Ranger

Empyrean ranger screenshot from Alpha-2.^[2]

Ranger is an archetype in Ashes of Creation.^[3]

Death from afar is the ranger's raison d'etre. A master of the bow and ranged combat, the Ranger is more than happy to let others get their hands dirty. No one else has such a keen eye in natural environments.

Ranger classes

Class	Primary	Secondary
Bowsinger	Ranger	Bard
Falconer	Ranger	Summoner
Hawkeye	Ranger	Ranger
Scion	Ranger	Mage
Scout	Ranger	Rogue
Sentinel	Ranger	Tank
Soulbow	Ranger	Cleric
Strider	Ranger	Fighter

Skills/abilities

The majority of a Ranger's skill tree will likely be ranged, but there will be options to incorporate melee aspects.^[4]

Skill	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Airstrike	Leap forward in the direction the character is facing, raining down three projectiles that deal AoE damage and roots enemies in its path. The root effect is nature based.^[5]
Camouflage	Grants stealth at a distance. At mid and short range the Ranger is revealed.^[6]	-	-
Quick Shot	Ranged attack that applies a debuff to the target. Each additional quickshot against the same target does increasing damage but consumes one of three charges that regenerate over time.^[7]
Snipe	A powerful charged attack.^[8]

Ranger augments

Hunts will be a Ranger school of augmentation.^[9]

Hunts do not interact with pets.^[10]

Hunts will be discussed in a future update. They are a Ranger specific mechanic, and also a school of the Ranger’s augments. They confer a number of different types of effects to your target, but the fx are particularly fun.^[9] – Steven Sharif

Ranged weapons

Pre-alpha Ranger bow modeled by Jon Arellano and concepted by Jeff Delierre.

A character may equip up to two hand weapons and also wear a ranged weapon on their back.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Characters performing ranged abilities will switch to the ranged weapon, then can switch back to the melee weapon and shield or two-handed melee weapon.^[11]^[12]
There will be a setting to determine if the ranged weapon or main/offhand is the primary weapon to use for Q or left-mouse-button basic attacks.^[11]^[12]

Let's say you use Power shot: You click Power shot, you quickly switch over to the ranged weapon, execute the skill, and you're back to your primary focus, which is the sword and shield; and then for weapon attacks like your Q or your left mouse button, you would have the option to to set which is your focus, the ranged weapon, or the main offhand selection and you can swap back and forth between that as you want.^[11] – Steven Sharif

Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement where they are eligible to use their ranged weapons.^[14]

Augments can increase the range of certain skills.^[15]

While melee characters have a max distance proximity where they're eligible to use their sword and melee weapons, Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement.^[14] – Steven Sharif