Elf Ranger synergy: An examination of old and new.

[spifflove]

Elves and Rangers have a unique synergy. As a returning player, I will examine and test both old and new ideas as much as is possible. I will examine strength and dex Rangers as trap monkeys and check the merits of old builds to the new meta. (As far as I have time)

First the Retribution Ranger (the original max dps glass canon to be recorded)
Elf true Neutral (with umd)
32 pts (drop trap monkey if 28 pts)
1 Rogue/1 Barbarian/18 Ranger
Str 18 plus level ups.
Dex 10
Con 12
Int14
Wis 14
Cha 08

Skills
Spot 1 point per level
Search 1 point per level
Disable 2 points per level
Umd 2 points per level

Feats
Favored enemy undead, construct,evil outsiders in that order
1) stun
3) power attack
6) knights training
9) ic slash
12) elven dragon mark
15) ic ranged
18) open

Strat: Use great swords and great axes until a pair of Retribution long swords can be attained at level 8.
Res twice as a horc barb then continue as a pure Wood Elf Ranger.

Edit: Melee Rangers can be very challenging to new players. I myself began as a ranged ranger. Very new players should start as ranged then thf barbarian before going to other melee types.

[spifflove]

Next a current meta dex ranger

The Temptrist (super Illuminati build)
Elf true Neutral (with umd)
32 pts (drop trap monkey if 28 pts)
1 Rogue/1 Barbarian/18 Ranger
Str 08
Dex 20 plus level ups
Con 12
Int14
Wis 14
Cha 08

Skills
Spot 1 point per level
Search 1 point per level
Disable 2 points per level
Umd 2 points per level

Feats
Favored enemy undead, construct,evil outsiders in that order
1) point blank shot
3) precision
6) elven dragon mark
9) ic slash
12) ic ranged
15) dodge
18) empower healing

Strat: Use scimitars. Res once as an elf then go to epic levels as a pure wood elf ranger.

[spifflove]

Finally a compromise

The Elfsploiter
Elf Lawful Neutral
32 pts (drop trap monkey if 28 pts)
1 Rogue/1 monk/18 Ranger
Str 15 plus level ups
Dex 16
Con 12
Int14
Wis 14
Cha 08

Skills
Spot 1 point per level
Search 1 point per level
Disable 2 points per level
Umd 2 points per level

Feats
Favored enemy undead, construct,evil outsiders in that order
1) point blank shot
3) precision
6) weapon focus slash
Monk level: whirling blades
9) knights training
12) ic slash
15) ic ranged
18) zen Archery

Strat: Use Great axes until whirling blades. Res twice as a horc barb then epic levels as a pure ranger wood elf.

[spifflove]

The Retribution Ranger levels 1-4: I started with the ember ax and got the great crossbow from the collaborator quest. I joined a permadeath group and things went well at first. I got to level 2 ok swinging my great axe. I dodged many lightning bolts and danced with an elite ogre. I stared blankly at a kobold shaman on a shelf but did not range him for some reason.

At level 3 things were feeling good. We went to Tangleroot. My guildies pulled the mobs with ranged attacks and I attacked them in the sides and rear along their kite lanes. Spot helped a lot. But I was getting tired. Then I saw a guildy die. Then I made the fatal mistake of stepping in front of a hobgoblin ranger (ironically).

I had been one shotted. I left the guild and went to the nearby ogre cave in the gorge. I ranged the ogers there and cleared the cave. This concluded testing for levels 1-4.

[spifflove]

Temptrist level 1-4
I again grabbed the korthos great crossbow and joined a permadeath guild. I range piked through the content quite easily. I went back to Tangleroot. I was never in danger even where my previous character died. But I was a little bored. My first test was when I took a wrong turn in a Cerulean Hills quest and ended up face to face with an earth elemental. I whipped out a keen shocking great sword as my guildies came to the rescue. They laughed. I guess they didn’t expect the little elf to whip out a huge sword? Anyway even with precision the damage was low. The same thing happened in stk.

At level 4 we returned to Tangleroot. Not having spoken to the teleport toon I got left behind. I made my way into Tangleroot. I made a wrong turn and ran into the same hobgoblin ogre and his tripping wolf. I whipped out my great sword with all my 08 strength. Lol. That high dex save helped against lightning bolts but when trip came to shove (4 balance rank) it failed.

I left the guild and returned to korthos to pick up the body feeder scimitars x2. I tested myself protecting the cannith crystal on elite. My str ranger won easily but my dex build could not protect it even 1 level higher. I noticed I had a potion of bulls strength and a web clicky from the water works and I successfully protected the crystal.

I began to pug with a true ress’d wizard. She with her arcane skelly and cleric hireling and me with my korthos great crossbow.

Soon we were doing harbor reaper. I used my body feeder scimitars on reaper giant scorpions and they kept me alive though it was close. We did the tome on reaper and my pug pal was fried by the lightning bolt trap. I had a flash back to my fist toon: a bardcher. Ten years ago I did the same thing: I dodged the trap. I did the intelligence rune (“you didn’t think I was just a pretty face” echoed from the past). I ranged the skelly. I use the. Body feeders on the zombies. It was close. We arrived at the shrine and I remembered what a ranger’s chief job was: To carry the soul stones! I told my pug the gear I had and he said: “oh my reaper points!”

[spifflove]

I am on the elfsploiter. I again join a permadeath guild. My guildies want me to do Sharn as a level two. What could go wrong? I’m forced to pike with the korthos great crossbow. No problems until level 3 when an ice storm twice takes me to 1 hp. I don’t know how things will go from here, but a balanced ranger is the direction I am leaning!

Enhancements of note:
Arbalester, sharpshooter from the mechanic tree.
Elven accuracy 1.

[Enderoc]

[QUOTE=spifflove;6448099]Elves and Rangers have a unique synergy. As a returning player, I will examine and test both old and new ideas as much as is possible. I will examine strength and dex Rangers as trap monkeys and check the merits of old builds/QUOTE]

I would try Wisdom based max listen skill and until Horizon Walker goes live...it will at least up the DC of paralyzing arrows.
Unless you are focusing on tempest of course.
One of my pet peeves of people testing horizon walker was them not utilizing paralyzing arrows...its like tell me you dont know how to play a ranger without actually telling me you dont know how to play a range
Pretty sure one could get paralyzing arrows, horrizon tier 5 plus wisdom to hit and damage

[CrackedIce]

Deleted.

[CrackedIce]

[QUOTE=Enderoc;6448215]

Elves and Rangers have a unique synergy. As a returning player, I will examine and test both old and new ideas as much as is possible. I will examine strength and dex Rangers as trap monkeys and check the merits of old builds/QUOTE]

I would try Wisdom based max listen skill and until Horizon Walker goes live...it will at least up the DC of paralyzing arrows.
Unless you are focusing on tempest of course.
One of my pet peeves of people testing horizon walker was them not utilizing paralyzing arrows...its like tell me you dont know how to play a ranger without actually telling me you dont know how to play a range
Pretty sure one could get paralyzing arrows, horrizon tier 5 plus wisdom to hit and damage

You do realize that for testing HW purposes, folks were only interested in DPS output. Once DPS has been tested (and confirmed), it makes sense to branch out and add utility (such as AA paralyze arrows).

In fact, personally, I am only interested in making AA (paralyze) DPS more effective and easily see HW helping with that.

In either case, AA most definitely needs a revisit to modernize the tree.

Aside for that, to finish out the bow pass, I am convinced that putting IPS back to 100% (Precise shot added damage has come a long way) combined with making death arrow from AA tier 5 and DWS headshot from tier 5 a setup function rather an actual attack such that "next attack will receive the death arrow or headshot buff", it would put Archers back to the similar playstyle they had previously.

[spifflove]

I would try Wisdom based max listen skill and until Horizon Walker goes live...it will at least up the DC of paralyzing arrows.
Unless you are focusing on tempest of course.
One of my pet peeves of people testing horizon walker was them not utilizing paralyzing arrows...its like tell me you dont know how to play a ranger without actually telling me you dont know how to play a range
Pretty sure one could get paralyzing arrows, horrizon tier 5 plus wisdom to hit and damage

23 action points is a steep price to pay for paralyzing arrows on a melee build. Still a ranger should have some ranged ability. I would like to try this on one of my builds possibly the elfsploiter since the progression is slower. Otherwise my inclination is to just use a paralyzing bow if needed. Listen might be a little too much to afford but I see the value on a ranged ranger.

By the way, what does a pure ranged ranger do when face to face with a big ugly mob in a crowded room?

[spifflove]

My dex ranger faired poorly piking with reaper levelers. At level four I tried to flank a line of fiendish lions but dps with the body feeder scimitars was very poor and I died. Level 5 brought some relief with Valenar Grace. Damage boosted but to hit was only ok even with precision. Dps on reaper was poor but I could handle being swarmed by giant scorpions and other trash mobs in three barrel cove.

Key enhancements: Valenor Grace (adds dex to damage).
Eleven weapon training 4 (bonuses to scimitars and short bows).

I began to use a keen short bow as the korthos great crossbow began to disappoint. (Though I never bothered to enchant it for additional 1d4 force criticals)

[Enderoc]

introduce 4 levels of wizard max spellpower to empower your force arrows add ice storm to your spell list now you can play...The Storm on the Horizon having FOM and all you may as well kite into a snowball fight
Not really a party favorite but it would be a blast solo "of course this could be a stay away from my kills spell"
Alternatively you can dip into a Sorcerer Savant for elemental damage outside force and gain one specific spellpower for your imbued arrows

[spifflove]

introduce 4 levels of wizard max spellpower to empower your force arrows add ice storm to your spell list now you can play...The Storm on the Horizon having FOM and all you may as well kite into a snowball fight
Not really a party favorite but it would be a blast solo "of course this could be a stay away from my kills spell"
Alternatively you can dip into a Sorcerer Savant for elemental damage outside force and gain one specific spellpower for your imbued arrows

Great tactic! Sounds fun for solo. I have learned to keep my bow out at all ranges except point blank and it has improved my survival and fun.

I can’t change the title but here is a similar thread for ranged rangers: https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...e-Elven-Ranger

[spifflove]

Scimitars vs Longswords:

A Scimitar crits on 18-20 or 15% of time for double damage.
A Longsword crits on 19-20 or 10% of the time for double damage.
Add knights training and it becomes triple damage but at the cost of one feat..

So over the same time period all other factors being equal and discounting base weapon damage and discounting that extra feat a Scimitar user would use a scimitar would crit for 6 times damage (x2 x3) vs 6 times for the longsword (x3 x2).

Seems equal right? However we must count the non critical hit that the Longsword would get over the same time period which edges out the Scimitar.

IC slashing means the Scimitar crits 12 times (x2 x 6) and the Longsword 12 times (x3 x4) but now the Longsword counts two extra normal hits over the same time period.

So which one is better? Depends on how feat starved your build is. Also depends on how much strength vs dex augmentation you can find. Also going dex will allow you to dump strength but then again there are more ways to augment strength over dex.

Finally Knight’s training puts the Longsword on par with the Khopesh for the same feat cost and Elven enhancements make the Elf the max point target dps toon in the game!

[donblas]

Feats
Favored enemy undead, construct,evil outsiders in that order
.

For a modest investment of APs, 2 in fact, you can get FE Undead from the Vistani tree, allowing you to take a different one as a feat and buffing all of them.
And a 6-point dive into horizon walker will gain you evil outsider, allowing yet another feat choice and buffing all 6 choices. Your dex-based version may well want to spend 13 in this tree anyway for "No Step Missed"

And for laughs you can spend 2 APs in falconry for FE animals.

Giving (with the 4 FEs from 18 Ranger, and three more from 10APs) seven types of enemy you get +14 against. No small buff.

Of course, it may be that the APs on your builds may be too tight to do this, but thought I'd mention it.

[spifflove]

For a modest investment of APs, 2 in fact, you can get FE Undead from the Vistani tree, allowing you to take a different one as a feat and buffing all of them.
And a 6-point dive into horizon walker will gain you evil outsider, allowing yet another feat choice and buffing all 6 choices. Your dex-based version may well want to spend 13 in this tree anyway for "No Step Missed"

And for laughs you can spend 2 APs in falconry for FE animals.

Giving (with the 4 FEs from 18 Ranger, and three more from 10APs) seven types of enemy you get +14 against. No small buff.

Of course, it may be that the APs on your builds may be too tight to do this, but thought I'd mention it.

These are some very good points indeed! That is a HUGE buff against a lot of enemies! Useful info for ranger players of all types.

I would like my final Ranger to be 40% ranged as ranged is part of the class but that would take a really good builder to pull that off. I am unfortunately time constrained as a casual minnow addicted to permadeath =,)

[C-Dog]

First the Retribution Ranger (the original max dps glass canon to be recorded)
...
6) knights training
...

Since Knight's Training was introduced in a U41 patch (Feb '19), I have to wonder what your operating definition of "original" is.

Compare this 2013 version, which was sort of a forum-agreed benchmark and that I consider far more "original*", in a more traditional sense of the term, and still does just fine afaict.

(* at least as far as post-U19 goes, when the current Enhancement trees were introduced. If there were (the equivalent of) Elven Tempest Trapmonkeys pre-19, they'd be tough to compare/contrast to any current models.)

[darkniteyogi]

The elf dragonmark is great for first life characters. You get 50% concealment which works with Extend (That's 20 minutes of displacement per rest), and you also got 10% incorporeality (15 minutes per rest).

My unpopular opinion, Dodge, mobility, and shot on the run are overrated.
With the same feat choices, I prefer Extend (for dragonmark), Quicken, Maximize, for healing.

[C-Dog]

Maximize, for healing.

This.

If you're not going to be a full-time healer, and so only worry about emergency "burst" healing, Maximize gives you the best result. Costs more than Empower Healing, and worth every spell point.

[spifflove]

This.

If you're not going to be a full-time healer, and so only worry about emergency "burst" healing, Maximize gives you the best result. Costs more than Empower Healing, and worth every spell point.

I see your point but what is your view on this (espoused by others on this forum):

Rejuvenation Cocoon: Active (12 SP activation) (12 sec cooldown) (Empower Heal, Quicken, Enlarge) (SR: no) Protect target ally with a shield of [90/120/150] temporary HP for 9 seconds. Heals 5d6 HP every 2 seconds while the shield persists.