Looking for advice on a 32pt AA Ranger build

[Phantomsaint]

I'm looking to build a 32pt Half Elven Arcane Archer Pure Ranger, no interest at all in multiclassing. I'm starting fresh after more then a year and a half layoff and there's so many changes i'm kinda swamped with figuring out what works and what doesn't. I have access to Vetern status, 32pts, and i've got alot of TP stored up from my Lifetime LOTRO account that i never touched plus some testing i did when they added in the store, so i can access tomes quickly if it's necessary.

I would like to make it into epic levels eventually, but i'll never have the time to go hardcore into the raids so i don't need a totally min/maxed character. Also this will be my only toon for the forseeable future as i've not got alot of gaming time thanks to work and family. Appreciate any help and insights, thanks.

[karl_k0ch]

Don't Dump Str, Con, or Dex. Ignore Wis. Level ups in str.

For feats, you want to take
1 Point Blank Shot
3 Weapon Focus Ranged
6 Mental Toughness
9 Toughness
12 IC: Ranged
15 *
18 *

*: For the level 15 and 18 (and 21 and 24) feats, you have some versatility. Since Combat Archery does not work, you might as well just take feats which improve your melee and ranged DPS:
The "OC line", consisting of Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave and Overwhelming Critical is an option to fill the 4 feats.

If you don't want to spend the 4 feats for OC, you can pick IC:Piercing or Slashing and Power Attack to boost your melee damage.
I like Precision to use against mobs which have high fortification.
Dodge and Mobility add some extra damage avoidance.
More Toughness feats help to compensate for the -2 Con of Elves.

Re: Playstyle. Pure Ranger AAs really shine when the player knows when to use ranged weapons and when to go melee. There are times for both.

[zappazpot]

Don't Dump Str, Con, or Dex. Ignore Wis. Level ups in str.

For feats, you want to take
1 Point Blank Shot
3 Weapon Focus Ranged
6 Mental Toughness
9 Toughness
12 IC: Ranged
15 *
18 *

*: For the level 15 and 18 (and 21 and 24) feats, you have some versatility. Since Combat Archery does not work, you might as well just take feats which improve your melee and ranged DPS:
The "OC line", consisting of Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave and Overwhelming Critical is an option to fill the 4 feats.

If you don't want to spend the 4 feats for OC, you can pick IC:Piercing or Slashing and Power Attack to boost your melee damage.
I like Precision to use against mobs which have high fortification.
Dodge and Mobility add some extra damage avoidance.
More Toughness feats help to compensate for the -2 Con of Elves.

Re: Playstyle. Pure Ranger AAs really shine when the player knows when to use ranged weapons and when to go melee. There are times for both.

^ This

[blerkington]

Hi,

Power attack and a melee weapon improved critical feat are good choices for your extra feats slot. Improved critical is particularly useful if you intend to use weapons which deal extra damage and/or other useful effects on critical hits.

You will need to melee sometimes, but spending four feats for the OC line might be too much if you intend mainly to play at range. Plus if combat archery is ever fixed so that it applies its damage bonus, you will want to have room for it.

You don't need more than one toughness feat even if you were going to be an elf. Since you've said you're going to be a half elf anyway taking more than one is not worth considering, not with the other good choices available to you.

One or two metamagic feats like maximise and quicken are useful for taking your self healing from good to very good. Not mandatory, but certainly worth considering. If you don't want these you will be able to get by with healing amp from racial enhancements and gear.

Sap is also a very useful and underrated feat. It doesn't have a save and affects most creature types in game. Just bear in mind that you can't use it when your bow is equipped. I think it has more overall utility than precision, which is a nice feat, but with the amount of fortified mobs in the game compared to unfortified, precision is more situationally than generally useful.

Lastly, I'm not sure I agree with order mentioned above for taking feats. There's an argument for taking the feats required for AA as early as possible, but I don't think archery really begins to shine until you get improved precise shot at level 11.

My approach, for what it's worth, is to take toughness first, get a big two handed weapon and melee in the early levels. All getting AA early does is solve an inventory management problem because you don't have to buy arrows, and give a small additional amount of damage from the low level imbues. This may not be exactly what you had in mind for how you want to play your character, but it is effective.

The purpose of this post is not to knock Karl's advice; he is an experienced player, but rather just to provide an alternative point of view.

Thanks.

[karl_k0ch]

The purpose of this post is not to knock Karl's advice; he is an experienced player, but rather just to provide an alternative point of view.

Excellent points, especially on Quicken and Maximize. I was only thinking along the lines of "what can you do to increase dps", but I forgot how nice my self-healing pally is to play.

Actually, I missed the word "Half" in the OP. Thanks for pointing that out.

Going half-elf offers a bunch of options similar to multiclassing without actually multiclassing, ie the dilettante feats.
The best choice in terms of damage is Rogue, which needs 13 Dex, which you're going to have anyway. This opens up the option of Hmastring which is another debuffing feat.

At lower levels, Barbarian might be a neat idea since it'll offer options to increase your HP. The requirement of 13 Con is also not an issue.

Cleric Dilettante is most interesting at level 15, where it allows you to cast heal scrolls with a chance of 95%. However, 13 Wis is a substantial investion on a toon which has already 3 important stats. I think that maximized CSW can fill this spot pretty well.

The heal amp of monk dilly is a very nice thing, but I think that 13 Wis is too heavy.

Fighter dilly does not offer too much, unfortunately aside from +1 Str.