Sorry I couldn't stay longer last night
Well at least I think we now have an appreciation for needing offensive power. Very impressed to hear Coalman saying this since it was only your second time out! It is critical though.
Best way to unlock skills is via PvE really (until you get bored with it - my 5 times through is a bit extreme!!) Faction gained in short PvP sessions (and they can be a lot shorter than a PvE session if u want) is best spent on vital runes (Superior Vigor) and weapon mods at this stage.
Skills cost 3K a pop which sounds exhorbitant, but if u look at the PvP forums on gwonline.net you may find a build which you are very close to anyway. Air Elementalist spikers for teh w1n!!
I can recommend taking regular short sessions in the Random Arenas. You will learn a LOT without realising it.
Anyway here is my not too difficult to make basic Ranger/Mesmer build, which I have had a lot of success with in Random Arenas (18 consecutive wins max so far):-
Ranger/Mesmer
Skills
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Backfire (Me)
Guilt (Me)
Troll Unguent
Apply Poison
Dodge
Distracting Shot
Crippling Shot (E)
Ressurection Signet
Attribs
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Domination 10
Beast Mastery 0
Expertise 9 +1
Wilderness Survival 9 +1
Marksmanship 8 +1
Unused Attribs: 6
Armour
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Travellers Mask
Studded Leather Vest (of minor Marksmanship)
Studded Leather Leggings (of minor Wilderness Survival)
Stuuded Leather Gloves (of minor Expertise)
Studded Leather Boots (of Superior Vigor)
Weapon
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1) Poisoners PvP Longbow of Shelter (Damage +15>50)
2) Poisoners Short Bow of Shelter (Damage +15>50)
The Crippling Shot is used to help the monk. You won't always get a monk in the team in RA, but any team which gets LOTS of consecutive wins invariably DOES have a monk. Cripple the warrior attacking him, so the monk can run away and regen. (I've noticed when playing a monk myself you normally get precious little cover in RA - any you DO get can make the difference.) Also cripple flag runners and anyone crossing the icy river in the shiverpeak arena. Like in our Guild Hall they will not be able to run immediately on the ice even when cripple wears off.
Backfire is for killing casters (esp monks). Guilt is for getting more energy and is usually cast on Necros or Elementalists or Mesmers.
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I do play around with the mesmer part a bit to see what works better.
Currently trying:-
Domination 8
Inspiration 7
Backfire (Me)
Drain Enchantment (Me)
Drain Enchantment gains me more energy and is particularly useful against Wa/Mo running Mending (will go for the Healing Signet quicker when poisoned, which I interrupt) and Monks running Divine Boon.
Enchantment stripping is generally a good PvP strategy full stop, so it fulfills a few purposes in one.
HTH
Happy faction farming
P.S. I'm a crap teacher really. Best is to experiment in your own time and read some PvP forums or class specific forums at gwonline.net .
P.P.S. I also don't particularly like playing monk either, but I'm stuck with it for now unless we decide to go without one . . . . which might be interesting.
I keep notes, so can re-roll a character in maybe 5 mins.