Comprehensive Ranger Guide

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Comprehensive Ranger Guide
File:Ranger and wolf.jpg
Type Spiritual Semi
Spell Circles Minor Spiritual, Ranger Base
Prime Requisites Dexterity, Intuition
Mana Statistics Wisdom
Physical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Two Weapon Combat 3/2 2
Armor Use 5/0 2
Shield Use 5/0 2
Combat Maneuvers 6/4 2
Edged Weapons 3/1 2
Blunt Weapons 4/1 2
Two-Handed Weapons 6/2 2
Ranged Weapons 3/1 2
Thrown Weapons 3/1 2
Polearm Weapons 7/2 2
Brawling 4/1 2
Ambush 3/3 2
Multi Opponent Combat 10/4 1
Physical Fitness 4/0 2
Dodging 7/5 2
Magical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Arcane Symbols 0/5 1
Magic Item Use 0/5 1
Spell Aiming 5/15 1
Harness Power 0/5 2
Elemental Mana Control 0/15 1
Mental Mana Control 0/15 1
Spirit Mana Control 0/5 1
Spell Research 0/17 2
Elemental Lore 0/20 1
Spiritual Lore 0/10 1
Sorcerous Lore 0/18 1
Mental Lore 0/20 1
General Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Survival 1/1 2
Disarming Traps 2/4 2
Picking Locks 2/3 2
Stalking and Hiding 2/1 2
Perception 0/2 2
Climbing 2/0 2
Swimming 2/0 2
First Aid 2/1 2
Trading 0/3 2
Pickpocketing 2/3 1

About the Guide

This guide is brought to you by members of the GS community from discussions via various forums, Discord chats and direct player input on gswiki. It is ALWAYS open for contributions from the community.
Last Upate: 2/9/2018

Race and Stat Considerations

Racial Bonus To Starting Statistics (Sortable Table)
Race Strength Constitution Dexterity Agility Discipline Aura Logic Intuition Wisdom Influence Total
Aelotoi -5 0 5 10 5 0 5 5 0 -5 +20
Burghal gnome -15 10 10 10 -5 5 10 5 0 -5 +25
Dark elf 0 -5 10 5 -10 10 0 5 5 -5 +15
Dwarf 10 15 0 -5 10 -10 5 0 0 -10 +15
Elf 0 0 5 15 -15 5 0 0 0 10 +20
Erithian -5 10 0 0 5 0 5 0 0 10 +25
Forest gnome -10 10 5 10 5 0 5 0 5 -5 +25
Giantman 15 10 -5 -5 0 -5 -5 0 0 5 +10
Half elf 0 0 5 10 -5 0 0 0 0 5 +15
Half krolvin 10 10 0 5 0 0 -10 0 -5 -5 +5
Halfling -15 10 15 10 -5 -5 5 10 0 -5 +20
Human 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 0 +15
Sylvankind 0 0 10 5 -5 5 0 0 0 0 +15

AgiDex

Roundtime is quite simple. Strength and encumbrance can be a factor but that can be managed by carefully managing inventory. The most important factor is AgiDex, or the sum of the bonuses of a character's Dexterity and Agility. This combined total helps reduce the Roundtime of a physical attack by a specified amount:

Agility +
Dexterity		 Roundtime
reduction
8 - 22 1
23 - 37 2
38 - 52 3
53 - 67 4
68 - 82 5
83 - 97 6
98 - 112 7
113+ 8
Roundtime reductions above 5 are not
achievable without enhancive items.

Pairing that table with the stat table above we can break it down to see each races theoretical maximum AgiDex, before enhancives:

5 RT Reduction 4 RT Reduction 3 RT Reduction
Halfling Aelotoi Erithian
Burghal gnome Dark elf Human
Elf Forest gnome Dwarf
Half-elf Giantman
Sylvankind
Half-Krolvin

This is important because weapons have a minimum RT, and a base RT. By taking the base RT and subtracting the bard's AgiDex we can find that ranger's unencumbered swing RT.

Dexterity is also important as the AS stat for the Archer Ranger.


Strength

Strength bonus adds directly to melee AS. Any melee ranger is going to want a decent Strength stat and will want to pair that with a decent AgiDex possibility. The table below shows the Strength stats of races compared to their AgiDex capability:

5 RT Reduction STR Mod 4 RT Reduction STR Mod 3 RT Reduction STR Mod
Halfling -15 Aelotoi -5 Erithian -5
Burghal gnome -15 Dark elf 0 Human 5
Elf 0 Forest gnome -10 Dwarf 10
Half-elf 0 Giantman 15
Sylvankind 0
Half-krolvin 10

While Strength is an important AS stat for melee rangers, it is the RT stat of Archers. Every 10 STR Bonus will reduce archery RT by 1 second. Unlike melee attacks, the additional RT for AIMing a ranged attack can be reduced as well. That makes Strength extremely important to an Archer ranger. This typically should be paired with a good Dexterity bonus for AS purposes. The table below shows a comparison of all races according to their Strength, alongside their Dexterity:

Race STR Mod DEX Mod
Giantman 15 -5
Half-Krolvin 10 0
Dwarf 10 0
Human 5 0
Sylvan 0 10
Dark Elf 0 10
Elf 0 5
Half-Elf 0 5
Aelotoi -5 5
Erithian -5 0
Forest Gnome -10 5
Burghal Gnome -15 10
Halfling -15 15

There is a very obvious correlation between Strength and Dexterity. Almost invariably as one goes up, the other goes down. This makes the choice of races for an archer a tricky balancing act.

Skills

Physical Skills

  • Armor Use Reduces RT associated with heavier armor, Combat maneuver penalties, and spell hindrance from wearing armor
  • Shield Use Generates DS when using a shield.
  • Weapon Use Raises AS with a particular Weapon.
  • Two Weapon Combat Allows the use of two one-handed weapons.
  • Combat Maneuvers +.5 Melee AS per rank and access to combat maneuvers.
  • Multi-Opponent Combat Reduces penalties from force-on-force and allows for mstrike.
  • Ambush Assists in aiming physical attacks.
  • Physical Fitness Core training, HP growth, Maneuver defense
  • Dodge Generates evasion DS.

Magical Skills

  • Arcane Symbols Allows the use of and improves durations from scrolls.
  • Magic Item Use Allows the use of and improves the durations from magic items.
  • Harness Power 3 mana per training up to your level, 1 per after that.
  • Spell Aiming Weapon training for bolts, which rangers do not use.
  • Mana Control Allows the sharing of mana and improves your own mana regen. Rangers have easy access to Spiritual Mana Control.
  • Spell Research Learn spells and make those you already know better.
  • Lores Incremental improvements to specific spells related to that lore.

General Overview of Ranger Spells

Buffing Spells

Attack Spells

Miscellaneous Spells

Lores

Rangers are spiritual casters and can make use of two of the three Spiritual Lores. Spiritual Lore, Blessing typically provides a wide variety of small, incremental bonuses to the ranger, while Spiritual Lore, Summoning offers some strong offensive magic boosts and powerful improvements at specific breakpoints. Both are quite useful depending on the focus of the ranger.

Blessing Lore

  • Disease Resist (104) Provides a bonus on a Seed 1 summation to the secondary warding roll against disease.
  • Poison Resist (105) Provides a bonus on a Seed 1 summation to the secondary warding roll against poison
  • Spirit Warding II (107) Provides a Seed 10 summation percentage chance to boost TD by +25 against any warding spell.
  • Fasthr's Reward (115) Increases the percentage chance for the spell to activate on a Seed 1 summation.
  • Spirit Strike (117) Provides a percentage chance equal to 3 * Seed 5 summation to gain an additional swing with the bonus.
  • Lesser Shroud (120) 60 ranks unlocks the ability to cast on others for 2 minutes.
  • Natural Colors (601) / [[Mass Colors (611) Increases DS at Seed 5 summation and Hiding bonus at Seed 1 summation.
  • Resist Elements (602) Boosts bolt DS at Seed 5 summation.
  • Foraging (603) Each rank, up to 30 total, provides the equivalent of 3 ranks of survival in foraging bonus
  • Skinning (604) Improves the value of skins by a percentage equal to Seed 5 summation.
  • Self Control (613) Increases spiritual TD by a Seed 5 summation.
  • Sneaking (617) Improves the ability to walk in icy conditions without slipping
  • Resist Nature (620) Increases the resistance provided by one half of the total ranks, rounded down
  • Assume Aspect (650) Improves multiple bonuses available through various aspects.

Understanding the Bonuses behind Spiritual Lore, Blessing

None of the Blessing lore bonuses taken alone are very impressive. The power of the lore is the sheer amount of benefits that a ranger can receive. This one lore will provide moderate bonuses to DS, TD, Hiding, Bolt DS, Skinning, Foraging, and some tertiary abilities. While there is no big wow ability or bonus all the little things add up quickly to become very useful to some rangers.

Summoning Lore

Summoning lore provides less total useful benefits than Blessing lore but some of them have the wow factor that the other lore is missing. This is the go to lore for rangers that want to be deadly with their attack spells.

  • Spirit Fog (106) 40 ranks unlocks the ability to auto hide the caster for 30 seconds, something a ranger should not need.
  • Unbalance (110) Increases the effectiveness but a ranger typically has a hard time warding things with Minor Spiritual spells.
  • Fire Spirit (111) Increases the DF but rangers do not bolt.
  • Locate Person (116) Allows the locating of targets in adjacent, near-adjacent, or even far away realms. Also enables a locate-back functionality.
  • Web (118) The bolt EVOKE version unlocked with this lore is of no interest to a ranger but the improvements to the area web could be.
  • Call Lightning (125) Reduces the time to gather the storm by 1 second per 10 ranks, up to 70 ranks. At 80 ranks, or 40 with 625 active, the spell can be used indoors.
  • Spirit Guide (130) Reduces the randomness of landing locations.
  • Whispering Willow (605) Allows whispering over longer distances, with hidden or invisible targets.
  • Sounds (607) Increases the spell hindrance ability by a percentage equal to a Seed 1 summation
  • Tangle Weed (610) Gives a Skill Bonus/2 chance to inflict strength draining poison.
  • Breeze (612) Provides a Skill Bonus/2 chance for the winds to hinder the movements of creatures in the area.
  • Imbue (614) Adds a Seed 1 summation bonus to the total mana the wands/rods are able to store.
  • Call Swarm (615) Increases the effectiveness on a Seed 5 summation.
  • Spike Thorn (616) Has a percentage chance of an extra damage cycle equal to Skill Bonus/2 - 30%.
  • Nature's Fury (635) Extra damage cycles, the second having a percentage chance equal to skill bonus, the third equal to skill bonus - 100.
  • Assume Aspect (650) Improves multiple bonuses available through various aspects.

Understanding the Bonuses behind Spiritual Lore, Summoning

Obviously there are quite a few benefits of Summoning lore that do not apply to any ranger. The trade off is that the ones that do tend to be amazing. Many a high-level ranger has become a "weed mage" with enough ranger spell ranks and summoning lore. Essentially they kill primarily or wholly with spells like Spike Thorn and Nature's Fury. The bonuses from Summoning lore make this viable.

Spell Research Training

With few exceptions rangers should follow a simple spell progression path:

Wall of Thorns (640) Is possibly the most powerful defensive spell in Elanthia. Most rangers will want to have access to it as soon as possible. Overall the ranger circle provides a far greater benefit than the Minor Spiritual circle up until 640. Once that powerhouse is achieved then going back into Minor Spiritual for 120, for the additional DS and TD, makes sense. From there everything becomes a matter of preference and the needs of the ranger's build.

Training

This is broken down into Core Training, and Discrete Training.

  • Core training includes skills you train in a certain amount each level for that build.
  • Discrete Training includes skills that you want to hit a breakpoint on.

Common Core Training

Core training for ANY bard:

Total: (10/30)

Common Discrete Training

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