First life ranger. Build and help required

[Such755]

Hello.
I got the sudden urge to make a ranger arcane archer that will be good in epics.
Info:
* I believe pure ranger will be the best choice for me, it seems the easiest to build, and I have no experience with arcane archers. The capstone also seems like a HUGE thing to lose (25% stacking alacrity...)

* I am a VIP therefore I have all the packs, including MoTU.

* I want to go half elf for: human versatility for damage boost, human adaptability for str \ con, rogue dilettante for 3d6 sneak damage

* I want to do as much DPS as possible but still have the means for hate reduction so strength based seems like the best option for me

* I have veteran status level 7

This is what I got so far:

Ability score:
17 str
14 dex (For to hit and reflex)
17 con

All levelups into str
+2 tomes to all ability scores

Skills:
Spot
Move silently
Bluff (Not class skill, but will try to make up for it with +15 item)
UMD (Will try to get enough for raise dead and heal with charisma green steel item)
Concentration (For healz)
Jump
Search (Traps, secret doors...)

Feat: (Selected) Toughness

Feat: (Selected) Point Blank Shot

Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness

Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons

Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons

Feat: (Selected) Power Attack (I figured that I'll go melee using two scimitars, for when bow is not good enough, so why not have power attack?)

Feat: (Selected) Precision


Enhancements:

Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost III

Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Acid Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Explosive Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Burst Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Slaying Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Imbue Terror Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Master of Archery

Enhancement: Elven Dexterity II

Enhancement: Improved Rogue Dilettante II

Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II

Enhancement: Human Versatility III

Enhancement: Racial Toughness II

Enhancement: Ranger Favored Damage III

Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Conjure +2 Arrows

Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Conjure +3 Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Conjure +4 Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer: Conjure +5 Arrows
Enhancement: Ranger Arcane Archer I

Enhancement: Ranger Devotion IV

Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity III

Enhancement: Half-Elf Improved Trap Sense II

QUESTIONS:

1) Ability score distribution ok? If not, what is?
2) Feats ok? If not what to do? And what feat to take at what level?
3) enhancements are ok?
4) How to gear up for leveling? (Superior stability armor, +6 con \ str \ dex items, greater false life , Mino's Legens, green steel HP with +6 charisma skills - those are all obvious. What named items should I get for leveling and so on?)
5) How to gear up for epics?
6) Where to slot my green steel HP item, and what sort of item to make? (I'd love to make a single shard to save the LDS, but I figured that making a dual shard is always better)
7) I figured I'll need a tripple positive bow for undead, what other green steel bows should I get? I also figured tripple acid for earthgrab is good... Lit II is expensive, but good
8) Difference between composite \ long \ short bows? Which to pick?
9) Any other information you have to add will be awesome.
10) What favored enemies should I pick?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Mercureal]

Here's my thoughts on your queries:

1) Ability score distribution ok? If not, what is?

- Pretty good for combat, but a few issues in other areas. With no points into Intelligence, you won't have enough skill points to max out all the skills you identified. You'll only have 5 points until you can use your +2 tome, and even with 6 you won't have enough.

- For skills in general, it'll take a lot of gear and buffs to get UMD to the levels you want, and search will only help with lower level traps. You can't find anything with a DC over 20 (I think, maybe 25) without a level in Rogue or Artificer. Bluff is good for pulling individual mobs from a group and the occasional dialogue choice, but you won't use it too much in combat.

2) Feats ok? If not what to do? And what feat to take at what level?

- Feat choices are good. Precision isn't bad, but you're not getting as much out of the Fort. bypass as a Rogue would get and it doesn't work with Power Attack. Another option is a metamagic feat to boost your heals.

3) enhancements are ok?

- Enhancements are okay, except that if you take elf dexterity you can't take the Human Adaptabiliy line.

4) How to gear up for leveling? (Superior stability armor, +6 con \ str \ dex items, greater false life , Mino's Legens, green steel HP with +6 charisma skills - those are all obvious. What named items should I get for leveling and so on?)

- I don't know if named items are really needed for levelling - and often by the time you can farm them up they're outleveled anyway. And, it'll be hard to finish any Green Steel items before you hit 20 unless you have a big stack from another toon or previous life. All of that said, a Lightning Strike bow will be great while levelling, as would a Con Opp item to give you back SP for healing. Healing Amp items will be very useful too, while leveling and into epics.

5) How to gear up for epics?

- Rather than try to answer this here, I'd suggest doing some research into the many many gear threads on the forums.

6) Where to slot my green steel HP item, and what sort of item to make? (I'd love to make a single shard to save the LDS, but I figured that making a dual shard is always better)

- It depends on what other end game items you want, and what effects you put on the GS. Just about any spot will conflict with some decent named item. Bracers are probably a safe choice for an archer, as are goggles, and cloak is a popular choice - but there's no right answer. And for Single/Dual shard, again it's what you want/need. Best choices are probably Con Opp or Heavy Fort, if you want to make a dual shard.

7) I figured I'll need a tripple positive bow for undead, what other green steel bows should I get? I also figured tripple acid for earthgrab is good... Lit II is expensive, but good

- I'm not sure a GS bow is worth it, again unless you already have most of the materials. You'll probably be at or near 20 by the time you finish it, and at that point you can get similar effects on random loot bows. And the bow from the Harbour web chain is a good choice against undead and probably quicker to get than a GS item.

8) Difference between composite \ long \ short bows? Which to pick?

- d8 vs d6 is the only difference. Ignore the term composite, it's meaningless fluff.

10) What favored enemies should I pick?

- Constructs, Undead and Elementals are good choices, since they're common and have DR/are normally immune to crits. Evil Outsiders is a good choice for Shroud/Amrath, and the Demonweb once you get to epic levels. Elf will help you against the drow in epic levels, but won't be super useful while leveling. Giants and Monstrous Humanoids are common, but I don't think there are many boss types for either.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention when I first wrote this, the capstone only gives you about 50% of what it claims, since the boost doesn't apply to the reload animation.

[Brennie]

I love AA threads Your build looks good, so most of what I'm saying is for optimization and tweaking purposes, rather than trying to repair a broken build. Here's my advice relative to your build:

Hello.
I got the sudden urge to make a ranger arcane archer that will be good in epics.
Info:
* I believe pure ranger will be the best choice for me, it seems the easiest to build, and I have no experience with arcane archers. The capstone also seems like a HUGE thing to lose (25% stacking alacrity...)

Pure Ranger is a good choice, but it is not the best choice. The best choice invariably requires atleast 6 levels of monk, for the awesomeness that is known as 10k stars. Do note, however, that this is a more complicated build. Pure Ranger is just fine for an intro to AA though, and lets you TR into another AA with a pretty good past life bonus!

Side note: Anyone who tells you the Ranger capstone doesn't stack with X, Y or Z has no idea what they are talking about. The Ranger capstone stacks with everything, despite its description listing it at an competence bonus. You should also be aware that *all* sources of attack speed bonus give roughly 2/3 of their listed value to ranged attacks, so the ranger capstone is doing more like 17ish% attack speed boost rather than 25. 17% is still totally worth it, though.

* I want to go half elf for: human versatility for damage boost, human adaptability for str \ con, rogue dilettante for 3d6 sneak damage

Best decision ever.

* I want to do as much DPS as possible but still have the means for hate reduction so strength based seems like the best option for me

Aggro management is not really something I worry about on archers. When you are manyshotting, unles syou have a dedicated tank who has worked up the aggro meter, you WILL pull aggro. You'll just have to deal with it. Outside of manyshot, your chances of drawing aggro are related to your chances of being the first to hit an enemy. In these instances, wait til your beefier teammates or crowd control casters have distracted them, and then lay in with the Improved Precise Shots.

The reason i don't usually include bluff or diplomacy into Archers is the way ranged combat plays with other abilities... that is to say, badly. Tryin g to do anything that involves hotbars (except active special ranged attacks, like True Strike or Ottos Whistler from Shiradi), the Bow animation WILL screw it up. Trying to use bluff or diplomacy while in autoattack mode on an enemy will lead to frusteration more than anything else.

This is what I got so far:

Ability score:
17 str
14 dex (For to hit and reflex)
17 con

All levelups into str
+2 tomes to all ability scores

Skills:
Spot
Move silently
Bluff (Not class skill, but will try to make up for it with +15 item)
UMD (Will try to get enough for raise dead and heal with charisma green steel item)
Concentration (For healz)
Jump
Search (Traps, secret doors...)

This may be sacrilegious, but i would drop strength and con a bit, and bring up dex. Reflex saves, balance checks, AC and to hit are all important. Even just taking three points from strength and con to bringing dex to 16 would be good (with 2 points leftover for... i dunno...wisdom?)

Good: Spot, move silently, UMD are good choices.

Iffy: Concentration is an iffy choice - you will likely need to break combat and get to safety and toss several heals to get back into fighting shape when no alternative exists.

Bad: Bluff - between being crossclass and the bad interaction with bows, and your low sneak attack damage, this won't be useful; Search - You can't search traps without levels in rogue or arti, and secret doors become a non issue the second you get detect secret door clicky, or better, true seeing item/spell; Jump - between strength and the first level Ranger spell "Jump", you will hit the jump cap without a single point invested in it.

Suggestions: 1 rank worth of tumble. Full points into balance. Possibly points into hide, to compliment your move silently (although things like Invisibility make Move Silently by itself still very viable). Leftovers can be jumped into Haggle if yuo want, or if you woudl liek to experiment with an "Active" skill, try diplomacy, which will help you shed aggro and give you some sneak attack (though it's still crossclass and won't work well in general...)

QUESTIONS:

1) Ability score distribution ok? If not, what is?

I covered that previously, but to recap: 16str 16dex 16con 8int 10wis 8cha would be my ideal. 10 wisdom isn't necessary by any means, but we have 2 leftover points we need to get rid of - 10 int is another option, if you REALLY need 7 skills per level instead of 6 (after tomes)...

2) Feats ok? If not what to do? And what feat to take at what level?

Power attack is goign to be more of a hassle than a beneft in my opinion. Swapping bestween precision for ranged combat and power attack for melee all the time will be annoying. I would strongly suggest you change that feat for improved crit: Slashing (assuming scimitars will be your backup weapon fo choice. if not, pick the appropriate improved crit).

Additionally, I would stick toughness in at 12, in order to frontload the ranged benefits and access to AA. However, this is entirely personal preference, since meleeing in low levels with half decent strength and a good weapon is perfectly fine.

3) enhancements are ok?

Mostly. A few things though:

• Never take sprint boost passed tier 1. Anythin passed that is wasted points.
• Forceburst arrow imbue is unnecessary. Only take it if you have an extra AP lying around you can't use on anything else (After Slayer Arrows you will never use another imbue. Before slayer arrows, acid arrow is the best DPS. And when you do find yoruself needing force damage, say for incorporeals, the DPS gain from tier1 force arrow is minimal at best).
• Elven Dex locks out Human Adaptibility. I'd strongly suggest strength/dex on human adaptability, unless you need to even out your con score.
• Human Versatility doesn't need to be maxed, but a pure Ranger is probably the easiest character to max it on, should you have the extra points.
• Ranger Favored Damage should be maxed. 4 tiers. Do it.
• Ranger Devotion starts asking for a LOT of AP at its highest tiers, for relatively small gains. Feel free to put as much into this as you have points for, but only after you have maxed out other essentials (Versatility/Favored Damage for example)
• Half Elf Trap Sense is unnecessary.

So where do we put the points we just freed up? Max out Favored Damage, potentially max out versatility, and put some into Favored Resistance. Being able to make saving throws against a big chunk of enemies in the game will really help survivability! Less fireballs roasting you, or disintegrates wailing on you, or even annoying debuffs!

4) How to gear up for leveling? (Superior stability armor, +6 con \ str \ dex items, greater false life , Mino's Legens, green steel HP with +6 charisma skills - those are all obvious. What named items should I get for leveling and so on?)

Mostly, you want to gear yourself like a melee - things that increase strength, things that increase damage (upgrade Fabricators set is really nice!), etc. Of note, however, are Windhowler Bracers, Quivering Quiver, Quiver of Alacrity, and Gilvaenors Ring/Necklace. These are some of the only items in the game that specifically help ranged combat.

There are a plethora of other exciting items, like Ring of the Stalker, Fabricators Set, Tharnes Goggles, etc... but there are simply too many items over too many levels to really go into any detail.

Also note that there is no such thing as a +6 charisma skill hp item. HP items come in strength/dex/con skill flavors, while charisma skill favors only come with SP items (Which you don't want).

5) How to gear up for epics?

I'm a big fan of the Commendation sets, though I'm not terribly familiar with the light armor (woodsman) set. The non-stacking nature of its bonuses seems kinda "meh". For an easy epic bow, look into the Epic Longbow of Earth. It's not the strongest bow in the game, but it is super quick/easy to obtain and it will hold you over until you can get your hands on an Unwavering Ardency or Pinion.

6) Where to slot my green steel HP item, and what sort of item to make? (I'd love to make a single shard to save the LDS, but I figured that making a dual shard is always better)

Single Shard HP items are just fine. Triple air and triple earth are both popular. My monkcher has a triple earth, mostly because +6 con skills is more helpful to him than occasional proc hastes. For a ranger, triple air would probably be more helpful. 3xWater, Fire, Positive and Negative are mostly unpopular choices. MinII is probably the most popular GS HP accessory, often as a replacement for Minos, but that is a dual shard investment.

I like cloak slot for my archer, since bracers are usually taken by bracers of wind//fabicators bracers/bracers of the SunSoul and goggles are usually taken up by Tharnes (Or woodmans goggle thingies for an epic Ranger). Cloak now has some stiff competition from the epic challenge cloaks, but aside from them there are not many other good cloaks for a ranged Ranger. The easiest slot would probably be Helm, but only if you are willing to invest in a MinII to replace your Minos.

7) I figured I'll need a tripple positive bow for undead, what other green steel bows should I get? I also figured tripple acid for earthgrab is good... Lit II is expensive, but good

Unless you are just rolling in greensteel mats, I'd make a triple positive and call it a day. Triple positive will stay useful as great all-rounder through midlevels, and even stay revelant and an undead beater in epics. Non of the other options can really keep up with that (though an argument coudl be made for Ooze bow on a summoner build, or trap-the-soul bow... but that doesn't really apply).

I'm going to hijack this question and insert bow recommendations!

1-5) Screaming of Bleeding, crafted. Feel free to slap a +1 on this at level 3 (assuming masterful craftsmanship), if you don't have access to +1 or better arrows

6-11) Silver Longbow. Hands down the best bow in this level range, due to its bonus crit abilities. Hold onto the Screaming of Bleeding for crit immune and neutral enemies. This bow can be bought off the AH if you don't want to have to farm it, too!

10+) Banishing/Smiting - Loot gen bows with banshing (pairs very well with righteous or pure good for DR bypass on demons/devils), and smiting (Pairs well with a lot of things, including metalline and chaotic damage. Avoid elemental damage prefixes though!). Will help with specific enemy types you run across.

10-16ish) Paralyzer. Combine with improved precise shot to suddenly become the group crowd controller. Bonus - you do more damage with a paralyzer than a DPS bow in a lot of situations, since enemies stand still in a straight line letting you hit a LOT of them at athe same time, consistantly!

12+) Triple Positive. Making undead re-dead!

14-20ish) Bow of Sinew. Between the crit range, seeker, increased multiplier, and the fact that it brakers all alignment DR, this is a great (and pretty easily acquired) leveling bow.

14+) Unwavering Ardency. VERY difficult to obtain, but one of the best bows in the game. Expanded crit range and high base damage make this a great all-around bow, useful even through epics. On a super-base-damage build (bowbarian for example), Bow of Sinew might actually outpace it. But for moderate/low strength archers (like monkchers and most rangers), this is the bees knees.

20+) Elemental Longbow of Earth (level 20, tier 1 or 2 plain, or 3 + slotted w/ good). Decent placeholder bow until you get your hand on one of the "powerhouse" bows, like Ardency or Pinion.

23+) Pinion. Replacing Epic Thornlord as the best bow inf the game, this is your endgoal. It is not easy to aquire, but well wort the effort.

This is not an exhaustive list. Other named bow exist, and many have their niches. Likewise, many randomrolled bows can be excellent for specific purposes as well. However, this list covers the bare bones of what I'd consider the top-tier bows in the game.

8) Difference between composite \ long \ short bows? Which to pick?

Composite means nothing. Shortbows do slightly less base damage than longbows, but are usually incredibly cheaper (For instance, if you are level 10 and looking for a paralyzer, a paralyzing longbow might cost 10x as much as a paralyzing shortbow). The difference is compounded slightly by things like archers focus and point blank shot, but not enough so that you shoudl ignore an amazing shortbow in favor of a mediocre longbow.

9) Any other information you have to add will be awesome.

I've been at this response for like 2 hours now, what more do you want from me?!

10) What favored enemies should I pick?

Undead and Evil Outsider are non-negotiable. Other favorites often include Giant (VERY plentiful in the low-midgame, not as much at endgame - does include a couple raidbosses though), Construct (varies from non-plentiful to extremely plentiful in various content, includes tough annoyingly difficult enemies and a raidboss), Elemental (Common and annoyingly tough), and recently Elves, though the trend for new content to become less drow dominated means this choice will likely not have the legs as the rest.

My usual order is as follows:
1 - Undead
5 - Giant
10 - Construct
15 - Evil Outsider
20 - Elemental

Evil O. and Construct can switch, depending on content you intend to run and when. Elemental is fully negotiable. Giant can easily be traded for Elf or Abberation at later levels where giant/trolls/ogres become non-existant.

And so, I will wrap up my dissertation on Arcane Archer Rangers by wishing you good luck, have fun, and don't forget to whip out a melee weapon every once in a while And remember, kite TOO melees/crowd control/Area spells, not AWAY from them!

Thank you very much in advance!

If you've actually read this far.... then you're welcome!

[goodspeed]

To tell you if your build is good or not would require knowledge of what you want to do with it. Cause their are any number of ways an AA can play out. And if you try to go one way, while building another your going to prolly be ****ed at 20 lol.

For instance are you fantasizing about your AA running around like a bat outa hell hopscotching on top of things pulling some Orlando bloom moves from the LOTR? Well then whole heartedly I can say, your not gonna be wanting to go pure. Hell you probably aren't even going to be wanting alot of ranger levels. For that your going to be wanting a monkcher. Why? Because once manyshot ends, their is no contest, no close measurement, nothing that could even fathom some smart idea to have that bow still out.

I'm serious even if you went the "Well I can hit them but they can't hit me" route. 1. Yes they can, seems like everythings whipping some kind of god awful crippling strike or comets, or force or, a melee is actually taking his 2 handed weapon and chucking it 200 yards at you.

And 2. The dmg sucks. And I don't use the word sucks lightly. I mean even with an epic destiny fully spelled with all the points, and twists put in to increase dmg further, that dmg really SUCKS. Ok so now we've laid down the basics. The reason why at least 6 monk (12 is better) is required is that with the change you can use 10k stars (A lesser form of manyshot) for arrows. And bows with a feat are able to be used while in stance. It requires a high wis modifier which also is what to hit goes off of I believe. Using this as you rise it, the chances for firing more arrows grows. You'll start to fire 2 on a normal basis, then 3 will start to chime in more, and so on.


Ok Next. If your going it the regular ranger way of manyshotting and then going 2 weapon melee, then you can go a number of ways. You could go pure ranger, But really theirs no point. I mean your giving up any number of things for a capstone that is long since hit the toilet along with any hope of a bow firing at the rate it should. So then you get to splits. 18/2 for fighter or rog for SA and skill points. Or a 12/6/2 split.

Now the ranger could be 12, but usually they just get the 6 level slot. Mainly because in those 6 levels you literally get **** near everything you need to succeed. It's one neat lil package. The only thing missing is GTWF so you could just drop dex. Alot of people like the helves angel. Which is nice but I'd probably go maybe monk just for the feats and because I really like evasion. Especially in epics now. **** comet fall seems to be hella quicken'd and maximized on those guys.

What you want will also dictate what Epic destiny to choose. For instance as a many shot and then fighting with 2 weapons most of the time, you'd want something like FOTW. Really pack the dmg in. Bow? You'd want shirardi. (Maybe fury for adrenaline useage but idk I think shirardi would come out in the medium run.)

So when you decide what those eyes see that ranger doing, then you just have to build toward it.

[Aliss7]

• Never take sprint boost passed tier 1. Anythin passed that is wasted points.

I think that's a bit harsh. Enhancements in general are more "up to the player" and what he's looking for. OP is looking for max DPS, so yah, in this case you should drop sprint boost in favor of dps-type enhancements (favor damage) if you have to. I only brought this up because I'm one of those who took the full line of sprint boost and I ain't lookin' back!

[Such755]

Thank you all very much for your help, your information is most valuable and will be taken into serious consideration

[Brennie]

I think that's a bit harsh. Enhancements in general are more "up to the player" and what he's looking for. OP is looking for max DPS, so yah, in this case you should drop sprint boost in favor of dps-type enhancements (favor damage) if you have to. I only brought this up because I'm one of those who took the full line of sprint boost and I ain't lookin' back!

This definitely comes down to playstyle . My characters typically only use sprint boost if speed makes the difference between making a goal and failing it (like dodging through traps, leaping from cliff to cliff, etc), or if I'm way behind the party for some reason. I usually end quests with full sprint boosts, or only a couple used (unless i start a quest way behind the rest of the group, then those badboys pull their weight!)

Like you said, for the OPs request, less sprint boost means more other stuff. But if you can make full sprint boost work for you, more power to you! And here to hoping sprint boost costs 1 AP per tier after the pass, eh ?