Ranger Kael vs. Skyshrine Armor

[Cecily]

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

They never were meant to be tanks, no mail class was due to itemization and their lower defense doesn't help.

In good tunnel gear you can still softcap mobs in the low 50s, good enough to pull and park shit in camp. With chloro and fungi you can regen on the move and with earthcaller you can significantly cut incoming damage.

But yeah if you catch rampage strays you're gonna have a bad time.

We're not playing the same game.

[Crede]

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

Usually there is a decent trade off between the two armour sets. However, I was looking at the ranger Kael armour because I like the green look and it seems worse in every way except a small boost to AC. I've heard a lot about ranger AC having a much lower soft cap.

Does this mean the Ranger Kael armour is strictly worse or am I missing something?

2 real options for ranger fq on a human. Full kael or vp robe. The latter will let you swap in best pieces without affecting fashion. Can’t go wrong either way.

[Goregasmic]

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

We're not playing the same game.

We are, I just accepted cutting the xmas turkey with a swiss knife isn't optimal but that doesn't make swiss knives useless.

P.S. do you even still play?

[Ripqozko]

Ranger ac is broke. Gearing for ac on ranger is dumb, those suggesting to are also dumb. Hope that helps.

[Snaggles]

IMHO go with SV’s and hps. Try to look good in the process.

There is nothing wrong with a full Kael ranger, they look great. You don’t need much to be a good bump though. I don’t even get Aego most the time and never when fighting non-ae stuff like AoW.

[Goregasmic]

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

Ranger ac is broke. Gearing for ac on ranger is dumb, those suggesting to are also dumb. Hope that helps.

Latest parses show that's not accurate, where are yours?

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

IMHO go with SV’s and hps. Try to look good in the process.

If all you care about is raiding I guess that works, you're not supposed to get hit much as a ranger.

[Snaggles]

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

If all you care about is raiding I guess that works, you're not supposed to get hit much as a ranger.

I focused on MR and STR for most my P99 time on this class. It’s shifted to adding quality gear that also has hps and other SVS. If I did it again on any budget I’d do the same thing. The most annoying spell effects in the game are MR based, especially outside raids.

Really though, go with whatever armor you prefer. If people want MR you can get a metric ton with jacinth rings, tranix crown, tribal war boots, and two BoB’s or BD bracers.

[Naethyn]

I agree with the MR strategy.

[feniin]

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

Latest parses show that's not accurate, where are yours?

Are you talking group content or raid content? Raid mobs chunk rangers in a way that they're nearly always getting hit for 90-100% of a mob's max damage, more than a druid or shaman would take. Rangers should be able to take damage as effectively as a bard or rogue but the armor class calculation does not seem to function in the slightest.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Are you talking group content or raid content? Raid mobs chunk rangers in a way that they're nearly always getting hit for 90-100% of a mob's max damage, more than a druid or shaman would take. Rangers should be able to take damage as effectively as a bard or rogue but the armor class calculation does not seem to function in the slightest.

All classes use the same mitigation calculations. They aren't broken.

The issue with Rangers is they have 32 less Defense Skill than Warriors/Paladins/Shadowknights, they have a lower AC softcap return percentage, and they typically don't use shields.

Shields raise your softcap. So a Shadowknight with 200 AC from armor and a Sarnak Battle Shield would have 225 AC. A Ranger with 25 non-shield AC above their 200 AC softcap would have something like 204 AC after softcap reduction.

As a quick test in my DPS calculator, I have a level 60 Warrior with 200 STR, 100% Haste, and a Tuna Sword (50/39) fighting a level 60 mob. I disabled Parry/Riposte/Dodge so we can just see the mitigation difference.

When the mob has 252 Defense Skill and 225 AC, the Warrior is doing ~70 DPS to it. The number of max hit rolls was ~220.

When the mob has 220 Defense Skill and 204 AC, the Warrior is doing ~78 DPS to it. The number of max hit rolls was ~280.

As you can see, a Ranger is taking like 10% more DPS and ~20% more max hits just from these two factors. That is why they are squishier than Paladins/Warriors/Shadowknights.

Rogues and Bards also have 252 Defense Skill.