Self-buff use on raids

[Jay]

<DIV>Couple of questions, I'm curious how the rest of you are using your self-buffs when raiding:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- What CAs do you attempt to chain during Focus Aim? Do you have a set order? Do you hold all the associated CAs in reserve until Focus Aim is available?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- When do you use Killing Instinct? Do you stack it with any other buffs? Do you continue firing CAs during KI or just let autofire go until the buff runs out? </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks.</DIV>

[Deml]

<DIV>My usual pattern is cover fire -> focus aim -> devitilizing arrow -> culling -> amazing shot -> triple volley -> precise shot.  If it's up I'll swap in rain before culling.  Lately I've been putting a slight pause in to let my autoattack go off every 4 seconds for extra dps.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'll trigger Amazing reflexes then KI when focus aim is down.  I follow the same pattern on that but I definitely put in a pause after every 2 ca's to get autoattack going off.  I'll throw in some melee's ca's as well then flip back to ranged, like longblade -> ranger's blade -> point blank shot.  I think if you don't use your CA's for the duration of KI you're losing out on dps.  It does great damage but you still have long pauses between autoattack.  I think Khalan said it best, "ranger's now are played with CA's being what we use in between autoattack."  DPS/Haste buffs don't change that, they just change our timing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That's just my 2 cents though.</DIV>

[Crychtonn]

I work all my skills around my auto attack.  Auto attack is the greatest weapon I have and CA's are just supplementary DPS.

[Jayad]

<DIV>For Focus, I usually start in stealth before the fight.  Then depending on if is a group or solo encounter:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo - Veiled Fire, Devitalizing Arrow, (Rain if it's up), Culling the Weak, Tripple Volley, Amazing Shot</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Group - Selection, Rain of Arrows, Devitalizing Arrow, Culling, Trip Volley</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I'm already engaged (using Focus would break stealth), then skip the stealth attacks at the beginning.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I use Killing Instinct when Focus goes down.  It's a very nice buff.  The ranged component is nice, but it also works very well for melee.  You don't get the +48 ranged but you get the +DPS effect even in melee.</DIV>

[xMiLoSiSx]

<DIV>Focus-- Confounding - Triple - devitalize- Rain of arrows - Amazing shot</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I usually throw a rangers blade in between, so I catch an auto shot and right back into ranged. It's really only worth critting the big hits. (Melee as in to keep DPS up, not cause it crits =P)</DIV><p>Message Edited by xMiLoSiSx on <span class=date_text>09-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:08 AM</span>

[xandez]

<DIV>not been raiding much, but my setup would be</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>cover fire --> focus aim --> devitalizing arrow (sp?) --> triple arrow (volley?)</DIV> <DIV>maybe change triple to rain if its up</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>occasionally maybe</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>cover --> devitalizing --> focus --> imp. surveil --> sniping shot (or stealthy fire, etc..)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I always forgot that +dps / ranged buff (killing instinct) ... doh. Silly me <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>++Xan</DIV><p>Message Edited by xandez on <span class=date_text>09-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:25 PM</span>

[Gareorn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Xney wrote:<BR> <DIV>For Focus, I usually start in stealth before the fight.  Then depending on if is a group or solo encounter:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo - Veiled Fire, Devitalizing Arrow, (Rain if it's up), Culling the Weak, Tripple Volley, Amazing Shot</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Group - Selection, Rain of Arrows, Devitalizing Arrow, Culling, Trip Volley</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I'm already engaged (using Focus would break stealth), then skip the stealth attacks at the beginning.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I use Killing Instinct when Focus goes down.  It's a very nice buff.  The ranged component is nice, but it also works very well for melee.  You don't get the +48 ranged but you get the +DPS effect even in melee.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>This is almost exactly what I do.  I always use Killing Instinct in conjuction with Honed Reflexes unless my haste is already maxed out and I stay ranged while it's up to maximize the quickshot and poison procs.<BR>

[Jay]

<DIV>Interesting posts so far. My Focus sequence is almost identical to Demlar's, and I do the same pairing of Honed Reflexes with Killing Instinct if my haste isn't maxed. I'll slip in a few CAs during Instinct, but generally I'm waiting on refresh timers at that point so it's mostly autofire. Since I'm using the Wurm Destroyer (shortbow) and I'm hopefully 100% hasted, there's only 3 seconds or so between autofire shots anyway. But good point about using the CAs in that time if they're available. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Curious though... why do some of you fire CAs like Confounding or Triple instead of higher-damage arts? I can understand sneaking those in for a quick CA if you have time after the big hitters, but I'm surprised to see those CAs in some lists where arts like Veiled or Culling aren't mentioned...?</DIV>

[Gareorn]

<DIV>If using focus, all three triples normally go off, and when it crits, all three shots will crit.  I know it's a roll of the dice, but if the stars are aligned just right, it can be pretty awesome.</DIV>

[Jay]

<DIV>True, what do you think your total crit damage would be from a Triple, though? I'm not saying it's a bad idea to use, just that I wouldn't fire that *instead* of something like Veiled Fire unless I didn't have enough time left on Focus to do anything but.  </DIV>

[Deml]

<DIV>Personally, I skip Veiled fire in the focus aim sequence because it just takes too much time, even if I use Longblade to get invis.  Although I will admit that if I trigger Focus Aim and some of my other CA's are down I will use veiled fire then, but that's usually a situation that happens later in a fight when the mob is under 25% and the brig just hit dispatch.  I've seen veiled crit for 7k+ in those situations.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, like you I trigger Amazing Reflexes only if I'm not at, or close to, the haste cap.  Sadly, 30% haste doesn't seem to make a huge difference with my Sarnak bow.  Oh, and the arguement to not use Focus aim with Sarnak is only partially true.  I have been able to get every shot with my Sarnak to crit during focus but only after the mob has been fully debuffed.  At that point, the sarnak works like any other bow with focus aim, just it hits like a truck.</DIV>

[Serventof Wrath]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jay42 wrote:<BR> <DIV>True, what do you think your total crit damage would be from a Triple, though? I'm not saying it's a bad idea to use, just that I wouldn't fire that *instead* of something like Veiled Fire unless I didn't have enough time left on Focus to do anything but.  </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I do use veiled, rain, selection, and sniper with focus.  However i usually pause for the first "Dispatch" before i use focus and then all those CAs are down before it refreshes so it just seems that I'm using triple, snaring, presice with focus more often cause they are up but if the big hitters are up I will use them over triple or the smaller faster ones. </P> <P>However as I look back over my parses "pierce" is the largest chuck of my damage so I definitely use little pauses in my CAs to maximize my auto-ranged shots.</P>

[Jayad]

<P>The reason I shoot triple with focus is because of all the bonuses I have the best chance of hitting all three while focus is up.  (i.e. they miss less - all three hit more)  Due to "Increaases ranged of caster by 123"</P> <P>I consider trip with Focus or Killing Instinct up to be about the same as Amazing Shot or Confounding Arrow on average, and if all three hit critical it'll do a lot more.  So you</P> <P>The most important arts to get out are Select + Rain on groups or Veiled, Rain of Arrows, Devit, and Culling on single mobs. </P> <P>Not sure if everybody understands, but if you stealth *out of combat* before the fight and cast Focus, it does not un-stealth you.  That makes casting Selection or Veiled Fire much faster.  If I"m in combat when Focus is up, then I don't use Veiled on single mobs.  (I would still use Selection from  Focus, Stealth, Selection for a group though)  Getting a large attack off like Veiled Fire or Selection without having stealth time added makes a big difference.</P> <P>I think timing Snipe with debuffs is more important than trying to critical it.  We have a pretty good base chance of critting it with AGI AA line anyways.  Maximum debuff = big hits.</P><p>Message Edited by Xney on <span class=date_text>09-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:42 PM</span>

[Gerdos]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR></P> <P></P> <HR> <P>Gareorn wrote:<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> <P></P> <HR> <P>Xney wrote:<BR>For Focus, I usually start in stealth before the fight.  Then depending on if is a group or solo encounter:</P> <P>Solo - Veiled Fire, Devitalizing Arrow, (Rain if it's up), Culling the Weak, Tripple Volley, Amazing Shot</P> <P>Group - Selection, Rain of Arrows, Devitalizing Arrow, Culling, Trip Volley</P> <P>If I'm already engaged (using Focus would break stealth), then skip the stealth attacks at the beginning.</P> <P>I use Killing Instinct when Focus goes down.  It's a very nice buff.  The ranged component is nice, but it also works very well for melee.  You don't get the +48 ranged but you get the +DPS effect even in melee.</P> <P></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>This is almost exactly what I do.  I always use Killing Instinct in conjuction with Honed Reflexes unless my haste is already maxed out and I stay ranged while it's up to maximize the quickshot and poison procs.<BR></P> <P></P> <HR> <P>DITTO</P> <P><BR> </P></BLOCKQUOTE>

[LoreLady]

Jay since you asked - you shal get a responce..I use killing instinct right off the bat - and use confounding arrow, precise shot first - and since I have the relic BP I use tripple volly, then I switch to melee to get off emberstrike and longblade and go through that round.. When a brigand uses debilitate, I launch focus aim and use vieled fire or snipers shot (depending on whats up - or both) - and use the rest of my archery skills.  Then I do the standard stuff - but wait for all the 1 min stuff to popup again, and make sure precise shot, confounding arrow are always down when focus isent up.. Then I open up with focus aim with the leftover abilities.I find I make greator spikes in DPS when using focus with snipers and vieled than a volly of stuff.. A 10k crit at 5s (4s poise, 1s stealth) is the same as getting max damage for every ability with crits for the typical voly.<div></div>

[Mirdo]

Oh, sorry, I thought the title of the topic was self abuse on raids and wandered in...Mirdo.<div></div>

[TerriBlades]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Gareorn wrote:<BR> <DIV>If using focus, all three triples normally go off, and when it crits, all three shots will crit.  I know it's a roll of the dice, but if the stars are aligned just right, it can be pretty awesome.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>When Triple crits, which is most of the time, all the shots crit. I usually start with this right after focus, this plus the initial 3-4k crit AA is a beautiful thing to watch. I rarely switch from my usual routine of CAs, unless of course its a group of 3 or more and both Rain and Selection are up, after which I resume my regular routine of going down the list. Since Im not at home atm, I cant give you all the right CAs in the order that I use mine, but I can say (for the most part) they are all lined up based on refresh timers.</P> <P> </P>

[pseudocide]

<DIV>solo: culling (or veiled if i'm allready stealth), triple fire, flame shot, waiting for autoattack in between CAs</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>group: natural selection (if i'm stealth), storm of arrows, same as above after that</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>going stealth before the fight starts is a good habit, even if you don't have focus aim up you can open with a stealth CA and keep longshank and surveil for later use.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Gareorn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jay42 wrote:<BR> <DIV>True, what do you think your total crit damage would be from a Triple, though? I'm not saying it's a bad idea to use, just that I wouldn't fire that *instead* of something like Veiled Fire unless I didn't have enough time left on Focus to do anything but.  </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>It normally crits for 3-4K for me.  But ya, I wouldn't use it instead of veiled fired.  I only use veiled with focus as an opening shot though do to it's long cast time.<p>Message Edited by Gareorn on <span class=date_text>09-09-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:29 AM</span>