User:Velox Lamia

= R/N Touch Ranger =

A Touch Ranger makes use of a ranger's durability in getting close to his opponents and "touch" skills from the necromancer's arsenal to steal his opponents' health. This build uses a high rank in Expertise to reduce the energy cost of the key skills Vampiric Bite and Vampiric Touch.

Equipment

 * Druid's Armor, With Rune of Superior Vigor and Rune of Superior Expertise
 * Weapons (one of the following)
 * A +5 energy axe/sword of shelter/defense/fortitude and a Blood Knife from Attendant Nashu or Jahn Pitz.
 * A Blood Magic wand such as the one available from Karl Jakobs and Blood Magic focus such as the one available from Volsung Stoneketil.
 * A +energy weapon set with otherwise same stats as the above.
 * Milthuran's Staff for more energy

Usage

 * Get close to your target and spam Vampiric Bite and Vampiric Touch.
 * Use Dodge to chase down kiting targets and avoid attacks that can be harmful to the build (such as crippling attacks).
 * Use Whirling Defense or Throw Dirt when targeted by warriors, rangers or assassins. This is not only important for avoiding the damage, but also the harmful conditions like crippling and Deep Wound.
 * Use Offering of Blood when you can get the full benefit of the energy gain and you are not taking too much damage. Use it as often as it recharges if you can.

Counters

 * Use anti-spammer strategies, such as Diversion or Distracting Shot.
 * As the ranger needs to get within touch range, just stay away from them. Use any combination of snares, kiting and knockdowns to achieve this.
 * The life stolen per second is not enough to overcome focused damage and health degeneration. However condition based degeneration wont work as they just use Plague Touch to pass it on.
 * Signet of Humility, Arcane Thievery or Arcane Larceny can be used to shut down Offering of Blood, which is crucial for the build. When used in combination with even mild energy denial such as Energy Burn, the ranger will soon be out of energy.
 * Blackout is devastating to touchers.
 * "Can't Touch This!" will cause touch skills to fail, but this is not overly destructive and will only waste the touch ranger 2-10 energy.
 * Tease will cause the recharge of all the touch skills used in the build to increase by a certain percent, decreasing the overall DPS of the build.
 * It may be wise for users of this build to bring a melee weapon (such as a sword) as a counter-counter, since Tease ends if the target hits the caster (who will have to be within touch range to cast it in the first place)
 * Because the build relies on two skills spammed consecutively, enemies with interrupts can easily time their interrupts.
 * It looks like a toucher is easy to stop. However one on one (in most cases even 2 or 3 on one) with the touch ranger at full energy its not as easy. The only realistic ways to stop him is using hex based snares, Diversion, heavy energy denial or out healing him until he runs out of energy.

Variants

 * Verata's Aura can take control of all minions around for a medium-short amount of time. Highly useful for AB.
 * Frozen Soil can be hidden on the Touch Ranger skill-bar, and when used intelligently, can be a devastating skill in TA, and especially RA. This requires the extra skill points to be put into Wilderness Survival. This can easily replace Throw Dirt.
 * Barbed Signet can replace Resurrection Signet in AB, giving the Touch Ranger a secondary distance attack to compliment Vampiric Gaze.
 * Signet of Agony and Distracting Shot with a barbed bow to replace Throw Dirt and Whirling Defense gives the build an interrupt and the ability to inflict 44 second bleeding (significant damage over time.) You can still have Blood weaponry as a secondary set.
 * Blood Ritual is useful especially in a team situation as it is affected by expertise and gives an energy gain. Similarily, a group of touch rangers could be effective using Blood is Power and Blood Ritual on each other.
 * Zojun's Haste, paired with Dodge, gives an almost nonstop speed boost and protection against rangers. This is a good replacement for Resurrection Signet in AB.
 * Blood Renewal makes a good self heal if used properly.
 * Strip Enchantment in place of Resurrection Signet for Alliance Battles or 8-Team Competitive Missions such as The Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood, where Resurrection Signets are useless.
 * Use the 6 left-over attribute points and put them into Wilderness Survival, then using Serpent's Quickness as a way to increase pressure on your target.
 * Touch of Agony and/or Wallow's Bite should not be overlooked.
 * For players who only own Factions, a spare points Melandru's Shot could be used, with Vampiric Bite and Wallow's Bite as the damage. This will be less effective and conditional to enemies faced, however.
 * Storm Chaser instead of Dodge can help with energy management, but is generally not as useful.
 * In Alliance Battles, Resurrection Signet may be replaced with Awaken the Blood for more powerful touch attacks.

Template
= Build:R/any General Interrupter =

This build is a basic interrupter skillbar that can be used and modified for many situations, the main goal is to decrease both the enemy group's healing and damage through the use of interruption. Fights should be shorter with one of these on the team, taking some pressure off the healers and often preventing as much damage as they would normally heal.

Attributes and skills

 * *  The above attributes are a good baseline to work with and can be adjusted as playstyle/preference allows. 

Hard interrupts (Prophecies/Nightfall):

Daze with cover conditions (Factions):

Spamming (Prophecies):


 * Optional skill slot can include: Concussion Shot, Pin Down, Screaming Shot, Hunter's Shot, Throw Dirt, Serpent's Quickness, Seeking Arrows, or Antidote Signet (or any condition removal skill from another profession).

Equipment

 * Any armor can be used though Druid's is best if energy is lacking.
 * A Recurve Bow is best for interrupting in general with the faster flight time though others can be used in combination with Read the Wind.
 * A Shortbow or Flatbow is recommended if you are in need of a faster firing weapon to interrupt more often (when target is dazed or using Choking Gas for example) or just as a switchout weapon.
 * For any build that inflicts a condition (like dazed or poison) a bow string of it's respective condition (like silencing or poisonous) is suggested to lengthen the desired condition.

Usage

 * The function of these builds depends heavily on the party and environment, and thus the player should be observing his team as well as the enemy the first few moments.
 * If the team seems to be lacking the healing power needed, one should go for interrupting high-damage enemy spells/skills first.
 * If the team seems to be lacking sheer power, go for healers first.
 * If the party is in need of specific enemies interrupted be aware of any targets being called or requested by your team leader.


 * After using the build for a while and getting more comfortable with interrupting, all of the above points should be able to be achieved with the use of Distracting Shot. Disabling an enemy healer's main heal (knowledge of common skill recharges always helps) while also taking care of long-casting spells (perfect example: Meteor Shower or resurrection skills) is the main idea of these builds.
 * Often if you daze a target that is being attacked by others you can then interrupt a second target with your remaining hard interrupts (Savage/Distracting Shot).
 * Dazing a caster boss will often shorten the time the condition lasts but will spell doom for this enemy as they usually will only have spells and will be defeated with minor to no resistance while this effect is in place. As monk bosses in PvE seem to take the longest to defeat this condition can save the party a lot of time and effort in the long run if prepared for it though it is more frequently removed in certain areas, cover conditions can help prevent this.
 * If using Choking Gas and Practiced Stance it's often a good idea to bring an IAS as you want to fire as often as possible with every shot being a potential interrupt. This will also interrupt in a small area and interrupt while blinded (as the gas does the interrupting and not you hitting the target) but it will not interrupt non-spell skills, thus a minimum of one other hard interrupt is recommended to be brought along.

Counters

 * Any standard melee/ranger counters such as blindness, on attack/hit hexes, and/or evasion/blocking (though variants listed below can counter all of these downfalls).
 * Energy denial.

Variants
Optional skills: 
 * Hunter's Shot/Screaming Shot for a cover condition or added degen.
 * Concussion Shot for an additional spell interrupt or daze effect.
 * Pin Down to help land Broad Head Arrow, prevent the target from fleeing, or a cover condition.
 * Throw Dirt to blind melee foes that find their way to you or those in trouble near you.
 * Antidote Signet primarily to remove blindness (unless using the Choking Gas variant, then it isn't needed) though at times to remove poison and disease as well. It can also be replaced by secondary profession skills (like Mending Touch or Remedy Signet).
 * Serpent's Quickness to rapidly have interrupts/daze attacks available.
 * Seeking Arrows to hit an enemy that is evading/blocking your attacks.

As a R/Me:
 * Any other defensive/running stance to replace Whirling Defense, best option is Dryder's Defenses, as it also gives elemental armor though Lightning Reflexes can boost your interrupt rate temporarily if the target is dazed or if you are using Choking Gas.
 * A running stance to replace a skill for more survivability. Dodge/Zojun's Haste in missions/quests to prevent a wipe or to get to a destination fast or escape if the need arises.
 * Natural Stride can be substituted as a hybrid of a defensive stance and a running stance to get a little of each of the two above options.
 * If attacking a dazed target or using Choking Gas, Needling Shot can often shutdown a target if their health is below 50%, or using an IAS (such as Bestial Fury/Tiger's Fury, Frenzy, Flurry, or others) can increase your interrupt rate.
 * Adding a pet to the build can then activate the interrupts for you from the daze effect (if being used) allowing similar results as above without relying on your party to target either of your two targets (best with Broad Head Arrow or Concussion Shot) or just to add more interrupts on the one dazed target.
 * Bringing hex removal skills can be beneficial if expecting to run into hexes that will hinder you like Empathy.
 * Adding skills like Frustration or Arcane Conundrum can help increase the chance of interrupting with slower cast times from the target or even cause more damage to the target; if not added pressure.
 * Replacing the Elite skill with skills like Migraine or Psychic Instability can severely hamper a caster as well when combined with daze and/or interrupting attacks.
 * Epidemic can help spread conditions like daze, poison, crippled, and bleeding to more than your primary target.
 * Skills like Inspired Hex, Revealed Hex, or Hex Eater Signet can help to remove hexes if you know that you will be frequently encountering hexes that may hinder you in some way without expending much, if any, energy in their use.
 * A Mesmer's repertoire of skills may also add extra interrupting options should your target be obstructed, evading, or otherwise avoiding your interrupts. As these are not typically reduced in cost with ranks of Expertise it is uncommon to have more than one or two Mesmer interrupt skills and more common to use a signet at no cost (like Leech Signet or Signet of Disruption for example).

Interrupts in other builds:
 * It is common to add a few interrupt skills like Distracting Shot and/or Savage Shot (for common examples) to another build to add interruption options. In this case it should be taken into account as to what else one might be doing.  If the user will be spamming other skills or casting long spells the interrupts will not be as useful as the user will be busy and the interrupt skills wasted.  Be sure to plan ahead when adding Interrupt skills to any build so as to make use of them appropriately.
 * Many times it is common to bring along one interrupt skill so as to avoid that one large skill per battle (Giant Stomp, Meteor Shower, Wurm Siege, any kind of resurrect skill, and so on) and it is usually a good idea for such in many a situation as the user will often have a time and place (if not a specific foe/skill) for that skill's use as opposed to being occupied using other skills as above.

See also:
 * Interrupt skills quick reference