Looking for pure (ish) AA Ranger build

[Billybobml]

Next life for my future completionist is going to be ranger and I am shopping for a build, or at least starting ability point breakdown to qualify for feats/abilities.

Past lives of Bard, Pally, Monk & Fighter. +4 tomes all the way around. Can make any GS necessary and have access to about every non raid bow in the game.

I have a Tempest Ranger sitting on the shelf. Open to any TWF bonuses but really want to go range based as I have never done it. Not interested in EE play, will probably only stick around after level 20 to knock out some ED levels before TRing again. Playstyle is zerg with decent self healing but no SF pots (Devs could you please dump Tomb of the Tormented already? Kind of like you did with the GH flagging?) Group when I can but often need to solo. Thinking human for extra feat? Shouldn't need Helf for healing. Does Elf give access to any ranged bonuses that aren't available in the Ranger trees?

Any advice greatly appreciated. I'm going to buy a new fridge, two parent teacher conferences & then back to TR tonight. The clock is ticking....

[Arkadios]

Elf: 1rogue,1fighter,18 ranger. Seeing as you're Tr'ing at 20 the capstone won't help you much anyways.
STR:14
DEX:20
CON:14
INT:12
WIS:8
CHA:8

Progression 1rogue, 11 ranger, 1 fighter, 7ranger

feats, 1) point blank shot, 3) toughness, 6) power attack, 9) Icrit:ranged, 12) cleave, 13) ICrit(I'd suggest rapiers so piercing but scimitars or longswords work too), 15) great cleave, 18) Empower healing. Levels in Dex.

Alternatively STR based go human use extra feat for khopesh, stats as: 18,14,16,12,8,8.

For skills max out UMD, Heal, search and Disable device, you should be able to do traps. Any extra skill points put 1 in tumble 10 in jump and the rest in balance/spot.

[Ausdoerrt]

If you want to be good at ranged, you likely won't have enough AP to spend in all 3 prestige trees for decent melee, so as alternative to above:

- Drop the melee (PA/C/GC) feats for something like Quicken (for heals), Dragonmark (displace clickys!) and whatever.

- Dump STR further and put more into INT and WIS

Elf doesn't offer anything overly useful outside of Dex to DMG, but that's big. Just level that and dragonmarks.

Go AA for lower levels (paralyzing arrows), then swap to mostly DWS for higher levels.

[Loromir]

Deepwood Stalker is now a viable alternative to AA, but either one has its benefits.

I persoanlly went arenal elf for the dex tio-hit and damge for LongBows and Rapiers. There are very mionor ehancement bonuss for archer Elves, but nothing earth shattering.

If you choose the AA tree, you can still spend a few points in the DWS tree. I would suggest you get the Sniper Shot Enhancement from DWS. It is a prettty nice attack to cycle through and has a fairly short timer.

Archers got a lot of love with the Enhancement pass and are capable of insane amounts of Burst DPS.

One last thing, you need to be a pure ranger in order to get the AA capstone.

[unbongwah]

Since you're planning to TR again and the AA capstone is still borked, there's no reason to stay pure rgr. You've probably already TRed so this is moot; but thinking a little outside the box, what about a DMed halfling monkcher? Levels to rgr 12 / monk 6 to park at 18 to XP-farm; rgr 12 gets you basically everything worthwhile from AA (Doubleshot bonuses are questionable given penalties from MS & 10K). Monk feats: Zen Archery, Precision (or Stunning Fist), 10K Stars. Heroic feats: Least DM, PBS, Maximize, IC:Ranged, Master of Forms, Emp Heal, GM of Forms. [Not sure of lvling order, other than you need BAB 8 to take IC:Ranged @ 9 and monk 6 by lvl 12 to take MoF.] Enhancements: at least 33 APs in AA for Slaying Arrow+Imp Elem Arrows, 11 APs in Ninja for Shadow Veil, and DWS for some Pos Spellpower; probably some in Shintao & Tempest as well. I was thinking WIS-based fighting unarmed, but DEX-based w/short swords would also work.

[Ausdoerrt]

One last thing, you need to be a pure ranger in order to get the AA capstone.
It's double-borked. Not only does it prevent imbues from working properly, but it doesn't even give the stated passive bonuses.


Since you're planning to TR again and the AA capstone is still borked, there's no reason to stay pure rgr.
I have a pure ranger, and the DWS capstone is awesome. The 7d6 SA doesn't hurt either.


Enhancements: at least 33 APs in AA for Slaying Arrow+Imp Elem Arrows, 11 APs in Ninja for Shadow Veil, and DWS for some Pos Spellpower; probably some in Shintao & Tempest as well. I was thinking WIS-based fighting unarmed, but DEX-based w/short swords would also work.
I also wouldn't recommend wasting the points on the elemental arrows unless you're pure and/or mostly AA. Force arrows give the same amount of damage much earlier for only 11 AP - damage that works on 90% of enemies in the game.

If you do go for Slaying Arrow, make sure your SP pool is up to snuff - and/or that you take AA temp SP enhancements. IMO, the combination of various DWS active abilities isn't much worse - and doesn't require SP to use.