The Ranger Hero.
What can I say? The more I play in all the various areas of the game, the more I come to terms with how much a pair of them on your team is basically a universal solution. The combination of ranged attacks, interrupts, pets for meat shields, higher armor, and excellent energy management just can't be beat for a general solution. Now, sure, you can sit down and look at pretty much any zone and come up with some dream team that perfectly counters the types of battle in the area, and that team may or may not include a ranger. But I'm talking an across the board, bravely walk into the unknown (or, more likely, just don't want to mess with constantly changing things), and having a very real chance of coming through. Do things drop über-fast in this mode? not likely... but they do drop, and you stay alive. Let's compare with some other hero types you could bring along: Ele: Can really pump out some amazing AoE damage.... IF they don't run out of energy, and IF what you're fighting isn't overly resistant to that type of damage, and IF the bad guys stay in a nice little clump, so the one spell affects them all. That's three if's. Taking them in order: = If#1 (run out of energy), I can throw all kinds of e-management on the hero bars, and builds that are overflowing with energy for me, they run out of it in no time. So you get a nice initial burst out of them, and then nothing. So if you didn't kill them all, or if you have some other patrol come in and join the battle, or if you're in a seige war (either waging or defending against)... they have minimal effectiveness. = If#2 (resistance): In particular, the some of the higher level mobs are more and more resistant to various elements. In particular, destroyers can completely shrug off the classic SF/GG fire build. I've seen other creatures which just take a long time to kill with fire. Builds on other lines can be effective, but fire is the damage king. I've tried some Air builds on heroes, and they run out of energy way too fast, and are otherwise underwhelming. I suppose an earth based warder could be successful, but that's a different role. = If#3 (not clumping): even notice how much running around the close up monsters do, esp the higher level ones? notice how the ranged attackers tend to spread out just enough to where the AoE of things hits only a couple at a time? I have... and all that means that your big, slow, expensive AoE skills are basically single target skills... summary: when the ele's work... it's like you're taking a stroll around the park. when they don't.... they're dead weight. Necro (Have to split this into various types.): The MM: Similar to the Ele's. When it works, it's "OMG, how can you not use one?".... but they don't always work. When they don't work: - Corpse Deficit. There's the classic issue of monsters that don't leave corpses, but also the areas where you tend to fight 3-4 L28+ foes at a time. - Time sensitive. If you're having considerable delay between battles, like to recharge health & energy, or just that the next mob is halfway across the map... all that degen makes your armor next to useless. Nothing seeing 10 minions charge in and get swatted down instantly, because they were all near (re)dead to begin with. - Minions are wimps. (ok, in this, a L26 flesh golem is different, but you have to dedicate so much to get one, you've lost all other flexibility in your build.) A L18 horror has max 440hp, and ~72 armor. That may sound like a lot, but it's not. the HP is fighting against an ever increasing degen rate. The armor is effectively a lot less, given the added level imbalance, thus allowing even more damage through. I've seen way too many times where a whole pack of minions at near full health just near instantly die from a couple attacks. Keep in mind that minions tend to clump up, making AoE absolutely deadly. Jagged Bones can help here, but jagged horrors are even wimpier than the ones they replaced... - Single Point of Failure. If the MM dies... all the minions are now your enemy. So, suddenly, your army size shrinks dramatically, and you're now facing a much larger battle. And since to be really effective, you've given your MM a Sup Death rune to get that L16 death magic (other wise the minions really start becoming wimpy), they tend to be a tad low on health, and easy to kill. Not to mention all that sacrificing for Blood of the Master. The SS: Ok. I have to admit, this guy gives the ranger a run for his money. The damage that can be done with all the hexes is very deadly, and seldom countered effectively. Add a little life stealing into the mix, and they are fairly resilient. But, since a hex can only be places on a foe once at a time, two SS's are only modestly more effective than one, so the lone SS makes a happy companion to the pair of rangers I mentioned above. Warrior, Dervish, or Assassin Looking for a tank? A L20 hearty pet has 540hp and 80al, and never takes any DP. That's as good or better than most warriors. And that's with a zero pts in Beast Mastery. Looking for damage? well... you still have a bow to hit people with, which granted isn't as much, but still significant... and can keep firing almost constantly instead of running after the target foe, or running towards the next guy, or trying to cross the valley between them, etc. Monks and other Healer/Protters of the Rit and Para variety: Yea... you need healing and protection. And depending on how things go, you will need more of it. However, the Rangers help here. With the interrupts canceling a fair amount of the opposing ele damage (ever see what Broad Head Arrow does to an ele boss?), there tends to be a lot less healing that's needed. Not to mention Rangers are pretty hearty backliners, with the better armor and several easy to add defense skills. I find my ranger packs rarely, if ever, need more than the two henchmen healer types for full party survival. Paragons, of the attacking and buff variety: In many ways a lot like the Ranger, and frankly I find a lot of synergy between the two skill lines. The big downside I get from the Para line is the lack of interrupts, which lean me towards making builds more Ra/Pa instead of Pa/Ra. But it's not a strong leaning, and there's still a spear vs bow question in my mind. I've seen both do some interesting things. Rits, of the attacking kind, and Mesmers: Both can be outright devastating when piloted by a human, but heroes just don't seem to get it. ================ So, what is my suggested "universal" team, which I'd take blind anywhere, or trek across three zones with? Something like: Myself +Pet Jin (Ra/Pa) as a Barrage/Pet, with some Para buffs thrown in. Margrid (Ra/Me) as a BHA/heavy interrupter /Pet. Master of Whispers (Ne/Ra) as a SS/curses hex spammer +Pet Healer Hench #1 (Monk) Healer Hench #2 (sometimes monk, sometimes rit) (two of the following) Interrupt Ranger Hench Paragon Hench Fire Ele Hench Warrior Hench (aka Pet #5) I'm sure this will illicit some comments, so bring it on.

If it can survive Ahdashim in HM, then I'm sold :D (Of course, I'm already half sold. You just need to push me over the edge :P)

Yes, the rangers provide excellent all around usefulness. And as a LONG TIME promoter of the benefits of Rangers, I am certainly not about to argue against their usefulness or resilience. :P That said, I don't always run with additional rangers in my group. Recently I have been spending a great deal of time in Elona, both in HM (vanquishing) and in NM (skill capping). The team builds I use for these two tasks have some similarities, but are definitely different. Normal Mode Skill Capping Team Config Pierce Longbow (Ranger - Broad Head Arrow interrupter with pet) Zhed (Ele/Ra - Fire based Ele with Searing Flames as his elite, and a pet) Souske (Ele/Ra - Fire based Ele with Searing Flames as his elite) Master of Whispers (Ne/Ra - Curses based necro running with Spiteful Spirit as his elite, and a pet) Mhenlo (Monk - henchman healer) Kim (Monk - henchman healer) Cynn (Ele - henchman fire nuker) Eve (Necro - henchman blood based Necro with wells to help with healing and Blood Ritual to help casters with energy management) The forgoing NM team config can steamroll through most areas much more quickly than some of the other team builds I have used. However, I don't use this team config in HM, EotN or in areas where enemies have hight resistance to fire/burning. Hard Mode Vanquishing Team Config Pierce Longbow (Ranger - Broad Head Arrow interrupter with pet) Talkora (Mo/Ele - Protection with Shield of Judgment as her elite to lessen the impact of spikes on single characters) Olias (Ne/Ra - Minion Master with Life Transfer as his elite, and a pet) Master of Whispers (Ne/Ra - Curses based necro running with Spiteful Spirit as his elite, and a pet) Mhenlo (Monk - henchman healer) Kim (Monk - henchman healer) Cynn (Ele - henchman fire nuker) Eve (Necro - henchman blood based Necro with wells to help with healing and Blood Ritual to help casters with energy management) While I have tried running with Ranger heros in HM Elona, I found that the inherent enemy speed boost and the constant running around by the enemy while they attack (especially the warrior and dervish enemies) made the rangers a little less effective than they were in NM. With the Curses necro (which I find indespensable in HM) and the benefits of Shield of Judgment, I found that the enemy's running around no longer caused as many headaches. I have found that this team build works well in virtually every situation, both in NM and HM. Not only does it work great in Elona, but it seems to work very well in EotN. When in locations with enemies with high burning resistance, I will sometimes swap out Cynn for a different henchman (such as an earth Ele or Paragon). Not at all criticizing your team config, just posting my alternate "all around" team builds. 8)

Like any of the melee type skills rangers do have their nemesis. Blocking or dodging attacks or very resistant to piercing damage would be difficult to take down, but you rarely find that anything can sustain that, so rangers do very well with line of site foes. Good defense against ele damage and good defensive skills against melee. Often rangers are the last survivors, e.g. City (DOA). What do you think are the most difficult foes for rangers? Playing rangers can cause a lot of key bashing as you are usually constantly targetting or spamming skills, like barrage. Barrage is still one of the best elites out there

I have a major issue with Zho (interrupter in EoTN), based on earlier experience, but mostly due to a painful encounter last night in Shards of Orr. She doesn't use BHA as much as she could because she would usually spam penetrating attack instead of waiting for her energy to regen just enough to use BHA. Even my Margrid does better than that. As a result, it took me at least 45 minutes to take down Fendi, with all heroes at 60 DP. It actually doesn't take much to make rangers less effective. Aegis, and "Shields up!" are two skills I can think of that help a lot. And there's always kiting. Then again, rangers are capable of a lot and can play a lot of different roles, so it's hard to say what would be their nemesis. One thing I should try is hit some of the HM areas with pets. For some reason, I moved away from that approach, though at first sight it seems better since you have more allies doing damage. Not to mention that they absorb damage.