Ranger: Guide to Ranger Feats 1-10

Tags: in

Updated Fri, Feb 13, 2009 by Shayalyn

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 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:

Ranger Feats
1-10

Acrobatic
Alertness
Athletic
Bullheaded
Cleave
Combat Casting
Combat Expertise
Discipline
Dodge
Empower Healing Spell

Ranger Feats
11-20

Eschew Materials
Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Extend Spell
Great Cleave
Great Fortitude
Greater Two Handed Fighting
Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Greater Weapon Focus
Heavy Armor Proficiency
Improved Critical

Ranger Feats
21-30

Improved Feint
Improved Mental Toughness
Improved Precise Shot
Improved Shield Bash
Improved Shield Mastery
Improved Sunder
Improved Trip
Improved Two Hand Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Iron Will

Ranger Feats
31-40

Lightning Reflexes
Luck of the Heroes
Many Shot
Medium Armor Proficiency
Mental Toughness
Mobile Spellcasting
Mobility
Negotiator
Nimble Fingers
Point Blank Shot

Ranger Feats
41-50

Power Attack
Precise Shot
Precision
Quick Draw
Quicken Spell
Rapid Reload
Rapid Shot
Resilience
Resist Poison
Sap

Ranger Feats
51-60

Self Sufficient
Shield Mastery
Shot on the Run
Skill Focus
Slicing Blow
Snake Blood
Spring Attack
Stealthy
Stunning Blow
Toughness

Ranger Feats
61-68

Tower Shield Proficiency
Two Handed Fighting
Two Weapon Blocking
Two Weapon Defense
Weapon Finesse
Weapon Focus
Weapon Specialization
Whirlwind Attack

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

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

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

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 Showdown
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

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

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