Hunter and Marauder builds, seem cool, but confused

[Otterscrubber]

I'm having trouble understanding the new hunter and marauder builds and was hoping folks could post some builds to help me wrap my head around an effective setup.

Hunter: Supposed to be able to alternate melee and ranged.

Marauder: Same but different somehow? Seems to depend more on throwing weapons, but how can you throw a weapon round after round without losing it or carrying so much of them that it becomes laughable as a concept.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

As i understand, the marauder build focusses on strength and uses thrown weapons and onehanded weapons to deal masses of damage... the Hunter however makes use of a good 2handed weapon and a bow and focusses on dexterity, even with melee attacks. He has the special ability to sheath weapons fast and gains quick draw as a bonus feat.

 

[Prism]

The hunter is a dex build that has a ranged emphasis due to there being more choice of powers with a few melee ones. The original archery build like to get up close to at least one opponent on its own to get the prime shot. This one is happy skirting around the back of combat can get stuck into the middle of massed melee and has ways to extract themself if needed

The marauder build is a strength build that also likes mobility (hence the similarity I guess) and in particular charging. The two new at wills are basically a slant on twin stike - 2 attacks, throw and charge. I'm not sure how many throwing powers would be needed. Maybe one of the encounter powers. Magic throwing weapons all return to hand so no need for more than one

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I
Marauder: Same but different somehow? Seems to depend more on throwing weapons, but how can you throw a weapon round after round without losing it or carrying so much of them that it becomes laughable as a concept.

Magic thrown weapons return to your hand every time you throw them. You only need one thrown weapon.

 

[1of3]

Seems to depend more on throwing weapons, but how can you throw a weapon round after round without losing it or carrying so much of them that it becomes laughable as a concept.

All magic thrown weapons return to you.

 

[DracoSuave]

Both Ranger builds are 'hybrid', being both ranged and melee, but they have two different focuses:

Hunter uses Dex-based melee to get into ranged, and Marauder uses Str-based ranged to get into melee.

 

[Benlo]

A Talenta or Xen'drick weapon user would be a pretty dandy Marauder, given their Weapon Training feats can give them profiency with a mundane boomerang(that returns, of course) at level 1 with a +2 to the damage roll, all with one feat. Granted, the Talenta one is only 1d4, and the Xen'drick one suffers from 6/12 range(odd), but both are still pretty decent choices for Drow and Halfling Rangers.

 

[mkill]

Hunter is interesting, it allows you to build a Dex/Wis ranger and still get a few melee powers. From a quick glance at the powers it appears they focus on control, with slow and mobility effects. This allows you to pin down an enemy, move out of range, switch to javelin / bow, and keep shooting.

Marauder is a variant of the 2WF ranger. Instead of a full-size off-hand weapon, you use a small thrown weapon like an axe or a throwing hammer. Tactics involve a lot of throw - charge into melee - get out - throw - charge - get out ...

Interestingly, the flail weapon style in MP2 seems to be aimed at Marauders. Which would be great for my flail-swinging dragonborn TWF ranger, except that he's 2WF. And the feats aren't good enough to make me switch.

 

[oakbriar]

They seem like they are supposed to be fixes for the MAD problem but I don't know how I really feel about them. I was really excited for the Hunter because I always felt Rangers should be a full Dex-based class. I mean, TWF would take a lot more coordination than it would brute strength.

Then the Dex-based melee build comes out and its... using 2h weapons?! I think I would have preferred it the other way around, the TWF w/ thrown build as Dex based and the Bow+Executioner Axe build as Str based.

Plus there isn't really any support for Hunter build. One Combat style (plus a couple others that let you use Str encounter powers as Dex) and no real usable PP except for the archer ones.

Also, I would say that the idea behind the Hunter in combat is opposite to what has already been mentioned. All the Hunter-esque daily powers are ranged, and give a bonus to subsequent melee attacks against the enemy. So it's more like: pop him a few times with arrows then poke him a few times with a knife (erm... well, fullblade I suppose).

(Edit) AND (I'm starting to rant now...) The +4 vs OA for ranged attacks seems kinda dumb since they made it incredibly easy for Hunters to NOT make ranged attacks in melee...

 

[JohnSnow]

I wouldn't say the new styles are confused. Rather, they're a vast improvement in options. IMO, the Archer style is now the weakest of all the Ranger options, even for dedicated archers. That isn't to say that archer rangers are weak; far from it. It's just that the Hunter Fighting Style is, strictly speaking, simply a better choice for archers. Except for losing out on a couple paragon paths, it costs the character nothing, and provides both extra benefits & additional options for the character.

Let's review, shall we? A Ranger with the Hunter Fighting Style has all the benefits of Quick Draw and, in addition, can sheathe weapons as a free action and gets a +4 to AC against any OAs he provokes by making ranged attacks. The ranger who takes the Archer Fighting Style has defensive mobility as a bonus feat. That's it.

That makes the archer style pretty weak in comparison. All the other options provide some added benefit you can't get from a feat. Beast Mastery rangers get a pet, Marauders get a bonus to speed, and the Two Weapon guys get the ability to use one-handed weapons in their off-hand. I already went over the Hunter above. The Archer gets...Defensive Mobility: a feat any other ranger can take (although as I said above, the Hunter already gets the most important benefit that feat provides an archer, but with a better bonus). I suppose there are also a couple archer-style specific paragon paths, but there are plenty of other good ones. And, of course, the Hunter who opts to take Defensive Mobility would find its AC bonus stacks with the one from his Fighting Style.

I think people fail to notice how versatile the Ranger actually is. Many of the powers, even in the PHB, go both ways. Any race that provides bonuses to two of strength, dexterity, and wisdom can diversify their powers and do just fine. Bear in mind that a ranger needs a dex of 14 in order equal the AC of chain, so the average dex ranger just isn't going to happen. The average strength ranger is a possibility, but until the release of MP2, such a character was confined to ranged combat.

Up until now, versatility seems to have been a very-underrated class attribute in 4e. But recall that in previous editions, flexibility seemed to determine class power. There was even a point (Red Box) where the fighter was considered the strongest low-level class, although the magic-user clearly took over at high levels. And why did that happen? It can largely be summed up in a single word: versatility.

And that seems to be what MP2 is all about - for all the classes. The rogue and warlord now have archer options, whereas the ranger has some new weapon tricks for non-archers. And while the brawler fighter is back, it unfortunately doesn't look like the archer fighter is going to make a comeback. Throw in the Weapon Style feats, and this truly looks like the "versatilty book" for the martial classes.

My two cents.