Advice on Rangers please

[~KatsMeow]

So fellow Khyberians, I have a friend new to DDO who wants to play a AA probably with a splash of rogue. I'm trying to help him build one but here's what i know about AA's.....people tend to hate them and they use bows.... I've looked everywhere on the forums, but its a lot of info to try and decifer. Can anyone point me to a good build. We're looking at a completely new guy, 28 pts, basic races, no gear (except what i give him).

I know my fellow Khyber friends will answer my call.....i'm looking at you Green

[Beer_Dude]

So fellow Khyberians, I have a friend new to DDO who wants to play a AA probably with a splash of rogue. I'm trying to help him build one but here's what i know about AA's.....people tend to hate them and they use bows.... I've looked everywhere on the forums, but its a lot of info to try and decifer. Can anyone point me to a good build. We're looking at a completely new guy, 28 pts, basic races, no gear (except what i give him).

I know my fellow Khyber friends will answer my call.....i'm looking at you Green

I would STRONGLY suggest you don't let your friend go AA on a 28 pt. build especially as a first toon. It will do good up to maybe Gianthold. After that it's going to start to suck fast. He will hit the high end stuff and get discouraged. There are only a few people who can pull off playing an AA and they are usually very geared out when they do do it. I'm not saying all AA's suck I'm just saying it's a tough build and one that really requires gear and game knowledge.

If you can't convince your friend to go a different route than the one peice of advice I'd give is. Only put enough into dex to be able to hit a mob. It's all about damage and damage comes from strength. It's not good if you can hit it but not bring it down. I think there's even a feat that allows one to use their str to hit instead of their dex but I'm not certain so don't qoute me.

[licho]

So fellow Khyberians, I have a friend new to DDO who wants to play a AA probably with a splash of rogue. I'm trying to help him build one but here's what i know about AA's.....people tend to hate them and they use bows.... I've looked everywhere on the forums, but its a lot of info to try and decifer. Can anyone point me to a good build. We're looking at a completely new guy, 28 pts, basic races, no gear (except what i give him).

I know my fellow Khyber friends will answer my call.....i'm looking at you Green

While im not the one to tell "real friends do no let you make AA", i would try to ask the firend about doing melee with bow option. Which means 12 ranger tempest with something (for example 12rng/7rog/1fig or 15rng/4fig/1rog or 18 rng /1rog/1fig) you still can rock with bow while manyshot is up, beside that use easier to buff and shine style.

On first live collect all useful stuff (various bows, windhowler bracels, tod set ) grab the ranger past life and reincarnate to final form.

[RangerOne]

The hate is not so much for AA, but for any PLAYER who has his characters exclusively use a bow.

I love my AA. a;though it can be a bit rough in the mid ranges and I did do both an LR and a GR over the course of his development. The first was because I had switched out a feat I needed for the prestige (stupid me) and the second was to take advantage of getting a few more skill points.

Just remember that rangers get TWF for free, and when the kobolds close in, you should switch your weapons as the TWF is more damage when Manshot is not available.

Good luck.

[Schmoe]

If your friend is committed to playing a ranged character, ranger AA is a good choice. Make sure he understands that you can't solely use ranged combat, he needs to also be competent in melee and understand when to use melee vs. ranged. And also encourage him to learn all he can about AAs and ranged combat before making his character. It's not as intuitive as he might think.

Whatever you do, though, don't let him multi-class with his first character. That's a recipe for dissatisfaction and an early re-roll.

Here's a basic starting point for a solid 28-point ranged Ranger:

Human Ranger

Str: 16
Dex: 16
Con: 14
Int: 8
Wis: 10
Cha: 8

Put all stat level-up points into Strength.

Feats:

1st - Point Blank Shot, Toughness
3rd - Weapon Focus - Ranged
6th - Mental Toughness

At early levels, he will be most successful with a two-handed weapon. Ranged combat is really weak at low levels, and to-hit penalties hurt two-weapon fighting a lot. He will need a wisdom item to cast spells.

Staying pure ranger with the Mental Toughness feat, he will have the spell points for decent self-healing. A few enhancements into human healing amp and Ranger Devotion will really help to boost this.

[krackythehoodedone]

First build AA Ranger.

Honestly just go straight Ranger

Ok.Make sure he puts a decent ammount into Str not just Dex and at least 12 in Con

He will be fine until mid teens when the build may start to show a little weakness in DPS

Especially after the dirty cheating monsters have wised up to being Parylzed en masse

However if he learns to play an AA well he will be ok.

and thats all about learning what IPS can really do and targetting and stuff

And truthfully your first build is likely to be either abandonned or re done at some point

It is more a learning curve than anything else.

So i dont see any problem.

And dont believe all the neg stuff you read about Archers they aint all that bad

Feel free to ask me more questions when he has got going

You will find me running about and shooting stuff on Khyber

Zexxi

[Rydin_Dirtay]

I know my fellow Khyber friends will answer my call.....i'm looking at you Green

You are looking at me, but I don't really build AA's. I have played and built a lot of Tempests as you have seen.
If your friend wants to build a Tempest...I can give all sorts of advice and builds...

One thing to remember is Tempest Rangers ALSO get Manyshot, Bow Strength, etc. and so they can be pretty effective archers when Manyshot is running.

[~KatsMeow]

You are looking at me, but I don't really build AA's. I have played and built a lot of Tempests as you have seen.
If your friend wants to build a Tempest...I can give all sorts of advice and builds...

One thing to remember is Tempest Rangers ALSO get Manyshot, Bow Strength, etc. and so they can be pretty effective archers when Manyshot is running.

So if he just wanted to be a ranged character you think Tempest would be the better prestige? Of course i'll tell to switch to twf when baddies get close

[anto_capone]

A lot of people who play rangers seem to forget:

1: Tempests can do great damage with many-shot; or that
2: Arcane Archers also get the main two weapon fighting feats for free just like tempests do.


Rangers get a lot of free feats for bows and for two weapon fighting:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Ranger#Advancement_Table


I've never run an arcane archer (my first toon was a tempest with a rogue splash, his second life he has a rogue and fighter splash); but my understanding is that arcane archers can be hard to play at higher levels unless they take full advantage of all the tools given to them (like free two weapon fighting feats).


Have fun,

ac

[Mercureal]

So if he just wanted to be a ranged character you think Tempest would be the better prestige? Of course i'll tell to switch to twf when baddies get close

The significant differences in the 2 PREs is basically this:

- Tempests have a higher off-hand attack rate, a small bonus to AC, and slightly better to-hit, all when TWF

- Arcane Archers get the imbue arrows ability, which add some small amounts of damage at the low levels and give them slaying arrows (that do 500 points of dmg on a natural 20) at high levels.


Other than that, they play the same. In pure DPS terms, even with the slaying arrows, ranged isn't usually worth it for an AA outside of manyshot. If you stay pure the capstone is a 12% or so boost to ranged attack speed, for which some AA players go 20 ranger; almost no tempest players stay pure, however.

[andbr22]

My first character that ever reached lv 20 was 28 point AA. A bit gimped Str, but high Dex provided that I didn't had troubles with hiting with bow (until epics), and I took weapon finesse route. With correct playstyle / equipment even that type of character can be viable (before TR i was able to solo New Invasion boss, and probably whole new Invasion by itself), but still I had troubles with epics (I didn't run eChrono at all) and Raids (low long term DPS).

I would advise to go newbie temprest build (18 ranger / 1 Fighter / 1 Rogue) and stick to temprest enchantments.

[Attropos]

So fellow Khyberians, I have a friend new to DDO who wants to play a AA probably with a splash of rogue. I'm trying to help him build one but here's what i know about AA's.....people tend to hate them and they use bows.... I've looked everywhere on the forums, but its a lot of info to try and decifer. Can anyone point me to a good build. We're looking at a completely new guy, 28 pts, basic races, no gear (except what i give him).

I know my fellow Khyber friends will answer my call.....i'm looking at you Green

Try having him make a Bard AA. Nobody will care what he does as long as he sings and casts haste and he'll be having fun pewpewing to his hearts content.

[DragonKiller]

1: Tempests can do great damage with many-shot

Really nothing else besides this matters. Ranged combat is too limited in this game, and if they were to bring it's DPS up then no one would make a non-ranged meele - as it's all about the risk -vs- reward.

Honestly, go tempest and if he wants to up his ranged combat ability going Elf is a good way to do so. I'd say look into a 18/2 Ranger/Fighter (or could do 18/1/1 Ranger/Monk/Rogue or Ranger/Monk/Fighter) and because your friend wants to be an Archer Elf's get an enhancement line to make them a better archer, even when they are tempest.

Just remember the golden rule about Elf's... Con is not a dump stat (OK, this is true of all races).

[Rydin_Dirtay]

So if he just wanted to be a ranged character you think Tempest would be the better prestige? Of course i'll tell to switch to twf when baddies get close

AA is still the best ranged prestige. Just wanted to point out that Tempest can do good ranged damage too while Manyshot is active...and Tempest would be easier for a new player to master...I think AA tactics are tough to learn -- but knowing to take out the swords and go TWF is a good start.