Ranger Archive
Thread: Gogo Novice Ranger!
Fred_Skinner wrote:
If you are going rifleman, you can make that last part work, I did. If you drop all the ranged support you can get a CL19 pet to guard you when things all go to crap. Conversly, you could get ranged support up to suppression or some pistol for when they close or a combination of each (if you are dropping the pet, you will need /warningshot)
Warning shot is nice but I find suppression fireeven more useful. Most of the time I can single pull (it's a rifleman skill but it can be a bit buggy sometimes). When wearing camo/masking scent, I get close to 5 shots off before the creature attacks. Then I just suppress it and attack some more. With strafeshot2, most stuff ends up dying before it even has a chance to get close. Even though warningshot can keep them off you indefinately, the damage is really low.
As it is, novice medic or a pet would probably keep me alive longer. I don't recommend pistol skills because you will probably be more effective with your rifle once you get Master Rifleman(even at close range). I chose ranged support mainly because it meant I wouldn't have to rely on other people to keep myself safe. For CH to be useful, you want a nice BE pet and some pet stims (it's extremely powerful to send a pet at a lair and then use an AoE to clear the spawns). For Novice Medic to be useful, you want some nice stims (probably made by an MD). Making your own stims won't be nearly as good (it's the difference between under 100 power stims and over 300 power stims). If you end up wearing armor and/or using buffs, the stims will probably be your best choice. If you don't like wearing armor, the pet is probably the most effective. If you want the best chance of survival without any preperation (including buying stims or calling your pet) then ranged support is nice.
One last thing--taking Rifleman means you will have to master it before you become really useful. Riflemen gain a huge boost at master (namely a huge increase in speed and /strafeshot2). It will be quite a bit of work to get there and you almost certainly need to keep master rifleman. Pistols or Carbines seem to have a bit more use lower in the tree. But it's up to you.
Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server
Well, while we're talking pets, I'd *really* suggest that if you are CH 0-0-0-3 of 0-3-0-0 or whatever, you'd be much much much better off if you just bit the bullet and got that 4th level box. It's only 2 more skill points and in my experience as a CH and BE, there is often a monumental difference between a CL 22 and CL 19 pet. The biggest difference is that at CL 19 you can get a decent pet with decent resists and decent HAM, but at CL 22 you can get a pet with pretty much the same stats except with armor(!). We're talking CL 22, nearly 10k of HAM, nearly 60% kinetic resists. It means that your armored pet will take 50% less damage, you'll have to heal it less, and it can tank bigger things. Basically such a pet can tank almost any single creature and often times several creatures at once. Makes a big big difference when hunting.
TalKurgan wrote:
As a rifleman, I rely on brandy or muon, /concealshot and stims, so novice medic is a must for me.
If you get CH 0003, you will be able to control 2 pets, but their total level will only be 19, so one level 10 and one level 9. I guess BE pets could make that worthwhile, but one level 19 pet might be better.
If you decide to use pets, remember that grouping with them will cut your harvest rate.
Think about going to CH 0400 so you can have more stored pets. Even if you switch to CH 0003 in your final build, you will have more pets to choose from in your datapad. This could save you money on pet stims since you can cycle your pets when they get damaged, and since you can use pets that are appropriate for what you are fighting. Also, you could have pairs of 10's and 9's as well as some 19's.
Whatever you decide, good luck and may the fat and healthy be with you.
GoldMemberBria wrote:
Well, while we're talking pets, I'd *really* suggest that if you are CH 0-0-0-3 of 0-3-0-0 or whatever, you'd be much much much better off if you just bit the bullet and got that 4th level box. It's only 2 more skill points and in my experience as a CH and BE, there is often a monumental difference between a CL 22 and CL 19 pet. The biggest difference is that at CL 19 you can get a decent pet with decent resists and decent HAM, but at CL 22 you can get a pet with pretty much the same stats except with armor(!). We're talking CL 22, nearly 10k of HAM, nearly 60% kinetic resists. It means that your armored pet will take 50% less damage, you'll have to heal it less, and it can tank bigger things. Basically such a pet can tank almost any single creature and often times several creatures at once. Makes a big big difference when hunting.
TalKurgan wrote:
As a rifleman, I rely on brandy or muon, /concealshot and stims, so novice medic is a must for me.
If you get CH 0003, you will be able to control 2 pets, but their total level will only be 19, so one level 10 and one level 9. I guess BE pets could make that worthwhile, but one level 19 pet might be better.
If you decide to use pets, remember that grouping with them will cut your harvest rate.
Think about going to CH 0400 so you can have more stored pets. Even if you switch to CH 0003 in your final build, you will have more pets to choose from in your datapad. This could save you money on pet stims since you can cycle your pets when they get damaged, and since you can use pets that are appropriate for what you are fighting. Also, you could have pairs of 10's and 9's as well as some 19's.
Whatever you decide, good luck and may the fat and healthy be with you.
The problem here is that he wants Master Rifleman and Master Ranger. While it would be great if we could get 2 more skill points, he'd need to drop something to do it. Right now, Master Ranger might not be as useful as the extra pet levels but most people don't choose it for usefulness anyway. As for Master Rifleman, I'd argue he is much better off with that than 3 pet levels. There is actually quite a big difference between even 4/4/4/4 Rifleman and Master. The speed boost takes you from shooting at less than one shot a second with a standard T21 in autoattack to being able to use most specials at one shot a second. As it is, a Master Rifleman shouldn't need a pet to kill most stuff. I don't have much trouble with CL 50 creatures (as long as they are not resisting my gun by an insane amount--be very sure to have several damage types available, I carry 13 guns with 4 damage types).
Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server
Nemo0 wrote:
The problem here is that he wants Master Rifleman and Master Ranger. While it would be great if we could get 2 more skill points, he'd need to drop something to do it. Right now, Master Ranger might not be as useful as the extra pet levels but most people don't choose it for usefulness anyway.
astounding responce, I thank you all for this.
I'm deadset on master ranger. I want that tag. Additionally, with the speedbonuses for master rifleman, I'm pretty much deadset on that. I don't solo much, at all. Infact, I haven't solo'd since my first day in game while I did basic leveling until my buddies came on. I'm a team kind of guy.
Ranged support is interesting. Since I group with 2 pistolers and a carbine, and rifles ONLY good attacks, I've found, so far, is all mind attacks, which is useless, I usually lay down Overcharge, Warning, Overcharge, Warning, ect ect. Can't wait to finally pick up some useful rifle specials.
As for CH, I'm glad for all the feedback. I know next to nothing for it, and I trust the opinions I'll recieve. Keep in mind, I group with a bounty hunter, a master droid engineer (Whose suppilying us all with R3's if we want them), and a master combat medic. A good all around group, I think. With Advanced R3's avaible to me... would CH be worthwhile anyway?
Enbow wrote:
astounding responce, I thank you all for this.
I'm deadset on master ranger. I want that tag. Additionally, with the speedbonuses for master rifleman, I'm pretty much deadset on that. I don't solo much, at all. Infact, I haven't solo'd since my first day in game while I did basic leveling until my buddies came on. I'm a team kind of guy.
Ranged support is interesting. Since I group with 2 pistolers and a carbine, and rifles ONLY good attacks, I've found, so far, is all mind attacks, which is useless, I usually lay down Overcharge, Warning, Overcharge, Warning, ect ect. Can't wait to finally pick up some useful rifle specials.
As for CH, I'm glad for all the feedback. I know next to nothing for it, and I trust the opinions I'll recieve. Keep in mind, I group with a bounty hunter, a master droid engineer (Whose suppilying us all with R3's if we want them), and a master combat medic. A good all around group, I think. With Advanced R3's avaible to me... would CH be worthwhile anyway?
OK. So Master Ranger it is. As for CH, you don't seem to have a good tank in that group. If you are not dead set on Rifleman, you might want to try a melee profession or CH to give your group some extra protection (with MCH, you can get 3 rifle skills as well which makes you quite effective and you can pull much higher missions). A melee profession would require getting the low level xp again, though. You probably can get CH already. As for good rifle attacks, there are several non-mind only ones (every tree but the first). And suppression fire does a nice amount of damage without ruining your gun
. Squad Leader can also be a big help if you are always grouped (the melee and ranged defense is really nice and the group terrain negotiation might save the DE some skill points). There are really a ton of options here, though. I can see where rifleman/ranger comes in. But Ranger/CH can be nice as well (I did that for a while, just make sure your group understands about your pets--I really hated how people treated my pets like dirt so I ended up dropping it). As for advanced R3s, a good BE pet at CL 19 will easily beat it. But the droids are really cool. But I'm just starting to ramble now. Pick professions that you like. You can make anything work (and, if you are dead set on Master Ranger, you don't seem to care that much about your skill points anyway
).
lol Well, our DE is tired of his droids being used as tanks (the definition of a "Tank" is a wheeled armored vechile, sent into battle to take the brunt of the assult... what did he expect droids to be? lol) so he's dropping pistol and taking up TKA. Probably should've mentioned that.
I actually considered SquadLeader but I heard they were more broke than Rangers. And, to get SquadLeader, I'd need to sacrifice a master somewhere, since I'd need 2 trees from scouting, and the ranged support (which I've almost completed). Maybe I'll snag Squad Leader and see how I like it. I don't have to make too many huge decisions until I've run out of skill points anyway.
I'm pretty much shying back away from CH.. I think I'd need to sink more points into it to be effective in my group. And with our droids and our TKA, may be unnecessary. Guess I'll go ranged support and take up Squad Leader.
Thanks for the advice! I'll keep you all posted
Ranged support is useless., as are any boxes outside of riflemant.
Get all the points you can in Rifleman. The better you are in one weapon, the better you are in the long run. I went totally Pistoleer, mastered it, scout and Ranger, and had enought skill points left over for novice medic plus a box, and have 1 whole happy point left over.
the voice of experience, dropping torturs like they were durnis .... where is Fred anyhow?
JB
Yep, mastering Pistoleer here as well as mastering Ranger, but... then also mastering Squad Leader... wait...no.. I can't!
Arrrrghhh, decisions!
One tip I do have, marry a Master Doc, and get her to follow you round giving you buffs and heals, it worked for me.