Rangers: the Fighter's bane.

[Kylospylon]

Thought I'd whack on an Adamantium Slime for a while to boost my fighter's mediocre dual mace skills, but I forgot to put my ranger in defence mode. Before my fighter even got in melee range, my ranger fired a single shrike arrow at the slime for 1 damage "INSTANT KILL". Doh!

The 'problem' is that my ranger has been doing things like this all game. I'm starting to notice that my fighter's close combat skills are not really where they should be (from experience with previous fighters). But maybe it's because my fighter's a Lizardman who's as smart as bowling ball and half as sharp. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway... this is not the first ranger I've played that behaves in such a manner. I've played all the other critical hit classes, (monk, samurai, ninja), but they very rarely get criticals compared with rangers (except maybe a faerie ninja with COC). Has anyone else noticed that Rangers seem to get more criticals than other professions, or is it just me?

I'm starting to think that it's all to do with senses, since I always max senses with a ranger, but never with any other class (except sometimes psionics). I've read that senses aren't supposed to directly effect criticals, but I'm finding that more and more difficult to believe.

[Nightwing]

I play sams and ninja a lot and always max out senses. I tend to get crits at least every other battle and LS with my sam quite often also. It's funny but I tried playing rangers and always change because they don't seem to do the job for me. Maybe I should try again.

[Gadgeteer Tom]

My last (Human) Ranger was annoying me because he would not switch to his (carefully obtained !) Ivory Blade when he was close enough. He'd switch when I clicked on his weapon, but otherwise really preferred his EagleEye Bow (and with Viper arrows it was a formidible weapon, but that ammo is not reusable - like the sword is !).
I generally pump up Critical Hit on any character that can deliver it, but now want to try increasing senses also... By my last endgame my Ninja, Monk and Ranger were making plenty of Critical Hits, and my Bard was getting some in due to her Strong Bow (not many, but every one helps).

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I put a lot more into senses then i used to. For my Gadgeteers (3) it's senses and dex first.

[Nightowl2]

You need to make the ivory blade your ranger's primary weapon and shift the bow to secondary. As long as the bow is in the primary hand, the ranger will use it no matter what.

Nightowl2

[MasterPooBaa]

Yeah. Make the close combat weapon the primary weapon, otherwise he/she wont switch properly.

And later in the game rangers do get alot better with critical hits, as u find ammunition with high to hit value and some of the high end bows like the greenwoodbow or the strong bow have a bonus to your critical hit skill. And that really adds up!

[Scatter]

Senses does not directly increase the likelyhood of a crit. It does increase your initiative, and your chance to hit with missiles.
Ranger crit chance is determined by Ranged Combat Skill score and level, and applies to ALL ranged weapons, including the lovely and ammo-free Frontier Phaser (which also works just as well when its charge reads 0).

Also notable is that the Fighter's KO ability includes ranged weapons.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

If you want instant kills, I recommend 3 Gadg. It takes a while to get to the Bajyin but you can get 3 vaporizer's easy and it makes life much easier.

[Klutz]

I had exactly the same "problem" where my Ranger's ranged prowress was getting in the way of my Fighter's skill development. In fact, in the early-midgame, my Mook Ranger led the party in kills with my Lizardman Fighter second.

The attributes you typically develop for Fighters vs Rangers means that Rangers will typically get the initiative over the Fighter, due to well developed Senses and Speed. For my Ranger I maxed Senses first, and Dex & Speed 2nd and 3rd. For my Fighter, I maxed Vit and Str first, Dex and Speed later, and only put points into Senses after everything else was maxed. That plus the fact that my Ranger was using the Doubleshot Crossbow meant that she could steal LOTS of kills from the more melee-oriented party members.

Later in the game I got better at the technique of using X-Ray and starting combat while the enemy is still out of sight and running up as close as possible to the enemies. That makes it more likely that your close-combat skills will come into play. By the end of the game, my Lizardman Fighter had the most kills, but the Ranger was still second (and had become pretty mean with her Giant's Sword, in addition to her bow expertise).

The next time I run a Fighter in a party, even a Lizardman one, I will definitely emphasize Senses over Vitality. My Lizardman Fighter who maxed Vitality first spent most of the game with 50% - 100% more hit points than anyone else in the party, and it simply wasn't necessary. Of course, expert difficulty could change that...

Oh, and although Senses doesn't directly increase the Ranger's critical hit chance (or any character's), I believe Senses is the primary attribute for the learning of both the Critical Strike skill and the Ranged Combat skill. The facts that:
- Rangers get ranged critical hits based on their Ranged Combat skill (NOT their Critical Strike skill)
- Rangers get a 25% bonus to Ranged Combat (which also means 25% bonus to ranged critical hits)
- Rangers typically max Senses first
- Most other hybrids that get Critial Strike do not typically max Senses first

combine to mean that Rangers are overall probably the most effective hybrid at getting critical strikes based on their class skills. The next best would probably be a throwing Ninja that maxes Senses first, with their auto-penetrate plus 25% bonus to Critical Strike. However, I think that the Ranger requiring one less skill to max and getting an easier XP curve puts them over the top.

[ 06-22-2004, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: Klutz ]

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Anyboby know why a Gadg. can't use a Blunderbuss?