Starting a Ranger

Classic Ranger
The classic Ranger is a very agile and skilled scout with minor spellcasting abilities. With his keen senses he can detect traps, secret doors or enemies before anyone else. Once combat starts the ranger can stay behind to support the party with his bow. But even in melee he has learned to wield two weapons with deadly precision. The ranger wears only light armor but is quick in his movement.

Recommended race
Elf: Traditionally a good choice. The increased Dex and the bonus to listen and spot are a great benefit for every ranger. Racial enhancements for bow and sword/rapier can help too.

Warforged: Rather unpopular but can be a great ranger too. Warforged have natural resistances and are a good choice especially when you favor melee combat.

Dwarf: An effective but uncommon choice. Often, a dwarf ranger can have Two-weapon fighting without meeting the dexerity requirements, allowing a higher strength. She can focus on melee combat with the free Dwarven axe exotic weapon proficiency and racial axe bonus enhancements. (Unfortunately, those enhancements don't work with a Handaxe, which would double their power).

Recommended stats
Elf

Str: 14 +2 Bonus Damage to all attacks

Dex: 20 +5 Important for skills, AC, and attacks

Con: 10   Not much, but with high Dex you can avoid many attacks

Wis: 12 +1 Minimum for Level 2 spells

Int: 8 -1 Dumped in favour of combat stats

Cha: 8 -1 Dumped in favour of combat stats

Warforged

Str: 16 +3 More power for melee

Dex: 16 +3 Dex 22 is all we need at lvl 10, so this is a good start

Con: 12 +1 Some extra hit points for melee

Wis: 12 +1 Minimum for Level 2 spells

Int: 8 -1 Dumped in favour of combat stats

Cha: 6 -2 Dumped in favour of combat stats

Skills
The most important skills for a ranger are tumble and spot. The remaining skill points should be divide equally amomng the following skills: Listen, Hide, Move Silently, Jump.

Tumble: maximum

Spot:  maximum

Other skills:

Listen

Jump

Move Silently

Hide

Only invest in the Tumble skill when you're advancing as rogue. Else you are wasting valuable skillpoints!

Warforged only When playing a warforged the amount you heal when resting at a shrine is determined by the player with the highest repair skill in your group. Because of this you should try to have at least one warforged warrior or a wizard with heal in your group.

Recommended enhancements
Ranger Action Boost

Ranger's Dexterity

Rogue's Dexterity

Warforged only
Construct Thinking

Warforged Constitution

Elf only
Elven Dexterity

Elven Ranged Damage

Elven Melee Damage

Elven Perception

Elven Enchantment Resistance

Feats
Two-Weapon Defense

Point Blank Shot

Precision

Dodge

Mobility

Shot on the Run

Warforged only
Mithral Body

Mithral Fluidity

Elf only
Weapon Finesse

Alternate build
Halfling Ranger
 * 12 str
 * 18 dex
 * 14 con
 * 14 wis
 * 8 int
 * 8 cha

Bonus stat points into str.

Favored Enemy:
 * Undead
 * Giant
 * Evil Outsider

Feats:
 * 1 Luck of Heroes
 * 3 Iron Will
 * 6 WFocus: Slash
 * 9 Improved Critical: Slash

Enhancements:
 * Ranger Dex
 * Halfling Dex
 * Ranger Action Boost
 * Halfling Luck

Skills:


 * Concentration
 * Search
 * Spot
 * Heal
 * Tumble CC

Melee Ranger
Forget about being the pansy at the back of the group flinging wooden cocktail sticks at your enemies, a melee ranger will show monsters a whole new world of pain!

This build is based on the character Fragaria Vesca on the European server Aureon.

Note, this is not a pure ranger build.

Level Progression

 * Level 1 - Ranger
 * Level 2 - Ranger
 * Level 3 - Ranger
 * Level 4 - Fighter
 * Level 5 - Ranger
 * Level 6 - Ranger
 * Level 7 - Ranger
 * Level 8 - Fighter
 * Level 9 - Ranger
 * Level 10 - Ranger

The fighter levels are taken for the two extra feats, as well as an improved choice of armours the ranger can wear.

Race
Human: The human race gives an extra feat, which outweights the vast majority of other racial advantages, and the extra skill point are very helpful.

Stats

 * Strength: 16


 * Dexterity: 14 Enough to satisfy all the dexerity requirements of the feats Dodge, Mobilty, Spring Attack.


 * Constitution: 14 Nobody likes to die, and until your character becomes immortal, having more hitpoints makes your character harder to be killed.


 * Intelligence: 10 Rangers have a healthy supply of skill points, and coupled with the extra skill points that humans get, the extra points are likely to wasted on useless skills.


 * Wisdom: 14 Although 12 is enough to cast all the ranger spells given the current level cap, 14 will allow you to cast all ranger spells as they become available when the level cap is raised.


 * Charisma: 10

Important Skills
In alphabetical order, these should be maxed out when possible:
 * Heal There's nothing like filling up your health bar to full everytime you use a rest shrine.
 * Jump Jumping over enemies' heads allows you to move around freely in the combat area, and allows you to jump over obstacles to engage in an enemy that is attacking your casters.
 * Spot Make the rogue in your party look like a fool when he can't spot that trap! Also allows you to spot hidden creatures. Some creatures like Hobgoblin Witch Doctors have a nasty habit of casting spells from stealth, target them and destroy them.
 * Tumble Coupled with mobilty, you can safely tumble past hordes of enemies without a scratch.

Secondary Skills
In alphabetical order, improve these skills when you can:
 * Hide Hide and Move Silently aren't that important since you cannot sneak past some mobs, only put enough to allow you to sneak past most things, rank 10 is sufficent for this purpose.
 * Move Silently
 * Search Although you will have a rogue with higher search than you, an extra pair of eyes won't hurt.

Level 1

 * Dodge
 * Mobility

Level 3

 * Resilience

Level 4

 * Spring Attack this feat helps alot against monsters that runs around alot, whether it's something that monster does naturally, or when you have a stupid caster that runs away from the tanks when they have aggro. Having longstrider allows you to catch up with runaway monsters so you can attack them.

Level 6

 * Iron Will Hold Person, Hold Monster, and other stunning or mind affecting spells are an all too common reason for the death of a melee combatant, get this to prevent it from happening to you!

Level 8

 * Improved Critical select this with a weapon of your choice, or if you prefer, a different feat. I chose Slashing Weapon since there are alot of slashing weapons to be found in the game, and helps to trigger the burst effects on weapons.

Level 9

 * Precision There are certain monsters with an insanely high AC, such as the drow in Tempest Spine, use this feat to hit them.

Level 1

 * Longstrider +15% run speed is great for getting around, it lasts for a long time too; also has a nice visual effect.
 * Resist Energy: Fire Fire attacks are much more common than attacks of the other elements, and where they do appear, you will often be given the chance to swap to a Resist Energy spell of the required type.

Level 2

 * Barkskin More AC is always good.

Enhancements

 * Ranger's Action Boost This is the best enhancement you will get as a ranger, recommeneded usage: skill boost to improve your haggle skill to squeeze that extra gold from the traders; sprinting around the city or in a dungeon is also fun :)
 * Energy of the Wild More spellpoints allows you to buff yourself, and your companions too if they are too tight to buff themselves.

Final Comments
Although this build was originally designed for damage, in practice, it is quite defensive and the feat selection reflects this. This build is most effective against spellcasters type monsters.

I hope you will enjoy playing a melee ranger in the future, as well as disolving the stereotype image of a ranger as an archery specialist. The majority of the warriors I have partied with are often shocked at how quick my character can mow through hordes of mobs taking little to no damage, and spellcasters are often thankful when I leap over monsters to their rescue.

--137.222.10.67 05:34, April 30, 2006 (EDT)