Ranger Combat basics/ Just plain Combat basics?

Cyr

I played ~5 or 6 years ago when smithing until you got a better than artifact speed sabre and then DSL toxin locking was the norm (was a runeguard at the time), it's been a very long time and I'm looking to get back into Imperian as a Ranger. I'm planning on tri-transing and a little beyond, but it's unlikely I'll go for artifacts any time in the near future. As I understand it there's now a default autocuring system in the game so for the short term I'll just stick to looking to build myself a rudimentary offence system. I'm planning on using Mudlet but have very limited programming experience and none of it in Lua, so any advice/help/generosity at all would be very much appreciated. 

Khizan

The Ranger kill is limb damage into an incendiary arrow.

Asking in the AM ring is going to be the best way to get questions answered about it, anybody who shows up on HELP ANTIOCH can invite you to it.

Salik

Coding issues are easily fixed. I'm sure there are enough people around whom can lend a hand. If you need code help, just ask!

Katal

@Cyr I'm in the same exact boat! Just spent the last few days putting some offense together and leveling up.

Cyr

Couple questions @Khizan or anyone else who knows ranger combat. 

1. Is limb breakage calculated off of damage for attacks like qjab? 

2. Following up on that, Should I use Powersoul+hafted Glaive or am I better off with the higher damage without those?

3. Toxins, my first instinct with limb damage was to just use Metrazol/Ciguatoxin and tie up the limbs even more, but my second was to use any toxin that requires a salve cure to slow limb mending, any recommendations on that?

4. Is there a ranger kill that doesn't require swapping my glaive for my bow and then shortshot incendiary at someone?

Wysrias

If you can't get an invite to the AM ring (definitely the best place to ask), hit me or anyone else listed in CLANHELP PVP up and try asking there, someone may be able to help.

At a glance, having not played ranger in at least half a decade, I can only point out that you won't have much luck delaying salve cures with toxins alone, because people will prioritize restoration over almost anything else. What you CAN do is stick butisol when you're pulling off a break, ensuring that the salve application will be slowed if the target is off of herb balance. There's no direct instantkill for Ranger other than the incendiary, but Ranger can definitely put out significant damage with a combination of artifacts and proper prep work. I'll have to leave the specifics to someone more versed in how the class works nowadays, though.

Katal

Cyr said:

Couple questions @Khizan or anyone else who knows ranger combat. 

1. Is limb breakage calculated off of damage for attacks like qjab?

 

Limb breaks are calculated off of weapon damage stat, ability used, and target max health.

2. Following up on that, Should I use Powersoul+hafted Glaive or am I better off with the higher damage without those?

The faster the better. QJab deals huge limb damage (4 to prep, 5th breaks on top end). Speed will also allow you to stack toxins.

3. Toxins, my first instinct with limb damage was to just use Metrazol/Ciguatoxin and tie up the limbs even more, but my second was to use any toxin that requires a salve cure to slow limb mending, any recommendations on that?

The top importance kelp affs have third person cure messages (butisol/hemotoxin), making them easy to track reliably, especially if the target swaps to kelp. So rather than use salve affs, stack kelp affs under ciguatoxin/metrazol and use butisol to tie up salves for you (butisol doubles salve balance, kelp cure)

4. Is there a ranger kill that doesn't require swapping my glaive for my bow and then shortshot incendiary at someone?

No. The only kill the class has available, outside of damage, is Incendiary. Quickdraw in Weaponry makes it easy to swap in aliases using separators ( CONFIG SEPARATOR | , for example), then you can QUEUE EQBAL QUICKDRAW BOW|SWITCH INCENDIARY|SSHOT for example, or you can be a scrub like me and unwield left|unwield right|wield bow and gag it all using deleteFull() in a trigger line, which deletes the line from your eyes. I literally unwield bow|wield glaive|wield kite before every Warding attack and unwield left|unwield right|wield bow before every Bowmanship attack and gag the "You are already wielding.." line.

Dicene

I was playing Ranger a good deal before the smithing change, and so my experience might not be entirely accurate with the new glaive damage and speed.

Most people say they prefer Qjab to prep limbs, but back when you could keep smithed glaives with varying stats, i had two glaives that could prep low hp and high hp people with a single Piercelimb. It made pulling off three quick breaks pretty doable, even when someone is parrying with intent or randomly. You can also manage an eq-based headbutt attack with piercedlimb, without slowing it down. Not a huge thing, but the occasional stun or stupidity or whatever was worth it. Based on my old macros, I'd then pinshot with a strychnine barbed arrow and battlecry for the stun. Then I'd shortshot incendiary and headbutt(although if you can leave the room reliably(no piety or engage on you), you can leave the room and quickshot to be more efficient). After that, you try to delay their standing. You can keep breaking limbs by spamming piercelimb with a super glaive(I had one that one-shot'ed low health people's limbs with). You can use strangle(although in my experience, it wasn't very long-lasting). You can possibly make use of bashimpale. You can footsmash. You might be able to regularly impale. You can add headbutt to most of those things. Honestly, it worked pretty well against most people I was in 1v1 situations with, although I don't think that would help up well against top-tier people.

In the end, my experience with Ranger was that it was best set up on macros and played by hand instead of being super automated. Set up macros for tipslash/butisol for every limb, qjab/butisol/(benzene or benzedrine) for arms, qjab/opium/opium for legs, piercelimb for every limb, pinshot/battlecry, sshot incendiary/headbutt, bashimpale/footsmash/impale/headbutt, and strangle. Find an afk test dummy. Play around until you find what kills that person and their parrying system(if they have one(a lot of people don't   =(  )). Find ways to speed it up.

Menoch

A couple of notes onto what was said above, limb armor also factors into limb damage. This is actually funny and useful (once) when you think about it. Butisol does not double salve balance, it adds 2 seconds. Mending goes 1 to 3, restoration goes 4 to 6.

Katal

Menoch said:

A couple of notes onto what was said above, limb armor also factors into limb damage. This is actually funny and useful (once) when you think about it. Butisol does not double salve balance, it adds 2 seconds. Mending goes 1 to 3, restoration goes 4 to 6.

Man, thank you for this. It all makes sense now.

@Septus u lie 2 me

Menoch

Limb armor might not matter anymore but I'm pretty sure it still does. I break my own legs same amount of hits with and without greaves on, and Iniar is the only other person here I know won't get upset if I hit him afk and he isn't wearing limb armor. >.>