Ranger

The rogue calling has an amazing range of versatility amongst its souls, and the Ranger may be as far from the typical stealthy backstabber as one can get. Relying on range, quickness and their deadly companion, the Marksman is at its best when the enemy is kept at a comfortable distance.

Pros

• Powerful pet is like having an extra party member
• Can unleash massive damage from afar
• Exceptional DPS
• Excellent soloing soul
  

Cons

• Relatively one dimensional
• Poor survival skills if pet is taken out.
• DPS diminishes when forced to move

Overview

The Ranger is a melee based ranged damage dealing soul in the rogue calling. Similar in approach to the Marksman, the Ranger prefers to keep their enemy at a distance and becomes less effective when the gap is closed. Unlike the Marksman however, the Ranger has a combat pet companion to help maintain that distance, but in turn sacrifices much of the raw damage output of the other archer soul.

Solo Play

The rogue calling is a veritable playground for those that love to strike out on their own as nearly every soul excels at it, but few can match the Ranger in solo prowess. By keeping foes at a comfortable distance and allowing their powerful pet to absorb the lions share of incoming damage, the Ranger chews through enemies and has little to no downtime. Players that enjoyed the Hunter in WoW would feel right at home with the Ranger 

Group Play

As we have discussed many times before in these overviews, the beauty of the Rift soul system is that you are never locked into playing one role. While the Ranger is perfectly capable of contributing to a group setting, they lose effectiveness in anything more advanced than an instanced dungeon or a basic rift. As a secondary pr tertiary soul however, the Ranger is a solid choice for practically every rogue due to a combat pet with zero points invested.  

Pairs Best With

Marksman

It is hard to think of two souls that pair better in Rift than the Ranger and the Marksman. Both rely on the exact same type of damage and both use very similar armor and weapons to get the job done. Many powerful ranged builds will use dip heavily into both souls to maximize effectiveness. Adding Single Minded Focus, Penetrating Shots, Increased Fire Power and Sharpshooter for a total of 18 points will net the biggest gains and push you over the threshold to achieve Marksman Pedestal – which is the real prize of this pairing.

Assassin

There is some debate as to the other prime pairing for the Ranger, with the camps divided between the Bard and the Assassin. I side with the Assassin advocates on this one as it serves to increase the main purpose of the Ranger – flat out damage. For a nominal amount of point input you can net some substantial gains. Consider investing in Murderous Intent, Magnify Pain and Cruel Vengeance for increased damage, a reactive damage increase for 10 seconds after scoring a critical hit and a flat 20% increase in critical hit damage respectively.