Ranger spike

Ranger spike, or "rspike", is a PvP team build that includes several Rangers using high-damage bow attacks in tandem to quickly take down a target in a spike. There are several variations on ranger spikes, differing both in choice of spike skills as well as in variety of support team members.

Common features of ranger spike builds include:

• A high-damage spike-opening skill:
  • Forked Arrow
  • Dual Shot
  • Point Blank or Zojun's Shots.

• A rapid spike followup:
  • Punishing Shot
  • Savage Shot

• A damage-boosting preparation:
  • Expert Focus
  • Glass Arrows

• Additional damage-increasing or spike-supporting skills:
  • Favorable Winds
  • Brutal Weapon
  • Order of Pain or Order of the Vampire

Ranger spike is considered a gimmick build due to a number of factors:

1. The spike lacks a significant recharge time, stressing the resources of enemy healers.
2. Compared to other spike builds, ranger spike is very fast (with all the damage being compressed into approximately half a second) and unpredictable. As a result, stopping the spike relies largely on fast, reflexive (instead of preventative) use of skills such as Infuse Health.
3. Rangers are very durable, with high natural armor and a number of defensive skills.
4. Perhaps most importantly, the build as a whole has a low skill ceiling (there is little room to improve the effectiveness of the build once the basics are learned).

---