The 7 categories of ranger soloing

[Bayler_x]

People have been posting lots of varying degrees of solo capability since LU#20; it's hard to get a real understanding of we're capable of at different levels.  To help create a complete picture, I'd like to ask rangers to post the toughest they're able to usually solo, in each of the following cases.  Please include both single-mob and group mob situations, if possible.  And please give your level and approximate upgrade/gear quality.It's worth mentioning that SOE probably doesn't want all of these cases to be available to us.  It's clear they hate Full-kiting.  They probably don't like Half-kiting.  But at the same time, we as rangers generally aren't happy with melee heavy cases like No Motion.  Arguably, our solo ability should be balanced according to the Dead On Arrival, Stun-stepping, and Ambushed cases, then; or else we should be given means fight some other way.<b>Dead On Arrival</b>Opening with a hard-hitting CA from maximum range and following up with one or two others, killing the mobs before they reach you.  Examples: Back Shot + Triple Shot; or Hidden Shot + Leg Shot + Open Shot.<b>No Motion</b>Opening with hard hits (as with Dead On Arrival, if it's possible to attack from max range), and then meleeing for the rest of the fight, once the mob(s) reach you.  Usually this will include heroic opportunities every time they're available, and possibly a Cheap Shot + Shrouded Strike + Shadow Blade combo.  This technique is usually our only option in crowded areas, like dungeons and buildings.<b>Stun-stepping</b>Opening with hard hits, and then meleeing for much of the fight, but using stuns for a chance to step back and fire ranged CAs and ranged autoattck briefly.  Once the stun is up, you return to melee.  (Generally not possible with up-arrow mobs, due to Cheap Shot's short duration against them.)  This technique requires a little bit of extra space to move around in.<b>Half-kiting</b>Opening with hard hits, and using snares and backward running to get in some extra ranged CAs and autoattacks; meleeing when the timers are down on the main non-stealth and non-positional attacks.  This requires a good amount of open space, free from too many obstacles and aggressive mobs.<b>Full-kiting</b>Using ranged autoattack, and snares while running backward, to wear the enemies down without letting them reach you.  Where possible, stopping to fire off some CAs when you've got enough distance.  This requires a large amount of open space, free from obstacles and aggressive mobs.  It also requires awareness of the mobs' chase range, so that you don't forfeit the encounter by straying too far.<b>Thorny Trap</b>(I don't know how combat goes with this.  Will someone please provide a description, if it indeed deserves its own category?)<b>Ambushed</b>Being forced into a fight without getting in any opening attacks.  (Example: getting jumped while harvesting.)  Usually this case is just like Stun-stepping, but without the opening barrage of damage.<div></div>

[Bayler_x]

49 ranger, mostly common crafted armor, rare crafted bow, HQ melee weapons; mostly adept3 + master1 bow arts.  Legendary DD poison.<b>Dead On Arrival</b>: green--'s (green-con mobs with two down arrows), sometimes.<b>No Motion</b>: blue-'s.  <b>Stun-stepping</b>: blue solo-encounter groups (groups of 3-4 blue-'s and blue--'s).  Yellow- singles.<b>Half-kiting</b>: Yellow solo-encounter groups.<b>Full-kiting</b>: Yellow+ singles.  Green+++ single heroics.<b>Thorny Trap</b>: (Not possible at my level.)<b>Ambushed</b>: Yellow- singles, if I'm at full health and there's room for Half-kiting; green solo-encounter groups or blue- singles otherwise.<div></div>

[Carna]

<div>31st lvl Ranger, poor gear, mostly apps, couple of adpets. Decent bow for level (Stormfire)</div><div> </div><div><strong>Dead On Arrival</strong>: rare, I get "almost dead on arival" with green-<b>No Motion</b>: yellow or yellow- 2 group</div><div><b>Stun-stepping</b>: yellow+</div><div><b>Half-kiting</b>: I don't unless I'm about to die with no evac, then it's luck as much as anything.<b>Full-kiting</b>: I don't, I have the experience yet and always seem to make a hash of it.<b>Thorny Trap</b>: (Not possible at my level.)<b>Ambushed</b>: yellow single</div><div> </div><div>Currently soloing comfortably yellow bats and goblins leveled 34 and 35, with comfortable being I stay in the green. Maybe 1 in 5 golbins I don't kill fast enough and I end up grinding away against their heals and finish the fight in the orange... 8 fights out of 10 I finish in the green... I'd not expect to be soloing this content any easier with another Scout.</div><div> </div><div>It <strong>is</strong> disappointing that I'm effectively playing a Rogue with a heavy opening. Having said that I have the advantages solo of being a Rogue <strong>but</strong> with a heavy opening.</div>

[Steezi]

<div></div>Thorny trap tactic is same as DOA with a ton of xtra time.... it also roots anythin in the encounter near the trap when it is triggered. Xtremely handy for group mobs, as they can be picked off one atta time with said doa tactic.

[ADW123]

<div></div><p>61 Ranger, Full adepts 3's, few masters, legendary armor, few fabled pieces, legendary poisons<b></b></p><p><b>Dead On Arrival</b>-Not much...(assuming sniping shot is not used), Blue con down arrows and weaker.<b>No Motion</b>-Yellow con, single up arrows and weaker.</p><p><b>Stun-stepping</b>-Yellow con, single up arrows and weaker.<b>Half-kiting</b>-Yellow con, double up arrows and weaker.<b>Full-kiting</b>-Haven't tested my limits too much after the nerfs but I have taken out a blue con triple up a couple times. Could probably take an even con but would be pushing it.<b>Thorny Trap</b>-Not sure what strategy this encompasses but generally using the trap in the beginning of a pull can help considerability, allowing me to get off a 2nd barrage of attacks essentially after the initial hidden shot/double shot, etc...<b>Ambushed</b>-Yellow con, single up arrow if using DoA, NM, or Half-Kiting techiniques as described above. Yellow con, double up if using full kiting method.</p><p>Ultimately there are a lot of factors when soloing so this isn't completely accurate. Lack of room, casters vs melee type mobs, special annoying abilities (ex: snare, stun, mezz, etc) make a big difference when detemining what is and is not possible.</p><p>At this point I think if they let us cast on the run like pre-dof, removed some of the stealth nerfs added recently and allowed us to do our full potential damage w/ our bow using any arrow type I think we would be much closer to where we are supposed to be, although still underpowered.</p><p>Sacrifice61 RangerUnrest</p>

[roblinb]

<div>I hate it when a mob pops and steps in your thorny trap after you've already pulled the group of heroics... poor ranger fall down go boom:smileytongue:</div>

[Rahmn]

<div></div>Well since my style doesn't really fit into any of these, I just go with the situation.  Anyway, the biggest solo mob I have been able to take down was a level 67 orange basilisks in Bonemire.  This was at level 61 (now I'm 62).  The only way I could have done this was opening with sniper shot, gettin in a few ranged and then meleeing him down.  Ended up with around 10%.  I would call myself very well equiped, using Sting of Virulance poisons.

[TaleraRis]

<div>Dead on Arrival for green any arrow down mobs and usually blue 2 or 3 arrow down mobs. It means I usually have one of a group dead before it gets to me.</div><div> </div><div>No Motion is my usual playstyle. Pull with some heavy hitting ranged CAs, then use HOs and stealth attacks to get the mobs down. I will Stun-Step if there's room and if I need that extra oomph.</div><div> </div><div>I rarely kite, mostly because even outdoors the placement of mobs just isn't very friendly to it. Seems I'm always getting jumped by adds that were nowhere nearby when I do try to kite.</div><div> </div><div>For gear, a single Fabled ring I won in LS, otherwise rare crafted or quested pieces and no skills higher than Adept I.</div>

[Jaack Daniels]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><p><strong>Dead On Arrival</strong>Once every 15minutes when sniper shot is up. A solo blue single up at best.<b>No Motion</b>Blues with lots of down arrows.<b>Stun-stepping</b>Yellows with lots of running room lots of time full health full power and entire spell line up at time of engagement.<b>Half-kiting</b>Can't kite in kos everything has ranged stuns snares and mezzes. plus nowhere to run without adds or falling off.<b>Full-kiting</b>See half-kiting<b>Thorny Trap</b>description laying your trap pulling the group with an ae then take em down one by one. pretty much useless at this point because of the diminished range of the trap thanks to kos but it still works at times good for yellow solo groups.<b>Ambushed</b>Your just dead. You will be the victim of DoA. You can survive against blues with down arrows or less but I generally fight in Barren sky against yellows so when i get ambushed i just save the mob the trouble and jump off the edge. If evac is up WOOT if not I'll just eat the debt and mending bill.</p><p>Message Edited by Jaack Daniels on <span class="date_text">02-28-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:57 PM</span></p>

[sjaste]

<div><strong><font size="3">Level 61 Ranger fairly well equipt legendry T6 with a couple T7 drops.</font></strong></div><div><strong></strong> </div><div><strong>Dead On Arrival</strong>: Not normally quite on arrival but down past 20% by the time they reach me I can do white solos or less.</div><div><b>No Motion</b>: blues with a hard time it is kinda sad to see myself at 1 bub life after a solo mob attacks me.<b>Stun-stepping</b>: Only starting to get the hang of this after all the nerfs normally do thorny trap for soloing has become harder in expansion.</div><div><b>Half-kiting</b>: Rarely if ever do this would say blue or lower solo encounters.<b>Full-kiting</b>: Almost never done this since nerf.</div><div><b>Thorny Trap</b>: Allow me to fully explain the tactics of this; I've not done in awhile but could then easily take yellow heroics of 3 or 4 + mobs. What ya do is lay the trap between u and the enemy, back off to max range and use strom of arrows as they run for ya they go over trap group rooted and all have taken between 2 -3.5 bubs of damage and likely poisoned. Then you pick them off 1 by 1 with biggish moves that do the dead on arrive effect one at a time. It is not unlikely for a mob to break on root jst be prepared.</div><div><b>Ambushed</b>: Only time I have to do no motion is when ambushed and well it doesn't always go well especially when ya try to semi kite and end up with more argo.</div>