Convince me to make a ranger?

[Psionide]

So I'm about to make a new alt and I am currently thinking of either a ranger or a bard. I am leaning towards the ranger even though I know there pretty bad in this timeline but i have heard they can be a lot of fun. Give me some reasons why it is worth playing this class.

[Estu]

Well, in a standard EXP group you can fulfill several roles at once - puller, tank, CC (root), snares, dps, even some tiny heals. So it gives you a lot to do and allows for a smaller but still effective group in a dungeon. You can also duo with a rogue and perform the druid role - you snare kite and keep aggro while he goes to backstab heaven, and no one but the mob takes damage. Finally, ranger gear is dirt-cheap.

Solo-wise, rangers do not sound fun to me. With a fungi they could be a poor man's monk, though. Tracking would be useful as well.

[Tecmos Deception]

Give me some reasons why it is worth playing this class.

Rangers are worth playing in a long-term sense, imo.


http://wiki.project1999.com/Windstriker

http://wiki.project1999.com/Dark_Cloak_of_the_Sky

http://wiki.project1999.com/Disciplines#Ranger

They'll fix track eventually.

You get to be a unique snowflake.

[Thulack]

Don't make one :)

[Elmarnieh]

I will have to disagree with my brother-in-arms and illustrious colleague Thulack. Make a ranger for allt he points mentioned here: very affordable quality gear (you can get near epic dps post 30 with a woodsman's staff for 7k), you fill many roles in a group, you have multiple options for soloing (kite, tank, root rot, bow kite, if you are still leveling in Velious you can add fear kiting), great utility, and more. However the #1 reason for playing a ranger is just pure fun. It is a great class to have a blast with.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Rangers are awesome. I have been duoing at giant fort on my enchanter with one doing fear kites - very effective strategy. DPS is great, snare is great and heals for when things go bad? Perfect.

Had one on live (only got him to 46), very fun to play.

[Rasah]

Slap on a fungi tunic and a decent dps weapon and enjoy the carnage. Although once you get to 50 or so, you might want to consider waiting until they remove the hybrid penalty for the final push.

[Elmarnieh]

Slap on a fungi tunic and a decent dps weapon and enjoy the carnage. Although once you get to 50 or so, you might want to consider waiting until they remove the hybrid penalty for the final push.

Also really easy to level with fear kiting in velious since there are animals of every level range you could want.

[cs616]

If you're interested in playing a melee, and the choices you're weighing are between bard and ranger, ranger is the clear choice. Despite being a part of this melee class forum, bards really are not melee. In fact, until you get your epic you'll often spend a lot of time with out even having weapons equipped. Even with close to BiS, my bard does like high 20s-low 30s DPS. Bards are a really powerful and fun class, but melees they are not.

As for the positives of playing a ranger. In velious they get strength of nature (hp + atk) and call of the pred which is +40 atk and huge for raids. Having one or two rangers on a raid will make every DPS that much better. Additionally, there aren't a lot of rangers around, so while a raid might only need one or two to buff the whole raid, a lot of raids currently have none. Also, while their melee DPS is better than ranged DPS and I believe stays that way through velious, having a ranged DPS option is really useful on certain fights. Even now I could see arguments for rangers using ranged on a fight like Gore. Finally, DPS wise they're not rogues or monks, but they're probably some where near warriors for DPS, which is still good dps.

If you can handle the penalty and don't have a problem throwing your own groups together, a ranger is a much more solid class than most people give them credit for.

[Sajan]

I posted this a couple years ago... Still agree with it 100%

An older post from last year by Azeth comes to mind when I read this thread..


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all this ranger QQ good grief. I fail to see the issue with Rangers.

Do they out DPS anyone? yes.
Do they out tank anyone? yes.
Do they have more buffs than at least 1 other class? yes.
Are those buffs useful in solo/group? yes.
Can they solo more efficiently than at least 1 other class? yes.


If you love the ranger class, play a ranger. If you played a rogue, wiz, mage, necro in live, it is not the class for you.

edit: have you ever seen a Rogue solo anything worth noting? no.
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You can talk about spells, defensive/offensive caps, whatever. The player is the intangible that cannot be measured here. EverQuest is not hard, but taking a less-than-desirable class and making it excel at things it shouldn't do, and having fun while doing it, is the difficult, yet most rewarding path I could ever imagine to take.

No, I don't enjoy logging on and being LFG for hours on end, constantly looking for others to slap together a ragtag group with...

But yes, I do enjoy getting invited to a group and not knowing what my role is going to be! There's really nothing I hate more than logging on an alt and going LFG to only tank, or only heal. Depending on the zone and group makeup, I could be tanking, DPSing, CCing, pulling, or all of the above! While leveling up, I did atleast 3/4 of those things in just about any group I was involved with, while they sat back and watched. Was it the most efficient way? No... Did it beat sitting around wasting time while waiting on the holy trinity to log on? Absolutely!

I play a mid 50s Ranger here on P99. I carry different sets of gear with me at all times for different situations, because I know, as a Ranger, I need that extra boost to accommodate the skill I pride myself applying to this class. This is part of being prepared. Yes, I tank in KC, Chardok, Sebilis, and HS just fine with my full set of hp/ac gear equipped. Granted, most of my groups include a solid Cleric and a slower + mana regen. With Snare/Root, I can guarantee that all mobs pulled will be hitting me 100% of the time. So that Cleric will only need to CH me, nothing more. The biggest downtime creator is having a mob switching between targets and beating on multiple people, sucking your healer's mana dry. Can a Knight do the same job? Yes. Is a Knight always going to be around? No. You take what you can get. And maybe, just MAYBE your Ranger will be prepared for any situation as well!

[Psionide]

Yeah excellent input appreciated here and I was leaning towards a ranger anyway. The only thing I was on the offense about was I really wanted a class with utility and already have a necro so hence the bard/ranger dispute. I think a bard has more tricks in his bad given their reputation as jack of all trades, master of none but a bard is never going to tank and a bards dps is well almost non-existent. The only thing that really appeals to me about a bard is that they seem to be one of the few classes that actually requires "skill" to play. I guess though playing a great ranger requires skill in a different sense though.

[gotrocks]

dude...

you make this such a hard choice.

do we add another DT mule to the ranks of p99, or another swarm kiter.

both bad options imo.

oh, and my apologies (seriously) if you planned to actually learn to play your bard well in a group.

[Estu]

a bard is never going to tank

Bards can totally tank; what do you mean?

[Psionide]

Yeah Estu, you are right. I wasn't really thinking I guess when I wrote that because after thinking about it some of the fastest groups I was ever in had a bard tanking. BIG GULPS? WELL CYA LATER

[Psionide]

Oh and yes I actually mean to group with the bard, I have had enough of the solo caster life.

[Tecmos Deception]

They're both fine choices.

Ranger is respectable DPS (woodsman's staff practically makes you into a monk with nukes, dots, snare, root, harmony, DSs, buffs, a bow, tracking but sans feign and mend - everyone undervalues rangers' sustained damage because they don't see the spell damage and DS hits and shit that actually really add up), quite a bit of utility, potential for some solo or duo or group even if untwinked, and has a decent role in raids now (not JUST taking DTs, either) and later (disciplines and attack buffs ftw).

Bards, contrary to popular cliche, are a jack of all trades AND a master of some. They can CC and charm and slow and haste and do all kinds of other random shit decently (damage shields, ac buffs, pulls, dps, tank, and more). But their heal+mana songs, their resist songs, their speed, and their melee buffs? Bards are in a league of their own when those things are in demand. They're crucial for raids now and basically forever while also being solid additions to most smaller groups (though they aren't usually great duo-trio options really).

Rangers are a happy mix of playstyle between a pure melee and a pure caster, since you are primarily reliant on melee DPS to be useful but you have quite a few different spells to use and secondary roles you can potentially fill... from tanking to pulling to CC to soloing with bow kiting, whatever.

Bards are, again, in a league of their own when it comes to how they play. Casting while moving (and moving FAST) is pretty god damned awesome; they can even use cast-time clickies while moving. People aren't joking when they say a good bard is an amazing thing to behold but that most bards are shitty - super high skill cap on bards.

[Estu]

They're crucial for raids now and basically forever while also being solid additions to most smaller groups (though they aren't usually great duo-trio options really).

Bards are excellent duo with any class that has PBAEs.

[Samoht Farstrider]

I play both a ranger and a bard, albeit only to level 15 on both right now. I usually solo since my playtime is limited. So far I love soloing on my bard due to all the utilities compared to the ranger. I usually melee while playing the songs including the DoT song. Melee damage sucks with the buffs and heal songs, damage taken is not bad and recovery is pretty quick. My ranger only has 1st Level of spells so recovery sucks due to the damage taken. 10Hp heals anyone? LOL

.If my ranger gets some high level buffs, then it's a different story. I soloed whites and yellows non-stop last night in WC with SLD and chloro. Until that damn Dragoon Zytl took me out from nowhere. He'll pay for it one of these days I am sure of it!

[cs616]

Bards CAN tank, they just aren't great at it. Warriors, SKs, Paladins, Monks, and Rangers are all going to have more HP/AC and mitigate damage better than a similarly geared bard. Top end bards right now are going to be between 2200-2400 HP unbuffed, top end tank are going to have more than 1000 additional HP and far more effective AC. Bards are great and pulling and maintaining aggro though if they want.

[Ephirith]

http://i.imgur.com/KPm41F3.jpg

[Stinkum]

lold ^

[koros]

Best flow chart ever.

[Retti_]

P good chart lol

[YendorLootmonkey]

LOL i just now saw this!! :D

[Mandalore93]

Bards are hands down one of the most useful and powerful classes in the game. If you have a lot of dexterity, situational awareness, timing, etc. Rangers have a lot of utility in comparison to many classes but certainly aren't the bard when it comes to that. However, rangers have substantially higher DPS than bards do in terms of melee damage. Not sure what top end Bards clock at on this server for their DoT songs with a good drum but I'd guess somewhere in the 50-70 DPS range.

For soloing Bards have a lot of options such as fear kiting, chant kiting, AoE swarm kiting (which is god damn ridiculous xp), and they should be able to charm kite but aggro mechanics on this server seem to not work correctly in that regard.

Rangers are pretty much just tank and spank until Velious when they get the panic animal spell. Honestly just for balance issues I wouldn't mind seeing Rangers getting that spell before the timeline says they should.

[Cyph]

Well if you do decide to go with the Ranger, I have a great 2 handed weapon that you can buy for a mere 200pp (Nature's Wrath) ;) ;) ;)

[lecompte]

Rangers are awesome.... and I'll give you a nature's wrath if I still ahve one, Lol

[billw134]

Make a ranger or I will pee in your dog's butt!!!

[Tecmos Deception]

Not sure what top end Bards clock at on this server for their DoT songs with a good drum but I'd guess somewhere in the 50-70 DPS range.

More like 30.

[Jingleson]

Speaking of ranger gear, how difficult is the epic for a Ranger? Can you obtain it realistically without being in a premium raiding guild like TMO or FE?

[Cecily]

Sadly, no. That epic requires drops from Inny and VS, both extremely contested mobs.

[diplo]

If you don't want to hit 60 at blazing speed and really enjoy the grinding process and level up slowly, make a ranger. sometimes, it's not the end goal, but the path to the end that tickle's some people's fancy.

[Cecily]

Yeah, some jerks in my guild PLed my rogue alt through all the lower levels. No fun.