Information on How to Play a Ranger by Chett Darkforest
Information on how to play a ranger by Chett Darkforest --------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Basics--------------------------------------------- So your interested in what exactly it is that rangers do? Well the truth is that most of us rangers spend our time alone in the deep forests. However, when we decide to join a group and take some time away from the wildlife and the woodlands, there are a certain ways we contribute to the party. We track, snare, pull, scout, and melee. Although we can do some light tanking duty, we are by no means the equivalent of a warrior. Rather our job usually falls upon pulling the mobs to where the group is camped. This ability to pull is usually what either breaks or makes a ranger. A ranger has to lean thru experience how to successfully pull for a group, however I do believe I can give a few foundational guidelines. One know your group. Know what your group can handle, and don't pull anything that you think will cause a TPW, (total party wipeout). Also keep a close track of the casters mana, and don't pull anything that you doubt the group can kill without them, until they are ready. Rather just scout around (use Track), and look to see what your next pull will be. Also if you find something that is in question as to whether or not the group can kill, ask the group if they are willing to try, so that you don't bring anything back to the camp that the others will later curse you for.
The following is a good idea when pulling in an outdoor areas, 1) snare it. 2) cast a Damage over time spell on the mob...(only If you have a long run to reach the group), If not then let one of the casters put a nasty DOT on it. This is because not all DOT's will stack (some do), and other classes usually have a better DOTs. 3) Stick it full of arrows on the way to the group. With the mob snared, and a SOW you can outrun just about everything but Griffins and Trakaraptors. 4) Give the Group a notice that your pulling something in. I recommend making a hot key of something like the following "/g INCOMING %T.....plz be ready." 5) If you are not the main assist, upon reaching the group Make sure that you assist someone if you are supposed to. (make an assist hot key). *note* If the party wants you to chain pull for them, you may not want to snare the mob until it reaches the party's camp. This will reduce the time inbetween pulls.
Two know the zone. Not all pulling is the same as pulling in the great wide open outdoors. If your in a dungeon the pulling will be vastly different than if you are pulling outside. (i.e. Use of the Snare spell in bringing something to the camp could cause a train). However, once the pull reaches the group it is almost essential that you snare the target, to avoid it running off and coming back with a mob of its friends. Learning how to pull inside a dungeon, takes lots of experience, to learn how to avoid trains. If your not familiar with the dungeon your party is hunting in, or you lack the necessary experience for pulling in dungeons, let someone else within the group pull, lest you make life for the group miserable. And remember that many of our ranger spells will not work indoors, (i.e. Spirit of wolf, Lightening, Camouflage, harmony,...ect), so have spells that you can use indoors memorized when your within a dungeon.
Information on how to play a ranger by Chett Darkforest--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Using Snare----------------------------- One of the Primary Jobs of a ranger is to keep the angry mobs from getting away, by using snare. By keeping the mob from being able to run the ranger prevents the problem of the target running off to rally some of its friends. It is of upmost importance to snare mobs in dungeons to avoid the target from running off and creating trains, that could create a TPW. I strongly advise making the snare spell into a hotkey that also has an announcement that will notify your group what target you have just snared. This is especially useful on larger raids, if the ranger is not the main puller, but is assisting one of the main tanks instead. By using a series of hotkeys you can easily and quickly switch between multiple targets snaring them as you assist the main assist (MA). The only time that you should not snare a target upon it reaching the group, is when you are grouped with a Necro or Shadow Knight, as they have their own line of snare spells that not only snare, but also has a slow DOT.
SNARE VS ROOT? Using snare is better than using root when a target has been thrashed down to about (25%) of its health, and is now trying to flee. If snare is used the mob will continue to try to run and will only attack those players directly in front of it (barring its way), however if the fleeing mob is rooted then the target will turn and fight to its miserable death, taking HP that would not have been lost had snare of been used. Also I want to mention that these two spells; snare and root can be stacked ontop of each other, which is very beneficial when soloing. Also note that rooted mobs will almost always attack the player closest to them, so if a rooted mob is hitting you, move to maximum mele range, and ask the main tank to get closer to the mob. Finally at lvl 63 Rangers can get the spell Earthen roots, which the the first root spell in the ranger line that doesn't have any DD, (hence, mez'd mobs can finally be rooted by the ranger without breakin mez).
But Wait Theres More. Ah yes a few final things I should mention about the use of snare. Snare (along with root) are used to keep the casters alive. How? Snare is used to break a mobs argo on a caster. Sometimes a caster (say a Wizard for example), will get nuke happy. When this happens the caster will start blasting away at the target. And it doesn't take the angry target long to figure out who in your party is the greatest threat to its life. Therefore, the angry target will turn and attack the caster ceaselessly, (AKA aggro [Aggrovate]). I'm sure everyone has been in the situation (at least once), where one of the party's casters was screaming for the tanks to "Taunt" the angry mob off of them. When this happes you should keep taunting the angry mob, but I have found that if you cast a snare or two (along with a root) on the angry target, it will almost always break the agro, and save the casters life. [for more info, see Grouping with Enchanters]
Also a ranger should prevent a party hunting in an outdoor zone from having to worry about the group having to flee if necessary. When the notice comes down the line that a TPW is about to occur and the leader gives the notice that the group should prepare to run, the ranger should spring into action. At this time the good ranger disengages from assisting the MA against the mobs, and begins to snare and root the adds, as well as refreshening SOW's if necessary. But remember fellow rangers that one of the First small signs of a good ranger is the following: once you have been asked to SOW the party, you continue to keep the group SOWED without having to be told. And this will spare you from having to SOW party members, while attempting to snare and root angry mobs, as the party flees. So when in an outdoors zone always be prepared to ghetto park (read: Rooting) the angry NPCs.
Information on how to play a ranger by Chett Darkforest---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Grouping with Enchanters------------------------------I'm sure everyone of a high enough level has learned the painful lesson of loosing their enchanter/enchantess on a Nasty Ole Dungeon raid. I remember my first lesson very well. And I also recall a second lesson (see Flashback below), that taught me just how important Enchanters are when on a dungeon raid.
FLASHBACK When yer on a dungeon raid Enchanters change the balance! I remember once going Link Dead (LD) when my computer crashed while on a CC raid in Velious. By the time I had rebooted my computer and logged back onto EQ, the raiding party had moved on. I notified my group leader with a tell that I was back online, who in turn notified the Raid Commander. In quick succession orders came down the line and soon I found myself breathing easier as I patiently waited for the raiding party to carve and hack their way back towards me. Unfortunaetly I was near the Queen Drachnid's chamber, and she happened to spawn durring that time. I shouted OOC that she had popped and was given orders by the Raid commander to "get the hell outta there". So I quickly did a /shout TRAIN FROM QUEENS LAYER TO ZONE and boldly ran like the foolish woodelf I was for the not so distant exit. As I ran, I cursed to myself as I knew I would never make it out alive, and that the train I formed might infact cause a TPW for everyone within the cave. However just as I came to a cross roads within the cave I ran into the group. And it was there that I learned a lesson I will never forget. I can remember it like yesterday, I said to them "RUN". But they firmly stood their ground and faced the tunnel from which I had just emerged. So I also turned around to stand my ground, just in time to see the Queen Drachnid and a hoard of her followers come into view. The Enchantress did an area affect Mez causing every NPC to freeze in its tracks. Then the tanks started to work, while wading in the mobs waste deep, the tanks started Hacking away at one target at a time. And after a long battle, everyone within the raiding party was still standing after facing terrible odds of being outnumbered. We had killed the queen and 18 of her followers. [END FLASHBACK]
The Moral of the Story is this: If the Enchanter dies the odds of a TPW skyrockets. But if the Enchanter lives then the Balance tips in the raiding party(s) favor. Therefore, Keep your Enchanter alive!!!
Now for some info for How To Keep the Enchanters Alive. Anytime the Enchanter/Enchantress mezmorizes (AKA mez), an angry mob of NPC's, the targets that have just been mezzed will always argo on the Enchanter. This means that the enchanter will be the first person the NPC's will want to attack when the mez is broken or wears off. However this agro can be broken so that the enchanter will not be attacked. This responsibility falls upon the ranger! It is the Rangers first job to break the agro on the Enchanter/Enchantess by taunting (use the "Taunt" hotkey), before breaking (read: attacking) a target that the enchanter has mezzed. Rangers should help in this process of breaking the argo on the enchanter by casting snares on the mezed mobs. Casting snare on a mezzed target will not break the mez. After the snare/s have been cast prepare to mele as you assist the MA. If the agro has been broken the enchanter can safley keep the other NPC's frozen in their tracks while the group/s slay the angry but helpless mobs at their leisure.
Whats that you say what if the Enchanter Fails? Then you have a real mess on your hand. Lets Examine a senario where this might happen, and compare/contrast a poor ranger against a good one.
[a real bad scenario]
For what ever reason (adds, roaming mobs, bad pull, new spawn) 3 mobs come to the camp. The party is made up of the following: a ranger, warrior, rogue, enchanter, cleric, and a wizzy. The Warrior engages mob #1. Mobs #2 and #3 agro on the Tank. The rogue /assist warrior and gets behind the targeted mob. The ranger fires a snare at the /assist on the warrior and roots the mob afterwards. The agro for mob #1 is now glued to the warrior. Meanwhile, the enchanter attempts to dazzles mob #2...success. But mob #3 resists and Agros on the enchanter. The enchanter attempts to dazzle mob #3 but is interrupted as mob #3 proceeds to beat the holy hell out of the party's enchanter. The cleric counters with level 5 stun, buying the enchanter enough time to fire off another dazzle on mob #3...which fails. The ranger having just snared/rooted mob #1 turns attention towards mobs #2 (mezd) and #3 (on the enchanter). The enchanter says "On me!" Its Time to determine if the ranger in your party is a good one or not.
The ranger who doesnt know how to play his class will attack mob #3 from behind, uneffectivley taunting like mad, as the enchanter gets thrashed. Eventually the mez on mob #2 wears off and mob #2 assists mob #3 in beating the enchanter silly. Mob 3 eventually dies and then the ranger moves to assist the warrior whose on mob #2. Mob #2 eventually kills the enchanter.
The ranger who does know how to play his class works to break all agro on the enchanter by firing off a snare or two (huge aggro inducer) on mob #3 (the one beating on the enchanter), and eventually gets agro of mob#3. The ranger then targets mob #2 who is mezzed but whose argo is still on the enchanter. The ranger puts a snare on mob #2, hits taunt, and then fires an ensnaring roots on mob #2, which breaks the mez but will make the ranger be the target of mob #2...100% guaranteed. Ranger works to ensure that mob #2 is rooted, and then announces to the group, when mob#2 is effectivley rooted. This leaves only mob #3 as the last attacking mob. And mob #3 has its agro on the ranger, and not the enchanter. (95%) of the time the cleric will be able to to lvl 5 stun, and the enchanter to dazzle the last attacking mob uninterrupted. And even if root breaks on mob #2, the agro will remain off of the enchanter and on the ranger. But if root does not break on mob#2 then it remains out of the picture until the enchanter can get to it. Either way the ranger has effectivley broken the agro on the enchanter, giving the enchanter more time to do her job. Once the enchanter has both mobs #2, and #3 mezzed, the ranger should cast another quick snare/taunt on each. THEN assist the Heavy Tanks.
Additional Pages with Information on How to Play a Ranger by Chett Darkforest
Chett Darkforest's Specific Dangers to Rangers Page
Chett Darkforest's Where to Hunt and What to do at each lvl Page
Chett Darkforest's Information on Completeing Etched Ivy Armor Quests
