Just started and was looking for any guides or threads regarding leveling a Ranger but couldn't find any. Anyone have a link on how to spend AA while leveling a Ranger and maybe the best "rotation" or skills to use? It is kind of overwhelming right now. Also, is it best to just leave the XP/AA slider at 50%? I'm free-to-play if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance.
You can go to http://u.eq2wire.com/ and look up other rangers and their AA specs. Having a melee centric build for soloing/leveling used to be the thing way back but now that you can range attack at maximum melee range its really not needed. If I had to level up a ranger again I would basically head towards what top level rangers have now in terms of AA. Get a shield (unless you find a offhand weapon with much better stats) and a good bow, set your auto attack to default to ranged and get AA's that boost your DPS the most.
Thanks for the info. How do you set auto attack to default to ranged? Also, if i get 1h + shield, does the dps matter much on the 1h or am i just looking for stats?
Also, i was looking up top rangers on eq2wire.com but the problem is they all have 320/320 AA, so i have no idea what tree to take first let alone what specific AAs.
ok here is what you want to to... start in your predator tree... mind you this is a leveling specc i recommend not a end game specc.. got one point into bounty,, the fill the middle tree 4, 10 this will boost your HP which will help with your survial..next goto the ranger tab fill it like you see it on u.eq2wire.com since it is basicly cookie cut for the most part once that is done go back to the predator tree and respec it.. put 1 into bounty, 4 in the center, 8 into the HP.. then starting from the left fill the first 2 trees intil you getthe end lines.both should look like this 4,8,10.1 after that start on the shadows tree if your high enough level and follow any rangers specc for that since it is also cookie cut for the most part. as well as heroic tab... thats it.. for a soloing ca order just auto attack hit snaring shot as it comes to you just spam ca's while letting your auto trigger should be fine there
Everything Uncle said is good. You can change your auto attack under 'Options' when you open your character sheet. It will be all the way at the bottom in a drop down box under 'Auto Attack Mode' Alternatively you can use the commands. "/setautoattack 1" to always melee, "/setautoattack 2" to always range, without the quotes of course. "/setautoattack 0" to go back to default.
Thanks again for the info. Couple more questions if you have the time: 1) While leveling up is it best just to keep the slider at 50%? That's all i've been doing so far up to lvl 16 and i currently have 19 AA. 2) I can't seem to find where to buy poisons? I'm check all the vendors and no luck. Is this only craftable by players? 3) As far as bows go, what am i looking for? Highest rating i can find? Fast/slow? 4) Uncle, one part is confusing with what you said. You say to initially go 4/10 for the HP in Predator and then later say to respec. However, you then say to immediately put 4/8 back in the exact same nodes to get health. Was that accurate? Are you just doing that to save 2 points in health?
1 - That should be fine. Personally I would be a bit more biased to getting regular levels since other things will still get you AA exp whiling leveling up like quests and exploration. 2 - I'm sure there is a vendor some where that sells poisons but they will be pitiful compared to even cheap player crafted ones. So I would just some player made ones. 3 - Generally you want a bow with the highest top end damage but I'm not sure how that would apply to lower levels where stats are very different. A slow bow with a high DR should be plenty for leveling up though, you can worry about min/max later when you aren't replacing them constantly while leveling. 4 - I believe that was his intention. I'm sure if you just go with 4/8 from the start and just don't worry about respecing you should be fine.
As a f2p you have no option to move your slider from 50:50 anyway, so don't worry about it unless you're going gold. Multiattack is your best stat. Concentrate on getting that as high as possible and your crit chance up to 100. It will be difficult pre 90 but it's possible to get around 100 multiattack and 80% crit chance at lower levels. 100 multiattack will give you an extra hit with your bow and every time you get a critical hit (if you have 100% it will be every hit) then you double your damage. With regards to AA, a ranger is pretty straightforward. All you really want is to kill things as fast as possible so they die before you do. So pick AAs that improve your combat abilities (CAs) and improve your base damage (like multiattack, crit chance, etc). If you find you can't stand toe to toe with a mob and kill them before they kill you, then take advantage of your snares (your spell plus rear shot and snaring shot), to slow their run speed while you pepper them with arrows from outside of melee range. You can also use Thorny Trap to set up a root trap they run into that keeps all mobs rooted in area until they get hit a few times, which can be useful if there's a group of them that you can't kill in one go but can pick them off one by one.
Also, you may not be aware of the autoattack timer bar. This shows when you're going to autoattack next. If you're about to and cast a combat ability or spell, it will delay the autoattack, which is bad. You can find it in the options tab under user interface, game windows section. Make sure that's on so you can time your ability attacks while it's refreshing.
Just a couple more questions: 1) I just hit level 30 and still haven't found a vendor that sells poisons, so i still haven't used them. Since i'm free-to-play, i can't buy any off the AH either. Is it even worth using vendor bought poisons? Do they make that much of a difference to your damage while questing/leveling? Currently i'm using two tokens with nice stats instead of poisons and it seems to work out ok. I can take on mobs 3-4 levels above me and not come close to dying and every single piece of gear i have is just from quest rewards. 2) What is the fastest way to level? I've just been questing and it seems to be pretty slow since i'm just now 30 and the cap is 95. I've been queued in the dungeon finder for literally hours on end and it has never popped, so i have no idea if doing instances is faster. Thanks.
1 - I wouldn't worry too much about poisons leveling up. They would help but you aren't missing a huge chunk of your DPS (from what I remember anyway). If you did get some you can use them from your inventory so you could keep your 'tokens', I assume you mean charms, and still use poisons. 2 - You are locked 50/50 in F2P iirc so you are literally leveling at half speed but you are getting AA so its not a loss or anything, just makes it slower if you are shooting for cap. No one uses the DF because its terrible (the devs would have you believe its terrible because no one uses it but that's another discussion). You are better off trying to find something in 1-9 level chat if you want to group. No harm in queuing up though, you might get lucky.
Your first time through, will be slower, as you get accustomed to the story and lore, the interface, the general mechanics, and the class specific mechanics. As far as rushing to the top end, that's fine, and somewhat natural considering that's where a lot of the action seems to be, but I would recommend enjoying what's immediately in front of you while you can. It's only really new one time, even when you find new things about the old hat the second or third go around. The story and the quests can be compelling, if you pay enough attention to what the NPC's are telling you. But of course that's not everyone's cup of tea. And there are different ways to look at the AA's you are earning. Yes, earning them while leveling will 'slow' the adventure level progress somewhat, but adding the AA's will make you more powerful, so things will be slightly to much easier to handle as your adventure level grows because of the extra power behind those existing skills, and some new skills you wouldn't otherwise have. Another benefit is you will have a much deeper knowledge of how your chosen class works by having more, and earlier use out of those AA's. Some you may not get to exercise as well as they could be, but those are probably the exception. Third, when you approach the adventure level cap, there is a hard minimum AA requirement to progress further. So to cap out, sooner or later you will need those AAs. The major counterpoint to this is, the concentration of the population is towards the upper end of levels at this stage in the game's life. Meaning, you will probably encounter and participate directly with less people until your adventure level advances sufficiently. Having more people around may make it easier to do certain things, like heroic grouping. Of course this isn't necessary, and isn't necessarily the fastest way to level with the tools that are available.
Thanks again for the responses, especially Neiloch. I didn't realize you could use poisons from your inventory, i thought you had to either pick poisons or charms (i called them tokens because the two charms i'm using are called "Token of..."), so thanks for that. I finally found some vendor ones from the Alchemist. And yes, i forgot my bar was locked 50/50, that explains that.
The sheild option is that...an option. Ive dual weilded since i rolled, and have never had an issue. I prefer 2 swords to a sword and sheild. of course more damage faster, just make sure your armor can handle it. Plus if ur mercing than that will help too. pull with the bow, and then pull out the swords when they are on you. if they are still alive that is also, become a woodworker, and you can make bows, or at least you can make your own arrows whenever you need em.
Once they remove minimum range on bows there will be ZERO reason to use melee auto attack over ranged auto attack if you are properly equipped.
are they removing that? is that so you can fire farther away or fire when you are right on them? i hate "too close" lol
Can someone please link me to recommended Ranger AA's for leveling? I was looking at eq2wire but couldn't figure out how to look up random max level Rangers.
