AA lines

[Lanily]

<div>Hi there,</div><div> </div><div>Those who have checked the AA trees for rangers - what will be your choice?</div><div> </div><div>For me, the Agility and Stamina lines seem the best, although the final Agility skill (-35% cooldown on timers) seems a bit too powerful for me (thats 20% DPS increase supposing endless power), and the final Stamina skill seems a bit too weak (6 secs autoparry - its a bit short), but these two trees seem clearly better than the other 3 lines.</div><div> </div><div>Or did I miss a must-to-have skill?</div><div> </div><div>Thanks for the input <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><div> </div><div>Lani, 60 Ranger</div><div>Guk</div><div>Divine Legend</div>

[Arisar]

<div></div>That's a reduction in casting time not reuse cycle unless I'm vastly mistaken. So you'll be casting faster, and given that we have some fairly long recycles faster casting is only going to give us more time when nothing worthwhile is up. Only benefit I can see is quick bursts of all our CAs then long periods of streaming till we're ready to do it again.

[Bro]

Some of the passive skills look quite handy.. I'm thinking of trying-the parry & crit ones from the Blademaster line, but wondering if that means I'll need a sword (we use swords?)Prowlers Cunning from the prowler line (boosts defence)Toxic Expertise from the Int/poison line (boosts crit spell damage?)maybe Perfectionist from Blademaster as well.. seems to reduce re-use time, dunno how much per-point though.Then again, I'm thinking harder about just cancelling.Also wondering if we've been nerfed so hard to make room for the 'benefits' we get from AA's & they're meant to bump our DPS back up to something more respectable. If that's true, it would have been really nice if SOE had given a veterans bonus of say, 10 AA per 10 levels so we could use some of'em. I'm not sure I can be bothered grinding AA xp to try & find out if they help though.<div></div>

[Lanily]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Arisar wrote:<div></div>That's a reduction in casting time not reuse cycle unless I'm vastly mistaken. So you'll be casting faster, and given that we have some fairly long recycles faster casting is only going to give us more time when nothing worthwhile is up. Only benefit I can see is quick bursts of all our CAs then long periods of streaming till we're ready to do it again.<hr></blockquote><p>Hmm you might be right, its casting time. Well its useless then <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The reuse would have been too powerful.</p><p>The Defense increase must be fun too, but I am thinking about Dance of the Trees, which gives 50 defense at adept 3, and I still cant tank lvl 60 mobs <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> But you are right, every bit of defense helps</p><p>The reuse time on strength line only reduces those, who have longer recast than 2mins. I have found Brutal Instinct and Sniper shot that way. On the other hand, we would be constantly under Brutal instinct that way, I guess it will be nerfed pretty fast (unless they silently reduced duration, I havent checked).</p><p>Lani</p><p> </p>

[Bayler_x]

The agility line is the clear first pick for me.  I'll be maxing out fitness (run speed) and ranged expertise (crits) as soon as possible.  Point blank shot looks very useful, but if the only difference between spending 4 and 8 points on it is a little extra damage, I won't bother maxing it out.After that, I'll probably make my way up to spell crits in the intelligence line.None of the line-end abilities seem particularly worth the cost, compared to pumping more points into the middle stuff.<div></div>

[Racmo]

I remember reading the agi ability and did not get that on the casting time.  I got that it reduces our refresh time by 35% and this is in line with the str ability.  I don't think it's reducing our casting time by 35%.Tobi45 Ranger<div></div>

[Money Mak]

<div></div><div>I was discussing this with another ranger and an assassin in my guild and Ive changed my mind on where I want to go.</div><div>I originally was going to go Int and Agi, but with the way procs are now, I dont see the Int line as usefull now.  So now I am thinking Str and Agi.  Either way, Agi for sure.</div><div> </div><div>I dont solo much, mostly raid and group, so I was hesitant to go Str at all because I dont care for melee abilities.  But the reduction in CA reuse time for those CAs with recast over 2 min means I can use Sniper Shot, and my short term buffs more frequently.  That combined with the reduced CA cast time from agility line should give me more dps (I hope).</div><div> </div><div>My fear is that the reduced CA cast time from agility line will further lower the poison proc % chance <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><div> </div><div>So for now, until I hit 70, I am not sure I am going to use any of my AA points until things settle down.</div>

[Racmo]

haha...I've actually been thinking about going into the lines that increase our defense and our parry. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Since I have to go toe to toe with the mob more.Tobi45 Ranger<div></div>

[Arisar]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Racmoor wrote:I remember reading the agi ability and did not get that on the casting time.  I got that it reduces our refresh time by 35% and this is in line with the str ability.  I don't think it's reducing our casting time by 35%.Tobi45 Ranger<div></div><hr></blockquote><p>Poise Rank 1</p><p>Reduces casting time on all combat arts.</p><p>Effects: Reduces Casting Timers of caster by 35%</p><p> </p><p>Perfectionist Rank 1</p><p>The Blademasters attack-based combat arts that require a reuse timer of 2 minutes or greater have their reuse timers reduced and damage increased.</p><p>Effects: Attack-based combat arts on long reuse timers have their reuse times sped up by 50% and damage increased by 10%</p><p>...</p><p>So we have two clearly different mechanics mentioned, reuse timer and casting timer - unless it's a written error we can assume they are totally different effects. And agility only speeds up casting time...</p>

[Asla]

<div></div><p>As written <and I'll be watching this forum to see if they're mis-written...  This IS a Sony product after all></p><p>I'm planning 24 pts to Agi for the casting time reducer and</p><p>24 points to STR for Perfectionist (50% reduce +10% boost).</p><p>Granted Perfectionist will probably only affect Sniper shots, but I was on a raid recently where we needed that DPS RFN and waited for those timers to refresh.</p><p>I agree in the Int line, doesn't seem there would be that much benefit nowadays.</p><p>Plus I tend to make all of my fights ranged.   Anything that requires me to get up close and personal with the mob (Escape/Smoke Bomb) isn't going to get used much, heh.   Specially when it's a PBAE agro (unless that's been fixed?   Elude and Improved Surveil are still 'broken' so I asume that line is also.)</p><p> </p>

[Racmo]

Thanks Arisar...Guess I need reading comprehension 101.Now I'm not so excited about that ability. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Tobi45 Ranger<div></div>

[Guy De Alsace]

Going Blademaster route since now we cant be useful at anything else I'm going to look good with my new Katana and fabled shield. Turns heads a Ranger fighting like that even if it is for novelty value only.Decided he's just gonna be played for a laugh and to explore KoS now, not serious play. Got some un-nerfed toons on the way for that...maily healers who get far better initial AP's than we do.<div></div>

[Forum Name]

<div></div><div></div>I'm only 48 so I don't have sniper shot yet, is it part of the hidden fire line?  I've checked all my CA's and the only attack based CA's with reuse timers of 2 minutes or over are the enemy master strikes with reuses of 2 minutes, The hidden fire line is 1.5 min.<p>Message Edited by Forum Name on <span class="date_text">02-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">03:41 PM</span></p>

[A]

<div></div><p>The agi line looks promising provided they make it work in a way that the reduced casting time doesn't affect the proc rate.</p><p>35% faster casting time probably would allow us to get one more Bow CA in when soloing before the mob closes on us...</p>

[smoody]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Ail wrote:<div></div><p>The agi line looks promising provided they make it work in a way that the reduced casting time doesn't affect the proc rate.</p><p>35% faster casting time probably would allow us to get one more Bow CA in when soloing before the mob closes on us...</p><hr></blockquote><p>Faster cast times will be very useful for soloing. An additional bow art, maybe even 2 on the pull with increased odds of getting the bow art off after cheap shot will prove very useful. For groups and raids, this doesn't seem very useful to me. There are already periods of time when I don't have any CA's available if I'm not careful. The faster cast times would only increase the "down" time.</p><p>Fredethel</p>