The Glade 4.0

Have they fixed that mid 20s doldrums that Ive encounters the last... 5 times? Ive tried...

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Hmm define that a bit more, please.

Ive tried to play EQ2 5 times or so, I ALWAYS get bogged down in the mid 20s... I think the highest Ive gotten was like 27 or so before it was either unable to solo the quest lines, or it was just so... bloody grindy that I couldn't do it without stabbing myself in the eyes

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Ah.

IMO, leveling in general is easier than it has been in the past (depending on how long ago your last attempt was).

Butcherblock area/Gfay I would say are good for the 20s, since it's about that level that you outgrow the new starting areas. As I said, they've streamlined progression in general. If you are looking to start from scratch, I would highly recommend choosing Timoruous Deep or New Halas as starting areas, as they pretty much lead you into the next area best for you to be in.

Other than that, refer back to the progression reply I posted back in the middle of Page 1.

Cool deal, I'm on Blackburrow too.

I'll have to learn the whole arrow thing again, but I think I'll enjoy it.

I'm assuming it's closer to WoW hunters than EQ rangers.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

This sounds great.. for the outdoors/open areas.

How well does it work out in dungeons/caves/tight spots ?

Neph:

Ah that's cool, just send me a regular /tell then ;P

What is your name on there?

As for what Rangers are like: Yeah, more like WoW hunters (from what little I have played of them, except no controllable attackable pets -- you do get dumbfire attacking pets tho).

Midgen:

If you are in a group and have a non-fail tank then yes, you should be able to ranged just fine.

Solo, it's a little tricker, and you probably will need to melee a bit more until you get a zero minimum range bow.

So let me clarify my earlier statement: while it is possible to melee (and melee fairly well), Rangers are designed with ranged combat in mind.

Neph, here's an EQ2 Ranger guide like I was telling you about:

First things first, AGI and AGI alone is your "God stat." Buff it up as high as you can. The other important stats are Crit Bonus (adds to the damage of critical attacks), Potency (adds to base damage of Combat Arts and auto attacks), Ability modifier (straight addition to CA damage), Critical Chance (chance to crit), Double attack (self explanatory), Critical Mitigation (How much critical damage you are able to mitigate), DPS (self explanatory), Resistances (self explanatory).

Take up Tinkering. Lot of useful stuff, like feign death items, resurrection items, items that restore health and power, items that teleport you to raid/group members from anywhere in the zone, items that pop up a robot that allows you to repair gear no matter where you are (for a fee). Cool stuff like that.

Buy some poisons. Use the following three lines of poisons: Caustic (Color: Red -- Direct Damage), Ignorant Bliss (Color: Blue -- De-Aggro), and Gracelessness (Color: Purple --Debuff). Like colors do not stack.

Now, the best place to stand when in a group is called the "sweet spot," which is a spot where you are able to use all your melee and ranged abilities. Try to group combat abilities with similar cast and recast timers together on your hotbar to maximize DPS. Hit Focus Aim before big hits (and if grouped or in raid, wait until after the Brigand announces Dispatch) for more maximization of DPS.

Also for solo, maybe use a Fettering line poison which snares. You also have a Snaring Shot, a castable snare, a stun (called Cheap Shot), A short, quick casting root, and a thorny trap which is a long root plus damage but long cast time. Use those to your advantage while solo kiting.

Always, always ALWAYS have your DoT physical combat arts applied to the mob. Our main one is called Bloody Reminder (we get one via AA later). This is probably your most important Combat Art in the game -- it's quick casting, does considerable damage and has a decent re-cast.

Arrows: Only use arrows that are as close to the level of your bow as possible. I would recommend the field point line. (Example: If you have a lvl 52 bow, use lvl 50 arrows -- using something too far from your bow level will cause you to lose DPS).

Bows: Outside of Raids / Heroic instance, just save up for the Mastercrafted bows around you level. New Mastercrafted levels end in "2" (example "52" then "62" then "72, etc). Get imbued bows as they proc a Damage spell.

At some point you will get a Defensive stance and an Offensive stance. Just keep Offensive on you at all times. What little defensive offers is not going to outweigh the DPS gained from Off.

Deities: Deities offer a cloak and pet that can have nice buffs/effects as well as give you an altar you sacrifice magical gear to for favor with your deity. Favor allows you purchase temporary buffs/spells. For Ranger, I reccomend Bristlebane, as he offers a +AGI pet.


Under character development when pressing "L" button:

Generally go for all AGI choices, all physical resistances (other resistances come easy with gear), and all + raw HPs (the far left choice). The Grandmaster choices underneath that are a little trickier, but generally you want to choose whatever ability does the most DPS. Some exceptions (i.e. choose these abilities above other DPS ones): Focus Aim (64), Searing Shot (75).

As for the AA build you asked for:

Under "Predator" tab:

STR = 8, 4, 10, 1, 8 (numbers represent ranks)

AGI = 8, 4, 10, 1, 7

INT = 8, 4, 10, 1, 8

Predator's Final Trick = 2 ranks


"Ranger" tab:

(From left to right)Top Line: 5, 0, 3, 0, 5
Second: 4, 0, 5, 5, 0, 5, 5, 5
Third: 5, 0, 5, 5, 0, 0, 5, 5
Fourth: 1, 0, 1, 0, 1
Fifth: 5, 5, 2, 0, 0, 5, 1


"Shadow" tab:

(From left to right)Top Line: 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 5, 0, 0

Second: 0, 0, 5, 0, 5, 0, 1

Third: 0, 5, 5, 0, 0, 5, 1

Fourth: 0, 0, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1, 1


I'm sure I am forgetting something. Ranger is actually a fairly complex class to play correctly. If you think of a question that isn't answered above, let me know.

BTW, I have quite a few (like 19 on one account and I think a full 20 on another) Refer a Friend invites.

Basically it gives you a 14 day free trial of EQ2 (with some limitations, but with streaming download as you play), plus some exp boosting stuff and other goodies via /claim.

If anyone is interested, please let me know your e-mail address and I'll get you hooked up.

I started a Halfling Ranger (hey, it was intended as a JOKE! :p )... on Nektulos.

I have to say that the starting area (Halas?) is actually pretty good. Particularly the 10-20 stuff. Lots of good storyline there, if you take the time to stop and pay attention to the dialogs.

Swimming down to the caves is a bit of a pain, but but overall I'm kinda surprised that I don't completely hate it.

I just got to Halas and got my free newbie house last night, and sold a few extra items I had in my bag.. I was surprised to find that I had accumulated about 6G without much effort. For the most part the quest gear was more than adequate for getting through those levels.

Unfortunately, I didn't do any harvesting along they way, so my skills are all way low, and I havn't given any thought at all to tradeskills, although I'm seeing some quests to start those soon. I have no idea what I want to do there. I already have a semi-retired level 34 Ranger who is a woodworker, but I have no idea what his skill level is.

Bah! Too bad you didn't start on Blackburrow, we could have grouped up

Glad you're back playing, though.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Midgen:

While all tradeskills are profitable in their own way, one of the easiest to build up and surprisingly profitable is carpentry. People (especially casuals) go nuts over house items. At least on my server it does.

Each server's market is going to be different of course.

If you are not looking for profit and just want something more self-beneficial, stick with woodworking (For bows and arrows).

Yeah, I've got one of my rangers that's a 19 Craftsman.... I'm about to have to choose between Carpentry and Woodworking... Probably take Carpentry for the cash, and let my other ranger take woodworking.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I think my main ranger (Midgen) is a carpenter/woodworker. I recall him making some pretty nice stuff for his house. I haven't logged him in long enough to see what he can currently make though.

I was thinking something to make him more self sufficient.. cooking or bladed weapons perhaps (assuming my other ranger can make him a nice bow).

I chose Nektulos because that is where my other characters, and other people I know play(ed). I'd have no problem creating a character on another server to group with folks. It's not like it takes long to level :p.

True, true.

If you're interested in starting up an alt on Blackburrow, that's where Rodahn is, and that's where I've got most of mine (all sub 26 at the moment).

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Ok, just for giggles, I made a WE Ranger on Blackburrow named..... "MIDGEN" hehe.. He's level 10 and still in the newbie area. Once I get to Halas I'll look you up.

Oh, you aren't starting in Halas at level 1?

I like the early part there

My ranger is Jense, and my Swash is Rianna- I'm mainly playing them at the moment.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Well, yes, I started in the Halas newbie area... still there. What I meant was, once I got through the first 20 levels and was in Halas proper....

I'll friend the names you gave me next time I'm on.

You can get in touch with me at /tell Gretchen.Crushbone as well.

All of what Rodhan said is good advice, although I do my AA slightly differently, but there's nothing wrong with how he did it.

A few notes:

For your red poison, always use caustic; the red poison boosting AA on the Ranger tree only boosts that kind.

Have 2 yellow poisons if you're soloing and grouping; a snare or an attack speed reducer for soloing and Ignorant Bliss for groups. Ignorant Bliss reduces aggro so its useless when soloing. For that reason, also never put auto-conusme on for your yellow poison.

Be careful about internet advice on stats, a lot of stats underwent massive changes with the last expansion. It used to be that STR added damage and weight carrying, AGI added power (mana) and defense, INT added poison damage, STA added hit points, and WIS added spell resistance. Now AGI adds power AND damage, STR only adds weight capacity, STA and WIS are unchanged, and INT does nothing whatsoever. Anyone still telling you to go STR, INT and AGI is thinking "old stats"; now the order for base stats is AGI >>>>>> STA > WIS > STR >>>>>>> INT. For the other stats like crit, there is no more ranged, melee, or spell crit; it's all just crit; same for double attack.

Speaking of the others, Crit and Double attack are the most important "other" stats; they used to be the most important period but now that AGI does so much it's probably comparable with them. This won't be much of an issue though as you won't see a lot of crit or double attack gear until higher levels, and when you do if you take the "scout" gear it will tend to have those, or the other desireable stats like potency, ability boosts, attack speed, and the like on it. However at lower levels try to get that Crit AA on the PRedator tree early.

In fact, my recommendation for your first points would be: 8 points in the first AGI ability, because it's a stun and more points = moe damage+ longer stun. Then go over and do the STR tree to the end, then come back to the AGI tree. The caps for how many points you can put in a tree increase at certain levels so don't worry if the cap seems too low for what Rodhan said.

The stun is important early on for melee. Like Rodhan said, you want to try to fight at range as much as you can. However, your melee power is still fairly formidible, and you will get a fair number of melee abilities early on. One of those roots the target, and one stuns. The second stun from AA is important for when the stun you automtically get is on cooldown. In either case, you also have 2 combat arts that grant instant stealth.

The trick to learn is, if the mob closes with you, hit the stun, run past the mob, hit the stealth and then hit one of your two attacks that requires stealth. At low levels, one of these is among your most powerful attacks (Ranger's Blade). Once you get this down you can combine it with your heroic opportunity. The stun you automatically get can advance HOs.

Therefore, the trick to learn when something closes with you is HO - Stun - run behind - stealth - Ranger's Blade or Emberstrike - melee ability that roots (Impale, I think, forget off the top of my head). Ranger's Blade or Impale will both end the HO as well, but you hit Impale regardless to root the mob, then back up, hit your snare, or snaring shot once you get it, and start shooting again, is the mob is still alive.

Remember lso that while melee is not where you're trying to be like EQ1, you're also not trying to avoid it. Rodhan talked about the "sweet spot" distance from a mob in groups; if you're at this range and behind a mob you can use all your abilities, so that you won't be jsut autoattacking when your archery abilities are on cooldown.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."