Monk or Ranger for soloing melee?

[Wallicker]

Monk will significantly out level a ranger solo

[Nagoya]

I asked myself the same question and my answer was a Barbarian Warrior.

So I won't participate in your thread I feel my opinion might be dumb.

(however Ranger vs Monk? well when shit hits the fan Monk can FD and make no XP and try again, the ranger can snare, sow, bow, root, meditate, dot, dd, heal, etc. and eventually get the XP. i think monk is better when things work as planned, ranger is better for all the other times. my2¢)

[Velerin]

Think one of the most important parts of effective soloing is not dying and losing hours of progress. Monks are really good at that part too.

[Ivory]

-looks at the way the thread is going and slowly gets up out of her chair.....then climbs up on the table-

LISTEN HERE !!!! ARCHERY IS AMAZING!!!

Not only can you get a trueshot bow very very very early (you need micro-servos, so if someone is hunting the robot spiders....you can get them because no one else wants them as they are no drop, that is the hardest part.. AND WITH A BOW you can solo robot spiders at any level with a store bought bow, some arrows, and a sow for safety....you could do this at level 1, but I'd wait till 7ish).

ANYHOW, bows are amazing!! And rangers are the best synergy with a bow (with SK coming in 2nd, mostly since they can agro kite easily and use the pet as basically a long term dot....with the bow adding some damage on top of that).

They actually get their first magic dot (rangers) at level 9....flame lick shouldn't be underestimated. It is very welcome additional damage (and makes landing hits a bit easier, as it lowers AC of the mobs).

Look at it this way, with a bow you can shoot for about 22 every couple seconds.... THAT IS EQUAL TO A LEVEL 29 DRUIDS IMMOLATE! Mana free, always, your bow is a dot.

But hold on, let's number crunch a bit.

Let's say you hit for AVERAGE 15 a hit. And you are around that same druids level....30 (your ranger spell level).

25 a tick from bow (bows are faster than dot ticks by 2 or 3, so let's just say you are fighting something yellow ....instead of a blue which you will land most hits on)

+ Stinging swarm: 13 a tick

+ Flame lick: 3 a tick

-------------

that's 41 damage a tick .....

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

Because rangers synergize so well with bows, they also get a DD (that is too low of damage to break root!!!! so root and nuke away safely!!)

Burst of fire at level 15 means you can add on another 15 damage a tick to throw in between bow shots. BUT you get an upgrade at level 22!! Making it 37 damage!!!!!

Suddenly you are sitting there doing 78 damage a tick.....non stop....all day long.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!! Here's a secret, if you are soloing, instead of using burst of
fire between shots (15 damage for 15 mana).....go quad stuff and use your invoke lightning. Level 15 spell, but does 25 x 4 damage for 32 mana.....meaning you will be doing 100 damage per 32 mana.....and by the time one dies, the others will be substantially hurt.....meaning you can continue to bow kite the rest down and continue AEing to push your mana further.

And you are doing this at level 15....holy cow...you are quad kiting non stop, killing yellows easily.... yea, it's ridiculous.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!

So a fresh server right? You gonna be scrapped for cash....buyin arrows and nice equipment....staying on top of your game.

Well, a ranger (or rogue with a bow) can take down high targets if they have a bit of patience. My rogue has been killing giants from level 7 when I needed to get some money. You 'can' do this from a full life giant solo, but it's a pain. So finding some other low level help to team up and take them down for dem money money is a good idea. But a better idea is to get them to fight the guards in commons or karanas....they kill the guards but end up almost at the point where they start running.

BOOOM BOW BABOOZLE that means you are soloing giants within 10 minutes....and making piles of platinum!! Thanks to you being a ranger, and using a bow, and being awesome. While the monk feign deaths out of fear and goes "look guys....I can kill blues slightly faster with melee at level 50".

And that isn't even to mention ranger invisibility (getting around is kind of nice). Sure, if you are level 50 and high end gear and no longer are leveling.....the monk can kamakazi places and FD.... but there is a LOT of the game before getting level 50, and just being able to invis up and get to your group is a great luxury.

OH and rangers root? That is amazing for groups CC when you don't have an enchanter. A ranger can help manage agro very well (flame lick is insta-agro) and then go off-root something.

So, in summation, rangers is great.....but not as great as gnomes! Gnomes is even better than rangers.

BUT with bows....rangers is best.

Shadow archers also though, they are pretty neat.....the agro + pet + dots make them actually quite decent at the entire thing. Even against targets that are too high of level (since they can still pet + resist agro + bow). I dunno, having a low level pet hitting on stuff all the time is actually welcome dot damage.

So, in summation summation, archery is amazing. Bows are amazing. Embrace the ways of the bendy branch. The end. I win.

[Clinicus]

Originally Posted by Ivory [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Look at it this way, with a bow you can shoot for about 22 every couple seconds.... THAT IS EQUAL TO A LEVEL 29 DRUIDS IMMOLATE! Mana free, always, your bow is a dot.

Mana free, but every single tick costs real coin. And instead of medding you have to fletch constantly.

[YendorLootmonkey]

Originally Posted by Ivory [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Suddenly you are sitting there doing 78 damage a tick.....non stop....all day long.

I appreciate your enthusiasm for archery, but where you are getting unlimited arrows and mana?

[Ivory]

Originally Posted by YendorLootmonkey [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I appreciate your enthusiasm for archery, but where you are getting unlimited arrows and mana?

Sit and med between shots...with the med button its superrrr annoying till 35 on green, but once you get 35, med up and pew pew pew.

Ranger spells largely are small mana costs, so they can really spam stuff.

Also....no archer in their right mind tries fletching their arrows for regular hunting. Early on if you REALLY need to pinch your pennies, then sure (like I did on my early ranger on green)....but once you got some extra plat, then you just buy all your bags filled.

I carry like 7 bags of 8 slots with arrows..... which is about 1120 arrows....

That can last a few hours easily. But knowing arrow merchant spots (they are all over) is important for archers. Commons, kith, several karanas places, akanon, kelethin, ogok, and so on and so on.

And I'm not an absolute purist....when EXPing , you wana take advantage of all you got....so now and then just go melee a blue, and go arrow kite while recovering HP. Melee is a little faster, but the thing is the massive downtime associated with throwing tons of HP at something as it bashes you around. That's why archery shines so much for soloers, because they can just keep going.....and if they gets ads, it doesn't matter, because they can kill it as long as they have arrows.

Though the AE kiting once you get 15 is the most efficient way to hunt. The extra damage per mana is reallyyyyyyy good. You are getting like 3 damage per mana, that is better ratio than anything else soloing anything else (unless it is a wizard or druid quad kiting, but they don't do that till later because they can't go all the way with their mana.....rangers don't need to rely 100% on their mana is what makes them shine there).

Monks don't have the option to go farm giants for plat ....you won't find them taking down the entrance giants at permafrost or doing seafuries much..... but rangers can. Sure, not as great as a necro plowing through them for cash, but at least rangers can hang out in the same room as the top tier soloers...... monks are much more limited.

Oh, and that's still not even mentioning tracking! Ranger tracking is GODLY for if you are doing many many many things. Ranger tracking alone is insane for awareness of a zone and knowing where your targets are (so later if you are doing kunark quests or getting various keys....rangers are godly...or even just walking through a zone and hitting your "what's up right now" button to snag a rare as you pass by).

[YendorLootmonkey]

Originally Posted by Ivory [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...(archery is all the rage, etc)...

I get all that, and I've done it in a pinch to save my own ass, but why would anyone subject themselves to all that if they can just grab some friends/guildmates and group up?

I really don't want to be a naysayer because as a ranger I respect the bow, but it wasn't really *efficient* until EQ/AM3... maybe I got spoiled in Luclin on Live. Hopefully as an archery aficionado, you got to experience that -- if not, it would have blown your mind. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But i feel like you are over-hyping here... it takes a very patient glutton for punishment to exclusively solo the way you are describing. At least I personally feel like it would be.

[Ivory]

Originally Posted by YendorLootmonkey [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But i feel like you are over-hyping here... it takes a very patient glutton for punishment to exclusively solo the way you are describing. At least I personally feel like it would be.

Yea, it's more work for sure than just auto-attacking. You gotta keep moving.

But the exp is very very good (especially once you get 15 and start doing AE tactics). 100 damage for 30 mana is pretty nice.

[heyokah]

Ivory is a bow nerd. Trust your feelings padawan.