Ranger Guide Update

[Evangelion]

I was perusing the old unofficial forums, when I discovered a ranger essay update that, as far as I can tell, has never been put on this forum. So I figured I'd put it here for review, and maybe the IMMs can replace the old one with this.

A Guide to Becoming the King (or Queen) of the Forest

By Balinor

Introduction

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So, you’ve decided to play a ranger. Good choice! What you’ve chosen is a good choice for many reasons. It’s a great class to level up with and learn how the lands work, as well as what’s in them, due to pets and race variations, as well as to PK with. Well, we’ll touch on that more later, but we should start with the basics.

Race Choices

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Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Werebeast, Feral, Ogre, Stone Giant, Halfling, Gnome

Human: All around average. They have pretty good stats for a starting out class, and are easy to learn with. Once you get to level 50 though, PKing might give you some trouble, since you’ll have a harder time matching others’ stats. No racial exp penalty also makes for some fast ranking.

Half-Elf: My personal favorite, this class has high dexterity and decent stats otherwise, making them agile and easily defensive. Lacking somewhat in the strength department, you might have a hard time dishing out the pain, but your defensive capabilities make up for it. A very nice learning race to choose for the class.

Elf: An acceptable choice, these rangers make for low damage output but quick getaways and good defense. Also, due to high int and wis, it takes less time to train, you don’t have to waste so many practices on skills and spells, so you can end up with a decent amount of HP.

Werebeast: Again, a very average choice for ranger. Transform can be nice in some situations and bad in others. I wouldn’t suggest this race unless you like playing neutrals and have some experience with the class and the game.

Feral: A very nice choice for ranger, this class has high dexterity, automastery in two of their defenses and decent stats otherwise. The fire vulnerability can present trouble at times, but can be gotten around if you have basic knowledge of equipment. Again, I wouldn’t suggest playing these to start out.

Ogre: Quite possibly one of the most difficult yet most profitable ranger classes is the ogre. Very easy to rank with due to ogre strength and hp, plus pets. Sadly, it can make it a bit hard to PK, due to the magic vulnerability. Another race that I wouldn’t choose unless you’ve got some experience under your belt.

Stone Giant: This class could be the most successful ranger, if you have patience and a basic knowledge of equipment. You have to practice things three times to get it to 75%, which presents a slight difficulty. Luckily, you have quite a few nice things to make up for it, including high strength and con. The mental vulnerability makes summoners a bit difficult, but you can usually camouflage to avoid that.

Halfing: This ranger has a lot of potential. Very nice stats make for good AC, and no vulnerabilities is always a nice perk. Not to mention magic resistance. There have been several Halfling rangers out there who were just plain nasty to fight, and when you take a look at their abilities, it’s not hard to see why.

Gnome: I’ve always considered this to be more for fun than for serious fighting. The gnome ranger can get a lot of HP due to a large number of practices as well as they can learn a skill in one practice. Not so great on the damage front, they have a decent dex to make up for it. Mastering abilities quickly comes along with this race, making it an easy choice to see what abilities you should master and what you shouldn’t. I wouldn’t play it without some experience in the class and the lands.

Skills

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The following are skills that you are going to need in combat or general play, so you’re going to want to master them as soon as possible.

Weapons- Axe, Flail, Sword, Dagger, Spear, Whip, Staff, Hand to Hand

I suggest you master all of these, if you can deal with the boredom that goes along with training weapons. Otherwise, at least master Staff, Flail and Spear. You’ll want staff for pugil, and flail and spear for weapon expertise.

Camouflage- (camo)

This is your getaway skill. Having trouble in a fight? Flee, run a few rooms and use this. This is a *must* master skill. And always make sure when you use it, you flee a few rooms away, because area attacks can still bring you out of hiding, and your opponent may be faster than you think. Master it by spamming.

Dirt Kick-

This will master through use, but it’s important to your repertoire since it’s a method of beating on your opponents more significantly, or escaping more smoothly. It’s also one of the few in-combat skills that rangers can use.

Scout-

Most rangers don’t find this to be a practical skill, since it removes you from camo just like scan, but if you’re in a large area and you’re hunting someone, you can use this. Beware though, it lags where scan doesn’t.

Shield Block, Parry, Dodge, Two Handed, Pugil, Dual Parry-

These are your defenses as a ranger. Master them, learn them, and love them. They’ll save your life, I promise. Pugil and two handed in particular come in handy when you’re fighting other melees, because it allows you to get a good number of attacks in while being very defensive. Dual parry is very useful against mages who have both hit/dam and offensive spells, such as battlemages. Master by fighting multiple mobs at once- scarecrows in Tarandue, for instance.

Herb-

Master this. The lag from failing this can get you killed, so it’s best to have it mastered. It can heal around 300 hp at level fifty, meaning when you and your opponent flee at awful and he’s sleeping to regain his hp, you just got a huge jump on him. Master through use.

Ambush-

This is a primary skill in PK. It can do great damage, if you use a bow, it fires that, and you can use it as many times as you want. Good for hit and run tactics, as well as finishing people off. Don’t use it on counter classes though, because like charge, you’ll end up hurting yourself more likely than not. Also, note that it can only be used in forests. Master by using it on low hp mobs, such as elementals.

Disarm-

Use this to get rid of your opponent’s weapon. I’d suggest mastering it, though it can seem very boring and tedious. Many people wait until level 50 and master it on a mob with a nodisarm weapon. There’s plenty out there, you just have to find them.

Blind Fighting-

This will be your best friend when fighting melees or blinding casters. It allows you to fight almost as well blind as you do not blind. So when someone’s wasting their time blinding you so they can escape, you’re finishing them off. Master it on a mob in a cave.

Quiet Movement-

This can save your life a lot. It allows you to move through forests without being seen (except by ferals and monks), meaning that you can slip right on by someone and they’ll never know you moved. Master by camouflaging and moving around.

Fired Weapons-

This is a main benefit to being a ranger. It allows you to use the upgraded archery system to its maximum, and you’re the only class who can do that before level 20. Not to mention, if you pick the Archery path, this will be your best friend for doing extra damage, escaping battles, or keeping your opponents where you can see them. Master through use.

Beast Call-

This skill is probably one of the most important skills a ranger has. Sadly, it’s very difficult to master because of the timer that goes along with it. But you’re in luck, because you can use it with a fairly low proficiency. Rangers can call five different pets of varying strengths, allowing them to utilize their pets’ abilities for specific battles.

Tame-

Though it’s not useful in PK except possibly against raged berserkers (I’ve never tried it), this can help you escape from aggressive mobs. And unlike the calm spell, that mob will stay that way until it is killed or attacked.

Ranger Path-

The three ranger paths, Archery, Tracker, and Beastmaster are all very diverse in their uses and skills. For example, most people consider Beastmaster to be the ‘Newbie’ path, although this isn’t entirely true. Beastmaster is very useful for fighting mages and communers, as well as for leveling quickly. Archery allows you to specialize your strategy for every battle, and Tracker allows you to move in and out of combat entirely unseen. Each one of these paths provides one ability itself, three forest lores, and one ranger lore.

Ranger Staff-

Your ranger staff can provide you a very nice amount of hit and dam, which is useful if you get disarmed or if you’re re-equipping. Keep in mind though, however good the ranger staff is, there ARE better staffs out there.

Forest Lore-

Archery

Fletcher: Allows you to create specialized arrows

Bowyer: Allows you to create bows that can fire various projectile types

Rapid Fire: Allows you to sacrifice accuracy for pure damage by firing multiple shots

Tracker

Throw: Allows you to cause damage by throwing various items. Throwing shields is known to lag your opponents

Forestwalk: Provides a ‘mounted’-like effect while in a forest, reducing the amount of movement used

Doublesheath: Allows you to have weapons both sheathed and wielded, so if you are disarmed you automatically draw the sheathed weapons.

Beastmaster

Horn of Nature: Allows you to call pets anywhere, even in cities

Group Herb: Uses your herb skill to heal your whole group, pets and other characters alike

Pack Call: Allows you to call your pets if you get separated by a hasty recall or simply forget them

Mind Link-

This skill is useful for both tracking your opponents unnoticed, and for taking a peek at aggressive mobs, since they won’t attack other mobs. It’s also good for looking at a big group of people without risking yourself. But, there’s a risk. There is a large amount of lag time from when you ‘break’ the link, and if you stay in the link for more than six ticks, you die.

Insect Swarm-

This skill allows you to cause more lasting effects towards your opponents, hindering their recovery and escape. Master it on undead mobs or other mobs resistant to plague and poison.

Ranger Lore-

I can’t spoon-feed you everything. You’ll have to figure out these ones on your own.

Thunder Storm and Control Weather-

These are the two spells a ranger gets. They are extremely useful in PK, but require excellent timing and strategy. If you’re in a challenge, it’s a good idea to get a head start to your fighting grounds and use control weather to call up a nice storm. To do this, cast it about five times, sleep a tick, cast it another three times, sleep a tick, and cast it two or three more times, then sleep to regain your mana. When you next wake up, lightning should be flashing. If not, rinse and repeat. Note that the more powerful your storm, the better damage thunder storm will do.

Equipment

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You’re going to need a combination of hit/dam equipment, as well as saves gear. This class is very potent against mages, particularly the hard to kill shamans and evil clerics, but once they start landing maledictions you’ve lost a lot of your potency and given them a huge advantage. For some of the races in particular, +HP gear is never amiss either.

Inventory

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These things should be in your inventory at all time- the words ‘pill’ and ‘potion’ don’t necessarily restrict them to pills and potions- staves, scrolls, etc. all work fine too

2+ detect invis potions

3+ flight potions

2+ recall potions

5+ cure blind potions

2+ sanctuary potions

1 boat

1+ teleport pill

Spare weaponry

Spare ammunition for fired weapons

In your sack:

3+ invisibility potions

5+ detect invis potions

Spare weaponry/ammunition

2+ teleport pills

5+ recall potions

Extra cure blind potions

Extra sanctuary potions

General PK Tactics

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Unlike a necromancer, just because you have an army by your side doesn’t mean you’re going to be using hit and run tactics. Have your pets rescue you too often and you’ll find that they’ve been killed. People with high damage area attacks, like Invokers and Dark-Knights, tend to be your worst enemies, since they can slaughter your pets, with you not far behind. Try to find ways to get sanctuary for your pets, since most of them don’t have high health. Also, you have to be fast to get kills with this class. For the most part, you don’t have the ability to lag, meaning you have to rely on your pets tripping or golems bashing. Although this can be an effective method, it’s not foolproof, and fly nullifies most of the lagging you can do. This means you need to specialize for every fight to do as much damage as possible in as little time as possible. Dual wielding flails and spears against mages and pugiling with a staff against melees. If you don’t pick and choose for every fight, using every one of your advantages, you’re fighting a losing battle.

Cabal Choices

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I know this is important to a lot of people, so I figured I’d include what cabals you can join. It actually doesn’t take a lot of work- Rangers can join every cabal with the exception of Savant.

Conclusion

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All in all, rangers are a very fun class to play. They have a lot of diversity, particularly with the new ranger paths, allowing them to fight nearly every battle with a high success rate. Find sanctuary for your pets, equip yourself intelligently, and you’ll find this to be a class that’s a lot of fun.

[Pali]

http://www.forum.forsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=13

Kalug's version on the current forum.

[Evangelion]

You'll note that Kalug's version A) Doesn't include the ranger lores, and Doesn't have ferals listed as a potential race. Hence the word "update".

[Pali]

Ah, apologies. That's what I get for watching TV while websurfing... I don't pay attention to the websurfing. ^_~