Ranger new player guide

This is a page for the Ranger specific page for the Newbie Help Guide. Whenever possible, overlap with the general guide should be minimized.

For details, rules, and the other pages involved, see Category:Newbie Guide Contest.

Getting Started

Welcome to the Ranger Guild!

It is assumed you've already found the guild structure and have already joined the Rangers' Guild, if you have not you can use the DIRECTION command to locate the area. But now that you've done that, and made use of the JOIN command to become one of us, what' next? And, just what exactly is is that Rangers are supposed to do?

Starting Stats

Setting up your new Ranger for success. Each person has his or her own ideas on starting stats for a ranger, but here is one that can be used without too many problems and will enable you to advance fairly quickly in your profession. Rangers have three stats in our main sphere of influence. These are Reflexes, Agility, and Strength. In addition, since we are a combat guild, we need stamina and discipline. Since we do things across all the spectrum (survival, weapons, armor, magic, and lore), we tend to need to start out boosting our stats to be fairly even so we can train fairly well with just about everything. Each race comes with a specific stat set up and you have 600 TDP's (Training Developement Points) to adjust your stats for your first hunting session. The final set up you end up with is determined by the race of your character. As a starting point get stamina to 14 for races with 10 or more starting stamina. This is good to enable you to use more weapons including heavier ones, wear most armors without too much difficulty, and to take a few hits without going down on the first hit. If your race starting stamina is under 10 then get stamina to 12. Then as a basic rule of thumb try to get the rest of your stats to 12, specially the 5 key ones and intellingence and wisdom. Any TDP's left over can be placed where you want them. But bottom line, use all the TDP's you can use. Any that are left over will carry over to your next circle. To raise your stats, use DIR LIST TRAINING to get to the various stat training areas. Once there TRAIN, then STUDY to gain 1 on your stat. Each stat is also a command that will give you information on the stat and how many TDP's it will take to raise it one. For instance, using STAMINA will give you the basic information on the stamina stat.

For more information see TDP

For more information see Info command

Survival Skills

Rangers are survivalists first and foremost. The majority of your training as a Ranger will focus on improving your survival skills. You must dedicate yourself to actively training at least eight different skills within the survival group at all times in order to advance within the guild. While there is some flexibility on which skills you choose to focus on, there is a hard requirement to train our guild-specific skill of scouting.

• Evasion - Simply put, evasion is the skill which determines how well you avoid attacks. Aside from classes in the subject, the only way to learn is to get out there and stand at melee range in combat.
• Athletics - The main use of the Athletics skill is to overcome natural obstacles, such as climbing a tree or swimming a river. Provided below are some simple suggestions where to practice this skill based upon which area you have chosen to start at within the game. You can learn Athletics through swimming by just moving from room to room that has water, such as a brook or river. Deep water requires you to use the SWIM <DIRECTION> command. Likewise, learning by climbing requires you to use the CLIMB <DIRECTION> command.
  • Crossing - The easiest place to start learning Athletics near the Crossing is a brook out the West Gate. Once out the West Gate go down the path and head west until you hit the brook. The brook can be seen on this map RanikMap4. You can also try asking at the Ranger Guild and a fellow Ranger or player can guide you there. This brook should teach to about 100 ranks.Caution: The path to the brook is a hunting area with Musk Hogs on the road so be careful traveling to it.
  • Riverhaven - Outside of the West gate of Riverhaven, near Goblin Shaman, there is a creek you can swim in. Once out the gate go nothwest go down the path and then down the trail to enter the mud flats area. The creek can be seen on this map RanikMap32.Caution: Stay within the southern regions of the creek, the northern parts are inhabbited by Scarlet Crayfish which may be too hard for a new character to fight.
• Perception - This skill can be trained by using the SCOUT command, the HUNT command, the COLLECT command, or the FORAGE command.

For more information see Perception.

• Stealth -
• Locksmithing - As the popular adage goes, "Waste not, want not." In this instance you are required to train survival skills, so why not make use of the various boxes that creatures drop in order to facilitate that training. It is this line of thinking which has given rise to the popularity of Locksmithing skill among the Ranger guild. For beginners, you might want to do some hunting of Louts outside the East Gate of Crossings or Zombie Goblins outside the North Gate of Riverhaven. As a warning, if you do decide to visit the Riverhaven Zombie Goblins, it is recommended that you have a few ranks in combat skills before adventuring to the area. Efficient training of the locksmithing skill requires a lockpick.

For more information see Locksmithing.

• Thievery - While not very common of a skill for most Rangers to train, the Thievery skill is none the less part of the survival skillset and can be used for circling within the guild. You can steal an item from a shop by doing STEAL <ITEM>, such as STEAL WATER. You can start training this skill by stealing small in-expensive items. In the Crossing you can start with water from Chizili's Alchemical Goods. This should teach to about 40 ranks. You should only steal from the same shop about once a real-life hour. You can steal from multiple shops to do a "stealing run". As a general rule of thumb, smaller and in-expensive items are easier to steal, larger more expensive items are harder to steal. See Stealing List as a general stealing guide on what to steal where. The more proficient you get in stealing you can steal multiple times from the same shop within that hour time frame. It is also highly suggested to HIDE while stealing. This not only makes it easier to steal an item, but you can also learn some stealth during the process. Thievery can also be taught. However, teaching or listening to Thievery within the City limits can get you arrested. Be careful! Caution: You may also try to steal coins or gems from another player using STEAL <player name> though this teaches rather poorly. Be warned that stealing from another player is considered a Player vs. Player action and will leave your character open to PvP for 4 hours.

For more information see Stealing.

• First Aid -
• Outdoorsmanship - One of the most widely used skills within the guild is the Outdoorsmanship skill. This skill can be trained by using the FORAGE command or the COLLECT command. When first starting out, you may find that you are unable to collect piles of things. It is recommended that use forage instead to find single objects until you gain enough skill to collect piles of objects. Use of this skill can also gain you a bit of coin by gathering wood (forage for sticks or branches) for Mags in Crossings, or gathering weaving supplies (forage for grass, twigs, vines, or sticks) for Old Maisie in Riverhaven.

For more information see Outdoorsmanship.

• Skinning - One of the most popular choices of survival skills, skinning also has the benefit of being one of the easiest to train. However, in order to make use of it you must combat creatures which can be skinned. A good critter to start on would be Rats in Crossings or Frogs just outside of the Riverhaven East Gate. In order to skin any creature, the use of a bladed weapon is required.

For more information see Skinning.

• Scouting - This is the quintessential skill that makes Rangers what they are. The scouting skill uses our ability to use all of our senses to efficiently track pray, travel off the beaten path, and uncover hidden pathways. As someone just starting out, you should make use of HUNT more often than not when you are in combat areas.

For more information see Scouting.

Combat Skills

Beyond being a master survivalist, Rangers are also adept hunters. We pride ourselves in our ability to go nearly anywhere and fight nearly anything. Because of this, the guild requires that you keep up with not only weapon skills but also armor skills as well. The choice of what weapon and armor to use are purely yours to make, however this guide will give you a little advice in what to choose and how those choices will impact your advancement later on.

Weapons

As a member of the Rangers' Guild, you will be required to learn the use of at least two weapon classes in addition to the parry skill. In order to facilitate that parry learning, it is encouraged that one of your weapon choices be something that you can use at melee with an opponent.

In order to make full use of our abilities later on, it is also encouraged (but not required) for you to practice use of either a bow, crossbow, or sling. Skill with these weapons will serve you well when using either the Dual Load or Snipe abilities described below.

• Dual Load - Once you have gained a significant amount of skill with your bow weapon and have the appropriate physical stats, you will be able to use this ability. The Dual Load allows for a Ranger to load their bow with two arrows and fire them at the same time.

For more information see Dual Load.

• Snipe - Upon achieving your 40th circle within the guild, you will be allowed to learn the Snipe ability from Guildmaster Tolle in Langenfirth. This ability will allow you to fire your weapon from hiding and remain hidden, it can also be used in conjunction with the Dual Load ability.

For more information see Snipe.

Armor

For your first circles (1-10) you will be able to advance by just training a single armor skill in addition to your defending skill. Afterwards, Rangers must train two armor skills to advance within the guild. In order to make this easier, it is common for many Rangers to train their shield skill while in melee combat.

Magic Skills

While not one of our primary focuses, Rangers still make use of the magic skillset to accomplish feats that are beyond our natural abilities.

Ranger Magic

Even though rangers are not big with magic, we have a nice set of spells that aid us in hunting, and performing other tasks. There are 8 areas of magic that can be trained. These are Life Magic (our primary magic), Arcana (use of magic devices), Attunement (ability to harness life magic), and the five magic areas where all spells are placed, Augmentation (those that boost your abilities), Utility (those that are general use), Warding (defense related), Target Magic (Attack spells), Debilitation (hindering spells). Most ranger spells are of the Augmentation and Debilitation type, though we have other spells. These two magic skills are in the ranger spehere of influence, that the guild is intimately familiar with and thus have a higher cap when enhancing. When you start out as a ranger you have 1 spell slot to use in order to choose a spell. You must ASK GUILDLEADERNAME ABOUT MAGIC two times to get the list of spells you are able to learn (though currently I think there is a problem here and you may not get the list, if you don't get the list, then you can CHOOSE SPELLNAME and get the spell). The three introductory spells you can choose from are Eagles Cry (Target Magic attack spell), See The Wind (Augmentation boost to Ranged weapons), Athleticism (Augmenation boost to swimming and climbing). Each of these three spells takes up 1 spell slot, so you can choose one of these spells. To choose a spell with the guild leader you use CHOOSE SPELLNAME. In addition, since the spell compost does not take up any spell slots you can also CHOOSE COMPOST and learn the compost spell. This will give you two spells to use as a starting ranger.

Many rangers try to get a spell that will train each of the magic areas in the first 7 spell slots. This is entirely up to you as a new ranger. But the spells easiest to use and train with are Eagles Cry (Target Magic 1 slot), See the Wind (Augmenation 1 slot), Athleticism (Augmentation 1 slot), Compost (Utility 0 slot), Essence of Yew (Warding 1 slot), Devitalize (Target Magic 1 slot), and Devolve (Debilitation 2 slots). These are the easiest spells we have in each magic area. Each spell has a difficulty rating from Intro (easiest), basic, advanced, Esoteric (hardest needing close to 280 skill to cast). So choose your spells wisely.

For more information see spell slot progressions.

For more information see rangers.

For more information see spheres of influence.

How To Train Magic Skills

Gee, you now have 2 spells and are ready to get out there and train your magic skills. So what do I do? Well magic is pretty simple. You use it and you learn it. Lets say you have the spells Athleticism (augmentation spell) and compost (utility spell). The first thing you need to learn is how to use DISCERN. DISCERN COMPOST will give you information about the compost spell and about how much power you can put into the spell. It will say something like you can put 3 streams into the spell. You can use DISCERN for each spell you have learned to get information about the spells and what level you might be able to cast the spell at. DISCERN is based on the arcana skill, which means the more arcana skill you have the more accurate and complete the information you will get. One note on DISCERN, when you first start out you will get casting levels that are actually too high. Figure that if its telling you that you can cast at 7 streams. You can probably cast at 3 or maybe 4. Till you get more ARCANA skill you need to adjust with what happens when you cast the spell. If you backfire the spell lower the next cast till you stop backfiring the spell.

Basic spell casting can be done in 3 ways. The first is simply preparing the spell and casting it when its ready. To do this you would use prep compost 3. Then wait for the message the spell is ready, and use CAST. Anything compostable on the ground will be composted and you will learn from the cast.

The second is to combine preparing the spell with harnessing some mana. To do this you would use prep compost 1. Then when the spell is ready message appears, use HARNESS 2, and then CAST. This take the prep number + harness Number = total power of the spell cast. In this case 1 + 2 = 3 power cast.

The third method is to use a cambrinth item to help you cast the spell. Cambrinth rings for instance can hold 4 mana and be used to add to your cast. To do this you must have a cambrinth ring attuned to your type of power. FOCUS MY CAMBRINTH RING will show if the ring is charged or already set to a power type. If the ring has yet to be charged, CHARGE MY RING 1 should be done until the point the ring takes the charge or takes part of the charge. You may fail for a while during charging of the ring but eventually it will take some of the charge. At that point the ring will be attuned to Life Magic which all rangers and empaths use. Warning... Never try to charge a ring that is attuned to something other than life power. You can blow your hand off at the very least. You also never want to charge the ring with more power than it can hold (all cambrinth rings hold 4 to 5 mana no more). Then to use it you would CHARGE MY RING 1. Then PREP COMPOST 1. Then when the message the spell is ready appears. INVOKE MY CAMBRINTH RING, and HARNESS 1. Then CAST. In this case CHARGE + PREP + HARNESS = 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 for a 3 power cast.

The following are the basic magic skills and how to train them:

• PRIMARY (LIFE) MAGIC SKILL - You never have to train this skill specifically. Any spell you cast will cause this skill to learn. So the more spells you cast the more this skill gains.

• ARCANA MAGIC SKILL - Using a cambrinth item during casting or just charging and item and putting it away for a while will train arcana skill. So when you train Augmentation, Warding, or Utility magic you should consider getting a cambrinth ring to use. Once you have around 50 Arcana skill move up to a cambrinth armband which holds 32 mana and is thus harder to use and will train more. Around 120-150 arcana move to a Cambrinth orb which holds 108 mana.

• ATTUNEMENT MAGIC SKILL - One of the best ways to learn attunement is to do what is called the power walk. This consists of starting at point A and each step you take to get to point B you use POWER to check the power in the area. Have enough steps between point A and Point B you will learn this skill very well indeed. The Attunement skill is one you really need to work. The more skill you have here the more mana you can see and use. So the higher you get the skill the better off you are for spell casting. All professions but Moon mages will generally use this method to learn ATTUNEMENT.

For more information see Perceive command.

• AUGMENTATION MAGIC SKILL - This skill is learned by casting an Augmentation spell. For instance your new Athleticism spell being cast will train this skill. The more often you cast the spell the more you learn.

• UTILITY MAGIC SKILL - This skill is learned by casting a Utility spell. For instance your new compost spell being cast will train this skill. The more often you cast the spell the more you learn. One word of warning here though, is that its best you use this spell when your alone. It tends to remove objects from the ground and you dont want to screw up and compost someones bag or leather or some other item by accident.

• WARDING MAGIC SKILL - This skill is learned by casting a warding spell. In this case Essence Of Yew would be one such ranger spell. The more often you cast the spell the more you learn.

• TARGET MAGIC SKILL - Target magic and Debilitation skills are learned slightly different than you learn the others. These spells are based on combat only. You learn these spells by casting them in battle. For Example the Eagles Cry spell. You would PREP EC 1. Then TARGET RAT CHEST. When you see the pattern is ready, CAST. There are other ways to cast the spell, so check the Target command to see all the ways that can be used. The more times you cast and the more damage you cause the more you learn. The skill will be gained as long as you can still learn weapons, armor and defenses with the creature your facing.

For more information see Target command.

• DEBILITATION SKILL - See Target magic skill above. In this case DEVOLVE would be the spell you use for learning this skill. Most debilitation spells cause some hinderance to the target. DEVOLVE for instance if successful will lower the top two stats of the creature its used upon.

• SORCERY SKILL - Gasp! There is another skill. Yes there is. Keep in mind this skill is forbidden to be learned in a justice area. You learn this skill when someone teaches you sorcery, just dont listen or teach a class on this in a justice area. You will be arrested and probably burned at the stake. The only way you can learn this in a justice area and not be arrested is to listen to PRIMARY MAGIC class from someone who does not have the same Primary magic type as you do. You can also learn this skill without being arrested in a justice area by using FOCUS MY RUNESTONE. That means any runestones you find can be used to train this skill. And you can learn this skill but never in a justice area by casting spells that are not life magic spells which you will learn about as you grow as a ranger. THIS IS YOUR WARNING. Getting caught learning sorcery in a justice area will make it so you cant enter stores to buy things, enter the bank to deposit or withdraw, and do anything in town for days at a time. If you get caught in town after being charged with using sorcery the penalty builds up and lasts longer. Don't blindly listen to a class on sorcery as there are people out there who like doing that to others.

For more information see Justice.

• SPELL STANCE - Last thing you need to know about magic is spell stance. Spell stance for rangers is really very simple. You have POTENCY (raw power of the spells effect), DURATION (How long the spell lasts where it applies), INTEGRITY (how well a spell can pierce magic defenses or resist dispelling). There are many ways to use spell stance. For most ranger spells (all augmentation, warding and utility spells) its probably best to use 100/100/100 for the spell stance. When you get to ranger debilitation spells you really need to boost both Potency and not lower duration. That means you look for 130/100/70 setup or 120/100/80. Most Target magic spells are pretty simple. Cast and they are done right then so duration does not meany anything with most of those spells. I have used 120/70/110 on Target Magic spells to pretty good effect. Using SPELL STANCE HELP you can see how to change the spell stance to suit your needs.

• LAST WORD - Last word on magic. Even though you cast to learn magic skills, you can still learn any skill from a class. ASSESS CLASS will show any class being taught by a group of people gathered in an area. If the class is listed as open you can simply LISTEN TO PERSON to join the class. Listening to classes is a viable way to get your early skill, because you will not have enough spells to train everything right off.

Lore Skills

Like with Magic, Lore is not a primary focus of this Guild. However, you are still required to learn a bit from this skillset in order to advance within the guild. The requirements are minimal, however they must still be met. Lore skills fall into two categories. Craft skills (Engineering, Forging, Outfitting, Alchemy and Enchanting), and Other Lore skills (Scholarship, Performance, Appraisal, Tactics and Mechanical Lore (which wont exist once all of crafting is completed)). Each ranger is required to move at least 2 lore skills though we don't need much in them. Some professions even have their own lore skills, such as empaths and EMPATHY skill, etc. For rangers there is no specific ranger lore skill so we must use the main 10 lore skills.

How To Train Lore Skills

Now that you have your new ranger and have picked your first two spells you also have the task of training some lore skills. Surprisingly enough this is very easy for rangers to do without difficulty. However there are some lore skills that really pay off if you work them. So lets cover each of the lore skills and show you how to train each one should you choose to do so.

• SCHOLARSHIP SKILL - This skill is the easiest one to work, and you dont really need much effort to work it. By listening to a class or teaching a class you can move this skill very well, which is almost no effort. It should be noted right now that a high charisma stat will improve how well you learn this skill from listening to or teaching a class. If you want to put more effort into gaining this skill you can purchase a Crafting Book, and study each page in each chapter of the book to really move the skill. Having this skill high can make you a better teacher and learn more when you listen to classes as well.

• PERFORMANCE SKILL - Right now there is not much use for this skill for rangers though I know many who train it. At one time we needed some skill here for our beseeches, but not anymore, and because we needed it at one time most rangers got this skill at least to 100 skill level. To train this skill go to the local music store, purchase a tambourine or whistle or spoons of some type. Then use PLAY, PLAY (song) {mood} {ON} {instrument}. You are looking for a message that gives you the slightest difficulty for the best learning. Play scales off-key on my tambourine, will start you off. Then adjust the song and mood as needed to keep getting the performance message. Play help will also give you information. Don't however bring your music item out when its raining or snowing it will damage the instruement unless you do so inside a buidling with a nice roof. OBSERVE WEATHER will tell you if the weather is bad or about to be bad.

For more information see Play command.

• APPRAISAL SKILL - This skill has many benefits for every profession. The more of this skill you have the more information you can get when you appraise armor, weapons, gems, and crafting materials. Appraisal can be trained many ways. Appraising all your armor, weapons, bundles (of skins), gem pouches, finished crafting items, and many other items will train this skill very well. In addition if you got a tambourine or some other musical instruement, you can use ASSESS MY TAMBOURINE, till you lock the skill.

• TACTICS SKILL - This skill is perfect for rangers to learn. It can be learned in combat while you work your weapons and other combat related skills. There are two main ways to learn this skill. The first is used mostly by empaths that use non-damaging combat maneuvers like Bob, Circle, Weave, SHOVE, Advance, and repeat the process. The second way is to ANALYZE (which defaults to the creature your facing), and gives you attack maneuvers to use on the creature. Do those in order and hit with each one and you drop a part of the creatures defenses. Then repeat ANALYZE and attacks till the ceature is dead and you learn the skill very well. Its main benefit however, is to apply multiple opponent penalties to the creatures your facing. So the higher your tactics skill is the more creatures you can handle in combat.

For more information see Tactics skill.

For more information see Analyze command.

• MECHANICAL LORE - This skill right now can be trained and used for fletching bows and arrows. Don't consider fletching till you have at least 100 skill in Bows. Store bought bows and arrows will be better than what you can make up till you hit over 100 skill in Bows. Eventually this skill will go away when the crafting system is completed and you will transfer the Mechanical Lore skill into one of the craft skills. Currently the best way to train this skill is to COLLECT ROCK, KICK ROCKS, and repeat. If you are unable to COLLECT ROCK you will have to move your Outdoorsmanship skill by FORAGE ROCK and dropping it over and over till you get good enough to use COLLECT, (this will make you very happy you have the compost spell to clean up the room once you fill it with rocks or other items you forage). I highly recommend you work this skill.

• CRAFT SKILLS - The five craft skills can be learned in the same basic manner, though ENCHANTING is not yet active yet. To learn the skill you must get tools from the society buildings (or buy them at really high prices from trader shops) and a book for the craft you want to work. Each ranger has a career and hobby they can select. I don't recommend selecting one till all of crafting is released. Crafting allows you to make things such as armor, weapons, adventuring gear, healing remedies, and other things as it gets filled in. You won't need a career or hobby to work crafting so don't be afraid to try any and all of it to see what you like.

For more information see Crafting.

Other Information

There are a number of other aspects to the Ranger Guild which can help you, or in the case of the Ranger Bonus harm you. While some are purely optional, meaning you decide if you want to make use of them or bother learning them, some have a direct impact in how efficient you are able to be.

Ranger Bonus

A Ranger's surroundings have a direct impact in how well the Ranger can complete many of their tasks, this is known as their "bonus" and can both be gained or lost. The level of bonus a Ranger has is large influence on how well that Ranger can complete actions which are governed by the survival skillset.

For more information see Ranger Bonus.

Beseeches

When you have reached your 10th circle within the guild you will be granted access to the first of these abilities, and while they are not required to learn, many of them do provide a noticeable benefit to the Ranger who uses them.

For more information see Ranger Beseeches.

Animal Companions

Like beseeches, having a companion animal is not required by the Ranger guild and exists as a fun perk. Animal companions provide little benefit and have a limited range of abilities. Despite this, many Rangers take pride in having them and consider it one of the cornerstones of the guild as a whole.

For more information see Ranger Companions.

Slips

While most abilities can be learned from a Guildmaster or are granted upon reaching a specific circle within the guild, the use of slips is not. Achieving access to the slip abilities must be taught to you from either a fellow Ranger or another who has access to them. Slips do not grant any sort of edge when training, but can offer the Ranger who knows them a little bit of versatility when using them while hiding. These abilities automatically grow with you as you gain more circles and Rangers are able to perform the first at 30 circles.

For more information see Slip.

Signs

Another fun feature of being a Ranger is the ability to use our very own form of sign language. This allows Rangers to communicate with each other from adjacent rooms and can also be done while hidden without betraying your location.

For more information see Ranger Sign Language.

Role Playing a Ranger

There are a number of books published in game which focus on the Ranger lifestyle and are highly recommended for any Ranger to read. You can view most of them in the Boar Clan guildhall, or click the links below to read them here:

IssQR

Quintessential Ranger

IstNRSA

No Ranger Stands Alone