dbmoreland
09-28-2005, 03:33 PM
Here are my observations as a level 34-36 Ranger that spends a LOT of time mentoring down to level 20-26. I will agree that level 20 IS harder than level 34, no question. However it is NOT impossible if you keep three things in mind. First like many others have said the complete con of a mob matters. You need to pay attention not only to the con color, you need to pay very close attention to the exact level, the number of mobs in the encounter, the number and direction of the arrows and if the encounter is designed for an individual or a group of three or more. You should NOT expect to take on a blue encounter one level below yours that contains four mobs with two up arrows designed for an individual. This encounter according to the developer’s notes is designed for a group of two. And if you can find an Illusionist to duo with you will have NO problems with this group at all. On the other hand you should have no problem handling a yellow encounter one level above yours that contains one mob with one down arrow designed for an individual. The con system is now a LOT more complicated and therefore the hunting grounds just got a LOT harder to find. You cannot just go out click on a mob, see that it is blue and start whacking away believing that you will kill the mob in 10 sec and suffer less than 10% damage. Pre-patch this is exactly how I was able to play and with few exceptions I could succeed doing this all day long. Post-patch this will get you killed, a lot. Second, equipment and CA quality matters, a lot. If you are not wearing at least handmade (player crafted) or treasured (quest reward) equipment (or better) you will not be able to handle straight forward white con, no arrow, single mob encounters (much less the multi-mob, up arrow and/or yellow con ones). If you are not using at least app 4 CAs you will not be able to handle them either. You should also try to upgrade one of your CAs that you use all of the time to adept 3 or master 1 (in addition to the one you get to upgrade to master 2 every 10 levels). You should also be using poisons, at least the damage type that you can buy from the NPC vendor, but preferably all three player made type (damage, debuff and misc) poisons. In addition you should be using player made stat food and drink in order to reduce your “down time” between encounters. You should also consider using a spirit totem for more health or power regeneration between encounters. Finally you should get used to using ALL of your CAs EVERY single encounter. In order to do this you want to start at max bow range with about 2 seconds worth of backup room behind you. Make sure ALL of your buffs are up before you engage an encounter: Pathfinder, Reconnoiter, Hunter’s Instinct, Blade Flurry, Hunt (and Steady Aim at 22). Before level 26, start the fight with back shot. Yes this will limit what you can pull since you must be behind the mob to use back shot, but without it you will not be able to kill as tough of a mob. At level 26 you get hidden shot and things get MUCH easier since you can now pull any mob and hidden shot does a LOT more damage than back shot does. As soon as back/hidden shot lands turn on ranged auto attack, then use Open shot. At level 28 you get triple shot and things will get a little easier again. As soon as open/triple shot lands cast ensnare. As soon as it lands start backing up and cast Wounding Arrow. This is one of the few range CAs that can be cast “on the move”. At level 34 you get Crippling Arrow and you can upgrade it immediately to Master II and things will get a lot easier. As soon as Wounding/Crippling Arrow lands stop moving and start your first melee round: Melee auto attack on, Lucky Break, Dirty Tricks, Impale, Bleed, Pierce, (and Rip at level 30) Now for the coup de gras: Auto Attack OFF, Cheap Shot, Move around behind the mob, Stalk, Shadow Blade. At level 24 you get Shadow Lunge and you can upgrade it immediately to Master II. At this point a single white no arrow mob should be dead. If it is not (or there was more than one mob in the encounter) it is time to evaluate. How is your health? How is the mobs health? If you are doing fine it is time for round two, if not it is time to run (or possibly escape at level 25). There is a great deal of luck involved even in the best-executed plan. Take a look at the range of damage for all of those damage CAs you just used. We are talking about a factor of 50% or more. Add to that all of your possible procs (for weapons and poisons) and the range of damage that you can deal in just one “round” of combat (the first 10 seconds or so of the fight) can be a factor of 3 or more. So on a good day the mob is laying dead at your feet, but on a bad day the mob has not taken even 40% damage yet, BIG difference. Some days are like that. Now for round two: Survival Instincts, Lucky Break, Dirty Tricks, Impale, Pierce, Cheap Shot, Move around behind the mob, Shrouded Strike, Ambush (Shadowflame at level 21) Rinse and repeat until the mob(s) are all dead or you need to run. Notice that you are using almost every single CA you have every single fight. This is the key to being a successful solo ranger especially post patch. Now some observations about the difference in difficulty for rangers at each level from 20-34: At level 20 being a ranger is HARD, no question about it. You have to pull an appropriate mob from the back at maximum bow range with room behind you. This WILL limit the mobs that you can solo, no question about it. At level 24 you get your first help with Shadow Lunge that you can upgrade immediately to Master II. This is your single best melee attack CA. Huge damage, and thanks to a totally effective Cheap Shot and faster casting CAs post patch, this is the one to use every single encounter. This is the CA that will let you solo successfully (not to mention be a huge DPS asset to a group). At level 26 you get your second help with Hidden Shot. Now you can pull the mob no matter what direction he is facing and the damage increase over Back Shot is HUGE! Now you are truly a ranger! At level 28 you get a little more help with Triple Shot, a little better than open shot. At level 30 you get some more help with an extra melee CA, Rip. Finally at level 34 you get Crippling Arrow that you can upgrade to Master II. From here on out things just get better and better as you get upgrades to one or two of your CAs at each level. There is also a large increase in the quality of equipment at level 30. The difference between the player-made carbonite armor you can wear in your 20s and the feyiron armor you can wear at level 30 is significant. At level 30 you can also probably afford to invest in one rare harvest item (that you could not afford at level 20) that you can have made into a fabled item, an imbued weapon or bow or an imbued (healing) chest piece of armor. At level 32 you should be able to complete the “Axe from the Past” heritage quest, which gets you a Polished Granite Tomahawk (PGT), probably the best ranger melee weapon pre level 40. The level 30 equipment quests in Zek and EL are numerous, so if you cannot afford player-made equipment you should be able to quest a complete set of treasured equipment (armor, jewelry, and weapons) by the time you are 34. So in short you need to do three things to be a successful ranger post patch. 1. Be very careful who you pick a fight with, con matters, big time. 2. Get and use good equipment, including armor, jewelry, weapons, poisons, food, drink and totems. Upgrade your CAs to at least app 4. 3. Start the fight on your terms and use ALL of your CAs every time. I hope that you have found the information here useful. If you are a level 20-25 Ranger please do not give up. Keep at it at least until level 26 when you get what is, in my opinion, the CA that makes us a Ranger, Hidden Shot. At that point you can decide if you like the way Sony wants us to play a Ranger. As for me I love it. And I have a challenge for all of those rangers that are post level 34 (especially those post level 50) that say that NO rangers should be having ANY problems soloing post patch, try the following: Strip off ALL of your items: armor, weapons, jewelry, totems, food, etc. and put them all in the bank. Now take 5g (and only 5g, because that is ALL the money that a typical level 20 MAIN toon can afford) and go to the broker and buy a complete set of equipment: armor, jewelry and weapons. Set up your level 20 CAs. Now find a level 20 player to group with and mentor down to him. Then zone into TS all by yourself and see how much stuff you can kill just getting to tower 2; the wolves, gnolls, skelies, deer, bugs, bears, etc. You WILL be humbled at how tough it is. Can you do it? Sure. But it is NOWHERE near as easy as soloing in EF at level 50 in your nice mix of fabled and treasured equipment using your COMPLETE SET of adept and master level ranger CAs. <p>Message Edited by dbmoreland on <span class=date_text>09-28-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:49 AM</span>