Xryce_AB

I have seen a bunch of posts recommending spamming of CAs during Focus Aim. I am a little perplexed by this tactic. Focus Aim improves range critical and ranged which affects CAs. However, it also improves DPS and attack speed, which does not affect CAs. I would think you would want to continue with AAs while FA was up. As a matter of fact you should be getting off more AAs with the attack speed boost. (Assuming you are not already at the haste cap blah blah blah.)

Anyway has anyone else thought about this? I understand wanting to get off CAs to take advantage of the better "to hit" chance, but never has sacrificing AAs for a CAs been recommended.

speedycerv

Never sacrifice an aa.

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Shamada

The first thing that goes off after u hit focus should be an AA. That way you get 3 more in (up to a total of 4) during the 15sek that focus is up while still having enough time to hit spy/longblade/cover followed up by stealth/sniper/selection.

As the above poster said: u do not sacrifice any AA for a CA... ever. But u "spam" CAs during focus in a sense that u wanna try and use as many ranged CAs in that time as possible since they get some extra bang fom the extra crit aswell. Each melee CA or debuff etc. is a potential ranged crit wasted. Obviousely, depending on your gear, this makes focus pretty much a must for big hitters like shower or sniper.

So yeah: u do not want to miss any AAs as u said, but this doesnt prevent the smart ranger from spamming the good stuff.

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Jaiden

what i do with with my focus aim:

Fast cast CA + long cast CA then auto attack for example, i hit focus aim, then i hit auto attack, then i hit vulnerable arrow then blame arrow, auto attack, then i hit triple and rear shot, auto attack, then searing roped and amazing, followed by auto attack. If Storm of arrows is up, i'll sometimes throw that in in place of amazing.

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Jonnieonthespot

Sniper is a waste of focus time imo.

Safana

True but only if you use it improperly - start sniper while FA is going to expire and you gain the crit bonus even if its gone when sniper goes actually off.

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Pwnstrrr

This I did not know, glad I found out.

As far as FA goes I tend to play out casting it instead of a CA so for example I'd go

- AA - Long cast CA - (Quick Cast CA) - FA - AA - insert whatever the fuck is possible and not retarded

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Shamada

For max effect it does matter what u spam imo. At least at the start of a fight when most/all of ur ranged CAs are up. The perfect cycle imo looks something like this:

After the first AA I use Devit for the debuff and blame for hate. 2nd and 3rd come with pure dps, no matter what order: triple, shower, amazing, searing (or snaring if one of the others isnt up). After 4th one u use rear, move backwards during casttime to get the distance for coverage followed up by a stealth attack. If its selection u use at that point u can even move in again during casttime again to go back into PBS range.

So this is pretty much what matters imo: use devit and blame at the start and rear at the end for coverage (if lag allows... im havin difficulties sometimes with this maneuver when my computer or my connection are very busy). The ability to move during selection along with its no range restriction make it easier here to move close during casttime to not miss out on the dmg bonus (from the myth).

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Xryce_AB

Cool replies. Personally I had been letting CAs lag inorder to get off the extra AAs when FA was up. Like I said I was surprised to see "spam CAs" as a tactic for FA. My ranger has been my main for a while, but I just got ACT, so I am a noob when it comes to optimizing DPS. Thanks for the tactics for using FA effectively.

On another note, I had always been against using ACT. I just didn't want to be bothered with timing AAs to that extreme. Not saying I was doing just fine without ACT, just saying I didn't want a game to be so much work. Anyway, and this goes without saying, ACT has greatly improved my timing and attack sequence. What I thought was going to be stressful and a lot of work has actually made playing a ranger even more fun.

Again this is all coming from a level 80 noob when it comes to DPS.

speedycerv

Sure you can use sniper arrow while the end of FA is expireing but you have to put yourself in stealth also, which takes up time. So you should only do that if you have no other ranged cas that dont require stealth. Personally I just use sniper when my temp haste and dps mod buffs are up (and 25% crit boost from byzola cloak). And it seems to work fine, though it probably would hit for more curing focus aim, I don't like to risk longblade missing (because melee skills are down when FA is up)

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