Two Hunting Styles at once - Possible or Just Frustrating?

[Dhe'nar Witch]

Dusted off the Ranger the last few days, at the moment it looks like this -



XXXXXX(at level 16), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 82 18
Shield Use.........................| 50 10
Combat Maneuvers...................| 78 17
Edged Weapons......................| 124 32
Ranged Weapons.....................| 128 34
Ambush.............................| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 74 16
Dodging............................| 50 10
Harness Power......................| 74 16
Survival...........................| 82 18
Stalking and Hiding................| 105 25
Perception.........................| 117 29
Climbing...........................| 45 9
Swimming...........................| 15 3
First Aid..........................| 45 9

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 16
Training Points: 1 Phy 0 Mnt
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)

Sort of all over the place, I know. As I recall, the idea was to be able to switch between bow and ohe/shield whenever it suits. Archery is fun, but sometimes you just want to sneak around and cut things to bits with an axe.

Hunting is easy so far, but...it's level 16, of course it's easy. What I suspect is that as levels increase, the fact that skills for neither style are maximized will only cause more and more problems. There just may not be enough training points to get it done. Difficult is fine. Sub-par to the point of ineffectiveness is not.

Opinions? Thoughts? Advice? Laughter?

[Geijon Khyree]

It's possible.

[Taernath]

You're low on shield use and dodging, but you'll probaby do well enough as long as you don't get forced out of hiding and catch some unlucky rolls.

Archery does best when you're 2x'ed in perception and ambush, and I think at level 16 you're still in the 'ranged hunting sucks' phase.

I dunno. I don't see anything that couldn't be solved with a few more ranks, but I'd imagine your stats are pretty shot.

[Geijon Khyree]

It can be a lot of fun until you min/max later if you ever feel the need to go there.

[BriarFox]

You can do both, but not well. I've variously been edged/ranged, brawling/ranged, and THW/ranged, and the only one that really works is brawling/ranged. I think here you'll either need to do two styles and give up ambushing/hiding or sacrifice a lot of magical skills to make it work. Still, do what's fun!

[dmwcincy]

Maybe drop shield and put that into dodge. Pup was 1x ambush and hiding each for many lvls with little issue so maybe 1x them and add extra ranks as you can.

[BriarFox]

Maybe drop shield and put that into dodge. Pup was 1x ambush and hiding each for many lvls with little issue so maybe 1x them and add extra ranks as you can.

Yeah, just avoid undead and animals.

[Pin]

You can do both, but not well. I've variously been edged/ranged, brawling/ranged, and THW/ranged, and the only one that really works is brawling/ranged. I think here you'll either need to do two styles and give up ambushing/hiding or sacrifice a lot of magical skills to make it work. Still, do what's fun!

What does the core training for brawl/ranged look like?

I've been messing around with training in the mangler and I'm able to come up with:

29 Ranger

2x Ranged
2x Brawling
2x Perception

1.5x PP

1x HP
1x Dodge
1x Survival

Other:
Spells 29 ranger, 3 MnS
35 ranks of armor for chain
19 ranks of SMC
30 Climb
30 Swim

Would lack of CM and MoC hurt this build?

[Noldi]

Dodging and/or shield use needs to be at least 1x or its just a waste of TPs, IMHO. 2x'd perception really begins to show in the 30s and 40s for aimed arrow shots, otherwise if you're not going to be aiming your shots 1x should be enough. At your level, I put a lot into ambush and S&H and shot from hiding a lot; for later levels I think just standing in the open and shooting is better due to the reduced RT.

As someone noted above, I think a two-combat-styles ranger is feasible, but you're going to have to give something up, probably magic. I see you're already doing that, with no training in the 100 circle.

[Avaia]

Semi old thread, but thanks, folks. Level 19 now and decided to go the ranged route(surprise!..ok, not really.). I have a Rogue for OHE/Shield ambushing I suppose. Feels sort of pigeon-holed but it's fun. Looks like this so far -


XXXXXXXX(at level 19), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 93 21
Combat Maneuvers...................| 82 18
Ranged Weapons.....................| 142 42
Ambush.............................| 90 20
Physical Fitness...................| 93 21
Dodging............................| 90 20
Harness Power......................| 82 18
Survival...........................| 90 20
Stalking and Hiding................| 122 31
Perception.........................| 140 40
Climbing...........................| 50 10
Swimming...........................| 25 5
First Aid..........................| 90 20

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 19
Training Points: 7 Phy 0 Mnt (92 Phy converted to Mnt)

Any glaring problems? I need to start sprinkling in MIU and AS at some point. 2X Ambush? Not sure how I would pull that off, unless I give up CM for now as a Sniper, but half the time I end up open firing anyway, so I should give up S&H? What fun is that? Choices, choices.

Need to start thinking about finalizing stats, too. Right now they are -


Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Constitution (CON): 71 (5) ... 71 (5)
Dexterity (DEX): 84 (27) ... 84 (27)
Agility (AGI): 81 (20) ... 81 (20)
Discipline (DIS): 75 (2) ... 75 (2)
Aura (AUR): 74 (22) ... 74 (22)
Logic (LOG): 64 (7) ... 64 (7)
Intuition (INT): 69 (14) ... 69 (14)
Wisdom (WIS): 86 (23) ... 86 (23)
Influence (INF): 29 (-15) ... 29 (-15)
Mana: 64 Silver: 0

..from a start of

Strength (STR): 85
Constitution (CON): 65
Dexterity (DEX): 75
Agility (AGI): 75
Discipline (DIS): 70
Aura (AUR): 70
Logic (LOG): 60
Intuition (INT): 60
Wisdom (WIS): 80
Influence (INF): 20

[cwolff]

I like that your build isn't the typical sniper. That's admirable but WOW... a TON of points going to Cmans. It's not a bad thing, but can also be a later level goal.

Going ranged you may as well get your ambush up to 2x. At your current level you'll start to get AS benefits from it. If possible, pickup at least one rank of Summoning and one rank of Blessings. According to the Whirlin guide that's all you should do until you've got the rest of your training where you want it.

S&H may as well be either 2x or 1x IMO. 2x and hide from most everything, stay in hiding and snipe. 1x and hide from everything but undead and animals.

Have you thought of getting your armor to at least 30 for brig right now, then pumping up CMAN's later while not training armor? More Dodge is never bad and you're already looking into some MIU and AS. I suppose you'll want some of that though I've found I never use scrolls and the only magic items I end up using are small statues so I can't give much advice about getting those skills.

Stats are tough. RT is so STR dependent I ended up hitting 100's in STR, AGI and DEX by like level 40. Now I'll have to pay for a fixstats or grind bounties. I'd say to do what you can to at least shoot a composite bow aimed in 5 seconds. Other than that, set for as high as you can.

[Avaia]

Thanks.

Five months, wow. Didn't realize it had been that long.

A powerhouse(!) level 24 now, and hitting the archery mid-20s tough time. Do I remember reading that Archery is tough in the 20's? Can't reliably hit what I Aim for, and Hiding works at times but I get searched out an awful lot. So...it's open archery 90% of the time.

Letting S&H fall to 1x(I think), and leaving off CM training for now. Relaxing on those I am actually seeing some training points, so 2x Ambush looks semi-feasible. Actually been in Brig for a while(undertrained for it) and was just thinking today I will maybe bite the bullet and get Armor Use to 30(25 at the moment). I am so used to Mana Spellup that I started to try and get the SMC to 25, but that's a lot of points, so it's slow. Followed Whirlins Guide and got 1 rank of Summoning and Blessings.

I have been using a Longbow because its what I had, and just this level started to see un-aimed shots at 4 seconds(with Wizards Strength), man that is nice. You do start to see glimpses of the power of Archery.