The Perfect Ranged Ranger

[Baralai2345]

I hear everything about the melee ranger, and how its alot better than a fighter, but what about a ranger who actually uses bows? I see a high str and dex, dex to actually hit with a bow, and str for the extra damage Bow Strength allows. Favored enemy in my opinion would go undead for the first one because of the many undead at those beginning levels. Drow would work best for this build because they get a high dex and can max it to 20 for a great AB to their bows, but would leave alot of other stats low. so I would think 18 dex, 16 str, 11 wisdom, and whatever points left over for whatever the maker would be interested in. The problem I see are feats, because the ranger gets most of the ranged feats with their levels, whats left over for them to get at the levels they get feats, dodge? PBS? toughness?, I dont see much more other than those 3 open for a ranger. But anyways, im here asking anyone who has built a good ranged ranger to discuss what they did and try to find a better solution for one.

[MeNorel]

Well the nice thing currently about the DDO ranged/ranger is that you do not have to choose a fighting style, bother TWF and Ranged are given to you. I currently have a 12 ranger/1 fighter that I am quite happy with but don't sacrafice the other stats for Min/Max'ing Dex and Strength casters at range can still cripple you if you have to low of a Will save, and in higher lvls mob Archers can hit incredibaly hard so having a very low CON is not good as well. Then if you do get agro being able to effectively go stick and board is a must as well. Nice feats to strive for are Dodge then Mobility and SotR (alot of people say its a waste but to a pure ranged fighter moving and shooting at a -4 can severly effect your to hit.)

Ranger, IMHO is the worst class to Min/Max because they are so versitile, Min/Max'ing them really puts them as niche character's (i.e. Stg based = fighter, High DEX and WIS = support healer range fighter) the class leaves alot of room for personal pefference and what you ideally would like your character to be.

[Thornton]

Well the nice thing currently about the DDO ranged/ranger is that you do not have to choose a fighting style, bother TWF and Ranged are given to you. I currently have a 12 ranger/1 fighter that I am quite happy with but don't sacrafice the other stats for Min/Max'ing Dex and Strength casters at range can still cripple you if you have to low of a Will save, and in higher lvls mob Archers can hit incredibaly hard so having a very low CON is not good as well. Then if you do get agro being able to effectively go stick and board is a must as well. Nice feats to strive for are Dodge then Mobility and SotR (alot of people say its a waste but to a pure ranged fighter moving and shooting at a -4 can severly effect your to hit.)

Ranger, IMHO is the worst class to Min/Max because they are so versitile, Min/Max'ing them really puts them as niche character's (i.e. Stg based = fighter, High DEX and WIS = support healer range fighter) the class leaves alot of room for personal pefference and what you ideally would like your character to be.


I like pefference better than the actual word! (sorry, just struck me as funny, rofl) :)

[MeNorel]

I like pefference better than the actual word! (sorry, just struck me as funny, rofl) :)


Opps...at work :mad: so have to post on the fly and spell check kind of goes out the window.:D

[GeneralDiomedes]

Elf is the best race because of the longbow enhancements.

[DasLurch]

If you are looking for feats try taking Iron Will and luck of heroes. I know saving throw feats are not a very cool looking choice, but adding another +3 to your will save is always a good idea to me. Otherwise, I'd reccomend the improved crit feats. If you are planning out a ranged PC, you want to take as much advantage as you can of the long/ short bow's 3x crit multiplier. Just a few ideas to get you started.

[Rhun]

i've been leveling up a guy who's gonna be as ranged focused as possible (expect that im gonna "waste" a feat on finesse so when i have to go mellee im more effective) definately going to have dodge mobility sotr and pbs(already have most of it.) and i may splash with either fighter for extra feats to get imp crit and weapon focus, or enough levels of rogue to get sneak attack, for the scout sniper affect. looking at the levels, a ranger9/rogue3/barb2 looks pretty sweet. uncanny dodge, evasion, sneak attack, probably still a nice bab and hit points couldn't be too bad. don't know about the enhancements available tho.
alternatively an rngr12/fghtr2 would give you imp precise shot and another favored enemy, and two extra feats, and if im not mistaken, slightly better bab and hit points.

with the 7 feats that would allow you could have imp crit, sotr(and it's prereqs of course) and leave three feats for things like combat expertise, toughness, etc. or a couple mellee feats just to be safe. personally i would go with weapon focus ranged, toughness, and maybe a skill focus(move silently or hide) but, maybe not since the game doesn't have much use for sneaking if you can't sneak attack.

[Solmage]

I would recommend 16 dex, 16 strength, go 32pt elf, don't neglect con, don't neglect wisdom.

You want a lot of hitpoints for when evasion fails and for those spells that can't be evaded (200-240 damage disintegrations, 300 damage polar rays, 400 damage scorching rays (ok these are for now pvp only =) ). But seriously, low hit points is very crippling. Also a decent fortitude save helps a lot.

Low wisdom is a big hindrance because you'll often shoot casters.. and they love to shoot back ..

Elf will give you a nice longbow enhancement, so choose that over drow. With that, you won't care that your dex is only at 16 to start.

As for feats, improved Critical Ranged is a must. Weapon Finesse to switch to melee is also a good idea.

[AegisAndy]

I'd go elf for sure, for the bow enhancements.

18 Dex is fine, 14 or 16 Str is fine.

If you want to go ranger specifically, take 11 levels of ranger to top out the feat list. I'd take 2 levels of fighter to allow yourself a couple of extra feats as well. Personally, I'd take the last level in barb or pally. Each has advantages. The Barb running speed would make the backpeddling attack work much better because almost nothing could keep up with you. The Pally saves and AC bonus would be cool too, on the other hand. Neither would hurt your offensive output.

For feat choices, Weapon Focus: Ranged, and Improved Crit: Ranged are basic necessities for this path. There are other paths you can follow outside of that.

On my ranged build, I chose to take Dodge->Mobility->Shot on the Run. I knew that I would be doing the backpedalling thing a lot, so I wanted to take SOTR, and the +1 AC helps too.

Precision might also be a good choice if you are doing stat damage type attacks, to help you keep your aggro problems down. Saving throw bonuses are helpful in many cases as well. Will save is low for rangers, but you might also take reflex so that when the party asks you to be their trap-tripper cause you have evasion, you know you won't miss the save.

[cappuccino]

I'd go elf for sure, for the bow enhancements.

18 Dex is fine, 14 or 16 Str is fine.

If you want to go ranger specifically, take 11 levels of ranger to top out the feat list. I'd take 2 levels of fighter to allow yourself a couple of extra feats as well. Personally, I'd take the last level in barb or pally. Each has advantages. The Barb running speed would make the backpeddling attack work much better because almost nothing could keep up with you. The Pally saves and AC bonus would be cool too, on the other hand. Neither would hurt your offensive output.

For feat choices, Weapon Focus: Ranged, and Improved Crit: Ranged are basic necessities for this path. There are other paths you can follow outside of that.

On my ranged build, I chose to take Dodge->Mobility->Shot on the Run. I knew that I would be doing the backpedalling thing a lot, so I wanted to take SOTR, and the +1 AC helps too.

Precision might also be a good choice if you are doing stat damage type attacks, to help you keep your aggro problems down. Saving throw bonuses are helpful in many cases as well. Will save is low for rangers, but you might also take reflex so that when the party asks you to be their trap-tripper cause you have evasion, you know you won't miss the save.

I agree with all from the above. My first toon I created was a dex monkey ranged attack character. What I did back then was 6 ranger/2 fighter (for the extra feats) and 2 of Rogue (for sneak attack & evasion at an earlier time). At the time - lvl 10 was the max I had dumped all into dex and ended up with a 34 dex. With the changes to the enhancement system now, I'll need to modify my build or else I have posted it here the key is instead of armor - find a good set of spell resistance robes and iron manicales/Black Widow Bracers.

This experiment will commence tonight and will advise how it goes.

The latest design take instead of SotR, I elected to try a wep finesse, with precision

[gargoylenest]

ranger should be at least of 11 levels for manyshot 3 arrows....
nobody mentioned that.

my ranger is drow lvl12 atm.
im built for doing damage and not missing my shot.
atm with my items i at
20 str
28 dex

going well, at lvl13 i use a +5dex that will get me to 30 dex.

[GlassCannon]

Speedfoot is a pretty nasty little ranger, though her STR could be higher.
15, 36, 14, 10, 14, 10 with STR DEX and CON items(no WIS INT or CHA), no buffs. She has a to-hit of +29 with a Bow(plain, not Masterwork), +32 normally(house D ammo).

I was considering rerolling my Drow I made in MOD 2... going Elf for the Bow Enhances and going 18 DEX, 16/18 STR with a lower WIS and slightly more CON.

No matter how you build your ranger, have fun with it.

[GORAK]

A simple plan for a great archer build is going with the DEX route with an elf ranger. Start out as an elf ranger with weapon finesse as your Lev 1 feat, a 20 DEX and a 15 STR. Level 3 feat weapon focus ranged, Level 6 feat dodge and Level 9 feat improved critical ranged and Level 12 feat improved critical whatever melee weapon. All your stat increased at 4, 8 and 12 dump into DEX. You will get +3 DEX from Ranger AP by Lev 10 and +2 DEX from elf AP by Lev 8. Do the quick math: Base 20 +3 stat increases +3 Ranger dex +2 Elf dex +4 dex item and you are looking at a 32 DEX at level 12! And what's nice about the 32 DEX is that the total +11 bonus is applied to ranged attack, melee attack (weapon finesse) and AC! Best armor at this point is +4 AC black widow bracers (from WW) with the +11 DEX to make a total +15. Adding a +5 heavy shield, +5 barkskin spell, +4 iron manacles (from Delaras if you choose CG alignment) and +1 dodge feat adds another total +17 to this.
Base AC 10 +15 +17 and you got a +42 AC with a shield at Lev 12.
You + TO HIT attack ratings will be around +30 or better with a decent bow and rapier by Level 12. Best bow would be the Silver Longbow from the Church and the Cult quest end reward in House P. It does 1d10 +2d6 holy damage per arrow with a 19-20 crit range x3 multiplier (this improves to 17-20 x3 with imp critical ranged feat).

[Huebacca]

ranger should be at least of 11 levels for manyshot 3 arrows....
nobody mentioned that.
Base attack bonus 11 gives you 3 arrows with many shot not ranger lvl 11.