Question about Rangers and groups

[Delekhan]

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

i cant imaging making a character whos only end game purpose is being a speedbump til the next warrior can get aggro

You can make a similar argument for every class. In Velious era EQ every class is distilled into a specific role at the end game. If you want to play other roles, you need other toons.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Is this true? Is it mostly just monks then who pull during raids?

Yes, Monks are the general puller in raids. Other classes get some play in specific scenarios.

Necromancers are great because the have pets. You can do pulls at a safe distance from mobs because you can park your pet next to the mob and have it initiate agro, instead of doing that yourself. They also have Feign Death, and they have multiple Divine Auras available to them due to Harmshield + Earring of the Frozen Skull + Shiny Brass Idol.

Mages also get some play because they are the only class in the game that has TWO instant cast Divine Aura clickies. They have Duennan Shielding Ring + Shiny Brass Idol, and they use Earring of the Frozen Skull as their starting Divine Aura.

Shadowknights and Rangers (which are great group pullers) sadly get little to no play in raids as pullers. Do not roll a Shadowknight or Ranger thinking you can raid pull.

[YendorLootmonkey]

Rangers on raids (mostly covered already in other posts):
- You can pull Plane of Hate with harmony/bind sight but that'll take too long... chances are a monk will pull and you can tag. Otherwise if you are not tagging and bringing into the raid, you are DPS. You can kite some non-casting adds if needed I guess if the enchanters are occupied.
- You can probably tag off the peeler in Fear, or kite adds (a lot less casters here), otherwise you are DPS.
- In Sky, you might be pulling/kiting some isles depending on your raid's strategy for the isle, aside from supplying DPS.
- Boss/dragon raids, you'll probably be part of an FTE team if outdoors, and during the actual raid you're mostly going to be DPS. Between 55-59, you might even get to /disc Trueshot if you have a decent bow. Level 60, you're keeping Weaponshield on reserve for a tank transition on some of the tougher fights.
- Level 50+, you have some ATK buffs that melee will want, especially Call of the Predator at Level 60.

Rangers in groups (mostly covered already in other posts):
- Sufficiently geared, you can tank if needed... this gets more difficult in Kunark and Velious where mobs hit harder. Better off letting a WAR/PAL/SHD tank if available.
- You're going to be pulling if outdoors due to Harmony. Lots of neat tricks to pull solos, stagger incoming mobs with snare and root, etc.
- You can do crowd control in a pinch... rootparking non-casters (casters around corners out of LOS), kiting non-casters with snare, off-tanking adds, etc.
- You can get a mob immediately off a caster with flame lick/snare (or root if the caster is situationally aware enough to back off).
- Swarmcaller or Earthcaller gives you the ability to proc a decent slow on mobs (but if you're not tanking, prepare to root/jolt)
- Lots of utility spells/buffs, including a heal which is pretty helpful for topping off caster HP (and your own) to take some mana pressure off healers, or for transferring mana to a cannibalizing shaman
- Decent DPS if sufficiently geared

Rangers solo (mostly covered already in other posts):
- Need some toys to make this effective (haste item, Dark Cloak of Sky, Swarmcaller/Earthcaller, +HP/STA/AC gear, etc.) if you are facetanking
- Bowkiting is a thing, however very tedious and time-consuming
- Snare/Panic Animal with level-appropriate animal mobs outdoors is probably your most efficient solo XP now that we've surpassed the hybrid spell patch in Velious

Lots of versatility and changing of roles, especially if you have a 3-4 person non-standard group. Otherwise, there are classes that can perform each of these roles better than you can. And a bard probably fits just as well in the "jack of all trades, master of none" role, with mana regen song tipping the scales in their favor. However, bards in group are probably stewing over the slow XP compared to what they could be making swarm-kiting solo.

Ranger is a fun class for someone to play, but your group could care less about all the fun you're having and probably isn't going to put up with a ranger that is just going to sit back and swing weapons at a mob's ass the entire time. You need to play at the fullest potential of the class to make sure the group's getting the most out of the group slot they gave you. If you care about those sort of things.

If you roll a ranger, you owe it to the rest of the ranger class to not be a shitty one.