Group content - How do Rangers fare?

Hiya,
me and a group of friends are playing at Mangler currently at Ldon, progressing to GoD in a couple weeks.

My question is:
I've rolled a Ranger, but how is the Ranger's dps compared to other dps classes in PoP/GoD Era, and will they at any point in this era be able to solo well?
We are not planning on raiding, just doing group content.

Very high dps with bow during PoP. You have to have the bow AAs.

You cant solo really. I mean you can but the exp is like 1/10th of what you will get in a group.

Rangers are number 1 DPS in PoP and still good in GoD outside of burn fights which Monk/Zerks crush them in

Rangers are hands down the best Solo Class in PoP and GoD.

This is all great feedback
They seem very weak atm compared to monks at our level, but i suppose just stick with it, level up, get them AA's and see how it goes
Weird how the first reply was that rangers cant solo really, and then its the best solo class.

Changes to the live game made monks your go-to-OP "flavor of the month" Melee DPS on TLP.
Monks benefited way more than any other melee-capable class from those live game changes.
They will be like that for a very big portion of the expansions on TLP so really just don't compare your DPS to theirs it will only make you sad.
Prior to those changes (before 2008 when I quit live anyway) Rangers were excellent DPS & would place just below Rog/Wiz/Ber if played really well, so they certainly can do good numbers.

It's really the EQ and AM3 AAs that make Rangers a great DPS class in that era. It's also nice that you get a dropable PoTime equivalent weapon called Feartherwood Compound Bow.

Thats a really Nice bow
But to compare, monks Will out dps all classes, and i assume rangers are more able to solo though with HS.
Never played a ranger with AA, so i guess stick with it

Thats because the person that said that doesnt have a clue as to what they are talking about. Rangers are no where near the best solo class in pop, or god. Probably not even top 5.

Yeah dude only the best Ranger to ever play EQ but i have no clue what i'm talking about. Necro/Mage can probably solo better from a XP standpoint. But from a being able to kill a hard mob standpoint Rangers are just gods compared to other classes in those expansions.

bbbwahahahah, best ranger to ever play eq. Thats so sad. Nobody, when talking about how well a class can solo, are talking about what mobs can be soloed. Theyre talking about how viable it is to xp with that class, solo. lol wtf. Of course you will say differently, cause you have no integrity, but thats ok.

Nah Rangers should slightly out dps Monks on burn fights in PoP and LDoN. Once GoD drops and monks get Destructive Force AA they slaughter everyone on burn fights.

Rangers should smoke everyone in PoP in sustained DPS like it shouldn't even really be close on the combined parse. Rangers still do okay in GoD and OoW on the sustained DPS charts, but they definitely aren't top dog. Just a good DPS class with great utility IMO.

As far as soloing goes they gutted HS on TLPs so it's not worth it. But once you get raid gear Rangers can just straight up tank and spank solo all group content and can solo previous era raid mobs better then any class in the game including SKs.

The years have been kind to rangers with melee def skill/mitigation table increases etc.
Having only ever played a ranger in 20+ years i an biased though
They are by far one of the most fun and versatile class's in the game.
If your not raiding = buying an elemental bow and get the 30aa or so, and your golden dps wise.
As a tank you might struggle.
Raid geared.
Great tank for group content.
No aggro issues, long range pulling, harmony as well to help pull, root , snare.
Pretty useful all round.

Bow DPS GoD onwards on a burn is still great but bow ratios stay stagnant compared to melee weapons.
PoP ratio of 1 ish, OOW i think epic 2 is like 1.7/1.8 so 70-80% increase
Offhand bow is like 10-15% increase in ratio.

No class in the game can solo well for XP in PoP/GoD with the way things currently work. Every class will get significantly better XP in a groups. Rangers do well in the grinding out AAs solo while they LFG department, crazy how a high DPS class that doesn't die or have to take med breaks can solo well for XP right? Being able to solo loot mobs for $$$ or things you need like aug/spells drops is much more important then being able to solo for XP as you progress into GoD, OoW ect. Rangers are top dog at this until SKs get that sweet OP 2.0 click.

I rarely click my SK 2.0 when soloing/boxing. Lifetaps and lifetap procs in any zone short of RSS in OoW makes most single pulls trivial to a raid geared SK. The 2.0 click is an "Oh S***" button most of the time.

On topic, I have spent many hours on TLPs with a ranger tank (playing alts). Raid geared, so I'm not sure how a group geared ranger will fare in that role. It's a hybrid. Very versatile class. Don't expect to be the best at any one thing, know the class and be able to fill multiple roles, and you'll probably have a ton of fun.

ranger is not a dps class. it's a utility class with high dps. same as beastlord. to do good dps with a ranger takes effort though, just doing pling pling from a distance, or autoattacking in melee range is not enough.

Very true, good Hybrids are almost constantly casting while doing their melee damage & skill abilities so they are a very high-activity class that require good knowledge.

Very easy to be a bad BST or RNG hard to be a great one.

My observations from playing a ranger for the first time on Mangler:

Classic: its classic. early on a fresh server, rangers make the best group tanks imo. all you need is banded and flame lick and its over. grab a smoldering brand and mudman enforcer

Kunark: do epic, level to 60, log off and wait for velious. Kunark is straight garbage. oh, grab a woodsman staff too once the price plummets. cause...

Velious: forget about dual wield. 2h ranger is best ranger. woodsman staff until you can get a Meljedin, https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=5916. chain firestrike or dust devil, laugh as you destroy the dual wielding pleb rangers and compete with monks on any fight either nuke lands on, which i cant think off the top of my head of a fight where neither nuke lands. im sure there is one, but cant remember.

Luclin: Dust off that offhand epic cause its pew pew time.

Planes of Power: more pew pew time. and while yes, on a burn fight you can beat monks, you can only burn once every hour and twelve minutes, whereas monks can burn more than twice as often. so, shrug. just dont try and compare yourself against monks most of the time and you'll be fine. Rangers get an early advantage due to the tradeskill bows, but once monks get their time/xegony fists, its over.

regarding soloing in this era...meh. Ive played time geared paladin, sk and ranger at this point, and its easily SK is the best soloer. the only time its a contest is a paladin in Veskar. but sks can do what paladins can do there anywhere. Ranger is fine, but im disappointed in the amount of damage I take vs light blues still. my Paladin on coirnav could literally pull half of veskar and laugh, where sure my ranger could laugh...until weapon shield fades~ Basically the dps difference between a raid geared knight and ranger vs light blues isnt outmatched by the rangers higher dps and the knights just take so much less damage. you can just pull trains and riposte mobs down on a knight, whereas you need to mvoe from mob to mob on a ranger. unless you wanna go kite in plane of fire or something. rangers CAN kill anything that doesnt summon without much trouble, so theres that. just not a fan of kiting.

thats a bit wall o texty, but eff it.

looking forward to Gates. rangers are fun and viable through every expansion so far, especially if you are willing to think outside the box and go 2hander in kunark and velious. Luclin and early era PoP is the high point in terms of dps vs other classes imo.

Bad Bad Bad

Bruh i was swarming 30+ light blues in that era on my Ranger. Sounds like a you problem

I guess I should click it when I'm at max health, instead of saving it for that "bad" pull where I didn't feel like feigning because I had my OP epic click handy, but I wouldn't have it handy, because I clicked it when I was full health and I had to feign and now I'm waiting for aggro to clear and not blowing stuff up...

lol