Rangely Advice

[grapedog]

This is where I am right now...I have about 3 days left from my first 30 days to move skills instantly. Level 13 sylvan ranger, OHE Ambusher.

What is the good, bad and ugly...or is it fine. I don't think I'm breaking any traditions here...but it's always good to hear from folks that have done it before with this class.


------------------------------------------------------
Strength (STR): 74 (12) ... 74 (12)
Constitution (CON): 80 (15) ... 80 (15)
Dexterity (DEX): 43 (7) ... 43 (7)
Agility (AGL): 68 (14) ... 68 (14)
Discipline (DIS): 84 (12) ... 84 (12)
Aura (AUR): 80 (20) ... 80 (20)
Logic (LOG): 84 (17) ... 84 (17)
Intuition (INT): 68 (9) ... 68 (9)
Wisdom (WIS): 68 (9) ... 68 (9)
Influence (INF): 59 (4) ... 59 (4)

Armor Use..........................| 62 13
Shield Use.........................| 62 13
Combat Maneuvers...................| 35 7
Edged Weapons......................| 108 26
Ambush.............................| 90 20
Physical Fitness...................| 62 13
Dodging............................| 62 13
Harness Power......................| 62 13
Survival...........................| 108 26
Stalking and Hiding................| 90 20
Perception.........................| 90 20
Climbing...........................| 25 5
Swimming...........................| 25 5

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 3

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 11
-------------------------------------------------

1x Armor
1x Shield
Cman's when I have the points(aiming for 1x eventually(have 2 ranks dirtkick at the moment))
2x OHE
1.5x Ambush
1x PT
1x Dodge
1x HP
2x Survival
1.5x Stalk/Hide
1.5x Perception
Swim and Climb on occasion

1x spells(i have more than my level, but I haven't payed double because of the bonus baby levels)

[Sean]

why 1x dodge instead of 1x CM? my understanding is that most sword/board rangers aim for .75x dodge and 1x cm. 618 gives you dodge ranks

[Stunseed]

Also using an OHE, you're fine with 1x ambush. Single survival at first, as well. .5x to .75x in dodge and get yourself some CM.

Here's Stunseed's training as a sword/boarder.

Stunseed (at level 82), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 170 70
Shield Use.........................| 183 83
Combat Maneuvers...................| 216 116
Edged Weapons......................| 266 166
Ambush.............................| 183 83
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 120 30
Physical Fitness...................| 194 94
Dodging............................| 183 83
Magic Item Use.....................| 105 25
Harness Power......................| 181 81
Spirit Mana Control................| 102 24
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 5 1
Stalking and Hiding................| 183 83
Perception.........................| 183 83
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 120 30

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 30

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 50

[grapedog]

what do you do with all the CMAN points, aside from dirtkick and maybe one or two others...most of them seem not very worthwhile...when you could have improved other skills.

Hiding helps you get into hiding, ambush helps the dmg after you hit and perception helps you hit what you aim for correct? I could see dropping Ambushing, but hiding and perception seem pretty useful.

I notice you have 30 ranks of MoC, do you Mstrike more than Ambush since you cannot do both?

[Stunseed]

Stunseed, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Movement cmovement 2
Dirtkick dirtkick 4
Shield Bash sbash 1
Disarm Weapon disarm 4
Feint feint 4
Side by Side sidebyside 4

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 2

I don't hide. I hit things, hard. If I MUST hide, I waste 8 mana to Camo. Over 1x'ing is needed for two-handers, certainly, but I was 1.5x in Ambush only for it to be a waste to me, personally.

I do both mstrike and ambush. In swarms I 635, and then in 3 sec RT I mstrike. I can openly aim quite well, and it's only amplified when hiding.

[Sean]

Wspec1

[Paradii]

Garrote is tons of fun against people.

[grapedog]

ok, so you're not an ambusher. I'm going for more of a magical, ambushing ranger, not so much into redux and open combat.

[Silvanostar]

fixskill to archery/brawling! jk

you could probably cut back on perception, but if you plan on ambushing. you will definitely want to 2x your hiding.

as for cmans, you could also throw points into disarm, feint, and shadow mastery.

for spells, since you're using a shield, i'd say get to 618, then up to 120 for td, then back up the ranger circle. if you go with voln, forget 130 but if you go with col you might consider it.

[Sharnath]

Below you will find my training. I am a sword/board ambusher and have yet to have a problem hunting anywhere. I do use a heavily crit weighted weapon which can add to the ease of hunting. I would suggest 1x survival and 1x first aid instead of 2x survival. Some well placed herbs can keep you in the field for quite a long time.

Sharnath (at level 63), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 170 70
Shield Use.........................| 164 64
Combat Maneuvers...................| 163 63
Edged Weapons......................| 230 130
Ambush.............................| 176 76
Physical Fitness...................| 163 63
Dodging............................| 163 63
Arcane Symbols.....................| 90 20
Harness Power......................| 165 65
Spirit Mana Control................| 35 7
Survival...........................| 163 63
Stalking and Hiding................| 219 119
Perception.........................| 163 63
Climbing...........................| 108 26
Swimming...........................| 108 26
First Aid..........................| 163 63

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 20

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 40


Sharnath, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Shadow Mastery smastery 5
Disarm Weapon disarm 2

Above all, train the way you want and fit your hunting to that.

Sharnath
Weed Mage

[bgoodsoil]

My ranger at 41 has exactly the build you're talking about. For the longest time I wouldn't put points into anything that reduced the offensive power I had--period. I posted my 2 cents a little while ago in this forum. However, I recently did a fixskill and changed a few things--mainly to see what effect it would have.

First, I dropped my ambush down from 2x to 1.5x and my perception from 2x to 1.5x. I noticed no change in crits or hitting what I'm aiming at. Note--I'm swinging a very heavily crit weighted axe so I may be maxing out the crits pre-randomization anyways.

Also, I'm a dwarf and I pretty much always aim for a leg first. The BCS gives me a bonus to hitting legs on a big critter(don't know how this'll affect you).

I also recently trained in survival. Before, I had 0 training in it but never got skinning jobs. I'm happy with 1x. I may not find something foraging every time but it's often enough that I'm not getting impatient on foraging jobs.

oh, and here's the greatest ranger/foraging website known to man.
http://gemstone.kthanks.com/forage.php?region=&map=&herb=ambrominas%20leaf

I'm 1x in hiding and don't have any difficulties. Undead or natural critters see me sometimes but that's about it. I've heard higher level folks complain about how hard it is to hide though. (Kiramon are HARD to hide from)

Dirtkick is the best thing we have going but I've never had any luck with any cman til I have 5 ranks in it. You may be better off just picking up some wspec til you can max it out. Maybe at the lower level you'll have different results?

I've got 0 swimming ranks and have never seen a need for them outside of River's Rest(you can grab some waterwalking in town for the rare occassion that you run into water.) But heck, it is pretty cheap.

Some of the stuff I do may not work for you at a particular level or while hunting some critters. TD was a big issue for me and it'll be worse for you in time since you don't get the bonus that dwarves do.

I'm sure you've heard that 1xing in armor isn't any good--train for a certain set of armor then leave it there. krakiipedia will tell you all you need to know about that.

I don't like spirit spells. We're strapped for MP as it is without wasting 'em on that. I did however pick up 101 just for the TD help. I'm still iffy about keeping it though.

As far as the stats go that's more of a growth thing. If your stat maxes out you just lost some points. I'd make sure your agidex is at a level that you're ambushing with a falchion/axe in 6 seconds though. Maybe get it so that you're barely doing that so you have plenty of room to grow?

Hope I helped. Good luck.

[Stunseed]

Rangers don't get wspec. Fuckers.

[kgolfer]

Stunseed,

How much does side-by-side help?

[Stunseed]

Stunseed and Jolena hunt together all the time. Jolena has 5 ranks, and it adds 15 AS/DS. Stunseed has 4 ranks, and it adds 11 AS/DS.

Occasionally, Keyvon hunts with them. As a 0 CM Wizard, it adds 1 AS/DS to all in the group. Jaysehn has sbs ranks as well, but I don't remember how much it adds ( I think Stun gets 4 and Jolena 5 AS/DS ).

[Paradii]

Stunseed and Jolena hunt together all the time. Jolena has 5 ranks, and it adds 15 AS/DS. Stunseed has 4 ranks, and it adds 11 AS/DS.

Occasionally, Keyvon hunts with them. As a 0 CM Wizard, it adds 1 AS/DS to all in the group. Jaysehn has sbs ranks as well, but I don't remember how much it adds ( I think Stun gets 4 and Jolena 5 AS/DS ).

What would a person with 4 ranks of SBS get if their party consisted of someone 1x in CM but 0 ranks of SBS? Still 1 AS/DS?

[graysun]

This is where I am right now...I have about 3 days left from my first 30 days to move skills instantly. Level 13 sylvan ranger, OHE Ambusher.

What is the good, bad and ugly...or is it fine. I don't think I'm breaking any traditions here...but it's always good to hear from folks that have done it before with this class.


My two cents - hope it isn't too late to be of use, if it is at all.

In terms of stats, I might take a bit from DIS and INF and put it in DEX and INT. It looks like these stats are built for growth, but it may be worthwhile to look at the difference in TPs doing it the other way.

It looks like your training is pretty sound. As mentioned earlier, singling in both surivival and first aid would save 0/1 per level versus doubling survival, and yields the same benefit in terms of skinning. I might also drop perception down to 1x due to the relative scarcity of MTP for most rangers.

My sword/board ranger trained into brig pretty early - I think before 20th. The points came back as he leveled, and brig protection is noticeably better than double leather - IMO worth temporarily throwing away some PTP.

For spells, I felt strongly about getting up to 108 - my TD stinks compared to my other defenses and spells are harder to come by in plat, so 107 was a big deal for me. Also, unstunning has saved countless deaths of hunting partners, or at least having to free up a hand to drag the person away during a long stun. That said, 640 is absolutely all it's cracked up to be. I overtrained in spells big time in the late 30's to have both 640 and 108 as soon as possible after 40th, then skipped spells altogether until down to 1x.

When you have 618, being fully singled in dodge will be less important than it is now. That might be the time to get up to 1x in CM, or however much you are aiming to get. I went for shadow mastery, which is expensive - both in terms of CMAN points and the opportunity cost of not having any other CMANs, but the 2-second hiding is really nice when you hit 4th rank. It seemed like the way to go for my 2x hiding ambusher.

My ranger was 26th level when the conversion from GS3 to GS4 happened, so I didn't have interlevel training and such in the early going, but these are some things I'd consider if I were doing it now. Hope this is helpful, or at least not completely worthless.