The fast answer is that High TI is drastically harder than Mid TI, so you might wanna consider some other leveling spots for now. Manuk Field 3 might be the best place in the interim when you eventually get kicked out of Mid TI. Scaraba Hall/Lasagna Dungeon are also decent options.
As for equip upgrades, I'm of the opinion that No Limits is one of the best tools for leveling in the game so maintaining 100% uptime on that with a Prism Ranger Scarf or a Wolf Officer Hat is incredibly high value for Ranger leveling. Since it gives +350% ranged damage bonus, the +50% bonus from a Hunter Bow/Arrow or Elven Bow/Arrow combo becomes much less significant, so you can swap that out for something with higher attack or with a good Arrow Storm multiplier. A high upgrade Crimson Bow, Thanatos Bow, Virtual Bow-OS, Royal Bow/Awakened Royal Bow is good, with Virtual Bow/Awakened Royal being good options all the way through to late game. These also free up your arrow slot for elemental arrows for another significant damage boost, saving you from having to use converters or a Sage/Priest for elemental/holy endows.
The long answer is that the wiki "hybrid" build is rather outdated due to a lot of new items and skill balance upgrades. The main builds are mostly focused on Arrow Storm, Focused Arrow Strike, and Aimed Bolt now, with the first two being better for leveling due to the AoE damage. I'm not really sure if autoattacking is as viable/competitive nowadays since FAS pretty much fills the same niche.
This makes your path forward a bit more nuanced since the three builds end up having fairly different end-game gear, but at least the skill builds are pretty much identical so at worst you might just get a stat reset.
Arrow Storm
The centerpiece of this build is getting the set bonus of the Virtual Bow with an Ignis Cap Type K to lower the cooldown of Arrow Storm (the only significant source of Arrow Storm cooldown in the game so far and boosts your output from 1 AS every 3 seconds to 2 AS per second so effectively a 6x DPS increase). At +11, the Ignis Type K also gives .2s FCT reduction, which is arguably enough to cover the .3s FCT of AS. Other bows/upper headgear like the Royal Bow, Wolf Officer, Fancy Feather Hat, or Autumn Headband seem nice, but they pretty much force you into grouping mobs well and one-shotting them which gets harder for later game content.
For middle/lower headgear, Seraphim Coronet is probably the favorite, with the mandatory 120 INT in your build really helping cast time. You can get the full set with Seraphim Feather, but it doesn't really do too much for Rangers, or you can opt for things like Happy Balloon, Tengu Scroll, Toy Syringe, Vassalage Necklace (this one is hard to fit in to your build early stat-wise). You can also get an Imperial Set but the mandatory 120 AGI isn't as valuable in this build since AS is so heavily cooldown-based rather than ASPD based. It's a bit cheaper nowadays, though. Mob Set is kinda okay too, but it's really awkward because AS doesn't really use STR/LUK. Only really worth mentioning because it's really cheap nowadays, pretty good for any secondary characters you might have, and you can throw in an Engkanto Card if you're doing Faceworms. Diabolus Wing is the last relevant headgear option, giving the flexibility of the Sera with the slot of the Mob set on top of +10 all stats for VCT reduction, and is primarily used for comboing with high upgrade Diabolus Boots and Diabolus Armor.
Armor is either Evil Dragon Armor for leech or Illusion Armor Type A with 2x ATK enchants or Abyss/Nature/Icefall/Samael Dress. I'll also mention Overwelm Dex Armor because it can get elemental enchants which can be useful. (Diabolus Armor mentioned above, but I think it loses to the Illusion Armor even with the D.Wing combo unless you're literally doing Temple of the Demon God).
I still like Prism Ranger for the garment but Erymanthian Skin is also a solid option for damage, DEX for cast time, and .1s faster cooldown for AS compared to the Prism Ranger (but you lose out on 100% No Limits uptime, which can be okay depending on the situation. I think you can also temporarily equip a Wolf Officer when using No Limits to reduce the cd and then switch back to Ignis Type K without losing the effect? Not 100% sure on this).
Shoes are either Temporal Dex Boots/slotted with EA/Hawkeye enchants (which will shave off that last bit of AS FCT, and speeds up Fear Breeze/No Limits casts), Sniping Shoes (the stats and the size penalty negation are the main benefits for this build), or the Diabolus Boots with the D.Wing. Illusion Leg Type A is barely worth mentioning (because for some reason iRO didn't include a description so people don't actually know if it works) but it gives +5% ranged damage at +7 and +5% ATK when comboed with the Illusion Armor. The FCT/Special modules are a bit too expensive to be worth it for this build. I'll also mention Booster Shoes, although they aren't super great for this build. They're like the Mob set in that they're a good hand-me-down for secondaries though.
Accessories give you a lot of options. Ring of Ceyneian gets a special mention for being one of the Rings, but it's too expensive to really be worth it early on. Emerald Ring, Temporal Ring (combos with Hawkeye on the Temp Dex), Perverse Demon Mask (for the stats and the def pierce; requires some LUK in your build), Illusion Booster (EA/Drain Life/Drain Soul enchants, ASPD/Fatal if you wanna double dip with other builds), Blacksmith's Gloves, and Verus Core are the other things worth mentioning off the top of my head.
For Shadow/Costumes, getting a Minor Casting Stone is a good mix of affordability and covering AS's FCT, and the full Ranger Shadow Equip Set is nice for stats + def pierce, although unfortunately you don't benefit from the skill bonuses. The Booster Shadow set is also good for the def pierce, but it doesn't seem like you're running a booster char. Then there's things like physical shadow, penetration shadow, malicious shadow, liberation/safeguard shadow, kingbird/ancient shadow, and almighty shadow which I'm too lazy to link. Eventually we'll get the Arrow Shadow Set which will give a bit of a boost to Arrow Storm on top of some def pierce, but we don't have that yet. Honestly the basic shadow set is also fine for a long time.
Cards worth mentioning are Resentful Soldier, White Knight, Polluted Wander Man, Vicious Cookie, Odorico, Blut Hase, Gold Scaraba, Menblatt, and like Phen for utility (too lazy to link dark pinguicula, fury hero, porcellio, polluted raydric, polluted raydric archer, archer skeleton, powerful archer skeleton and there's probably more I can't remember)
Stat builds are like 120 DEX, enough INT to have very fast or instacast (2 * DEX + INT >= 530) or 120 INT for Sera, like 70-90 VIT to be safe, a bit of STR for weight, 54/72 LUK for def pierce if running PDM, and some amount of AGI or 120 if running Imperial. The stat build is pretty flexible since you don't use STR for attack, and don't really need too much ASPD from AGI due to AS's high cooldown.
Focused Arrow Strike
This is my personal favorite build since it's not as equip-locked and lets you optimize around skill damage multiplier, crit rate, crit damage, FCT/VCT management, and After Cast Delay (ACD), on top of the normal damage statistics. Admittedly, this can be daunting, but it ends up not being too difficult since the high-end equipment options do so much anyway. The biggest benefit of FAS over the other builds is that since it crits, you don't have to worry about your hit rate vs high flee (mainly a concern vs Increase AGI MVPs; Rangers have high hit anyway). It's also very easily spammable, although the AoE is much smaller than AS.
For headgear, Wolf Officer is very strong due to providing high ACD, No Limits cooldown, and high DEX to handle cast time. Fancy Feather is still good, but Ruff Officer and General Helm end up being better for this build (+15 is ideal but very expensive. +14 is acceptable and +12/13 are okay with an MCT costume). Old Camouflage Bunny Hood is also a decent option (You may need to do some math to figure out if you want Acute/Mettle/Master Archer enchants. Magic Essence for the FCT reduction is okay but FCT reduction can be gotten elsewhere). The biggest benefit from the bunny hood is the combo with Old Detachments Ring, which pretty much covers your crit rate for your entire build (although it certainly doesn't hurt to get more). I'll also lightly mention Vanargand Helm as providing some leech and comboing with Fenrir Chain for some ACD and damage. It's mostly another hand-me-down gear set. I'll also mention Imperial Glory and New Wave Sunglasses as options to lower ACD
For mid/lower you either want Gambler Set, Little Garden (expensive) + Vassalage, or Mob set (a bit better in this build since you're probably getting some LUK). You can also run Sera/Imperial if you have them lying around and have lots of other ways to boost crit rate/damage
Armor is pretty much the same as AS, although I'll mention that the Illusion Armor Type A now benefits from a Post-Skill Delay Module (expensive). Your White Wing Suit can combo with Gray Wing Boots, although these have fallen out of fashion a bit due to a lot of other strong options coming in and freeing up the Armor slot.
For Bow, Awakened Royal Bow is one of the best options. Thanatos Bow and Crimson Bow can still cover you a bit for early leveling, and Virtual Bow is still strong, but the bonuses from Awakened Royal are hard to top. Scarlet Dragon Leather Bow and the Awakened version aren't too bad either due to giving high ACD, but idk if I really suggest it unless you plan on pivoting to an Aimed Bolt build later.
For Garment, Prism Ranger is still good, but Yoichi's Muffler and Arabian Manteau are also very strong, especially since Wolf Officer can cover the No Limits cooldown. Illusion Engine Wing Type A/B with Crit/APSD enchants are also worth mentioning here for ATK/ACD combos with Illusion Armor Type A
For Shoes, Temporal Dex (Lucky Day and Speed of Light are also viable on this build) and Sniping are still good. Great Hero's Boots is also really good at covering FCT, and gives a combo with the Awakened bows. Booster Shoes are also a bit better for this build than AS if you get high LUK, but still aren't super duper great compared to the other options. Temporal Luk Boots also get a mention, but kinda get outclassed by Sniping Shoes.
Accessories are kind of the same, but PDM becomes much more enticing with a high LUK build, and we add Ring of Jupiter to the mix. Illusion Booster with EA/Fatal/ASPD enchants is a good budget option. Temporal Ring gives good combos with Speed of Light and Lucky Day. (Old Detachment Ring was mentioned above)
For Costumes, Sniper Stone (Mid) is really strong because it eliminates the FCT for FAS. Shooting Shadow Set is probably the best in slot and Reload Shadow Set is also worth mentioning, on top of the shadows mentioned in Arrow Storm. The booster shadow set also really helps for this build because of the increased crit damage and ASPD.
Additional cards worth mentioning for this build are Ominous Heater, Petal, Aunoe, Geffen Thug, and Geffen Gang cards, and the Faceworm+Faceworm Dark set.
Stats are like 120 dex, 120/125/126 LUK depending on equips, and some balance of AGI/VIT/INT for ASPD/survivability/fast casts. Since FAS has no cooldown and you can get rid of the cast delay, your main limiting factor theoretically becomes your ASPD, so you do need a bit of ASPD for this build. In practice, your limiting factor comes down to things like ping and clicking/macro speed so ASPD isn't as critical as it might seem.
Aimed Bolt
I haven't delved too deeply into this build but I think it's supposed to be the highest single-target DPS build available to Ranger (I think the Fear Breeze 1,150% ATK listed on the wiki is per hit and it's 5 hits for 5,750% ATK before base level multiplier). The downsides are that you need 1s FCT reduction and high ACD (it has 2s cast delay so you need a lot) on top of eliminating the 1s cooldown with a Scarlet Dragon Leather Bow (Awakened is preferred). The biggest benefit to this build is I think the skill cast animation looks really cool now.
I think the item build is mostly a hybrid of FAS and AS? Like you do a FAS build but replace all the crit parts with raw damage and do an AS stat build? Great Hero's Boots are really big for the .7s FCT, which lets an MCT garment or +13 Fancy Feather eliminate the FCT. Worth noting is that the Yoichi multiplier for Aimed Bolt, while present, isn't very high so I wouldn't say it's a core part of the build.
Only other thing I can think of mentioning is the Aimed Shadow Set, and maybe Striking Mikoshi/Hat, but I won't pretend to be as well-versed in this build as the other two. I'm sure someone will come along and tell me how wrong I am about this build eventually.
Autoattacks?
I feel like an autoattack-based build is kinda weird nowadays since you still probably want AS/FAS to clear mobs, and the item build has so much overlap with FAS anyway you might as well focus fully on that. I think most newer higher-end items that end up being good for autoattacks also end up being great for FAS anyway. Crunching some numbers, and it's still probably competitive on a single-target level, but I probably just rarely see it since it's likely just reserved for Instances/MVPing. Someone can probably come along and tell me how wrong I am about this too.
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Edited by Nagaame, 23 January 2023 - 04:20 PM.
more up to date than the pinned guide. You should do the same for all classes! at least copy and paste this into all guides.
