Managing Tempest Ranger Weapon Sets

[Veriss]

There are lots of weapon threads but most are written by and for veterans and are difficult to follow for newer players even when they make a strong effort to learn these things.

As I level up my TWF Tempest Ranger with a Rogue splash, I find myself juggling multiple sets of ranged and 1h weapons for various situations and fiddling with various toolbar setups, etc. A trusty set of True Chaos/Fiery Burst Khopesh of Pure Good is great most of the time but then you have other needs; fiery for certain mobs, silver for others, bludgeon for these, glass for oozes, metaline for DR, etc.

Then there are the extras, like Precision on a bow so you can shoot through/past the melee mobs to take out the casters first, etc. Most people know Keen and related crit range extras are worthless once you take Improved Crit but are there other extras that vets find very useful in certain situations? Are all undead resistant to criticals? Trolls are supposed to take extra damage from acid and fire but it doesn't seem apparent in the combat logs. What bow or ammo is best against perched skellie archers when piercing is the worst choice vs skeletons -- do you go with a returning throwing hammer for those?

In layman's terms, how would you advise Rangers to manage their melee and ranged weapons and which types and sets do you think are most important to worry about acquiring.

Which crafting quests do they need to start becoming familiar with and what resources do they need to start hoarding to build the crafted weapons?

If these are covered in a thread or reference somewhere and I missed them, please feel free to point me in the best direction. Thanks!

Veriss

[pseudomasochist]

Weapon discussions often refer to the "power 5" weapons:

1. paralyzing
2. smiting
3. disruption
4. banishing
5. vorpal

In addition to these, it's also useful to have greater bane weapons for commonly seen monsters that can't be insta-killed. Greater giant bane for Gianthold Tor is a prime example. Other types of bane weapons good to have around are evil outsider, construct, undead, elemental, dragon, and aberration. If this list looks familiar, it's because those are the same types of monsters(minus the last two) rangers tend to take for favored enemies.

Some monsters will also have damage reduction that require various types of weapons to bypass. This thread lists most, if not all, of them:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=178393

The most important types of DR to account for are the ones possessed by raid bosses: silver + holy/good and cold iron + holy/good. Both can be taken care of with the ever-popular and often expensive Metalline X of Pure Good weapons.

By crafting, I'm assuming you mean Green Steel. That's a complex topic which has its own wiki page:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Green_Steel_Item

[hermespan]

Weapon discussions often refer to the "power 5" weapons:

1. paralyzing
2. smiting
3. disruption
4. banishing
5. vorpal

In addition to these, it's also useful to have greater bane weapons for commonly seen monsters that can't be insta-killed. Greater giant bane for Gianthold Tor is a prime example. Other types of bane weapons good to have around are evil outsider, construct, undead, elemental, dragon, and aberration. If this list looks familiar, it's because those are the same types of monsters(minus the last two) rangers tend to take for favored enemies.

Some monsters will also have damage reduction that require various types of weapons to bypass. This thread lists most, if not all, of them:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=178393

The most important types of DR to account for are the ones possessed by raid bosses: silver + holy/good and cold iron + holy/good. Both can be taken care of with the ever-popular and often expensive Metalline X of Pure Good weapons.

By crafting, I'm assuming you mean Green Steel. That's a complex topic which has its own wiki page:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Green_Steel_Item

use improved curse spewing in conjunction with disruption. most undead mobs (other than non-caster vampires) will save irritatingly often against disrupt without being cursed...

My personal favorite for smiting and banishing is rapiers with IC pierce and a bloodstone. Stuff goes down like butter to a hot knife. Instakill crit procs on rapiers with IC pierce and a bloodstone is the bomb, especially with the attack speed of tempest III