daddystabz
Explorer
I found these 2 ranger melee bad ass builds on other threads and am trying to pick which one I want to try. I am asking you all 4e experts to look at the 2 and tell me which build you think is superior/more effective and why.
Build 1) I saw this very nice 4e ranger build in another thread a few days ago:
"I like melee characters, and after looking over my books I came up with a pretty solid build that kicks butt as a striker but is as solid in defense as a defender, all while having more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
The core synergy is the ranger’s use of the Wisdom ability. It powers the ranger’s flashier moves, contributing to shifts, pushes, and various bonuses. Couple that with Pit Fighter, which has a 16th level feature that lets you add Wis to weapon damage, and you wind up with a heavy-hitting fellow that’s also light on his feet. And then add in the fact that many ranger powers let you make two attacks (effectively doubling the bonus from Pit Fighter), and you’ve got a ginsu-that-walks.
This build is up to 16th level. For future levels, keep bumping Wisdom and Strength. The 21st level bump will increment Con to 17, unlocking Axe Mastery (crit with axes on 19-20), which is good because at that level this guy’s crits would do an additional + 4d10 damage (on top of magic bonuses). With so many of his attack powers allowing two or more attack rolls, he’ll crit often.
So here he is: Irongorn, the heavy ranger.
Human Ranger
Paragon path: Pitfighter
Stats at 1st level:
Str 18
Con 14
Dex 11
Int 10
Wis 15
Cha 8
Stats at 16th level:
Str 22
Con 16
Dex 12
Int 11
Wis 18
Cha 9
Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception (human bonus), Streetwise (fighter skill)
Feats
Ranger bonus: Toughness
Human bonus: Chainmail
1st level: Scalemail
2nd level: Platemail
4th level: Two Weapon Fighting
6th level: Two Weapon Defense
8th level: Lethal Hunter
10th level: Fighter multiclass
11th level: Combat Anticipation
12th level: Weapon Focus: Battleaxe
14th level: Deadly Axe
16th level: Devastating Critical
Essential Equipment
Plate mail, two battleaxes (I’d go with a Terror axe for the primary and Lightning for the secondary, but for simplicity, we’ll assume all gear is basic and nonmagical)
Basic attack: Battleaxe, + 16, 1d10 + 13 (+ 8 level, +6 Str, +2 proficiency attack; + 6 Str, +4 Wis, +1 TWF, +2 Weapon Focus damage)
Crit: 23 damage + 3d10
+2d8 damage if hunter’s quarry
That’s a damage range of 14-23 on a single 1[w] attack, or 16-39 if the target is the quarry. The thing is, most every ranger attack power allows for more than one attack, and some do 2[w] or more per hit.
Defenses
AC 28 (10 base, +8 level, +8 armor, +1 TWD, +1 Pit Fighter armor optimization)
Fort: 26 (10 base, +8 level, +1 class, +6 str, +1 human)
Reflex: 22 (10 base, +8 level, +1 class, + 1 Dex, +1 TWD, +1 human)
Will: 23 (10 base, +8 level bonus, + 4 Wis, +1 human)
All defenses +1 vs anything except Melee attacks (Combat Anticipation)
Powers
At will:
Careful Attack (human bonus)
Nimble Strike
Twin Strike
Encounter:
P: All Bets Are Off (2[w], and make secondary attack)
13: Armor Splinter (two attacks, 1 [w] each. If one attack hits, target takes penalty to AC = Wis bonus. If both hit, it’s worse)
7: Sweeping Whirlwind (close burst 1, target all enemies in burst. 1[w], and push = Wis mod and knock prone)
3: Disruptive Strike (interrupt when you or ally attacked, 1[w] and target takes penalty to attack roll = 3 + Wis mod)
Daily:
15: Blade Cascade (keep rolling attacks until you roll a miss. 2[w] per attack)
9: Attacks on the Run (move and make two attacks, 3[w] per attack)
5: Two-Wolf Pounce (two attacks, then shift 2 and make third attack)
Utility:
P: Deadly Payback (reaction when damaged; gain +2 to attacks and damage vs opponent that damaged you until end of next turn)
16: Evade the Blow (interrupt when hit; shift 1)
10: Open the Range (interrupt when enemy moves adjacent; shift 1, then move = 1 + wis mod)
6: Weave through the Fray (interrupt when enemy moves adjacent; shift = wis mod)
2: Yield Ground (reaction when hit; shift = wis mod, and gain +2 to all defenses until end of next turn)
Paragon Action Point bonus: Extra Damage Action. When you spend an action point to take an extra action, add 1/2 level to the damage dealt by any of your standard action attacks this turn.
The synergies are great. The ideal scenario is to get attacked with an AoE that does half damage on a miss. Interrupt with Disruptive Strike, dealing damage and causing the attack to miss (but still do damage). That triggers Deadly Payback as a reaction. On your turn, begin by spending an action point to attack with Armor Splinter (with the +2 bonus from Deadly Payback, one attack is likely to hit) causing at least a 4 point penalty to armor class--remember to add 1/2 your level to the damage of each attack thanks to Extra Damage Action. Then for your normal standard action, finish the poor guy off with Blade Cascade. The bonus from Deadly Payback is still there, but now the target also has a penalty to AC. You can keep rolling attacks until you finally roll a miss, and since it’s all still the same turn you keep the damage bonuses from both Deadly Payback and from Extra Damage Action: a total of +10 damage. Since Blade Cascade is a 2[w] attack, each attack does 2d10+ 13 + 10 damage (a spread of 25-43 per hit, not counting magic weapons or criticals, or the +2d8 to the first attack from hunter's quarry).
Ouch."
Build 2) Here you go. This is how I would build it, at the moment. You don't get all the heavy armor feats and you end up wielding two scimitars. I lean toward feats that increase offense before defense and this build reflects that.
To use the combo AlienFromBeyond suggests you have to invest in Dex and there are quite a few useful blade feats, so in the end I stripped out most of the heavy armor feats. The one I did leave in, is taken late in Paragon when you're more likely to find chainmail that's actually better than Hide + Dex.
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger (Two-Blade)
Paragon Path: Pit Fighter
Epic Destiny: Demigod
Divine Spark (21st level) - Str and Wis, naturally.
Stats (Method 2)
Str 16
Con 13
Dex 14 (+2 racial)
Int 10
Wis 14 (+2 racial)
Cha 8
*Must put 1 point into Dex before level 21.
Feats
Class Bonus: Toughness
1st Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade)
2nd Two-Weapon Fighting
4th Lethal Hunter
6th Blade Opportunist
8th Two-Weapon Defense
10th Student of the Sword (Endurance)
----
11th Heavy Blade Opportunity
12th Scimitar Dance
14th Blood Thirst
16th Devastating Critical
18th Armor Proficiency (Chainmail)
20th Combat Anticipation
----
21th Two-Weapon Flurry
22th Heavy Blade Mastery
24th Triumphant Attack
26th Blind-Fight
28th Epic Resurgence
30th Flanking Maneuver
Powers
At Will
1st Hit and Run
1st Twin Strike
Encounter
Racial: Elven Accuracy
1st Evasive Strike
3rd Thundertusk Boar Strike
7th Sweeping Whirlwind (Retrain: Thundertusk Boar Strike -> Cut and Run)
11th Paragon: All Bets Are Off
Replacements
13th Evasive Strike -> Armor Splinter
17th Cut and Run -> Two-Weapon Eviscerate
23th Two-Weapon Eviscerate -> Cloak of Thorns
27th Sweeping Whirlwind -> Wandering Tornado
Daily
1st Jaws of the Wolf
5th Two-Wolf Pounce
9th Attacks on the Run
20th Paragon: Lion of Battle
Replacements
15th Jaws of the Wolf -> Blade Cascade
19th Two-Wolf Pounce -> Cruel Cage of Steel
25th Nothing this level. Attacks on the Run is better than Bloodstorm any day.
29th I think I'll pass again. Here's hoping for better high level dailies.
Utility
2nd Unbalancing Parry
6th Weave through the Fray
10th Expeditious Stride
12th Paragon: Deadly Payback
16th Momentary Respite
22nd Master of the Hunt
26th Epic: Divine Regeneration
Who wins?!!?!?!?
Build 1) I saw this very nice 4e ranger build in another thread a few days ago:
"I like melee characters, and after looking over my books I came up with a pretty solid build that kicks butt as a striker but is as solid in defense as a defender, all while having more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
The core synergy is the ranger’s use of the Wisdom ability. It powers the ranger’s flashier moves, contributing to shifts, pushes, and various bonuses. Couple that with Pit Fighter, which has a 16th level feature that lets you add Wis to weapon damage, and you wind up with a heavy-hitting fellow that’s also light on his feet. And then add in the fact that many ranger powers let you make two attacks (effectively doubling the bonus from Pit Fighter), and you’ve got a ginsu-that-walks.
This build is up to 16th level. For future levels, keep bumping Wisdom and Strength. The 21st level bump will increment Con to 17, unlocking Axe Mastery (crit with axes on 19-20), which is good because at that level this guy’s crits would do an additional + 4d10 damage (on top of magic bonuses). With so many of his attack powers allowing two or more attack rolls, he’ll crit often.
So here he is: Irongorn, the heavy ranger.
Human Ranger
Paragon path: Pitfighter
Stats at 1st level:
Str 18
Con 14
Dex 11
Int 10
Wis 15
Cha 8
Stats at 16th level:
Str 22
Con 16
Dex 12
Int 11
Wis 18
Cha 9
Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception (human bonus), Streetwise (fighter skill)
Feats
Ranger bonus: Toughness
Human bonus: Chainmail
1st level: Scalemail
2nd level: Platemail
4th level: Two Weapon Fighting
6th level: Two Weapon Defense
8th level: Lethal Hunter
10th level: Fighter multiclass
11th level: Combat Anticipation
12th level: Weapon Focus: Battleaxe
14th level: Deadly Axe
16th level: Devastating Critical
Essential Equipment
Plate mail, two battleaxes (I’d go with a Terror axe for the primary and Lightning for the secondary, but for simplicity, we’ll assume all gear is basic and nonmagical)
Basic attack: Battleaxe, + 16, 1d10 + 13 (+ 8 level, +6 Str, +2 proficiency attack; + 6 Str, +4 Wis, +1 TWF, +2 Weapon Focus damage)
Crit: 23 damage + 3d10
+2d8 damage if hunter’s quarry
That’s a damage range of 14-23 on a single 1[w] attack, or 16-39 if the target is the quarry. The thing is, most every ranger attack power allows for more than one attack, and some do 2[w] or more per hit.
Defenses
AC 28 (10 base, +8 level, +8 armor, +1 TWD, +1 Pit Fighter armor optimization)
Fort: 26 (10 base, +8 level, +1 class, +6 str, +1 human)
Reflex: 22 (10 base, +8 level, +1 class, + 1 Dex, +1 TWD, +1 human)
Will: 23 (10 base, +8 level bonus, + 4 Wis, +1 human)
All defenses +1 vs anything except Melee attacks (Combat Anticipation)
Powers
At will:
Careful Attack (human bonus)
Nimble Strike
Twin Strike
Encounter:
P: All Bets Are Off (2[w], and make secondary attack)
13: Armor Splinter (two attacks, 1 [w] each. If one attack hits, target takes penalty to AC = Wis bonus. If both hit, it’s worse)
7: Sweeping Whirlwind (close burst 1, target all enemies in burst. 1[w], and push = Wis mod and knock prone)
3: Disruptive Strike (interrupt when you or ally attacked, 1[w] and target takes penalty to attack roll = 3 + Wis mod)
Daily:
15: Blade Cascade (keep rolling attacks until you roll a miss. 2[w] per attack)
9: Attacks on the Run (move and make two attacks, 3[w] per attack)
5: Two-Wolf Pounce (two attacks, then shift 2 and make third attack)
Utility:
P: Deadly Payback (reaction when damaged; gain +2 to attacks and damage vs opponent that damaged you until end of next turn)
16: Evade the Blow (interrupt when hit; shift 1)
10: Open the Range (interrupt when enemy moves adjacent; shift 1, then move = 1 + wis mod)
6: Weave through the Fray (interrupt when enemy moves adjacent; shift = wis mod)
2: Yield Ground (reaction when hit; shift = wis mod, and gain +2 to all defenses until end of next turn)
Paragon Action Point bonus: Extra Damage Action. When you spend an action point to take an extra action, add 1/2 level to the damage dealt by any of your standard action attacks this turn.
The synergies are great. The ideal scenario is to get attacked with an AoE that does half damage on a miss. Interrupt with Disruptive Strike, dealing damage and causing the attack to miss (but still do damage). That triggers Deadly Payback as a reaction. On your turn, begin by spending an action point to attack with Armor Splinter (with the +2 bonus from Deadly Payback, one attack is likely to hit) causing at least a 4 point penalty to armor class--remember to add 1/2 your level to the damage of each attack thanks to Extra Damage Action. Then for your normal standard action, finish the poor guy off with Blade Cascade. The bonus from Deadly Payback is still there, but now the target also has a penalty to AC. You can keep rolling attacks until you finally roll a miss, and since it’s all still the same turn you keep the damage bonuses from both Deadly Payback and from Extra Damage Action: a total of +10 damage. Since Blade Cascade is a 2[w] attack, each attack does 2d10+ 13 + 10 damage (a spread of 25-43 per hit, not counting magic weapons or criticals, or the +2d8 to the first attack from hunter's quarry).
Ouch."
Build 2) Here you go. This is how I would build it, at the moment. You don't get all the heavy armor feats and you end up wielding two scimitars. I lean toward feats that increase offense before defense and this build reflects that.
To use the combo AlienFromBeyond suggests you have to invest in Dex and there are quite a few useful blade feats, so in the end I stripped out most of the heavy armor feats. The one I did leave in, is taken late in Paragon when you're more likely to find chainmail that's actually better than Hide + Dex.
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger (Two-Blade)
Paragon Path: Pit Fighter
Epic Destiny: Demigod
Divine Spark (21st level) - Str and Wis, naturally.
Stats (Method 2)
Str 16
Con 13
Dex 14 (+2 racial)
Int 10
Wis 14 (+2 racial)
Cha 8
*Must put 1 point into Dex before level 21.
Feats
Class Bonus: Toughness
1st Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade)
2nd Two-Weapon Fighting
4th Lethal Hunter
6th Blade Opportunist
8th Two-Weapon Defense
10th Student of the Sword (Endurance)
----
11th Heavy Blade Opportunity
12th Scimitar Dance
14th Blood Thirst
16th Devastating Critical
18th Armor Proficiency (Chainmail)
20th Combat Anticipation
----
21th Two-Weapon Flurry
22th Heavy Blade Mastery
24th Triumphant Attack
26th Blind-Fight
28th Epic Resurgence
30th Flanking Maneuver
Powers
At Will
1st Hit and Run
1st Twin Strike
Encounter
Racial: Elven Accuracy
1st Evasive Strike
3rd Thundertusk Boar Strike
7th Sweeping Whirlwind (Retrain: Thundertusk Boar Strike -> Cut and Run)
11th Paragon: All Bets Are Off
Replacements
13th Evasive Strike -> Armor Splinter
17th Cut and Run -> Two-Weapon Eviscerate
23th Two-Weapon Eviscerate -> Cloak of Thorns
27th Sweeping Whirlwind -> Wandering Tornado
Daily
1st Jaws of the Wolf
5th Two-Wolf Pounce
9th Attacks on the Run
20th Paragon: Lion of Battle
Replacements
15th Jaws of the Wolf -> Blade Cascade
19th Two-Wolf Pounce -> Cruel Cage of Steel
25th Nothing this level. Attacks on the Run is better than Bloodstorm any day.
29th I think I'll pass again. Here's hoping for better high level dailies.
Utility
2nd Unbalancing Parry
6th Weave through the Fray
10th Expeditious Stride
12th Paragon: Deadly Payback
16th Momentary Respite
22nd Master of the Hunt
26th Epic: Divine Regeneration
Who wins?!!?!?!?
I edited the original post here: 
