Ever since it was buffed in patch 1.8, Ranger has become the bread and butter soul for rogue DPS, but there are many things about the soul that aren’t obvious at first glance.
When should I use Ranger?
Ranger is, simply enough, your default spec for DPSing in raids. It does higher single-target damage than any other rogue ranged soul. Certain melee builds can beat it (most notably Bloodstalker), but considering that most raid encounters are very unfriendly to melee DPS, you’ll likely spend more time as Ranger than as any other spec.
That being said, Ranger will quickly run out of energy if you don’t have either Living Energy (from a Chloromancer) or Anthem of Fervor(from a bard)—and because you often don’t have those in smaller groups, it’s less useful in 5-man dungeons (and some 10-man raid groups).
Unfortunately, Ranger is a very weak soul in PvP, due to weak defenses, heavy reliance on the pet, lack of utility, and low mobility. As a result, this guide will focus on PvE.
Let’s take a look at what Ranger is good at, and what it isn’t.
Strengths:
- Strong ranged DPS
- Does not lose any damage while moving
- Can Diffuse some abilities to the pet, saving your life
- AoE interrupt
Weaknesses:
- Energy starved without Living Energy/Fervor, especially when AoEing
- Mediocre AoE damage
- Very little utility or mobility
- Some enemy abilities can kill your pet
Enough overview. Let’s take a look at the specifics.
Talents
Ranger is an “all-or-nothing” soul—you’re going to put 51 points into it, no matter what, because Feral Aggression and King of the Jungle are too valuable to give up.
This is the standard build. 51 points in Ranger, and then 15 more in Marksman. Having Assassin as your 0-point subsoul gives you Virulent Poison, which is a small DPS boost. If you feel that you need more mobility, you can use 0-point Riftstalker instead, which gives you Shadow Step. If that’s not enough, you can even drop one point out of Penetrating Shots to pick up On the Double, which will give you this build, but either of those variants will deal less damage.
There aren’t really any variants worth looking at, unfortunately. If you’re using ranger, you’re focused on one thing: ranged single-target DPS, and no other build will do a better job.
Abilities
Here is where things can get a little complicated.
First off, the easy part: use a Blood Raptor pet. For buffs, you’ll use Electrified Munitions, Feral Instincts, and Virulent Poison (skip this last one if you’re using the Riftstalker variant). If your pet dies, use Hasten Call and resummon it.
Single Target Rotation
The basic priority is simple enough. You’ll use combo point builders to get up to 5 points, then use a finisher. When Feral Aggression is up, use it.
There are a few ways to do the ranger rotation, depending on how much you want to micro-manage your abilities. The simplest variant uses two macros, and a third hotkey for Feral Aggression—and because it’s so easy to do, it’s great for those who are trying out Ranger for the first time:
#show Shadow Fire
suppressmacrofailures
cast Shadow Fire
cast Splinter Shot
cast Piercing Shot
cast Crippling Shot
cast Quick Shot
#show Rapid Fire Shot
suppressmacrofailures
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Head Shot
The above rotation is simple, but if you want to really push yourself to deal more damage, you can go for the advanced version. For this one, you’ll need the Rapid Fire Shot macro above, but you’ll replace the combo point builder macro with these two macros:
#show Shadow Fire
suppressmacrofailures
cast Shadow Fire
cast Splinter Shot
#show Piercing Shot
suppressmacrofailures
cast Piercing Shot
cast Crippling Shot
cast Swift Shot
In addition to those three macros, you’ll need a separate hotkey for Quick Shot. The priority is as follows:
- Finisher (if at 5 combo points)
- Feral Aggression
- Shadow Fire acro (only if you’re below 4 combo points, and Shadow Fire or Splinter Shot is off cooldown)
- Quick Shot (only if the bleed effect from Improved Quick Shot isn’t on the target)
- Piercing Shot macro
Lastly, if you’re not low on energy, and you don’t need to interrupt or AoE any time soon, then Concussive Blast is a DPS gain over Head Shot, because it’s not on the global cooldown. If you do this, then hit a combo point builder immediately after using Concussive Blast.
For the advanced rotation, an addon to track cooldowns and debuffs is absolutely necessary. Karuulalert works well for this—use it to track cooldowns for Shadow Fire, Splinter Shot, Concussive Blast, and Feral Aggression, as well the duration on Improved Quick Shot. Ideally, you’ll end up with it looking something like this:
AoE Rotation
The Ranger AoE rotation will vary depending on how many enemies are present.
First off, you’ll want to maintain the buff from Shadow Fire.
Second, if Concussive Blast is off cooldown, then use Trick Shot to build up to 5 combo points and use it.
After that, things branch out.
If there’s two or three enemies, then use Trick Shot until you reach 5 combo points, at which point you’ll use a finisher (Concussive Blast>Rapid Fire Shot>Head Shot). Then start using Trick Shot again. Repeat until the enemies are dead.
If there’s more than three enemies but less than nine, then use Fan Out, while continuing to keep up Shadow Fire and Trick Shotting for Concussive Blast.
If there’s nine or more enemies, use Rain of Arrows. If the enemies are moving a lot (or if you are), then this won’t be possible, and you’ll continue to use Fan Out. Again, make sure to use Shadow Fire and Concussive Blast.
Overall, Ranger is a great soul— it’s easy to play, but there lots of tricks that can help you to push out a bit more DPS with practice. It may not be good for much other than straight DPS, but then, with enough DPS, you don’t need much else.
