Ranger Merits - Opinions

[terraflarex]

I have heard many conflicting opinions about the best overall Ranger Merits to upgrade recently, and I would like to see what the BG community thinks about this topic.

Typically, the only ones considered on Tier1 are: Sharpshot, Rapid Shot, Unlimited Shot (or at least I pray to god they are the only ones...)

Tier 2 merits seem to all have potential usage, so there are usually opposing ideas in this category.

I would say 99% of rangers who do merit the job would say 5/5 Rapid Shot and 5/5 Snapshot are no brainers. I'd like to hear what you guys think about what else is worth meriting.

All input is appreciated, thanks~


Edit: If a thread very similar to this has been posted, I apologize in advance. Feel free to link me to that thread should that be the case.

[Meepein]

For me, I plan on 5/5 Sharpshot and 5/5 Rapid Shot for Group 1, and 5/5 Snapshot, 1/5 Flashy Shot, 4/5 Recycle for Group 2, though I am not tied to that in any way.

Rapid Shot and Snapshot are the obvious ones, after that it is more what you feel like imo. For me, since I tend to not like to too much money on ammo, I like Recycle (I'm cheap), but I can totally see going nuts on Flashy Shot. In my eyes, Flashy Shot is best used in a zerg, at which point even if you capped it out you would only use it once, so multiple merits there are meh. Stealth Shot never really caught my eye, but someone might love it.

For group 1's, the only other way I would go is Unlimited Shot, and I can completely see that (in fact, I might go that way too when I get around to meritting RNG again.) Part of me wants Sharpshot and Barrage on the same timer, but part of me wants more ACC as much as I can get it.

[claritybiv]

Capped Rapid shot and Unlimited shot for tier one and capped snapshot, 4 stealth shot and one flashy shot for tier two have been what i've always used.

Throwing off your sharpshot timers isn't worth messing with barrage, especially with relic. Tier two might be different for you because I know how great your tanks are which would make the lowered enmity worthless, but the only alternatives are recycle which is fucking pointless and flashy shot which is still kind of pointless but possibly better than your other options.

If you think you'd actually use stealth shot then try what I listed above for sure but if not just go with capped flashy.

[yrpaine]

recycle is a waste, don't play rng and make saving ammo your goal. play another job if you don't wanna use ammo.

like OP said, snap/rapid 5/5. If you're planning to use PPA i'd merit unlimited shot down 5/5 for tier1. Depending on your setup and what you're normally fighting 5 remaining into flashy/stealth. flashy is damn sexi for dmg tho, i'll prob go 5/5 on flashy personally when i finish with my rng merits.

[ninjafox]

It's a rare occassion that I use Unlimited shot honestly. (I don't have PPA). So I'd only cap out Rapid Shot for T1. For T2, I'd probably go with the general 5/4/1 with Snapshot/Recycle/Flashy. It'll be a while for this cuz I don't merit often though.

[brisk]

I went 5/5 Rapid, Unlimited, and Snap. 1/5 in Flashy and 4/5 in Stealth. Debating whether keeping the stealth shot or dumping it all onto recycle.

[vegetaa]

Other than 5/5 Rapid Shot and 5/5 Snapshot, RNG merits are situational...what you should merit depends a lot on what you use RNG for.

If your main thing is merit PTs, Recycle is an obvious choice.
If your main thing is HNMs, go Flashy Shot + Stealth.

[Seibar]

obviously you wanna cap Scavenge recast.... xD

[Hoshiku]

i went for the no brainers (5/5 rapid and snapshot), put one in flashy shot. i won't do any more meriting on ranger until i cap out jobs that benefit from those other merits more (plan to fully merit all jobs but i'm 274 merits in with 200ish to go lol).
as far as tier 1 goes my thinking is that unlimited shot will be the best merit for me. i like to stack sharpshot with barrage and so reducing my sharpshot timer would be useless.
for tier 2, i'm not quite sure what i'll do, as is I can't think of any long fights where using flashy shot more frequently would be a good thing (i guess it might be useful for salvage or einherjar) but i don't have stealth shot so i probably pull more hate than someone who uses them in succession. i'll probably go 3 flashy/2 stealth.

[matix]

i recommend the following

max rapid/unlim(PPA. its the highest base dmg arrow in the game with 10r.atk and 40r.acc, easily full out str sides to the face)

max snap, 1 flashy, the rest stealth(x4 i think), -40 enmity on ws, sometimes allowing you to get away with dropping sides with a pretty good chance of lasting afterward, i use this on hnm where i usually spam namas to get a little extra dmg, can be coupled with ppa too. for a long time i thoguht max flashy was the best, but ir eally found myself unable to use it as often as its timer, so overall i found the stealth option to be better, but to each his or her own!

last thing, no rng should ever upgrade recycle, what a waste, you can get recycle from several pieces of gear, but can not get what most merits offer from gear, if ammo is really that much a problem for you that you need to live by recycle, warrior is that way

[terraflarex]

I use the same merit setup actually, Matix.

[Damen]

Group 1:
Snapshot/unlimited shotx5

Group 2:
Rapid shotx5 Stealth Shotx4 Flashyx1

Utility has always been more important to me than saving money with Recycle. Unless ranger is your only job, I really can't see this being a major factor.

[matix]

well hot damn then lol

[Raizins]

rapid shot 5/5
unlimited shot 5/5 (using bow most of the time with ppa, until i lose it)

snap shot 5/5
flash shot 1/5
stealth shot 4/5

-40 emnity, plus a few more depending on what you WS in (scout's socks/+1) and -emnity merits, takes you pretty close to -50 emnity

[Mytiwar]

5/5 snapshot
5/5 flashy shot
5/5 rapid shot
5/5 unlimited shot

For me. I could've gone 4/5 flashy and 1/5 stealth but meh. I understand why people would do 1/5 flashy and 4/5 stealth also, it's just I've always been the epeen guy.

I don't get why people merit sharpshot since I use it only with barrage but whatever floats their boats.

[Weeks]

I did Sharpshot since I refuse to waste any more CP on ammo that has a life expectancy of like 2 hours on RNG with me. I don't see why most RNGs think of Sharpshot as just a companion ability to Barrage when it can be used to drastically increase your DoT while it's up. I'd say most of the time I use them together but not always, and if I ever play RNG enough to complete my RACC build I think I'll completely uncouple the two abilities.

5/5 Snapshot is a given, and I'm planning to take Flashy Shot from 1/5 to 5/5 with any merits I pick up between now and when I finish SAM. If hate is a problem, it's not a problem that Stealth Shot is going to solve.

[The_OG_Nelta]

5/5 Sharpshot
5/5 Rapid Shot

5/5 Snapshot
4/5 Flashy Shot
1/5 Stealth Shot

I don't have PPA. D:
And honestly I don't use Unlimited Shot at all.
So oh well.

[Zekyr]

rapid shot 5/5
unlimited shot 5/5 (using bow most of the time with ppa, until i lose it)

snap shot 5/5
flash shot 1/5
stealth shot 4/5

-40 emnity, plus a few more depending on what you WS in (scout's socks/+1) and -emnity merits, takes you pretty close to -50 emnity

This is pretty much exactly what I plan to do. My racc is usually decent enough to where sharpshot makes little to no difference for usual DoT, about the only use I use it for is to land a chained WS > barrage > WS, or at the minimum a barrage > WS. So I'd prefer to keep it on the same timer as barrage. US on the other hand, I love PPA and as has been said makes it totally worth it.

As for tier 2, flashy is sexy but like has already been said bringing the timer way down is a lot less amazing than one would think, maybe it's just poor tanks but I'm always one or two WSes away form being tank myself. One in it is enough for me, and stealth would keep it a lot safer. Plus, without namas, less enmity every few WSes is awesome.