What Good are Rangers? (No, really)

Astralglide

What good are rangers, their ranged doesn't seem to be as good as the mage and they can't take any of the abuse of the warrior- they seem to be the Leeroy Jenkins of Dungeon Runners.

rhinok

In general, rangers have the highest single-target DPS of any "class".  They can also have excellent HP, especially with the addition of the Gym Freak skill.  Most ranger gear is either AGI, End or a mix of AGI/END

Personally, I prefer the pure classes in this order:

• Ranger
  •  great damage
  • very good HP
  • can take out most bosses
  • excels at PvP
  • levels fairly quickly
• Mage
  • phenomenal AOE damage
  • has trouble with most bosses and HDoL
  • best variety of elemental damage skills
  • levels the fastest by far
• Fighter
  • good damage, but spends lots of time chasing mobs
  • excellent HP
  • excellent defense
  • handles most bosses and HDoL with ease
  • levels the slowest

Of course, the order is based on my personal preference, but the observations of each are pretty uniform with that other players think.  It's also very general.  I know of a fighter, for example, who's a freakin' whirling dervish and destroys everything in her path with ease.

Also, don't read too much into defense, in my opinion.  The way this game works, defense merely reduces the chance of you being hit, but it doesn't mitigate damage.  There's no way to prevent being hit all of the time (or even most of the time, really, without massively gimping your damage).  Since the game lets you use up to 50% healing potions with no cooldown period between them, I'd say HP is more important than defense (for now) since to hits of the space bar will bring  you to 100% health in about 3 seconds.j

Of course, I've really only addressed "pure" classes, not hybrids or even various builds within the classes.  For example, with "pure" rangers, you can have several different types of builds, each of which works well in different situations:

• Poison Ranger
  • Poison adds to ranged damage, but is still fairly limited in strength due to generally low INT (as compared to mages who use Gaseous Blast, for example).
    • Can be augmented greatly by +poison dps gear
  • Rocks at PvP
• Crit Ranger
  • Augments gear with +critical hit % gear - combined with a super-fast weapon means that you're getting a ton of critical hits
• Piercing Ranger
  • Augments gear with +piercing dps bonuses (crossbows)
• Slashing Ranger
  • Augments gear with +slashing dps bonuses (shotguns, including poppers and boomsticks)

FYI, there are also +ranged damage bonuses, which includes both piercing and slashing, so I prefer these in general.

 

~Ripper

 

Hexxeity

I can't imagine anyone building a 100% "pure"  character, but if you decide to do so, it's silly to complain about balance, as the only limitations to your character are those you place on yourself.  They let you take any skill you want for the express purpose of heading off balance whiners.

If you don't like Ranger gear, don't use it.  If you don't like Ranger skills, you are crazy, but you don't have to use them.

Maybe you just wanted to make a Leeroy Jenkins joke.