Ranger AAs, the guide

[Ladwenae]

Ranger AA's, The discription

This is my suggestion to a viable AA path for the ranger that are starting to work on AAs, or if you cant deside which AAs to get next I hope you can find the info you need to deside what to go for next.
They will be ranked in the order where I find them giving the most gain, but dont think this is the only AA path to take.

AA descriptions:
This is a description of the AAs I deem usefull for a ranger, I will write a priority where I find it usefull, where high is sub 300, middle is 300-600 and low is 600+.

General:
You need 6 AAs spend here as prereq. for most of the next AAs and the two obvious choices are Runspeed 3 and Inate regen 3, none of them will gain you a lot of power but they help still.
Once you gain more AAs you wont regret going back and getting the resist AAs, where on the other hand im pretty sure that most regret if they spend points on inate stats since 90%+ will eventually max thier stats fairly easy in time.
The tradeskill AAs are always worth getting if you enjoy tradeskilling, so get them if you feel like getting more than 1 skill above 200.

Archetype:
More or less everything besides fear resistance is very usefull in this category, but some more than others. You have to spend 12 AA here as prereq. for many of the next AAs.
Healing gift/Healing adept are both really usefull, both if used to increase regen from lifetap procs or when you have to heal. High
Spell casting reinforcement: Extents the duration of our buffs, also works on our Discs ( trueshot/Warders wrath ), and on many clickie items so in general a very valuable AA. High-Middle
Spell casting fury: This is one of my favorite AAs, when maxed it allow us to crit our nukes 100% about 7% of the times, works on both nukes and procs so besides the eyecandy its also a fairly decent DPS gain, good for both the archer and the melee ranger. High
Channeling focus: A low priority AA for most, but you will see a decrease in interupts if you tank often, so even if its not super for us, its not completely useless either. Low
Natural durability: Get it, simple as that, maxed its an increase of 10% hitpoints and works on both sta and worn hps. High
Natural healing: The value of these AAs depends on your playstyle. 12 AAs to max this gains us 3 regen/tick. All regen helps, but the gain/AA is rather low so I rate this one low, perhaps middle if you solo a lot. Middle/low
Fear resistance: The impact of these AAs are rather small and the use for it even smaller. If you are a raider it sometimes have a use, but you can live your ranger life fine without it. Low
Finishing blow: It only kicks in on running mobs and you need to spend many AAs in the FB line to get it up to a level where it is actually usefull for most of us that are working on AAs. Its eyecandy when doing stuff like LDoN but otherwise its rather useless. Low
Combat stability: Increases our mitigation and raises our AC softcap, we get the largest gain from the avoidance line, but the mitigation line is very important as well. High
Combat agility: Increases our avoidance, and since we dont mitigate very well this is where you should consentrate first, before getting the mitigation AAs. High
Mental clerity: 1 manaregen/rank. The first rank is 2 AAs so its cheap for 1mana/tick. Depending on your mana use I would get this maxed rather fast. High/middle
Combat Fury: CRITS!, these AAs works for both archery and melee, adds crits to melee and increases the ammount of crits the more AAs in this line you get. Prereq for all the crit increasing line that ends up with Veterans wrath (increase in crit size). High

Class:
Mass group buff: If you raid I would rate it high, if you dont then dont bother. High/low depending on playstyle. (AE auspice is rather usefull for the raider )
Innate camouflage: This AA will change your life, its the single most usefull AA I have ever gotten, get it as soon as you can, you will never regret it. Also prereq for the DoDH AA Shared camo.
Ambidexterity: A must for every dualwielder. Rating high to low depending on what weapons you use and your playstyle. Its an AA that all will want eventually and for the dual wielder its the best AA/gain of them all in my oppinion. High
Archery Mastery: 3/6/9 final rank doubles your archery dmg. Even for the non archer this is a must have AA line. High
Endless quiver: 9 Get the best arrow in game and never worry about summoning/fletching again. High
Double reposte: If you tank often this AA can be usefull, otherwise low priority.
Body and mind rejuvination: Worth getting if you often run out of mana or solo a lot. High
Physical enhancement: Get it, adds 2%hp + increase the benifit from Combat stability and Combat agility.

Planes of power Advanced:
Planar power: Allows stats to increase with 5/rank above current cap. The gain isnt that much from increased AAs since stats like stamina looses in power above 255. Get it as you reach the stat cap. middle to low.
Resist AAs: If you are a raider they are very usefull, otherwise I would rate them low. Middle/low depending on playstyle.
Stat AAs: Completely useless imo, get them just before you are max AA.

Planes of power Abilities:
Advanced Healing adept: further increase in healing power, need the prereq healing gift. Good AAs. High
Advanced healing gift: More crit heals, prereq. healing adept. High
Coup de grace: more finishing blows, prereq. finishing blow. low
Lightning reflexes: more avoidance, prereq combat agility. high
Innate defense: more mitigation, prereq. combat stability. high
Flash of steel: Increase in chance of a double reposte, prereq Double reposte. low
Guardian of the forrest: Overhaste and attack boost for 1 minute. Nice AA and prereq for Guardian of the glade which adds a heal over time component to it. High/middle.
Ferocity: This is the first AAs in this line. They increase the chance of a double attack, and since we got inate triple attack this AA line have become even better since every double attack increases the chance of a triple attack. Doesnt work on archery. High
Punishing blade: Increase the ammount of double attacks with 2 hand weapons. If you are a 2h fan this is usefull, otherwise skip them until you get a good 2h weapon you will use for a while. low
Headshot: FUN!. This AA is fun, but only usefull in rare situations unless you are in the Nurga sweetspot where it is very good to sologrind some AAs. Rating it middle but might change that if the DoDH upgrade yields some new headshottable sweetspots for the level 70 rangers. Middle
Entrap: This is a mana free ensnare. Before DoN I would say that this is a must have AA, but the significance of it have decreased since we got the new snares with resist mods on them. Its only 5 AAs tho, and saves a spell gem if its low resist mobs. Also low agro on it compared to ensnare and the DoN snares which is usefull often as well.
Fury of the ages: Mind candy since it increases the amount of critical hits, but also a DPS increase and prereq for Vet. Wrath. High

Gates of discord Abilities:
Swift journey: increase to run speed 3, rank 2 is similar to SoW, but unless you are living in a dungeon and cant cast SoW I wouldnt bother with it. low
Convalescence: Regen increase. high cost for 2 more hp/tick, so save it till late. Low
Lasting breath: Usefull if you dont have a EB item, but I rate it very low. Prereq. to Eternal breath.
Packrat: get it after Inate int.
Weapon affinity: This AA is the AA to get from GoD. The 5 ranks adds a 50% higher proc rate to any proc your weapons might have. Today with most weapons having a proc allready and additional procs from augments it really matters. Increased proc rate have the most impact when you still have "quite" low dps weapons, on a weapon like 1.5 2 good procs like those bought in DoN add quite a high% of the dps, where on 2.0 the impact of proc dps is less since the ratio is far better.High
Sinister strikes: This is a real kicker as well. Adds a DMG bonus to your off hand, so an absolute must for every dual wielder. High
Precision of the pathfinder: Increases you accuracy , Also a must have AA. High/medium
Coat of Thistles: I like it. If you spend a lot of time tanking this is deffinately some usefull AA. Total add to DS is 15, only works when u have spell DS on, which is convinient if you cant have DS on.
Flaming arrows: They dont add a lot of DPS, cost mana while beeing used (10/tick). Last of all!!
Frost arrow: see above. Second to last.
Strengthened Strike: My Parses show this to be a 1DPS upgrade if you hit kick every time it pops. Very low.

Omens of War Abilities:
Eternal Breath: Permanent enduring breath, nice but only with small use and we have the spell if it goes all wrong. Low
Tradeskill Mastery + Salvage: Again, if you like tradeskills these AAs might be for you. Low
Origin: A must if you dont have a Tolans BP, and even if you do it comes in handy for a weaponshield evac now and then :p. individual
Chaotic potential: Stat cap increase, only usefull if your stats are capped, and even then the impact is rather small.
Chaotic defiance: A must for the highend raider, otherwise completely useless. Individual
Mystical Attuning: 1 buff slot/rank. A must have for every ranger and super nice if you often have access to nice buffs. High/medium
Delay Death: 50hp/rank, its fun when you survive it, but doesnt make or break the day usually. low
Healthy Aura: 1 extra hp regen/tick. Low
Veteran's Wrath: Two words: Get it!. Increases the dmg our criticals give with melee. A very good AA which gives a significant DPS boost. High
Deathblow: more finishing blows, vs level 65 mobs maxed. Low
Reflexive Mastery: More Avoidance, another good AA. High
Deffensive Mastery: Mitigation again. High
Mnemonic Retention: 3AA for a 9th spellgem is a bargain, high because of the decent cost.
Expansive Mind: Increases FT cap with 1/rank. I like FT, but unless you actually have worn manaregeneration above 15 there is no need to spend points here. Individual
Healing Adept Mastery: So far the last AAs we get to increase the size of our heals. 125 lifetap is 160hp/healed with this. Sylvan water heals 1491. High/middle
Healing Gift Mastery: More critical heals, with this maxed ~20% of heals will crit, usefull with both lifetap procs and heals. Middle
Slippery Attacks: Super if you are tanking a lot and prefer to dual wield. If you have this you more or less neglect the difference from tanking with 2h or dual wield and can go for your best DPS setup. Individual
Fury of Magic: More nuke crits. The increase here is significant in regards to eyecandy and increase both proc and nuke DPS. Middle
Shielding resistance: Decreases the amount of damage your offhand takes from a Damage shield. The use for this AA is so small that its neglegtible. very low
Nature's bounty: Double forage!. Usefull for a tradeskiller and the cost of 6 AAs to increase forage yeild with 50% is kinda cheap. I like it, many dont. Individual
Scout's Efficiency: Be Accurate!. Increases the accuracy of melee. A must get AA for every melee.
Guardian of the Glade: Upgrade to GotF, higher v3 haste, higher attack and a 250/tick heal over time when maxed. I like it, even tho it removes shrink and unfortunately doesnt remove wolfform like it used too. The HoT isnt that huge but everything helps. High/middle
Tracking Mastery: Increase track skill cap by 20/rank. Increasing track to 300 takes very long time, and doesnt really add a lot of distance. Low
Auspice of the Hunter: MGBable group buff that last 42 sec if you have maxed SCR. After it was upped its become quite decent, so a must have AA for the raider. Individual

Depth of Darkhollow Abilities:
Innate See Invis: Since we have several buffs that have a see invis component like Eagle Eye and Spirit of Eagle I deem this AA rather unnesesary for us, comes in handy if you dont have a SI item tho. Low
Prolonged Mortality: increase the cap you can go below 0hp to -500 without dying. Low
Precognition: More avoidance
Thick Skin: More Mitigation
Bandage Wounds: Yeah like its something we would ever use >.<
Shared Camouflage: Super AA, the 1 AA rangers will hug as the thing from DoDH when looking back. High
Wicked Blade: Higher chance of an extra hit with 2h weapons. Only valuable if you use 2h weapons. Individual
Enhanced Aggresion: Increase in worn Attack cap. The gain from attack above 2k is very small, and even smaller the higher it gets. Very low
Improved Headshot: Head shot now works up to level 55 Mobs at rank 3. Can be usefull if we find a sweetspot for it like Nurga was @ level 62
Trick shot: Double attack for the archer. If you are using archery as your primary DPS and will continue with that for a while this is a decent skill to increase, otherwise its not really that usefull. Seems to work on the 68 DoDH spell hail of Arrows as well, so if you have this spell it will increase the DPS from that a bit as well. Low
Lightning Strikes: Flurry!, this adds the ability to flurry. Besides the fun of seeing the yellow text with Flurry quite often its also a fairly decent DPS upgrade. High
Relentless Assault: More double attacks, A very good AA. High

Below I will List the AAs in the category's Archery AAs, Melee AAs, Raid AAs and Playstyle AAs.
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[Ladwenae]

The Archer
AA's that affect Archery, or enhance it

The Archer will want to maximize his Archery DPS first of all, because as an archer it should be fairly easy to survive.

A viable AA path would be:

Run 3
Regen 3
Combat Fury 3 (could be ND3 as well if you crave HP more )
Endless quiver
AM3
Innate Camo.
Headshot if you plan on doing Nurga or use it for farming.
At this time no where resempling nurga have been found to Improved HS 3, but it is usefull a few places, and super fun to use with HoA.

This is basicly all that is needed, from this point the DPS wont really increase a lot, but the next AAs do help a little.

Spell casting Fury 3, gotta love 100% crit increase on nukes.
Fury of the Ages. More Crits with Bow and melee.
Fury of Magic, more crit nukes.
Spell casting reenforcement 3, extent your buffs and Discs with 30% (dont work on epic click, potions and GotG now )


I have intentionally left Trick shot out here, because the above AAs is usefull if you are going to change to Melee when you weapons get better.
Trickshot, its ~6% more arrows shot at lvl 3, so around 6% DPS upgrade as well. A 6% DPS increase for a cost of 18AAs are usually pretty decent, but in this case I will only recomend it if you stick with archery for a long time, or if you have a high ammount of AAs and still use bow occasionally.


A few more AAs like Gotf/gotg for overhaste boost and perhaps Auspice are ok, but basicly the above would be sufficient if archery is what its about for you.

After these AAs its time to play with defensive and utility AAs like entrap/heal/group invis.
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[Ladwenae]

The Melee
AA's that affect Melee, or enhance it

When starting on Melee AAs its advisable to make a choice initially of which weapon style you want to enhance first.
Obviously Dual wield will be the choice for most, but if you land a nice 2h weapon that are several ties above your dualwield options you can probably gain more from the 2h AAs.

Its possible to postpone this choice by taking the general AAs like VW and the accuracy line first.

General Melee AAs
I would do the Crit line first, ending with Veterans Wrath that increase the size if you crits, its a decent increase in DPS, but its also eyecandy which to many of us is = fun. ( all these except VW affects archery as well, so most will allready have them if they have been archers like many who will use this guide have.)
Next I would take the Ferocity line, its simply the best line in regards to increasing melee DPS.
Weapon Affinity is a 50% increase in weapon procs, so depending on you setup these AAs can be very valuable, and they are usefull for us all.
Lightning Strikes is a must have also. You unleash a Flurry of attacks
Accuracy line is also fairly decent, but wait with them until you have essentials like Ambidex/sinister or the extra attack AAs for 2h.
Dual wield
Ambidex is a must, it increases dual wield chance by a lot, so off hand actually starts landing.
Next is Sinister strikes, it adds a dmg bonus to offhand, typically 7 or 8 but it depends on the ratio of the offhand weapon. This is really significant.

2 hander
Punishing blade line is the must have especially since now have inate triple attack and the option of flurry so any increase in possible swings/round really adds up.

Stuff like finishing blow line is just a toy, the only place where it really matters that I have seen is on named WW dragons when they are running!
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[Ladwenae]

Utility
We might not be the best, but there is ways to improve
Runspeed
Get at least run 3 fast, and run 5 is good to get as well.
Heal AAs
Heal AAs both enhance our heals and lifetaps, I simply cant press enough how much they help even with our rather small heals, something to get sooner rather than later for all playstyles.
Buff extension
Spell casting reinforcement only cost 12 AA total and besides extending our buffs with 30% they also increase many clicks and perhaps most importantly our /discs as well, They are better than most think and often neglected.
Regen/Manaregen
These AAs doesnt add much seen as singles, but when you have enough of them they really start to make an impact. Especially Mental clerity + Body and mind rejuvination is important, and far more so since our nukes and heals are worth using so mana regen is actually an issue, they are rather cheap as well.
Entrap
Until DoN release I would have put this just after camo in importance, but since we got the chromatic snare and due to mob resists I find that I rarely use it now. Its still usefull but just far less than what it was.
Camo
The addition of shared camo makes this line even more important. Prior to SC I rated Innate camo as our best AA, its only the second best now due to the fact that a group version is better
Tanking
Natural durability should be first, and is most likely one of the first you should get.
Avoidance and Mitigation AA lines are very important for the tanking ranger. You can take it as a guideline that if you want to tank in PoP you need the PoP Defensive AAs before it gets doable, and if you want to tank DoDh you will need up to those. They are quite expensive and your gear needs to be able to be up to the task as well, but if you dont have these AAs even the best gear will never make you a viable tank in xp groups.
Slippery attack and reposte AAs are ok, but they should be low priority until you have other more important AAs.
Delay Death is a lifesaver and the fun factor when it kicks in is great, so dont totally discard it even tho its far from essential.
Spell casting
Channeling focus is decent if you tank often.
I allready mentioned nuke crit AAs above, but get them they are fun and actually adds up.
See invis / EB
High cost to get innate Faerune, but if you dont have access to these im fairly certain that you will love them when you get them. We dont exactly have a high need for see invis since both Eagle Eye and Spirit of eagle have see invis.
Resist / stats
The stat and resist cap AAs are decent, if you are a raider they are essential as well, but wait until you have the basics done.
I would never ever spend points on stats until there is nothing left to buy. Getting stats to 255 is easy with todays gear, and above that the gain gets really small.
Resists are usefull, but its possible to get decent resists these days and the DoN augments is most likely a far better option if they need a boost. They should be low priority, but dont discard them completely and if you are particularly weak in one type of resists its a mean to raise it. If you raid a lot they are more important.
And the Fluff!
Innate metabolism might be an idea, its only 3 AA total to save 50% of the food consumption.
First aid and bind wounds AAs are utterly useless for us.
The rest is either forgotten at this time or not worth mentioning.

Feel free to post comments and suggestions below. This is merely meant as a tool to help you deside what to focus on, and since we are a hybrid and can be played in many ways your options and ideas might be just as valid as what I have posted here.
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[Nendiilya]

Note I will probably be adding this information to an independent page linked from the main page to enhance accessibility (and add some spice!) when I find the time.
_________________
Bythos
Centurion of Cestus Dei
Asmodean, Lumiel Server (Aion)

Nendiilya the Voyager
Officer of Cestus Dei, Veeshan (retired 2007)

[Whirley]

Could I ask where the GoD aa Precision of the Pathfinder rates in our aas?

Very nice post btw
_________________
Whirley Blades
Raging Fury - Antonius Bayle

[Ladwenae]

[Whirley]

Thanks I was wondering as I am doing bow dps atm..But want to keep my aas as open as possible to swap over to melee easier later on
_________________
Whirley Blades
Raging Fury - Antonius Bayle

[Ladwenae]

Sorry whirley, but I didnt make it clear, and just to be sure you didnt misunderstand me.
That AA only works on melee accuracy.
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[albeishere]

Is there any way to get this wonderful information in a Spreadsheet? I hade one for the PoP AAs from some where dont really remember but it helped me to sort out and higlight my daily/weekly AA goals and decied what to go for next. I would print it out and post it next to the monitor ensureing I was focused on the goal at hand.

Thanks for the great post!

Poiu

[Ladwenae]

I wrote it directly here because I had lots of issues with how to make it have a decent look with bold letters and such. So I dont have it on a spreadsheet sorry.
_________________
Ladwenae - rangering again!

[Tnexus]

Just wanna add that with SCR3 Weaponshield can be extended to 30 seconds. It may not sound like much, but for those times when Origin is down and you're out of gate potions, it's just long enough to get a Tolans BP cast off without getting smacked around.

If you're a regular spammer of HoA it's also worth getting because it adds 40 more seconds to Trueshot. I didn't get this AA for the longest time because I didn't know it affected discs, but now that I have it, I have to say it's one of the best AAs we get.
_________________
Tnexus Fyrewolf
Prexus Server

[Xodar]

Another small addition, I did not buy shielding resistance before 900 AA, but with some mobs in DoD having ridiculous damage shields and mark not fully overwriting them I have not been unhappy with the purchase. Probably best to tag with dispell, but if that's not an option it is a decent AA to have.

I wish I had bought Slippery Attacks earlier, the reduction of damage spikes while frontal or OT'ing is big enough to eyeball.
_________________
Plainswalker Xodar
officer <Bhur Gcairde>
Tribunal server

[Barnard]

Seems to be missing Persistent Casting from the list in Gates of Discord. Seems less useful to a Ranger than other classes but might have some decent use such as self healing while tanking or help getting Origin or other such ports off while getting beat on. High cost for such a percentage though.

[Tarragon]