[Guide] Ranger

Rangers – End Game PVP
By Sodah

TOC
• Intro
• Basics
o RNGer
• Bows
o What is Considered a Good Bow
o Stats to look for Combine
• Gear
o PvP Pro’s and Cons between 40e/50e
o Accessories
• Consumables
o Level of Need High
o Level of Need Mid
o Level of Need Low
• Stats
o Hp/Crit/Attk/Acc
o Mag Acc and you.
o Evasion
• Manastone Builds
o HP/CRIT
o ATTK/CRIT
- Sub Manastone builds (Alt Sets)
• MRES
• ACC
• HP
• ATTK
• Stigma Builds
o AA
o LA
o Heart Shot/FS
o Heart Shot /FS w/Explosive Arrow
• Weaving
o How to what do.
• Cooldown Awareness/Management
o Big Self Cooldowns
o Important Opponent Cooldowns to Kite
• Skill Use
o Debuffs
o GodDebuffing

Intro
The ranger class can be looked at as a lolezmode class or a class that takes skill in order to be successful, depending on opinions based off the luck or misfortune of the players you play against.
LOLEZmode is a common excuse players will make when you roll them as a Ranger. If a player is bad and you make your class look easy by not having to try due to the opponent’s incompetence then yes, you are going to appear to be EZmode. This is true with most classes with the exception of Gladiators who have a very small amount of skill required to play. But hey, that’s game mechanics and this little piece is aimed to help you understand how those game mechanics effect you as a RNGer, err…Ranger.

Basics
As a Ranger you are 1 of 3 stealth classes, Well 2 if you don’t count Spirit Master Stealth stigma (Yes it exist and yes I’m teasing about a SM really being a stealth class). So that makes you 1 of 2 stealth classes. And sadly in terms of best stealth your № 2. You are the lesser in terms of stealth of the 2 classes because you’re limited to Hide 1. Hide in Aion is your stealth. Your cousin in the scout family the Assassin will learn higher levels of stealth and different advanced steathed moves via Stigmas and DP moves. You however are limited to the hide that you acquire at Level 5 as a scout. Yes, you will be using a level 5 skill your whole ranger life.
RNG(Random Number Generator)er, this is the common nickname to your class, you get this nickname because most skills in the rangers arsenal do a Random X amount of damage in between Y and Z numbers. The biggest one you will notice is your stunning shot and the chain skill that follows it; Rupture Arrow. When these two skill crit nice you will be like “OMGEEEE WHOAAAAAAAAH”. And when it crits for less than tooltip damage you will be like “Srsly….dafook is this.” Your other skills are affected by RNG but not as much as the two skills listed above.
With Stealth being on your side, very much like your cousin the assassin you can gain the advantage on the opponent by being in hide and opening up on them from stealth. Catching the opponent off guard is very useful. But be warned, Sorcerers, Assassins and other Rangers have skills that let them see Hide 1 for amounts of time. Also anyone can buy a item that you can get while gathering called “seed of detection” that allows anyone that uses it to see hide 1 for a short time.

Bows/1 Handers
As a Ranger your bow is your main weapon, you should never use a Sword/dagger for anything other than decoration or killing Surks in Dredgigon.
USE BOWS, NO DAGGER OR SWORD. Unless your super bored and have 2 super nice daggers, then you can use mau daggers for the lulz. But I wouldn’t recommend it as you will probably die if the target isn’t afk.
What is considered a good stat for a Bow and Bow Combines; you want your primary bow to have a good Attack Range. You also want it to have Additional attack and Crit added to the base. See example A. Good attack on a bow is usually in the 250-340 range.
For the secondary part of your bow combine you want another good attack bow that has both additional crit and attack, this will cause the 2 parts of the bow to double stack which saves you manastone room and helps you reach your stat goals easier without as much sacrifice. See example B. Also your bow attack skill is the most important part when it comes to attack skill. The reason is your bow attack is what gets multiplied when you use your buffs to buff attack. All attack that comes with manastones is added on at the end. I will explain the pros and cons of stacking attack manastones later on in the piece. Attack speed and PVP Damage do not stack together, so only 1 part of your bow needs the Stat. Any part can have them as long as they are both there your good to go. See example C.

A
B
C

Gear
To be competitive and considered a serious “PvP’r” you are going to need a good set of Gear. Don’t go 30e because the sets stats are too low for endgame. I suggest go for 40e or 50e pvp armor. DO NOT GO NON ELITE!!!! Think of the set bonus like double stacking crit/attack on your bow. This allows you to push better stats without sacrificing stats. And in a MMO it’s all about little advantages. Also your pvp gear should be at least all +10 at least for 160 crit resist. Also With Your bow if you plan to have more than 1 set should be socketed crit. its our universal manastone. Whatever gear set you have will be X/Crit. so make your bow useful for all your sets!!
40e is a Great set, Easy to get, Easy to enchant and can hold up at 55. Probably the best know NA Ranger Cyrkle rocks 40e as his only pvp set. It is much easier/cheaper to get into the +14, +15 ranges like he has done too. The only drawback to 40e is the level of manastones and the set bonus. With 40e you can only use crit 15’s but you can still use Attack 5’s if you go that manastone route. The 40e set bonus gives you Acc and Magic Resist which is ok, but unless you have full 55 accessories you won’t break 1400 MR with it. 40e is a good main set or alt set; I will talk about alt sets in a later section.
50e is A Great set as well, Harder to earn and harder to enchant but holds up solid for pvp. The cons to 50e is that it is so much more than the 40e and its cost a lot more kinah to enchant, especially past +10. With 50e a pro is the set bonus, you get HP and Crit which is always good for a ranger. You can also use any level manastone on it, therefore are not limited to crit 15’s.
When both sets are complete the 50e will have 4 more attack to it than the 40e, so it’s not a huge difference.
Accessories, The higher the better. If you want to be competitive I would suggest at least the 50 accessories at minimum. If you can get the 55 accessories then go for it. The stats on them are very nice.

Consumables
Usually for food you would be stacking a crit food, either the 50 crit 50 acc food or the gold version 60 crit 60 acc. So here is my personal list of consumables I carry at all times.

• Crit Food –High
• Crit Scroll – High
• Run Speed Scroll – High
• Flight Speed Scroll – High
• Arrows- High
• Trap Seeds – Med
• 1940 HP Live Serums – High
• Abyss Pots 200ap ones – Med
• Abyss Pots 1000ap ones - Low
• Powder for mana/herb treatment – Med
• Attack Speed Scroll – Low
• Anti-Shock Scroll – Med
• DP Jelly – Med/Low
• Flight Time Potions.
• Healing or Dispel Potions – High

Anti-Shock scrolls are great for not getting pulled by a Templar and most bad Templars will pull into it and you won’t have to waste a FE.

Stats
The 4 Most important stats for a Ranger are Crit, Accuracy, Hp and Attack. In no particular order.
You will notice your bow has magical accuracy on it as well, that is because the effect of our shots that apply a debuff are effected by Magical Accuracy. Don’t bother stacking it as a Ranger as you have to sacrifice so much to even get it to a decent range.
Evasion is a pretty broken stat in aion so stacking evasion stones will get you the same place as having no manastones socketed.

Manastone builds (controversial topic right hurr)
Ok, this is probably the touchiest subjects and one of the biggest things we argue amongst ourselves with. Do I go Attack/Crit or do I go Hp/Crit or MR/Crit. Let me say they are effective in their own way and what it really boils down to play style.
Attack/Crit is the Heavy offensive build (duh) you have very little survivability because you’re a ranger plus you have 1 defensive cooldown. You will do the most damage with you class with this manastone build, but remember your class you are subject to hard RNG.
Hp/Crit is slightly less Damage but lots more survivability. The reason it is slightly less when it comes to damage is because attack manastones don’t get modified through your buffs. 100 attack in attack 5’s is 100 attack even when your fully buffed, however if you have a good bow and its +10 that attack on the bow gets buffed as you buff. So 100 Bow attack is 150 attack in the end. Attack Manastones in the bow do not count towards the bows attack. The Bows attack is derived from the damage range of the bow, the level of the enchantment and the combine.
MR/Crit is very fun to play but can really only be effective it you have very high endgame gear that's lets you push into the 1950+ mr ranges which is hard as a leather class. You will notice ankle snares dont land alot and most debuffs from melee and stuns are less frequent as well.
Alt manastone sets, are very nice to have if you get the chance. What I mean is a spare set of armor that is stacked with a different type of manastone you wouldn’t use as your main set. This turns your ranger into a Swiss army knife of sorts, with different sets for different situations, rangers can kill most any class while be killed by most any class. So having multiple sets to counter of classes is always nice to have in your bags. Good alt sets to have are;

• Magic Resist (40e or 55ne)
• HP (50e,40e)
• Accuracy (40e)

Stigma Builds
Stigmas are the bread and butter of our class, where we get most of our attack modifiers and utility to lockdown and control our opponents.
Agonizing Arrow – This is a very non mobile build most of your shots require you to be standing still. And as a ranger people are going to kite your damage especially if you have Bestial Fury on. I personally don’t recommend this stigma line at all, but a few players have been able to rock it.
Lightning Arrow - DMG/Lightning Arrow - Utility – This build I like to go sometimes when I’m with a good group of players who don’t need my entire burst. In order to go all the way to Lightning Arrow you will need to give up 2 of the Following, Sleep, Silence, Bow of Blessing or Focused Shots. Lightning Arrow is like another stunning shot but you don’t have to stop, this spec is a very mobile build. It is good for groups because where you lose damage you gain control over opponents setting your group members up for the kill. It is very good if you have a stun heavy team too, i.e. Sin/Chanter/LA Ranger.
Heart Shot/FS – This is the most common PvP build; it provides damage with mobility and is in my opinion best PvP build.
Heart Shot /FS w/Explosive Arrow – This build is pretty much the same as regular HS/FS build but without the CC of sleep arrow. You trade CC for 1 extra strong shot.

Weaving
Weaving is important as a ranger. Weaving is the act of putting in an auto attack in between skill attacks. This maximizes damage and gives you additional chances to proc Godstones and Knock-back crits. Weaving with the attack manastone build is its strongest part, giving you nice big extra damage in between your skills.



Cooldown Awareness/Management
Rangers have very few cooldowns, our two longest is Heal Wings and if you have it stigma’d Natures Resolve. Other than that our cooldowns are 3minutes or less. If you go the heart shot route you will have a 5min cooldown called Breath of Nature which last for 5 minutes. The cooldown you should keep track the most of is your FE and dispel pot. You 1 FE and 1 dispel pot per 30s. If caught with a nasty spell with them down you are pretty much dead.
Important Opponent Cooldowns to Kite, Include if you’re a elyos, Sorc’s Boon of Quickness (asmo only skill) or Boon of Iron Clad. Others include a Chanters Spell Stopping and Protective Ward. A Gladiator’s Berskerking and Unwavering Devotion and a Templars Iron skin or Aether Armor or there heavy offensive buffs Emprian Fury and Divine Fury.

Skill Use
Debuffs play a huge part on how we lock down a target, whether that be silencing them as they are stunned or putting flesh cutter on them to reduce healing. Below are our debuffs and what they do.

• Sleep Arrow – Puts the target to sleep (wakes on damage)
• Silence Arrow – Silences the target preventing magical attacks or buffs
• Entangling Shot – Slows the target
• Shock/Shackle Arrow – Roots the target in place (Breaks on Damage)
• Poison Arrow – Poisons the target doing damage over time
• Flesh cutter Arrow – Reduces targets healing by 50%
• Stunning Shot –Briefly stuns the target
• Rupture Arrow – Briefly knocks back the target

Stacking Debuffs is very important. A dispel pot dispels two debuffs. So if you stack 2 debuffs like entangling shot and flesh cutter on a cleric then silence them they can’t pot of the silence. This is known as God-Debuffing. Which means it is protected and they have to deal with it. In this case it is what we would call a God Silence.

My personal favorite way to stack debuffs is to sleep a Glad, lay a blind trap. thats 1 debuff open with entangling then stack flesh or poison arrow on top of that for 3 debuffs. after that is in place you are free to silence them and if they dont have ud up its a easy kill. If not, they have to eat a full silence and if you get good rng on the burst they wont be able to use their heal skills.

If you liked it let me know with a thanks