Types of Rangers

[SoulSeer]

I've been back for about two years now and most of that time I have spent as an open archer. I really enjoy the set up I have but am curious as to other effective builds. I'm level 82 and hunt mainly in OTF ducts. It seems I have the most success there rather than the bowels or rift. Rift is hard really because of the undead. I'm set up to spikethorn/nature fury.

CoL master

Just curious as to what other ranger's around the same level have had success with.

[Aluvius]

The one I'm most curious about is THW, but I don't really see much info on it. It seems that archery and 1h/shield are by far the most popular. Probably because of how dang effective they are with a ranger's skillset. :)

[Tgo01]

Spikethorn. Nuff said.

[cwolff]

I'd like to hear from people who are going with a brawl build at that level. I've stuck with my old Voln-fu build and it's been a dream from levels 23-50. Basically open archer for bandits and like levelish living creatures, then UCS for uphunting 5-20 lvls and undead (I just ucs them because it's easier than carrying around blessed arrows). Still avoid non-corp undead if they are high enough above me that I can't ward their spells but the versatility that comes from both styles in conjunction with Voln has been great.

[Aluvius]

Oh man that's a great idea for an archer, going Voln and using UCS against undead. Actually you don't even have to go Voln if you just wear blessable hand/feet gear and keep it blessed. Huh, still a point investment but quite useful for alot of other things like if you get disarmed.

I never thought of that, I always stopped at; ugh blessing arrows in addition to the annoyance of regular arrows, no thanks. :)

[loxe]

have two rangers.. one was Ohe/shield 0-mid 40s then switched over to ranged sniper build. now at level 64 am open archer hunting mino's.
the other is 2handed ambusher currently at level 41 hunting greater ice giants in icemule. (using a 4x hcw quarter staff)

as a side note rarely ever use spikethorn or fury. but i use sounds, tangleweed, callswarm constantly.

[Ryku]

I went from 60 to about 115 as a pure 616 ranger. 1 rank of ranged weapons was my only weapon training, the rest went into ranger spells and essential skills like spirit spells, armor, PF, cmans, dodge, etc. Works wonders with COL + aspect of the owl.

[Archigeek]

I thought there were two types of rangers: lost, and not sure where they are.

[Merala]

I have a THW ranger who is about 65. So far it's worked out pretty well for her. The biggest problem I have is lack of AS since I don't have BOND or WSPEC.

[Parkbandit]

I went from 60 to about 115 as a pure 616 ranger. 1 rank of ranged weapons was my only weapon training, the rest went into ranger spells and essential skills like spirit spells, armor, PF, cmans, dodge, etc. Works wonders with COL + aspect of the owl.

I've been considering this since I have a fixskills still to use. Are there any other factors that go into spike thorn other than number of ranger spells?

[cwolff]

Training in Spiritual Lore, Summoning provides a percent chance for one extra damage cycle, using (Summoning Lore skill/2)-30.

[BriarFox]

I've been considering this since I have a fixskills still to use. Are there any other factors that go into spike thorn other than number of ranger spells?

Level difference versus the target, target's status and position (i.e. prone), target's armor, and target's encumbrance. Some creatures are immune to spike thorn, too, but not many.

[Ryku]

I've been considering this since I have a fixskills still to use. Are there any other factors that go into spike thorn other than number of ranger spells?

Ranger ranks, (flora and fauna of environment but I think that gets wiped out due to 625), level difference between you and your target, and the mobility/resistances of your target. Then there are flying creatures that are immune to spikes (war griffins in OTF) and magic immune guys (constructs in OTF and destroying in the scatter). I pretty much found all the creatures I fought within reasonable level difference of me to get completely hosed by 1-3 spikes when I was leveling up except for stuff in the bowels. They are just too beefy in there I guess. Once I hit cap and had 162 ranger ranks I was one shotting in nelemar probably 70% of the time I'd say.

[SoulSeer]

Ryku... would you recommend Hauberk as a pure ranger? I use it as a hybrid open archer and the failure rate can be bitch.

[zhelas]

Ryku... would you recommend Hauberk as a pure ranger? I use it as a hybrid open archer and the failure rate can be bitch.

I know this was directed to Ryku, but i will chime in. Wear the armor that you feel comfortable with with the amount of failure. I personally wouldn't put my open aim ranger in hauberk. He wears a nice set of Augmented Chain. Yes failure is a bitch but I feel that armor balances my ranger's spells and archery.

If I were going more as a pure caster, I would wear lighter armor, a nice set of Brig for example.

[Suppressed Poet]

Don't worry...Whirlin is working on a future ranger guide that will answer all questions about rangers forever. Just wait. :p

[droit]

I wore hauberk for a while and I found the extra 2% hindrance to be rather annoying. I moved back down to aug chain and have been happy ever since.

[Merala]

My ranger just moved into hauberk. Considering she doesn't use spells as much, it works out okay so far. We'll see as time goes on.

[droit]

If I weren't so spell-reliant, I'd switch to hauberk in a heartbeat.

[Suppressed Poet]

You can always lug around plain helmet for those situational times you want the extra protection. Problem solved.

[Ryku]

I like aug chain with 100 ranks of armor training. Get that first rank of overtraining bonus without having to dip into the double training costs. The random death crits to the head and neck suck tho no doubt about it. I think you could argue all day about with is better between aug and hauberk.

[KneeCapper]

I spike 99% in brig with a 127 ranks in armor and find the spell failure to be 'acceptable'. Some rooms tend to up the percentage of failure so I just try to avoid those rooms.

[Gelston]

The one I'm most curious about is THW, but I don't really see much info on it. It seems that archery and 1h/shield are by far the most popular. Probably because of how dang effective they are with a ranger's skillset. :)

My first character in GS (that I played past level 2) was a THW ranger. It was hella fun. This was like 17 years ago though, I never tried one in GS4 but I imagine it would be extremely viable.... Although you pretty much have to try to make a character that isn't.

[Merala]

My first character in GS (that I played past level 2) was a THW ranger. It was hella fun. This was like 17 years ago though, I never tried one in GS4 but I imagine it would be extremely viable.... Although you pretty much have to try to make a character that isn't.

It is viable. I might not be able to hunt the Rift though (lack of AS) but we'll see. So far though, for 65 levels it's done really well for me. Just moved into 7x hauberk. Maybe with a 10x weapon I could pull off the Rift.

[Aluvius]

I've seen a couple of rangers talk about lack of AS compared to warriors. I see 20 from bonding/specialization, hmm do rangers just 1x CM usually? You pick 10 up from 606. It doesn't seem like a huge AS difference but I lack any knowledge of high end hunting grounds.

[droit]

Yes, 1x CM is all that's viable for most rangers without large sacrifices. 1x CM vs 2x CM comes to a difference of half your level in AS. At 50, a warrior's AS will be 25 higher than a ranger's, all else equal. Then you add in the ever-popular surge of strength and a net +10 from bond/spec, and you can see how AS difference begins to grow.

[Aluvius]

Yeah I didn't realize non archer rangers didn't go over 1x CM usually. Dang that is a nice difference, especially near cap. I guess being a halfing ranger melee specced would be rough.

[SoulSeer]

I don't have the points to train in CM at all. Although as an open archer I have had no problems hunting at or above my level and am self sufficient when I have to be. I stupidly lost a lot of my best gear when I got my bot bard to sing to my items so I could make a list and I put them down at a table and the server went down. Lost 6x bows, 6x HCW brig, a bunch of nice enhasives for sword and board training.... it hurt my back account but Im slowing coming back.

I've decided to stick with open archer because I do like it. Still hunting OTF but after I lost my 5x fusion bow Im hunting with a plain jane 4x from now on down there. I think I will make a switch to aug chain.

My last question is should I spend my money on a heavily sighted 5x bow of sell my 7x hauberk and buy some aug chain with at least HCW?

Thanks for all the comments.

[cwolff]

My last question is should I spend my money on a heavily sighted 5x bow of sell my 7x hauberk and buy some aug chain with at least HCW?

Thanks for all the comments.

The value of sighting goes down as you get higher in level. IMO the bow enchant for AS and DS is more important than the sighting so you probably don't need to stretch your bank account on a sighted bow. There have been quite few relatively cheap 6x bows for sale lately.

[Jace Solo]

I went from 60 to about 115 as a pure 616 ranger. 1 rank of ranged weapons was my only weapon training, the rest went into ranger spells and essential skills like spirit spells, armor, PF, cmans, dodge, etc. Works wonders with COL + aspect of the owl.

What does this training plan look like?

[Ryku]

Sorry my account isn't active anymore otherwise I'd put it up.