C9 Ranger Comprehensive Guide

C9 Ranger Comprehensive Guide by UnderratedVarius

After reading many guides about Rangers and having played one myself for quite awhile now in the current release, I have decided to post a guide that goes on the finer points of the skills you may or may not wish to pick up, and equipment that you may wish to get.

I will also be putting up a Table of Contents that will allow you to easily glance through this guide by using Control + F.

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Table of Contents:

Pros and Cons – Part 0

Stats – Part I

Skills – Part II

Final Thoughts – Part III

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Pros and Cons – Part 0

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Being a Ranger isn’t always all fun and games, it can be pretty trying at times, but this is for those who wish to know what we excel and fail in.

Pros:

-Long Range Combat

-Decent amount of Evasion Command Skills

-A very easy to use class

-High end damage dealer

Cons:

-Frail Defense in comparsion to other classes

-Not exactly the ‘best’ for Close range combat

-Considered to be a ‘PvE’ class, but it can ‘PvP’ too

-Not exactly for everyone

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Stats – Part I

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So here is a general overview of our Base Stats and their general description.

Strength

Ingame Description: Increases your Physical Attack.

Wisdom

Ingame Description: Increases your Magical Attack.

Health

Ingame Description: Increases your Physical Defense and Max HP.

Intelligence

Ingame Description: Increases your Magical Defense and Max MP.

Got a good idea of what the stats do thus far? Good. Now lets move on.

Since, we do not use Traps nor do we wish to become a Scout to use them, we will not be using the Wisdom stat for anything at all. However, just like Assassins we will be using the Strength stat to be primarily dealing damage. So, Strength will be the stat you will want to be looking out for and focusing on that.

We will now have a look at Special Attributes.

Accuracy

Ingame Description: Increases your chance to hit and decreases the chance of glancing blows. Attack effects are guaranteed on a successful hit.

Concentration

Ingame Description: Decreases the gap between maximum and minimum damage for physical and magical attacks.

Critical

Ingame Description: Increases your chance to strike an enemy’s weak point and deal extra damage. A successful critical hit deals 50% additional damage.

Attack Speed

Ingame Description: Increases your attack speed, granting more effective primary and combo attacks.

Casting Speed

Ingame Description: Reduces the casting time of your spells.

Evasion

Ingame Description: Decreases an enemy’s chance to hit you and increases their chance of glancing blows. If an attack is glancing, it cannot be a critical hit, no effects are applied, and the attack deals less damage.

Glancing Armor

Ingame Description: Increases the chance that an enemy attack will be a glancing blow.

Critical Resist

Ingame Description: Decreases the enemy’s critical hit chance and damage.

Movement Speed

Ingame Description: Increases your movement speed and the speed of certain skills.

Defense Limit

Ingame Description: Increases the durablity of your guard.

After listing all of the Special Attributes, we should see which ones benefit us more than the others and they are: Accuracy, Concentration, Critical, Attack Speed, Evasion, and Movement Speed.

Heres a good run down of why we need these ones in particular.

Accuracy: For not missing shots when using skills such as Divine Multishot or any sort of Multishot skills at all. It is really important to get your shots in, of course.

Concentration: Is pretty helpful for bringing that damage gap a bit lower and by that I mean if I am correct then it would be possible to bring your Mimimum damage over your Maximum. Feel free to correct me on this.

Critical: I don’t know why, but everytime I examine a Ranger/Wind Sweeper they have such obscene Critical that its insane. You do not need more than 60% base Critical rate, heck you don’t even need more than 30% base. I will get into that more later on in this guide on why you don’t need that much base Critical.

Attack Speed: Helpful with doing some combos if you prefer do them, also faster regular bow attack speed is pretty decent to have too. It does not speed up any animation frames of any kind.

Evasion: Evasion is pretty key and you will need it if you do plan to PvP alot, most gear you’ll probably be finding or buying will have Evasion on it.

Movement Speed: Moving faster is always a plus and I am not sure what skills it will be benefical towards, if anyone could help me out with that it would help alot, thanks.

Now, we’re moving onto Elemental Attributes.

If you’re still training (leveling) your Ranger then you may want to switch out your elements to something that matches the current continent that you are in, however we don’t really need elements for the first continent or the second for the most part and you may wish to save your money for elemental gems or equipment for the third continent for this current release.

Fire

Air monsters are weak to Fire and Fire monsters are strong against Fire.

Air

Earth monsters are weak to Air and Air monsters are strong against Air.

Earth

Water monsters are weak to Earth and Earth monsters are strong against Earth.

Water

Fire monsters are weak to Water and Water monsters are strong against Water.

Tip: Third Continent monsters are mostly Water element, so that means they are weak versus Earth attacks.

Also do note that currently elemental effects from gems don’t currently affect PvP at the moment.

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Skills – Part II

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Please note that this build that I am posting is for PvP and PvE, but you will be able to interchange anything for anything else you wish to get and you should have some optional skill points left over to do as such.

Actions

Vital Thrust: Is a close range attack, but it is there just incase you are in a close-range situation and need something to attack with or if your other cooldowns are still cooling down (PvP wise) (you can also hold down left-click after Vital Thrust to perform a basic 3-hit combo.)

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1

Lift Kick: Launches your enemy or rather enemies into the air and is a close ranged skill, so I would only use it in certain situations, however I do tend to use it in PvE alot as it helps me (after you use Lift Kick, you can right-click and you will fire a charged arrow, if your charged arrow is not on cooldown already.)

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1

Turn Slash: A close ranged defensive skill that when used will push your enemies away from you, useful for pushing away people who may be trying to come after you in PvP. Could be used to force an enemy towards a wall, where you could melee combo them in return.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1

Flying Shatter Kick: A close ranged attack that narrows the gap between you and your enemy, it is useful for escaping (PvP and PvE wise) or to use as a first attack and using that to combo with and using charged arrow (after you use Flying Shatter Kick, you can right-click and you will fire a charged arrow, if your charged arrow is not on cooldown already.)

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1

Chain Strike: A close ranged attack that hits your enemy twice (after you use Chain Strike, you can right-click and you will fire a charged arrow, if your charged arrow is not on cooldown already), this could be used to close-range combo your enemy if you so choose to and using it in conjuction with other melee skills such as Lift Kick, Vital Thrust and Flying Shatter Kick.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 0 (Optional Skill)

Precise Aim: And now we move onto the reason why I said that we do not need more than 30% base Critical Rate and this is why. This buff can not only increase your Critical Rate and when it is maxed out (for the current release), it can give a whopping 36% Critical Rate meaning that if you had a base Critical Rate around 30% and adding up the Critical Rate from this buff, you will get 66% total Critical Rate. As a bonus this buff increases our Effective range, meaning we can shoot our shots from further away.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 5 (Current Release)

First Aid: This buff gives some mediocre HP regen, however the main catch of this skill is that it helps with cooldowns cooldown faster. Most people don’t  prefer it, but its up to you and your playstyle.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 6 (Optional)

Aimed Shot: A long ranged attack that deals a crapload of damage, even on lower levels of the skill. This skill is considered to be boss killers and it can be very deadly in PvP if used and aimed correctly. Worth noting that when you do use this skill you will be ‘kneeling’ for the duration of your skill, so you probably will want to get off your shot as fast as possible. Aimed Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot. If the person is near a wall you could possibly use the first Aimed Shot to knock them against the wall and with a well timed replayed Aimed Shot knock them back towards your general direction (varying on where you’re firing from) and set yourself up for a melee combo.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 11 (Current Release)

Multi Shot: A medium ranged attack that shoots out arrows in multiple directions (I believe in a cone in front of you), it is good for interrupting combos (PvP wise) and can deal some extra damage to enemies when your other shots are on cooldown. Personally I would only get this skill to level 10 just to access the following: Divine Multishot, Jump Shot, and Jump Multishot. Multi Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 10 (Current Release)

Bomber Shot: A long ranged attack that deals decent physical damage, but the main draw of this skill is the damage over time (DoT) caused by the burning. Useful in conjuction with Drilling Shot to max out your chances at killing players (PvP wise) and monsters faster. Bomber Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot.

Element: Fire

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 12 (Current Release)

Freezing Shot: A long ranged attack that deals decent physical damage, just like Bomber Shot, however whats really good about this skill is that it has a chance to freeze your enemies and it can pierce through enemies just like Drilling Shot. When the shot does land though, it can explode and cause damage to other nearby enemies, it also deals water and frozen damage to them. Freezing Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot.

Element: Water

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 9 (Current Release)

Drilling Shot: A long ranged attack that is similiar to Freezing Shot and the fact that it pierces right straight through the enemy and causes a damage over time (DoT) on them when it does hit, can be used in Conjucture with Bomber Shot to maximize your damage, can also pierce through an enemies block and can mess up a players invulnerability, as well as knocking them down.  Drilling Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 8 (Current Release)

Lightning Shot: A long ranged attack that shoots out multiple shots just like Multi Shot, but it can knock down enemies as well. The damage is alright, but I personally just find it useful for knocking enemies down (PvP and PvE wise). Lightning Shot can be replayed with Replay Shot.

Element: Air

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 5 (Current Release)

Divine Multi-Shot: A medium ranged attack that shoots out bursts of multiple shots in a cone in front of you. This skill is useful for knocking down enemies, interrupting combos, killing bosses, and even keeping enemies at a distance away from you. However, when using it you will not be able to move (as in walk/run wise) and you will be standing in place and will be vulernable to attacks, however you can move around while standing in place and change where the shot is going.  Nearing the end of the ‘bursts’ which is at the point where the fourth and fifth burst take place, there will be a small delay before the fifth burst will fire.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Arrow Shower: A short to long ranged attack (depends on where you set it to fire) that rains arrows in that area of effect where you had set it to shoot at. Arrow Shower is useful for stunning multiple enemies while they are in its radius, once the shower ends though, they will be able to move again so it would be wise to prehaps get an Aimed Shot or two (Replayablity) in if at all possible (PvP wise).

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Aim Stance: I feel that Aimed Stance just leaves me too vulernable to attacks and I personally do not like it, it is mostly used for firing your shots in that stance further and faster.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 0 (Optional)

Commands

Eagle Kick: This command is -very- decent and has a low cooldown time, when running away or approaching an enemy you could use it to knock them down and also get them into a combo.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Evasive Roll: This command will let you do an evasive roll when you are on the ground, really helpful when you get knocked down and you just want to avoid being hit again.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Evasive Dash: This command lets you dash out of the way when you do get hit and generally has a pretty low cooldown time for the most part.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Low Kick: This command lets you kick when you press ‘F’, somewhat pratical but I prefer Eagle Kick over this.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Charged Arrow: This command lets you charge your arrows, the higher the command is the faster it charges and more damage is done. (Note: I believe a decent Charged Arrow would be at 10 and no higher, probably for higher levels of Aimed Shot or something else similiar. I do not have a skill reset on me currently so I cannot check.)

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 10 (Current Release)

Bow Expertise: This command.. is more like a Passive, but whatever. It increases the Range, Attack Speed and Attack Power of your shots.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 10 (Master)

Bow Expertise II: This command.. is just like Bow Expertise, but hey it gives even more Range, Attack Speed and Attack Power to boot!

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 8 (Current Release)

Evasive Maneuver: Lets you sidestep or manueuver an attack and can be used in all four cardinal directions (North, East, South, and West)

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Evasive Attack: If you hold down Left click while doing an Evasive Maneuver you will do an Evasive Attack and the best part is if you are retreating while using this command, you will do a spin kick.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Grab Throw: A command that lets you Grab Enemies and throw them a distance. Since, Shadow and Assassin use these more than Rangers I would only put it at level 1 due to the fact that we do not want to throw them to far away from us so that we can’t melee combo them.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Crouch: This command will be your best friend throughout the game and especially PvP, due to the fact that it has a 5 to 7 second invinciblity frame when you do use it, it also makes other ranged attacks miss if you do properly use this command. Also, the higher the skill is the lower the cooldown.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 9 (Current Release)

Jump Shot: This command will let you fire an arrow while jumping, it can be used for defense in most cases.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Jump Multishot: Just like Jump Shot this will let you use Multishot while jumping and has the same defensive use as Jump Shot, however you can also stop combos with this just like regular Multishot.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Grenade Shot: Like all of the other Jump Shots this one is more widespread and I would use this for defense or stopping people from getting too close to you with it, not to mention it also hits them with a DoT (damage over time).

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Current Release)

Evade Cancel: If you are aiming a shot at something, you can simply use this command to get straight out of it and also evade an attack that may be coming straight for you.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Dashing Aim: This command lets you dash while aiming I don’t think it works with any other shot besides Charged Arrow for right now.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Replay Shot I: One of my favorite commands and yours too I bet! This command lets you replay most of your shots, meaning if you use one shot and then right click you will be able to fire it again right away. Probably the best command for taking bosses down in no time.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Passives

Piercing Aim: This is -very- useful passive due to the fact that it allows Aimed Shot to ‘pierce’ through enemies rather than be limited to the arc of enemies that are in front of you, it is well worth picking up and recommended for PvE especially.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 1 (Master)

Quickdraw: This passive lets us prepare our shots faster, which means that with the shot preperation speed it gives us helps with our shot cooldowns. This passive is a must for all Rangers/Wind Sweepers.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 7 (Current Release)

Moving Aim: Currently unlike the Korean version of C9 where they can move while preparing their shots (such as Drill Shot and what not), C9 Global for the time being has limited Moving Aim so it only effects us while charging up Charged Arrow. If they do allow it to eventually be like the Korean version than this passive will be more benefical for us, for now I have to say that it currently is optional and I would look out for any changes involving this.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 6 (Optional)

Fitness Mastery I: This passive gives us a decent boost to our Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and Physical Defense (to somewhat compensate for our frail defense). Worth picking up for sure, due to the increases that we get from this.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 10 (Master)

Attack Mastery I: This passive grants a boost to our Physical Attack, allowing us to deal even more physical damage from long range and even close up. Picking this up is a must.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 10 (Master)

Attack Mastery II: This passive grants an even greater boost to our Physical Attack, allowing us to deal even more physical damage from long range and even close up. Picking this up is a must.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 8 (Current Release)

Max HP Increase: This passive grants well.. you guessed it more Hitpoints and at the current release at its current cap (at the moment), will grant us 2.5k HP which is pretty decent. I suggest picking it up and it does allow us to survive a bit longer.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 9 (Current Release)

Max MP Increase: This passive grants us more MP and to be blunt here I don’t personally like it and don’t find myself running about of MP all that much (except in PvP), but it is something optional if you wish to spend those points on.

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 0 (Optional)

Critical Increase: This passive grants us more obscene crit rate that we don’t really need to spend points on now, do we? You’ve all seen that the Precise Aim buff grants us a whopping 36% critical rate and even when this passive is maxed out, it only grants a 9% increase. Avoid picking this up at all costs. Too many Rangers/Wind Sweepers have picked this up and made that mistake. Don’t let that be you!!

Personal Skill Level Recommendation: Level 0 (Optional)

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Final Thoughts – Part III

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Well, it looks like we’re at the end of the guide. Now if you were following the guide skill for skill, you would notice that you have plenty of skill points left over. Heres somethings that you may wish to allocate them into:

-Lightning Shot (more damage/DPS)

-First Aid

-Grenade Shot (maybe?)

Now is the time for the types of Equipment stats that you should aim for:

-Accuracy (Lets you get more shots in when using anything Multishot related, also getting more shots in means more DPS)

-Attack Speed (Probably not the biggest worry to go after, you probably already have decent attack speed anyways)

-Evasion (Most gear usually has evasion on it, for the most part. More evasion will help you later on in the long run for this current release anyways.)

-Strength (Your Primary damage dealing stat, the higher it gets the more damage you’ll do)

Well, this should wrap things up and I hope that you have enjoyed the guide and if you were thinking about becoming a Ranger that this helped you understand it more, or if you are a current Ranger/Wind Sweeper that was looking for a build I hope that this helped you. Now go out there and show them what us Rangers/Wind Sweepers can do!