Ranger Archive

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Jaszul wrote:

I'm a little confused on those saying "I am Master Ranger, CH, pistoleer, or other professions." I am 4/3/4/4 Ranger, 3/2/2/2 CH, and 4/0/0/0 Rifle and only have 4 skill pts left. Something is not adding up. I would love to be Master Ranger, CH and have enough rifle skills to hold my own form a distance, but i don't see it possible with the limited amount of skills available.

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Sounds like you have some points tucked away somewhere then. After dumping Master Marksman I have enough to have novice Medic until I need the points in CH and the remainer will be 1 or 2 skill points. Add it again bro.

The tracking line gives the bonuses to harvesting.

Personally I went for the pistols skills with my Ranger as I found it annoying that dropping things with the rifle normally meant that I had to get up and walk 40-50m to harvest it before I could start on the next target as the body's vanish too quickly.

At least with the pistol they tend to drop at my feet.

Lazy? I guess so....

Not lazy.......smart. The decay rate is set to short. If you clear our 6 or 7 critters and then try to harvest them....you slose a couple to decay. So that means a few units of whatever wasted.

Since becoming a Master Ranger (mid august last year) I have tried several combat combos. Here are my opinions.

Pistoleer- worked the pistols tree to Pistoleer to stopping shot and pistol whip. The grind didna seem that bad. You can kill quickly and harvest as you kill, providing you remain targeted on your kill till it is dead, hit your harvest macro button then, target next kill. Fast and efficient, but if you are working high level mobs or aggro social mobs, you get yer ass kicked if you get too close, your pets die, or the mob decides to target you instead of your pets.

Then I decided to try Rifles in an attempt to distance myself from the critters. So I dumped all pistol skills.

Rifleman- worked the marksman rifle tree to Novice Rifleman. Seemed to be a very long grind. It is a great combat skill AFTER Novice Rifleman, where the other mods come into play. (speed, accuracy, etc.) There was lots of downtime to heal, both from getting beat up and the mind drain. If you get some CH and get a decent tank you have little skill points left to go too far into Mastering Rifles. and you still have to run 50m or so and get your harvest before it decays. Still got mobbed alot, and still not happy with the combination.

So went back to pistols for the speed. Ground my way back to Pistoleer 0-0-3-1 with some CH, with a couple months playing time to say i was fairly good at hunting. Yet there was still something missing.

At this point I have to tell you that the above fun was had BEFORE there were Holos, before there were Master Docs buffing anyone, before the CH patch, so you could work a couple CH trees to get a decent tank.(although at the time I planned to master CH { and am just now at CH 4-4-3-3} you could invest skill points more strategically.), Before there were Chefs makin Uber food and drinks, Before BEs could make Krayts and Kimos, before mounts and vehicles...Before there were huge groups to help get you XP...now you cannot go into the Krayt boneyard without running into half a dozen groups vying for the next dragon that pops from a pile of bones. I am not sayin the good ole days...just the Different ole days.

Then all the nerfing began...(whole nother days worth of typing) suffice it to say my pistol wasn't enough, and I couldn't have my 2 GSPs out to help me anymore, so I was gettin beat up again.

So I decided to take up TKA. Although I don't have enough skill points to Master it, after I master CH and can finally hunt with my matched pair of Huurton Stalkers for awhile, I will probably give up most of CH so I can Master TKA. At the skill level I am TKA 0-1-3-0 , and my critters..I still get the crap beat outta me but it seems to be more fun. I now usually hunt with a good bud or 3 so it is a bit more time efficient. there is still the DECAY RATE BUG, so you tend to lose a kill or so hunting this way if it takes you some time to take down the first spawn from a lair, or you get mobbed and you fight for a few minutes before you can harvest. Being a Master Ranger TKM seems to be a good combo for Master Rangers who like close in combat. And it provides a decent PVP, GCW skill set.

( Gelotri...at pistoleer 0-0-3-1,I rarely used the ranged support tree from marksman, ie warning or threaten shot. Dumping those skills gave me more skill points to put into CH or Pistoleer, or even Medic. Also if you use Threaten or Warning shot while hunting in a group, you force the critter away from other members who may be in Melee combat. Forcing them to chase said critter all over the place, so stop it will ya.... :-)

that is my 5cr worth.

sorry for the length...

CharlsWhiteFeet

Master Ranger

Forging the Path

The grind to Master Rifleman is tough... BUT when you get there, nothing comes close for hunting.

When I was a Pistoleer and a Rifleman at the same time, trying to decide which to pursue, things were so much easier with the pistol. Soloing rontos and banthas was no problem using bodyshots, healthshots and warningshot. HOWEVER... as I graduated to some higher MOBs, I was getting wasted because warningshot was working less and less. I worked it with traps for a while, but then I just out of the blue decided that from a roleplaying standpoint, Rifleman just fit better.. so I tuffed it out, through the long grind and I have to tell you there is no doubt its the best for hunting.

I have screenshots of my combat window where I have done up to 7000 dmg using a dmg sliced laser rifle, dmg powerup, and /strafeshot2. I went to Dantooine the other night solo and within 3 hours I had about made about 45,000 credits and collected about 15,000 units of various hides. I am a muon junkie, no doubt, but as Master Rifleman I am able to solo anything on that planet without being touched for the most part. I can fire mindshot bleeds followed with headshots so fast that the creature drops before he has a chance to aggro and with muon and mind food, I can take down and entire picket lair in couple of minutes. If I have a CH friend along with a decent tank.. the carnage is unreal. I stand back at 55m, he sends his pet against the lair and I /strafeshot2 (which is an AOE shot) like mad, dropping the MOBs, hitting the lair, dropping the spawning MOBs.. all without ever stopping firing. Its a sight to see. I even amazed myself last night when I got crazy with a wild lair spawn of Tusk Cats on Rori. Not an overly tough MOB, but I just went prone at about 60 meters and starting shooting the lair.. as they aggro'd and came at me.. they were entering my cone of fire and they all died. 60seconds later.. Pathe 12 - Tusk Cats 0. Game Over.

Ranger is a problematic class. To master, you use a lot of skill points and don't get much in return. Without a doubt the increased harvest and tracking ability are the best skills, and thankfully they come in the same tree. You could be a very effective hunter by NOT Mastering Ranger and picking up some CH, but Bio-Engr'd pets make some good CL10 pets today anyway. You don't need an uber tank.. you just need something to stay alive long enough for you to go nuts with your rifle. I like having Novice Medic too (its kinda BS that non-Medics cant use low-level stims).

As it is, the only reason I want a tank pet is to speed up the harvest. I can do fine on my own with pretty much everything on every planet except Endor and Dathomir and those are workable with some smarts. But with a tank pet, you can get all the MOBs aggroed on your pet and blast them all at once with AOE shots.

Well, I am rambling on now... sorry... but for sheer resource gathering, Master Rifleman / Master Ranger can't be touched.

It seems to be more high level stuff, and just more in general. Rori was a graveyard before, talus was close. Now granted I've not been around nearly as long as others here so I can't comment on how the current spawn rates really compare to the full past of this game.

Just before the publish 12 spawn increase I made a 10 km trek across Rori and saw 2 npcs, nothing else. And I was stoping every 500 m to track just to see if I got lucky. I went back just after and it was much better. Talus also. There where spawns on both that I was hunting at the time, so it was nice. I can't say either were hopping like Endor, but I think that's the way they meant it to be.

I spend a lot of down time on Tat, so I can say for sure it's changed a lot. Random Squill lairs are much easier to find. And the number of lairs in any given area is much higher. My main house is just out side of Eisley about 600 m from the ranch. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head I haven't seen with in 50 m of my house since publish 12 are Canaibal Dewbacks, Banthas, and Krayts.

More NPCs to, I'm really glad I had Ranger befor all of this. My thug faction is -5000 so with out camo kits I don't think I could go any where with out geting pwned.

Since publish 12 I've been killed twice by GDKs spawning on me in the middle of nowhere on Lok. Just standing around and BAM "You've be slain by..." Good times, keeps you on your toes.