Ranger - Agility vs AC
 

So I've read a few places that say when you increase your agility that its affect is very small. Is that still the case? I recently had a choice between a BP increasing my agility by 4 and wis by 4 but my ac went down by 2. Would that be a good trade off or is the agility not worth it?

Also, I just noticed that when I switch out between the old BP (Banded mail) with higher AC my AC goes from 442 to 439 even though the AC on the new BP (Bloodstained Tunic)is only 2 less than the old one. Not really sure why. The old one doesn't come with any other stats.

Agility is useless in EQ. If you want to be anything but a gaynger you'll get nothing but hp and ac and hope someone lets you tank/pull.

Prioritizing HP/AC over everything is all fine and dandy for a while, but specifically gearing to be a 4th/5th string tank at top end is kind of silly IMO. Pulling falls into our world in some places, but you're not gonna be pulling any raids or Seb, so that's an afterthought.

Also, sacrificing STR in a bunch of slots to prioritize hp/ac above all means you're gonna reduce our already low damage. HP/AC is important, obviously, but you gotta strike a balance IMO.

So it's ok to be a 4th/5th string dps but not tank? Squishy rangers are AIDS that never get reinvited. You will not notice the lack of strength nearly as much as the lack of hp/ac. That's not even considering that "dps" rangers pull aggro often and will need the tank stats anyways(especially off warrior/monk tanks).

Groups will not remember you for your mediocre dps. They will remember you for being surprisingly more resilient then every other ranger that foolishly tunnels offensive stats.

From looking at the wiki Magelo page, a few of the 60 rangers all have pretty even stats across the board with STR/STA/DEX/AGI/WIZ. I think if you keep yourself well rounded with all of those stats, and then get buffed by the group you will do just find as a average dps/crowd control/puller for the group.

theguyy knows what he's talking about. Leveling up, groups want tanks that can actually keep aggro. Rangers with their spells can fill this roll. Starting in the 50s you can start regearing for melee stats, but 1-40 groups will care much more about a decent tank than a non-rogue DPS.

Yes, you can make yourself beefier, but the margin of difference in survivability from strictly hp/ac items vs a balance is not a large one. As the above poster mentioned, a balance is better. You're never going to make yourself as durable as a proper tank because of skill caps, better ac options, and better sta>hp ratios.

If you're a dpsing ranger and you're pulling aggro (ignoring necessary peels off frail casters), then you're doing it wrong -- or your tank isn't doing their job.

Nobody is advocating "foolishly tunneling" offensive stats. A balance is whats necessary, and turning yourself into a piss-poor tank isn't the right way to go. There's obviously merit in carrying around items to shift your role in the party as necessary, but focusing on one aspect at the expense of others is poor planning.

To be fair, 1-40 it barely matters what your slots are (other than major-impact twink items like Fungi) as long as you have the essentials covered like 5/55 rings and the like you can tank fine. Besides, at low levels unless you're a decent twink you're not filling most slots with much for hp items. Even so, in a group your max hp doesn't matter much until you've got clerics CHing you.

EDIT - Adding an edit here so I don't do a 3rd post::

I wanted to elaborate a bit as after reading my posts I might not have been so clear in what I was trying to say. My issue is the initial advocating of hp/ac at the exclusion of other stats. There are some items I'd suggest any leveling ranger to try and grab because of usefulness that are purely hp and/or ac items like 5/55 rings, WK ogre neck, maybe earring of essence once you've got some plat (though there are usually better uses for the plat in other upgrades if leveling), etc, etc. The problem I see is if you try and push solely for HP/AC when leveling you're going at the exclusion of good items because there isn't a reasonable option in that slot (Hero bracers come to mind).

I think its one of those things that because of availability of items in certain slots (and price) its just not feasible for a leveling character to have a lot of decent HP items.

Agility appears to have some small effect--the wife insists I require a little less healing when I have Avatar on versus when I don't--but it's a small enough effect that it's pointless to try to gear for Agility as a primary stat. If you want durability, focus mainly on hit points and armor.

I won't remember a Ranger based on how much damage he does (spoiler: it's less than a Rogue) or whether he has fifty more hit points than the next Ranger. I remember one based on whether he can transition from damage dealing to off-tanking to crowd control in a flash, if needed. I remember one who knows how Harmony works, who understands aggro mechanics, and who displays good situation awareness. A good Ranger isn't simply a damage dealer or an off-tank; he's whatever his group needs him to be. That's the fun of--and curse of--the Ranger class. You can't just phone it in and remain valuable like a Rogue can; the Ranger actually has to put forth effort.

Most players eventually end up with somewhat balanced stats simply because higher-end gear often comes with multiple stats. This will become even more true with Velious. At low-mid levels, hit point items provide strong benefit because they don't scale with levels like most stats do. A 55 hit point ring has much more benefit versus opponents that hit for 40 compared to opponents who hit for 400. It's hard to go wrong by favoring hit points on a low level character and trusting stats to balance out later.

Danth

Yeah.. Rangers are hard to gear because they need everything. You're a puller, tank, dps, and crowd control. I did 5 str, sta, dex, wis for my stat distribution and it while it hurt my end game STR, it's more points for the pile of stuff I need. Since you don't have a specific role, it's best imo to have a high average in everything rather than pump any specific stat.

STR/DEX/STA are the most important ones, and AGI / WIS can get picked up passively as you gear.