The Ranger Author: Rane- Version: 1.11 Page 1 Navigation Basics Stats Skills Gear This isn't your traditional guide insofar as it tells you of the one path you should take. The Ranger is a subclass of the Paladin, and as such, has many different builds. This is NOT a guide for a specific type of Ranger, it is an overview of the subclass as a whole which should help you to understand how to play and build your own Rangers. DISCLAIMER: I will be referring to Hell difficulty as you can take a 'Ranger' with any pulse aura and a cracked hunters bow through Nightmare with pulse damage alone. Also I will disregard any type of Melee switch. This is because quite frankly if you're ever going to resort to a Melee switch then you'd be better off just building your character around that Melee attack and just have a Bow for backup to use whenever the occasion may call for it. So only Bow weapons peoples! Also for now this will only regard PvM, not PvP. This is due to the fact that Rangers really aren't viable in PvP. If i get the time later on and enough people care I may incorporate my PvP experiences into this guide to give you ideas of what they can/can't do. Some basics; - The Ranger is a Paladin that uses a bow. - Use a different Bow for each aura you use. You have the switch there you may as well take advantage of it. - The Ranger plays like the Rogue from D1. You should focus on putting more damage behind each arrow and making it count rather than filling the air with a sea of arrows as amazons tend to do. Obviously filling the air with high-damage-accurate-arrows faster is better, but just remember the mindset you should be in. Hit Hard, and accurately. - Scouting is the strategy of firing off arrows into the 'unknown' and watching for the leech symbol (or a random zombies 'grrrrrr, ow' in the distance) to tell you if a pack of enemies are up ahead. - Kiting is the strategy of firing off arrows, then when you are about to be overcome by enemies you begin to run backwards a bit until you are at a safe distance again, then resume firing arrows. Rinse. Repeat. - Learn to lead the shot. You should always be firing by shift clicking a target area and anticipating where the monster is going so that he moves into your shots. (I personally tend to click an area that is about half the distance between my target and myself as it requires less movement of the mouse to change the direction of my aim.) Stats; Strength - Enough for gear (since when does this change) Dexterity - Enough for gear OR ~350 Vitality - Pump leftover OR ~120 Energy - Base (if you touch this restart your character :P) Skills; Holy Fire (+Resist Fire/Salvation)- The strength of Holy Fire is not in the aura itself but rather the type of damage it deals. When using the Kuko Shakaku (preferably up'd) you are given access to free Explosive arrows. Any sources of fire damage you have (whether gear/skill/aura/etc) will be added to the splash damage of the explosion. Also this explosion triggers every time and stuns everything it hits. This makes it the ultimate PvM AoE attack for Rangers. In addition to this the Explosive Arrows you fire give you a hidden AR bonus, allowing your actual arrow to hit more often. Any fire damage that was added to your Explosion is also added to the arrow itself, hence if an arrow you fire actually hits it's target then that target will take the listed damage in your character screen in addition to the damage form the explosion (basically double damage). When combined with Pierce these things become 83% more deadly. Piercing explosions are teh r0x0r in damage, crowd control, and style. Really the only letdown of Fire Damage is that a LOT of monsters in Hell are FI. But this is why you have another switch. Holy Freeze (+Resist Cold/Salvation)- Up'd Up'd Wizendraw USED to be the go here for the major -res. The Fires Magic Arrows is also quite valuable as it adds a large bonus to your AR in addition to the 100 on the bow. The new Ice runeword happens to trump this though, with ITD, good -res, and great Cold Damage. The bonus' of Holy Freeze are that it deals considerable damage and can still handle AoE. People think that you only need one AoE attack, but they forget that if that attack is useless (say a pack of FI Oblivion Knights) then you need another AoE attack or you could easily be overwhelmed. The fact that this aura slows everthing ~54% suites this role perfectly. Holy Shock (+Resist Lightning/Salvation)- Definitely IMO the worst option. It has a large max damage but the avg damage isn't all that much better than Holy Freeze. When you take into account that this doesn't have any AoE properties (piss-weak pulse damage doesn't count, this is Hell remember,) it just doesn't have much going for it. If you do decide to use it for fun then a 6-facet Bow or Widowmaker are your best options. Fanaticism (+Blessed Aim)- Windforce is the go here. You can achieve up to around 10k + damage with this baby, making it great for taking down lone targets. It does however lack any AoE properties just like Holy Shock. The 'hidden' aspect of this route is that you will not only have excellent AR when using Fanaticism but also a much larger AR whilst using your other switch. The BA hidden synergy really does help your say, Explosive Arrows to hit much more. FoH (+Holy Shock/Conviction)- A decent FoH/Holy Shock mix with good Conviction can be an excellent way to take down strong single targets. It is also a pretty good backup attack against things that are immune to your primary, and also can be of use as AoE against undead. It is however a bit slow when you encounter large packs of enemies that are immune to your primary attack. Hammer(+Concentration/Vigor)- These won't be very strong but with enough points/right gear they can be decent enough as a backup attack when you get overwhelmed in hell. They can be used as a nice defensive barrier to keep enemies away from you when the going gets tough, but you won't have the mana to use them as a regular attack. Basically you should choose two of the above skills and then work out the synergy distribution so that you are comfortable. In addition to these getting Vigor as a 1-pt wonder is and excellent thing to have as turbo jets for kiting. Gear; Because you will be using different bow's/skills I can't give you a definitive setup. Below is a list of general things that you should/shouldn't look for: - Enhanced damage to your element or -enemy res for it are obviously good. - Pierce is teh bomb. - Faster R/W is crucial for Kiting well. - Resists and DR are nice bonus' but not really that important. You shouldn't be getting hit bar the odd desynch. - Life is a nice bonus to have but you don't need that much. Again if you're getting hit as a Ranger you're going to die anyway, better to try and not get hit. - Knockback is also teh bomb. - IAS is of course always nice, and the faster bp you fire at the better. It is not the be all and end all however. - CB isn't wonderful, as you won't be hitting all that often, but it's still nice to have. - DS only applies to physical damage in 1.10. That said, if you are using physical damage mainly then DS is priceless. - OW is useful, not incredible, but more useful that CB. - Any type of AR bonus is good. ITD is better. - Unless you're using Fanat then +skills are probably the best thing you can get. They still help Fanat too. - As always CBF is needed. Some general great items for Rangers are: Razortail Enigma Spirit Forge Crafted 20IAS+KB gloves Cleglaws Pincers Gores Waterwalks Travs Treks Hsarus Belt+Boots Griffons Nightwings Anadriels Mara's Highlords BK RF Angelic Rings+Ammy Facets and IAS jewels are very nice things to put in sockets, also Nef's or Lo's are great thing's to put in weapons. For leveling gear or poor people, the following I have used a LOT. - Any boots with R/W (Treads of Cython) - Any 20IAS gloves (Magnus Skin) - Any Helm with Life/AR (Diamond' or Rubied Hat) - Any armour with FHR (Twitchroe) - Any rings with AR (Rare) - Any ammy with Skills (Rare/Set/Magic/Unique) - Any belt with Life (Rare/Magic/Set) - For weapons I generally buy socketed bows and put in gems/runes according to the current level that I am. These work fine up to Hell. Hope you enjoy building your Rangers! 0 Please log in to post... Please log in. Use your Diii.net Forum account. Username: Remember me? Password: Want to register?     Lost password?