Convince me to do a Ranger

[Ranndar]

I am planning run a Skald this week, and my first thought was to MC with trickster. But I also want to try another class, played too much with rogues this days.

But I can’t see the advantage of use a Stalker. I like the idea of the class, but I don’t know why I should choose him instead the rogue. What advantage a stalker could bring to me? 

Other idea was to go with a Skald/Berserker. Fighter, Monk and Paladin are out of the question.

[Elric Galad]

As a Skald, you want to get a lot of crits. Ranger is unparalled to get accuracy buff. Ranger / Skald is a really good combo. Rogue only provides 10% Hit to crit.
Apart for this, Concussive Tranquilizer provides buff dispell, pet provides an extra body (if you fear to have it knockdowned, you can go with Ghostheart instead), Takedown Combo can be really good depending on your party and I even like Binding Root (very long duration semi-hard CC effect).

[Boeroer]

Ranger: highest accuracy
Skald: additional phrases from crits

Convinced?

Check out Beast's Claw. It's great on a Stalker/Skald.

Sun & Moon (dual headed flail) is a great weapon for a Skald/Stalker because it gives you 2 stacks of Beast's Claw with only one swing and also gives you 2 chances per swing to land a crit (and gain an additional phrase). 

[dgray62]

I concur, Stalker/Skald is a great combo. While you could wield Sun & Moon as a single weapon for additional chances to crit, with a ranger this probably isn't necessary, so I'd recommend instead a dual wield build. For your other weapon, Sasha's Singing Scimitar is probably ideal, for the once per encounter empower and extra phrases, as well as the lightning lash and action speed boost. You could put weapons with on crit effects in your offhand, like Grave Calling, to use when needed. Later, when you have the ancient weapons invocation, you might want the animancy cat pet to give your animal companion (AC) and summons a power boost. You should also bring along a priest companion to cast Champion's Boon on your AC, to boost its engagement. This is because with Stalker's Link, both you and the AC will get an accuracy boost against any foe engaged by the pet, so you can easily sweep them away with invocations like Her Revenge, which will melt them due to all of the crits you land.

[Svartypops]

On 6/12/2021 at 10:55 PM, Ranndar said:

Convince me to do a Ranger

Ranger's pretty neat. You get a throw-away alpha-strike sponge.

6 > 5.

[Ranndar]

I started a solo run with this Skald/stalker. Finished the digsite easily, starting the fights with some archebuss shots, then sound of his voice to paralyse and switching to pistol.

But now I can’t complete anything else. I tried to do some islands before go to Neketaka, with the spellblade I could do Amira’s Passage and Cavern of Xaur Tuk Tuk for example, and now I am having serious issues to do it. I am around lvl 7 or 8, too early to do this places?

[dgray62]

I've never tried this build solo so I'm not sure how well it would work. For solo, however, you might want to pick up the skeleton invocation for some additional meat shields. You'd also want to get the defensive boosts for the AC, since you really want to avoid bonded grief when playing solo.

[Ranndar]

True, I forgot about the chanter invocations. I was relying on paralyze, but I will do a respec and try the skeletons.

[dgray62]

For solo, you'd probably want to invest in several summon invocations, starting with skellies and ending with ancient weapons, which are great. For PL 1 you should also definitely get the Thrice invocation, upgrading it to Her Revenge, since it's arguably the most powerful invocation for dealing with the clusters of melee attackers who will surround you. The Paralyze invocation is great too, but I don't think you can rely on it solely for CC if you're doing a solo run. Since you'll be relying significantly on your AC and summons, you'll probably want to purchase the animancy cat to give them a nice boost to their damage output.

[Ranndar]

I abandoned this one. I couldn’t make it work right, and wasn’t going like I planned.

Then I made a Stalker/Lifegiver, and he is good. But like always happens, I am with another idea. 
Actually is and old idea but now I will try it again, that is a Stalker/Paladin.

The first idea is a Kind Wayfarer with dual pistols (I like pistols)
And my other idea is a Goldpact tank, and the pet more DPS oriented 

 

[uuuhhii]

ranger have highest accuracy but low pen

easiest way to deal with it are getting a chanter to sing crashed upon the shield

[Ranndar]

The biggest problem for me was that the chanter summons takes too long, and in this meantime I was killed.

[Ranndar]

I am hating this game now. I am stuck in Dunnage, I can’t complete one quest because I am attacked everything, and I can’t do nothing . I am killed before I can take a breath. 
It’s impossible. I tried every class, tested every build, and I can’t reach Neketaka. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Ranndar

[dgray62]

Ranndar, you might consider going directly to Neketaka after Port Maje before tackling higher level areas like Dunnage. You can gain several levels doing quests in Neketaka that don't involve fighting. Once you level up a bit, you can try some of the other areas.

[Reent]

2 hours ago, Ranndar said:

I am hating this game now. I am stuck in Dunnage, I can’t complete one quest because I am attacked everything, and I can’t do nothing . I am killed before I can take a breath. 
It’s impossible. I tried every class, tested every build, and I can’t reach Neketaka. 

How can you get stuck in Dunnage if you can't reach Neketaka?

The normal route (if you don't metagame) is Neketaka right after Port Maje, Solo characters have different strenght depending on the class and build, some need higher lvls (you can reach high lvls not doing much but running around), some can fight early, Chanters with an animal companion can fight early to late - just let the AC aggro while standing out of range and cast the summon while the AC lures the enemy to you. You need to know how your build fights, which items to get early (starting armor vs devil of caroc armor is no contest, if you don't get good items early you are crippling your character - only a few builds can fight without items, and only if you do it right)

 

Neketaka has many easy to reach good items, Dunnage is my rush isle if i want Voidward - just to leave instantly after shopping (and accepting the bounty quest).

 

My runs start this way: i look at the easiest to reach items that are good for my build and rush them, with every item the run gets easier.

[Boeroer]

I guess he went to Fort Deadlight and then to Dunnage to report his success with Benweth. The encounter with "Eamund(?) the Fox" that takes place after you free the female wizard from Harker (so she can take part in the silly play at Lifter's Refuge) is very hard if you are of low level and it can't be avoided. 

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Boeroer

[Ranndar]

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

I guess he went to Fort Deadlight and then to Dunnage to report his success with Benweth. The encounter with "Eamund(?) the Fox" that takes place after you free the female wizard from Harker (so she can take part in the silly play at Lifter's Refuge) is very hard if you are of low level and it can't be avoided. 

 

Exactly. There I was, happy doing some quests and suddenly a bunch of enemies that spank and I couldn’t even blink. I will load a previous game and avoid this for now

In some encounters where I have time to plan it was doing ok, but in this case where I don’t have nowhere to run and plan, I am terrible beaten

Edited June 19, 2021 by Ranndar

[Ranndar]

2 hours ago, Reent said:

How can you get stuck in Dunnage if you can't reach Neketaka?

The normal route (if you don't metagame) is Neketaka right after Port Maje, Solo characters have different strenght depending on the class and build, some need higher lvls (you can reach high lvls not doing much but running around), some can fight early, Chanters with an animal companion can fight early to late - just let the AC aggro while standing out of range and cast the summon while the AC lures the enemy to you. You need to know how your build fights, which items to get early (starting armor vs devil of caroc armor is no contest, if you don't get good items early you are crippling your character - only a few builds can fight without items, and only if you do it right)

 

Neketaka has many easy to reach good items, Dunnage is my rush isle if i want Voidward - just to leave instantly after shopping (and accepting the bounty quest).

 

My runs start this way: i look at the easiest to reach items that are good for my build and rush them, with every item the run gets easier.

Other problem that I have, is that I don’t know much of the game to know what itens I must get. That’s another reason I went to Dunnage, to see the vendors.

[Boeroer]

Dunnage was designed with some more character levels in mind. Usually you'd go to Neketaka, grab some small quests which lead you into the rough direction of Fort Deadlight anyway and when you'd arrive in Dunnage afterwards it wouldn't be so hard. But since it's an open world game...

But as long as you don't give Harker the coin you will be safe in Dunnage. 

The design decision to place that hard encounter there is a bit unlucky because there's no hint before that encounters in Dunnage may be above your level. No introductory fight that shows you the kind of difficulty you have to expect and which would be solvable peacefully once you realize this island's too hard for you (for now). Just throwing you into an ambush you can't talk yourself out of is not great. 

But situations like this are very uncommon in the rest of the game - if that's any consolation. 

Also keep on mind that the game was not designed for solo play but for a whole party. Usually you need a fair bit of meta-knowledge to solo this game.

It's unlikely but... if you have a potion of invisibility (and maybe bounding boots from Benweth's study or boots of speed) you can skip this fight if you retreat to the top right corner of the map into that alley while you are invisible. 

When I did the encounter last time solo with an Assassin the enemies wouldn't follow there and the encounter stopped at some point. Don't know if it's reliable. 

PS: don't try to do the Torkar bounty in Dunnage that early. It's brutal, too.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Boeroer

[freddfranca]

What would be the best support to pair with a ranger?

Kind Wayfarer, Lifegiver, Eothas or Chanter?

[dgray62]

Are you talking about a multiclass, or companion? I really like the Wildrhymer, skald/stalker MC. But any of the other options are great for companions, sidekicks or hirelings.