whats the best ranger build?

[southpole420]

i was thinking of making a ranger but not sure what one is the best build

[Sweyn]

Best melee build? Best ranged build? Best ac build? Best dps build? Best all around build?

Really, please be more specific

[southpole420]

just all around sorry about that knew i was forgetting something

[Sweyn]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168687

Highlights :

High dps
High ac
High saves
High UMD
High trap skills
High versitility
High survivability

[kelabb]

If I said the one with 2 levels of rogue and 18 barbarian would all the rangers out there target me with their arcane arrows?

[Maldavenous]

If I said the one with 2 levels of rogue and 18 barbarian would all the rangers out there target me with their arcane arrows?

If we did there's a decent chance that one of the 20 of us would hit for 500.

[MithrilSoul]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168687

Highlights :

High dps
High ac
High saves
High UMD
High trap skills
High versitility
High survivability

In general this is the consensus, but be aware that it really only "works" really well if this is a twink toon, or else if you have long-term desire to really get some uber raid gear. For a new player starting out, the Exploiter is not nearly the god-of-all-builds that people make it out to be. Without uber gear, your "high ac" is really only "so-so mediocre ac," your "high DPS" is moderated by the fact you'll be missing even at-level mobs A LOT due to an only so-so "to hit" (the negative to-hit penalties for dual wielding takes a lot of work to overcome, as early on you won't have all the TWF feats nor have good enough + weapons to overcome that).

I speak from experience, my first (serious) character in DDO was an Exploiter and I basically followed all the advice in all the Exploiter build threads and did everything I was supposed to be doing, and yet I realized by level 7 or 8 that I was getting my lunch handed to me with regularity. Basically I was getting creamed, even soloing at-level quests on normal I would often be burning through huge numbers of heal pots or wands. Did a lesser reincarnation on the character to turn her into a bow-based AA ranger and I can say without a doubt that at least through the mid-level content (level 7-11 or 7-12 stuff), I found the AA version of this toon MUCH more successful than the Tempest/Exploiter version. With an AA ranger, honestly all you really need is one good bow (I bought a Silver Longbow off the AH.) Between the extra damage from your AA abilities and having a good bow, it doesn't really matter how good the rest of your gear is because quite frankly you are killing LOTS of things before they even get to you. Or if they aren't completely dead, they are 80% or 90% dead and it's just a matter of one or two more shots (or if you prefer, whip out two melee weapons to finish them off). So since an AA build is much less gear dependent, it is (I think) much more newbie friendly.

Now, will my superior success with AA versus Tempest change when I am level 20, have access to Tempest III and have had enough time to build up some great gear? Yeah, I suspect it will...and I may lesser reincarnate again at 20 to turn her back into a Tempest build. But for a first character relying on just quest rewards/chest drops/etc. to gear out your toon, very very quickly you will fall behind in the AC race which means mobs are simply going to be pounding on you. And a large part of the success of the Exploiter build is having high enough AC that mobs are missing you more than hitting. You're simply not going to achieve that on a first toon unless you have some sugar daddy twinking you out.

My experience, at least. As always, YMMV.

[Comegetsome]

Exploiter is the best build but as MithrilSoul said dont create one if is your first char on the server
better a Simple Tempest with some splashs at you choice or a pure Rgr AA

[Silvershaper]

In general this is the consensus, but be aware that it really only "works" really well if this is a twink toon, or else if you have long-term desire to really get some uber raid gear. For a new player starting out, the Exploiter is not nearly the god-of-all-builds that people make it out to be. Without uber gear, your "high ac" is really only "so-so mediocre ac," your "high DPS" is moderated by the fact you'll be missing even at-level mobs A LOT due to an only so-so "to hit" (the negative to-hit penalties for dual wielding takes a lot of work to overcome, as early on you won't have all the TWF feats nor have good enough + weapons to overcome that).

I speak from experience, my first (serious) character in DDO was an Exploiter and I basically followed all the advice in all the Exploiter build threads and did everything I was supposed to be doing, and yet I realized by level 7 or 8 that I was getting my lunch handed to me with regularity. Basically I was getting creamed, even soloing at-level quests on normal I would often be burning through huge numbers of heal pots or wands. Did a lesser reincarnation on the character to turn her into a bow-based AA ranger and I can say without a doubt that at least through the mid-level content (level 7-11 or 7-12 stuff), I found the AA version of this toon MUCH more successful than the Tempest/Exploiter version. With an AA ranger, honestly all you really need is one good bow (I bought a Silver Longbow off the AH.) Between the extra damage from your AA abilities and having a good bow, it doesn't really matter how good the rest of your gear is because quite frankly you are killing LOTS of things before they even get to you. Or if they aren't completely dead, they are 80% or 90% dead and it's just a matter of one or two more shots (or if you prefer, whip out two melee weapons to finish them off). So since an AA build is much less gear dependent, it is (I think) much more newbie friendly.

Now, will my superior success with AA versus Tempest change when I am level 20, have access to Tempest III and have had enough time to build up some great gear? Yeah, I suspect it will...and I may lesser reincarnate again at 20 to turn her back into a Tempest build. But for a first character relying on just quest rewards/chest drops/etc. to gear out your toon, very very quickly you will fall behind in the AC race which means mobs are simply going to be pounding on you. And a large part of the success of the Exploiter build is having high enough AC that mobs are missing you more than hitting. You're simply not going to achieve that on a first toon unless you have some sugar daddy twinking you out.

My experience, at least. As always, YMMV.

/agree

[grodon9999]

In general this is the consensus, but be aware that it really only "works" really well if this is a twink toon, or else if you have long-term desire to really get some uber raid gear. For a new player starting out, the Exploiter is not nearly the god-of-all-builds that people make it out to be. Without uber gear, your "high ac" is really only "so-so mediocre ac," your "high DPS" is moderated by the fact you'll be missing even at-level mobs A LOT due to an only so-so "to hit" (the negative to-hit penalties for dual wielding takes a lot of work to overcome, as early on you won't have all the TWF feats nor have good enough + weapons to overcome that).

I speak from experience, my first (serious) character in DDO was an Exploiter and I basically followed all the advice in all the Exploiter build threads and did everything I was supposed to be doing, and yet I realized by level 7 or 8 that I was getting my lunch handed to me with regularity. Basically I was getting creamed, even soloing at-level quests on normal I would often be burning through huge numbers of heal pots or wands. Did a lesser reincarnation on the character to turn her into a bow-based AA ranger and I can say without a doubt that at least through the mid-level content (level 7-11 or 7-12 stuff), I found the AA version of this toon MUCH more successful than the Tempest/Exploiter version. With an AA ranger, honestly all you really need is one good bow (I bought a Silver Longbow off the AH.) Between the extra damage from your AA abilities and having a good bow, it doesn't really matter how good the rest of your gear is because quite frankly you are killing LOTS of things before they even get to you. Or if they aren't completely dead, they are 80% or 90% dead and it's just a matter of one or two more shots (or if you prefer, whip out two melee weapons to finish them off). So since an AA build is much less gear dependent, it is (I think) much more newbie friendly.

Now, will my superior success with AA versus Tempest change when I am level 20, have access to Tempest III and have had enough time to build up some great gear? Yeah, I suspect it will...and I may lesser reincarnate again at 20 to turn her back into a Tempest build. But for a first character relying on just quest rewards/chest drops/etc. to gear out your toon, very very quickly you will fall behind in the AC race which means mobs are simply going to be pounding on you. And a large part of the success of the Exploiter build is having high enough AC that mobs are missing you more than hitting. You're simply not going to achieve that on a first toon unless you have some sugar daddy twinking you out.

My experience, at least. As always, YMMV.

First toon was an AA, second serious toon is an Exploiter. both are capped. I cannot disagree with you more but then again my Exploiter had access to my AA's hand-me-down gear and some twinkage. You're going to have a much harder time keeping up at higher levels as the HPs on the mobs get stupid high.

Keep in mind, tempests can still use a bow. Until the AA gets to 18th level and gets the awesome slayer arrows the AA imbues while nice give you maybe and extra 3.5 damage a shot over a tempest firing the same bow. Stat-damagers close the gap even more. You can still solo and clear slayer areas, I use my WoP to take out the Vale red-named rather than closing in and still use it in Amrath.

A good chunk of this game is beating on raid bosses, this is one-dimensional and unfortunate but it's reality. Melee works much better in this role.

[ArichValtrahn]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168687

^^^ This one ^^^

Just make sure that your ranger doesnt use a bow for more than 20 seconds at a time and you should be ok.