1.0 Introduction
2.0 Character Creation
   - Starting Points
   - The Basics
   - Ranger Skills Explained
3.0 Starting the Grind
   - Levels 1-5
   - Up to Level 24
   - Up to Level 35
4.0 The Long Road to 50
5.0 The RvR Ranger
   - Equipment
   - Realm Abilities
   - Tactics
6.0 Various Ranger Templates
...in Conclusion and Thanks

Following is a breakdown of each race available and their starting attributes.

Celt - 60 STR, 60 CON, 60 DEX, 60 QUI. The Celt has the highest STR and CON of any base Ranger. Celt Rangers are potentially less bow damage, potentially higher melee damage, and easier to solo.

Lurikeen - 40 STR, 40 CON, 80 DEX, 80 QUI. The Luri has the DEX and QUI of any base Ranger. Luri Rangers are potentially the highest bow damage, potentially higher melee damage, and harder to solo due to lower HP.

Elven - 40 STR, 40 CON, 75 DEX, 75 QUI. The Elven Ranger has slightly less DEX and QUI than the Lurikeen. Elven Rangers are almost a hybrid that has wasted 5 points of DEX and 5 points of QUI for higher Intelligence (INT)...which Rangers do not use.

For this guide, and going against what I play as a Ranger, I would suggest a Celt Ranger if you are intent on going Blades and planning to RvR-Group a lot, or a Luri Ranger if you are going Piercing and plan to solo or stealth RvR a lot. I personally went Elven before I knew better, based off the fact I have played Medar as Elven for many years in previous games.

Please Note: There is 100% no statistical reason to play an Elven Ranger, and you will not be Legolas for doing so. There is no innate Elven bow ability, and worse, you will have the height of a Ranger but not the melee skill, and you will be taller than a Luri who has slightly better bow skill.

Starting Points

Using the above information, you have probably chosen a Celt or Luri Ranger. Now you have 30 attribute points to spend, where do you put them? You cannot use all 30 in one stat, the cost begins to stagger. You can do 10 points in 3 different stats, 15 points in 1 and 10 into another, or 18 into one stat. Stick with either option 1 or 2, you are wasting 12 points by upping only one stat. Here are my recommendations for your 30 points:

1. 10 into CON, 10 into DEX, and the remaining 10 into either STR, or divide into STR and QUI.
2. 10 into CON, 10 into DEX, and the remaining 10 into STR.

I personally went 10 in CON, 10 in DEX, and 5 in STR and QUI. I was playing for a versatile Ranger, able to survive with or without my bow. Plus as an Elven Ranger I needed the extra CON and STR for certain.

The Basics

Ranger Skills Points are acquired per level at 2x your Current level until 40, and starting at 40 you get 2x for each full level, and 1x for each half a level. Total skill points at 50 will be 2979 points with no auto-training.

Rangers auto train Recurve Bow. This means that if you do not place any points into your Bow skill, you will automatically be "skilled" to level XX in bow, freeing up some points for other skills. This guide focuses on non-auto trained Rangers.

All characters get a single-line respec at level 20, and another at level 24. You also get a full RA respec...so keep these in mind when leveling up. I specced for PvE the entire way to 50, and then "corrected" for RvR after that.

Ranger Skills Explained

Recurve Bow - Mentioned previously, I do consider this the primary skill of a Ranger. Almost all Rangers take this skill to 35, for this guide I will not have a spec that is below that mark. You get two "abilities" in Recurve Bow:

Penetrating Arrow - this pierces all bladeturn on opponents (anything that is not self-bladeturn). You receive this ability in three increments in the below table:

Rapid Fire - this allows you to shoot arrows about as fast as you can click your fire button. Caveat? The faster you shoot, the less damage they do (it scales). You receive this ability in two increments in the below table:

Pathfinding - This is the Ranger self-buff line, giving us 15 minute buffs in Armor Factor, STR, QUI, DEX, a Damage Add, and a speed shout (on a timer). Depending on how high you take this, you will receive higher values of the above buffs. Typical stopping points for Pathfinding include the following levels: 16, 21, 27, 36, 40, 46. These are based off the benefits you receive back at those levels.

Weapon - Either Blades or Piercing, and there are pro's and cons to each. Blades will grant you better front-load damage against enemy Infiltrators (sometimes your main enemy), but are 100% STR based, and if you are STR debuffed, there goes your Blade skill. Blades while having higher front-load damage, do not have a stun style. Piercing is 50% STR and 50% DEX based, and while not faring as well against enemy Infiltrators, can do better against other opponents. You also do have a 6-second stun style in Piercing.

Celtic Dual - For a Ranger, there are only a few usable styles unless you spec quite high in CD. Where this really benefits our class is our ability to dual wield, and increasing your CD skill increments up the % chance you have of striking twice against an opponent. A common belief is to keep your CD skill at around 2/3 of your Weapon skill

Stealth - there is no true benefit to stealth other than being able to hide from enemy non-stealthers, and is really only useful in lining up shots, sniping solo enemies, or hiding for a potential escape. I personally consider stealth a necessary evil of a Luri or Elven Ranger, and my Celt is built with very low stealth. Yes, you get camoflauge, but really it is not useful.

3.0 Starting the Grind

Just keep in mind the entire time you are leveling a Ranger that we have very little to offer a group that another character cannot do better. Do not take it personally if you have trouble getting groups, that is a Ranger way of life. The best way I got groups was to start them myself, and I also had my guild as support. Above all, if you get frustrated, take a break!

Levels 1-5

Stick to your starting area, you should be able to fight blues rather easily for quick leveling to 5. Each time you DING a level, talk to your stalker trainer to see if any quests are offered, but DO NOT train.

Use whatever armor is dropped, I clothed myself with armor off of Skeletons outside Mag Mell. I also upgraded my dagger at level 3 or 4 so that it stayed a yellow con to me.

Again, do NOT train at all until you choose to become a Ranger at level 5. You will be wasting points you will want to put into Recurve Bow at that point.

Up to Level 24

You should always be able to afford yellow con armor, and you should use anything that drops that you can wear. If you are having trouble getting groups, do some kill tasks from named guards in towns, they are good XP up to level 20.

From level 5 to 10 I generally roamed the Ardee and Tir na Mbeo areas, fighting anything that conned yellow or blue. I also did kill tasks when available, and would stay extra time and fight where the guard sent me. After level 10, I hit Muire Tomb just Northwest of Ardee. I got into some decent groups, had some fun in a dungeon, and quickly got toward level 20. From 20 to 24 I was in the Spraggon Den (dungeon) near the Ardagh/Howth area. There were a few solo spots, and I found getting groups as a Ranger was still fairly easy.

I stayed maxxed out Recurve bow up through this point, and spent my points between Weapon and Pathfinding (which highly helps during your PvE leveling, regardless of your end spec).

For Thidranki RvR specs at level 24, see below.

Up to Level 35

From 24 to 35 was a blur for me it was so long ago, but I really had very little trouble getting groups, and I mostly leveled in dungeons. Some other notable spots in this level range were the Chickens out near Tir Urphost, Basar Bridge and some random critters around it, and the Coruscating Mines dungeon (upper areas). There are other guides out there that can better cover hunting areas than I will ever be able to do so.

I stayed maxxed out Recurve bow up through this point, and again spent my remaining points between Weapon and Pathfinding. Now this was before the Battlegrounds, so if you want to have some BG fun at 35 (your last chance), you might want to consider beefing your stealth at this point, but again, this depends on your Ranger template.

4.0 The Long Road to 50

After level 35 is where it became hard for me to find groups to level. I would find myself shooting quite a few yellow con critters solo a lot, and other times I would group with my guild. Needless to say, it was NOT easy after 35, because as a reminder, there are always classes that can do what you do in PvE, and do it better. Rangers are not often needed for pulling, are second-rate melee'rs when compared to tanks, and have no buffs for others.

Just don't give up...make a good name for yourself, get to know your allies well, and be persistent about finding or forming groups. Above all at this point, watch your armor and weapon levels, try to keep yellow con armor and weps on your character. There are guides better than this for getting you exact information on how to get to 50, but chances are you don't need me for that. Hell - find something yellow, shoot it, kill it, rinse, repeat.

5.0 The RvR Ranger

Now that you are 50, what is next? Hopefully you find some of this information useful in terms of what a Ranger CAN offer in RvR. Our strength will always be our Recurve Bow, but depending on your spec, you do have various other tricks up your sleeve. Please refer to the Templates below for better detail on how certain Ranger setups go and RvR.

Equipment

The best thing I can say is to get everything you can as high a "utility" as you can, which more often than not means player-crafted. 100% quality is best, and even as a Ranger you can get a 100% PC suit of armor for 6 plat or a bit more. Weapons? Whether daggers or blades, you will definitely benefit (most of the time) from PC weapons and bows.

There are a few random exceptions with the coming of Shrouded Isles (and probably the ToA expansion) where you can find 100% qual 16.x weapons and bows. The bows thus far are in Galladoria and are not easy to obtain.

Realm Abilities

Realm Abilities are received as you increase your RvR experience, and are granted on an increasing slide scale. You begin at Realm Rank (RR) 1, and increase in tenths (ie - RR1, RR1.1, RR1.2, etc). Each gain gives you 1 Realm Point to spend on additional Ranger abilities, which will be covered in the Templates listed below.

There are, in my opinion, some very useless Ranger RA's out there. Below is a list of the most common, and a list of the most worthless Ranger RA's you can choose.

Common:

• Ignore Pain - very common for melee Rangers, pre-requisite is First Aid II. This is a full in-combat heal.
• Purge - often goes along with the above, this dispels any negative affects (such as those pesky assassin STR/CON debuffs, etc)
• True Sight - a purely fun RA, you activate this every 30 minutes, and it shows you all stealthed players in your clipping plane for 1 minute. Gank fests galore!
• Longshot - not as useful as the below, but allows you to shoot that "out of range" caster or a fleeing opponent. Shoots up to 150% of normal bow range.
• Volley - another fun RA that allows you to "lob" up to 5 arrows a shot into keeps or crowds using a ground target.
• Falcon's Eye - additional 5% chance to bowshot crit with each shot. I had this and gave it up for IP, but it was nice to have, and is a passive RA.
• Mastery of Archery - not as useful as it once was, this is an additional 3% per level firing speed of your bow. Rapid Fire has somewhat taken the place of choosing this RA.
• Dodger - allows an additional 3% chance to evade per level, which is never a bad thing in melee.

Useless:

• Long Wind - there are endurance potions you can purchase instead of wasting points on this RA.
• Regeneration - never, ever bother with this for Rangers.
• Mastery of Water - unless ToA brings amazing RvR changes, this remains useless.
• Veil Recovery - allows you to drop res-sick earlier than normal, but equally a waste of points.
• Whirling Dervish - completely useless to Rangers.
• Bladedance - completely useless to Rangers.
• The Empty Mind - completely useless to Rangers.

Tactics

Ranger Tactics in RvR vary, and I will not widely try to discuss them here. Plain and simple - you either run grouped or solo, and depending on that choice, you react accordingly. I have usually found I benefit my groups the best by staying toward the middle to back of the group, and targeting casters and healers. Solo running in a stealth group? Just try not to get PA'd by an assassin, heh.

6.0 Various Ranger Types

Below are some of the various Ranger Templates people have used, do with them what you will. I use them as a reference for how varied even us Rangers can build ourselves, and none of the below are necessarily the wrong way to set up a Ranger. Each template has its place in DAoC, as will yours. My template is below, and other templates are common at Critshot.com and in various guides. One thing you will NOT see any of in the below few templates are Rangers with zero or sub-35 Recurve Bow skill. My opinion, if you want a sub-standard archer that can melee, go roll up a Hero.

Medar's Spec: I am set up to be primarily an Archer, but I can hold my own in melee with my respec. I find myself grouped more often than not, and when I do want to solo or stealth-group, I have a druid-bot I can use for my buffs, so I dropped Pathfinding in the Summer of 2003. I have not regretted one bit dropping PF and increasing my Piercing, Celt Dual, and even stealth a few points. If I change anything again, I have considered dropping either Recurve to 40 or Pathfinding to 16, and upping my Piercing and/or Celt Dual.

Recurve Bow - 45 (previously 43)
Piercing - 39 (previously 28)
Stealth - 34 (previously 30)
Pathfinding - 27 (previously 46)
Celt Dual - 19 (previously 12)

Medar is an Elven Ranger at RR4.3 with First Aid II, Ignore Pain, and True Sight.

The Sniper (or Archer) Spec: This template is very light on melee, but in the early heyday of Rangering, this was the standard. Anymore it is difficult to solo as a Ranger without at least a buddy for backup. The below spec will leave you smacking your opponents for max Bow damage, but if your enemy closes on you, pray for backup. Variants of the below spec include lower Weapons and Celt Dual, and higher Pathfinding.

Recurve Bow - 50
Weapon - 34
Stealth - 34
Pathfinding - 29
Celt Dual - 14

Common RA's at RR5.0 for the Sniper could include Mastery of Archery III, Falcon's Eye III, and Longshot (anything to maximize your bow damage or output).

The Battle Ranger Spec: This template is very versatile in the fact that you have very solid bowshots, and can still melee well in or out of group situations. While your Sniper buddies have dropped from not being able to kill an enemy with their bow, you can finish your opponent with your daggers or blades. This is probably the most common, or the "standard" template among the majority of Rangers. Variants of the below spec include lower Pathfinding, and higher Celt Dual skill.

Recurve Bow - 40
Weapon - 39
Stealth - 34
Pathfinding - 36
Celt Dual - 15

Common RA's at RR5.0 for the Battle Ranger could include First Aid II, Ignore Pain, Purge, and Dodger I. You could also trade Purge for True Sight depending on your situation.

The Blademaster Ranger Spec: This template is very versatile in the fact that you have very solid bowshots, and can still melee well in or out of group situations. What you do not have is ANY stealth to speak about, in fact, it is used as an extra-point dump. This Ranger is made primarily for groups, and in many instances can fare as well as some light-tanks. Variants of the below spec include lower Pathfinding (27) for higher Celt Dual and Stealth.

Recurve Bow - 35
Weapon - 44
Stealth - 7
Pathfinding - 36
Celt Dual - 36

Common RA's at RR5.0 for the BM Ranger could include variants of the above, utilizing either the IP route or bow RAs. Some BM Rangers also go for Mastery of Pain II or III.

...and in Conclusion

Hopefully this has been a help to many of my SSB guild mates that have asked for this guide for some time, and if any other random adventurers come across it...don't cuss me too much for being what you may consider wrong on some of this. This was my brainchild based off what others have done before me...and is by no means the "right" or "best" way - it is merely my way.

Thanks and Credits

This is by no means the best Ranger guide out there, and I urge anyone debating on using this information to read other documents on the subject as well, and to post on Ranger Forums to get some of the latest and greatest advice out there. My credits and kudos are as follows:

CritShot.com - the best DAoC Archer forums out there, hosted by a good guy named Kayless. I have had all my questions and comments debated, answered, refuted, and generally disassembled by some of the most vocal, best, worst, and smartest Rangers in the game on CritShot. Anyone playing a Ranger should be registered here and reading the forums.

Quivna and Emeryc - Rangers of different breeds on the CritShot forums, both have inadvertantly contributed to my knowledge and/or success at playing my chosen class. While Quivna plays botted and Emeryc prefers the purity of self-buffs, both are solid minds on the ways of Rangers.

Kaber and Whyrl Wynd's Ranger Site - I was paying attention to Kaber's formulae long before I started worrying about my end-spec as a Ranger. His guide was the first I read, and is still one of the best to read in existance.

Larian LeQuella's Ranger Guide - Larian's guide was the second I had ever read, and is still the other "good read" I suggest to all new Rangers today. Plus, he is the new (as of a month or two ago) Ranger Team Lead, so his TL Website is a great place to get your Ranger concerns addressed.

Chamyleon, Cremol, Venjor, Khevlar, Destroyr, and many others in SSB (Ranger and non-Ranger alike) that have debated skills, templates, ran tests, proven me right or wrong, have given and asked for advice, and generally have been good pals through each incarnation of Medar the Ranger.

Questions and comments on this guide can be sent to Medar, or post on this thread in the SSB forums.