2 B or not 2 B

[Ahvandahla]

...Pros and cons on the different ranger lores....Archer, Beast or Tracker? At the moment I have it narrowed to Archer or Tracker with slight edge for Archer.

Thanks:D

[corpsestomp]

Archer:

+ No need to buy arrows/bows

+ Hit almost any vuln with said arrows

+ Being able to hit almost every round even blind

+ High damage from said arrows

- Missile immunity can negate fired weapons

Tracker:

+ Potential lagging/high damage skill

+ Camo all pets

+ Move quicker and less move through forests

+ Doublesheath-nuff said

+ The 'track' skill

- Reliance on melee damage

- Prot shield blocks throws(Maybe? It used to.)

- Throw lag is negligible at times

Beast:

+ Stronger pets

+ Third pet

+ Call beasts anywhere

+ Group herb

- Pets aren't that much stronger

- Reliance on melee damage

For a halfling/gnome, I'd suggest archer or beastmaster, as their low strength means they rely heavily on outside sources of damage. Being able to hit vulns on giant melees is huge, because most often, you'll want to use a staff, so you don't get hit more than you have to. For Ogre or stone, tracker works well, because their melee output is going to exceed that of the halflings, and that throw will work wonders. Feral, human and werebeast is totally up to you, since any path can work for them.

[Mister E]

For tracker you forgot one of the best +'s, namley the track skill.

For beastmaster "Pets arent that much stronger" I will very much disagree but I dont think I am allowed to say why....

[Tantangel]

Here's how I see it:

Beastmaster-I believe if you lose your pets behind a Cabal or they flee behind an aggro MOB that'll beat your *** into the ground, you can call them back to you without having to round them up yourself.

-On top of this they're higher lvl than you which normal pets aren't.

-The third pet you call can do something you can't do as your class.

-Group herb will cure the entire group, including other PCs. If you have certain mals it'll mean if others in your group have them, you wont have to choose who to cure them from, you can just do it to the whole group as far as I know.

-Not in a forest? Not a problem, call a beast and they'll come to aid.

Archer-Create arrows and bows, but you have to be in a forest to be able to do this.

-Can make a variety of arrows that will increase your damage possibly over time as well as getting those annoying Rogues out into the open so you don't have to avoid cities because they're always hidden.

-Can fire faster than a normal Ranger.

-Just because you can make arrows doesn't mean that some of the arrows you'll want to use fighting other races aren't viable. You'll still want them over the ones you can make at times.

-If blinded you have more of a chance to miss with your arrows which makes it harder to get your regular high damage.

-Basically a free attack every round so you could get upwards of 7 with dual wielding and third attack mastered.

-Those scrolls that grants immunity from them costs a ton. Unless the person has a ton of gold or can easily solo that MOB, it's unlikely they'll have it. That and if they're Wanted/Outlawed they can't get it anyways.

-Blademasters in Kyousanken or however will be able to knock those arrows aside with ease. Same goes for Warriors with the one warrior lore.

Tracker-Doublesheath means you have a nice ability to put two weapons away just in case you get disarmed, you can wield another. Or draw them and go to the other set for vuln weapon sets.

-Throw although nice isn't reliable. Any mage/communer can stop a throw dead including if you're throwing a vuln at them and doesn't lag enough when throwing a shield to matter. Also misses far more often than bash/bodyslam.

-Can camou all pets as long as you don't move from the room. Works well when facing other classes who're after you as long as they can't see you or suspect you're in the room.

-Tracking works nice as long as there isn't an abundance of that particular race online at the moment. If you're not quick enough to find tracks you wont be able to spot the spurs if they've become too old. Also if someone stays in the same room for a while, there's no spurs that show up.

If I had a choice to choose between the three, I'd now go either Beastmaster or Archer over Tracker because of the bonuses of the other two paths working far better over that of a Tracker. Still quite a bit more I could've mentioned, but I'll leave it at that since it's just a further explaining really of Corpsestomp's original post.

[archgold]

i'm just gonna add that tracker class is pretty sick even for halflings.....you'd be surprised how many people you can catch unaware.....one time on Nyofeld, Cyiak came running in without sanc (I didn't have any either) and tried to faerie fire me. *This was when I was ranking and took a short break to look for a third* So basically he didn't know my pets where camoed and got two rounded. Yep I think that sums it up. But you know....this was back when everyone else was an archer heh.

[Aulian]

For a halfling/gnome, I'd suggest archer or beastmaster, as their low strength means they rely heavily on outside sources of damage. Being able to hit vulns on giant melees is huge, because most often, you'll want to use a staff, so you don't get hit more than you have to. For Ogre or stone, tracker works well, because their melee output is going to exceed that of the halflings, and that throw will work wonders. Feral, human and werebeast is totally up to you, since any path can work for them.

If you choose beastmaster as a smaller race, you will hate yourself for it.. More then anything else in your life.. For that single descision. Beastmaster is by far the most underpowered area. You get an extra beast? Hahaha every cabal gets a 'third beast'. There are scrolls that will get you that third beast OR you can just buy that third beast. If you know what you are doing, you will not loose your beasts, unless its at a cabal guard, but hey.. You can just get em right back with beast call right? (Because you are in a cabal it would be two beasts instantly, your cabal pet and a beastcall - thats not half bad (wait a small time and you have all three back, ready to pound some skulls!))

Archer and Tracker are where its at. However Archer has a huge failing - Those scrolls negate all of your arrows, for a very long time, making your path useless. (a pain in the ***. Those who will make use of these consumables will have the knowledge to make gold, lots of it - and quickly so dont give me the gold speil )

Tracker - most reliable and useful set of skills.

Personally, if you are small? Take archer, (Reasons I wont say.), Bigger races have more of a choice - whatever feels right by you.

[Kyzarius]

-Those scrolls that grants immunity from them costs a ton. Unless the person has a ton of gold or can easily solo that MOB, it's unlikely they'll have it. That and if they're Wanted/Outlawed they can't get it anyways

Anyone with two licks of sense can easily gather up enough money to buy those.

[Tantangel]

I can think of about three various ways people can get them. I've fought a few people who could use these scrolls and I don't recall any of them having these at all. Then again the damage being dealt usually wasn't such a great deal it would be a deciding factor anyways. Easy to get gold? On some classes, not all, and some classes can't carry over a certain amount of gold which makes it a bit harder to get multiple scrolls at once. That and not everyone knows how to get gold all that fast. I know of little tricks that could get me a lot of gold really quick, but then I wont have any gold for a while afterwards unless a shift hits soon. If you're Evil/Neutral there are other ways of getting this gold and it makes it a lot easier for them to get it compared to a Good considering that you can get upwards of 20k gold from killing one MOB that's fairly easy and he repops every few ticks after you killed him. Not everyone knows how to get the gold though, you have to base it off a case by case thing, just because you know how to get the gold doesn't mean everyone does. On an Evil I could get around 200k in less than 30 minutes, gold was never a problem. As Egui I could barely ever get gold enough to do anything so I didn't bother since I had just about everything readily available to me.

[Kyzarius]

If you set out with the intent of stocking yourself you can easily have those scrolls. They are not challnging to get, you can get money with any class. Some classes may not have as many options, but you can.

The only saving grace archery gets is that people are not alway completly prepared, or have the forsight stock these kinds of suplies, or (most likely) being lazy about it, or dont even know its there for lack of exploration. Which is the advantage of archery. You can make a GOOD bow and NASTY arrow anywhere. Not to mention the ease of equipment gathering it can add . Against any PREPARED opponent though, hmmph, the skill gets completly neutralizd.

Archery, IMHO, is another skill set that is protected by the fact that it is frowned upon to reveal how to bunk skills.