Expertise is the Ranger primary attribute.  By itself, it is a useful passive
attribute, reducing the costs of Ranger abilities.  However, Expertise does
NOT affect spells, hexes, or enchantments.  Expertise rounds to the nearest
integer, making for some very interesting breakpoints.  This can be tested by
extending your energy bar across the length of the screen and using skills at
various levels of Expertise.  These breakpoints can be found in Appendix 9d -
Expertise Breakpoints [gwrg9d].  Breakpoints should NOT be your only
consideration for your level of Expertise, as a higher Expertise level also
enhances the quality of its linked skills.

Expertise has many skills which improve the defensive capabilities of a Ranger.
Skills like Whirling Defense and Throw Dirt prevent melee combatants from
touching you.  Expertise also has a few bow attack skills, mostly interrupts
and disruption.

As of October 27, 2006, Expertise was changed to the following:
Expertise: For each rank of Expertise, the Energy cost of all of your attacks,
Rituals, touch skills, and Rangers skills are decreased by 4%. Several skills,
especially those related to Energy costs and skill recharge times, become more
effective with higher Expertise.

Some Skill highlights:

Distracting Shot
================
Distracting Shot is probably the best interrupting attack in the game. Not only
can it be used at range, but it has a quick attack time (0.5 seconds), costs
only 5 energy (often reduced by Expertise), and disables an interrupted skill
for a whole 20 seconds.  The main disadvantage is the low damage, along with a
slightly slow Cooldown Time.

“Buffering” a Distracting Shot is a useful technique to squeeze a little more
damage out of your usual bow attacks.  Basically, while one bow attack is
being used (and is flashing in your skill bar), hit Distracting Shot as well.
The first attack will fire off, followed almost immediately (in 3/4th of a
second) by a Distracting Shot.  The following shot after that is at the normal
rate of fire.  You can consider the Distracting Shot a “bonus” arrow that was
quicker to shoot.  This is mostly useful in builds which have added damage to
each arrow, using skills like Ignite Arrow or Conjure Lightning.

Lightning Reflexes
==================
Lightning Reflexes is a short-duration stance that gives both 75% evasion
against attacks and a 33% increased attack speed.  This is a potent combination
that allows a Ranger to both attack quickly (doing more damage) and evade
attacks. It has a disadvantage, though, of a long cooldown time, so you can’t
continually activate it (unlike the Mesmer skill Distortion).  It is best used
as a supplement to another defensive stance, like Whirling Defense. Between
Whirling Defense and Lightning Reflexes, an opponent will be hard-pressed to
hit you.

Marksman’s Wager (Elite)
========================
Marksman’s Wager is one of the few good Energy management skills that a Ranger
can use.  Since the majority of your arrows will hit, you can reasonably expect
to gain a significant amount of Energy per hit, allowing you to power your high
energy bow attacks (or whatever… spells, perhaps).  It is an Elite, and thus
you won’t have other Elites, but you’ll be swimming in Energy with this skill.
It is a preparation, so you won’t be able to use your other preparations while
it is active.  Just don’t use it when you are blinded or against warriors who
can block your shots.

Oath Shot (Elite)
=================
Oath Shot is a unique ability that recharges all of your skills if it hits.
There is a minimum Expertise requirement for consistent hitting, which places
this skill out of the hands of low Expertise Rangers or secondary Rangers.
Still, instantly recharging the long cooldowns of, say, Whirling Defense or
Lightning Reflexes gives you an instant advantage in tempo.  Hopefully, you’ll
have enough energy to use your recharged skills.  It is also an Elite skill,
and as with other Elites, you forgo the use of other Elites by choosing this
skill.

Similarly, you can use this Elite is to recharge skills from your secondary
with long cooldown times, like Signets, Spirits/Binding Rituals, and Glyphs.

Throw Dirt
==========
Throw Dirt is a touch range, Area of Effect Blind condition.  It has a
relatively short duration, but this is lengthened by High Expertise.  It is
best used on non-spellcasters, mostly frontline warriors (although you can
catch the occasional ranged attacker with it). Because it adds Blind, it makes
the targets blind to everyone, and thus protects everyone from those creatures’
attacks.

Throw Dirt is a Condition, and thus can be removed by a number of things. While
most monsters don’t carry around Mend Ailment, most W/Mo characters in PvP do
(mostly BECAUSE of this much-hated skill). Throw Dirt is also touch range, so
if you are using this, expect to get up-close and personal.  Throw Dirt is best
used to either support warriors in the front line or to defend yourself at
melee range (similar to other Ranger defensive skills). Throw Dirt affects only
the creatures within melee range of your target, thus it can only affect one
“side” of you if you are surrounded, making it less than ideal in swarm
situations.

Whirling Defense
================
Whirling Defense is probably the most balanced of the defensive ranger skills,
and it comes with the longest duration to boot.  The longest duration alone
makes this skill worth taking over its relatives (Lightning Reflexes, Dryder’s
Defenses, Escape).  Whirling Defense is a stance, so be sure you don’t cancel
it out with another stance before its duration is through.  Also, the cooldown
time is rather long (which is typical for the Ranger defensive skills), so it
works best in concert with another defensive stance to cover the duration from
the end of Whirling Defense and the recharge of the skill.  The additional
damage from deflecting projectiles is cute, but negligable.

Factions Expertise-linked Skills
================================

There aren’t many skills added to Expertise with the release of Factions. The
non-Elite skills that were added mimic existing skills (Zojun’s Haste is similar
to Dodge; Zojun’s Shot is similar to Point Blank Shot).  The only particularly
interesting skill is the new Elite preparation:

Glass Arrows (Elite)
——————–
This Elite preparation ensures that whether or not your arrows are blocked,
you’ll still have some sort of effect. It’s a preparation in the Expertise line
(Which is rather unique), and causes extra damage on striking and Bleeding when
they are blocked.  The only thing that can stop these arrows are evades, which
unfortunately are pretty common outside of the Warrior profession. Still, it’s
a great way to strike at warriors who are fond of tanking behind blocking
stances.  It is still an Elite, however, making its use limited.

Archer’s Signet (Elite)
———————–
This Elite signet allows you to use Bow Attacks without taking any Energy.
However, the casting time is prohibitive (3 seconds) as is the recharge.  It
might be effective to use this in conjunction with several powerful high Energy
bow attacks, but it takes up your Elite slot, which limits your options.  There
could be some use when being attacked by an Energy denial Mesmer or Ranger.

This skill was updated on July 13 2006 to no longer disable pet attacks. It was
updated on October 27 2006 by increasing the number of bow attacks it affects.

Trapper’s Focus (Elite)
———————–
This short-lived preparation prevents your traps from being interrupted by
normal attacks. Note that this preparation only prevents the traps from being
easily interrupted.  Standard interrupts like Distracting Shot will still
cancel your trap.  It’s still probably a good idea to use Whirling Defense or
other evasive stances when laying down your traps in the middle of combat.

Nightfall Expertise-linked Skills
=================================

Nightfall’s Expertise skills include some surprises (a Nature Spirit!), but
the real gem is for Trappers, in the form of Trapper’s Speed.

Expert’s Dexterity (Elite)
————————–
This is an odd Elite, to say the least.  It decreases your cooldowns for your
attack skills and unlike other Expertise skills, it actually increases your
Energy costs.  Frankly, I’m not sure I see the point.  I can think of better
preparations to use.  Perhaps there is some combination that works amazingly
with this Elite that I’m missing, but I’ve not had any problems with recharge
times that warranted giving up both my Elite slot AND my prep slot.

Infuriating Heat (Elite)
————————
This is a bizarre Nature Ritual, in that it is linked to Expertise AND it
doubles adrenaline gain.  The obvious application is with Ranger/Warriors or
Ranger/Paragons (or Warriors and Paragons with a Ranger secondary), but it
can be a great support skill for the rest of your combat-oriented party.
Even without Expertise, it gives its full effect (for a shorter duration),
and I’m sure there are several Bunny Thumpers who appreciate the ability to
spam their Hammer attacks faster.  The 15 Energy cost is a bit prohibitive,
for a Nature Ritual, but it has the duration to compensate.

Trapper’s Speed
—————
This is the Serpent’s Quickness replacement that we’ve been waiting for.  It
increases both your trap-laying speed and the recharge on your trap.  It’s a
stance, which means it replaces the role of Serpent’s Quickness.  It lasts a
reasonable length of time (just short of its cooldown), but best of all, it’s
not an Elite.  The only disadvantage is the fact that if you attack, you
cancel this stance, but Trappers probably shouldn’t be attacking when they
are laying down their trap layers anyway.