Ranger DPS
 

I made a ranger who is lvl 13 now, and so far hes been a blast. But, I was wondering where rangers stand in the hierarchy of dps out there right now. I have fun on him, and I know thats all that I really care about, but im a bit curious.

I know mages do the most dps at this point throughout all levels. Then probably rogues. Since I hear people refer to rangers as a rogue without backstab, they wouldnt be too far behind right?

Rogues have higher skill caps, so rogue autoattack will still be more than Ranger autoattack.

Rangers are the lowest DPS of all the DPS classes until Luclin, which this server wont see. Couple that with high aggro abilities, very little tools for survivability, and a 40% exp penalty and most people stay away from them entirely. What they lack there they do gain in utility (sow, invis, tracking, snare, etc) and some versatility with nukes and trueshot discipline, so they certainly aren't worthless, but in general it would be a fair assessment to list rangers as the most underpowered class in classic, and possibly through Velious.

When did rogues/monks get triple attack?

The dps differance between rangers, rogues (minus backstab!), bards and warriors seems miniscule. Give them all 2 ssoys and they do well, although technically rangers would do the least

I'm quite certain a bard isn't going to win a melee contest against anyone that has double attack.

minus songs, just str8 melee, bards have the weakest melee.

Ranger DPS sucks until you get the ridiculously rare high end items that maybe 1 or 2 Rangers will ever see, and then they're gods.

In Kunark Trueshot +Windstriker is probably the best DPS in the game.

Really? wow. I thought they were at least comparable to other DPS classes, with gear being the deciding factor in most cases. Seem to have decent survivability to me, but I havent gotten far :P

But will a well played Ranger always be in last in dps? Is the gap that big?

Bolded is key.. Yes there's a dps gap, and yes, there's no feign/evade button for rangers. You'll do less damage, you won't be able to lose aggro, you won't get SOW to 39, and you'll never be able to port people.

You will be able to track rares, Snare, Taunt, and do some ghetto crowd control and cast weak thorns.

If you are on the fence, nothing in the above 2 paragraphs is worth a 40% xp penalty. If you enjoy grinding 40% harder, play a Pally SK or Bard and get something special for your efforts.

But for the love of god, don't come on these boards and prod and prod begging for people to say tons of nice things about rangers in classic. It's simply not going to happen. Rangers are fun, they are challenging, and can track down Bilge in Dag's Cauldron and snare/pull him toward a class who can actually kill him. :)

Aww c'mon bubs, if he holds on til velious he gets jolt! (and the jolt whip AMGGG)

Seriously though, if you're worried about dps, don't be a ranger. The only ranger with good dps on server atm is zilo (damn you mistwalker :P)