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1

Ranger / Re: How to Ranger *Night of Shadows Edition*

« on: February 28, 2023, 08:28:45 PM »

Updated for Night of Shadows expansion! Added several new sections, providing them below if you don't want to skim for new stuff.

Area of Effect Blades - This ability does do more DPS than the Focused line of Blades. As long as you *can* AoE in your setting this will always outperform Focused Blades of the SAME 5 level range. Do NOT use this if you are using Archery. The only time this ability will land during Archery is if you are shooting a mob further away from whatever is in front of you. Note that the range for AOE Blades is the same as Focused Blades. They are not actually interchangeable, the cast range is 50 for both but the AE range is only 30. It will never land on the mob you are actively shooting.
*Example: Swarm Commander is being tanked away but the pile of adds is at a closer location. You can continue to shoot the Swarm Commander and use AOE Blades on the pile of mobs in-front of you.

Area of Effect Arrows - Focused Arrows is your general spam spell for most events and strategies. There are events that you can benefit from swapping to AoE Arrow spells for decent gains. For starters you need at least 3 mobs that you can reliably hit with your cast. Focused Arrows itself is slightly less DPS when 2 mobs are present but you’ll lose too much DPS to the cast time of the AoE spells which is why you need 3. As of the House of Thule expansion we have 2 options for AoE Arrows. We have the OG Frontal and the newer Free-Target spell.

*Frontal Arrows - 20 degree cone with 100 range.
*Free-Target Arrows - 30 range splash target with 200 cast range.

My personal preference is using the Free-Target Arrows spell. It does slightly more damage and is more reliable and easy to utilize correctly. There is a very large margin for error using the Frontal Arrows. You also have the benefit of putting the Free-Target Arrows in your spell spam. You can continue spamming spells whilst you aim the target so that you aren’t forced to aim during the cast itself. You can also predict mob movements a little better and with higher accuracy than the Frontal Arrows. This is personal preference, some people will likely prefer the Frontal Arrows instead. There is a small DPS difference between them, however use whichever spell you can actually land reliably.


SPA 185 Sustainment - Mentioned above in our burn order is splitting of our SPA 185 abilities. In-game these are the abilities that classify as “increase base melee damage by X%. If you look on parsing sites for spell data they’ll say “Increase Hit Damage by X% v185”. This is a non-stacking damage modifier of which there are quite a few abilities with it present in-game, rangers have the most, at least in terms of present and combinable abilities.
A few of these abilities will have other components to them but the main component we are looking for is that SPA 185 modifier. Their effectiveness is listed in order below % wise for all abilities that we encounter, including those of other classes. (This list will stay in this order mostly as you get these AA’s on TLP).
   Guardian of the Forest
   Outrider’s Accuracy
   Group Bestial Alignment
   Hunter’s Fury
   Intensity of the Resolute
   Group Guardian of the Forest
   War March of X
*Pureshot Discipline is also a SPA 185 modifier, however it is for a specific skill so it DOES stack with regular base SPA 185 Mods. At least until another Archery specific one gets introduced.

With all that said, there is a hefty burden or requirement if you will to actually capitalize on all of these for your sustained damage. Remember, we are not a Burst class so our toolkit is best utilized through micromanagement of these abilities specifically. There’s not a lot I can put into words going through an actual live sequence of events and CD’s.

The best advice I can give is to be conscious of your timers and your song window. Some overlap will happen at times and that’s ok. There will also be times where it’s best to hold off for a few seconds to a minute on certain more powerful mods just to ride out your current one. On the fly adjustments will occur a lot that you’ll have to do quick napkin math for.

*Example: Hunter’s Fury is on and your Outrider’s Accuracy just repopped. Guardian of the Forest still has 1:41s on CD. You know that Outrider’s will be up for a max of 1:12. So, it’s best to hold off on Outrider’s for that extra 30-36 seconds riding out Hunter’s Fury. Again, this is for sustaining DPS and loses its shine on short burst type events.

Raid Tanking - If the circumstance arrives that requires you to help out and tank things or if you can potentially take over a crumbling MTO then here are some things you can do. Firstly, always keep your Burning Cloak buff up whether grouping or raiding. Remember that it does have a damage cap and will normally fade before the strikes or timer are met.

*Outrider’s Evasion: Burning Cloak buff made this mostly useless on raids. The Avoidance check may be somewhat helpful now with heroic strikethrough being reduced though. I best use this when my Cloak buff fades to give me a minute to get it back on and continue healing/nuking.

*Bulwark of the Brownies: Always pop this whenever I yank agro on things, it does last for 4 minutes. Be careful if you hit this during Weaponshield, if you are below 40% it will fire regardless.

*Protection of the Spirit Wolf: Typically I will use this for a giant AOE that might have been set up. In regards to actively tanking I will normally utilize this last. It gets eaten through really fast and has a very long CD for what it is. Very helpful for the round or 2 it lasts though.

*Imbued Ferocity: Your best bet is going to be with 2 Vampiric Consumption 1handers that have Heal Target’s Target augs in them. Alternatively, you can use the Vampiric Consumption 2hander which can help cut down on riposte quantity in exchange for slightly less healing. This alone is not always enough to actually keep you alive but most of the time it’s just enough of a bump for healers to keep you going.

*Weaponshield Discipline: Everybody knows what this bad boy is. I do try to exhaust everything before I use it as a personal preference. You can do quite a long stretch without it if you focus and have some decent support.

*Armor of Experience: Great stopgap ability to utilize in hopes of Sheltering Thunder procs. Can also use it to somewhat count down to the next tank and hopefully live after the swap.

Glyph of Dragon Scales: Obviously this works great. If combined with Vampirice duel wield/2hander you can mostly keep yourself alive on your own for its full duration. It’s a little stressful but is attainable through peppering heals and spamming Summer’s for heal procs.

Shots Cycling - During our Archery expansions the Called Shots Effect debuff is very potent for us. It’s very important you try to ensure mobs have this on at all times if possible. Playing smart and being ahead of the MA will play into adding more DPS to yourself. You may also have some other rangers with you to help “pick up the slack” when it comes to spreading the debuff efficiently.
*Example: Current target is at 30%, Shots comes back up in 3 seconds. Best use it to target the next mob and pop it with shots then return to the current mob before it’s dead. You want to make sure you get your debuff and then also make sure you’re in the running for killing spree procs.

Hunting - For maximum sustained DPS you’re going to have to hunt for killing sprees or “snipe” mobs as they drop low. Due to our only “innate” mana recovery being tied fully to the Hunter’s Fury killing spree proc. As a companion you’ll also get your Provoked procs 100% of the time on slaying mobs. For Archery this isn’t helpful but it will at least affect your Blades combat abilities.

I cannot stress enough how useful this can be, especially on longer events with lots of adds. This is probably the most neglected portion of raiding on a Ranger that I have seen and is by far the most rewarding. This alone ties into your mana, hit modifiers and crit rate all in 1. Be vigilant of opportunities and take as many as you can. You can also utilize swarm pets and player pets that may populate the extended target window when people get charmed. Alternatively, you can (at the moment) duel people to kill pets off as needed. Be careful what classes you choose though. (I do not personally do or recommend this, but it is something you can take advantage of if you work out the kinks).

Bandolier Setups + Explanations:

Wrath/Arrow - Velium Endowed Great Mace (Harmonious Phantasmal Luclinite Gem of Devastation)
*If you have a good spread of Rangers/Druids you can utilize the Season’s Wrath and/or Elemental Arrow debuffs to your advantage on procs. You’ll have your top Sympathetic damage off this CoV item still if you’re capitalizing on mobs debuffed with either of the 2 abilities. Generally speaking you should be able to always be on a target with Elemental Arrow on it since you can cast it yourself. I try to stay ahead of the MA by a mob or 2 so I can get decent up-time and less swapping of bandolier setups to max out.

2Hander - Spectral Luclinite Spear (Reactive Luclinite Ensanguined Gem of Devastation)
*This is your general Archery setup if you’re either being a little lazy or just don’t have debuff coverage on mobs. This is also your go-to melee setup when you have a Bard or Beastlord specifically and are unable to use Archery.

Ferocity - Spectral Luclinite Hooked Dagger (Reactive Phantasmal Luclinite Gem of Striking) + Spectral Luclinite Axe (Reactive Luclinite Ensanguined Gem of Striking)
*This is for your second lineup of the Imbued Ferocity/Third Spire/Auspice combo. First iteration should ALWAYS happen during Pureshot. Also will typically be slightly better DPS than 2hander if you are lacking a Bard.

2

Ranger / Re: How to Ranger *Claws of Veeshan Edition*

« on: July 18, 2021, 03:35:13 AM »

Updated for Claws of Veeshan. A few amendments/additions to old sections. Many spell name updates, the tone of the post is the same overall. Ranger Discord link added at the bottom and fresh trigger package attached that has a few newer things I started monitoring.

3

Ranger / Re: How to Ranger *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: June 19, 2020, 06:28:55 PM »

Updated for Torment of Velious. Gina trigger package added on the bottom.

4

Warrior / Fintank's Warrioring

« on: April 08, 2019, 09:12:07 PM »

                                                                                                             

Augmentation

               Let’s talk how to *properly* augment for raiding. There are 2 paths you can take that seem to be basically interchangeable. You can go the Heroic Stamina route or the Heroic Agility route, Heroic Dexterity is a trash stat for tanking in raids compared to the other 2. Heroic Stamina is obviously going to focus around increasing your Hit Points for spike damage, along with this it increases your melee shielding. Seems great, however melee shielding does dick all and should be ignored. There was math done on it to be around 200 points off a hit per point of melee shielding. Heroic Agility centers around how hard you can be hit for and avoiding said hits. It increases your Avoidance stat as it’s Modifier. I personally run Heroic Agility and have forever. Personally, I think if you don’t die from spike damage than running Heroic Stamina does fuck all for you. However, having the ability to *potentially* decrease how many times you are hit in a fight can add up quickly to your benefit. This advice is generally just for your Type 5 Augmentation type selections. When it comes to your regular augments (The type 7/8) ones I just use the ones with the best HP/AC ratio, using the 10 HP = 1 AC formula, which may or may not be wrong. It’s what I use, and I stand by it for no specific reason whatsoever, change is scary!

Weapon augmenting comes down to a personal choice in most situations. I have been running a stat augmentation in my tanking weapons since HOT. The only reason to run anything else is for DPS or because your agro blows big time and you need all the boosts you can get. There are debates around using a Rune proc augmentation over a stat augment, the thought process I use between the 2 is the stat augment will apply to literally every hit that encounters you as opposed to 1 hit in total per proc. Maybe when they provide a bigger rune than 1050, I’ll hit the drawing board again!
                                                                                                                       

Agro

               Agro is the pinnacle of your skills in this class. Can’t tank if you don’t have it, right? Agro is also fickle and changes in power from expansion to expansion based off level increases and power increases of certain DPS classes. This is generally the 1 thing that is lacking the most for guilds everywhere. Brace yourselves, shit’s about to get CRAY.

                              Spam Agro – All of these things should be spammed all the time to generate and maintain your agro. Roar, Gut Punch, Insult, Taunt, Warlord’s Grasp, Shout, Wade in To Battle, Harmonious Precision/Expanse, Phantom Aggressor, *Warlord’s Fury* (Agro modifier, use it if Rage or Dicho aren’t going), *Shield Sunder* (Decent sized melee hit most of the time, DPS still builds agro, defensive recourse on top.)

                              Timed Agro – These are abilities I save for certain situations and do pairings with to get a higher potential agro lock.

*Rage of the Forsaken + Blast of Anger* - Gigantic agro hit, the biggest we can hit in 1 ability whilst Rage is running. Blast is a 1m CD and Rage is a 2m CD so you can Blast twice before Rage comes back, always pair these 2.

*Rage of the Forsaken + Dragonstrike Blades/Rampage* - This is our AOE agro bread and butter hits outside of Harmonious Expanse and Wade in To Battle charges. I always start an add spawn with Rage + Blades or Rage + Rampage (Provided no Mez is occurring.)

*Undivided Attention* - Agro lock + AC buff and agro modifier. If we’re burning from the start use this for the love of god. Locks you for 18 seconds, provides an agro decreasing multiplier for everyone hitting the mob.

*Ageless Enmity and Area Taunt* - These are no fail taunts, use them when you lose agro or when you need to tank swap if applicable. I generally use Area Taunt as my go-to since I’ve had Ageless dupe me in the past, although it hasn’t failed in years at this point!

*Projection of Fury* - This is just a longer CD version of Phantom Aggressor, use when you need it. I like to use it when multi-tanking adds personally.

*Rage of Rallos Zek* - If agro is becoming a super huge problem, pop this force proc and equip 2 Spike of Anger proc weapons. Watch all your problems disappear at that point, cause DD agro + % agro being procced like mad is the epitome of OP AFK-Attack.

Remember that your agro is only going to be as good as your ability to stay on top of your CD’s. Also, if you’re worried about saving abilities, don’t. If your job is to tank the boss, you unload IMMEDIATELY. Add tanking on a warrior is a different story based off your spawn rate, that will require appropriate splitting and cycling. You should be constantly “buttoning” as a tank, regardless of which class you are.
                                                                                                             

General Advice

I attached a picture of my AWESOME UI. I circled 3 things with arrows that I use very heavily.

Flash of Anger *OH SHIT* key - This is a mapped key that is bound to my middle mouse wheel button. While monitoring my health bar this allows me to immediately not die basically. Anytime I drop below 30% I spam this little baby as fast as possible. I strongly recommend doing something similar, it saves lives!

Hit Box - I monitor my hit intake for frequency and quality. My eyes are glued to this box for most of the time when I am tanking. On some raids I pop discs purely based off of what I'm seeing in this box, sometimes we can't rely on rotation when shit starts hitting the fan. I strongly recommend making one if it's something you don't pay attention to.

Health Window - For obvious reasons.
 
                                                                                         

Tank Swapping & Tank Death

               A tank swap and a tank death are basically the same situation, the only reason difference is losing DPS/Healer classes if you fail to hit your mark. These points in the raid are very crucial, if not done properly it can lead to a slow wipe. ALWAYS preface your agro with Flash of Anger, Fortitude Discipline or Armor of Experience. Your healers NEED time to swap to you to heal. After you’ve disced pop your Ageless Enmity or Area Taunt, drop the agro bomb directly after a success. DO NOT DROP REGULAR AGRO TILL A SUCCESSFUL TAUNT. You want to build agro up ON TOP of the top agro spot, not beneath it. If you have slow reflexes you should be building agro before there is even a concern for you to take over tanking. Some people have fast reflexes and can snatch agro from 0 immediately. If you can’t do it INSTANTLY, build the 2nd agro spot. We have an agro meter, use the damn thing.

                                                                                                   

Disc Rotating

               Disc rotation is going to somewhat vary from fight to fight, depending on if it’s heavy spell damage or heavy melee damage or a decent mix of both. When you’re rotating discs it’s important to spread out the damage about as even as you can. To further elaborate on that, think of a line graph. You want to try and keep your “line” as flat as possible, this is for your healers. You can absolutely blow many discs at once if you need to but there’s only a certain threshold you need to keep in order to stay alive. Heal frequency and damage input is what creates your threshold. So, with all that said, let’s get into it! Let’s talk about absorb damage and mitigation stacking. When it comes to absorb damage, the highest affect will take hold. We do have the convenience now of the game itself being able to determine this for us, that doesn’t mean waste CD’s though! Mitigation stacking is different, generally if it’s in a different slot it will stack in most cases. Same slots will not stack, only the highest percentage will take hold. We’ve got several of both types along with buffs we can receive from other classes to get added in the mix as well. Typically, what I do is use my short CD abilities first, this allows me to tank with a pretty steady damage intake for 20+ minutes on normal fights. As I mentioned above with the Hit Damage Intake chat window, I use that very heavily to decide my next ability when things start to go off the rails. So, this isn’t an “always holds true” way of rotating your discs. The following is a small explanation of what I do and the order that I typically follow for regular fights.

               Dichotomic Shielding – Nothing gets hit with this EVER unless it’s an emergency. Of course, if you aren’t running an actual disc, you’ll want to be running the Resolute Defense line.
               Guardian’s Bravery (Anguish BP Click) – Mitigation that stacks with everything. I very frequently combine Pain Doesn’t Hurt and Third Spire of the Warlord (If I don’t have Divinity on) with this.
               Warrior’s Bulwark – This is a large threshold rune, you DO NOT need to combine anything with this. It does fade after 3-4 rounds at this point though.
               Culminating Stand – Everyone knows what this one is, again you DO NOT need to combine anything with this. It holds its own very well, normally Pain Doesn’t Hurt is still running when you get here so both together is generally fantastic.
               Flash of Anger – I sometimes must use this to bridge a small gap in disc timers, no big deal it’s on a short enough CD.
               Dichotomic Shielding – We’ve reached the recycle point of this CD, pop it again.
               Guardian’s Bravery – We’ve reached the recycle point of this CD, Pain Doesn’t Hurt will also be up. Pop both, Third Spire will not be back up at this point, but it will be close.
               Glyph of Dragon Scales – This thing is very hugely overpowered. Never pop anything with this, even in dire circumstances this is enough to keep you alive 99% of the time.
               Dichotomic Shielding – SURPRISE! Time to use again.
               Guardian’s Bravery – Smaller surprise! Use again with Pain Doesn’t Hurt.
               Culminating Stand – BIGGER SURPRISE! Time to get our drank on, pop it.
(I typically don’t double Glyph in any event so we’re moving on to our other things)
               Warrior’s Bulwark – Bridge that disc gap with Bulwark this time, Flash if needed.
               Dichotomic Shielding – BOOM BABY
               Guardian’s Bravery – Oh boy! Pain Doesn’t Hurt and Third Spire time as well!
               Warlord’s Tenacity – So this isn’t a mitigation tool, however this is basically a whole extra hit from a mob. Normally I just run Tenacity with what’s left of Pain Doesn’t Hurt. If you’re getting wailed on use your BP click as well.
               BP Click – If you didn’t use this during Tenacity, use it now. If you did use it then it *should* last till Dichotomic recycles.
(You pretty much get what’s going on at this point, most events don’t last past a rotation this long, let’s get into special stuff)
               Resplendent Glory – Use it whenever you need more heals, there’s not really any perfect use for this. If you’re getting your ass beat or your healer died, then use it.
               Warlord’s Bravery – This thing is like Guardian’s Bravery except it’s on a much larger CD and has limited counters. Again, if you’re getting destroyed pop it or save it for a disc bridge.
               Diplomatic Papers – I pepper these in whenever I don’t have Pain Doesn’t Hurt running and am lacking an absorb.
               Brace for Impact – I keep this on CD, I rarely ever run out of charges so trying to time this button is pointless.
               Blade Guardian – I hit this on CD, it doesn’t fire for me personally too much. Has a long buff timer compared to its CD timer so no worries if you hit it upon zone in.
               Imperator’s Charge – Hit this on CD, make a trigger if you have multiples in group. This is much more powerful than Imperator’s Command. Your healers thank you.
               Fortitude Discipline – This is my most unused defensive discipline surprisingly, I save this for emergencies or if there’s a weird engage I might do.
 
                                                                                                           

Spell Discing

               Spell discing is very important in today’s raids. Using these discs appropriately can save your bacon quite a lot. Generally, I have a Gina timer running for whatever AOE/DD is about to smack me in the face so I can time my discing for maximum use. These are basically just going to be your personal defenses against big spell hits. Unlike your melee discs, you don’t have a seemingly endless supply of these. So, hit these by themselves and don’t combine unless you absolutely must.

               Dichotomic Shielding – Your best spell defensive, can sometimes last through 2 hits depending on the AOE/DD timer.
               Geomantra – We know what this is, timing it correctly does help despite it being on the small side.
               Mark of the Mage Hunter – This will last for a few hits due to the long duration of the ability. Just like Geomantra this is unfortunately a small absorb.
               Pain Doesn’t Hurt – This is going to be your smallest absorb for spells, but it’s better than nothing.
               Warlord’s Tenacity – Just like with your melee discing this allows you to take a much larger spell strike, so while it doesn’t absorb any of the strike it will help you live through it. Combine with PDH sometimes depending on heal situation and your other CD’s.
               Flash of Anger – This is like Warlord’s Tenacity in how you’re using it. Basically, you’re going to pop this to avoid any damage ON TOP of the spell strike. Assuming your healers aren’t AFK you should end up topped off before the spell lands and you’ll survive.
               Epic 2.0 – This doesn’t help with a ton of raid AOE/DD’s now, but there are some that get flagged as resistible. This is just an increase to your spell resist rate by 20%. I try to use it with PDH for when you don’t resist the spell.
              **Glyph of Dragon Scales** - This is super awesome for spell absorption along with the melee portion. I don’t normally include it in my rotation, just because it’s new and I’m not used to it!
                                                                                                         

DPS

               Use your 2-hander if able, otherwise Duel-Wielding isn't too terribly far off from max DPS output.

Primary Burn - Brutal Onslaught
Secondary Burn - Offensive + War Sheol's Heroic Blade
Tertiary Burn - Mighty Strike + Glyph of Destruction or Vehement Rage

Battle Leap - This is now a permanent aura, hit it as soon as possible once you've zoned into wherever you're fighting

Spam abilities - Shield Sunder, Bash/Kick, Gut Punch, Knee Strike, Stormwheel Blades

Anytimes - Second Spire, TDS BP click. I call these "anytimes" because you can basically hit them with anything and everything and get roughly the same amount of damage out of them.

Rage of Rallos Zek - The best time to use this is during a HHE (Hundred Hands Effect) modifier is running, outside of that circumstance just make sure you're at the max haste available to you.

Rampage - Rampage adds a nice boost to us for 1 combat round, the best time to do this is with your 3 main burn discs running. Obviously if all 3 are down when this repops (which is natural) that shouldn't stop you from hitting it.

Stacking - The reason for those combos is due to stacking. War Sheol's Heroic Blade does not fully stack with Brutal Onslaught, Mighty Strike or Glyph of Destruction. Brutal Onslaught does not stack fully with Glyph of Destruction. Vehement Rage doesn't stack with Offensive disc.

Offensive - BE CAREFUL! This disc will lock out your Last Stand for 4 minutes AND it will lower your mitigation by about 35%. All of that on top of the
mitigation lost by 2-handed proficiency is staggering.

Vehement Rage - Vehement Rage is a random throw away disc you can use on CD, it doesn't stack with Offensive and I wouldn't run it with your primary or secondary burn. If I stack this with anything it's normally Mighty Strike discipline.

Intensity of the Resolute - This is a special, it's best use is going to be when it's combined with Mighty Strike. Will not stack with Vehement Rage or Offensive Disc.

Optimal Sustained - I'd hold off on using all 3 of your actual burn disciplines in rapid succession unless the event is only going to last 3 minutes or less. Optimal route would be to use Rampage with each of your 3 main burn disciplines. So, given Heroic Rage's duration I'd give it about 10-15 seconds after Brutal fades before you pop it, just to ensure you get that mod on your Rampage. However you can go ahead with Offensive directly after Brutal fades, if you're choosing to lose your LS CD. Mighty obviously being used when Rampage pops again.
                                                                                                               

Boss Engage

               Pretty straight forward and simple, this has been the same for years. Before you start the encounter or pull the mob use Flash or Fortitude WHILE you position the mob. On the move take the time to start dropping your agro on the mob. Drop your load as quickly as possible and re-cycle everything as it pops. Occasionally you’ll have to save some stuff for weird events like Prince in EOK that has a ton of agro resets.
                                                                                                             

Multi-Add Agro + Tanking

               This is probably one of the harder things to do on raids. This requires a lot of target cycling and balancing of your agro abilities across whichever mobs you’re wanting. There’s no real set way to do this correctly, depends on the events and who your other tanks are etc. Liberal use of Expanse and Wade In To Battle are generally a good part of it.  Tanking wise just pretend it’s a boss when you have multiple adds, can follow the boss disc rotation on adds and be absolutely find *most* of the time.

Edit: Formatting doesn't copy over and I don't want to spend a ton of time making it all perfectly symmetrical. Best of luck!

5

Ranger / Re: How to Ranger *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: December 03, 2018, 05:19:56 AM »

I assume you meant the COTF mana regen BP since that's the only one there is for us in recent years, TDS was back to lightning procs. Just going off of base returns it's less DPS than just using your current expansion BP click. Highest form of Revitalizing Torpor returns a total of 7500 mana, highest form of Natural Alignment does 750k damage. 7500 mana is going to net you roughly 4 casts of Summer's, which with good RNG is going to be roughly 500-600k damage total WITH sympathetic potion procs. So it's more efficient to spend no mana for 750k damage than spend roughly 7500 mana for well, less.

Obviously there are going to be exceptions like Arrow Nukes or tossing in a Dichotomic cast, however the most cast spell is Summer's so it's best to go off of that as your baseline spell. Along with that, the debuff side of Revitalizing Torpor is going to decrease the damage your arrow nukes and regular nukes do whilst it's on. So again, you're doing less DPS even more inefficiently in this time period whilst trying to regain mana, this is only exacerbated by rez affects if you have just died as well. That 750k damage off the new BP clickies is always going to be there, unless on an off chance it gets resisted which doesn't seem to happen at all. (for me anyway)

6

Ranger / Re: How to Ranger *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: July 28, 2018, 12:00:09 AM »

The dragons in T3 events allow you to be in range for Kick and /autofire, the autoskill for Kick does not fire with auto fire active only with regular auto attack. Banestrike removed.

7

Paladin / Re: Paladin Agro + Tanking Spells

« on: July 27, 2018, 11:57:59 PM »

I typically go Crush > Force > Valiant for engage. However agro isn't a set it and forget it thing, you should be constantly casting from event start to event finish. There is normally a point where agro is pretty set against DPS on a mob but that's 1-1.5 full spell cycles in which is roughly 10-12 Agro spells.

8

Necromancer / Re: How to Necro *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: June 21, 2018, 04:30:03 AM »

I went and looked at Scorn's writeup and included a link to it at the bottom of mine, there are some things in it I did not cover. Mentioning them as some of the draws to click it such as pet gearing, assorted clickies etc.

Added my Gina triggers as well, it gets really clunky during Gift of Deathly resolve but they help if you just play through the pain of having 20 timer bars up for about 1:30.

As far as the swarm pets and other clickies go, I generally just check during GCD since they are in certain places on my screen it's easy to see, they're also very minute DPS gains so if you miss hitting one twice you aren't truly missing out.

9

Necromancer / Re: How to Necro *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: June 21, 2018, 12:16:23 AM »

Yeah I forgot to add in Tribute, and probably a few other things. I sent myself my spell sets last night to do this during down time 

I also always forget about the necro aura in raids, mainly because it doesn't parse so I generally stray away from things such as that. I've pretty much only incorporated it into my "grouping brain" since I haven't made a spellset for it yet. Maybe use that in slot 13 when no others necros in raid to keep Alliance firing!

10

Necromancer / How to Necro *Ring of Scale Edition*

« on: June 20, 2018, 07:38:07 PM »

Burn AA’s

Gift of Deathly Resolve – DoT twin cast proc off of direct damage (1 Nuke = 3 DoT charges)
Mercurial Torment – Increase spell haste by 25% for detrimentals
Hand of Death – Increase DoT damage by 30-120%
Third Spire – Increase critical DoT damage by 180%
Embalmer’s Carapace – Increase critical DoT damage by 125%
Curse of Muram – Increase DoT critical chance by 40%
Intensity of the Resolute – Increase DoT critical chance by 50%
Glyph of the Cataclysm – Increase critical DoT damage by 60%
Auspice of the Hunter – Increase DoT/DD critical chance by 33%
Illusions of Grandeur - Increase DoT/DD crit chance by 13%, Increase crit DoT dmg by 120% of base, Increase crit DD dmg by 160% of base.
Fierce Eye - Increase DoT/DD crit chance by 13%, Increase DD crit dmg by 13% of base
Spirit of Vesagran (Bard Epic) - Increase DoT/DD crit chance by 12%

Ramp Up + Burn

So here’s what I mean by Ramp Up; in order to max out your burn you’ve got to get your “trigger” DoT’s (Wounds) stacked on ASAP so they’re about to fade and apply the perforations when you start to burn. The perforations are your largest DMG DoT’s, and as such you want to have all your burn modifiers on when they finally trigger. A trick you can use to help streamline your Wounds triggering is to remove your Detrimental Duration Focus ear and then cast all 4 of them, once the last one lands re-equip the ear. So now let’s get into what we’re doing after we’ve applied our Wounds.

For this I’ll just go by spell set name and post the sets themselves later on in the post. Wounds > Mercurial Torment > Raid 1 > Raid 2 (Or Plant if applicable *Skin to Sumac on boss*) > Raid 3 (Or Raid 2 if Plant was applicable). Now we have DoT’s layered and slots taken up so we can hopefully land all our forced twincast DoT’s. So now we’re starting our burn, we have DoT’s on already so we can start to layer on our modifiers. Dicho > Gift of Deathly Resolve > Glyph of the Cataclysm > Effluvial Venin > Pyre > Hand of Death > Pyre > Third Spire > Ignite > COA Robe if no Auspice > Effluvial Venin > Pyre > Embalmer’s Carapace > Ignite > Inevitable. Base set and mods are on at this point, now you’re going with your nuke and other raid spells sets till Gift of Deathly Resolve wears off. The reason I layer modifiers like this is due to their duration, Hand of Death lasts 2 minutes, Glyph 2 minutes, Spire 1:30, COA Robe 1m, and Embalmer’s about 40s.

Spell Sets

Raid 1 (Base Set, always up) = 1. Dichotomic Paroxysm, 2. Pyre of the Shadewarden, 3. Pyre of Jorobb, 4. Ignite Memories, 5. Pyre of Marnek, 6. Ignite Synapses, 7. Inevitable End.
Wounds = 8. Cytotoxic Wounds, 9. Mortiferous Wounds, 10. Pernicious Wounds, 11. Necrotizing Wounds.
Raid 2 = 8. Polybiad Venom, 9. Bomoda’s Pallid Haze, 10. Glistenwing Venom.
Plant = 8. Effluvium, 9. Liquefaction
Raid 3 = 8. Pyre of the Fereth, 9. Burning Shadow, 10. Smouldering Shadow.
Raid 4 (Rarely get to this) = 8. Grip of Kraz, 9. Mourgis' Decay
Swifts = 8. Mourgis' Swift Decay, 9. Azeron’s Flashblaze, 10. Adalor’s Swift Lifedraw
Add DPS = 11. Call Skeleton Mob, 12. Refute for Blood
Flesh = 11. Flesh to Venom, 12. Flesh to Poison. *These do stack if you apply Venom first, if you have remaining charges on Poison it will remove the buff, so reapplying Venom means you need to reapply Poison as well.*
Nukes (For Gift of Deathly Resolve mainly) = 11. Effluvial Venin, 12. Refute for Blood
Taps (Rarely use these myself) = 11. Soulsiphon, 12. Consume Essence.

We have 13 spell gems now, as long as 1 other Necro is in the raid I reserve spell slot 13 for Alliance and keep it up 100% of the time. If no other Necros I will generally put Call Skeleton Mob in its place.

Assorted Info

Let’s talk Passive Crit Rate and how ADPS will affect it. Passive Crit rate from AA’s alone is 61%, 62% if you have your DoN progression done. Now let’s add our Epic, 2.0 will put you at 70%, 2.5 will put you at 80%. *Apparently the 2.5 bugged when they created it and they never fixed it so the 8% and 10% stack because Everquest reasons*. So that means most Crit Chance mods will max you out, prolonging your very high DPS after burn. Bard Epic + Fierce Eye = 105%, Auspice alone = 113%, COA Robe alone = 120%, Intensity of the Resolute alone = 130%, IOG alone = 93% (This is a large damage mod, you’ll want to make sure you’re repping 100%+ when this is on, may have to use COA Robe if nothing else is available.) *Intensity of the Resolute WILL strip Auspice AND IOG, be careful and time it correctly if you use it.*

Now outside of DoT’s we also have some pet dps stuff we can use, in the grand scheme of things they don’t add much but they aren’t so bad that they become detrimental to our dps, so we might as well hit them. I tend to hit Rise of Bones, Swarm of Decay, Rune of Tallon, Frenzy Dead, Epic click, and our current BP click  in-between my DoT casts. Another aa to use is Gathering Dusk, they finally amped it up so it does some alright damage, the only problem is they upped the agro on it as well, so you’ll need to monitor your agro after you pop it. It also eats a debuff slot so that sucks, try not to use on the boss if adds are available.

Mana is generally not an issue for us, but sometimes we die or there is a mana drain etc. Death Bloom is your go-to for mana regen in most cases. If you’re superbly boned then use Blood Magic, try and keep Dicho on a mob to help heal through this and not bombard your healer with your lack of health management.

I use 2 potions on my necromancers at the moment. I use Dragonmagic Focus (Added DD proc on detrimental spell casts), and Tonic of Efficiency Affinity XI (Adds 1 tic to most DoT's, adds 2 to some of the longer duration ones.)

This is what I do on Evileen, figured I may as well post it.

If you want to dabble into some more of the extra stuff such as pet gearing, sympathetic proc augs, clickies etc. here is a link courtesy of Scornfire! http://www.daguild.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7180&p=39629#p39629

11

Magician / Re: Magician RoS Guide

« on: June 20, 2018, 06:29:52 AM »

Or just get a gina trigger when it lands and wears off.

I think Sancus was mainly driving at having a plan of attack for burns before you start the event. You will always perform better with an outline of your adps beforehand, that's the difference between doing 2 mini burns and 1. Can be a 100k+ DPS difference at the end of the fight vs if you just fly by the seat of your pants and deal with things as surprises.

12

Ranger / How to Ranger *Night of Shadows Edition*

« on: June 15, 2018, 11:38:11 PM »

Let's go over the basics first before we get into the girth of rangering.

Spell Set:

The first 7 spells should ALWAYS be on your hotbar, casting is about 40% of ranger DPS. The last 6 slots you can do whatever you need to with them depending on events but my spell set is generally always the same and is what I have below. You'll notice I have 2 Summer's loaded. Sometimes when using this multi-bind your cast will fire before the CD has been reached on Summer's and it will skip to the next spell, since I use the same bind keys on all my characters I have the next best Summer's loaded to stop myself from randomly wasting Conjunction or casting the DoT.

1. Claimed Shots
2. Focused Whirlwind of Arrows
3. Ecliptic Fusillade
4. Summer's Torrent
5. Summer's Sleet
6. Bloodbeetle Swarm
7. Dusksage Stalker%u2019s Conjunction
8. Desperate Geyser
9. Lunar Balm
10. Flex
11. Flex
12. Flex
13. Flex

MULTI-BIND TIME! The way I have my spell key setup is just going down the list basically. So for spells 1-5 all the arrow nukes will fire whenever they pop up and then once all are on cool down Summer's will be cast over and over.  I manually click Ice Burrower Swarm, you're going to want to keep this on the boss and adds as much as your mana will allow, it's a chunky DoT now but does take some mana. Be smart about it with its global cooldown. If 1 of your arrow nukes is about to pop up, wait to hit this till they're all on comfortable cool downs.

Combat Abilities:

Kick
Jolting Roundhouse Kicks
Focused Tempest of Blades
Tempest of Blades
Reflexive Rimespurs

MULTI-BIND TIME! I have another key that is DIFFERENT from my spell key. The reason for this is because you want to be casting spells when they%u2019re up and using combat abilities during the universal cooldown. Spells are more DPS, combat abilities are to fill the gap with something meaningful. My Combat Ability key has the following abilities on it: Kick, Jolting Roundhouse Kicks, and Focused Tempest of Blades. Focused Tempest of Blades is lower damage and single target as opposed to Tempest of Blades. I keep Focused in always to avoid mez breaks, I manually click Blizzard of Blades when we're not mezzing and I can position myself to line up mobs. (Tempest is frontal, caps at 8 targets.) Reflexive Rimespurs I use as a HoT for the group if together we are low a lot, otherwise I hit it during the main burn whilst all the adps is running for maximum damage.
*Do not use Tempest of Blades AOE whilst doing Archery. It will not reach your targets unless you are actively firing at something away from your pile of mobs. The spell Data will suggest it does but it does not actually connect with the mob in practice.

Group Makeups:

Group makeups are important for rangers and ever changing depending on AFK's, late comers, odd groupings for events etc. Generally speaking your best group ADPS will be a Shaman, Bard, Beastlord and Berserker. With that in mind you should acquaint yourself with their various ADPS abilities/spells and what they do for you. Druids and Enchanters will also be thrown into the mix sometimes but to a lesser extent. It's possible that you may find yourself "thrown to the wolves" and just be shit out of luck for ADPS. But, it wouldn't hurt to have a plan for when/if that happens. As far as your personal burns they will not change much at all. BUT you will have to vigorously conserve mana as well as you can while actively spamming still. For example don't DoT unless you have a gift of mana proc, and try and hold off on Dissident for a few seconds for a gift of mana proc. This also applies when you don't have a bard, not just for when you're groupless/ADPSless. Do the best you can at keeping your mana regen clicks and potions on CD. You'll also find it in your best interest to make several hotkeys to several different people for Paragons and Quiet Prayers. The way I do it is as soon as I hit 90% mana send a tell for paragon, as soon as I hit 70% I send a tell for QP. You can hold off on Paragon a bit but it's imperative to get that QM timer on you as soon as possible so you can have 2 in an event as opposed to 1. This all of course depends if the clerics have already used it on others or died and required Veturika%u2019s. For Paragons I've found it's better to just cycle through beastlords, don't just hammer 1 person for it the whole event. (In modern EQ you likely won%u2019t get Focused Para unless you%u2019re lucky, so don%u2019t bank on it.)

Empowered Blades + Arbor Stalker's Discipline:

Now the best route to take in using a disc like Arbor Stalker's or Empowered Blades is to use them with hundred hands effects. The reason behind this is that both of these discs just add a FLAT amount of damage to weapon strikes, further augmentation of the strikes has no affect on Arbor Stalker's or Empowered Blades. However the rate at which you swing your weapons IS important when maximizing your gains from both. Weapon delay scaling goes off your base delay and will not affect HHE's.

The Burnering:

This is where coordination of everyone else and yourself are going to come in. Now as far as ADPS goes, as soon as you see shaman epic go off you go buck wild on arrow nukes (assuming all your personal burns are running at that time of course.) I try to hit my burns as best I can based on duration time especially if we're hitting them before we trigger a flash burn type mob. So here's a run down of how I press my burns most of the time:

Auspice (Don%u2019t go out of rotation, this may already be running)
Pureshot
Scarlet Cheetah Fang
Outrider's Accuracy
Spire of the Pathfinders
Imbued Ferocity
Glyph (In absence of shaman epic / when shaman epic fades)
Guardian of the Forest (Once Outrider's Accuracy fades)
Group Guardian of the Forest (Once Guardian of the Forest fades) [Be sure to check for Group Bestial Alignment first, it is slightly better and SPA 185 doesn't functionally stack]


Things to keep split up for Sustained DPS. These are things you can combine for a slightly larger Burn in the few circumstances where the event lasts less than 2 minutes.

Hit Damage Mods:
Guardian of the Forest {96%}
Outrider%u2019s Accuracy {82%}
Intensity of the Resolute {55%}
Group Guardian of the Forest {50%}
Hunter%u2019s Fury (Killshot Proc) {55%}
Group Bestial Alignment (Beastlord ADPS) {60%}

Critical Hit Damage Mod:
Prophet%u2019s Gift of the Ruchu (Shaman Epic) {110%}
Glyph of Destruction {60%}

Critical Melee Chance %
Falcon Strike (Epic 2.0) {170%}
Auspice of the Hunter {225%}
Circle of Power (1-4) {40, 80, 120, 130%}
Provoked Effect (Killshot Proc) {366, 370, 375%}
Cry Carnage (Berserker ADPS) {100%}

Keep Poison Arrows on at all times. They clipped its wings to the point where its consumption of mana isn't noticeable whatsoever, and doesn't consume a debuff slot now.

Perhaps the most important thing you will have to do every raid is take control of your ADPS. YOU run the show. The main thing you want to control is getting Quick Time for Pureshot%u2019s duration. Everything else in regards to Shaman Epic, Bard Epic, Fierce Eye etc should be hit on CD. Aside from lining up your full burn you need to continue your CD's regardless of your ADPS. Rangers are a sustaining class, trying to line up certain abilities with ADPS does very little for us once we've gone through our burst (Scarlet/Pureshot). The only worthwhile semi-coordinating to do after the full burn is trying to use Imbued/Spire/Auspice together. This will more than likely be dependent on the other rangers in the raid maintaining the Auspice rotation.

SPA 185 Sustainment:

Mentioned above in our burn order is splitting of our SPA 185 abilities. In-game these are the abilities that classify as %u201Cincrease base melee damage by X%. If you look on parsing sites for spell data they%u2019ll say %u201CIncrease Hit Damage by X% v185%u201D. This is a non-stacking damage modifier of which there are quite a few abilities with it present in-game, rangers have the most, at least in terms of present and combinable abilities.
A few of these abilities will have other components to them but the main component we are looking for is that SPA 185 modifier. Their effectiveness is listed in order below % wise for all abilities that we encounter, including those of other classes. (This list will stay in this order mostly as you get these AA%u2019s on TLP).
   Guardian of the Forest
   Outrider%u2019s Accuracy
   Group Bestial Alignment
   Hunter%u2019s Fury
   Intensity of the Resolute
   Group Guardian of the Forest
   War March of X
*Pureshot Discipline is also a SPA 185 modifier, however it is for a specific skill so it DOES stack with regular base SPA 185 Mods. At least until another Archery specific one gets introduced.

With all that said, there is a hefty burden or requirement if you will to actually capitalize on all of these for your sustained damage. Remember, we are not a Burst class so our toolkit is best utilized through micromanagement of these abilities specifically. There%u2019s not a lot I can put into words going through an actual live sequence of events and CD%u2019s.

The best advice I can give is to be conscious of your timers and your song window. Some overlap will happen at times and that%u2019s ok. There will also be times where it%u2019s best to hold off for a few seconds to a minute on certain more powerful mods just to ride out your current one. On the fly adjustments will occur a lot that you%u2019ll have to do quick napkin math for.

*Example: Hunter%u2019s Fury is on and your Outrider%u2019s Accuracy just repopped. Guardian of the Forest still has 1:41s on CD. You know that Outrider%u2019s will be up for a max of 1:12. So, it%u2019s best to hold off on Outrider%u2019s for that extra 30-36 seconds riding out Hunter%u2019s Fury. Again, this is for sustaining DPS and loses its shine on short burst type events.

Forceful Rejuvenation:

If you plan on using Forceful Rejuvenation during your main burn what I do is use it after the 4th arrow nuke. So it'll look something like this:

Dusksage Stalker's Conjunction
Claimed Shots
Focused Whirlwind of Arrows
Ecliptic Fusillade
Bloodbeetle Swarm
Summer's
Summer's
Focused Whirlwind of Arrows
*Forceful Rejuvenation
Dusksage Stalker's Conjunction
Claimed Shots
Focused Whirlwind of Arrows
Ecliptic Fusillade

Auspice:

This is in it's own sub section because it%u2019s special. With Auspice it should always be on during the main burn and for the majority of the raid as a whole depending on how many rangers are there. Everyone should load a TB so that for long events multiple rangers can MGB Auspice twice. As simple as hitting TB before the event starts and refraining from hitting Shout until you%u2019ve used your Spice.

Survivability:

Rangers are agro whores, it's a hard truth but the sooner you get used to it the better you'll be at controlling your agro. We have 4 defensive discs/abilities, 1 agro drop, 1 buff and 1 fade.

Outrider's Evasion
Protection of the Spirit Wolf
Bulwark of the Brownie
Chameleon's Gift
Cover Tracks (Fade)
Weaponshield Discipline
Luclin%u2019s Darkfire Cloak

I use Chameleon's Gift and Bulwark of the Brownie in a similar fashion. Chameleon's Gift is a 40k agro drop from whatever mob drops you below 50%. You will also get a buff on you for 36s that decreases your agro generation by 60%. This can also be used on other players so if you see someone climbing like a Berserker it may be better used on them. Bulwark on the other hand will fire 9-15 seconds of full frontal parry if you get dropped below 40%. I try my best to use both of these before I burn or for when I'm climbing up the agro list considerably fast, I try and use Cover Tracks as little as possible since it consumes mana now. Outrider's Evasion is minimal in the grand scheme of defensive disciplines but it works well enough to be useful on adds in an event, not so much for the main bosses. Protection of the Spirit Wolf however will be useful on a main boss for a round or 2, as the damage cap will be absorbed quickly. It also works for spell damage, not just melee damage! 55% mitigated up to a max of 330k damage for any of you curious types! Weaponshield is a whole different story, you may have to cover an add cause tanks are down or cover the boss while the MTO gets buffed. Luclin%u2019s Darkfire Cloak is a full up time 15% mitigation buff we get, keep it on always. (It fades early due to damage absorb cap if actively tanking regularly).

Raid Tanking:

If the circumstance arrives that requires you to help out and tank things or if you can potentially take over a crumbling MTO then here are some things you can do. Firstly, always keep your Burning Cloak buff up whether grouping or raiding. Remember that it does have a damage cap and will normally fade before the strikes or timer are met.

*Outrider%u2019s Evasion - Burning Cloak buff made this mostly useless on raids. The Avoidance check may be somewhat helpful now with heroic strikethrough being reduced though. I best use this when my Cloak buff fades to give me a minute to get it back on and continue healing/nuking.

*Bulwark of the Brownies - Always pop this whenever I yank agro on things, it does last for 4 minutes. Be careful if you hit this during Weaponshield, if you are below 40% it will fire regardless.

*Protection of the Spirit Wolf - Typically I will use this for a giant AOE that might have been set up. In regards to actively tanking I will normally utilize this last. It gets eaten through really fast and has a very long CD for what it is. Very helpful for the round or 2 it lasts though.

*Imbued Ferocity - Your best bet is going to be with 2 Vampiric Consumption 1handers that have Heal Target%u2019s Target augs in them. Alternatively, you can use the Vampiric Consumption 2hander which can help cut down on riposte quantity in exchange for slightly less healing. This alone is not always enough to actually keep you alive but most of the time it%u2019s just enough of a bump for healers to keep you going.

*Weaponshield Discipline - Everybody knows what this bad boy is. I do try to exhaust everything before I use it as a personal preference. You can do quite a long stretch without it if you focus and have some decent support.

*Armor of Experience - Great stopgap ability to utilize in hopes of Sheltering Thunder procs. Can also use it to somewhat count down to the next tank and hopefully live after the swap.

*Glyph of Dragon Scales - Obviously this works great. If combined with Vampirice duel wield/2hander you can mostly keep yourself alive on your own for its full duration. It%u2019s a little stressful but is attainable through peppering heals and spamming Summer%u2019s for heal procs.

Auging:

Heroic Dexterity is the top thing to worry about as a ranger. For slot 3 augs you'll want to get 3 Spell Focus augs (Summer's, Ice Burrower, Jolting), Luminous Restless Ice (ToV Missions), and the rest of the slots there are LDON Heroic Strength augs. For your bow you'll want to get the Reactive Velium Infused Gem of Striking (15 DMG + 1600 Proc) and Jagged Thought Leech Horn (+18 Damage). As of Terror of Luclin we are back to full time Archery with the exception of some niche disc usages.

Silent Strikes - Silent Strikes is somewhat ok. If you use it during your burn you may notice it somewhat helping. Just remember that it isn%u2019t a %u201Cfix%u201D for your agro, don%u2019t build a reliance around it working. Complaining to the tanks likely has better results than purely just using Silent Strikes.

DoT's - Bloodbeetle Swarm is amazing, if at all possible you should keep this up on anything and everything. It%u2019s in your best interest to not bother casting the other DoT line we have during raids. Unless you%u2019re super skinny on DoT type classes and debuffs and also have plenty of spell gem space. It is very underwhelming and the DS portion of it is a non-factor.

Elemental Arrow - Season's Wrath will now co-exist with Elemental Arrow, they don't functionally stack though so be sharp on add events. Both are on a 1m duration/recast. Druids should be keeping Season's Wrath on the boss full time and Rangers can best serve the raid by peppering in Elemental Arrow on adds.

Bandolier Setups:

*Wrath/Arrow - Velium Endowed Great Mace (Harmonious Phantasmal Luclinite Gem of Devastation)
If you have a good spread of Rangers/Druids you can utilize the Season%u2019s Wrath and/or Elemental Arrow debuffs to your advantage on procs. You%u2019ll have your top Sympathetic damage off this CoV item still if you%u2019re capitalizing on mobs debuffed with either of the 2 abilities. Generally speaking you should be able to always be on a target with Elemental Arrow on it since you can cast it yourself. I try to stay ahead of the MA by a mob or 2 so I can get decent up-time and less swapping of bandolier setups to max out.

*2Hander - Spectral Luclinite Spear (Reactive Luclinite Ensanguined Gem of Devastation)
This is your general Archery setup if you%u2019re either being a little lazy or just don%u2019t have debuff coverage on mobs. This is also your go-to melee setup when you have a Bard or Beastlord specifically and are unable to use Archery.

*Ferocity - Spectral Luclinite Hooked Dagger (Reactive Phantasmal Luclinite Gem of Striking) + Spectral Luclinite Axe (Reactive Luclinite Ensanguined Gem of Striking)
*This is for your second lineup of the Imbued Ferocity/Third Spire/Auspice combo. First iteration should ALWAYS happen during Pureshot. Also will typically be slightly better DPS than 2hander if you are lacking a Bard.

Shots Cycling - During our Archery expansions the Called Shots Effect debuff is very potent for us. It%u2019s very important you try to ensure mobs have this on at all times if possible. Playing smart and being ahead of the MA will play into adding more DPS to yourself. You may also have some other rangers with you to help %u201Cpick up the slack%u201D when it comes to spreading the debuff efficiently.
*Example: Current target is at 30%, Shots comes back up in 3 seconds. Best use it to target the next mob and pop it with shots then return to the current mob before it%u2019s dead. You want to make sure you get your debuff and then also make sure you%u2019re in the running for killing spree procs.

Hunting - For maximum sustained DPS you%u2019re going to have to hunt for killing sprees or %u201Csnipe%u201D mobs as they drop low. Due to our only %u201Cinnate%u201D mana recovery being tied fully to the Hunter%u2019s Fury killing spree proc. As a companion you%u2019ll also get your Provoked procs 100% of the time on slaying mobs. For Archery this isn%u2019t helpful but it will at least affect your Blades combat abilities.

I cannot stress enough how useful this can be, especially on longer events with lots of adds. This is probably the most neglected portion of raiding on a Ranger that I have seen and is by far the most rewarding. This alone ties into your mana, hit modifiers and crit rate all in 1. Be vigilant of opportunities and take as many as you can. You can also utilize swarm pets and player pets that may populate the extended target window when people get charmed. Alternatively, you can (at the moment) duel people to kill pets off as needed. Be careful what classes you choose though. (I do not personally do or recommend this, but it is something you can take advantage of if you work out the kinks).

Area of Effect Arrows - Focused Arrows is your general spam spell for most events and strategies. There are events that you can benefit from swapping to AoE Arrow spells for decent gains. For starters you need at least 3 mobs that you can reliably hit with your cast. Focused Arrows itself is slightly less DPS when 2 mobs are present but you%u2019ll lose too much DPS to the cast time of the AoE spells which is why you need 3. As of the House of Thule expansion we have 2 options for AoE Arrows. We have the OG Frontal and the newer Free-Target spell.

*Frontal Arrows - 20 degree cone with 100 range.
*Free-Target Arrows - 30 range splash target with 200 cast range.

My personal preference is using the Free-Target Arrows spell. It does slightly more damage and is more reliable and easy to utilize correctly. There is a very large margin for error using the Frontal Arrows. You also have the benefit of putting the Free-Target Arrows in your spell spam. You can continue spamming spells whilst you aim the target so that you aren%u2019t forced to aim during the cast itself. You can also predict mob movements a little better and with higher accuracy than the Frontal Arrows. This is personal preference, some people will likely prefer the Frontal Arrows instead. There is a small DPS difference between them, however use whichever spell you can actually land reliably.

Area of Effect Blades - This ability does do more DPS than the Focused line of Blades. As long as you *can* AoE in your setting this will always outperform Focused Blades of the SAME 5 level range. Do NOT use this if you are using Archery. The only time this ability will land during Archery is if you are shooting a mob further away from whatever is in front of you. Note that the range for AOE Blades is the same as Focused Blades. They are not actually interchangeable, the cast range is 50 for both but the AE range is only 30. It will never land on the mob you are actively shooting.
*Example: Swarm Commander is being tanked away but the pile of adds is at a closer location. You can continue to shoot the Swarm Commander and use AOE Blades on the pile of mobs in-front of you.

BP Clickies - These clickies will typically be flat damage that does roughly the same amount of damage no matter when you use it. Since it has an up time of around 3 minutes I hit mine before we start and make sure to get in a 2nd click towards the event's end to max out on damage capabilities. Some people use the old mana regen clickie from COTF, DON'T. This is a net DPS loss, you're trading 1.34M damage for 7.5k mana AND a DPS DEBUFF for 30 seconds. Overall it's a net loss, scrap that garbage and stick to the new damage clickie.

Tribute/Trophy - Here's the Tribute and Trophies I use! Arm of the Hero, Eyes of the Hunter, Fury of Combat, Hero's Deftness, Juggler's Grace all at max rank.
Subterranean Lily Bloom, Shadow Torchiere, Temple Torchery, Rallos Zek%u2019s Axe Replica, Mortal%u2019s Ethereal Wonder, Scavenger%u2019s Prize, Lost Wayfarer%u2019s Tent and Trophy of Duality.
*Use Highest Heroic Dexterity trophies basically, or ones that offer a decent package altogether.
**This is personal preference, I choose to use Fury of Combat still due to lack of good options and randomly meleeing in raids for niche purposes.

Potions:
Refined Mana Tonic - Decrease the mana cost of spells by 3-7%. (Doesn%u2019t functionally stack with Empowered Banner Buff or Circle of Mana)
Spectral Focus - 14k sympathetic DD proc (Poison resist) on nukes/DoTs, can trigger on each portion of Summer's (1 cast can be 2 procs).
Salubrious Smoothie - 105 mana regen that stacks with everything, only available during Anniversary.
Champion%u2019s Restorative - Roughly 6k mana per click.
Fortified Drink(s) (All 3 potions do exactly the same thing) - Increase to stats, will do slightly more DMG but this potion is not a noticeable difference.
Kohtal%u2019s Tonic of Clarity (Summoned) - Roughly 3,465 mana per tick for 24s.

Powersources - I use DPS powersources always. Some people make arguments for the tank ones cause %u201Cdead DPS do no DPS%u201D, stupid argument. Fact of the matter is, your job is to DPS. Is it HIGHLY UNLIKELY the MINOR stat bump you get going to a tank powersource will at any point save your life. Luclinite Attacker Source > Velium Assaulter Source > Enchanted Dragon Scales > All other sources.

Special Clickies:
     Rod of Dark Rites - Best used during Scarlet to load up multiple mobs with Bloodbeetle Swarm. If there aren't multiple mobs to do this with blow it on Bloodbeetle Swarm, Composite Fusillade and Arbor Stalker's Coalition.
     Bifold Focus of the Evil Eye - Only ever use this on Ice Burrower Swarm, it is the absolute most bang for your buck. You can even combine it with a gift of mana proc for maximum savagery.
     Mantle of Inasch - Circle of Mana 4, used for relatively obvious reasons. Don't double up on Circle clicks, check your song window first.
     Rage of Rolfron - Circle of Power 4, used to fill a crit gap that is relatively hard up in occuring. Typically more CoP clicks than Mana on raids.
     Kiss of Erollisi Marr - 10k mana click once a day, pick your favorite parsing event basically!
     Miniature Horn of Unity - 600 Mana Regen per tick for 5 ticks. Doesn%u2019t stack with Unified Phoenix Feather.
     Unified Phoenix Feather - 1k Mana Regen per tick for 5 ticks. Overwrites Miniature Horn of Unity.
     Blood Drinker%u2019s Coating - Super Micro SK epic, 2% melee tap. (Does not work for Archery).
      Spirit Drinker%u2019s Coating - Super Micro SK epic, 4% melee tap. (Does not work for Archery.)
      Valia%u2019s Unyielding Bravery - Mega Rune for 8 hits. Will absorb 8 Hits, DD%u2019s or DoT ticks fully before fading.
      Venenium - Really easy to get now, 35 poison counter cure to help replace the need to use Balm on yourself. (Vanquisher of Calix Quirinus to unlock)
      Shield of Immaculate Light - Really easy to get now, 35 disease counter cure to help replace the need to use Balm on yourself. (Vanquisher of Tower of Rot to unlock)

Intensity of the Resolute - This is a 55% Hit Damage mod and also a spell critical chance mod for us. I've found it's best used when split dotting mobs. It alone takes us to 90% DD and 85% DoT crit chance. If you use it for DoT's and also time it around your Guardians and Outrider's AA gaps you can really squeeze the max from it.

Slot 18/19 Augs - For the slot 18/19 augs in the evolving items here is what I focus on getting. 4 Melee Procs (Ice+Fire/Magic) > 2 Sympathetic Procs (Ice) > 4 Attackers > 2 Enhancements. Once you get maxed out mostly it is in your best interest now to drop the Evolving Gloves and upgrade to CoV+ raid gloves for the Ice damage focus.

Belt Focus - In Torment of Velious there is an aug upgrade to Velium Infused Gem of Security that gives you the option of adding the Boon of the Restless focus or a Sympathetic Casting Ice DD focus to it. Currently whilst in a state of permanent Archery, the Sympathetic Aug will pull ahead of the Boon Proc focus. If we ever return to pure melee (At this rate it is unlikely) then the Boon focus may pull slightly ahead depending on 1H vs 2H.

I have included the triggers I use when playing my ranger below. They may or may not be for some people but they are available. Auspice is not included in them as I have a different folder for it with the way I run it on raids. If anyone is curious in setting it up I'd be more than willing to help.


Ranger Discord: https://discord.gg/84KKsvRP73

13

Berserker / Re: Empires of Kunark Berserkering

« on: August 14, 2017, 07:51:35 PM »

Finally got around to editing since the fix to Disconcerting. This is based on past knowledge and dealing with other changes, I haven't raided on my berserker since November-ish so it's possible this isn't the number 1 way to do it.

14

Paladin / Paladin Agro + Tanking Spells

« on: August 04, 2017, 10:16:22 PM »

Paladin Agro AA's and Disciplines:

Force of Disruption - Hate: 15000. 1: Interrupt Casting

Divine Call - Hate: 3000 1: Cast: Divine Pull X (Target pull, only works on level 103 and below)

Beacon of the Righteous - Hate: 14000. 1: Increase Hate by 1. 2: Stun for 3s up to level 108. 3: Increase Hate by 6750 per tick. Caps at 8 targets.

Hallowed Lodestar - Hate: 11650. 1: Increase Hate by 1. 2: Stun for 1s up to level 108. 3: Increase Hate by 5650 per tick. Caps at 8 targets.

Ageless Enmity - 1: Taunt with 12000 Hate Mod (No fail taunt that adds 12000 hate on top of the hate amount of the current top agro)

Unbroken Affirmation - 1: Lock Aggro on Caster and Decrease Other Aggro by 10% up to level 110. 4: Increase Current HP by 3057 per tick
6: Increase Hate Generated by 60%

Projection of Piety - Swarm pet, gains agro as it attacks. Once it fades or dies agro is transferred to you.

* Vanquish the Fallen - Only works on undead, mainly a DPS ability but it has significant agro on it kind of like Smite the Wicked for Clerics.

*Glyph of Angry Thoughts - 1: Increase Spell and Bash Hate by 30%

Paladin Agro Spells:

Ardent Force - Hate: 7527. 1: Stun for 4s up to level 108

*Lesson of Grief - Hate: 13170. Push: 5. 1: Stun for 10s up to level 108. 2: Decrease Current HP by 872 (If Not Undead). 3: Decrease Current HP by 1701 (If Undead)

Force of Ardency - Hate: 4339. Recourse: Ardent Healing II. 1: Stun for 6s up to level 108. Ardent Healing II: 1: Increase Current HP by 6291 per tick

Force of the Darkened Sea - Hate: 8676. 1: Stun for 4s up to level 108

Dichotomic Force - Hate: 6000. 1: Cast: Dichotomic Force Stun: Hate: 11207 1: Stun for 6s up to level 110. 2: Cast: Dichotomic Force Healing: 1: Increase Current HP by 17904 (Group Heal)

Crush of Povar - Hate: 12948. 1: Decrease Current HP by 3526 (If Not Undead Or Summoned). 2: Decrease Current HP by 4760 (If Undead). 3: Decrease Current HP by 4231 (If Summoned)

Crush of the Darkened Sea - Hate: 16640. 1: Decrease Current HP by 889

Valiant Defense - 1: Increase Hate by 9635. 2: Cast: Valiant Healing II: Hate Mod: +6785. 1: Increase Current HP by 10187 (Heals Target's Target)

My Spell Set:

I had a picture but it's being lamesauce so here's my spell order 99% of the time.
1. Splash of Atonement
2. Valiant Defense
3. Protective Proclamation
4. Admonish
5. Crush of Povar
6. Crush of the Darkened Sea
7. Brilliant Vindication
8. Grief
9. Dichotomic Force
10. Sorrow
11. Ardent Force > Swaps out to Harmonious Blessing when it falls
12. Staunch Stance

The top 4 spells (1-4) are my multi-bind spell gems. Tied into these 4 is Force of Disruption. This is ALWAYS the same, if you're tanking you hit this, if you're DPSing you hit this, if you're a MT healer you hit this. Your job as a paladin is to A. Tank mobs so DPS don't have to and B. Provide the raid with splashes and the main tank with heals. Once your agro on your mob is locked you just swap to spamming this till it dies, if DPS start spiking high then stop for a second and hit your Crushes and Stuns. Why hit Force of Disruption if you aren't trying to get agro you might ask, well the answer to that is heals. Force of Disruption can proc our AA group heal that is a recourse off using stun and costs no mana. The reason Splash is at the top is with how that free-target type of spell works. In a multi-bind it will skip straight over the spell and onto the next while simultaneously putting the target on your cursor. This means I'm ready to splash and go when I need it and click Brilliant Vindication to ensure I twincast my Splash every single time instead of waste it on a single target heal. Grief and Sorrow are both in my lineup as 2 "Oh shit!" heals, sometimes your group healer hasn't swapped to you, is dead or some other reason where you're about to drop without a quick heal. Both of these will almost always take you to full health and have a ridiculously short cast time, only drawback is they have a 2-ish minute recast timer. Forceful Rejuvenation after you use both of these could save your bad situation though! Dichotomic Force is an instant cast Stun and Group Heal, I generally use it as an "Oh shit!" group heal, or if all my agro abilities are on CD and DPS agro is spiking.

How to Paladin Agro:

Before we start the event hit your Agro Glyph and Harmonious Blessing, keep these on for the entire fight. ALWAYS keep Force of Disruption and Valiant Defense on CD, these bad boys are your money makers. I generally only have to hit my 2 Crushes and Ardent Force 1 time and agro stays locked, you may have to keep everything on CD in order to keep your mob depending on if the mobs blur or DPS is going balls to the wall etc. Ageless I just use as a taunt if someone needs a tank swap on their Captain or add/boss etc. Projection is a long term agro solution due to the slow build up of agro, generally not too great on regular trash we get constantly but desperate times call for desperate measures sometimes. Unflinching is another tank swap or instant gank off DPS tool, I normally just use it for the Heal Over Time it provides when tanking trash as agro is normally not an issue for me. Beacon of the Righteous and Hallowed Lodestar are fun! I normally stagger these out so I always have one available if a few tanks go down and mobs get lose, but they are different in how they work. Beacon is a PBAE which means it will fire on things around the caster. Hallowed is a Targeted AE meaning if you target a mob somewhere else, it will hit that mob and the mobs surrounding it. Just because these are AOE agro abilities doesn't mean you shouldn't use them on single targets. Agro build up is important and you should be using all things at your disposal. Another thing with Beacon and Hallowed is they share a slot and overwrite each other. So hitting them 1 after the other essentially just wastes 1 of them, the true hate of these comes off the "DoT" portion. Divine Call is one of those hit it whenever it's up things, it's a small agro bump on a 45s timer, adding it to your multi-bind would be fine and ensure it always gets used.

PS. The post is a little fluent with no completely obvious changes when a new section happens. For whatever reason I was unable to use the underline/bold functions or change colors etc.

15

Ranger / Re: Empires of Kunark Rangering

« on: June 26, 2017, 03:28:25 PM »

I slack on both parsing and checking this post, sorry for the delay.

Below I did several parses with varying adps you may find yourself with on raids melee wise. I used adps that is in a constant state of being active or something that's hit every minute or so. These were done with the same buffs and no self burns/mods etc.

No ADPS:
Melee = Combat Dummy Azia in 601s, 19853k @33034sdps --- #1 Findictive 19853k@33034sdps (33034dps in 601s) [100%]
Ranged = Combat Dummy Azia in 602s, 20866k @34661sdps --- #1 Findictive 20866k@34661sdps (34661dps in 602s) [100%]

Shaman ADPS (Roar of the Lion rank 1 only) {Was afk slightly longer than timer, sorry for longer parse}:
Melee = Combat Dummy Azia in 722s, 32619k @45179sdps --- #1 Findictive 32619k@45179sdps (45179dps in 722s) [100%]
Ranged = Did not do a parse, Roar does not fire from ranged attack, check above parse for comparison.

Bard ADPS (Melody of songs only, no FE/Epic etc):
Melee = Combat Dummy Azia in 600s, 27062k @45103sdps --- Findictive 27062k@45103sdps (45103dps in 600s) [100%]
Ranged = Combat Dummy Azia in 602s, 24138k @40097sdps --- Findictive 24138k@40097sdps (40097dps in 602s) [100%]

Beastlord ADPS (Dichotomic Fury only):
Melee = Combat Dummy Azia in 601s, 29470k @49036sdps --- Findictive 29470k@49036sdps (49036dps in 601s) [100%]
Ranged = Combat Dummy Azia in 603s, 31407k @52085sdps --- Findictive 31407k@52085sdps (52085dps in 603s) [100%]

As you can see, the only time ranged DPS pulls ahead outside of Pureshot Discipline is going to be either when you're straight alone or have just a BL for ADPS. I'm sure if you were in a caster group with Enchanter/Druid then ranged may also be slightly better but running those parses would be a waste of time to me.

The above parses were ran with Hornscale Blade + Sigil of Thokk (Primary), Hornscale Blade + Siren's Demise (Secondary), and Grace + Grim Momento and Insigni Saevus (Ranged).