (passives) and dailies depending if I'm pvping or pveing, haven't bought a respec token in a long time.
IMO, 1-59 doesn't matter, just quest and do dailies, dungeons aren't worth it so only do your dailies. I ran this feat set up from 10-60, the damage is ok, like 1-3 on damage charts in dungeons and u kill stuff fast enough that I r felt gibbed..
What's your question about low level game play?
N its np, I enjoy helping others do better, in this game your build is 50% of your damage bad build, bad time.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
I'm trying to learn but can you explain just how you don't have any cooldown issues? If I use all 3 encounters I still have to wait about 10 seconds for one to be available again! How do you prevent this or do I have something set up wrong?
Edit - Switch from one stance to the other and keep doing so! Is this the nail being hit on the head?
Thanks
https://youtube.com/channel/UCHpxPsGP_kfPXaW622qSXyA
On your aimed shot if your stormwarden, I figured out why I was confused. You have two updated talent/feat links a couple pages back, and each link is the same - so i'm assuming what is posted for the stormwarden and pathfinder is the build for pathfinder. I didn't notice both links were pathfinder links. Do you think its possible to repost the stormwarden setup for me please? That seems to be the one i'll be using and trying to get used to the class with.
Don't worry about the less than 50 level guide. I went from 30 to 38 yesterday, so i'll be 50 very quickly. I'll do as you say and just grind it out.
Yes u must switch stances. Dont think of this as a class with a ranged OR melee stacne. This is a class with ranged AND melee.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
Both guides are right for me, at least on the original post it was. (has the paragon name next to it)
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
you do, same problem i have, not sure if its a bit of a bug or intentional but you do get the severity.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
Its no problem, glad i could help. I rly dont use my at wills so honestly u can use whatever u want xD hope you continue to improve.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
Ok. Great
I've finished my first epic dungeon from start to finish. Reading your guide I expected to do a lot of damage and I wasn't
Glad to see its working for you, keep it up mate.
its more like a zone if i recall. 20v20 domination basically. I got the archers set, honestly i dont notice the 4 set at all and may buy 2 other pieces of profound to get that free 900 armpen, but aside from that, i feel we lose the elast amount of stats with that set.
Aldren Boweing - 60 HR
Just a little confused here. You mention the royal guard set is the better 4 set, but on the first page near the bottom you mention the stats to strive for.
Critical Strike: 2,800~3,200
Armor Penetration: 2,400~2,600
Recovery: 2,600~2,800
Defense: 2,400~2,800
Deflection: 2,000~2,200
Regeneration: ~1,000
Life Steal: ~1,400
With the royal guard set, there is no crit strike. Yet you give 2,800 -3,200 as a base to shoot for.
So the Royal Guard set has
++Power
++Armor pen
+Defence
+Deflection
+Regen
With my current gear, 3/4 glade stalker set (same set bonus but 20% instead of 30% as royal and just a few less of the same stats). I am only sitting at 600 crit strike. Even gemming my offencive slots with crit strike, I'll get nowhere close to the 2,800 - 3,200. But I'm sitting at around 2,000 armor pen.
If I look at the Grand Warden set
++Power
++Crit strike
+Defence
+Armor Pen
+Recovery
This set would allow me to boost to a close range of the crit strike. And then socket for armor pen to bring it close to the 2,400 - 2,600.
So after looking at these, I understand the Royal Guard has the better set as the Grand Warden will hardly be used, but if Royal can't get us the stats we are looking for, why use it? I'm sure I'm missing something so thats why I have come here to ask. Please know I am not trying to insult anyone as you have put so much time into this, I'm just trying to understand.
I personally use the grand warden set and find myself using at-wills fairly often in PvE when hindering shot runs out of charges. I believe hindering shot-- or to be more exact, encounters with charges-- are currently bugged and don't work correctly with our cd reduction feat. So when you run out of HS charges you're down a 3rd ranged attack for awhile and the only way to fill the gap is to start using at-wills (assuming you already set up careful attack).
twitch.tv/xx_alucard
I have actualy found that the daily power fills up that hole in the rotation quite well and benefits from our many buffs. I never find myself short of available powes (disruptive being 25% action and not 100%) and so never use at wills unless bored. I use a mix of 2 sets to gain the 450 buffs these give me allowing me to gear around it and gain more defense and deflection.
that doesn't make up the gap when hindering shot runs out of charges. the daily doesn't reduce the melee cooldowns so you will always be a second or two off at some point when disruptive is still on CD.
twitch.tv/xx_alucard
It does if you use Stormstep Action as one of your Features. Every time you use a Daily it reduces the cooldown on all of your Encounters by 1 second (2 seconds at rank 3). My rotation is, Hindering Shot, Constricting Arrow, switch, Fox Shift, Steel Breeze, Hindering Strike, switch, Fox's Cunning, Constricting Arrow, Disruptive Shot, Hindering Shot, switch... and so on. I never have to use an At-will, and I never have to wait to use my next encounter.... unless I get dazed and/or screw up my rotation.