Basic 1vs1 Ranger Guide

Introduction

If you’re not interested in the AoE or Hit-and-Run playstyles of a Ranger, then this 1vs1 Ranger guide is perfect for you. This guide is tailored to free-to-play players or those with limited resources—minimal gear, low upgrades, little to no consumables, and no access to a high-level Ringmaster for support. This guide assumes you’re already a Level 60 Acrobat, ready to start your journey as a Ranger.

If you need help with the Acrobat class, we have the 1v1 Acrobat guide to assist you.

Stat Points “H”

When it comes to stat points, your main focus should be Dexterity (Dex) and Critical Damage. These two stats are the most important as they directly influence your strength. Other stats have little to no impact, so you can largely ignore them.

Dexterity (Dex): This is your primary stat. It naturally increases your critical hit rate, especially at higher levels, making it easier to reach 100% critical rate without needing to manually focus on it.

Thus, for stat points, simply go full Dex. There’s no need to overthink it, as this stat will give you the biggest advantage.

Skill Points “K”

When it comes to skills for a pure 1vS1 Ranger, the choice is simple and straightforward. You’ll mainly need the following:

Bow Mastery (Acrobat Skill): This is the only skill that directly increases your damage +100, though the boost is minor. Since it’s a passive mastery skill, it activates on its own, so there’s nothing more you need to do.
Fast Walker and Dark Illusion (Acrobat Skill): While useful, they are not essential for a 1vs1 Ranger. Perfect Block may increase your block rate, but in a 1vs1 setting, it’s not crucial.
Critical Shot: This is a key skill, particularly at lower levels. It grants a 20% critical rate boost starting at level 65, helping you reach 100% critical hit rate, which can be harder to achieve at lower levels. Additionally, it gives 10% block penetration
Nature: This skill extends your bow’s range by 20%, allowing you to attack from further away. While useful for reducing your movement between monsters, it can cause minor inconveniences, such as your pick-up pet being unable to pick up drops from slain monsters because you’ve already moved on to the next target.

Cloak

The choice of cloak is simple: go for the Cloak of Precision that boosts +8 Dex. This is the only logical option for maximizing your damage output as it increases the stat that matters most to you.

Pet

For pets, the best option is a Critical Damage Pet. Here’s why:

Critical damage Pet: This pet (King Crab Cage) provides a higher damage output compared to a Dex pet (Rabbit Coop), especially in the later stages of the game when critical damage becomes more significant.

While a Critical Chance Pet might be useful at lower levels, once you hit 100% critical chance, its benefits diminish. Therefore, opting for a Critical Damage pet is the better long-term investment.

Jewelry

When it comes to jewelry, aim to stack as much Dex as possible:

Rings: Equip Dexion +1 rings at lower levels, and eventually upgrade to Mighteer +1 rings or higher-tier, errrings like Demol Earring +7 if affordable. Higher-level alternatives like Arek rings or Ultimate Jewelry are also worth considering later on.
Necklace: An HP necklace is generally the best option since you won’t be relying on MP for skill usage. Focus on survivability with HP as you’ll mainly be dealing damage through auto-attacks.

Elemental Upgrades, Skill Damage, and Sockets

Your weapon upgrades and elemental enhancements will significantly impact your damage output. Here’s what you should focus on:

Weapon Upgrades: Enhancing your weapon with stat scroll (Scroll of Dexterity) will increase your damage output. Higher upgrades equate to more damage, so aim to upgrade your weapon as much as possible.
Elemental Damage: Rangers benefit greatly from elemental enhancements. A weapon with +10 Elemental damage will deal maximum damage to monsters weak to that element. For example, if you have a water-enhanced bow at +10, you’ll deal the most damage to fire monsters. However, you’ll need to swap to another element, like lightning +10, when fighting water monsters. Low level +5 element is enough.
Socketing: Your main goal is to increase Critical Damage (Thorn Card) through your weapon’s sockets. As mentioned earlier, critical chance will eventually cap at 100%, so focusing on boosting your critical damage in your sockets will optimize your damage output
Scroll of Weapon Bonus: Because you don’t use much skills you don’t need this one.

Essential Assist/Ringmaster Buffs for 1vs1 Rangers

Buff management for Rangers is fairly straightforward. The key is to maximize your buffs by doubling up on them. Here’s how:

Mental Sign: Your supporter should always double buff Mental Sign This simple trick strengthens all your buffs by at least one buff boost, and sometimes even two if you’re lucky. This is essential for maximizing your effectiveness in battle.
Haste and Cannon Ball: These are your core buffs. Haste improves your attack speed, while Cannonball boosts your Dexterity, which is critical for Rangers.
Beef Up: This buff slightly increases your damage, though the effect is minimal. It’s more of a nice-to-have rather than a necessity.

At lower levels, your buff priorities should be Mental Sign, Haste, and Cannon Ball. You can also consider Quick Step for faster movement speed.

Buffs like Accuracy are less important for Rangers, as your critical chance and damage will largely overshadow any need for additional accuracy. Similarly, Cats Reflex, which boosts block rate, isn’t as vital in a 1vs1 setting where you’re relying more on damage output than on defense.

Weapons and Upgrades

Now let’s talk about weapons. We’ve already covered upgrades, so let’s focus on specific weapon choices:

Flaming Bow: (Critical Damage+15%, and Critical Chance+5%) We personally don’t recommend the Flaming Bow. It’s too expensive for what it offers, and as an Acrobat, you level up faster with skills anyway. There’s no need to invest heavily in 1vs1 equipment like the Cruiser Set or Flaming Bow before Level 60, as Acrobat skills are very strong early on.
G Bow (Guardian Bow): This bow offers a significant attack boost with its 15% critical chance and 15% HP, making it far superior to the Flaming Bow, though it is more expensive. If you can’t afford it, a Roripul Bow is a viable budget alternative with decent attack power and a bonus of +5 Dex. (with +10% Attack Speed).
Historic Bow (Level 75): This bow provides +10 Dex and 28% critical damage, making it a must-have at Level 75. It’s superior to any other options available at that level.
Legendary Golden Bow (Level 105): Offering 45% critical damage and 15% critical chance, this Bow is essential for Rangers at Level 105. Most players still haven’t hit 100% critical chance by this level, so this bow is key for optimizing damage.
Bloody Bow (Level 120): The Bloody Bow adds even more critical damage (+55%) and new Attack +10%, with additional lifesteal +1% for sustainability. It’s a natural upgrade as you progress into the higher levels.
Endgame Options: For endgame, the Lusaka’s Crystal Bow or Nemo’s Fury (Hernes Bow) are the top-tier weapons. However, these are extremely expensive, and free-to-play players may find them out of reach for a long time. For most, the Bloody Bow will suffice well into the late game.

Ranger Set Upgrades

Set upgrades for Rangers don’t have the same impact as they do for other classes. Here’s why:

Set Bonuses: At +8, you get accuracy +30% (not essential for Rangers), block rate +10% (useful but not critical for 1vs1 gameplay), and critical chance +10% (which you likely won’t need once you reach max critical chance).
Upgrade Impact: The main benefits of set upgrades for Rangers are minor—additional +6 stats and a small percentage of Attack+3%. This makes upgrading to +10 not as worthwhile unless you’re really optimizing every little detail.

That said, Set +5 or +6 should be sufficient for most of the game. Rangers have high natural block and evasion rates, which allow them to tank damage better than most classes despite their focus on full damage builds.

4 sockets with 16% Attack (perfect 28% Attack) at level 105. Disadvantage when you buy you equipment, what we definitely recommend, that you maybe have the problem, that you don’t find a +5 or +6 set with 4 sockets. The most sets to buy would be +8 to +10 and so more expansive, again.

Sets Overview

When it comes to Ranger sets, there’s an important point. Avoid using the Cruiser/Hyper Set if possible. It’s no longer the best damage set for Rangers. There is a superior alternative that not only boosts your damage but also significantly enhances your tankiness, making it much easier to hunt Giants and even run low-level dungeons without any trouble—something that the Cruiser Set struggles with.

Why You Should Avoid the Cruiser/Hyper Set

The Cruiser/Hyper Set, a Level 45 set, offers a mere 20% critical damage but has a very low defense value. At this stage of the game, its defensive capabilities are too weak, and using it makes many activities unnecessarily difficult. While Cruiser does provide a decent damage boost, there’s a better alternative: The Rorend/Rorient Set.

The Rorend/Rorient Set - A Better Choice

The Rorend/Rorient becomes available at Level 53, slightly after the Cruiser Set, and offers much better stats. It gives:

10% critical chance
10% critical damage
15% attack speed
High restistance against all monster types except Wind

These bonuses are far superior to the Cruiser Set, especially considering that at low levels (Level 45 to 60), Rangers typically face a critical chance problem. The 10% critical chance from the Rorend/Rorient Set helps you close the gap toward the 100% critical chance goal, which is crucial for maximizing damage. Moreover, the additional attack speed can solve any lingering attack speed issues you might have at this point in the game.

The Rorend/Rorient Set also offers significantly better defensive stats than the Cruiser Set, allowing you to handle tougher content, such as Giants and low-level dungeons, with ease. For damage, the Rorien Set’s combination of critical chance, critical damage, and attack speed is objectively better than Cruiser/Hyper’s 20% critical damage alone.

The Asren/Aren Set (Level 90)

After using the Rorend/Rorient, you can transition to the Asren/Aren Set at Level 90. Many players argue that you can skip this set, but it’s objectively superior, especially if your Rorend/Rorient Set is only at +5 or +6 with three sockets. The Asren/Aren Set offers:

+100 Bow attack power
10% critical chance
30% critical damage (upgraded from Rorend/Rorient 10%)

This set is an immense upgrade in terms of damage output, making it highly recommended to use from Level 90 to Level 105. The increased critical damage alone makes it worth the investment, especially for those still working with lower-tier gear.

The Tyrant/Tight Set (Level 105)

At Level 105, you’ll want to switch to the Tyrant/Tight Set, which is another significant improvement:

+15 Dex
15% critical chance
45% critical damage

By this point, critical chance likely becomes less of a concern, as you should be nearing or achieving 100% critical chance. The Tyrant/Tight boosts your Dex and critical damage, making it a must-have for further optimizing your damage output.

The Vizes/Vizith Set (Level 135)

At Level 135, you’ll want to switch to the Vizes/Vizith Set, which is another significant improvement:

+15 Dex
20% critical chance
45% critical damage
+5% Attack

By this point, critical chance becomes less of a concern, as you should be nearing or achieving 100% critical chance. The Tyrant/Tight boosts your Dex and critical damage, making it a must-have for further optimizing your damage output.

The Wingwalker/Wingwanderer Set (Level 150)

At Level 150, the Wingwalker/Wingwander Set becomes the ultimate choice for Rangers:

+25 Dex
+25% critical chance
+65% critical damage
+10% Attack
+5% Skill chance: Poison effect

This set is the pinnacle of Ranger gear, offering incredible critical damage and a poison effect that helps you melt through enemies. It’s the ideal endgame set that every Ranger should aim for.

1vs1 Ranger 1v1 playstyle

Ranger 1v1 playstyle is simple yet effective. All you need to do is target a monster, auto-attack, and watch your damage stack up. By the time you reach Level 105 to 120, you should be approaching or exceeding 100% critical chance, which ensures consistent high damage output.

For instance, at this level could have 120% critical chance, so you no longer need to rely on skills like Fast Shot to maintain a high critical chance. Even without Fast Shot, Rangers can easily hit 100% critical chance at higher levels.

Managing Drops in 1vs1

One minor annoyance with the 1vs1 Ranger playstyle is the range at which you kill monsters. Often, due to knockbacks and crit effects, monsters die far away, making it difficult for your pick-up pet to collect drops. This issue can be frustrating especially with the skill Nature (20% more range) but is part of the 1vs1 Ranger gameplay.

Block Rate and Survivability

Rangers are known for their incredibly high block rate and evasion. For example, with 89% block rate, exceeding the max 75% block cap, meaning you block almost every attack from monsters. This high block rate, combined with strong evasion, allows Rangers to maintain full damage builds while still having top-tier survivability. Even when fighting multiple monsters, you can comfortably block most attacks and take minimal damage, making the class one of the safest in 1vs1 combat.

Overall, Ranger gameplay is very relaxed. Once your buffs are up, you can easily farm monsters with minimal effort, making it a low-stress playstyle. Just keep an eye on your buffs and let your Ranger’s high block rate and critical damage do the rest.

Source: The Guide was originally explained by Spielestyler in his YouTube video in German.