Thinking about coming back to try Live (maybe FV) as a 3-box starting from Heroic chars (or maybe the scenic drive from level 1). Was curious about running WAR/ENC/RNG...curious what your thoughts are? WAR for set and forget aggro ENC for CC and some macro DPS RNG to main as ranged/spell DPS, tracking 1 cleric merc, 2 wiz mercs Would I be able to level up to max with this 3 box and be able to do all group Named ok? What would you change and why? I'm curious about playing a RNG main, so was trying to figure out what could still be a solid team around that.
I've never played a warrior, but generally, I've found that I have to "main" my melee class. The SK, my tank of choice, is probably busier than the warrior, but I constantly have to manage position, cycle through mobs for aggro, etc. I guess if you're playing a chanter, you don't have to worry about adds so much, though. I am PLing a ranger right now, and the more I look at his spells and abilities, the cooler he seems. On my end, I plan on really using him for /autofire and a macro for some headshot/arrow abilities. He's just bonus DPS. However, after talking with a ranger in our guild, he's shown me how awesome the ranger can really be. Even without the chanter, the ranger can do some pretty snazzy pulling on his own. It looks like a solid group you have going there, but I've never personally run it.
I run sk/ranger/chanter. They are all paid accounts so they have the J5 mercs. I run tank merc, caster merc and healer merc. So far it is going well, but you have to watch those caster mercs as they draw huge argo and pull mobs away from group and then start running away when they see what they did. Basically my tank merc runs out to tank what the ranger brought in then the sk gets to the back of the mob with his pet and dots then the chanter chimes in with her pet, slows, dots etc. I carry rez tokens from loyalty merchant on each character in case someone dies as the merc healers wont do rezzing during battle. The ranger has also saved the group with heals when the merc flips out for some reason. And you can't beat that track ability or ranger crowd control. Yeah they do that too! Dunno about going heroic since you do need to learn them all a bit to make it work better. It would not take long leveling up from start with that group for sure
Auto-intercept so casters/dps don't get eaten. Then SK takes over. Different people have different strengths. It could be that they need an extra second to swap over from Ranger, so the tank merc is a good speed bump. And if the merc dies, meh, no loss. Marginal DPS anyway.
Except that he said he doesn’t take over, he allows his SK and pet to get their back to the mob. So again, what’s the point of the SK.. he’s not using it to pull or tank.
I really think WAR, SHM, BRD is a better choice than the war/enc/rng, you get the slow, you still have CC, you have haste, backup healing, additional buffs, high ADPS, tracking, etc. etc.
It would be generally mediocre for a three-box because the ranger would be constantly OOM. Even with my bard/bst dumping mana into my ranger he's always the first to be OOM. For someone looking to play a rng main, I'd recommend looking into something like bst/brd/rng or bst/enc/rng just to boost the ranger as much as possible. If you wanted an easy plate tank, war/brd/rng, war/enc/rng and war/bst/rng are good options. If you want a harder but more survivable plate tank, replace war with sk. bst may seem unconventional at first, but they provide a suitable tank and are great mana batteries because they can maintain this on your ranger: [51683/37097] Focused Paragon of Spirit XXV 10: Increase Current Mana by 1100 per tick [57411/2713] Spiritual Empowerment Rk. II 5: Increase Current Mana by 106 per tick And can cast this every 10 ticks (coming to 400 mana/tick): [58242/2752] Dissident Fury 4 8: Increase Current Mana by 4012 They also have excellent endurance regen via Reflexive Sundering and Enduring Frenzy. I don't know what impact bst ADPS buffs have on bow DPS because I never use my boxed ranger's bow DPS (though I believe it's generally superior to melee DPS when used correctly). To be clear, I'm not saying that bst/brd/rng or bst/enc/rng are the BEST trios that include a ranger, but I am saying that they are the groups that will empower your ranger for long-term killing the most.
