Battleground Ranger (and after maybe) - what bow to use?

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Short bow, Recurve or Great Recurve. What to use?

I was thinking about using a short bow actually - short drawing times etc.

Input, folks.

 

[Shike]

would depend on specc actually If you have high bow I would recommend using the Great for massive critts, if 1st shot is BTd on a caster, do it again, always use critts on casters imo since you have rangeadvantage vs most casters (that dont have NS) and at least at 50, 2 critts takes down 95% or all casters if you land them, if u miss 2nd and 3rd shot (that will do damage after BT is gone) hit sprint for 3-4s then speedbuff and run like hell I learned that the mistake I did the most was that I went greedy sometimes and wanted to kill, key to ranger is patience and a cool mind that dont forget; there will be another chanse to kill soon, if I just wait a little.

See it this way, 3 crits kills almost all casters, sometimes you need 2 shots and sometimes even 1 (if some silleh forgot the BT). Also dont forget you can land critts on some classes that are fighting, like other archers when they are firing their bows for instanse. Use correct arrows according to armor.

If you are in a group then use the fastest bow possible and assist tanks and nukers. Damn fun if done right

GL with your ranger dude.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Nice info Thanks, Shike.

Oh - one more thing... what kind of stealth should I be looking at?
I was thinking about
18 + 4 Recurve
15 + 4 Pierce
5 + 4 Stealth
Rest pathfinding (13ish, I think).
For Abermenai. Oh - and me is an ickle Keen.

For Thid
21+5 Recurve
18+5 Pierce
10ish+5 Stealth
Rest pathfinding (15 ish, I think)

Don't have the template at work and Catacombs is barred by our proxy*curses*

 

[old.Cher]

well your stealth will never enable u to actually hide if someone runs over you. but its very usefull for getting to bow range and plinking the silly avalonian casters off,

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

I remember Atrox' scout... was a bitch to find, even with my 19+5 shadey Keen.

But yus, I want a mediocre stealth just for the sake of non-stealthers to have a harder time spotting me.
Being a short Keen helps, too.

 

[Shike]

I had 1 in stealth in Thid and was specced semihigh in bow and high melee in Thid, was blades so most assassins was a laugh I mostly used my stealth to "ping" for other stealthers

The specces u propose looks ok to me at least, personally I would stop at 12 PF for aber since u get 2nd damageadd at 10 and a dex/qui at 12. Those 2 are a curse and a blessing, you will learn to hate those selfbuffs since you always have to sneak away to redo them and they always run out in the wrong time

For thid I would still have 12 or go for 15 for a new damageadd.

Take into consideration that with that specc your melee will be very poor since you have no CD whatsoever, a thought would be to raise bow a little more and lower Pierce since you obviosly aint gonna melee much anyway

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

I was actually thinking about using a Guarded Rapier and a *gasp*shield.

Guarded Rapier does nice damage and with my uber dex, I might block alot.

If not - GR and a stiletto for the occasional double swing. Input! - ?

 

[Shike]

hehe, no idea

try and see, let me know when u have tested with the shield i mean.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

*does the unusual spec wiggle*
Will do.

Watch out Avalonian rubber faces... another Uncle Sick Keen toon will pincushion you in Abermenai soon.

 

[old.Cher]

shield unspecced is kinda crappy, tested it with cher lately... 200+ dex and blocked once every 10 or so yellow mobs, so i went back to my offhand and killed em all faster

 

[iodine]

My Warden with about 80 dex (wile buffed) blocks 2 times every fight v yellows

 

[opoc]

Originally posted by Uncle Sick(tm)
Short bow, Recurve or Great Recurve. What to use?

I was thinking about using a short bow actually - short drawing times etc.

Input, folks.

Use a Recourve bow ( not short nor great recourve bow ) becuase in bg range is everything. This gives you most range and enough to one shot the casters and stuff even witha great recourve bow you wont one shot the tanks very often and if you get uncovered while nocking your great recourve bow for like 6-7 secs then you going to get spotted and chased before your arrow is released.

Originally posted by Uncle Sick(tm)
I was actually thinking about using a Guarded Rapier and a *gasp*shield.

Guarded Rapier does nice damage and with my uber dex, I might block alot.

If not - GR and a stiletto for the occasional double swing. Input! - ?

If for bg0 then go with two stillettos (cobalt) 99% qua will be best you can have - tested with mine, if for bg1 then use two angeled daggers, sheild is kind of usless to be honest i used to use it with my ranger, knwo what its like

Also cobalt stillettos are lvl 23 so if you can get them at 99% qua is better than two lower qua angeled daggers though and has more imbue points, i will maybe end up using them for bg1 also instead of angled daggers as they are faster which is good against the amount of dodges blocks misses etc. Also that i made myself two 99% qua ones and cant make the 99% qua angeled daggers yet oh and that i got them all SCed allready

 

[Danamyr]

From my BG 1 experiance playing a Scout on Alb/Excal I'd suggest that you forget about the short range bows completely. You need to maintain a safe distance from your target or you shall just end up mezzed and beaten to death

You have to remember that (unlike PVE), RvR is extremely fluid, which is at a complete opposite to the largely sendantry nature of the archer.

If you are in a group, then scout around to the edges during melee and interupt casters or healers, rather than get involved in the thick of things.

It's great fun playing an archer class during a keep seige If you stand up on the ramparts you can hit targets (just) on the bridges below...let them get close then target the casters. If they have not got BT up, and you are lucky with your crit, then they will be dead before they realise it - two shots are all most casters require if you land your crit.

For bow selection, different people will tell you different things. Personally I used a Heavy Dyrwood bow, which conned red to me at Lvl 24 IIRC.

Good luck and have fun!