In order for me to survive as a Ranger, I am having to buy mage and fighter skills...so with a low intell, and endurance, I'm constantly running out of mana, and I never have enough health, etc.

Granted, I've only managed to get my ranger up to lvl 12 but I see already that it's not really doing much RANGED damage before the mobs have swarmed me, and I'm either using mage or fighter skills.

I am very much enjoying my Mage and Fighter, but I sure do need some help with the Ranger. How in the world do I survive??

Any advice on this or is the Ranger really that bad off at the moment?

well we used to be overpowered. then we got nailed hard. then we got bumped back up again. my suggestion is put your attribute points in agi and end. make sure most of your equipment is agi/end. or one or the other...try keeping agi and end close but agi the higher. keep str the lowest and i mean much lower and int just a bit higher the str. you can try focusing on items that add ranged or the type of damage your weapon does. wich i think is piercing for all xbows and slashing for all guns. I my self am trying to find mana steal to see how well that will help with mana drain.

What ninny said. We were overpowered, then took a nerf-stick upside the head, then were made a little more balanced.

Regardless, mob aggro has always been a problem. Even before, when we were overpowered, there were still a number of mobs that made it through to me.

Like Ninny, I would recommend that you split points between AGI and END, doing the same for gear. I would also recommend that you make use of both Noxious Shot and Gaseous Blast for those irritating little minions that like to swarm you.

Thank you both for the good suggestions. I think I'll reroll her and take your good advice. I still haven't made her a member yet, since I seemed to play her terribly.

I DO think, however that in a group, a Ranger would be awesome..with the fighter and the mage in the middle of it all and the Ranger standing back and maybe picking off the ranged ones..don't know ..just my thoughts. That's why I want to make a good ranger. I want her for group play if it's possible.

Personally, I like the classes in this order:

1) Ranger - well rounded
2) Mage - AOE battle mages FTW
3) Fighter - love going toe-to-toe, hate chasing mobs...

Ok, for the sake of posterity, I rolled up a new non-member ranger.

I ran through all of Dew Valley Forest and killed Rattle Tooth at level 5. For the first couple of levels it wasn't too hard, but it did get progressively worse.

Then, I moved to Algernon. I found I was spamming pots left and right (3 or 4 per group). It took me 4 attempts to kill the Particularly Rude Whiskerling and a ton of pots that I really couldn't afford at level 5.

Up until the moment I finally killed the PRW, I had found:

• 0 bow upgrades
• 0 ranger armor upgrades (did find one pair mage gloves, a ranger amulet and a non-denominational ring as usable gear)

Upon defeating PRW at level 5, I found a blue level 2 bow that raised my min damage 1 and max damage 2 (woot!). I then moved on and got pwned by the next hero/champ I met...

I did find a very, very nice yellow bow for the that level in one PRW's chests. It should have quintupled my damage, easily, if I were a member on this character...

Honestly, if this were my experience as a brand-new player attempting to play a ranger, I would re-roll as another class, too, unless I were a glutton for punishment or decided to become a member. If I used member gear, I would have had no issues...

Based on my test, I don't think rangers are very viable at a lower level without member gear.

To be fair, I had the exact same experience with my mage and fighters.

At the lower levels you simply do not get enough drops appropriate to your class.

In fact I was forced to repeat the first level of dew several times before I could get some decent gear to take on rat tooth.

What would be nice is if the equipment vendor was properly stocked with gear for every character level so you don't have to run 4-8 levels before you find something you can upgrade.

Actually, I deleted the ranger, rolled up a mage, and ran through the same levels to test it. Being a mage, even a non-member mage, was so much easier than being a ranger at the same level. Damage output was so much higher and mage damage isn't as dependent upon gear as ranger damage is.

At this point, I wouldn't bother creating a ranger. Mage or fighter only. At least fighters have more HP (especially if you put the first couple of levels worth of points into endurance, like I do), even though they depend on gear for damage output.

There's a marked discrepency between damage output and the classes.

Spell damage is purely a product of the spell, INT and any other modifiers. This means that as long you have the gold, you can always "BUY" the next better spell and up your damage.

The same can not be said of rangers and fighters who heavily depend on their actual gear for damage. Unfortunately, the vendors rarely stock items worth purchasing.

Come to think of it, with the current setup, I'd imagine that mages would be the easier class to go non-member on since you never "need" the gear in the same way.

Of course, you'll have to invest heavily in DEF and END to be able to last. Funny how that works out....

As a new ranger after the nerf, I have to say that the only real trouble I have had was killing Sissrat solo...that one took about 10 pots. I just did 3 levels of Agnock's Gauntlet without using a single heal.

I think people have trouble because they do not play the ranger as a "positional" class. Half a big mob can be dead and the rest all have health degen on them by the time they get in range to damage me. So a bunch of half-dead melee mobs reach me and I "boom" them with more degen while I mow them down with the bow. They key is to start the killing from maximum range to soften them up. Also, the ranger shot causes some disruption of them moving towards you, so I find it works best to switch each hit to a different target as the mobs approach. It slows them drastically, which means more killing before they are able to swing at me.

Just my two cents.

In isolation the ranger class is functional.

Short of certain boss battles, you will not have problems with most of the levels.

That said, mages will clear levels faster than you can and fighters can mow down bosses more effective than you.

This creates an odd situation where you start to question the benefits of playing a ranger.

As a boss battle, sis is not too bad for a ranger. The subsequent boss battles will prove more difficult as they throw much more melee (read meat shields) at you and dish our more damage. You won't have many places to run (because it's closed or for fear of training more mobs) and will eventually end up just standing in place trying to outlast the enemy as you dump down potions.

I was perfectly happy with my ranger until I saw a lower lvl fighter mow through a boss that took me 15 potions to kill. Then the disparity became apparent.

Build 53 includes a new skill Monster Bait that you rangers can use to keep monsters occupied while you destroy them.

Just a fun fact...

steve

My experience with rangers was much the same as Ripper's. I made a low level non-member ranger and couldn't find any decent replacement bow till around level 8. I was building about 50% end 50% agi. My damage was pathetic and my skills insufficient to deal with the monsters starting at around lvl 6. I needed to drink at least one potion for literally every battle starting around then. By the time I was lvl 8 or 9 it was up to two or three potions for every battle and I didn't seem to be earning enough money to buy them, so I deleted the ranger to try a different tactic.

I restarted my ranger and built him like a fighter, adding points into str and end and using melee weapons and the levels seemed easier, but by around level 10 I decided that there wasn't much point building a ranger like a fighter when I could just build a fighter, so I did that. The melee lifestyle is quite a bit easier than the ranged lifestyle. I found the fighter more enjoyable and more playable.

I also tried my lvl 20ish mage out as a ranger for a little while and didn't find that I liked how it worked at that level either. Granted a mage is not a ranger, but with gear I had more agility than int so I thought I could at least get some idea of how it worked higher up, though my hit points would be lower than a real ranger. I figured that my special skills would also do more dmg because of that int so it might work out. I wasn't very impressed. Using my ranger skills I didn't seem to be able to take a single target down much faster than the mage, but the mage could kill multiple targets quite a bit faster.

I pretty much came to the same conclusion as another poster here, that fighters and mages seem fun to play but rangers are massochistic. I haven't tried ranger again since the newest patch so I can't comment on the effectiveness of the new chicken leg or whatever it is.

Well, I got my ranger (member) to lvl 25 so far and my biggest concern is: what will i go for late-game. I always run oom when i use my left-/right button weapon skills, the cool down on putrid penetration is a joke if you ask me, 10 seconds [censored]??? Compared to mages and fighters we lack both aoe and single target damage. What kinda annoys me is the range of xbows and especially of shotguns, ranged mobs have longer range than me??? c'mon!

The monster bait thingy is utter bull if you ask me, if you pull large groups it is destroyed after a few seconds. The mana cost 249. something at level 25 is way too high (this constitutes nearly 50 percent of my mana pool). So it may save you from time to time, but generaly it has no to only limited usage.

What im really hoping for is that rangers get some viable left-click weapon skills. Split-shot, stun-shot, leech-shot, or simply anything that doesn't burn your mana after a few shots.

/whinemode off

you need some mana steal gear... that will recover any mana by the time the skill cools down. 2-3% is enough. What AOE do you want that a fighter has?? Acid Blast is a ranger skill(best in game I think). And as a fighter i use that and ring of fire(which I can't even use anymore since I got rid of INT gear).

But I'm not a ranger so I don't know the whole ranger experience.

i always just used other classes aoe skills.

but yeah, the range thing always annoyed me. thank god someone else has spotted it. no one else ever seemed to notice it, and said i was imagining things. i believe it's worse after the last couple of patches, i havent played since then, but they did adjust ranges, and i believe made them shorter.

I was a little upset when I wrote the above post . What i meant was that, mages have way better aoe than rangers and that fighter have way better single target dps (not sure, but cleave seems to be nice aoe as well).

I changed my skill setup to acidic blight, retribution (found some melee damage reflection items, comes in handy against fodder with poison cloud and noxious shot), poison cloud, the ias skill, the poison dmg inc and spirit of hare (just for the sake of saving time) with noxious shot on the right mouse button.

I recently got a mystic xbow with +65end and +130max hp which increases my survivability (5.5k health).

About the mana leech: At level 30, i just have seen leech on weapons 2%mana/2%life and once on an amulet 1%mana. The problem with mana leech is (imo ofc), that i dont leech anything close to the mana cost of left/right button skills. 250-404 dmg (roughly) *3% = 7.5-13.2 mana per shot so you have to hit a mob 79/10.3(average damage without defense rating calculated?) times, so roughly 7.5 times, to leech the required mana (this example is for noxious shot).

Nevertheless, with some more class restricted skills/talents/traits and some tweaking, rangers could become stronger than they are now.

high end + agi

Really low str + mana

good critting bow + armour,

some good def wear

plenty of pots :P

I have lvl 26 ranger (member) and it is pure agi. I spent all points on agi and I wear agi equipment. I am going through dungs really easy, the skills I am using are : Gaseous Blast, Righteous stomp (fighter skills, knock everything around you away), BBQ Turkey, Noxious shot, then the buff +poison dmg and the buff +attack speed and 2x ranger passive. As someone mentioned, the important thing is to start to shoot from maximum distance with using shift. Many times i kill 80% of the mob group until it comes to me, then I use poison and stomp and its over. But on the other hand, I have HUGE problems with bosses, because I am mainly relying on x-bow damage (whit pure agi I rarely use mana pots bcs spells are weak) and bosses are spawning the fodders in large amounts I can't shoot the boss (and boss heals when you don't attack him). So usually I die like 10x until I kill it. Anyway I like my build, now I'm running most of the time in groups and thats perfect for pure agi, just stand back and kill everything with max dmg.

PS : Our group had just cleared the whole floor of Hdol and I got mythic x-bow 5% life steal +6% poison spells and some other handy abilities, so pure agi+lifesteal rocks.

Edit: Well after some time I switched back to my purple +56 agi xbow because that rainbow one was too slow and without agi bonus

Edited by Nolf_ (05/27/07 12:15 PM)

IMO my ranger can kill just fine or solo in a group. Shes' a level 28 member. I have a boomstick that can easily take out mobs. i have enough health to allow me to survive. I hardely have to drink mana potions either. I'm not saying ranger is the perfect class. But it's a fun class. Isn't that what this game is for, fun? I use mage ranger and fighter skills on my ranger, i wont deny that. Rangers' can kill if you have patince with leveling. It's as simple as that.

As a member Ranger, I have to say I have yet to come across something I cant do. I have solo'ed Sissirat with ease, drinking only a couple of pots, and I dont usually have to drink them unless I am falling asleep haha.

I'm wondering if I am doing something other Rangers are not doing? I always have always used my ability to run around faster than mobs, turn poison, few shots and keep moving. I suppose this is how I have just grown to play the ranged class (playing a few Rangers in Guild Wars and a Hunter in WoW), that you move around mobs avoiding direct melee damage.

To all of you chiming in during the last couple of weeks - this is an old thread that was posted after a huge nerf. It's not really applicable anymore...

Alright thanks. sorry for my spam : P