I am thinking about getting a million gold to craft myself an Apothecary gear and was wondering how viable this was away from 1vsX, but for team skirmishes in WvW also, as for zergkiting and busting.
Currently I am maining my ele again. I prefer the ranger though, but I just cannot see as much support for a group with it.
Suggestions? Experiences? Canines seem to die very very fast so a polar bear could be an option.
Heavily hoping for some input from Batto and Xsorus too :-).
Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer
For small roaming groups, it’s great. By default, www players focus on rangers since the vast majority are easy-kills, so in addition to the pet dps, the apoth/BM build will buy lots of time for your team. I tend to go for movement/survival/control in that case though, so mud/signet of the hunt/lightning reflexes/entangle, rather than sick’em/QZ/etc. You sacrifice some pet burst, but get lots of control that helps the party.
For zerg fights though, i just can’t see how to make it work. The pet drops too fast, and even if it doesn’t, it’s only ever a single-target burst, which isn’t all that useful in a zerg. AoE really rules those situations so when zerging, I just drop the apoth stuff and go p/v/t with a piercing arrows build.
Hi blc, I know the thread.
But its mostly about soloing. I have a strong conditionbuild for soloing alreay. Not as OP as BM, but it fits me.
I need to know about experiences on group support.
Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer
I am thinking about getting a million gold to craft myself an Apothecary gear and was wondering how viable this was away from 1vsX, but for team skirmishes in WvW also, as for zergkiting and busting.
Currently I am maining my ele again. I prefer the ranger though, but I just cannot see as much support for a group with it.
Suggestions? Experiences? Canines seem to die very very fast so a polar bear could be an option.
Heavily hoping for some input from Batto and Xsorus too :-).
I’d not recommend this for groups or zerg busting.
Max you can hit is like 5 people on fairly long cooldowns abilities, and i’ve ran in groups with the build…its not super amazing.
BM Bunker is more for solo play and small man action the zerg busting.
When I say zergbusting I always mean roaming in a 5-men and kiting to death killing overextenders, as also spiking the flanks. I have good experiences with the ranger on a balanced trapbuild (20/30/20/0/0), with SB and S/H for grouproam. It just doesnt seem to help the group as much as an elementalist would…
Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer
Use sigils of geomancy with apothecary gear. Every 10 seconds, you can apply a massive aoe bleed worth about 5k damage in WvW just by swapping weapons. This is with full apothecary (including ascended gear) and food like tuning crystals and veggie pizza (~1120 condition damage).
I’ll post a video later of me fighting multiple players with it since you’re interested. I really enjoy this gear for roaming/skirmishes.
Ehmry Bay – Grindhouse Gaming [GH]
Menorah | Charr Cat | Some Cat Thing
Still running my old RRR build because why not
I heared about hydromancy as you can get tons of chills with snowleopard, axe and owl. Keeping the opponent chilled 100% of the time. Yet again, that is 1vsX. And I was looking for an alternative for my elementalist in a party.
Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer
It doesn’t take a billion gold, get ascended trinkets and then you’ll only spend gold on crafting the weapons and armor, and karka shells aren’t that expensive.
I’m almost done farming Karka shells for my newest set of Apoth gear … only takes 180 of them, lol.
Often, you can find a group of people running around together killing them. It speeds up the farm quite a bit. Even more enjoyable if you’re on teamspeak together as you can “shoot the breeze”.
Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.
Hey, on another note, I’m glad to see so many rangers finally considering the AWESOMENESS that is apothecary gear.
Maybe people will finally start taking us seriously as a class rather than on an individual basis.
Roaming / Skirmishing? Yes.
Large Groups/Zergs? Only if they need someone to impair enemy movement (which Focus Mesmer, Staff/Hammer Guardian, Staff Elementalist, etc. can do too.
Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.
Hey, on another note, I’m glad to see so many rangers finally considering the AWESOMENESS that is apothecary gear.
Maybe people will finally start taking us seriously as a class rather than on an individual basis.
Roaming / Skirmishing? Yes.
Large Groups/Zergs? Only if they need someone to impair enemy movement (which Focus Mesmer, Staff/Hammer Guardian, Staff Elementalist, etc. can do too.
Oh definitely. As much as I love the ranger, I still consider it an inferior class in large group play. Our only real saving graces are our ability to root enemies and our massive and longlasting water field (healing spring).
However, despite leading GH, I still play 90% of the time in small groups skirmishes. The fact that sigil of geomancy is so effective and roots REALLY making a big difference makes this a pretty good zerg busting setup as well.
When fighting at a keep, I just man the siege. In the end, that’s all we’re really good for atm in zergs. We’re getting buffs though, right? Soon™
Ehmry Bay – Grindhouse Gaming [GH]
Menorah | Charr Cat | Some Cat Thing
Still running my old RRR build because why not
Yes, when there is siege in zerg fights when I’m on my Ranger, I b-line for it. When there is siege and I’m on my Mesmer, I couldn’t care less. Some Ranger can man it :-p (or preferably a warrior if it’s an arrow cart).
I’m eagerly awaiting the next set of patch notes. I have a feeling I’m going to be elated or extremely disappointed. Nothing or close to it causing the latter. Goodies obviously causing the former.
The one part about the interview with Jon Peters that interested me was that they were looking primarily at traits as ways to balance and create more viable builds for each class.
Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.
When I say zergbusting I always mean roaming in a 5-men and kiting to death killing overextenders, as also spiking the flanks. I have good experiences with the ranger on a balanced trapbuild (20/30/20/0/0), with SB and S/H for grouproam. It just doesnt seem to help the group as much as an elementalist would…
Very similar to what I’m running when I roam with my guildies atm. Question though: (and this is addressed to Xorus as well) What armor/runes should I get? How does Carrion armor and Melandru runes sound?
Dedicated Seafarer’s Rest player
member of Circle of Nine
hi – i’m afraid i can’t give you that much input on wvw, better listen to xsorus about it.
running a 0/0/30/20/20 build with SoR, SaR and SotW + spirit elite is rather supportive though – for fighting and kiting a zerg or setting up some spikes against such running entangle, muddy terrain, drakehound and maybe the black bear for area weakness if you don’t have a thief at hand can be great.
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