Gearing up for the expansion

[brightfang]

Can you tell me a fast and not grindy way to get good Ranger gear?

[Hobgoblin]

Can you tell me a fast and not grindy way to get good Ranger gear?

challenges

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Quests with many treasure chests ?

- Irestone inlet
- Gwylan's Last Stand
- Redwillow's Ruins

[xveganrox]

Quests with many treasure chests ?

- Irestone inlet
- Gwylan's Last Stand
- Redwillow's Ruins

Not this.

There are a lot of good ways to get gear. All of them involve some degree of grind, unfortunately. Your best bet is to get the Vale of Twilight pack if you haven't already. From that you'll be able to get all sorts of good endgame gear, including:

Greensteel weapons (some grind in Shroud, some of the best weapons in the game)
A greensteel accessory (can add +45 hp)
Tharne's Goggles (raid loot from Vision of Destruction, True Seeing and a bunch of to-hit and damage)
Levik's Bracers (raid loot from Hound of Xoriat, 20% healing amp and +6 strength)

If you have Necro 4, definitely buy or find some Shreds of Tapestry to make a Minos Legens (helmet with +20 hp, heavy fortification).

Ultimately, for endgame (and the expansion) you're going to want to have:

Heavy fortification
A greensteel or better weapon(s) (ideally Lit 2 bow and khopeshes)
As many hit points as you can get without making major sacrifices (greensteel accessory, greater false life, toughness feat, a toughness item like Minos Legens, and a +6 con item)
Enough to-hit to keep Power Attack on (start with a +5 weapon, add decent strength, and then other boosts if necessary, like Tumbleweed [+2 to-hit ring] from Hound of Xoriat)
Enough wisdom to cast spells (14 minimum)
Decent saves (try to get reflex in the upper 20s, though 30s is better)

If you can tell us what packs you have and what your current gear is we could probably give you better advice, but that's the most general information :)

[Urjak]

Quests with many treasure chests ?

- Irestone inlet
- Gwylan's Last Stand
- Redwillow's Ruins

^ that would be a terrible idea, since all of those only give low level loot that won't help you even the slightest in epic content (and the expansion is only "epic" aka level 21+ content)

Shroud is an excellent place to get gear as xveganrox already mentioned ...

apart from this:
.) challenges (frozen tunic, stalker ring, elemental weapons and bow, calomel and mournlode weapons ... they are all pretty good and easy to get)
.) shavarath (tod-sets)
.) bow of sinew and silver bow are both nice if you go ranged ... check ddo-wiki to see where you can get them
.) in the new FTP chain (expansion prequests) there also drops a nice anti-undead bow ... no idea how useful it will be in the expansion ... well one never knows^^
.) fabricators set from house C quests might also be worth considering ... takes a bit of farming but its not too bad
.) madstone boots from the Reavers Fate raid might also be worth getting
.) the Abbot raid has a really nice quiver ... but it is REALLY hard to get it ... but well you know ... if you don't try you wont even have a chance on getting it ;)
.) eKronzeks Cruelty from house P epics
.) Tharnes Goggles from VoD ... or the goggles from Accute Delirium (worse than Tharnes but a lot easier to get)
.) Alchemist Necklace from house C until you get a +45 hp green steal item to pump up your hp

[Tenchi]

Quests with many treasure chests ?

- Irestone inlet
- Gwylan's Last Stand
- Redwillow's Ruins

If you are low level, this is actually not a bad idea. Also, consider the Auction House. :-)

[sirgog]

I would hazard a guess that the best way will be to go into the new content on Normal difficulty in 'bad' gear when it comes out, and gear up in it. In most MMOs expansions tend to bring very easy to get gear that is far better than anything comparably difficult to get pre-expansion.