Clan Foxrunner

At the turn of 2007 the brash leader finally decided he was fed up with often needing to take concentration and focus away from situations at hand in order to look at the keyboard for the performing of necessary functions. After having been given divine inspiration on the matter, it appeared to him a new way to arrange his fingers so that looking down would never be a hindrance again.

Explanation: While the right hand remains reserved strictly for the mouse, the left hand will rest with its fingers at the pictured positions, covering key buttons ongoingly. Take note, humble viewer, that the gray arrows indicate the alternate position for the respective finger to switch to at need.

Reasoning: With this configuration given only a few hours' total practice the first four skills, advisably set to be the most used in battle, can be used with a mere thought and the last four are not difficult to reach with the pointer finger given enough training of the muscle memory. (Although only the largest of hands can reach the 8th slot without slightly adjusting the entire hand for the deed.) Freeing up the mouse to look around, move, or select targets rather than clicking on skills is quite an advantage.

In addition, using the primary positions for the pinky and thumb will enable cyclic selection of nearby enemies to be a cinch whenever there is not the greatest of preference which is attacked first. (Tip: When the Tab button has caused the selection of a target outside the currently engaged enemies, the C button will reset the cycle to the nearest enemy thus again enabling the Tab button with its practical use.)

The best method for battle-ready movement in this manner is using the R button to auto-run and the right mouse button to effectively steer while at the same time panning to look in the direction of travel. Pressing the R button again will cause immediate halting for any who suddenly find their enemies teetering on the edge of the aggro circle.

With all of the confusion that can go on with builds, there are six major functions that a ranger can fulfill aside from dealing damage with arrow strikes, some exclusive to the classand some not. This section will be especially helpful for those just starting out in the primary ranger class and trying to pick a function that will keep their interest.

Conditioner: (NOT exclusive to the ranger class) Whether to cause poison, bleeding, immolation, blinding, dazing, or crippling, a ranger can use several different types of attacks to perform these varying conditions on the enemy. It is especially useful when a group of rangers divides up different conditioning tasks to the various members for maximum effect.

Trapper: (Exclusive to the ranger class) One of the most prestigious functions for the ranger to have in high level areas is to lay down traps which will trigger on the enemy only once they move over the area the traps are laid in.  With several traps stacked together in the same place, this can cause obliteratingly high damage with no additional aid.

Runner: (NOT exclusive to the ranger class) When a group is on the go and doesn't care to stop for enemies, the blocking/speed boost stances of a ranger can enable him to avoid upwards of 75% of incoming attacks and keep up between a 25% and 33% additional running speed constantly. Travelling is one thing that rangers by definition do best.

Beastmaster: (Exclusive to the ranger class.) Only rangers share such a close bond with the animals to call any friends and allies. The rangers who become true beastmasters focus great priority on training their animal companion to deal and absorb great amounts of damage and function much as an independent warrior would. Alternately, the beastmaster ranger can balance effort between himself and his companion so that they are both productive assets on the battlefield. In the end, two bodies are better than one in most situations and the animal companion rarely serves as a disadvantage for any who know how to handle it.

Interrupter: (NOT exclusive to the ranger class) Since no other class has as many interrupt skills as the ranger, it is entirely viable to be something the ranger is depended upon for. Capable of performing multiple interrupting bow attacks in any given skirmish with little or no delay between them, a skilled ranger can almost completely shut down a single opponent or stop critically damaging skills with a long casting time on several targets of the same attack pattern.

Puller: (Exclusive to the ranger class) While just about anyone can agro enemies and bring them along behind, nothing beats the risk free 'fire and forget' luring ability that any ranger with a far-reaching bow can fulfill even on the most instantly deadly enemy. Only the ranger has the most far-reaching attack ability in the game, extending the flight of arrows to their targets with a normal flatbow or longbow farther than any spell or attack with another weapon can hope to reach. Hands down, pulling is a task reserved for the ranger in any party.

Of course the many practical builds that may or may not fall into any of these categories are in some way designed to support the party or deal damage to enemies, and the number of combinations these can be done with are too numerous to mention. These prior six are only a breakdown of the most basic ranger functions.

* Note that this build is rather old and some skills may be out of date.

Concept by Abby Tesla. Design by Feraeond Foxrunner:

An absolutely hilarious must-see for any Guild Wars player!: (Webpage and full-size here.)

"The Crimson Permanent Assurance" No explanation necessary, not it's possible anyway. Just watch it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2498206364209961454

GuildWiki, the decisively most comprehensive Guild Wars guide overall - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page

Game Mechanics (A Must Read) - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content/game-mechanics-id674.php

Complete maps - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Maps

Specifications on various bow classes - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Bow#Bow_Classes

Ranged (and other) weapon attack speeds - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Attack_speed#Ranged_Weapons

Information on various distance ranges - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Range

What type of player are you? http://www.guildcafe.com/zTakeQuest.php?questid=1