A primary stat is one you use to attack with. For example, intelligence is a primary stat for wizards; every wizard attack power is Intelligence vs. defense.
A secondary power stat is one that is used in the effect of powers, but not used to attack.
A secondary feature stat is one that is used in for class feature.
Cleric Primary: Strength and Wisdom Secondary: Charisma (power) and Wisdom (feature) Fighter Primary: Strength Secondary: Constitution (power), Wisdom (feature), and possibly Dexterity (power) Paladin Primary: Strength and Charisma Secondary: Wisdom and Charisma Ranger Primary: Strength and Dexterity Secondary: Wisdom Rogue Primary: Dexterity Secondary: Strength and Charisma Warlock Primary: Consitution and Charisma Secondary: Intelligence Warlord Primary: Strength Secondary: Intelligence and Charisma Wizard Primary: Intelligence Secondary: Wisdom (power) and one of Wisdom, Dexterity, or Constitution (feature)
Bonuses to hit are the hardest to get in 4E, so your want your primary stat as high as possible. There is simple lesson here: you only need one primary stat! With the classes that have two, it is simple to choose only powers that use the primary stat you select. You may occasionally want a power that uses the other stat, but the benefit you gain from specializing far outweighs the additional power choices. If you were to put points into both primaries, you would end up with lower attack bonuses on all your powers.
Secondary stats follow a similar pattern. Your choice of class feature generally determines which secondary you care about. The problem is that for some classes, one of the secondaries may be important regardless of what your feature choice is. For example, the fighter has a Wisdom secondary from Combat Superiority, but he also has a Constitution secondary from several utility powers and from axe and hammer powers.
In general, you want to pick one primary stat and one secondary stat to focus on. Ironically, it's often easier to ignore one of your primaries than one of your secondaries. Then the definitions above match the intuitive nature of your primary and secondary stats; namely, your highest and second-highest stat.
What about your tertiary? (That is, you third-highest stat.) There are three choices: another secondary stat, Dexterity, or Constituition. You don't want to pick another primary stat, because you don't want to be attacking with a sub-par modifier. It's just not worth it, either in power selection or action use. A secondary stat can be a good idea, especially if it's one you can't completely ignore; for example, the fighter presented above. Dexterity and Constitution are obvious.
Point Buy Arrays
Given the above analysis, there are two basic types of array that are good. One has a high primary and a high secondary, and a low (or non-existent) tertiary. The other has a high primary and medium secondary and tertiary; they might even be equal. In some cases, your secondary may actually be higher than your primary, usually because of racial bonuses. Think dwarf fighter or elf wizard.
Classic arrays 16, 16, 12, 12, 10, 8 This one seems to be a favorite, and for good reason. Two 16s give you very strong scores in both primary and secondary stats; one will certainly go to 18 with your racial bonus. Certain builds can get two 18s. The 12s end up as 13s at paragon, which opens up some feats. Note that one of the 12s is probably a 14 from racial bonuses.
16, 14, 14, 13, 10, 8 A slightly more balanced array, this one is good if you have two secondaries you want to use. I would not use this unless you can boost the primary to 18 or both the secondaries. Personally I'm not a fan of the triple 16s, but it can be useful.
Alternate arrays 16, 16, 13, 11, 10, 8 I rather like this one over the 16/12. The 13 can unlock feats right away, and while you lose a point in heroic you get it back in paragon. More importantly, the second 12 is often redundant; if racials boost this to 18, 16, 15, 11, 10, 8 then it doesn't look so bad.
18, 14, 11, 10, 10, 8 If you must have a natural 18, this is probably the array to use. The only way I would recommend using this is with the 18 in your primary and the 14 in your secondary, with a racial bonus to get a 20. There are still serious drawbacks: your third defense will be terrible, and you can forget about any other secondary stats your class has. Orb wizards, rangers, and warlocks can make a case for this array; everyone else should forget about it.
18, 13, 13, 10, 10, 8 The other 18 array, and probably the lesser one. If you have a racial bonus to your secondary as well as your primary, maybe consider this.
17, 15, 13, 10, 10, 8 I haven't seen this one much, and for a simple reason: the high stats are odd. Common knowledge says odd stats are useless. I argue that common knowledge is wrong here, and a holdover from 3rd edition. There, you got a single stat boost every four levels, so odd stats tended to stay odd. But in 4E, this isn't true. Compare this array to a double 16 array. The 16s are ahead for levels 1-3, 8-9, 14-17, 20-23, and 28-30. The 17 is ahead for levels 4-7, 11-13, 18-19, and 24-27. That's not the whole story, however. When the 16s are ahead, they have a +1 on the secondary stat. When the 17 is ahead, it has a +1 on the primary stat. So you're trading power now for power later. Is that a good idea? It can be.
I wonder if you have an opinion on this stat array for a mostly dual-weapon Ranger. Race not decided yet but probably try to boost Dex and Wis.
17/10 15/10 13/8 (before racial boosts)
The theory (if I can call it that) of primary stats says you shouldn't try to boost both Str and Dex. The simple explanation is that on any given attack, you're either using Str or you're using Dex, but never both. Then why not only make attacks of one kind, and boost that stat at the expense of the other?
I realize that a lot of people want to make a balanced ranger. Personally, I think that's an inherently flawed idea. You can do it; I think your stat array is fairly good, given your goal. I just think that a more focused ranger would be better.
I didn't explicitly say it in the first post, but if possible you want a race that boosts the two highest stats; with this array, that's the 17 and 15. If you want a balanced ranger, then Str and Dex are your two stats, just as you picked. I would still suggest swapping Dex and Wis for a stronger TWF, and then looking to boost Str and Wis. The Longtooth Shifter will do that for you, and it has a nice buff ability.
17, 15, 13, 10, 10, 8 I haven't seen this one much, and for a simple reason: the high stats are odd. Common knowledge says odd stats are useless. I argue that common knowledge is wrong here, and a holdover from 3rd edition. There, you got a single stat boost every four levels, so odd stats tended to stay odd. But in 4E, this isn't true. Compare this array to a double 16 array. The 16s are ahead for levels 1-3, 8-9, 14-17, 20-23, and 28-30. The 17 is ahead for levels 4-7, 11-13, 18-19, and 24-27. That's not the whole story, however. When the 16s are ahead, they have a +1 on the secondary stat. When the 17 is ahead, it has a +1 on the primary stat. So you're trading power now for power later. Is that a good idea? It can be.
I think your conclusion is correct, but the reason might be a bit off. Nothing changes in 4E that is significantly different from 3.5 as far as odd/even stats swapping out every 3-4 levels.
There are actually TWO good reasons for odd stats in 4th vs in 3.5:
1) Starting attributes costs more points for ODD level increment. From 13 to 14 cost 1, and 14 to 15 cost 2. In 4E, getting from 12 to 13 cost 1 and 13 to 14 costs 2. This makes odd values much more attractive.
2) People tend to analyze based on level 20 or even 30 snapshots. This is not how games really work though. By the time a character is 20, the campaign is over or close to it. Instead you concentrate on power gains throughout the life of the character. Put simply, an odd attribute gives a +1 advantage over the even attribute for half the life of the character.
In other words a ranger archer with 19DEX has a 20DEX at level 4. Thus he has a +1advantage compared to the 18DEX archer for levels 4-7, 11-13, and so on. Since that particular character only needs 3 attributes, the +1 advantage for 50% of the time of 17 is better than the 2(?) points gained from dropping it to 16.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
The theory (if I can call it that) of primary stats says you shouldn't try to boost both Str and Dex. The simple explanation is that on any given attack, you're either using Str or you're using Dex, but never both. Then why not only make attacks of one kind, and boost that stat at the expense of the other?
I realize that a lot of people want to make a balanced ranger. Personally, I think that's an inherently flawed idea. You can do it; I think your stat array is fairly good, given your goal. I just think that a more focused ranger would be better.
I didn't explicitly say it in the first post, but if possible you want a race that boosts the two highest stats; with this array, that's the 17 and 15. If you want a balanced ranger, then Str and Dex are your two stats, just as you picked. I would still suggest swapping Dex and Wis for a stronger TWF, and then looking to boost Str and Wis. The Longtooth Shifter will do that for you, and it has a nice buff ability.
I took a 14 in my Dex as a TWF ranger, just so I could use some ranged weapons slightly better. I mean, there's going to be times when you can't get to what you want to hit, or when you can't get to ANYTHING to hit. The basis is you're trading power to be more versitile, and I guess that's ok - it certainly works for me. I'm not saying your advice is wrong, Khaim, it give a very powerful build, just that sometimes it helps to be great at one thing, and ok at another rather than be amazing at one thing and that be the end of it.
Coarse: I guess it depends on the build you want to go for. If you always want to be either ranged, or TWF, then go with Khaim's advice. (I'd like to point out that, overall, Khaim's build gives you a slightly more powerful character since Rangers use Wisdom for a lot of their skills, as well as a few of their attack powers and a number of Utility so the boosted Wisdom would be more useful than the ability to do the other style of combat every now and again).
If on the other hand you want to be able to bop something with a sword, or let a few arrows lose depending on the situation, my advice might be more to your taste (also if you like the comfort of high AC). Although you would have to spend some feats to be good at both fighting styles.
Like I said. Power or versitility.
Personally, I would try Khaim's way first. His way, you get more out of your powers, and you spend less feats to be good at what you want to do. I just brought this other point up to show you that your basic stat array was a good idea in the first place, just not the most powerful build around.
If anything I say is wrong, clueless or spelt incorrectly, it is because, I am, in general, wrong, clueless and... Well, I'm usually spelt correctly.
- In general, it is better to make all stats even, because: (a) it enables you to always buff your Primary Stat + the Secondary of your choice on every stat gain, and (b) if you are planning on reaching Level 28 there will be no wasted stats (odd numbers)
- But, if you absolutely must make a stat odd (due to Feat req. for example) then make a single pair of stats odd, and buff them both once only in order to assure no wasted stats?
Although, I suppose if you aren't planning on making level 28 it doesn't matter about even vs. odd.
I ended up taking 14, 14, 14, 14, 12, 10 array on my Cleric due to Feat requirements. After racials it turned out 16, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 which I am pretty happy with. Cleric is very hard to choose a dump stat, so I didn't take an array with 8. I hate those pesky -1's for 8 anyway.
The theory (if I can call it that) of primary stats says you shouldn't try to boost both Str and Dex. The simple explanation is that on any given attack, you're either using Str or you're using Dex, but never both. Then why not only make attacks of one kind, and boost that stat at the expense of the other?
Because you can boost two and a Str-based Ranger does other things with Dex besides attack. Better defense, both Reflex and AC, and better initiative. And there are numerous feats that key off of high Dexterity or high Constitution, but you've already got a high Strength. And if for no other reason, it means you tend to hit with Hit and Run.
Wisdom isn't a bad stat, but it isn't anywhere near as useful as Dex for a Ranger. And nothing else is even in the ballpark.
There are actually TWO good reasons for odd stats in 4th vs in 3.5:
1) Starting attributes costs more points for ODD level increment. From 13 to 14 cost 1, and 14 to 15 cost 2. In 4E, getting from 12 to 13 cost 1 and 13 to 14 costs 2. This makes odd values much more attractive.
For some MAD builds, I actually recommend a 16 and 13s. You need your primary to be at least 16, but if you have feat or multiclass needs that collectively don't happen to require just one stat per couplet, 13 is the most efficient you can buy. Round them off later with bumps.
Because you can boost two and a Str-based Ranger does other things with Dex besides attack. Better defense, both Reflex and AC, and better initiative. And there are numerous feats that key off of high Dexterity or high Constitution, but you've already got a high Strength. And if for no other reason, it means you tend to hit with Hit and Run.
Wisdom isn't a bad stat, but it isn't anywhere near as useful as Dex for a Ranger. And nothing else is even in the ballpark.
To be honest, I think this is one of the problems with TWF rangers: they have three stats they really want high. The thing is, Wisdom adds bonuses to all sorts of powers; I think rangers might be one of the most secondary-heavy classes. (In contrast, wizards have three powers that care about their "secondary", which is also Wisdom.) Sure, you can dump Wisdom, but then you're losing out on a bunch of free bonuses.
I agree that Dex's bonus to AC, Ref, and Initiative is nice. However, I think that your attack powers are more important that static defenses, especially the non-AC defenses. You'll be using an attack every round, but as a striker you may or may not be attacked every round, and your non-AC defenses will come up even less frequently. Also, rangers don't have a ton of feats they need, so it's entirely possible to dump Dex and spend three feats on Plate. There's a Ranger/Pit Fighter build that does exactly that.
In contrast, an archery ranger can dump Str and never care at all, since he has a lot of powers that let him escape melee. That, the benefit of only needing one weapon, and the inherent utility of ranged attacks are why I think the archery path is superior.
Of course, that's all a bit off topic, and probably better suited for another thread.
