Well let’s see, Rangers. Part Warrior, part Druid. We get the all of the warriors skills excluding bash, but with a lower cap on them all. We get a few of the lower level Druid spells, but at a much later level than they do.
Warrior side of us.
The skills we get are: Dodge, Parry, Kick, Riposte, Taunt, and Disarm. Dodge Parry and Riposte are very essential skills for a tank class, it helps avoid taking damage and make you last a little longer. Dodge and Parry are currently capped at 130 (Ed. Note: Parry is now 185 and dodge is 137) as of the time I'm writing this, but are being upped very soon, Riposte is capped at 150 which is not planned to change. Our secondary skill, Kick, is a nice addition to the damage we deal. The damage Kick does goes up depending on your level. When you first get it at level 4, it does around 8 points of damage if I remember correctly. At higher levels it does upwards of 18 damage. This skill caps at 130. Next we have the Disarm skill, capped at 55 it's not very useful, it's fun to actually disarm something every now and then, but it's almost not worth it. Then there's our Taunt skill, comes in very handy when you're the tank in the group, and need to keep the MOB off the casters. It usually only takes a few taunts to get the MOB on you, but at lower levels it doesn't always work that great. It also loses a bit of its effectiveness against high red MOBs. It caps at 150.
Next we have our weapon skills, and weapons we can use. Our Offense and Defense skills cap at 200 just like warriors, so we aren't really at a disadvantage here. The same goes for our weapon skills, but they're 5 points warriors per level. Rangers have a pretty good selection of weapons we can use. We can use the majority of 1-hand slash weapons, and about half of the 2-hand slash weapons. There is also a good selection of piercing and blunt weapons too. One skill we don't have much use for is 2-hand blunt, there is a major lack of these weapons a Ranger can use, but that's ok since we're better suited with a slashing weapon. We also have the addition of Dual Wield, the use of two 1-hand weapons, and Double Attack, making two attacks per round. These skills cap at 200 for us as well.
Armor, We definitely have a bit lacking in this department. The best non-magical armor we can wear is Banded, while this has a good AC and will last you for a long while, it just doesn't hold up at higher levels. So when you start getting into your 30's to upper 30's, if you don't have any magical plate, or plate alternatives, you start to feel the pain. The only full suit of Magical Plate Rangers can wear is Rubicite, it's a plate that's red in color.You can also go and tryout for the Ivy Etched armor quest wich is given by the guildmasters in Kichikor Woods-Ivy Etched armor is great for thouse around lvl 30.There are also many other partial suits and various other items that we can use as well. Once you get up to level 49, you may want to try for the Ranger only plate in the Plane of Fear.Thorny Vine armor is a green plate that has some very good AC along with good addition stats. So we survive with what we can get, and learn ways to work around having a lower AC than our Warrior counterparts.
The Druid part of us.
Now for the magic. We're part minor druid, we get some buffs, some damage spells, and some heals. Most of these spells are a small addition that can help out greatly. Our healing spells are a big help for reducing downtime, our first heal at level 9 only does 10 pts of healing power, but that can really add up when you just got out of a battle and need to rest up. Our next healing spell at level 22 does 30 points of healing power, this one is a great addition, by this time the first heal spell is barely moving our HP bar. Plus it comes in a little handier for healing party members after a battle to lesson the load on the clerics. Then our last healing spell at level 39 does about 80 points of healing power. Once again by this time with 1000+ HP, the smaller heal isn't really doing much, so it's another nice addition.
Buffs, we get a few HP/AC buffs, a nice AGI and STR buff, along with a few damage shields. Our HP/AC buffs follow the skin like *** series of Druid spells. The first at level 9 is Skin Like Wood, then Skin like Stone at level 22, ending with Skin like Nature at 60. We also get a few spells in the ***Coat line of spells, these add a little AC, while doing some damage to whatever is attacking you. at level 15 we get Thistle Coat which does 1pt of damage, next is Barb Coat at level 30 which does 6 damage, and ends with Bramble Coat at 49 which does 12damage. As for stat buffing spells, we get Feet like Cat, which raises AGI by 18 points, and Strength of Earth, which rises strenght by 15 points.
For damage spells we are lacking a bit since we're mainly a melee class, but they can be a nice addition to any fight. We get at least one type of damage spell every level of spells, here's the list of them in order: Flame Lick(20damage DoT), Burst of Fire(DD 15damage), Invoke Lightning(AoE 25 damage), Ignite(DD 37damage), Stinging Swarm(DoT 120damage total), Careless Lightning(AoE 99damage), Immolate(DD/DoT). We also get a few spells against summoned beings, Ward and Dismiss Summoned.
There are also a few nice utility spells that we get. Glimpse, which is good for a little long distance scouting. Camouflage, good for running in dangerous areas. Harmony, GREAT for pulling full spawn areas. Eyes of the Cat, infra vision spell. Invigor, good for those long fights. Levitate, handy in Solusek and similar areas. Spirit of the Wolf, probably one of the most sought after spells, great for travel. Superior Camouflage, can go invis in dungeons now. Wolf Form, besides looking cool, it raises your ATK rating some.
Well That's pretty much what a Ranger entails, I could go on and on about this and that, but this does well to sum up a Ranger. I'm sure I missed some parts and may end up doing a revision to this at some time. It's a great class, and can be a great addition to any party.
So be safe, travel the lands, and make a name for your Ranger.
Ranuven SilverArrow
Vallon Zek