AA dps builds

[Gailstryd]

<DIV>There was a good discussion in worldranger last night about AA dps builds and reasons behide them etc etc.  Unfortunately I was raiding and missed a lot of it.  I've got 32 AA thus far and am fast tracked toward 50 but I still don't know how or where I want to put most of my points.  THus far I have 4/4/4/8 in the agi line and a smattering of points hopskipped around elsewhere till I get max and then I'll respec to what I want.  Anyways I was seeing if we could get some hard discussion going on how to maximize dps with AA's.  Don't get me wrong I know some peeps will choice different for soloing reasons or whatever playstyle they use but most will indefinitely go Agi and then some other line.  What are the benefits of each and how are they going to make a major affect on my dps?  What end line abilities are worth having?  I answer these questions all the time to myself but I want some new perspective especially since I've been out of the loop so long.  Hit me with your best shots and hopefully any conversation here will record some good options for everyone to study over and try out.  Oh and please include any and all ideas on how to get our dps as high as it can be even if you have to go fantasy gear/aa/spell upgrade build.  Let us know what, how, when all the goods, the dirt on dishing the dps.  Dps is one of reasons i play my toon, it may not be the end game factor, but I want to feel like i'm doing a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] good job no matter the circumstance.  So if anyone would be kind enough, maybe we can get this rolling into some full on good discussion that will help tag us up in dps or at least get out some ideas and evidence towards getting our class taken care of.  Thanks.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oh and to put my 2cp share in, I've been looking at doing an Agi Sta build.  Reasoning being most of the time I hit my high dps when I'm ae'ing and the extra ae ability with Sta line seems like it could bring some possible dps boost with it.  Haven't tried it out yet but I'm probably gonna go down that path and see if it leads to anything good.  Also I've been toying with getting my int up in dps groups.  I've noticed when I'm running around with my crap 40int or so I never notice my 400'ish poison proc, but getting it up as high as just 100'ish int, I land with 600-700 poison procs.  Seems like a significant way to up my dps since it ties in with my 30-40% of dps being auto attack.  I know I need more spell upgrades and some decent new gear and I'm working on those as well, right now I'm doing about 700-1000 ext dps in raids with my zone average usually being around 750 or 800.</DIV>

[Jayad]

<P>There's been several threads on this.  Most people seemed to either prefer going all the way down AGI+STR and getting both finals or getting AGI+INT.  I'm pretty happy with AGI+STR but I think AGI+INT could be as good or better.   People have also talked about the final ability on AGI not being worth it (Poise) and I could see that being true, too.  Since I don't raid as much with my ranger anymore I haven't really had a desire to test it out.</P>

[Rahmn]

<P>Well for a while I had my APs in str 4 4 4 4 8 and agi 4 4 4 5 8.  The reasoning for this was that I would want to go for the strength line because of the obvious benifit to my auto attack dps, ranged and melee.  Also having my sniper shot and rain of arrows doin 15% more and comin up 50% more often from Perfectionist seem a nice bonus.  Agility is pretty self explanitory: Ranged crits, reduced casting time etc...  Then after alot of raids, I had a moment of clairity.  My str was well over the cap and I wasn't getting anymore dps for it, I wasn't even using the 2nd and 3rd abilities in the strength line.  Yeah the extra melee crit was nice but  believe it was only a minor increase at level 4.   So I went to look at my stats and noticed that my int was crap.  I respeced myself to AGI 4 4 4 8 8 and INT 4 5 4 8.   Now this has doen several things.  First it gave me 28 more int, poison damage went up.  Second it gave me another attack with the bonus of having a poison debuff attached to it, INT second skill.  Third I got that neurotoxic coating for when and I need to make some money for repairs by soloing a bit.  Fourth, and I think the best, I got poisons able to crit at the max availiable level.  Not to mention I had few AP left over to max out my range crits too.  Atm poisons crit for over 1k, plus ranged crits are up.... the only thing I lost, 7% melee crits and 16 str.   My str is still capped out on raids, plus now I have the greatly increased poison damage and ranged crits.  My 2cp</P> <P> </P>

[LoreLady]

Im all downt he str/agil line.. My reasoning was, I would get a much greater effect out of a 2 min reuse, and an extra 500 damage out of stream of arrows.. This comes to about a 1.3kish diffrence  in damage than what I normally would have had. in a 3 min time period.

[Roark]

Being well over the strenght cap during raids, I chose to go 4/5/4/8/1 on Agility for max ranged crits and Poise. The decreased cast timers are noticable and give a nice boost on dps spikes. I chose to take P.B.S. to 5 points for the little added damage it gives (that I will always have a bow equipped).The secondary line I chose was Intelligence 4/4/4/8. The neurotic coating is really nice when soloing/duoing. Max poison and proc crits seem to have a very nice pay off. It also helps when other players put their procs on me.I tried running the Poise/Perfectionist route for a few weeks and it didn't seem to be as effective as my current setup.Your mileage may vary depending on play style and raid set up.

[Ranja]

<P>Has anyone gone the Sta route. I was looking at that and had moment where I thought I might go like this:</P> <P>Agi 4/4/4/5</P> <P>Int 4/4/4/4</P> <P>Sta 4/4/4/4</P> <P>The crux is does the extra attack in the stamina line proc of ranged (as it should). I doubt it but i might try this line to see since I dont know any ranger that has tested that.</P> <P>EDIT: Never mind I jsut realized that the stamina skill is a spell and not passive. /sigh i guess it is Agi / Int for me</P> <P>Message Edited by bentgate on <SPAN class=date_text>08-04-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>02:12 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by bentgate on <span class=date_text>08-04-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:29 PM</span>

[Drainlo]

<P>str 8/4/8/8              </P> <P>agil 4/5/4/8</P> <P>i am hoping the 8 in both crits will help.  I solo a lot and raid some what regularly, so i wanted to build something useful in both situations.  So far so good i think <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P> </P>

[TerriBlades]

<DIV>As I was gathering up my AA points, I threw then all down the Agi line, as I think most rangers would, but after that I just started throwing them anywhere. Few extra points in PBS (before the changes), and had tossed 8 points into str trying to get that as close to cap as possible on my own. In an effort to max my DPS output, Ive recently respeced my AAs as well. Like many of the ppl before me, Ive done the Agi/Int lines.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Agi 4/4/4/8/1</DIV> <DIV>Int  4/4/4/8</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I havent yet been able to see if this does in fact add a bit more DPS (I suspect it does however), due to the fact that the Zerker I usually get grouped with to cap my Str hasnt made it to a raid since the respec. (LOL Go figure)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[wvorster]

I've spent alot of money on different AA builds and the dps they yield .. so far for me .. a few observations : max melee crits is a waste of pts. int line really isnt that great didn't bother with wis / sta lines. STR 4 / 4 / 4  /4 /8 ( Perfecionist is kickass ) AGI 4 / 4 /4 / 5 / 8 ( Poise helps alot for getting more CA's off - i'd think this is more of a solo CA Instead of Poise look at going max ranged crits. more pts into str than needed is a waste - i cap out with buffs on raids anywhoos. most groups etc im sitting with 550 str. <div></div>

[Ethelwo]

All depends if you raid or not. the best mix for raids is to complete the str and agi lines, It's guaranteed to get you higher on the parse.

[Gailstryd]

I usually don't max str in my groups, another reason i might not do so well in dps- my guild doesn't have hte proper build for dps groups or the classes really to try.  I have 8 in str atm which I'm sure I'll change but I'm seriously thinking 8 in int since it is a clear benefit that I have seen with my int being so low.  I'm also thinking going max int line but want to try maybe str or sta first even though sta does seem pointless hte more i look at it.  Given how much melee combat arts I use while in the sweet spot trying to max dps I'm considering max melee crits.  Perfectionist also seems cool but also seems like it could be just as much a waist of points on something that is only really going to give me a bit bigger hits a touch more often.  As for Poise I've always thought it near useless and yes I know what you can do with it and our 10 sec buff but to be frank our 10sec buff kind of sucks too sometimes.  I hate having a serious component of my dps henged on a % chance 10 sec period where lag, distractions, or just plain messing up or bad luck can completely negate its affects.  I've got maxed ranged crits and it makes a big difference over just 5 from what I can tell, but still sometimes sucks with it being % based and sometimes (rarely) never crit'ing in a fight.  Near as I can tell for the best overall dps a max ranged crit and maxed int crit or melee crit setup would do hte trick.  Perfectionist is very tempting but again thats a lot to go for just 2 abilities or so it would seem to me.  Has anyone done perfect/poise setup and then switched to ranged/melee or poison crit setup?  If so did you notice a difference, please share your thoughts. 

[Ranvarenaya]

For my money 1 str is >= 9 int, until the point at which you are over the str cap self-buffed.  I say that because looking at a parse damage effected by str (auto-attack and CA's) are about 90% of my dps, while poison and procs are 10% or so.  I guess you can adjust accordingly if you are consistently in a stacked proc group, but given the current proc rates I saw no reason to stay with the INT line and respec'ed to the poise and perfectionist combo.<div></div>

[Gailstryd]

Yeah I meant that I would go with the 8 in int once I got gear or groupage enough to not worry about my str anymore.

[Kolorean Yorito]

Why haven't the folks doing INT taken the finial ability?<div></div>

[LoreLady]

<div><blockquote><hr>Kolorean Yoritomo wrote:Why haven't the folks doing INT taken the finial ability?<div></div><hr></blockquote>I tried it, and dident like it.. I decided that using the str line got much more dps.. And for the int final ability it works on one mob and its gone, and you have to constantly cast it before each fight.. It gets rather annoying.</div>

[Teksun]

Does Toxic Expertise (Poison Crit bonus) work at ranged? I think it does, but not sure.<div></div>

[Rahmn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Teksun wrote:<BR>Does Toxic Expertise (Poison Crit bonus) work at ranged? I think it does, but not sure.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yes it does, and it also works well on Mortal Wounds, at M1 mines doin an average of 2538 over the 36 secs, and with a recast of 30 secs, this dot should always be up.

[Rahmn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Gailstryder wrote:<BR>   Has anyone done perfect/poise setup and then switched to ranged/melee or poison crit setup?  If so did you notice a difference, please share your thoughts. <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Yes I switched from Poise/Perfect to Poise/Ranged crits poison crit max.  I then switched to using the hemotoxin poison instead of the caustic.  For the shorter raid fights dps stayed pretty much the same. However zone wide dps increased, a little but definately noticable.  Keep in mind that my str in the raid group was capped with or without the str AP.  The 3 mins recast for Rain didn't seem to reduce the total damage it did in zone, perhaps cause of increased spell crits.  <BR>