17 replies to this topic

[HypnotoadProductions]

Greetings,

I'm now on my final stretch of my characters and the Ranger is the last class that was left to have all classes on Level 80. Now I do know the mechanics of the game and I feel quite bad for asking but is there anything you guys can recommend in terms of leveling the ranger?

I'm currently just level 12 with my cat "Uncle Ruckus" and a Drake I found. I've also read up and saw that many people suggested a bear and even tho' I'll get one very soon I feel like I'm doing something wrong with the class itself.

For example all the traits sound kind of bad and I feel like the traps (Snake & Fire) are widely the best skills. Of course I could be totaly wrong but I'm kind of stuck here, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Weapons: Shortbow / Sword+WH (for mobility mostly)

Regards

[Gerroh]

The only thing I can recommend is keeping your cat away from Elonians.

[HypnotoadProductions]

Gerroh, on 03 February 2013 - 04:55 AM, said:

The only thing I can recommend is keeping your cat away from Elonians.

He don't trust 'dem Elonians over there.
Leaving their Elonian essence in 'da air!...

Well at least I had a good laugh.

[Trei]

Gerroh, on 03 February 2013 - 04:55 AM, said:

The only thing I can recommend is keeping your cat away from Elonians.

And starving Canthans.

Edited by Trei, 03 February 2013 - 05:50 AM.

[Adrian_R]

Don't listen to the bearish crowd, drakes are awesome companions despite their unfurriness. For example, a river drake's breath is so powerful it can charge a mobile phone from out to full in 2 seconds; very useful out in the wild.

[Jetjordan]

Put 15 point in beast mastery with your first 15 trait points and PVE will be an absolute breeze.

[HypnotoadProductions]

Jetjordan, on 03 February 2013 - 04:44 PM, said:

Put 15 point in beast mastery with your first 15 trait points and PVE will be an absolute breeze.

EDIT:
Just hit 45, had 15 points in Beastmastery and while it's not "a breeze" to go through the PvE content, it still made it a chunk easier. Still I'm lacking some AOE damage. I feel like the sword + warhorn combo isn't so good after all.

Edited by HypnotoadProductions, 05 February 2013 - 08:30 PM.

[Jetjordan]

HypnotoadProductions, on 05 February 2013 - 04:02 PM, said:

Still I'm lacking some AOE damage. I feel like the sword + warhorn combo isn't so good after all.

Drakes.  I use Lightening and marsh drakes for DE's and clean house.  Sword is very good 1v1 but if you need AoE axe is the way to go.  Use Rampage as One right when you pull out a new drake and use their F2 and MARVEL at the might stacking.  Then just start chucking axes.

edit: nowadays I actually use GS more than any other weapon farming DE's and random BS.  For dungeons I go LB and Axe/warhorn with entagle.  good mix of AoE and spike damage imo

Edited by Jetjordan, 05 February 2013 - 09:13 PM.

[atreoo]

LB/Axe-Torch if you are goin for aoe dmg.

[heatrr]

I used LB and SB all the way to lvl80 - then deleted her....

[Serris]

i usually run longbow and dual axes. longbow for single target, dual axes for AoE.
i also use a cat for single target dps and a river drake for AoE.

you could use axe/WH if you don't want to sacrifice your mobility, but i find 4 and 5 on axe very useful.

[HypnotoadProductions]

Well I just reached Level 80, found a charged lodestone and eventualy leveled with a 30/30/5/0/5 build (after level 60 that is), before that with (20/X/0/0/15).

Thanks for all the answers.

[Fenice_86]

sry for the newbie question but... what's so marvellous in those 15 pts? (which major trait u pick? master's bond? ) i guess it's not only because of the 20% pets swap CD... or is it just about it?

[Jetjordan]

Fenice_86, on 07 February 2013 - 01:37 PM, said:

sry for the newbie question but... what's so marvellous in those 15 pts? (which major trait u pick? master's bond? ) i guess it's not only because of the 20% pets swap CD... or is it just about it?

At least 15 points in BM because:

1.) pets are half your damage and essential utility whether you want to accept that or not and buffing BM adds to their overall stats
2.) getting 20% pet swap cool down is a must imo. remember you get 2 seconds of quickness on swap, you want that as often as possible.
3.) pet survival.  Being able to swap pets to prevent pet death in a pinch is a must for dungeons and harder zones.

remember, a ranger with a dead pet is a gimped ranger.   Also I choose Mighty swap.  I usually want to swap pets before I would need a shorter CD on their skills.

[Mjölner]

*slides in*
I am currently levelling my Ranger (31 or 32 atm), going with sword+axe and shortbow - the latter is only used when fighting champions, which is surprisingly easy with Frost, Mud and Flame Traps (duo'd the bandit foreman in Kessex Hills with a necromancer and then the pirate boss in Gendarran with an engineer, but managed to solo the rock dog in the same zone), because sword offers a silly high amount of mobility and the axe packs a real kick (and his hilarious to use against ranged mobs). So what's the ramble about? My pets play a very small roll - they're a distraction for the mob, at best. I just don't find myself ever relying on them, so I don't see how the Beastmastery points are a must.

[Mystika]

The way I understand it, the game counts pet damage towards the Ranger's damage, so a pet is not just a distraction or a meat shield. A ranger that doesn't take care of his/her pet is seriously gimped. Your pet is a part of your total damage, so use it. You can do very well with 15 points in beast mastery. With 30 points, you can give your pet health regeneration, which makes it very hard to kill. But by ignoring your pet entirely, you gimp your character.

[Mjölner]

Then a gimp I am.

[calankh]

My only level 80 is a ranger. I don't pay much attention to my pet (swap it out if it's health gets low, occasionally trigger the F2 attack--but that usually doesn't actually take effect so, meh) and I seem to be doing fine. I leveled mostly with shortbow/longbow, though now I'm running with shortbow/axe and torch. The traps are the only useful utilities, I don't think I've used anything else since level 25 or so. I believe a dev has acknowledged that and it's being worked on, but who knows how long. Hopefully at some point they'll at least fix the main hand sword rooting issue so I can try a power build with longbow/sword (and some offhand, not sure what yet).