The standard you want to shoot for is brig. You can, if you choose to, do fine in brig for the rest of your ranger's life. When you make some money, get some crit padded brig. For now, just put heavy damage padding from the adventurer's guild on it.

When your ranger gets to higher levels are you become a more experienced player, you should get a feel for whether or not you want to continue wearing increasingly heavier armor. Some stay in brig for life, some shoot for hauberk (usually happens near cap), a handful wear doubles.

Read up here for your pros and cons:

https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Armor
https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Armor_Use

~Brian, Sepher's player

(Kaldonis does not like Sepher and thinks he is wasting time.)

I think armor usage for rangers is dependent on your personal preference and also your hunting style. I've run the gamut with Radeek...doubles, brig, and now hauberk and perhaps one day even plate. If you are an open archer and don't use spells a lot for set-up or finishing then the heavier armors would be best in my opinion. If you are a sniper or use spells a lot then I'd stay in brig. Stalk and hide has some reliance on armor as far as being sniffed out of hiding and there is always the spell hindrance to consider with heavier armors. Radeek is mostly a physical archer, relying on his bow most of the time and spells only in a pinch so he's in HCP hauberk. He also snipes occasionally but his armor doesn't seem to hinder that much. He did quite well in brig for most of his life, wearing FGB.

What it boils down to is whether you are planning on being spell reliant or mostly physical. My hindrance in hauberk isn't that bad, but it does tend to rear it's ugly head at the most inopportune times.

General Radeek Andoran
Drakes Vanguard
Defender of Wehnimer's Landing
Black Raider of the Mir'Sheq

Empires exist through conquest, they live on by exercising total control of the conquered.

Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato

I think that aug chain is the sweet spot for rangers. Near full coverage with chain DF/AvD/CD/CvA and only 9% spell hindrance. 9% really isn't that bad; I'm an extremely spell-heavy build and I don't mind it a bit. The 11% from hauberk felt too harsh though.

One thing I like about aug chain is that the RT penalty is trained off at 50 ranks, which allows really nice, round thresholds for overtraining Armor Use. You'll get Action Penalty reductions at 100, 150 and 200 ranks, allowing you to minimize the action penalty down to that of cuirboulli leather.

Droit

---

Speaking to you, Ceyrin asks, "Do you spontaneously come back to life when you die?"
Speaking to you, Ceyrin says, "Because I do."
You say, "Yes. I have a condition called Annoraxia.""

I'm with Droit on this...I had forgotten that I actually wear augmented chain but carry my helm with me... just in case.

General Radeek Andoran
Drakes Vanguard
Defender of Wehnimer's Landing
Black Raider of the Mir'Sheq

Empires exist through conquest, they live on by exercising total control of the conquered.

Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato