Attn Rangers

[old.LandShark]

How are you folks all specced?
Considering taking a more melee-oriented ranger to high levels, i.e. good melee skills and high pathfinding - autotrained bow to medium-high lvls, more for the hell of it than because I have a spec in mind that requires a few extra points

 

[Alrindel]

Stealth: 25
Piercing: 44
Blades: 4 (oops )
Pathfinding: 36
Recurve Bow: 42
Celtic Dual: 13

I'm pretty happy with this spec, and I won't be respeccing immediately until I have had some time to play with it in RvR in 1.52 (1.53?) to decide what I might want to do differently.

 

[old.Odysseus]

Is that a standard spec alrindel?
If so, all the whining about rangers outdamaging scouts seems a bit exagerated - i got 4 more bow => some 10-40 more damage on cap, which is countered by your pathfinding (faster shots, more damage).
I'd say we should have round same damage with the heavy bows.

 

[Alrindel]

I don't think it's common even now; when I originally said I was going for a spec like this one, I got even more laughter than when I started the elf ranger in the first place - before See Hidden this would have been a doubly gimped character. Even after See Hidden not many bother to take pierce so high, and would rather use extra points to take pathfinding to 46 for the last damage add (I settled for the next-to-last one, and took pierce so high for the 44 style).

But reading the US boards, it definitely seems to be the current trend in the respecs - screw stealth, put it all in pathfinding, weapon and CD. Eleasias is pretty convinced that all rangers should respec to blades, rather than pierce, but I'm really hoping I'll get a chance to test that on Gorre at some point before I make the decision.

Oh, and as for bow damage, I thought that scouts still outdamaged rangers in 1.50. In the next patch, when we get our Heavy Recurves, we should be about on par, maybe we will even have a slight advantage - I'm not sure.

 

[old.Odysseus]

aye, atm scout dam > ranger dam.

after the heavy bows enter the game, rangers surely have the potential to outdamage scouts significantly, though not with absurd amounts. That all depends on how high you take bow.

My bow is 46, yours 42, so we should be even after heavy bows.

A 46 bow specced ranger would outdamage me however (by something like 20 points + faster drawtime).

 

[censi]

My current spec

RB 45-----------(+14)
stealth 39--------(+5-10)
path 36----------(+4)
pierce 30----------(+10ish)
CD8----------------(+8-12)

This spec works well... Many have lowered stealth... Im not going to do this....

Key to playing a ranger imo, is to make sure you have high slash/thrust/crush and capped con.....

Epic armour will take you to around 70+ dex and you will find you probably cap this without even realising it....

Key items to have for ranger.....
Merbos 99% bows.... (btw there is one 99% gr8 bow on hib ((merbos has it))
2X glimmer striker rings.
Belt of resilience
2X warshade bracer
DF infernal necklace (for 6% thrust)
Lurid mantle (or possibly detrious pall)
Ranger epic jewel

My hand weapons of choice are 2X glimering stiletos.... (though u cant really beat those soulshades for the BT proc)

Getting one of those +21 str +21 con bracers from DF is highly desirable.... Also perhaps shadowstriker ring.... buy my crush is 19% neway so I dont think ill bother....

This only leave you with crappy fire resists.... but if you are close enough to get grilled by a mage you will probably get ganked neway.

 

[Alrindel]

btw there is one 99% gr8 bow on hib (merbos has it)

There are a couple more now, I believe - he had a successful crafting session at Crauch (got a 98% one myself).

 

[Novo]

My Spec!

My target spec at lvl 50 is: -

Recurve Bow 42
Pathfinding 36
Blades 39
Celtic Duel 24
Stealth 21

I’m still lvl 47 so have a few more lvls to do … but on target at the mo...!

Being a Celt, Blades I think is a better option… little more str and con… but slightly slower Bow!

As I’m still xping for 50, I’m not tweaking my items yet for the resists, just have as many +str/con/dex and Qui items I can find to allow the best melee and Bow damage for xping…. At 50 that will change with my epic armour.

The stealth high or low discussion continues. But personally high stealth is no defence any more due to See Hidden. Useful imho, to have some stealth for RvR and stopping getting targeted early in fights. Beyond that, it’s wasted points to take it high. All it takes is one shade with See hidden to point you out to his friends and your dead. Better to have decent melee skills to at least try and survive when jumped. That combined with +recurve items, Relam rank bonus’s and the soon to be implemented alchemy for player made items, means I’d expect to max recurve bow as high as it can go from 42.

So I think template above will eventually result in max Recurve bow damage and pretty decent melee skills!

 

[old.LandShark]

So, my next question is this: if you assume you have +11recurve, +11CD, +11stealth and +11piece/blades, from items, what is your spec in that case? (Am i right in thinking +pathfinding items do nothing?)
Seems to me that going over 39 natural bow spec would be a waste, in that case. Possibly 37, given how easy RR3 is to obtain.
Anyone know if the CD chain, Hurricane->Solar Flare, is any good? Classes of Camelot lists it as being anytime with Flare having a large defensive bonus.

edit: thanks for the responses so far

 

[Alrindel]

There are no +pathfinding items. There is the Realm Rank bonus you get to pathfinding, which has no effect. Only your base "train" pathfinding spec affects which buffs you can use.

 

[Son]

When I finally hit 50, hopefully by Christmas, my spec will be:

Bow 41
Pierce 35
Stealth 28
Pathfinding 46
CD 3

 

[Eleasias]

PF: 46
Blades: 39
CD: 21
Bow: 41
Stealth: 7

 

[Faeldawn]

Only 45 atm:

Bow 45
Stealth 24
Blades 30
CD 10
PF 27
Peirce 2 (was tired when doin my lvl 10 spec) ;0)

Still considerin respec, prolly more path, less stealth

 

[old.Leel]

Ah, that explains why you did so much damage to me, Alrindel. Even though you were three levels lower than me. Elf rangers look the coolest though, gotta give you that. Too bad elfs get extra int and not dex.

 

[Spamb0t]

as it is now.. blades get +dmg to leather while pierce get -dmg... and the only class that a ranger should fight in melee would be a leatherwearing assassin (someone will soon say hey minstrels too! but oh well )
wish i had gone blades.. but oh well.. respec soon.. doubt ill get to 50 for it to matter anyways

 

[old.Tdaer]

theres alot of questions arend which specs are the best etc ..

personally I've seen many different specs and ways to get decent melee dps output vs decent bow output ..( we are the main bow users of the realm )

1.52 will make for some interestin changes .. camo although on a 10 min timer .. once again makes it quite possible for rangers to solo with some drawbacks.

assuming the average player will be arround RR5 by the time we get 1.52 and respecs..

I've been considering a few options ..( new arrow type will also be available with 1.52 , thrust , crush x-hvy etc)


so basically u have a few specs with mild variations.
this spec will also apply if u have RR5 +
and u can get +11 bonus to most of your stats from items and RR


Spec 1: ( As specced by Zohhar)
50 bow
36 blades
30 pf
30 stealth
14 cd

This is a pretty decent spec if u are interested in doing good bow dmg ... but in all honesty bow about 50 is really a waste wrt damage output 4 max cap /spec point . Although .. you WILL be doing excellent damage / arrow.



Spec 2: ( Possibly my spec )
25 stealth
39 blades
40 PF
40 bow
21 CD

With +11 to your attribs this would leave u with a strong melee spec .( at spec lvl blades 39 u get a chain from oyur anytime stlyle that does attack spd decrease . and dmg output vs slash type loving armors will rock)

40 bow spec wil lstill leave u with 50 ~ 51 bow spec including the RR and item bonusses .. which is pretty decent.

Spec3 ( Eleasias)
46 pathfind
39 blades
21 CD
41 Bow
Stealth 7

High PF this spec will give u 2 very important things ... second last dex/quick and last dmg add.

Good bow dmg and EXCELLENT melee .. this spec will allow for 0 ( ZERO ) soloing capabilities .. and camo would be useless.

thus a good spec for a very group RvR based char.

1 change on this spec tho i would also consider is :

48 path ( last dex/quick buff )
39 blades
19 CD
40 bow
5 stealth ( spare points left )

Still a decent spec .. but allways consider the amount spent on points )

All standard stealth rules apply to Camo.. ie. prior to 1.50 so high stealth COULD still be of use .. ifr u intend on going stricktly group based RvR... I 'd take the last spec into consideration.

the lower your stealth , the higher chance of de-stealthing while drawing your arrow ... which is pretty usefull when doing keep defence / attacks and getting an extra arrow off before change over to melee..

please feel free to msg me ingame or in #celticfist on Quakenet for info/ comments.

theres alot more info based on avg dps on certain specs .. and the results are VERY interesting.

 

[Spamb0t]

Spec 2: ( Possibly my spec )
25 stealth
39 blades
40 PF
40 bow
21 CD


that spec is pretty much what i was thinking about doing too...

 

[Alrindel]

Spec 2: ( Possibly my spec )
25 stealth
39 blades
40 PF
40 bow
21 CD

Tdaer and I had a long chat about this on IRC a little while ago. He felt it was worth going higher than my 36 in pathfinding, but I was determined to get that 44 pierce style. If I find the style to be useless, and/or if I respec to blades, I may well end up with pretty much that spec as well. We are both hoping for a chance to do some free experimentation on Gorre, when the time comes.

 

[old.Tdaer]

yeah ... assuming Zargar likes us alot .. and allows us to try multiple respecs on Gorre ..

would be nice to test dmg output from blades vs pierce on these specs ..

and bow dmg with the different specs..

I offered my 19 yr old sister .. let's see if he takes the bait ;D

 

[gronk]

will be my spec at 50 :

Blades = 39
Stealth = 29
Bow = 41
Path = 40
Celtic Dual = 12

current spec at lvl43 is :

Blades = 25 +10
Stealth = 29 +11
Bow = 40 +8
Path = 25 +2
Celtic Dual = 12 +4

so i'm going for the most commen spec, i guess

 

[Alrindel]

Tdaer just pointed out an interesting entry in a comprehensive ranger guide that I had not noticed before:
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=36351100

What styles are useful to a Ranger?

Probably the best, and most talked about, style in Piercing is the Diamondback Style which is used after an evade and stuns your opponent for around 5 seconds. In most fights this translates into around 20% less damage taken from your oppoenent, and often getting an evade can mean the difference between a win and a loss with this skill.

Compared to the Blades style Spectrum Blade however, both blades and piercing are on the same ground. This style gives you a 20% attack speed debuff for 20 seconds which slows the amount of damage an opponent will deal to you by 20%. It chains off a "Use anytime" style (Fireblade), which means you don't ever have to wait for an event like a parry or evade to get this off.

Definitely ammunition in the argument over the pros and cons of respeccing to blades... and by only taking blades to 39, that would free up enough points for me to raise pathfinding from 36 to 40, with a few left over for some more CD. Hmmmmmm.

 

[thebinarysurfer]

50 bow
31 Blades
35 Stealth
34 Path
0 CD

And before anyone starts....Shut up about raising bow over 42/44 - heard it all and decided that i'll try it and repsec it down a little in 1.52 if it doesn't work out...who knows maybe mythic will add some bow ablities aside from CS one day...With two respecs coming up to play with i can afford a mistake

Autarkis
Level 49 Ranger
'The Wyrding Way'

 

[thebinarysurfer]

oh and got a 99% quality one from merbos the other day...
Has to be said it rocks - far better than my old one - cheers merbos and keep up the good work.

Autarkis
Level 49 Ranger

 

[Quasimoto]

keep in mind.. low stealth can be cool for finding asassins.... (if u have TS that is)

 

[gronk]

keep in mind.. low stealth can be cool for finding asassins.... (if u have TS that is)

thats just soooooo true


got a question to CD, why do so many of u want to get it up to 20-21???

 

[healer_mcheal]

Hurricane is 21 in cd move.. nice move and it hurts like hell also that more % chance to swing offhand with dmg add from a ranger it still hurts