Originally Posted by
Nebless
Originally you did get the 'follow the boxes' for ranged attacks like you do with melee attacks. Now instead it's just using the 'up, down' method, which translated means; press one of the up arrows (a white attack it's sometimes called) and then click on you ranged attack. Example 'Left Pointing arrow - Salvo' , 'Right pointing arrow - Armor Ripper'.
While you only have the 3 white arrows at this point, as you go up in levels you'll get the down arrows too. If you float over one of your attacks like Armor Ripper you'll see that in the write up it says something like 'up attack - 3% extra damage' and 'down attack - 1% chance of crit damage' or stuff like that. The up and down refer to the white attacks you make at the beginning before clicking on the Armor Ripper icon. By using the up / down white attacks your damage from the icon attacks will be increased.
As far as which up to use (left or right) you could base it on how the targets shields are - shooting at the unshielded side. Some say that helps and others don't. I personally haven't seen that it makes a difference.
It confused me for the longest time too, I finally found one of the Ranger threads about 6 pages back that cleared it up for me.
A little hint about the ranger; at lower levels you'll have stronger attacks from your swords and just use your bow to pull your targets. Once you get to the 30-40's in level you'll finally be getting stronger bows and better ranged attacks and your swords will become secondary.
Enjoy