So in the middle game. Actually if your 120 your fighting mobs 95-105. Mobs that you headshot SUMMON Do you just screw it and get summoned and movebackwards while autofiring. OR Do you melee? I believe when a mob summons you they do more than usual damage too. However, its tough to beat headshot dps. Can end the fight within seconds from a headshot or spend a half minute or so meleeing. What do y'all do? Maybe y'all don't even kill these mobs? And do missions instead rather than solo headshot farming? 95-105 times changed in the game so maybe headshot farming isn't worth it anymore. To me its fun, I move backwards and headshot, fun seeing big numbers, annoying that pretty much everything SUMMONS
The answer is GMM (Gnone Memorial Mountain). My 120 Ranger (still using her healer merc)... I can headshot the "orcs" Bloodmoon xxxxx, and a few more of the others 108-110 ish?. I just have a rotation. Based on my 30 min run, I use everything and everything, usually log off at 15 min and wait for AAs and discs to pop back up and then go again. LOD and rinse and repeat. They do not summon or they die too quickly for me to ever figure out if they summon. I still use my healer merc so XP is shared but I am squishy. BUT I hit them with everything but I STILL have to melee them till they die. Sometimes they die right away as I pull them or they die quickly after a few hits or they take a bit of time. Sadly there is NO 100% just sit back and range headshot, anymore, at least that I know of.
Those orcs have 6-7 mil HP. Rangers these days do some 3-4 million headshots, 2-3 times per minute on average. This still works in GMM. The picture in NoS is entirely different. Trash has 60-120 million HP. Even headshot-able weaklings take quite a bit of time to bow-down. Unless DPG boosts headshot damage to 30-40 million this ranger bow extravaganza is over. I like rangers, I like to box a ranger, it is very useful to the group, and dps is quite significant. Solo rangering - not so much. And if one accounts to archery dps degradation while solo (rangers enjoy dps increase when hitting stationary, non-moving mob, which is NOT rooted, i.e. actually tanked), then solo rangering is just a slow-day recreationary activity.
People used to headshot the Bi'Faak(?) camp in FM a lot, but I don't know if that's a good solo option because of the goblin spin stun (if those mobs do it). How is the XP for you? I don't recall the XP in GMM being particularly good when it was current.
With my merc, at 120 (and man I cannot remember) I believe I get 1.5 up to 3 AA per kill on LOD. Not always. At times I get 1 then I get 3 then I get 2. The thing is for ME, is that I have being doing that area for so long it's second nature. I know exactly where and what mobs and when they respawn. It probably is NOT the best XP but it works for me. At times I get lucky and drop 2, 3 or 4 in a row with the first hits. And then there are times I hitting a "wounded" one for for feels like 20 min arg.
Rangers should get a follow-up ability, if they are summoned right after a headshot the Ranger get's to automatically kick the mob in the nethers upon arriving and stun it for a second or two.
I've recently leveld up my F2P alt up-to lvl 100 in GMM static zone by clearing orcs outside the walls. My group-leading mage was getting more than 1/2 AA per kill wihtout any exp boost. Other lvl 120 characters got significanlty less (exp penalty applied to them, the mage was pulling). The alt in tow was getting 1.3-1.6% of the level per kill without LoTD, obviously double of that with the Lesson. Overall it was about 2 levels per lesson burn. And my other 120 alts collected many collectibles to fill the gaps too. Surprisigly, ultra-rare mask has dropped off some trash as a bonus.
Don't fight mobs that summon, if you're just in it for headshot. I'm assuming you're soloing, yes? If you're fighting mobs that far below you, just pop a tank merc and let them engage the mob while you pew pew. With ranger heals being target or target of target and healing proc weapons/augs, you can easily keep your merc standing against weaker mobs, probably against mobs in current content as well. You still might get summoned, but it won't be that bad. There are plenty of mobs to kill with headshot in current content that don't summon and can be snared, if you want better xp.
I'm trying to get stuff or do stuff in these expansions 95-105. So basically in Sarith, those argathians can die 1 shot from a headshot. Takes a bit to down them melee. Do you just melee or do backup and keep going for a headshot, and eat the 6 second inbetween summons. So 95-105 zones in particular. I wish the AE range skills did headshots. Headshot em right in front of me. I like this, or a shotgun type attack, probably 30 second delay have to be close to them and shoot em in the face high chance of headshot and they get pushedback. Either a headshot or a miss. Pushback can be the negative thing to balance this skill. In group situation no one likes pushbacks in most situations. Elmer Fudd Not a good idea to summon Elmer Fudd he likes the in your face headshots.
Are you doing things like hunter/progression in those older zones? If so, just fight it all straight up. Unless you're in an area where you might get swarmed, nothing is going to kill a 120 ranger in those zones. I've been doing hunter for TDS and other than some areas where mobs are packed in tightly, nothing really presents a problem. I was in a raid with my other toons to get their hunter achievements as well, so no mercs, and it's all good with dual wielding heal proc weapons. If you use a merc, it should all be cake.
If you are a 120 ranger, why headshoot 95-105? A 120 Ranger with decent hdex can headshoot a lot of mobs that don't summon that are not 95-105. Waste of time.
These are probably the people that can't figure out how to level quickly with the current XP paradigm. Grinding light blues hasn't been the way to do this for several years now.
My ranger has been known to headshot for 10M easily, (with Pureshot I admit), and he chews through some of the NoS stuff in a group
Headshot grinding is extremely unreliable since they made the change that 'shoots' (I.E., basic arrow attacks from /autofire) can break root. Combined with the fact that our roots haven't changed since pretty much level 100-ish and the mob resistances change every expansion (or definitely feels like it from a gameplay experience) makes headshot soloing at best a lesson in patience and at worst a headache. Easiest way I have found to make it worthwhile is to find a tank friend or box a tank character (I struggle with pet tanks because of limited aggro generation, but it can still be done albeit slower and at least in my experience another lesson in patience) and utilize them to be your 'root' then figure out the best way to kill the sprites faster. As to the OP's comment parses for the last several years show that Archery is the best sustained DPS overall over melee weapons so unless your the sole player you should ALWAYS be at autofire range, melee is reserved for summons and indoor zones where finding autofire distance is more a headache than simply turning on auto attack in my opinion (best dps is whatever gives you more uptime on killing a sprite). Your milage may vary with what weapons you have access to as well, I would recommend getting EQLogparser or gamparse (parser is far superior imo) and see what your best results are. As far as camps go I have not found any good solo camps that do not have summon mobs, but I rarely have soloed since EoK expansion and since the change to roots simply because I find it all tedious at best and would rather do something more productive with my time (tegi in umbral plains was decent for the groups I was in, as well as the tegi/akeavans in maidens eye, but to my knowledge they all summon on low hp)
Tegi and Akeavans don't summon on low HP in Maiden's Eye. Rangers can get through these fairly quickly, but still isn't super-efficient when it comes to mobs per hour. Groups are better there and you can as a ranger, really up the kill rate for a group. Same thing with the humanoids in Shadeweaver's. You can headshoot there as well, but being in a group is more efficient. The live side in Rygorr's is better, but mobs are more scattered. They are more efficient to headshoot solo though. There are other spots, but not enough mobs to make it worthwhile. Gorowyn (Spelling?) is still a place you can solo headshooting, but the dark greenies that puke on you will summon and see invis. Since arrow spells will now break root, you will have to use fluster and bluster along with vinelash and your AA root a lot. Have a bow set up that doesn't have augs that proc DD spells and remove any buffs that proc DD spells as well, to reduce the times root is broken. If you snare everything you root, it gives you more time to keep them in archery range, so you don't have to melee them. Being in a group in those areas is much better for MPH (mobs per hour) kill rate.
