Any luck with non-strength rangers?

[Waldo52]

I've had some really mediocre experiences on the PGCC with dexterity based rangers. On the other hand my friend played a STR ranger that was an absolute meat grinder. One of the best glass cannons I've ever seen.

Do archers suck?

Do dex based TWF builds suck?

Are animal companions as weak late-game and for PvP as my PGCC experiences suggest?

Would anyone suggest building a non-strength ranger at all?

EDIT: I'm also wondering if any of the less obvious animal companion choices are worth taking. Especially the spider and regular wolf (yay, fear!). Guidance on weather or not to take the special feats that buff animal companions is also appreciated.

[Cuchilla]

Not sure what you're after? I played a couple of almost pure dex based rangers. SPOILER: I am not even a decent builder!!!

Nevertheless, I loved playing them. They were the by far the best stealthers I've ever had. With the new feats they had recently - gorgeous! Added 5-6 rogue levels for chests, for max tumble (30) and UMD. And sneak attack.

As for archer: If you like tactical challenges (I do) to take down a spawn group one by one from the distance, they are great fun, and quite efficient. You can even keep yourself with arrows.

Companions? Forget about them, was my experience.

Good builders might ROFL, I don't care!

[ReverentBlade]

They might not be top tier in the strictest sense, but they work just fine.

[Spriggan Bride]

I think archers are a lot less desirable now that they have the big AB penalty when moving around. It's not such a big deal on like a zen archer shaman or cleric with epic summons but I don't think it makes a non AA ranger archer very enticing.

[Wethrinea]

As a dex melee ranger you trade damage, str skills and carry capacity for AC, reflex saves and dex skills. That is essentially it. The difference between a 26 str and 26 dex ranger is roughly 8 damage per hit and 4 AC. Animal companion stats are the same.

In the past you had to give up a feat for weapon finesse, but now you get that for free. You can also take all those cool new feats as the str requirement has been voided. So str vs dex really comes down to your style of play.

On the topic of animal companions: They can be pretty good, but do not come close to par with high level summons, mainly due to the complete lack of any immunities. On lower levels they will help you level and used wisely they can do some serious damage in the late epic PvE. But their survivability is like a cone of ice cream in July.

When it comes to the archer path, I'd say that any serious archer without 9 AA levels will have a harder time, as unlike their melee siblings, a RArcher does not get DR piercing on their main weapon, and their companions are too weak to serve as a proper tank.

[TurningLeaf]

Do dex based TWF builds suck?

Kinda, yeah, at least on Arelith. The enemy ABs are high here, just being high dex isn't going to give you enough AC to wear down on-level enemy groups very efficiently with your lower dex based damage.

[WanderingPoet]

The main benefit of going dex is more options at the cost of damage. You can sneak, you can use a bow, you can swap to melee if an enemy runs up to you.

You end up more jack-of-all-trades for it, and thus worse than someone specializing in raw melee damage. But, a StrRanger also can't really use range or stealth to make up for that higher dpr.

Elder Dream is still a great weapon though, and it is finesseable; so both are good.

The ranger runic studded leather provide 13AC, vs a 16-18 from cloth and high dex. This is why Str doesn't lose too much AC in the end, as the studded leathers are just really great. That said, 3-5AC can be enough to make a difference in survivability in melee when you consider blade thirst.

A str ranger will hit around 45AC (off the top of my head calculation), so getting to 50 is a big difference especially with IE bringing you to 60.

Main reason I'd go for dex ranger over str is for sneaking though, and archery.