Ranger Class

[Exzlu]

I dont know why people say ranger class sucks? I think class is pretty good beacuse it has very good supportive sides and gameplay is so much fun. Before somebody comes with argue, that have i tried other classes. Yes i have. Every class has their + and - side. I know that ranger is little bit weak in late game and have less damage output than other classes. But ranger can be pretty effective either melee or long range battles.

 

Personally i like ranger class and i want learn more about it than wiki can say. I want hear people differend experiences and opinions about rangers.

 

And its sad, this isnt openworld game but no can do. Its so much fun to play anyway pillars of eternity and i really want marriage ending too for him. Like one of female followers would be good wife or you can find differend females and have romantic story until game ends and you get marriage ending too.

 

Another way is make own follower which you marry and you can make for custom companions somekind backstory or depending player choises, they have backstory already done when yoou choose, where they are from,race, were they slaves or mech etc.  There is so much potential have man other things too. 

 

I love long story-driven rpgs and they are my number one games. When i bought pillars of eternity, i was so excited and i didnt had disappointed except bug where as example dun gets stuck and laggs there forever. So u need send him away. But if custom companion stucks, you just need load last save which is annoying if its before bossfight and companion got stuck between walls while in fght. So how you can send custom companion away if that happens?

 

But this game isnt too hard, neither too easy. I like how challenging it is and how costly bad engagements are. If you make good engage,  you get good price from it. if you do bad, it might cost you whole fight but most misplays you can even fix thanks to pause option and time to think. Its just too fun play this game.

 

Obsidian: I love your game and i hope there will be more games like pillars of eternity. <3

[MunoValente]

I think the animal fatigue bug they fixed helped rangers a good amount.  Also I think people have learned to play them better since the game first came out.

[wanderon]

I'm thinking ranger for my next character - meanwhile Sagani and her foxy pet are doing fine!

[evilcat]

Just a question:

Does ranger's pet weapon scale? In the way how Druid Spiritshift scale over the game, and as you level up you get superior claws with DT break.

Does ranger pet gets silver horns (or whatever)?

[Elric Galad]

Ranger pet weapons do scale but not that well in 1.06.

 

Ranger's pet received a lot of complaints in 1.06. They are ok at low level, but scale bad, especially for PotD.

 

Apparently ranger's pets (and pet talents) are going to receive an important buff in 2.0.

In my opinion, this should be enough to make the class attractive.

[Mahumia]

I picked ranger because I really like the class. (and true, I just play 'story-mode' anyway, so I don't care about damage output and the like). 

[joshua43214]

I love the ranger class, I play one in all my RPG's.

 

The PoE ranger is pretty decent, especially compared to some other games.

The real problem to me is firearms. Long bows are far more powerful, accurate, and effective in real life than any of the firearms in the game, but bows are pretty ineffective against late game targets, and the short bow is next to useless.

 

Still they are really fun to play and get some decent talents as they progress, they just do not scale well since long bow damage does not increase to surpass arquebus damage like it should. On the two play throughs I did with a ranger (one as a the PC with a longbow, and another as a mercenary with a pistol) the ranger had the highest total damage (and died the most) in both games.

[evilcat]

i played only Sagani as ranger, and it she did good as for NPC. Was generally pleased with her performance, however i also like pewpewers, and casters was more CC/Buffing rather than all out blasting. And it matters who we pay more attencion, and who is idle in combat.

 

Good stuff:

- Both shooting modals are good i suppose (was using visious aim with warbow).

- Rangers could reach some high crit chance which opens some on crit effect.

- Warbow from 12 was good, with martial classes alot depends of good weapon. Could you find your superior DT breaking stick of death striking?

- Talents which allow to stun on crits bring some fun. It is cool to have such ability. (amybe other martials could to, hmm?)

- Using penetrating shot to line up some enemies was fun. AoE potencial always helps, even better if i could crit zapp them.

- Suprisingly Rangers have some utylity with pet knocouts and trap.

- At worst pet could serve as body blocking. ALways good.

 

Issues:

- Really hard to measure up pet dps. I sunk some talents into pet attacks, but if pet claws do not scale with levels it was kinda pointless. It also creates weird situacion when at level 4 is fine, but as level progres rest of party gear up faster than pet, so it loses value.

- Pet was dead a bit too often. There could be some ways, abilities, talents to heal/revive pet by ranger (other than scrolls). A lot of paladins lay of hends and resurects went on Itumak. Train pets to wear shield (horse armour?) would be a bit extreme.

 

Vanity:

- More abilities, talents always good. 

 

Gun vs Bow

Game seems to favour firearms. Since heavy highters are better against high dt enemies, and high dt enemies are also more annoying. Rifles have also better synergy with abilities +100% dmg from one hit. Something to consider.

Edited August 21, 2015 by evilcat

[MunoValente]

 

Gun vs Bow

Game seems to favour firearms. Since heavy highters are better against high dt enemies, and high dt enemies are also more annoying. Rifles have also better synergy with abilities +100% dmg from one hit. Something to consider.

 

You can always use both with a ranger, guns for your first strike and your wounding shots and bows when you want to shoot faster.  I really like Rangers with extra weapon slots, so you change guns without reloading, switch to bows, switch to melee if you want to do that, switch slaying enchantments.

[Elric Galad]

I've taken the info rom another Topic, and tested them with 2.0.

 

* All animal companion weapons have 5 DR bypass. 

Just tested and works.

 

* All animal companion armor gains 2 DR every 3 levels instead of 1.5 every 3 levels.

Just tested and works.

 

* They used to gain 3 Accuracy and +15% damage every 3 levels. They now gain 5 Accuracy and +20% damage every 3 levels.

Tooltip seems bugged, it does not display the information now (french version at least). I can confirm for accuracy (based on roll logs), not for damages, but Ituumak apparently took some steroids so I'm pretty confident.

 

* Faithful Companion was doubled to a +30 bonus vs. Charm/Confuse/Dominate with 5 seconds taken off the duration.

Tooltip 2.0 confirms. Not tested.

 

* Resilient Companion now adds 3 DR and an additional point of DR every 3 levels.

Just tested and works.

 

* Vicious Companion stacks an additional 3 DR bypass.

Just tested and works.

 

Here comes the Beastmaster DPS Ranger !

(and Bearmaster Tanky Ranger !)

Edited August 25, 2015 by Elric Galad

[rheingold]

Awesome, really tempted to do a ranger play through now, especially with the minor sneak attack multi class talent you can take...

Rangers where always underrated but now it seems they rock.

[Elric Galad]

Wolfs (and their Artic Cousin Ituumak) do exactly 1 less base damage as 2-hander, with an attack speed (from my testing) close to 2-Hander with Medium armor and same Dex (13).

They deal Slashing / Piercing damages, which is always nice.

 

They have 5 DR Bypass, +15 Accuracy and (To be checked) +60% natural modifier at level 12.

 

They additionaly can get 3 further DR Bypass and +95% (conditional) bonus damage with 1 ability and 2 talents (Predator's Sense, Vicious Companion, Mercyless Companion)

Note that Wounding Shot applies conditions for both Predator's Sense and Merciless Companion,

 

They have crappy Might 10 but who cares with such modifiers ? They have 15 Per which is good with new Per rules.

 

 

 

At level 12, they now have 16,5 DR  WITHOUT Talent and 22,5 with resilient companions.

 

 

 

 

After spending the 3 talents and 1 ability listed above, Wolf can still choose 5 abilities and 3 talents for their "Ranger Pet".

[Kogorn733]

Itumaak seems to have far more staying more, and to be far more effective in combat after 2.0.

[Spikko]

Hello there, I'm new to the forum.

I'm trying to decide wich  class to play for MC for my first run (have both base game and white march now).

 

I read a lot about all the classes and, right now, I'm leaning towards a ranged class with ranger being the obvious candidate.

I'm just a little concerned about the malus in case the pet dies.

I understand that now they got a lot more resilient but how is the situation in the end game? Are they tanky enough to survive in the thick of battle?

[GuyNice]

I understand that now they got a lot more resilient but how is the situation in the end game? Are they tanky enough to survive in the thick of battle?

On anything below PotD, they can survive almost anything with a little support. On PotD you have to be very careful, they're usually fine as long as they don't need to handle more than 1-2 mobs. That said, with changes to AI in 2.0 and new encounters in White March, I can't justify taking a Ranger on PotD. It's not that they're bad per se, but they don't bring the AoE CC and damage, tanking ability or party wide buffs and utility that you really want. I'm sure someone can get them to work but to me they're a bit of dead weight.

 

If you're not playing on PotD, they're great, in fact any class is on hard and below.

[Boeroer]

I read somewhere that they make surprisingly good tanks, even on PotD. Somebody also said that a ranger with quick switch Arbalests or Arquebuses and Hold Wall (has speed mod) as the last weapon in row plus swift aim is pretty deadly. You can add the Chanter's reload chant on top of that. And the new multiclass rogue talent of course, if you use your animal companion for flanking.

[rheingold]

Yeah, so far Itumak has been very useful. (Hard not POTD) He was awesome when I was really struggling against certain suicidal golems. Just sent him to aggro and boom, no more construct - or Itumak.... But give him a minute and he is up and running for the next one. Not the brightest Itumak. Where's the spca when you need them.

 

Seriously pets are really useful now, they can tank as much as anyone can post 2:0, they also do a substantial amount of damage without the pet upgrades. And Rangers do some really nice single target eps, obviously not as much as a melee rogue, but then what does?

Add binding roots which is fantastic now, with the changes to engagement and ai.

I'd also add that while cc and nuking are still king, you definitely want someone who can do some single target dps to get rid off those pesky casters quickly. It makes it much easier to have a mix of classes. I've noticed a big rise in difficulty when Sagani and Itumak are not in the party.

[zered]

Ranger seems to be much better now, the pets are acutally decent. I noticed yesterday that Itumaak is hiting really hard. When I got torn to shreds in Galvinos house Sagani and Ituumak were the only ones landing hard hits.

 

Might give them finally a try.

Edited August 30, 2015 by zered

[Elric Galad]

Pain block looks awesome on a pet.

32.5 DR at level 12 (probably more at level 14) with regenerating endurance and infinite health...


By the way, if my maths around wolf pets above are correct, I think rangers are now THE highest single target DPS class.
However, they are probably harder to use than Rogue.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Elric Galad

[servantrider]

Ranger seems to be much better now, the pets are acutally decent. I noticed yesterday that Itumaak is hiting really hard. When I got torn to shreds in Galvinos house Sagani and Ituumak were the only ones landing hard hits.

 

Might give them finally a try.

Yeah, I've noticed Ituumak is hitting for 40-60 quite often now.

[rheingold]

Pain block looks awesome on a pet.

32.5 DR at level 12 (probably more at level 14) with regenerating endurance and infinite health...

By the way, if my maths around wolf pets above are correct, I think rangers are now THE highest single target DPS class.

However, they are probably harder to use.

They also have utility- roots and the pet can get knockdown 2x encounter. Just started a play through where I'm going to get some of the pet talents like sneak attack and knockdown. Even without them, on my last play though Itumak out damaged Eder easily. Eder was an off tank with a shield but some offensive talents. To put it into perspective the little munchkin did almost as much damage as Pellagina who had an estoc. Crazy. But yeah the payoff is that there is a heck of a lot of micro managing involved even more so than with a rogue. Still good times.

[dukefx]

According to the combat log the ranger is affected  by the pet talents (merciless companion and such). Either something went wrong, or the combat log is glitched. I doubt it's intentional.

[Animaillusionaria]

so whats considered the best pet now? is it still bear or are the dps pets usable now?

[Elric Galad]

Quoting from a previous topic

 

"Wolf attacks every 3,4s vs bears 5,1 and lions 4,9"

 

Given that wolf aslo does 13-19 base damage instead of 11-17 for other pets (I think), I think it could be a big difference for damage, but it would require confirmation ^^

 

I would be curious about other pets attack speed by the way.

 

Bears only have 3 more DR (or am I missing something), so personnally, I would prefer wolf. 

[Animaillusionaria]

Quoting from a previous topic

 

"Wolf attacks every 3,4s vs bears 5,1 and lions 4,9"

 

Given that wolf aslo does 13-19 base damage instead of 11-17 for other pets (I think), I think it could be a big difference for damage, but it would require confirmation ^^

 

I would be curious about other pets attack speed by the way.

 

Bears only have 3 more DR (or am I missing something), so personnally, I would prefer wolf. 

I did do some tests with the pets

 

attackspeed wise its

 

Antelope>Wolf>Deer>Boar=>Lion(forgot but lion for sure isnt faster)>Bear ( lion is super slow for a dps pet)

 

wolves also got less endurance so even if they only take 3 more dmg a hit they cant take as many and that 3 per hit adds up fast

 

but i mostly want to know if i can safely pick a dps pet now without it dying too much or if its still bear just so u dont need too worry about it too much ( this is for Potd for hard and lower it doesnt matter i think)