A couple questions about armor and rangers.
1. How many ranks of armor use and what type of armor do rangers shoot for for when they cap.
2. If a ranger has 40 ranks of armor use then would the best armor for her be chain mail?
A couple questions about armor and rangers.
1. How many ranks of armor use and what type of armor do rangers shoot for for when they cap.
2. If a ranger has 40 ranks of armor use then would the best armor for her be chain mail?
The more magical rangers usually stay in brig.
I think the trend of late however is that rangers are moving into chain, with some going as high as hauberk ( 110 ranks ). Augmented chain is damn close and needs only 70 ranks to accomplish.
LadyXXXXXXX: I guess I just like swallowing.
LadyXXXXXXX: OMG that thing is HUGE
Tyrillian [General]: "Do you worship V'tull?"
You [General]: "V'tull worships me."
1. What Stun said.
2. 40 ranks allows you to wear chain mail. I am an advocate of chain-class armor on rangers.
The change to 620 last December makes it possible for a ranger to get a nice set of partial-coverage chain and grow into it. So if you find a set of padded chain mail or double chain, then you can use 620-imbued greaves/helm when your character gets older in order to negate the loss of padding typically associated with using armor accessories, while still getting the upgrade to augmented chain or hauberk.
70 ranks for augmented chain all the way.
I'm a big advocate of having different armor options for different hunting situations. I agree with the other posters in going to 70 ranks but still keep a decent set of brig around for situational purposes. Then when you have more TP's than you know what to do with go for the 110.
I think hauberk (110 ranks) is the best armor for a ranger. I wouldn't wear any armor unless it has heavy crit padding though, because you avoid a lot of maneuver/CMAN (charge, etc.) deaths with heavy crit padding.
The only upside to wearing brig as opposed to heavier armor is the training points you save, and the easy availability of Forest Green Brig as opposed to crit padding in heavier armors.. You only "double pay" for armor training 9 or 10 times at cap (110 ranks). If you take those points and throw them into any other physical skill, there isn't as much of a benefit.
There are other reasons to wear brig over chain. Depends on what you are hunting and how it can hurt you.
advantages of brig
1. more ability to avoid manuevers
2. more dodge DS
3. ability to add resistance from a high level ranger
4. easier to cast out of
disadvantages
1. lower CVA
2. lower crit divisor
3. less desirable damage factors
Am I missing anything?
Last edited by Mtenda; 10-05-2008 at 01:54 AM.
I'm not sure what you mean about less desirable damage factors. I don't spend a lot of time figuring out the math of the game, but I think with the better crit divisor that hauberk offers that you always take less damage/shorter stuns on an AS/DS attack in hauberk (there may be exceptions on certain bolt spells or something). I think Latrinsorm will back me up on this because he is also a huge fan of anecdotal evidence.
My thoughts on armor is as follows
1- Brig was good till about 50 trains, nothing hit to hard for what I hunted then.
2-Augmented chain helped with reducing damage taken when I started stronghold and the stone giants and trolls. And I noticed a little help warding spells in my augmented chain but that might just be in my head.
3- Looking to get into full hauberk by 90 trains
4- Also might be in my head but the spell hindrance seems to happen about the same as when I was in brig as in my augmented chain and I use my spells a lot for vines and call swarm to keep good crowd control.
Well, I do understand the math of the game and really don't feel like breaking down all the ins and outs of armor at this moment. You can find everything you need to know on Krakiipedia and various other readily available sites. I'm not sure if you missed my point or not but I am definitely not saying that brig is better than aug. chain or chain hauberk in general. Just that there MAY be SOME situations depending on your training, what you are hunting, and most importantly hunting tactics, where you may decide to pull that set of brig out of your locker even though have enough training to wear chain class. For example, my rangers are ambushers and thus if I am patient and use smart hunting tactics I almost never get hit. Thus negating much of the need for a high crit divisor. Also, with the defensive spells available to the ranger, there is no problem defending against warding spells regardless of the armor worn against MANy BUT NOT ALL creatures. Thus negating much of the need for a higher CVA. Manuevers favor lighter armor in some ways. Bolts favor lighter armor in some ways. Yada yada yada. My point is never say never and never say always. That is all and sorry for the grammatical errors because I'm drunk.