Some Ranger questions

[Kylrad]

Howdy Guys!

Alright so I'm lvl 29 RAmarl and I've been thinking ahead to lvl 40 and what I want to do with my mags stats. Right now its at 55 Ranged, 15 Ability. I plan on getting at least 88 Ranged so I can use the 9* AR at lvl 40 (assuming my info is right that should be possible at lvl 40 with 88 ranged stat on the mag). However I've been hearing that rangers already have high ability from our talents, and that I should probably focus more on ranged stat then ability. So I was wondering what the rest of you think I should do? Should I just start focusing on Ranged and stop with ability or should I raise ability a bit more?

[JeyKama]

More R-ATK is always good.

Most people are undecided on Ability still - someone alleged awhile back that you need as much Ability as on your weapon (with grind+affixes) in order to really stabilize the damage and that it drops off sharply even a few points below, but he never explained his method. Even with +100 Ability I get pretty wild swings (2400-3500 w/o buffs) on Weak Bullet -> Sneak Shot hits on Gilnatches, which have no weak/hard points, but with 539 R-ATK on my gun and 368 Ability, I don't know. Although... I guess Gilnatches would make great subjects to test that on (with a different gun of course)

If you want to equip the fancier armors (like the 9* set or vol set) you'll need at least 14 points in R-DEF, but otherwise you're set to wear the sub/stamina-ε units.

It just takes bleeding forever to level mags after they hit 90 in a stat...

[Kylrad]

More R-ATK is always good.

Most people are undecided on Ability still - someone alleged awhile back that you need as much Ability as on your weapon (with grind+affixes) in order to really stabilize the damage and that it drops off sharply even a few points blow, but he never explained his method. Even with +100 Ability I get pretty wild swings (2400-3500 w/o buffs) on Weak Bullet -> Sneak Shot hits on Gilnatches, which have no weak/hard points, but with 539 R-ATK on my gun and 368 Ability, I don't know. Although... I guess Gilnatches would make great subjects to test that on (with a different gun of course)

If you want to equip the fancier armors (like the 9* set or vol set) you'll need at least 14 points in R-DEF, but otherwise you're set to wear the sub/stamina-ε units.

It just takes bleeding forever to level mags after they hit 90 in a stat...

Hmm I see, about the armor units, should I try to mix and match like have one with strike and the main stat, 1 with range, 1 with tech? or should I just go all main Range 9* ones?

[Hrith]

It just takes bleeding forever to level mags after they hit 90 in a stat...Just to emphasise on this. 40 hours, 10 levels.

High ABL is definitely good, but high R-ATK seems to do me more justice.

[JeyKama]

Hmm I see, about the armor units, should I try to mix and match like have one with strike and the main stat, 1 with range, 1 with tech? or should I just go all main Range 9* ones?

At level 30-40, pretty much any unit besides the 8-9* sets and the sub/stamina-ε units are NPC/affixing/mag fodder, so... I wouldn't be too crazy about it while levelling up. Just grab a set of sub/stamina-δ, grind them to 10, stick some Shoot on them if you want, and you're set for awhile.

The sub/stamina-ε units I mentioned are actually really well-balanced, with small emphasis on S-DEF. Their advantage is that they grant a whopping +50hp per unit, have good defense stats, and you can equip 3 -and- of course you can customize them if you choose and not break the bank.

The 9* armors are great though, and grant a large chunk of S-DEF despite requiring R-DEF to equip. As you may have noticed, most armor (including the Vol set) that requires R-DEF buffs the heck out of R-DEF, which kind of defeats the purpose...

The 9* set requires 14 pts in R-DEF yeah, but I consider it more than a fair trade-off for what I get (plus they give a good chunk of hp/pp natively, which is nice)

[Kylrad]

At level 30-40, pretty much any unit besides the 8-9* sets and the sub/stamina-ε units are NPC/affixing/mag fodder, so... I wouldn't be too crazy about it while levelling up. Just grab a set of sub/stamina-δ, grind them to 10, stick some Shoot on them if you want, and you're set for awhile.

The sub/stamina-ε units I mentioned are actually really well-balanced, with small emphasis on S-DEF. Their advantage is that they grant a whopping +50hp per unit, have good defense stats, and you can equip 3 -and- of course you can customize them if you choose and not break the bank.

The 9* armors are great though, and grant a large chunk of S-DEF despite requiring R-DEF to equip. As you may have noticed, most armor (including the Vol set) that requires R-DEF buffs the heck out of R-DEF, which kind of defeats the purpose...

The 9* set requires 14 pts in R-DEF yeah, but I consider it more than a fair trade-off for what I get (plus they give a good chunk of hp/pp natively, which is nice)

I don't mind dropping 14 points into ranged def for better all around survivability/stats on the armor. I guess I'll start putting those points in now.

I haven't been following the forums/webpages much, I've been mostly playing so I have no idea what these units are you speak of, If you know a page that has them on it could you link it for me? As of this point I've just been looking at all the units I pick up and try to equip what looks to be best. But I'm starting to get crushed with my current armor at lvl 30. So far I haven't found anything higher then 3* ... actually thats a lie I have 1 9* tech armor unit in my bank I believe.

[Kylrad]

Just to emphasise on this. 40 hours, 10 levels.

High ABL is definitely good, but high R-ATK seems to do me more justice.

Should I just leave my Ability where its at now and focus on 14 r-def and the rest into Ranged? Or would you recommend maybe a few more points in Ability?

[Jiraiza]

Don't bother with defense for 9* units as we'll be able to use them come level 50. Just focus on your attack stats unless you really want those 9* units. I'm currently making a 100/50 Corvus right now but I won't be using him until 50 since my Cepheus right now has 20 defense allowing me to use my invested 9* units. I have 420~ ABL and I'm still seeing big swings in my Sneak Shot damages. Need to check the exact numbers though.

[JeyKama]

There's already a crazy mess of a thread about not bothering to keep up with armor as an RA so I won't write an essay. My opinion is that when 50 comes around they'll release more RA-centric armor that still needs external R-DEF support, and it might look cool and hopefully I don't need 50 more farking R-DEF on my mag to wear it if I wanted to. 50 cap is still awhile away, too.

As for Ability, I don't really think it's worth investing more into unless you plan to go all-out. The gains seem minimal compared to R-ATK which scales well with Shifta/Shifta drinks.

[Jiraiza]

There's already a crazy mess of a thread about not bothering to keep up with armor as an RA so I won't write an essay. My opinion is that when 50 comes around they'll release more RA-centric armor that still needs external R-DEF support, and it might look cool and hopefully I don't need 50 more farking R-DEF on my mag to wear it if I wanted to. 50 cap is still awhile away, too.

As for Ability, I don't really think it's worth investing more into unless you plan to go all-out. The gains seem minimal compared to R-ATK which scales well with Shifta/Shifta drinks.

Yeah it's hard to say if Ability adds more to our DPS than pure R-ATK unless we get some concise data (also doesn't help that Sneak Shoot is so annoyingly hard to aim due to bad hitboxes). I ended up getting stuck with a Rappy Soul and Arm 2 on one of my 9* units so I might just scrap them for Shoot 3 and Mizer like every other Ranger.

[Carillon]

based on some samples, ability seems to add roughly twice as much to your minimum damage as atk does to both your min and max damage.

however, damage from ability is capped based on... something. presumably the target's ability.

but without more good samples, can't declare that as fact.