I've been thinking about rolling out a ranger. I played one over in DR for years, but obviously things are very different here in GS. Is this build viable at all? I'd like her to be an open archer that is good at survival skills and foraging and she will be joining GoS. Eventually I'd like her to be able to do rods etc. I have never done a semi before and it just feels like I'm a little all over the place. Any advice or help would be most appreciated.

Race: Sylvan

Stats:
str 80
con 50
dex 80
agi 70
dis 70
aur 70
log 70
int 80
wis 70
inf 20

2x Perception
2x Ranged
1x Armor (till brig)
1x Dodge
1.5 PT (GoS)
.5x Clim
.5x Swim
1x Survival
1x FA
1x Spells
.5x MIU
.5x HP

I noticed while posting this up that I had not planned for cmans at all. How important are they with an open archer build? Can you do both survival (skinning and foraging) and magic and be an effective hunter? Or am I going to have to pick one or the other?


Thoughts?

I would get 2x dodge for more ds. I would drop miu for now and get 1x HP if you intend to use spells offensively. Cmans for archery is not great. You could use feint or dirtkick to help with crowd control or cdefense to help against cmams. Spells i went 640 the. 130 then ranger on out. Other then that rest of your questions yes you can be good at skinning magic and hunting at the same time.
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I have disagree with the 2x in dodge. First the second rank of dodge is extremely expensive for rangers. You are going to get great benefits from mobiles.

As for MIU and Arcane? I personally would get them to 24 ranks eventually. Why? You can create imbeds as a ranger with spell 614. Having 24 ranks of MIU will allow you to use the magic items that you create. I highly recommend making haste amulets. With haste plus Ranger Strength and Wizard Strength, you will have 1 second open aim eye shots. VERY handy, especially if you want to hunt Grimswarm. Why the Arcane? I am a firm believer in spell tanking, especially in grimswarm camps.

Cmans: Ranger Cmans in general are not that great. Why? It was explained to us that our spells keep that in balance. You will find that Mass Calm is a wonderful crowd control spell. Do you need to learn Cmans right away? That is a personal choice. You will not see combat maneuvers that will destroy you until you are close to level 40. My ranger held off till level 60. However, I would recommend learning Disarm first, then cunning defense. Why? When a creature disarms you it will disarm you bow. Now there is a way to get around that by holding an arrow in your right hand, but there will be times when you are shooting, and you miss and before you get another arrow, you are disarmed:( Cunning defense is definitely a must because it will give you overall protection against combat maneuvers.

Is feint worth it? Possibly. Remember your spells help you. You can spike thorn a creature with a high Defense.

One thing to consider. Pick up 30 ranks of spiritual summoning lore eventually. Why? It will make your 612 spell better. It can delay creatures from attacking you. At level 93 when I do a camp. I cast 612 and Tangleweed. It has been a fairly useful combination. Keeps clouds away, Delays the creatures, the tangleweed will occasionally drag one of the grimswarm to the ground and the grimswarm spell casters will focus on the tangle weed first before casting at you.

Another benefit from that lore is the increase chance that your wall of thorns and tangleweed will scratch the attacking creature and temporarily paralyze them.

Armor: This is a personal choice. I personally recommend, as an archer, training atleast into the double chain if not training into augmented chain. Why? Chain is superior, in my opinion, hardened leather. Why? You will have better crit resistance. Broken limbs means you cant shoot. (Yes you can have sigil of determination) You have a better CvA (Casting vs Armor) This will make it harder for creatures with warding spells to hit you. I went from Brig into augmented chain and I have never regretted the change. Some folks will say that the hindrance is too high. I will say that the 2% hindrance my Sorcerer has sometimes feels like 100%.

Always 1x in HP

1.5x in Physical fitness will help a lot.

(at level 93), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 170 70
Combat Maneuvers...................| 194 94
Ranged Weapons.....................| 299 199
Ambush.............................| 198 98
Physical Fitness...................| 263 163
Dodging............................| 194 94
Arcane Symbols.....................| 102 24
Magic Item Use.....................| 102 24
Harness Power......................| 194 94
Spirit Mana Control................| 102 24
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 120 30
Survival...........................| 194 94
Perception.........................| 290 190
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 150 50
First Aid..........................| 194 94

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 30

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 63

Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Focus focus 1
Disarm Weapon disarm 5
Subdual Strike sstrike 3
Cunning Defense cdefense 5

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 4

Peace
Zhelas

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(Lord Paladin walks around Droit examining his equipment.)
Lord Paladin: How does he....How does he work?

1x harness. You'll feel really short of mana in the teens anyway, you don't want to be 30 down on where you could easily be at level 20.

If you like swapping spells, consider getting some mana control (maybe 10 ranks by the time you have mobiles). People like mobiles, but the mana to spell someone else up with it will really strain you when you first get it, but it will be trivial to a high level caster.

I wouldn't strain to get a lot of dodge early.

I'd also start out with a bit less FA. Keep survival and FA below twice your actual level. e.g. at level 10, I'd have 12 ranks survival and at most 7 ranks FA. The extra FA won't make enough difference to your skinning ability to compensate for the higher quality skins you'll get asked for in bounties and you'll get some practically impossible skin bounties in the early levels if you start out at fully 2x. (The skinning spell means you can get them eventually, and it won't be completely impossible like it is for other classes, but I'd still keep below a full 2x till something like level 30. Drop back under 1.5x, e.g. 12+2 at level 10, if you find you are getting asked for too high quality anyway)

Just for knowledge, those of you that train for just brig did you stop once you fully trained for brig or did you pick up enough to get the tier one over train? I trained for chain but can say i didnt notice much a difference in the overtrain benefits of brig.

I see over training in armor as a post cap goal. For now I am more focused on my core skills. When my ranger caps though, (OI, I will have 2 capped characters) I will max out PF, bump up his ambush to 2x and then Combat Maneuvers. After that I will re evaluate what to train in next.

Peace
Zhelas

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(Lord Paladin walks around Droit examining his equipment.)
Lord Paladin: How does he....How does he work?

>Might I ask why I shouldn't strain for dodge

A few ranks either way won't make a lot of difference, (roughly 1DS per rank) so if you are tight on points you can leave them for later. The difference between 0.5x and 1x is about 50DS at level 100 but only about 5 DS at level 10.

>Should that be spiritual over elemental?

Elemental is expensive and you have good reason (like a wizard partner) go with spirit. Spirit ties into some ranger spells too (e.g. Imbue) and you might want it for that reason eventually too.

I think the only thing no one really touched on very much was 614 (Imbue). I'll just throw out some approximate training thresholds for you. SMC (Spiritual Mana Control) is the main factor here in terms of what you're making and how much mana goes into it. Level seems greatly connected with success, casts needed to make an item, and total mana, all of which you'll get a feel for as you test out the spell.

At 24 ranks of SMC (you might as well get 25 for a 2x multi-cast), you will make rods when you "get a lucky feeling" (high roll) on the last cast of 614 on a stick; otherwise you'll make wands. I used to throw away/donate my wands and just keep the rods. At a high enough level, your rods will hold 80 mana every time. 24 ranks is really all you need to get the most out of this spell.

At 50 ranks of SMC, I noticed that I was getting rods almost all of the time without the "lucky feeling."

Lastly, with some Summoning lore, you can stuff a little extra mana into your items, but the effects are negligible for the most part. It's just a nice bonus if you happen to go the SL:S route.

Oh, and concerning MIU vs. AS, MIU is going to be way more effective for you. Scrolls are nice, but very limited. Magic Items are pretty much unlimited in normal gameplay circumstances. You can make unlimited Haste rods, but your Cloak of Shadows scroll will eventually run out. Spell tanking is completely unnecessary unless you're a mutant, in a huge invasion, or just suck. Rangers are pretty unkillable most of the time.

~Brian, Sepher's player