Ranger Archive

I'm working up pikeman, and going to try ranger. has anyone tried this before? I mastered scout once, then dropped it, but I really enjoyed it so I'm mastering again to try ranger. I use traps pretty frequently, really think there effects are pretty good. As I understand it rangers get a trap that causes dizzy in an AOE, I think this would be very useful with pikeman, as pikeman has an AOE kd. Anyone tried this? Does it work well?

I have been tempted to take Pikeman after I am through with Rifleman. Pikeman rips in PvE (though I am sure you know this). When I hunt with Pikeman friends I dont even bother fighting - I just run around and harvest the bodies.

Trapping really depends on what you want to trap. It is difficult to land one on higher level creatures. I can usually get one in 5 to land on an ancient rancor (this was several months ago though lol - the universe is ever changing). I have never heard of anyone who has managed to trap a full grown krayt. T

here is also quite a delay on traps. As a ranged fighter I am usually too busy running for my life to stop. pause. throw. start running again. With a melee profession it might work though. You stop just within trapping range of a mob. By the time you have hucked a trap onto all of them they are on top of you and you can bludgeon them to death. I can see how it could work well. If you like strategy hunting I think this could be fun. It sounds like you know enough about traps to make them useful and fun to you. And Ranger does have some nice trap effects. For those with the patience to use them (not me ).

Right now I'm fighting within my trapping level. I was able to land traps on piket longhorns, cl37 at trapping4.

The delay for traps isn't to bad. Often I initiate the combat with my glow-wire to lower the defense, and I usually also throw a bone spur for the blind effect. Blind is very useful, less the mob hits you the better you are. With all the melee defense bonuses plus some trap state effects, a mob is hard pressed to hit a melee/ranger.

I'm think I'm going to start a thread to see if we can compile information on exactly what traps do. Some are obvious like the state effects applied, some are not so obvious. Take glow wire. I know it lowers combat defense. But what does that actually mean? Do it increase my to hit chance so I can land more attacks? Does it actually lower a monsters resists? Lower its defensive mods? Is there set number that it lowers? Random? Does it increase with you trapping skill? I know that trap quality wouldn't effect it, seeing as how there really is no trap quality. A trap is a trap.

Lol.. I was about to post this same message. I'm rifle/ranger since the concealshot stacks really well, and was always curious about pikeman. If anyone has this as their template, how do you like it?

I am one box away from master pikeman... and i really enjoy it.

Firstly, I think I have a soft spot for underdog professions, since the pikemen dont get a lot of love and new weapons, however....

The damage in pikeman is quite nice, its not uncommon for me to exceed 1200 pts in damage in PvE with a player crafted weapon. Once you get up in the skill boxes, you stop noticing how naturally slow they are.

Some of the bugs are that area attack 1 and 2 arent that much different than the other area attacks. Also, horrible horrible accuracy, dont be surprised if you miss 4 or 5 times in a row when you are starting out.

The defenses arent great, but its offensive ability is quite nice.

The attacks are stylish and flashy, and you look damn good when you are killing critters.

As it relates to ranger, its not a better or worse fit than either TKM, Swords, or Fencer... I have done all of the melee profs, and so far, I like pike the best.

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jassi007 wrote:
As I understand it rangers get a trap that causes dizzy in an AOE, I think this would be very useful with pikeman, as pikeman has an AOE kd. Anyone tried this? Does it work well?

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Unfortunately it doesn't work as one would hope.

Dizzy doesn't work right on creatures. A dizzy+posture change doesn't knock them down, and if you dizzy+kd them they'll get right back up.

Some say a dizzy creature won't use their special attacks, but I found otherwise. Hehe, one time even got my friend diseased by a Bull Rancor cause I thought the dizzy would have prevented it.

So, in Reality the sonic pulse traps don't do anything at all, which is really quite a shame since it's the highest level trap in the game.

Don't let it stop you from becoming a Ranger though, I'm a Ranger Swordsman and can take just about anything and I imagine pikeman would do very well too.

Also, not sure how much this matters to you, but the Ranger community is awesome. I think the one of the best communities in the game.

Pikeman is definitly a fun PvE profession. I'm now at the point to have done every melee profession in this game (pikeman isn't mastered yet but very close .. ), Swordsman and Pikeman are clearly my favorites for PvE.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm still loving my pike. Got to 2002 pike yesterday, and only 30k xp from the first box in defensive techniques. Also just have to grind out survival4 and I can have novice ranger!