Rangers, Defend Yourselves!

[Goza]

I'm not trying to start a war here, but mostly find out if there's something I'm missing. I made a RAmar, since I'd never used a ranger before, and the class seems to be quite inferior to the others by design. It could also be my play style and personal preference, so feel free to just make fun of me if that is so.

Mostly, they seem to do decent damge, but much more slowly than hunters. They also get hit pretty hard and have crappy hp. I'm wondering if a hunter with a good handgun (red or something) isn't comparable, but with the option to also use hunter weapons as well as higher def and hp.

My RAmar is a Purplenum in VHard Ruins. He's using a max ground Yasminkov 3000R and a Stag Cutlery with 30% dark. He has a level 200 Savitri mag with good dex, some def, and high power. I have a God/Arm, Elf/Arm++, and two Dragon/HP units equipped. Even with four HP units, I don't have enough HP to survive a Falz swipe, which makes unlocking Ultimate a boring leveling job.

Those who play rangers, feel free to comment and give me insight. Please no, "You're wrong. The end," posts that won't be very helpful.

[Robantifast]

For the most part, Rangers are quite weak. My RAmarl does pretty good, but I use Mechguns. They do so much more damage than anything else a ranger can use that I just use them instead of a rifle. Of course I don't have a good rifle, so that could be the case...
Anyways, what I do is freeze stuff with the snow queen and pound things with Red Mechguns. Rangers with Snow Queen are good for support, but if you want damage, pull out one of those H&S25 Justices or L&K14 Combats and get used to the combo, because that's pretty much what you'll use to damage for a while.

[Goza]

I probably should have specified that I'm offline only. Does that change anything?

[Malkavian]

maybe its your play style...

In online, as RAcast I deal more damage than hucaseals or hunewearls of same lv... and a bit less than humar and hucast.

Well it depends on many things. I usually give sols, revive, even give mates more than hunters do since they are in the middle of the fighting. Also the superior ATA is useful for special attacks.

[Vanse]

i play my ranger for the shotgun weapons. personally, if i wanted to go one on one with monsters, i'd have made a hunter since they are better suited for it. with the shotgun, i just run from corner to corner and clear out entire rooms of monsters in 2-3 combos. I only use single shot weapons against dark falz.

[VolOpt2003]

my RAcast done vhard dark falz easily with a justy 23st .and is on ultimate caves. so i think it might be your playing style.

[Goza]

On 2003-04-25 07:34, VolOpt2003 wrote:
my RAcast done vhard dark falz easily with a justy 23st .and is on ultimate caves. so i think it might be your playing style.


What level were you, and how much HP did you have?

Do you think it would have been easier or harder with a Hunter?

[Wolf_Warhead]

My RAcast has a Draw Shotgun +20 CRUSH BULLET and a VARISTA (sometimes a Heat Sniper +9) and hasn't got any problems. (Could be 'cause I level up like crazy...)

(The hard dragon is as easy as the normal one)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Wolf_Warhead on 2003-04-25 10:44 ]</font>

[Fett56]

leveling up is much easier for a ranger, because you can just hit everything then run away if you need to. I dont get hit very often at all, so my HP doesnt matter. And right now i am doing near the same damage from a distance as the hunters are up close, and a ton more than forces. I have a Visk, i am level 39, and I have 214 HP. i am using a lvl 53 Kama and i am playing on hard mode. i do about 130 damage in the forest, and about 70-80 in the ruins.

[Goza]

I unlocked VHard Ruins at 42, and I'm there at 45 now. Perhaps I am in too deep. However, I beat VHard DF with a FOnewearl at 40, and a HUcast at 50 or so. That's why I'm wondering about the comparison. Not that rangers seem bad, but just that the other characters, for offline solo play, seem better at the same things.

[VolOpt2003]

i was lvl 54 when i beat vhard dark falz . dont know how much hp i had but it was easier with my hunter.

[2Xtreme]

Rangers aren't powerful characters, so you have to capitalize on their high ATA. This means using mechguns to deal out a lot of damage. Use Dim/Dark/Shadow/Hell special attacks. That kind of stuff.

Just don't expect to do well with a ranger in battle mode. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

EDIT: ATA, not ATP! Bad typo!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 2Xtreme on 2003-04-25 09:50 ]</font>

[polishedweasel]

On 2003-04-25 09:24, 2Xtreme wrote:
Rangers aren't powerful characters, so you have to capitalize on their high ATP. This means using mechguns to deal out a lot of damage. Use Dim/Dark/Shadow/Hell special attacks. That kind of stuff.

Just don't expect to do well with a ranger in battle mode. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif



I believe that he meant ATA. Anyway, I used a ranger at first, but I got bored at lv 93. So I made a force, and she beat through ult Ep 1 and 2. She's pretty much retired, but she has all of her equipment on just in case someone needs some serious support. I also have a Hunter that beat Ult ep1. She's just not being played with very much right now.

Guess what though? I went back to my RAmarl. I got her some better equipment. She does fine in offline ult alone. She's good for support and deals masive damage(for a female ranger) and she has about 960 ATP. Yeah... RAmarl is queen of her game. Her name is Leilani. You may have seen her around.

[Goza]

I would have, possibly, had I not mentioned that I only play offline http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

I guess I just don't have the patience for them. I like a quick game. I tend to run FOs around trying to nuke everything ASAP. Hunters, I like to kill everything in the room with a sword, or pick stuff off fast with double-saber type weapons.

Now I need to decide whether I should free up the slot, or hang on to the guy. I'll probably hang on, since I don't need the slot anyway, and all I'd have to do is level him until his HP could survive Falz swipes.

[Malkavian]

hey you only need 351 hp for falz vhard offline. Equip some general hps and eathp materials and you should be fine.

[Mav]

hi,

I have a lvl 120 RaMar and I think they are the easiest class to play, (I have also played a hucast to lvl85 and a Fomarl to level20), especially once you hit ultimate. You need to be smart about playing them, but at lvl-95 I could beat ultimate forest offline in under 11 minutes, gaining about 30k experience.

I was using H&S Justice Mechguns, and a Justy Rifle. The best part about being a RaMar is that you have spells plus you can use rifles, this comes in very handy in the caves when you have ob lillies to deal with.

Basically hitpoints are not a concern, stay by a door, shoot things as they walk towards you, walk out of the room, they walk away, walk back in...repeat. I hardly ever get hit.

With a good set of mechguns, a nice mag and some good units in your armor, a Ranger character can do upwards of 1500 damage in a combo from a distance therefore not getting hit.

[Zarana]

I have only two things to say.

1. Rangers can do strong-strong-strong combos and Hunters can't. Three strong hits ALWAYS beats weak-strong-strong unless you're dealing with a HUcast. His ATP is the only one high enough to compensate for this Ranger advantage, the other Hunters can't do as much.

2. Having Shotguns exclusive means the Rangers can sweep groups of enemies way faster than any Hunter can ever dream of. Running up to each enemy or group of enemies takes valuable time away, Hunters lose the speed edge.

The only time Rangers are inferior is in the early levels. Once everyone gets up in around the 150s and above, no one can clear an area faster than a Ranger. The only advice I can give you is to stick with it. I did, and now I'm less than a month from getting to 200. I can't even remember a time when I was stuck providing support fire for Hunters, now they have to use guns or Rafoie to even hit every enemy in a room.

[IceBlink]

On 2003-04-25 05:52, Goza wrote:
Even with four HP units, I don't have enough HP to survive a Falz swipe, which makes unlocking Ultimate a boring leveling job.

Defence doesn't affect the damage of DF's swipe, I don't think. Your only option would be to level up more to raise HP. o_O

[LoreSeeker]

I was level 74 when I beat VH Falz, but hey, I have some chronic leveling up issues. Rangers are probably the weakest class as far as stats go, but have a huge advantage because of ranged combat. What sounds better: dealing 800 damage before the enemy gets close to you, or dealing 1500 and take hella damage yourself? The beauty of rangers is that they can generally stay away from the action, especially online.

[Foggy_Pete]

On 2003-04-25 05:52, Goza wrote:
...Mostly, they seem to do decent damge, but much more slowly than hunters...

its exactly the opposite. rangers sacrifice attack power but can almost seamlessly string combos together. when a hunter finishes a 3 hit combo he strikes a brief battle pose before being able to start anouther combo, rangers on the other hand, only lower their gun for a brief moment and can continue shooting without a delay. basicaly i watch the battle closly and will push back a monster with a strong attack if i see it sneaking up on a vulnerable hunter. i cant deal much damage myself but others take much less damage while im around. and the longer they stay on their feet the more damamge they can do

[LoreSeeker]

It seems that I neglected to say that rangers are awesome for giving hunters support. I can't say why, but hunters seem to like killing the enemies that I freeze for them. Maybe it's easier to hit them, maybe they just don't take as much damage, but they LOVE it.

[Bluedeath]

Personally i started with a Ranger and i think theyre the best, my RAmar is so much easier to use, ummm i dont get hit often at all cause i just keep enemies away with guns, theyre very good cause can hit 5 enemies with spreads and also hit enemies with rifles from very far away when HUmars need to get up in the ememies face

[fyrewyre]

On 2003-04-25 07:34, VolOpt2003 wrote:
my RAcast done vhard dark falz easily with a justy 23st .and is on ultimate caves. so i think it might be your playing style.


keep in mind, racasts have a few atp points lower than a humar and ramars are VERY different to play since you have to sit back and worry cause of your def and evade not kicking in as much.
to the guy who started this post:
i would boost my ata with mag and units and find a blizzard, hell, and demons rifle REAL quick if you want to stand a better chance offline.

[Elusive_Llama]

I have only two things to say.

1. Rangers can do strong-strong-strong combos and Hunters can't. Three strong hits ALWAYS beats weak-strong-strong unless you're dealing with a HUcast. His ATP is the only one high enough to compensate for this Ranger advantage, the other Hunters can't do as much.

2. Having Shotguns exclusive means the Rangers can sweep groups of enemies way faster than any Hunter can ever dream of. Running up to each enemy or group of enemies takes valuable time away, Hunters lose the speed edge.

The only time Rangers are inferior is in the early levels. Once everyone gets up in around the 150s and above, no one can clear an area faster than a Ranger. The only advice I can give you is to stick with it. I did, and now I'm less than a month from getting to 200. I can't even remember a time when I was stuck providing support fire for Hunters, now they have to use guns or Rafoie to even hit every enemy in a room.

The man knows what he's talking about, listen up y'all. I have a level 143 Ramarl and I wouldn't hesitate to take her anywhere, even Ultimate Deathbed...err Seabed.

Here's why I agree with him completely.

1. Charge Vulcans combined with ranger ATA means you can pull off hard-special-special combos with the game's most powerful mechgun. You can deal out A LOT of damage in a very short period of time.

2. Snow Queen and Frozen Shooter can freeze anything short of major bosses. This means even the dreaded Sinow Zoa or Delbiter can be neutralized and taken down with little risk. Once things are frozen, mechgunning them should be a snap.

3. Spread weapons allow the ranger to stand in place and cut everything down without having to reposition like Hunters do. Spread weapons also push the monsters back, unlike spells which only stun them briefly.

4. High ATA means you have much less chance of whiffing an attack than a Hunter.

5. Ranged attacks allow you to hit things before a Hunter can even touch them. Like he said, Hunters now have to resort to mechguns and spells in order to get a hit in. I have seen this again and again in nearly every Ultimate game I play. A BKB is kind of useless if you can't even hit things before they get cut down in a hail of mechgun fire.


Rangers require more TLC than Hunters to reach their potential, but once they're there, they basically own all of Ultimate mode.

[CrazyJ]

Hey Goza...I too am from WV and have a high level RAcaseal (Crazy Jane level 129).

I gotta say trying to tackle Falz while in your 40's is tough with a RA. Maybe you just need to level up to about 55-60.

Try some Vulcans with hit percent.

[Relam]

The majority of time I play, I'm also offline. Because of this, I've developed a hybrid style of infight dodging and shooting at higher levels. Once you get up to Very Hard, actually trying to run to the other side of the room will only waste time. So here's where you gotta use your Resident Evil skills.

When a monster's right on you, it tries to slap you as usual right. Well keep in mind which arm it attempts to slap you with. The Booma-type monsters almost always use a alternating slash movement, so it's actually possible to be point blank in a Dimenian's face and dodge it's slashes by moving slightly left and right to dodge. You can even just retreat backwards and then turn around and shoot again but you usually work your way into a corner that way. But basically towards high levels, I equip a nice rifle (perferably one with a freezing or paralysis effect) and if you have it, any type of Battle slot item, this extremely helps! In fact a very usual combo wouldn't even think of using is a Mechgun type weapon along with a God/Battle. The use of the god/battle makes Mechgun type weapons actually usuable at higher levels of difficulty.

Anyhow, the biggest thing that bother's me that most Ranger's should know better, is that when you see a horde of enemies rushing you. Move! It really bothers me when I see players online just sit there and try and crap out as many combo's before being horribly smacked down. If a monster's in your face, move aside to dodge the blow, and then fire a counter shot (not combo), and then dodge some more.

And just for general advice ^^; The radar is your one true friend. Glancing at it every few seconds or so can save you from many a Shark smack to the back of the head.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Relam on 2003-04-25 18:03 ]</font>

[Joe-Azlin]

i normaly dont play rangers but there high ata is a very good thing. it makes it so you can hit things that normal people cant. like you can hit a lot more with mech guns that any other class can. that is why i suggest you get some mech guns because they are very fast and if you hit with all of the shots they do major damage.

[Elusive_Llama]

I like it when monsters rush straight for me. I just whip out the snow queen, freeze them all in a couple shots, then turn them into exp points with my mechguns.

[Logical2u]

Well, Rangers aren't strong. Thats really simple. THEY.AREN'T. STRONG. Hunters are the strongest, and RaCast is probably 5th overall. Ramar, probably 7th.. I didnt know Hu's couldn't do HardHardHard. I think my Hu (L.Soldier) did it once though. I think that you should equip a Revival Unit or Scape Dolls, maybe a Resist/Freeze or Cure/Freeze unit. You really don't need HP, because when you are online, you can just stand back. If it is any consolation, he is weak against Fire on his last form. ANd use Gizonde for the first stage, so it attacks more then one at once. All you need to do is level-up. You should try online, maybe you could find some HP or DEF materiels, some rare armor? Try a Freeze-Barrier or a General-Sheild. If you want to know how I play online VHard...
Weapon:Justy 23St +1
Armor: Dragon Frame (three slots)
Units: General/Arm, God/Battle, and Elf/Legs-
Sheild: General Sheild
Mag: Kama, trying to be a Brihava again. (DEX,MND,POW)
Try to get some light resistance, because on his last form he uses light-instant kill attacks. I think...

[CorneliusPower]

Having played my RAmarl a lot recently, lvl 78, Natassia, it is very very necessary in order to succeed to have support, any SHIFTA/DEBAND casting FO is great...you FOmars that use kaladbolg's and never cast anything need not apply, bottom line I killed Fallz last night 4 times..i have to say it had everything thing to do with good playing HUmars and FO's....that cast support BTW. I'd have to say at all times use a spread type weapon, not needle, branze or final, and some mechs with good hit %'s...I cant wait to get to ULTIMATE with my RAmarl.

[CorneliusPower]

This is what my RAmarl, Natassia is currently wearing:
FLOWENS FRAME
God Power
God Ability
God Arm
God Battle
FLOWENS SHIELD
RUMKIN MAG 5/100/65/30

[Goza]

On 2003-04-25 17:28, CrazyJ wrote:
Hey Goza...I too am from WV and have a high level RAcaseal (Crazy Jane level 129).

I gotta say trying to tackle Falz while in your 40's is tough with a RA. Maybe you just need to level up to about 55-60.

Try some Vulcans with hit percent.


That sounds like good advice. I'm lazy, but I'll give it a shot. I would like to find some nice L&Ks at some point before I decide whether or not to axe the character.

I'm just used to doing one combo and completely taking down a monster. I guess I don't like running in and out of a room taking pot shots for 20 minutes to clear out a mass of dimenians.

[Ranger_Larry]

Actually, Rangers have the highest hit points in the game....at higher levels.(Racast has the most period, sorry Hucast!!) Sure, they start out weak, but at about level 160 they (ramar vs. humar) tie the HU, then move ahead......100 HP ahead at level 200. Max HP for a Ramar is 1520, max for a Humar is 1420. Higher defense on the HU you say? Well alot of attacks in ult. are fixed HP damage (Dark Bringers rifle=1400 damage, period) and techs (Gran Sourceror) negate that advantage. Also, Ramars have the more usefull shifta/deband vs. jellen/zalure. J/Z has to be cast while in the middle of battle, and to each new horde that pops up. S/D can be cast basically on the run, BETWEEN battle areas. And to top it all off, the ATP on a ramar is second only to a humar...when you are using characters that can use techs. Plus like others have noted you hardly ever miss with a RA. And in closing...video game makers have to start realizing guns are more powerfull than swords, since when has anyone used a sword in battle? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif You ever hear of an Elephant sword? THINK NOT!!