Hey guys, I haven't been around EQ for quite some time, but I've decided out of boredom to fire it up for a bit again, this time as a ranger, however I find myself puzzled, I want to place my starting stats in the most efficient places, but I am unsure where to place them.
Any suggestions please?

As a Ranger, you generally want to start out with STA as your highest stat followed closely by STR. If you didn't want to dump all your points into those two, you could also add to wisdom. Keep in mind though, in the early game it's all about hit points. As a general rule, I'd recommend at least 80-90 STA, and 80-85 STR, regardless of Race.

Personally, for a Woodelf I'd probably go all STA, but that's just me. Or maybe 5 STR and the rest STA.

Pffffft, leave it to a vain Paladin to suggest going all Charisma ;P

Seriously though that's some pretty bad advice unless you're going to be doing nothing but Tradeskills. It's amazingly easy to get a few cheap items and buffs to max your CHA;to start with, just pick up two Opal Encrusted Steins and you'll have boosted your CHA by 50 points without buffs or without even using equipment slots other than primary/secondary.

Yes, DEX affects crits, both melee and bow. However, it's not going to make much difference for you until later on when you get your archery AA's, and some of the crit AA's. It's nice to see crits happen before then, but they don't add much to your DPS early on. By the time you get to the point where crits will matter, you will easily be able to get your DEX fairly high with items. You could go more DEX now, but you'll get more out of STA for the HP and STR for the attack and added carry weight.

Edited, Jun 11th 2006 at 9:34am EST by Gladestrider

If your truely a noob to the game meaning you have no alts and platium to spend or gear i would drop it in wisdom at this point.Hit points mean nothing early in life but self mana heals and buffs you need wisdom maxed early in life.All other stats can easily be raised with gear alone and aa skills.If you have platium i did exactly what they say here get hit points but i bought weapons and all bazaar gear possible with hps on it+ temperance to power lvl myself.I was able to melee to lvl 49 with temperance,self thorn shields and pure hp gear i could careless about Dexerity cause you bow damage is feeble at these lvls.Now once i hit lvl 49 i started to buy gear with Dex,Mr,Cr,Fr,Dr,Pr gear.Now from lvl 49 with a good bow and good Dex+ dex buffs you will see you can now pretty good.Heres what i used to do to raise bow skills from lvl 20 to 49.I would find the a blue non killing mob and would just fire away till i ran out of arrows then zone.I had summon bracelet from ldon venture i bought for 5k.I would buy those green crystal from ldon camps and summon 20 at a time.I was able to summon 1,000 arrows at a time i had weightless bags paid 10k per bag.Now zone back and fire off 1,000 arrows at the same guy,rinse repeat till your bored of it.I had my bow skill maxed at 49 didnt take long.Now when im in groups i use pure melee because bow will not out due melee which no biggie.I will wait till tank gets mob down to 95% then jump in and melee for some reason my tweaked 40 percent haste ranger takes agrro if i dont and i dont use taunt or nukes ever.Now if the tank in group uses a 2hander weapon i will bow cause he aint going keep agrro for long with 40 haste ranger whacking away being a warrior class.I`ve seen shadowknights and Pallys hold agrros because they use spells keep on the hate list which makes sense.Anyways if you have hit point gear like me plus Temp it gave me 1400 to 1600 extra hps which is hugh indeed.

Being that a ranger is by no means a tank at later lvls i would advise dumbing all your points into wisdom and dex at the start.I say this now because of newbie hit point gear and temperance 800 cleric hit point buff at lvl 1 it sticks it might even be wise to load it in all dexerity.I loaded all mine in wisdom at lvl 1 only to realize if i could i would`ve dumped it into all dex or half in wisdom and dex for archery.I noticed when a shaman or chanter dex buffed me and hasted chanter spell i was getting incredible bow dps at lvl 51 compared to non dex and haste buffs.I dont care if a ranger has 500 hit points more or not we all know a walls of slaughter will eat us alive anyways.We are meant for or bow dps and staying clear of heavy hitters in my book.Only a high end guilded ranger no drop gear and all melee skills maxed and right no drop weapons we he only out dps a bow dps.I have seen maybe a handful of upper tweaked rangers anyways so until you can be truely tweaked stay with your bow aa ability`s first max them then work on melee ones after if that floats your halfling toes.We all know at lvl 59 when a ranger gets endless quiver and am 3 is when the goof times start to rock and roll anyways.

That's the most incorrect assumption I think I've ever heard about a ranger! Hit points are EVERYTHING early on on life, unless you're a twink. Prior to the 40's, Rangers can tank quite well and are often called upon to do so.

Different tradeskills require different skills. The only way CHA will help with Fletching is when you're buying and selling parts. Fletching skill improvements are DEX based, Smithing is STR based, Drinking is STA based...

Many tradeskills default to INT/WIS, whichever is higher, if it is your highest stat. I can't think of a single tradeskill that bases its skill improvement off of CHA.

Admittedly, my CHA is my weakest stat, even behind INT which is utterly useless as a Ranger. I made a wood elf (Magelo is out of date, but he's in my sig.) and put my points into DEX for a lot of different reasons. Nowadays, I somewhat regret the choice as I can max my DEX with a single proc from one of my weapons (and when I buy an aug or two, it'll be maxed without buffs), but my STR is lacking.

Well put paradox. Rangers can and do find themselves tanking frequently, I've found, past 50, if the warrior goes down the ranger goes up. I've found myself being the last one standing out of the melee classes a few times and tanking a named mob.

Yes, tanking with AA's is certainly viable as a Ranger with good gear, but I didn't want to complicate the issue for someoen new to the class. The fact is that if you can tank between 40-something and 50-someting (after defensive AA's), you're twinked beyond belief, and still dont do it that well. Let's not give a new Ranger false hopes.

Rangers are not tanks and doing so is situational.

Edit: I feel it bears mentioning that I have, in fact, tanked Raid targets in the 60's while doing Planar progression, but only in the situation where the tank went down. Even then, with basic defensive AAs, I was a finger in the dike, and only was able to do so long enough for the clerics to camp or on rare occasion, for the real tank to be rezzed and rebuffed. My gear was fairly good however, and I always had to use /weaponshield near the end. Rangers excell at utility, and saving a raid from a wipe by becoming a temporary tank is one of those options. Just because I tanked Terris Thule for a short while, however, does not mean that I should have been doing it all along.

Edited, Jan 4th 2007 7:31pm by Gladestrider

I'm not going to respond to this again. I only request that the OP check this thread again in about 40-50 levels, and let me know how his Ranger is an ubah-tank.

Flame Lick is great, just make sure the mob doesn't summon! The advantage of Snare is it generates aggro, but does no damage, so it's safe to use when you want to deliver a mob to the group.