Hello to all the current rangers out their, currently i have been playing a sorcerer going to wizard and the class has just not really lived up to what i hoped it had, so in cause and effect i am going to change to a scout to predator to ranger. I played as a ranger in eq1 and loved it. Now my question has to do with 1-20 leveling and beyond, For one how hard is the ranger quest? What kind of armor should i be using from 1 to 20? What kind of weapons? Should i be increasing my bow abilities and upgrading them and such, And finally what kind of bow should i get for 1-20 and then when i turn ranger? Sorry if thats alot of questions but i am avast a misguided aspiring ranger. All your help much appreciated.
It's definitely good to ask a lot of questions, and I'm sure we'll all try to answer them as well as we can, though the there is no one answer to any of them. First off, you might want to post this in the Predator forum, there are a lot more active people in there than in the Rangers forum, since it deals specifically with the levels you're curious about. Ok, lets see here... The ranger quest is no harder than any other subclass quest, and can be done in a night without too much stress. You can start it, as with all subclass quests, at level 18. The questgiver is Aryell Silvertongue on the docks in Qeynos Harbor (He's short, so you might miss him, ask a guard for directions ). The reward is Arrels bow of Alacrity, which is an upgrade to the bow you should be using through your teens, Gregors Old Bow (quest for Gregor Earthstrider in Eldaar woods; North East archery shop, inside by the fire. He asks you to kill something like 7 antonican hawks in the Forest Ruins -- that bow with level 15 backshot and Iron arrows can land hits for upwards of 100). The harder quest is the Tradelink armor quest -- You'll want a full group of 20's and it'll take you more than one night to finish this one off. It starts with Ian outside of The Cache, and Kagara has already submitted an excelent post with the armors stats, or you can look on EQ2Players for the stats. But you can't pick that up until level 20, no sooner. From 1 - 10 you'll be using the armor you picked up on the Island of Refuge. Around level 10 you should have Sneak upgraded to App2, the easiest armor quest I've found is the quest for Wonkel Worked Sleeves (upper arm) which you pick up from (Agnar?) Tinmizer in Baubbleshire. Get the quest, go into the forest ruins to the elemental castle and sneak up the stairs across the bridge and into the area of yellow cons. Make sure your sneak works on them before running in there, or you'll get flayed. Once in, go to the right of the fountain with all the baddies in it, walk to the base of the stairs in front of you, and you'll get credit for discovering the "mages tower" and a quest journal update. Go back, get sleeves, live long and prosper. The other good armor quests are from North Qeynos, on your map it's the shop that has a green robe over it. Talk to the two women in there, you get a quest to kill bears in Oakmyst and Antonica...these are a little higher level, you get leggings and sleeves again. For the rest of your kit, wear Cordovan armor that registers as Light -- should be 6 - 10s each. We can't wear medium until level 20. As far as bow abilities, arrows are really pretty affordable if you make sure to loot everything and sell everything, I started using a bow around level 14 and got my Ranged and Bow skills up to scratch pretty quickly (by 17 or so) just using the bow sporadically. In the teens you can sometimes do 200 damage in 10 seconds by hitting Shadowblade then backing up to do Backshot (assuming you're in a group). Of course, you better have evade at App III or adept 1 if you do this, because you'll probably earn yourself aggro. So yes, bows are worthwhile in the teens, no reason to wait till you're a ranger to start using them. They just get BETTER after you make ranger. Good luck!
Start it. It's a REALLY straightforward quest. "Kill 5 of these, 10 of those, 10 of those, then come back" -- if you've been exp'ing in Antonica for the last 10 levels, you won't have ANY problems with it. The quest comes from Ian, outside the Cache (where you did your level 10 Adventurer class quest) and cannot be accessed until level 20. He won't even talk to you till you hit 20.
