Lartanin's Ranger Solo Guide [Archive] (2024)

Lartanin63

05-22-2015, 04:36 AM

This is a guide I made awhile back with my experience when leveling on the Red server.
Some thing have changed due to population but I feel that this guide could still help some ranger levels on blue and red when groups are no where to be found. I forgot I made this guild and figured I might as well post it here for feed back and maybe someone will get something out of this. Please feel free to add your input and experience. I will try and edit this if good information is posted. Thanks and happy hunting.

Lartanin’s Solo Ranger Guide:
The ranger is a well balanced utility class that seems to have a hard time finding a place in groups. It is also a class that is not seen as being able to solo till later on in velious when we get one spell that fears animals. I started on P99 Red server with little to nothing. With the hours I played and the lower population I was forced to solo many of my levels. This guide will be a look into what I did to make it to 55 and some tips and items that will help any ranger get some exp when not finding a group.
Tools for the solo ranger
Ways to solo
Setting goals for gear and exp
Hunting Areas

Tools for the solo ranger:
Fletching- This will be a must if you want to solo. Invest in making arrows and getting a bow early on. Do not worry about getting your skill to high early on but around 15-19 we will have the money to put forth to get your skill up high enough to make yourself a trueshot longbow. The bow is a huge part of soloing.
Here is a list of a few weapons I would suggest getting.
1. Swarmcaller-This is a really nice two hander for pvp and for pve. The slow is very useful for soloing. This weapon does not start procing till 45 so it is not super important to get this right off the bat as an early ranger. I suggest getting this if money is tight over any other two hander for pvp. Silver Swiftblade is a much better starter two hander do to damage caps at lower levels. If you can find a Silver Swiftblade cheap early on pick that up and get a Swarmcaller later on down the road.
2. Woodsman Staff- Great dps two hander for pvp and pve. Can be pricey but well worth the money. This weapon has the best dps till our epics.
3. Ebony Bladed Sword- When I first started I was given an ebony bladed sword and a dragonhorn of yhesha. I was never much of a fan of the dragonhorn other than early on but the ebony bladed long sword is pretty nice for pvp and pve once it starts procing the root. The root it procs rangers can’t even cast till level 49! I mean that is way better than the 10dmg short duration one we would have at level 25. This weapon can also we traded in for the Short Sword of Morin.
4. Orc Impaler- Nice stat boosting range slot or main hand/ off hand weapon. Quest is a bit hard to solo but I completed it once I got higher level. Sometimes you can get someone to help you kill the shadowman leader and the ghoul boss if you can catch someone in Lfay at lower levels.
5. Lamentation/Green Jade BroadSword- Nice for pve and to give your ranger a nice strength boost but not the best for pvp. Stick with the 2 handers above.

A good quality bow- With classic and Kunark there is not a large variety of bows that are good quality and are not no drop. Trueshot longbow and the Raincaller are the two bows that I have used most of my leveling career.
Tolan's Armor- This is nice armor not for the AC but for many of the utility you will get from them once you hit 45.
1. Helm- Cast Superior Camo, We don’t even get this spell till 49. You will need it if you plan on going into dungeons to farm some upgrades.
2. Vambraces-I used these a lot. They cast stinging swarm for free and we don’t get a better DoT till 54.
3. Gloves- These are nice but most of the time we should have 35 mana to ensnare something. Invest in them if you can get a good deal but I wouldn’t spend my money on these right off the bat. Iksar scale gloves are cheap and easy to get for this slot.
4. Bracer- This is the most important piece and yes I know it’s expensive but I managed to buy one myself and if you are in the same mind set as I was you should have more than enough money to buy yourself the things you need. This item makes soloing much cheaper since we no longer are going to make our own arrows.
Ways to Solo:
These are a few ways that I like to solo with my setup. You can snare and kite it around, this works pretty good at lower levels. You want to make sure to keep flame lick on them to keep their hps from regening up if you miss a few times. You can throw in some DD nukes and get them close to the 20% range where they will run and you can finish them off in melee
Root rotting- This is the same way druids root rot. Root it, flame lick/Stinging swarm and hit it with your bow. Sit down between bow shots and keep meding and keep reapply your 2 dots and root. I like this way of getting a mobs down to a range where you can most likely finish him off with melee. Make sure to always bring extra arrow crafting mats when you are out in the wilds.
I like this tactic because it allows you to take minimal damage and be higher on mana incase of a pvp situation. This tactic should only we used on non caster mobs unless they can be out ranged by your bow/arrows. When fighting casters apply the same but make sure you are out of range to sit and bow. Move back into range and reapply dots and then hurry and back out before their spell can land. (This no longer applies due to patch change.) . Please note that when a mob is standing still and is shot by a bow it will increase your bow damage at higher levels.
This does not apply to rooted mob but with the dots plus that lowered bow damage works pretty well.
Joisting- Root your mob and joist it while you have some dots on it. By joisting you just run into range turn on auto attack and move out of melee before they get another swing at you. I sometimes use this tactic to see if I can get my swarmcaller to proc before going into constant melee.
Straight up tank and spank: Make sure you are fully buffed and have thorns on. Root and back out to heal or reapply dots/ ds. This is a good combo with the root rotting if you want to conserve arrows.

Setting goals for gear and exp:
Setting goals for yourself is a good way for keeping yourself interested in the game and your class. I like to look for upgrades and what levels I could get exp while camping these said upgrades. This will be outlined in my hunting area section below.
When looking for upgrades we are going to check mob levels and zone levels. This does not always mean we will not be farming a green mob but we need to see if there is something solo able in the zone while we wait between spawns.
Most of the mobs we need to look for are non casters. These are not our strong suit for soloing. We can always come back at a higher level if we cannot take them out.
Use the wiki to search for the types of armor you want. I suggest mostly strength items. Having a dexterity set of gear is nice too for procs and bow crits but I never found it necessary. You will want resist gear for pvp.
Always fighting in areas with good money drops is another goal to exp tactic that is usually outlined in many other class guides.

Hunting Areas
This is an outline of the path that I took while soloing most of my levels. This is in no way the only path you can take. We have track and if you can make it work for you go for it. Most of this guide will be heavily in Faydwer. I branch out later on in this guide for more upgrades and money farming.
1-8
Greater Faydark. - Not going to go into much detail on this. Noobie trash stuff, kill bees sell the jelly. Move over to Orc hill and start collecting those belts for your leather armor.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Cracked staffs
Crushbone belts
9-16
Crushbone- Use your discretion on where you want to kill.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Crushbone belts
Bracers of battle x2- Can stay in CB till around 17 or 18 to get this or move onto next hunting location and come back around 20 to get this and a Dwarven Ringmail Tunic. This is optional because it can take some time to get these.
Brass earrings x4- You will want to wear 2 of these and do the Taskmaster Earring quest. Hand them into the Highelf male to get the quest piece for the 2 strength rings.
Shiny Brass Shield- You can use this till you get 17 and get duel wield. It’s an ok saleable item on red.
16-19
Lesser Faydark- Nightbright sister’s camp. This is a great cash camp, bronze weapons sell for up to 5pp each. I know this may be over camped on blue but it was open all the time for me on red. Worse case it is a good place to get a gank and make some extra plat. There is a ranger outpost close by at (-280, 1255) this is a good place to find some ring mail on the vendors if someone from Mistmoore sold some to them. Sell all your bronze weapons here if you become over weight. Make the judgment call on if you want to run back slow or run back with a bunch of money on you.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Bronze weapons(Vendor junk)
Another thing to note from being the Faydark. Foraging made me a good amount of money leveling up with selling morning dews. These do not sell as well now due to the change in cultural armor needing blue diamonds. It doesn’t hurt to collecting them and attempt to sell them. Cinnamon sticks are also an item to keep.
Keep an eye on track for Whimsy Larktwitter. She can drop a nice bow.
After spending some time here this is a good time to spend your money on some banded armor or work on your fletching.
20-45
Castle Mistmoore
This is an amazing zone for a ranger. Great money and it is an outdoor zone. I will just go through a brief walk through on where I camped through these levels. Note that certain mobs change from living to undead based off of the in game time. After 7pm mobs will flip to undead/werewolves. Be careful if soloing in an area that may be cleared but when the time changes they will respawn.
20-30
Pond area/ Front enterance. – You can kill mobs here and in the gorge till around 30. Gargoyles’ drop eyes that vendor for 9pp each. Make sure to use harmony once you get level 22. This will make almost all your pulls single. Note that even though a mob is harmonized you cannot walk into them or pull another mob through them or they will agro.
30-39
After level 30 we will move into the graveyard. This is a nice place to pick up some sellable items.
Please view the map below to show camp spot and what mobs we will be killing.

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll190/dawken63/Mistmooremap_zpsg9meppz2.png

The Red is our camp; it is right behind the mausoleum. Make sure not to hit Ssynthi, He can be killed but will ruin your faction with Sol temple in Lavastorm. The three blue circles will be the mobs that are pretty safe to kill without having to worry about them being casters. The one by the secret wall in the PH for an avenging caitiff. It will path out of the wall so you do not need to go into the jail room to pull it. At night it can be a vampire and can drop essence of moonlight. These are also used for cultural armor and can be sold sometimes. The next blue circle closest to camp if the ph for an imp familiar. He can drop a couple low end items that tend to sell. After you gain a few levels you can attempt to take the other mobs within the graveyard on but remember they are casters and we have no way of interrupting them.
39+
Once we hit 39 we will have sow and levitate. This is when I moved up to a cloaked dhampyre camp. You will want to levitate up the tree up by the castle entrance and float across the gorge. You can kill the mobs on the outside of the wall for exp and kill the other mobs in the court yard by levitating over the wall. Mostly all of these mobs should be solo pull with harmony. The hooded black cloak is a good selling item and make sure you pick up one for yourself.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Bronze/Fine steel weapons/ Vendor junk.
Ring mail armor.
Gargoyle eyes.
Bloodstone Eyepatch-Good upgrade and worth some plat.
Crested Spaulders- Sells pretty good.
Crested Helm- Sold many of these in my days on red.
Essence of moonlight.
We would like to get some diamondine earrings but we will have to come back at a later time to farm these. We will want to get the vampire fangs from the Maid and Butler later on too to complete our Call of Flame quest.
This is a good time to head over to Steamfont and spawn the Minotaur hero and get the shackle for your hero bracer.
40-44
Rathe Mountain’s Hill Giants.
Since we have SoW it’s time to do some traveling. This camp is a hot spot for some ganking but the rewards are worth it. Make sure you sell your stuff to buy stack of peridots from the gnome over by the inn. Since we get sneak we can sell and bank in Oggok. Use harmony and sneak up behind the vendors and sell you junk. Do the same for the banker/ guard there.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Platinum and gems.
Petrafin can spawn here and drops a nice bracer we could use.
45-50
Oggok guards.
These guys drop good sellable weapons/ shields and steins. Use sneak to vendor and bank here. Make note this can be a hard place to get out of it pvp happens.
Items we are looking for in this area?
Vendor junk.
Steins can be sold to other players.

50-55
This area is kind of hard and I spent some time doing fear kiting duo with a friend and did some charm kiting with another friend. Shout out to Mcloven and Loudog.
When soloing in this time frame I would do Ice giants in Everfrost. The aviaks in TD and the raptors in TD.

I hope this guide allowed you to see my path soloing on my ranger and maybe give you some ideas for yourself. I did many other things while leveling up like farming gear but these are the areas I made most of my gains in levels.
Below I will post a list of gear that I currently wear to give some look into what I use.

Head- Tolan’s Darkwood helmet. Hammerhead Helmet. Blackened Iron Crown.
Neck-Flame Runes Pendent.
Mask- Grotesque mask. Mask of Wurms.
Earrings- Diamondine. Sarnak Earrings of Station. Fish bone earrings.
Shoulder- Pegasus feather cloak. Bloodstained mantle.
Back- Hooded Black cloak. Cloak of Shadows. Cloak of the Icebear.
Bracers- Tolan’s Darkwood bracer. Bracer of Vajeen. Hero Bracers. Granite Bracer.
Gauntlets- Tolan’s Darkwood Gauntlets. Gauntlets of Potency.
Chest- Rubicite Breastplate. Treeweave. Sarnak emblazed tabard.
Arms- Tolan’s Darkwood Vambraces. Mithril Vambraces.
Legs- Mithril Greaves.
Boots- Dwarven Workboots.
Rings- Platium Fire Wedding Ring. Gem Encrusted Ring.
Belt- Flowing Black Silk Sash.
Ranged- RainCaller
Weapons- Swarmcaller. Woodsmans Staff. Lamentation. Green Jade Broadsword. Sarnak Warhammer. Wurmslayer.

Please let me know if I have messed anything up or need to change something.
I spent some time trying to make this as helpful as possible and I look forward to all your feed back.
Thank you and hopefully this helps out some young rangers out there.

SewingMachine

05-22-2015, 08:09 AM

blondeattk

05-22-2015, 12:13 PM

Cecily

05-22-2015, 01:11 PM

Wiley

05-26-2015, 08:46 PM

My ranger guide was something like: Hit Track. Kill anything blue.
Good till 60!

This has been working well for me so far

Pipip

05-29-2015, 11:05 AM

Thanks, for the guide, it's pretty useful for a new ranger. I dinged 18 today, and the cash is flowing in Lesser Faydark, although the xp is starting to slow down.

At what level should I think about replacing my silver swiftblade? It's still hitting pretty hard, but I'd like to keep an eye out for deals on higher level weapons.

Arrows aren't cheap, I can't wait till I can use a Tolan's Bracer. But I've started getting crits with them, and wearing stuff down before I melee it has definitely reduced my downtime. I didn't think to med in between shots until I read this. I do med between casts healing myself, which has helped a ton.

kaev

05-29-2015, 02:39 PM

Thanks, for the guide, it's pretty useful for a new ranger. I dinged 18 today, and the cash is flowing in Lesser Faydark, although the xp is starting to slow down.

At what level should I think about replacing my silver swiftblade? It's still hitting pretty hard, but I'd like to keep an eye out for deals on higher level weapons.

Arrows aren't cheap, I can't wait till I can use a Tolan's Bracer. But I've started getting crits with them, and wearing stuff down before I melee it has definitely reduced my downtime. I didn't think to med in between shots until I read this. I do med between casts healing myself, which has helped a ton.

Honestly, that nice ratio on the Silver Swiftblade will serve you well for a while. Just be sure to keep root mem'd once you've got it, especially if you're grouped with a warrior tank as many low-/mid-level warriors will have trouble out-agroing the Swiftblade. Save your pennies for http://wiki.project1999.com/Woodsman%27s_Staff (it's not necessarily as expensive as the wiki shows, I saw one just today auctioned for 6k).

It's kinda stupid that there's a single non-epic weapon that's so head and shoulders better than everything else for your class, but on the bright side Ranger is not super popular here and not every Ranger realizes just how much better the Woodsman's is than everything else, so the price is very reasonable.

Pipip

05-29-2015, 03:00 PM

Thanks for the info, I'll make the Woodsman's Staff a goal and continue to use the Swiftblade. 6K sounds like a long way off (I'm at about 600 now lol), but if the Swiftblade lasts, I won't have to drop much money on anything other than fletching for now.

I've been all over Lesser Faydark trying to track Whimsy Larktwitter for that bow upgrade in the meantime. I still haven't found her. Fortunately camo has made brownie aggro nonexistant

Cecily

05-29-2015, 03:06 PM

http://wiki.project1999.com/Springwood_Stave

The Swiftblade is good till 20. You can probably use it to 30 if you have to. Springwood is a cheap middle ground weapon between Woodsman, so consider getting one of those in the meantime. Dual wielding isn't a good option for rangers till 50+, arguably until epic.

Pipip

05-29-2015, 03:48 PM

Khoram

06-02-2015, 10:23 AM

Pipip

06-02-2015, 10:46 AM

I bought a dented brass mask, some cheap +3 str earrings, a spiked collar, and iksar scaled gloves to deal with the encumbrance issues. Bone armplates are cheap, but you'll take a minor dex hit to wear them.

The biggest thing I found is to use medicine bags instead of backpacks. They're sold in Kaladim and I believe in South Qeynos, so you should have access to them not too far from wherever you started your ranger.

Whirled

06-02-2015, 10:58 AM

http://wiki.project1999.com/Tree_Weave

http://wiki.project1999.com/Fire_Emerald_Platinum_Ring

http://wiki.project1999.com/Dwarven_Work_Boots

http://wiki.project1999.com/Hero_Bracers

All affordable or attainable with STR bonus, hth~

Lartanin63

06-02-2015, 10:10 PM

http://wiki.project1999.com/Category:Ranger_Equipment

Go there. Click on what slot you are looking for. Click the Str tab to pull items with the most strength. Sort through and make a list of what items you want. If you click the link it will show the average price.

The items states above are good for sure.

ghost182

06-02-2015, 11:02 PM

gildor

06-14-2015, 11:56 AM

Jimjam

06-14-2015, 12:13 PM

You can go the other way about it too by picking up cheap low weight gear such as azure sleeves (decent ac item).

Ivy etched armour isn't too hard to quest. Some of that is +str.

When out on adventures for long times try to purchase expensive gems as a way to 'bank' your unwanted gold/silver/copper. Its much more weight efficient.

Donruss

06-15-2015, 10:44 PM

Weight reduction bags are clutch for this as well.
Good ones =
Sewn bag of evil eye
light burlap sack
large soiled bag

Affordable ones = Lionhide backpack. Handmade backpack. Shralok pack.

ctre

06-28-2015, 11:03 PM

Sory for the truth.

Ranger hunting guide..
------------------------
1: Get a group. Or play for 10bazilion years soloing mobs wih your pin sticker.
2: Did I mention get a group?
3: ref .. Point 1.

(x-ranger on live for 9 years, dont ask me to play a ranger again.. EVER!)

Cecily

06-28-2015, 11:32 PM

ezri

06-29-2015, 02:52 AM

Hey this is a really good guide. Can you please post it on the wiki along side
http://wiki.project1999.com/Loraen%27s_Enchanter_Guide

And add a link to it on:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Ranger

Thanks

Jimjam

06-29-2015, 02:59 AM

Weight reduction bags are clutch for this as well.
Good ones =
Sewn bag of evil eye
light burlap sack
large soiled bag

Affordable ones = Lionhide backpack. Handmade backpack. Shralok pack.

Traveller's pack and pouch(?) are both easily attainable and have some WR.

Cecily

06-29-2015, 10:52 AM

SamwiseRed

06-29-2015, 03:01 PM

guide to solo ranger

find a duo partner, preferably one with fear. you'll make more xp and less downtime partnering up with someone then trying to poke something with 500 arrows.

Pipip

06-29-2015, 06:13 PM

I've done some duoing with a necro, and the two classes fit together nicely.

Sometime during velious, rangers get panic animal, and then the solo guide will mainly consist of places to use it.

SamwiseRed

06-29-2015, 06:53 PM

mystang89

06-29-2015, 07:36 PM

webrunner5

06-30-2015, 10:54 AM

I do mostly root rotting with Dots, DD, Arrows till mobs gets down to 60%, then go in as Melee, cast Flame Lick, etc. between swings, and snare mob at like 25%. Mobs on average turn and not hit you at 18% to 16%. So you are only getting hit between 60% and say 18% of mobs health. SO you don't take much of a beating that way. :cool:

Your small heal will bring you back to full health pretty quick, that way you have used very little mana because almost all the spells a Ranger gets are low level Druid spells that are low mana wise cost to cast. :)

Playing a Ranger is a Cat and Mouse thing with a lot of thought put into how to approach and attack mobs. One thing I really like about them is the ability spells wise to do it. They have a Lot more tools than you think to pull it off too. :D

ctre

06-30-2015, 10:08 PM

Should get a fungi, CoF, and Woodsman and give it another go. Pretty fun class if you have the minimum required gear.

You just reduced the ranger soloing time down to 9.9 bazilion years from 10.
Yes .. nice to have Panic animal.. velious will help a lot.

The only sad thing:
### Rangers are able to find and kill mobs well.. However the time it takes to kill them is the pain point.

I play a necro these days, and comparing the mob kill time is much, much faster with a necro, or any other class for that matter.. cept rogs.. as they just suc and cannot solo).
So my point is, Rangers are by far the slowest at soloing.. full stop.

(enjoy your rangers):rolleyes:

Cecily

07-01-2015, 06:47 AM

Jimjam

07-01-2015, 07:08 AM

Dollar

07-01-2015, 12:12 PM

You're talking to someone who soloed a ranger to 60 on P99. Was a nice challenge.

Wait you never grouped for xp?

Roguejm11

07-01-2015, 12:53 PM

Even in Kunark and better come Velious, ranges seem like a great class to solo with.

Snare the mob, dot the mob, shoot it 3-4 times with a 60-80% health, go in and kill it. Repeat a few times, then Camo, sit down and med, repeat.

Cecily

07-01-2015, 01:27 PM

Wait you never grouped for xp?

Never grouped? No. I just soloed the majority of the time. Especially 53+ after my leveling trio hit 60 without me.

Lartanin63

07-01-2015, 04:58 PM

mystang89

07-01-2015, 05:30 PM

It is just another option to the class to atleast make the exp bar move while waiting.

Exactly. It's not that's its best but it's possible and can be fun to do sometimes. Especially when no groups are forming or there aren't many people on.

ctre

07-01-2015, 10:51 PM

Never grouped? No. I just soloed the majority of the time. Especially 53+ after my leveling trio hit 60 without me.

Well, my hat is off to you... Soloed to 60, Ranger is a great thing to have.

BUT.. and this is a big one..
You are NOT a ranger in Velious untill you can solo Trantor, (the true Rangers qualification).
Hold that tusk up proudly as proof. Btw.. it is a decent 2 hand wepon..