The Ranger class in 2019...

[ranran]

THIS right here. Show us how you are building.

Thank you all for your time in giving your opinions/experience and the links. I have been exploring builds in more detail - Strom's and others, and they have given me more insight with my build and going forward.

So, I think my starting build is fairly solid compared to what I'm finding, and now have a good sense of feat/enhancement choices that will complement an Archer build to keep him competitive.

Thanks again for your help!
R

[Lonnbeimnech]

Been playing around with a wis based falconry ranger with paralyzing arrows, dps is horribad, but the paralyzing works good. Switched to terror arrow last night. That seems to work much better. Thinking that in epics when you can maintain close to 100% double shot and better attack speed it will work pretty good, but we will see.

Paralyzing arrows working much better in epics. DPS with blitz going is not bad, being able to shut down everything in front of you is very nice.

[barecm]

Bow use as a combat style is what is the issue. From what I have gathered from Dev responses to my many, many requests for increased longbow help, I would not expect anything big. The attitude I have seen from dev responses is that longbows are fine. They are fearful of the paralyze / fury shot capabilities being too OP if they helped damage.

My suggestions have included fixing both Manyshot to be a stance (to level out damage from burst) and to eliminate fury shot so that they can further develop the longbow archer. Falling on deaf ears though as I have been asking for help for longbow users for years.

Their unwillingness to accept that longbows are currently way below throwers, great crossbows, repeaters, and now regular xbows with the new Inquisitor build hitting soon.

I visualize a particular dev shaking his head and saying "no, no, no, no, no" while cover his ears when someone mentions the facts of longbows being VASTLY inferior.

[Zarkarion]

It is worth noting that however sucky an Arcane Archer build may or may not be currently, Ranged Rangers are alive and well and using crossbows successfully as Inquisitives.

Although it is a bit sad that these crossbow builds eclipse the classic arcane archer, Ranger still offers various advantages for a crossbow build, not least the free feats and plentiful skill points (in an Intelligence build).

Sniper Shot is awesome with 6 times Critical Multiplier and Critical Threat Range 12-20 (Ratcatcher + Inquisitive True Seeing + Improved Critical: Ranged), especially if you can line up several enemies to hit with Improved Precise Shot.

[goldgolem]

since the ranger player i run with does the same damage per arrow as the servers hardest hitting thf barbarian and avr crits nearly reach a 100k while having a far higher rate to hit then the barb and able to do it from a safe distance in a melee ED that works better for ranged toon, i would say, nerf rangers from orbit, nuke them into the stone age.

and OP?
Learn to build and play a ranger

I love this level of trolling! theres an OPOP ranger but somehow no build to back it up? gg

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Frankly, the Ranger seems severely underpowered when compared to other classes, especially when comparing to repeating crossbow users.

The ranged ranger definitively needs current gear.
With old gear it is no wonder why he underperforms so much.

That totally apart from any "balance" discussion.

[blarhblarhblarh]

Right now they nerfed even more the bow ranger because of inquisitor.

They could solve it by adding 3% doubleshot and 3% ranged alacrity per level using bows. Simple as that. Or could make the bab equals to pnp 3.5 were a bow ranger have the same dps of a sorcer but for single target. The inquisitor double a two handed weapon as it is a trikeen or Goro from mortal combat with 4 arms and it´s ok by them so why can´t they make bow rangers viable???

DDO is not about graphics. It´s about gameplay and party. Should be as close to pnp as possible and there´s no escuse to have a bow ranger like this after 14 years of the game. Even at cap it wouldn´t ressurect people or use scrolls. Would have some CC skills, some survivability and a nice DPS.

My take on the build: ranger 14 fighter 6. AA tier 3, DWS tier 5, Kensei and elf for bow dmg. With fury it gets really weird because sometimes I hit stuff for 30 damage and other times I go to 9k at level 23. So how am I gonna know wich group can I join? wich lvl of the quest I must play? this makes everyone lost but specially a returning player.

With an warlock lvl 10 I can do more damage than a bow ranger lvl 18, use scrolls, have AOE with chain and I don´t even have to aim. I could play with a joystick and still would be more usefull to a group than most bow rangers, even the ones that really know how to play and use this class for years. Makes no sense is the way DND was planned that each class have a role and everyone must work together to complete a quest. Today a 2 person group can do any content and it really confuses me because lvls that used to be very hard now are easy so the game didn´t catch up with the builds. Older builds like paladin or a bow ranger are not been played by people that loves them because they became useless.

More than new content we need old content updated. More than new crafting grinds or another past life system we need more inventory and bank space, or a private área in the ship to store our gears sets. And it all should be free. I came back a month ago and already can´t stand to do the same quests over and over again only to get a heart to reincarnate. The game should be easier in game settings, easier to gather loot and the grind should exist only to get gear, not to play more the the game.

[Ausdoerrt]

I think Strimtoms (misspelling? sorry) Acid Arrow is still performing quite well - I just solo'ed (with a hire) a first life AA Ranger through heroics (using openers) doing almost exclusively R1 (older content) or Elite (newer content) for the streak (ok - I jumped down to Hard for slavers and a few other quests)- I have ok-ish gear (crafted + non-raid named), 12 years of game knowledge and had to adjust my tactics for reaper (mostly kiting instead of zerging) - but still - I think anyone who had TR'ed (or leveled multiple alts) through the game 1 or 2 times would be able to do as well - many would prolly do much better because I'm pretty lame. Sure - it's not top-tier like some of those repeater or hybrid builds - but it gets the job done.

One thing I will say there is a lack of interesting and viable longbows - level 6 (8?) silver longbow to level 20 is kinda boring - but it does synergize with the build - anyways - by-the-way - you say you leveled to 20 back in 2006 - check your maths - cap was 12? back-n-da-day (or at least it was when I started playing a year after beta) - I might be misreading or you misspoke - but it kinda casts some shade on your cause.


https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ght=acid+arrow

The build is certainly viable, but it's far from great. It's a good build, don't get me wrong, but it primarily takes advantage from the fact that some low-level abilities are too powerful for most low- and mid-level content. It loses a lot of its sheen once you go past level 20.

It's also a very specific way to build a character for content that's not really that difficult to begin with. Yea, you'll be able to one-shot mobs in heroic elites. But, say, a spellsinger bard could AoE whole groups of mobs with maximized shouts costing 9 SP. Sorcs, warlocks etc. do even better. And all of these are much more lenient to both the build and the gear.

The build is nice, but it just emphasizes the problem with bows / ranged rangers in DDO.