Melee Ranger Build Ideas

[Mordenn]

Hey ya'll, I was trying to come up with some fun character concepts for ranger since I've almost never tried the class before.

 

There are two huge choices right away at character creation that can't be respecced later: subclass and multiclass.

 

Personally the combination of Stalker/Devoted multiclass seems to be the obvious combination, as it lets you dump int and gear yourself up as an autoattacking machine with high Dex and Per. You get quite a bit of natural tankiness from just from being near your companion that you can forgo using a shield entirely to just focus on heavy greatsword attacks. The accuracy bonus from attacking the same enemy as your pet also balances out the greatsword's modal rather neatly. 

 

That said, Ghost Heart/Barbarian also seems like it could be a deceptively strong combination. Ghost Heart makes you a lot less companion dependent which is obviously a boon at levels when your pet doesn't scale quite as well, and also lets you do some cheeky stuff like summoning your companion in right behind an enemy immediately after you engage them for an instant flanked status. The only drawbacks are that you can't really dump int quite as well since so much of your kit scales with it, and your pet is even more fragile than it otherwise would be. 

 

What are people's thoughts here? I want to make sure I think through all the ideas before I commit since it's so time consuming to restart a playthrough. 

[Urocyon]

How about mixed with Paladin/? You get Sworn Enemy and Mark Prey for increased damage and accuracy (with upgrades to make them more resource efficient); these abilities can both be popped nearly instantaneously as soon as combat starts. Sworn Enemy is just a hair less of a damage boost than basic rogue but it is applicable without having to flank or debuff. Plus you get auras and whatnot to help keep your pet (and rest of the party) alive and be more effective while freeing up some abilities in the ranger tree if you want.