1>Rangerlord-heavy melee oriented build
2>Rangerlord-heavy rune magic oriented build
3>Rangerlord-heavy arcane magic oriented build
4>Rangerlord-heavy nether magic oriented build
5>Rangerlord-heavy celestial oriented build
1>I've done the melee ranger lord already: samurai/rangerlord and imperial/rangerlord. (not good builds for for AoE damage).
2>There is only two rune spells that essentially can help the rangerlord (rune missiles and boon missiles), and both of those apparently don't seem to show up in the shops. (I just checked with one of my archived character saved files). I was wondering are these spells not in the DL game? I've noticed a lot of spells aren't even in DL version 1.5CE...is this on purpose? Did HP ever fix those broken spells? If there are no rune missiles and boon missiles, I guess I'll pass on the paladin, celestial, monk, valkyrie [rune] sub-builds.
So, only 3>, 4>, and 5> remain. Which seems like the best route to take given the working spells in this game.
"Learning Bonuses" for 1st/2nd tier classes to mix in with Rangerlord, 3rd tier class:
3>Arcane Magic (Mage, Battlemage, Sorcerer, Enchantress, Shugenja)
4>Nether Magic (Sorcerer, Shugenja)
5>Celestial Magic (Adapt, Celestial, Enchantress, Monk)
3>Arcane Magic's spells that look good for a Rangerlord to give a distraction [Followed by an assigned letter Grade of my opininated worth] :
a [Blasting Winds-pushes back a little to get off maybe a few arrow shots... D+]
b [Freeze-makes a semi-permanant popsicle of one enemy that stays in place long enough to get off many shots...most creatures subdue to this spell with exceptions to vampiresses and moonbeast and iceworms...B-]
c [Ice Shards-freeze effect doesn't last all that long and doesn't work on quite a few enemies, but is doable...C]
d [Whirlwind-Nice to set up 2-3 of these in a 120 degree angle, and then fire off some arrow attacks, also might work good with Frost/Fire Nova in combination...B...damage is low and having to fire off 2-3 waste Whirlwind spellbooks like crazy]
e [Blast Nova-doesn't distract long enough, mainly is only good for a lower level nova spell to be spammed in case Rangerlord becomes heavily swarmed...B- for distraction...A- for spammable crowd control]
f [Iceball-Go with Freeze or Ice Nova...C]
g [Ice Nova-needs to be at Levels 22-24 for Arcane Magic to be able to switch between Ice Nova spell quickly to bow before freeze effect wears off, otherwise the waiting for your next move will be too long to make an act...C+ with less than 18 points into Arcane Magic...A- with more than 24 points into Arcane Magic. 24 levels is hard to get with only two characters having arcane learning bonuses as it will cost around 7 Million ADV points to get from Level 19 to Level 20 with an Intelligence of 100]
h [Fire Nova-the waiting period after the spell is cast is kind of long...so even if the enemies are burning to death for awhile...they may have stopped burning before you could switch out to your bow...C with Arcane Magic level less than 20...B with Arcane Magic level beyond 24]
i [Cataclysm-seems to fire off really quickly...but, I haven't yet tested its waiting period...as my Hatamoto only has the 1 Cataclysm spell from ToS...and has yet to sell it to create more Cataclysm's...Grade_Untested]
4>Nether Magic spells that provide good distraction for Rangerlord :
a [Slow, Fear, Sleep, Confusion-look good, but I never really use Nether spells...so I don't even know if these spells work properly]
b [Summon Rats/Wolves/Skellies are crap...probably even with Nether skill at level 30...they probably still suck...I assume]
c [Summon Beast/Spirit/Guardian/Giant/Fiend/Deathlord/Evil-all seem like they'd make pretty good tanks. Does more levels in Nether Magic skill make them tougher/stronger...or does it just give you more summons on the playing field?]
d [Choking Cloud and Gripping Vines-look like winners...I just hate mixing ingredients or using the buy/sell cheat...A...do these spells work well?]
e [I heard suffocate doesn't work...on top of that...I've never seen it appear in the game]
f [Hate-does it work]
5>Celestial Magic spells that provide good distraction for Rangerlord :
a [Levitation-good for backing up and firing...unless you have Acrobat skill at level 4...and then you could just do backflips...A if not have Acrobat at level 4 or for floating on water and backing up firing]
b [Divine Intervention-yep, that'll do...A+...is the Divine Intervention Summon stronger than most Nether summons...plus if Blesses Spirit works...I could just heal the Divine Intervention (assuming that's how Blessed Spirit works)]
Sorry to make your poor eyes read all this. Got any opinions, thoughts, ideas? At the moment I'm torn. If boon missiles does actually exist in this game, I would kind of like to go the Rune Magic "Learning Bonuses" route; but since I see no signs of it...I'm between an arcane/nether-user, a strict arcane-user, or a strict celestial user.
Thanks.
-Planet_Guardian