Ranger Archive

I originally left ranger about 2 months ago, to get into pvp (see thread: gone is the thrill of the hunt). well, my pvp-stint lasted less than 2 weeks... and I've been back in pve almost exclusively, save for a few friendly duels here and there.

I went TK/Carbine for good melee/ranged combo, and although I loved carbine, I hated pvp, and TK was just too darn useful to abandon. After that I started musician again (was a bard for awhile- ranger/musician no combat skills heh) and picked up some fencer to compliment TK. Now I'm tk/duelist/mch, and facing a hard decision... I've not felt right with my character since leaving ranger. It wasn't necessarily that I felt ranger was all that useful, but it was a part of who my character was.

Currently I'm kind of embarrassed to be a TKM. The members of the forum community are some of the most immature crybabies I've seen. To a large extent. There are a few there that are mature and can handle conversations above the level of ''omg nerffzorz!!''. But for the most part it's just embarassing. That being said, TK is in my opinion the most useful combat profession in game.

Now, on to the part that I need advise/opinions on. I would like to pick up Ranger again, up to Master. Obviously I cannot do TK/CH/Ranger, as then this wouldn't be an issue Also, medical skills are a must-have for me. So, I can do TKM/Ranger + Novice medic and 1 skill, or MCH/Ranger + first aid 4 + diagnostics 4 and 4 leftover points.

Do you think I can thrive as a ranger without having any direct combat capabilities? I imagine I could get by relying on my pets, especially if I can /conceal and stay out of the fray altogether. I thank you all in advance for your opinions and advise

While I'm not a Ranger yet, I believe I have some beneficial opinions. I think while Ranger is a great idea that in and of itself it seems extremely lacking in certain areas, now I'm just going by what I look at almost daily in my skill tree to figure out what best will suit myself as skills are concerned.

But in it's current state I think it best to supplement Ranger with combat skills and if you wish pick up medic or ch skills after that. A ranger without combat skills is a bum. Grizzly Adams had a shotgun. If anything I would pick up the skills one of the other Marksmen arenas such as rifleman, carbineer,or pistoleer.

It surprises me though that if you took TK why you chose carbineer? To me TK is up close and personal so to supplement that I figured you would pick pistol, but hey...

Now, since you are TK, can't you use your TK as your weapon? As TK don't you deal death with your hands just as well as a weapon?

Sounds like you know what you want, just need a little nudge

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RazaKuhn wrote:

But in it's current state I think it best to supplement Ranger with combat skills and if you wish pick up medic or ch skills after that. A ranger without combat skills is a bum. Grizzly Adams had a shotgun. If anything I would pick up the skills one of the other Marksmen arenas such as rifleman, carbineer,or pistoleer.

It surprises me though that if you took TK why you chose carbineer? To me TK is up close and personal so to supplement that I figured you would pick pistol, but hey...

Now, since you are TK, can't you use your TK as your weapon? As TK don't you deal death with your hands just as well as a weapon?

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Well, part of what I'm asking (and this is the wrong place for that, surely) is if it's feasable to rely on my pets for damage dealing. And yes, I do plenty of damage as a TK, in fact, TKM is without a doubt in my mind the single strongest PVE profession there is. But that's also boring.

In response to your questioning the combination of TK + Carb, Carbineer was to round my skillset out for pvp. The problem with melee in the GCW is 6 little words: Your target is Out of Range. I had already previously been a gunfighter and a sharpshooter (and even a bounty hunter) so I wanted to try out carbine and see how it was. I really liked it, but I found myself straying away from pvp, and in pve, carbine doesn't even come close to compare to TK, so it became useless to me.

And regarding the ''nudge'', you are right. My next target is MCH/Ranger. I'm just worried about surviving without direct combat skill, and that is really what I wanted opinions on. But like I alluded to earlier, I asked that question in the wrong board. I should have asked that in the CH forum (but they don't like to read posts that aren't about the upcoming *nerf*)

I think what I will do is give the survival an acid test, and try to actually survive without directly fighting. I'll have to have a conceal kit applied to me to properly test it (the pet-master aggro, and how conceal affects it if at all, is huge in this decision).

Why diagnostics4 and FA4, I get along fine with pharm3 alone. At best I could see pharm3 and FA3, to stop bleeding and use stim Cs. I think you are using too many skill points to achieve less.

I would keep the MCH, go Ranger, and drop the medic beyond Pharm 3 and see what points you would have left and play with those.

Just my credits worth

JB

JB

I would need at the very least to have diag 2 + fa 2 for the specials. The idea is to take on a very supportive role, as such, first aid and drag body are very useful skills.

Regarding the difference between first aid 4 and pharme 3, I am assuming that pharme 3 is when you can use experimented down stim C's yes? I've noticed that with low +injury treatment mod, about 1/2 the time I heal for less than what the base healing is on the stim. Assuming the power difference is significant enough to get me to switch to pharm3/fa2/diag2 instead of fa4/diag4 (stim b's that i've been using have 400ish power on average, depending on when i buy them, and i don't know what advanced stim c's have) then I will in fact save 9 points. However, I would have to trim off diagnostics to be able to afford Novice marksman. As such, I don't think that is worth it to me.

I've decided to try out the medic template first (MCH, Ranger, 1/2 medic) and if I am dissatisfied with how that is working, reduce medical skills substantially and get novice marksman and some pistol.

Thanks for your input, I do appreciate it!

If you decide to drop some of the medic line i would actually say grab rifle skills. If you are going to have your pets in there tanking, as long as you pull agro right you can sit back and do some decent mind pool damage to them. I used this tactic because i didnt have enough weapon skills to do enough damage up close so i would rather stay back and do the damage that i can and not get hit. As far as just having your pets, yes you can kill like that but it will be really slow. Also if you haven't, you might want to consider a guild. I know mine does organized hunts every weekend and i find hunting in a group is a lot more fun in addition to a lot of a lot more skills being present to help each other.

Keep TKM, go Master Ranger anddropeverything in medic down to novice(I took diag1 just to use the skill points) because TKM can heal thier own wounds plus stop bleeding and cure poison and disease. When I need a pet to tank I use a mountain krevol lol. It's just too fun knocking a rancor on it's face, killing it in a few hits then harvesting it.

Hiya Jenyme, it has been a while since I have run into you. Of course you have to find the profession that suits you best, but as a Master Creature Handler and Ranger, let me give you my opinions:

I am a creature handler first and foremost, so I will always keep my master box and rely heavily on my pets regardless of my other professions. Currently, using your pets as your only offensive ability is not very viable unless you only take on little stuff or have a strong medic background (or wish to spend a bundle on petstims). One thing to keep in mind is that with the next patch, creature balance is going to be greatly changed. Most pets are losing armor, however some bigger pets will be available for taming. The BE changes look to be very promising as well.

I find the Tracking line incredibly useful for the creature knowledge, tracking and extra harvesting. Wayfaring I could love if it worked against NPCs I have poor faction against.

My last build was Handler, Master Ranger, Novice Pistoleer and the support line. I could back up my pets with a wide assortment of damage types and faired very well. I could have taken Medic to be even more self-sufficient, but I wanted to reach Master Ranger after taking and dropping skills from it so many times.

One thing you might consider is just taking the Wayfaring and Tracking lines from Ranger. While the camps are nice, they really don't add that much at the moment. Trapping -- well, I don't need to talk about that to a former Ranger. Those points would definately let you diversify a bit more.

If you have your heart set on being a Master Ranger, then I am afraid something will have to give. Soon being anything below a Master Creature Handler will probably not be worth the investment in skill points. You can get by without excessive combat skill but you will probably want some (phase 2 and 3 of the combat changes may make it more viable at low levels). Medical skills are useful, but not necessary if you have a large number of stalwart pets you can switch around.

Finding the balance, like always, will be a matter of choice and experimentation. Good luck in finding it. If you need training and are around Alya'Starn, look me up.

Lantyssa

I just became master ranger. The rest of my points go to bh 0-4-0-3. Although there are better templates for combat, I can tell you I can hold my own. In PvP I have confuse shot and knockdown shot, and can still deliver huge amounts of damage with the Lightning canon. Works great for PvE as well.

The only drawback, is you better finish the fight asap or be ready to run like hell because there is no room for medic with this template.

Good luck

I am a master TK working to master ranger (3223). To me, the skills don't seem to compliment each other well. Ranger seems like it is most suited to pair up with rifle as a companion combat skill. TKs fill certain roles. They are great tanks for groups and they are fun to solo PvE. If you drop fencer for ranger, realise it is going to severely gimp your defense. I recently did this and my melee defense went from 106 to 67. I am not as effective a tank and cannot take on high level creatures solo anymore as a result. I use to get level 25 missions from terminals, but now I can only get level 17. If you want a good compliment to TK, Master Brawler is a must, but I also recommend fencer, pistol, commando, doctor, or a combination of their novice skills.

The good thing that I see in combining ranger with TK is that they aren't compatible, which means you can play two different playstyles. I was a master dancer also when I first mastered TK and it was nice to be able to do something other than bash critters once in awhile.

So in the end, do whatever you have fun with.

Thanks for the opinions guys, I appreciate it

Some of you missed the boat I think though... TK is out. I've been TKM for about 2 months now, it's old news. I've been a TKMRanger, and to the person who said it's not a good combo, I am not quite sure what they are talking about TKM can take out nearly any creature in the game. I think TK is the ultimate PVE profession, and Ranger is the ultimate PVE support profession. Just my opinion. I'm sure all the other TKMR's or former TKMR's will agree (^_^)

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: TK is a perfect compliment to Ranger. That doesn't mean that Ranger is a perfect compliment to TK. There are other professions that will compliment TK better, like Doc, any ranged profession, Creature Handler... But for a compliment to Ranger, TK is the best at killing creatures there is. I've been a Ranger/pistoleer and a Ranger/rifleman. Taking 1/2 melee damage while dealing out 500-600 DPS you just can't compete with.

The reason I'm making a change is not because I want to solo nightsister spell weavers, rancors, and force sensitive crypt crawlers. Been there, done that. I want to take on a more supportive role, and group more. For me the game is only fun for so long. Then when it gets boring/repetitive, I have to shake it up with a template change. For too long I've been the lone wolf, out on dathomir all by my lonesome. And grouping I was always the main tank. I'm bored with that. It's time to shake it up. And so, I'm moving into the background, completely changing my playstyle.