2 Specialization Guidance

Rangers are a versatile class with a multitude of possible specialization options.  In this section I will show a couple of the popular specialization out there, but will mostly elaborate on what is current the best, and most well rounded specialization option.  I will also get into why things work the way they do, and the data behind these specializations.

2.a Specialization Options

No matter how you choose to specialize your Ranger it will always fall within two  broad categories, Melee and Hybrid.  The Hybrid style also encompasses what some will refer to as “Sniper”, however due to still having good melee capabilities this is really just a subset of the Hybrid style.

Specializations will obviously be different based on realm rank, the higher your realm rank the more +skill you have, which means the less points you will need to spend in some specializations.  Primarily this applies to your Stealth spec, which never needs to be more than an effective 50.  What does “effective 50 specialization” mean?  If you are realm rank 6 and have 34 points spent in stealth, then with +11 stealth in your template you should have 50 effective stealth.  Specialization like this allows Rangers to distribute points more effectively, without wasting them in pointless places.

I will use realm rank 4 as my basis for my specializations unless noted otherwise.

Heavy Melee
Stealth: 36
Blades/Pierce: 36 (pick one, not both)
Celtic Duel: 50
Archery: 29

With this specialization you will be heavily melee focused and will not use the Archery line much at all.  The only reason to put points in it at all is to get the spec AF buff, damage add (adds melee damage whenever you hit someone) and the speed burst.

This can also easily be flipped around to use the base weapon line more with something like:

Heavy Melee (using base style line)
Stealth: 36
Blades/Pierce: 44
Celtic Dual: 44
Archery: 28

Same premise as before, except now you will typically be using the anytime style from the blades or pierce line and the stun chain from the Celtic Dual line.  We will get into exactly which styles to use a little later when discussing whether to go blades or pierce and what to use in Celtic Dual.

Hybrid
Stealth: 36
Blades/Pierce: 24
Celtic Dual: 44
Archery: 46

With this spec you get the best of pretty much everything.  As you gain realm rank you can lower stealth and increase your weapon specialization to bring it closer to 51 effective (Wyrd spec.)  In the meantime it gives you all of the best styles from Celtic Dual and allows you have to superb bow damage.

The theory behind stopping at 46 instead of continuing to 50 is that typically pointblank will be used far more often than standard shot, crit shot and fire/cold shot.  With that in mind, why spend the extra points getting there when you can instead improve the other half of your game, melee?  Some still choose to go with 50 Archery, but it isn’t recommended until higher realm rank when it is possible to take those points out of stealth. 

For the sake of completeness here is a 50 Archery spec:
Hybrid (full bow)
Stealth: 36
Blades/Pierce: 15
Celtic Dual: 44
Archery: 50

An example of a realm rank 1 Hybrid specialization might be something like this:
Hybrid (realm rank 1)
Stealth: 39
Blades/Pierce: 19
Celtic Dual: 44
Archery: 46

2.b Wyrd specialization and what it means for Rangers

At this point you may be wondering, what exactly does lowering my blades/pierce specialization do?  Won’t I be terrible at melee if I have blades / pierce so low?
In fact, the answer to this question is yes and no.  Wyrd found that when using advanced styles, such as Celtic Dual, defense penetration is actually based off of your specialization in the advanced style line.  He further found that the only affect base weapon specialization (i.e.: blades / pierce) has on your melee damage is in the form of damage variance.  With 51 effective melee there won’t be much at all, but with the above 15 blades/pierce there will be a lot of variance.  The trade off here is that your damage over time will suffer, but you will still land styles until that critical moment when you can get distance and use the bow again.  We’ll get into that more later when talking about possible tactics and how to get the most out of your abilities.

For further reading on Wyrd spec a great place to start is with his original findings. An archived version can be found here.

When considering Wyrd spec, keep in mind this only holds true when using an advanced style line such as Celtic Dual.  If you attempt to use a style from the base style line (i.e.: blades) it will be based on that specialization and it will not hit as hard or as often as a style from the Celtic Dual line will.

2.c Archery

The variety of shots available in the Archery line can be confusing at first.  Here I will break down what each of them do, some may seem to have little point but often times in specific situations can be quite good.  We will get into that however, during the strategy portion of this guide.

Point Blank Shot: The best overall shot.  High damage and short draw time, but short range.  Once your opponent gets in close this shot will make them pay dearly to get close to you.

Standard Shot: Average damage, average draw time and good range.  This shot is your bread and butter shot from outside of pointblank range when out of stealth.

Fire/Cold Shot: Above Average damage and good range, but slow draw time.  These shots do fire and cold damage respectively, but the draw time is longer than standard shot.

Long Shot: Low damage, average draw time and extreme range.  This shot doesn’t do great damage, but you can shoot someone from very far away.

Critical Shot: High damage, average draw time and good range.  Crit shot must be fired while stealthed and it will bypass any casters defenses.  This includes blade turn and brittle guard.

Power Shot: High damage, very slow draw time, good range.  Of all the shots this is the only one that is not affected by dexterity in relation to how quickly it will fire.  This shot will bypass blade turn, and remove it, but will not bypass brittle guard.

Rapid Fire: Arguably one of the least useful shots.  Very low damage, very fast draw time and good range.  The damage is so low on this shot that the draw time doesn’t make up for it.  Normally better to stick with standard shot, except in some special situations.

Acid/Poison Shot: Low damage, slow draw time and good range; but an extra affect.  These shots initially do low damage but cause a poison to be inflicted upon the target which will continue doing damage for several seconds after the shot has been fired.  The poisons will stack, and have some interesting properties which will be discussed in the strategy portion.

Siege Shot: High damage, average draw time, average range.  This shot is only useable against siege equipment and comes with a hefty delay between shots, Siege Shot has a 30 second reuse timer.  It does however do a large amount of damage to keep doors and other siege equipment.

Volley: Average damage, average draw time, average range, area affect.  Volley fires a series of arrows at a ground target specified by the ranger.  Based on the level of the volley a larger number of targets will be hit by an arrow within a 350 unit radius of the target. Like Siege Shot, Volley comes with a hefty delay between shots of 30 seconds.

2.c Style Lines

The Ranger has three style lines available to specialize in; Blades, Pierce, and Celtic Dual.  Each line has its own advantages, such as which stat affects damage and which weapon type has better weapons available.

Blade Style Line

Table 2.1

The blades line is based completely on Strength.  What this means is that when calculating damage and whether or not you will hit or miss the only stat considered is your strength.  What exactly do those hit and miss penalties mean however?  Those hit and miss penalties only affect whether you will out right miss or whether your opponent would outright miss you.  To put that into perspective; at level 50 when using dragon drop weapons, artifacts, champ weapons, or dragon slayer weapons you have roughly a 5% chance to outright miss.  Generally it is far more worth while to worry about how much damage the style is actually doing, which is shown by the Growth Rate.

Growth rate is the amount of damage that will be added to the style by “style damage”.  This is not an exact number, but simply a very good approximation.  Damage will vary, even if you have 50 in your weapon specialization, but this number will show you which styles will do more damage over long periods of time.  This number also does not take into account any critical damage.
 

Most people that want to use the Blades line attempt to get to 44 blades, this style by far has the highest growth rate of any, anytime style available to the Ranger.  It does have the draw back of forcing you to specialize all the way up to 44 blades to get it though. 

Pierce Style Line

Table 2.2

The pierce line is affected equally by strength and dexterity when determining the damage of each style and whether or not it will hit.  This means you will need to get strength and dexterity as high as possible when using pierce weapons.  Where Blades has the highest anytime style available Pierce has a two part anytime chain, which chains into the highest growth rate style available to a Ranger, Wyvern’s Bite.  Both style lines will work equally well and largely the decision comes down to what kind of damage you want to do, and what weapons do you want to use.

If you chose blades you have the option of Fine Steel Long Sword, Malice Axe, Battler, and many other good weapons.  You also get favorable damage against many targets; shadowblades and hunters are naturally weak the slash damage and infiltrators are neutral to it.  Where as among other stealthing targets only scouts are naturally weak to pierce damage.

In the current game, blades are largely the best style line.  Due to superior weapons (FSLS and malice) and better damage tables against the many targets you will face.  Once again, this is a personal choice and neither choice is correct.  If you want to use legendaries to take advantages of gaps in an opponents template pierce is the way to go as the weapons have slower swing speeds which will increase damage.  Pierce also has Soulglimmer and Moment of Zen, which are both excellent weapons.

Celtic Dual Style Line

Table 2.3

The Celtic Dual style line uses the stats of your base weapon to calculate damage and chance to hit or miss.  If you are using blades it will be based on strength, if pierce strength and pierce equally.  The reason Celtic Dual is so important is two fold.  First, for each specialization point spent in Celtic Dual, and each +skill, an extra 0.66% chance to swing your offhand is applied.  This base chance to swing your offhand with 0 Celtic Dual is 25%, so if you have 44+14 (using realm rank 4 as an example) you would swing your offhand weapons 78.24% of the time.

The offhand swing will not have style damage applied to it, however it will give you a chance to proc any effects on the offhand weapon, and it will add base damage to whatever your main hand already did.  A damage add effect will also add damage to the offhand swing.  This offhand swing can dramatically increase your overall damage over time if you spec highly into it.

The second reason to specialize in Celtic Dual is for a style unique to only Rangers, Frozen Comet.  This style requires that you be in front of your target, but it will root them in place.  Frozen Comet must be used carefully because any damage will break the root, including damage from a damage shield.  However, if used properly it can allow you to create a little distance in the middle of a fight.  This distance can be used to either escape a bad situation, or turn around the fight with a few well placed arrows.

Some reading this guide may remember a time when Celtic Dual halved an opponents block rates.  This is no longer true, as it was changed several patches ago.