First I'm going to explain visual and sound cues for each class for some of the heavier or more annoying attacks for the newer players because if you can identify the moves they are using simply through sight and sound its easier to dodge or delay them or support them. I will elaborate on each skill and how to avoid them to the best of my knowledge and again if you know something better than I do feel free to post it and I will add it.
I have a character in each class each are above 11k gs now, so I have insights on how they work and how they don't. I've been playing since the day after open beta. I don't pvp too much mostly because for me it's a hassle. If someone has better stuff then me they are usually with people with similarly good stuff and I normally PUG. But I know about enough about pvp to be sure about what I'm writing strategy-wise.
Just remember being a ranger is a team sport in and outside the arena.
CW
I will be comparing the damage listed here based off of my two lv 60 CWs flame and storm just remember that in pvp players have more damage resistance and deflection than a mob does and they won't just stand there and let you do it so don't be mad if the skill doesn't or does hit harder.
I picked the CW first because it is one of the highest dps classes and the only one besides TR that will give an HR a lot of trouble also this can be used to learn to co-operate with a partied CW as we have many skills that synergize with them they can be our best friend or your worst enemy.
People try to compare the CW to the HR for damage but really we hit faster and more often they just hit harder with each attack but they each take time we can match the damage in a single attack but we pay a sort of penalty for it, stop comparing they aren't the same thing at all.
You can tell what spell a CW (or anything for that matter visually red circles are more of a guideline to the area you should avoid) is using by watching their arms and orb or listening for a ching-ching which signifies that the CW in question is about to use a daily. If you hear a single shimmering sounding noise they are using spell mastery; spell mastery can also be seen by a rune or circle above their heads and remember that they have 4 encounters because of the spell mastery slot.
The CWs dodge allows for three (on certain builds this is increased to 4 or even 5 due to stamina increases or players knowing how long till they can dodge twice)
If both the CW's arms are up in the air then moving down with hourglasses coming from you to them they are using Steal Time. It is an area of effect that is centered on the cw it slows while charging then it stuns for 6 seconds and hits moderately hard. My CW can hit around 5-7k on crit with a lesser vorpal. They can also dodge while charging the skill but before the stun to interrupt it and when they do this their long cool down is reduced to 4 seconds. Again hindering strike shines here;
Steal time's mastery gives allies within the blast area combat advantage and a good amount of movement speed.
Steal time is used to stop people from moving and attacking in close quarter hindering strike or binding arrow can be used to apply heavy roots and keep them from moving. Steal time when interrupted does nothing but slow and will go on full cool down if its timed before the CWs arms go down, each bit of time stolen increases the stun duration and procs weapon enchantments and is signified by the hour glasses moving to the wizard.
If they push their orb in front of them and a green (Mastery) or purple (normal) beam appears, they are using Ray of Enfeeblement. This reduces attack and defense and is a dot that can hit fairly severely if it crits. Ray of enfeeblement's mastery allows a 2 charge stackable debuff and both increase the damage and debuff. The debuff is also more severe especially if both charges are expended on the same target.
As I said before commanding shot reduces DR that compounds with this to remove DR, even more useful for nature because it ties into buff and any HR can use it. If you stack dots with them your dot can hit even harder because of their defense being lowered. You can tell this is affecting someone by the green or purple aura around the head.
If you see one arm about to raise with a bit of white they are about to Entangling Force or aka force choke someone. In pvp its duration is shortened a bit but if you get caught your up in the air. But like all control effects it can be resisted by having a high wisdom and other things that improve it. It's a dot weather you are cc immune or not and my CW can hit around 2-4k per second. The mastery version of this skill gathers up anyone nearby and gives arcane mastery stacks.
If its on mastery, hindering strike can root everyone gathered with this if you use what I use with steel breeze you hit them all twice then if you're using clear the ground which is good at killing weaker enemies and maintaining damage. You can also boar charge with normal force to continue the cc to knock the opponent down constricting and disrupt allows the hold to last longer because they still can't attack.
If they are gathering their arms behind them and then underhandedly throwing its Chill Strike. Normally this single target skill hits very hard on a crit about 8-12k, adds 1 or 3 stacks of chill (3 if capstone feated) and freezes the main target for 2 or 3 seconds on both types. In mastery it has a wide aoe that hits 5 targets for the same damage.
It can also be feated along with magic missile to fire 10' farther. Boars charge works with this well because the freeze is different then from chill it freezes only for a moment and there free, constricting arrow helps by stopping a long animation while in motion can stop them in their tracks maybe even putting said skill on cool down without it actually hitting and if you reduce their DR this spell will hit even harder.
If for about a second they put the orb in front and have a blue rune in front of them they are preparing for Icy Rays. This will stick you in one spot for a few seconds and is nigh unavoidable can crit for anywhere between 6-15k depending on the wizard and what debuffs are already on the target they can choose to mark 1 target twice for more damage or mark two targets for less damage to both. You can tell if you're targeted because the same rune that is in front of them will also be over your head.
They have to choose two targets in order to fire it; and it takes a second between each mark if you stun them or disrupt them before they choose the second target you might be able to delay them long enough to reset the first target or at least just delay the actual hit.
If you see the CW with their arm and orb going up and then down then they are about to use Sudden Strike. My CW can hit 10-32k 32K is the extreme (like I really have to prep the targets to get this result and it will usually hit about 17-20k with my style) with this one its short ranged but will hit everything in the straight line aoe it can be avoided pretty easily because it is really telegraphed; but if you don't you will be in excruciating pain especially if it crits and you don't deflect.
This spell also doesn't work with their arcane singularity daily.
You can use roots to stop enemies from getting away if not it will still pull them back and keep them away from the cw using this skill. If an ally is using this, Reduce the enemies defense if you can, it will kill them or make them wish they died. If an enemy is using it stun or quickly interrupt it or just dodge it its not a very wide attack its about as wide as the end range of a 70-80% charged split shot. It has a 7 second cool down so provided they are still alive; they can recast this faster than any other encounter besides repel.
If they are gathering their arms behind them with lightning its Storm Pillar. Storm pillar is an interesting spell it is an 8' area that hits the target and anyone in that radius once and can be charged for more damage at half way if feated will increase their power if they hit two or more targets.
At full charge about 3 seconds; this spell becomes a much larger area attack that leaves a pillar at the target that also splinters and damages others around it as a dot aoe and can hit anywhere from 4-12k on a crit and the dots can hit 1k and proc spell storm which can be even more dangerous. However they have to sit in one spot and if stunned or controlled they lose it if it doesn't have a target it will hit on the CW for no damage to them. The CW will yell if its charged enough.
Disruptive shot is bane of this move as is constricting, all it does is damage in an area which we do well also and the damage is fairly heavy if they crit at a full charge. If an allied CW is using it it might be prudent to cover them if you can either through controls or by jumping in front not just right in front as it could cause them to miss cause they might accidentally target you which makes them target themselves.
If their arms are slowly spread out kinda like Jesus they are using Scorching Burst. Scorching Burst is a dot that gets wider and slightly more powerful as they charge it and can fire it off whenever during the charge when its about to go off the CW will let out a yell.
This is aimed shots bane as it causes a dot if you see a enemy fire mage using this put aimed shot away. If the mage is friendly try stacking your dots with theirs using rain of swords, aimed strike, thorn ward, or even rain of arrows if the wizard used a control spell.
Fanning the Flames looks like scorching burst but faster and more instantaneous. Fanning the flames is dangerous IMO because if they already have smolder on a nearby ally and hit you with this staying near those party members can get you killed it hits around 4-9k and is itself a dot. You can root singularly or in the area and cause the burns from this to continuously stack and hit. Try knocking the target down next to his allies if you're close enough to him his allies will stoke the flames easier with that party member down possibly maiming or even killing him just because they were near him.
If their arm goes across their body and then up then its Conduit of Ice. Its visual is basically an ice tornado. CW's who are using this with their capstone feat can cause anyone hit with this to lose 15% DR for as long as they are within it. Normally it does not add chill stacks but mastery will add 1 stack each time it damages for around 6 seconds. it will not freeze and will stick to the main target for a pretty short downtime; mastery will also increase the aoe of the tornado.
Currently this is bugged for smolder or so I've read, no idea if its true or not but they seemed pretty pissed about it. Conduit of ice is an iffy move its hard to dodge but if you stun or disrupt before their arm goes up you stop the whole spell and can cause them to lose valuable seconds trying to recast after the stun.
On the allied side if they have it feated reduce defense more and stack dot use some roots with it since they are slowing with each hit (if mastery) it can make your roots better because they can't pull away as good. You can also use aoe attacks with it to increase damage to all effected.
If their orb arm goes up with a blue circle in their hand then they are about to use Icy Terrain they will then slam their hand into the ground leaving a blue icy residue on the ground. Icy Terrain is a good move and a bad move it's a aoe ground dot that freezes movement if caught in the initial cast area. It adds chill stacks as it hits on normal and on mastery and if you are at 6 stacks it will freeze you. The damage is negligible maybe 1k per second on crit in the aoe it lasts as long as the 15 second cool down so once the duration is up they can usually pop it again.
Icy terrain mastery increases the immobilize time and allows the cw to cast it anywhere in 40' or so. It will leave an ice trail towards the target area.
Same as with other dots on the ground you can use split the sky, or thorn ward, rain of arrows since they can't move for a second. You can stick them there with roots too; so they don't get out of it increasing damage and chill and possibly allowing it to freeze them.
If both arms go up closely together and then go down spreaded apart then its Endless Shard of the Avalanche and is more useful when they go to push it from behind. A rock drops from the sky in front of the cw they can re-activate the power to push it in front of them angling of this move is only slightly difficult and if you are hit by the push or it lands on you it will knock you back-prone if they hit three people with it; it will knock them back-prone hit then explode in an area then hit again for a hefty amount it also shakes then explodes after it's duration.
Spell mastery will drop this in anywhere in ranged and allow the reactivation to move it where they want to place it up to 3 times and its kind of hard to control and hits 3-7k each time it hits or more for some CW's they can also just drop it on your head causing it to hit again. After this skill prones; a Boars Charge will continue the combo by proning the enemy again.
If their orb arm is quickly moving across their chest and about to move forward then they are about to use Repel This does negligible damage but can make singularly capping a point hard vs a cw using it. They use it to get people off of them, their team, or the domination point. In mastery it hits 5 people and stuns them afterwards they also use this to push off of ledges so try not to have your back to one when you realize they have this. this move can also save an enemy if not used right so they could end up accidentally saving you just because of a mess-up of rotation. Roots could also possibly mess this up if they are strong roots pulling the enemy back toward the cw or dominate point. (confirmed)
Shield is a very easily recognizable ability so I won't mention its looks. It is important to know what it does however as it gives them near 25% mitigation to around 3 to 5 hits, when its hit it shrinks and provides less damage mitigation. When its spent it will comeback to full after 6 seconds of receiving no damage they can reactivate it even when spent to erupt the shield causing everything around the CW to be pushed away around 20 feet and on mastery the shield turns purple and provides much more mitigation and can take more of a beating. The eruptions can hit 5-10k; 10k is the extreme for my cw.
Remember that this spells' erupt is a defense mechanism to push away; do not use roots unless you can kill them the roots might just help pull them back to the cw however if the shield weakens the enemy enough so he has low life just unload a dead person can't do damage. Wait till after the push to root to help the cw out. If he doesn't pop his shield and dodges don't worry about the roots helping the enemy because even weak roots start pulling back normal move speed at 20' leaving the cw 5' to move back or stun.
Smolder Smolder lasts 4 seconds and can crit but once they use ice spells it resets to rime fire and re-rolls their crit or they use another smolder applying spell. hits around 4-800; and 1-2k on crit. They also have various ways of spreading smolder some class features they have allows dailies and ice and arcane spells on crit to apply smolder as well.
Ray of Frost I love this skill on my fire wizard; when it crits it adds smolder due to a class feature, it has a feat in the oppressor tree that allows a chance each hit of this spell to add 2 chill stacks instead of 1 each hit which makes the 6 stacks of chill an easy reality this paired with the capstone feated chill strike is fast and efficient at slowing movement and eventually freezing into place. It also lets chill bypass a GF's shield thus allowing them to freeze them.
This helps to increase the effectiveness of your roots because even weak roots pull right on cast it just starts holding them back at 20' because they move fast if they are slow or immobilized it will pull earlier; and some wizards can cause chill stacks to weaken attack or defense (I forget which I'll change after I verify) and increase their power and damage
Chilling Cloud at-will This has three attacks its a 1, 2, pause (arms raised then lowered) and on the third it hits around 10 feet or so and adds a chill stack to anyone hit. The first two can refresh chill stacks leaving the stacks on for longer. It won't allow freezing at 6 stacks but once they use one that does freeze you're frozen. This move is dangerous when used in conjunction with conduit of ice (especially mastery) or mastery chill strike. It can be feated so it give the cw t.hp based on weapon damage. When they use a certain feat when the 3rd attack hits more than 2 people it increases power by up to 10% for each person more than two hit by it which is why it's so dangerous when used with Conduit. It can also be feated to weaken attack power as well. You want to dodge the third one because it can hit around 3-7k or more depending on the wizard
Magic missile or MM Magic missile is a weak but fast single target that hits with a 1, 2, then 3,4,5 it can hit 1-2k per missile and on 5 it adds a stack of arcane mastery. it has several feats attached to its 3rd use such as adding mitigation or healing it can be feated to hit 10' more from 80' meaning a wizard feated this way can almost match or beat our range even with our class feature.
Arcane Singularity aka sing
Arcane Singularity is their best movement control spell it has a very wide aoe and will suck anything towards its center and gather them up and explode dealing damage to all inside it can gather 15 or more enemies into it the enemies can still attack use encounters or place buffs heal whatever unless they are also stunned a strategy some cws will use is to use sing to gather and as it pulls them they will use steal time to stun so they can't attack.
When the wizard uses singularity if you use hindering strike it can heavy root all inside the singularity this is useful to us because it will stop them from moving even longer because they are all gathered up you can hit them all clear the ground ES and split shot split strike and even binding arrow are all good factors for this spell.
This spell also grabs the most aggro out of any spell they have so if you use the strategy above it will stop at least 5 of them from chasing the cw.
Oppresive Force This move is noticeable by the weapons and such that gathers next to the cw. I like this move much better than Singularity because it stuns throughout animation and around 6 seconds after it doesn't have a huge tell or cast time and will render anyone inside the effect stunned but still able to move because it is a soft stun. It hits harder than singularity and will push back enemies slightly. Use of this move for this reason; can be slightly annoying to allied melee players but the stun is worth losing at least some dps because it is a long stun and and stunning in pvp is the name of the game it can hit 5 times around 500-1k; then it explodes for moderate to heavy damage around 7-12k.
Ice Knife the CW's arms look like they're clapping and an arm goes up then down upon being down a knife of ice drops down prones and can hit over 20-50k. You kind of have to dodge just before the knife lands and prones you. You just have to learn the timing once you fully get it down its pretty easy. If you stun or prone them before their arm drops it will stop the spell cast for another second.
Maelstrom of Chaos The cw kneels with his arms down with lightning at his feet then raises his arms throwing anyone close away from the cw and a lightning bolt strikes at their enemies new location. At first this move looks like its JUST a close range spell which is a half-truth. It can also be used to hit the ground at the location they choose. If next to a wizard using this move they will throw anyone around the cw to the target location and can hit around 10k at the 10' aoe throw location whether they've thrown anyone or not. While casting this the cw has increased defense and is immune to CC effects.
Furious Immolation looks like a flaming tornado and it gathers up to 8 people and damages each of them twice for around 6-10k damage each hit and adds smolder to each target. Its range is 40' and so is the aoe. If you are behind the cw they can cast this and it will put you in front of them.
Ice StormThe cw will kneel with arcane magics and will put his hands on the ground and ice will jump from the ground. normally only gives 3 chill stacks but with the same capstone that gives chill strike the 3 stack of chill; this spell can apply 5 stacks instead of 3 and will knock anyone hit into the air and away from the 40' or so aoe and then will knock them prone where they land. This drives melee's crazy when this is used because of the knock distance.
More later.
I will post every classes tell and strategy for co-op and vs. eventually.
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shareenahMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 14Arc User
edited January 2014
masterjewstar Just want to say thank you so much for this thread, really, really helpful I have learnt a lot (would be great if I could remember it ) lol
THANK YOU very much appreciated
Just trying to help anyone who needs it. I'm gonna start with the more intermediate today and I'll be padding the beginner side a little with a bit about the synergies with the cleric also to show how to co-operate with them with the nature side at least thats the plan. If I don't do everything today I'll likely do it tomorrow.
I'm glad it helps its why I did it.:)
All it takes is practice and muscle memory, you use the right abilities for what you're trying to do and work together with others and you should be all right.
Sorry the forum won't let me post anymore on that last wall so I'll continue here....
5 Ranger Monty Beginners Edition part 2 DC
DC's are not like clerics in most mmos they are more active and more defensive and they pass their defenses and healing unto its allies. A good cleric is a dangerous foe some are amazing at holding points even against several opponents stun locked or not, they are masters of dots, debuffing, buffing, increasing and lowering speed, power, and defense, they can throw people off of a control point and heal any allies sending all enemies in a wide area into the air if you don't resist the throw you can't attack in the air.
Clerics in pvp are usually the first targeted class due to their ability to heal and weaken damage done so they need to be protected. Occasionally there are DC's that are really powerful and can hold a point all by themselves sometimes even just the cleric is the only reason that the opposing team wins.
They can stop you from moving or even cause your mere presence to radiate a heavy healing glow for their allies. They can hit very hard and some full item sets can improve almost everything about each of them they can even crush people if they use their skills right and still be at half or even full life.
Their tab skill channel divinity improves or changes the way their spells work they gain divinity each hit (or heal when they have the class feature on) they place outside of divinity when it fills they gain a pip which can be spent to use the divine part of the spell you can tell that a cleric is using divinity or a spell is affected by divinity is when their icon or the spell effect is blue. I believe it gains based on a per attack basis excepting at wills, which seem to gain from per damage basis(unconfirmed). Cleric spells also crit for their severity so if the spell crits so will the heal if it has one and if they have a vorpal it heals even more.
I will try to teach you how to take advantage of and assist in their powers while also protecting your party from them and preventing their heals. Just remember a cleric is not a replacement for potions, they do not have spike heals that will bring you back immediately from the brink of death; but they can make it take a really long time to get you there if you let them.
Normal casts are at the top and Divinity is on the bottom; things labeled as I'm unsure or I believe or several seconds will be fazed out after testing or looking it up.
Obviously our buffs will allow clerics some breathing room but thats not the only way we can support them will definitely include anything I can when I can.
Damage numbers are from my cleric at 11.5k gs power crit based dot buff cleric.
Sun Burst It an area heal and hit they put the arms together and then spread apart with a light coming out of them can hit around 3-5k and heal around 1-3k. It also pushes away slightly only 5', if that.
(Divinity) Sunburst will throw any enemies in aoe into the air about 25 feet away from them.
Healing Word or HW Their hand will go out and a yellow thing will go toward a target. Healing Word is a fast; one target heal for around 700-1000 in an hot(heal over time) with 3 charges it doesn't heal a lot around 6k over maybe 10 seconds each application of HW will replace the old but will refresh the duration and reroll for crit.
(Divinity) Heals around 1-3k immediately then starts its hot; it also doesn't use a charge so they can almost spam up to 4 times; if they have enough pips.
Break the Spirit This is a single target dot which lowers the attack of anyone it hits it can hit around 2k on a crit over several seconds it looks like healing word but it shows an explosion on hit at the target and they will have a symbol around them.
If you use commanding on the target of this it will combo to remove DR and attack power.
Divinity to come after I remember.
Chains of Blinding Light This spell spins chains going up around the cleric and then going down the cleric when the chains go down they appear on the ground where they targeted in around a 15' or so area and it will stay there for around 10 seconds. It does nothing without anyone stepping on it but if you do; it erupts for around 25' around either the center of the chains or the center of the one stepping on it I'm unsure. It can hit around 3-6k and will immobilize anyone hit by the erupt for around 3-5 seconds.
(Divinity) Chains will instantly appear on cast and I believe it does more damage I'm unsure I'll try it out later.
It takes a second or so for the chains to go from the cleric to the ground. If they get stunned they have to either recast or recharge it.
Forgemasters Flame or FF The clerics arm goes up then a yellow circle with a flame in it appears around the target. It is a spell that when applied to enemies will slow the target's movement speed and do around 800-2k damage over time and lasts for 6 seconds I think.
(Divinity) The circle is now blue and when FF hits it heals making this spell a single target dot AND hot that ignores their 40% less healing from themselves debuff and can heal for almost 3k per second on a crit and 1.5k normally. This is attached to an enemy and will heal everyone near it so if you need life and this is on a target who is close move in to receive the light.
Astral Shield The cleric raises their off-hand arm and when at the top it drops a yellow ring shield on the ground and it lasts for several seconds. This shield does not heal when its casted normally unless feated (when feated it will heal a percentage of your hp every 3 seconds) normally it will mitigate 25% of damage received it has a normal cool down of 16 seconds but clerics have a lot of naturally high recovery so it might be shorter for some of them.
(Divinity) Now the ring is blue and continuously and quickly heals around 4-500 hp and increases mitigation so long as an ally is inside it.
Much like our oak skin but much stronger which is why using oakskin during or after a casting of this will improve the mitigation and healing rate or make the healing and some of the mitigation last longer. You can place a thorn ward or rain of arrows in it and it will add a damage over time effect to someone trying to attack near it oakskin is portable meaning through out duration regardless of where your allies are astral shield only affects those inside it.
Daunting Light This move hits really fricken hard when it crits. The aoe is small (like rain of arrows) and will be recognized by a fiery hot looking beam coming from the sky. You want to dodge this attack as it can hit on a crit anywhere between 10-37k (or so I've heard) my cleric can only hit about 14k the highest; 10k normally. It can be feated to reduce your defense making it even more dangerous.
(Divinity) The spell animation is instantaneous, the aoe is 15-20' and it hits hard; again avoid this.
It is usually used on an already stunned, proned or immobilized people or one whose not paying any attention to the cleric. If you find this is you pray that you can dodge in time. The ranger can both prone and heavily root someone to help make sure this attack hits and if at all possible try to reduce DR with commanding shot to make sure this move kills.
Astral Seal-at will This causes any ally that hits on target affected to gain life based off of how hard they hit this is an important spell to them and will jump at the chance to hit you with it because they can turn you into a heal on hit making this and forge masters a potent combination, this spell can supplement your own life steal making it better and gaining more life per hit. You can tell someone has this on them by the gold ring that surrounds them and when the cleric uses it; it looks like they are hurling a golden wreath.
Foresight This class feature turns their heals into 6% DR buffs as well and will also increase defense by up to 5% when feated. So just because it doesn't seem like it they are always powering you up.
Brand of the Sun or BOTS brand of the sun isn't like the other at wills the cleric has. It is a damage over time that only takes a second to apply and lasts for 6 or so seconds and can on crit hit 7k over duration. This spell, break the spirit, and forge masters flame can easily kill something in a matter of time it hits individually low but over time it can get to be much and the fact that it is an easily applied anytime dot means that they can stop aimed shot to almost 100% downtime.
It is recognizable by their icon raising and a short burst of light fires to the target you can tell someones affected by the runic looking thing around them astral seal can turn the damage from this into an hot for them and will heal with it and their life steal.
It also gradually through damage over time give them divinity over time compounding when applied to more than one target it only takes maybe 5 seconds to apply to 5 people each application will reroll crit so if they crit and hit you again with a non crit it will non crit until they reapply.
Hallowed Ground Daily hallowed ground is IMO the best defensive and offensive support buff as while inside it the cleric and his allies gain increase defense and attack power and it can be feated to heal a % of your max hp every three seconds.
This looks like a golden ring on the ground surrounded by a blue border steps will shine while moving on it. The DC will kneel and and spread his arms then clap once.
Flame Strike Daily This is an aoe and is arguably the best offensive daily the cleric has the cleric chooses the area around 25' and raises his arms, while they are raised those who are within the center of the aoe around 5' will be lifted and when the clerics arms go down so do the targets when lifted it hits and upon the drop you get hit again it will splash damage after the drop to hit anyone outside the 5' radius it can be feated to stun as well.
Hammer of Fate Daily Many people believed this skill was amazing and when it got nerved people ended up not using it. I like it and it used to be used to kill in pvp it probably still does. It can hit harder than flame strike to one target and if the target dies the cleric gains 10% AP. you can tell its being used because yellow light will surround and swirl about the cleric and he flings his arms 3 times throwing glowing hammers hitting around 4-5k per hammer hit and each hammer will knock back but the third hit which is delayed will also knock the target into the air and hit the hardest.
Divine Shield Daily This spell is noticeable because shields with wings will fall down from the sky with shields surrounding and spinning about allies. This will increase defense and give them a large amount of Temp hp; which can synergize and compound with stag heart and unstoppable.
TR
The TR is difficult for everyone to deal with unless you are an especially good tank or have a lot of mitigation stacked up because the way the tr is designed its extremely hard to figure them out or get a good bead on them because they teleport to their target, can kill in one or two attacks they have a variety of stuns, prones, slows, things that increase damage, stealth meter and are notoriously high damage critters. They have a naturally higher deflection severity at 75%. They have several dots through bleed they can steal movement speed on crit they excel most at single target attacks and counter rogue abilities and can make themselves immune to cc and damage they have ranged and melee attacks through various dagger throws and slashes and stabs.
Stealth "normally" lasts 9 seconds which isn't all the time because feats and class features can lengthen the time they are in stealth. It gives them automatic combat advantage and some rogues can carry this with them after the stealth ends. Stealth adds various new effects to encounters compared to using them unstealthed. Stealth when not full will drain when in use; it also is reduced and by being hit and it is also reduced when in stealth by their use of at wills when unstealthed and not at full if hit it will stop their gains for 1 second if not continuously taking damage. they can be feated to gain stealth by dodging they also have a few moves for replenishing stealth either gradually or straight to full allowing them to stay in stealth for inordinate amounts of time hence the term permasteath rouge.
Lashing Blade Arguably the most powerful single target attack that they have and can crit almost 17-50k (which is the highest I've ever seen) or more depending on the rogue. It has a 21 second cool down and if hit with this you will likely be either drowning in a pool of your own blood or will be getting there soon. They use this to quickly eliminate squishier enemies and to soften the hp of those it doesn't kill.
(Stealthed) Guaranteed critical hit plus it hits harder because of combat advantage inside stealth.
Lashing blade is the bane of almost everyone, especially wizards having the lowest defensive ability of all classes. The trick to dodging this move or so I've heard is to wait for the large purple knife to almost sink in fully then dodge. (if anyone can confirm this I will give credit) You must pay attention to the knife when being attacked with this. Look at the arms to identify them using it if you can see them; as they will swing their arm wide across their body. Even I have trouble with avoiding this move.
If you use lone wolf and boars hide it will reduce the damage by 30%. Mitigation is the only thing short of dodging not broken by their armor pen and high damage to reduce it.
Dazing strike
(Stealthed) Now activates 50% faster.
Deft Strike This move allows the TR to teleport-to-target then strike the target. The hit is only moderate damage but this can lead to comboing of at wills or even encounter or daily usage.
(Stealthed) This will allow the TR to teleport to an ally within 80'. If they hit an enemy they will also slow them.
Smokebomb Pay attention to their arm it goes up then down with purple smoke in their hand then spreads to around 25' soft stunning anyone inside it once you get out it will take 1 second to unstun the stun will constantly refresh itself as long as you are inside it.
(Stealthed) The smoke bomb also slows anyone inside it and can be used with teleportation moves to drop a bomb at your location.
Try dropping a thorn ward and/or a rain of arrows into the smoke bomb if it is an ally it will reduce the TR's main targets defense allowing the tr to do even more damage. If it is an enemy smoke then fire it in theirs it will disallow them to escape through stealth if not at full and reduce his damage and defense or maybe make him change his mind about attacking those in the smoke.
Impossible to Catch or ITC This ability renders control powers inoperable it will deflect any attack during its 6 second duration and can be used to cancel any currently applied controls except for prone. You can tell this ability is up when they have black smoke around them and when you attack they seem to move out of the way the best thing to do is to not use encounters on them while this is up it will waste your attacks and the tr will likely laugh at you for wasting them avoid doing this when its over it has a fairly long cool down just keep avoiding its encounters until its over then start unloading. This move can be feated to increase their power stat by 10%.
(Stealthed) This ability now renders the tr absolutely immune to damage and control for the same duration. This I believe this bugged for roots at the moment and this will likely be changed later if it hasn't been already.
Shocking Execution Daily The TR kind of glides into the air and lands dagger first and a large purple dagger and a bunch of little ones drop on you. This move is used as a finisher as it deals damage based on the % of health missing from the target. it can and will hit even harder than lashing blade IF you have low hp. At full life being hit with this isn't a tickle but its way better than full damage at low life. Damage resistance means nothing to this attack because it hits its base then increases its damage percentage based of missing hp to max hp. At base is around 5k; at 20-30% hp it can hit more than 17k do the math.
I've heard it can be dodged but I've never accomplished it. All you can do to delay them is stun. But then they get to do it again.
Lurkers Assault Daily This ability is imo their best daily it improves their damage by I believe 20%, it quickly increases stealth meter through out duration and can maintain stealth meter and allows while stealthed for ALL their encounters to be stealth encounters and still not break stealth until its duration ends or they run out of stealth. Its noticeable if they are visible by the see through purple armor over their normal armor if they target an enemy and use this it will teleport them to the enemies location and if already in stealth it can allow them to hit you with everything because of being in short range and being unseen.
Courage Breaker Daily This is another of my favorites it doesn't do great damage, BUT it does have an amazing effect on it, it slows by 30% AND reduces attack damage by 90%. But thats not all; it has a 10 second duration and it completely ignores immunities it will reduce a GWF's movement speed even while unstoppable and sprinting slowing them to a crawl making it almost impossible to escape it's actually pretty entertaining to watch them try especially if rooted and chilled.
This is a 40' teleport-to-target move and they will appear above the target and zig-zag down them hitting with each zig and zag. The TR can still be hit unless the it uses ITC in stealth before activating this.
Impact Shot This is a bane of wizards, clerics and probably HR too. It does around 5-15k depending on the rogue and it interrupts and pushes slightly. The push can make it impossible to dodge anything as you are basically stunned for half a second while it moves you. it has 3 charges at 12 second cool down.
(Stealthed) Stuns for longer and doesn't consume a charge so if they use Lurkers they can spam it 6 times at full charges once they use 3 free charges it starts expending the real ones.
Vengeance's pursuit I don't have a whisper knife so i can't really remember the difference between unstealthed and stealthed. Any way this is a teleport-to-target prone then a dagger throw and will render them immune to cc during the prone animation (or so i hear) I believe the dagger reduces the targets damage to the tr.
(Stealthed)The prone and dagger throw is reversed i.e. dagger throw then prone or prone then dagger throw I forget which.
Disheartening Knife at will This is a hard hitting dot that take 2 seconds to fire. If they crit it will crit until the duration ends or they hit you with another which will refresh duration and reroll crit. The TR will fling a dagger up in the air catch it and throw it.
Steel Cloud At-will This ability has 8 charges and hits harder the more times they hit the same target with each charge. Each charge has a cool down of 3 seconds.
It is a rapid fire ranged dagger throw.
Sly flourish At-will It is a fast attack it doesn't hit too hard but what it lacks in damage it more than makes up for in rate of attack.
Duelist's flurry At-will Duelist flurry is an attack that after the first 2 strikes it begins hitting wildly for around 3 second while its hitting wildly it is applying bleed stacks and it is almost cc immune while doing so.
To dodge this moves bleed dodge before or after the 2nd strike last minute in order to leave the tr sitting in one spot for the wild attacks then you can rain hell on them. The first strike is a slash second is a stab it starts its bleed effect after the stab and it looks like they're attacking and faded. Remember that the first two attacks are really slow.
Gloaming strike At-will is noticeable by watching their arms they wind their blades behind them and dash forward about 10-15' and then swing forward with both blades. This can hit very hard at least 5-10k and if they kill with this it will increase their stealth pool by 25%.
Path of Blades their arms will spread and daggers start combing the floor around them for someone to hit. Its duration is about 6-8 seconds each hit is not too bad but is used more for finding stealthed opponents or keeping and maintaining dps around themselves.
(Stealthed)has half duration but double the attack speed of normal.
Shadow Strike Its a flung dagger with purple clouds around it which hits weak. This ability will only hit around 2k but this ability isn't about damage; it is about stealth.
(Stealthed) In stealth this move will fully recharge stealth and stun the target I believe if not dodged. If you do dodge it you will screw up their stealth rotation because it has to hit in order to give stealth.
Bait n Switch This will leave a black shadowy fake of the rogue they will also auto-roll away from it after leaving it there; It doesn't move or attack but what it does do is provide AP upon being hit to the TR regardless of the TRs range from it. If you hit it you might give them a kill shot daily they will use this to their advantage when facing ranged aoe attacks or a fighter is bothering them and make them attack it to stop them from attacking them, also they can feat this to deal damage to someone who hits it. It also causes tricked status when near the dummy I'll look it up later.
(Stealthed) This will replenish the TR's stealth meter to full.
Strategy- You can use the dummy if you have a target aoe like Split Shot or ES. If the tr is still around it you can use the dummy to hit the TR and end his stealth early be aware that this will only work if they are around it if not all you're doing is making them get their daily faster.
I've added most of the DC to the 5 ranger monty beginner list. TR list is almost done and i will add more strategies to counter them as I come up with them and time allows. I'm sorry for the wait. I have added the CW's dailies to the list and will elaborate more when I get around to it.
Daunting light in divinity - instant cast, double AOE target size. I can confirm at least 34k crit, since I've done that with my own DC.
When in divinity mode at-wills - There's the heal beam and the harm beam. The heal beam is green and connects the DC to the target. They are getting a rapid heal and you have to either overpower the heal with DPS (takes more than 1 person) or you have to stun the DC. (this is the main reason why DCs are generally primary target.) Harm beam is a blue beam from DC to the target. They are rapidly tearing away life from this target who needs to stun the DC to try and survive. Both of these effects use up divinity, so if a DC is doing this to you, they either think they have you dead with it, or are desperately putting out all the DPS they can.
Thanks shadow; I was gonna get to that lol and now I don't have to, thanks buddy.
And its true too if theres even a terrible cleric with a good GWF that GWF will take attacks like its a tasty treat and will probably lol a lot because if they are healed while unstoppable they don't take damage until their t.hp is gone which is further protected by its unstoppable DR increases especially with foresight.
I will get to the GWF when I get around to it.
GWF
First a forewarning I'm not a great gwf by any means I do know how they work though. GWF's seem like they were made specifically for pvp much like the TR. They can take and dish out good damage and can make them selves stronger just by being hit they have stuns, prones, great mobility high defense and HP. They can be built for damage or defense or control. They have some of the best 1v1 potential and some can take on entire groups by themselves.
IMO fighting those GWF's is pointless its usually better to avoid their prones and kite them while attacking their party. Their main job in a group in pvp is to distract you; get hit and then get stronger and faster by being hit as well as taking and holding points. The best way to stop their Unstoppable is to not let them get it in the first place. Their weakness is proning and weak attacks because while prone they can't go unstoppable they can while stunned, however. They can't go unstoppable until they receive or deal enough damage and damaging gives much less determination than being hit.
You can also try to chain prone to death but this requires immense team strategy and synchronization; because if they have one standing second they will pop unstoppable and if they have more than 8k hp they will slightly heal themselves and retreat to pot or DC.
They gain Determination while being hit and Unstoppable can give them temp hp which goes away after unstoppable ends, cc immunity, 25-50% DR; it increases their attack speed and lowers their damage which off-sets from their attack speed. It can be feated to heal them a percentage of hp, and even gain determination just from attacking. They can go unstoppable at 50% determination and thats around 5k damage. At 100% the benefits and duration from unstoppable are doubled.
Restoring Strike I figured I'd mention this because it heals and gives them sprint, and this is not what we want them to do.... EVER.
It can heal sentinels around 5k for non-sentinals around 3k. It can hit 3-9k or more for some of them even more if you're debuffed.
Which means that if they receive the heal from this then go unstoppable and get the heal from that at the same time; they can heal for the exact damage it took for them to get unstoppable thusly making them seem unkillable.
It is a slow; but sudden upward attack you can tell by the blade going ground up with the ground being slightly scratched and sparks flying from the target. If you dodge it; it won't heal them.
Like I said though if the enemies are debuffed they get more out of this so for an ally you could stun the enemy so they can't dodge thus gaining him a heal. The hr is very good at this especially with roots constricting and disrupting shots because if they can't escape; they will only die faster cause they can't get away from the gwf; also commanding shot doesn't hurt either.
Not so Fast The gwf spins around quickly hitting enemies with a low cut and slowing them down. This can be mistaken for their at will wicked strike and it can be feated to slow even more.
It's a fast move and it can severely slow and give combat advantage if feated. But it does fairly low damage about 3-6k on mine.
Mighty Leap This is like their dodge which when feated can also slow and give combat advantage like not so fast (same feat) While in the air they are immune to damage and cc hits 3-6k but will jump them 20-40 feet(I have to check). They can use this to jump platforms on a similar level of height or lower.
Flourish The GWF stands with blade back pushing it forward stabbing then a bunch of yellow GWF's circle around the back each hitting around 6 times.
This is a stun that hits fairly hard and is hard to dodge you have to dodge the first hit as it will stun. The first hit when dodged will allow a double dodge; to dodge most of the damage as the hit hits rapidly not all at once. Also if you get out of range of the attack and they miss you can waste it for them. It can also be feated to also stun on the last hit as well.
It can hit 3-6-9k or more if all the hits register. Each stun is I think 1 second I'm not entirely sure.
Indomitable Battle Strike or IBS IBS is a slow, painful, and easily predictable and dodge able attack if; you pay attention. If their arms are above their head, you don't wanna get hit; and heres why. They can hit more than 10k damage easy and if they kill you they gain AP and any allies near you will have their DR reduced by mark which reduces DR by 8% until the gwf is hit by them.
This is another of those attacks you never wanna take to the chin; but if you stun them while arms are in the air just to be safe; it will stop them from using it. If they're unstoppable remember that its faster and you won't be able to stun them which means you must dodge it.
Again weaken the enemies defense and keep them there to get hit by it while laying down cover fire. A prone will always aid the attack and we can chain prone with the GWF easily especially with their new paragon class.
Takedown Takedown is an amazing skill it hits around 5k and prones 1 target in front of them it is basically a hilt punch and if it misses it has a cool down of only four seconds which means 4 seconds after using and missing they get to try again.
Because it prones you want it to miss but because it comes right back so soon after missing you could end up spending all your dodges just to avoid prone you can dodge it by waiting for the hilt to start coming down then try to dodge behind them.
If a gwf is normally using this try rooting them a bit before they usually use it, that way when it prones you; the roots may pull back not allowing him to capitalize the prone or just stun or prone if you can.
Avalanche of Steel Daily It is another jump but this one is a higher longer jump and makes them immune to everything for duration it has a wide range aoe and they can move with it making the aoe itself move it takes 5 seconds for them to land it will show a wide moving red circle and the gwf will land in the center proning all who are hit and it takes timing to dodge while inside it. Or you can move out of the aoe to avoid it 100% but they will take the area they land in.
You can tell the gwf is about to use this because they will kneel before hand and can't be CC'd while kneeling or in the air the prone starts as soon as the gwf is either visible onscreen or upon the landing. The red zone also has another ring that goes toward the middle which signifies that they are about to land.
You can, you just need to wait a little bit before the items show.
Yeah that was like the first week of the HR when there were no items in the broker. It didn't work at the time of post.
All good though like I said it was rectified.
I figure I'll use this post to list the GF when i get around to it.
GF
Much like the GWF their usual main job in pvp is to jump to you; knock you down to kill you; and take damage for their team. They can be feated to boost their allies, increase their defense or attack power. They can literally take half their allies damage and block from far away. They can heal themselves from attack damage; reflect damage taken become immune to CC and can boast the highest hit points per constitution of any class.
Their shift is not a dodge but a block and will absorb all damage and cc until it breaks from being hit rapidly or too hard but it will only block from the front their weakness is their back. They can replenish their shield over time whilst not using it and certain abilities will replenish part of, half of, or all their block meter.
They can gain their own T. hp using certain moves or even from just being healed. We actually have a goodly amount of synergies with them too so don't think that; Oh he's a tank and I'm ranged he can't benefit from what I do besides damage and buffs... This is wrong. I will try to explain this as best I can when i get to it.
Their tab ability is marking 1 enemy. Marked enemies will have their DR reduced by 8% until they damage the GF if they block the damage it doesn't remove the mark. This in itself will increase damage done by the HR. It will also increase aggro generation from their attacks in pve. If the enemy are chasing and the ally doesn't have a lot of aggro it can peel them off an ally by continuing to attack. They have a variety of moves that generate marks and increase their aggro.
Their prones are identifiable through their shield arm movements however they have other moves like tide of iron that also look like it.
They have a variety of ways to mark through various abilities. I will label these [mark] in green.
More to come.
I've added more to DC, TR, and GWF and a small amount to cw.
I've also started a nature HR so I've updated and will continue to update their particular moves as I learn more about them. It so far seems like it's not that much different from my archer and if it works the way I think it does; I might even get better with my nature than I am with my archer.
The nature ranger isn't anywhere near as bad as some people think, we still hit just as fast and can still use the moves that make the ranger good we just deal less damage we are also much faster movers then any other ranger not using the same feat which is on natures t1. I get 13% movement speed off of my gear enchants and buffs and I give 10% movement speed to everyone else my team run faster than most people using no stamina at all. Any buff causes this.
If a GF is using into the fray the entire party is even faster with me there too. and I make him more stronger so he can take 3k damage before he even loses life I get to do this every time stag heart is up and and while t.hp is up he is healing while being hit that 3k damage not feeling a thing because his armor is so thick and I'm buffing his mitigation and defense.
Same thing with the GWF you wanna be strong as hell? Stay in my vision; I'll make you laugh even harder if thats your thing. As the cw is constantly on the ground or stuttering spells; and even if he gets em off it will be longer till he can ice knife, sing, or oppressive force, because he hasn't been casting anything which is what they want.
Thats not all for cws though, friendly's don't have to worry quite as much about lashing or other little ones that way they can just concentrate on what'll hit them the most and that if it hits mostly will be cut in half if it does hit.
An archer or melee will only give the team give 6% more, if he's using stag heart with no defense bonus.
I might be over glorifying it a little but its still pretty good.
For instance, my split shot's crit at 60 with only 9.2k gs 19% crit and no vorpal hits 5-7k or more if I've already hit with commanding shot I grabbed the 10% Crit Severity T1 archer feat and since two of our buffs are ranged offensively and serve to debuff the best too, so is split, rapid, and aimed shots; plus I am still able to prone it (I hit much harder now.)
Damage is not what we're here for though we can still do it; it's the buffs. As soon as I got Stag Heart Solo bosses hit like little children. Instead of getting hit 1k or so I was only being hit 3-400 at only 19% DR. I am now at 27% DR.
My team gets; with stag heart 12% of My(it was wrong apologies) max hp in t.hp plus a feated 10% DR bonus with it and as it has no duration; the bonus is on until t.hp is gone which goes to everyone effected because of capstone most solo bosses weren't even able to get past the temp hp which was close to 2k or so. Now that I have 25.6k HP I now give 3,122 T.hp and I'm not stacking hp which I might just do now lol. (not heavily of course I still wanna be competent defensively)
So that 38k hp GWF? Well, now he's got 3,122 more in T.hp 10% more DR plus his unstoppable T.hp and DR same thing with Iron Warrior encounter for the GF....Which as soon as its off I can wait a moment and put it back on at full capacity if buffed while fighting. If not I can refresh it as it comes off.
Ridiculous right? And thats just 1 buff (one little hand signal)... Add clerics divine & astral shields+foresight and that f'er will never die and if you do manage to kill him kudos.
Oakskin People don't like the heal; but the heal is not the real thing about it when feated it lasts for 13-15 seconds (being debated) and the cool down normally is only 17 which means 2-4 seconds down time (try doing that with astral shield). On mine at 1200 recovery it is only 16 seconds. (I am now at 2k recovery)
Add in a disruptive shot with Storm Step slotted its 100% uptime due to at lv 3 giving -3 seconds to cool downs per daily activation with disruptive shot its -3 seconds every 9 seconds.
It gives 10% mitigation and mine usually heals me almost 200 per second (slightly less 20% for allies due to feat and 20% of 200 is only 20 hp) and since its always able to be on its always mitigating its always healing for what it heals.
Unfortunately, the heal can be deflected as mentioned in other threads, but it's only due to a bug so it will work eventually. Hopefully when fixed they also take into account rogue's ITC and forest meditation deflection.
I've read and kind of noticed that it scales its heal with power albeit for a very small boost it makes regenerative builds regen even faster all the time instead of just every 3 seconds or so.
Since its paired with Binding Arrow and its a strong root; but I've noticed that if you lead off with it; it sometimes doesn't root kind of like the way regeneration of trolls ticks 1 time after you hit them and no more until 6 seconds after not being hit.
It actually hits slightly harder than my hindering shot and can hit 2 people provided that they are one in front of the other and at 30' somethings gotta be behind it, twin blade storm anyone?
I can use it whenever I feel like and it sometimes does get 2 and hits them both while applying the roots also to both. It is kind of hard to place 2 on 5 guys but in a room of 10-50 or so it gets much, much easier.
Lone Wolf With lone wolf 25% stackable mitigation on top of your own DR is always a bonus, and if you are surrounded by 5 people which you should never be in that situation but sometimes it does happen; just rarely if you can help it and aren't spamming the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of split shot.
Boars Hide 5 stacks for 10% mitigation normally NHR it stacks up to ten. (20%) 5 stacks each use meaning it must be cast 2 times for 10 stacks which is fine because if you still have stacks on it will put it past 5 stacks to 6-10.
Although its sometimes unfortunately useless against stacked dots because each tick of damage reduces stacks. but I don't mind it, it just means those things won't hit as hard either.
I borrowed a Plague Fire weapon enchant from my cw to help with commanding shots debuff since I can apply them quickly through fast attacks. I also plan on getting Bark Shield because the sheer defensive capability being increased by it would be ridiculous. I might also make a Terror enchantment for a 10% or more if better DR debuff.
My buffs also increase the party's movement speed by 10% *even on a horse. Combined with GF's into the fray, GWF's sprint, CW's mastery steal time, and the TR's natural movement speed it ends up making runs even faster movement-wise and can help save stamina for all who have it.
Unfortunately ES damage is even worse with this build due to the not having any* of the archery feated 20% damage increase (I say any as thats almost always only 1st hit and one of the few reasons why ranged hit harder than NHR) But it does have clear the ground and that still hits pretty well. And due to the use of Plague fire here: ES and Clear spread it on evenly and quickly so its still not completely useless if you look at it that way also my es/clear hits 300-500 per hit which isn't bad for hitting 5 targets each. (I hit 700-800 now on crit)
I've also replaced rapid with ES unless at a boss fight. Yeah, split shot does do awesome damage but with awesome damage comes awesome aggro generation. The enemies literally don't care if I hit them with es which means I can spam it a good bit before they get pissed and can alternate the attacks with ES/split it feels much faster than rapid/split.
Due to it being so defensive I chose Forest Meditation The heal is amazing because of the 20% healing increase and as always and will stack its heal with oakskin; and the t.hp from stag heart meaning it will stay on longer due to damage deflected.
Unfortunately it also doesn't work as advertised sometimes; others may argue but it sometimes doesn't deflect for me, dunno why. Hopefully as most bugs if it is one; it will be phased out as the devs get to it.
Hawkeye Increases damage of next attack normally; NHR feated it offers that 1 attack a 10-50% 10% per point chance to heavy root their target for each person buffed so a cw's Ice Knife will hit slightly harder, prone AND root them to that spot controlling movement even longer just for the price of a hand signal.
I didn't take the feat only because I wanted a defensive buff/debuffer but I still have the option of using this 3/3 in-case my party actually needs a small boost in damage which won't happen too often which is why I didn't take the feat + I wanted the ranged crit severity.
I also took Disruptive Shot Because I love that skill and couldn't imagine being without it It still hits 3k on a crit and stuns immediately with it so its awesome. (4-5k now)
I leveled to 40 using only Rain of Arrows and the other moves I used while ranged (see pg 1) to get to the buffs because its what I knew and I wanted to test rain further and I love it more than I did before I'll tell you that theres nothing like hitting a caster all the damage because he doesn't move while casting or firing it at your feet for damaging lunging enemies or on top of big, stupid, slow enemies like bosses that are attacking or being held or tanked and can't move and I've already dodged out and back in so he doesn't move and hasn't hit me.
I also learned that Rain of Blades hits about 15-20' in cone in front of where your ranger is facing not where you are targeting despite the way it looks, so trying to move back, left, or right while using this makes it miss and attacks where the new facing is. (it might be a bug it might not) meaning that you can hit the back row enemies and those in front row and they will bleed low damage lower for nature but its not that much of a difference.
The Forest Warden and Forest Lord item sets allows a chance for each buff cast to add 500 to the highest (offensive) stat to anyone you buff (not sure if a different chance for each player buffed or if when casting the buffing it has a chance to give all players buffed on proc because I don't own it; and if t1 warden has different chance than t2 forest lord) but I eventually will though and will update it when I do or someone else might chime in; either way it still is pretty awesome that you get 3 chances with the buffs.
What this basically means is every buff has a chance to power mitigation defense and the strongest offensive stat for each proc. Meaning that we end up powering everything making it almost like a chance for DC's hallowed ground every encounter buff as well it actually procs pretty often when using 3 buffs. It feels like oak skin might proc it more but I'm not 100% It also feels that it has a cd of maybe 20 seconds which is fine because my buffs are up a lot of the time anyway once its up; I power again and the cool downs are all below 20 seconds anyway.
Almost every forum thread will talk about Fox Cunning/Shift and it is a very nice offensive move but for me the buff from it is only good for protecting against a spike hit; any hit will make it remove itself so if you just get burned from a ground based dot attack or something it will negate only once and leave you with nothing.
If you see a class about to use a high damage attack with a long animation like ice knife; this is a very good buff to have though I might use this instead of oak skin/binding in pvp.
Dungeons and interesting fights in Campaigns with NHR
I wish that I didn't have to party up to buff I wish I could buff any allied player or pet without partying. For instance, there was a surrounded cleric with low hp in Dread Ring who I wasn't partied with I helped with dps but couldn't buff her.
None of those enemies can severely hurt me i.e past 50% with even just stag heart and oakskin up because I'm active I dodge almost every hit worth dodging and I keep slashing, shooting and moving as if I were archer or melee I even had the time to sit and have a cigarette while just buffing and barely dodging. (not totally recommended)
In Sharandar I was the one being surrounded this time and not just by powries there were at least 5 of each type of fey and 2 of two types of the weaker cyclops with healers and they still couldn't bring me past 25% even though they were really putting the heat on because I also chose the healing artifact which I didn't totally need to use but used it anyway, because of the stat buffs and forest meditation-like heal.
Master of the Hunt Skirmish
In master of the hunt skirmish done 3 times no ones life even went past 50% except one where the two gwfs were being reckless even with no cleric and most of the time none of them got even close to even being below 70% because the T.hp kept their health up the CWs were fine of course as were other rangers. Even the boss fight couldn't hurt anyone. Of course this is only three tries and I could have been with geared players.
Now, none of this means don't dodge because our mitigation is great but getting hit too much will kill you.
Dungeons
Throne of Idris
Using the NHR with no cw 2 HR 1 DC GF and GWF it took only an 45 minutes pugging it and gear score seemed to be around maybe 1-3k gs more than TI between us I was at 11.1k without any purple epic armor set bonus all T1 bought purple weapons and accessories real cheap but effective; though because I got some rank 5s and made some to 6s appropriate to what I am trying to do.
The only attacks that weren't fully mitigated were the commander wights circle drain even the soul drain from the warriors were mitigated and healed; the GF had the most trouble keeping his hp up sometimes but i always prevented most of the damage i could I lowered the amount of healing the cleric did only because mitigation was stacked so high, but it allowed him to not have to be full heal so he could also daunting light I was still able to match the GWF's damage but only because I'm ranged and he's not.
I was also able to buff and split shot pretty well almost imputatively because of the GF's threat and the fact that my split shot hits less and I took 6% less threat feat because its easier to focus on buffing and attacking when no one cares about the damage you do so they don't bother with me even if they do bother it won't really hurt.
I can actively take adds off of the cleric from prone and stuns and by spamming split shot I can take aggro from everyone and then use forest meditation to burst heal and deflect ALL the attacks usually and this means that I can make it so no one gets hurt but me and allows my buffs to stay on even longer.
For instance there were about 20 zombies attacking from the back and just me and the cleric fought them for almost 15 seconds and i held aggro on them and and used meditation my life literally was jumping back and forth 50-75% because I was being hit by so many; and the cleric was making sure our allies at the bottom of the stairs were healed and so was I.
Mimics didn't hurt as much as it usually does without our buffs either they were still dangerous but less so due to mitigation.
I went to Idris again because I got bad loot twice and need to do again; but generally the same result happened. Only when ridiculously overwhelmed; did tanks or anyone else for that matter even come near to death.
For an example on NHR I once hit on a crit on Idris and a zombie hulk 8k to both with binding arrow.
Idris herself Idris did do good damage to everyone including me but I was preventing most of the damage combining with our clerics mitigation and decent heals no one died but the GF was probably lowest life because he was tanking/kiting almost everything which is pretty much what they are there for not that they can't do other things this is just typical tanking.
Just remember that Idris isn't that hard though for those who might say its easy it is but only if geared higher than the dungeon or being skilled with a skilled team; otherwise it still is a challenge which must or should be overcome.
Added to post.
Pirate King
We ended up doing pirate king yeah ik easy again right? But we had no cw at all so it was more difficult; set up was 1 DC, me at 11.4k, a 16k GF, and 2 TR's 10.6k one going for max damage and the other 9.2k using support skills.
We steam rolled through the dungeon and ran through the end part the support tr didn't realize we were running though we told him we were and was fighting alone; I noticed and I went back and saved him at around 5% life with the stag heart and heals from oakskin and his potion while still buffing him until he could pot again.
At the boss we wiped twice because theres something that makes GF's think they are invincible around 15k gs and we ended up trying both times to fight the boss with almost every add hitting us the fights each lasted around 15 minutes each time brought him down to half life I always died last because they didn't care that I was there until I was the last one there...
Then I suggested that I fight the boss while they all fight the adds as my buffs will still reach them all the way across the room and I couldn't aim well at one specific enemy or group of them because they were so grouped up around the boss anyway and still deal enough damage to adds because split shot hits 5 random enemies closest to the HR using it to matter meaning firing it into a huge wave means I'm just hitting whatever is there. We had 2 TRs so I didn't think the elites would matter.
Which it didn't they were able to kill most of the elites that were there and the GF and DC were all doing their jobs kudos to them too.
Needless to say I kicked his sorry butt in something like 15-20 minutes and helped keep everyones health above 70% this time and the GF before the fight when I laid out the strategy, said I couldn't do enough damage and hold aggro on the boss pshaw, I said and showed that I could. I was the only one attacking him so I was the only one he had eyes for. I ended the battle at 4.6 million damage of course I know pirate king like the back of my hand so that helped alot.
I only needed healing really only once but that was when the kicking elite adds came in and kicked me twice and got hit by the bosses sword because of the stun. And it wasn't even that severe; (down by 50%) but I popped my stag heart and oakskin and potion so I was fine. I was grateful for the DC's healing word that he kept throwing at me at that point of course, but then again who isn't.
Would have been easier to have a CW other than the support TR in my opinion because then the strategy the GF was insanely employing might have worked.
I don't know why GF tank most of the bosses instead of the adds they are the real threat in every dungeon every class can avoid boss AOE's easily, but not 100 adds all AOEing at once makes no sense to me. I understand for some bosses but really the adds are the only things that need controlling.
Did Karrundax no one got severely hurt again granted it was with guild but I know I at least helped keep their hp up. it was only during the boss fights mostly the chick with the giant and the 15 or so immunity fire guys.(I will correct as shard is down and can't remember off bat what they are called)
Even then only one of us died at that one and he got right back into the fray once he got back in time for us to kill the boss off.
2nd boss went smooth as hell too.
Dragon in my opinion is kind of a chump though once you know what to do with him (mad dragon boss is harder in my opinion and only because of the slowing imps)
Final Statements on NHR
So the NHR is not just support; NHR is damage too; just not as hard but just as fast; we can make tanks tankier; dps better at doing their job while dpsing ourselves, while helping everyones survival to almost GWF level, almost passively especially when partied with a cleric. (honestly just a hand signal or a jesus pose for each; barely even an interruption of attacks)
Our buffs/debuffs and the prone make us competitive in damage and control as well. Plus an NHR only needs gear score to hit harder or have better DR or deflect; just having a lv 1 bow, blades, and armor will still allow the NHR to buff just as well minus the heal from oakskin.
It makes clerics need to be less of a heal bot so they can switch at least one heal for attack and still keep people alive thus even there we help contribute damage.
Honestly, I can't imagine never wanting a NHR in group unless speed running it and I'm just as fast of a mover and damager as any HR because the difference in damage isn't actually as steep as you'd think.
Especially because I can face tank lower damage and greatly soften undodged higher damage so I can still attack while being hit not needing to dodge every little thing. Granted I'm not immortal but I know what I can and can't survive which is a handy piece of info to have.
I will complete my initial analysis on the NHR; and will expand it as I run dungeons I will explain if I end up sucking or being amazing as my analysis is incomplete due to not beating them all yet; but I am confident that the NHR will pass with flying colors.
After I've done some of the harder T2s I'll continue adding to this but basically speaking it feels as though it won't be too bad.
I apologize for not posting for a while I've been doing other things like leveling the NHR above and playing other games with roommates and commenting in various parts of the forums.
I will however be posting more often here now that my characters are caught up.
I usually post at night as I sleep during the day.
Unfortunately I'm out of character slots (I have 8 of them) so I can't test hybrid or melee rangers without deleting any of my others. Anyone who feels like it can post the info here if they so wish just make sure its coherent.
And I'm almost done with the thread as soon as I fill in everything so anyone can go ahead and ask any question about HR they like and I will answer it if I can meaning this thread is now open for discussion.
I'm just gonna either scrap the actual 5 ranger monty or post it on a new thread much later, once I get more slots for melee and hybrids because without analysis I can only make guesses and guesses help no-one truly learn. The info already here will stay here. I am sorry I didn't get to do it. I don't actually know if anyone wants or needs it so if you want it or are curious about what could happen, just post or mail me if you also think it might be a waste of time or if you really want it.
As always just don't flame.
I don't wanna hear it and probably no-one else does either. That said you may disagree with anything said here. If you do just say so with at least some proof, and I will verify and/or attempt to persuade you otherwise if needed, just know that if I fail in that regard I am sorry. As new factual info comes in I will gladly change what is written when its actually confirmed, when I get the chance.
A special thanks to Shadow5930 for making this thread and others feel worth the effort and the information that he contributed. It made me an even better player I think.
Comments
First I'm going to explain visual and sound cues for each class for some of the heavier or more annoying attacks for the newer players because if you can identify the moves they are using simply through sight and sound its easier to dodge or delay them or support them. I will elaborate on each skill and how to avoid them to the best of my knowledge and again if you know something better than I do feel free to post it and I will add it.
I have a character in each class each are above 11k gs now, so I have insights on how they work and how they don't. I've been playing since the day after open beta. I don't pvp too much mostly because for me it's a hassle. If someone has better stuff then me they are usually with people with similarly good stuff and I normally PUG. But I know about enough about pvp to be sure about what I'm writing strategy-wise.
Just remember being a ranger is a team sport in and outside the arena.
CW
I will be comparing the damage listed here based off of my two lv 60 CWs flame and storm just remember that in pvp players have more damage resistance and deflection than a mob does and they won't just stand there and let you do it so don't be mad if the skill doesn't or does hit harder.
I picked the CW first because it is one of the highest dps classes and the only one besides TR that will give an HR a lot of trouble also this can be used to learn to co-operate with a partied CW as we have many skills that synergize with them they can be our best friend or your worst enemy.
People try to compare the CW to the HR for damage but really we hit faster and more often they just hit harder with each attack but they each take time we can match the damage in a single attack but we pay a sort of penalty for it, stop comparing they aren't the same thing at all.
You can tell what spell a CW (or anything for that matter visually red circles are more of a guideline to the area you should avoid) is using by watching their arms and orb or listening for a ching-ching which signifies that the CW in question is about to use a daily. If you hear a single shimmering sounding noise they are using spell mastery; spell mastery can also be seen by a rune or circle above their heads and remember that they have 4 encounters because of the spell mastery slot.
The CWs dodge allows for three (on certain builds this is increased to 4 or even 5 due to stamina increases or players knowing how long till they can dodge twice)
If both the CW's arms are up in the air then moving down with hourglasses coming from you to them they are using Steal Time. It is an area of effect that is centered on the cw it slows while charging then it stuns for 6 seconds and hits moderately hard. My CW can hit around 5-7k on crit with a lesser vorpal. They can also dodge while charging the skill but before the stun to interrupt it and when they do this their long cool down is reduced to 4 seconds. Again hindering strike shines here;
Steal time's mastery gives allies within the blast area combat advantage and a good amount of movement speed.
Steal time is used to stop people from moving and attacking in close quarter hindering strike or binding arrow can be used to apply heavy roots and keep them from moving. Steal time when interrupted does nothing but slow and will go on full cool down if its timed before the CWs arms go down, each bit of time stolen increases the stun duration and procs weapon enchantments and is signified by the hour glasses moving to the wizard.
If they push their orb in front of them and a green (Mastery) or purple (normal) beam appears, they are using Ray of Enfeeblement. This reduces attack and defense and is a dot that can hit fairly severely if it crits. Ray of enfeeblement's mastery allows a 2 charge stackable debuff and both increase the damage and debuff. The debuff is also more severe especially if both charges are expended on the same target.
As I said before commanding shot reduces DR that compounds with this to remove DR, even more useful for nature because it ties into buff and any HR can use it. If you stack dots with them your dot can hit even harder because of their defense being lowered. You can tell this is affecting someone by the green or purple aura around the head.
If you see one arm about to raise with a bit of white they are about to Entangling Force or aka force choke someone. In pvp its duration is shortened a bit but if you get caught your up in the air. But like all control effects it can be resisted by having a high wisdom and other things that improve it. It's a dot weather you are cc immune or not and my CW can hit around 2-4k per second. The mastery version of this skill gathers up anyone nearby and gives arcane mastery stacks.
If its on mastery, hindering strike can root everyone gathered with this if you use what I use with steel breeze you hit them all twice then if you're using clear the ground which is good at killing weaker enemies and maintaining damage. You can also boar charge with normal force to continue the cc to knock the opponent down constricting and disrupt allows the hold to last longer because they still can't attack.
If they are gathering their arms behind them and then underhandedly throwing its Chill Strike. Normally this single target skill hits very hard on a crit about 8-12k, adds 1 or 3 stacks of chill (3 if capstone feated) and freezes the main target for 2 or 3 seconds on both types. In mastery it has a wide aoe that hits 5 targets for the same damage.
It can also be feated along with magic missile to fire 10' farther. Boars charge works with this well because the freeze is different then from chill it freezes only for a moment and there free, constricting arrow helps by stopping a long animation while in motion can stop them in their tracks maybe even putting said skill on cool down without it actually hitting and if you reduce their DR this spell will hit even harder.
If for about a second they put the orb in front and have a blue rune in front of them they are preparing for Icy Rays. This will stick you in one spot for a few seconds and is nigh unavoidable can crit for anywhere between 6-15k depending on the wizard and what debuffs are already on the target they can choose to mark 1 target twice for more damage or mark two targets for less damage to both. You can tell if you're targeted because the same rune that is in front of them will also be over your head.
They have to choose two targets in order to fire it; and it takes a second between each mark if you stun them or disrupt them before they choose the second target you might be able to delay them long enough to reset the first target or at least just delay the actual hit.
If you see the CW with their arm and orb going up and then down then they are about to use Sudden Strike. My CW can hit 10-32k 32K is the extreme (like I really have to prep the targets to get this result and it will usually hit about 17-20k with my style) with this one its short ranged but will hit everything in the straight line aoe it can be avoided pretty easily because it is really telegraphed; but if you don't you will be in excruciating pain especially if it crits and you don't deflect.
This spell also doesn't work with their arcane singularity daily.
You can use roots to stop enemies from getting away if not it will still pull them back and keep them away from the cw using this skill. If an ally is using this, Reduce the enemies defense if you can, it will kill them or make them wish they died. If an enemy is using it stun or quickly interrupt it or just dodge it its not a very wide attack its about as wide as the end range of a 70-80% charged split shot. It has a 7 second cool down so provided they are still alive; they can recast this faster than any other encounter besides repel.
If they are gathering their arms behind them with lightning its Storm Pillar. Storm pillar is an interesting spell it is an 8' area that hits the target and anyone in that radius once and can be charged for more damage at half way if feated will increase their power if they hit two or more targets.
At full charge about 3 seconds; this spell becomes a much larger area attack that leaves a pillar at the target that also splinters and damages others around it as a dot aoe and can hit anywhere from 4-12k on a crit and the dots can hit 1k and proc spell storm which can be even more dangerous. However they have to sit in one spot and if stunned or controlled they lose it if it doesn't have a target it will hit on the CW for no damage to them. The CW will yell if its charged enough.
Disruptive shot is bane of this move as is constricting, all it does is damage in an area which we do well also and the damage is fairly heavy if they crit at a full charge. If an allied CW is using it it might be prudent to cover them if you can either through controls or by jumping in front not just right in front as it could cause them to miss cause they might accidentally target you which makes them target themselves.
If their arms are slowly spread out kinda like Jesus they are using Scorching Burst. Scorching Burst is a dot that gets wider and slightly more powerful as they charge it and can fire it off whenever during the charge when its about to go off the CW will let out a yell.
This is aimed shots bane as it causes a dot if you see a enemy fire mage using this put aimed shot away. If the mage is friendly try stacking your dots with theirs using rain of swords, aimed strike, thorn ward, or even rain of arrows if the wizard used a control spell.
Fanning the Flames looks like scorching burst but faster and more instantaneous. Fanning the flames is dangerous IMO because if they already have smolder on a nearby ally and hit you with this staying near those party members can get you killed it hits around 4-9k and is itself a dot. You can root singularly or in the area and cause the burns from this to continuously stack and hit. Try knocking the target down next to his allies if you're close enough to him his allies will stoke the flames easier with that party member down possibly maiming or even killing him just because they were near him.
If their arm goes across their body and then up then its Conduit of Ice. Its visual is basically an ice tornado. CW's who are using this with their capstone feat can cause anyone hit with this to lose 15% DR for as long as they are within it. Normally it does not add chill stacks but mastery will add 1 stack each time it damages for around 6 seconds. it will not freeze and will stick to the main target for a pretty short downtime; mastery will also increase the aoe of the tornado.
Currently this is bugged for smolder or so I've read, no idea if its true or not but they seemed pretty pissed about it. Conduit of ice is an iffy move its hard to dodge but if you stun or disrupt before their arm goes up you stop the whole spell and can cause them to lose valuable seconds trying to recast after the stun.
On the allied side if they have it feated reduce defense more and stack dot use some roots with it since they are slowing with each hit (if mastery) it can make your roots better because they can't pull away as good. You can also use aoe attacks with it to increase damage to all effected.
If their orb arm goes up with a blue circle in their hand then they are about to use Icy Terrain they will then slam their hand into the ground leaving a blue icy residue on the ground. Icy Terrain is a good move and a bad move it's a aoe ground dot that freezes movement if caught in the initial cast area. It adds chill stacks as it hits on normal and on mastery and if you are at 6 stacks it will freeze you. The damage is negligible maybe 1k per second on crit in the aoe it lasts as long as the 15 second cool down so once the duration is up they can usually pop it again.
Icy terrain mastery increases the immobilize time and allows the cw to cast it anywhere in 40' or so. It will leave an ice trail towards the target area.
Same as with other dots on the ground you can use split the sky, or thorn ward, rain of arrows since they can't move for a second. You can stick them there with roots too; so they don't get out of it increasing damage and chill and possibly allowing it to freeze them.
If both arms go up closely together and then go down spreaded apart then its Endless Shard of the Avalanche and is more useful when they go to push it from behind. A rock drops from the sky in front of the cw they can re-activate the power to push it in front of them angling of this move is only slightly difficult and if you are hit by the push or it lands on you it will knock you back-prone if they hit three people with it; it will knock them back-prone hit then explode in an area then hit again for a hefty amount it also shakes then explodes after it's duration.
Spell mastery will drop this in anywhere in ranged and allow the reactivation to move it where they want to place it up to 3 times and its kind of hard to control and hits 3-7k each time it hits or more for some CW's they can also just drop it on your head causing it to hit again. After this skill prones; a Boars Charge will continue the combo by proning the enemy again.
If their orb arm is quickly moving across their chest and about to move forward then they are about to use Repel This does negligible damage but can make singularly capping a point hard vs a cw using it. They use it to get people off of them, their team, or the domination point. In mastery it hits 5 people and stuns them afterwards they also use this to push off of ledges so try not to have your back to one when you realize they have this. this move can also save an enemy if not used right so they could end up accidentally saving you just because of a mess-up of rotation. Roots could also possibly mess this up if they are strong roots pulling the enemy back toward the cw or dominate point. (confirmed)
Shield is a very easily recognizable ability so I won't mention its looks. It is important to know what it does however as it gives them near 25% mitigation to around 3 to 5 hits, when its hit it shrinks and provides less damage mitigation. When its spent it will comeback to full after 6 seconds of receiving no damage they can reactivate it even when spent to erupt the shield causing everything around the CW to be pushed away around 20 feet and on mastery the shield turns purple and provides much more mitigation and can take more of a beating. The eruptions can hit 5-10k; 10k is the extreme for my cw.
Remember that this spells' erupt is a defense mechanism to push away; do not use roots unless you can kill them the roots might just help pull them back to the cw however if the shield weakens the enemy enough so he has low life just unload a dead person can't do damage. Wait till after the push to root to help the cw out. If he doesn't pop his shield and dodges don't worry about the roots helping the enemy because even weak roots start pulling back normal move speed at 20' leaving the cw 5' to move back or stun.
Smolder Smolder lasts 4 seconds and can crit but once they use ice spells it resets to rime fire and re-rolls their crit or they use another smolder applying spell. hits around 4-800; and 1-2k on crit. They also have various ways of spreading smolder some class features they have allows dailies and ice and arcane spells on crit to apply smolder as well.
Ray of Frost I love this skill on my fire wizard; when it crits it adds smolder due to a class feature, it has a feat in the oppressor tree that allows a chance each hit of this spell to add 2 chill stacks instead of 1 each hit which makes the 6 stacks of chill an easy reality this paired with the capstone feated chill strike is fast and efficient at slowing movement and eventually freezing into place. It also lets chill bypass a GF's shield thus allowing them to freeze them.
This helps to increase the effectiveness of your roots because even weak roots pull right on cast it just starts holding them back at 20' because they move fast if they are slow or immobilized it will pull earlier; and some wizards can cause chill stacks to weaken attack or defense (I forget which I'll change after I verify) and increase their power and damage
Chilling Cloud at-will This has three attacks its a 1, 2, pause (arms raised then lowered) and on the third it hits around 10 feet or so and adds a chill stack to anyone hit. The first two can refresh chill stacks leaving the stacks on for longer. It won't allow freezing at 6 stacks but once they use one that does freeze you're frozen. This move is dangerous when used in conjunction with conduit of ice (especially mastery) or mastery chill strike. It can be feated so it give the cw t.hp based on weapon damage. When they use a certain feat when the 3rd attack hits more than 2 people it increases power by up to 10% for each person more than two hit by it which is why it's so dangerous when used with Conduit. It can also be feated to weaken attack power as well. You want to dodge the third one because it can hit around 3-7k or more depending on the wizard
Magic missile or MM Magic missile is a weak but fast single target that hits with a 1, 2, then 3,4,5 it can hit 1-2k per missile and on 5 it adds a stack of arcane mastery. it has several feats attached to its 3rd use such as adding mitigation or healing it can be feated to hit 10' more from 80' meaning a wizard feated this way can almost match or beat our range even with our class feature.
Arcane Singularity aka sing
Arcane Singularity is their best movement control spell it has a very wide aoe and will suck anything towards its center and gather them up and explode dealing damage to all inside it can gather 15 or more enemies into it the enemies can still attack use encounters or place buffs heal whatever unless they are also stunned a strategy some cws will use is to use sing to gather and as it pulls them they will use steal time to stun so they can't attack.
When the wizard uses singularity if you use hindering strike it can heavy root all inside the singularity this is useful to us because it will stop them from moving even longer because they are all gathered up you can hit them all clear the ground ES and split shot split strike and even binding arrow are all good factors for this spell.
This spell also grabs the most aggro out of any spell they have so if you use the strategy above it will stop at least 5 of them from chasing the cw.
Oppresive Force This move is noticeable by the weapons and such that gathers next to the cw. I like this move much better than Singularity because it stuns throughout animation and around 6 seconds after it doesn't have a huge tell or cast time and will render anyone inside the effect stunned but still able to move because it is a soft stun. It hits harder than singularity and will push back enemies slightly. Use of this move for this reason; can be slightly annoying to allied melee players but the stun is worth losing at least some dps because it is a long stun and and stunning in pvp is the name of the game it can hit 5 times around 500-1k; then it explodes for moderate to heavy damage around 7-12k.
Ice Knife the CW's arms look like they're clapping and an arm goes up then down upon being down a knife of ice drops down prones and can hit over 20-50k. You kind of have to dodge just before the knife lands and prones you. You just have to learn the timing once you fully get it down its pretty easy. If you stun or prone them before their arm drops it will stop the spell cast for another second.
Maelstrom of Chaos The cw kneels with his arms down with lightning at his feet then raises his arms throwing anyone close away from the cw and a lightning bolt strikes at their enemies new location. At first this move looks like its JUST a close range spell which is a half-truth. It can also be used to hit the ground at the location they choose. If next to a wizard using this move they will throw anyone around the cw to the target location and can hit around 10k at the 10' aoe throw location whether they've thrown anyone or not. While casting this the cw has increased defense and is immune to CC effects.
Furious Immolation looks like a flaming tornado and it gathers up to 8 people and damages each of them twice for around 6-10k damage each hit and adds smolder to each target. Its range is 40' and so is the aoe. If you are behind the cw they can cast this and it will put you in front of them.
Ice StormThe cw will kneel with arcane magics and will put his hands on the ground and ice will jump from the ground. normally only gives 3 chill stacks but with the same capstone that gives chill strike the 3 stack of chill; this spell can apply 5 stacks instead of 3 and will knock anyone hit into the air and away from the 40' or so aoe and then will knock them prone where they land. This drives melee's crazy when this is used because of the knock distance.
More later.
I will post every classes tell and strategy for co-op and vs. eventually.
THANK YOU
I'm glad it helps its why I did it.:)
All it takes is practice and muscle memory, you use the right abilities for what you're trying to do and work together with others and you should be all right.
5 Ranger Monty Beginners Edition part 2
DC
DC's are not like clerics in most mmos they are more active and more defensive and they pass their defenses and healing unto its allies. A good cleric is a dangerous foe some are amazing at holding points even against several opponents stun locked or not, they are masters of dots, debuffing, buffing, increasing and lowering speed, power, and defense, they can throw people off of a control point and heal any allies sending all enemies in a wide area into the air if you don't resist the throw you can't attack in the air.
Clerics in pvp are usually the first targeted class due to their ability to heal and weaken damage done so they need to be protected. Occasionally there are DC's that are really powerful and can hold a point all by themselves sometimes even just the cleric is the only reason that the opposing team wins.
They can stop you from moving or even cause your mere presence to radiate a heavy healing glow for their allies. They can hit very hard and some full item sets can improve almost everything about each of them they can even crush people if they use their skills right and still be at half or even full life.
Their tab skill channel divinity improves or changes the way their spells work they gain divinity each hit (or heal when they have the class feature on) they place outside of divinity when it fills they gain a pip which can be spent to use the divine part of the spell you can tell that a cleric is using divinity or a spell is affected by divinity is when their icon or the spell effect is blue. I believe it gains based on a per attack basis excepting at wills, which seem to gain from per damage basis(unconfirmed). Cleric spells also crit for their severity so if the spell crits so will the heal if it has one and if they have a vorpal it heals even more.
I will try to teach you how to take advantage of and assist in their powers while also protecting your party from them and preventing their heals. Just remember a cleric is not a replacement for potions, they do not have spike heals that will bring you back immediately from the brink of death; but they can make it take a really long time to get you there if you let them.
Normal casts are at the top and Divinity is on the bottom; things labeled as I'm unsure or I believe or several seconds will be fazed out after testing or looking it up.
Obviously our buffs will allow clerics some breathing room but thats not the only way we can support them will definitely include anything I can when I can.
Damage numbers are from my cleric at 11.5k gs power crit based dot buff cleric.
Sun Burst It an area heal and hit they put the arms together and then spread apart with a light coming out of them can hit around 3-5k and heal around 1-3k. It also pushes away slightly only 5', if that.
(Divinity) Sunburst will throw any enemies in aoe into the air about 25 feet away from them.
Healing Word or HW Their hand will go out and a yellow thing will go toward a target. Healing Word is a fast; one target heal for around 700-1000 in an hot(heal over time) with 3 charges it doesn't heal a lot around 6k over maybe 10 seconds each application of HW will replace the old but will refresh the duration and reroll for crit.
(Divinity) Heals around 1-3k immediately then starts its hot; it also doesn't use a charge so they can almost spam up to 4 times; if they have enough pips.
Break the Spirit This is a single target dot which lowers the attack of anyone it hits it can hit around 2k on a crit over several seconds it looks like healing word but it shows an explosion on hit at the target and they will have a symbol around them.
If you use commanding on the target of this it will combo to remove DR and attack power.
Divinity to come after I remember.
Chains of Blinding Light This spell spins chains going up around the cleric and then going down the cleric when the chains go down they appear on the ground where they targeted in around a 15' or so area and it will stay there for around 10 seconds. It does nothing without anyone stepping on it but if you do; it erupts for around 25' around either the center of the chains or the center of the one stepping on it I'm unsure. It can hit around 3-6k and will immobilize anyone hit by the erupt for around 3-5 seconds.
(Divinity) Chains will instantly appear on cast and I believe it does more damage I'm unsure I'll try it out later.
It takes a second or so for the chains to go from the cleric to the ground. If they get stunned they have to either recast or recharge it.
Forgemasters Flame or FF The clerics arm goes up then a yellow circle with a flame in it appears around the target. It is a spell that when applied to enemies will slow the target's movement speed and do around 800-2k damage over time and lasts for 6 seconds I think.
(Divinity) The circle is now blue and when FF hits it heals making this spell a single target dot AND hot that ignores their 40% less healing from themselves debuff and can heal for almost 3k per second on a crit and 1.5k normally. This is attached to an enemy and will heal everyone near it so if you need life and this is on a target who is close move in to receive the light.
Astral Shield The cleric raises their off-hand arm and when at the top it drops a yellow ring shield on the ground and it lasts for several seconds. This shield does not heal when its casted normally unless feated (when feated it will heal a percentage of your hp every 3 seconds) normally it will mitigate 25% of damage received it has a normal cool down of 16 seconds but clerics have a lot of naturally high recovery so it might be shorter for some of them.
(Divinity) Now the ring is blue and continuously and quickly heals around 4-500 hp and increases mitigation so long as an ally is inside it.
Much like our oak skin but much stronger which is why using oakskin during or after a casting of this will improve the mitigation and healing rate or make the healing and some of the mitigation last longer. You can place a thorn ward or rain of arrows in it and it will add a damage over time effect to someone trying to attack near it oakskin is portable meaning through out duration regardless of where your allies are astral shield only affects those inside it.
Daunting Light This move hits really fricken hard when it crits. The aoe is small (like rain of arrows) and will be recognized by a fiery hot looking beam coming from the sky. You want to dodge this attack as it can hit on a crit anywhere between 10-37k (or so I've heard) my cleric can only hit about 14k the highest; 10k normally. It can be feated to reduce your defense making it even more dangerous.
(Divinity) The spell animation is instantaneous, the aoe is 15-20' and it hits hard; again avoid this.
It is usually used on an already stunned, proned or immobilized people or one whose not paying any attention to the cleric. If you find this is you pray that you can dodge in time. The ranger can both prone and heavily root someone to help make sure this attack hits and if at all possible try to reduce DR with commanding shot to make sure this move kills.
Astral Seal-at will This causes any ally that hits on target affected to gain life based off of how hard they hit this is an important spell to them and will jump at the chance to hit you with it because they can turn you into a heal on hit making this and forge masters a potent combination, this spell can supplement your own life steal making it better and gaining more life per hit. You can tell someone has this on them by the gold ring that surrounds them and when the cleric uses it; it looks like they are hurling a golden wreath.
Foresight This class feature turns their heals into 6% DR buffs as well and will also increase defense by up to 5% when feated. So just because it doesn't seem like it they are always powering you up.
Brand of the Sun or BOTS brand of the sun isn't like the other at wills the cleric has. It is a damage over time that only takes a second to apply and lasts for 6 or so seconds and can on crit hit 7k over duration. This spell, break the spirit, and forge masters flame can easily kill something in a matter of time it hits individually low but over time it can get to be much and the fact that it is an easily applied anytime dot means that they can stop aimed shot to almost 100% downtime.
It is recognizable by their icon raising and a short burst of light fires to the target you can tell someones affected by the runic looking thing around them astral seal can turn the damage from this into an hot for them and will heal with it and their life steal.
It also gradually through damage over time give them divinity over time compounding when applied to more than one target it only takes maybe 5 seconds to apply to 5 people each application will reroll crit so if they crit and hit you again with a non crit it will non crit until they reapply.
Hallowed Ground Daily hallowed ground is IMO the best defensive and offensive support buff as while inside it the cleric and his allies gain increase defense and attack power and it can be feated to heal a % of your max hp every three seconds.
This looks like a golden ring on the ground surrounded by a blue border steps will shine while moving on it. The DC will kneel and and spread his arms then clap once.
Flame Strike Daily This is an aoe and is arguably the best offensive daily the cleric has the cleric chooses the area around 25' and raises his arms, while they are raised those who are within the center of the aoe around 5' will be lifted and when the clerics arms go down so do the targets when lifted it hits and upon the drop you get hit again it will splash damage after the drop to hit anyone outside the 5' radius it can be feated to stun as well.
Hammer of Fate Daily Many people believed this skill was amazing and when it got nerved people ended up not using it. I like it and it used to be used to kill in pvp it probably still does. It can hit harder than flame strike to one target and if the target dies the cleric gains 10% AP. you can tell its being used because yellow light will surround and swirl about the cleric and he flings his arms 3 times throwing glowing hammers hitting around 4-5k per hammer hit and each hammer will knock back but the third hit which is delayed will also knock the target into the air and hit the hardest.
Divine Shield Daily This spell is noticeable because shields with wings will fall down from the sky with shields surrounding and spinning about allies. This will increase defense and give them a large amount of Temp hp; which can synergize and compound with stag heart and unstoppable.
TR
The TR is difficult for everyone to deal with unless you are an especially good tank or have a lot of mitigation stacked up because the way the tr is designed its extremely hard to figure them out or get a good bead on them because they teleport to their target, can kill in one or two attacks they have a variety of stuns, prones, slows, things that increase damage, stealth meter and are notoriously high damage critters. They have a naturally higher deflection severity at 75%. They have several dots through bleed they can steal movement speed on crit they excel most at single target attacks and counter rogue abilities and can make themselves immune to cc and damage they have ranged and melee attacks through various dagger throws and slashes and stabs.
Stealth "normally" lasts 9 seconds which isn't all the time because feats and class features can lengthen the time they are in stealth. It gives them automatic combat advantage and some rogues can carry this with them after the stealth ends. Stealth adds various new effects to encounters compared to using them unstealthed. Stealth when not full will drain when in use; it also is reduced and by being hit and it is also reduced when in stealth by their use of at wills when unstealthed and not at full if hit it will stop their gains for 1 second if not continuously taking damage. they can be feated to gain stealth by dodging they also have a few moves for replenishing stealth either gradually or straight to full allowing them to stay in stealth for inordinate amounts of time hence the term permasteath rouge.
Lashing Blade Arguably the most powerful single target attack that they have and can crit almost 17-50k (which is the highest I've ever seen) or more depending on the rogue. It has a 21 second cool down and if hit with this you will likely be either drowning in a pool of your own blood or will be getting there soon. They use this to quickly eliminate squishier enemies and to soften the hp of those it doesn't kill.
(Stealthed) Guaranteed critical hit plus it hits harder because of combat advantage inside stealth.
Lashing blade is the bane of almost everyone, especially wizards having the lowest defensive ability of all classes. The trick to dodging this move or so I've heard is to wait for the large purple knife to almost sink in fully then dodge. (if anyone can confirm this I will give credit) You must pay attention to the knife when being attacked with this. Look at the arms to identify them using it if you can see them; as they will swing their arm wide across their body. Even I have trouble with avoiding this move.
If you use lone wolf and boars hide it will reduce the damage by 30%. Mitigation is the only thing short of dodging not broken by their armor pen and high damage to reduce it.
Dazing strike
(Stealthed) Now activates 50% faster.
Deft Strike This move allows the TR to teleport-to-target then strike the target. The hit is only moderate damage but this can lead to comboing of at wills or even encounter or daily usage.
(Stealthed) This will allow the TR to teleport to an ally within 80'. If they hit an enemy they will also slow them.
Smokebomb Pay attention to their arm it goes up then down with purple smoke in their hand then spreads to around 25' soft stunning anyone inside it once you get out it will take 1 second to unstun the stun will constantly refresh itself as long as you are inside it.
(Stealthed) The smoke bomb also slows anyone inside it and can be used with teleportation moves to drop a bomb at your location.
Try dropping a thorn ward and/or a rain of arrows into the smoke bomb if it is an ally it will reduce the TR's main targets defense allowing the tr to do even more damage. If it is an enemy smoke then fire it in theirs it will disallow them to escape through stealth if not at full and reduce his damage and defense or maybe make him change his mind about attacking those in the smoke.
Impossible to Catch or ITC This ability renders control powers inoperable it will deflect any attack during its 6 second duration and can be used to cancel any currently applied controls except for prone. You can tell this ability is up when they have black smoke around them and when you attack they seem to move out of the way the best thing to do is to not use encounters on them while this is up it will waste your attacks and the tr will likely laugh at you for wasting them avoid doing this when its over it has a fairly long cool down just keep avoiding its encounters until its over then start unloading. This move can be feated to increase their power stat by 10%.
(Stealthed) This ability now renders the tr absolutely immune to damage and control for the same duration. This I believe this bugged for roots at the moment and this will likely be changed later if it hasn't been already.
Shocking Execution Daily The TR kind of glides into the air and lands dagger first and a large purple dagger and a bunch of little ones drop on you. This move is used as a finisher as it deals damage based on the % of health missing from the target. it can and will hit even harder than lashing blade IF you have low hp. At full life being hit with this isn't a tickle but its way better than full damage at low life. Damage resistance means nothing to this attack because it hits its base then increases its damage percentage based of missing hp to max hp. At base is around 5k; at 20-30% hp it can hit more than 17k do the math.
I've heard it can be dodged but I've never accomplished it. All you can do to delay them is stun. But then they get to do it again.
Lurkers Assault Daily This ability is imo their best daily it improves their damage by I believe 20%, it quickly increases stealth meter through out duration and can maintain stealth meter and allows while stealthed for ALL their encounters to be stealth encounters and still not break stealth until its duration ends or they run out of stealth. Its noticeable if they are visible by the see through purple armor over their normal armor if they target an enemy and use this it will teleport them to the enemies location and if already in stealth it can allow them to hit you with everything because of being in short range and being unseen.
Courage Breaker Daily This is another of my favorites it doesn't do great damage, BUT it does have an amazing effect on it, it slows by 30% AND reduces attack damage by 90%. But thats not all; it has a 10 second duration and it completely ignores immunities it will reduce a GWF's movement speed even while unstoppable and sprinting slowing them to a crawl making it almost impossible to escape it's actually pretty entertaining to watch them try especially if rooted and chilled.
This is a 40' teleport-to-target move and they will appear above the target and zig-zag down them hitting with each zig and zag. The TR can still be hit unless the it uses ITC in stealth before activating this.
Impact Shot This is a bane of wizards, clerics and probably HR too. It does around 5-15k depending on the rogue and it interrupts and pushes slightly. The push can make it impossible to dodge anything as you are basically stunned for half a second while it moves you. it has 3 charges at 12 second cool down.
(Stealthed) Stuns for longer and doesn't consume a charge so if they use Lurkers they can spam it 6 times at full charges once they use 3 free charges it starts expending the real ones.
Vengeance's pursuit I don't have a whisper knife so i can't really remember the difference between unstealthed and stealthed. Any way this is a teleport-to-target prone then a dagger throw and will render them immune to cc during the prone animation (or so i hear) I believe the dagger reduces the targets damage to the tr.
(Stealthed)The prone and dagger throw is reversed i.e. dagger throw then prone or prone then dagger throw I forget which.
Disheartening Knife at will This is a hard hitting dot that take 2 seconds to fire. If they crit it will crit until the duration ends or they hit you with another which will refresh duration and reroll crit. The TR will fling a dagger up in the air catch it and throw it.
Steel Cloud At-will This ability has 8 charges and hits harder the more times they hit the same target with each charge. Each charge has a cool down of 3 seconds.
It is a rapid fire ranged dagger throw.
Sly flourish At-will It is a fast attack it doesn't hit too hard but what it lacks in damage it more than makes up for in rate of attack.
Duelist's flurry At-will Duelist flurry is an attack that after the first 2 strikes it begins hitting wildly for around 3 second while its hitting wildly it is applying bleed stacks and it is almost cc immune while doing so.
To dodge this moves bleed dodge before or after the 2nd strike last minute in order to leave the tr sitting in one spot for the wild attacks then you can rain hell on them. The first strike is a slash second is a stab it starts its bleed effect after the stab and it looks like they're attacking and faded. Remember that the first two attacks are really slow.
Gloaming strike At-will is noticeable by watching their arms they wind their blades behind them and dash forward about 10-15' and then swing forward with both blades. This can hit very hard at least 5-10k and if they kill with this it will increase their stealth pool by 25%.
Path of Blades their arms will spread and daggers start combing the floor around them for someone to hit. Its duration is about 6-8 seconds each hit is not too bad but is used more for finding stealthed opponents or keeping and maintaining dps around themselves.
(Stealthed)has half duration but double the attack speed of normal.
Shadow Strike Its a flung dagger with purple clouds around it which hits weak. This ability will only hit around 2k but this ability isn't about damage; it is about stealth.
(Stealthed) In stealth this move will fully recharge stealth and stun the target I believe if not dodged. If you do dodge it you will screw up their stealth rotation because it has to hit in order to give stealth.
Bait n Switch This will leave a black shadowy fake of the rogue they will also auto-roll away from it after leaving it there; It doesn't move or attack but what it does do is provide AP upon being hit to the TR regardless of the TRs range from it. If you hit it you might give them a kill shot daily they will use this to their advantage when facing ranged aoe attacks or a fighter is bothering them and make them attack it to stop them from attacking them, also they can feat this to deal damage to someone who hits it. It also causes tricked status when near the dummy I'll look it up later.
(Stealthed) This will replenish the TR's stealth meter to full.
Strategy- You can use the dummy if you have a target aoe like Split Shot or ES. If the tr is still around it you can use the dummy to hit the TR and end his stealth early be aware that this will only work if they are around it if not all you're doing is making them get their daily faster.
I've added most of the DC to the 5 ranger monty beginner list. TR list is almost done and i will add more strategies to counter them as I come up with them and time allows. I'm sorry for the wait. I have added the CW's dailies to the list and will elaborate more when I get around to it.
When in divinity mode at-wills - There's the heal beam and the harm beam. The heal beam is green and connects the DC to the target. They are getting a rapid heal and you have to either overpower the heal with DPS (takes more than 1 person) or you have to stun the DC. (this is the main reason why DCs are generally primary target.) Harm beam is a blue beam from DC to the target. They are rapidly tearing away life from this target who needs to stun the DC to try and survive. Both of these effects use up divinity, so if a DC is doing this to you, they either think they have you dead with it, or are desperately putting out all the DPS they can.
Just some extra input for the clerics.
And its true too if theres even a terrible cleric with a good GWF that GWF will take attacks like its a tasty treat and will probably lol a lot because if they are healed while unstoppable they don't take damage until their t.hp is gone which is further protected by its unstoppable DR increases especially with foresight.
I will get to the GWF when I get around to it.
GWF
First a forewarning I'm not a great gwf by any means I do know how they work though. GWF's seem like they were made specifically for pvp much like the TR. They can take and dish out good damage and can make them selves stronger just by being hit they have stuns, prones, great mobility high defense and HP. They can be built for damage or defense or control. They have some of the best 1v1 potential and some can take on entire groups by themselves.
IMO fighting those GWF's is pointless its usually better to avoid their prones and kite them while attacking their party. Their main job in a group in pvp is to distract you; get hit and then get stronger and faster by being hit as well as taking and holding points. The best way to stop their Unstoppable is to not let them get it in the first place. Their weakness is proning and weak attacks because while prone they can't go unstoppable they can while stunned, however. They can't go unstoppable until they receive or deal enough damage and damaging gives much less determination than being hit.
You can also try to chain prone to death but this requires immense team strategy and synchronization; because if they have one standing second they will pop unstoppable and if they have more than 8k hp they will slightly heal themselves and retreat to pot or DC.
They gain Determination while being hit and Unstoppable can give them temp hp which goes away after unstoppable ends, cc immunity, 25-50% DR; it increases their attack speed and lowers their damage which off-sets from their attack speed. It can be feated to heal them a percentage of hp, and even gain determination just from attacking. They can go unstoppable at 50% determination and thats around 5k damage. At 100% the benefits and duration from unstoppable are doubled.
Restoring Strike I figured I'd mention this because it heals and gives them sprint, and this is not what we want them to do.... EVER.
It can heal sentinels around 5k for non-sentinals around 3k. It can hit 3-9k or more for some of them even more if you're debuffed.
Which means that if they receive the heal from this then go unstoppable and get the heal from that at the same time; they can heal for the exact damage it took for them to get unstoppable thusly making them seem unkillable.
It is a slow; but sudden upward attack you can tell by the blade going ground up with the ground being slightly scratched and sparks flying from the target. If you dodge it; it won't heal them.
Like I said though if the enemies are debuffed they get more out of this so for an ally you could stun the enemy so they can't dodge thus gaining him a heal. The hr is very good at this especially with roots constricting and disrupting shots because if they can't escape; they will only die faster cause they can't get away from the gwf; also commanding shot doesn't hurt either.
Not so Fast The gwf spins around quickly hitting enemies with a low cut and slowing them down. This can be mistaken for their at will wicked strike and it can be feated to slow even more.
It's a fast move and it can severely slow and give combat advantage if feated. But it does fairly low damage about 3-6k on mine.
Mighty Leap This is like their dodge which when feated can also slow and give combat advantage like not so fast (same feat) While in the air they are immune to damage and cc hits 3-6k but will jump them 20-40 feet(I have to check). They can use this to jump platforms on a similar level of height or lower.
Flourish The GWF stands with blade back pushing it forward stabbing then a bunch of yellow GWF's circle around the back each hitting around 6 times.
This is a stun that hits fairly hard and is hard to dodge you have to dodge the first hit as it will stun. The first hit when dodged will allow a double dodge; to dodge most of the damage as the hit hits rapidly not all at once. Also if you get out of range of the attack and they miss you can waste it for them. It can also be feated to also stun on the last hit as well.
It can hit 3-6-9k or more if all the hits register. Each stun is I think 1 second I'm not entirely sure.
Indomitable Battle Strike or IBS IBS is a slow, painful, and easily predictable and dodge able attack if; you pay attention. If their arms are above their head, you don't wanna get hit; and heres why. They can hit more than 10k damage easy and if they kill you they gain AP and any allies near you will have their DR reduced by mark which reduces DR by 8% until the gwf is hit by them.
This is another of those attacks you never wanna take to the chin; but if you stun them while arms are in the air just to be safe; it will stop them from using it. If they're unstoppable remember that its faster and you won't be able to stun them which means you must dodge it.
Again weaken the enemies defense and keep them there to get hit by it while laying down cover fire. A prone will always aid the attack and we can chain prone with the GWF easily especially with their new paragon class.
Takedown Takedown is an amazing skill it hits around 5k and prones 1 target in front of them it is basically a hilt punch and if it misses it has a cool down of only four seconds which means 4 seconds after using and missing they get to try again.
Because it prones you want it to miss but because it comes right back so soon after missing you could end up spending all your dodges just to avoid prone you can dodge it by waiting for the hilt to start coming down then try to dodge behind them.
If a gwf is normally using this try rooting them a bit before they usually use it, that way when it prones you; the roots may pull back not allowing him to capitalize the prone or just stun or prone if you can.
Avalanche of Steel Daily It is another jump but this one is a higher longer jump and makes them immune to everything for duration it has a wide range aoe and they can move with it making the aoe itself move it takes 5 seconds for them to land it will show a wide moving red circle and the gwf will land in the center proning all who are hit and it takes timing to dodge while inside it. Or you can move out of the aoe to avoid it 100% but they will take the area they land in.
You can tell the gwf is about to use this because they will kneel before hand and can't be CC'd while kneeling or in the air the prone starts as soon as the gwf is either visible onscreen or upon the landing. The red zone also has another ring that goes toward the middle which signifies that they are about to land.
I will post more later.
You can, you just need to wait a little bit before the items show.
Yeah that was like the first week of the HR when there were no items in the broker. It didn't work at the time of post.
All good though like I said it was rectified.
I figure I'll use this post to list the GF when i get around to it.
GF
Much like the GWF their usual main job in pvp is to jump to you; knock you down to kill you; and take damage for their team. They can be feated to boost their allies, increase their defense or attack power. They can literally take half their allies damage and block from far away. They can heal themselves from attack damage; reflect damage taken become immune to CC and can boast the highest hit points per constitution of any class.
Their shift is not a dodge but a block and will absorb all damage and cc until it breaks from being hit rapidly or too hard but it will only block from the front their weakness is their back. They can replenish their shield over time whilst not using it and certain abilities will replenish part of, half of, or all their block meter.
They can gain their own T. hp using certain moves or even from just being healed. We actually have a goodly amount of synergies with them too so don't think that; Oh he's a tank and I'm ranged he can't benefit from what I do besides damage and buffs... This is wrong. I will try to explain this as best I can when i get to it.
Their tab ability is marking 1 enemy. Marked enemies will have their DR reduced by 8% until they damage the GF if they block the damage it doesn't remove the mark. This in itself will increase damage done by the HR. It will also increase aggro generation from their attacks in pve. If the enemy are chasing and the ally doesn't have a lot of aggro it can peel them off an ally by continuing to attack. They have a variety of moves that generate marks and increase their aggro.
Their prones are identifiable through their shield arm movements however they have other moves like tide of iron that also look like it.
They have a variety of ways to mark through various abilities. I will label these [mark] in green.
More to come.
I've added more to DC, TR, and GWF and a small amount to cw.
I've also started a nature HR so I've updated and will continue to update their particular moves as I learn more about them. It so far seems like it's not that much different from my archer and if it works the way I think it does; I might even get better with my nature than I am with my archer.
The nature ranger isn't anywhere near as bad as some people think, we still hit just as fast and can still use the moves that make the ranger good we just deal less damage we are also much faster movers then any other ranger not using the same feat which is on natures t1. I get 13% movement speed off of my gear enchants and buffs and I give 10% movement speed to everyone else my team run faster than most people using no stamina at all. Any buff causes this.
If a GF is using into the fray the entire party is even faster with me there too. and I make him more stronger so he can take 3k damage before he even loses life I get to do this every time stag heart is up and and while t.hp is up he is healing while being hit that 3k damage not feeling a thing because his armor is so thick and I'm buffing his mitigation and defense.
Same thing with the GWF you wanna be strong as hell? Stay in my vision; I'll make you laugh even harder if thats your thing. As the cw is constantly on the ground or stuttering spells; and even if he gets em off it will be longer till he can ice knife, sing, or oppressive force, because he hasn't been casting anything which is what they want.
Thats not all for cws though, friendly's don't have to worry quite as much about lashing or other little ones that way they can just concentrate on what'll hit them the most and that if it hits mostly will be cut in half if it does hit.
An archer or melee will only give the team give 6% more, if he's using stag heart with no defense bonus.
I might be over glorifying it a little but its still pretty good.
For instance, my split shot's crit at 60 with only 9.2k gs 19% crit and no vorpal hits 5-7k or more if I've already hit with commanding shot I grabbed the 10% Crit Severity T1 archer feat and since two of our buffs are ranged offensively and serve to debuff the best too, so is split, rapid, and aimed shots; plus I am still able to prone it (I hit much harder now.)
Damage is not what we're here for though we can still do it; it's the buffs. As soon as I got Stag Heart Solo bosses hit like little children. Instead of getting hit 1k or so I was only being hit 3-400 at only 19% DR. I am now at 27% DR.
My team gets; with stag heart 12% of My(it was wrong apologies) max hp in t.hp plus a feated 10% DR bonus with it and as it has no duration; the bonus is on until t.hp is gone which goes to everyone effected because of capstone most solo bosses weren't even able to get past the temp hp which was close to 2k or so. Now that I have 25.6k HP I now give 3,122 T.hp and I'm not stacking hp which I might just do now lol. (not heavily of course I still wanna be competent defensively)
So that 38k hp GWF? Well, now he's got 3,122 more in T.hp 10% more DR plus his unstoppable T.hp and DR same thing with Iron Warrior encounter for the GF....Which as soon as its off I can wait a moment and put it back on at full capacity if buffed while fighting. If not I can refresh it as it comes off.
Ridiculous right? And thats just 1 buff (one little hand signal)... Add clerics divine & astral shields+foresight and that f'er will never die and if you do manage to kill him kudos.
Oakskin People don't like the heal; but the heal is not the real thing about it when feated it lasts for 13-15 seconds (being debated) and the cool down normally is only 17 which means 2-4 seconds down time (try doing that with astral shield). On mine at 1200 recovery it is only 16 seconds. (I am now at 2k recovery)
Add in a disruptive shot with Storm Step slotted its 100% uptime due to at lv 3 giving -3 seconds to cool downs per daily activation with disruptive shot its -3 seconds every 9 seconds.
It gives 10% mitigation and mine usually heals me almost 200 per second (slightly less 20% for allies due to feat and 20% of 200 is only 20 hp) and since its always able to be on its always mitigating its always healing for what it heals.
Unfortunately, the heal can be deflected as mentioned in other threads, but it's only due to a bug so it will work eventually. Hopefully when fixed they also take into account rogue's ITC and forest meditation deflection.
I've read and kind of noticed that it scales its heal with power albeit for a very small boost it makes regenerative builds regen even faster all the time instead of just every 3 seconds or so.
Since its paired with Binding Arrow and its a strong root; but I've noticed that if you lead off with it; it sometimes doesn't root kind of like the way regeneration of trolls ticks 1 time after you hit them and no more until 6 seconds after not being hit.
It actually hits slightly harder than my hindering shot and can hit 2 people provided that they are one in front of the other and at 30' somethings gotta be behind it, twin blade storm anyone?
I can use it whenever I feel like and it sometimes does get 2 and hits them both while applying the roots also to both. It is kind of hard to place 2 on 5 guys but in a room of 10-50 or so it gets much, much easier.
Lone Wolf With lone wolf 25% stackable mitigation on top of your own DR is always a bonus, and if you are surrounded by 5 people which you should never be in that situation but sometimes it does happen; just rarely if you can help it and aren't spamming the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of split shot.
Boars Hide 5 stacks for 10% mitigation normally NHR it stacks up to ten. (20%) 5 stacks each use meaning it must be cast 2 times for 10 stacks which is fine because if you still have stacks on it will put it past 5 stacks to 6-10.
Although its sometimes unfortunately useless against stacked dots because each tick of damage reduces stacks. but I don't mind it, it just means those things won't hit as hard either.
I borrowed a Plague Fire weapon enchant from my cw to help with commanding shots debuff since I can apply them quickly through fast attacks. I also plan on getting Bark Shield because the sheer defensive capability being increased by it would be ridiculous. I might also make a Terror enchantment for a 10% or more if better DR debuff.
My buffs also increase the party's movement speed by 10% *even on a horse. Combined with GF's into the fray, GWF's sprint, CW's mastery steal time, and the TR's natural movement speed it ends up making runs even faster movement-wise and can help save stamina for all who have it.
Unfortunately ES damage is even worse with this build due to the not having any* of the archery feated 20% damage increase (I say any as thats almost always only 1st hit and one of the few reasons why ranged hit harder than NHR) But it does have clear the ground and that still hits pretty well. And due to the use of Plague fire here: ES and Clear spread it on evenly and quickly so its still not completely useless if you look at it that way also my es/clear hits 300-500 per hit which isn't bad for hitting 5 targets each. (I hit 700-800 now on crit)
I've also replaced rapid with ES unless at a boss fight. Yeah, split shot does do awesome damage but with awesome damage comes awesome aggro generation. The enemies literally don't care if I hit them with es which means I can spam it a good bit before they get pissed and can alternate the attacks with ES/split it feels much faster than rapid/split.
Due to it being so defensive I chose Forest Meditation The heal is amazing because of the 20% healing increase and as always and will stack its heal with oakskin; and the t.hp from stag heart meaning it will stay on longer due to damage deflected.
Unfortunately it also doesn't work as advertised sometimes; others may argue but it sometimes doesn't deflect for me, dunno why. Hopefully as most bugs if it is one; it will be phased out as the devs get to it.
Hawkeye Increases damage of next attack normally; NHR feated it offers that 1 attack a 10-50% 10% per point chance to heavy root their target for each person buffed so a cw's Ice Knife will hit slightly harder, prone AND root them to that spot controlling movement even longer just for the price of a hand signal.
I didn't take the feat only because I wanted a defensive buff/debuffer but I still have the option of using this 3/3 in-case my party actually needs a small boost in damage which won't happen too often which is why I didn't take the feat + I wanted the ranged crit severity.
I also took Disruptive Shot Because I love that skill and couldn't imagine being without it It still hits 3k on a crit and stuns immediately with it so its awesome. (4-5k now)
I leveled to 40 using only Rain of Arrows and the other moves I used while ranged (see pg 1) to get to the buffs because its what I knew and I wanted to test rain further and I love it more than I did before I'll tell you that theres nothing like hitting a caster all the damage because he doesn't move while casting or firing it at your feet for damaging lunging enemies or on top of big, stupid, slow enemies like bosses that are attacking or being held or tanked and can't move and I've already dodged out and back in so he doesn't move and hasn't hit me.
I also learned that Rain of Blades hits about 15-20' in cone in front of where your ranger is facing not where you are targeting despite the way it looks, so trying to move back, left, or right while using this makes it miss and attacks where the new facing is. (it might be a bug it might not) meaning that you can hit the back row enemies and those in front row and they will bleed low damage lower for nature but its not that much of a difference.
The Forest Warden and Forest Lord item sets allows a chance for each buff cast to add 500 to the highest (offensive) stat to anyone you buff (not sure if a different chance for each player buffed or if when casting the buffing it has a chance to give all players buffed on proc because I don't own it; and if t1 warden has different chance than t2 forest lord) but I eventually will though and will update it when I do or someone else might chime in; either way it still is pretty awesome that you get 3 chances with the buffs.
What this basically means is every buff has a chance to power mitigation defense and the strongest offensive stat for each proc. Meaning that we end up powering everything making it almost like a chance for DC's hallowed ground every encounter buff as well it actually procs pretty often when using 3 buffs. It feels like oak skin might proc it more but I'm not 100% It also feels that it has a cd of maybe 20 seconds which is fine because my buffs are up a lot of the time anyway once its up; I power again and the cool downs are all below 20 seconds anyway.
Almost every forum thread will talk about Fox Cunning/Shift and it is a very nice offensive move but for me the buff from it is only good for protecting against a spike hit; any hit will make it remove itself so if you just get burned from a ground based dot attack or something it will negate only once and leave you with nothing.
If you see a class about to use a high damage attack with a long animation like ice knife; this is a very good buff to have though I might use this instead of oak skin/binding in pvp.
I wish that I didn't have to party up to buff I wish I could buff any allied player or pet without partying. For instance, there was a surrounded cleric with low hp in Dread Ring who I wasn't partied with I helped with dps but couldn't buff her.
None of those enemies can severely hurt me i.e past 50% with even just stag heart and oakskin up because I'm active I dodge almost every hit worth dodging and I keep slashing, shooting and moving as if I were archer or melee I even had the time to sit and have a cigarette while just buffing and barely dodging. (not totally recommended)
In Sharandar I was the one being surrounded this time and not just by powries there were at least 5 of each type of fey and 2 of two types of the weaker cyclops with healers and they still couldn't bring me past 25% even though they were really putting the heat on because I also chose the healing artifact which I didn't totally need to use but used it anyway, because of the stat buffs and forest meditation-like heal.
Master of the Hunt Skirmish
In master of the hunt skirmish done 3 times no ones life even went past 50% except one where the two gwfs were being reckless even with no cleric and most of the time none of them got even close to even being below 70% because the T.hp kept their health up the CWs were fine of course as were other rangers. Even the boss fight couldn't hurt anyone. Of course this is only three tries and I could have been with geared players.
Now, none of this means don't dodge because our mitigation is great but getting hit too much will kill you.
Dungeons
Throne of Idris
Using the NHR with no cw 2 HR 1 DC GF and GWF it took only an 45 minutes pugging it and gear score seemed to be around maybe 1-3k gs more than TI between us I was at 11.1k without any purple epic armor set bonus all T1 bought purple weapons and accessories real cheap but effective; though because I got some rank 5s and made some to 6s appropriate to what I am trying to do.
The only attacks that weren't fully mitigated were the commander wights circle drain even the soul drain from the warriors were mitigated and healed; the GF had the most trouble keeping his hp up sometimes but i always prevented most of the damage i could I lowered the amount of healing the cleric did only because mitigation was stacked so high, but it allowed him to not have to be full heal so he could also daunting light I was still able to match the GWF's damage but only because I'm ranged and he's not.
I was also able to buff and split shot pretty well almost imputatively because of the GF's threat and the fact that my split shot hits less and I took 6% less threat feat because its easier to focus on buffing and attacking when no one cares about the damage you do so they don't bother with me even if they do bother it won't really hurt.
I can actively take adds off of the cleric from prone and stuns and by spamming split shot I can take aggro from everyone and then use forest meditation to burst heal and deflect ALL the attacks usually and this means that I can make it so no one gets hurt but me and allows my buffs to stay on even longer.
For instance there were about 20 zombies attacking from the back and just me and the cleric fought them for almost 15 seconds and i held aggro on them and and used meditation my life literally was jumping back and forth 50-75% because I was being hit by so many; and the cleric was making sure our allies at the bottom of the stairs were healed and so was I.
Mimics didn't hurt as much as it usually does without our buffs either they were still dangerous but less so due to mitigation.
I went to Idris again because I got bad loot twice and need to do again; but generally the same result happened. Only when ridiculously overwhelmed; did tanks or anyone else for that matter even come near to death.
For an example on NHR I once hit on a crit on Idris and a zombie hulk 8k to both with binding arrow.
Idris herself Idris did do good damage to everyone including me but I was preventing most of the damage combining with our clerics mitigation and decent heals no one died but the GF was probably lowest life because he was tanking/kiting almost everything which is pretty much what they are there for not that they can't do other things this is just typical tanking.
Just remember that Idris isn't that hard though for those who might say its easy it is but only if geared higher than the dungeon or being skilled with a skilled team; otherwise it still is a challenge which must or should be overcome.
Added to post.
Pirate King
We ended up doing pirate king yeah ik easy again right? But we had no cw at all so it was more difficult; set up was 1 DC, me at 11.4k, a 16k GF, and 2 TR's 10.6k one going for max damage and the other 9.2k using support skills.
We steam rolled through the dungeon and ran through the end part the support tr didn't realize we were running though we told him we were and was fighting alone; I noticed and I went back and saved him at around 5% life with the stag heart and heals from oakskin and his potion while still buffing him until he could pot again.
At the boss we wiped twice because theres something that makes GF's think they are invincible around 15k gs and we ended up trying both times to fight the boss with almost every add hitting us the fights each lasted around 15 minutes each time brought him down to half life I always died last because they didn't care that I was there until I was the last one there...
Then I suggested that I fight the boss while they all fight the adds as my buffs will still reach them all the way across the room and I couldn't aim well at one specific enemy or group of them because they were so grouped up around the boss anyway and still deal enough damage to adds because split shot hits 5 random enemies closest to the HR using it to matter meaning firing it into a huge wave means I'm just hitting whatever is there. We had 2 TRs so I didn't think the elites would matter.
Which it didn't they were able to kill most of the elites that were there and the GF and DC were all doing their jobs kudos to them too.
Needless to say I kicked his sorry butt in something like 15-20 minutes and helped keep everyones health above 70% this time and the GF before the fight when I laid out the strategy, said I couldn't do enough damage and hold aggro on the boss pshaw, I said and showed that I could. I was the only one attacking him so I was the only one he had eyes for. I ended the battle at 4.6 million damage of course I know pirate king like the back of my hand so that helped alot.
I only needed healing really only once but that was when the kicking elite adds came in and kicked me twice and got hit by the bosses sword because of the stun. And it wasn't even that severe; (down by 50%) but I popped my stag heart and oakskin and potion so I was fine. I was grateful for the DC's healing word that he kept throwing at me at that point of course, but then again who isn't.
Would have been easier to have a CW other than the support TR in my opinion because then the strategy the GF was insanely employing might have worked.
I don't know why GF tank most of the bosses instead of the adds they are the real threat in every dungeon every class can avoid boss AOE's easily, but not 100 adds all AOEing at once makes no sense to me. I understand for some bosses but really the adds are the only things that need controlling.
Did Karrundax no one got severely hurt again granted it was with guild but I know I at least helped keep their hp up. it was only during the boss fights mostly the chick with the giant and the 15 or so immunity fire guys.(I will correct as shard is down and can't remember off bat what they are called)
Even then only one of us died at that one and he got right back into the fray once he got back in time for us to kill the boss off.
2nd boss went smooth as hell too.
Dragon in my opinion is kind of a chump though once you know what to do with him (mad dragon boss is harder in my opinion and only because of the slowing imps)
Final Statements on NHR
So the NHR is not just support; NHR is damage too; just not as hard but just as fast; we can make tanks tankier; dps better at doing their job while dpsing ourselves, while helping everyones survival to almost GWF level, almost passively especially when partied with a cleric. (honestly just a hand signal or a jesus pose for each; barely even an interruption of attacks)
Our buffs/debuffs and the prone make us competitive in damage and control as well. Plus an NHR only needs gear score to hit harder or have better DR or deflect; just having a lv 1 bow, blades, and armor will still allow the NHR to buff just as well minus the heal from oakskin.
It makes clerics need to be less of a heal bot so they can switch at least one heal for attack and still keep people alive thus even there we help contribute damage.
Honestly, I can't imagine never wanting a NHR in group unless speed running it and I'm just as fast of a mover and damager as any HR because the difference in damage isn't actually as steep as you'd think.
Especially because I can face tank lower damage and greatly soften undodged higher damage so I can still attack while being hit not needing to dodge every little thing. Granted I'm not immortal but I know what I can and can't survive which is a handy piece of info to have.
I will complete my initial analysis on the NHR; and will expand it as I run dungeons I will explain if I end up sucking or being amazing as my analysis is incomplete due to not beating them all yet; but I am confident that the NHR will pass with flying colors.
After I've done some of the harder T2s I'll continue adding to this but basically speaking it feels as though it won't be too bad.
I apologize for not posting for a while I've been doing other things like leveling the NHR above and playing other games with roommates and commenting in various parts of the forums.
I will however be posting more often here now that my characters are caught up.
I usually post at night as I sleep during the day.
Unfortunately I'm out of character slots (I have 8 of them) so I can't test hybrid or melee rangers without deleting any of my others. Anyone who feels like it can post the info here if they so wish just make sure its coherent.
And I'm almost done with the thread as soon as I fill in everything so anyone can go ahead and ask any question about HR they like and I will answer it if I can meaning this thread is now open for discussion.
I'm just gonna either scrap the actual 5 ranger monty or post it on a new thread much later, once I get more slots for melee and hybrids because without analysis I can only make guesses and guesses help no-one truly learn. The info already here will stay here. I am sorry I didn't get to do it. I don't actually know if anyone wants or needs it so if you want it or are curious about what could happen, just post or mail me if you also think it might be a waste of time or if you really want it.
As always just don't flame.
I don't wanna hear it and probably no-one else does either. That said you may disagree with anything said here. If you do just say so with at least some proof, and I will verify and/or attempt to persuade you otherwise if needed, just know that if I fail in that regard I am sorry. As new factual info comes in I will gladly change what is written when its actually confirmed, when I get the chance.
A special thanks to Shadow5930 for making this thread and others feel worth the effort and the information that he contributed. It made me an even better player I think.