Guide to Ranger Feats

By Nuitaran



One of the most difficult quandaries in creating a ranger is the limited selection of Feats. Even a human ranger will only receive six Feats over his career to Level 12, and that makes for some very tough choices. Ten Ton Hammer is here to make your life easier, so we have gone through every single Feat available to the Ranger class – even the ones they get for free! We have rated the Feats below based on our experience as to which are going to be most helpful and useful. By now you probably know how we rate our DDO guides at Ten Ton Hammer. As usual, we have used our tried and true scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best.



A rating of 1 or 2 means the Feat is pretty much
useless to a ranger and one that you probably want to avoid. A rating
of 3 indicates that the Feat can be used with some careful planning or with certain class combinations. We reserve a rating of 4 only
for those Feats that are almost necessary picks for certain types of builds or class combinations. A rating of 5 designates the best of the ranger Feats and ones
players should seriously consider in any href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?meid=5#Builds">DDO build
involving rangers.



To help you navigate the many Feats, just click on
the range of Feats below to move to that spot in the guide:

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1. Acrobatic
2. Alertness
3. Athletic
4. Bullheaded
5. Cleave
6. Combat Casting
7. Combat Expertise
8. Discipline
9. Dodge
10. Empower Healing Spell

11. Eschew Materials
12. Exotic Weapon Proficiency
13. Extend Spell
14. Great Cleave
15. Great Fortitude
16. Greater Two Handed Fighting
17. Greater Two Weapon Fighting
    
18. Greater Weapon Focus
19. Heavy Armor Proficiency
20. Improved Critical

21. Improved Feint
22. Improved Mental Toughness
23. Improved Precise Shot
24. Improved Shield Bash
25. Improved Shield Mastery
26. Improved Sunder
27. Improved Trip
28. Improved Two Hand Fighting
29. Improved Two Weapon Fighting
30. Iron Will
    

31. Lightning Reflexes
32. Luck of the Heroes
33. Many Shot
34. Medium Armor Proficiency
35. Mental Toughness
36. Mobile Spellcasting
37. Mobility
38. Negotiator
39. Nimble Fingers
40. Point Blank Shot
    

41. Power Attack
42. Precise Shot
43. Precision
44. Quick Draw
45. Quicken Spell
46. Rapid Reload
47. Rapid Shot
48. Resilience
49. Resist Poison
50. Sap
    

51. Self Sufficient
52. Shield Mastery
53. Shot on the Run
54. Skill Focus
55. Slicing Blow
56. Snake Blood
57. Spring Attack
58. Stealthy
59. Stunning Blow
60. Toughness
    

61. Tower Shield Proficiency
62. Two Handed Fighting
63. Two Weapon Blocking
64. Two Weapon Defense
65. Weapon Finesse
66. Weapon Focus
67. Weapon Specialization
68. Whirlwind Attack

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1. Acrobatic
Official Text: "You have excellent body awareness and coordination. You receive a +2 bonus on Jump checks and Tumble checks."

Comments: This can easily be made up for with skill points.  With limited Feat selection, there are better options out there.

Rating: 1

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2. Alertness
Official Text: "You have finely tuned senses. You receive a +2 bonus on Listen checks and Spot checks."

Comments: This one could come in handy for a Rogue/Ranger multiclass, although it can be made up for with skill points.

Rating: 2

3. Athletic
Official Text: "You have a knack for athletic endeavors. You receive a +2 bonus on Balance checks and Swim checks."

Comments: Balance is becoming increasingly important in DDO thanks to the overuse of Trip by enemies, but doesn't warrant a Feat slot. A good Swim Skill is good for anybody, but items of Water Breathing are far too common to make this boost to the Swim Skill worthwhile.

Rating: 2

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4. Bullheaded
Official Text: "You are exceptionally headstrong and difficult to sway. You receive a +1 on all Will saves and +2 bonus on Intimidate checks."

Comments: For the most part, Rangers would want to avoid pulling too much aggro. There is no need to be generating more than you will pull with your bow or Two Weapon Fighting. If you really want the will save bonus, consider Discipline, or Iron Will instead.

Rating: 1

5. Cleave
Official Text: "Activate this ability to attack one or more enemies in an arc in front of you."

Prerequisite: Power Attack

Comments: This should be left to the Fighters.

Rating: 1

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6. Combat Casting
Official Text: “You gain a +4 bonus on Concentration checks when damaged in combat.”

Prerequisite: Able to cast spells

Comments: There shouldn’t ever be a time where casting spells in combat is important enough to a Ranger to warrant a Feat.  Most of a Rangers spells are situational, or backup.

Rating: 1

7. Combat Expertise
Official Text: "While using Combat Expertise mode, you trade your attack bonus for extra AC. Casting a spell ends this mode."

Prerequisite: Intelligence 13

Comments: Unless you really want to move on to Improved Trip, or Improved Sunder this is not a very useful selection for a Ranger.  You are not likely enough to be forced to fill a Tank roll in a group to justify using a valuable feat on this choice.  Leave it to the Fighters.

Rating: 1

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8. Discipline
Official Text: "You are difficult to distract with spell or blow. You receive a +1 on all Will saves and +2 bonus on Concentration checks."

Comments: Although better than Bullheaded for a Ranger, Concentration isn’t important enough to make this one viable. Consider Iron Will for a Will Save boost.

Rating: 2

9. Dodge
Official Text: "Grants you a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class."

Prerequisite: Dexterity 13

Comments: There's never anything wrong with Dodge as getting hit less means staying alive longer. It also leads to better Feats that are very useful for a Righter. This is a good one to get.

Rating: 5

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10. Empower Healing Spell  
Official Text: “While this metamagic feat is active, healing spells are more effective, but they consume additional spell points.”

Prerequisite: Able to cast healing spells

Comments: A Ranger won’t be healing enough via spells for this to really be worthwhile.  Barkskin is much better served as a Second Level spell than Cure Light Wounds, especially when you can get  better effect from a Cure Moderate Wounds wand and an item that grants the Devotion line of Cleric Enhancements.

Rating: 2