Screw you Mages and Necros.... Ranger Guide to Solo Killing Red HGs

[avant_tard]

INTRO: These are four tips for young Rangers out there who might have some questions about bow-kiting.

1. FLETCHING
A little dedication to fletching in the early game can get you a decent bow and quality arrows pretty quickly. Craft a fast firing bow (for elusive archery skill-ups) and long range arrows (parabolic, small nock.) In the later game you will want to spend time getting your fletching skill up so that you can reliably craft silver arrows (magic.) Then go hunt down the Ghoul Messenger and get yourself a Short Sword of Morin. :)

2. DEXTERITY
This stat really only pertains to bow-kiting for Rangers, but for this specific strategy it seems to play a crucial role. Before I boosted my dexterity my bow shots were inconsistent. When the arrows landed my hits were weak and my criticals laughable. I thought the archery skill might be bugged it lagged so far behind. I got some gear and now I feel like Al Capone POP POP POP

3. PATIENCE YOUNG GRASSHOPPER
Now that you have the tools for the trade, USE THOSE ARROWS!! I see so many of those Ranger twinks popping a few off then melee'ing the rest of the fight. I have to think that even for them a little shoot and scoot would be beneficial. A good example is kiting mammoths in EF - try to balance your health and mana together while using your arrows to take those suckers down. Kill 4-5 in a row and head back to Starn loaded with tusks.

4. TERRAIN
Use hills, rivers, cliffs and other terrain to your advantage. You will depend on snare - not root - so knowing where you can safely run around like a turkey is important. Also, archery doesn't have a line of sight check, making for some interesting ways to avoid caster mobs by staying out of their LOS but still being in range with your bow. Finally, knowing where there are fletching merchants helps: for instance the frontier town in EK.
As a side note, obtaining Pegasus Cloak is probably easier for a Ranger than any other class (though Quillmane is resistant to snare/root - be careful.) Levitation makes for some great tricks in Rathe Mtns and OOT.

FAQ:
Dexterity? lol
Okay, so if you want to level as fast as possible: join groups only and gear accordingly (hp/ac/str.) If you are simply trying to suggest "twink w/ FBSS dewd" ummmm... no.

Why has you rolled Ranger main?
First toon I rolled in '99 when I was thirteen. One of the most fun classes to play imho.

discuss, class.

[Orov]

I like this. Ranger is my favorite class too. When I get around to playing mine again I'll have to try this out.

[Ravhin]

Added this awesome guide to the wiki :)

http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Players:Adventure#Ranger

[Pycoba_rng]

My question to you is: Have you tested having more Dex is better then more str when bow kiting???

I personally find having more strength ups the Dps by a ton. I haven't tested dex yet tho?

[avant_tard]

No, I haven't tested the influence of STR w/ the bow yet. However, from EQTraders:

"Dexterity affects your chances for special melee abilities such as combat effects and critical hits. It increases your chances to gain points in most combat skills. It is also a factor in determining how much damage you do with throwing weapons and archery."

Where adding Dex really shined for me was the increased rate of archery skill-ups. It was always lagging really far behind, but now (finally at 34) it is maxed for my level - and just the better ratio of hits to misses because of this is giving me a much better DPS then before I added my dex gear.

[Messianic]

I'd add this: USE FLAME LICK.

It's damage/mana ratio is awesome. Keep it up all the time.

[Cars]

I'd add this.

Befriend a rogue. Fear kiting without a caster, no need for a healer, very little downtime and great DPS = good xp when groups are not available.

[Messianic]

I'd add this.

Befriend a rogue. Fear kiting without a caster, no need for a healer, very little downtime and great DPS = good xp when groups are not available.

Rogue and Cleric are the only classes I haven't played fairly thoroughly. How consistent is intimidation for you? I remember using it on my monk, but it was fairly erratic.

[Cars]

Once you get it to max level at around lvl 24ish it becomes very reliable. and you can just normal snare kite until the intimidate lands. Usually on the first or second attempt on dark blues. Havent really tested it too much on even cons or higher.

[mitic]

imo this young ranger is related to the other young ranger pycoba!

[fugazi]

Would two rangers make for a solid duo once you hit lvl12+, considering you'd both wanna go archery without having money for real twinking?

[bizzum]

I'd add this.

Befriend a rogue. Fear kiting without a caster, no need for a healer, very little downtime and great DPS = good xp when groups are not available.

I second this notion. I was on a druid but snare dot run around like a retard and sit while the rogue backstabs. Little or no heals, little or no downtime, an interesting alternative and decent exp nonetheless.

[YendorLootmonkey]

Would two rangers make for a solid duo once you hit lvl12+, considering you'd both wanna go archery without having money for real twinking?

I wouldn't go archery. One ranger snares/flame licks mob, the other follows behind slashing it if you really wanna do it that way. If you wanna spend the money on the arrows, the kiter could run backwards and shoot arrows I suppose. Take turns to space out the tedium. Pain in the ass though... this ain't Luclin with EQ/AM3.

[Messianic]

I wouldn't go archery. One ranger snares/flame licks mob, the other follows behind slashing it if you really wanna do it that way. If you wanna spend the money on the arrows, the kiter could run backwards and shoot arrows I suppose. Take turns to space out the tedium. Pain in the ass though... this ain't Luclin with EQ/AM3.

Oh, another thing regarding this - creating low-level arrows is more effective than buying them.

I think parabolic fletchings and medium nocks...although I may be remembering incorrectly are what I use. They trivial somewhere 40-60, have a high range addition to your bow, and are incredibly cheap (cheaper than merely buying them from a vendor).

Another not-oft mentioned advantage is that 4 stacks of each of the required items for an arrow makes a little under 5 stacks of arrows (counting failures despite trivial level). That does save a little bag space...

i tend to have a couple stacks of each arrow component on me at all times, so I can do a little combining while I do other things. I even combine mats while i'm running places - you can even do it while in combat between kicks if you're fast like me :D

[Reubin]

I'd add this: USE FLAME LICK.

It's damage/mana ratio is awesome. Keep it up all the time.

My Ranger on Live still had Flame Lick memorized at level 68. One of the benefits of a ranger is the ability to quickly gain agro. If your healer starts getting beat on (and you have no Enchanter to piss of with DOTs) flame lick will almost get you instant agro. Pull the mob off healer and then root it off to the side if you are outdoors or off tank if you aren't. Incredibly useful spell.

When you get Jolt it gets even better. Rangers become great agro managers with the ability to quickly gain and lose agro. They are excellent crowd controllers and pullers...especially outdoors.

[Messianic]

Pull the mob off healer and then root it off to the side if you are outdoors or off tank if you aren't. Incredibly useful spell.

We can root indoors from level 15 ;)

Too bad we can't invis indoors until 49 =(

[fugazi]

So if a pair of rangers go at it together, one can hold aggro unlimitedly with flame lick? Assuming you keep it snared, the other is then free to pummel it from behind eh? A ranger/rogue combination seems worthwhile too. Or ranger/druid, but fuck me if this server needs any more druids.

[Messianic]

So if a pair of rangers go at it together, one can hold aggro unlimitedly with flame lick? Assuming you keep it snared, the other is then free to pummel it from behind eh? A ranger/rogue combination seems worthwhile too. Or ranger/druid, but fuck me if this server needs any more druids.

More druids = cheap ports

[YendorLootmonkey]

So if a pair of rangers go at it together, one can hold aggro unlimitedly with flame lick? Assuming you keep it snared, the other is then free to pummel it from behind eh? A ranger/rogue combination seems worthwhile too. Or ranger/druid, but fuck me if this server needs any more druids.

To be honest...have flame lick on it for the extra DoT damage and aggro, but on P99 it doesn't seem to aggro as much as I remember it doing on live. I rely on snare a lot more to draw aggro despite it being less efficient. I would re-snare to maintain aggro if you're finding that you have to re-cast flame lick way too often.

Any other rangers feel like flame lick drew more aggro back in the day than it does here?

[Sparkin]

Any other rangers feel like flame lick drew more aggro back in the day than it does here?

Yes, although this is very anecdotal and tough to judge since I wasn't really aware of the power of it to draw aggro on my first go around until probably past level 50. But since it was such a powerful tool to draw aggro past level 50, and hell I probably used it til 70 or 75 (can't really remember if / when I stopped using it), you'd think it would be more effective in the oldest content (with less damage around) and not less effective as I'm finding it. I just remember that snare + FL + melee was almost a sure way to hold aggro if you wanted to tank, and playing up to 45 on this server so far, that has not been nearly as effective.

[YendorLootmonkey]

Yes, although this is very anecdotal and tough to judge since I wasn't really aware of the power of it to draw aggro on my first go around until probably past level 50. But since it was such a powerful tool to draw aggro past level 50, and hell I probably used it til 70 or 75 (can't really remember if / when I stopped using it), you'd think it would be more effective in the oldest content (with less damage around) and not less effective as I'm finding it. I just remember that snare + FL + melee was almost a sure way to hold aggro if you wanted to tank, and playing up to 45 on this server so far, that has not been nearly as effective.

Okay, so it's not just me that feels that way... LOL.

I remember always wanting to use Flame Lick over Snare for aggro back in classic and beyond (until we got the short-cast snare, in which case I would mem that for aggro/runners as well as flame lick so I could use both fairly quickly for perma-aggro), but then being disappointed I couldn't use Flame Lick when there were enchanters around, so for me, Snare was 2nd rate aggro. Here, I'd rather use Snare over Flame Lick anyway because it just feels like Snare has more aggro here.