Drow - ranger/bard??

[Laxxis]

So I'm sorta new to DDO - I'm about to unlock my drow char. I've been thinking about a ranger/bard - but so far, I've read it does not work & "you should just stick with a normal Elf...."

I'm going to give it a try anyway - and was wondering what would be more helpful @ endgame - 4/12 ranger/bard or 4/12 bard/ranger? Is a 4/12 split the best way to go?

Like I said...I'm still noobish and green...but I'm slowly coming along.

Thanks for any advice....

-Laxxis

[Uska]

Not sure on the split but drow are well suited for either one and a combo should be fine, just have fun with it

[Sue_Dark]

It would really depend on what you wanted the character to be able to do.

6rgr/10brd would allow you to make use of tempest enhancements and dual wield, if you wanted to go that route.


Not having a high level bard, or playing one past about 3rd (cause I lose interest) I cant really tell you a whole lot about them. Rangers on the other hand, I've played for many years (both online and pnp, tho pnp was years ago).

A good resource to look at would be the compendium linked from the DDO home page. You can look there to see what you get from each class at specific levels for enhancements and feats. Also the ddowiki has alot of good information.

Just think about what you would like to be able to do with the character both at end game and before, and then build accordingly. Take posters here with a grain of salt (me included), you have your standard groups. Min-maxers, elitests, averages, etc.

[Alcides]

2 Ranger/14 Bard if bow build. 6 Ranger/10 Bard like Sue said if you want to go tempest. Which would be really good if you dual wielded w/p rapiers or wk/e rapiers.

[Stormanne]

A 6/10 bard ranger build would be good. Take bard specialty warchanter and ranger specialty tempest. Good for a melee build. Once the cap goes up you could take a splash of fighter for feats or expand on the ranger or bard levels.

[Inspire]

7Brd/9Rgr- Is Also A Good Split At Our Current Endgame.

Brd; Haste, Displace, Rage(All 3 At 7) Songs.
Rgr; Barks, FE Damage/Attack, BAB, Ranger Feats, Open For Tempest I.

1Brd/15Rgr- Is Also Nice.

Brd; Allows Full Ranks In UMD.
Rgr; Full Ranger(Almost) Wont Leave You Wanting More When Tempest/Deepwoods/Or Arcane Archer 2 Comes Out, I Think Most Prestige Lines Will Go 6/12/18 But Im Really Not Sure, Especially On How They Intend To Implement Tempest II For Example.

[maddmatt70]

I think it is cool you would want to make a bard/ranger drow, but the reality is that it is just not a good character to make at the moment. 10 bard 6 ranger drows do not have enough feats to do warchanter, tempest, and be a feasible twf character with improved crit what have you. More to the point is songs are really important to a bard and far less then close to max songs is gimpish with the end game being pretty 12 person raidish. This build will have more merit in the future when the level cap goes up to 20th level. You might at that point be able to pull off either a 14 bard 6 ranger or even something more multiclassed that takes into account future fighter or barbarian enhancements such as a 6 fighter (kensai - not enough info to formulate build) /6 ranger (tempest) / 8 bard (warchanter). What this all means is you will be re-rolling your bard/ranger or making a new character when you get to 1750 favor.

If you want to make a bow shooter bard/ranger elves are far superior to drow to the point that even a 28 point elf is far better then a drow. Regular elves get elven longbow enhancments which drow do not get and also get the opportunity to become arcane archers which down the road could be fun considering the devs are adding sub enhancements which add force damage to arrows and eventually perhaps fireball arrows according to Eladrin, ddo developer.

[maddmatt70]

7Brd/9Rgr- Is Also A Good Split At Our Current Endgame.

Brd; Haste, Displace, Rage(All 3 At 7) Songs.
Rgr; Barks, FE Damage/Attack, BAB, Ranger Feats, Open For Tempest I.

1Brd/15Rgr- Is Also Nice.

Brd; Allows Full Ranks In UMD.
Rgr; Full Ranger(Almost) Wont Leave You Wanting More When Tempest/Deepwoods/Or Arcane Archer 2 Comes Out, I Think Most Prestige Lines Will Go 6/12/18 But Im Really Not Sure, Especially On How They Intend To Implement Tempest II For Example.

Neither are good.. 15 rgr/ 1 rogue is better then 15 rgr/1 bard and 7 brd/9rgr has very weak songs and the buffs don't last long so what is the point of the bard levels again...

[Inspire]

Neither are good.. 15 rgr/ 1 rogue is better then 15 rgr/1 bard and 7 brd/9rgr has very weak songs and the buffs don't last long so what is the point of the bard levels again...

Not Every Build Has To Be Min/Max, Some People Enjoy Playing Characters That Are Unique, And In Fact Cowtech I Think Has a 7Brd/9Rgr Warforged Tempest/Chanter Build Who Duals Kukri/Scimitar And I Would Say He Is Far From Gimped.

What Makes A Build Good Is The Player Behind It.

Note Either Of The Posted Builds Are Great At Surviving If Thats Your Thing, And 7Brd/9Rgr Is A Welcome Addition To Any Party Esp. If They Dont Already Have A Bard.

[shane1122]

I am playing a similar build but went Human for the extra Feat. She will end up 10 Bard/6 Ranger. I wanted 6 Ranger for Tempest and Multishot and she will pick up Warchanter. I see her end role as a buffer/healer that can melee trash mobs and switch to ranged combat against the end bosses. Will she ever be an Uber character, nope. Is she lots of fun to play and a great solo character, yeap.
-Shane

[maddmatt70]

Not Every Build Has To Be Min/Max, Some People Enjoy Playing Characters That Are Unique, And In Fact Cowtech I Think Has a 7Brd/9Rgr Warforged Tempest/Chanter Build Who Duals Kukri/Scimitar And I Would Say He Is Far From Gimped.

What Makes A Build Good Is The Player Behind It.

Note Either Of The Posted Builds Are Great At Surviving If Thats Your Thing, And 7Brd/9Rgr Is A Welcome Addition To Any Party Esp. If They Dont Already Have A Bard.

There are many many excellent builds, but the 7 chanter brd/9 tempest rgr is not one of them. It does not have great songs (duration and buffing) at current game, but beyond that it has serious twf feat issues. There is one feat left over and three important feats to choose from specifically extend spell, greater two weapon fighting, and improved critical. If you are a power gamer which the OP isn't you can get away with making two mineral 2 weapons in place of improved critical and choose one of the other two either not having to cast haste and displacement every 40 secs or the 2 extra attacks gtwf provides. Really the drow melee ranger/bard is much more feasible when the cap goes up to 20.

Great players, great builds, and great gear if you have all three you have a veritable juggernaut, but when you start missing one or more the end product becomes weaker and weaker. Would you Inspire consider making a 9 ranger 7 bard over the many other bard or ranger builds out there? The answer to this question is certainly no.

[Inspire]

Would you Inspire consider making a 9 ranger 7 bard over the many other bard or ranger builds out there? The answer to this question is certainly no.

It Has Never Crossed My Mind TBH, But I Have Made A 1Brd/15Rgr(Untouchable)... Who Made It To Lvl 10 Before Monk Came Out(When He Was Rerolled As Such), I Enjoyed Playing Him Alot, Esp. At Lvl 9-10 When He Had 2 W/p Shortswords And Imp. Critical, But It Was Also Nice Not To Have People Asking For Me To Disable Traps Or Open Locks With That 1 Rogue Level. WithThat Bard Instead Of Rogue I Could Focus More On Being A Ranger, With The Ability To Raise Dead /Shrug, He Was Built Mostly To Solo, With Invisibility Scrolls/Hide & Move Silently, And Worked Pretty Well Solo'd Everything But Delaras(Cause You Need 2 People).

[Aerendil]

Some valid points on both sides here.

For what it's worth, I'd say the 6 Ranger / 10 Bard is more *solo friendly*.
Meaning you can self-buff yourself, have good hide/move silently/UMD/etc. skills, be able to fascinate reasonably well, and still have a very good melee ability.

At endgame or in higher level groups, it becomes more of an issue of bringing the most out of your class to the table, which I think is what Maddmatt is getting at, in which case a straight Bard would be more favored over a hybrid.

But again, it depends who you roll with, and how much of a powergamer or min/maxer you are.
I've grouped with friends in DDO that could care less what I was playing, let alone how I specced him.
We'd stumble along at times, but then... as long as you're having fun, who cares?

For what it's worth, if you want to solo more, 6 Ranger / 10 Bard should work just fine.
If you plan on grouping / raiding more, I'd go more along the lines of 14 Bard / 2 Fighter or Ranger.

Either way, Bards are incredibly fun.

PS - 15 Ranger / 1 Bard not only gives you access to UMD, but also 1st level Bard spells.
It's nice to pretty much have a free Expeditious Retreat on you 24/7, especially if you're in to soloing and want to bow-kite. Sure, there's more effective builds out there, but this one's fun too.

[Draxis]

I'm working on a Ranger/Bard build with a drow right now.
It's slow going, and as always with a drow you take a real hit in the HP department, so expect to die... a lot. At least early on, considering you're really kind of restricted to light armor and DEX-based AC with both ranger and bard.

I'm going for kind of an odd mix since I want to do both Tempest and Spellsinger in order to run around spamming Haste and Good Hope and whacking things really really fast with my dual wielded kopeshs.

Takes a 6/8/2 ranger/bard/fighter to accomplish this and so far it's working out well.

FYI: Warchanter is NOT worth it unless you go full bard, because you'll always come across other bards who's songs are better than yours due to the later bard level enhancements. Spellsinger isn't bad though, since it always works the same from lvl 6 and beyond and clerics love you for it.

[maddmatt70]

Takes a 6/8/2 ranger/bard/fighter to accomplish this and so far it's working out well.

FYI: Warchanter is NOT worth it unless you go full bard, because you'll always come across other bards who's songs are better than yours due to the later bard level enhancements. Spellsinger isn't bad though, since it always works the same from lvl 6 and beyond and clerics love you for it.

This statement is inaccurate as you only miss out on the level 14 + 1 to hit and damage and inspire damage 3 and inspire attack 2 and 3 at the current cap. What that means is your songs with warchanter enhancement give the same boost to damage as a Level 16 pure spellsinger bard but 2 less to hit possible (this doesn't account for inspire greatness additional +2 to hit).

Since the damage boost from songs is the most important aspect of songs in most circumstances this character would be just fine in any quest where song buffing is important for instance for the shroud this character as a warchanter is more potent then a level 16 pure bard spellsinger because it will likely mean more damage through self dps and songs equivalent.

Since you can't cc at all and spellsong has a very short duration for a significant multiclass and umd and spell point are getting easier and easier to get up high i would go warchanter and would never even consider spellsinger. Really why have 8 bard levels if your songs are horrific what is the point.

That is the song comparison between a level 16 pure spellsinger bard and this build, but really does it add enough to compensate for the other features of a level 16 pure spellsinger bard not to mention the gap between this bard build and full level 16 bard warchanter.

[Aerendil]

This statement is inaccurate as you only miss out on the level 14 + 1 to hit and damage and inspire damage 3 and inspire attack 2 and 3 at the current cap. What that means is your songs with warchanter enhancement give the same boost to damage as a Level 16 pure spellsinger bard but 2 less to hit possible (this doesn't account for inspire greatness additional +2 to hit).

Yep, exactly.
I can see your point, Draxis - and you're right, a multi-classed Bard will never have songs at the same potency of a pure Bard. That's a given.

But it swings both ways. A pure bard will never have the melee-capabilities of a multi-classed Bard. And when you choose Warchanter as your path as a Bard, you usually want to have the melee skills to go with it (case in point, you're going /6 Ranger to augment it )

So claiming that it's not worth going Warchanter unless you're a pure Bard is a bit silly, of course. You can do a minor splash in something else and still be 90% as effective with your songs as a pure Bard.

Sure, it's slightly selfish to multi-class on a Bard, but at the same time I completely understand the desire to do so. Splashing a mere 2 levels in Fighter will grant you 2 feats (which a melee Bard is starved for), some nice enhancements, STR boost, and so on, and still be 90% as effective with your songs as a pure 16 Bard. Splashing a mere level in Rogue can give you the opportunity to add full trapsmithing onto your Bard.
Either route is *very* appealing and is a fair tradeoff, if ya ask me

[Laxxis]

I really was aiming for a Ranged ranger /w a few bard songs & spells to help along. So far playing my bard - I've learned that @ low levels I can help the healers, play everyone a tune, and buff them with the few buff spells I have.

I was hoping those 1-4 lvl bard spell buffs would still be somewhat useful @ the end game and my songs(with no other bards around of course) would be slightly helpful as well.

I was aiming for a ranged DPS-er /w small buffs & songs to help. I've never been @ endgame in DDO so far...came over from wow and I'm not going back. I'm a bit slow moving since we just had our 1st child - 4 months old now :-)

So I'm going to give this a try - start over /w the elf bard - get to lvl 7 for the haste spell and a few choice others - then multi into a ranged-ranger. Yes - I'm aware that duel wielding /w a ranger is great & better - but I really like ranged attacking. Really I just wanna do some DPS and be helpful to my party.

-Lax

[maddmatt70]

I would recommend the build at the bottom of the page. It is a solid bard build, but still a very aggressive ranged character with only one key feat, improved precise shot, missing. Another option would be similar to the below build, but instead a 12 bard 2 fighter 2 ranger and take precise shot and improved precise shot for the fighter bonus feats.



For a 28 point build go with starting stats of 16 str (level ups into strength), 16 dex, 12 con, 12 cha, 8 int, 8 wisdom.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=145241

[Xuub]

I would love a good Drow Ranger/Bard build. Has anyone found a good combo?