Think a ranger would work?

[Eetog]

Starting a group with some friends. One being a tank (paladin), the other a fury, and a swashy....It's up to me to come up with the 4th piece. I was thinking something with some DPS to compliement the fury and swashy, but something that can do a bit of utility insofar as bringing something unique to the table. This isn't going to be a raid group, most likely ever. It'll just be a 4 person thingie. I was thinking of :Ranger - DPS at a distance, poison use for close up, some utility.Conj - AOE DPS, good sustained DPS. Wizard - Big nukes, ports, drop em in a pinch. Some-sort-of-enchanter - Utility, some DPS, mana regen, haste. If you guys were in this 4 person group, would you think Ranger would fit the bill? I looked at the FAQ (at least the two generic ones about resources and the one with the really good spell / equipt guide), but I didn't see where the rangers shine? Are they better for raids only and I should consider the assassin or one of the other classes?This is primarily a post for "Would a ranger really shine here..." and only very modestly a post on "If not a ranger, what do you think would fit the 4th?". Any advice would be good. My main is a 56 zerker, so something other than the main plate tanks...Thanks for the advice, Tog. <div></div>

[Ranja]

<div><blockquote><hr>Eetog wrote:Starting a group with some friends. One being a tank (paladin), the other a fury, and a swashy....It's up to me to come up with the 4th piece. I was thinking something with some DPS to compliement the fury and swashy, but something that can do a bit of utility insofar as bringing something unique to the table. This isn't going to be a raid group, most likely ever. It'll just be a 4 person thingie. I was thinking of :Ranger - DPS at a distance, poison use for close up, some utility.Conj - AOE DPS, good sustained DPS. Wizard - Big nukes, ports, drop em in a pinch. Some-sort-of-enchanter - Utility, some DPS, mana regen, haste. If you guys were in this 4 person group, would you think Ranger would fit the bill? I looked at the FAQ (at least the two generic ones about resources and the one with the really good spell / equipt guide), but I didn't see where the rangers shine? Are they better for raids only and I should consider the assassin or one of the other classes?This is primarily a post for "Would a ranger really shine here..." and only very modestly a post on "If not a ranger, what do you think would fit the 4th?". Any advice would be good. My main is a 56 zerker, so something other than the main plate tanks...Thanks for the advice, Tog. <div></div><hr></blockquote>Dont go ranger. I would go Brigand/bard/or Enchanter. Here are the reasons:Brigand: Does as much DPS as ranger and has the best debuffs in the gameBard: Dirge prolly. Will make everyone else in the group monsters.Enchanter: Jsut as good as another healer with their mezz. Plus a ton of other helpful utility. DPS, Mit buffs, Power regen, hate buffsAlso to correct your perception<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />"DPS at a distance, poison use for close up, some utility."Poison works on ranged and melee. Rangers have no utility except pathfinding which a bard has ten fold.</div>

[Jodah]

<DIV>my pathfinding is 46% i don't know how high selos goes tho..</DIV>

[kellan123]

I'd go with a mage. Something with heavy DPS. (wiz/warlock, necro/conj)If you might be soloing sometimes a wizard or summoner are your obvious choices.Paladins can heal/ward themselves and will probably put Amends on the caster. The Fury will heal/dps and use int buff on the caster. The Swash can do some great dps and offtank or mez if necessary. You now need some more serious DPS. You also don't have any cloth wearers in that group, so that might round out the looting (you won't be competing with the plate/leather/chain classes that you currently group with)<div></div>

[Ranja]

<blockquote><hr>Jodah66 wrote:<div>my pathfinding is 46% i don't know how high selos goes tho..</div><hr></blockquote>Yeah and how many wasted AA points did you dump into that line. All those points that take away from your DPS jsut so you can run at 46%. Yay! Sweet ! I can run fast.<div></div>

[Jodah]

<DIV>/offtopic</DIV> <DIV>How many wasted points? mm none. I pvp 95% of the time and DPS isn't usually the problem, its catching people so I can hit them or getting away from Raids vs me. I will probably respec soon anyways and get extension</DIV>

[Ranja]

<blockquote><hr>Jodah66 wrote:<div>/offtopic</div> <div>How many wasted points? mm none. I pvp 95% of the time and DPS isn't usually the problem, its catching people so I can hit them or getting away from Raids vs me. I will probably respec soon anyways and get extension</div><hr></blockquote>OK you picked hte one situation where run speed is critical PvP. Now we need to find out if the original poster is playing on a PvP server.. If they are not, the rest of the group would be pretty [Removed for Content] if they found out their one true DPS (Ranger) was choosing AAs that made him run faster<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Nulad]

<div><blockquote><hr>bentgate wrote:<blockquote><hr>Jodah66 wrote:<div>my pathfinding is 46% i don't know how high selos goes tho..</div><hr></blockquote>Yeah and how many wasted AA points did you dump into that line. All those points that take away from your DPS jsut so you can run at 46%. Yay! Sweet ! I can run fast.<div></div><hr></blockquote>Lemmie see, hmmm... 5 points total, all in pathfinding seeing as how you need the defensive stance upgrade to get focusing unless you waste more points in culling/snaring.</div>

[Nulad]

Oh, and for what its worth, most groups I get into like the 46% run speed and I've never had anyone complain yet, unless it's the poor git I'm outrunning on his horse having both seen the same shiney <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Lev]

Thats absurd.. getting Pathfinding is not sacrificing dps.. If as you claim you want to spend all your APs to gain dps, you would want all of multishot (except Stream, most don't care for it) - 213 in def stance and 5 in all of your temp buffs + extension - 195 in caustic (only one in the poison line that really affects dps) - 5thats a total of 45 points to increase dpsthe only other thing that you could use your 5 points in to gain dps is snaring shot which is about a 50 increase in DPS, and that is only accurate if you get off every shot, also of course differs with crits etc.in any case 50 dps for 46% run speed is not a big deal, and is far from a big sacrifice, and if anyone wants to complain about that they are downright stupid.. especially seeing as if your good you will outdps most anyways.<div></div>

[Gerdos]

<DIV>If i were starting a 4 man group with friends, i'd cover the basics.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1 tank, 1 healer, 1 dps, 1 utility.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For groups, Zerker or SK might be your best bet.  Both have great buffs and solid dps.  Mitigation tanks > avoidance tanks.  SK's got some love, and their dps is very good now.  Palidans on the other hand, have superb agro control and will rarely if ever lose agro.  Not the same dps as other tank classes, but do a good job for groups, and provide support heals and decent buffs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For healers, go with a druid class, Fury for great group buffs, good dps and group invis.  By having 1 healer already, your ready to go anywhere, anytime.  For somezones, you'll neeed 2 healers, so having 1 already puts you in a good position to select your 2nd, tailored to your groups immediate needs.  Wardens are the best healing class but dont provide much else.   Defilers offer great debuffs which always make a difference.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For utility, i'd go illusionist.  They have great power regen, group invis, best mob control class in game, and some dps buffs.  Recent changes also make them the best dps class out of the utility class.  Some of the new zones, can't be done without a enchanter, and illusionist is your best choice.  Coercer or dirge would also make decent utility classes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>DPS, dependent on which classes you chose for tank/healer.   If you went Zerker/SK tank, i'd pick assassin.   Their agro transfer will help a lot.  Their DPS is great, and they provide tracking which is always handy for group play.  A wizard would also be good, superb dps, against single or group targets plus great dps buffs.  Briggand for good dps and superb debuff.   Conjurers are also solid dps, good group buffs, Power Shards and most importantly, "Call of Heroes".  This allows you to port people to your location from any location in zone.  Invaluable!!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You can pick and choose your classes to meet any of the basic roles, but a couple of things that are really desired for playing in groups are:</DIV> <DIV>1.  dps, agro control, group invis, tracking, evac, mob control (mezzes, stuns, stifles, etc)</DIV> <DIV>2.  power regen, feign death, debuffs</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My preferance for a 4 group settup, would be : Beserker, Fury, Enchantor, Brigand.   A lot of pure dps players/classes available to fill remaining slots or a 2nd healer for the tougher zones.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Re: your question, yes, rangers would work, as any class would.  Some group setups offer more then others.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Judist]

<P>If your looking to just 4-man stuff then a ranger will be fine. Alot of the replies above are about micro managing and getting the very VERY best choices. </P> <P>They all make valid points, but the big thing is, its a 4 man adventure group... any dps will be ok. Your not gonna wipe repeatedly because you picked a ranger. </P> <P>And with the mobs your probably gonna be facing, a ranger is a decent choice. We have a 10 second "easy button" up once a minute that'll take care of most heroics in a small group setting. Spike damage even a mage has a hard time competing against.</P> <P> </P>

[USAFJeeper]

<P>With that group makeup I would probably go with a caster of some sort.  HOs etc, and I like having one of every class tree in groups for the versatility.  Swashbucklers are very good damage and do some other neat tricks.  Rangers are good DPS, I just think going mage, blaster, chanter type would give your foursome more options in the long run!</P> <P>Good luck!</P> <P> </P>

[Arleonenis]

for you group setup ranger will work, but i think warlock will be better.than paly is droping amends on warlcok and if a group of enemies jump you its easier for paly to grab all of they aggro when he get some hate from warlock AoEswhen i group as ranger with palys i usually have amends, than just turning primal off and paly cant lose aggro on single mob even when he is half afk. With group of mobs its enough for me to hit AoE so other group members lose aggro (like healer) and paly have easier time getting aggroagainst groups of enemies you really need AoEing target for amendsillusionist is a great choice but imho better with tanks like zerkers (buckler aa line)<div></div>