Ran/Mes or Mes/Ran

[Brego]

Hiya :)
After countless hours playing all the class combos ive realy taken to my Ranger/Mes combo, but ive found i spend most of it shooting my bow and watching my pet chase people and spamming mes spells when i get the energy, which is kind of a issue.
So i was thinking, would i get more energy from a mes/ranger build?
Wat are the advantages/disadvantages of the 2 builds? i doubt i will ever put points in Expertise (i think thats wat its called, the ranger primary stat) where as faster casting, always good.
But armour is going to be a issue, i will be squishy.
Could someone give me a nice easy break down of the advantages/disadvantages for me so i can choose which i feel would suite me? thank you.

[Taxus Baccata]

This is just a personal opinion, I would go with the Mesmer Primary.

You won't be anymore squishy than any of the other casters. I agree that Fast Casting is more useful than Expertise.

What you have to decide is which suits your style of play. Ranger has better armour, but less energy. Probably more of a solo/loner class. Only class to have a pet, good ranged attacks.

Mesmer is more of a team player, excellent at frustrating opponents, shutting down casters. Lacks some of the heavy damage spells, probably requires a bit more thought than a Ranger.

[Tsume]

A Ranger can aslo shut down casters Taxus. Concussion shot, Debilitating Shot, Distracting Shot, Hunters Shot, Pin Down. All of these are great bow attacks to use against casters. Not to mention its subversive damages with Burning and Poison enducing skills, not to mention Choking Gas which is caster exclusive.

It is no secret that the Ranger/Mesmer or Mesmer/Ranger combination is thought as generally as an anti caster character.

Also, Expertise is a very good attribute branch. If you are planning on having multiple bow attacks, you should not do without it or energy will be a problem. If the skills you are useing do not require to be cast fast, and you find yourself often running out of energy, the Ranger profession might be the better choice.

Thats probably a big reason why you are having energy problems, becuase you dont like Expertise for some reason. In addition to reducing the cost of attack, preperation, and trap skills, it also provides you access to some damage and defensie capabilities. The Expertise Stances should not be snuffed at.

Anyhow....if you are dead set against Expertise, then you need to Go mainly caster with perhaps one or two bow skills, and you need to carry two sets of weapons, one set for + energy, and one bow.

Hope that helps you a little.

[Brego]

Ta for the replys :)
im still leaning of Mes/ranger due to having bigger energy pool and amour that adds to it. But as for Expertise, i dont think i will be useing traps/preperation that much, i think my play style will be more bow auto attack with a pet chaseing them while i spam spells now and again, with the bow styles to be used when i need damage there and then(somthing the mes lacks from my experiance) and any other bow attacks i think are cool.
Overall though its the mes skills i want to concentrate on... i think :P
i useualy play the archer class in all rpgs/mmorpgs, and its hard for me not to pick ran/mes for this reason... man this is a hard choise....
Would a ranger/mes build be ok powerwise if i used alot of the power draining ability to keep my power topped up? is it a option? I might look into Expertise a bit more. Also there any Ranger amour that adds to Energy re-gain or the overall pool? cant say ive seen any (then again im still a noob at this)

Thanks for the replys.

[Tsume]

I believe Druids Armor adds an extra 5 energy to the Rangers pool, but you cant get extra regen except from spells.

I have played both Ranger/Mesmer and Mesmer/Ranger, and if you use Concussion shot, you should probably go Ranger/Mesmer, becuase energy becomes a big problem without expertise on it. I have played Mesmer/Ranger well with Concussion Shot, but it is hard to manage efficiently.

if your wanting to be mainly spells, go Mesmer primary, and keep a bow on switch.

[Brego]

Thanks Tsume for all the help :)
I never looked over Concussion Shot before, and WOW nice spell, 25 energy though, eek. So does expertise lower the pow cost of EVERY spell/ability of a ranger? way i read it, it just effected Traps and the stances.
So does it basicly come down to bigger power pool with expensive spells Vs Lower pow pool but ability to make the spells cost less?
Also why do you say to switch to bow? wont i be as effective with a bow in my hands and leave it there, with points in marks wont i be doing more dam per shot than any staff?

[Tsume]

Thanks Tsume for all the help :)
I never looked over Concussion Shot before, and WOW nice spell, 25 energy though, eek. So does expertise lower the pow cost of EVERY spell/ability of a ranger? way i read it, it just effected Traps and the stances.
So does it basicly come down to bigger power pool with expensive spells Vs Lower pow pool but ability to make the spells cost less?
Also why do you say to switch to bow? wont i be as effective with a bow in my hands and leave it there, with points in marks wont i be doing more dam per shot than any staff?

Yes it lowers the cost of bow attacks, preperations, and trap skills of the ranger. There is a data table on the main site that shows how much it reduces spells by:

http://www.gwonline.net/page.php?p=130]Expertise Chart

As you can see by the chart, each point in Expertise will reduce the cost of Concussion Shot by 1, but that is not true for all skills. The chart is aligned with original energy cost, and what it becomes per rank of Expertise. I hope that helps you understand how useful just say 8 ranks can be. I usually use stances from the Expertise tree and raise it anyway. I would reccomend trying one of the stances, and seeing how well you like it. You may end up falling in love with Expertise, and getting spoiled by it ^_-. Or you may hate it, lol, either way I hope this answers your questions.

Keep in mind Expertise does not reduce the cost of spells, but merely the Ranger abilities such as traps, preperations, and attacks. So it depends more or less on whether you use more bow or spell skills

The reason I say to keep a bow on switch, is to keep caster items on the other switch. So that you could have an easier time being a caster part of the time and a Ranger the rest of the time. If you chose to go Ranger Primary you probably wont have to keep one on switch, though sometimes i do anyway.

[Brego]

Thanks again Tsume, ive gone with my Ran/Mes (he was the higher lvl of the 2 anyway, part of it was lazyness) i had a blast in the pvp zones with him last night, one point i put all the points in my beast and used the pounce, hehe no one expected that, cought more than one caster who thought they could ignore him off gaurd ;)
I just got energy drain for my Mes side, and it has helped my energy problems 10 times over. I put some points in Expertise and checked my power shot and it listed the energy useage as being 10 still (i had 4 point in expertise i think) is the display bugged or am i jsut remember wrong? well either way Brego Leah is born and here to stay.
Thanks :)

[Tsume]

Hmm I hope your remembering it wrong, if not it must be bugged. That 10 energy Power Shot should be at 8 energy at rank 4 expertise. Most of your other Ranger skills should be effected as well.

[jesh]

Hmm.. I just wanted to point out, I have 9 ranks in Expertise on my Ranger/Mesmer, and it doesn't show a lowered energy cost. It does work, just the skills don't display that it's taking effect. So don't get rid of your expertise because of the little bug.

[Brego]

Thanks Jesh, its not as useless as i thought then. Well thanks all for the help.

[Jericho Dog]

For my Mes/Ran, where do I get Power Shot?

thanks

:confused: