Question about SKs and ranger

[Selene]

I've been playing a paladin and its been alright so far, but was hoping to play another hybrid with some more creative gameplay.

How do SKs and rangers end up fighting when they solo? (not interested in hearing about grouping play) Do SKs for the most part fear kite, and do rangers mostly root + bow? I prefer a class that fights head to head, but it seems neither class really does that (I presume SK doesn't to avoid excessive downtime from getting hit, and rangers because they can't last very long that way)

If anyone's played a paladin and then played one of the others, do you mind telling me who is more fun to play?

[Tunabros]

What is more fun to play?
Hybrids are more of a RP class. They aren't the super best at their roles but they can get the job done. Personally I like paladins for the RP factor.

Shadow knights can solo but its not optimal. Your best bet is to get a group or priest duo (preferably a shaman or druid). Shadow Knights CAN solo but it requires you spamming engulfing darkness and fear and smacking away.

Rangers are fun. They don't really have a main role but to do damage. They can also off tank if the group lacks one. Rangers can solo by buffing themselves and just spank tank. Bow kiting is kinda of a hit and miss. You can solo mobs way higher than you by doing this but it takes forever.

Out of all the hybrids, I enjoyed paladins, then shadow knights, then rangers

They all got cool looking epics too.
Paladins get a fiery sword and a mini epic (soul fire)
Shadow knights get a purple sword with skulls on it
Rangers get lightning swords!!

Pick which one you like. They are all RP classes in my opinion.
Do you want to be a paladin? A holy knight who smites the dead and upholds justice and peace?
Do you want to play a shadow knight? A dark knight who brings about pain and misery to all things good and holy?
Do you want to play a ranger? A swift warrior who watches over the glades

You choose you man

[Keebz]

I have a 50 ranger and 35 SK.

SK is wayyy better at soloing, but ranger can get it done, esp. outdoors. You can solo reds if you realllly want to (not worth it unless it's for a specific quest).

SK can fear kite, but can go toe to toe OK with taps and dots etc--depends on the mob really.

Ranger can't really go toe to toe after 39 or so. Mainly you root, rot, with bow shots, and step in from time to time for extra DPS.

I have almost exclusively soloed on the SK, and it's been great (disclosure: I'm twinked). I also soloed a lot on the ranger it it was OK, but I was in banded generally.

For soloing toe-to-toe, Monk is your best bet tbh.

[Keebz]

As far as them being RP classes, I disagree. They can be more niche, but on green the knights are great for tanking with snap aggro, SKs and Rangers are also good pullers, though you need some skill to make the most of it. Paladins have access to a ton of clicky CH's and are excellent for baby sitting chanter pets. Rangers of course have tracking.

I often have to log off my 50 Warrior to my Ranger, to help the guild either track or pull. I didn't expect it, but my warrior is fairly useless right now.

[Tunabros]

For soloing toe-to-toe, Monk is your best bet tbh.

Not really unless you have a crap ton of bandages or a fungi
It depends on your gear

[Tunabros]

As far as them being RP classes, I disagree.

I did mention they can get the job done.
Shadow knights have a lot of utility compare to paladins and rangers
Shadow knights get FD and harm touch (good for preventing KS or to quickly KO a mob)
Paladins get lay on hands which is REALLY useful
Rangers are great a pulling in outdoor zones because of harmony
But yah I regard them as RP classes but they have their specialties but until velious SKs and pallys are the better tanks

[A Knight]

i think regen helps SK solo a lot but im far from expert. However you can be giant and not fit in small dungeons and be troll. Or have slightly worse high end gear and be iksar. I had a troll SK, i didnt get him high level but he was fun. I also had around a 45 iksar sk and it was slow leveling. I think many beginners have a tendency to not like giant evil races. However once you get hooked on regen its a game changer.

[dwikt96]

Not really unless you have a crap ton of bandages or a fungi
It depends on your gear

Monk is hands down the fastest melee/hybrid solo. Even if you are naked and only use fists. You have bind-wound and mend and your evasion and melee damage is the highest out of any of them.

[DMN]

it should be noted that combat bind wound has been fixed/nerfed. It's a huge hit to monks soloing ability/efficiency.

[M.J.]

A geared SK can toe-to-toe mobs up until about level 44 when you start soloing 35+ stuff, then the more usual snare+heart-flutter+heat blood+siphonstr+re-snare+fear cycle begins.

At least that is what my current 46 SK does as a Dark Elf, maybe the big guys with slam can toe to toe a few more levels.

As far as the melee combat bind wound not working, try removing autoattack lines and retarget manually, that macro for me seems to still work just testing it.

[Lartanin63]

I have played all of them. I actually really enjoyed soloing on the paladin but it takes the right tools/items to make it enjoyable. Ranger is my favorite due to the utility of the spells. I face tank,root then step back if the fight goes south. This changes later on when mobs hit harder so that is where you find yourself root rotting/bowing. I actually don't even do that on green anymore. I just snare dot then nuke my mana down to about 1 bub on mana. Melee and finish off. Depending on mobs hp is actually pretty effective. You can throw bow shots into this as well and just med between respawns. Sk has the tools to fight many thing but the downtime feels worse to me without heals and only having taps but you can agro kite it around and tap and med on ticks. Letting your pet beat on it and dots do the work or fear and med. If you don't have twink items ect. I feel ranger is the way to go, twinked pally is awesome.

[edmazur]

I melee-soloed the majority of my way to 50 on my Ranger (IIRC: CB taskmaster -> Oasis crocs -> EK crag spiders -> CT gators -> RM Cynthia -> MM caitiff -> LFay Happ -> LR Kanthurn), so it sounds like this might fit your play-style. Especially with Hide, it fit mine well for intermittent/distracted/multi-tasking/AFK playing. And I still enjoy solo-crawling deep in MM castle at 50 while farming stuff. You can self-gear yourself up fairly well if you can figure out where to go and spend a bit of time farming.

Something else I found that helps a lot with Ranger melee-soloing is having a GCD item (I use Star of Eyes) and chain-nuking between 2H swings. Without FBSS, I found Gigantic Zweihander (39 delay) to be the right amount of time to get a swing in between nukes. With FBSS, I found Lamentation Blade (54) was more suitable. With a big enough HP/mana pool and decent AC, you can crank out significant DPS and bring stuff down pretty quickly while being able to sustain the incoming damage.

[cd288]

Killing something with a bow, especially as you reach higher levels, will take forever and honestly not worth it IMO. As you reach higher levels, you're not gonna be able to face tank solo very efficiently on a Ranger either.

SKs are a bit more viable, but I would not say that you should expect to be able to just easily solo your way through the levels. Even with SK you will end up with a decent amount of downtime. All that said, I would go SK just because you will be better in groups at the high end of the level range.

[Coridan]

A geared SK can toe-to-toe mobs up until about level 44 when you start soloing 35+ stuff, then the more usual snare+heart-flutter+heat blood+siphonstr+re-snare+fear cycle begins.

At least that is what my current 46 SK does as a Dark Elf, maybe the big guys with slam can toe to toe a few more levels.
.
I tried to go toe to toe against Guard Nash (a level 40 warrior mob) on my 50 SK and got him down to 40 before I had to run for Blackburrow, even with Harm Touch. He resisted a ton of fears too, but that was before my Pegasus Hide belt and Blade of Abrogation so I might be able to do it better now.

[Noselacri]

Does noone else solo by jousting? Root or snare the mob (or just have SoW/Jboots and enough space to move) and swing the biggest, slowest two-hander you can get your hands on, then move away. You effectively reduce your own weapon delay to whatever the mob has by being out of its reach while your swing timer counts down. Pre-Kunark there's not a lot of good ranger 2h weapons, but there is the one from Kedge with 25 damage. For the purpose of killing a mob as cheaply as possible in terms of hp lost, it almost doubles your efficiency, and it costs hardly any mana compared to fear-kiting or root-rotting with DoTs.

[Ivory]

Rangers can quad kite... they win. Most amazin in levelin.