Ranger F.A.Q: Levels 1-30

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osma
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Ranger F.A.Q: Levels 1-30

Post by osma »

Ranger Guild F.A.Q. for Newbies

Notice:
This guide has been designed to help newbies and reincarnated players entering the Ranger Guild. This guide is geared for players who are levels 1 - 30, though it is useful to all players entering the guild. It assumes that you have a basic understanding of game play and terms in Icesus (killing, leveling, advance points). If you do not know the basics, read the suggested help files such as help commands, help newbie, help leveling, ect.

Introduction:
The Ranger Guild is a perfect example of Jack of all Trades, Master of None. Ranger can become excellent in any given slot (tanking, off-tank, blaster), but the player must spend much more time and experence to master any given slot then another guild would. However, where a Soldier cannot blast, and a Mage cannot tank, a Ranger can do whatever he wishes, and flip from one slot to another as the situation warrants.

Rangers are given an extensive list of available skills to pick from. This list focuses mainly on melee abilities, but there are many non-battle abilities like plant lore, and distance abilities such as throwing, trapping, and archery. The total number of skills available approaches 70 by level 20, but the absolute maximum trainable is fairly low compared to some guilds (melee max at around 60 when shape-shifter is around 80.)

Basics:
Rangers are at heart melee players, falling most easily into the slot of off-tank. They specialize in two weapon wielding, light armors, extensive dodge skills, and Dexterity, which increase the maximum number of hits per round. A ranger on defensive is a very hard target, but the races best designed for Ranger (Elf, Dark Elf, Chitine) tend to have low constitution, meaning that every hit that lands will hurt.

Rangers are strongly encouraged at all times to concentrate on maximizing their dex over all other stats. You will see in the Guilds command that your used experience in dexterity is quickly double that of the other stats, since almost all the Rangers combat skills use dex. Furthermore, dexterity lets the Rangers land more of the hits they throw (which is important since each hit does less damage), throw more absolute hits, and increase the damage when using the Ranger special: Whirling Blades. Yes, dexterity increases the damage more then strength, despite the fact that you are hitting with weapons in melee. If that is not enough, your archery/throwing skill is greatly affected by dexterity, since the skill is useless if you can't hit with it.

That being said, Strength is also quite useful since it adds to the damage to all those hits being thrown, and lets smaller races like Chitine use normal sized weapons. (Note, since Rangers depend on speed rather then large weapons, weapons should not be used unless they are as fast as a longsword, even if you have the strength to wield two of them.)

Wisdom and constitution come in tied for third place due to the fact that you need both equally. As a tank position fighter, you need health to survive. While wisdom takes less of a role in combat, it greatly affects many of the rangers skills, such as camping, trapping, and the "all important" Good Berry.

Intelligence and Charisma play almost no role in the game for a ranger. Intelligence only affects combat points (wisdom does as well) and charisma... is charisma. Few guilds need charisma.

One final note before moving on: Rangers are specifically designed to shine in the wilderness. We are explorers and hunters. As you will be playing in the wilderness often, take these two pieces of advice. First, pathfinding is a great investment since you will be moving in the out world. And second, for the sake of god, check the Icesus website for the map and USE it (http://www.icesus.org/Documentation/map.php). Unlike some games, the map is extremely well made, often updated, and invaluable when treasure hunting. Since every single one of the ranger guild headquarters are out of sight of a road, you NEED to learn how to read that map to find your way around.

Equipment:
When choosing weapons and armor, think speed. Help armour explains that heavy armors lower your maximum effective dexterity and strength. Anything that lowers your dexterity in combat is not for you. Added to the fact that your light amour skill will reach 70 quicly and you never get a single heavy armor % just goes to show what you should concentrate on. The best choice easily available for a Ranger is a suit of fine steel studded chitinium silk armor, obtainable from the smith. For non-hit slot armor (rings, cloak, boots, ect.), enchanted ep-regen, hp-regen, and dexterity items are unusually your best bet (dexterity for in combat, ep-regen for out.) Although hp-regen is important for keeping you alive, you will find yourself out of ep much more often then hp, unless you are fighting monsters too large for you.

Weapon choices are a bit more difficult. Although your first impulse (especially for fighters) is to get the biggest maul you can and smash things, Rangers are built for viper speed attacks. Daggers would be the best choice early on, but by the time you get to around level 20, you need to invest in good sword. Later in the game (level 27 or so) you can get access to the skill Bladesinging, which has a great affect on your maximum Whirling Blades damage, and it specifically says that it works best with slashing/swords. In addition to the type of weapon, the speed of weapon is important from the get-go, as some daggers will literally do more whirling blades damage then a greatsword will do, since the skill is based on speed (do you see a theme here yet? Speed/Dex is of the essence.) [Edit: due to combat changes, i have been told this is incorrect. Speed may help whirling blades, but daggers to so little damage compared to a greatsword that the greatsword, or a greataxe, is likely a much better choice] The best choices that I have found from experimentation and the consider weapon skill are falchions, longswords, and sabers. Falchions do slightly more damage with slower speed, sabers are faster with less damage, and longswords are somewhere in the middle.

Although playing styles vary from person to person, as an off-tank you will likely want to invest more heavily in your weapons then your amour. Most of your defense is going to be coming from dodge skills and killing your opponent quickly, so a good sword will do better then a good amour that you will still get hit while wearing. Good early choices are fine steel longswords, Hummingbird Swords <green aura> (100k), and Black-Bladed Sabers <red aura> (300k).

[Edit] Recenly, I have come to think about my "hard-and-fast" rule that Rangers should always wield two weapons. I realised that while many Ranger skills are designed to be used with more then one weapon, you don't get access to those skills until around level 20. Even then, your skills in Whirling Blades and Twin weapons are quite low. Theirfore, it is a reasonable idea to test wielding a sword and a shield.

Although it is possible to defend by "crossing your blades," at early skill levels, a shield has a much better chance of blocking a hit than an additional weapon, even without any skill in shields. They are naturaly designed to be better at blocking, and provide a small amount of damage as well. Since only the Improvised Combonations skill is learnable by doing (of the various Whirling skills), you rarely will add your second weapon to your Whirl in any case, so having a useful shield to block with will signifigntly extend your ability to stay alive and make it easier to tank for other newbies. Later (say after 2-3 levels of Bladesingers guild), your skills will be effective enough to make two weapons so effective in dealing damage that you will be convinced to trade your shield back in for a blade.

This idea (and it is only an idea at the moment, still in testing) works especialy well for chitines, since they have two additional hands to work with. This allows the best of both worlds, since you can eventualy wield two effective swords in your main hands (and Whirl with them) and wield two shields in your lower hands. [End Edit.]

Guilds:
The Ranger guild is divided into a sub-guild tree. Most of the guild is a straight progression, where you finish the first tier to enter the second tier, and so on. Tier one is Ranger Candidates, and Tier two is Scouts of Grahm. Tier three is the 5 sub guilds of Wardens (magic), Champions (nature), Blade singers (whirling), Nightstalkers (stalking), and Royal Archers (archery). Tiers four and five are not applicable to this guide, since it is impossible to enter them until at minimum of level 36, and this guide only reaches around level 30.

Ranger Candidates (Levels 1 - 15):
The basic introduction to the Ranger guild gives a vast array of skills to the player. Most skills don't reach very high (30 - 40%), but many skills that are available only in this guild (such as plant lore, mixing, good berry, and guided aim) can reach in the 50's.

Skills that should be focused on are melee (which is a requirement for scouts), slashing weapons, swords, light armors, and dodge/block/avoid hits. This is one of the few guilds that teach Ranger spells, and the spells Good Berry and guided aim should be raised as high as reasonable. [You may have noticed that I capitalize good berry while I don't the other skills. This is because, while not necessary, it is one of the ranger's most useful non-combat skills/spells. Most people can tell you that you regenerate more slowly when your health is lower then 30%. A maxed Good Berry spell will add to your health from 20-30% to your health, lifting you out of that danger zone. Furthermore, a party with no Air-Priest will appreciate any healing abilities they can get.]

The Ranger Basic guild is located south west of Vaerlon, past the mountains, near a lake. As always, CHECK THE MAP. It is easy to find in bright fuchsia, off the road.

Ranger Scouts (Level 15 - 25):
This guild specializes on training up your melee skills and adding even greater number of combat skills to the arsenal. Skills like dodge and avoid hits become high enough to work properly, and your armor becomes useful since light amour skill reaches 70% and medium armor skill (which helps light and medium armors both) appears. Finally, the two skills central to the Ranger battle style (whirling blades and twin weapons) finally appear to be trained. By the end of the guild, your combat skills will all be 50 - 80% through the simple expedient of guild requirements. The final requirement is that you either are high in many different abilities cheap abilities (like twin weapon and sharp shooting), or have very high (and expensive) key abilities (such as 65% whirling blades, and around 60% in swords). It is expensive (but useful in the long run) to fulfill the requirements of as many as possible, since skills like melee, slashing and swords all help your chance to hit, which is quite important to a Ranger.

Ranger Scouts is located east of Vaerlon, across the hills and plains and in the snow forest. It is also north east of Royal Archers. As always, look at the map if you are lost. There are three entrances in that area, but it is always good to explore and find something yourself.

Tier Three (Level 25 - 35 or 25 - 45):
Tier Three is the only tier with choices on how to proceed. It is required that you complete 5 levels in at least 2 of the 5 sub-guilds (10 levels), but you can complete as many as you wish, for a maximum of 20 levels (5 levels per guild). It is important to remember that it is the completion of the guilds that are important. Getting 20 levels in the third tier doesn't matter if you don't get the fifth and final level of each guild. The guilds are separated into speculations, each concentrating on one facet of the Ranger abilities and amplifying their abilities there.

Champions of Nature (Nature combat):
The wardens allow you to train the two nature combat skills (animal lore and rural combat). I am not sure if % in these skills lets the two procs happens more often, or if they make them deal more damage, but either (or both) is of great benefit when fighting in certain conditions. The guild also gives skills that help when moving through wilderness conditions, such as pathfinding.

This guild is located north of Vaerlon in the mountains.

Wardens (Magic): REMOVED IN CONVERSION
Wardens guild specilized in granting rangers new spells, as well as increasing the spells already available. With warden levels, the ranger can cast high level good berry and barkskin spells, grow herbs, restore warmth, hold animal, and others. NOTE: this guild was "removed" when Icesus underwent conversion. The spells and skills were added to Champions, making Champions provide both rural skills and spells.


Royal Archers (Archery):
This guild is an open guild available to every player in the game. However, as a bonus to Rangers, the guild counts as a third tier sub guild. As you may assume, this guild increases your ability with archery combat, increasing the maximum trainable % of the main skills, but granting additional skills that increase it's effectiveness even more.

This guild is located between scouts and the nearest road, east of Vaerlon.

Night Stalkers (Stealth):
This guild is a bit of an oddball. The only sub-guild that starts with all new abilities, the guild is based on the idea of moving without being seen or heard. The only two uses that I have yet found for these skills are as follows: When sneaking, a Ranger can leave a fight, reload his bow, enter with the aggressive mob without being seen, and fire again. Since archery deals much more damage per hit then anything else a Ranger can do, repeated shots with a bow can quickly kill monsters that cannot be defeated in a stand up fight. However, the skills must be rather high (50% or more) in order to regularly avoid notice. The other use is that it seems (from casual time studies and notices given while performing the skill) that the first three skills of Shadow dancers (move silently, hide in shadows, and tracking) greatly helps when hunting. Therefore hunters and archers should consider this sub guild seriously, but others might rather choose one of the others.

This guild is located far south of Vaerlon, in the deep (and quiet) forests.

Bladesingers (Whirling Blades):
This guild specializes in the Ranger's special skill, Whirling Blades. Each skill (with the possible exception of the savage combat style) directly contributes to the effectiveness of the whirling blades ability, either in increasing it's speed of execution, the damage it deals, or the chance of it successfully hitting the opponent. This is where the ranger first gets access to the skill that gives the guild it's name, bladesinging. Bladesinging greatly affects the damage of the whirling blades skill, and is most effective with slashing/swords. This guild is perfect for players who wish to increase their melee combat damage ability, and is the sub-guild to be chosen by many of the best Rangers.

This guild is located south - south west of Vaerlon, in the plains and forests.

Post Note:
Please post correction request for any obvious errors that you notice, as well as any additional information you feel should be included.
Last edited by osma on Sat May 10, 2008 06:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
kraven
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Post by kraven »

sorry to correct,but rangers these days are best suited archers..melee is left to army,templars and shifters as offensive :P
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lipides
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Post by lipides »

Rangers can be made into a very nice offensive tanks with right eq and blessings. Myself i prefere off ranger better than shifter...
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draug
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Post by draug »

Thanks for the guide! More indepth guides for each guild such as this should be considered. These will attract more players if done properly with good english language. You could always skip game mechanics which would spoil too much thus violate the holy codex of "don't share." =D>
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Post by gnoza »

Bah Lipides, decent shifter can be good in offensive, so can be ranger too. But still i prefer shifter more <3
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minny
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Post by minny »

I think a newbie should start with a slashing/sword weapon rather than a piercing/sword. It would be a waste of exp and money to train piercing weapons and have to train slashing weapons at level 20. They can both be trained up to 60% at level 15 at Ranger Candidates.

Whirling blades is essentially a battle manuever involving slashing at the enemy rapidly, not POKING! (Bad mental picture right there, argh)

Wardens allow rangers to study various spells to grow herbs for poison, salves and stun powder, epr fire, good berry, and spell to burn foes. Those are all the spells that I know of that are studied in the guild, there are probably some that I missed.

Good job for putting this together, Osma. I've always wondered what Champions of Nature was about when I was a treehugger.
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Post by hors »

nothing is here anymore
Last edited by hors on Thu Dec 21, 2006 22:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by hors »

recent changes to races made halfing and derro more suitable for rangers, i think i would put them now in 'something u can try' cattegory.. and centaurs became even better than before..
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iluth
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Post by iluth »

Hmm looking at that list I've started to wonder about the possibilities of an orc ranger.
ream
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Post by ream »

You can also always try a Human (d6 s6 c6 w6 hpr14 epr13). They have a racial ability that allows you to lower cost of training 2 stats by a point (or 1 stat by 2 points). Again nothing fancy, most of the humans in the game are shapeshifters and probably only because that guild does not accept anybody else except humans. But you will be able to play a human ranger, yes.
Just one correction...
If I remember correctly you can not educe same stat twice. :?:
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yoz
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Post by yoz »

osma wrote:Ranger Guild F.A.Q. for Newbies
Introduction:
The Ranger Guild is a perfect example of Jack of all Trades, Master of None. Ranger can become excellent in any given slot (tanking, off-tank, blaster), but the player must spend much more time and experence to master any given slot then another guild would. However, where a Soldier cannot blast, and a Mage cannot tank, a Ranger can do whatever he wishes, and flip from one slot to another as the situation warrants.
This here isnt quite the truth.
A ranger in icesus is the master of sneaking. (prowling mastery)
They also are the masters of outworld.
They also are the masters of archery when normal expmobs are included.
However, you can not make a tank out of ranger, no matter how much you really try.
You either can not make an offtank out of ranger which would qualify as an offtank. They are too dependant on their outworld monsters, meaning that their damage is pitiful indoors. (most exp monsters you do with party are inside.) However, this might not apply on lower levels.
Even 1-2gig rangers hit less than 500m militia/templar/shifter in normal offparties.

Aaaaaaanyways, here are my few thoughts about ranger:

If i'd started from a scratch, and decided to go for a ranger, i'd chose derro propably, due to high hpr and epr and relatively fast heartbeat, it is very good race to begin with.

Cancun would be my secondary choices, would have insane stats without training stats at all. Not to mention decent vision, race blind (really is worth it!) and good epr/hpr.



My current choices as a ranger race would be:

Troll 3/6/4 stats. Would hit hard, but would be very weak on caster department.

Derro, for soloing.

Dwarf, very good in all aspects, absolutely mind-bogglingly good race.

Dark elf, major ambidex <3, and insane stats. however, it has the crappiest regens ever. low light vision

Elf, once again, insanely good race on all levels. And no, it does not have any problem in seeing almost anywhere. I have played elf templar a lot, and never would've needed any vision enchanting.

Chitine, Surely doesent miss firepower, 4 hands, 4 decent weapons and go. Hits hard, but regens even worse than dark elf. pretty weak on caster side too. low lightvision :C

Cancun, insane stats, just needs atleast 3 hive levels to be good 3dex 4str 7 con 7 caster stats. Decent vision

Thri-kreen,If i decided to go level infla, and wouldn't have the weapons i currently have. I'd go for thrikreen. High level thrikrene hits like a train with 2 ridges (then again, might ned few hive levels to negate abdomen). BAD vision.

Halfling, nice race now, however doesen't see in dark, and has pretty shitty regens, dunno. I'd go for it if i wanted satisfy my perverted urge to be a halfling <3. BAD vision

Shadowperson, decent stats/regens. goodie vision.

Those pretty much are the only races i could think of that are worth using.
hors wrote:Race choice for rangers
CentaurÂ’s (d5 s4 c5 w7 hpr16 epr 24) Centaurs though not being exceptionally agile still have a reasonable dexterity, low con and str training costs and good regeneration rates, endurance regeneration rate to be the best available. They have also have a racial advantage in archery, what is always good for a ranger. They also have a nice racial ability to trample opponents occasionally and a natural resistance to cold. Though there are bad parts too. They have a racial bonus in spears but have problems with anything else, so you whirling blades wonÂ’t be the best as they are suited for slashing weapons. A little higher wisdom would be nice, but you will survive with the one they have. Naturally, you wonÂ’t be able to ride horses also. Give it a chance and you wonÂ’t be disappointed.
What was said about centaur is not true. They do NOT gain any minuses to other than spear weapons anymore.
Otherwise, its a crappy race for anything else than an pure archer. Crappy stats :C


If you want to take advantage of every aspect of ranger guild. Choose a race with decent dex/con/str/int/wis. Rangers just need it all.

Whirling blades as an offskill does pretty low damage, and i would not use it if i'd go for soloranger with a mount. I'd use throwing and throwing hammers/axes instead. Just load your inventory with 10 of them and get 60 throwing 26 mastery of throwing 50 draw weapons and throw to stun points in frontrow, in my level 90% of the damage i deal is from basic hits, offskills arent that crucial. Whirling blades however is decent for lower level players, if you just get your improvised combinations high enough so that you wont drop your weapons anymore. (it also affects 2weapon combat)
lipides wrote:Rangers can be made into a very nice offensive tanks with right eq and blessings. Myself i prefere off ranger better than shifter...
Unfortunately this is not true, rangers hit like wet sock, when they are not in outworld
minny wrote:I think a newbie should start with a slashing/sword weapon rather than a piercing/sword. It would be a waste of exp and money to train piercing weapons and have to train slashing weapons at level 20. They can both be trained up to 60% at level 15 at Ranger Candidates.
On low levels, both are equally good choice, the amount of low level rapiers/slashers etc is pretty equal. But, if you are planning of making an reinc that lasts for long, you should start with axes or swords. On midlevels, high levels, those are the weapons that you can get your hands on.

kraven wrote:sorry to correct,but rangers these days are best suited archers..melee is left to army,templars and shifters as offensive :P
Only as a solo archer, useless when doing eq.
(a tip, newbie archer isnt worth it :>)

This here is a flaw that really ruins the guild idea. They are one of the guilds amongst other guilds (monks,shifters,earth priests) that really have no abilities that are usable on eq, so basically all of their masteries will be "wasted" if you are planning to do something useful for future.
osma
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Post by osma »

A ranger in icesus is the master of sneaking. (prowling mastery)
They also are the masters of outworld.
They also are the masters of archery when normal expmobs are included.
However, you can not make a tank out of ranger, no matter how much you really try.
You either can not make an offtank out of ranger which would qualify as an offtank. They are too dependant on their outworld monsters, meaning that their damage is pitiful indoors. (most exp monsters you do with party are inside.) However, this might not apply on lower levels.
I am forced to admit that Yoz may be correct about this. As levels increase, archery skills do SIGNIFIGANTLY more damage, while melee skills raise damage slowly. Further, since rangers are not terribly focused on constitution, they cannot take a hit nearly as well as a fighter.

Much like rogues in d&d, rangers who are in the front row of a battle are not playing to their strengths. Their dodge and a set of good armor will keep them from being hurt much, but it is terribly ineffective. The monsters that "dont hurt" a ranger are the ones that give no experence (too pitiful for you), and the ones that DO give exp kick a rangers ass. Attacking crazed goblins can litteraly take me longer in melee then killing a deer (3x the exp) with an arrow fight, sneaking and reloading included.

That being said however, people should notice the name of the guide: this is for NEWBIE rangers. at early levels, it is unreasonable to assume that a ranger has archery skills high enough to use them properly, and they have NO access to sneaking. And, at those levels, a ranger with his multiple dodge skills and high dex is nearly as good of a tank as a low level fighter. Theirfore, it is my suggestion that while melee is reasonable at first, and usefull in some situations, a player should move more into archery as their level approaches 30-35, using their armor and melee abilities only when a party is too small for a dedicated ranger or when the party NEEDS a second/third tank.
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Post by hors »

yoz wrote:Elf, once again, insanely good race on all levels. And no, it does not have any problem in seeing almost anywhere. I have played elf templar a lot, and never would've needed any vision enchanting.
even in vaerlon sewers there are at least 2 rooms where elf cant see properly
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yoz
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Post by yoz »

hors wrote:
yoz wrote:Elf, once again, insanely good race on all levels. And no, it does not have any problem in seeing almost anywhere. I have played elf templar a lot, and never would've needed any vision enchanting.
even in vaerlon sewers there are at least 2 rooms where elf cant see properly
yea, and thats pretty much it
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Ranger centaurs

Post by melisande »

Actually centaur SEEMS like it could be a good melee ranger race. Those poopy weapon penalties were removed so they're as good with any weapon as any other race pretty much.

17 str, 14 dex, 17 con (and fairly cheap to train all three, 4-5 each) gives it 48 total there. Dark elf has 44, Elf only 41 total in those 3.

Centaur hpr + epr is 16+24=40. Elf has 38, dark elf (eww!) has only 22 total.

But I think what we're missing here is the mount problem. Centaurs can't ride mounts of any type or size, so soloing the outworld is pretty much out of the picture for them. Except for that Achilles' heel, they'd actually be pretty good melee rangers.
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