Ranger is so Overpowered with bow

[wefuntw]

Ranger is so Overpowered with bow, after lv 20 or so he gets bow grandmaster, fire 2 arrows, each do about 200 damage = 400 total damage! when in melee using point blank shot, 400 AOE damage for EACH enemy! (more if gets critical) , plus the Mageslayer relic bow convert damage into mana, the ranger's mana pool is always full.

when lv 30, the bow does about 500 damage to each enemy at range 7. It's simply insane. Especially effective in endgame areas, most enemies are ranged mages, they don't block and has low defense. , I think it is OP.

I've compared with melee class in endgame areas, they suck. Melee fighters either need to charge into enemy mages, or to hide in corner and wait the mages approach. No such trouble with rangers! enemy mages were slaughtered outright.

It's so strange why many posts mentioned ranger's bow sucks. I need give ranger some credit.

[Magnum P.I.]

You're making me want to try a 4x Ranger party!

I recently started playing this game again and I'm trying a funny build.

4x melee shamans with earth magic supporting them. It's hella fun!

[Magnum P.I.]

I just have a question, wefun, to my knowledge Bow Mastery is not available until you get inside Karthal.
How do you deal with the game before that? You just keep Bow at expert?

[wefuntw]

Hi Magnum , Yes, bow stay expert before karthal, but dagger master is in Crag, which is also important for rangers. I have not run a pure ranger party before, should be challenging. I have used scout + ranger + ranger + freemage though. Usually freemage use air magic "eagle eye" to enhance ranged power!, and some fire magic to deal with the armored human enemies. The scout have dual axe expert+ master crossbow after seaheaven. Actually before Karthal, the scout is the main ranged dealer in this party. But after Karthal, ranger become the main ranged damage dealer. Without strong air magic support, ranged weapon could not reach its full potential.

[Deo]

ranger is disappointment here
-50% damage in melee is a joke, where 99% of battles = melee
you walking half of the game with bow at expert level, doing literally 0 damage
well, on higher difficulty it just dont work
i had to take daggers/dualwield skill at some point which is now deal highest dmg in party

[wefuntw]

of course it's joke in melee if you don't get rangers mastered in dagger ! ranger do very well with melee with their daggers, but after lv 20 the bow power exceed dagger in melee with point blank shot.and bow grandmaster.

[mpnorman10]

I personally found the Scout's Crossbow just as powerful as the Ranger's bow (both GM), but I have not done a head to head comparison of the two like you apparently have.

This is a good catch that a range-based party is so powerful in this game. This is a great game to go for a range party. Normally such parties/focus are a bit tedious because of ammo (like in Wizardry or Elder Scroll games), but ammo is implied here so no worries. More realism does not necessarily make a better game.

The range penetrating capability at the GM level is particularly powerful, given the way the enemies line up in this grid-based game. The Scout is particularly powerful in melee, as well. The scout-ranger-ranger-freemage party, and possible variations, sounds solid... worth a run.