Starting stats

[Lyta]

What kind of stats should i pick as a human ranger?

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Lyta [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What kind of stats should i pick as a human ranger?

Put your points into STA.

[Snaggles]

My ranger put 20 points in STR (made sense in 2011); a half elf with 95 total. Now with decent gear I run around about 190 unbuffed. 200 with a Meljeldin and 205 with a Swiftwind. When I had worse gear and would run jewelry in ToV or just more MR gear I wouldn’t cap with Focus of Spirit (gives 67 STR).

I preferred to be able to self-buff to 255 in my leveling gear. Storm Strength gives you 35 so if that’s the goal, 220 unbuffed is perfect.

I’m more of the mindset that a dps should always try to have capped attack all the time even at an expense of a few hps. The opposite of a tank. Ideally more is always better but just my own approach if I’m picking a poison.

[Goregasmic]

Tough one really. I say go 20str. Like snaggles said you're DPS in the end. I put 20 sta on mine and it took a long time before I reached ~190 str. Now I'm a big fan of get your main stat first then optimize later. I don't feel like I messed up my ranger though so it isn't a big deal.

You'll also get beat on a lot while pulling/leveling/offtanking so AC/STA/HP is important. And when you reach ~46 you get a lot of cool procs which are somewhat central to the ranger experience so leaning a bit more on dex starts making sense at that point.

And the last time that question came up people universally answered str because it is a bit more damage and nice QOL (carrying capacity). Sta won't do much for you until you're 50+ and even then the utility of that extra ~90hp is debatable.

[Crede]

Hard to answer that. Are you planning to raid gear this char? Str is always a good option to get closer to capping it. You are a dps class after all and a terrible tank. If not str then maybe dex to get those slow procs off faster. Wisdom is gonna be the min max stat tho.

[bcbrown]

Put it all into charisma and be the prettiest, most charming ranger you can be.

Seriously though, strength is the easy answer, but I'm going to answer your question from like four different frames of perspective for the sake of being comprehensive. First perspective: it really doesn't matter. Stats just don't have much of an impact, and you can still be really successful even if you put all your points into intelligence. You can pick whatever feels good and have a lot of fun without worrying whether you made the optimal choice.

Next, let's look at the possible candidates. Strength gives two benefits: more carrying capacity and more damage. The extra damage is fairly minimal but over 60 levels it adds up. The carrying capacity is a huge bonus at lower levels if you're untwinked. Stamana adds hp, minimal at lower levels, up to about 80hp at level 60 for an extra 20 stamina. Dex gives you more procs and at some point after the next patch might have a small impact on bow damage. Wisdom gives a little extra mana, maybe as much as 200mana for 20wis at level 60 if I'm reading the wiki right. Charisma makes Calm Animal less likely to crit fail, but that's very niche. The other stats have even less impact.

Another perspective is through what you want to do with this character. Are you starting out untwinked? Strength becomes more important. Are you twinking the hell out of the toon and racing up to start raiding? Stamina might make sense. Do you just want to fuck around on a decently-funded toon and are intrigued by all the cool procs rangers get? Dexterity's got your name written all over it (and maybe try to get yourself an Infestation). Are you hoping to push the class to its limits as a solo artist after getting all the cool toys? That's the only reason I'd consider wisdom, or even, god forbid, charisma.

The last perspective is through the various roles you can play in a group or raid. Rangers make excellent pullers for leveling groups and if you're chain pulling I guess the only stat that really matters is wisdom to let you go longer without a med break, although that was never significant for me pulling in CoM or KC. If your role is mostly DPS then strength is the clear choice. Rangers make shitty tanks but they can do it in a pinch and in that case stamina is a good choice.

One more point I'll make is that especially while soloing a Swarmcaller proc has the most impact on how smoothly a fight goes; an early proc can easily be the difference between getting the kill or having to zone. And lastly, when considering the advice given in this thread I'd urge you to consider how much experience the advice-giver has with playing ranger. For example there's very few people active on this forum with more experience than Snaggles on raiding as a ranger, whereas my ranger recently hit 59 and I'm just beginning to dip my toe into raiding on him.

To summarize, I'd say that from 1-45 the most impactful stat will be strength; from 45-59 it's (imo) dex, and at 60+ it's probably strength until your gear becomes good enough that it becomes stamina or wisdom.

[OriginalContentGuy]

Whatever your choice invest in running shoes to outpace the sweat lords.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Strength is typically not a great stat to put your starting stats into. The exception is if you plan on doing a solo self found character, or if it is your very first character.

https://youtu.be/71aYAD9aB5A?si=ePJ1Qd8Mhh1X-ICI - I have a youtube series leveling a Ranger up to 22 or so.

20 STR will not be a noticeable improvement in your DPS. The math easily shows this.

As for carry capacity, I have like ~140 STR with EC gear and only one Sharalok pack. I was able to loot everything I wanted without being super overweight. It just takes a bit of game knowledge to know what is worth picking up.

STR and DEX are easily capped at the endgame. The two stats that are hardest to cap are STA and WIS. You can choose either one, depending on what outcome you eventually want. Putting points into STA may allow you to eventually cap STA without Riotous Health, saving you a buff slot. Putting points into WIS is a good too, as you will probably never cap WIS.