Archery and new ranger spells

[Samire]

I just came back again and am reviewing the new ranger spell changes. I’m dusting off a young halfling ranger that is ~5k exp from level 20. I’d like to continue open archery while increasing my spellcasting over time. Looking for guidance on how to best maximize on the changes before I lock in my skills.

1. Is this still the best training plan for ranged?

2x+2 ranged
2x+2 ambush
1x+1 pt
1x+1 dodging
1x hp
2x+2 perception
1x ranger base

2. Are there summoning/blessings lore targets I should aim for while still young? I saw a comment to get 10 blessing lore ASAP for the AS benefits from tangle weed.

3. I’ve also seen a few comments about sticking with doubles. If one were to do this while staying in open, is it expected that liberal use of crowd control skills such as tangle weed and the new moonbeam is required to stay alive? If so, any advice here?

4. I also see there are or are coming (not sure) changes to CMANs that may introduce some more beneficial options for rangers. Anything considered must have or really good vs the prior consensus to just use cmans for maneuver and disarm defense?

5. I don’t understand how 603 is intended to be used. Is it purely intended to be a setup to increase the impact of other nature-based attack spells, or does it have some other value that I am not seeing and I should be weaving it in?

6. Any other advice on how to best use these new spells along-side a physical play style?

Thanks!

[Winter]

5. I don’t understand how 603 is intended to be used. Is it purely intended to be a setup to increase the impact of other nature-based attack spells, or does it have some other value that I am not seeing and I should be weaving it in?

The damage over time part forces monsters out of hiding, I'm not sure if that's intended or not but I found it very useful against Wind Wraiths. It's also a really nice spell to spam if you're a caster, I'd say it's on par with 502 Chromatic Circle and 302 Smite.

[rushblitz]

I'm a younger ranger but this is what i've picked up so far.

1. Training, if your an open archer ambush can be dropped. It does not help with aiming in open and provides very little AS and DS and only after 40 ranks. 15 AS at cap fully singled and DS like 20 in defensive stance. Not a good return on training points.

2. I would, 10 blessing lore for tangleweed gives up to 25 AS and up to 15 CS. That CS part is nice for landing the warding spells rangers have without having to over train the ranger spell circle. If your looking for point to train I'd skip some ranks in survival as blessing ranks up to 30 with 604 gives 1 bonus per and each rank of 604 is worth 3x a rank of survival. Can always catch survival back up if wanted too.

3. I'd get heavier armor out in the open. Getting hit in doubles hurts and the CvA is bad too. I'm using brig right now at 34 but I do have hiding.

4. Not sure

5. I use entropy for stuff that doesn't crit. Lead with an entropy to apply nature debuff, vine if creature can be tangled and vine does extra damage and casting entropy has a chance for 10 more AS with 625. Weave entropy and shots for the chance to get 1 second cast times and the AS buff. Some examples of creatures I use this on, elder tree spirits, cold guardians, troll wraiths.

6. Know they exist and try them out. I had a bounty for frozen corpses at 32 and they are 42 undead. Can't hide on them. Moonbeam + spike thorn took them out and I could complete the bounty. Mana intensive but hey only needed to kill like 10. The design I think they were going for was to have rangers be more magical and weave spells in between shots or swings. Which is a little strange as we go for one shot kills most the time. But it does work on the situation I posted above.

[Samire]

Thanks for your responses.

By eliminating ambush training, I will be able to pick up 27 ranks of armor use for brig, 10 MoC, 10 MIU, 22 SMC, 10 Blessings Lore, 0.5x climbing and swimming, and 1x FA and survival in addition to the above in my lvl 20 training. That change certainly freed up some points.

I enjoy fine-tuning my hunting tactics for different scenarios. So far I am seeing:

1. Use entropy on mobs that hide to force them out of hiding
2. Use entropy and vine on uncritable mobs to increase AS (is there a known list of these mobs somewhere?)

Would appreciate if anyone else has any tactics to share as well or advice on CMANs.

Thanks

[Silvanostar]

my hunting style on my ranger is quite simple with ranged: 610 and then shoot the critter in the eye. i only 1x in ambush and i've been picking up more magical skills with my extra tps. having a sephwir crossbow has helped too.

i won't train in cman until closer to cap since its pretty tp intensive. i use GoS sigils to take advantage of the stamina i'm just sitting on

[Ralk]

Looks like you got some reasonable advice above. I'll echo some of the main points:

Generally speaking, if you're going open archer you can neglect ambush and cman training to get additional spell ranks and lores. You're correctly prioritizing 10 blessing lore ranks to unlock AS boost from 610. Most fights will be 610 to disable followed by eye shots. 603 is really only useful if you want to wear down something like a noncorporeal undead without using more mana on 616. Otherwise, occasional tougher creatures might require 611 + 616. 619 remains useful against bandits.

[Asha]

Sorry for being a massive pain in the arse but can someone explain to me if the DS changed in some way for archery or THW for a ranger with the new spells or is it the same?

[Asha]

Meaning self DS. I could usually survive being caught and hit in open after firing a shot from the hedges. When I used my sorcerer as an archer back in the day the bow was like a runestave.

[Ralk]

The recent ranger spell updates didn't have any significant/direct effects on DS. The parry DS you get from ranged weapons is it's own thing - it's not linked to THW, magical ranks, or anything like that.

[Asha]

Thanks that’s great to know.
Also 612, this is great and all for shooting arrows when it occasionally fires off but for some reason it is the only time my arrows fly off into the distance.
They never do otherwise. It’s about 50% of the time they fly into the distance. Meaning 50% chance whenever 612 ‘flares’.
This normal?

[Dendum]

I have also noticed that when I get the tailwind message it often comes with flies off into the distance. Thought it was just me.