Got abit bored with my 4/2 Infil so i will be making a ranger on the side for ****** n giggles.

Just wondering whats the best melee spec for level 50 and how i should be speccing as i level up and also what is the best race to aim for ?

Thanks in advance

best races are keen and shar

keen: more bow damage / more melee dmg, less hps. You still do nice bow dmg even if you go full melee, so its something you might wanna consider as well. With high level in mos (4+) you ll be able to see stralthers from far away, and might be able to sneak a couple arrows shot before engaging melee, and also you can use your bow as starter for any visible target as well. Also as a keen, u ll be less visibile (if you start firing arrows from far away or on the top of a keep/wall). If you will want to respec sniper spec, keen is the best race to have.

Shar: more hps / less melee dmg. With Phisical Defence Ra (a must for a ranger) you r gona maximize your hps (More Absorb with more hps works better). You melee dmg is gona be less then a keen, but just slightly, (50+60 = 110, 40+80 = 120) you wont even notice any difference, the thing will affect the most your DPs is probably quickness, 50 vs 80.

I would say Shar is better for a melee ranger in terms of pure stats, if you dont consider being small and sneaky an advantage. 80 con vs 40 is a huge deal.

The spec is either:

44Thrust, 48 buff, 36 stealth, rest CD (you have red buffs and use Thrust styles)

36ish~ thrust, 36 Stealth, 40 buff, rest CD (yellow buffs, you use CD styles)

i believe the second one (CD) is slightly better

Thanks for the advice, but wouldnt celt weaponskill be similar to keen as pierce ? both have 120 composite str/dex

I would go:

40 Pathfinding
35 Stealth
38 Piercing
39 Celtic Dual

You can change the last 3 as you want.
You want higher Stealth go 36 Stealth 37 Piercing 39 Celtic Dual

If you want the Piercing Chain from diamondback go: 35 Stealth 39 Piercing 37 CD or with higher Stealth 36 Stealth 39 Piercing 37 CD

Yeah, they will have same WS.
Celt would be something in the middle between Shar and Keen.
Less hp then a Shar more then a Keen, less Dps then a keen (due to less quickness), more then a shar.

They are all 3 viables races, just go with the one you like the most

I rolled celt on mine, although hybrid spec. And even with pierce - can't live w/o diamndback- I do surprisingly well. Hit them with evade stun and follow it up with cd evade chain I can do some hurt, even though slash has better resists.

If I remember correct the followup to diamondback is 44, which seems to high, having t lower cd and pf. If I can suggest. . .

42pf
39cd
36pierce or blade
35stealth

...gives you better af buff and higher cd than weapon (cd styles better than anything in pierce). If you like can lower pierce down to 34 and up cd or stealth a couple more ticks.

. . .just my opinion, open to debate. PLENTY of rangers here to get multiple pov from.

I have a 50 inf as i stated so i fought some good ranger sin thidranki the weke i made 200k there, im gonna aim for 36 ste in 1st spec and 18+cd and hopefully enough pierc for stun style

testytesty1234 wrote:cd styles better than anything in pierce

The 3 style anytime pierce combo is superior then the 2 style anytime CD chain in both average growth rate and bonus to hit, and even defensive bonus if i recall correct.

The only problem is that of the 3, the one which is really good on the pierce combo is the 3rd, so you get dps advantage from the Pierce styles only if you r able to land the whole 3 style combo, when on CD you just have a 2 style chain which is relatively easier to accomplish.

testytesty1234 wrote:If I remember correct the followup to diamondback is 44, which seems to high, having t lower cd and pf

You do remember correct, and that style is not a huge deal anyway, the growth rate is similar to diamondback and once you stun a target you dont really need a follow up, you can keep spamming diamondback style as long as he is stunned. The way it is gona come useful would be after you evade a blow on a target which is immune to stun (already stunned). In that case you will be able to execute 2 high growth rate styles rather then one.

Having 44 Pierce might seem like a waste of points but you can still have 48 PF and get all red buff (but str) and something like 16 points in CD. With 44 pierce (vs anything lower) you r gona increase your ws a lil, and increase your pierce styles bonus damage

Specing high pierce/blades in combination with CD on a ranger is a total waste as WS dosnt do a thing on Uthgard. It does raise ur average damage abit when using CD styles but in my tests it was 2 points in average dmg for 5 lvls more (i compared 27 against 32 in pierce only using cd styles).

So theres only 2 viable weapon specs imo
1. 50 CD and around 28 in pierce/blades, this spec gives u max dmg for low cost in points and gives u awsum styles in CD line. This spec only use CD styles (except db in pierce) and is the most common spec for a full melee ranger. Many rangers also spec both pierce and blades and lowering pf, this gives advantage as u can choose from 2 dmg types. Blades is generally good vs other stealthers and pierce against visibles.

2. 44/39 pierce and low CD (10-18) This is best for snipers hybrids that rely on bow dmg mostly. Only use Pierce styles and kite with bow as much as possible.

this thread made me quit my ranger delete him and burn him at the stake while i watched from afar on my VW