Ranger Build Guide - Titan Quest
Keep in mind both of these screen shots include me wearing my +Skills gear; I am only level 78 though and I don't have the 3 Skill Points from Act 5 Legendary.
Skill Trees: Hunting and Nature
Primary Skills: Marksmanship (Ranged), Study Prey, Call of the Wild, Sylvan Nymph, Heart of Oak, Art of the Hunt, Call of the Hunt, Refresh, Plague and Herbal Remedy
Important Stats: +3 Skills minimum. +Attack Speed, flat boosts to Pierce or Physical damage. Life Leech or Attack damage converted to health
Attributes: Almost all points into Dexterity, only get enough Strength to wear gear
The Ranger class is a combination of the Hunting and Nature skill trees. In my opinion these two builds go together amazingly well and can be played with Spear, Bow or Throwing Weapons. As far as Attributes go, since our primary damage will be Pierce you'll want to dump a ton of points into Dexterity, that'll be your highest stat. You'll want some Strength too but only enough to wear the best gear -- so 450 to 550, depending on what gear.
As far as gear goes, you'll want to get high Vitality and Pierce Resist with moderate Elemental Resistances. You can use Herbal Remedy for Poison Resist when needed and Heart of Oak will give us 28% Elemental Resist so you won't need to get the full 80% from gear. You'll also want at least +3 Skills (more is recommended) so you can use 3 wolves at a time and 35 - 55% Attack Speed. Stonebinder's Cuffs are one of the best items you can get for this build, especially if you find a pair with Attack Speed on them.
Flat % boosts to Pierce Damage are what you're looking for as far as largest damage increases go. Flat % boosts to Physical Damage will help out too but not as much. Items like Tracker's Hood (+100% Pierce Damage) would be best for this build or Myrmidon's Pendant/Pendant of Immortal Rage would be defent runner ups for nice damage boosts.
Since we are using all of the pets in the Nature tree you should expect this to be a Skill Point heavy build, prioritize +Skills over any of the other upgrades mentioned. +4 or 5 Skills works best but +3 from Stonebinder's Cuffs and nothing else will suit you just fine. As with most builds that combine Nature, we have very high survivability and are a rather tanky build.
Below you'll find a list of all the abilities that this build uses and a little bit of information about when and how I use the ability and why I bought it. Some abilities are marked Spear (Melee) or Ranged Weapon only, pay attention to that depending on how you want to play the build. Further down this page you will find more information about the differences between Ranged and Melee.
(Hunting) Study Prey: One of your main abilities that you'll want to use on almost every single enemy you fight. It reduces their Physical and Pierce resist; the passive will reduce their Defensive Ability as well as Elemental and Bleeding Resistances. For you and your pets this is an insane damage boost, when paired with Plague you'll just tear through enemies.
(Hunting) Call of the Hunt: This buff and its passives increase your damage in almost every way possible. Better yet, this buff will be applied on any pets you have as well giving them massive damage increases. With the Nature Refresh ability you'll be able to keep Call of the Hunt up 24/7.
(Hunting) Art of the Hunt: Get this as well as the two passives tied to it as early as possible. Art of the Hunt will give you flat Pierce damage boosts as well as damage to certain creatures, Find Cover is an amazing passive and arguably better than Art of the Hunt since it decreases the amount of Projectiles that hit you. Archers in Titan Quest are very deadly especially in Epic and Legendary.
(Hunting) Herbal Remedy: Almost all of your Poison Resist will come from this ability. You can keep it active on yourself at all times if you wish but it's really only needed when you encounter enemies that use Poison.
(Hunting - Melee) Take Down: This ability allows you to charge at an enemy far away at a very high speed. Only put a few points into this ability until later in the game, each additional Skill Point doesn't give you a large benefit. When I play as Spear I put this on my left mouse button.
(Hunting - Melee) Spear Dance: Kind of an interesting ability; you'll do AoE damage to all enemies around you and fear them away. It's mostly good for players who lack the best gear since it is a combination AoE and CC ability. I personally really like this ability but I can totally see it being annoying for some people due to the fear. Up to you if you want to get it.
(Hunting - Ranged) Marksmanship: Your left mouse click ability when it comes to dealing ranged damage with Marksmanship. Max this as well as all the other passives that come with it.
(Nature) Call of the Wild: This is the ability that lets you summon pet wolves; if you get at least +2 Skills you'll be able to summon 3 wolves. I would argue that this is the most important skill to get for leveling up. Throughout all of Normal and much of Epic your wolves will be amazing.
(Nature) Sylvan Nymph: Aside from your wolves this is the only other pet ability you'll get. The Nymph is much less powerful than the wolves and I would recommend this (as well as the passives) be where you dump points when you're done with your more important skills. When you first get access to this ability, put a few points into the Nymph and one into each passive until you're higher level.
(Nature) Refresh: One point wonder. It will reduce the cooldown of all abilities you have currently on cooldown. Amazing ability and essential to this build, it'll allow you to keep full up time on Call of the Hunt.
(Nature) Heart of Oak: Your best buff, it'll increase your health as well as your pets by 85%. Permanence of Stone passive will also give you 30% Elemental Resistance which will allow you to focus on other resists with your gear.
(Nature) Plague: I assign this to my right click button. You'll want to apply Plague to every enemy you fight as well as Study Prey, both of these debuffs will dramatically increase the amount of damage enemies take from both you and your pets.
How to Play (Regular enemies) Strategy: Open up each fight with Study Prey and Plague to greatly weaken the enemy then blow it away with attacks. Use Refresh between fights to make sure you have full up time on Call of the Hunt.
How to play (Difficult bosses) Strategy: For bosses or enemies that you find too difficult, what I like to do is keep all of my pets up while running around the room like a chicken with my head cut off. Keep Study Prey and Plague active on the boss and he'll take insane amounts of damage from your pets. Each time a pet dies summon it again and that's really it. They'll eat the boss away pretty quick since our debuffs are insane.
Other Tips:
- If you're struggling in Titan Quest and need some help check out my Best Leveling Abilities Guide, my Titan Quest F.A.Q or my Titan Quest Tips & Tricks pages for a lot of helpful info about this game. Additionally if you're curious what I think the Best Builds Are in Titan Quest check out that guide too. Last but not least you should consider getting TQVaultAE which is a third party program that nearly everyone who plays TQ uses.
- Curious what other sorts of gear you should get for this build? I have put together a long list of Overpowered Gear Combos in Titan Quest that you may find useful. The guide contains information for all sorts of build combinations and specializations; both offensive and defensive gear choices are included as well as Monster Infrequents you can farm for Best In Slot items for your characters.
- Call of the Wild is your best leveling ability. Get it and the good passives tied to it ASAP
- Focus more on Nature for leveling up as that has better abilities
- The Gouge Passive in Hunting Mastery will actually decrease your overall DPS when using Melee weapons because the attack animation for the proc interrupts your normal attacks and takes too long.