Hi all, I still love playing a ranger, and want to keep building. I had my TSO AA lines down well and casting orders. Now I feel like I'm starting over! So, it looks like our main stat now is agility. Is there a secondary stat we should focus on besides wisdom for resists? I sort of went agility line and poison again. What end line SF things are people going for with AAs now for max dps? I'd hate missing something obvious for dps as I'm definitely not a math wiz. Thanks much, Silk
Silkmyst wrote: well ya need the str line now for the crit as it affects both ranged and melee now....
I know, i mean str only helps the amount we carry now, but we need the str line for the crit. I also went down the wisdom line for the threat reduciton though i am only 61, the groups i am running with, I am using Evade and the primary strike as my 3rd and 4th down the chain because I snap aggro when assisting the MTs pretty quick. I know it is not a prefered line but if i am a live i can help kill the mobs faster is my philosophy.
I for one chose AGI first, then STR and INT. With the new extra AAs you can use all 3. But AGI first. Never considered using WIS at all. I used gear to up resists, mostly because I used diff gear for diff situations and wanted to be able to switch it out as needed. INT still works with the poisons, which every scout should be using.
Silkmyst wrote: I think STA should be higher priority than WIS. AGI>STA>WIS the other's do not matter at all unless you are somehow carrying a rediculously high weight of items.
well, with the aa's (and forgive me if I am misunderstanding here) the only one that grants any stat bonus is the first one, bounty. +4 to agi and stam/point spent in bounty So, really the only thing we need to worry about with which lines we take is what we want out of them power or ability-wise, right?
Roboto@Antonia Bayle wrote: Each line has hidden stat bonuses, but it's not like attribute stats are any reason to choose a line.
Correct about Bounty. The preferences are based on the special abilities and the bottom group. I maxed out wis line, threat issues when grouping and I like the title Prowler, and then worked on the Str line (I like the crit rating). But more i am noticing, The Stam line would be smart as it gives us the chance to flurry and a melee ranged aoe (will work on this at 70). Right now i am doing group runs and just mentoring my wifes Templar (her new main as we just reactivated EQ2 (I transfered my ranger to the server we are playing now as i do not like to level characters). So far i am enjoying the melee focus over the ranged.
My bad, it was a typo, posting at work and post open for 20 minutes while doing something else leads to bad communication. What i meant to say is that it gives a melee aoe instead of ranged. The way i look at the chance to hit four targets with your main melee weapon is a flurry (but in wow sense flurry was mutliple swings on a single target at once) I understand the difference =)
I've spec'd AGI -> STR -> INT for max dps (following all the guides here and on flames). I only have the end lines in AGI and STR, however, because the INT line is only really effective against long raid mobs. The last of my points in this tree went into the melee AoE of the STA line for duoing with my guildy's fury. The STA and WIS lines are nice, but don't help our dps as much as AGI and STR for their end lines and INT if you raid. The other two are only for PvP (or BGs i guess) and soloing and even then our job is dps, even when duoing... if you don't spec for max dps you're just not as effective, things should be going down before they get close enough to hit you and you need the STA or WIS lines.
Thanks for the info, folks. Its good to know that I've been doing the right thing by starting with AGI and going on to crits under STR. My Ranger is only in the mid-twenties, so I don't know enough about the different abilities to make a decision on anything in the Ranger tree itself, though. Are there any must-haves? I was thinking maybe some of the multishot abilities off to the right, but I'm not sure.
Eboz@Splitpaw wrote: This. I see alot of bad advice and misinformed info floating around in this thread. Wisdom line damage buff only works on surveillance and normal stealth. It makes that ability kinda useless. Also, if you are wasting points in the wisdom line because of bad hate generation, you are taking points away from your DPS. Thus, you are doing less DPS with the wisdom line. we are already hurting in the DPS department - don't **** yourself more by taking the wisdom line.
The Predator tree's pretty easy to just look at and see the path for best damage. If you're not setup to be doing max damage, you're doing it wrong. It should be maxed at 100/100pts when you're done. Bounty 1 point. Max agi out 8, 4, 10, 1 or 4, 8, 10, 1 depending on how much you care about the run speed. Then max str line out 4, 8, 10, 1 because bladed opening sucks and isn't worth the time it takes to cast. Then max the int line 8, 4, 10, 1 to get intox. Take the SF str end line (aa damage) maxed to 8. Take the SF agi end line (recast) maxed to 8. Take PFT maxed out. Go back and fill in the remaining points on the tree in the SF int end line (intox bonus) which should put you at 7 of 8 with your full 100 pts spent on the tree. Anything else, other than the previously mentioned possible pvp/bg setup should look like this. Ideally, I'd fill in the pred tree first up and including to the full 8 spent in the SF aa damage bonus, go over to the ranger tree, get the off. stance bonus and bonus to stream of arrows, then pick up arrow barrage, then come back and finish up the pred tree as posted above. If you're messing with the wis line in a non pvp/bg setting, find better tanks. If you're messing with the sta line because you want ae auto atks, you should probably just betray to an assassin now.
I have a leg up on many rangers. Sitting at 90 with 223 AAs so far I get to grab pretty much what I want. That being said I'll try to lay out my top DPSing build I've tried this xpac in a somewhat order of preference. AGI first, this is still our no brainer must have. I went 4,8,10,2 if you don't care about in combat runspeed 8,4,10,2 will give more DPS. STR next. Kinda sucks they only give us 12 crit or so here for 10 points compared to the 20+ other classes get. (I forget exactly, just recall it being 10-12). With the abundance of crit in this xpac I will be pulling points out of the crit eventually. If you're hurtin for crit I'd go 8,4,10,2 otherwise maybe 10,4,8,2 .... who knows. This line is important as it DRASTICALLY reduces the recast on our biggest hitters. I wish they'd adjust this aa to reduce recast on more than 2 arts, but whatever. STA to get the AOE. 4,4,10 . This is where I know I differ from many other rangers. IMHO Int line became trash a year ago or whatever when they took away our spell/poison crit. Now that we can AOE pointblank with our eagle's talon, I macro'd my AOES to Autoattack 1 and I run right up in the middle of the action for AOE fights. We can throw up great AOE DPS now with our swords. INT A few points in poison combo, still a decent debuff, though I have wondered if those points would be better in spinning spear. Neurotoxic coating is great if you're soloing with swords, otherwise its a waste. The mob should never touch you to activate it otherwise. Toxic expertise is a joke. 10 points for a 10% increase in poison effectiveness? That adds up to about 1% more on the parse. Poisons are gimped right now. Of course I love intox, but just not willing to waste the points to get it. SF stuff. Hastened Reusibilty and Viscious Stabbing are awesome. I'd like to get Bewilderment at some point, but it ranks fairly low to me compared to other needs. The mages are gettin glots of reuse love this xpac. Tons of gear with spell reuse on it. Too bad we need Ability Reuse for it to be any good for us, so those are some great points spent on hastened reusability. Predator's Final Trick is SWEET. The Ranger tree really hasn't changed much from the standard build. Conservation, Extension, and Double Arrow. Once you're over 80 you can spend some more points to bolster these lines. *A little hint to try out here. You have to spend at least 3 points in survival instincts anyways, try doing all 5, and pick yourself up some +offensive skill adorns or items. I've found the +100 agi in the def stance boosts my DPS more than quick shot does in off, and I'm much less squishy to boot.* The SF stuff here is a little less exciting. Cat Like Reflexes is quite nice though, but ONLY if you are big dps. On my parse it usually beats out all my other deaggros together 2-1 for reducing my hate. Its about as powerful for reducing hate per proc as rescue is at increasing (in regards to threat, not guarunteed threat position). Helpful winds is also a must have. It extends your accuracy group temp buff for another 5 seconds. After you cap on skills, accuracy is the only way to further boost your hit chance/dmg. Arrow Barrage adds another nice AOE. With basically nothing changing in the tso tree, I just pulled some of the fluff points out to spend elsewhere, and only use enough here to get the endline. About the only thing that really matters here is critical mastery and all endlines. With my switch to Def stance, I've gone with the boosts to it. Survivability really is much improved for me in this xpac, no more one shots from aoes. For the coming up ranger I'd completely stay out of the TSO tree until you get everything else that matters in the other trees. Hope this helps some folks, and as always YMMV and to each their own. EDIT *ROFL I must have been typing at the same time as Upirus, and he was quicker. No plans on betraying despite me preference for the STA line *
Don't waste points on cat-like reflexes. I refer you to my statement about the wis line. If you think you need cat-like reflexes, find better tanks. If you're not good enough to be ripping agro, it's not an issue, and if you are good enough to be ripping agro, the tanks you hang around should be good enough to keep it from happening, so its still a non issue.
