Trying to make an effective Ranger :)

[candelaris]

Hi! I've recently started playing a Ranger (Human Ranger 1 / Rogue 1) which I'm using as an alternate for my Warforged Pally. My first foray into ranged combat in the game left me pretty frustrated so I'm looking for some input on where I can take the build so that I can be viable in a party as a good ranged combatant. From what I've seen, ranged doesn't get as much love in this game and I'm ok with that (hence the rogue level so I can least help with traps and such if my ranged isn't needed in a group). I played a lot of PnP but this is my week of play with DDO,

Thanks :)

[Cowdenicus]

Ranged is getting mad love in a couple months.

[candelaris]

Ranged is getting mad love in a couple months.

Really? I was trying to find info on updates and such. Any idea where I can find that?

[Cowdenicus]

Really? I was trying to find info on updates and such. Any idea where I can find that?

look up in dev tracker "The Almighty" Codog.

Well he just goes by Codog, The Almighty is a term I threw on him for his informative posts and outstanding work ethic.

[candelaris]

Thanks.

Anybody have thoughts on where I should head with my character? I'm not too fond of TWF but I do have Weapon Finesse so I'm not entirely useless in melee. If nothing else, I plan on taking the next Ranger level so I can get Rapidshot.

[Yaga_Nub]

Candelaris,I guess the best starting point would be for you to post your build and let us know more about how you want to play.Are you high dex because you wanted to range only? (since you listed Weapon Finesse I'm guessing you have a high dex)Tell us much as possible and we can help a little more.

[GrayOldDruid]

Hi! I've recently started playing a Ranger (Human Ranger 1 / Rogue 1) which I'm using as an alternate for my Warforged Pally. My first foray into ranged combat in the game left me pretty frustrated so I'm looking for some input on where I can take the build so that I can be viable in a party as a good ranged combatant. From what I've seen, ranged doesn't get as much love in this game and I'm ok with that (hence the rogue level so I can least help with traps and such if my ranged isn't needed in a group). I played a lot of PnP but this is my week of play with DDO,

Thanks :)

I am Loving my build - probably going to go 11 Ranger / 3 Rogue / 2 Fighter capping Mod 6... right now at 10 Ranger / 3 Rogue and not sure if I will pick up my last Ranger or first Fighter level next... but...

I have a kind of 'batman' build thing going because I'm pretty good at most things.

1) Ranged - High Dex, Good Aligned and High UMD... why? My favorite thing at the moment is using my +4 Frost Bow of Pure Good and UMD'ing my Wand of Flame Arrow for the flaming ammo to get an extra good kick in there, PLUS when I get my 2d6 sneak attack damage as well, woah! :D Did I mention focus on DEX ? Use the Ranger Dex enhancements if you don't plan on going more than 3 Rogue. There are a lot of enhancements the two share, and both progress, so if you are going to take higher levels in one, use that class' enhancements instead of the other you're not going to take as high.

2) Rogue - go to level 3. Benefits - 2d6 sneak attack and +1 trapsense (lvl3), Evasion (lvl2 - instead of waiting until level 9 Ranger), 3 levels of skill points for Open Lock, Disable Device and Use Magic Device. Search and Spot and Hide and Move Silently are all class skills for Ranger, so focus your Rogue levels in the Rogue-Only skills. Which, you probably need to space them (Rogue Levels) out if you are totally focusing on end game. I took all of mine early and it caused some grief, but hey, this is my first character we're talking about. Don't skimp on INT - this gives you your skill points. Don't skimp on CHA - this helps your UMD (okay, so you can leave it 10 and get items and focus on succeeding with ranks) and helps on Wild Empathy. Look for weapons "of backstabbing" - they are great early on. Remember, sneak up or let someone else be fighting them or have their attention to get this extra oomph.

3) TWF - Don't skimp on the strength, ignore Two Weapon Defense, take Weapon Finesse. Strength is for Bow Strength, which adds damage to your hits. Don't go overboard, because you can get +6 STR items, so take maybe up to a 14 in it - which with the STR item later and not taking into account any tomes, you can get an extra +5 damage to all attacks. STR is still just lagniappe. Two Weapon Defense gives a +1 AC while fighting with two weapons... while decent at low levels, it looses effect quick. Weapon Finesse - you're dex based already, play to your strengths. having the same to hit with your bows and your melee weapon is great. Takes care of the "I can't hit **** with melee" whine. I am kicking myself for not taking weapon finesse earlier.

4) Look it up - find out what all feats the Ranger gets and when. lvl 1 - Favored Enemy I, Wild Empathy and Bow Strength ; lvl 2 - Two Weapon Fighting and Rapid Shot feats ; lvl 5 Favored Enemy II ; lvl 6 Improved Two Weapon Fighting and Many Shots feats ; lvl 9 - Evasion ; lvl 10 Favored Enemy III ; lvl 11 - Improved Precise Shot, Greater Two Weapon Fighting Don't take a feat you're already getting... Look at picking up Improved Evasion later...

5) Favored Enemy - research.... I would have loved to do : lvl 1 - Undead ; lvl 2 Abberations ; lvl 3 Evil Outsiders (especially with Mod 6 coming). Constructs may be good to. Goblinoids may not be too bad, since they are even in Gianthold, if I am right, which I hope I am because that was my first one... followed by undead and now evil outsiders... but I would love to be a beholder bane....

6) You are a Bow-shooting, Two Weapon Fighting monster - focus on those. For me, I also took crit specialty - Improved Crit on Ranged and Slashing. I use Kukuri's as my weapon and have a 15-20 crit range (only x2). (as a note: Improved Crit does not stack with keen, sadly.)

.... will add if I think of more...

This being my first character ... well, none of my characters have used a "Build" so I can't actually post the output from the build generator...

[WeiQuinn]

Similar to Druid's post above, I have a 32-point Human that will be Ranger 11/Rogue 3/Fighter 2 at level 16. This is a reroll of a 28-point Ranger/Rogue build I had. This time around, I'm making him a Two Weapon Fighting Weapon Finesse Melee character that will take the Tempest enhancement. With his high Dexterity and the free Ranged feats granted by the Ranger class, he'll do very well with a bow. I had to throw the second level of Fighter in there so I could pick up Superior Two Weapon Fighting, as it will NOT be a Ranger class granted feat.

I also have a Drow that is Ranged specialized that will take up the Arcane Archer enhancements. At level 16 she'll be Ranger 14/Bard 1/Wizard 1. She took Weapon Finesse also.

My original character, and Elven Ranger is Ranged specialized with Shot on the Run. I took Weapon Finesse on him so that he could melee well too.

All of my Dexterity based Rangers start with a 14 Strength. Don't forget, Strength also affects carrying capacity.

[sigtrent]

My advice for ranged combat.....

#1. Don't skimp on strength, as it is a big part of your damage.
#2. Do find a good transmuting bow since many things have piercing resistance
#3. Don't kite monsters when the rest of the party is done fighting. Bring your kit to a melee to finish it off so you can all move on to the next encounter. (kiting is when you run around while shooting at something that is chasing you)
#4. Practice targeting quickly.
#5. Communicate with the group. Ranged combat can make things easier or harder for your group and it all comes down to everyone knowing what to expect of eachother.
#6. Learn to use ranged combat to your strategic advantage, there are lots of nice tricks.

(One trick I like is to use my bow to agro pearched monsters and then hide somewhere so the party doesn't have to deal wtih them initialy since they will remain agroed on you.)
(Or when the party has pulled too much agro I will try to kite a few mobs until they get things under control again and then pull the train in to shed agro.)

[candelaris]

Thanks for all the great info! I'm not very experienced with MMO's so the explanations of the terms used has been helpful (I had no idea what kiting was lol). Here's what the character is right now:

Mister Mohawk.

Ranger 1 / Rogue 1

Str- 12
Dex- 16
Con- 12
Int- 12
Wis- 14
Cha- 8

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Finesse

Current Enhancements: Rogue Sneak Attack Training, Ranger Spot Search and Move Silently Training. (I plan to trade these out later on when I level up again for something more advantageous)

I've heard people mentioning a 32 point buy reroll. Are they talking about a future option in an update or does this kick in after a certain amount of time (or renown like Drow)?

[Pellegro]

Thanks for all the great info! I'm not very experienced with MMO's so the explanations of the terms used has been helpful (I had no idea what kiting was lol). Here's what the character is right now:

Mister Mohawk.

Ranger 1 / Rogue 1

Str- 12
Dex- 16
Con- 12
Int- 12
Wis- 14
Cha- 8

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Finesse

Current Enhancements: Rogue Sneak Attack Training, Ranger Spot Search and Move Silently Training. (I plan to trade these out later on when I level up again for something more advantageous)

I've heard people mentioning a 32 point buy reroll. Are they talking about a future option in an update or does this kick in after a certain amount of time (or renown like Drow)?

32 point build is like drow. Drow kicks in at 400 total favor. 32 point build kicks in at 1750. Your current build uses 28 points to buy your initial stats. As the name implies, the 32 point build gives you 4 extra points.

I would drop PB shot. Just my 2 cents.

You have a very balanced stat distribution. Your strength is low. To give you some extra oomph, I'd pick up power attack. As a ranger, you will have the ability to ultimately pick up 3 more dex points for free (as enhancements). As a human, you get yet one more. You can also drop you extra stat points at 4, 8 and 12 into dex, and pick up a +6 dex item, so that eventually you can get your dex up to 29. Throw in a +1 dex tome, and you're at 30. You'll have no problem hitting anything - either melee (with weapon finesse) or ranged.

In damage, however, you may find that you get frustrated. Strength is the key to damage, whether ranging or otherwise. Taht is why I'd suggest dropping point-blank shot and replacing it with power attack. I find power attack very useful on my high dex builds (especially elf/ranger which gets more dex enhancements than human). You lose some of your "to hit" but it won't much matter with a really high dex.

You also mentioned that this is your "week" with DDO, which I assume means you're on the trial basis. Unless you're unemployed and playing a ton, I doubt you'll get ot enjoy most that the game has to offer in that week. Consider picking up a month or two or three - that will let you see more of what is out there to enjoy.

Have fun!

[candelaris]

I played through about 3 days into the trial and liked it enough to buy it. I play a lot of PnP so the premise isn't new to me, just the medium is played on. Is there opportunities to respec to switch out feats? If so I can get rid of PBS then. If not, I'll probably just keep it since I don't want to start over yet again.

Thanks for the tips.

[Cowdenicus]

I played through about 3 days into the trial and liked it enough to buy it. I play a lot of PnP so the premise isn't new to me, just the medium is played on. Is there opportunities to respec to switch out feats? If so I can get rid of PBS then. If not, I'll probably just keep it since I don't want to start over yet again.

Thanks for the tips.

Yes although it takes dragonshards, let me know your server, and I can probably find someone to hook you up with a dragonshard assuming you havent gotten past 4th level yet, as I just found out I have characters on all servers.

[candelaris]

Yes although it takes dragonshards, let me know your server, and I can probably find someone to hook you up with a dragonshard assuming you havent gotten past 4th level yet, as I just found out I have characters on all servers.

I'm on Ghallanda and I just hit level 3 (took another level of Ranger) His name is MisterMohawk.

:D

[DaveyCrockett]

Find the Auction House in the Harbor. There is an NPC close that will give you a quest (Quest is the door to the right of said NPC). Answer some questions (read the tomes in the quest for hints/answers), and you will get a token for one (1) free feat respec. You will find "Fred the Mindflayer" underneath the 'Garden of Respite' in House J. It is Fred that you will want to visit for the feat respec.

[QuantumFX]

Candelaris: The cool thing about rangers is that so long as you have a decent DEX score you only need to dump one feat into ranged combat to be useful with it. (The feat in question is Improved Crital: Ranged.) In the meantime it's always good to focus more on the melee side of things. Something else you should know about TWF: It doesn't really kick in as an effective combat style until around level 6. (The attack penalties for dual weilding are harder to deal with at low levels.) In the meantime you can fight rapier and shield to avoid the penalty and increase your armor class. (Which is pretty important at low levels.)

[candelaris]

Find the Auction House in the Harbor. There is an NPC close that will give you a quest (Quest is the door to the right of said NPC). Answer some questions (read the tomes in the quest for hints/answers), and you will get a token for one (1) free feat respec. You will find "Fred the Mindflayer" underneath the 'Garden of Respite' in House J. It is Fred that you will want to visit for the feat respec.

I did that one already, but I haven't seen Fred yet. The questions were easy without the tomes and such since I've read a metric ton of Eberron books. I didn't know I got that as a reward for the quest. Very cool, thanks :D

[Shade]

You have a very balanced stat distribution. Your strength is low. To give you some extra oomph, I'd pick up power attack.

Well thats the key, strength is too low. 12 is absolutely laughable for any combat class, even rogue/ranger . Reroll. Minimum 15 str to do any kind of decent dmg these days, be it with a bow or melee weapon.

You can even start like 16 dex/str and put all your point into str as you level up.. Save the wasted weapon finesse feat and still expect to hit quite well in ranged combat with the right gear.

12 str is just not an effective build. 14 wis is really overkill too. 10 is plenty, allows you to easily cast and have plenty of mana with just a +2/3 wis item or tome for when u want that slot back.

As well as it just being impossible for him to take power attack as it is now.. It requires 13+ Str.

[D'rin]

Here is my thoughts on rangers. If you are going to go dex based ranger/rogue 1 then your stats would be better looking more like this.
st 14
dex 18
con 12
int 12
wis 10
cha 8

This will give you almost enough int to keep all rogue skills(dd,open lock, search, spot and umd) maxed. Your str is good enough that with a +6 item you will hit 20 without tomes. Your dex will be sitting around 34 with favor tome and +6 item. Now the reason I say +6 items in this build case is your umd will be high enough to equip race restricted. The higher dex also means you can get superior twf when it comes out in mod 6. As of right now rangers do not get this feat free so a good number of the str based twf will not be able to get that feat. Which is going to help even the damage out put of the twf dex fighter/ranger/barb etc...

With that big of a differance between dex and str you will be better off with weapon finesse. It will give you an extra +7 to hit and with rapiers on an elf you will have a total of +9 and also the damage is second only to kopeshes for one handed weapons.

With a dex based ranger you are going to be good with a bow without taking any feats. I have improved crit ranged on one of my lvl 14 rangers. It is nice but really only when you have the silver bow. The crit range on bows is just not that great when you couple it with the rate of fire. Unless you plan on using a bow a great deal it may not be worth it. I may just dump it depending on what I do with him.

One thing about dex based rangers. To really shine they are a little more gear dependant. Once you get a set of wounding/puncturers you will be amazed at how fast things go down. Very few melees will be able to keep up with you in removal of mobs.

That being said your first picks for favored enemies should be those that can not be taken out with wounding/puncturing. Undead, constructs(unless you have a good smiter), aberrations(just cuz they need to die fast), giants(have really high con score so they take longer), and evil outsiders are all very good choices for favored enemies. Remember you will not be able to wound/puncture red/purple names so this should be taken into account for which favoreds you want. Also your special effect weapons will not affect red/purple names so smiters, disruptors etc... will not work. So named constructs can be a real pain. Undead you can always use holy burst of pure good/righteousous to still do some good dps.

Hope this helps. Feel free to pm with other questions if you want.

D'rin

[Pellegro]

Well thats the key, strength is too low. 12 is absolutely laughable for any combat class, even rogue/ranger . Reroll. Minimum 15 str to do any kind of decent dmg these days, be it with a bow or melee weapon.

You can even start like 16 dex/str and put all your point into str as you level up.. Save the wasted weapon finesse feat and still expect to hit quite well in ranged combat with the right gear.

12 str is just not an effective build. 14 wis is really overkill too. 10 is plenty, allows you to easily cast and have plenty of mana with just a +2/3 wis item or tome for when u want that slot back.

As well as it just being impossible for him to take power attack as it is now.. It requires 13+ Str.

This is solid advice if you're into doing the min/max.

Your build is also perfectly playable.

That is all.

:D

ps - Me and my guild are on Ghallandra - guild = legacy of the brotherhood. Feel free to find any guildies via the WHO tab and shoot us a tell if you're looking for someone to run with. If you need something (like a low lvl dragonshard) shoot a tell to my namesake; he holds all dragonshards for all my toons (and i've got plenty of extra shards).

[jmonty]

... Superior Two Weapon Fighting, as it will NOT be a Ranger class granted feat.


why not? what is the dex requirement?

[DaveyCrockett]

why not? what is the dex requirement?

Because the devs said so, and the dex req is 19.

[Cowdenicus]

Because the devs said so, and the dex req is 19.

and note that this 19 is base + inherent only......

[jmonty]

Because the devs said so, and the dex req is 19.

thanks for the info. is this in line with pnp? not that it matters, just curious.

[Cowdenicus]

thanks for the info. is this in line with pnp? not that it matters, just curious.

yes and no, the feat doesnt exist in P&P but if it were to the requirement would be lower and higher all at the same time,......

confused yet??? me too.

[Kreaper]

Because the devs said so, and the dex req is 19.

Doesn't it also have to do with the BAB being too high for a Ranger? That's why people are taking a level of Ftr to get it. I think. Right?

[Mad_Bombardier]

Doesn't it also have to do with the BAB being too high for a Ranger? That's why people are taking a level of Ftr to get it. I think. Right?No, the BAB is fine for a pure Ranger. 15Ranger has BAB+15, character feat at 15. But, if you multiclassed your Ranger with a non-martial class, you're screwed.

[jmonty]

do you guys think there will be a dex requirement for the tempest enhancements? could those likely be equal to or greater than the next twf feat?