Syndeo's Guide to Being a Revered Ranger

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Welcome to the next installment of Syndeo's Guides. This is a guide that will go beyond the overview of the Ranger Class and help new players plan their classes in a step-by-step process that starts from Race choice, moves to Stats and Skills, and finally Gameplay.

To see a broad view of the ranger class, please visit the Ranger Page in the wiki.

This Guide is not Complete, and any experienced players are free to add beneficial knowledge, but I will continue to add more lists and pointers as time allows.

So You Want to be a Ranger?

Rangers are not just a bow-and-arrow fighter, though they focus more than any other class with them. Rangers focus on Dexterity and secondly Strength, and with it comes the effectivenes of a bow, but also can use two weapon fighting feats better than any class because of the fluidity that comes with the Dexterity. They can either attack from afar or enter the heat of battle like any other fighting class. They have the choice of being silent scouts or Arcane Archers or anything else they want to be. What decides the best type Ranger? We first have to look at Race.

Getting Started- Races

I will first begin the actual guide from the beginning: Race choices

In the creation of a Ranger, one must look at the pros and cons of each race and from there decide on which race to choose so that your Ranger has the stat improvements and feats and enhancements you desire.

The base stats to keep in mind that affect Ranger ability are: Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution. Wisdom and Intelligence are both somewhat important, and Charisma is put by the wayside. As you read through each description of the race choices, keep in mind the necessary base stats needed to create the Ranger you desire. For instance, a Ranger that is only concerned with two-weapon fighting would focus more on STR than DEX, whereas an Arcane Archer would focus more on DEX for hitting things, and STR secondly to increase his damage. I have only listed the Pros and Cons that are mainly directed around the building of a Ranger. Each race has more than listed, and can be read in full by clicking on their name.

Warforged

Warforged are the non-flesh race of the DDO world and as such receive many pluses and minuses

Pros
+2 Constitution
Immune to sleep, energy drain, nausea, exhaustion, poison, disease, and paralysis effects
Immune to spells targeting humanoids
No Breath meter while swimming
Free inherent Light Armor (2+ AC, 8+ Max Dex Bonus) Inherent Light Fortification

Cons
Since Warforged are not made of flesh, they receive a -50% modifier to incoming healing spells (lessened to -20% by Healer's Friend feat)
-2 Wisdom

Ranger Material?
Yes. Rangers receive healing spells at higher levels, and they wouldn't affect them as much, and the -2 WIS would not make a good Arcane Archer. However, the 2+ Con and immunities make them a good choice for a Tempest ranger, Though with drawbacks.

Human

Humans are the most level of the races and are good for any beginner to DDO as they can be adapted to any class.

Pros
+4 Skill points at creation
+1 skill point after every level past level 1
1 Bonus Feat at level 1
Human versatility enhancements
1+ to 2 stats you need through Human Adaptability
30% healing amplification enhancements

Cons
Though Humans are balanced, they do not have any specialty in any one area.

Ranger Material?
Humans are great for any beginner class, including Ranger. The bonus feat means that the Human Ranger will be allowed to choose 2 feats and a favored enemy (discussed later) at level one. Thought they don't stand out in any area, they are more than capable of being good Rangers.

Dwarf

These stout and rugged characters have many attributes and defenses unique to their kind

Pros
+2 Constitution
+4 Balance
+4 Dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the Giant Type
+2 racial bonus on Search checks
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells
Proficiency with a Dwarven Axe, and bonuses to attack and damage through enhancements

Cons
-2 CHA (Doesn't really affect Rangers)

Ranger Material?
Most Likely. Though no extras in DEX or STR, Dwarves have a lot of things that benefit a Ranger secondly, like CON, Balance, Search, etc. It is easily possible to create a good Ranger with a Dwarf.

Elf

The Elves are the quick and fluid race that are not as stout as their dwarven rivals but with quicker reflexes.

Pros
+2 Dexterity
+2 Save against spells or Enchantments
Immunity to sleep spells or effects
Weapon Proficiency with longswords, rapiers, longbows, composite longbows, shortbows, and composite shortbows, and racial enhancements to attack and damage with them.
+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks

Cons
-2 Constitution

Ranger Material?
While elves may look like they Scream ranger, they are only a mediocre choice because of the con penalty. While the 2+ dex and bonuses with bows will help, the -2 CON hurts a lot. They can still make decent rangers, but are not my first choice.

Drow Elf

The Drows are the cousins of the Elves from far away, and bring many new bonuses and inhibitors that Elves do not possess.

Pros
+2 Dexterity
+2 Intelligence
+2 Charisma
+2 Will Save against spells or Enchantments
Spell Resistance: 10+level
+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks
Weapon Proficiency with rapiers, shortswords, and shurikens and racial enhancements to incrase attack and damage with them.

Cons
-2 Constitution
Limited to 28 point build, even if bought/earned

Ranger Material?
Drow are a bit better than elves for an archery ranger. While they lack the bonuses to bows that elves can get, their inherent SR can go a long way to improving their ability to resist will save based spells, a major ranger weakness.

Halfling

These small characters have hidden surprises and can stand up to even the biggest giant

Pros
+2 Dexterity
+1 size bonus to Armor Class
+2 Jump
+1 Racial bonus on Saving Throws
+2 racial bonus on Jump, Listen, and Move Silently checks
+2 saving throws against fear. Stacks with the Racial bonus with on saving throws
+1 rolls with Thrown weapons Halfling guile enhancements

Cons
-2 Strength
Lifting and Carrying limits are 3/4 the size of Medium-sized characters

Ranger Material?
Halflings are a decent choice for a dex-based melee ranger or archer ranger due to the DEX bonus; they also lack the Con penalty that Elves and Drow have. A great choice for a ranger/rogue split.

Half-Elf

Born of the mixed blood of Humans and Elves, they possess good qualities of both races.

Pros
Free Dilettante Feat at level 1, allowing them to take on the abilities of certain classes if they meet the stats requirements, can be made better with enhancement lines
Most of the enhancement lines of both elves and Humans

Cons
Due to them being a very balanced race, Half-Elves do not get any special bonuses to stats.

Ranger material? Yes. While arguably not as good as Humans, they get many of the same enhancements that both humans AND elves can get, and elves have good enhancements to benefit rangers, while humans have good enhancements that benefit any class. The Dilettante feat can be very useful, but takes careful planning to use correctly. For example, a good Dilettante feat for a Ranger would be Rogue, allowing a melee ranger to add extra damage to his attacks through sneak attacks when he is not the main target of that mob (or an archer within 30 ft of the target), or Barbarian, for extra HP and free innate DR.

Half-Orc

Born of the Mixed blood of Orcs and Humans, Half-Orcs combine the drive and versatility of a Human with the bestial vigor of an Orc.

Pros
2+ STR
Orcish Fury enhancement lines, which provide extra strength when low on HP
Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude and Great Weapon Damage/attack lines to make them Two-handed Fighting killing machines
Orcish Power attack enhancements

Cons -2 INT -2 CHA

Ranger Material? Yes. Int and Cha are not important stats for a Ranger, and the massive bonuses to Str helps both Archers and Tempest Rangers do more damage. However, they generally won't benefit from the bonuses to Two handed Fighting Horcs are privy to. A solid choice overall if doing as much damage as possible is your thing.

Building Your Ranger- Stats and Paths

After you choose your race it is now time to build your character

As always, never take pre-built path. They make you take misplaced stat-ups, feats and skills!

Those wishing to not specify in any one area or would like to pick and choose what they want and don't want can read below.

Base Stats

As stated before, the 6 main stats are Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Keep in mind that your Race has inherent stat additions/negatives that affect the base number of all these named.

STR: Put this as high as you dare take it on a STR-based Tempest, 14 is fine for a dex-based Tempest or Arcane Archer.

DEX: Put this as high as you dare take it for a DEX-based melee ranger or Arcane Archer. 14 is fine for a STR-based Tempest.

CON: As always, put at least 14 in here; more is better, especially for a melee ranger.

INT: 8-10 is fine for most rangers, 12-14 might be better for a ranger/rogue split if you can afford it. Rangers get a fair amount of skillpoints, however.

WIS: 8-10 For most rangers; if you're an Arcane Archer and have spare points, you can take this to 12 if you want. Not an especially important stat, as a 6+ items can give you access to all your spell levels, even if you only have 8, and the extra SP you get is mostly of little consequence. You WILL need 11 WIS by level 4 to cast 1st-level spells, and 14 WIS by level 16 to cast 4th-level spells.

CHA: 6-8 is fine for most builds. CHA is easily the least important stat for a ranger. In fact, the only use a Ranger has for CHA is to help with his Wild Empathy.

Skill Points

Skill Points are used to increase skills that are affected by Base Stats but have their own unique use. At Creation, everyone gets 28 inherent skill points, no matter your race. (You can buy/earn the 32-point champion build, but keep in mind that drow are always 28-point builds no matter what)

Skills can be subjective to what kind of Ranger you are. I will list the Recommended skills in the order of my personal opinion of what is more important:

Jump - Get places easier and hop around like a flea. Don't put more than 10 points into here, since you can buff yourself 30+ jump eventually and 40 jump is the max ceiling of usefulness.

Concentration - (Important if you are Arcane) Don't be distracted by that 2000 ton giant coming for you. Can be ignored if you wish, but it has its uses.

Move Silently - Avoid detection by monsters

Hide - look like a rock, act like a rock, think like a rock.

Spot - see your enemies coming from far away, and find traps. Important for a rogue splash

Search - Find Hidden Doors and Traps (But you can't disable them!). Important fora rogue splash.

Some extra Skills that are recommended by me:

Tumble - Very helpful to Rangers... barrel roll away from danger!

Balance - Avoid getting knocked down and unable to do nothing for a while!

UMD - Be able to overcome any race/alignment restrictions to be able to use that awesome bow! And, more importantly, use awesome scrolls like Heal, Raise dead, and teleport!

Gameplay - Arrows that Blot out the Sun!

Now that you've chosen your race and built them up, it's time to shoot every monster down!

Basics

As a starting Ranger you can equip whatever you like as your weapon, and go out and start fighting. Keep in mind that you will need to buy arrows from a General Vendor or pick them up from breakables and such. If you are an archer, you will eventually be able to make your own limitless supply of arrows. If a Tempest, you should use whichever strongest one-handed weapon you can find in your main hand, and whatever strongest light weapon you can find in your offhand. Later on, you will have enough +to-hit to use two regular weapons in each hand.

Starting at Level 4 Rangers learn spells that can benefit them in their quests. Some are Cure Light Wounds/Cure Moderate Wounds/Cure Serious Wounds, Longstrider (One of my favorites)Resist Energy, and Protection from Energy. All these are useful in their own way, and once again it is dependent on the player to choose which they want. You can prepare spells in any tavern you come across.

The Hotbar tab is useful for everyone. You can set different bows or weapon sets or spells for quick access so that you can quickly and efficiently switch through which bows or weapons are best for the situation. You have 20 possible hotbars and can be scrolled through by pressing the (+) or (-) keys next to 1-9 or pressing Ctrl+(Hotbar number). As a Ranger I like to have my weapons on my main hotbar (#1) and any spells on the 2nd hotbar (So I can press (+) to access them and (-) to quickly return to my weapons) and any skills I need to activate on the 20th hotbar (So I can press (-) to access them and ( +) to quickly return to my weapons)

To see what all a Ranger can choose with Action Points, please look at the Ranger Enhancements page. What you choose depends on your playing style, but choose wisely! Ranger devotion is a good idea for all rangers to invest in to save the Cleric SP, as well as boosts to damage against your favored enemies.

Solo Play

It is easy for Rangers to quest by themselves if they wish to do so. They can kill monsters from a safe spot or a distance away and have the ability to use weapons in close combat as well, and can heal themselves at higher levels. When soloing, Move Silently is your friend. You can use it to quietly sneak up on a group of enemies and take out the most dangerous ones first, making the battle over faster, or if an Arcane Archer, sneak past the enemies to get someplace difficult/impossible for them to reach. Feel free to kite as much as you want when soloing, but watch out and make sure you don't run into more enemies!

In a Party

While fighters are in the middle of the mobs (Rangers can be too if they want to!) Rangers can be far back and hit them without being hit themself (unless you get aggro). In the absence of a cleric, they can heal somewhat themselves and can help the party that way. Also in some quests, Rangers are used to access areas that are hard to reach, because of their Jump. They can also find hidden doors and traps. Though they don't specify in those areas they can do what needs to be done.

Items/Armor

If a Tempest, you should consider taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency in Khopeshes, since they are the most powerful one-handed melee weapons in the game. Keeping a bow handy for hard-to-reach enemies is a good idea, too.

If an Arcane Archer, getting the Silver Longbow should be your top priority. It is the strongest bow you can wield for the majority of enemies in the game for a very long time. Make sure to save useful arrows types like bane and slaying arrows, and swap them out when they could be useful. You should also keep a good one-handed melee weapon and a light weapon around for meleeling, as later on you will mostly only be ranging when your Manyshot skill is active and meleeling otherwise.

Tips and Tricks

Don't forget to keep your buffs active. Ram's Might will increase both your ranged and melee damage, and keeping Resist energy of whatever types are prevalent is a good idea. Barkskin is good to cast on the tank to help him dodge blows more easily. Consider taking the Extend Spell feat to make your buffs last a lot longer.

When playing an Archer in a party without a tank, only shoot at the enemies until they get within melee range, and then swap to your melee weapons. If there is a reliable tank who can keep the aggro on him, feel free to range as much as you want. Also, remember to kite enemies TOWARDS the melees, not AWAY. You will probably get kicked from your party if you do this too much!

Conclusion

Here ends my Guide to Being a Revered Ranger. I have surely forgotten a lot of important information that with some time and editing I or other players can add to benefit you!

Any questions or comments can be emailed to DDOSyndeo@live.com

Here are some other useful Guides:

Syndeo's Guide to Being a Respected Rogue
Syndeo's Guide to Being an Effective Cleric

Look for more Guides Coming Soon!