Hello all. I have a level 90 Ranger and have been recently getting him into a lot of groups to do SF zones. This is my first level 90 character so I need some help. What is the best casting order against single target mobs, so that I’m not overriding my auto attacks and thus losing out on DPS? Same question but with AOE multiple target mobs? I know this has been brought up before, and I have read the wonderful DPS write up by Safanah. I just can’t wrap my head around his section on Casting Order. Can some please dumb it down for me and let me know what the best casting orders are? I’ve been in groups with another ranger with similar gear, who always out parses me, but he’s not in my guild and won’t share his secret. He did share his AA lines, which are identical to mine, so it’s not my AA build. I’m just trying to get the most bang for my buck and help my guild out. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks fellow Rangers!
I know this isn't exactly what you asked for. But here is my advice. First, the issue with auto attack is not casting order. It is knowing when your auto attack is going to go off and not casting a combat art that will delay it. The easiest way to do this is to download and install the auto attack timer from eq2interfaces. Another way is to run ACT and setup a sound that plays every time you hit something with auto attack. This isn't quite as good because misses with your auto attack will throw you off a little bit. Second, you must decide how you are going to handle melee combat arts and auto attacks. If you stand in the "sweet spot" where you can cast both melee and ranged combat arts then you need to realize that casting a melee combat art puts in you in melee combat. If you are in the sweet spot then you will NOT melee auto attack. So you either need to make sure you move forward when using melee combat arts so melee auto attack works or make sure you switch back to ranged auto attack before the next one is due. You can do this with macros on your melee combat arts to turn on ranged auto attack, cast a ranged combat art (one of the fast ones ideally) or manually switch back to ranged auto attack with mouse or key stroke. Third, get some training dummies from the guild hall, install ACT and kill, kill, kill. You can get a much better feel for casting order by trying it yourself, seeing the results, then trying something different. Finally, in my experience non-named fights in instances are bound to be a bit sloppy. Tanks don't always turn the mobs, or the mobs die so fast things like bloody reminder become unimportant, or having an auto attack go off to soon will grab aggro, etc. So if stuff is dying pretty fast I would be more concerned about your DPS in named fights.
Thank you very much. This has been helpful. I have heard about eq2interface but didn't know it had an auto attack timer. I'm going to try installing it tonight. I'm happy with the standard interface I'm using now so I never saw the need for a custom ui. I'm hoping it just adds the auto attack timer and nothing else. I like the tip on the training dummy too. My guild does have one so I'll give it a shot. A guildie said it'll help me decide which combat arts to sandwich inbetween my auto attacks, which seems to echo your advice. I'll pay closer attention to my melee attacks too. I usually do stand in that "sweet spot" so I'll double check the ranged auto attack more and maybe get some macros going. (Never used those before either!) As for general fighting in instances I know what you mean, although I'd describe the experience more as "hectic". The people I group with are pretty high power. For instance, the tank I play with likes to grab every single mob in the first big room in the Library, so I usually just sit back and launch all my AOE arrows, like storm of arrows. Fights like that, the group often has a mob down before I can get a single arrow off! Yes things do die very fast, so concentrating on the namers is good advice. Hopefully the auto attack timer and good choice of combat arts to use will help me take named mobs down faster. If you have time, I'd like our opinion on the classic PFT/stealth arrow/Coverage/sniper arrow combo. I've heard debate. Is this just to show off with a single mega damage hit, or are there better combos to use with PFT, Coverage, and so on? I'll post back here after I try these things out for a few days and let you know how its going. Thanks again!
I generally don't touch coverage unless, like you mentioned, i'm purposely going for a big hit opposed to optimal DPS.
Regarding the coverage question. I do sometimes use coverage with PFT, so something like this: PFT, auto attack, hidden shot, coverage, sniper shot However, I'm don't think this is optimal. Although I haven't actually checked the numbers on this. It is kind of fun to see a nice big smack from sniper shot though. If you are facing multiple mobs, then something more like: PFT, auto attack (ideally you shouldn't touch pft until right before the auto attack is about to fire), ranger's blade, storm of arrows, auto attack, stream of arrows, maybe one more quick ca here, auto attack, if you are lucky then one more ca here before 12 seconds is up. Basically, the general idea being to make absolutely sure your auto attack goes off first thing and you don't delay it. Then getting in both stream of arrows and storm of arrows. The CAs around that just need to be fast and high damage. I just realized that I am making an assumption about the above. Which is that when you cast PFT you are maxed out on attack speed and DPS (or very close). So in instances, you should probably have most of your temporary buffs up during the named fight. (By the way, generally you wouldn't stack them in a raid situation, but for instances I don't worry about it personally.)
The big issue with Coverage is it does not, in most situations, go off as an instant cast as it says. It oftens take multiple seconds to "take effect." I'm talking LOTS of in game time. It usually ends up delaying auto-attack and cutting out all sorts of damage we could be doing in that time. It's one of those nice in theory but crappy in execution abilities. Even with the big server upgrades on AB and the loss of casting lag, I still get huge delays in coverage taking effect. My only guess is the problem is in the "stealth" animation attached to it. When it does work as instant cast, it's very nice. However, those times are so few and far between that the skill is mostly a detriment to our DPS. I can't imagine a ranger skill is worth it to the team as far as the time it would take to fix.
always seemed like its pre-requisites were the problem. It probably goes through a server rigorous process to make sure the last thing used was something to trigger it to prevent work-arounds or exploits. So even if the server is performing well, if your connection is being a little sluggish it could also be slowing it down severely. I think it just needs to be made into a regular stealth that just happens to increase damage of what ever stealth attack is used under it, if they can't streamline/speed up its current system. Recast is already 1 minute so not like we could use it for every stealth attack. It's fast becoming an outcast ability for rangers who are seriously min/max'ing their DPS. before it was unwise imo but now with our auto attack upgrades I would never sacrifice auto attack to use Coverage.
