SF Farm Stance Tank Build

I'm not sure WHY there aren't any Stance Tank builds around for Rangers, but here is one that I use for Oro/FA farming.

Class:
Ranger / Monk - (Replaces Stance Warrior.)

Armor:
Druids Armor (For 32 Energy)

Weapon:
Low Req. Long Bow.

Skills:
Five Man:
Apply Poison, Distracting Shot, Escape (Elite), Whirling Defense, Lightning Reflexes, Mend Ailment, Healing Breeze, Rebirth
Four Man:
Apply Poison, Distracting Shot, Escape (Elite), Whirling Defense, Lightning Reflexes, Watcher's or Mending, Healing Breeze, Mend Ailment

(Why the lack of Rebirth? - The only problem with these Farms is usually getting to SF. Once in SF, Mend Ailment is more important to help out the 1 healer healing me. And since I'm holding the Keg or Gear, if anyone dies, it's going to be me, so Rebirth serves no purpose at that point. Really, it COULD be removed from the Five man build as well, but I take it just in case someone gets smashed by the pistons in Oro)

Attributes:
Healing Prayers: 9, Expertise: 16, Wilderness: X, Marksmanship: X.

For Marksmanship: Set this to whatever your Longbow requirment is. (Mine is 4), and the rest of your points put into Wilderness.

Comments:
Avoid using Whirling Defense whereever possible until you are into SF. The damage dealt by Whirling Defense can create a scatter effect, which you want to avoid at all costs until you have Keg/Gear in hand. You can time the other three, so that you always have something helping to protect yourself. Whirling Defense is great for added damage once you are carrying a keg/gear however. I still only use it near healer types or in cases of emergency.

Advantages:
Rangers are far more Energy efficient than Warriors. Just using the stances (which you can time and use endlessly), you never need to worry about energy issues. This means that you can back up heal with healing breeze. I heal Sacrificing necros all the time, so that the monk can concentrate on me, for example. The three stances all time perfectly, so that you can always have one running. Throw Dirt is just an added bonus in case you mess something up, and it's also very helpful for when you are trying to get into SF for creatures that aren't aggro to you, you can blind them to help out your team.
Apply Poison is great for taking out healers, and is a good damage bonus for when you are going into SF. Obviously you don't use this skill once you are inside, but for those of us who have done a lot of farms, you know getting there is 3/4 of the battle. Well, this makes it a lot easier. Makes healers waste a lot of energy just mending ailments. Distracting Shot, use it to take out Mark of Protection when going into SF.
This build, just seems FAR more affective than a Warrior Stance Tank. And everyone that has grouped with me while I'm using this build agrees. Rangers just make better Farming Stance Tanks than Warriors.
Because of the ranged attack, when you are going to SF, if something breaks away from the Ranger aggro, a ranger can attack it without chasing. No chasing, means that nothing else breaks aggro. A warrior chasing down something wrecks havoc.
This is a GREAT four man build, because the Ranger can take care of casting all the Healing Breeze.

Disadvantages:
Warriors have better Armor. Which really doesn't amount to much when you have a Bonder.

I enjoy this build.

Although I my problem is, I have tried the posion appouch before, but with not as many stance as you, you have three stances including the escape skill.

With the posion appouch, very oftern, the time of posion can not competit with the healing power some of the mods have, thats the problem I found.

Apply Poison I bring for Extra damage to get into SF. And for the 'healers' like Wroth for Example, it makes them use Mend Ailment over and over rather than an actual heal spell which reduces their healing severely and wastes their energy.

I've never NOT been able to kill Wroth with a group (Even if all the minions die) and HAVE killed wroth with no minions and no shivers, just because of poison. Eventually Wroth runs out of energy and can't heal himself anymore.

So - It's not so much 'damage' but just an annoyance that makes them waste spells on something other than healing. And because Apply poison just keeps reapplying with every hit, makes it more efficient in this case than Poison Arrow. And besides, I use Escape as my Elite, no room for Poison Arrow.

I like to try that again. I think to take part in a four men team for example, the posion method is highly dependent on the other three men, where they could hold of and endure the time untill their healer running out of eng.

I have been sticking with the posion build for a long time, I find that to team up with a party of strangers, the selling point of posion are not usually that attractive to a small farming group, as there are other classes out there can do the same thing, but with greater damage they can clearly see.

I'd try it, saddly been too hasty, the first time i was finally accept i didn't time my stance well so remain out of stance for too long and die.
I went in Elona to try and use the stance better, i saw tat you're in stance 59 second every minute, so 1seconde without stance^^ (but who care).

As known, 25% of time you're hit so increase defence may help.
Also i change M to Ele for Armor of Earth.
I would also try to use kinetic Armor with Stone daggers to keep kinetic up but stone may be interrupt way too often. (i'd try in elona with troll too and there is no energy matter).
I was trying to join a 4/5 men team to test if i could keep kinetic up but.. after 1 hour being say that W are the best i'd stop wasting time.

i really like the idea of this build, but...it seems to be missing something. You speak of throw dirt in the description, but its not actually one of the skills listed in the build. Also, the 3 stances listed cannot be kept up constantly due to recharge, especially if Whirling Defense is not used (as you recommend outside of the furnace).

Is there a way to actually make this work?

There's a couple problems you might find with that build. When monks bond you for energy (i.e. healer using essence bond on ya and bonder using LB with balth aura on self), they will get very little energy if you are not taking dmg. If you are going to run this build however and will have 16 att in expertise, why not go R/N and use some ranger touch skills. Vamp touch would work well for self heal and dmg. Oh yea, you will likely want to drop healing breeze because you don't want to replace the monk's healing breeze with yours since they will have more att in heal. Same applies for mending if you encounter a healing monk that uses it.

So what are the monks bonding the Warriors who stance tank for if they are evading too?

Quote: Originally Posted by Scary Raebbit

good point about essence bond, but could it be argued that by evading so many attacks the healer and bonder wouldnt need so much energy, and that it might even be possible to have one monk take care of both healing and bonding?

@XvArchonvX
He said that Healing Breeze was there to heal the sacraficing necro (The mm spamming VS and BotM) So his lower healing is more than enough for the necro.


I have 1 question though, The stances give you 75% chance to evade, during the other 25% you get hit, how well the does the armor stand up agaisn't the enemy? Also, would it make sence to take Winter so that all dmg is elemental and you get the added armor against that?

Quote: Originally Posted by S!carius

While I haven't tried this build out, I do think that the mm would be close enough for HB to be useful. He has to be close to the corpses in the first place in order to raise minions, plus, if he is using a skill such as BotM or Heal area, he has to get close to the fiends to use it. If all else fails, you could just ask him to stand closer to you so that you can keep him alive.

I misread the description (is that spelled correctly? I kinda suck at spelling so sry if it is wrong) of winter, my mistake.

Seems good. 1 problem. Who the hell is going to accept a ranger when u see so many warriors spamming W LFG! 1 Q: What is the 4-man build consist of (what is dropped?)? I personally think this is way better than warriors *stance tank* (which in fact u dont use as many stances as shouts). But the stance rangers worst enemy, the ppl who think "anything done by a ranger can be done better by warriors" or the "rangers suck" pplz. But i think the hardest part will be finding a 5 man that will accept ranger instead of tank. imo it doesnt look like the second profession matters seeing as though mend ailment wont be needed if ur not hit meaning monk CAN HB the MM. I agree with the r/n to cast touch spells that steal hp. Basically any second profession that u can cast spells so u are not completely useless attack wise. so with ranger/ele u can use fire spells to help the team. R/N u can deal damage ignoring armor to steal health which means u need less healing needed. r/mo u can smite them. r/mes maybe health degen and stealing there energy to ur advantage. (energy tap. etc.). IN OTHER WORDS: Because of the great energy ranger has, combined with expertise u are the ultimate defense tank with attacking power to help out ur team.
MOVE OVER WARRIOR HERE COMES RANGER

Just an idea...what about having a pet in this stance ranger build. Would it help? I think so because the pet may take damage (maybe not if ur holding gear) also it would be the tank when outside SF so u can use bow attacks without leaving party vulnerable. Also doesn't ur pet attack if u are being attacked...meaning it would be a minion itself (sorta...meh). Ur pet will also attack if u cast a spell on target foe.