Any tips for weapons for ranger

[Johnnie Walker]

Feeling to weak on hardest/inferno
usually running shotgun plus something else.
Having trouble with bosses and pylon(as in to slow to kill)
online mode

[iAmTurok]

super acid gun. Still as op as in EDF 4. And it has ridiculous range when maxed, so good choice for anchors.
Stampede XM. Perfect for crowd control or bosses.
For example, against Archelus only, I would equip either Stampede XM/ D110 Breacher, or Super acid gun/D110 Breacher.
If he gets close, use D110, in the paw at point blank range if possible.

[Sabaithal]

Cascade was a nice rocket launcher on "hard", the second version anyway. 30 round rapid fire rocket launcher basically. Not the best (or worst) reload speed, but pretty good burst damage capability.

And for some levels (flying frog spam) assault rifles might actually be better than shotguns. Shotguns excel at dealing with heavy close range stuff (like red ants) but against numerous weak enemies (spiders and frogs) ARs might be a better choice.

[Johnnie Walker]

thx for the tips, he feels so rigid on hardest and above. Maybe dlc weps changes it

[Capt. Destro]

Emerald is a really nice launcher at higher levels. Even single rockets fire and reload pretty fast. You don't even need the radar upgrade at that point. I usually use it over rocket launchers.

[DownwithEA]

I find myself trying to crowd control or cover other players as ranger in higher difficulties. My bread & butter are high magazine fast reloading assault rifles. Bonus if it penetrates even if it means less damage. Slaughter shotguns have great range & power. I strongly favor them for my play style. I haven't used a rocket launcher in ages. Homing is my choice of booms usually emeralds. The firecracker grenades under special weapons is high risk/reward. You can push around giant spiders all day but god help you if one ant body flies your way.

I was annoyed at first with the ranger on higher difficulties but now I like the challenge. I've had more fun intense battles with him. Try joining a rangers only room & see how they play. The groups are quite friendly & will probably happily give tips if asked.

[Zephyr]

Cascade is not efficient, there are way better options. Cascade is the kind of thing you use if you somehow rolled very bad sniper rifles and have no other choice.

Shtogun is a sure value. Be it monsoon or slaughter, usually it gets the job done. Breacher for big targets/bosses/silvers.

Super Acid Gun, as mentioned, remains fantastic with the right upgrades. You need a lot of range to make it good, but when it gets there, you can arc your acid really far and snipe pylons from a ridiculous distance. The DPS put all the assault rifles to shame, making it the go to option.

An other weapon which is deceptively good: The high level firecrackers. Those things are hand sized carpet bombing on demand. They absolutely melt groups, and as a bonus a big target like a zilla will also be in a world of hurt if you throw firecrackers on them. The firecrackers put even the stampedes to shame, because you have unlimited projectiles you can fire pretty much back to back with NO RELOAD.

Situational: C4, or all of their variants. They do an ungodly amount of damage and setting up C4 traps can be a great openers to fights.

Emerald + radar: Sometimes, you need to take out groups of flyers, and that's your go to option. Good target acquisition range, not great but acceptable damage, and easily spammable.

Reverser: When all you need is a shotgun to deal with everything, taking an on demand heal that can blow enemies around you away while also healing NPCs is a very good thing. Limited charges, but is often the part of many Rangers' loadout.

Bike: For when you need to kite, or be on the move, and sprinting just won't cut it. Your best mobility option to keep yourself safe and alive.

[Goblin King Jareth]

I found I was at my best at low levels with the repeating sniper, some levels like the walking outpost with all the snipe targets a ranger is invaluable for. I got good enough with the repeating sniper that I could do whole missions with it alone, though I started out with shotgun and emerald missile launcher for backup.

Later this progressed to some of the later model assault rifles, which hit hard enough to make the repeating sniper superfluous (and it's slow damage). Ultimately this means the Blazer.

The ranger's other best tactic than a spammy long range hard hitting weapon is reverser X series. The reason why is in MP it is the greatest healing weapon to save a teammate with in the game BUT ALSO you can stand next to a wall, and fire it at yourself. Now you are a ranger with 5-9 extra lives and as long as your main weapon is pretty universal, say blazer, auto sniper, or one of the better assault rifles now you are a force to be reckoned with. This makes you nigh unkillable even on inferno.

The best harness/vehicle is just the one that lets you shrug off explosions that might slow you otherwise when you are running. There are niche applications for helicopter and maybe bike on some levels but I never found them truly necessary against foot combat.

I'll put a word in for the firecracker series of grenades, that look like a bunch of nickels when thrown and go off like confetti. They are actually big damage if you can learn to land all of them and have some applications against cosmonauts to blow off limbs quickly, zero ammo, zero reload times too.

[Zephyr]

You don't need to be next to a wall to use the Reverser that way, you can do that with just the floor :p . The best part is while walls can be scarce at times, the floor is litterally everywhere. Also allows you to better determine the zone of the healing, and if you shoot at your feet, as I mentioned, with some reverses it sends enemies around you flying giving you precious breathing room.

[BluntProfile]

- shotguns aside, Super Acid Gun (as someone mentioned here) is a rly solid choice for ur main dps weapon.

- Someone here mentioned avoiding Cascade. I'd say just avoid rocket launchers in general aside from maybe cave missions. They just lack the firepower to actually kill anything fast enough. I find Emerald missiles+radar support to be a lot more effective if u want long range mob bombardment or CC.

- Grenade launchers are okay, barely passable. Not the best not the worst. Experiment however u wish.
Stay away from Stampede though if you're in online sessions. I know I'm gonna get a lot of disagreement saying this, but the Stampedes are the true definition of "all show and no go".
They LOOK impressive when it's fired, and on paper, it deals insane amount of burst dmg. The real problem is that the accuracy is ass, takes pretty long to reload, and slow shot speed. You essentially have a weapon that fails at pretty much everything it's supposed to be doing.
Damage? With a maxed out accuracy of D, it's a damn miracle if you can land half of your shots longer than 100m range. What's even worse is that even if you DO manage to land all 30 shots w/ ur a fully maxed Stampede, you still end up doing less total DPS than simply emptying an entire clip of Super Acid Gun. Crowd control? Missile launchers/Firecrackers exists. Close Quarters? Shotguns exists.

- Here's another personal opinion that a lot of ppl may find controversial, but unless you are able to use the lv.82 Hybrid Protector, or the Lv.60 Explosion proof suit, you should generally look at getting Epsilons (or Radar support if you're using missiles) instead.
main reasons for choosing tanks over speed enhancements: Tanks themselves can drive pretty fast. They can also double as a portable wall to block attacks. and if things get too dicey, there's always the option to just hop in and run. Forget about snipers, Epsi railgun shots can pierce, deals incredibly high dmg, and has absurd range.

- the highest level Firecrackers works wonderfully in cave missions as it has a nice comfortable spread that makes it relatively safe to use.

- Reverser X/Reverse Shooter are most commonly used healing equipment. If you want to heal yourself w/ Reverser X, simply point straight down at the ground and fire.

[Johnnie Walker]

thanks for the reply. After i finish ER dlc ill come back to finish the ranger run. Are any of the dlc weps worth it?(not talking about dlc missions pack)

[BluntProfile]

Originally posted by Johnnie Walker:

thanks for the reply. After i finish ER dlc ill come back to finish the ranger run. Are any of the dlc weps worth it?(not talking about dlc missions pack)

Thing is, some of Ranger's best DLC weapons requires certain mission packs.

That being said, DLC2 overall gave Rangers the better glow-up as it gives you the Blazer in the assault rifle category, and Fracture in the shotgun category.

One thing I will note though, is that even tho Blazer has one of, if not the best assault rifles Ranger has, you ideally don't want to use it until the reload stats are at least maxed out, followed by damage. Blazer is one of those weapons that only truly shines when you fully upgrade it, or close to; but once you do, you will be able to wield what is essentially the equivalent Ranger's Swiss army knife.

Fracture shotgun is self-explanatory: you do even more dmg than Slaughter. Tho I do have to say, Fracture has longer reload time than Slaughter but better rate of fire, so keep this in mind