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:
style="font-weight: bold;">1-10 style="font-weight: bold;">
- Acrobatic
- Alertness
- Athletic
- Bullheaded
- Cleave
- Combat Casting
- Combat Expertise
- Discipline
- Dodge
- Empower Healing Spell
style="font-weight: bold;">11-20 style="font-weight: bold;">
- 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
style="font-weight: bold;">21-30 style="font-weight: bold;">
- 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
- Lightning Reflexes
- Luck of the Heroes
- Many Shot
- Medium Armor Proficiency
- Mental Toughness
- Mobile Spellcasting
- Mobility
- Negotiator
- Nimble Fingers
- Point Blank Shot
- Power Attack
- Precise Shot
- Precision
- Quick Draw
- Quicken Spell
- Rapid Reload
- Rapid Shot
- Resilience
- Resist Poison
- Sap
- Self Sufficient
- Shield Mastery
- Shot on the Run
- Skill Focus
- Slicing Blow
- Snake Blood
- Spring Attack
- Stealthy
- Stunning Blow
- Toughness
- 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
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
Continue to Feats 11-20
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