Beast Burst

Party Offense AoE and Autoattack - Beast Burst

1. Explanation: This build takes advantage of several unique Ranger mechanics and items to provide spammable AoE blasts and quick hard-hitting autoattacks to cut down enemies both in groups and in singles. The AoE core of this build is Intensity + Star Burst, which provides a double hit of large, wide-ranging fire damage plus burning. Thanks to Expertise's energy discount on Touch skills and Star Burst's energy gain on use, this combo is cheap or even an energy gainer if enough foes get hit. To assist in spamming these skills, we reduce their cooldowns with Serpent's Quickness, and Dwarven Stability serves to make Serpent's Quickness maintainable at only 8 Wilderness Survival. To maximize our efficiency when not spamming Star Burst, we buff our Auto-attacks with Conjure Flame and bring a Racing Beetle pet to help us auto-attack targets. The final two slots should include an IAS for you and/or your pet, and an additional auto-attack buff. If you are not using consumable items, Never Rampage Alone does double duty as an IAS for both you and your pet. If you are using consumables for an IAS for yourself, you should choose either Feral Agression or Call of Haste for your pet. Feral Agression provides a little more damage bonus but is more energy intensive, whereas Call of Haste is easier on energy and provides a useful IMS for your pet as well to help the slow Beetle catch and stick to targets. The final slot can be Great Dwarf Weapon to further buff your pet and provide knockdown, "I Am the Strongest!" to buff your own auto-attacks and reduce time spent casting buffs, or Ebon Battle Standard of Honor to buff your whole party.
2. Gear:
   • This build requires a very specific weapon set to work. You need the Ranger anniversary sword "Prominence" to give us a weapon we can hit max damage with without spreading our attributes further. Modify that sword with a Fiery grip to fuel Conjure Flame and a pommel of the Necromancer to buff our energy gain. The inscription should be "Strength and Honor" or "Guided by Fate". For our offhand, we want The Kindlerock, a green weapon and the only weapon in the game that can give us the combination of a +1 Fire Magic/20%, 20% Halves Skill Recharge for Fire Magic. We don't need Halves Cast Time for Fire Magic as we're only using a quick touch spell, but the HSR is great for enabling Star Burst spam and the chance of hitting a little bit harder is optimal for the effects we could otherwise get.
   • Runes/Insignia as above.
   Usage: Cast Dwarven Battle Stance before Serpent's Quickness, then use Conjure Flame. In fights, position yourself in the middle of foes and use Intensity and Star Burst on cooldown. Autoattack foes in the meantime, upkeeping your two buff skills (IAS and Damage bonus as discussed above) as appropriate. Keep Serpent's Quickness, Conjure Flame, and your buff skills active during fights.
   
   Attribute breakpoints:
   8 Wilderness Survival - to maintain Serpent’s Quickness
   9 Expertise - To hit sword req. I frequently aim for 10 Expertise to prevent any Weakness from dropping me below sword req, and to hit 40% cost reduction when using the more expensive ranger skill variants.
   
   The Cons+Pcons variant assumes at least Golden Egg + Candy Corn for pcons. If not using one or the other of those, ensure that you hit the breakpoints.