Returning to EQ2

[Greymar]

I played EQ2 during the beta, and for the first few months of release.  I havent played EQ2 in about a year, but now I am back!I have a 44th level half-elf ranger on the Neriak server.When I played EQ2, soloing was virtually impossible, and rangers were strictly a melee DPS class.  Now I am reading that soloing is a viable option in the game, and rangers do their best damage with a bow.  So, my style of play, which I learned a year ago, is no longer acceptable.  As Master Yoda once said, "I must unlearn what I have learned."- As a 44th level ranger, what is the usual attack progression for a ranger who is soloing a mob?  Which skills do I use before a solo combat, and during a solo combat, and in what order?  In other words, what is the best method for a 44th level ranger to solo a mob?  The more specific you can be, the better.- If I am in a group, what is the usual attack progression for a 44th level ranger?  Which CAs should I use during a group combat, and in what order?- Which quests are crucial for a 44th level ranger?  I have the Flowing Black Silk Sash, Serrated Bone Dirk, Sureshot bow, and Legendary Journeyman's Boots.- What are some good websites for EQ2 ranger information, ranger guides, ranger tips, etc?  Some of my bookmarks point to websites that no longer exist, so I am trying to find websites that are popular with the EQ2 ranger community.Graymarch, 44th level half-elf ranger, Neriak serverhttp://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/pplayer.vm?characterId=116876115<div></div>

[Jiinx]

Welcome back!Rangers have undergone a whole slew of changes as part of the combat re-vamp that redefined (to some degree) all of the EQ2 subclasses.  Rangers are now tier 1 DPS - right up there with wizards and warlocks - as are our Assassin siblings.  Ranger DPS is primarily bow-oriented.  In fact, when I'm face-to-face with the mob, my DPS drops sharply, and I start hurtin'.  This is true even if I'm using the stun/backstab/stealth/backstab routine.  First step - read through your most recent set of combat arts.  Many kept the same name but became totally different effects.  Next step - stock up on poisons.  They work pretty much the same way as they always have, and definitely up your DPS.Soloing is perfectly possible as long as you're attacking non-heroic encounters.  Gone are the days you'll be killed by a grey "solo" creature.  I find the conning system much more accurate for solo encounters - again, as long as you're engaging non-heroics.  Engage a heroic - even the majority of greens, and expect to evac soon or kite for a really long time and pray all your poisons proc and you don't get any adds (ok, what are the odds of THAT?).There may be more efficient/effective routines depending on the creature and your own playstyle, but here's what I generally use when soloing.  I start with the snaring arrow line (Crippling Arrow, Debilitating Arrow, etc), followed by the debuff arrow line, followed by the triple fire line.  At this point, the creature is badly hurt, and if I'm lucky, already dead, but if not, it's now face-to-face with me.  I start an HO, progress it with stun and start creating distance while dropping an extended reach melee to complete the wheel.  Stop and hit the fire arrow line CA.  Now the foe is probably dead.  If not, try an extended reach melee debuff, extended reach melee, and face-to-face melees.  Any time stun refreshes, start the HO, stun and back-off, sneaking in a melee before stopping for some bow shots.  The debuff arrow line can be cast on the run, but for all others you need to stop and stand still.  (Except for the backshot line, but I only use that as an opener alternative.)  At level 50, you get Storm of Arrows, which can also be used while moving.When grouping, I am almost always using ranged CAs.  I'll throw in an extended reach or melee CA while waiting for recast timers.  By far, the biggest DPS is those bow attacks.Make friends with a woodworker and get your hands on an imbued cedar longbow.  If you find yourself in melee on occasion, do the quest of the Short Sword of the Ykesha.  And I still love my PGT.These forums are full of tips - I don't visit any outside websites regularly.Good hunting!<div></div>

[GoNom]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Not a whole lot has changed strategy wise, we are still dependant on our 1 stun, when it comes to soloing.  My strategy at 55 will be greatly different from yours do to the level 52 CA Thorny Trap, everything changes when you get that.  But I will try my best to scale this to level 44.  I am going to offer 2 "guides"  One for soloing no-arrow and down arrow mobs.  And an intro to kiting, everyone feel free to of course add to this.</div><div> </div><div>Regardless of Mobs let me start off stating that you should already be buffed with a good T5 legendary Poison, (I Prefer the high DD low DoT poisons, but use which ever you enjoy more) Veil of the Forest and Arrow Frenzy (level 45).  Veil is you agility and in combat run speed buff, Arrow Frenzy is an offensive stance that has a 30% chance to launch an additional attack doing about 200 damage everytime you succesfully hit a mob with an arrow, this is critical because in our multi arrow CA's this often results in 4-6 hits plus 1 or 2 poison procs.  It should be on at all times, end of story.</div><div> </div><div>Solo Mobs. (note:  yellow cons are as easy as blue cons and offer slightly better XP)</div><div> </div><div>Start by trying to position yourself behind the bob, at full bow Range.  You have an ability called Culling the Herd, its a great skill and I recommend upgrading to at least Adept 1, preferablty adept 3.  Does decent Damage plus snares the mob, carefull the snare effect of this spell seems to break alot on me, so after you launch it, your next normal bow shot may break the snare making the encounter a "little" tougher, but not deadly by any stretch.</div><div> </div><div>Now the mob is running towards you and is snared about 40% - while he is coming in on you, as fast as culling has gone off you should already have queue'd Sharp Shot, level 44 CA, I say this one and not Triple fire because the cast time is slightly less and you will almost always get it off before the mob gets to you.  With those 2 CA's and the combination of Arrow Frenzy (see above) and poison procs the mob is most likely getting to you Orange/Red health - If the mob resisted or mitigated the arrow shots and is still some what healthy, you have to revert to stuns to burn it down.  Once the mob is in range, stun it.  The stun now lasts 4-6 seconds on solo mobs regardless wether you hit it or not, that was a big change in our favor, you are probably used to having the stun pooched because you didn't turn off auto melee, this is no longer the case, ample time to get off Triple Fire (level 42 CA).  If you are fast enough, which you will be with some practice you will even be able to get off the backstab combo.  Which for you will be pouncing attack untill you get Long Shank at elvel 49.  Open with pouncing attack, then follow with Crippling blade.  If the mob is still alive after all of that, the just melee burn it. </div><div> </div><div>Note:  Don't forget to use your Rip/Tear line as often as possible to recover some arrows, Dirty Tricks lines is also a nice debuff, and spam in HO's when melee burning to make it a little quicker.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Luadiane's  Kiting Guide to Heroic encounters:</div><div> </div><div>See above for propper pre-buffing, making sure that you have at least 3 stacks of arrows in your quiver at all times while kiting, Losing arrows mid-kite is a great way to get smoked.  I am going to break this down a little different then I did with the solo mobs.</div><div> </div><div>Snares:  Critical to kiting, you can no longer spam all of your Ranged CA's while running, SOE nerfed that a while ago.  So now you have to snare the mob, get max distance and stop running to land your big hitters on a mob, before it gets to you and tears you limb from limb.</div><div>          </div><div>            <u><strong> Level 44 CA leg shot</strong> </u>- Cannot be used on the run - Snares for 40-50% depending on level of spell.  Master I snares for 60%.</div><div>           </div><div>            <u><strong>Level 37 CA - Entrap </strong>-</u>  This can be used on the run, very important, while kiting heroics you need to spam this as often as it refreshes, it will be your primary defense of keeping mobs off of you.</div><div> </div><div>           <u><strong>Level 42 CA - Culling the Herd</strong> </u>- This can be used on the run, but by some fricken sick joke, you have to be behind the mob, so in a kiting situation it is only usefull to open the kite</div><div> </div><div>Stuns:  You can use stuns against heroics, but I would not trust them, they only last for about 2 seconds, or as soon as you hit the mob (again this only applies to Heroics).  But it is a good emergency method of getting a mob off of you if your waiting on snare to refresh.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Typical Kite for me. </div><div> </div><div>1. pick your environment well and learn it well, know where the aggro mobs are.  be wary of any pitfalls you may run into, obstacles that will stop you, etc.</div><div>2. Pick your prey well, exploit single mob ^^^ encounters, I prefer Blue and white cons, as they kill faster, but to each thier own.</div><div> </div><div>Open with the same method I outlined in the Solo guide, Culling the herd, you are off to a good start because you have done some decent DD and have started the encounter of by snaring the mob.  Instead of following that with Sharp Shot, use Leg Shot, remember the snare effect on Culling is about the most unreliable, leg shot is the polar opposite, it rarely breaks for me. </div><div> </div><div>Start kiting, keep auto attacking with bow.  You have 1 ability at this point that can be used while running, unfortunately it has a 90 second recast, so because of that you want to get it off early in the kite.  Crippling Arrow, this deals medium damage (prolly 300-400) and debuffs melee mitigation, another bonus.  Fire this off now, follow it with Dirty Tricks, to finish the debuff off.</div><div> </div><div>By this time, leg shot has probably worn off, and the mob is now in a full sprint towards you, they will catch you now unless they are resnared, this is what entrap is for.  At full bow range the mob is too far away for it, so sucker him in a little bit, and as soon as it lights up, nail the mob wit it.</div><div> </div><div>You should start getting further and further away, you will learn over time how much distance you need to get off the 2 big hitters we can use from the front of mobs, Triple Fire and Sharp Shot, learn to gauge it and learn to time it right so it doesn't get interupted.  its a finesse thing you will master with practice.  The idea is simple, while the mob is snared, get into a safe distance, stop running backwards, launch Sharp Shot / Triple Fire, either one, but only time for 1 at a time, then high tail it out of range.  Rinse and repeat this method untill the mobs is dead.</div><div> </div><div>Note: You also have to melee abilities - Deadly Reminder and Blazing thrust that have "extended" Range, and can be used while on the go.  If you use them, remember this will switch your auto ranged to auto melee, swith it back.</div><div> </div><div>Again this is just the basics, you will need to practice kiting alot before you get the hang of it, play with your skills, start off by kiting solo mobs, to get the jist of it, then graduate up to Green heroics, once you get it down, you'll be surprised of the effeciency, plus all those group drops you get to pirate for yourself.</div><div> </div><div>This gets a lot easier when you ding 50, you get storm of arrows, which does huge damage, 2k+ and can be used on the run.  Then gets easier again at 52 - Thorny trap, summons a little trap on the ground, that roots / Snares the mob for an undeterminalble period of time, but allows us the chance to really rip apart a mob at the beginning of a kite if it hold for more then 5 seconds.</div><div> </div><div>Final note, don't even bother attempting to kite Epic encounters, unsnarable = whack - whack - dead Ranja</div><div> </div><div>The class is unbelievable.   my max Parsed DPS thus far is about 1700 at level 55, but that is pefect scenerio, but probably can maintain, normal group DPS of about 700-900.  Thats per second, we have CA's that do in excess for 3k total.  I dueled a swashy the other day, he had 3900 HP's, and once I got him stunned all it took was Sharp Shot and Triple Fire to kill him, with poison procs and Arrow Frenzy procs.  Thats 4000 damage in about 5 seconds of cast times. </div><div> </div><div>Personally I got bored of the class as you probably did and started alts, and eventually left for 3 months.  I am back and am enjoying my Ranger more then at any point since launch.  We're monsters and the envy of every other DPS class. </div><div> </div><div>Good luck hope this helps.</div><p>Message Edited by GoNomar on <span class="date_text">01-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:24 PM</span></p><p>Message Edited by GoNomar on <span class="date_text">01-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:28 PM</span></p><p>Message Edited by GoNomar on <span class="date_text">01-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:31 PM</span></p>

[GoNom]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>- What are some good websites for EQ2 ranger information, ranger guides, ranger tips, etc?  Some of my bookmarks point to websites that no longer exist, so I am trying to find websites that are popular with the EQ2 ranger community.<div></div><hr></blockquote>Right here, this the place to be my friend, there are frequent posters, like Jay42 who are insightfull and as knowledgeable about the class as anyone around, ask your questions here, there is always someone who will be willing to help you out in here.

[Greymar]

Very good information, thank you!I am surprised that there arent any websites or messageboards (besides this one) that cater to EQ2 rangers.How tough is the Ykesha quest?  I have the quest, and I am on the kill Sentry Goorlux part.  I dont belong to a guild, and I am on the Neriak server, which apparently is a low-population server.  Can this quest be done with a single group?  How many times must I form a group to complete this quest?  At any point of this quest do I need to form a raid?<div></div>

[Zholain]

<font size="3">If I remember correctly, after Goorlux you have to kill Emperor Fyst in Deathfist Citadel.  He is level 42 epic x2 unless he's been nerfed, so unless you go in with a single group of all 50's and up, you'll need to form a 2 group raid. Count on about 3 hours to do the zone.  You definitely need to check <a href="http://www.ogaming.com" target="_blank">ogaming</a> for this one.  The citadel is buggy as hell and you will have multiple linkdeads before you get through it.  And there are other things to do as well.  The Shiny Brass Shield heritage also requires this zone.  I would recommend doing both simultaneously so as not to have to go back into the citadel.  It is THAT buggy.I'm definetely not trying to discourage you, because in all honesty it's still a heck of a lot of fun despite the bugginess.  Just plan accordingly and make sure you have assembled a group of people who are committed to finishing the zone.There used to be a site called <a href="http://www.thescoutssanctuary.com" target="_blank">The Scout's Sanctuary</a>, and it was a great site, but it has shut down very recently.</font><div></div>

[xandez]

<div></div><div></div><blockquote><hr>Greymarch wrote:I played EQ2 during the beta, and for the first few months of release. I havent played EQ2 in about a year, but now I am back!<font color="#ff9900">WB!</font>I have a 44th level half-elf ranger on the Neriak server.When I played EQ2, soloing was virtually impossible, and rangers were strictly a melee DPS class.<font color="#ff9900">Hmmh... dont sound familiar to me... heh, i've always used my bow and imo it has always done quite ok DPS... *shrug*</font><font color="#ff9900">Also soloed quite a lot before the CU, wasnt that bad really.</font>Now I am reading that soloing is a viable option in the game, and rangers do their best damage with a bow. So, my style of play, which I learned a year ago, is no longer acceptable. As Master Yoda once said, "I must unlearn what I have learned."<font color="#ff9900">Yep, well if my opinion was we could solo before, now we truly can, or? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font>- As a 44th level ranger, what is the usual attack progression for a ranger who is soloing a mob? Which skills do I use before a solo combat, and during a solo combat, and in what order? In other words, what is the best method for a 44th level ranger to solo a mob? The more specific you can be, the better.<font color="#ff9900">Well, a good way to start would be to clear hotbars, learn about your CA:s and use em in battle... which i believe you already have done. Major changes are already listed in earlier posts, but stances are prolly the best ones. Of course they took away some of our bow skills which could be fired on the move, but as a bonus our snares are alwo working now + the cheap shot actually stuns! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font>- If I am in a group, what is the usual attack progression for a 44th level ranger? Which CAs should I use during a group combat, and in what order?<font color="#ff9900">Well in group combat it doesnt really matter since the normal exp fights are over very fast. I would however maybe start with debuffs 1st since they help others in the group also. After that, well, just be careful to not grab aggro!</font>- Which quests are crucial for a 44th level ranger? I have the Flowing Black Silk Sash, Serrated Bone Dirk, Sureshot bow, and Legendary Journeyman's Boots.<font color="#ff9900">Imo, there are no crucial quests for a ranger. That is if you have the money of course. I would get ironwood and have a imbued ironwood longbow made ready when you get to lvl 50. Thats all i'd worry about <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">Improving the skills might also be a good idea, but dmg wise it doesnt make THAT big a difference since procs are what does our DPS anyway.</font>- What are some good websites for EQ2 ranger information, ranger guides, ranger tips, etc? Some of my bookmarks point to websites that no longer exist, so I am trying to find websites that are popular with the EQ2 ranger community.<font color="#ff9900">I'd recommend our ranger forum here, i think all the info you need is found here! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">The official SOE site for the ranger skills are not that bad, just that they have decided to put the skills which all scouts have and which all predators have to the scout and predator sections (they are missing in the ranger section... *doh*)</font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">scout CA list: <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/classes/index.vm?classId=31" target="_blank">HERE</a></font><font color="#ff9900">predator CA list: <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/classes/index.vm?classId=31" target="_blank">HERE</a></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">ranger CA list: <a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/classes/index.vm?classId=39" target="_blank">HERE</a></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">Of course the ogaming web site (<a href="http://eq2.ogaming.com/db/" target="_blank">HERE</a>) is quite helpful with quests and such (like Zholain above already said... hehe).</font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">Happy hunting! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><div></div><hr></blockquote><font color="#ff9900">ps. The DFC can be done with 1 group if you are high enough. Getting the whole zone grey helps alot since you dont have the aggros in your neck all the time. We killed almost all the grey orcs thou, to reduce the lag. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900"></font><font color="#ff9900">With a group of 4 lvl 60, 1 lvl 56 (me) and 1 lvl 45 the lvl 41x2 emperor fyst was a cake. I even grabbed agro with SoA in the end but he was kind enough to die to my feet <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  If all you are closer to 50 than 60 thou... could need raid, but i think a balanced full group should do the job nicely (a lvl 50 or higher tank helps a lot, even if the others are not that high)</font><font color="#ff9900">++Xan</font><p>Message Edited by xandez on <span class="date_text">01-30-2006</span><span class="time_text">10:16 AM</span></p>