Poison Ranger

From Townstons

1 Overview
- 1.1 Advantages
- 1.2 Disadvantages
2 Suggested Skills
3 Suggested Attributes
4 Suggested Gear
5 Technique
- 5.1 EXP Farming
  - 5.1.1 Farmer
  - 5.1.2 Leveler

Overview

The name, "Poison Ranger," refers to any Ranger build that primarily uses the Ranger Poison skills. Unlike other Ranger builds such as the Critical Ranger, the Poison Ranger is characterized by a high INT value rather than a high AGI value. The Poison Ranger is an effective build for EXP farming, and can also be used as a general build while progressing through the game.

Original Discoverer/Creator: Unknown

Advantages

The main advantage of a Poison Ranger is that the Area of Effect (AoE) of the Poison skills is based on distance rather than number of enemies. This means that the Poison Ranger is more effective at damaging a large amount of enemies at once; which is quite handy when farming for EXP (see below).

Disadvantages

Compared to a Shadow Mage, the Poison Ranger has a relatively low damage output. The effectiveness of the Poison AoE damage diminishes when there are only a few monsters around because the damage from Poison Skills is not as high as many of the Mage Offensive Skills. A Poison Ranger also needs be moving constantly in order to keep the groups packed tightly together and avoid taking too much damage though this is somewhat off set if using monster bait.

Suggested Skills

Noxious Shot	Toxic Talent	Poison Shot
Gaseous Blast	Gym Freak	All Wards and/or Resistances
Spirit of the Hare	Average BMI
Mental Prowess	Bookworm
Monster Bait	Extra Crispy Monster Bait

You may be wondering why you should include Mental Prowess in your skill bar. The reason is simple: Poison damage is a type of Magic damage, and the +20% boost to Magic damage given by Mental Prowess will increase your damage output.

There is no 100% right combination of skills to choose. What each player needs depends on that player's equipment and style. The Skills in bold are absolutely necessary for effective farming, those that are not bolded can be switched in/out at the player's discretion. Do not put Trigger Happy in your skill bar. Attack speed gained from this skill doesn't matter to a Poison Ranger and it will actually decrease the Poison damage. The Ward and Resistance skills are helpful if you are in an area dominated by monsters of one element/type and you have a low Resistance rating for that element.

Suggested Attributes

The Poison Ranger benefits most from high INT and an adequate value of AGI and END.

There is no magic number for AGI, but as a rule of thumb try to get your AGI to a level where your Attack Rating (AR) equals 100 times your level. So for example if your level is 50, you would want at least 100*50=5,000 AR. I found that a value between 8,000 and 9,000 suited me well all the way to level 100. The best way to determine if your AR is high enough is to pay attention to how many times you miss with Noxious Shot. If you shoot but no poison cloud goes off, you missed. If you miss so many times that you feel you are becoming ineffective at poisoning, then increase your AGI or get items to increase AR until you start hitting more often. As for END, this is a matter of personal preference. If you feel you are using too many potions or your health is too low, then you will need to increase your END. I found that 10,000 HP suited me just fine for any level. The Rest of your points should go into INT; get it as high as you possibly can without sacrificing too much AGI or END.

Suggested Gear

The best gear that you can use for the Poison Ranger is gear that gives you bonuses to Poison Damage. The bigger the bonus you accumulate from your gear, the more damage you will deal to each monster and the faster you can kill large groups. Finding these items is a matter of luck; there is no real strategy involved. The build is still quite effective without this kind of gear; I used the Poison Ranger build to level up from around 60 to 100 and I never got a single piece of gear that gave me poison bonuses.

A possible choice for poison equipment would be

vis'kars bilesplitter as a wepon.

attack speed - slothful

X + INT
X% health steal
X + damage per second to poison attacks.

because the bow is slothful speed this is to stop poison damage from being wasted as much as poison damage is not stackable to retrive the most effective ability of the poison ranger the speed must not be to slow nor to fast to stop mana wasting as a poison ranger relys heavily upon there mana

So with the increase of damage per second to poison attacks you dont rely so heavily upon the agility but the armour of your choice should give decent amounts of END , INT and AGIL as when using AoE killing mobs take a bit longer than killing them directly so you are vunrable to taking a lot of damage, this is where your wards and resistances come in handy. So also try to find gear that gives + damage resistance and edit your skill tray to effect where you are to speed up training and knock small amounts of time off that will eventually add up.

Aside from Poison bonus gear, try to get gear that gives high bonuses to INT and AGI. INT is necessary because Poison damage is considered magic damage, and a higher INT will allow you to do more damage. AGI is necessary because Noxious Shot only works if you can actually hit the monsters.

Technique

Listed here are techniques and guides for using the Poison Ranger in different situations. If you would like to add a short guide, please post on the discussion page about it.

EXP Farming

These technique specifically applies to the Demonic Crypts as that is the most well known and highest EXP yielding location. There are two techniques that fit very different playing styles. I will refer to the first technique as the Farmer technique, and the second as the Leveler technique.

NOTE: Sadly this favorite farming location disappeared in build 120 and up! However these remarks still apply to other locations. They work well on Shadow's Embrace L 5-7, for example.

Farmer

The Farmer technique best fits a player who wants to farm both EXP and items. Running the Crypts this way usually nets between 2,000 and 2,700 EXP per hour plus loot and gold.

When you first enter the crypt, cast Spirit of the Hare on yourself. Start running down the halls and aggro as many groups as you can. Learning how far you can go before groups stop following you is a matter of experience. In general, you can run about half the length of a usual Crypt map. Once you feel you have reached the farthest you can, run back the way you came so that you are about half-way between your start and end points. The monsters that were following you should start converging on you from both directions.

While the monsters are all converging on your position, cast Toxic Talent if you can. Once a large enough group is near you, hit it with Noxious Shot and begin running back and forth or in a circular path around the group. As long as you are moving, the group will remain tight. Run straight into the group to cast Gaseous Blast and run out of the group as soon as you cast it. You will get hit a little bit, but as long as you are moving around the damage will be minimal. Continue shooting Noxious Shots and using Gaseous Blast as much as you possibly can. The group will start to thin out after a few seconds when the weaker monsters begin to drop.

You may notice that most of the monsters have died except a few regular Angels and the Champion monsters. At this point running around to group them up is ineffective. Poison Shot is a useful skill in this situation because it deals a larger amount of damage. Shoot the Champions with Noxious Shot and Poison Shot (alternate between the two) and they will die off quickly. After you have killed the monsters, take your time to collect any items and gold that you want.

There are also 4 chests on the level that you can go open. This is where you can develop your own strategy, but here are two tips. If you come across the chests early in the map (before you have pulled enough groups), stop and open them without attacking the monsters. They will hit you but the damage will be minimal. If you come across the chests further into a pull, then stop to kill what you have pulled in that area and return to the chests after you cleared the monsters. These chests have the potential to give you some useful Poison Ranger Gear or even Rainbows. Once you have collected all the gear and gold you want, reset the instance and do it all over again.

Leveler

The Leveler technique best fits a player who is only concerned with gaining as much EXP as fast as possible. Running the Crypts this way usually nets 3,000 or more EXP, depending on the pace the player takes.

Special Note: All skills should be upgraded to the highest available level except Spirit of the Hare. Keep Spirit of the Hare at the level where it increases speed by 50%. In my experience, if you are going any faster you are more likely to have groups in the back of your pull get stuck, which significantly decreases the amount of EXP gain.

When you first enter the crypt, cast Spirit of the Hare on yourself. Start running down the halls and aggro as many groups as you can. It is OK if some of the groups start running back. The key is to get as many groups as you can. Once you feel you have gone far enough start running back in the direction you came. Do not take an alternate path back because this will cause the monsters to split up and get stuck, reducing the amount of EXP you gain. Run in the opposite direction down the same path you took. Normally you can round up anywhere from 10 to 15 groups and get them to stay on you. Try to find an open room about half way between your starting and ending point.

If you have enough gold to buy all the skills you need and enough potions, reset the dungeon as soon as you finish off all of the champions. If you don't have a lot of gold then check your loot and quickly pick up any yellow, purple, or rainbow items and reset the dungeon. Do not bother picking up gold stacks unless you happen to see a particularly high amount (like 5,000 or more). Remember, time is EXP; it should only take you 5 seconds or less to pick up gear and leave. Sell this gear off (or use it if you need to) for some fast gold. Forget about the chests; the more you run around picking up items, the less EXP you get per hour.

Here are some additional tips for the Leveler technique:

The key concept of the Leveler technique is "Time is EXP," Anything you do that costs you time but isn't getting you EXP is usually unnecessary.
Buy a ton of potions all at once and don't go back to buy more until you are running low. This way you can rapidly buy up potions once every 30 minutes to an hour rather than every 10 minutes.
Don't go to Audry to sell off your items every run. Wait until your inventory is full before you visit her, and then just sell it off rapidly. Don't stop to read it unless you are looking for replacement gear.
Don't reorganize your inventory. If you don't have room for an item then leave it and go sell to Audry before re-entering the dungeon. The more time you spend on inventory, the less time you spend on EXP.
Don't stop to regeneration health in town. If you have low health use a potion and immediately go back into the dungeon.
Keep about 5 mana potions in your inventory just in case you wind up needing it.