Arcane archer guide

[doomwarrior]

The basic idea of this guide is to help anyone wanting to make an arcane archer.
The first thing i would like to cover is just some basics of range using in ddo. While fighting you will want to attack the casters first. The main pro of a bow is the fact you can shot anything. That means you will want to kill the casters first as they will be ranging you and casters also will most likely do the most damage to you. Another reason to go after them first is the fact that they can stun you and once your stunned you will be unable to kite which means you will most likely die. If your in a group your next target should be other archers. The melees can handle the other enemy melees but they cant kill that archer on the ridge. If your not soloing though kill the melees first.
As you should be constantly kiting (avoiding damage by running around) you shouldn't have to worry about the archers any way as they will never hit you. Be sure to kite toward the the group though. that is the easiest way to annoy the group. And at the high levels when you see wall of fire and blade barriers pull the monster through the them so they take more damage.
The best thing about being an arcane archer is the fact you can shot down someone with out them hitting you. The whole ranged part of arcane archer sort loses it effectiveness when the person is right next to you. might as well bring out a blade if your going to stand there with him right over you. The last basic you will want to know is use your sp. you have it for a reason. cast buffs on the party heal them up. Basically take the sp tax off of the casters.
The next thing i will want to cover is bows. you will want to have one bow for dps. maybe a few elemental modifiers on it. Your other bow should be a paralyzer. you will want to save up as much money as you can for it as this one bow adds a whole new way an archer can help out their group. If they have a lot of melees use the paralyzer and you can stop the monsters from moving or attacking. If you want some real run add the fear imbue to your arrows and stun them while they run screaming. If your group needs the damage though use your dps bow

[doomwarrior]

Creating the arcane archer
First thing you will want to chose is your race

Humans have an extra feat which is not as use full as it sounds. Chances are you will not need the extra feat. There are not a lot of feats that help out an arcane
archer. The best thing about humans is the fact that no stats go down and human can chose an enhancement to make any stat they want go up twice.

Elfs have more dexterity which is very useful for an arcane archer plus they have a bonus for bow damage which helps them out a lot. Of course the lower con hurts it quite a bit. Its possible to work around the low con issue though. My Arcane Archer has 6 base con. And no he isn't the first one to die he doesn't go down in one hit and he doesn't need the healer focused on him.

Dwarfs are helped out with the extra con and less charisma doesn't hurt them. a solid choice.

Halflings lower strength really lowers over all damage because of bow strength. It could work of course but having 2 less strength really hurts this choice.

Drow are nice choices with spell resistance and more intil. However drows don't get the bow advantages that elfs get for free.

Warforged have more con which helps out your hit points, however less wisdom hurts it and getting less health back from cure spells really hurts it as the rangers healing spells are what makes them more versatile.
Next thing you will want to chose is stat points.
strength is one of your more important stats as it helps your damage with bows due to bow strength and will help out your blade damage and chance of hitting which you will need sometimes.

Dexterity is a must. get this as high as possible while not having strength to low. basically you should try to find a balance between the two. It also increases your reflex save. Because you have evasion you will want your reflex saves as high as possible because if you make a save then you don't take any damage. You won't be making the saves on a trap but most of the time you can make the saves of a spell that uses reflex.

Constitution can help you out. For every 2 points you put in it your healths goes up by 1 per a level.

Intelligence help your skills out but i wouldn't recommend putting points into it as you already are getting a good number of skill points and rangers dont need that many skills.

Wisdom should be increased to 14 no matter what. This is for 2 reason. One it makes it where you can use spells when you reach the level for them even if you don't have the wis+ item to use it.the other reason is you need a good amount of sp to cast your spells and your spell points are based on your wisdom score.

Charisma is almost useless. it can increase your use magic device score but all in all use magic device is not a requirement for rangers because you have access to
cure wands which are one of the main reasons to get use magic devices.

Feats
As an arcane archer your first 3 feats are chosen for you. (point blank shot, weapon focus ranged weapons, and mental toughness) The rest of the feats though are up to you. Here are a few that would be useful for arcane archers
improved mental toughness- for when you need more sp for heals, buffing, and switching imbues.
Improved critical:ranged weapons- the increased chance to critical helps a lot and the bonus to critical damage makes it almost a requirement.
Toughness: increases your hp by a ok amount. If you find yourself needing a bit more hit points then taking this can help you out
Shot on the Run- A great feat probably on one of the best an arcane archer can take. Unfortunately though it requires you to take 2 feats that don't help out arcane archers.
skills
Jump- higher jumping will help out in most dungeons.
Swim- not by any means a requirement but it can make it where you don't need a water breathing item to make swims.
Hide/move silently- can be used for AAs who want to sneak around a bit and avoid some mobs.
Spot-An enemy sneaking right up to you then attacking makes the bow useless. spot them first so you won't have to worry about it.
Also just in case anyone was wondering (80% sure that someone will say they weren't to annoy me) my first charcetr, my arcane archer's, stat make up was this
str 18
dex 18 (elf)
con 6 (elf)
intil 8
wis 14
cha 8

[doomwarrior]

extra space for later

[Mirta]

Bah, I got my own guide for arcane archers.

Step 1: Make arcane archer.
Step 2: Reroll as anything but arcane archer.
Step 2(Alternative): Wait for another cooldown timer bug.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

[Eladiun]

Wall of Text Fail

[Ystradmynach]

Bah, I got my own guide for arcane archers.

Step 1: Make arcane archer.
Step 2: Reroll as anything but arcane archer.
Step 2(Alternative): Wait for another cooldown timer bug.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!


I don't know why people have so much hatred for AA's, the one I play has held my own combat wise in practically every quest I've been in and even lead the kill count in quite a few of them (ok, I sucked against the razor cats in Crucible, but other than that have done fine). Anyway, being one of the only PrE's to have a mastery of ranged combat with only a little sacrifice in melee damage makes them a little more useful than just another melee dps character.

As for the guide, I think you miss an important point that you need to know when to kite and when to pull out your blades to kill whatever is running after you. It is especially good idea to stop kiting if there are other melee players around and you have enough health to take a blow or two. And if you are going to kite, use the terrain to your advantage. That means luring mobs into blade barriers, walls of fire, and various traps.

Also, people will complain if you use terror arrows in a party, so you should save that for solo play most of the time. The best imbue to use in general before you get the slayer arrow is the acid imbue, unless going against incorporeal (force or force blast imbue) or ice creatures (fire blast imbue).

[doomwarrior]

jesus i log off a bit and come back and already people are saying my guide is useless oh well i huess trying to help new players = getting flamed

[Eladiun]

jesus i log off a bit and come back and already people are saying my guide is useless oh well i huess trying to help new players = getting flamed


Not useless but a little formatting would make it more readable. Wall of Text = bad

Hit enter a few times.

[Ystradmynach]

jesus i log off a bit and come back and already people are saying my guide is useless oh well i huess trying to help new players = getting flamed

Whenever someone mentions Arcane Archers, someone else always seems to chime in about how terrible they are. Nevermind that an AA on manyshot throws out amazing damage, especially against a room full of monsters. Of course manyshot isn't on all the time, but I don't see people complaining about how barbarians suck because they have only have so many rages or wizards suck because they have a limited SP pool. As for people who had a bad experience with a newb AA, you would think they would appreciate someone putting out a guide for them.

Anyway, just offering some constructive criticism. And you might want to work on the formatting a little as well, as a previous poster pointed out already.

[GraysonAC]

jesus i log off a bit and come back and already people are saying my guide is useless oh well i huess trying to help new players = getting flamed

It doesn't really tell a new player enough to be useful, and it gives outright bad advice. Killing casters first is something all classes do. You say to kite, and then don't give any advice on how to do that, or even what it is. You also don't explain that half the players in groups will hate you for doing it (along with Fear arrows), unless you're good at it. Your advice on using SP doesn't include anything like spells that are useful to take, or advice on how/when to use them. A ranger is terrible at healing unless they've invested some AP in it, for example. You're telling a new player absolutely nothing.

"you will want to have one bow for dps. maybe a few elemental modifiers on it"

If you've got -one- bow for DPS, then something is very wrong. And if you've got "a few" elemental modifiers on it, something is also very wrong, on account of being impossible (unless one of them is Frost/Frost Burst). Your advice is supposed to be aimed at new players, and you're recommending a paralyzer, which is, iirc, ML10. More useful advice would be: "Save up for a Silver Bow. Use it."

Why the heck would you be trying to paralyze something you've already got feared? And you're confusing "stunned" with "paralyzed" - stunned will result in every attack hitting it being a crit, which paralyze doesn't do.

[Aggro_King]

Wall of text comment retracted

Its looking much better

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Here's some links to some past posts of mine.

Some things are dated and incorrect, or changed. But most of it is still valid.

Important errors/changes are, unlike P&P, I see no evidence that monster get a bonus to hit you when meleeing and you have a ranged wep equiped.

And same elemental damage types to not seem to stack anymore. Although I need to do some up to date testing to understand what does and does not stack.

Other than that these are mostly stil accurate.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=189167

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=226294

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=257363

I do not agree with telling new players to kite. (in groups)

Kiting can be a very effective tactic, but honestly the new ranger does not know how to do it in a party friendly way.

The proper time to kite, in a party, is when the fight is going badly and you need to pull agro off of everyone to keep the whole party alive.

or certain boss fights, where the melee damage the boss does is very devestating. And only if the party cannot handle it.

An alternative is circle kiting. Which should also be rationed, but is especially good against casters who use nasty things like Scorching Rays.

In general, circle kiting is always prefered unless you specifically want to pull a monster into a certain area.

I also have a couple posts about tactics that you might find useful. As it is better to look at ramged combat as one tool in your tool box, and part of an arsenal of tactics that can be used to keep you alive.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=158067

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=193332

And no Ranger would be complete IMO without:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=187340

:cool:

[doomwarrior]

On second thought maybe I should just let you guys cover the guide. And in my defense a wall of text is still a wall of text even if it is in several different posts

[Talon_Moonshadow]

On second thought maybe I should just let you guys cover the guide. And in my defense a wall of text is still a wall of text even if it is in several different posts

I hope I didn't offend you.

Feel free to post your guide. But a forum is also a place for other people to post their views too.



I didn't say anything about the wall of text, but here's a suggestion, for what it is worth.

Insert blank lines between topics.

Like the races. Make Elf one paragraph. Then insert a blank line...

And make Dwarves the next paragraph.

it is a lot easier to read something seperated in some manner rather than trying to read many many words that have no form of seperation to make the different topics easily identifiable and seperatable for other people to easily see a way to subdivide them into bite sized junks of information that they can read one thought at a time and give their eyes a break.

If you get my point.


Your goal is a good one. And you are intitled to your opinions.

I just have different opinions. Mostly about kiting.

The problam with kiting is most other players are melee based and cannot hit something that is moving away from them.

There are other problems as well.

What you need to do is get the feel of monster agro, and AI. And be able to know what will happen before you take your first shot.

You kite when it makes sense to do so. But you have to also play to the strengths of the other party members.

Barbarians for instance, tned to kill things very quickly. Dead monsters do less daage to the party then live monsters.

Kiting monsters out of reach of the raging Barbarian's great axe is not making the most effect use of your party members abilities.

Otherwise your guide is fine. Not perfect, but ok.

And the purpose of a forum, again, is to engage others in a discussion.

Hear people out, listen to their ideas.

Take what sounds good, and adapt you guide to be a better guide.

[doomwarrior]

I wasn't offend or anything. And i proably should have been more specific on my kiteing part. im going to go back and change that

[Tyberon]

First of all, I applaud you for taking the time to share your input.

Now that that's said, though the method may have been a bit gruff, there is positive advice given in the replies above.

When writing guides in the future, make sure to illustrate your thought clearly and step-by-step. This will ensure that the point of your topic is not missed, and leaves little room for error on the side of the would-be practitioner of your your methods.

Explain your points as if the reader has no prior exposure to the topic, as you don't know who your guide will reach.

Take all replies with a grain of salt. There will always be positive and negative feedback; however you can learn from both.

Lastly... Don't forget, "A wise man can learn more from a stupid question, than a fool can learn from a wise answer" _ Bruce Lee

keep learning and writing.. oh yeah by the way..

A 6 CON !!! ? 0.o

[AylinIsAwesome]

My Arcane Archer has 6 base con.

You should never, ever make a 6 CON character, then turn around and offer it as a guide to new players.

For stats on an Elven AA, I would recommend:

STR 16 <---Levels here
DEX 18 <---Enhancements here
CON 12 <---+2 if 32 point build
INT 8
WIS 10 <---Dumpstat*
CHA 8


There's also no reason to choose any race besides Elf, as the +2 Attack with longbows is the same as +4 DEX, and the +2 Damage is the same as +4 STR. No other race can even come close to offering that to an archer.

(Also if a player were to only have 28 point builds and Drow, Elf is still better here. CHA and INT are useless.)


*: WIS is a dumpstat here, because of the following:

1. The difference between 10 base and 14 base WIS, at level 20 is...58 SP.
2. WIS determines your Will save, but as an Elf you can already get +5 to it.
3. You can use items and tomes to reach 14, which will let you cast spells. It isn't required that you have 14 base WIS.
4. It's more important that those stat points go into CON, STR and DEX.

[protokon]

There's a few reasons why arcane archers are typically made fun of, and a few of them are illustrated in your guide unfortunately.

a basic rule of thumb when creating any character, any class - put points into con at minimum until they cost double (this is 14 con for most races) and very seldomly will more experienced builders sacrifice this and only go to 12 because of a point-starved build.

you've received a lot of constructive criticism in a few of these posts. my suggestion would be to go back and re-format your wall o' text (with some empty lines) then re-work some of the information that was pointed out by the veterans.

Arcane archers can be fun to play and fun to play with. it's the stereotypical ones that do nothing but kite when playing in groups that are the most annoying.

-also add to the fact that alot of dungeons are close-quartered combat, theres not really room to back up constantly or in circles. you get all the 2 weapon fighting feats for free, you just have to learn there are times when its more appropriate to put the bow away and take the blades out.


Whenever someone mentions Arcane Archers, someone else always seems to chime in about how terrible they are. Nevermind that an AA on manyshot throws out amazing damage, especially against a room full of monsters. Of course manyshot isn't on all the time, but I don't see people complaining about how barbarians suck because they have only have so many rages or wizards suck because they have a limited SP pool. As for people who had a bad experience with a newb AA, you would think they would appreciate someone putting out a guide for them.


I missed the post where anyone mentioned that arcane archers suck because manyshot isn't active 100% of the time. nobody want's to chase down a mob that an archer is kiting because he has 140hp and 0 fort, because con was a dump stat. after all, he won't get hit, right?

there is still a gap in the DPS between melee's and archers. the reason there is a gap is because archers have the advantage of not being hit from a distance. learn to pull out some swords when your not many-shotting and I can guarantee nobody will decline you from a group.

[saco]

No offense but this isn't really a good guide at all. I won't toach up on the whole wall of text thing but I skimmed over it and a few things that is buggin me and can't let go

A. Improved Mental Toguhness...really? I have more darn spell poionts than I know what to do with...here's a hint...use a SP item like Magi or some such if your really hurting for mana. Wisdom is a dump stat and nothing more...a +6 Wis item more than covers it, plus if you want to free a slot up then 12 wis should be the highest as +2 tomes are easy to get.

B. 100% Archery is not a good thing...archery in this game is gimped to put it simpely. I used to be 100% Archery and learned my mistake. I'm still an AA but I put away my bow when neccessary and melee. Why I put a feat in Improved Critical: Slashing for Scimitars. Archery is highly situational when many shot is on cooldown.

C. Melee HATE mobs being feared as they tend to bring friends or kiting for that manner. Paralyzers are good mid lvls but are highly unreliable later on.

D. Shot on the Run is a trash feat...my 28 pointer never has problems hitting mobs and moving even in epics minus the real high AC mobs.

E. Can't emphasis enough on a prevous poster on the importance of Con...that is as iportant as Str and Dex. Can't dps when your dead and you WILL get hit. I gimped my 32 pointer by only doing 8 Con and I'm kicking myself in the ass for it.

Sorry but this is not a guide in any shape or form. All the information that you posted is in the games tooltips and if you can't figure that 1+1 game mechanic...well then hopefully you never make it past Korthos or grp with anyone. There is a lot of bad advise in this supposive "AA Guide" and clearly coming from someone who hasn't done much endgame content at all. Sorry if you get your feelings hurt but there you have it.

[Latharna]

I think the OP either needs to go back to school, or hire a proof-reader. That ****-poor spelling and grammar made my eyes bleed.

[doomwarrior]

I am not saying you should dump con. I was just showing my Arcane Archers build. Wisdom i put at 14 because telling a new player you have to find an item is means you will have to wield the item whenever you cast 4th level spells.
14 wis frees up a slot and telling a new player to get a tome is idiotic. Tomes are too expressive for a new player to buy.
The reason for improved mental toughness is because you should be buffing the group and you should cast your cure spells. A heal is a heal. If everyone is taking damage you can heal some people and stop the party from wiping.
You should also heal yourself when ever you have damage. Tell the healer that if you are not fighting then you can heal yourself.

[skyking613]

While I do agree with some of this

Sorry but anyone without at least 12-14 con(depending on race) is useless and should reroll. And I don't care if you have evasion or not.

Shot on the run is way too expensive and not needed. Spending 3 feats for essential a +4 to hit, really

And Improved mental toughness, NO WAY

[AylinIsAwesome]

I am not saying you should dump con. I was just showing my Arcane Archers build. Wisdom i put at 14 because telling a new player you have to find an item is means you will have to wield the item whenever you cast 4th level spells.
14 wis frees up a slot and telling a new player to get a tome is idiotic. Tomes are too expressive for a new player to buy.
The reason for improved mental toughness is because you should be buffing the group and you should cast your cure spells. A heal is a heal. If everyone is taking damage you can heal some people and stop the party from wiping.
You should also heal yourself when ever you have damage. Tell the healer that if you are not fighting then you can heal yourself.

One of the best items anyone with spell points can wear is a Concordant Opposition, crafted in the Shroud. It nicely comes with +6 WIS on it. 14 starting WIS doesn't free up a slot, it just eats points you could have put into CON. It's not as if wearing a WIS item prevents you from wearing something else important; CON on your necklace, Fortification on your hat, DEX on a ring, STR on gloves, False Life on your belt, Striders for boots... You have more than enough slots to fit in a WIS item.

By the way, even new players can pull tomes out of Tempest Spine. And even with no tomes, 10 starting WIS is fine since all you need is 14 WIS to cast, and +6 WIS items are common in the later levels.

Improved Mental Toughness is still a waste of a feat. Yes, you should be casting your spells. But don't mislead; your heals will NOT be large enough to matter for anything in combat without serious investment...which will gimp you. You should be healing yourself out of combat, but not necessarily with spell points; there are wands, scrolls and pots which are quite cheap that you can sue to heal yourself with. The spells you should be casting are your buffs.

[Ystradmynach]

One of the best items anyone with spell points can wear is a Concordant Opposition, crafted in the Shroud. It nicely comes with +6 WIS on it. 14 starting WIS doesn't free up a slot, it just eats points you could have put into CON. It's not as if wearing a WIS item prevents you from wearing something else important; CON on your necklace, Fortification on your hat, DEX on a ring, STR on gloves, False Life on your belt, Striders for boots... You have more than enough slots to fit in a WIS item.


Until you get a greensteel item, doesn't that really leave only one ring slot for a wisdom item? Every other place you find wisdom items on randomly generated loot is already taken up by the items you mentioned, and there are enough good effects on rings out there that that slot is likely to be filled as well.

Anyway, you could start with a 10 or 8 wisdom and end up with 14 wisdom with items, but it is also isn't difficult to get a 14 wisdom, a 12 con and still have decent dexterity and strength as well, even on a 28 point character, and have more slots to fill. And even if you happen end up with room to spare for a + wisdom item or get a concordant opposition , having a higher will save and more spell points never hurt anyone. This is one of the cases where there is more than one way to do things. But you should also note that others have mentioned you need a 11 (natural) wisdom to get mental toughness, since you need to be able to cast spells as a prerequisite (someone can correct me if I'm wrong here). So you probably don't want to start with less than a 10-11 wisdom regardless.

I agree with you though that improved mental toughness is a waste though.

[Ystradmynach]

I missed the post where anyone mentioned that arcane archers suck because manyshot isn't active 100% of the time. nobody want's to chase down a mob that an archer is kiting because he has 140hp and 0 fort, because con was a dump stat. after all, he won't get hit, right?

there is still a gap in the DPS between melee's and archers. the reason there is a gap is because archers have the advantage of not being hit from a distance. learn to pull out some swords when your not many-shotting and I can guarantee nobody will decline you from a group.

Mirta's post (first one after the wall of text) said that any who plays an Arcane Archer should either reroll or wait for another multishot bug.

And yes, there are some bad players out there, quite a few of them are Arcane Archers. But it is annoying when people confuse a bad player for a bad PrE, and that is a problem I see expressed mostly in the forums. I don't really have much of a problem getting declined from groups, although I have seen quite a few lfms that are conspicuously missing the ranger symbol even though they are accepting every other class. Just saying, a 140 hp 0 fort kiting archer is a problem with the player, not with Arcane Archers.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Until you get a greensteel item, doesn't that really leave only one ring slot for a wisdom item? Every other place you find wisdom items on randomly generated loot is already taken up by the items you mentioned, and there are enough good effects on rings out there that that slot is likely to be filled as well.

Anyway, you could start with a 10 or 8 wisdom and end up with 14 wisdom with items, but it is also isn't difficult to get a 14 wisdom, a 12 con and still have decent dexterity and strength as well, even on a 28 point character, and have more slots to fill. And even if you happen end up with room to spare for a + wisdom item or get a concordant opposition , having a higher will save and more spell points never hurt anyone. This is one of the cases where there is more than one way to do things. But you should also note that others have mentioned you need a 11 (natural) wisdom to get mental toughness, since you need to be able to cast spells as a prerequisite (someone can correct me if I'm wrong here). So you probably don't want to start with less than a 10-11 wisdom regardless.

I agree with you though that improved mental toughness is a waste though.

All you need to get Mental Toughness is the ability to cast spells, or on a Ranger, four levels in the class. No value in any stat is required.

What other effect would you really need on a ring anyway? Devotion? Spell Points? If it's either of those you can get the first in potions and the second on a weapon set you switch out after you finish buffing.

[Chai]

Here's my submission for the front cover for the guide. I think it helps tell the story.

http://www.freewebs.com/ringlord420/legolas.jpg

[sirdanile]

Whenever someone mentions Arcane Archers, someone else always seems to chime in about how terrible they are. Nevermind that an AA on manyshot throws out amazing damage, especially against a room full of monsters.

A manyshot using archer deals out single target damage in the 400/second mark, while last I checked a monster build was dealing around 500-600/second, many other common melee builds remain above 400 dps. Without manyshot it is no contest. The room full of enemies part is true in theory, but in the end you just wind up ticking off a whole room of not quite so dead enemies with maybe 1 or 2 dead ones...but you technically dealt more damage! (You can apply the same logic as cleave to improved precise shot, the only saving grace is that IPS is active 100% of the time making it essentially free if you ahve the feats to spare.)



Of course manyshot isn't on all the time, but I don't see people complaining about how barbarians suck because they have only have so many rages or wizards suck because they have a limited SP pool.

Yeah without manyshot ranged damage drops to 150-180ish. Barbs can keep rage up 100% of the time, wizards can regen mana and actually KILL things with their mana.





On to the guide, Format the text, save eyes.
Place emphasis on waiting for the party to engage until shooting because ranged has weird aggro issues that will make them all become pretty fixated on killing the annoying PEWPEWPEWer in the back...which leads you to kiting...which leads to nobody bothering to help, which leads to it having been better to just solo the quest when they drop your stone in lava.



Mirta's post (first one after the wall of text) said that any who plays an Arcane Archer should either reroll or wait for another multishot bug.

And yes, there are some bad players out there, quite a few of them are Arcane Archers. But it is annoying when people confuse a bad player for a bad PrE, and that is a problem I see expressed mostly in the forums. I don't really have much of a problem getting declined from groups, although I have seen quite a few lfms that are conspicuously missing the ranger symbol even though they are accepting every other class. Just saying, a 140 hp 0 fort kiting archer is a problem with the player, not with Arcane Archers.

MANYSHOT!!!!!!

Its not the Arcane Archer PRE thats bad, its the ranged combat system in general. THe bad players and builds just exacerbate the situation.

Also I took Improved Mental Toughness on my ranger instead of a second toughness because with that extra 100 sp I can cast two maximized cure serious wounds for 100+ hp each instead, net gain of 180ish hp.

[Ystradmynach]

All you need to get Mental Toughness is the ability to cast spells, or on a Ranger, four levels in the class. No value in any stat is required.

What other effect would you really need on a ring anyway? Devotion? Spell Points? If it's either of those you can get the first in potions and the second on a weapon set you switch out after you finish buffing.

Resistance, protection, disease immunity, blindness immunity, feather falling, maybe a ring of shadows. Some of those effects are conditional based on the quest you are doing, but it is still one less item for you to switch out. It is really a issue of convenience vs min/maxing, only the player can really answer the question as to whether it is worth it or not.

[Latharna]

Starting with 14 wis is totally pointless because by the time you can actually cast level 4 spells you'll already have a decent +wis item and probably even a tome.

If you start with 10 wis, all you need to cast level 1 spells is the +1 wis trinket from Durk's or which ever harbor named-mob drops it.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Resistance, protection, disease immunity, blindness immunity, feather falling, maybe a ring of shadows. Some of those effects are conditional based on the quest you are doing, but it is still one less item for you to switch out. It is really a issue of convenience vs min/maxing, only the player can really answer the question as to whether it is worth it or not.

Blindness immunity can be easily found on goggles, and Rangers have a spell for curing Disease. Immunities for both can be combined onto a single item (con-opp).

Feather Falling is most often found on boots, and can be switched out with the Striders as the situation demands it..

Protection isn't that good after level 7 unless you dump a lot into AC (and possible have a Monk splash with lots of WIS).

Resistance comes on cloaks. Both can come from a Stability item.

[Purgatory]

Creating the arcane archer
First thing you will want to chose is your race

Humans have an extra feat which is not as use full as it sounds. Chances are you will not need the extra feat. There are not a lot of feats that help out an arcane archer Wrong! bad reason for not being human. The best thing about humans is the fact that no stats go down and human can chose an enhancement to make any stat they want go up twice. Wrong again! make any 2 stats go up once! Best part about humans is the 30% healing amp gives the ranger some real healing power if you take emp healing and maxamise for some realy solid self healing getting ur cure serious to heal yourself in the mid 200's

Elfs have more dexterity which is very useful for an arcane archer plus they have a bonus for bow damage which helps them out a lot. Of course the lower con hurts it quite a bit. Wrong again! 2 con penalty only = 20 hp at end game, you can make it up by uping your con at creation, items toughness feat and enhanments Its possible to work around the low con issue though. My Arcane Archer has 6 base con. this just show how wrong you are. 6 base con = epic fail! And no he isn't the first one to die he doesn't go down in one hit and he doesn't need the healer focused on him. I highly doubt that one

Dwarfs are helped out with the extra con and less charisma doesn't hurt them. a solid choice. Wrong dwarfs make medicore arcane archers they excell at tempest

Halflings lower strength really lowers over all damage because of bow strength. It could work of course but having 2 less strength really hurts this choice. Wrong halflings get better save, sneak attack and +1 to hit and dmg, +1 ac. They actualy make very solid arcane archers

Drow are nice choices with spell resistance and more intil. However drows don't get the bow advantages that elfs get for free. Wrong again! spell resistance is meh waste of AP to even upgrade from base 13, intel is not even needed rangers get pletny of skill points to blow, drow get +2 dex at creation and enhanments very important to a archer, higher chr helps with umd and is a great choice if u dont have 32 pt build yet

Warforged have more con which helps out your hit points, however less wisdom hurts it and getting less health back from cure spells really hurts it as the rangers healing spells are what makes them more versatile. Wrong again Wisdom is not all that important just highenuf easly goten by tomes and items to cast ur spells, the imunities is a even trade to healing the neg healing amp
Next thing you will want to chose is stat points.
strength is one of your more important stats as it helps your damage with bows due to bow strength and will help out your blade damage and chance of hitting which you will need sometimes.

Dexterity is a must. get this as high as possible while not having strength to low. basically you should try to find a balance between the two. It also increases your reflex save. Because you have evasion you will want your reflex saves as high as possible because if you make a save then you don't take any damage. You won't be making the saves on a trap but most of the time you can make the saves of a spell that uses reflex.

Constitution can help you out. For every 2 points you put in it your healths goes up by 1 per a level. Yet you dont take your own guid advice lol

Intelligence help your skills out but i wouldn't recommend putting points into it as you already are getting a good number of skill points and rangers dont need that many skills. yet int is one the main reason you recomend drow?

Wisdom should be increased to 14 no matter what. This is for 2 reason. One it makes it where you can use spells when you reach the level for them even if you don't have the wis+ item to use it.the other reason is you need a good amount of sp to cast your spells and your spell points are based on your wisdom score. No need to up any points into wisdom at all, and the xtra sp is minute both these poor reason you give can be easly compinsated with easly to get gear in game.

Charisma is almost useless. it can increase your use magic device score but all in all use magic device is not a requirement for rangers because you have access to
cure wands which are one of the main reasons to get use magic devices. UMD is not for cure wands they for HEAL scorll, Blur wands, Shield wands, Fire/cold shield scrolls, telport scrolls, RR gear, Stonesking wands/scrolls, greater heroism scrolls, True seeing scrolls, Rez scrolls, this list can go on and on and on.

Feats
As an arcane archer your first 3 feats are chosen for you. (point blank shot, weapon focus ranged weapons, and mental toughness) The rest of the feats though are up to you. Here are a few that would be useful for arcane archers
improved mental toughness- for when you need more sp for heals, buffing, and switching imbues. this is a joke right?
Improved critical:ranged weapons- the increased chance to critical helps a lot and the bonus to critical damage makes it almost a requirement.
Toughness: increases your hp by a ok amount. If you find yourself needing a bit more hit points then taking this can help you out This feat is required on any build for any kind of end game content
Shot on the Run- A great feat probably on one of the best an arcane archer can take. Unfortunately though it requires you to take 2 feats that don't help out arcane archers. Horrible choice and waste of alot of feats for +4 to hit while moveing
skills
Jump- higher jumping will help out in most dungeons. Rangers get the jump spell dont need this
Swim- not by any means a requirement but it can make it where you don't need a water breathing item to make swims. LMAO
Hide/move silently- can be used for AAs who want to sneak around a bit and avoid some mobs. If you follow this guid get this and pike at the begining of the quest so you dont give out neg 10 xp as that all you contribute to the party [/red]
Spot-An enemy sneaking right up to you then attacking makes the bow useless. spot them first so you won't have to worry about it.
[color=red] no balance or umd the 2 most usefull skills out there?
Also just in case anyone was wondering (80% sure that someone will say they weren't to annoy me) my first charcetr, my arcane archer's, stat make up was this
str 18
dex 18 (elf)
con 6 (elf)
intil 8
wis 14
cha 8
This is horrible point spread You should not be writing guids on this at all

Not a very good guide you need a bit more experiance in game before trying to give advise! Most if not all of it is realy bad advicde to give to someone. This guide is not goind anyone any favors.

[Aggro_King]

I am not saying you should dump con. I was just showing my Arcane Archers build. Wisdom i put at 14 because telling a new player you have to find an item is means you will have to wield the item whenever you cast 4th level spells.
14 wis frees up a slot and telling a new player to get a tome is idiotic. Tomes are too expressive for a new player to buy.
The reason for improved mental toughness is because you should be buffing the group and you should cast your cure spells. A heal is a heal. If everyone is taking damage you can heal some people and stop the party from wiping.
You should also heal yourself when ever you have damage. Tell the healer that if you are not fighting then you can heal yourself.

Making an AA as your 1st toon is a terrible idea IMO.

The reason I say this is AA's are gimped until lvl 20-18 if Ranger, then it still suffers without the capstone.


I have one that I tweak geared and added ALL +2 tomes at lvl 7 & ALL +1s at 3

(NON store bought they are possibly bugged).

Someone told me whom I trust that they ate a +2 supreme DDO store tome and later ate a +3 tome IT DID NOT STACK OR WORK AT ALL, leaving him at +2, maybe a bug but I wouldn't chance it.


Also AA's are heavily gear dependant sugested items are as follows.
(* = Items I still don't have)


For Ranged

LIT II bow (Fully worth the grind)

Wounding of Puncturing bow (Add icy burst & Force dmg)

Tortured livewood (Does more dmg than imbue acid & stacks)

Unwavering ardency (+3 Long bow (Base dmg: 2d12) Immunity to Fear, Cursespewing, Slowburst)*

Paralyzing bow

Blackdragonscale (for Alacrity and looks sweet)

Quiver of alacrity*

Bloodstone*

Shimmering arrowhead

House D Quivers or larger w/t stacks of Silver arrows [Shroud] & Cold irons [ADQ2]

Conners set (deepwoods)*

Givenor's set (AA)*

:Note on sets. Im not sure which stacks better w/t the quiver and or dragon armor there's been huge debate over this needs & more testing.


Melee

Dual Vorpal Kukri's (I use these constantly)

Wounding of Puncturing Rapier (main hand)*

Wounding of Puncturing Short sword (off hand)*

Ghost touch of disruption Rapier*

Ghost touch of disruption short sword*

Improved curse spewing (any finesse or light)

Improved distruction (any finesse or light)

Banishing (any finesse or light)

Paralyzing (any finesse or light)

Duel Sunblades (for low lvl)


Other

Icy's

Tumbleweed* (curently using +6 dex ring)

Greensteel 45 hp item- cloak (I prefer Smoke II)*

Greensteel stalemate- goggles (tier 2 easy to achive for +6 wis)

Boots of the innocent (currenty wearing +5 resistance cloak)*

Mysterious bauble (casters will be ****ed when/if grabbed but solves any mana problems you might have)*

Protection +5 item

Chattering ring or DT +3 dodge*

Gloves of the Titan*

Planar gird

Any named +6 Con belt of GFL (comes in 3 flavors)

Silver Flame Talisman

Minos helm


Starting stats

STR 12 (16) 36pt*

DEX 20

CON 14

INT 10 (8) 36pt*

WIS 8

CHA 8


Built with epics in mind, at DEX 38 I still miss a few shots on ADQ2.

Also Finesse is key since you will melee ALOT.

At 402 Hp now which is still low Greensteel will add 45 = 447 a bit low still but OK for an elf.


While my build isn't perfect it's very fun to play and never get rejected from teams getting the high kill count in many cases.

Any TR points I will be adding to STR and sacrificing INT on 36 pt.

[Pwesiela]

I've posted my thoughts in a another thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=263907), and that's all I'll say on the matter.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Also Finesse is key since you will melee ALOT.

Save a feat.

Go STR-based.

[Latharna]

Tough call: clueless noob or troll?

[rdasca]

Sorry OP but your guide is a fail, for most if not all the reasons in the post before mine.

for those looking for a good guide look here:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=263907

Personally I like the dex build vs the str one, but even my dex based AA gets his str into the mid 20s.

[Latharna]

If this travesty of a "guide" is any indication of how a typical ranger is built and played, then it's no small wonder why so many DDO players absolutely hate rangers, especially the Arcane Archers.

[GraysonAC]

My original reply was before the edit. With the edit, I think all interest in discussion with the OP ends when he recommends 6 CON. That's.. just.. wow.