Will I be able to be grouped with a ranger?

[kgarry]

Rangers aren't totally gimped. I think if a class resonates with you, you should go for it. But yes the opinion is divided, you're going find people that will treat you like crap and others will welcome you with open arms. At least be aware of it. Because green will be over-populated at first, most or all big money/xp camps are going to be full. Grouping will be important if you want to get anywhere. You're going to most likely be sitting around until a group opens up (picking off stragglers here and there), and if there's a better suited class to join the group they will most likely get picked over you.

[Smashed]

People will be aware. Some won’t group with you. I’ve already seen it a few times on green and that’s with 10x experience gain and a wipe coming in a week.

Do what makes you happy, but it’s something to be aware of.

[Nirgon]

Tell me how your group with 4 rangers goes

1 hybrid is enough

[Glasken]

Wear full banded, dont cast spells, and tell all your pickup groups that you are a warrior until you are lvl 50 and have a guild that loves you.

[magusfire24]

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

Wear full banded, dont cast spells, and tell all your pickup groups that you are a warrior until you are lvl 50 and have a guild that loves you.

make sure you turn on the /anon tag

[uygi]

Ranger is a good class with a lot of utility. As others have said they shine outdoors. Harmony, snare and root give considerable pulling and CCing abilities (a good ranger will peel the add out away from the group and root it) . Their DPS isn’t bad, but it can’t hold a candle to rogue or monk. Their tanking is pretty bad but still less squishy than a caster. It’s a utility class, fun if you like adapting to conditions and jumping into different functions when things go sideways. With weaponshield you become a potential raid-saver when the tank goes down and the mob is almost dead; super fun to do that.

[guirssane]

Thanks for the answers guys, I will go for it then even if there will be some times where it might get hard finding a group. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
I should be able to solo a bit at 22 with animal fear hopefully

[soronil]

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

Their tanking is pretty bad but still less squishy than a caster.

What's your reasoning? Most people seem to think Rangers are fine tanks in classic, at least pre-planar Comparing War/SK/PAL/RNG:

Aggro:
All have taunt. Ranger has best snap spell aggro, SK close behind. Warrior is terrible at aggro

Avoidance (pre 50 skill caps):
Dodge: Knights 125, Ranger 137, War 140
Parry: Knights 175, Ranger 185, War 200
Riposte: 175, Ranger 150, War 200

Mitigation (Gear):
All classes pretty much go Banded -> Rubicite -> Planar in classic.

HP:
Rangers get less HP per stamina (4.2) than SHD/PAL(5.2) which is less than WAR (6)
But Stamina is pretty sparse in classic. Rangers are a little less efficient to complete heal.

Utility: Rangers have harmony, root, sow, hide, sneak, track, invis, levitate.... While not related to tanking, all of these things are often useful in a group, and it is unlikely your group already has all of that.

As far as EXP penalty goes, Since most would plan to play SK/PAL/RNG in a group, I expect they will level ~7-10% slower than a warrior (and potentially in many situations cause my group to be more succesful and exp faster than a warrior would, negating some of the penalty)

[Bazia]

people dont really care about it on p99

[uygi]

I never said anything bad about their aggro or utility, I said they were squishy. I like rangers, probably my 2nd favorite class to play after SK.

I also think SK def beats ranger for aggro. Are you comparing flame lick to DC? Cus the better comparison would be flamer lick to shadow vortex, then tack on DC. And snare (for both). Rangers do generate more straight melee aggro, though.

Rangers have like 20% fewer hp, and ranger races are all fairly low STA, especially with sparse STA gear as you point out.

Suppose ungeared, with max points into STA, with highest STA race, and using your numbers:
Ogre SK: 147 STA *5.2=764
Ogre shaman: 152*3=456
Human Ranger: 105 STA *4.2=441

But at that point you're really splitting hairs, play the toon you want the way you want. I'm just saying that rangers are fairly squishy tanks. You don't want them tanking if you can help it. That said they're ideal secondary tanks because a good ranger will always hold their aggro just barely under the tank so if the tank goes down, mobs turns to ranger instead of 1-2 rounding a caster, and the ranger is ready to step up and hopefully get things back under control.