> Ranged DPM Advice 
This channel will go over general damage output lessons, ability prioritisation, a learning path, and style-specific solutions for common PvM concerns
⬥ Knowledge of in-game ability/item descriptions is assumed, this guide aims to tie the tools together rather than list what they do
⬥ For general PvM terminology, damage tips, and revolution bars, check out their respective sections in #General DPM FAQ
⬥ To compare abilities, use RS Analysis' Ranged Page, and add your gear
> Core Ranged Rotation
This section covers rotations using core style abilities before later unlocks are obtained
See Advanced Ranged Rotations section further down for info on ranged rotations using best-in-slot gear
⬥ A typical Ranged rotation uses the strongest Basic Abilities available to build adrenaline, and spends it on the strongest available Enhanced Abilities, Ultimate Abilities, or Special Attacks
• To achieve this, we must think about the following key considerations:
⬩ Basic ability patterns 
⬩ Buff usage 
⬩ Ammo effects 
Basic Pattern
⬥ The basic pattern comboes Galeshot 
into Rapid Fire 
when both cooldowns are available
⬥ can be thought of as buffing + 3 abilities of your choice, adding additional damage onto each hit
• Therefore, try to follow with strong multi-hit abilities 
• [ → → 3 Abilities] → [Filler] → [ → → 3 Abilities] → repeat
⬥ Ranged has other rotational synergies that help to fill empty ability slots
• Snipe 
+ Piercing Shot 
• Imbue: Shadows 
+ Shadow Tendrils 
⬥ When building adrenaline, fill with available Basic Abilities:
• Ricochet
• Piercing Shot
• Basic Attack 
⬥ Then spend adrenaline on Enhanced Abilites, Ultimate Abilities, and Special Attacks:
• Such abilities are often categorically referred to as spenders
• Snap Shot
• Deadshot
• Snipe + Shadow Tendrils don't spend adrenaline but are still considered Enhanced Abilities
• If adrenaline is limited, prioritise having enough adrenaline for your next → combo
⬥ With these considerations, we can ensure that cooldowns are always cycling to allow for a consistent flow of strong abilities
Death's Swiftness
It is assumed that either the Planted Feet perk 
or Greater Death's Swiftness unlock has been obtained for the purposes of this guide.
⬥ Death's Swiftness is the main buff to prioritise whenever there is an opportunity to deal damage
• The exception to this is when the fight would end too quickly, or mechanics occur, and you can't benefit from the full duration
• Ideally, enter boss fights and important phases with 100% adrenaline so you can activate it immediately
⬥ In Death's Swiftness , continue following the basic pattern while fitting in your most powerful abilities:
• [ → → → → ] → [Fill w/ Basics and Spenders] → [ → → ...]
⬥ While waiting for cooldown, you do not want to needlessly camp 100% adrenaline, and can start building when is nearly ready to use again
Other Buffs
Besides Death's Swiftness, Ranged has multiple supportive buffs that are meant to supplement and enhance its core rotation
⬥ Imbue Shadows grants adrenaline per hit and is extremely important to pair with
• Synergises with multi-hit abilities / / and is vital to maintain a consistent flow of adrenaline during your damage buffs
• Keep in mind that Damage-over-Time (DoT) 
does not count as a hit for the purposes of
⬥ Shadow Tendrils extends duration and should always be used once during a full
⬥ Deathspore Arrows should be used to get a free , allowing for tremendously accelerated rotational setup
• 12 stacks can be obtained through a combination of + or with if necessary
• Start building in advance of cooldown so as to not waste time once it's available
• Rare situations may not allow enough time to stack , in which case a form of adrenaline potion 
can help with buff setup
⬥ Because of ranged's reliance on multi-hit abilities for both damage and adrenaline, it is highly recommended to prioritise obtaining Greater Ricochet 
and Igneous Kal-Xil 
upgrades as early as possible in the style's progression
Ammo Effects
Due to having considerably stronger and more consistent effects, it is recommended to use bows + arrows over crossbows + bolts in the current state of the game. The information in this guide will assume that the highest available tier of bow + arrows are being used.
⬥ When using abilities, stronger ammunition can increase your ability damage and provide additional effects
• Use Ful Arrows 
and Deathspore Arrows together for general use
• Use Black Stone Arrows 
or Wen Arrows 
when hit chance is needed
⬩ are otherwise equal to or worse than unless boss mechanics provide downtime to build stacks for free
• Otherwise, use the highest tier of generic ammunition available or Jas Bane arrows 
if applicable
⬥ When using Pernix's Quiver 
, multiple keybind options are available that make ammo cycling easier
• (1) Quiver Slot: Drag the empty quiver slot from your gear interface onto an action bar to cycle ammo in any currently equipped quiver
• (2) Specific Quiver: Drag a specific quiver onto an action bar to either equip the quiver or, if already equipped, cycles its ammo
• (3) Quiver ammo slot 1 + Quiver ammo slot 2: Utility Abilities in the ranged ability book which cycles ammo to the selected slot
> Rotation Examples
These are only suggestions to work from, and will not necessarily be applicable at all bosses or situations. For boss-specific rotations, see their respective guides.
Starting Unlocks:
⬥ Ring of Vigour 
or its passive effect after Extinction quest
⬥ Greater Death's Swiftness 
or Planted Feet perk 
⬥ Shadow Tendrils
⬥ Greater Ricochet 
in later examples
1 Minute Examples
Example:
⬥ → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → ( ends) → → → → → → → → → → → →
Notes:
⬥ Breaking down this example into blocks:
• Buffs start + build adrenaline: → → → →
• Basic pattern 1: → → → →
• Fill w/ basics + spenders: → → → →
• Basic pattern 2: → → → →
• Buffs end + build adrenaline: ( ends) → → → →
• Basic pattern 3: → → →
⬩ We cut this one off short since comes back up
• Buffs come off cooldown: → → →
⬥ Most rotations will follow this overarching pattern, though each block may be executed differently depending on available upgrades
Deathspore Arrows Example
Arrow swaps during rotations are denoted with the arrow before the ability
⬥ 12 stacks ( / / ) → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → ( ends) → → → → → → (start building stacks) → → → → → → →
Greater Ricochet Example
Once is obtained, can be quickly stacked with a simple combo of → → →
⬥ 12 stacks → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → ( ends) → → → → → → → → → → → → →
Notes:
⬥ Greatly increases the availability of adrenaline during , allowing us to minimise basic ability usage
⬥ Outside of , we spend some adrenaline sparingly and make sure to have enough to on time with
These rotations demonstrate typical ways of setting up the initial round of buffs while sticking to the basic pattern. With further upgrades, this rotation can be progressively iterated upon, with increasing availability of adrenaline allowing for more powerful spenders to be incorporated.
> PvM Decision Making
Next, we explore some challenges that ranged commonly runs into during PvM and the tools and decisions it uses to solve them
Area-of-Effect (AoE)
⬥ Decimation Special Attack 
is ranged's most powerful and versatile AoE tool
• Moderate 3-tile AoE search range with no cooldown, a minor adrenaline cost, and can be set up before enemies spawn
• Combo with powerful abilities like / / 
to quickly deal with AoE scenarios
• Every additional hit counts for the purposes of adrenaline gain, 
stack generation, and reduction on cooldown
⬩ If is not active, + can be an adrenaline-efficient way to make use of the effect
• Most often used from an Essence of Finality amulet (EoF) 
to allow use with higher tier weapons
⬥ Bombardment 
can be used to quickly deal with low life point targets
• Upfront damage that doesn't require a prior ability cast to set up, but has more restrictive 2-tile AoE search range
• Outclassed by if enemies would live for 3 or more abilities, or are spread further apart from each other
⬥ Low Priority or Highly Situational
• Ricochet / has a large 5-tile AoE search range, but does low damage and is generally not used for AoE purposes
• Corruption Shot also has a 5-tile AoE search range, but should only ever be used for that specific aspect of it
⬩ Due to being DoT, does not benefit from damage buffs , but can deal moderate damage while under 
Spending Excess Adrenaline
⬥ High-level ranged spenders involve various stored EoF special attacks in order to optimise away from just spamming
• Gloomfire Bow and Dark Bow 
are used as the main options
⬩ is overall better in most cases, but is a cheaper early pickup and has a faster hit timing
⬩ Some endgame rotations may be written using both for their respective advantages
• Eldritch Crossbow provides a significant damage buff anywhere you're able to pray 
(~15-30% depending on ability)
• Seren Godbow 
is a high-damage, low-cost spender against any 5x5 or larger targets
⬩ Comparable damage even to when it can be used to its full effectiveness
• If physical or is your highest tier weapon, using their special attacks directly is also a powerful option
⬥ Aim to replace most instances of during with these spenders
Short Damage Checks
⬥ Some PvM scenarios emphasise short phases and quick damage checks rather than keeping up a consistent flow of damage
⬥ In such cases, ranged has some of the following options:
• Stacking ahead of time for a temporary stronger damage + hit chance buff than
• Abilities and buffs that can be used ahead of time / / / /
• Once is obtained, lining up high-damage 
procs can significantly contribute to your burst damage
• On 5x5+ targets can be used flexibly for high on-demand damage
• Stalling abilities to release them with other spenders once these phases begin
Sustaining with Ranged
⬥ Ranged has to frequently lock itself out of healing or inflict self-damage in order to maximise damage output
⬥ To plan around a lack of sustain, consider the following:
• Prioritise lossless defensive and healing tools 
/ 
/ 
as your first resort
• Familiarise yourself with boss mechanics to anticipate periods of heavy or little incoming damage
⬩ Optionally introduce into rotations after becoming comfortable at a boss
• Leave a few abilities of downtime in between to give yourself a chance to heal up
⬩ It is mainly important that it overlaps with your + pattern
• Drop if unable to maintain sufficient uptime for it to be worthwhile i.e. during 
twinshot
• Replace with a better spender if you don't actually need the extension on
> Advanced Ranged Rotations
This section focuses on tactics that make full use of endgame tools available to ranged . Players looking to optimise around Bow of the Last Guardian and Elite Dracolich 
should use this section as reference.
Assumed Unlocks:
⬥ Greater Ricochet
⬥ Igneous Kal-Xil
⬥ Gloomfire Bow EoF
• Interchangeable with before is obtained, though adrenaline will differ due to the lower hit-count
⬥ Conservation of Energy relic 
⬥ Fury of the Small relic 
• Used while testing listed rotations but it may not be necessary for all of them
• Berserker's Fury relic 
is the stronger damage option when adrenaline isn't an issue
Eldritch Crossbow
⬥ Split Soul Special Attack acts as another buff in ranged's rotation that synergises with its main ability patterns
• Since 
heals more from powerful multi-hit abilities , similarly scales well off those same abilities
• Therefore it's important to maintain high uptime on especially during your → + 3 abilities pattern
• which was mainly used for adrenaline and rotational filler becomes a powerful ability when comboed with +
Example (1 minute):
⬥ 12 → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → ( ends) → → → → → → → → → → → → →
Notes:
⬥ Breaking down this example into blocks:
• Buffs start: → →
• Basic pattern 1: → → → →
• Fill w/ basics + spenders: → → → →
⬩ Prepare for basic pattern 2
• Basic pattern 2: → → → →
• Buffs end + build adrenaline: ( ends) → → → → →
⬩ Prepare for basic pattern 3
• Basic pattern 3: → → → →
• Buffs come off cooldown: → →
Bow of the Last Guardian
⬥ Optimising Perfect Equilibrium procs can result in some of the largest possible DPS increases for ranged. To understand how to plan around this effect, it's important to keep in mind hit-counts for common abilities:
• 1 stack: / / /
⬩ only generates 1 stack no matter how many secondary arrows land
• 2 stacks: / /
• 3 stacks:
• 7 (-1) stacks:
⬩ It may be helpful to think of as generating -1 stacks (since it leaves you with 1 less stack than you started)
• 8 (0) stacks: /
⬩ Will put you back at the same number of stacks you had before
⬥ Proc Priorities:
• Gloomfire Bow Special Attack should be used at 1 stack if is active or 5 stacks if not
⬩ is sensitive to the order that hits occur, so this ensures that the proc uses the powerful 3rd hit of
• Dark Bow Special Attack is more flexible than around starting stacks but deals less overall damage
• Snipe is an extremely powerful single hit and can usually be fit in between uses
• Snap Shot is typically only used as filler to increment stacks since its damage is strictly worse than other options
⬥ BoLG Special Attack should always be used at least once early during to activate its buff
• The attack in itself does not deal tremendous damage and should not be heavily prioritised once the buff is active
• When used from anywhere between 3-7 stacks, will proc and reset stacks to 0
⬩ This detail can be useful for setting up consistent rotations, since you can treat as a stack reset at the beginning of
Building a Rotation
⬥ Plan stacks around the structure of abilities that are used regardless of stacks
• Keep to the basic pattern of → and , these abilities don't care about stacks to be strong
• should still be primarily used to extend rather than as a proc since is calculated using pre-critical strike damage
⬥ Plan around using ability sequences that line up multiple strong procs, the following are some suggestions:
• 1 stack start:
⬩ → → →
⬩ → →
• 2 stack start:
⬩ → → → →
⬩ → → → →
• 3 stack start:
⬩ → → →
⬩ → →
• 0 stack start:
⬩ → → →
⬩ → → →
⬥ A strong rotation will fit these ability sequences into the overall structure that the basic patterns provide
• i.e. → → → [line up procs] → to extend → → → [line up procs]
Example (1 minute):
Any rotation examples from here on will also account for stacks, it is encouraged to count the stacks as you read the rotations. Most will be used at 3-7 stacks, leaving you at 0, and all will be used at 1 stack.
⬥ 12 → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → ( ends) → → → → → → → → → → → → → →
Notes:
⬥ procs count as hits for so we now have more adrenaline to work with
⬥ can now be stacked using only → → since procs count towards stacks
Elite Dracolich Armour
Elite Dracolich boosts ranged's basic pattern → into a burst window to deal massive damage with spenders
⬥ With the full 5-set equipped, there will be a 4-ability window after to make use of buff
⬥ A common use of this window is 3 high damage spenders / + to generate adrenaline to continue your rotation
• Often times this only applies to the first during , as there is not enough adrenaline to fully utilise the second one
• There are cases where 4 spenders can be used to maximise damage output instead, often when + are both available
⬥ This meshes nicely with existing ability sequences that line up procs
Example:
⬥ 12 → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → →
Notes:
⬥ Outside of + does not change much as there is not enough adrenaline to fully utilise the critical strike chance buff
• The extra adrenaline from generally means an extra or while waiting on cooldown
⬥ This specific example uses a 2nd to refresh its buff for a larger proc during buff later
Advanced Arrow Usage
This guide up to this point only covers basic usage of + , but there are additional considerations for other options as well as tricks to gain stacks more efficiently
Using Deathspore Arrows
⬥ A tip to quickly stack 12 at the start of a fight is to stall either or in War's Retreat, then releasing with in the boss instance
• This most often shows up in rotations as s → r +
• This instantly maxes out stacks without having to do the slower → → build
• Alternate versions of this can exist that stall to be able to skip a setup ability before
⬥ Stacking mid-fight can also be accelerated by using 2x as its cooldown comes back up
• This allows you to stay on your primary damage-boosting arrow for more abilities
• → [ abilities] →
Using Wen Arrows
⬥ Wen Arrows are considered when facing severe hit chance issues and/or downtime exists to build stacks for free
⬥ Note that throughout the example rotations in this section, not enough Basic Abilities are used to stack 10 between
• We would have to give up a spender to stack during active uptime, as well as the damage boost from on multiple abilities
⬩ Therefore, the general recommendation is to only use when downtime exists to build stacks for free
⬩ This can also be extended to time before a boss has spawned if other targets are available to attack
⬩ Black Stone Arrows are a simpler way to solve mild hit chance issues
⬥ The most common ways of building stacks is by either swapping to them for / / or 2x in a similar fashion to
⬥ Stack 
consumption can be prevented by swapping to a different ammo , allowing for use of other spenders before the intended buff 
timing
• Even if the correct conditions exist for usage, it is still likely that a swap is needed for sections of downtime
⬥ The resulting buff lasts for 15 ticks, or 6 abilities upon consumption. However, it's usually unfeasible to find the adrenaline for 6 consecutive spenders, so a during the buff may be necessary
• i.e. → → → → → ( ends)
⬥ Alternatively the buff can be activated on any hit of by switching to during the channel
• This allows you to fill part of duration with depending on your available adrenaline and spenders
Utilising Stalls in Combat
Multiple ranged abilities provide a duration-based buff that starts counting down when they are cast/released. Therefore, we can stall these abilities and release with the next ability to "extend" their buffs and gain other benefits.
⬥ Ranged usually has to exit its attack range in order to stall, which can be challenging depending on the situation
• Therefore, it will typically only be recommended to use these tricks if the boss allows you to
• 
and 
make it easier to temporarily exit attack range
• Against stationary bosses 
, you can simply find where your maximum attack range is and take a step back to stall abilities
⬥ Galeshot can be stalled and released with to extend its buff duration to + 4 abilities rather than 3
• This is useful to gain a bit of extra damage, or a lot if you are planning to use as the 4th ability
⬥ BoLG Special Attack can be stalled to extend the tail-end on its duration by an extra ability
• This allows time for alignment usually in the second of
• Otherwise, rotations typically have to pick between using or first in , which each have their tradeoffs
⬥ ECB Special Attack can be stalled into by another ability to gain damage from that ability without sacrificing duration
• Good candidates usually include or
Example:
⬥ s → r + → → → s → r + → s → r + → → → → → s → r + → → → + s → r + → → → →
Notes:
⬥ This is a relatively extreme example just to showcase all the above tricks
⬥ Stalling can also be used to prepare during boss immune phases and downtime
• In these cases you may prefer to stall high-damage abilities such as / to carry in as much burst as possible
Related Channels
For further information and reading, you can refer to the following resources.
Note: If you have any difficulties in using the tools or understanding what the information means, you can always ask in #pvm-help.