Ranger's-Bow vs. Sword

[Xerin]

Hi. I'm sure this has been asked but since I don't have the game yet, I don't read the forum much so I won't read a possible *spoiler*. I was just wondering if a Ranger should specialize in bow or sword. I played the demo and am very pleased that you can use a bow in close combat. Yet, wouldn't dual weapon be better? Also, I think I read somewhere that a Ranger can "critical strike" with ranged weapons. That toughens the decision but in the demo the bow didn't do much damage.

[vesselle]

nope.
don't even think of dualing your ranger. she is a madwoman with her bow, crits and lately (lvl 11) one shot insta-kills!
just keep pumping up her bow and critical strikes at every level up. she's absolutely lethal.

forget what you saw in the demo. that was just a limited peek at what all of the classes are capable of.

V***V

[Skrewloose]

Yup. Listen to Vesselle. Stow that sword!

Just give him the best bow you can find, and keep him/her supplied with arrows, and you'll have a killing machine.

The first time you take down a 400 hp Rapax with one shot while your fighters are smacking away for 75 hp a round, you'll go "Oh, now I remember why I got a ranger..."

[judee]

About that bow...

What are the best ones early in the game? I've got Demonslayer but I gave that to my lord who is also carrying the Demonslayer sword, figuring I'd keep it in the family, so to speak.

Is that a mistake? My ranger currently has a heavy Crossbow and is shooting some of the more powerful quarrels when I can get them.

Would The Demon Bow be better with regular arrows?

judee

[vesselle]

~~judee~~

a good bow is great, but if it comes down to a choice between bows and arrows, get the top of the line arrows!

i gave demonslayer right away to my ranger. she is a trained professional after all and deserves first choice on the best weapons. backup archers get the longbows or crossbows. after all, you wouldn't give your valkyrie a pointed stick and hand the Cool Polearm of Justice to the mage, would ya?

there are other crossbows available as you go. i have seen light, heavy and a named one in the swamp. again, with that get the good bolts too. fear bolts are good.

try to keep it to one kind of bow being used in your group, so that you can always steal another person's arrows in a pinch. however, saying that, i have at least 2 crossbows with fear and hunter's bolts in my inventory. yes, i'm a packrat!

it appears that every new area you go will open up a few new pieces of equipment. that's pretty cool.

[April Ryan]

if u use a bow, yeah critical strikes are awesome but the dmg per round sucks.. however i find that critical strikes are often random.. and it comes when u least expected, i may be wrong.. but critical range is affected by ur range combat skill.. so i reckon u try topping up ur modern weapon.. i am now i in mt gigas.. i bought a really cool weapon cost me 20k for my ranger.. now every round my ranger can hit for >20 hp per round with possibilities of critical strikes...

[MaskedFrog]

I agree with everyone else for Rangers it is bows all the way. The instant kills are random but I love just the same. I was in a fight with close up monsters and ranged monster. My ranger decided to return fire to the ranged guy and I was pleasantly surprised to see him go splat with an Instant Kill.

The critical hit ability is tied to the rangers Ranged Combat score and will work with either modern weapons or bows. Currently I am using the Demonsting Bow but as soon as I get back to the Mountains I am getting the Eagle Eye Bow from Bela.

Personally I hate the Fear Quarrels. It just causes the monsters to run away and now I have to chase them down. As a matter of fact at this point I only use Bows, Thrown Weapons, Omnigun, and slings.

As other have said get the best arrows/projectiles money can buy.

[Eldurin]

A Ranger's instant kills are not truly random, nor are they based on his or her Critical Strike skill, which a Ranger does not possess. Instead a Ranger's critical success chance is based on his or her skill in Ranged Weapons.

[vesselle]

~~eldurin~~

thank you! i thot that was how it went. i have pumped up her Ranged Combat, and she has reached 118. also, i put points into Bows and that is now at 86. recently ( she's about Lvl 11 1/2 [img]graemlins/happyteeth.gif[/img] ), she got double and triple shots per attack plus many, many insta-kills... altho i think that's from surpassing 100 in Ranged Combat. it seems like she gets 1 insta-kill in every 4 or 5 encounters. while my monk has them more frequently, my ranger makes a bigger deal about them. LOL! she does go on about how wonderful she is. [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img]

but she does have 2-3 times as many kills as anyone else in my party. she's at 536, my valk is at 351 and my monk is at 327. the rest are around 150 or so.

while i wish my monk had higher kill stats, she really does do most of the softening up for all the baddies. after all she does like 4 kicks and 3 punches each round... gets them down to almost nothing and allows the others to take the kill! she's very special that way!

[img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] sorry, didn't mean to go on and on!

[Eldurin]

vesselle,

That's one of the great things about this game that isn't mentioned much; a well-balanced group works like a team, not like six individuals who happen to be traveling together.