Combat or Trapper

niagh20 · November 2016

Hey guys,

so im currently playing a trapper HR. And i was wondering what you guys think about both specs. Is it true that trapper is still better dmg wise? or are the 2 specs pretty close atm? Will combat do more single target dps then trapper?

Im thinking about rerolling to combat so i can do a little bit of pvp as well since the piercing blades is pretty nice. And i dont think i can pvp as a trapper until i have total BiS gear since ill just do no dmg.

What spec are you playing and why?

Any input/discussion is welcome

gabrieldourden · November 2016

I tried both in the last weeks. As long as my tank was flawless as combat I could keep up with trapper in damage and even outdamage it by a small amount. But I lost all the group buffing side of the trapper (no Longstrider spamming) and all the versatility you can have with a trapper when things get difficult. So for me the answer today is trapper. To make me think about moving to combat, the combat ranger should deal damage in the GWF range which is way ahead.

patcherrkm · November 2016

The builds are completely different. Different enchants weapon enchants. Etc. so it's not an easy switch. Combat doesn't care about armor pen at all and recovery becomes important. I typically outperform trapper on my combat in pve. Both are viable in pvp. Just different roles.

zeclassyassasin · December 2016

I mostly pvp so I'm combat because I like to play a more bursty toon and I have a bis trapper to pvp with. It also gives my hands a break from constant spamming as a trapper lol. Combat is more about timing to me whereas trapper is more about mashing ur face on the keyboard/controller. If ur a pvp player both are equally viable tho it just comes down to whether you wanna blow someone up or hold them in place and make them hate their life for a bit.....

hell5gate · December 2016

So which is better if your trying to beat a GWF on the scoreboard?

mrreaux · December 2016

hell5gate said:
So which is better if your trying to beat a GWF on the scoreboard?

i'm not endgame trapper nor bis (just hit 62 actually) and while running this event for brutals, i'm having a hard time beating a fairly geared GWF. They almost blow me out the water for the most part, but then again it was SUPER DUPER laggy last night when trying. Anything else i can basically handle it on the scoreboard. So, i'm going to track this and get some insight on this also.

jonkoca · December 2016

Combat for pvp, piercing. Trapper for pve. Both pathfinder, both high crit.

geroslod · December 2016

I play an 3.2 SW combat and is amazing both in PvP and PvE. Is kind in the middle of the two worlds unlike the hardcore pathfinder pvp. I believe the HR is in a great place with a very wide array of options to find the one that suites your playstile. So have fun and enjoy

jhpnw · December 2016

with nerf to PG you wont beat a GWF same level but with correct rotation you can buff others to make runs a lot faster and smoother. before YOU COULD BE TOP DPS AND DO 30 MINUTE CNS OR buff and do 20 minute CNS with A HR

mrreaux · December 2016

so, is PG even worth using honestly then? my current setup is: Fox, Con, Hindering. lately ive been pure solo going through EE and daily HAMSTER as i just hit 70. thoughts..?

Unknown · December 2016

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hell5gate · December 2016

I specced back to trapper this weekend. Huge mistake. It was like my character was broken. I was dog nowhere near my combat spec. Switched back, and don't know what to think.
Someone said arm pen doesn't matter with combat, how so? And how is PG not getting nerfed? I heard it's loosing going from being 4 ticks to 2 ticks of damage.

jonkoca · December 2016

krazydog#1509 said:
PG is not getting nerfed

Sure, but it probably won't be fixed anytime soon either... and hasn't ticked like it should be doing post mod10.5 apparantly, unless there was a ninja fix that I haven't heard about.

oldbaldyone · December 2016

hell5gate said:
I specced back to trapper this weekend. Huge mistake. It was like my character was broken. I was dog nowhere near my combat spec. Switched back, and don't know what to think.

Someone said arm pen doesn't matter with combat, how so? And how is PG not getting nerfed? I heard it's loosing going from being 4 ticks to 2 ticks of damage.

Armor pen generally is less vital to combat because you are focusing on piercing damage, which ignores armor.

PG went from 4 tickets to 2, which was either am undocumented nerf or is a bug - I don't think anyone has said for sure.

IMO, it is very hard to go from Trapper to Combat. Going from Combat to Trapper shouldn't be as hard, but I suppose there would be an adjustment to the speed. When I went to combat, it was like trying to play in molasses...everything is soooooo slow with the cooldowns...I was just itchy.

I didn't realize the PG nerf to the ticks was that significant. I still think even with the nerf it is probably still one of our best encounters. I typically use Constricting, Cordon and Longstriders. Gushing wound is usually a very good source of DPS, especially in SVA.

If we had a 1 click power switch, I'd use Split the Sky, Cordon and maybe Rain of Arrows for Phase one, then Constricting, Cordon and Longstriders for the rest (maybe fox shift, haven't tried it).

jonkoca · December 2016

hell5gate said:
I specced back to trapper this weekend. Huge mistake. It was like my character was broken. I was dog nowhere near my combat spec. Switched back, and don't know what to think.

Someone said arm pen doesn't matter with combat, how so? And how is PG not getting nerfed? I heard it's loosing going from being 4 ticks to 2 ticks of damage.

For combat pvp HRs, arpen doesn't matter because piercing. For pvp trapper, arpen matters a lot, unless you are pure support. For pve, arpen matters regardless of build, you need a buffed total of at least 60%, on the toon itself, or on your pet/stone.

davidagaldo · December 2016

oldbaldyone said:

hell5gate said:
. I typically use Constricting, Cordon and Longstriders. Gushing wound is usually a very good source of DPS, especially in SVA.

blockquote>

Not certain if your rotation is for PvP but I have not bothered with Gushing Wound. I instead use Aimed Strike and rotate with PG, Thorn Strike, Boar Charge, and clean up the scraps with Split Strike.

For PvE, I only remove my wards from head and arms, change to Defense boon, swap AotLW for TBS, and add Guile mount bonus for more movement.

The only ArP (1800+/-) I have is from the gear. I will swap gear around when I run Trapper and have 8000+ with 30K pwr.

I am with you as far as cool downs are concerned (I have 4400+ recovery, I think) but I really have not venture away from melee, accept to reset Thorn Ward or to tag a target running from me.

hell5gate · December 2016

I assume that everyone talking about piercing damage, is referring to the feat Piercing Blades. If so, saying arm pen is not important is a false statement. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the feat states that you deal an "additioninal" hit of 50% of the damage the hit dealt, but as "piercing" damage. Someone please reference this and correct me if I'm reading into this wrong.

gabrieldourden · December 2016

hell5gate said:
I assume that everyone talking about piercing damage, is referring to the feat Piercing Blades. If so, saying arm pen is not important is a false statement. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the feat states that you deal an "additioninal" hit of 50% of the damage the hit dealt, but as "piercing" damage. Someone please reference this and correct me if I'm reading into this wrong.

You get 50% of the damage before mitigation, i.e. before defense/arpen apply. So arpen does not influence your Piercing Blades damage.

prettyflacko1 · December 2016

Don't get confused, you NEED armor pen in PVE regardless of build as stated above. I was curious about this as well and you can find a discussion about it here arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1224722/piercing-in-pve

hell5gate · December 2016

So what is a mob and single target rotation for encounters, on a combat build?

jhpnw · December 2016

LS, ROA OR FOX THEN CORDON. Also I use split strike off of pg and gushing since furry is procted for 2 seconds its great in FBI vs giants LS with right set up can boost party damage for up to 58% for 4 seconds

vandignesca · December 2016

oldbaldyone said:

PG went from 4 tickets to 2, which was either am undocumented nerf or is a bug - I don't think anyone has said for sure.

Just putting this out there that Asterdahl did confirm this is a bug in this thread on the preview server:

http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1224889/ninja-nerf-to-plant-growth-on-preview

I'm hoping it gets fixed in the patch that hopefully is coming before the big holiday break.

Unknown · December 2016

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hell5gate · December 2016

For my combat sw rotation, I have been using longstrider, throw caution, aimed strike, gushing and then split strike, in that order. I use this on big targets/boss. Am I doing this right? Does longstrider and throw caution stack? Should I be using gushing and then aimed strike?
I'm on ps4 so no ACT. In case someone asks, my third encounter is thorn ward/strike. I use ward before longstrider. My rotation for mobs or adds is longstrider, split strike, thorn strike, split strike, gushing wound, split strike. Repeat starting with longstrider.
I hope I'm doing this right. Input is greatly appreciated.

patcherrkm · December 2016

Anybody that has armor pen on their combat ranger is wasting stats. Go for power recovery and crit. Good for pve and pvp. Armor pen is useless. For those replying to contradict that message me in game and we can sort it out.

Sleek Pepper

jonkoca · December 2016

Lol. Okay, if you are combat, stack power crit and recovery on yourself, and have enough arpen on your pet to cover the 60% in Pve. If you have triple rnk12 bondings, that's about 1500-2000 arpen on your pet. And go for vorpal, not dread. That arpen won't affect the piercing damage in any way at all in Pve, but it will boost your normal everyday encounter and at will damage to 100% effectiveness.

If you're trapper, stack power and arpen for pvp, power and crit for pve (and arpen to 60%). Dread for pve, and feytouched for pvp. Good to go.

davidagaldo · December 2016

hell5gate said:
For my combat sw rotation, I have been using longstrider, throw caution, aimed strike, gushing and then split strike, in that order. I use this on big targets/boss. Am I doing this right? Does longstrider and throw caution stack? Should I be using gushing and then aimed strike?

I'm on ps4 so no ACT. In case someone asks, my third encounter is thorn ward/strike. I use ward before longstrider. My rotation for mobs or adds is longstrider, split strike, thorn strike, split strike, gushing wound, split strike. Repeat starting with longstrider.

I hope I'm doing this right. Input is greatly appreciated.

To me your rotation is busy and slow. The cast time (slight delay) with GW/LS is enough to deter me using them in PvE or PvP. However, in good PvE groups I do use it.

I seem to progress faster in both PvE/PvP with CoA/PG - CA/SB - HS/S filling in appropriately with at-wills SS/S and AS/S.

I don't PvE much anymore, but when I do, composition determines if I change from what I normally run above. As a combat, reacting to Flurry quickly (two second window) is key and successively popping it.

My Combat stat concerns was Crit, Power, Hit Points(presently still stacking more HP). Did not focus much on recovery (4K) since, well, I don't spend much time out of melee and/or best case scenario the opponent is melted. Strangely, I started stacking Stamina and it has helped since it binds with Serpent Weave. Need to be able to avoid those TR dunks while dodging GFs.

My .02

wdj40 · December 2016

jonkoca said:
Lol. Okay, if you are combat, stack power crit and recovery on yourself, and have enough arpen on your pet to cover the 60% in Pve. If you have triple rnk12 bondings, that's about 1500-2000 arpen on your pet. And go for vorpal, not dread. That arpen won't affect the piercing damage in any way at all in Pve, but it will boost your normal everyday encounter and at will damage to 100% effectiveness.

If you're trapper, stack power and arpen for pvp, power and crit for pve (and arpen to 60%). Dread for pve, and feytouched for pvp. Good to go.

You know I see this all the time and I think people are pretty wrong about stacking Arm Pen on a Trapper in PvP... Well when I say that it kind of depends on your Weapon Enchant though.

I actually use Trans Dread in PvP and I only have 3k Arm Pen... I have no problems killing most classes, some take a bit longer to take down than others... But I do not need any more than that. I have tried swapping out Power for Arm Pen and I actually do less damage and kill less people with 14k Power and 10k Arm Pen.

PvE though 60% Arm Pen is still needed (well 59.5%)

davidagaldo · December 2016

@wdj40

What is limiting you from 30K power and 10k ArP? The higher ArP as a PvP Trapper would be for tougher opponents.

But lets face it, you will not do much killing as a trapper... because you're a trapper.

I might switch back to trapper since I have friends that DPS.

Dread is not an option for me, at-wills are important for Combat. Where my CC/CS presently sits, I am comfortably playing with the Fey, Bronze, and Vorp.

jonkoca · December 2016

Yea, I had roughly 30k power and at one point about 150% resistance ignored when I was a mod8 trapper. Still couldn't kill anything. 14k sounds like you should be using your bow as an eggwhisk. Consider me amazed.

patcherrkm · December 2016

there are people on this forum who know their stuff and their are absolutely trash. most noobs cant decipher who is who. feel sorry for them. soo much ignorance and misinformation.

Sleek Pepper

Combat or Trapper

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