Coming back at level 39

[Taernath]

I'm looking for some advice on what to hunt at level 39, being that the last time I actively hunted or really played GS was right before GSIV was released. I remember I used to hunt greater ice giants, but would appreciate some other suggestions. Also, have things changed very much for rangers? Are there any specific things I ought to know about? What cmans do most rangers find useful?

Here are my stats and skills to pick apart (these were based off the GI charts posted a few years back... I'm not particularly interested in long-term growth):

Name: Adrenath D'Sparyl Race: Human Profession: Ranger (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 48 Expr: 1687696 Level: 39
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 94 (27) ... 94 (27)
Constitution (CON): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Dexterity (DEX): 89 (19) ... 89 (19)
Agility (AGI): 82 (16) ... 82 (16)
Discipline (DIS): 89 (19) ... 89 (19)
Aura (AUR): 78 (14) ... 78 (14)
Logic (LOG): 69 (14) ... 69 (14)
Intuition (INT): 79 (19) ... 79 (19)
Wisdom (WIS): 78 (14) ... 78 (14)
Influence (INF): 57 (3) ... 57 (3)
Mana: 120 Silver: 84

Adrenath (at level 39), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 141 41
Shield Use.........................| 141 41
Combat Maneuvers...................| 141 41
Edged Weapons......................| 182 82
Ambush.............................| 141 41
Physical Fitness...................| 140 40
Dodging............................| 140 40
Arcane Symbols.....................| 5 1
Harness Power......................| 140 40
Spirit Mana Control................| 58 12
Survival...........................| 140 40
Stalking and Hiding................| 180 80
Perception.........................| 141 41
Climbing...........................| 70 15
Swimming...........................| 70 15
First Aid..........................| 45 9

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 10

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 30
Training Points: 0 Phy 10 Mnt

Adrenath, the following Combat Maneuvers are available for you to train in:

Combat Movement (cmovement), Rank 3 (CM points needed: 6)
Combat Focus (focus), Rank 2 (CM points needed: 6)
Combat Mastery (cmastery), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Shadow Mastery (smastery), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 4)
Dirtkick (dirtkick), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Shield Bash (sbash), Rank 3 (CM points needed: 9)
Disarm Weapon (disarm), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Sweep (sweep), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Feint (feint), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Hamstring (hamstring), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Precision (precision), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 6)
Garrote (garrote), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Subdual Strike (sstrike), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Multi-Fire (mfire), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Side by Side (sidebyside), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)
Trip (trip), Rank 1 (CM points needed: 3)

Adrenath, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Movement cmovement 2
Combat Focus focus 1
Shield Bash sbash 2

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 5
Unlearning Combat Maneuver Training Points: 17
Estimated time until next point conversion: 1 hour, 14 minutes
Total Points converted during your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 2
Number of days remaining in your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 23 days

Any help is appreciated.

[Paradii]

Make sure you get Wall of Thorns (640) as quick as you can. I'd suggest training up to at least double chain armor (60 ranks), I know there a few rangers on this board that rave about augmented, however.

As for CMAN's, if you plan on staying in the shadows a lot, SMastery is nice, as is Dirtkick. Plan on being out in the open, Feint and Disarm come in handy. Anything else is just for RP reasons. I personally like Garrote, but not for hunting.

As for big changes? Introduction of a few new spells, i.e. 615, 640, 650. Not sure if this happened before or after you left, but tangleweed and killer weed got combined. Training in Lores have some decent effects on your spells. And archery and two weapon combat are very viable hunting paths.

And for hunting, I think I was hunting in River's Rest at training 39. Swamp Hags and the such, but there are some undead creatures in Illistim that are around that age bracket.

Hope this helps.

[bgoodsoil]

seems like most rangers are archers so they go for double chain because it protects their arms. Arm injuries affect archery. For ambushers, leg injuries penalize your ability to hide so we just love that augmented chain. It covers legs. Also, it's the heaviest armor that rangers can train in without spending a ton in Armor Use. Aug takes 70 ranks, Hauberk(the next level up) takes 110 I think.

As for hiding, I single in S&H and don't have any problems for the most part. I'm 37. I've heard a lot of complaints about it being really hard to hide when you get further up so years down the road I may need to change that.

Dirtkick is a really good cman, it's cheap and it helps a ton. Natural critters, panthers/dogs and such, are really hard to hide from....til ya kick some dirt in their eyes. It also reduces their ability to evade/block/parry your attack. I mastered Shadow mastery and used to run it nonstop but recent changes mean that it's hard to do that. There's a cool down period and whatnot, there's a good thread on here full of people bitching about it.

Also, there are tons of critters that are giants or titans or otherwise just huge. So you can't smack 'em in the head. You can ambush their leg and then go for the head or get a cman like sweep or hamstring to get them on the ground first. It's a little faster that way. Note, hamstring doesn't work on a lot of undead.

I used to do two weapon combat but it got too expensive to train in. Oftentimes the first smack kills 'em anyways. I wear aug chain, 1.5x shields, 2x edged, 1x cman, 2x ambush(it adds to damage), 1x S&H and 2x perception.

I don't train in dodge AT ALL. Yeah, I know, I'm dumb. I got mobility, I'm insta-singled and dodge costs a ton. The main reason why I'm so strapped for training points is that I double in ambush and it's expensive. But man...I can do some damage. I'll take a death every now and then for being able to pound some critter's skull into his tailbone consistently. I use a tower shield and if you look at the shield equations that's the best for a less dodgey sorta character.

I also dropped my physical fitness back down to 20 where my hit points topped out. PF helps with redux but I don't bother with it. Maybe I'm wrong but from what I understand it only helps out a lot at the higher levels. spellcasters lose a lot of it anyways. Again, I'm kinda fuzzy on redux. PF also helps how fast you regain stamina--this can make or break shadow mastery if you use it.

I don't have any spirit spells, I think they're a waste. I don't have any survival/first aid because I don't skin either. Yeah, I'm pretty much a one trick pony. but it's one heckuva trick!

I love imbeddables. I run strength non-stop. some corporeal undead don't crit and are really hard to hide from. I rub a haste amulet and swing for the fences in double time from the open. Krakiipedia will tell you all you need to know about training in Magic Item Use. I have 20 ranks and the most expensive spell I use is 509. my success rate is somewhere in the 90% range.

I'd drop that arcane symbols unless you have some weird use for 1 rank of it. and 40 ranks of harness power is a lot. I've got 30 just so I can cast colors in the park but I really never need that much in combat, that may change with wall of thorns though. You'll find out before me!

Another big thing is the animal companion. They're pretty much a very zested toy animal. You tell it to attack....25 seconds later it finally does. They don't follow right with you so most of the time they aren't even around for the fight. You'll hear a of talk about getting their affinity levels up. Raising the affinity level really doesn't change much. don't bother feeding/scratching/petting it. Park your character in a room somewhere with the critter and hit control-R for rest mode, come back 3 days later..voila! undying loyalty!

this website will help you find an AC
http://sildraug.tripod.com/id10.html

and this tells you all about affinity
http://web.archive.org/web/20041009210137/cc.manatree.com/guides/ACAffinity.html


I wouldn't really look for specific hunting areas. Go to the adventurer's guild and hunt where they tell you to. When you turn in a job you go past Must Rest into Saturated. You pulse much higher when sat. It pretty much turns your 3x into 4x. Plus you get more loot and bounty points.

Anyways, I don't know everything but I'm pretty solid on what I posted up there. If I screwed something up hopefully somebody that knows better will chime in. Good luck!

[Silvanostar]

i'd say it would depend on how you play your ranger. right now, i'm using the cookie cutter brawl/voln/archer build and it works pretty well.

for spells, you could get away with training just 600s but after a while, your td will start trailing so 101, 107, and 120 help a lot.

dodging is pretty expensive, but with 1x dodge, 618, and 640, i pretty much dodge at least 1/4 of all attacks that come my way.

i haven't trained a lot in cmans so i wouldn't be able to help with that. i'm aiming to learn dirt kick and disarm though.

the ranger is one class that is very forgiving when it comes to training paths and you get a fixskills once a year anyway so don't be afraid to play around with your training.