tips on how to properly use the Ranger?

[Phoenix C64]

heya,

all my rangers die in a painful and stupid way before leveling up too much.

i think max i got was to tier4 skills... don't even know what skills can be unlocked after that.

the fact they can melee is nice, but why would i want to rush into the middle of the enemy, to -maybe- kill one and then expose myself to be killed by the rest of them?

even if i try not to use the blades, even if i give them plasma rifles instead shotguns for more range... rangers seem to die way easier than the rest of my soldiers.


also, i find them so boring... they don't have many skills to do anything. most other soldiers have several nice skills to play around with. heck, my specialist has so many skills that i ran out of hotkeys... but the ranger has two: shoot, melee... boooooring.


so... any tip to properly use them and if you could spoil me what the high tier skills are (maybe some make them godly?)

until then, i'll stick to my psi-soldiers

[Knox]

After the first ambush I use one as a scout. They have two ways to stay in concealment and it is nice to know what is coming up next and let a sniper have a crack at it with no cover.

[KSB]

use the ranger as a scout to call in the arty strikes from the snipers

[Phoenix C64]

Originally posted by KSB:

use the ranger as a scout to call in the arty strikes from the snipers

so... basiclaly, the whole blade mumbojumbo is useless...!?

[Shaska]

Originally posted by Phoenix C64:

so... basiclaly, the whole blade mumbojumbo is useless...!?

Essentially, yes. It's a good backup weapon, but it's too unreliable and dangerous to use as your main weapons. Better to flank with your shotgun instead.

[Demon of Razgriz]

Originally posted by Phoenix C64:

Originally posted by KSB:

use the ranger as a scout to call in the arty strikes from the snipers

so... basiclaly, the whole blade mumbojumbo is useless...!?

The blade really helps once you get Bladestorm, but that is a higher level ability. It auto attacks anyone that moves into melee range of your ranger. It is awesome against Chryssalids and other melee guys.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by Phoenix C64:

Originally posted by KSB:

use the ranger as a scout to call in the arty strikes from the snipers

so... basiclaly, the whole blade mumbojumbo is useless...!?

It's not useless, but it does have a fundamental problem with armor, meaning you won't be able to one-shot most things late in the game. Early though you can take out some enemies with a much higher probability than you otherwise could. IMO, blades need some armor penetration.

However, if you forget about the blades, it's still a good class. Phantom is very helpful for getting close or just for rescuing civilians in Retaliation missions. I think the way to use Rangers late-game is to go mostly for the left side of their skill "tree". Rangers get very good weapons for flanking; combine them with concealment and talon rounds (I think), and you'll be able to deal super high damage.

The way to flank and avoid getting killed is pretty late in the skill tree, unfortunately. Untouchable lets you ignore one attack, and Implacable lets you move out of harm's way after a kill.

[Phoenix C64]

also, the whole concealment mecanic... which was suposed to be like "the big thing" judging from the first game trailers and how we're now the guerrilla fighters...

looks quite dissapointing and underwhelming...

- if there were missions where you could complete all without even fighting
- if enemies 250 tiles away and behind 10 buildings wouldnt automatically know where you are when you first get out of conceilement
- if there was a way to re-enter conceilement for the whole squad after a fight
- if there were silenced weapons
- if an enemy wouldnt know where a sniper shot (made from a bush 100 tiles away) came from...

THEN, this new mecanic would actually be interesting...

now, it's just a way to setup the first ambush.


so in the end: ranger is useless i guess...

[Doing gens, you?]

Their free concealment has awesome synergy with snipers, and is also good on advent retaliations. They can skirt around and grab some civs while spotting enemies for you before the first pod activation. And on maps that aren't timed I like to have my concealed ranger scout pods while my snipers hang back and fire at them across the map. One time I had my snipers firing at a 3 advent trooper pod my ranger had sight of, but since the advents didn't know where the fire was coming from they just moved back and forth in the same positions till they died.

Something important to take note of is that their shotguns have a bonus 15% to crit chance. Combine a laser sight with it and your rangers have a base 65% chance to crit with their shotguns on flanked targets (shotguns have way better accuracy in close quarters than other guns btw). Grab the shadowstrike perk and then you have a 90% chance to crit on the first enemy you shoot out of concealment, basically meaning anything semi squishy will die in the first shot, my favourite being vipers. Shotguns are always better on them than rifles.

I tend to use aid protocol on my assault oriented rangers for extra protection. Later in the tree they get the perk "Untouchable" (I think that's the name), which means that when the ranger scores a kill, the next enemy attack is guarenteed to miss.

Their melee attacks are cool but ehh. Useful for finishing off the last enemy of a pod, but tends to leave the ranger exposed. Bladestorm is nice, since it gives a free melee attack on any enemy that approaches the ranger/attacks the ranger from melee range. Reaper is probably the godly perk you're looking for. When you activate it, each time the ranger kills something with his sword he gets a bonus move, and the rangers first melee attack cannot miss. Basically, if a group of enemies has their health low enough your ranger can chain kill them all in one turn.

[Phoenix C64]

Originally posted by -SG1-Shadowscall:

Originally posted by Phoenix C64:

so... basiclaly, the whole blade mumbojumbo is useless...!?

The blade really helps once you get Bladestorm, but that is a higher level ability. It auto attacks anyone that moves into melee range of your ranger. It is awesome against Chryssalids and other melee guys.

why would i want to put my guy into the middle of a enemy group? they would just move away a few tiles and shoot him in the face.
and as far as i remember, until late into the game, you can't know what enemies you will face on a specific mission... so how would i know if there are crysallids in a mission?
i'd rather take a psi-soldier and void them to death

which is what i did on the last mission... killed 6 crysaalids and 4 MECs with one single, well placed void rift. why on earth wuold i want to send a ranger into the middle of that...

[TapRackPonce]

25% stun that is all.

[Phoenix C64]

thx for the explanations, Coral...
I'll try give them a chance again, just as scout.
but by the time i unlock their godly talent i can probably 2-3 godly psi-soldiers already

Originally posted by daponce89:

25% stun that is all.

dead enemy > stunned enemy

[Rumpl4]

you fire up reaper and walk into the middle of it, you get 1 kill, you are now immune to all attacks next round, you now get another move, you kill the next target and you keep moving, when you finally fail, you are still immune to attacks but you are also now enemy number 1 and will tend to pull all aggro (certainly thats my experience)

[Phoenix C64]

Originally posted by Rumpl4:

you fire up reaper and walk into the middle of it, you get 1 kill, you are now immune to all attacks next round, you now get another move, you kill the next target and you keep moving, when you finally fail, you are still immune to attacks but you are also now enemy number 1 and will tend to pull all aggro (certainly thats my experience)

certainly sounds insteresting enough to give Rangers another try.
is reaper his last skill?

[Rumpl4]

aye, but if you rattle down the right side you can turn him into a melee god, kit him out with the top tear sword, give him hellweave vest and ffs he's mental

for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles give him overdrive serum as well, he can run the length of the map on 1 turn lol

[Roflberries]

From another thread:

Originally posted by Roflberries:

Typically you want to keep them concealed until you run out of options. Then you use them to take out high priority, high hp targets. Rapid Fire is the hardest hitting single target ability in the game.

The optimal build is Phantom, Shadowstep, Run and Gun, Implacable, Untouchable, Rapid Fire. Spider/Wraith Suit, mobility PCS, laser sight and auto reloader (if you get the continent bonus for 3 I'd personally go with hair trigger). Talon (ideally) or AP rounds for utility slot.