Ranger & TWF vs. Archery Powers

[Herschel]

Well, archer rangers do have one big benefit, they will be at range and not in melee. This is not listed as a class power, but it's something to think about. They can move around and shoot, climb somewhere to get perma combat advantage for a fight, and not get wailed on by all the monkeys near the paladin. TWF rangers may have an advantage in the overall dps section, at least in herioc tier, but its on average a difference of 1 point of damage. I think staying at range and living longer to dish out the hurt is more effective.

TWF rangers got toughness cuz they're gonna need it. The are prime targets when they get in melee, lower AC then the defenders and a big source of hurt for the bad guys. Who do you think they are gonna go after? I guess on paper it looks unfair, but once again, I find things go well when actually played.

**Edit** Also, archers only need 1 magic weapon and they are good to go. TWF Rangers are unlikely to have a matched set so half of their attacks are not going to be as accurate/damaging as the others.

This. Defensive mobility can be HUGE, depending on the DM. The builds are also very different. The hand-to-hand ranger is not going to max out DEX. The archer is generally much harder to hit than the melee ranger. Defensive Mobility can give the archer a truly impressive AC when scooting around.

 

[Herschel]

Hrm... the problem seems to be that Toughness is simply a better feat than Defensive Mobility, if you do the math.

If a ranger decides to grant opponents Opportunity Attacks, the chance that Defensive Mobility makes the difference between getting hit and not getting hit is only 10%. Since Toughness grants a flat 5hp bonus, the Archery Ranger needs to grant enough Opportunity Attacks in an encounter to equal an average of 50hp worth of attacks, before Defensive Mobility pays for itself.

What if Defensive Mobility granted a +5 AC against Opportunity Attacks instead of +2? I think that would bring it more in line with Toughness, and make the Archery ranger a viable alternative to the TB ranger.

Your math is completely whack here.

Completely.

 

[Aenghus]

I think Prime Shot is delberately designed to give the archer ranger a reason to close range sometimes.

An archer ranger started in my campaign recently, and I can see a danger with the class is that staying just within close range and using Twin strike is the best tactic much of the time, but could get boring if repeated ad infinitum.

Every class in 4e is supposed to get hit at some stage and use their healing surges. Archer rangers who max their Dex, (most of them) will have a decent AC and can , with good judgement, affort to advance to take advantage of prime shot.

Further, archer rangers will probably take some immediate reaction and interrupt powers that allow them to back off from melee attackers, and/or counterattack. A little teamwork with a defender can work out very well, the ranger falling back behind the defender.

Oh, and the direct comparison to a TFW ranger with bastard swords, is an archer ranger with a greatbow.