Link to this build: 51 Ranger / 15 Marksman / 0 Assassin
This is one of the top raid DPS specs to use right now in RIFT 1.10, it will not parse higher than “Bloodstalker” but then again, that spec is limited to certain fights versus a ranged spec such as this one. This spec is also energy starved but not if you have Fervor or Living Energy and works alright without them in dungeons, slivers, or master modes. In dungeons, slivers and master modes you will find that you need to pause your DPS for a moment so you have enough energy for Shadow Fire and Splinter Shot.
Your 0 point will be Assassin for the Virulent Poison buff and I would not even bother ever switching to Riftstalker for Shadow Shift (useless) or Saboteur for the Adhesive Bomb. If you absolutely need to, then go ahead but 99.9% of all fights you will not need to use either abilities.
You will want to buy the Predatory Soulstone Greater Essence and place it into your Sigil which increases your Attack Power by 100 when you use Shadow Fire; it has 100% uptime, along with all the other current best in slot lessers at the time as you are reading this page (check the Best in Slot Items page for more information on these).
Ideally you want the Zardonis’ Ranger Crystal with 4 piece of Infernal Dawn and/or Hammerknell gear with this spec because of the instant cast of Shadow Fire and Splinter Shot along with the 30% chance for increased pet damage of 60%. You can still use this spec with the crystal or just 2 piece ID/HK for the instant casts but you will notice more DPS with the crystal and 4 piece.
#show Shadow Fire
petattack
petcast Bloodied Blow
petcast Rend
petcast Razor Lash
cast Shadow Fire
cast Splinter Shot
cast Piercing Shot
cast Crippling Shot
cast Swift Shot
You will manually maintain Quick Shot and make sure that it is up at all times on the target (reapply every 6-7 seconds). If you have a problem reapplying it and keeping it up, then switch Swift Shot with Quick Shot instead in the above macro. It will be a minimal DPS loss but I prefer to Min/Max and offer the same. You can easy maintain Quick Shot with nkRebuff or Karuul Alert.
You might also want to have 2 of these macros, 1 with the pet casts and another 1 without them for certain fights in Infernal Dawn or Hammerknell Fortress as well as depending on your raid setup for bosses like Warboss Drak and Rusila Dreadblade.
Why pet casts in the macro? So your pet is always attached to your target and so your pet uses the abilities on cooldown since the pet does not auto queue up abilities.
#show Rapid Fire Shot
petcast Bloodied Blow
petcast Rend
petcast Razor Lash
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Head Shot
While you also have Deadeye Shot as another finisher, it is a DPS loss to use so do not use it. The only time you might want to use Deadeye Shot is probably to regain some energy if you are in a 5man dungeon or similar cases without Fervor or Living Energy. You can also use Concussive Blast on cooldown as long as you do not need it use it any other time on the particular fight you are on.
Make sure you ONLY use Feral Aggression when your Blood Raptor pet is on the target, try to not open your rotation with it since the pet is extremely slow to get to your target majority of the time and also almost always make sure that you pop Feral Aggression when Splinter Shot is on cooldown.
That said, use Feral Aggression right away when your pet is on the target and then once again every minute after, since it is a 1 minute cooldown. However, there will be a few fights where you will not want to use Feral Aggression right away or on every cooldown for fights such as Hammerknell Fortress – Inquisitor Garau when he puts up Glacial Shield, Infernal Dawn – Conclave when Nahoth puts up Unstable Conflagration and this could possibly kill your pet or even much older content like Gilded Prophecy – Thalguur when he goes immune.
Feral Instincts
Electrified Munitions
Virulent Poison
You do NOT use Predatory Instincts ever, anyone that tells you otherwise is a bad Rogue. They likely just parsed it on a dummy and saw it was a DPS increase but that is not the case in a raid environment with your pet getting 3% more physical crit. Plus your pet does NOT get the Predatory Instincts buff; 46 Attack Power, so that is also why too.
Trick Shot
Concussive Blast
Fan Out
Rain of Arrows
You will use Trick Shot to build 5 quick combos so you can get off a Concussive Blast and then just use Fan Out. Make sure to keep the Shadow Fire / Predatory Soulstone 100 Attack Power and Bestial Fury buff up while you are AoEing; it will be easy to use your single target finisher when Trick Shot builds to 5 combo points.
Shadow Fire > Rain of Arrows
Shadow Fire > Fan Out
Shadow Fire > Trick Shot > Concussive Blast to 5 combo point then Rapid Fire shot and Head Shot on 5 combo points when Concussive Blast is on cooldown.
