Alganon Predation Ranger Guide

Alganon Predation Ranger Guide: DPS From Afar by Scion87

Hey everyone, the name is Evalynn, I am a Asharr ranger on Adrios server. Currently I am level 39 (few bars to 40) and have been playing a predation ranger since early/mid November. Here is a guide I am in the process of writing for other predation rangers in regards to ranged dps, both solo (while leveling) and in group settings. Enjoy :)

Table of Contents:
1) Combat Statistics and You
2) Ammo Types
3) Actions: aka Attacks and Spells
4) Talents: aka abilities
5) Theory crafting on damage of abilities, etc

1) Combat Statistics and You

There are five base statistics and 8 derived combat statistics (for dps) from those base stats. The five base statistics are strength (str), agility (agi), endurance (end), intellect (int), and soul. The derived stats are health (HP), focus, attack power (AP), spell power (SP), accuracy (hit), critical strike chance (crit%), critical strike damage (crit dmg), penetration (pen), and haste.

Here is a breakdown of the basic stats and what they do for a ranger:

Strength – Increases AP, for every 1 str you get 2 AP
Agility – Increases crit%, increases AP through Predator’s Pressence
Endurance – Increases HP, for ever 1 end you get 10 HP
Intellect – Increases focus, for every 1 int you get 15 focus, Increases critical chance
Soul – Increases HP and focus regeneration rate

And here are the derived combat stats:

HP – How much dmg you can take before you die
Focus – Each action costs focus, the more focus you have the more actions you can use before you are out
AP – Increases the dmg done by some actions (physical attacks)
SP – Increases the dmg done by some actions (spells)
Hit – Increases the chance to hit your target
Crit%- Increases your chance to get a critical hit
Crit dmg – Increases the damage done by your crits
Pen – Basically your attacks bypass some of the targets resistances
Haste – Increases the speed at which you attack and the time it takes to cast spells. May also effect the global cool down.

As I collect more data, I will add a section here about what stats are best for ranger dps. Initially it seems that for pure DPS, focusing on agility and strength, with a litlle bit of intellect as needed seems best.

2) Ammo types

There are different types of ammo; each type causes some of your attacks to do different types of damage. Ammo type does not effect your arrow shot (your auto ranged attack). It does affect heart toxin, power shot, and eventually torrent damage. Ammo damage is described by a prefix.

Prefixes and damage type:
Incendiary – Fire damage
Glacial – Cold damage
Chaotic – Electrical/Storm damage
Vengeful – Wrath damage
Elemental – Essence damage

3) Actions: aka Attacks and Spells

While there are a lot of ranger attacks and spells, I am only going to focus on the ones that are useful when in a dps role. The format will be the following:

Action Name
Initial level gained
Cast time/Recharge time/Focus cost
Description
Comments

Power Shot
Level 1
Instant/10 sec/22% base focus
Instantly strikes with ranged weapon dealing normal damage plus 0-116 extra dmg. Damage type based on the ranger’s ammo.
Comments: Power shot is 1 of 2 of the ranger’s core DPS abilities. It hits hard and provides some focus regen with talents when used. Extra damage based on skill rank.

Heart Toxin
Level 2
Instant/0 sec/22% base focus
Injects a toxin into the target’s bloodstream, dealing 20-215 points of damage over 15 seconds. The type of damage dealt is dependent on the ammo you have equipped. You may only have one toxin active on a target at one time
Comments: The other core ranger dps ability. This is a damage over time (DOT), and also through talents inflicts some good upfront damage as well. Base damage is dependent on skill rank.

Sweep
Level 7
Instant/60 sec/17% base focus
An unbalancing strike that stuns the target for 4 seconds. Melee attack
Comments: Although it is a melee attack, this is useful (even more when used with invigorate) to gain some distance from your target and continue with ranged damage. Currently this only appears to root the target in place, rather than actually stun them.

Predator’s Presence
Level 10
Instant/0 sec/0 base focus
Increases your attack power by your agility and causes basic attacks to restore focus. You may only have one presence active at one time.
Comments: This is a ranger self buff, and a very useful one at that. This should be active at all times while dpsing, as it not only gives a needed damage boost but also needed focus regain.

Prey’s Mark
Level 10
Instant/0 sec/ 17% base focus
Applies the Prey’s Mark to the target for 2 minutes. Reduces the resitances of the target by 139-517.
Comments: The range for this appears to be greater than your normal attacks. I have not tested this well yet, but in passive observation this does not seem to help much on most mobs. The amount of resistance this reduces depends on skill rank.

Leg Shot
Level 11
Instant/20 sec/19% of base focus
Impairs the target’s movement, reducing it by 95%. The effect fades by 10% each second. Effect type is determined by ammo.
Comments: Although this ability does not directly deal damage this is a core ability while soloing, and should be used on almost every pull.

Point Blank Shot
Level 13
Instant/30 sec/43% base focus
A quick, powerful blast that knocks the target backwards by 10 yards. Also deals half ranged weapon damage plus 0-60 damage. Effect type is determined by ammo.
Comments: Although it seems useful, it really isn’t. By the time the GCD is up, the mob is almost back in your face. Combine that with its high cost and the fact that currently it has a chance to bug the mob; it is just not worth it. Extra damage is based on skill rank.

Invigorate
Level 16
Instant/6 sec/27% base focus
Restores 40-100 HP over 15 seconds. Increases movement speed by 25%
Comments: This is a heal over time (HOT) and the healing done is poor, however the boon is the movement speed increase. This can help in both kiting and escaping. When used in right before sweep this allows you to gain a good distance between your target before sweep end. The amount healed is dependent on skill rank.

Bond of the Hunt-mates
Level 24
1.5 sec/0 sec/25% base focus
Increases the critical chance of the ranger and one ally by 3% for 30 min. If either player dies, the effect is cancelled. Only one bond may be active at one time.
Comments: This is another buff for rangers, but you need to be in a group to use. This is the best for dps, but depending on the group needs you might be called to use one of the other 2 bonds.

Torrent
Level 31 or higher (acquired via abilities)
Instant/8 sec/27% base focus
Unleashes a barrage of shots, dealing normal bow damage and five times your ammo damage. These shots will be split between the primary target and four additional targets around it reducing the bonus damage from ammo for each additional target struck.
Comments: Meant to be the ranger’s area of effect (AOE) attack, this attack currently has limited functionality. Sometimes this attack hits only your primary target, other times it will hit one additional target. Although with some skill this attack can be used to some success to increase single target dps, the single target damage is less than that of power shot and its focus cost is higher. Best to not even use this until fixed.

4) Talents: aka abilities

This section will cover the predation tree talents and talents in the other two trees that increase/help with ranged damage dealing. I will also include a suggested talent build to level with. Format will be as follows:

Name
Tier
Description
Comments

There are only three talents really worth getting outside the predation tree that help with ranged dps. These three talents are in the guardianship tree.

Improved dual wield
Tier 1
Improves the damage dealt while dual wielding by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5%.
Comments: I still need to test if this includes all damage or just dual wield white damage, but the name implies it is all damage. Even if it is just dual wield damage, it can still be useful for get to access the tier 2 talent that increases AP.

Aggression
Tier 2
Increases your attack power by 2, 4, 6, 8, 10%.
Comments: A very good talent to take to increase your damage. At around level 40, you will have between 60-70 attack power, with 900-1000 at level 50. In addition, this talent scales very well.

Quill Leg
Tier 3
Reduces the cool down of Leg Shot by 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 seconds.
Comments: At 5 points this cuts the cool down of leg shot in half. How many ranks of this and if you even take it at all depend on your play style, but I have yet to see the need to make it while I have played. 2-3 points would probably be ideal for soloing. In groups this should not be needed.

Now for the predation tree talents. This will be where the bulk of your points are spent.

Prowler’s Guise
Tier 1
Reduces threat generated while in predation and lifeblood presences by 5, 10, 15, 20, 25%.
Comments: As there is not much group content at this time, it is best to skip this for now.

Power Drawing
Tier 1
Reduces the focus cost of power shot by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5%.
Comments: Since power shot is one of only two damage dealing abilities we have, anything that improves it is a good talent. This reduces the base cost of power shot to about 20%.

Marked for Death
Tier 1
The resistance reduction of your Prey’s Mark is increased by 6, 12, 18, 24, 30%.
Comments: As I said in the comments for Prey’s Mark, it doesnt seem to make a difference in most cases. While soloing I would skip this, but when group content if more common, it would be useful to have 1 ranger with this talent.

Leg Maim
Tier 2
Your leg shot now causes 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 % of your normal ranged weapon damage when used.
Comments: Although leg shot is used almost every pull while soloing, there are other talents that provide a much better benefit than this. Skip it.

Reflex Training
Tier 2
Increases your agility by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5%.
Comments: Although the scaling is good on this talent, the overall benefit is very low. At level 40, I have a little over 200 agility; this talent would provide 10 agility extra, which is not much at all. Skip it.

Heart Stopper
Tier 2
Increases the damage dealt by your heart toxin by 5, 10, 15, 20, 25%.
Comments: This is a great talent, it makes heart toxin go from an ok dot to a great dot. Considering this and power shot are your only 2 real sources of ranged damage, this talent is a must have.

Straight to the Heart
Tier 3
Your heart toxin now does 5, 10, 15, 20, 25% of its total damage in the first tick as additional damage.
Comments: Another must have talent; this extra damage appears to be applied instantly. Combined with heart stopper, this increases your heart toxin damage to about 156% of normal damage.

Improved Power Shot
Tier 3
Improves the critical strike damage of power shot by 6, 12, 18, 24, 30%.
Comments: I have not tested this yet, but my initial feeling would be that the value of this talent depends on your crit chance. For leveling I would skip it. If at level 50 you have a crit chance where a lot of your power shots are crits, then this would be a good talent to take.

Blood Bond
Tier 3
Any time you crit with power shot you and your bonded ally gain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5% increased damage for 20 seconds.
Comments: Again the value depends on your crit chance. However, with little group content atm this is best to skip for now. Not a good talent for soloing/leveling.

Reload
Tier 3
Increases the damage of power shot by 8% and using power shot instantly restores 8% of your max focus instantly.
Comments: A must have talent, makes power shot hit hard and cost less focus. With enough intellect, this can actually cause power shot to cost no focus and actually give focus back.

Ammo Mastery
Tier 4
All of your attacks that use ammo gain a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50% increase in damage from that ammo.
Comments: Not a bad talent to take, as it scales as well. I have yet to test exactly how much this improves dps, but there should be plenty of room to include this for solo builds.

Master Predator
Tier 4
While predator presence is active, your power shot gives you a chance to increase ranged attack speed by 12% for 12 seconds. 5 ranks.
Comments: This talent appears to proc off any ranged attack not just power shot. Additional ranks appear to increase the chance of it to proc. For leveling this talent should be skipped imo, but at higher levels this can give a good dps increase. This is because it increases your arrow shot (which is your auto ranged attack) damage, and at low levels your arrow shot damage is not much.

Heart of the Predator
Tier 4
Increases the attack power bonus of predator’s presence by 4, 8, 12, 16, 20%.
Comments: A great talent as it has good scaling. This increases the benefit of predator’s presence to give 120% of your agi as ap, up from 100%. While leveling this talent seemed to increase my kill speed as much as ammo mastery.

Precision Point Blank Shot
Tier 5
Decreases the penalty for using point blank shot when at range by 20, 40, 60, 80, 100%.
Comments: point blank shot is a useless talent atm, so it is best to skip this talent.

Marking Flare
Tier 5
Prey’s Mark now decreases the dodge, parry, and block chance of the target by 1%.
Comments: For one point this would be great for one ranger in a raid to have, for soloing and leveling this talent is subpar.

High Power Shot
Tier 5
Increases the base damage of power shot by 8, 16, 24, 32, 30%.
Comments: Another must have talent. This combined with the other talents that improve power shot make it hit very hard.

Cover Fire:
Tier 6
Your cover shot removes an additional 10, 20% threat.
Comments: Skip this, not much group content at this time. Testing will need to be done in regards the threat generation of tanks compared to rangers dpsing to evaluate further.

Snipers Draw
Tier 6
Increases your ranged attack range by 1, 2, 3 yards.
Comments: This talent lacking. For solo content it would be ok, but compared to all the other talents its not worth it. Skip it.

Critical Aim
Tier 6
Increases your critical strike chance by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5% and increases your critical damage bonus of all attacks by 2, 4, 6, 8, 10%.
Comments: Another must have talent, has great synergy with many other talents and actions.

Torrent:
Tier 7
See description above in section 3 for details.
Comments: See above as well, I have taken it as it is only 1 point, and is useful to me at times. I would recommend trying it out and seeing if it works in your playstyle, if not drop it.

Suggested Leveling Build:

1-5: Power Drawing
6-10: Heart Stopper
11: Reload
12-15: Straight to the Heart (only 4 points)
16-20: Ammo Mastery OR Heart of the Predator
21-25: High Power Shot
26-30: Critical Aim
31: Torrent or 5th point in Straight to the Heart
32-36: Improved Dual Wield
37-41: Aggression