Hunter Ranger: Guide/F.A.Q. for Beginners

estarrioll

Good day, fellow adventurers! Hunter Ranger is a beautiful class, quite unique and quite interesting to play with. The thing is that I started playing as Hunter Ranger and had a lot of questions while progressing through levels. Some things were unclear, some things were confusing, and some things were barely noticable. There are already a lot of guides dedicated to Hunter Rangers, and they are great. As for mine, I wanted it to be useful for new players, who started right with Hunter Ranger and have to explore both the game and the class mechanics. I hope that I’ve covered a lot to make your adventures go smooth and easy; and some information and analysis from this guide may be useful for experienced players as well. Enjoy the reading (It is very text-heavy, and I don't see the point in colorful images just for their colorfulness. Consider it an "old-school" guide.) and leave comments below.

First things first.


- Who is Hunter Ranger?

Well, it’s a rather unique class. First, it combines both close combat and ranged attacks. You can attack enemies from a distance with a bow or you can charge right to them and cut through with your blades. Or you can do both almost at the same time, because the closed/ranged modes change instantly and at your will. Second, it is not a magical class, but it is strongly connected with nature, so expect some roots and grass growing all over the place when you activate an ability, or beautiful storms with some lightning. If you are tired of ice and fire and divine revelations, or you are sick with weapons and shields, Hunter Ranger could be just right for you. Third, Hunter Ranger is a very fast fighter, meaning that you’ll be able to deal a lot of damage in no time. It can be called the primary characteristic of the class, and it’s very useful in PvP and PvE, in dungeons, as well as solo-questing.


- Is Hunter Ranger good for new players?

It is, actually. From the beginning you’ll have some decent AoE abilities, which will be helpful against packs of weak monsters; also, during the first half of the game (meaning level progression) you’ll also be able to deal both ranged and melee damage with almost the same effectiveness (and then you’ll have to choose your speciality). This will make you very versatile and also allow you to find out your “inner class” – the playstyle you are most comfortable with.


- How should I start playing with Hunter Ranger?

First things first – you need to choose your race. Let’s see what we have here.

Primary attibute (Ability Score) for HR is Dexterity, secondary ones are Strength and Wisdom. This means that more DEX we have, the better our HR is, frankly speaking; the same kinda applies for STR and WIS, but not that crucially. Each race have +2 to specific attribute by default and we can choose to boost another ability score by +2 as well. Obviously, we should be looking for the combination of the attributes above. This leaves us with several tiers of races based on their effectiveness for HR class:

1: Drow (DEX+WIS), Half-Orc (DEX+STR), Menzoberranzan Renegade (DEX+WIS) (!need to be purchased separately!), Wood Elf (DEX+WIS)
2: Halfling (DEX only), Moon Elf (DEX only) (!need to be purchased separately!), Sun Elf (DEX only), Human (who can apply their attributes to any ability score)
3: Dwarf (STR only), Half-Elf (WIS only)
4: Tiefling (none)

Let’s inspect the first tier in detail, especially their additional racial abilities:

Drow: They have 5% chance to apply special debuff to reduce enemy’s defense for 10% for 4 seconds and they can heal twice as fast at campfires (which is pretty useless). Playing as Drow HR can be a wise choice if you are going for PvP because of their racial debuff; also it will be useful during boss fights. But this is definitely not the ability to go for no matter what.
Half-Orc: Their critical hits do +5% extra damage and they also have +10% to runspeed when entering combat. Both of these abilities can be very useful: we usually rely on critical hits due to high Dexterity and overall nature of the class, and in melee combat speed could be very helpful. A good candidate to choose.
Renegade: They are very similar to Drow, except for the fact that their debuff reduces both Power and Defence by 6%. Again, not that amazing.
Wood Elf: Critical Strike chance is increased by 1% and they also have 10% resistance to slowing debuffs. It is more useful than you may think, and any chance of crit attack is always good.

This leaves us with two main options: Half-Orc and Wood Elf. Both of them are also lore-friendly. Half-Orcs are strongly connected to the wilds and who could be better hunters than Wood Elves, right? I’d recommend to choose between these two. If we go more specific, Half-Orc seems a better choice as more of melee fighting HR and Wood Elf is more suitable for “Nature” path, which we’ll discuss further.

If we look at the bigger picture, class choice is not that crucial. It’s not like you won’t be able to be a good HR as a human, drow or tiefling. All of the races actually have some decent abilities that could be very useful for your character. Nevertheless, these two options above seem to be the most suitable for the job, both game-wise and lore-wise.

The same goes for Deities. It is more of an aesthetic choice, so you can go crazy or stick with Silvanus, the Forest Father, as the obvious choice. I am sure that if Deities will be somehow improved in the future, HRs will be very pleased with Silvanus, but for now all of Deities are kinda same in-game.

Again, the initial choice can be important to some extent, but all that matters is the game itself and character progression.


- I chose Hunter Ranger, what should I do in the beginning of the game?

Well, you should learn and study. First 10-11 levels are pretty self-explanatory and are meant to introduce the game to you. You will learn how to quest, to do all the in-game stuff, will go for some trading and crafting, etc., etc. There are several thing to explain to young Hunter Rangers, though.

Powers & Feats (meaning Skills)
While advancing in levels you’ll get skill points of different kind. Some of them will apply to your Ability Scores (usually on x10 levels), some will be used for your powers and feats. These are your skills and abilities, frankly speaking. The in-game skill system is a bit counter-intuative, so let me do a brief explanation.

Feats are passive abilities which enhance your character. You can’t use them in battle - they are meant only to improve your character, make him or her stronger. They are very different and I’ll talk about the first of them in a minute. After reaching level 30, you’ll start getting Paragon points instead of Heroic ones. It means that you can spend heroic points from the beginning of the game up to 30th lvl for general feats. After that you’ll be able to choose three different branches and to continue spending your points accordingly.

You’ll be able to open new skills when you spent enough points in the previous “tier”. When Feats are concerned, you’ll have to spend several points to “open” next column of Feats. Powers use the same system. To open new set of skills, you’ll have to spend 10 or more points in the previous one. From the beginning you can see that you have 5 Powers to spend points. When you spend 5 points, you’ll open next set, and so on. Each Power have 3 levels of advancement. 3rd level of each Power is available when you spend 20 Power points total (not for this tier, but totally).

Powers are your main “weapon” in game. They are your attacks and abilities, so it’s very important to study them through. As you can see in Power tab, there are several powers in different color frames. If you look at your action panel, you’ll notice that you have several colored slots - not that many. There are two green slots (mouse buttons), three red ones (Q,E,R), two gold yellow ones (1,2) and two small square yellow ones. This is what you’ll be working with.

Green Powers for your mouse buttons are called “At-Wills”. They are usually very fast to use and do not need a time to recharge. Consider them your main attacks. From the beginning you’ll have “Rapid Shot (Strike)” and “Split Shot (Strike)”. As you remember, you can change your stances from ranged to melee, thus the names of the skills are different for each stance, as well as Powers themselves. You’ll automatically get this ability to change stances by pressing Tab when you spend your first 10 points.

“Rapid Shot (Strike)”: Consider it to be your primary, basic arrow shot. It’s the same as if you’d be using just your bow - simple shot, fast and quite strong, but, again, very basic. Later in the game you’ll definitely replace it with better Power, but for now it’s your basic single-target attacking skill. The same goes for “Rapid Strike”.
“Split Shot (Strike)”: Oh, it’s your weapon of mass destruction, no less. You should have noticed by now that monsters tend to stand in groups, usually with one-two “strong” opponents and a bunch of weaklings. While other classes have to deal with these weaklings one by one, we can just use “Split Shot” one or two times, and they are dead, simple as that. It’s a very good power, and it will be useful up to the end of the game. It’s later equivalent is actually worse withour several enhancements, so go for “Split Shot” and love it. Another great thing about this power is that you can hold the mouse button for some extra time to “focus” and then hit a single target with increased damage. It is basically your main archery skill, useful against groups and single targets. The only slight disadvantage is that you can accidentaly hit more enemies than you intended, so watch where you hit. “Split Strike” is significately weaker, but it is still a good Power when you are encircled by weak mobs.

Red Powers are called “Encounters”. They can be considered your main, important attacking moves. Usually they need time to recharge, you also have to “place” them sometimes. They are like more advanced Powers. You can have three Powers active for Q,E,R buttons.

The first Encounter Power is “Marauder’s Escape (Rush)”. This is basically your escaping power - while in Archery stance, you’ll be able to use it and instantly move back for a significant distance. It may seem as a good choice, and sometimes it is, but do not hold your breath. The main problem with this Power is that it does not damage enemies.And when you can have only three Encouter Powers, it’s wiser to use them for attacks. Also, you can have the same effect with your Stamina, by tapping twice your movement controls. The distance will be shorter, but the effect will be the same. To sum it up, it’s a good skill, but it’ll be replaced by something more significant soon. The only real advantage of this Power can be seen in PvP, but it definitely needs throughout consideration, ‘cause you’ll be trading one attack for the escaping power. “Marauder’s Rush” works the opposite way - it allows you to move to your enemy in almost no time. Of course, it’s very useful if you are going to be melee HR. In this case, it’ll definitely be your “opening” skill.

Two yellow Powers are called Daily Powers (big and round) and Class Features (small and square). The names are quite confusing. You can use Daily Powers all day long, not once a day as the name suggests. The thing is that you need to accumulate Action Points to use them (or to fill them up). Action Points are accumulated when you are attacking something or use Stamina - or, to put it short, through battles. It means that the more battles you have, the faster your Daily Powers become available. (If you played some other games, you may be familiar with “Rage” concept or something like that - it’s practically the same). Class Features, on the other hand, are your Passive skills. They enhance the character and grant him or her different abilities, but you can’t use them - they act as permanent bonuses, if they are active, of course. You can have two Daily Powers and two Class Features active at the same time.

First examples are “Seismic Shot” and “Aspect of the Falcon”.
“Seismic Shot” works the same regardless of your stance. It allows you to deal a lot of damage and push back the enemies in front of you. It’s a pretty self-explanatory Power, very strong and very simple. And it’ll be your only attacking Daily Power for a very-very-very long time.

“Aspect of the Falcon” basically increases the range of your shots. It is very useful for Archers and it allows you to deal more damage while enemies are running to you, thus saving your health. It’s almost “must-have” for ranged DPS HR, especially ones who love to strike from the distance. It’s useful both in PvE and PvP, and in the later game as well.

While we are at it, let’s have a look at the Powers up to 15 points tier.

“Hindering Shot (Strike)”: Single attack Encounter with a nasty twist - it applies Grasping Roots on an enemy. Shot has three Weak Roots (activated one by one in some periods of time) and Strike applies Strong Roots. It means that enemy will be rooted to the ground. It can be a good combo (especially in PvP) with Maradeur Rush - do Hindering Shot, rush forward, do Hindering Strike and rush back. The biggest problem is that Roots are not that “controlling” as we could wish for. Enemies can move a little and attack as well. It can be a good ability in the first half of the game, but after that its usefulness depends only on your playstyle. Still, it is a controlling ability.

“Rain of Arrows (Swords)”: With this Encounter you can place a small circle, where enemies will be hit by arrows. In melee mode it allows to attack enemies in front of you. Rain of Arrows is a quite good attacking skill, normally used with something else for extra damage, like DoT. Of course, when enemies move, it becomes useless. It is actually much more useful in melee mode. Overall, it’s a good supportive power, but not that fancy.

At 10 points you’ll open melee stance and two Dailies.

“Forest Ghost”: It is a hillarious Daily Power, allowing you to become invisible for a short period of time, “hiding in the bushes” (there is nothing suspicious at all in a bunch of tall grass in the middle of a cave, castle or crypt, yeah, right).While hiding you can also automatically attack nearby enemies with additional damage. Of course, it is a good escaping power for PvP, but in PvE… There are very few situations when you need to be invisible in PvE. Still, it is a great opportunity overall, so see for yourself. It costs 50% Action Points.

“Forest Meditation”: Healing Daily Power, consumes 75% AP. If you upgrade it, it also adds Deflection Chance of 100% (meaning all enemies’ attacks will miss) and immunity to Conrol. It may be a good Power in many situations, when you need to heal up and take a little break from a battle. It is not an instant power, though.

At 15 points you’ll get new powers and face the “rotation” thing.

As you noticed, you have limited slots in the action bar, but you can get much more Encounters than three, for instance, the fourth one just became available. It means that you have to choose between them, although you need to spend more points than you actually need to unlock the next tier. It leaves us in a situation when you have some Powers opened, but you need to forget about them and choose new ones. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that the “old” Powers are gone - you can swith, or rotate between Powers in quite a short amount of time. For example, you can use “Maradeur’s Rush”, quickly open Powers window, change it for “Thorn Ward”, wait for 10 seconds and use it. Rotation is a double-edged sword - you can have a lot of different possibilities for different situations (have some sets for PvP, boss fights or normal PvE and change them as you wish), but at the same time you can’t open all Powers at once, because Power points are limited. And it also requires a lot more concentration from you, because new Powers usually have different mechanics - you’ll face this problem later in the game.

“Thorn Ward (Strike)”: This Encounter places a huge circle, which deals some damage to the enemies and reduces their defence a little. In melee it strikes just one opponent. It is a good AoE power in the first half of the game, but you’ll most probably replace it with the similar power (“Split the Sky”) later. It is quite good in melee stance, though.

“Aspect of the Lone Wolf”: It’s a quite weird Passive Power. Mitigation means that you’ll receive less damage. You’ll get some mitigation as long as there are no enemies around, but if there are, minigation bonus is reduced significantly. It actually doesn’t make sense - it will work only if our enemies are ranged attackers, maybe bosses. Most of the enemies, however, are melee, and ranged attackers are usually very weak. The meaning of this bonus is actually eludes me.

“Aspect of the Pack”: Next Passive Power has an opposite effect - if you are close to your ally, you’ll get Combat Advantage, allowing you both to deal more damage. It is a good thing when you are battling in a group, so it is a good choice for dungeons and PvP. In solo PvE it is pretty useless.

Let’s also go through the Feats, first - Heroic ones.

1: “Predatory Action” (additional damage for Daily Powers), “Weapon Mastery” (+% to Critical Chance), “Toughness” (+% to HP). All of them are good, actually, but I would go for Crit first, then Health and then maybe Daily Powers.

2: “Swift Footwork” (faster Stamina regen), “Battlewise” (less threat), “Agile Combatant” (+% to Damage while swithing stances). Stamina is not extremely important. Threat means that monsters in dungeons will go for you instead of tanking party member, and they will regardless, because our class deals a lot of damage - 6% won’t change the situation drastically. But “Agile Combatant” actually allows you to deal +3% damage for 5 seconds when you switch stances. And considering that we swith them momentarily… You follow my thoughts, right? You can actually swith forth and back in no time and always have bonus damage.

3: “Endless Assult” (additional damage for Encounters), “Nature’s Enhancement” (+% to Deflect Severity while switching to melee), “Lucky Skirmisher” (+% to Deflection Chance). Deflection means less incoming damage, so it is quite good, but Encounters are our main attacking Powers, so they are definitely more important, in my opinion.

4: “Scoundler Training” (additional damage for At-Wills for clueless enemies (who do not see you)), “Disciple of Dexterity” (+% to Damage based on Dexterity), “Extra Action” (faster AP gain). Well, the first one is definitely good for ranged HRs, the second - for everyone. Action Points may be good, but there are no more Heroic points left, unfortunately.

As it comes for the basic battle mechanics, every and each one of us have their one preferences. The game allows you to construct your own “series” of attack, which will compliment each other to your liking, and it’s very good. I am not going to tell what to use after what - I’m sure you’ll find your own playstyle quite easily, and it goes for PvE and PvP as well. There are only several advices I can provide, because it’s better to learn “right things” from the start than to correct your habits later.
- Move. It’s very easy to forget to move your character during battles. You have powerful abilities, especially when using bow, and it’s very tempting just to stand and wait for the enemies to come to you, then use your melee abilities. It’s not very productive in later levels. The thing is that our health is not that great, and when you grow stronger, monsters will be thicker and stronger as well. And if you’ll be just standing, your health will be very low after each and every encounter. It’s very annoying, it’s quite dangerous and it is expesive to use HP bottles all the time. Most of the enemies in game have very distinct attacks, which could be easily avoided (and not only “red” ones), if you just move from side to side with Stamina. Train yourself to move while attacking from the beginning and you’ll be unstoppable in later game.
- Use Daily Powers. It’s quite hard to wait for Action Points bar to fill up in the beginning. It starts to seem that Daily Powers are useless, because they take a lot of time to recharge. Well, when you advance enough, AP will come much faster, but the problem will be that you will simply forget to use them. Again, train yourself to notice Daily Powers availability all the time and do not be afraid to use them. They are very powerful and very useful in later game.

estarrioll

(continuation)

Also, when you learn and study the game, you’ll get more and more aspects of game to explore. You’ll get your first mount, which is just a transport, frankly speaking, with no special effect on battlefield. You’ll also get access to Professions.

Leveling your Professions is very easy in this game, and by easy I mean that you don’t have to worry about them and do crasy things like making hundreds of “Basic Swords” or collect resourses all the time. You simply hire some professionals to do the job and give them assignments from time to time. It takes a lot of time, but you don’t even have to be in game for this or control the process. Easy and simple. As for the Professions for Hunter Ranger, I’d recommend to go for Leatherworking and Weaponsmithing for armor and weapons for our class, and Leadership and Alchemy, which are always good - Leadership generates Rough Astral Diamonds, gold and experience, and Alchemy provides potions and is just interesting to level. To be good at professions, just buy enough basic reagents for the profession at the Market and give assignments all the time. Don’t expect great things right away, though. It takes a lot of time to get something useful from Professions, but it’s easy and quite cheap to level them, so why abandon the idea?

The other important thing you’ll get in the beginning is your Companion. They are pretty decent and they are considered essential part of gameplay for any character, meaning you’ll have to have one all the time to battle monsters of your level. There are a lot of Companions for each and everyone, and a lot of them require additional purchase. So I’m not going to cover each and every companion and just explain the basics for HR specifically.

There are five classes of Companions in game. Each Companion fill in one of these categories, no matter of its rarity of abilities. Defenders basically try to focus enemies on them to let their master do the damage. They are well-built, but their attacks are not that great. Controllers provide some nasty debuffs for enemies like Slow, assisting in killing them. Strikers are very good at damaging your foes and providing a sort of additional firepower. Leaders are basically “pocket clerics”, healing and protecting their owners. Augments are very unique, because they do nothing in battle, but transfer their attributes to the owner instead, including runestones and equipment bonuses. They are very interesting to experiment with. Each companion also have special bonus added to the player as long as the companion is active. You can have five companions active, but only one present (summoned) at the time.

As for Hunter Ranger’s Companion, it is all about synergy, if I may say so. As you know, you can create something harmonious with complementary things or with opposite things. What does it mean in game?
- You can have Companion with skills that you are lacking. The obvious choice for ranged DPS class is Defender. It will hold enemies away from you, allowing to shoot them from the distance. For easier walkthrough it can be the wisest choice.
- You can have Companion to enhance and compliment your own abilities. This leaves you with Strikers and maybe Controllers, because we can both do a lot of damage and some control. It is a good choice, probably because most of the best Companions are of these two classes, but do not expect significant help - some, but not game-turning, to say the least. Still, it’s a good option for fast and furious HRs.
- And you can choose “practical” Companion. They do not do much, Leaders and Augments, but they make you stronger and save some money and time on healing, for instance. It’s a good choice if you are “one man army” kind of HR and just seek some enhancement and practicality.

To sum it up, follow these steps while choosing or acquiring a Companion:
- Is its class complimentary to my play style, or What do I want my Companion to do? A lot of great, rarest and “zen” Companions may be a bit useless for HRs, unfortunately.
- What special abilities it has while it is active? It’s very smart to have additional bonuses to your character for free (kinda). Some of the active bonuses are very nice, so consider adding these companions to your collection just for their buffs.
- Is this a rare Companion? Well, Companions can be very rare and very hard to acquire. Keep an eye on what’s going on in the world - some lockboxes can come and go, leaving some companions unable to acquire in-game. The same goes for events. It may be a good idea to get yourself a rare companion just to sell it later (do not use it in that case).

Finally, Equipment. You won’t have a problem with equipment until mid-level game, but if you want to understand how it works and what your character’s attributes (like Critical Strike, Deflection and so on), go further, up to the very end of the guide.


- I’ve beat the first part of the game, what should I expect next?

Expect a lot of pain and suffering. No kidding. When you finished the starting part of the game and get familiar with it, you’ll find yourself in a difficult position right at 25-30-35 lvls. Let me explain, why.

First, you’ll have new Powers. Let’s have a look at them (till 45 lvl tier).

“Aimed Shot (Strike)”: This is a logical advancement from “Rapid Shot” At-Will Powers. It deals a lot of damage to a single enemy, but it requires a lot of time to charge. The most annoying thing is that even the slighest attack disrupts the preparation process, so it is quite difficult to master this Power. “Aimed Strike” is much easier to do, and it also cause “Bleed” debuff, but it is significantly weaker. Still, I’d recommend to stick to “Aimed Shot”, because it is very good on dungeon bosses and as an opening attack overall.

“Constricting Arrow (Steel Breeze)”: “Constricting Arrow” Encounter deals some damage and stuns enemy for a very short period of time. It is a good supporting ability, but nothing of particular interest. “Stell Breeze” allows to attack enemies around you and regen Stamina. (Do you notice that most of melee powers are kinda the same?)

“Aspect of the Serpent”: It is an interesting Passive Ability. Each time you get hit, you receive a bonus to damage (up to five bonuses) and “spend” them on your own attacks. It works both for ranged and melee stances. Its usefulness is quite obvious, but there may be better Passive Powers out there, so it’s up to you.

“Boar Hide (Charge)”: This Encounter in ranged stance is our first activated Nature buff, which also applies to allies. It grants 5 stacks of mitigation (damage reduction) until they are all spent for incoming attacks. It’s definitely a power to look for for “Nature” enthusiasts, because the bonuses from their Feat tree make this Power much more, ahem, powerful. “Boar Charge” is a completely different skill, which allows melee HRs to rush to enemy and actually knock them to the ground. If you are going for “Nature” or “Combat” paths, this Power will definitely catch your eye.

“Split the Sky (Throw Caution)”: This ranged Encounter is kinda similar to “Thorn Ward”, except it causes a mini-storm with lightnings damaging your foes and snaring them for a short time. It terms of usefulness it is a better version of “Thorn Ward” - damage is higher, snaring is useful. Melee version “Throw Caution” is again completely different and works like a Berserker ability - it lowers your Defense in exchange for increased Damage. You can see that both are useful for different types of HRs.

“Blade Storm”: This Passive Power is very important for melee HRs, allowing them to deal additional damage to foes around them. For ranged HRs it is more than useless.

“Electric Shot (Clear the Ground)”: “Electric Shot” Encounter deals suprisingly little damage, especially in compasion with “Split Shot”, which logically should be replaced by it. It allows to deal some AoE damage, and it barely does. I suppose it will be fixed later, and I’ll stick with “Split Shot” for now. “Clear the Ground”, again, deals damage to enemies around you, nothing new.

“Hawk Shot (Hawkeye)”: “Hawk Shot” Encounter works the same as “Aimed Shot” and deals a lot of damage to a single target, and further it stands, more damage it recieves. A good choice for ranged HR, obviously. “Hawkeye” is a buff for you and your friends nearby, leading to additional damage. Again, a good choice for Nature HR.

There are several reasons why advancing to these Powers is tricky. First, you’ll need to go through Rotation, obviously. New Powers will replace old ones, and you’ll have to get acquinted with them. Second, these Powers’ mechanics is different from previous ones, and it affects your battle encounters tremendeously.

Let me explain. From the beginning to the mid-game you’ll find Hunter Ranger to be a very easy and a little bit overpowered class. Powers are activated very fast, damage is impressive, you are the king of the world. But when you get your Paragon points coming and new Powers available, you find yourself in a difficult spot. New Powers require some time to prepare and they have longer recharge. Eventually, you’ll lose your speed of attack, but the monsters of your level just got stronger and nastier. In other words, you’ll have to think over your play-style.

It goes hand-in-hand with Paragon path choice on 30th level. Frankly speaking, we don’t have any choice yet, because we have only one option available. As of now Paragon choice usually means picking your main specialization as an Archer, Melee Figher or Nature Specialist.

Of course, our class mechanics suggests that we are not making the choice once and for all. It’s more about our further intentions, our focus. If we go for Melee, we can still use bows, for instance. It is our focus that matters, and Paragon points. The thing is that the Powers for higher levels are the same, but there are three different Paragon paths, or branches. And if you put some points in a branch, you’ll unlock next tier of this branch only.
Let’s see what options we have.
- Focus on Archery. We will have a ranged DPS Hunter Ranger. Their main strength is in ranged attacks, and they do not like to be hit by enemies. They use melee combat only in case of emergency, because their build is optimal for ranged attacks.
- Focus on Combat. It’s an interesting combination of ranged AoE and debuffs with futher close combat, meaning that you get first portion of damage by bow and then swith the stance and go rogue, literally. Further on you’ll actually abandon the bow and go for melee only.
- Focus on Nature. Their main force is Nature and buffs, especially useful for other players. It’s more of a Druid path, and you sacrifice some of your DPS to get additional buffs. You’ll also have to go through stances a lot, because buffs require sometimes melee, sometimes ranged stances.
- Jack-of-all-Trades (sort of). You go through points as you see fit. This means that you won’t be able to get to the last tiers of Feats, but you’ll be able to use some perks from all of three branches if you want to, and there actually are very good starting Feats in each tree.

It is very difficult to tell that one way is better than other. Some players manage to get excellent results in each of these builds. The game itself is very player-friendly and follows the tradition of D&D games, allowing us to create a character we want. Experiments are very much welcomed and can give interesting results.

My opinion comes from basic logic of online games, and it goes for Archer build. Let me explain, why. Hunter Ranger is an ultimate ranged DPS class. It is not initially a support, nor it is a tank. Next, Archery allows to do a lot of damage from the distance, thus saving health and, of course, life, on bosses in dungeons or in PvP. If we look for Combat build, it has obvious resemblance with Trickster Rouge. And this class is designed to be close-combat DPS. Do we want to compete with a class, which is specially designed for the same role? Nature build is very confusing. It is not a Druid class, and you won’t have any special powers for this choice. And when a group will be looking for some support, they won’t be looking for Hunter Ranger, because we can’t heal. Is it wise to lose DPS, which is very important for the group, to get some buffs, which are good, but not essential? The logical choice will be ranged DPS HR, close to Control Wizard. But instead of actual controls, we go for AoE debuffs and damage, and we can still use our melee powers to improve the result. For example, place a ranged AoE debuff, rush forward, place close-combat debuff and escape back. It is crazy, but that’s the beauty of our class. No matter of your play-style, you’ll be more useful in dungeons and PvP if you go for DPS, meaning Archery (or “Jack-of-Trades” path), in my opinion.

Still, you are free to disagree with me. The class is very new and can be tweaked and changed a lot. We’ll see what will happen, but Archer HR seems a logical choice for me to advance through levels and to get to the top. If you don’t like it, you can always re-roll with the special badge from Zen Market. It is quite cheap.

Actually, on 30+ levels you may start thinking about re-rolling right now. It may be a good idea: you already tried your Powers and Feats, you know your weaknesses, so why not to try placing your points slightly better?

Let’s also examine first Feats of three branches, while we are at it.

Archery:
- “Ghost Walker” (faster Stamina regen in ranged stance), “Black Arrow” (+% to Critical Severity). Oh, what should I choose, what should I choose for a ranged DPS class with crazy Critical chance by default?.. - “Bloodthristy” (additional damage to melee Encounter after switching from ranged stance), “Stormcaller’s Arrow” (longer “Split the Sky”). First may be good for “Jack-of’Trades”, actually, or if you are using some buffs, or if you are planning some mischievious melee attack - bonus damage is actually good. Second one is pretty useless. (I wonder why our Paragon Powers are so very lame. Is there any specific reason for that?)

Combat:
- “Seeker” (melee attacks generate Stamina), “Retreat Technique” (shifting through stance gives AP). Both are good. First allows melee HRs to move a lot, but second is crazy good - it allows to get Daily Powers ready in almost no time.
- “Agile Hunter” (melee Encounters reduce recharge time for ranged Encounters), “Warden’s Courage” (additional damage for “Throw Caution”). First one is interesting is you are still using bow regulary, or went for “Jack-of-all-Trades”. But for melee HR the second one may be more of the interest.

Nature:
- “Nature Blessing” (more incoming heal), “Forest Walk” (your buffs’ target moves faster). Again, both are good, the first one is slightly better. But it’s more of a choice between PvE (healing in dungeons) and PvP (increasing your fellows’ speed).
- “Hawk Style” (“Hawkeye” can apply Strong Roots), “Nature’s Fury” (longer snare for “Cold Steel Hurricane”). I didn’t cover “Cold Steel Hurricane”, because it is more of end-game Power, but “Hawkeye” seems much better regardless, because it transforms the buff to controlling ability and you’ll use it much more than “Cold Steel Hurricane”.

The other things that will start kicking us in the butt about this time is Equipment. After each long quest with a lot of fights you will have your bag full of different stuff, which you need to sort, indetify, compare with your gear, put on your companion, store in the bank… That’s a lot of things to do. The thing is that in mid-levels your equipment is rather bad. Times when it didn’t matter passed, but you can’t get your sets yet. You have limited options to go for:

- Quest rewards: Final reward can be sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it’s pretty unreliable overall.
- Seals (of Lion, Manticore, etc.): When you kill some mobs in a specific area, you get their badges, which you can exchange to different Seals. You can also farm them in Dungeons or Skirmishes. The thing is that Seal gear is no good, except for one or two items - at least on mid-levels.
- Professions: That’s a joke. Some useful things may be available only from 7+ level of Profession, so do your math.
- Dungeon Bosses Fight: There are surprisingly few items for Hunter Rangers that drop from bosses. And they are nothing fancy either.
- “Cash” items (from lock-boxes or Auction): Keep an eye on lock-boxes and other event stuff. For instance, Ancient Mulhorand items from Rusted Iron Lockboxes are crazy good, because they level with your character. You can only get bow, melee weapon and cloak, unfortunately, but it’s still great, because you can forget about these items up to 60th level.
- Looting: That’s the main source of equipment. Still, it’s very unpredicable and requires a lot of sorting and assessment. Almost all of good items are unidentified, so prepare your Astral Diamonds to purchase Identification Scrolls. In the end, you’ll have crazy collection of items from different “sets” and levels, so embrace yourself and hope for higher levels to come sooner.

I can give only some tips for the situation with equipment on these mid-levels:
- Look for the items with slots in them. You can (and you should) put Runestones in it, because you’ll find a lot of these and it’s really cheap to remove them intact.
- Obviously, item with three abbributes is better than with two or one, even if its level is slightly higher.
- Let’s also talk a bit about different attributes you’ll see on equipment.

It’s better to start from the beginning.

Our primary attributes are Dexterity, Wisdom and Strength. They grant following bonuses:
DEX: Damage Bonus (obviously, very important), AoE Damage Resist (nice, but useless), Deflection Chance (Practically it allows to ignore incoming damage to some extent. It doesn’t mean we avoid it completely, it is just cut automatically, if we are lucky.)
WIS: Critical Chance (always great), Control Bonus (means that our controlling abilities work longer), Control Resistance (it is nice, but not once I noticed that I escaped any control; maybe I just didn’t notice or it works automatically; still, it’s quite strange)
STR: Stamina Regeneration (basically allows us to move in battle more often), Resistance Ignored (again, it’s quite confusing, but it may be working, or not - I am not sure that I deal more damage with that, ignoring enemies’ armor), DoT Damage Resist (well, again, how many DoTs are there, really?)

It is kinda logical that with these primary attributes we are meant to go for Damage, maybe Deflection, Critical attacks, maybe Controls. As we can see, Strength doesn’t really do much for us.

Now let’s open our character main window with equipment and have a look at special attributes and their interconnections. Some of them are already covered above, and I’d like to be brief about it.

Gear Score does not really matter - regard it as your “coolness” level, or level of your equipment. When you’ll face Epic dungeons, it may matter for fellow party members, but it’s just technical info.

Power directly increase your Damage (or Healing effectiveness, but for that we need to re-roll to Clerics). Should I say it is very important?
Critical Strike improves Critical Chance. With our natural predisposition for Critical Attacks it is one of our primary characteristics. They also affect Critical Severity, meaning the amount of additional critical damage.
Armor Penetration goes to Resistance Ignored, so it may be good, but not as our first choice.
Recovery is a confusing name for an ability to gain Action Points and recharge Encounters faster. It doesn’t heal and it is connected to Recharge Speed Increase, obviously. It may be a good secondary choice if you like Daily powers. As for Encounters, well, does it matter that much that they recharge in 9, not 10 seconds?
Combat Advantage Bonus. Forget it, we usually stand far from battle. If we go melee, however, it may be somehow useful. Control Bonus is covered above.
Defense increases Damage Resistance - it basically lowers the imcoming damage. Deflection works kinda the same, but it can lower incoming damage even more, like cut it in half, if the chance is good. Defense is always good, specifically for our class, which Health is not that great usually. Some items also increase our maximum HP, and it’s always a good choice.
Regeneration (and Health Regeneration) allows us to slowly heal ourselves. It is good, but it is very hard to achive a reasonable amount of Regen. Still, it’s possible. Same goes for Life Steal (Damage Gained as Hit Points), especially for all the critical damage we can deal and thus heal ourselves. It may be a good choice to go for these attributes and gain as much of them as possible.
Stamina Gain is self-explainatory. Incoming Heal Bonus is good for dungeons and for those HRs with Leader Companions. Movement (Runs Speed Bonus) allows us to run faster. The meaning of Companion Influence avoids me, frankly speaking. And Gold Gain (or XP, or Glory) lets us to gain some things faster. If you are leveling, go for XP bonus, if you are a PvP fan - Glory.

So what attributes should we go first? To deal a lot of damage, our choice would be Power and Critical Strike. For defense, I’d recommend to improve Deflection, since we have it high already, and also collect Regeneration and Life Steal. Additional Health and Defense may be also good, but they kinda contradict with our class a little. And for “utilities” it’s basically your choice. I don’t find other Attributes any good, but you are free to disagree with me.

Also, one little hint. If you obtain high-leveled Enchantments by Refining or elsehow, be very strategic with their placement. If you place them in the “wrong” slots, they may become pretty useless. For instance, Azure Enchantment gives 5.5% XP bonus in Utility slot. There are basically three Utility slots available (head, arms and boots), for you can get like 15-30% XP boost and gain 60th level in no time. Or you could put Azure Enchantments in Defense slots and gain like 300-500 Defense, which is very good, but not as good as XP bonus. Just saying.



- I am getting close to level 60! What should I do now?

Well, if you can’t figure this out yet, I have some bad news for you. I hope that after mid-levels you already understand how Hunter Ranger works and can give me some advices instead. Maybe in a due time I’ll cover end-game mechanics, but for new players, who wanted to start their adventures with Hunter Ranger, I hope I’ve covered enough to get things started.

Meanwhile I’d like to thank all of the masters of the game, whose insights were invaluable. If you don’t agree with something I wrote or you have better ideas, please, leave a comment below.

Swift hunting, fellow Rangers!

mconosrep

Really nice guide.

Some of the fonts appear a little small for comfort but all the effort you put in is greatly appreciated.