Rangers = Ranged Tanks?

spacejew · January 2014

Seems like with the absurd damage, near-infinite amount of stamina regeneration/stealing, and amount of large AoE slows the Ranger is nicely designed for ranged tanking with the dodge mechanics.

Seems to do the ranged tank thing almost absurdly well in GWD using just Marauders Escape, Split The Sky, Constricting Arrow, and spamming Split Shot when possible.

35% Stamina regen with a massive aggro dump dodge is...quite nice indeed. You almost don't even need the stamina stealing melee attack.

Thoughts? Experiences?

elminster · January 2014

Can and have tanked with my ranger. It can be tricky at times, but I've found the best method is to treat it exactly like an evasion tank. Keep your distance and walk, don't shift, out of reds. Save your stamina for when you accidentally pick up elites or kiting trash until you can kill them. For at-wills keep Rapid Shot and Aimed Shot; don't use Split or you're going to pull way more than you want. Personally I like to throw Aimed whenever the boss is using a long cast time and Rapid for the rest to engage Prime Critical. Encounters I like Rain of Arrows for the boss, Thorn Ward for any trash I pick up by proximity, and Split the Sky for its melee buff. Dailies it's Disruptive and Ghost for dumping threat if I'm kiting adds or I get into trouble.

spacejew · January 2014

Seems to me that Marauders Escape is almost necessary if you decide to run Split Shot. It deaggro's things just long enough for someone else to pick them up, and if no one does you're at maximum range instantly again. The only reason I really like Split the Sky is for the gigantor AoE slow, the damage seems a bit 'meh' and it only proc'ing when someone is struck can be either a good or bad thing.

I really wish I could like Thorn Ward, but it only seems to attack one target at a time, and the target it selects seems to be random. I can see it being useful in a boss fight if you drop it right on their feet, but without knowing the mitigation debuff % it's hard to justify a single-target damage pet that goes away in around 15 seconds and may, or may not, stack the armor debuff on the target I want to debuff.

elminster · January 2014

I don't like StS for kite tanking because of its mechanic. As you said to use it effectively you have to be struck, which for a ranger is a very bad thing while kiting elites. On the other hand dropping it near the boss or main fight almost guarantees you pick up any unclaimed adds almost instantly, so I guess depending how you use it to each their own. Personally I'd much rather run Fox and give myself an extra dodge.

Thorn targets by proximity. This is effective against mostly-stationary targets like archers and trash mages since you can pretty much drop it at their feet and ignore them until they die while you continue kiting your true targets. On the other hand if I'm looking for debuffs I'm going for Commanding over Thorn every time, but for a fire-and-forget utility I find Thorn works best (second only to RoA).

If I had room for marauders I'd probably have that too, but as of right now I only switch it in for PvP or if I'm <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> around. Maybe when I go hybrid I'll consider adding it since I'll have more use for it, but as of right now it's on my back burners

spacejew · January 2014

elminster wrote: »

I don't like StS for kite tanking because of its mechanic. As you said to use it effectively you have to be struck, which for a ranger is a very bad thing while kiting elites. On the other hand dropping it near the boss or main fight almost guarantees you pick up any unclaimed adds almost instantly, so I guess depending how you use it to each their own. Personally I'd much rather run Fox and give myself an extra dodge.

Thorn targets by proximity. This is effective against mostly-stationary targets like archers and trash mages since you can pretty much drop it at their feet and ignore them until they die while you continue kiting your true targets. On the other hand if I'm looking for debuffs I'm going for Commanding over Thorn every time, but for a fire-and-forget utility I find Thorn works best (second only to RoA).

If I had room for marauders I'd probably have that too, but as of right now I only switch it in for PvP or if I'm <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> around. Maybe when I go hybrid I'll consider adding it since I'll have more use for it, but as of right now it's on my back burners

One neat thing I've noted is that Split the Sky works quite well taking out stationary targets like archers and mages. They have high RoF with relatively low damage compared to melee. It also gives me a fairly long-lived AoE speed debuff I can dodge back into to lose a tail.

With the 25% mitigation passive they are quite dead while dealing virtually no damage.

Also why I like Marauders, it enables me to be at least 15 feet from anything. Not always useful perhaps, but for PuG'ing with strangers it's quite invaluable to me.

Rangers = Ranged Tanks?

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