Originally Posted by
Cripplefish
I just started a DE ranger, picked up my starting quests and headed for the UD. Found a patch of morgia that I scummed for a while until I had enough to reach 25-ish To. I got through to the HMV, then went and killed keethrax. After that I went to kill Hotzenplotz. At this point I had 23 To (108hp) and poison resistance from eating spiders. Hotz killed me in 2 hits
Now I know he hits fairly hard for a lowbie but I had 32/14 armour and not bad hp for level 9. Anyway my question is how are rangers supposed to be played ? Are they primarily melee fighters or ranged ? I mainly stuck to my sword, occasionally shooting a couple arrows if I had to but it feels like they're really weak in melee. Do they get more powerful at higher levels or am I using the wrong strategy ?
Hotzenplotz is not safe to fight in melee with only 108 health and 32 DV (he almost always punches through armor, so PV doesn't matter). If you want to kill him in melee, you probably want about double both of those numbers--better to just kill him with wands or missiles though.
The biggest advantage to rangers is their skillset--you can play them pretty much however you want. If you want missile, go missile--although you won't be as good as an archer. If you want melee, go melee--although you won't be as good as a barbarian. You get Healing, Herbalism, a bunch of fighting skills, Food Preservation, all with fantastic modifiers. The downside is that your class powers are junk, so any improvements comes from improving your stats and gear. Despite popular mythology, I'm fairly convinced that orcs are actually the best rangers, rather than Dark Elves.
Rangers get huge benefits to fighting with two weapons, but I'm not convinced those benefits outweigh the loss of the shield.
Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.