Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General My Ranger build - To Discuss

Hi everyone,

I'm at the end of the first city and I now know where i wanna go with my group. The character I'd like to discuss is my Ranger.
Here is its final build without including the potential trait bonus:

ABILITIES
- Bow 5
- Expert Marksman 5
- Scoundrel 1
- Lucky Charm 2
- Blacksmithing 1
- Crafting 1
- Pickpocketing 2
- Sneaking 4

---> The priority here is to go up to 5 on both EM and Bow aiming at level 14/15

TALENTS (by priority)
Bully/Guerilla/Pet pal/Scientist/Quickdraw/Glass Canon/Light Stepper

---> I'm wondering about replacing Glass Canon with Elemental Ranger

Including BONUSES
- Blacksmithing 1 --> 2
- Crafting 1 --> 3
- Pickpocketing 2 --> 3
- Sneaking 4 --> 5

I'm not an expert but I tried to look at the charcter I'd have a lot of fun with.


How do you feel about it, any advice?


PS: I'm playing coop only and we're having SO MUCH FUN, MANY THANKS to the studio!

WARNING : JADED POWERGAMER OPINON

Glass Cannon is amazing. I actually think it's completely overpowered. So if you want UNLIMITED POWER then stick with Glass Cannon.

I'm a big fan of Blacksmithing and Crafting, but I suggest making one of your characters the craft-monkey and pumping those all the way up to 5 on that character, and ignoring them on your other characters. Very little benefit to having multiple characters which are only kind of good at crafting.

Lucky Charm has seemed to be completely worthless on my playthrough. I have it at around 4 and it doesn't seem to be worthwhile at all.

Other than that, it looks good.

But Lucky Charm increases your offence rating by half as much as a point in Dex does so...
Also, having lucky charm makes it easier to convince your co-op partner that you should open all of the chests, and take the best goodies inside for yourself (they'll never know!).

I'd not take Glass Cannon, for exactly the reason noted above. If you want a challenge, avoid the talent.

Yes, I don't think blacksmithing 4 will give you anything, and that's the maximum you can get with 1 base.

Scoundrel 1 is just for Walk in Shadows and haste (did you take that at character creation)? Otherwise not so useful to just put 1 point in it (unless 1 point is enough for the skill). All rogue ability 'attacks' require you to be wielding a knife/dagger, but they are great.

You actually dont need to have a fully optimized min-maxed focus super build to play and enjoy the game.

Rather then worrying about it all, instead - just play and have fun with your build, whatever imperfections it might have, because after a while youll realize those are not imperfections at all.

Would be my advice.

Do not put points in weapon specializations until after the mine quests on map two. This is a purposely vague post.

Also sneak, pickpocket and lucky are all pretty optional to the point they're kind of not worth it.

I'd forgotten about that, but it really doesn't change my opinion. Those Ability points could be used on something more valuable (in my humble opinion).


For shame! If I'm going to steal from my co-cop partner then I'm going to put points into Barter and convince them to give me all of their salable stuff, and then short-change them after I sell it.

My Ranger character is the crafter, that's why
I'd keep this in mind for Lucky Charm, even though it has an impact of the offensive rating as well.


+1


-1


That's a very good point! I should go BM 2 and CR 1 then.


Exactly


I can understand that's your way of playing but on my side optimizing is part of the fun I have.


Too late


I'll at least strongly disagree with sneak, especially looking at the great synergy with Guerilla.


100% agree!
I play only coop and my money is the group's money.

Without boni I would recommend
Bow 0
Tenebrium 6/7 (gets unlocked after doing Brandon's quest in the second city)
Expert Marksman 5
Scoundrel 1
Witchcraft 1 (Oath of Destruction +50% damage boost)
Geomancer 1/2 (Bless +30% accuracy, Midnight Oil (enables Slow for Bully + can be set on fire), Spider (Meatshield and immune to poison), Boulderdash for AOE non-"line of sight" damage + Knockdown)
Lore 1 (optional to see the enemies HP, can be 5 for their resistances later)
everything else in
Bodybuilding
Willpower

Imo you won't have much fun if you make use of sneaking during combat, since when the opponents can't see you they will often just skip their turn. Outside of combat it is useless, because you can just as well turn yourself invisible.

- Bow 5 -> 0
Tenebrium Bows use your Tenebrium Skill for damage calculation, not the Bow skill
- Expert Marksman 5 -> 5
Unlocks Quickdraw, which gives you 25% more attacks
- Scoundrel 1 -> 1
Walk in Shadows, Haste and the Teleport skill
- Lucky Charm 2
2 Points is Ok, but you can easily get it to 8 from gear(4 of the items can be crafted) + the trait and another +2 from Survivor's Karma, making it kind of pointless to invest more points into that ability
- Blacksmithing 1
- Crafting 1
You should have 1 smith in your party, but that might as well be a henchman (Jahan starts with Scientists) or if you want to save the points: recruit a 5th party member that does nothing other than craft and identify your stuff.
- Pickpocketing 2
Why bother with stealing 100 Gold, when you can just craft a 2000 Gold axe from a steel bar or the massive discount from Barter.
- Sneaking 4->0
Imo you won't have much fun if you make use of sneaking during combat, since when the opponents can't see you they will often just skip their turn. Outside of combat it is useless, because you can just as well turn yourself invisible.

You can savely ignore Light Stepper, especially considering that later in the game you can trade an unspent talent point for 10 ability/2 attribute points.
Elemental Ranger is a risky ability, since you can't turn it off: you will deal bonus damage to enemies standing in self placed fire sourfaces, but on the other hand you will be healing enemies that "bleed" their own element, like zombies, elementals, spiders and many more that way.

edit: you get the ability to reskill once you have 7 blood/star stones, which should be when you enter the second town.

The Lucky Charm thing was just a suggestion...

And yes, I have the higher barter/reputation... When my co-op partner asked how much gold I had (about level 12) and I told him, he was very surprised. Also very happy when I gave him considerably less than half of it, muahaha.

If you're really wanting to min/max (wouldn't advise it) then guerilla and 5 sneak will increase your damage output by +33%, so yes, it's a good call.

Here is where I'll go:

ABILITIES
- Bow 5 (then respec and Tenebrium)
- Expert Marksman 5
- Scoundrel 1 (for the three useful skills)
- Lucky Charm 2
- Blacksmithing 1 (enough to go to 5 later on)
- Crafting 1 (same)
- Pickpocketing 2 (because it's fun)
- Sneaking 4 (because it's powerful and the ranger is not really doing much without it)

TALENTS (by priority)
Bully/Guerilla/Pet pal/Scientist/Quickdraw/Glass Canon
I won't take Light Stepper to benefit of the end game trade.

If you respec, you wont be able to take the scoundrel haste skill, because it isnt available in stores at the moment.

Should make no difference with glass cannon, but then again, you said three useful skills. Also, I find the rogue skills to be some of the most useful ones in the game.

By the time you unlock Tenebrium/Respec, you only have about 20 ability points, and Marksman 5 already requires 15, so investing into Bow is just a waste.
You will miss out on a bit of damage early on, but won't have to respec your char.
With the high initiative it is useful to have access to some low level buff spells, so that you can kill stuff before your opponents get to move.

That's very interesting piece of information here. And I agree, once I'll get Glass Canon I won't care about haste anymore, thus won't take it back after my respec.


I've already invested 1 in Bow at the start of my character so I'll have to respec anyway
Which low level buff are you talking about? The one from Witchcraft?

Witchcraft has
Oath of Destruction for 50% extra damage for 3 turns
Blind (not as good as on a mage, but can disable even bosses over multiple turns)
Absorb the Elements (+50% elemental resistance for 2 turns, but requires 9 int for a 100% chance).

Earth offers
Bless +30% accuracy for 3 turns, stacks with precision stance
Midnight Oil (enables Slow for Bully + can be set on fire)
Boulderdash for AOE non-"line of sight" damage + Knockdown (->Bully)
Spider (Meatshield and immune to poison)

You will accumulate so many Talent points that it doesn't really matter if you have invested a couple in stuff that you barely use.

What I love about boulder bash is when the boulder hits a beam in the ceiling and does nothing. I've had that happen a couple of times.

Boulder Bash requires 2 geo though right?

Also, your character seems to be more 'pure' - might not be worth it getting to 8 int (even modified) if you want it to be more pure. Probably better to have another one of your guys/gals cast Oath of Destruction on you.

The 'Delay' button is fantastic. Means you can get two turns one after the other. Before my current setup with my lone wolf rogue (rapture, haste, save 3AP) I always used to delay then take two turns. This may be better for melee characters though come to think of it.

You just need 1 point in Int and can get the rest from gear. This also has the advantage that you can use higher level Sarongs. You can cast Meteor Strike with only a single rank in Pyro, but it will be slightly more expensive to cast.

Sure you can delay your turn, but that means waiting for all enemies to finish their turn, at the risk of getting hit with a status effect in the meantime in addition to the damage that is going to be dealt to you and your team.

Update 2:
I decided to use my party's warrior as a crafter as he can carry a lot.
So here is my new orientation for the Ranger.

ABILITIES
- Bow 5 (then respec and Tenebrium)
- Expert Marksman 5
- Scoundrel 1 (for two useful skills)
- Witchcraft 1
- Lucky Charm 2
- Bartering 2
- Sneaking 4
- Lockpicking 1

TALENTS (by priority)
Bully/Guerilla/Pet pal/Quickdraw/Glass Canon/Light Stepper