Ranged DPS isn't bad.

[grodon9999]

All rangers get both the TWFing and the archery feats because we don't have animal companions. That's the trade off.

[Aesop]

All rangers get both the TWFing and the archery feats because we don't have animal companions. That's the trade off.

'bout time they remedied that then. They have hirelings why not an animal companion? Use similar tech for it. Summon your Animal Companion and have it advance as you do. Add enhancements for them and allow you to outfit them so that you can customize them a bit.

Aesop

[Doganpc]

'bout time they remedied that then. They have hirelings why not an animal companion? Use similar tech for it. Summon your Animal Companion and have it advance as you do. Add enhancements for them and allow you to outfit them so that you can customize them a bit.

Aesop

That would cause epic wail. You have to choose (like a monk)... in trade for worthless pets . Man, I'm already thinking up all the storylines that would cause.

Dogan
Nerf, Fail, Hate, Rage Quits. Do it Turbine! Do it Now!

[elraido]

The one thing that bugs me about ranged toons is when I am attacking a bad guy then the archer comes up, plinks him with many shot, then runs around like a chicken with his head cut off while the bad guy chases him. The rest of the people are chasing after said bad guy until the caster goes, "screw this" and instant kills him.

[Aesop]

That would cause epic wail. You have to choose (like a monk)... in trade for worthless pets . Man, I'm already thinking up all the storylines that would cause.

Dogan
Nerf, Fail, Hate, Rage Quits. Do it Turbine! Do it Now!

It would only suck if the pets weren't useful. If done well they'd open up different options and playstyles.


Hell if ya really want to go house rules on it. Make it so you choose two options at Ranger level 1 from the following list.

Ranged Combat
Thrown Combat
TWF Combat
THF Combat
S&B Combat
Animal Companion

Each combat style grants a few of the more significant Feats and open up certain Enhancements while the Animal Companion option grant an Animal Companion which also has a couple of enhancements as well.

This would let Rangers choose their path.


Animal Companions could have commands similar to Hirelings but with a bit more customization as well as being able to be customized in other ways including gear

Aesop

[Aesop]

The one thing that bugs me about ranged toons is when I am attacking a bad guy then the archer comes up, plinks him with many shot, then runs around like a chicken with his head cut off while the bad guy chases him. The rest of the people are chasing after said bad guy until the caster goes, "screw this" and instant kills him.

Why are they chasing him? If the Archer pulls it away he must be confident in his ability to kill it. Let him. If he brings it back to you hit intimidate or just whack the thing... or both

Aesop

[elraido]

Why are they chasing him? If the Archer pulls it away he must be confident in his ability to kill it. Let him. If he brings it back to you hit intimidate or just whack the thing... or both

Aesop

Normally after 10 seconds of running in circles, I just keep going. If he wanted to try and kill the thing that bad, he is more than welcome to. I am not there to try and baby sit. Actually the one thing that really bugs me, is the caster who wants to instant kill a bad guy when they have 5% health left and the melees are beating him down just fine.

[Thrudh]

There are scenarios where ranged DPS comes in very handy, and I'm sure everyone knows that.

I had a blast last night in elite Framework (at level).

Things got a little out of hand, and I ended up kiting most of the bad guys while the other survivor took everyone back to the shrine...

It was pretty fun being able to jump from one rooftop to another, turn around, kill a few, while the mass of mobs tried to chase me... A melee would have had a much harder time.

By the time the rest of the group got back to me, I had pretty much cleared the whole area, with two of the end-bosses already dead.

[Thrudh]

This basically shows you can't possibly have any idea what you are talking about. On low levels any melee can get by, the real test is amrath, see how many are running it on casual. Those are all the people who thought their builds/dps were 'fine' at level 14.

There's more to this game than 20th level.

And who runs Amrath? Once you get your Yugo favor, there's not much reason to rerun those quests.

[grodon9999]

'bout time they remedied that then. They have hirelings why not an animal companion? Use similar tech for it. Summon your Animal Companion and have it advance as you do. Add enhancements for them and allow you to outfit them so that you can customize them a bit.

Aesop

Pets are so stupid and useless in the game, I hope they don't "fix" this.

I already have my animal companion anyway, and earth-elemental named "Leroy."

[Thrudh]

OP...

Ranged weapons do not do as much DPS as melee...

However, a GOOD archer can be a solid contributer...

Learn to use Improved Precise Shot well... If you're only doing 55% of the DPS of a melee, but you're hitting two monsters at a time, then you're doing more DPS than the melee.

Learn to save manyshot for critical situations... Manyshot (especially with IPS) is huge... You can really clear an area... Most DPS in the game in that 20 seconds.

Learn to pull out melee weapons sometimes... As a ranger, you get all the TWF feats for free... Get a couple of good melee weapons and use them sometimes...

[grodon9999]

There's more to this game than 20th level.

And who runs Amrath? Once you get your Yugo favor, there's not much reason to rerun those quests.

I don't have a caster, i cannot farm for scrolls.

I can however farm these quests for large ingredients to trade for scrolls.

I don't do it much any more because we've found EDA to be more lucrative but i'ts an option.

[Thrudh]

The one thing that bugs me about ranged toons is when I am attacking a bad guy then the archer comes up, plinks him with many shot, then runs around like a chicken with his head cut off while the bad guy chases him. The rest of the people are chasing after said bad guy until the caster goes, "screw this" and instant kills him.

So you're saying the one thing that bugs you about ranged toons is that they do more DPS than you and can pull aggro?

[DustTheWind]

One of my favorite characters atm is my 13monk/6ranger/1cleric. I might TR her to 13monk/6ranger/1rogue however. She can self healing using heal critical wands or her manna and the flesh staff. She can multishot with all 4 arrows in wind stance she has extra dex to hit and runs faster. She runs hella fast and can abundant step. She can fall any distance and survive and fast fall not feather fall. When she switches to melee she attacks fast and has much better AC than when she was pure ranger and can take slimes. does 2d6 damage with her hands + all the extras monks can get the trinket with lightening damage, brawling gloves, Oremis Necklace, touch of death, monk bonus elemental damage. She has innate spell, poison, disease resistance so I can fit other stuff on her. With haste or the quiver of alacrity her ranged attack speed isn't that bad. If your dark you get incorporeal but lack the self healing of light monk. Incaporeal works nice with blurr or displace for trash. Add in blindness gaurd and makes you really hard to hit and helps dark monk sneak attack damage.

I have fun choosing when I want to range engage or melee and with her increased speed I can often move fast enough to keep out of the way. For me its the optimal balance.

unfortunately I lose some strength to bump up her dex but in the end I get better AC out of it so not a bad draw. Definitely a dex to hit toon.

If you want to use wisdom to hit I recommend going 11 ranger/ 9 monk. Less hand damage but you get more strength and improved precise shot with out raising your dex and can put more into wisdom. Then you can focus on wisdom based goodies more so.

With pure ranger you get more dps ranged but I wanted the dps of monks hands and ranged combined while multishot is off timer. Works nicely.

[krackythehoodedone]

Like the post.

You obviously have put a lot of effort into your build and are responding to a lot of Ranged hate out their in DDO land.

I'll try to give it to ya straight.

The bad news is DPS wise. When you get to level 20 your DPS as a well built & geared ranged toon is going to be a long way behind Johnny Big Axe.

More bad news. Ranged players who dont understand the subtle nuances of aggro and targetting get a whole heap of bad press. Which of course gets thrown at every ranged toon.

Even more bad news. Their will be some who will decline you because of what you are

The good news is their are three things you can do about this.

1, Manyshot. For 20 seconds every two minutes Johnny Big Axe gets an inferiority complex and comes crying to the forums to get ''even'' with the nasty cheating Ranger.

2, You have Improved Precise shot. Using this skillfully against a group of hostiles you can affect all of them with continuos crippling effects such as Parylzation/Curse/StatDamagers/Lightning Strikes/500 hp Slaying arrows etc.

3, Against single targets once manyshot is over it's time to grab a couple of weapons and melee.

More Good News. The vast majority of posts about Ranged builds (all the neg ones) come from those that have never played a Ranged toon.

Even More Good News. A well built,equipped and played Ranged Toon is absolutely worth his spot in any group in the game.

So if you get yourself known as a solid player you wont have any difficulty getting groups

[Eladrin]

I've recently been playing a half-elven fighter/bard/rogue arcane archer/kensai/warchanter. It's given me a lot of useful and interesting experience related to the ranged game. Should have been an elf though. (I overestimated the value of the Ranger dilettante feat. Eventually I had enough fighter levels to get the regular bow strength, so I wan't getting as much benefit from half-elvenness as I originally was.)

[red_cardinal]

I've recently been playing a half-elven fighter/bard/rogue arcane archer/kensai/warchanter. It's given me a lot of useful and interesting experience related to the ranged game. Should have been an elf though.

Come on, finish DwS already and boost ranged bow speed somehow... Ranged is viable only with manyshot. Compared to melee it's junk.

[Coldin]

I've recently been playing a half-elven fighter/bard/rogue arcane archer/kensai/warchanter. It's given me a lot of useful and interesting experience related to the ranged game. Should have been an elf though. (I overestimated the value of the Ranger dilettante feat. Eventually I had enough fighter levels to get the regular bow strength, so I wan't getting as much benefit from half-elvenness as I originally was.)

You should have chosen a different Dilettante.

I can't imagine how tight those AP would be with that build. Is there even enough to invest into Kensai, Warchanter, and max out Arcane Archer? (You need to get Imbue Slaying Arrows after all).

[grodon9999]

I've recently been playing a half-elven fighter/bard/rogue arcane archer/kensai/warchanter. It's given me a lot of useful and interesting experience related to the ranged game. Should have been an elf though. (I overestimated the value of the Ranger dilettante feat. Eventually I had enough fighter levels to get the regular bow strength, so I wan't getting as much benefit from half-elvenness as I originally was.)

Did you lose a bet?

[Aesop]

I've recently been playing a half-elven fighter/bard/rogue arcane archer/kensai/warchanter. It's given me a lot of useful and interesting experience related to the ranged game. Should have been an elf though. (I overestimated the value of the Ranger dilettante feat. Eventually I had enough fighter levels to get the regular bow strength, so I wan't getting as much benefit from half-elvenness as I originally was.)

whoops never mind misread the build

Aesop