Returning vet, already subbed, etc -- years ago I leveled almost all the classes to 20 or so.. never touched the ranger, didn't seem fun .. My folly. I rolled one recently,. only level 17, but it's a blast. even in small groups I can -feel- my dps, unlike my monk, who at 26 doesn't feel like he's contributing a whole lot to the dps of a group But questions, as i'm unsure on a few things 1.) Ranged, I love the pewpew, I understand solo i'll have to switch it up, but endgame, si a pure-ranged ranger viable? or should I look at figuring out how to weave in and out of melee to set up chains? 2.) Cripple, currently parked beside the quest npc for cripple, my ranged focus says I should go crippling shot, but.. google tells me I need melee cripple for swelter, so I guess I Should go for melee cripple, or is there a combo for crippling shot as well?
1) I have heard that some end game gear has some wonky dex stats, but you can still do great dps as a pure ranged 2) You get both cripples so don't worry about that . Before you had to choose melee ranger or ranged, but now we just get all of the stances and abilities! Now you determine which you want to focus on just be your stat distribution
Kyuuil wrote: 1) both ranged and melee work great alone, but the ranger works best when using both in a fight. that is if you are in melee stance, step back and toss up your ranged dots, then go back into melee. likewise if you are in ranged stance, do your pew-pewing from melee range and mix in some of your heavy hitting melee chains and try to get rancor up (you can shout "RANCOR" to the zone when you do... dravid and filzin will praise you for it). when you get to your epic, the proc you get from melee stance will probably push you into spending most raid/group time in melee stance, even if you want to do mostly bow damage because the melee proc is just too good not to use. 2) you can get both the ranged and melee versions, but can only use each in their appropriate stance. both are part of a combo for their respecitve stance and serve as the stance pushing ability which many encounters will require you to use. of the two chains that require cripple, swelter is by far the supperior, but you can only use that if in melee stance.
