Best Secondary Class for Ranger?

[Meroko]

Hello. :D

I just ordered GW and can't wait till it gets in! I play FFXI as a level 60 BRD on Lakshmi named Nekole, and also a level 47 DRG. Anyway, I've been looking carefully at all the jobs and had a tie between Mesmer and Ranger. I'm going to go ahead and create two characters, one a Mesmer and one a Ranger. But my question is about secondary classes.

What is the most useful one for a Ranger? I'm looking to be more on the lines of Beast Master type. Are they still useful in parties/ missions?

Thanks in advance. ^^ I really need your advice! :happy14:

[Hunt3r_kill4]

I would go Monk for beastmaster because you can keep mending, shielding hands, orison of healing, and healing breezes on your pet while its getting pounded away at.

Other than that, every single class would work nicely in synch with your pet, such as Mesmer, using Empathy to hurt its attackers, or you could go skill interrupting skills/energy denial for the ultimate anti caster build.

Thats just an example, and if you want more ideas, feel free to PM me or catch me ingame. Remeber: just keep your mind open to ideas, and test out everything

[Im Bogus]

i like a builld i made from a ranger/warrior

basicly is to use the sword ( NO BOW ) and traps to create lots of conditions and then use the "victory is mine" to regain full health and energy. he has good healing, very good mob control, nice dmg in close combat and is pretty good for going solo

if u want my build ill post it for u...

[TheNug]

rangers are tough because they are rather confined and don't have the flexibility like other classes. most rangers have to put a lot of points into marksmanship and expertise. after that most rangers just place the rest of their points into wilderness survival. what else can you do? i see a lot of r/mo for a simple heal and res. r/ele use conjure spells to boost their damage. r/mes use domination magic for killing casters. also see a lot of r/w using warriors increase attack skills.

[Rai Masamune]

i use Ranger/monk, and im still in pre searing

but im gonna focus on bow attacks and smiting attacks

[Psykewne]

go pure ranger! just pick the second class you would like to unlock skills for and go all ranger. High expertise means even the stupidly expensive concussion shot is cheap to cast, high marksman**** lets you deliver evil bow damage along with several conditions. A high wilderness survival gives you excellent damage and condition boosts from preparations and the all important traps (they are excellent in an organised group) toss in an optional pet and its all good. I play a ranger/necro but got so into the ranger skills i had no room for any curses or blood magic like i planned on my skill bar. Still i now have nearly all the necro skills unlocked which is handy and i can always flip the build a bit for pvp to become more curse orientated if its called for.

Trust me, rangers can survive in melee using their bow and various skills (whirling defence and lay a trap right under them, healing spring, troll ungent) they cripple and maim most targets before they get to the melee, (imagine a whole group of monsters already poisoned, bleeding and crippled before they even engage your warriors)

One thing to remember is that a ranger is a situational specialist. They don't work well and fulfilling one roll, but instead fire away causing conditions, providing good ranged damage, lay traps, interrupt (even on the short cast spells its easy to predict in pvp when the monk will heal so use of distracting shot is brutal) they can even play a little energy denial with debilitating shot.

Basically, a ranger justm akes everything a little harder for the opponent, and i mean everything, movement, healing, casting and melee combat. (imagine a warrior hunting your monk, fire off pin down and now the monk is free to run away while you put some poison on the warrior and set him bleeding)

In pve rangers are great too, capable even of mimicing a elementalist's aoe damage with some preparations and skills, although not as powerful they have so many options its hard to pick skills sometimes.

As anyone will tell you there is no wrong answer to what will work because it will all work if you use the right tactics and if things go your way on the day. I play a monk/warrior too, smiting and using a hammer, not a super strong build most say but it works damn well despite that.

If you must have a second profession for use i would pick necromancer or mesmer for the added conditions, interupts, effects etc... that they can provide you with. Monk if you really wanna be stuck trying to keep idiot warriors alive in pve i suppose :P, elemetalist if you want to be the most damaging build, but it takes considerable points in an elementalist branch to get decent use and it takes a while to find the conjure skills.

If you really want to do the bestmaster thing i would personally go with necromancer primary using death magic, bestmastery and curses, the added minions and spell damage from necromancer is great, either that or go monk primary and concentrate on buffing and heaing your pet to high heavens.


wow what a long post i got carried away...

off topic: yay im seeing reel big fish on the 15th june!!!!

[Quiver Eye]

I went Mesmer, It has been very good to me. I clean up the mess from all the others and very rarely die.

[Diak]

I admire your extensive advice on the ranger in general Psykewne. I thought of going necro 2ndary, now you have me fully convinced :D

[keydet]

rangers are tough because they are rather confined and don't have the flexibility like other classes.

Sorry, but that is just wrong. My R/Mo has usually been the most adaptable character in any group I've played with. I've stacked skills and done 298 dmg (one attack) to undead mobs. (keeping that skill/equipment recipe a secret). I can use Dodge and Troll Unguent to tie up 2 or 3 melee mobs until my group focuses fire and gets rid of one or two. Having a longbow that can cause bleeding and poison in one shot is perfect for pulling enemies in without much risk to myself. With my pet (at least pre-ascension, not so much post) I could start on one target, poison it. Let my pet finish him and start another target before the tanks took down their first. Taking out healers and casters was child's play.

I managed to get the bonus during the ascension mission with my build. :happy14:

Just taking along Mend Ailment saves the primary healer a lot of energy during some battles and keeps the tanks operating efficiently. And If needed I could take a rez, and a healing spell too. :happy34: Rebirth in particular was great... could pull the dead tank out and let him heal up before rejoining battle, or get the primary healer back up and out of the fray.

Oh and b4 some genious asks if I'm talking PvE.... yes.

[Darakor Korav]

As a Ranger/Monk build I started out trying to be a archer with smiting spells.

That concept fell flat, but I'm glad I chose monk, because it has given me a versatillity that I can't fully explain in the time I'm gonna take here.

Needless to say, a good friend of mine went with necro, and never uses his necro skills. So in most respect he is a straight ranger.

Monk has the distinct advantages of being able to heal, res, and other insanely useful group utlities. Monks also have a good HP base, so you won't be lacking in that department. With a minor vigor and fortitude on my bow I come in just under 500 hps normal.

There are also some tricks availible to this build. someone above hinted at it, I'm gonna lay it out in plain english.

If you are R/Mo, stop in the courthouse. Pick up Judge's Intuition (I think)
Regardless, it is the only spell there with judge in the name. This spell converts all your damage for x amount of time, to holy damage and adds 20% armor penatration. Against undead this means each hit will be for double damage. Now with about 6-8 smiting you will get around 12 seconds, in those few seconds you have enough time for a few special attacks, or about 3-4 regular shots. In the Lion's Gate regions, this means you can effectively kill most undead in 2-3 hits, sometimes get as high as 200+ in damage. This may seem like alot of work, but it is truely worth it when you are trying to kill high level undead bosses. Anyone whos done a "drake run" knows what I'm talking about.

In PvP, one of my latest discoveries is Live Vicaouriously. This spell is awesome. I strap this on the tank in HoH and I kid you not, I don't watch my hps much. unless you are heavily hexed and/or being ganged up on, you can take the average warrior hitting you head on without sweating.

Anyways enough for now. Take care.

[Bill Millet]

Monks also have a good HP base, so you won't be lacking in that department. With a minor vigor and fortitude on my bow I come in just under 500 hps normal.

Skills aside, are you saying that 2nd class affects the number of hit points your character has? Or can you only do this by using the monk skills you mentioned (minor vigor and fortitude)?

[Powercat]

go pure ranger! just pick the second class you would like to unlock skills for and go all ranger. High expertise means even the stupidly expensive concussion shot is cheap to cast, high marksman**** lets you deliver evil bow damage along with several conditions. A high wilderness survival gives you excellent damage and condition boosts from preparations and the all important traps (they are excellent in an organised group) toss in an optional pet and its all good. I play a ranger/necro but got so into the ranger skills i had no room for any curses or blood magic like i planned on my skill bar. Still i now have nearly all the necro skills unlocked which is handy and i can always flip the build a bit for pvp to become more curse orientated if its called for.


I am actually also a ranger/necro and did like you, took the path of a pure ranger.
I must say it's excellent and I've never wished for more.
Rangers totally rule.
They are the ultimate class.
We've got interrupt, fast damage, aoe, poison, cripple, blind, healing, pets and so on.
I've been using a cool combo, try using serpent's quickness with marksman's wager plus kindle arrow or ignite arrow with a couple of attack skills like power shot, determined shot, dual shot and watch the enemy die!

[BrankoZ]

How does using Dodge, which makes you move faster, and Troll Unguent, a self-regen, enable you to tie up 2 or 3 melee mobs? Do you just mean it keeps you from taking too much damage while waiting for your party to finish with other mobs? I'm not getting something. Actually, I don't get a lot of things...

[ChaosJester]

I went Ranger/Necro, toyed with going pure ranger, but then i found the devastating combo of using a 75% block/dodge/evade stance with Shadow of Fear, a long lasting, fast recharging, and relatively cheap AoE necro curse that slows enemy attacks by 50%. Have kept a curse on my skill bar since then at almost all times, unless I am keeping multiple healing/health regen skills/spells on my skill bar. Traps + Virulence is also quite devastating, and can serve as a nice Damage + DoT combo. If you have a Fragility Mesmer with you as well, then adding fragility can really boost the effectiveness and damage potential. Fun stuff happens when you learn how to use the curses and blood lines of skills with the ranger lines of skills, whether they be beastmaster, marksman, or wilderness survival.

While you probably don't want to specialize in interrupts as an R/N unless you go 'pure', your ability to add DoT can really get boosted, and you can add some rather powerful means of ensuring or completely preventing damage.

Most of the corpse abilities are instant recharge, and several can be really painful to enemies. Putrid Explosion, Necrotic Transversal, and the wells can all be very useful weapons in the hands of a R/N. One useful trick I use on occasion is to use putrid explosion and the like when I am near a enemy necro trying to animate undead and I don't have any interrupts fully recharged, which has three effects: preventing the animation by exploding the corpse, forcing the caster to waste energy, and dealing fairly heavy damage to the caster and surrounding enemies. While it is perhaps less useful in PvP, it can often be a good tactic in PvE, where very few enemies would even have the minionmaster line of spells to keep minions alive.

[Spatzimaus]

Rangers are one of those professions that do just fine going pure-primary, but there are some nice combos for secondary. Personally, I like Mesmer as a counterpoint to the Ranger abilities; they're similar, in many ways, but they also combine well.

For instance, my R/Me commonly uses two of the following (with an Inspiration skill of 9):
> Energy Drain (elite): costs 5, takes only 1 second to cast, steals 14 energy from target and gives it to me. (The non-elite version takes 3s to cast and only steals 12; still better than the one Ranger energy drain)
> Leech Signet: costs 0, interrupts anything, if it was a spell I get 7 energy. (Since it's not a bow attack, it works just fine even if I'm Blinded or if the enemy has a 75% stance up.)
> Physical Resistance: It's a stance, but it lasts about a minute (longer than its recharge), adds 40 resistance to physical (cutting damage in half) while costing me 18 elemental resistance (which I have plenty of). It's not a fantastic skill, but in areas where I know physical damage is common (or in PvP, where everyone just assumes rangers have high elemental resistances), it's actually very nice. And since it's a Stance, Expertise helps on it.

What do these have in common? Energy efficiency; the above skills not only pay for themselves, they also pay for many of my expensive Ranger abilities.

And that's the fundamental problem; Expertise is a fantastic primary skill, but very few skills outside of Ranger and Warrior would benefit from it. So, you end up paying the full price of those heavy Mo/N/E/Me spells, hexes, or enchantments, and in many cases there's a Ranger version that might be a little weaker, but will end up being a LOT cheaper. End result, you don't use your secondary as much. I remember grouping with a Warrior who was bragging about the great 25-cost spell he just picked up for his secondary... until he remembered that he only had 24 energy. He had to swap items around just to raise his max up enough to pay for it, and if he had been suffering from Death Penalty, it would have been worse.

[cdepue]

I am actually also a ranger/necro and did like you, took the path of a pure ranger.
I must say it's excellent and I've never wished for more.
Rangers totally rule.
They are the ultimate class.
We've got interrupt, fast damage, aoe, poison, cripple, blind, healing, pets and so on.
I've been using a cool combo, try using serpent's quickness with marksman's wager plus kindle arrow or ignite arrow with a couple of attack skills like power shot, determined shot, dual shot and watch the enemy die!


Why use serpents quickness with those skills? Usually it's uses with longer recharging skills such as Traps, Spirits, and a few other skills. Tigers Fury or Fav winds would be better with those skills for more damage and Penetrating arrow is usually better than powershot, but for ignite arrows you want dual shot. Btw Rotting flesh, mark of pain, shadow of fear are some nice nec skills that would be nice vs mobs, not so much for pvp though. Oh yeah and soul feast can heal up to like 234 instantly from a dead corpse, it can be good in pve.

[Liquify]

you said go to courthouse to get judges insight.. where is courthouse

[Zero]

GWonline cartography section ;) Here's the map section you need:

http://www.gwonline.net/images/cartography/ascalonoutlined.php

It's NE of the Nolani Academy in the very central north of the Diessa Low Lands.

[Jhanto Gun]

Hello. :D

I just ordered GW and can't wait till it gets in! I play FFXI as a level 60 BRD on Lakshmi named Nekole, and also a level 47 DRG. Anyway, I've been looking carefully at all the jobs and had a tie between Mesmer and Ranger. I'm going to go ahead and create two characters, one a Mesmer and one a Ranger. But my question is about secondary classes.

What is the most useful one for a Ranger? I'm looking to be more on the lines of Beast Master type. Are they still useful in parties/ missions?

Thanks in advance. ^^ I really need your advice! :happy14:

since your more into beastmastery, just pick one secondary but focused as a main ranger. main reason for this is you only have 8 skills to bring with you at all times. beastmastery occupy lots of those slots in your skills bars. you will only bring a few ranger skills from your other attributes as it is.

I never tried beastmastery, but meet rangers that do and said they are ok, even in pvp plus tigers fury made this attribute easier to play. just remember though, pets don't do much damage but heard they do fine if if it's higher (10+). it's up to you, but imo not recomended. go ahead though, experiment and see what you come with.

other posters already explain some of the good secondary for rangers. you decide which one to choose. on my side, I choose the warrior, one main reason-I could play my ranger without the bow, use axe (with poison) and he is fun to play in pvp or pve. there are times I get bored playing with the bow, warrior secondary gave me other alternatives to play my ranger.

again, experiment, and see what you come up with. you could also choose warrior as secondary btw...melee together with your pet and raise hell together. also, you only need two or 3 axe skills (cyclone is a must, poison them all in one shot. AOE axe skill) to be good to melee, poison will do the rest.

have fun.