Scimitar vs Kukri for a melee Ranger

[Hireling]

I am curious what people think about this.
I am about to do my Scourge x3 lives and was gonna use the Vulkoor's Edgex2 from the Age of Rage from 15 until 20. At 20 I was going to use Midnight Greetings until 29. Then I planned on Ravenloft Kukris.
Also at 20 I would dip more into Vistani, but at 15, I was going to mainly do Tempest because DoD is nice for leveling.
Was planning on doing DEX based Pure Ranger for the first life.
Does this look ok?
Any recommendations for Enhancements and Weapon Choices?

 

[Jasparius]

VKF is just so silly and easy and powerful.

If you can get the feats for Whirlwind then you dont need Dance of Death and can alternate Whirlwind and Rapid Slash, and obviously Cookie Cutter for 20+.

 

[Bjond]

At 20 I was going to use Midnight Greetings until 29. Then I planned on Ravenloft Kukris.
Also at 20 I would dip more into Vistani, but at 15, I was going to mainly do Tempest because DoD is nice for

VKF is so much nicer than tempest that I'd put 41 in VKF with T5. After that, maybe points in tempest or DWS to increase dps a little.

Tempest lacks full profile boost. You need 21 points in another tree. That kills it. The few nice bits of tempest are so expensive AP-wise that the entire tree is kinda 41 or nothing and it's simply nowhere near nice enough for that much AP.

The part of VKF that most don't realize is that Rapid Slash AND Blessed Blades are multi-hit cleaves. I just finished 3x DG Warlock PLs for the 18 MRR gain and I did it as VKF, not warlock because I could literally one-round entire packs using VKF cleaves with WWA or (20+) QC; round 'em up then Slash + Blessed + QC = all dead.

Midnight Greetings is excellent 20+. It's what I did, too, but I used Thunderforged for OH at 24 & 26. Heroic was 2x Syranian Kukri because it has the nicest native DR breaks: Adamantine + Good naturally and Cold Iron with ruby of iron hand (or iron blows @ L16) to make Fey motes easy.

 

[Raedier]

I'd recommend 14/5/1 pal/dh/fvs, tempest t5, vkf capstone, very fun and solid build.

 

[Bjond]

I'd recommend 14/5/1 pal/dh/fvs, tempest t5, vkf capstone, very fun and solid build.

Scourge PL? He'd need an LR to get DH and the build doesn't grow-up until v.late. Fantastic for at-cap play. Not so hot for leveling with a TR the instant you hit 30.

I made that mistake the first life of my 3x DG+Warlock tour; I built it as if I were playing at cap, since that's mostly what I do (level then stay at cap forever). The build didn't come together until so late that it was incredibly frustrating. Redid it next life for EARLY play and it was so much nicer.

OTH, if you're going to stay at cap for a full-saga RXP tour before you TR like some do, then the extra fun of a strong at-cap build can outweigh leveling frustrations and LR heart cost.

 

[Hireling]

I'd recommend 14/5/1 pal/dh/fvs, tempest t5, vkf capstone, very fun and solid build.

Yeah this is just a 15>30 life.
May do some easy RXP if I dont hate it.
I also "need" 2 more Ranger lives and 3 Dark Hunter lives...so might do 1 life 15>30>20>30
Though if not going all in on Tempest (never thought of it as weak because my brain remembers it being really good in 2008!).
Maybe going STR and 5 or 6 Dragon Lord for the easy CC would just be better.

 

[Teh_Troll]

With the recent changes Scimitar is pointless. A tempest and use any one-hander dex-to-damage. Use a knight's training weapon, battle axe at cap is best.

 

[Hireling]

With the recent changes Scimitar is pointless. A tempest and use any one-hander dex-to-damage. Use a knight's training weapon, battle axe at cap is best.

Btw, Junk you were the tempest I had in mind back when ToD/Amrath were the tests for a build or party.

 

[Teh_Troll]

Btw, Junk you were the tempest I had in mind back when ToD/Amrath were the tests for a build or party.

I don't play one any longer, it's kinda meh.

 

[kmoustakas]

With the recent changes Scimitar is pointless. A tempest and use any one-hander dex-to-damage. Use a knight's training weapon, battle axe at cap is best.

With that in mind, you want the crystal axes from GH 14-20 then switch to oathblades 20-29.

VKF is just so silly and easy and powerful.

If you can get the feats for Whirlwind then you dont need Dance of Death and can alternate Whirlwind and Rapid Slash, and obviously Cookie Cutter for 20+.

That's what I did. Dance of death is great but one whirlwind usually clears in heroic. Removed the vistani attacks as soon as I hit 20 and got cookie cutter. Whirlwind and cutter are more than enough aoe, I also grabbed spring attack for mobility.

I still put points in tempest for the faster deflect arrows, super good in r10s.

 

[Mnemor]

Ranger is another that needs a pass, but it doesn't seem likely in the near future.

 

[FaustianBargain]

With the recent changes Scimitar is pointless.

they’ve always been pointless which is why you take IC slashing

 

[Asterphen]

they’ve always been pointless which is why you take IC slashing

I think they look better than kukris. So run kukris with scimitar cosmetics. As much as I used to ignor cosmetics in the past, the weapon and armor costmetics have grown on me. The view of my character is the one thing that doesn't change no matter the dungeon I am running. As the saying goes, "Clothes make the man" or "Scimitar costmetics make the ranger."

 

[Hireling]

I think they look better than kukris. So run kukris with scimitar cosmetics. As much as I used to ignor cosmetics in the past, the weapon and armor costmetics have grown on me. The view of my character is the one thing that doesn't change no matter the dungeon I am running. As the saying goes, "Clothes make the man" or "Scimitar costmetics make the ranger."

I run cosmetics a lot too. Its crazy how sometimes random lootgen armor looks so good.

 

[kmoustakas]

Ranger is another that needs a pass, but it doesn't seem likely in the near future.

They need to update their spells for real

 

[RangerOne]

Trying to force myself to like melee so started a tempest. Grabbed a couple of kukris and switched to Vistani and I would never go back. The damage is crazy and the speed of the attacks is outstanding. I used to think daggers and kukris were useless low level wizard backups but when you build a tree specifically for them it is wonderful.

Which led me to think about Arcane Archer. I realized the failure of AA is that the imbues are pumping up only the elemental damage whereas most other trees directly affect the damage. Change the elemental imbues to be a choice of element or main weapon damage and some of the AA hate would go away.

 

[Bjond]

Maybe going STR and 5 or 6 Dragon Lord for the easy CC would just be better.

My warlock/vkf was STR due to gear from prior life. I used tentacles, but STR made sure it never stuck -- used for no-save slow to help keep things in place for the AE beat-down.

The part that's relevant for a ranger is that I'd often forget to put 'em down because VKF still smacked the pack down fast. Also, tentacle CD is much too long, making it every-other-fight.

OTH, I've also done a 41 VKF with T5 DL and it's v.strong and fun, too. It's more at-cap'ish, though. There are multiple dither points leveling it -- more DL or more VKF? IIRC, I drove DL first, but either route would work.

I still put points in tempest for the faster deflect arrows, super good in r10s.

2s Deflect is amazing even for levelup. I took that first on my current twf life and so had it at L3. Arrow damage pretty much doesn't happen. Recall the "arrow leap" in Ven/sewers? Could just stand in it.