Focus Aim and CAs - Page 2

Shamada · 12-24-2008, 01:12 PM

First I dont think melee CAs are effected by the skill reducer. I personally get a lot more resists on Spy than I get on Longblade. Coverage is instant, so if you do it like i posted above in a combination with rear you get your CAs in in time unless its sniper... and in this case i think the delay AND coverage bonus is worth the guaranteed crit... imo thats the only realy decend way to use it.

Second whats the point in givin priorities to non-stealth attacks during FA... u got 8 (!)... You get them all (-roped) in during FA: after 15sek none of them should be left up to prioritize except roped and thats not worth it.

Third whats the point in using your stealth attacks along with the temp buffs? If all 3 of em would be up (theoreticly) I would use one of them as a finish of FA and Id launch the other two before I hit my temp buffs. Not that this should happen to a routined ranger but the chance of delaying an AA by accident is still highest when ur dealing with stealth attacks. I see no point why you should risk that because of something that only enhance your AAs and nothing else. A delay at that point would cost even more dps than without temp... I see no gain in your way but some potential extra bang in mine.

Edit: typo, im not english :P

Azleya · 12-24-2008, 03:43 PM

Melee CA's are affected by the skill reduction.

Stealth bow shots are time-consuming to cast and are thus, in general, a less efficient use of the time you have during focus aim. Snare shot is worth casting during focus aim. Furthermore, there is benefit in ending focus aim a couple seconds early, as this allows one to start its recast sooner. Having said that, one could end focus aim in the following manner to both get its recast started as soon as possible and get stealth shot in on it: something like snare shot->auto attack->surveil->stealth shot, end focus aim as soon as stealth shot starts casting.

Dps mod and haste buffs have no bearing on any CA's, other than that more haste gives you a little less time in between auto attacks to cast CA's assuming you weren't already capped on haste. I'm not sure why he'd make a point of having those 2 temps up for stealth shots.

speedycerv · 12-24-2008, 04:47 PM

Well I just cast all 3 at the same time, assumign they are all up, because it makes the most of all 3 of them at the same time. Not nessisarily a requirement to cast a stealth attack, but if focus aim is down, (before I wasn't sure if FA keeps its effects on a ca crit wise as long as cast before FA expires), The extra crit(from the cloak) dps mod/haste mod (from temp buffs) will make the most of the stealth attack and also of the crit auto attack that will follow. Since the crit buff is only up for 30 seconds, while dps mod buff is up for longer. In other words I wouldn't wait until haste or dps mod temp buffs are up before I cast a stealth ca. But if the cloak is available, I will cast all 3 in succession.

That way it makes the most of the crit auto attacks that come after the stealth attack, and for all the other rest of the combat arts after the stealth attack is cast will be crits.

The reason I do this moreso for stealth arts is because they are higher damage arts, and a crit is very important.

Shamada · 12-24-2008, 08:23 PM

Mhm. Ill just take ur word on the skill reduction. Either way I havent noticed that it has any impact on my chance to hit. Prolly depends on the mob mainly.

I wouldnt say that u should cast stealth attacks "during" FA since I think thats exactly what u wanna prevent by waiting for the very last moment. Nor do i think that roped is fundamentaly worthless.. id just give it less priority than any other ranged CA.

Im not sure that I get what u mean with canceling FA early. My gear is average with no real endgame items (except myth) and therefor my crit rate should be a lot lower than yours. Thus I want to have it up as much as possible: the way i described it above I can get the most out of it. I agree thou if ur refering to the last second or so where stealth or whatever is already casting and u safe some miliseconds by canceling it manualy.
Any other scenario that I could think of where canceling makes sense would be strongly situational and couldnt be applied as a general rule to max dps.

Ive been retired during most of RoK so I havent had the time to do the math behind most of the new stuff, Id like to have some elaboration on how to efficiently cancel FA thou.

speedycerv · 12-24-2008, 09:55 PM

If you cancel it when you have no ranged combat arts to use, it is better to restart the timer because its not useful to have it up while just sitting there auto attacking till its gone.

Shamada · 12-25-2008, 11:21 AM

So ur saying u cancel extra haste, extra dps and 45% crit for CAs because the bonus on the AAs isnt worth it?

Seriousely... pls explain why. This simply doesnt make sense to me. When U run out of CAs just put in some debuffs, the hawk, anything... just dont miss out on the AAs since enhancing them is what FA is about imo. This is where our dps comes from: auto attack.

Jaiden · 12-25-2008, 01:55 PM

i only use stealth attacks as fillers in between auto attacks in combination with longblade. so i'll have an auto attack go off, hit longblade, go into stealth, and knock out either fittest or stealth fire, then auto attack again. longblade being a 10sec recast, i do a couple other filler ca's, then back to longblade/stealth attack combo again.

speedycerv · 01-02-2009, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shamada

So ur saying u cancel extra haste, extra dps and 45% crit for CAs because the bonus on the AAs isnt worth it?

Seriousely... pls explain why. This simply doesnt make sense to me. When U run out of CAs just put in some debuffs, the hawk, anything... just dont miss out on the AAs since enhancing them is what FA is about imo. This is where our dps comes from: auto attack.

Because the FA is being wasted. The longer it is up the longer it will take for it to come back up again. The best use of FA is to have it up while ranged cas are still up. It's not being used to it's highest potiental. And also if u arn't saving your ranged cas till when FA is up then u might not ever have any up at that time during FA. But it can be benefitial to wait till it's up to use them.

Azleya · 01-04-2009, 04:16 PM

Sitting there with your thumb up your ass auto attacking while focus aim ticks off its last few seconds is a waste, especially if you already have high haste and dps mod without it. Instead, cancel it when you're out of bow shots to cast in favor of going in and using melee CA's and starting focus aim's recast sooner instead of just standing there like an idiot.

Shamada · 01-04-2009, 06:43 PM

If you have extraordinary good gear, decend raidbuffs and full mastered CAs it MIGHT outweight the benefits from FA in some situations.

Other than that: if you play with enough foresight that u know whats gona happen in a min u can aswell predict whats gona happen in the next 15sek before you hit FA. Because the argument that u win anything by starting the recast sooner is simply wrong. U dont win anything... if u cancel it 2 seks earlier those 2 seks are lost.. forever.

Im to lazy to go into the math of this issue. However.. considering that our melee CAs are not affected by haste/dps and that your melee crit is also alot lower than ranged i doubt that u win anything just from casting it a few sek earlier... because the question is not "melee CAs VS. AA" in this scenario, its if a delay of a few seks makes the difference ur talking about: u give up one enhanced AA for the advantage of casting 2 melee CAs a few seconds earlier.
Even if this does work in some situations this couldnt be stated as a general rule on how to use your CAs during FA. The average ranger in average situations with average gear gets more if he makes full use of the benefit from FA, and thats not by canceling it half way through for some toe to toe action..Especially since said ranger is most likely sitting on a lot lower dps/haste/crit stats than you.
But then its always about management. If ur afraid of not having anything to press in the last sek of focus then dont let it come that far (and u dont only have ranged and melee CAs either).