EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
4.3.2. Levels 20-28: Antonica, Stormhold, Thundering Steppes, Splitpaw,
Nektulos Forest
Now that you’re level 20, you can work on the set of armor quests that starts in Qeynos
Harbor. Some of these will require a group, but you’ll also be able to solo quite a bit of it
(section nine contains further details on these armor quests). These quests involve killing
mobs in various zones, including Antonica, Stormhold, Blackburrow, the Crypt of Betrayal,
and the Thundering Steppes. For these levels there are also plenty of soloing spots and
quests in Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest.
If you are working on the series of quests from Matsy Rollingpin in Antonica, you’ll be able
to continue with a new series of quests in Thundering Steppes. There are also several
quests you can pick up on the docks here, plus a half a dozen more from an NPC centaur
at Coldwind Point, in the northwestern section of the zone. There are quite a few Lore &
Legend books you can pick up for these levels – Giant, Centaur, Treant, Skeleton, and
Zombie. At level 25 you can also get books for Shadowman and Elemental mastery. A
couple of these may require a group to get to but once you have the book the quests
themselves are soloable (section nine has details on where to find Lore & Legend books).
At level 20 or so, if you have the Splitpaw adventure pack you can start working your way
through the quests and zones associated with it. The great thing about these zones is
that they scale to your level – so you can get good experience and loot both solo and
grouped at any level. To start adventuring in the Splitpaw zones, you will need to /claim
the item associated with it, then examine it and head to one of the “terraporters” that are
dotted about the countryside in the Thundering Steppes. Clicking on a terraporter will
transport you to a solo zone which you must complete to be able to enter the Splitpaw den
(which is located in the southern part of the Thundering Steppes).
Favorite Experience Spots
• Stormhold (halls and chessboard area, levels 18-22)
• Trial of Harclave (Splitpaw, level 20+)
• Dead River Basin (dry riverbed in TS, start near the docks and work your way
deeper in as you level, levels 18-26)
• Port Naythex (Nektulous Forest beach, levels 20-24)
• Coldwind Point (NW beach in TS, levels 22-26)
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4.3. Soloing Locations
In general, soloing is usually nowhere near as good experience as grouping, but by
making sure you have a steady stream of solo quests running, you can get more
experience and loot for your time spent. I suggest heading to the mage tower of your city
(South Qeynos or North Freeport) and purchasing some of the books from the Scribe
there. These books are quests, most of which are soloable. They give decent experience
rewards when completed, as well as a book you can put in your home or sell. Various
books also drop or can be picked up in different adventure and city zones. There are also
several free books you can pick up in the tower and around Qeynos (some have a level
requirement, such as the two Lore & Legend books that are gotten in the Mage Tower).
4.3.1. Levels 10-20: Antonica and the Commonlands
If you do all the city quests first, you’ll be level 10 before you start getting into combat – at
this level you’ll be heading out into Antonica (or the Commonlands if you intend to betray).
If you’ve gotten this far on errand-type quests without much combat you’ll find your melee
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EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
skills are a little low, but they will go up very quickly. Spend some time in the starting
villages of your city to pick up whatever quests are available before you head out to battle.
Whether you are in Antonica or the Commonlands you can just start at the city gates and
work your way out, exploring the zone and finding out all the different mob locations and
things to do. In each of these zones there are new quest lines to do as well. If you’re in
Antonica you want to find Matsy Rollingpin, who is located on the second floor of the cabin
just beyond the two guard towers south of the city gates. In the Commonlands, you need
to see Mooshu at the crossroads to start these quests.
This is also a good time to learn about how dynamic camps work. These are areas of
static mobs that spawn around a central targetable item – you can find such camps in all
the overland zones in Norrath. For example in Antonica you’ll often come across several
groups of gnolls all standing around a targetable gnoll tent. These are dynamic camps –
when you kill all the mobs surrounding one of these targetable items, you have the chance
to spawn a named or a “distressed merchant”. If you spawn a merchant and then reclear
the camp, the merchant will respawn as a “gratified merchant” who will then sell you items
you can’t get anywhere else – each merchant type in the various outdoor zones sells a
couple of quest books that are unique to merchants in that zone so they are well worth
collecting.
Favorite Experience Spots - Antonica
• Area between the North Qeynos gate and the griffon tower (levels 8-10)
• Archer Woods (levels 10-14)
• Dynamic gnoll camps north of the TS griffon tower (levels 14-18)
• Crabs on northeastern beach (levels 16-20)
Favorite Experience Spots – Commonlands
• fallen orcs outside the Sprawl gate (levels 8-12)
• carrion hounds near the dog pond (levels 8-15)
• ratonga at the farm area – take the west road out of the crossroads (levels 10-15)
• tower of Zarvonn (levels 15-20)
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Soloing is all about tactics, but equipment plays an important part too. To solo well you
absolutely must take care to ensure that your equipment and skills are kept up-to-date
and of good quality ¨C all your skills should be at least apprentice IV quality and your armor
and weapons should be the very best you can obtain.
In addition you absolutely must use poison while soloing ¨C ideally you should be using it
all the time, but it¡¯s a must while soloing at the very least because of the DPS boost that it
provides.
A good-quality bow is very important also, preferably one with a proc, as proc damage will
contribute to your DPS quite significantly when you¡¯re kiting. Appropriate-tier arrows are
also a must if you¡¯re planning to use auto-attack while kiting (strictly speaking you don¡¯t
need to use auto-attack while kiting ¨C I¡¯ll explain more about this shortly).
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4.2.1. Toe-to-Toe
Melee soloing is a viable tactic to use on most solo mobs. Armor quality is particularly
important, as are the liberal use of HOs ¨C Heroic Opportunities (see section 7 for an indepth
explanation of these). With good quality armor, weapons, and poisons, you¡¯ll be
able to melee most solo encounters without too much trouble.
A HO macro is a great thing to have handy for soloing. This is created using the in-game
macro system, which is very user-friendly and it¡¯s quite simple to make macros for HOs
and other things. You can make your first HO macro at level five when you get Lucky
Break. It should look like this, with one command per line ¨C
/useability Lucky Break
/useability Evade
/useability Searing Strike
This tells your character to use all three skills, one after the other, to start, trigger, and
complete a solo HO. As you level and get new skills you¡¯ll be able to replace these low
level ones on the macro. The amount of damage a HO does is dependant on the level of
the skill used to complete it so you need to use the highest level HO completing skills you
have.
You will need to make two HO macros ¨C one for melee use and one for range use, as you
can use attacks like Corner and Leaping Shot to complete HOs at range while kiting, but
you¡¯ll use different skills for HOs when you¡¯re meleeing.
When soloing I¡¯ll normally pull with whatever high-damage ranged attack I have up, then
as the mob is moving towards me I¡¯ll fire off as many bow skills as I can that allow me to
shoot at the front of the mob. Cheap Shot, root, and snare allow me to slow the mob
down and give me time to get out of range to finish it off. With a bit of practice it becomes
easy to kill solo mobs without ever getting hit.
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4.2.2. Kiting
As I mentioned, kiting isn¡¯t as easy as it used to be. However, it¡¯s still quite possible once
you¡¯re familiar with your bow skills and how they function.
Kiting is very effective for classes that can either increase their own movement speed
during battle and/or slow down opponents. The basic principle involves using high
damage ranged abilities to kill a mob while it follows you around snared and unable to get
close enough to hit you. Kiting is something that is easy to learn but hard to master.
However once you do master get the art of kiting you will get to the point where the only
thing that decides whether or not you win is whether you have enough arrows.
The key to kiting is to NOT get hit. If that means holding off on your CAs a moment while
you maneuver around a rock or tree then so be it. Keep yourself steady first, shoot
second. All the damage in the world isn¡¯t going to help you if you back peddle into a wall
and have a pack of angry mobs on you. It¡¯s a good idea to use third person view when
kiting so that you can easily see what¡¯s around you. You should also keep all your kiting
CAs on the number hotbar so that all you need to do to activate them is press a single key
for each one. Keeping your movements as simple as possible is important because it
takes quite a bit of effort to keep moving and keep mobs at a safe distance while also
making sure that you don¡¯t run so far away from their spawn point that they leash and
reset. This can be the cause of a huge amount of frustration, especially if you¡¯re almost at
the end of a kite when they leash.
There are several things that you need before you start. The most important is, of course,
a good bow, preferably with a proc. The second thing you need is poisons. When kiting I
like to use a DD poison and a fettering poison, which reduces movement speed.
Kiting is normally done in open space. It¡¯s a lot easier to move around when you don¡¯t
have a ton of obstacles in your way. It is possible to kite in dungeons ¨C difficult, but
possible. Generally you want a fairly wide-open area where you can see all around you
without too much in your way, and you will need to learn how to play and move around in
third person view if you don¡¯t know how to do this already. If you¡¯re new to playing with
this viewpoint, take some time to figure it out before you start kiting anything too
dangerous.
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EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
Unobstructed movement is quite a difficult thing to achieve, especially in zones like the
Feerrott, which brings me to the next important point ¨C your space bar. Yes, your jump
key. It has saved me more times than I can count when kiting. I jump over rocks and
stumps and other obstacles and always do my best to prevent such objects from
interfering with the kiting process. When kiting I have auto-run on and use the mouse to
choose my direction, and the space bar to jump when I need to. Using this method I
normally have my right hand controlling the mouse exclusively and my left hand is
concerned with jumping and executing CAs.
Next, buffs ¨C ranged buffs and your offensive stance should always be up. Forester¡¯s
Insight also ¨C this gives you a 5% run speed boost that is active in combat and I can¡¯t
stress enough how valuable this is when kiting.
Lastly, make sure you have plenty of arrows! It has to be the worst feeling in the world
when you hit a CA in the middle of a kite and find that you¡¯re out of arrows. Make sure
you carry several stacks when you¡¯re heading out to kite, and use makeshift arrows as
often as you can.
One very important thing to remember is that bow skills which can be cast while moving
generally need to be cast from behind or in stealth (or both) and skills which must be cast
while stationary don¡¯t have those requirements.
We have quite a few different types of snare at our disposal, and Trick of the Hunter (the
snare skill obtained in Splitpaw) is quite valuable for kiting purposes now, as when it
terminates the target has a chance to be rooted. When the root does take effect you can
back up and fire a few ranged shots until the mob dies or the root runs out.
Cheap Shot is good for this too. Although it now lasts only two seconds there¡¯s usually
time for at least one rear attack before it wears off.
There are a number of things you can do using melee-based skills to get some extra
damage in while kiting. The easiest of these is the Entrap/Surveil/Hidden Fire
combination. You need to do this when you have a decent amount of distance between
you and the mob, as it requires being in stealth and therefore having your movement
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EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
speed reduced quite a bit. All you need to do here is snare your target, queue up Surveil,
and then let fly with a Hidden Fire once you¡¯re in stealth.
Keep in mind that anything involving stealth is unlikely to be effective when you¡¯re kiting
multi-mob encounters, as you¡¯re extremely unlikely to avoid getting hit.
4.2.3. Thorny Trap
This new skill (level 52) deserves a section all of it¡¯s own because of the huge impact it
makes on soloing, in particular the ability to solo multi-mob heroic encounters.
Basically what you do is lay a trap, and then pull a group of mobs with Storm of Arrows,
run to the trap (you can continue shooting at them while you run) then run them over the
trap and let them trigger it and get rooted.
Once they¡¯re all rooted, go into stealth and use Natural Selection. By this time all your
poisons and procs should have the mobs well within the orange/red health range and you
can just pick them off one by one.

4. Soloing
4.1. Introduction
This section of the guide will give you some great tips on soloing. Before all the recent
changes to the way combat works, rangers were truly awesome soloers, being able to kite
extremely effectively and having an unparalleled ability to deal damage from a distance
without having to stop moving. Changes to bow skills mean that kiting isn¡¯t what it used to
be. However it¡¯s not completely gone from the game, and rangers can still kite and are
still one of the best kiting classes (if not the best) ¨C it¡¯s just a bit harder now and you¡¯ll
really need to be extremely familiar with all your bow skills and what situations you can
use them in. And funnily enough, rangers are still truly awesome soloers, just in a slightly
different way.
Melee soloing is certainly a whole lot easier than it used to be. With the addition of
stances and the increase in ranger DPS that the combat changes brought, rangers no
longer have to kite to be able to solo at all.

3.6.1. Master II Selection Guide
The really nice thing about this trait selection system is that there is no wrong choice.
They¡¯re all useful utilities or will provide some nice extra damage, depending on what you
choose. These choices will be strictly down to personal preference, so I can tell you what
I chose and why, but for the most part, your choice is going to reflect the way you like to
play. A good general rule is to choose the skill that you think is going to help you level the
best.
My top choice for level 14 is Shadow Blade, simply because I like getting in the big hits
and always have done right from the start. Bleed and Impale are also good choices as
you will use those skills a lot.
For level 24, I chose Shadowlunge for the same reason. At those levels you don¡¯t really
have enough bow skills to use that would require you to upgrade your Makeshift Arrows
to Master II level so it¡¯s much better to go with something that will increase your damage.
However, at level 34, Salvaged Arrows is actually not a bad choice, as by this time
you¡¯re starting to get more and more different bow attacks and you might find you are
starting to go through a lot of arrows. My top choice, though, is Crippling Arrow, as the
damage increase on this is very nice, and at Master II level the defense debuff is 34,
which is a very substantial amount.
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I liked all of the level 44 choices and it was quite hard to choose. Hidden Fire is my
second favorite choice but eventually I decided on Triple Shot simply because of the fun
factor. It¡¯s just plain fun to let fly with a Triple Shot and see a mob¡¯s health go way down
when you get a lot of procs happening at the same time.
Level 54 is even tougher. For me it¡¯s a toss-up between Stealthy Fire and Dire Blade
because it¡¯s such a nice damage increase. Very hard choice but for now I¡¯ve gone with
Stealthy Fire because it¡¯s a ranged skill, which for me is more important to upgrade to
Master II level than a melee skill.
Focus is my pick of the level 64 choices. It¡¯s a great DPS increaser, especially when
coupled with some of the AA skill lines. Devitalizing Arrow is the only one in the list I¡¯d
recommend not choosing. It¡¯s not much better than the Adept III version.

Starting at level 14, you will receive a bonus training skill every 10 levels. You are given
four options to choose from, and may choose any one of these to upgrade to Master II
level. You get new choices at levels 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54.
Level 14 Choices
Name Level
Shadow Blade 10
Bleed 12
Hunter¡¯s Instinct 13
Impale 13
Level 24 Choices
Name Level
Wounding Arrow 20
Makeshift Arrows 20
Shadowflame 21
Shadow Lunge 24
Level 34 Choices
Name Level
Miracle Shot 32
Pouncing Attack 33
Crippling Arrow 34
Salvaged Arrows 34
Level 44 Choices
Name Level
Hidden Fire 40
Triple Fire 42
Blazing Thrust 43
Leg Shot 44
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Level 54 Choices
Name Level
Backup Quiver 48
Dire Blade 52
Fatal Reminder 54
Stealthy Fire 54
Level 64 Choices
Name Level
Devitalizing Arrow 62
Focus Aim 64
Reclaimed Arrow 62
Selection 61

3.5.4. Tier Five
In tier five a lot of the main ranger attacks get new versions so there are many great
choices for upgrading in this tier. My top choices are
Longshank
Tanglethorn
Storm of Arrows
Blazing Thrust
Triple Fire
Culling the Herd
Longshank and Tanglethorn are top choices because they¡¯re fast refresh staple attacks
that don¡¯t rely on any particular damage type. Blazing Thrust is another good fastrefresh
attack that¡¯s a great upgrade option. Culling the Herd and Triple Fire should be
your first choices for bow skill upgrades, followed closely by Storm of Arrows, which is a
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EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
fantastic high-damage AE bow attack that really benefits from the upgrade to adept III. It¡¯s
devastating in a group where you¡¯re fighting a lot of multiple mob encounters.
3.5.5. Tier Six
There are some great upgrade options in tier six ¨C some very powerful ranged and melee
attacks, as well as new versions of the defensive and offensive stances. There are new
skills in existing lines, as well as some completely new abilities ¨C extreme damage skills
and a very interesting utility skill in Thorny Trap.
As with other tiers, your first picks for upgrading are the high damage skills as well as the
ones you use the most often. In addition the offensive stance in particular is a great buff
to upgrade ¨C not so much the defensive stance, so far I¡¯ve found that the adept I version
of this has been fine so far. If I upgrade the defensive stance it won¡¯t be until most of the
other skills I want have been done.
The order in which you upgrade skills will of course depend on how fast you level ¨C if
you¡¯re going fairly slowly it¡¯ll just be a case of upgrading as you find rares, but if you¡¯re
leveling fast you have more choice as to what to do with rares as you might find you have
several levels worth of skills to choose from. Either way, my list for upgrading in tier six
looks like this so far ¨C (I decided to go with the Stealthy Fire Master II so it¡¯s not on my
list). This first list are the skills I hope to upgrade first.
Dire Blade Precise Shot
Lunging Blade Triple Arrow
Shocking Thrust Stream of Arrows
Culling the Weak Sniper Shot
That¡¯s my ¡°A list¡± of skills to upgrade as a priority. The ¡°B list¡± is as follows ¨C these are the
ones I¡¯ll get once everything on the A list is upgraded to at least adept III level.
Fatal Reminder Arrow Frenzy
Sroud of the Forest Snaring Shot
Thorny Trap

EverQuest 2 Ranger Guide
3.4. How to Upgrade Your Skills
If you¡¯re just looking for apprentice IV and adept I upgrades then broker is the way to go
(unless you decide to become a jeweler). However when you start getting adept III skills
made you¡¯ll normally need to contact a jeweler to make these specifically for you and you
will also need to supply the rare yourself in most cases. Expect to pay 1-20g for a skill
combine depending on the tier of the skill you¡¯re getting.
People often worry that they don¡¯t know who to trust with their rares ¨C but most of the time
you¡¯re quite safe. High level crafters usually want to protect their reputations and it¡¯s easy
to join the Qeynos crafting channel (listed in your chat options menu) and find a reputable
jeweler.
To upgrade your skills you¡¯ll need to harvest, loot, or buy a rare crafting item. The type
you need depends on the tier of the skill you want. The following table lists the names of
the harvested items.
Tier Rare
One Solidified loam
Two Alkaline Loam
Three Malleable Loam
Four Ductile Loam
Five Fused Loam
Six Alkalai Loam
Seven Spongy Loam
The Desert of Flames expansion introduced skills for each class which can only be gotten
at adept I or III level. There are three skills for each class that fall into this category. For
the ranger, they are Thorny Trap (52), Stream of Arrows (55), and Sniping Shot (58).
As another point of information, at 50+ you do not automatically gain apprentice I versions
of skills each time you level. Instead you must purchase crafted or dropped versions of
the skills. There are similar skills in the Kingdom of Sky expansion.
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3.5. What to Upgrade ¨C A Quick Guide
In this section I¡¯ll go through each tier and point out the best skill lines to upgrade ¨C the
most useful skills to get to adept III level and what will give you the best return for your
money.
When deciding what to upgrade, remember that for most skills you¡¯ll receive an upgrade
within 14 levels. This means that if, for example, you find a rare towards the end of a tier,
you should avoid upgrading a skill that you got at the beginning of the tier, as it will be
replaced quite soon.
As well, try to base your upgrade choices on your play-style. If you solo and/or kite a lot,
then upgrading certain ranged attacks first will be the best choice (see section 4.2.2. for
advice on the best attacks to use in kiting) If, however, you prefer to play in groups, you¡¯ll
want to upgrade the attacks you use the most often in groups.
When choosing upgrades at the level cap bear in mind that the last few levels in a given
tier will not be upgraded in the next expansion that comes, due to the 14-level upgrade
rule ¨C this means those very high level skills are good upgrade choices as you¡¯ll be using
them a long time.