Starting out a ranger - Help?

[Dan95726]

So... I've played just about every class in my on-again/off-again GS escapades, but never played a ranger. It's been a while since I've played, and I'm sure things have changed. Here's what I'm doing:

Giantman Ranger

90 Str (Primarily a weapon swinger)
60 Con
85 Dex
63 Agi
64 Dis
90 Aur (9 Spirit Points for CoL purposes)
45 Log (This was less important than Int)
65 Int
78 Wis
20 Inf (Useless except on a bard?)

1x Armor
2x Shield
2x Blunt (Like the idea of a giant carrying around a blunt object as a weapon)
1x Cman
1x PF
2x Per
2x First Aid
2x Survival
1x Harness Power
1x Spiritual Mana Control
1x Ranger Spells

I went high on Perception, FA, and Survival for Bounty tasks. I wanted him to be able to knock out foraging and skinning tasks in no time flat. Is this a total waste of TPs? I do like the idea of being able to be a deft skinner, too. Right now I'm on day 2 and I'm almost level 4. I'll definitely re-do things when I get towards the end of the month, but for now any input / guidance that I could get would be great.

Thanks,
Dan

[BriarFox]

Welcome to rangerdom. Couple of things:

45 Log (This was less important than Int) - Way too low. LOG governs experience absorbtion. You'll hate yourself for a low stat here later.

78 WIS - WIS is a prime stat for rangers and counts double for TPs. Think about upping it just for that reason.

Blunt/Shield - You can go this path, but expect to have to rely on spells or cmans for set-ups before you can get a good shot in.

2x Perception - don't need that much unless you're an archer or trying really hard to avoid maneuvers at cap. 40 ranks to 1x would do.

1x SMC - too many wasted points unless you want to use 620 a ton. Put some of those points toward lores instead.

2x Survival/FA - you'll be a great skinner with that build.

[Dan95726]

Welcome to rangerdom. Couple of things:

45 Log (This was less important than Int) - Way too low. LOG governs experience absorbtion. You'll hate yourself for a low stat here later.

78 WIS - WIS is a prime stat for rangers and counts double for TPs. Think about upping it just for that reason.

Blunt/Shield - You can go this path, but expect to have to rely on spells or cmans for set-ups before you can get a good shot in.

2x Perception - don't need that much unless you're an archer or trying really hard to avoid maneuvers at cap. 40 ranks to 1x would do.

1x SMC - too many wasted points unless you want to use 620 a ton. Put some of those points toward lores instead.

2x Survival/FA - you'll be a great skinner with that build.

Hmmmm... well, I was playing around with Tsoran's spreadsheet to get the most TPs out of my stat placement, which is how I ended up where I did. But if I drop down to 1x perception (Is this still enough to make foraging doable?), and dump the 1x SMC down to 'occasionally', then it frees up a few. I'll tweak my Logic up a tad (any advice as to where to move Stat Points from to do so?), and look into other weapon choices. Is there an 'ideal' weapon for a ranger? It seems like ranged weapons are popular, but I have a hard time picturing my big giant wandering around shooting things. I prefer (from an RP standpoint) him wandering around hitting things until they stop wiggling. But at the same time I don't want an inviable build.

Thanks for the help... and sorry to be so inquisitive. I want to try and do this right.

[BriarFox]

Hmmmm... well, I was playing around with Tsoran's spreadsheet to get the most TPs out of my stat placement, which is how I ended up where I did. But if I drop down to 1x perception (Is this still enough to make foraging doable?), and dump the 1x SMC down to 'occasionally', then it frees up a few. I'll tweak my Logic up a tad (any advice as to where to move Stat Points from to do so?), and look into other weapon choices. Is there an 'ideal' weapon for a ranger? It seems like ranged weapons are popular, but I have a hard time picturing my big giant wandering around shooting things. I prefer (from an RP standpoint) him wandering around hitting things until they stop wiggling. But at the same time I don't want an inviable build.

Thanks for the help... and sorry to be so inquisitive. I want to try and do this right.


Changing your WIS score just depends on whether you want to maximize stat growth or not, which is probably what Tsoran's spreadsheet is doing for you.

As for weapons, you don't need to switch. I'd just think about picking up some hiding/ambush or some MOC or such to give yourself more options. Otherwise, you may find yourself annoyed at how (relatively speaking) long it takes you to kill things. But then, I'm an archer, and I think anything over 3 seconds is a long time.

There's no ideal weapon for a ranger, but we do get lots of bonuses to archery, and the skills for it are relatively cheap for us. As the saying goes, though, you really can't screw up a ranger if you try. You'll still be viable in the end, so do what your RP tells you you should.

[Dan95726]

Changing your WIS score just depends on whether you want to maximize stat growth or not, which is probably what Tsoran's spreadsheet is doing for you.

As for weapons, you don't need to switch. I'd just think about picking up some hiding/ambush or some MOC or such to give yourself more options. Otherwise, you may find yourself annoyed at how (relatively speaking) long it takes you to kill things. But then, I'm an archer, and I think anything over 3 seconds is a long time.

There's no ideal weapon for a ranger, but we do get lots of bonuses to archery, and the skills for it are relatively cheap for us. As the saying goes, though, you really can't screw up a ranger if you try. You'll still be viable in the end, so do what your RP tells you you should.

I really appreciate all the help. I tweaked my stats and skills last night, and just about hit level 5. Time to start thinking about a society... Is Sunfist any good at lower levels? I was thinking about CoL for now, then switching when I got a little bit better at handling swarms, but I've never played Sunfist, and it sounds like it'd be fun to try out. Just would prefer not to get annihilated in the process.

Thanks again,
Dan

[GSKynthelig]

I think that Sunfist is easier at the lower levels because you don't have all the spells being casted at you like crazy. And other than for rank 15 you really don't have to do any camps. If you happen to go with a sniper training, camps are a bit easier shooting but they still find you kind of often.

[poison_Owns]

Not like either are incredibly expensive but 2x survival and 2x first aid seems like a bit of overkill to me... maybe 1x each? im pretty sure you get bonuses for skinning and foraging simply based on class, plus you have 603 and 604.

Also if you go with enough Aura for 8 spirit points that's pretty much all ya need to run sign of swords and shields simultaneously (attack and defense don't take a hit if you go down to 6 from 8) , which unless you are running another sign that takes spirit you'll be fine.

[poison_Owns]

forgot to mention that on the SMC thing i got to 20 ranks and stopped. Didn't train 'em my first 20 levels, probably trained it .5x/level until i got the 20 ranks, don't really remember though. It wasn't a priority to me but it's kinda nice to have.

I also got some MIU ranks until i got 15 ranks. Again neither of these were things i picked up along the way, but the MIU ranks were kinda nice to have too for haste imbeds and some measure of self reliance.