Made The Mistake Of Going Ranger

[Lust]

Hitting a mid game brick wall on my solo archer playthrough & my property is full of shrubs to fund the never ending need for underwhelming arrows!

What is the best class for solo play ?

[LoveTruffle]

I never regretted maining archery. Get a good bow, keep up with on level arrows, pump your dex up. Some arrows have bad damage types for specific enemies, but for the most part it's been a good way to clear enemies at long to medium range. I usually switch to melee when enemies are in close combat to change things up, but not because bows have felt lacking.

[DigginTiger]

I use SHROUD arrows against those marauders npcs and it's Extremely strong.
I have a warrior build and they melt nontheless.
They are not cheap to make but not that expensive either. Give it a try they will surely not disapoint you. Have fun !

[oh016]

I am solo ranger with some investments into melee and magic because sometimes closer encounters are unavoidable, especially in tombs and other tight spaces.
Now I am close to finishing the game.

I ran into the twig issue during mid-game and solved it by picking up each bush that happened to stand in my way. Since I like running around exploring every hidden corner of the map that sufficed for the time being, and as a side effect I never ran out of fiber. I also conceded to using the wand for some kinds of weaker enemies since arrows would simply be wasted on them.
But the devs should definitely adress the matter (perhaps the possibility to split logs?), especially as bushes in the mid-game biomes are not very abundant.
Later there was no problem to aquire enough twigs, though it still needed awareness of places to get them.

Concerning the arrowtips- I did not have problems using weaker ones for "everyday" situations and keeping those that were more expensive to craft for special situations like boss fights. I like a sniper like game-play when it is possible, and I need neither marker nor zoom to bring off very long distance shots, thus I often get the bonus damage for sneaky attacks. Though nearing the game-end I am still using fossile bone tips most of the time and not the expensive bronze or iron ones and before that I used cheap flint-stone.

To switch to flint stone was important, thus as ranger it is essential to get the hunter NPC as soon as possible.

The devs carefully designed many combat locations not only for tanks amd powerful mages but also with long ranged combat in mind - for this effort they get a big thumbs up from me, Also you do not have to work as a sniper - at most places there are ample options, to jump to different platforms, you can aim and shoot while in mid-air - all supporting ranger style gameplay (some reviewers even were of the opinion that it is overpowered).

The big difference is: When properly levelled up a tank just walks in and slays everything, a mage just loosens powerful destructive spells, but as a ranger you are set for a tactial game-play till the end and you have to be aware of the locations and their settings at every moment, realizing opportunities to strike - which I find challenging and refreshing.

Personally I do not advise using a whole ranger armor set - it might be too weak when you have to engage in melee with very strong enemies, which is unavoidable (and also fun for a change). And if you are a skilled bowman you do not need all the bonuses of the ranger armors anyways.
You can mix all armors to your liking and combine them for the best stats for your personal style of game-play. I just arrived at the stage to craft level 23 and still use level 18 armor (BTW you can find 23 level armor in chests at that stage of the game but I did not find ones with the bonuses I want).
I use tank chest, mage gloves, the rest in ranger :-)

And I am very happy that I did not join the community of mostly mages and also tanks you see on the majority of screenshots, which I had considered doing when I ran into the twig bottle-neck - because I had such great and not everyday combat experiences and such a different and intense view of many locations while playing as a ranger.

But if someone on the ranger path is unhappy with his choice I do think mage is the better option as it also offers some ranged combat (at least until fully powered).

[Lust]

Originally posted by oh016:

I am solo ranger with some investments into melee and magic because sometimes closer encounters are unavoidable, especially in tombs and other tight spaces.
Now I am close to finishing the game.

I ran into the twig issue during mid-game and solved it by picking up each bush that happened to stand in my way. Since I like running around exploring every hidden corner of the map that sufficed for the time being, and as a side effect I never ran out of fiber. I also conceded to using the wand for some kinds of weaker enemies since arrows would simply be wasted on them.
But the devs should definitely adress the matter (perhaps the possibility to split logs?), especially as bushes in the mid-game biomes are not very abundant.
Later there was no problem to aquire enough twigs, though it still needed awareness of places to get them.

Concerning the arrowtips- I did not have problems using weaker ones for "everyday" situations and keeping those that were more expensive to craft for special situations like boss fights. I like a sniper like game-play when it is possible, and I need neither marker nor zoom to bring off very long distance shots, thus I often get the bonus damage for sneaky attacks. Though nearing the game-end I am still using fossile bone tips most of the time and not the expensive bronze or iron ones and before that I used cheap flint-stone.

To switch to flint stone was important, thus as ranger it is essential to get the hunter NPC as soon as possible.

The devs carefully designed many combat locations not only for tanks amd powerful mages but also with long ranged combat in mind - for this effort they get a big thumbs up from me, Also you do not have to work as a sniper - at most places there are ample options, to jump to different platforms, you can aim and shoot while in mid-air - all supporting ranger style gameplay (some reviewers even were of the opinion that it is overpowered).

The big difference is: When properly levelled up a tank just walks in and slays everything, a mage just loosens powerful destructive spells, but as a ranger you are set for a tactial game-play till the end and you have to be aware of the locations and their settings at every moment, realizing opportunities to strike - which I find challenging and refreshing.

Personally I do not advise using a whole ranger armor set - it might be too weak when you have to engage in melee with very strong enemies, which is unavoidable (and also fun for a change). And if you are a skilled bowman you do not need all the bonuses of the ranger armors anyways.
You can mix all armors to your liking and combine them for the best stats for your personal style of game-play. I just arrived at the stage to craft level 23 and still use level 18 armor (BTW you can find 23 level armor in chests at that stage of the game but I did not find ones with the bonuses I want).
I use tank chest, mage gloves, the rest in ranger :-)

And I am very happy that I did not join the community of mostly mages and also tanks you see on the majority of screenshots, which I had considered doing when I ran into the twig bottle-neck - because I had such great and not everyday combat experiences and such a different and intense view of many locations while playing as a ranger.

But if someone on the ranger path is unhappy with his choice I do think mage is the better option as it also offers some ranged combat (at least until fully powered).

Thanks for your long reply! I agree about the tactical game-play of a Ranger - particularly when playing solo, obviously.

I did briefly restat to Mage after this post but it doesn't suit my playstyle, so I will stick to Ranger with flint arrows at this point.

[Skywalker]

Ranger is fine ... high dps ... damage from far far away (if you want to exploit, there is nearly always a higer place where you can shoot and the enemies won't catch you) ... very dynamic playstyle ... yes, only downside is arrow crafting, this reduce the fun to play (and shouldn't a game bring primarily fun?) drastically and is just an annoying grind ...