Ryden Lotus

Mad King is bugged whenever i try to enter with a party, so is there anything else to do in Act III besides the boss instance?

I'd really like to see some of the special Halloween event goodies going on. I myself probably wont get a lot until the weekend due to real life, and I'm sure some of us are in the same boat as myself

Hey guys! Has anybody found any special rifles in the Mystic Forge besides the Mystic Rifle? I'd really like to know, because most of the rifles are crap, especially for an engineer. I'm currently using the guild rifle, but that's easy to obtain. Thanks!

With the cost of commander being increased to a million copper, is commander really worth it? The only real advantage of it that i've heard is that you appear on the map. You don't get the 1 way chat any more so what's the whole point? For those of you that originally wanted to be commander still going to be even with that huge cost? Discuss.

For the record, I'm excluding racial elites from this post and focusing on the extreme situational effectiveness of Ranger elite skills compared to other professions elite abilities (later, if I have time).

Rampage as One:

Rampage as One increases your movement ability, gives you and your pet a 20% chance to crit, and makes you immune to most character control effects. In addition, every time your pet attacks it gives you one stack of might, which increases damage to a small degree, and vice versa. Looking closer, rampage as one allows you to move faster, allowing you to close in on fleeing or new targets. This is most useful with Melee, as switching targets with a ranged weapon meens you may be able to already hit your new target. A 20% crit chance would meen more additional damage, but only with 1 in 5 hits. CC immunity is nice, but stability doesn't protect from cripple which will render your increased movement speed useless. Extra damage from might is extra damage. Overall, this skill is useful in many if not all combat situations. Extra damage meens more bodies. Alternatively, you could use this skill to move yourself from many AoE areas quickly if your endurance is low or save yourself if you're recieving some form of knock lock. This is a tier one ability and is for damage.

Entangle:

Entangle is a multi target imobilizer. For 20 seconds, or until vines are destroyed, the target cannot move. Because this skill is multi target, it's best use probably would be preparing for AOE skills. I could see this skill being useful in PVE, but only for over agro. I've yet to run into a fleeing mob. Stopping movement from multiple enemies means you have more time to escape. This skill is less useful however against single, properly engaged mobs. Snaring will lower damage from melee enemies, but if one gets too close you can still use Rampage as One which has an almost guaranteed longer duration, allows you to kite as a ranger better and has additional damage. In PvP, the main situation i could see is at a gate in World vs World. Dropping this skill on a zerg will freeze them to the gate if they're attacking, allowing for AOEs and oil to kill many of them if you're fast enough. Still, Rampage as one is a more general multi purpose skill for PvP as you can use it in almost all combat situations. Rangers have other single target snares and Rampage as One gives increased movement speed so fleeing opponents shouldn't be a problem anyways.

Spirit of Nature:

Spirit of Nature allows you to summon a spirit (that can be killed and ended abruptly like entangle) that can be used to remove conditions from allies and revive or rally them. It also applies a heal in the area. This elite has the potential to have little effect, as the spirit can be killed before it can remove conditions. Additionally, when trained, dodge rolls remove conditions as well from you and your allies. This skills is the only ranger skill that can remotely resurrect multiple allies (Search and rescue allows your pet to revive one ally, but your pet cannot do anything durring the healing.) This makes the skill powerful in certain situations. Occasionally, nature spirits will automatically activate their abilities (when traited this can be guarented on the death of the spirit). When you die, so does the spirit. That meens that this skill can be used as a second wind, which could prove to be extremely useful. This would also be extremely useful durring world versus world when two zergs hit eachother. Rallying an entire zerg against another already weekend one can be deadly. However, in regular PVE combat this skill is rather useless. If you're regularily being down from one, two or even three regular PvE mobs you're not playing the ranger optimally. You really don't need a second wind skill. Without being traited, this second wind would also be practicly impossible to accomplish. The main perk of this skill is definitively the healing. However, with out being traited you cannot be particularly mobile with it and it can die rather quickly. Other elites from other professions can't be ended nearly as quickly, or at all meaning they could prove easily more useful. An elementalist's tornado could end this elite skill, deal enough damage to counteract it's effects and then some, knock you out of the capture point and the allow it to be captured. This skill is good, but still under-powered compared to other professions' elites unless used in specific situations. This is a tier two skill and is for support.

(TL:DR) General analysis:

Ranger elite skills seem quite situationally specific. Rampage as One is an okay skill. The movement speed seems moot for a ranged Ranger and the damage from might probably won't exceed 2500 between both you and your pet. It is the most versatile skill though out of the three. Entangle just seems bad and unless traited with a tier two trait it is only useful in large group PvP situations. The spirit is only particularly good in large group PvP when untraited, catering to certain builds.

Do any of you other rangers utilize the elites in any other ways I've mentioned? From what I see, only Rampage as One is good for general use and even that is kinda meh...