solo monk or ranger with no funds?

[Aaramis]

My vote goes to Ranger. You can get by easily with cheap gear (ie sword of skyfire, GJB). And you have plenty of tools to deal with almost anything.

Mend is great as a Monk, but root + heals as a Ranger works just as well. And being a class that can slow is invaluable.

[Wiley]

The human ranger Maxijazz was born last night and already closing in on level 5, thanks everyone for the advice/thoughts/opinions.

Super thanks to lecompte for giving me a swiftblade at no charge!

[TheFishyOne]

Roll a Ranger, those DTs ain't gonna eat themselves.

[Roguejm11]

Play what you want to play is the way I would go.

Monks can solo and desired for groups. Because they are the puller and high dps.

Rangers can solo and aren't really looked for in groups. Which I find completely wrong. They have decent dps, they can pull, they can root for CC, they can track to find named mobs.

Makes me want a baby ranger now... damnit!

[Jimjam]

Logging on to my 18 ranger now.

Killing swamp water crocodiles near the ancient crocodile camp in upper guk seems good.

If you don't upset the frogs it is very safe and there is often a druid knocking about to give you ds/regen!

[trist4n]

I'll be joining you on the broke ranger thing. I have a treeweave, and at this point, that's the only item. I think I need to get some banded armor and then find myself a Swiftblade

[kaev]

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

I have enough for a couple wedding rings and either the Wu's 2 hander or swiftblade.

No funds otherwise, which would be easier to level you think?

I was leaning towards ranger for the ghetto heals, track, forage and the eventual sow. This seems better then relying on bandages and mend yes/no?

Ranger is very survivable solo, even budget geared. Banded is cheap, Fletching is cheap. The Swiftblade will carry you a long way, but don't forget to skill your other weapons. The wait for SoW will wear on you, but it's very nice when you finally get there.

Ranger's a fun class to play solo, it's very self-sufficient. You can wander all over the world once you have Harmony, Camo, and Snare. Be sure you know where your trainers are (Surefall, Kithicor, & Greater Faydark) and where to buy fletching components. Don't expect to gain levels fast.

Ranger: It's not a job, it's an Adventure!

[williestargell]

w/o funds, soloing is going to be hard on both classes.

This is the truth, soloing a melee class without excellent gear is going to be difficult.

Monk is the better solo'er do to mitigation and mend. That said, play a ranger. Rangers are the bestest.

I don't necessarily agree with this. Ranger slow swords make them darned good soloers.

[kaev]

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

Ranger slow swords make them darned good soloers.

Slow swords are overrated for solo play IME. I find that procs are so unreliable it works better to just kill the mob faster with decent dps weapons. Slow sword in a group is sometimes awesome tho, so it's a nice thing to have in your bag.

Archery is shitty damage compared to what you can dish in melee, but the mob isn't hitting you back and Snare is cheap to cast, as long as there's room to kite you can finish any mob even if you were losing the fight in melee. At L45 I got a Tolan's bracer (was 5kish at that time, think it's about the same now) and stashed my fletching kit in the bank. I miss the longer range arrows, but I don't miss the endless clicking to make them.

In most situations Harmony is far faster than FD for getting single mob pulls, it's probably a good thing that Harmony doesn't work indoors.

Learn to watch your UI and recognize the real server tick (usually involves your displayed HP going down, lol.) You can stand, cast a healing spell, and sit between ticks, so that you don't miss any mana regen while healing yourself after a fight, thus speeding your recovery.

You can put off a good bow for a little while, cheapo fletched bows you can make yourself are fine under L20, but buy a Runed Oak Bow (200-ish pp) if you can by the time you're in your 20's, or go hunt the centaur who drops it with a group of mid-20s (he's L30). The Runed Oak Bow is much superior to the Trueshot Longbow because it is classed "MAGIC" and ordinary arrows fired by a magic bow hit mobs that require magic to hit. The only (non-RP) reason to do the Trueshot quest is because you intend to continue on and do the Raincaller, and the Runed Oak is so cheap there is no reason at all to buy a Trueshot.

Lower cost items that are useful (beyond the obvious stuff like ac/hp rings and cheap magic weapons):
* Tolan's Darkwood Vambraces (clicky Stinging Swarm at L45) 13/tick dot isn't great, but it's zero mana cost and you can often use it to pull, also the AC don't hurt
* Tolan's Darkwood Gauntlets (clicky Snare at L45) cast is not fast (4.0sec) but it saves a spell slot and, again, the AC doesn't hurt
* Tolan's Darkwood Helm (clicky Superior Camoflauge at L45) slow cast (10.0sec) but who cares? also you don't get the spell until L49, also AC!
* Tolan's Darkwood Boots (utterly useless clicky at L45), more AC baby, more AC

Pricier items to save up for:
* you're a melee, the three most important stats for a melee are haste, haste, & haste.
* Woodsman's Staff (31/35 2hb), best dps for a long long time
* Lupine Dagger (9/18 p, proc's Greater Wolfform at L45), super long duration ATK & movement buff, you don't get the spell until L56
* Tolan's Darkwood Bracer (clicky Summon Arrows at L45) once you hit 45 this bracer is like gravy soaked gravy
* Raincaller (or do the quest)

[mystang89]

"Archery is shitty damage compared to what you can dish in melee, but the mob isn't hitting you back and Snare is cheap to cast, as long as there's room to kite you can finish any mob even if you were losing the fight in melee."

Just curious why you don't root rot them and shoot arrows while they are dotted? Do arrows break root? I thought only DD spells had a chance of breaking root.