User:Ellison.dean/Armed Assault

Armed Assault uses several Weapon Spells to greatly increase the efficiency and strategy of ranger attacks. I'm sure the build will look odd at first glance, but read the notes below to see the individual strengths of each skill.
 * The main combo of attacks uses Nightmare Weapon to deal a near instant spike of 126 armor ignoring, life stealing damage.
 * There are several variants that are very useful in different areas and situations, including interrupting, using a pet, and barraging.

Attributes and Skills

 * To fill in the Optional slots, look in the Variants section for many different uses for this build.
 * The attributes can be changed, and runes can be lowered if the health seems too low.
 * Marksmanship can be lowered to 0 if the user doesn't need damage from the first two skills. NM Weapon makes all damage dealt exactly 42.


 * Preparations(when not using Barrage) which cause conditions can be very useful to eliminating enemies.
 * A defensive skill or some other interrupt skill can be put in the last slot. A Resurrect can also be used in PvP.
 * Serpents Quickness or another recharge-time lowering skill can be useful for the main combo.
 * Troll Unguent is a good out of battle heal, but points will need to be dropped from Marksmanship for this.

Equipment

 * Use one rune of Superior Vigor and 2 runes of Attunement along with the 2 stat raising runes.
 * Sundering/Zealous/Vampiric bows of Fortitude with +5 Energy. The type of bow is your choice.
 * The health and energy levels should be 450 and 35 respectively, but these can be higher.

Usage

 * Set up Favorable Winds outside of battle, but close enough for you to be constantly affected by it.
 * Against single enemies use Nightmare Weapon + Dual Shot followed immediately by Distracting Shot for a quick, armor ignoring, life steal of 126 damage.
 * Usages for the variants are listed below.

Counters

 * Standard melee counters apply here(Blind, Hexes, etc)
 * Kiting, conditions, and lack of healing may sometimes be a problem, but they can be covered by variants of the build.

Variants
Barrage + Splinter Weapon - Used in PvE and AB.


 * Use Barrage + Splinter Weapon against large mobs of enemies to do massive amounts of richocheting damage.
 * Recast Splinter Weapon every two shots as soon as it is available.
 * Use Nightmare Weapon + Barrage against large mobs to gain 126 health.

Total Spike Variant - Very powerful in TA or GvG with coordinated spikes.


 * In the first optional slot, use either Kindle Arrows, Melandru's Arrows, Marksman's Wager, or Apply Poison.
 * Use your preparation before the spike, then Nightmare Weapon.
 * Attack with Dual Shot, Wielders Strike, then Distracting Shot for a huge spike of life stealing damage.
 * If a non elite preparation is used, consider skills such as Melandru's Resilience for the other optional slot.
 * Oath Shot can be extremely powerful in team builds for doing multiple spikes quickly.

Quick Shot + Warmonger's Weapon - Used in RA and TA.


 * Use Warmonger's Weapon + Quick Shot to interrupt casters.
 * Use Dual Shot followed by Quick Shot followed by Distracting Shot for a quick 4 hit burst.
 * For the 8 seconds when Warmongers isn't up, Distracting Shot can still be used as an interrupt.

Animal Variant - Used mainly in TA and RA.


 * Use Heal as One as a quick heal for when NM Weapon isn't enough, this can be switched for a different elite.
 * Other possible elites are Rampage as One, Ferocious Strike, or an elite from a different attribute.


 * Use Maiming Strike to cripple foes, and Disrupting Lunge on casters to disable skills frequently.
 * The Pet Attacks can be switched for other skills.
 * For this build, Marksmanship must be lowered to 10, and Expertise much be lowered to 11, so Beast Mastery can go up to 8.
 * Marksmanship can actually go to 0 if you don't mind not doing any damage other than the NM Weapon combo.

Prepared Shot + Read the Wind - Useful in many situations.


 * This variant uses Read the Wind to allow arrows to travel twice as fast, with Prepared shot for good damage without NM weapon, as well as energy management.
 * The idea with Splinter Weapon is to cast it and follow with Prepared Shot, Dual Shot, and two Needling Shots.
 * It also uses Dual Shot and Needling Shot for the 3 hit combo needed for the NM Weapon spike.
 * Needling Shot can also be used in conjunction with Prepared Shot for straight damage.
 * Splinter Weapon can be dropped in areas with no mobs.
 * Thanks to Defiant Elements for thinking up this build.


 * Many more variants are possible with this build, feel free to post your own combinations of skills in the discussion page as variants!