by Michael Strauss

Created on: November 04, 2009

The ranger is one of the most straightforward classes to play in 4th edition D&D and the archer build is the most streamlined of all ranger builds. Archer rangers are ranged strikers that deal high damage with multiple attacks, have a solid armor class, and have a high degree of mobility. Archer rangers also have a few glaring weaknesses: low hit points and healing surges, limited ability to deliver status conditions to enemies, and a pitiful fortitude defense. When optimizing an archer ranger, it is best to focus on improving what an archer ranger is good at, rather than trying to improve the deficiencies of the class.

Attributes - An archer ranger uses only two attributes, dexterity and wisdom. Dexterity is the primary attribute of any archer ranger and is used to improve accuracy, improve damage, increase armor class and reflex, improve initiative, and for a number of ranger skills. Wisdom is the secondary attribute of the archer ranger, but is useful enough to be almost as important as the primary attribute. A ranger's wisdom will provide additional bonuses to damage or mobility on many ranger powers, increases the ranger's will defense, and provides a bonus to perception, the best skill in the game. When optimizing a ranger with 22-point buy, before racial adjustments, you should either have a 16 in both attributes or an 18 in dexterity and a 14 in wisdom. Which decision you make depends on the exact powers you wish to use for your character.

Race - Elf is the only race worth considering for an optimized archer ranger. The elf provides a +2 racial bonus to the only two attributes that an archer ranger uses, has a speed higher than all other races, has a racial power that allows the ranger to reroll an attack roll once per encounter, gains a +2 racial bonus to perception skill, and can shift through difficult terrain without penalty. Few other races are even half as optimal. Halflings and drow gain a +2 bonus to dexterity, but also to charisma, which is worthless for a ranger and halflings can only use small weapons. Humans can get a +2 bonus to dexterity, but the third at-will power is completely wasted. Races without a dexterity boost simply can not get a good enough attack and damage bonus.

Feats - Choosing feats is actually rather simple, since the focus of any archer ranger should be to deal as much damage as quickly as possible. At heroic tier, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Greatbow, Weapon Expertise: Bow, Weapon Focus: Bow, and Lethal Hunter are

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