Recurve Bow  

in my opinion i believe that bowage should be maxed, as it has been afore mentioned, besides, when they add the 2 other skills that we are supposed to get (long shot and volley) you might miss out. but i would have CD and piercing equal adn at lvl 50 should be like 25 or 27 (if your a celt probably blades, since the other two ranger types arent very strong, they should be using piercing cause they rely on dex more than blades) id bring path finding to around 25 - 27 since the improvements you get after 27 are pathetically small, and stealth not very high, id use it to creep around but i wouldnt want to try and sneak through groups of people, and once you fire anyways you cant stealth again for a bit.

my reasoning behind the cd and piercing at those lvls is that somtimes your gonna need to melee, and when that time comes around you will be the equivelent to a toddler stabbing at a enemy player with a q-tip, that and having higher CD means you should be CD-ing more often, (also weapon speed deal with that, if both of your weapons are at around the same speed logically they should both hit at the same time) but having a higher CD would increase the rate at which you do this, and piercing ( or blades ) because if you have a high skill in the weapon you are using you should miss or fumble less. and everyone should know about that, it has frustrated me. i miss that very last swing and i die, but i rely on my bow a wee bit more, since blues are dead before thay get to me and yellows are pretty close. not that im a lvl 50 though, only a 16, but ive thought it out and used some resources.

and one thing, if you are thinking about becoming a ranger, elves are the worst race to pick (even though im one)
when will that extra int come in handy, i dont know either.


well thats the end of my long spiel, and remember this is all in my very own humble opinion, build your char how YOU want to play

Hi Folks! It's interesting to see posts of people that have no idea in the world what they're doing??? I even read one that said, "Rangers all end up the same in the end anyway..." HAHA

If you're starting a Ranger or planning on it, here's the skinny. I am a 27th lvl Ranger and I love my character! The recurve advice holds true... match the training every lvl until 30th. Some posts say Crit IX is the highest, but I'm pretty sure it goes to X. Don't know yet, I need to confirm with another guildie.

As for the rest, here's my template:

Recurve = 27
Pathfinding = 25
Stealth = 7
Blades = 1
Piercing = 1
Celtic Dual = 4

I've obviously gone for the highest buff factor strictly for solo. The 4 in Celtic is for Misty Gloom & Blinding Rain. At 25th lvl you'll get Evade III and of course the dodge becomes a factor, so I unleash a Blinding Rain after every evade. Any other melee attacks are constant Misty Glooms!

After 30th I plan on every point going into Stealth and Pathfinding. So how does it work?

My Crit does approx 280 Max and over 120 for every addition shot.

Blues = Dead without question, a long way out!
Yellows = Usually die 2 or 3 paces out...
Oranges = Solo easily, but I need to wip out the Sword of the Keeper & the Earthen Defender.

I have hot keyed both swords as 3 and 4, and then Misty Gloom as 5. If I see the interrupt, then I hit 3,4,5 and I instantly start with a Gloom. Just keep nailing the 5 over and over until they're dead or you run out of endurance. If I get an evade, then I hit 6 (hot keyed Blinding Rain) to get the bleed damage.

Make sure you're wearing armor with Dex & Quick bonuses... Much more important than AF. At 27th I'm maxed at 209 Dex and my quickness is only 178. I use the Sibrian Recurve from Glory quest and have Thrall's Recurve waiting until it cons orange.

The Stealth issue is rather simple. With a 10 Stealth (Buffed from items), I still get tripped over in the broad daylight. At 11 Stealth you're suppose to get detect, but besides that the higher it goes, the faster you can run while stealthed and you will stay stealthed while preparing a Crit shot.

Bottom line... Make your character how you want it to be. It's a game for fun, so have tons of it!!! Good Luck and Happy hunting...

Jadzea
<Crimson Death>
27th Lvl Ranger

Max your bow of course. ( personally use a red bow because of the added dmg.)

I am going for 50 PF and 30 Stealth, why? because I can get realm pionts and items to boost my stealth past 30 but if you do that for PF you don't get any more spells.

Right now I'm a lvl 20 Ranger, without having my buffs on a yellow gale brings me to around 1/2 life. With my buffs it doesn't make it to me. I did 10 Gales with and 10 gales without buffs and it seemed that the buffs added around 20-30 more dmg on crit shot and 10-15 on a normal shot.

I WANT to have high stealth but I think the buffs will help more. 40 PF 40 Stealth would be good but, I deceided to go 50 PF because I can use items to bring up my stealth.

Let me say this: THIS ISN'T HOW YOU SHOULD MAKE YOUR RANGER! This is my opinion on what would make my ranger the best ranger she can be. (females have a slimmer model and if your going lukriden why not go all the way small :))
So this isn't a post about what you should make your Ranger, but some people asked for opinions on what others think is important. Stealth is important, but your don't stealthed most of the time. I see it as a useful tool, and a tool that does show as much direct benifit from 30-50 as PF does 30-50. Plus stealth can be boosted with items and realm ranks.


http://daoc.catacombs.com/cbuilder.cfm shows that there are 10 crits spanning 30 lvls GREAT tool for working out a charather plan. Even does half lvls after lvl 40.

I was wondering, I am level 11 and have 11 recurve, and I still only have crit shot level 1, is that bad or do I have to raise something else in order to get crit shot 2? :\

I have read several posts from various rangers talking about being, or not being, able to kill yellow con mobs as a ranger. I play a Hibbie ranger that is currently level 14 on the Kay server. The follow is my take on killing yellow con mobs.

There are several factors that a ranger must take into consideration.

1. Your bow: Short, regular or great recurve? The short recurve does considerably less damage, but it has an equitably greater rate of fire (about 1/3 faster) than a great recurve. The regular bow is sorta analogous to the "human" character variety... average at everything with no outstanding abilities or penalties. The great recurve? Slow, but hits *hard*. I personally favor the great recurve. Some people use two bows... the great recurve for that first crit shot and then rapidly switch to a short for the followup shots. Naturally, you should be sure to use a bow that cons yellow to oranger to you. If you let it get blue or worse, your damage output will be entirely insufficient for anything tougher than greens.

2. Your arrows: this is a no-brainer! Use flight broadheads (footed if you can afford it)! The vast majority of your enemies during PvE will not be of the armor wearing variety. You may want to consider the Bodkins for RvR later on... (Me, I'm going to stalk the thin-skinned, creamy center casters! :) ) Also, try to be at extreme range when taking that first crit shot (DOH!).

3. The intended target: The mob you attack can make a big difference. There are yellow con mobs that run *fast* and that have a *high* damage rate(anger sprites come to mind). What does this mean? It means you will be more likely to end up in melee with this guy than say, a fishing bear forager. Learn your enemy and attack those that run slowly and attack slowly! You'll live longer!

4. Your buffs: Train sufficiently in Pathfinding in order to have all the buffs. They *do* make a big difference. Both in long range killing and melee. That little extra magic damage each time you strike with your bow and stiletto(s) can make the difference between life and death in a close fight. Not to mention that extra attack or three you get because your quickness is buffed to 129, or all those misses the mob commits in melee because your dexterity is buffed to 125 or so!!!

5. Your armor: Always try to wear the best quality armor for your level. This means that it cons no less than yellow and no more than orange. Also, be aware that AF is *not* the only thing to consider when purchasing armor. The "absorption" percentage is also very important. Buy the armor with the highest absorption percentage you can afford for a given AF. You will be amazed at how much *less* damage you will take.

Naturally, after doing everything right, you will run into missed shots (crits and otherwise), fumbles and such. My best advice about this is: If you miss your crit on a tough yellow con mob, it's time to do your best "Jesse Owens" impression and RUN! You should be at full stamina and so USE it to fight again without that costly trip to the healer!

Thats my 2 coppers worth!

I was wondering if puting most of my skills into Recurve Stealth and Pathfinding was a good idea
Also, should i become a fletcher?
Should i leave out meele stuff too?

Thanks =)

Should i put my skills into Recurve and crit more than the meeles?

rangers rock i have played one for about 3 hrs and got to lvl 6 and i can't wiate to smoke a group of middie on the tristan serve. . mmmmm i can taste it . . "where is he" . . . you have ben hit with a bow for 468damage "a trolls corpse lies on the ground 500 feet away from you" "where is he" "a kobold has just be waxed and it bleedin on the grass 600 feet infront of you. . . need i say more?

im a lvl 14 ranger and i have run across a problem with using two pierces at once. when i hit the hotkey for my melee weapon after firing with my bow i cant get both melee weapons into my hands. i pull out one piercer but i have to manually put the other in the left hand slot? any ideas or is it just bugged? p.s. my ranger suprisingly deals out the most damage in melee situations while in groups. rangers rock with two weapons up close(just need a healer keepin you alive lol).

Kaalith Kincutter
lvl 14 ranger, Percival

hi
im lvl 17 ranger who tries to kill yellow parths.thing is , i die to 9 out of 10 parths..
my gear is
bright orange bow , no idea what kind
two dolomite stilletos -yellow
blue/yellow armor

its kinda funny no one here has said anything about the rangers crit shot being nurfed

Okay ive Heard alot of stuff about what to do with skill points. Ive read so much stuff I wanna sort out the crap from the good stuff. Here is waht I have heard :

1. Skill points a added automatically (from thin air?) to you bow and stealth if you do not spend any points into these when you train at every so and so level.

I wanna know -

a) At What level are these awarded?
b) Does it subtract from the normal points given?
c) Does this also happen to pierce/blades etc


2. The Skills are very broad. People have alot of opionins. What I gather and can agree on is :

Bow skill must be maxed to 50.
Stealth must be minimum 16 to be useful.

So what i Need to know is :

a) what do the other skills do?
b) What do those skills rely on?
c) what advantages would you have in spec in one skill?
d) Does pierceing improve bow damage? (arrows pierce i.m.h.o. but maybe mythic thinks they dont.)

If anyone can answer these questions im sure you will help many many many rangers out there.

Thanks.

I do aim to use a Ranger for the following b.t.w.

RVR , Grouping and Solo... hehe

Can anyone Help me??

=)