mauriceleo

In theory, yes, but in reality, when speccing out a ranged ranger, more talents and abilities have to go to the ranged to maximize it. You can maximize a dual wield ranger in a few abilities and talents then the rest can easily go into fully buffing the pet. I always find it hard to buff the pet fully when speccing out a bow ranger

Good point. Definitely an advantage of ranged in a party situation

Roll up a solo ranger real quick and check it out. Pet can be a lifeline.

Actually no, as the main character, your ranger can go down and the battle will continue until your pet goes down too. It happened a few times in my run and a few times my pet saved my ass. On another note, I've been testing ranged dps vs dual wield dps on my character, and average twinned arrow hit is about 40 each, with the driving flight giving on average 25 each. At level 14 against staelgar in northwield. With the approx 3.5 second cycle time of stormcaller, that's about 37dps. Dueal wileding my spears with the dual build, I was getting about 42 damage per hit on average while striking roughly every second. For 42 dps. Add on the extra damage talents given to the pet and the bonus effects of two weapons (stunning, interrupting, reducing defenses, ally bonuses, etc.) I think even in a party situation the dual wield would prevail

I was dual wielding cladhaliath enchanted with stun on crit and +4 accuracy/ +25% damage attacking same enemy as an ally and the vile loner's lance in the other hand. Like I mentioned, I wanted to take advantage of the high accuracy/crit of the Ranger to stunlock/interrupt. Note that I was also soloing, so I didn't find ranged soloing very appealing, because I couldn't easily heal my pet, and enemy control was tough. I find it much easier to focus on one enemy at a time, stunlock them to death very quickly, then move on. With the bow it just seems like it whittled enemies down too slowly with the aoe effects, and not nearly enough single target power. And I would be interrupted so often with the slower bow that my dps would plummet. Note also that I didn't always use full plate, I started off with it, but then eventually moved to padded when my survivability increased. But as for the -50% recovery, remember that sanguine plate gives a speed boost of 33% when crit, which is every fight because of such low deflection. So yes, I suppose the case could be made that it's the gear that's making dual wield so good, but you can't discount the really high added dps of the pet, which is fully specced into in this build, which imo makes this class shine compared to other melee dual wielders. (I like dual wielding, I've tried many classes doing it) I'll try to do some tests with my character and add a heavy tank to the party so that they can keep the groups of enemies at bay and test the dps of ranged that way and compare it to dual wield. that may give better insight for non-soloing.

I fully respected a couple times with driving flight and twinned arrows with stormcaller to compare. I really don't think it compares. You hit really fast and accurately as a ranger, so with dual wield, I was critting half the time with like around 50dps. Fully specced range is just too slow even though it hits multiple. And yes wounding shot works in melee

So I just soloed a dual wield ranger, and I must say, I think people underestimate the damage output of the ranger, almost to the point that I think it's a hush conspiracy to prevent a nerf. Just some points I noticed about my playthough: Melee damage is WAY more powerful than ranged. I respecced a couple times to compare melee with fully specced and levelled Stormcaller, no question melee trumps. Start by using plate armor and aim for high DR, that way you can soak damage while you and your wolf take enemies down. There are plenty of abilities and equipment (partially due to the expansion) that will reduce the armor speed penalty. once you gear up, you can start wearing padded for ultimate speed. Interruption and stunning compliment the ranger's high accuracy, so weapons like the stunning clad spear and vile loner prevent enemies from attacking while you take them out. Use pet's Takedown for those that get through. the fact that the pet is considered an "ally" allows for many synergies like the Dozens' talent, ally weapon buffs, etc. all increasing the already crazy accuracy of a ranger and giving them tons of crits for added benefits and stuns. Key Abilities: Wounding Shot (of course), Swift Aim (speeds up dual wield), Predator's sense (pump up pet damage), stalker's link (of course), Takedown (your pet is nearly an equal companion), Binding Roots (of course) Key Talents: companion talents, accuracy talents, and dual wield. at higher level, spec into savage attack because of ridiculous accuracy already. Key items: shod in faith and sanguine plate (because of low deflection), cladhaliath, vile loner's lance, stalker's torc, stat raisers. The idea is to use your high accuracy to interrupt and stunlock enemies while you and your pet destroy. Shod in faith and moon godlike abilities heal the pet to keep them alive, also take some points in lore to heal the pet with scrolls. of course for solo, figurines help. IMO Rangers are completely underestimated in this regard. I tried ranged for a while and it couldn't even compare.