Anyone know what I should be doing with my skill points for a Ranger? I've just been putting then in places I thought were good. Also what type of mag should I have?
There are a few options, I'll just list the one that will give you the highest damage output (also the one myself and most people I know use).
This would be the RaHu tree. Now let me give a quick rundown of why the tree is set up like this:
The Hu tree is rather simple. Fury Stance is incredible, game breakingly so. It boosts not only S-atk, but R-atk as well. This tree maxes out all the fury stance skills so you get the most possible damage boost you can. Adding in Step Attack lets you take advantage of dashing techiniques so that you can move faster than just simply walking.
Now as for why Partisan Gear is there. Partisans have two really powerful PAs: Assault Buster (Drops off of Rare Snow Banshee. Has to be >level 11 PA) and Slide End (Drops off of Signo Blue. Also has to be >level 11). They're both exceptionally fast and can be handy to kill enemies that are too awkwardly positioned for your Ra weapons to take care of. Also they're super fun PAs. And because Fury Stance is still boosting your S-atk, it will do quite a bit of damage. Of course, if you don't want to get an all class partisan or don't ever think you'll be in a situation where you'll need to use any of the former two partisan PAs you can just drop the partisan gear skill and put the point into getting just reversal.
Now for the Ra tree. You'll definitely want to max both Weak Hit Advances. This'll maximize your damage against enemy weak points (also when hitting weak bullet targets). Maxing Weak Bullet will let you use weak bullet more often which is always nice. The two Standing Snipes are also very handy to have as its another 30% damage increase just for standing still for a split second before you attack.
The other two skills; Killing bonus and First Hit.
Killing bonus is a skill that works really well with a high risk style of gameplay. It'll let you sneak in more PAs for the more enemies you kill at close range. Now the reason this is so useful is because most of Ranger's best PAs are the ones that get you up close to the enemy. Such PAs as rifle's Diffuse Shell, Impact Slider, Homing Emission and Sneak Shooter. As well as Launcher's Rodeo Drive and Cluster Bullet if you're close enough. Basically, if you're willing to go for it, Killing Bonus lets you keep killing things.
First Hit is another skill meant to boost your damage. Any time you hit an enemy that has full HP it'll increase your damage against them by 20%. Which is very handy for most single shot Ra PAs as well as the two Partisan PAs (if you choose to use them).
All in all, this specific build will crank your damage up significantly. The one downside (if you consider it to be one) is that Fury Stance will make enemies hit you harder since it drops your Defenses. But truthfully, its not that big of a deal as long as you learn to dodge and plan your attacks out. You can also mitigate some glass cannon-ness by investing in HP boosting affixes like people do.
Personally, I just learnt to not care about dying or getting hit and just kill enemies before they can kill me. Its not like theres a penalty for death anyways so just learn to chug some mates :v
