Phantom Ranger (Freya) guide — Phantom Ranger
A Phantom Ranger class guide for Lineage 2 Freya: how to get the class, which skills to take, what to wear and where to level. A bit of prose: honestly, to play a dark archer you have to be a fan of the class, i.e. either love scrawny dark elves, which is doubtful, or nice curves, which is more reasonable xD
Contents |
Phantom Ranger/Ghost Sentinel/Phantom Ranger/Ghost Sentinel
PR/PR/GS/CT - An archer whose crit doesn't scare or shock, it just takes your head off. Unfortunately, while having enormous power, this kind of archer has the flimsiest build: among archers it has the least CP/HP, which hurts its life expectancy in PvP/mass PvP badly. This archer's task is to hide behind the backs of its tankier brothers HE and fire its terrifying crits, since if the dark one is under a cat, a BD, a level 78 Warcryer and the self buff "Dead eye/Dead Eye", its crit simply blows away brains, legs, arms - anything that can be blown off a mammal of the world of Aden. I won't write about the class's pros and cons; I changed my mind, since it's an eternal argument. Let everyone decide for themselves.
Next, about skills, stats and gear, depending on level
When you create a character, it will have the following stats:
Second class skills (levels 40-74)
Increases Critical Damage. Consumes MP while active. Some consider this aura useful, some don't. In reality it doesn't give that much; in PvP I prefer to turn on the accuracy aura, but more on that later.
- Honestly? A dud skill... A pity about the sp. spent
Increases P. Atk. when using a bow.
- Learn it all the way, and at the 3rd class enchant it all the way!
Increases your bow's attack range.
- The farther we shoot, the better the chance to get away!
Increases P. Def. and Evasion when wearing light armor. Lowers the chance of taking critical damage.
- Learn it all the way, and at the 3rd class enchant it all the way!
Lets you quickly fire two arrows. Critical hit possible. Overhit possible. Requires a bow.
- In Gracia Final it's practically a no-cooldown skill. Whoa!
Inflicts serious bleeding wounds with precise strikes to especially vulnerable spots. Requires a sword, dagger or dual swords. Overhit possible.
- Like we've got nothing better to do than run around with a dagger and poke :E
Throws the enemy into confusion, changing their target of attack.
- Works rather questionably...
Freezes the enemy, instantly lowering their Speed.
- A questionable skill; at least I don't use it in my practice.
Absorbs (steals) the target's HP.
- The Korean devs must have been smoking something. Don't learn it, total nonsense. Healing yourself with this skill is madness.
A stunning shot that damages the target. Requires a bow. Overhit possible.
- Used very often in small brawls. In the 3rd class be sure to enchant it for land chance, to at least +9.
Temporarily lowers the target's P. Def.
- I learned this skill to the end, but with a BD, and even without one, I use it extremely rarely; it's easier to fire another 1-2 shots than to walk to range 600 and cast something, though it may come in handy for picking at dwarves and tanks.
Instantly lowers the enemy's P. Atk.
- Didn't learn this skill, since it's nonsense, IMHO. You have to walk up to cast it — no way, they'll kill you first. Though some use it on RBs. Yes, for 2-3 seconds the RB hits weaker, while you run after it debuffing like an idiot :)))
Evasion improves while running.
- A must-learn. Helps a lot when kiting — if you know how to kite, of course.
Increases HP/MP recovery speed while running.
- A small but pleasant bonus. A must-learn, folks :E
Increases Speed.
- A must-learn, and in the 3rd class also enchant it for that same speed.
Temporarily (20 min.) increases MP.
- Worth learning; useful sometimes
Instantly poisons the enemy.
- The Korean devs were smoking something again, and something strong at that...
Restores your MP by sacrificing your HP.
- A useful thing if there's no EE or other MP refiller nearby while leveling or in a long brawl. I use it fairly often.
Temporarily reduces the MP cost of physical skills.
- Learn it, definitely.
Fires an arrow carrying the character's pain. The effect grows stronger when HP. is low. Overhit possible. Requires a bow.
- I don't use it, though I learned it. People sometimes argue about how useful it is, but I'll keep it simple - I don't use it, at all.
Temporarily increases your Accuracy, P. Atk. and Critical Damage when using a bow. While the spell is active, your Atk. Spd. is reduced. Requires a bow.
- This is the skill that turns the dark archer into a killing machine. Only worth using with full buffs.
Creates 700 to 2800 Mithril Arrows. Requires 1 A-grade crystal.
- Learn it. It'll come in handy when you forget arrows for leveling and have a couple of crystals in your pocket.
Creates 700 to 3600 Shining Arrows. Requires 1 S-grade crystal.
- No comment.
Third class skills (levels 76-83)
Increases resistance to Hold, Sleep and Mental Attacks.
- I'll enchant it for hold, since I most often get rooted etc. by all sorts of SwSs, BDs and tanks.
Fires a lethal arrow. Overhit possible. Requires a bow.
- Learned it, but rarely use it. Mostly against dwarves and tanks.
Unrivaled mastery of skills. There's a small chance to reuse skills without reuse time or with doubled duration. Depends on STR.
- Triggers rarely; with the aura you'll get at 78 it's better. Well, don't count on this skill too much. A nice little extra.
Damages the enemy and lowers their speed. Critical hit possible. Overhit possible. Requires a bow.
- Great stuff. I love breaking someone's legs and kiting. A first-rate way to toy with tanks and dwarves.
Greatly enhances the effect of Skill Mastery. Consumes MP. while active.
- The aura I wrote about above, in the comment on another skill. Rubbish, by and large.
Increases attack power and maximum attack range when using a bow.
- This skill is why we grind all the way to 78 xD
Instantly increases the character's Evasion based on the damage dealt to the enemy. Requires a bow. Overhit possible.
- Personally I think the skill is rubbish, though in small brawls against clumsy melee or other archers it may help.
When the character is attacked, their MP is restored by a certain amount.
- Those Korean devs... I could bang my head against the Great Wall of China...
- When the character is attacked, their Casting Spd. and MP consumption are reduced by a certain amount.
- And if the Great Wall doesn't help, I'll go jump in the Pacific.
Creates a symbol that maximizes the archer skills of everyone around. Applies to all targets in the area of effect. The effect disappears if you leave the area. Requires level 2 Battle Force. Consumes 1 Battle Symbol.
- Haven't used it in combat, AT ALL. As if there's nothing else to do in a brawl.
When using a melee weapon, increases P. Atk. by 100 and Atk. Spd. by 10%. During attacks, physical skill power and Critical Rate increase.
- The Korean devs are strange creatures. Sure, at 81 I'll run into melee and whack people over the head with my Dynasty bow.
When a bow/crossbow is used, Accuracy increases by 8 and range increases by 50. When attacking, the physical skill's power and Critical Rate are increased at a fixed rate.
- What drove the developers when they made the previous skill, I have no idea.
Continuously fires arrows, dealing 4000 damage. Up to 7 arrows.
- When I tested it, the cast was really long; I doubt the skill will be useful, though as the first volley at some healer it'll do.
Allows use of a bow without consuming MP.
- Now thaaat's something!
M. Def. increased by 15%. When the character takes damage, M. Def. and elemental resistance increase further.
- Good 1
Elemental resistance increased by 20. When the character takes damage, M. Def. and elemental resistance increase further.
- Good 2
Elemental resistance increased by 20. When the character takes damage, M. Def. and elemental resistance increase further.
- Good 3
Phantom arrows can pierce any material. Critical hit possible. Requires a bow. Overhit possible.
- At 83 we won't give a damn about your shields and helmets, and we'll make you run for it :E
Under this icon >> ** << are my thoughts and comments on the skills.
A bit about equipment at different stages of character development
Bow
- The bow. Our weapon of retribution in the name of... who knows, never mind.
- First, bows (like daggers, by the way) have the highest base critical rate in the game. True, until S grade and its matching
Draconic Bow we won't get the Focus SA on a bow (
Shyeed's Bow doesn't count; few people make it because it's hard to craft and not absolutely necessary). But once we get the 
Draconic Bow with the Focus SA (+88 to critical rate), playing becomes more fun. - Second, bows have the highest P. Atk. Albeit with a "slow" or "very slow" attack speed. But I'll tell you, it can be boosted quite well. With good circumstances, archers can reach the maximum cap of 1500 for showering the foe with arrows, which cancels out other weapons' attack speed advantage. But they'll never get our archer P. Atk., and that's a big plus for us. Unless it's Destroyer orcs under their Frenzy, but that's cheating. Or some summoners under certain circumstances... Anyway, all mere mortals lose to bows on attack.
- So, among bows we pay attention to:
- First, bows (like daggers, by the way) have the highest base critical rate in the game. True, until S grade and its matching
- Heated arguments about the SA still flare up to this day. Accuracy indirectly increases damage by reducing misses, Cheap Shot saves MP during nonstop leveling, Refresh gives skill reuse and faster shooting. Each future conqueror decides for themselves, but the author prefers Refresh.
- A grade
- This is where an interesting flame war begins on "Which bow should I take??7111"
True bow masters have tried every option many times over and know that the firing speed of the 
Carnage Bow (commonly called the "snag") is exactly equal to the firing speed of the 
Soul Bow (aka the Soul). The only difference is the moment the arrow leaves the bow. If you count the shots per minute from these bows, you get the same number, even though the listed attack speed differs. BUT! If you plan to fight with skills or do a lot of PvP, you'd better take the snag: its skill draw speed is noticeably higher than the Soul's. And one more thing: if you take a normal Soul and put an SA for Recovery in it, it will shoot faster, since the cooldown of a normal shot gets shorter. That won't help with skills, though. There's also the 
Shyeed's Bow, but making it is a pain worthy of a true hardcore grinder. It's easier to make a Draconic with 150 attribute. Still, if you do get one, at low levels you'll have the Focus SA, which is very handy for killing mobs.
- S grade
- Draconic Bow (attack 581)! No alternatives. And we don't need any. First of all, be sure to add 150 attribute. In general, note that the maximum attribute on a weapon is 300. Up to 150 use stones, after that crystals all the way. But that's an expensive pleasure, so few people attribute Draconic bows to 300; it's better to invest in the more expensive and more fun in every way Dynasty (S80), Icarus (S80-2), Vesper Thrower (S84), etc.; more on those below.
For leveling you can use any attribute (Holy/Dark is cheapest), but if you want to fight properly 1x1 or in small brawls, use an elemental one and enchant the Double Shot skill to +1, getting +40% of its damage; it helps when fighting those who like dodging shots. The SA is definitely Focus, +88 to critical rate.
-
Recurve Thorne Bow (attack 794). Also from Freya; currently the top bow in the game. The dream item of everyone who reached 84. It needs a level 18 SA, which gives 139 crit. As they say, no comment... The only downside - for now it's a dream; it's impossible to get - it drops only from Antharas, Valakas and, apparently, Extreme Freya. Who are killed only by GMs, if they have nothing better to do.
-
Some especially crazy... savvy Hawkeyes use it quite productively...
- Dagger.
- Along with the bow, this pointy thing has the highest base critical rate in the game. Its advantages for us are a much higher attack speed, the ability to use it on mobs with arrow resistance (say, under the GC), and that it doesn't eat MP when hitting! Accordingly, nothing and no one stops us from pulling it out when we have no MP for a shot and keep bonking the enemy on the head with the hilt.
And alsooo.... It has an awesome PvP bonus (11.5k Fame to insert, and a million-plus adena), which cancels the foe (removes their buffs) with a 15% chance on any normal hit! No comment needed. Once we were fooling around with a 80+ Paladin; I took the dagger instead of the bow (he has a crazy resist to bows), and by the end of the duel he had no buffs at all. But I still lost ;) Opinions on whether archers need a dagger differ; it's a matter of taste. But the most interesting thing is that a Hawkeye with a good dagger can play the role of a melee DD quite well while leveling with melee partners, since its P. Atk. is almost like a TH's; the only difference is the lack of skills, which are rarely used while leveling anyway out of laziness to press buttons. And a bit in attack speed - the TH does have evasion hastes and an attack speed passive. Again, whether a dagger is useful is decided individually. So see for yourselves.
Outfit
- C grade
- Here we need the Plated Leather set (+4 STR -1 CON). It gives us higher damage, and we don't need anything else from C grade. And if the set is also +6, you can skip other gear all the way to A grade, as long as you have good party support and the mobs don't reach you.
- B grade
- There are as many as 4 B-grade sets, but none of them deserves attention, since at these levels we'll be running in a C-grade set — the good old Plated Leather.
- A grade
- 3 kinds of sets are worth considering:
- The other sets (Apella, Nightmare) are dreary junk and not worthy of our royal attention.
- S grade, also known as S, also known as the set made of dragon hide (c) -
A very good set, you know. DEX+1, STR+1, CON-2, Atk. Spd./P. Atk. +4%, Max MP +289, weight limit without penalty +5759. A PvP bonus as well. But the tastiest part is the ability to put attribute resistances into the body and the extremities.
A lyrical digression. Starting from S grade, we can attribute each part of the set for elemental resistance by inserting stones. The stones give a defense attribute opposite to the element we insert. I.e. insert holy - get dark resistance, insert wind - get earth resistance, etc. One item can get at most 120 resistance to the chosen element; up to 60 we insert stones, then crystals up to 120. Starting from Freya, we can put 3 attribute types into each set item - one from each pair: wind-earth, water-fire, holy-dark. Naturally, in a Draconic set this makes sense only if it's rare and +6, otherwise it's too expensive.
- Put this set on when you reach 76+; it's fairly easy to collect and inexpensive. The ideal leveling set. Damage like in TMH, attack speed, and it's light with all the passives (evasion and PvP bonus). Well, for PvP attribute all the set parts for the needed resists; otherwise better take MJ with anti-stun.
Lately, though, top archers like to have a fully rare Draconic set, with every piece enchanted to +6 or higher. In that case the Dino set (more on it below) simply loses. But, again, it's hard to get.
- The S80 set, aka Dino -
Everyone who was careless enough to become a level 80 human wears this set. They're not expensive; you can really collect it before reaching 80, then slowly enchant it on the way to 80, occasionally taking it out of the WH and running around town with a penalty. Its advantage over the Draconic set is that it consists of 5 items, so we can put more stones into the fifth item and be better protected. As a rule, an all-purpose set gets 4 elements + dark. If you put 900 attributes into the set, then 3 items get the 3 most needed attributes (180 defense against each), and the remaining 2 items get the other 3 attributes, defense against which matters less to us (or can be boosted by a buff) - 120 defense against each. To be fair, if it weren't for the 5 items (i.e. more resists) and higher P. Def., you could skip the Dynasty set and wear the good old Draconic. - On its own it has the following stats: -1 CON, +1 DEX, +1.72 Accuracy, +1.72 Evasion, +418 HP, +6 Dark Defense. But it's a rare Jedi who wears the Dynasty set as is; everyone upgrades it, tuning it to their class - for us that's the archer version. You can upgrade the set by inserting a special essence AT NIGHT (whoa, mysticism!) at the HB. It comes in levels 1 and 2. After such an upgrade we get a set that ONLY an archer can wear; others will have to take the essence out and insert their own to wear it. Or not insert one at all.
- After inserting a level 1 Essence we get -2 CON, +2 DEX, +4.3 Accuracy, +321 MP, +8 Dark defense, + (I don't know the numbers, but not much) to attack speed and MP regeneration.
- If you insert a level 2 Essence, you get -2 CON, +2 DEX, +5.3 Accuracy, +321 MP, +8 Dark Defense, +3.24% Atk. Spd. and +6.6% MP regen. Right now, with Essence prices having dropped sharply, it makes sense to insert the second one right away and get decent stats from the set.
- The S80-2 set, aka Moirai -
S80 gear that appeared in Freya as an alternative to Dynasty. No hassle with shoulder pads, no splitting into Berserker/Gladiator/archer versions. It gives the following stats: DEX +2, CON -2; when equipped, P. Atk. +4.26%, Atk. Spd. +4%, Speed +3%, hold resistance +50%, Fire/Water/Wind/Earth defense +3. Put this set on as soon as you can; it's more fun than both Draconic and Dynasty in terms of boosting DPS. And root resistance comes in very handy for an archer.
- S84 sets — there are loads of them, as many as 3.
- '
Vesper light set - ' Stats: STR+1, CON-2, DEX+1, Attack/Atk. Spd./MP +5,57 recovery speed %, Max MP +347,4.
- '
In plain words, it's the same Draconic, but as if with a second essence: attack and attack speed are one and a half percent higher, P. Def. is higher, and the rest is the same, except for increased weight. Oh yes, if you stick Noble Enhancement Stones in, you get the "Noble" addition (heh, Innova's own translation of the word "noble") to your Vesper set. It becomes nobler, and you can wear S84 cloaks with it. Right now the Vesper Noble set gives no stat boost, BUT! The High Five update is around the corner, and there they'll change the set's stats and add an extra boost for Noble sets. Archers are affected quite well overall, and after the update comes out I'll be busy editing the guide - but for now we wait. :)
Now this is cool, guys. It adds the sometimes much-needed P. Def., and +speed is nice too. And the most fun part is paralysis resistance. In today's conditions, when every group has a 83+ SLH chicken with its cheesy mass paralysis, this set is just the thing for staying mobile (well, at least trying) in mass brawls.
The top set at the moment, nothing more to say. The +3/-2 stats alone are worth it. Good attack speed, a good bonus to attack; it's a pity it's DEX +2 and not STR — P. Atk. matters more to us. Oh well, you won't be able to collect it anyway
- Also, starting from S80 sets, you can wear a CLOOOOAK with them, which gives nothing but bragging rights and 20 P. Def. It's made after reaching level 80 via the quest Path to Glory (hold on, Glory!); a pain because it takes long: the point is to rack up kills over 4 Territory Wars, 8 weeks in total. Then it's unsealed at an NPC and worn ONLY with an S80 set.
In conclusion
I won't write about where to level; you'll find that yourself. Open the map, hit the "Information" button, then "Hunting Zone", and off you go to discover the undiscovered and all that. As for PvP and mass PvP, your main task is not to get assisted by enemies, to hide behind the bodies of tankier teammates, and to kite a lot (shoot and run around like you've been stung). I consider the dark one the hardest to control, since it's not known for survivability. A good class; I love it. By the way, I play a girl - just don't ask why. HAVE YOU SEEN THEIR FIGURES!? What girlfriends!? They're nowhere near! In short, there's something to entertain yourself with on long winter evenings ;)
Readers' additions
Phantom Ranger - "the killing machine".
- Buffs
- Of course, any class needs buffs for easy play. For full power you need the Const-Party. WC, BD, SWS, Warlock. buff (the Inspector doesn't count)
- Baium + AQ
- An essential addition is these 2 epics: tasty bonuses to Atk. Spd., Critical Damage and Accuracy ^^
the AQ plus the Olympiad AQ is also a good option if you don't have money for Baium
- DE/VS
- Correct skill enchanting matters. As soon as possible, enchant +1 power. right away (!! at +1 it adds +211 P. Atk. compared to unenchanted)
- Second, but no less important, enchant +1 power
- Holy attribute
- The most important thing in our power build. In Final you can put 170 attribute into the bow, and in Epilogue 300; the +20 attribute from the PP and Bishop buffs, Holy Weapon, Danse Of Light another +20 attribute. Total: 340 attribute. There's no way to raise your defense against Holy attacks beyond these values.
- Nice extras
Stunning Shot +1=50% (chance); after that the bonuses are much, much smaller.
- Tattoos: the PR's passive skill Critical Chance doesn't grow, i.e. its critical rate is lower than the Hawkeye's or SR's, and a +5 DEX tattoo can make up for it. (+ Dead Eye lowers Atk. Spd.; the tattoo compensates for that too).
That's pretty much all — personal experience and nothing more ^^
