User:Grendal/Guide: Basic Ranger

The follow is a article written by an old guildy of mine that i think is quite useful.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT IS OUTDATE AND CURRENTLY BEING CORRECTED
Rangers are a unique bunch who can cause alot of havok without being noticed much.

Kiting!
Move .. move around alot.. get into their backlines, snipe em from an angle. Move, move, move! One of the few characters that have the ability to pressure from distance and upclose. Also try and learn to master the slide and shoot method. Shoot arrow and press strafe left or right.. you slide and can evade alot of incoming stuff this way.

Don't waste that interrupt!
I know it's hecka fun to double tap arrows... attack then savage/disrupt/punish. BUT, use em wisely. The only real time you should be spamming interrupts is on those pesky fast casting monks and mesmers where you're trying to catch that 1/4 second spell.

Spam tastes good w/ poison
If you're a poison/degen ranger pressure is applied by hitting every target over and over again w/ conditions. It causes health degen as well as the opposing monks to burn through their mana.

The art of trapping
Think like a ninja daniel son and you will go far with trapping. Get into their lines drop a trap. See a ele who doesn't move while casting .. put one on right on their feet. Trap em from behind them forcing them to deal with you, then get the heck outta dodge. Placement of traps is crucial.. think choke points.. or commonly walked areas.

Spirits for the Lose!
Before you pack a spirit in GVG make sure everyone esp. the monks will be okay with it. Spirits might help your build but might make everyone elses ineffective.

Pets the pros the cons
Pets can be a good addtion.. they can provide body blocking and there are a bunch of new skills that actually make beastmasters effective. BUT, keep in mind that when your pet dies your bar blacksout and you'll be ineffective for a bit. Also, if you do run a Pet keep in mind that your attribute points might be stretched out a bit and might be more useful for other attributes.

My Bow looks so cool!
A skin is a skin of course of course... In my experience Recurves/Composite/Dead/Eternal bows are your best bet. They have a good flight time and will miss less than other bows. Short Bows/Half Moons have a short range decent flight time and a great refire rate. Flatbows are great as long as you use read the wind or bring favorabe winds. The refire on Flatbows is that of a short bow but the flight time is atrocious. Longbows/StormBows - The only real advantage of these and Horn Bows is their distance. There's not enough situations in my gvg'ing experience where distance matters. I use a 2 bow combo... Recurve for interrupting.. and short/half bows for spamming.

So you're a blackout ranger...
One of the funnest builds to play. The key to this build is blacking out at the right time. Call it out when you have someone blackedout so the warrior can follow up w/ a KD and kill.

Any other basic strats welcome here....