Ranger destiny?

[sephiroth1084]

Pin has one of two effects. If you use it on a mob that is stationary (rotating is fine, running is not), that mob will be pinned- it can still move, but the movement rate is sloth-on-quaaludes. If the target is moving, it'll be slowed considerably (roughly 50%). Otto's will cause a moving target to dance. Both Ottos and Pin (on a stationary target) will make that target helpless: this is how you get that tasty +90% helpless damage. On tough single orange name, they can be alternated to great effect to keep it permanently CC'ed and helpless. Neither has a save, but Otto's is a little picky: if you're moving or changing elevation vis a vis the target, there's a fair chance you wont see any effect.

As far as enhancements go, I'm still playing with that myself. Been using AA with enough points in Deepwood Sniper for Sniper Shot (it is fantastic with adrenaline, and great anyway), but I'm going to flip focus to DWS for a while, see how I like it. Both seem pretty strong to me, with DWS probably ahead on bosses due to the ability to quickly build up Archers Focus stacks. I've actually currently not put any points in Ninja Spy at all: that was to avoid the bugged dex-to-damage core, but now that is fixed, so that will be revisited too. Personally, I think I get a lot more survivability out of judicious abundant steps than an extra 15% incorp, so I'm not looking to pick up shadow fade- I think its an unnecessary ki drain on an AA, although you can pry it from my melee's cold dead hands.

This is my enhancement lay-out currently on my 12 monk/6 ranger/2 artificer. I initially did what you're thinking of doing: going tier 5 DWS with a medium investiture in AA, then after a few days swapped. I have to say that I'm far more impressed with the AA-focus than I was with the DWS, which is disappointing, as I like the flavor and function of DWS more, and had been looking forward to it more than anything else with this enhancement pass. There's simply nothing in DWS that compares favorably with Slaying Arrows.

I'm not too sold on the Banishing and Smiting arrows...too little of what I've been fighting has fallen under those categories lately, and those that have were immune. I like Leg Shot in DWS, but I may ditch it when I twist in Pin, and Aimed Shot is okay--it's good when you're in Archer's Focus and want to build it up quickly, but otherwise it's basically the archery version of Fists of Iron--a filler attack that will occasionally give you a little spike in damage.

What I'm running currently on my 12 monk/6 ranger/2 artificer, full-time archer.

Half-elf (1) - Versatile Nature (I'd like more out of this, but don't think I could spare points from anywhere else)
Arcanotechnician (4) - Core I, Wand and Scroll Mastery III
Arcane Archer (36) - Core III, Conjure Arrows, Awareness III, Elemental Arrows I (Acid), Force Arrows II, Inferno Shot III, Terror Arrows I, Soul Magic, Wis II, Banishing Arrows, Paralyzing Arrows I, Smiting Arrows, Moonbow, Arrow of Slaying, Runebow (if Improved Elemental Arrows ever gets fixed, I'd probably move some points to get up to that)
Deepwood Stalker (25) - Core III, Stealthy III, Faster Sneaking III, Thrill of the Hunt I, Aimed Shot, Wis II, Leg Shot
Shintao (1) - Core I
Ninja Spy (13) - Core III, Stealthy III, Sneak Attack Training II, Acrobatic III

Anything really important you think I'm missing? Anything you feel I should drop?

I definitely need to play around with the enhancements a bit still. For one, I have to assess how often I actually use Shadow Veil, and decide whether it's worth it. I tend to mostly use it when I pull aggro on something dangerous, when I know I'm going to be in a tough spot, or when I'm zerging past a lot of stuff as basically an Invisibility+. If I drop Stealthy in Ninja Spy, those 3 points could go toward the 8 needed in Henshin to get +1 passive Ki, which is definitely preferable to the +1 when sneaking.

Curious to see what you go with, and am open to suggestions for improvements.