Ranger Session Play
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Contents |
Introduction
"Rangers are the decendants of the men of the west, they are deadly with stealth and adept at long range attacks."
Ranger session play is begun by speaking with one of the 2 quest bestowers located in Glân Vraig: Uirnen, who will provide a ranger session if one is available through the quest Aid from the Rangers, and Gulbis, who will provide access to a second ranger session via the quest Against the Stone-foe.
The availability of ranger sessions is gated by the new population mechanic in the Ettenmoors introduced with The Mines of Moria expansion.
Monster Players : Free Peoples Players
1 : 1 --> No session available
1.5 : 1 --> No session available
2 : 1 --> One session available
3 : 1 --> Two sessions availabe
Both rangers you can play as look almost exactly the same (slight color variation on the front armour and on the cloak) and have the same stats and attacks.
| Always Available Ranger | Second Ranger (available when holding 2 or less keeps) |
|---|---|
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 click to view larger images |  click to view larger images |
Starting a Ranger Session
In order to start a ranger session, you have to talk to one of the quest givers in Glân Vraig and "pay" 3.000 Destiny Points (compared to the 5.000 Destiny Points it takes to play a Troll) to get the quest to begin a session.
The quests given by one of the two ranger NPCs have a start and a finish, so if you don't visit the quest giver after the session is over, the next time you try and play a ranger, you will have the incomplete quest to turn in which will then start the 11 hour "retry" timer -- as in you will not be able to play the session at that time.
Once you have acquired the Quest, you can start the session at any time, even if your side is no longer outnumbered.
If both ranger sessions are available, you can play one, then play the other session. You can also switch between your normal game characters (main/twinks) to play a session on a different character.
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Ranger Attacks and Skills
The attack hotkey bar comes pre-filled with the attacks in the order shown. Here is an overview of the attacks and what they do:
| Icon | Attack/Skill Name | Attack Type/Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-combat skills | |||
| Ranger stealth | Enters Stealth Mode (Movement speed reduced to 50%). | IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER ever go to close to a flag when in stealth mode - you WILL be discovered. |
| Misallocation | In-combat stealth mode - Adds +10 to stealth | You will not be discovered when taking damage for a short time. This skill has a 10m cooldown. |
| Melee attacks | |||
| Dúnadan's Strike | 3m range, Melee attack (300-500 common damage) | The only melee skill the ranger has. This attack will knock down and stun the target for 4-6 seconds. |
| Buff skills | |||
| Blood of the Dúnedain | Self-heal skill. Instantly heals 400-500 morale. Heals 400-500 morale every 4 seconds for 30 seconds. | This skill can easily be used when you are surrounded by enemies striking you - it won't be interrupted unless you are knocked down. |
| Debuff skills | |||
| Dúnedain Mark | Target: -15% Evade Chance, -15% Block Chance. Toggle on/off. 5s cooldown. | Only one target at a time. This skill is prerequisite for Fly True (Only a target marked with Dúnedain Mark can be hit with Fly True |
| Ranged attacks | |||
| Fly True | 40m range, 4.000-6.000 light damage + high DoT. 1m cooldown. Can only be used when in stealth mode, and only on targets marked with Dúnedain Mark. | The ranger´s most powerful attack. This attack takes quite a long time to fire, but instantly kills most Monster Players. |
| Dagger Throw | 20m range. 600-800 common damage. 1m cooldown. | Can be used out of stealth mode. Slows down a fleeing enemy. |
| Righteousness Arrow | Does 300-500 fire damage + fire DoT. 10s cooldown. 40m range. | Can be used out of stealth mode. |
Playing as a Ranger
General
Your ranger`s "difficulty rank" is "Master Defender", the equivalent to "Elite Master". This means you are basically running around playing a boss npc - and you can easily solo bosses of equal or about 20.000 higher morale than you. You can one-hit most "Normal" and "Signature" monsters, and can take on quite a lot of them at once. When killing NPCs, you will be rewarded with Destiny Points. Big deal, because the reward is extremely low (killing an elite troll for example will be rewarded with 10-15 destiny points). So if you thought you could earn some easy Destiny points via the ranger session, forget about it. Defeating Monster player characters makes more sense since you can earn destiny points by fulfilling traits (Kill 20 MPs - reward 500 destiny points) and assist freeps in earning renown. But the main purpose of playing as a ranger is helping out the freep raids in the Ettenmoors. Rangers can make it extremely easy for a raid of player characters to take any of the keeps (except Tol Ascarnen), see the keep strategies below. Also, rangers can easily spot stealthed warg packs when stealthed themselves and warn the raid they´re accompanying. Rangers don´t have horses, so they´re pretty slow compared to the rest of the raid. Raids will usually have to wait for the ranger to arrive before trying to take a keep. It´s a good idea to wait in some distance to the keep so the creeps won´t be alerted to soon.
Fighting
When fighting enemies who have 20.000 morale or higher, you will run out of attacks pretty fast and find yourself auto-attacking only. The only skill that has a short cooldown is Righteousness Arrow. Your auto-attacks are still quite powerful, they will fill in nicely while waiting for the cooldowns to expire. If you get down to 25.000 morale, use Blood of the Dúnedain. This will get your morale up to approximately 30.000 again and will be ready for use at about 15.000 again. This gives you enough time to finish the fight. If you decide to flee, use Blood of the Dúnedain before you start running to "absorb" incoming damage. Since you have no AoE attacks, focus on one target at a time. You can handle up to 10 signature orcs or 2 elite trolls if you use your skill at the right time. Before you attack, mark the strongest target with Dúnedain Mark and then use Fly True on it. It is a good idea to first get rid of the strongest enemy, then deal with the ones who have the lowest morale (they go down fast) and finally the remaining ones. Remember, if you get in trouble, you can use Misallocation for an easy escape.
What Rangers can do
Here's a list of things rangers can do:
- Survive 5 hits from the guards next to the rally points and the gates of Gramsfoot
- Solo any NPC with less than 80.000 morale
- Take any of the outposts alone
- Clear the downstairs of Lugazag/Tirith Raw
- Solo Gorgoris
- Clear Grothum
- Effectively tank a tyrant
- Clear the lower part of Dâr-gazag
Dead!
If you die, don't worry, your session won't end - unless you`ve died the third time. You will have to retreat since freeps can`t revive you. You'll either respawn on the next rally point or in Glân Vraig, depending on how many keeps are under freep control. The disadvantages are:
- You are probably far away from where the battle was taking place, and till you get there it might be over.
- You will not get two Tokens of Valour back when finishing the quest.
Taking keeps
There are two main strategies for taking a keep (Lugazag or Tirith Raw) with a ranger:
- Complete pull
and
- Boss area pull
Complete pull
When using this strategy, the raid gathers behind the ranger at the front gate. EVERYONE in the raid has to stick together as close as possible. A lore-master should give the ranger stun-immunity. The course of pulling the keep is the following: The ranger runs into the fort, up the stairs, round the corner to the left and into the boss area. The raid follows about one or two meters behind. IMPORTANT: No buffs are to be used when running up: no healing, no rooting, no buffing at all. Once the raid is in the boss area, they gather in the left corner (right after entering, go directly left), and stay there. Then, a hunter pulls the tyrant. The ranger uses Misallocation and moves slowly towards the raid. If all this works out fine, the whole keep will reset, and only the tyrant will be pulled and aggroing the raid. It is important to keep the tyrant in the corner, otherwise adds might be pulled. The ranger should use Fly True on the tyrant, and take the aggro if possible. One healer should be enough to keep you up when you use Blood of the Dúnedain as soon as the cooldown expires.
Boss area pull
This strategy is a lot like the first one. The main difference is this: After having pulled all the NPCs except those in the boss area, the ranger stays in front boss room and fights. Meanwhile, the raid gathers behind the boxes in the right upper corner (after the stairs, go straight up to the outer wall, then right). Now the raid kills off one NPC after another while the ranger uses Blood of the Dúnedain as often as possible to stay alive. If necessary, a minstrel can support the ranger. Once all NPCs are down, the ranger runs into the boss area and pulls all NPCs including the tyrant and runs around there. A hunter then shoots the tyrant to pull him out of the boss area. Once the tyrant has been pulled and aggroes the raid, the ranger uses Misallocation and moves out of the boss area. The NPCs will reset and the raid can focus on killing the tyrant. The ranger should use Fly True on the tyrant, and take the aggro if possible. One healer should be enough to keep you up when you use Blood of the Dúnedain as soon as the cooldown expires.
Taking the Grimwood Lumber Camp
Taking the Lumber Camp is quite easy with a ranger. The raid first gathers on the hill just south of the eastern gate. Now the ranger pulls the NPCs standing at the gate towards the raid to finish them off. Next, one or two hunters should get ready to pull the tyrant. A lore-master should give the ranger stun-immunity. The ranger runs inside the camp, pulls the tyrant (big troll) and his cute friends out the eastern gate. Here, he can either stay and fight a random NPC (NOT the tyrant) or run around like a chicken. The hunter/s shoot the tyrant and pull him up the hill and into the raid who begins attacking him. Now the ranger quits running around/fighting and uses Misallocation. Then he moves towards the raid to help the finish off the tyrant while the rest of the NPCs resets without wondering where their boss went.
Taking the Isendeep Mine
This is probably the easiest "keep" to take since there are only two adds standing next to the tyrant. The raid should gather first to the right when looking towards the tyrant (there´s a little sideway with 1-2 goblins and one box of ore). Then, the ranger or a hunter pulls the first row of NPCs. After they are down, the ranger runs towards the tyrant and pulls one of the adds. A hunter shoots the tyrant to pull him. Now the ranger uses Misallocation. Then he moves towards the raid to help the finish off the tyrant. The ranger should use Fly True on the tyrant, and take the aggro if possible. One healer should be enough to keep you up when you use Blood of the Dúnedain as soon as the cooldown expires.
Tol Ascarnen
Tol Ascarnen is the biggest keep in the Ettenmoors, and the hardest one to take. When trying to conquer Tol Ascarnen (TA), there are many things to pay attention to:
Starting points
A good rally point for the raid is the Elf Camp (EC) just south-east of the southern TA brigde. Here, the raid is comparatively safe and under strong NPC protection, and if the assault goes ill, it´s a neat place to retreat to. The problem with starting at EC is the followig: The creeps will expect you to come from there, so surprising them will be hard.
Another good starting spot is the western Tirith Rhaw flag. This flag is out of TA sight hidden behind large rocks. Stealthed wargs will be detected when they come to close to the flag, so you will be pretty safe there, too. Your assault should go trough the western TA ford (past the neekerbreekers) and through the western gate, avoiding the southern bridge.
A third good spot to start at is the southern TA flag right south the Orc Camp (OC). Swimming through the river, you can attack from the south which will usually be a total surprise to the defenders.
Gates
Forget about attacking the southern gate, it will usually have boiling oil and Blackarrows upstairs, making it hard to enter without great losses. Try the eastern or western gate, they are less defended and don´t have oil. When attacking a gate, the ranger should True shoot a troll while the raid deals with the adds. Everyone should stand as close as possible to the outer wall so no upstairs archer can shoot you. Once the entrance has been cleared, everyone should move in and let the guardians and the ranger pull the next small groups of enemies, working their way towards the center courtyard.
TA Hornblower
The TA Hornblower is a signature NPC who will summon up to 5 elite trolls when he spots enemies. He will run up to the Horn of Tol Ascarnen and blow it to call the reinforcements. The horn itself can be destroyed, it has around 40.000 morale. The ranger can easily take the hornblower out with Fly True, or a Lore-master can stun him and the raid focus-damages him down.
The stairs
Once the hornblower is down, move towards the stairs. Clear the first platform, then take the right stair with the ranger going first. Deal with the NPCs and continue your way up until you reach the upstairs platform next to the boss area. Take down the three trolls (Ranger tanking the Chieftain), and regenerate there once the battle is over.
Taking down the tyrant
As soon as everyone is ready, you (the ranger) run inside and attack one of the tyrant's adds. Pull them just so close towards the raid so a hunter can shoot the tyrant to pull him out of the boss area (on the upper stairs platform where the chieftain was) and into the raid. Have a guardian tank him. Now the ranger uses Misallocation and moves to the raid. The NPCs except the tyrant will reset. Now you can decide whether you let the guardian who tanked the tyrant finish his job or let the ranger take over. Either way, avoid having anyone die, for each dead freep will give the tyrant a strong buff. If neccessary, players can jump out the western windows when in danger of dying. That way, it should be no problem to take the tyrant down.
What if Monster Players show up
First thing: Don't panic. Let the ranger scare them away by True shooting their leader (if you can figure out who it is, if not just shoot a random red Warleader). Have your guardians tank the strongest NPCs. The rest of the raid takes care of the creeps. If they show up while you are taking down the tyrant, all hunters should keep constant fire on their healers so the tyrant won't be healed. Everyone else should try to finish the tyrant as fast as possible. Do not chase the creeps anywhere, you might pull additional NPCs.
What if they bring a Troll
So they brought a Troll, huh? Big deal. Most trolls will just rush into your raid and do AoE damage. Have a Loremaster stun the troll if possible. If not, at least power drain him, but don't hurt him and stay on the tyrant. As soon as he starts bugging your minstrels, it's time to get rid of him. Drain all power he has left, have a burglar start a conjunction and go all yellow or go for Break the Door. Focus all damage on him and have the ranger tank the tyrant meanwhile. Remember, if you kill him, he will be back in approximately two minutes, depending on how far he had to run. If the creeps control Tirith Rhaw or Lugazag, it will just a little more than one minute. Try to take down the tyrant before he comes back.
What if you die
When your ranger is defeated, retreat and run back as fast as you can - the raid was probably relying on you to help take down the tyrant. If you meet any monster players, try to take them out so they won`t reinforce TA.
Other places in The Ettenmoors
Other than the five keeps, there are some more locations in the Ettenmoors that are worth visiting for rangers:
Elf Camp (EC)
This camp is just south of STAB (south tol ascarnen bridge) and holds a few freep NPCs and a flag monster players can capture and place in Tol Ascarnen to reinforce the keep with additional defenders. This camp is a rally point for freeps when Tol Ascarnen is held by the creeps.
South TA Bridge (STAB)
The southern Tol Ascarnen bridge is held by freepside most of the time because it can be flipped solo by the freeps with the help of the NPCs from EC. There is always action going on between STAB and TA when TA is held by creepside (as it is most of the time). If you want to help the freeps or just want to have some fun beating up monster players, this is the place to go.
East TA Bridge (ETAB)
The eastern Tol Ascarnen Bridge, similar to STAB. Thsi bridge is usually held by creepside due to its closeness to Orc Camp (OC). If TA has been captured by the freeps, most of the fighting will flip from STAB to ETAB.
Orc Camp (OC)
The counterpart of EC, located east of TA. If TA is held by creepside, rangers can handle this camp alone - monster players who felt safe inside are in for a surprise!
Grothum
Goblin camp north-east of Ost Ringdyr and west of the Isendeep Mine. Holds a few quests for monster players, but is hardly visited by anyone. If you want to have fun killing NPCs without being interrupted by monster players, this is your spot.
Hoarhallow
Hobbit village east of Grimwood Lumber Camp. Monster players go there for questing, especially low-ranking creeps.
Ost Ringdyr
Quest hub for freeps, uninteresting for rangers - except if there's a creep raid attacking here.
Dâr-gazag
If you are looking for a challenge, a way to prove you have mastered ranger session play, come to Dâr-gazag! Locaed east of TA and south-east of Lugazag, this keep is packed with creep NPCs - and is a major quest hub for creeps. If you can make it to the tyrant you can be sure to have mastered this session play class.
Fighting Monster Players
Since you have very high morale, you can easily handle 4-5 Monster Players. It depends on their rank and class how hard it gets.
Orc Reavers
When unsupported by a healer class, Orc Reavers go down comparatively fast. Right, they can escape you with Charge!, but stunning them with Dúnadan's Strike will give you enough time to finish them off. Green and blue reavers will be instantly killed by Fly True, red ones usually need just a Dagger Throw after being hit by Fly True, but you might let some near freeps finish the job because getting killed by a ranger won't hurt the creep as much as receiving a killing blow from a player character.
Orc Defilers
The main creep supporter, he should be your secondary target when aiding a freep raid fighting a horde of Monster Players. If you stay hidden and surprise him with Fly True, he has basically no chance since he's probably busy healing his group or debuffing the freeps. Remember, you have to mark him with Dúnedain Mark first, that might give you away since True Shot takes quite long to fire. If he survives (red defilers tend to do so), rush in and finish him with Dagger Throw and Arrow of Righteousness.
Uruk Blackarrows
Your easiest target amongst the hordes of Angmar. Even red Blackarrows usually have just about 5.000 morale, so sneak up as close as possible, use Fly True (use your other two ranged skills in case he survives).
Uruk Warleaders
Warleaders are quite hard to kill, since they can self-heal pretty fast. These guys shold be your primary target when aiding freep raids since they can revive up to 5 creeps and have some good healing abilities. Also, they can use Field Promotion to bubble on of their fellows, keeping them from harm. Being the main creep tank, even blue ones have a good chance of surviving Fly True. You can sneak up to them, True shoot them and stun them with Dúnadan's Strike. While they are stunned, auto-attack them until they start running. Now use Dagger Throw (can be used while running) and Righteousness Arrow as often as possible while chasing him. That way, he should go down pretty fast.
Warg Stalkers
Your worst enemies! When in stealth mode, they have a good chance of spotting you when you are sneaking. So you can´t really surprise them with True Shot. Since most wargs are pretty cowardly and keen on keeping their stars, they will run as soon as they see you. On the other hand, they can´t really hide from you as well: When in stealth mode, you will be able to detect ALL(!) stealthed wargs. This way, you can be an immense help to a raid of freeps, acting as their warg-detector (Yeah I know hunters can scan for wargs but they have to be out of combat, right?). If you should actually be lucky enough to hit a warg with True Shot, you haven't won yet. They can still escape with Sprint or use Disappear.
Spider Weavers
They go down comparatively quick - IF they don't web you, that is. If you are rather impatient, they can succesfully shake you off by using Trapdoor Sanctuary. Since you only have 60 minutes to play, don't waste one of them on a weaver hiding in the ground. Look out - they can drain some of your precious power using Latent Poison.
Session Play Trolls
These are quite a menace; if you try to solo them, they will be a challenge - it will depend on the troll player`s skills how hard it will get. Fly True can´t really scare them - using it just about evens up their morale compared to yours since trolls have about 10.000 higher morale than rangers. Their ranged attacks are weaker than yours, so staying away from them and using Blood of the Dúnedain as often as possilbe can give you the upper hand. Once True Shot´s cooldown expires, use Misallocation and Fly True right away. By now, the troll should be down to 20.000-25.000 morale. Beginner Trolls will probably start running towards the next outpost/keep/whatever_looks_safe/gramsfoot to stay alive, and they have a good chance of reaching it. In order to slow them down, use Dagger Throw and try to stun them with Dúnadan's Strike.
Flags
IMPORTANT: ALL FLAGS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE ETTENMOORS WITH THE MINES OF MORIA EXPANSION!!!
--- Just keeping this stuff in here for interested readers who want to know what ranger session play was like those days ;) ---
As a ranger, you are able to solo take ALL the flags in the ettenmoors. The trickiest one is the south Tol Ascarnen flag, since it has 3 trolls + 9 orc adds.
General strategies (works for all flags)
Hit one troll with Fly True. While he is charging at you, use Blood of the Dúnedain. This will "absorb" most of the damage done by the troll. Use your combat skills to finish him. Then deal with the adds (normally not more than 3). Try to pull each troll alone (you could handle two trolls at once, but it gets pretty close that way... a single creep showing up by chance could mean your death).
Once you have dealt with at least two trolls, run to the flag pole and stand next to it. Fight off any NPC striking you, but DO NOT move. After approximately 5-10 seconds, the flag will turn white, and freep NPCs will spawn and deal with the remaining enemies.
Isendeep West Flag
This flag is located just south of the eastern Isendeep entrance, right in the middle of the dragon valley. Run into a group of dragons (3 should be enough), then run towards the flag. Once the trolls are aggroing you, pull them next to the dragons. Now use Misallocation and watch the dragons take care of the trolls. Once they are down, you can take the flag without worries.
Isendeep East Flag
This flag (south of the dwarven camp outside the Isendeep west entrance) is currently bugged: Session play rangers can't take it. I've wasted 5 minutes of precious play time standing next to the flag pole.
Lugazag South Flag
The easiest flag of all - there are only 4 Ongbúrz scouts guarding it. It is located in a little valley just down the cliff south of Lugazag.
Lugazag East Flag
South-east of Lugazag, this flag is standing on a hill overlooking the slug's valleys. Is has two trolls and two groups of orcs (1 signature + 2 normal adds). You can True shoot one troll here, only one gruop of orcs will aid him. This is a fairly easy flag to take.
Grimwood South Flag
Here, you can pull some of the near Huorns into the flag guards, then use Misallocation and watch the fight. Pull one troll out and finish him while the rest kills the Huorns. Then take care of the survivors.
Tirith Rhaw West Flag
Located north-west of EC and directly west of TR. This flag is guarded by three trolls only. Each of them can be pulled alone.
Tol Ascarnen South Flag
The TA flags are the hardest ones to take, you will have to be careful for you will be facing 3 trolls + 3 groups of orcs here. Try to pull just one troll at time. If you happen to pull 2, retreat until they reset. Once you have killed two of the trolls + their adds, run next to the flagpole and wait for NPC backup. Then focus your damage on the third troll because he will be giving the freep NPCs a hard time killing him. Be aware of respawns (the trolls tend to respawn quite fast) and your morale (use Misallocation when you are down to 5.000).
The TA South Flag is located south-west of the orc-camp, on the eastern shore of the river.
Tol Ascarnen East Flag
Works the same way as TA South flag. There are neekerbreekers next to the flag, you can wait till one of the trolls decides to attack one of them (This will prevent his adds to be pulled when you shoot him). This flag is next to the TA east ford, north of the TA east bridge.
Tol Ascarnen North Flag
This one's a little trickier, since here you can only come from one direction, but it mainly works the same way as TA south flag. This flag is next to the spot where the poison/draught to poison/cleanse the Hoarwell is put in (Above the waterfall overlooking TA).
Outposts
General
Rangers can take all of the five outposts without any help since they can solo the outpost boss with ease (I´ve even seen a hunter do this o.0). Every outpost contains a few signature mob wandering around the entrance which you can avoid by using stealth, and an elite master troll, the boss you need to take down in order to capture the outpost. Go up the stairs into the boss area. Pull by using Fly True and keep dps`ing him until you are at about half health. Use your heal now, and root him with your dagger throw. Run into one of the corners, and wait for his root to expire. By the time he can attack you again, you should haave regenerated quite a good chunk of morale.
Now use this pattern: Dúnadan's Strike >>> Run to corner >>> DPS >>> Dagger Throw >>> Run to other corner >>> Blood of the Dúnedain >>> reg morale >>> Dúnadan's Strike. Keep up Dúnedain Mark on him all the time. Save up Misallocation incase you get down to 8.000 morale, and hit him with Fly True before he resets if you had to use Misallocation.
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Notices
