So, healer mercs are broken, as a result I had an open spot in my group (all 115, warrior, wizard, cleric, shaman, bard) and I rolled up a heroic ranger. He's up to 104 now, and I've just been moving him into melee range and attacking. He's getting to the point where I'm hoping he can be contributing more to the group, but I don't really know what the heck I'm doing. I am hoping that with the right gear and AA I can get more dps out of him just hitting range attack and maybe one or two macro keys than I can out of a dps merc. I've looked back a few pages here in this forum, and haven't really found a good ranger guide to fit what I'm looking for, most of the discussion is understandably about playing a ranger as a main and/or on raids. I'm not using any 3rd party software so I need something I can manage myself with tabbing back and forth.
Probably be better to just go with a dps merc if you cannot spam a button continuously. Rangers are not complicated, but they do require you to push a button continuously to cast spells and discs. Spells account for 50% of your DPS. If you are set though, I would try this: 1. Autofollow the ranger to a toon that is autofollowing your main if not in a static camp. 2. Set a key for assist and autofire. 3. Set two key for AAs/discs Burn 1: /alt act 872 (Outrider Attacks) /disc Pureshot Rk. III /alt act 1460 (Spire) /alt act 184 (Guardian of the Forest) /alt act 462 (Auspice) Burn Key 2: /useitem Forest Stalker's Phlogiston Coat (or your chest) /disc Reflective Nettlespears Rk. III /alt act 2235 (Improved Ferocity) /alt act 1107 (Silent Strikes) /alt act 1109 (Scarlet Cheetah) 4. Set a key for five spells (Call > Focus > Dito > Summers > Summers) - play with the pauses here to make sure all five spells go off. So whenever you get to your ranger during alt tab, hit keys 1, 2, 3, 4 and then move back to your main toon. Come back to the ranger after a couple of seconds and hit key 5 again. You are going to need a few seconds between keys 3 and 4 to make sure everything goes off that can go off. Good luck.
In all honesty a melee merc would do more DPS than the boxed Ranger and be less of a headache. The bard/shaman combo add so much to it. You would be leaving a lot of DPS on the table by not devoting 100% attention. There could be an argument about the ADPS the ranger would provide to the rest of your group however. Auspice, spire and cheetah add a lot of character power.
these two don't stack well. it is typical to use Outrider's Attack for a second burn, since epic recycles in the middle of Guardian's cool down the second is almost wholly redundant with the first. they should not be run together
The two outrider lines were consolidated. That why you pair it right out of the gate with GotF. By time GGoTF is down OA is back up. In the situation of a alt tab boxer, the epic is of little value to the overall group since he is going to want to hit a hotkey and quickly transition to another character. I think he will get more mileage out of casting two summers in place of one epic click. I simply pair them together for the extra 10% during a burn sequence. This is not going to be an issue for him as alt tabber so he can drop it if he likes.
Just for sake of clearing up confusion: /alt act 872 (Outrider's Accuracy) /alt act 2235 (Imbued Ferocity) Everything else is spot on. /useitem 17 will also just cast your worn BP click, to avoid misspellings on your hot key.
Thanks for pointing that out, Jhenna. I never bothered update the post I grabbed that from and now I have a pointed reminder to do it.
You're wasting a good ranger if you just have him pew pew. You need to play him or don't. I don't get why people play 6 at a time when 2 will do the trick. Just pick the right two. Then you can play both with a higher percentage of their capacity. Most casual 6 boxers can't do the DPS that two well selected and played characters can give you. If you are not using any software to help, you are wasting money with 6 accounts. Healer mercs are fine. Block the HoT and Promised stuff on the toons and pets if applicable, then they work fine. I duo a SK and rogue a lot and use 2 healer mercs. I only have to play 2 toons and not worry about heals. Full rogue burn up every 10 min or so. Both can fade easy if needed and you only lose the mercs if you get into trouble. If you have a well geared tank with good AA, then all you need is a DPS machine to concentrate on while the tank keeps them occupied. If you know how to DPS with that class, you will likely do better than DPSing with 6.
Your posts are intriguing. Are you referencing the crit chance/accuracy boosts in regards to recycle time? The second post I understand as redundant due to the hate reduction from imbued and silent. A long while ago I wrote up a sustained rotation: OA>GOTF>GGOTF>OA>GOTF>2min>OA>GGOTF>GOTF>OA that covered 20 mins or so. Group makeup influences my burn choices since we rarely have a bard and I'd rather the war and 2 rogues pick up the extra 8% haste. Not everyone eats burning salads 24/7
It's more about the SPA185 hit damage%. I coordinate around epics since Falcon Strike, Vesagran, and Ruchu are all every 3 minutes. I'm addicted to bards; if I'm not in a raid group then I'm running my own. I less-regularly have a shm, but scheme is still there. Anyhow, I like to have a good hit mod to pair with the set of epics each time. The best hit mods are GotF 86% and Outrider's Attack with 80% each with 6 minute cool down (5 on OA, lil' waste there) for alternating cycles. I fill with GGotF, typically after OA since that's the bigger "window". If there's another rng or a bst, can use their Group thing to fill the other gap. If Provoked is staying on full time so Falcon ain't a thing, and other epics aren't a substantial factor in your regular groups, arranging like you have more blanket coverage I totally believe could be the best way.
I wouldn't lose sight of that this is a ranger that is the sixth of a alt tabber's set when giving advice. The player is only going to have a second or two to hit a button probably before switching to another toon.
I also want to add that this is absolutely not true. Healer mercs are not fine, they are indeed broken, and it happened around the first week of February, at 115 they no longer cast the remedy line of spells, instead will chain cast group heals no matter who is injured in the group, or what kind of incoming damage is being taken. Look at Vitaulic's parses on the healer merc topic in the bug forum for parse data.
That might be true, but I am not dying because of it, so I ain't gonna use it for an excuse to why I can't do something. I am not having issues because of it. I am only two boxing and I do it on ToV named, TBL named, RoS named. I am not max level or max AA.
