How does my training look so far and how can I improve it?

[XeroEdge]

How does my training look so far and how can I improve it? I'm going for max stats, open aim ranger. 2x armor, 2x ranged, 2x percep, 1x dodge, 1x pf, 1x hp, 1x survival, 1x summoning.

I'm trying to go 74-80 Armor to remove maneuver penalties with Hauberk. I've heard alot of good things about 202 ranger spells 101 summoner lore and eventually want to get to it that point.

Please critique.

Race: Sylvankind Profession: Ranger
Strength (STR): 70
Constitution (CON): 70
Dexterity (DEX): 31
Agility (AGI): 62
Discipline (DIS): 82
Aura (AUR): 77
Logic (LOG): 82
Intuition (INT): 39
Wisdom (WIS): 62
Influence (INF): 85

Level: 7
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 74 16
Ranged Weapons.....................| 74 16
Physical Fitness...................| 40 8
Dodging............................| 40 8
Harness Power......................| 40 8
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 40 8
Survival...........................| 40 8
Perception.........................| 74 16
Climbing...........................| 25 5

[JustDan]

Conventional wisdom (or what passes for it on the PC) is to stack all your stats into STR, AGI, DEX, and CON for the interim start-out period, then fix them all to what you're going to "really" do right before the deadline. Ditto with your skills. Outfit yourself with a claidh, go THW, CMan, and Armor, and pwn things for the first month. With a little dedication you can get to 15. With a little more you can get to 20. With some scripts and some luck you can get to 23-25 in the first month.

It's been a looong time since I played a ranger, so I'll leave those questions to the more qualified folk.

[Drazaan]

Beyond JustDan's great first 30-days leveling advice, the skills to focus on for an open archer ranger are:

2x ranged weapons
2x perception
.5x to 1x dodge (players have gotten by with none until post-cap, but I like to dodge. 618 will give you phantom dodge ranks and that definitely helps.)
0x to 2x ambush (If your plans are to 1x in it and you remain an open archer, I'd just skillfix into 1x after you are around level 60. The first 40 ranks do nothing for you and by level 60, the training efforts are worth only +5 AS so you aren't missing out on much until then. If maximizing your AS is something you want, by all means 2x.)
30 ranks in armor use for brig (2x to 30 ranks if you are impatient like me or like the durability. Keep pushing for hauberk if that's your thing, but you'll probably be safe until your 50th to 70th train in brig.)
.5x alternating between climbing and swimming until sufficient

Push your PF to whatever is needed for max health and keep it there until you catch up level-wise with the skill. If you are going to join GoS, I'd recommend at least 1.5x in the skill for life. If not, keep it at least at x1 to protect against maneuvers that factor it in in addition to semi-dux.

Keep your HP at level (7 ranks at level 7 rather than one more like all the other skills) because it only confers an extra mana point. I personally would not touch summoning lore until you were happy with the spell ranks you have or if you are generating extra TPs for it. If you are training in it to boost your Spikethorn and Nature's Fury, it would be much more beneficial at this level to just boost your ranger spell ranks in terms of damage with those spells and gaining the bonuses that come with having more ranger ranks. You can always skillfix into more summoning lore at a later point and the points can be used in a more efficient manner earlier on. Another options would be to fold the points into mana control to move towards the 24 ranks you need if you want to share. Just my suggestions.

I'm curious, you didn't mention anything about your spell research. 606 is something you will want to race towards for archery early on. By your description of the skills you are planning on training in, this sounds like a heavily armored/magic-oriented open archery ranger. By cutting back in dodge a bit or ambushing, that can free up TPs to place into spell research if this is your focus. I was essentially 1.5x in spells at level 40 (40 Ranger ranks & 20 MnS ranks) giving me access to most of our useful spells. Keep in mind the hindrances in hauberk may range from annoying to dangerous when it prevents the casting of crucial spells in decisive moments.

What's so beautiful about open archery is it can give you a great deal of flexibility in how you craft your ranger due to freedom with your TPs. Enjoy whatever path you take.

[Drazaan]

I just now glanced at your stat placement real quickly. I would use INF as your trash stat and shift some points to CON and INT so that they will max out at 100. While INF is useful to some classes, I wouldn't consider rangers one of them.

[droit]

Drazaan's advice more or less covers it. You're pretty much going to be an archer for a long time until you develop your own strategy for generating a lot of mana; the spell build is extremely mana intensive for rangers. It's also going to be a while before you can really overtrain ranger spells. Don't forgo the 100's; I tried that and it blew. Like Drazaan said, don't worry about the summoning lore until later and instead funnel those TPs into spells. There are several logical break points in the lore seed progression, so maybe find a low threshold and stop there for a bit.

[Tatetrick]

May I ask someone to go into the specifics on using a fix stat potion?

With my current allocation, I'm going to have some holes. I've got Dex and Str already at 100 at lvl 64. Should I be using one now to try to improve my end game numbers? Should I do it right before cap? I'm not sure how stat growth is affected or factored with the use of the potion..

[XeroEdge]

I just now glanced at your stat placement real quickly. I would use INF as your trash stat and shift some points to CON and INT so that they will max out at 100. While INF is useful to some classes, I wouldn't consider rangers one of them.

Ok, took your advice. I trashed my INF to 20, raised my dex and int.

As for spells, I'm currently 1x spells. I want to eventually be like the people in this post...

http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthread.php?t=40981

[droit]

Has it already been nearly 2.5 years since I fixskilled to a weedmage of doom? Where does the time go?

[XeroEdge]

Has it already been nearly 2.5 years since I fixskilled to a weedmage of doom? Where does the time go?

How did it work out? I wanted to do similar open aim archery with magic support like that post there skipping spirit spells all together.

[droit]

It's great. I'm probably one of the more versatile characters in the game and one of the few people who uses both sides of the scatter as his primary hunting ground.

I'd caution against skipping spirit spells. I tried it at first and found that the benefits and utility of the 100 circle far outweighed the extra ranger spells. I'm currently at 30 MnS and about to be back at 172 ranger circle.

[Ayamei]

Has it already been nearly 2.5 years since I fixskilled to a weedmage of doom? Where does the time go?

Into gemstone.

If you need some archery advice, this thread is good http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthread.php?t=49785

[Tatetrick]

May I ask someone to go into the specifics on using a fix stat potion?

With my current allocation, I'm going to have some holes. I've got Dex and Str already at 100 at lvl 64. Should I be using one now to try to improve my end game numbers? Should I do it right before cap? I'm not sure how stat growth is affected or factored with the use of the potion..


Guess I'll start mah own thread. :*(

[XeroEdge]

It's great. I'm probably one of the more versatile characters in the game and one of the few people who uses both sides of the scatter as his primary hunting ground.

I'd caution against skipping spirit spells. I tried it at first and found that the benefits and utility of the 100 circle far outweighed the extra ranger spells. I'm currently at 30 MnS and about to be back at 172 ranger circle.

you think I should 2x spells then and then put some spare points into CM?

If I 2x spells, even with spirit until 130 then rest in ranger?

[Drazaan]

you think I should 2x spells then and then put some spare points into CM?

If I 2x spells, even with spirit until 130 then rest in ranger?

I know you were asking Droit directly, but I figured I'd yak away a bit. That's the point of a message board, right?

2x spell research is essentially impossible pre-cap. That would be 51 MTPs per level towards spell research alone. Droit is not the norm for a ranger; less rangers than you could count on one hand have reached the amount of experience Droit has.

This is not to say you could not successfully play a pure ranger near cap or after cap with less TPs. You just won't have 2x spell research quite yet.

[droit]

He's right. 2x spells is not possible pre-cap. However, you can continue to 1x spells after 650/130 and overtrain when possible, ending up with somewhere between 70 and 100 ranger spells at cap (assuming 30 minor spirit).

[BriarFox]

If you're going to double on spells early, which has a lot of advantages, I'd do 20 MnS/20 Ranger, then push straight to 640 Ranger so you're at 20/40 by level 40.

[Tatetrick]

Obviously, with these gentlemen's suggested path, you probably won't be able to achieve weed-mage until cap as a ranger, however another question I might ask them is the viability of being caster in hauberk. Becoming so spell dependent, the hinderance of hauberk would scare me.

[droit]

Obviously, with these gentlemen's suggested path, you probably won't be able to achieve weed-mage until cap as a ranger, however another question I might ask them is the viability of being caster in hauberk. Becoming so spell dependent, the hinderance of hauberk would scare me.

Spell hindrance is not really an issue. I personally prefer aug chain over hauberk, but I used hauberk for a long time with no problems. Botching a cast isn't nearly as calamitous for a ranger as it is for a pure class. We've got the DS of a pure, decent combat maneuver defense, and the DF advantage of heavy armor.

The one thing you'll have to plan ahead for is mana generation, which I mentioned in my original post. Using a 16 mana spell for every attack definitely adds up, especially with 9-11% spell hindrance. There are several strategies for mana generation for you to choose from, but my personal favorite is 2x PF, sigil of power and a bunch of stamina recovery enhancives. I generate mana at a consistently high level throughout my hunt while sacrificing no physical AS or DS (i.e. from spirit loss). With this strategy, I have an effective mana pulse of ~150 in the field, with enough stamina to keep all my other sigils running.

[Drazaan]

The one thing you'll have to plan ahead for is mana generation, which I mentioned in my original post. Using a 16 mana spell for every attack definitely adds up, especially with 9-11% spell hindrance. There are several strategies for mana generation for you to choose from, but my personal favorite is 2x PF, sigil of power and a bunch of stamina recovery enhancives. I generate mana at a consistently high level throughout my hunt while sacrificing no physical AS or DS (i.e. from spirit loss). With this strategy, I have an effective mana pulse of ~150 in the field, with enough stamina to keep all my other sigils running.

Out of curiosity Droit, mind sharing how much stamina recovery enhancives you wear to achieve an effective mana pulse of 150 in the field? I recall a thread where you essentially posted it (maybe it was the 'What's all the crap you take with you hunting?' thread), but I can't seem to find it right now.

[droit]

Around +40 on most hunts, but I have the capability to max it out when necessary, along with some max stamina enhancives to further increase stamina recovery past the enhancives cap.