Ranged Warrior

[Kronik85]

I come to you as someone inbetween games atm and I remember my brief experience as a Riftblade/Paragon/whatever around release on Rift rather fondly. So what I'm asking is if I can still play a mid-ranged Warrior archetype and it still be competative in PvE/PvP. I know Rift offers alot of customisation and respecing is something you do every 30 mins during solo content (tank spec for the tough stuff, DPS spec for easy stuff etc) but the main draw for me here is this mid ranged thing.

I exclusively play melee in RPGS, I love the Warrior archetype but this build was so incredibly refreshing I sit here pining for it, thinking bout resubbing and finishing off that horrendous grind through the 30's and 40's to max level (think my Warrior was mid 30's when I left, got to Ironpine Forrest and was done....shit just got really boring). So ye....whilst I'm at it is there now a more interesting alternative to leveling up in abandoned zones, or is it just something I'm going to have to grind through?

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

[Primalthirst]

Mid-ranged Warriors were never competitive, people just hadn't realised there were better alternatives yet.
You can spec and play however you like for levelling or solo content so that's not an issue, but serious end-game raiding or PvP ranged warriors are not overly effective. For sure the ranged abilities of Paragons and Riftblades are very useful but they are used as backup attacks when you are unable to get into melee range to use your harder hitting attacks.

I can relate to your levelling experience, it really discourages me from playing alts. The best way I've found is to constanly queue for dungeons and warfronts using the group finder whilst questing. That way you spend as little time as possible actually questing, something I despise in games, and maximum amount of time doing more challenging content.

[Kronik85]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly Primalthirst, I don't think I phrased my OP particularly well in regards to what I meant so I'll try again. I expect a Riftblade/Paragon to want to be in melee, I'm not talking about trying to play a melee charecter from ranged....thats just barmy as I'd lose a whole host of abilities aswell as autoattack.

"If I played a Riftstalker/Paragon build would I still be able to raid/pvp effectively, or would I just end up having to take something more melee centric to be able to compete?"

Like you say having these ranged abilities is something useful...something that stops you feeling utterly useless in a ranged phase or pitched pvp battle where you can't just charge in because you will get trained in seconds, and thats what I really enjoyed....not feeling gimped if either of these things happened.

[Primalthirst]

Currently the top spec for all PvE is a 2hand 38 Paragon/26 Champion/2 Riftblade
Most Warriors use a VK Tankish type build in PvP.

But this is all changing in a few weeks once patch 1.8 hits.

From then the top builds are looking to be Dual-wield Paragon/Champion and 2hand Riftblade/Champion with a deep Champion build for AoE.
Both of those souls will be used heavily, but not together, they lack a bit of Synergy and usually you don't spend enough time at range to need all of the abilities.

[Rocketsurgeon]

Last I saw, the numbers for DW Riftblade were very close to 2H Riftblade with the dual wielder coming out slightly ahead(by around 100dps). I don't keep up on PTS as well as some here so I won't pretend to know how long that was the case or if its already gone.

If you were to play Riftblade/Para on live today, your dps would be lower than the best spec. Depending on your gear level, it might be more or less apparent. If you chose to play your spec anyway, I would describe your dps as "enough" for anything you're likely to be doing. I doubt you'll suddenly be picked up by a progression guild still unable to take down Akylios and desperate for that slight edge from you to pull it off
On live with gear from nothing higher than experts and world events, the rb/para spec does 1.2-1.5k dps from what I've seen. From someone without HK crystals or anything fancy, I'm happy seeing that from someone.

[Primalthirst]

ParaChamp is lining up to be the top DW spec at this stage, RB/Champ the top 2h. Of course everything is in such a state of flux it could all be wrong by the time you read this.

I've raided most instances on my Warrior alt as both dps and MT and there aren't many situations where you are out of melee range for more than 2-3 GCDs.
Ranged abilities play a very small role in most encounters since you usually have so many gap closers such as Riftwalk, Bullrush or Thread the Trees.

[Kronik85]

Ok thx guys, I'm not looking to play at bleeding edge and so long as you can work either Riftblade or Paragon into a relatively viable build then I'm a happy bunny. I'll get over to the webby update my security details and take those 3 days free to see how I feel about Rift again.

[Fencers]

Paragon/Riftblade work fine for all non-progression encounters. To be honest, almost any haphazard spec works out "okay" in Rift if not at the edge of content.

I solo as a 51 RB/15 Paragon which is far more fun than any other Warrior spec for me. Sometimes out of laziness I just use it content which is on farm. Works out okay. Obvs. you will probably want an optimized spec for serious content.

[Kronik85]

Turns out I'm lvl 34 in Scarwood Reach, can you guys give me the cookie cutter DPS/Tanking and PvPing specs which should leave me 1 spec left to muck about with in regards to what I'm actually looking forward to playing? That way if I end up in a group with asshats I can save myself some flak by having specs that don't cause people to rage because they aren't optimal.

I'm pretty much assuming I can play what I want in regards to solo content and leveling. I'd just like to have something to fall back on for soloing Rifts etc, I know leveling builds =//= bleeding edge builds but knowing what the cookie cutters look like would help me but things into context.

Thanks again for the helpful feedback.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

As long as you picked up Anti-Planar Augmentation/Holy Champion, you can clear most any rift +3 levels above you, regardless of spec.

[Weiland]

As long as you picked up Anti-Planar Augmentation/Holy Champion, you can clear most any rift +3 levels above you, regardless of spec.

funny you mention this .. as i did pick it up but never really used it till as of recently