Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Help/Tips/Tricks help with Ranger build

Okay so I got to level 5 or so as a warrior and decided I'll just start over and re-roll as a ranger to get the +3 dex at the start and a bow to begin my journey. I am at level 11 now, I think, and my bow takes like 15 shots to kill one enemy at my level, whereas using 2 melee weapons in dual wield kills them in a few swipes with no training in that skill. I want to make my guy a pure ranger so I don't want to use any magic attacks. Do rangers get better eventually? I find myself meleeing more often than not because my bow takes forever to kill. I have kept poison arrow at level 1 since I read it isn't that great, but maybe I should bump it up higher and respec later? My bow isn't that great, but it's unique, and I have ranger strength at 4 I think. I have only come across 1 unique bow this entire time and maybe that is the issue, but I can't really do anything about it until I find a new one.

Also, I have a random bronze key sitting in my inventory that isn't a quest item, but have no clue what it's for. All it says is that it's a "key" so I have no way to find out what to use it for. Grr!! Should I just run around to every place I've been looking for a locked chest?

edit: I forgot to mention I am playing on normal difficulty.

I have 1 male Warrior, 1 female Mage and 4 female Rangers... different builds. Rangers are awesome in every way and seems like I cannot build them wrong lol. The thing to look for at the very beginning is a bow with a decent plus to damage (like around +10 or better if you have the patience). The Patch 2 removed the +30 bow I used to buy, which took me through Maxos' Temple lol. Save before you talk to each of the nerchants for the first time (especially Derk), and reload multiple times until you get such a bow. The rest will be easy.

Here's my fav build as I faced Ygerna at the end of the game:

Every enchantment slot is filled with L-10 enchantments.

She wears the "Shadow Archer" set along with the level 40 bow "Invisible Death" that I bought from Gina at Market Sqr. for like 38k gold, enchanted with +100 Normal Dmg, +100 Magic Dmg, +11% Butcher.

Every piece of jewelery has 0.3 Healing Aura for a total of 1.5% Healing. Add to that 0.35 Regen rate and the total comes to 1.85% healing that translates into 30 HP/second recovery.

The rest of the slots are filled with Retribution or Static Charge Auras.

The first number you'll see below will be the "base" (totally naked) followed by / "boosted" (fully dressed).

If I have already talked to the merchants does it matter? I am pretty far into the Broken Valley. I haven't even thought about buying a weapon from a merchant, but that may be a good idea.

They restock evry time you level.

Is splitting arrows worth it? I read a few guides that say it's not all that good since you get explosive arrows later. I see you took both. Good idea? I have only spent maybe 4 or 5 skill points because I don't know what I should take.

I think I have ranger strength at 3 or 4, lockpick at 1, mana efficiency at 1, and maybe 1 other thing at 1 (at work so I can't look).

i have no experience with splitting arrows i just use poison arrow /fire arrows when i can get it i didnt notice this time they may have change d something in the patch but i was lucky to get a piece of jewerely that had + one to demon at level 15 ish and some plus 1-2 to poison arrows early on ,for most part with ranger i didnt think poison arrow was really great until about 5 or so

think shaver would be the best to answer on the ranger class as far as i know or seem from the post

Splitting arrows is A-okay in my book, get it to maxed level, fire at point blank range, watch the numbers fly.

Absolutely! Your weapon damage multiplied by 15.

So Shaver, good call on the merchants. I am used to games where the drops tend to be way better than purchasing items from vendors, but apparently this game has a good mix. When I got home I looked at my bow, and it had 1-3 physical damage, and 2-4 or so magical damage. I went to Derk and got a bow with 4-40 phys damage, and 6-10 mag damage... what a surprise, enemies go down in 2-3 hits now!

Funny thing is, all of a sudden last night after playing for 3 hours or so, I had about 4-5 different bows drop as loot in the bandit camp area. Of course that happens just as I buy a new one, but these weren't as good as what I got anyways.