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Ziana's Archer

Designed to be fairly robust on the battlefield, offering decent group utility and high damage output, as well as being useful in non-combat situations with her skillset and high perception. Tactics relies on high mobility and making use of Prime Shot on selected targets. She makes an ideal scout for the party, and is a capable ranged striker.

Elf Ranger - Archer
Battlefield Archer
Dark Wanderer (Some may prefer Demigod)

Stats:
L1: 10 13 20 10 15 8
L30: 12 16 28 12 22 10

I have been convinced that it's worthwhile putting points in Con at the cost of one Wisdom modifier, in order to attain Armor Specialization: Hide at 11.

An alternate stat array foregoing AS:Hide would be 10 11 20 10 16 8.

Skills:
Nature, Perception, Athletics, Endurance, Stealth
(I like Acrobatics, but Endurance is useful for a couple survival-oriented feats.)

Basics at Level 1: (wearing Hide Armor)
HP: 30 Surges: 7 AC: 18 F/R/W: 12/16/12 Insight: 12 Perception: 19 BAB: +7 Init: 5
Elven Accuracy, Group Awareness, Wild Step, Hunter's Quarry, Prime Shot
Defensive Mobility

Feats
Organized by type in order of preference with comments

Damage
Weapon Proficiency: Greatbow - Longer range, more damage. Top notch.
Weapon Expertise: Bow (Assumed to be +1 from PHB2)
Weapon Focus: Bow - Reliable damage bonus per hit.
Martial Mastery - Reuse an encounter power when you spend an action point
Called Shot [Dragon 368]- +5 damage with Prime Shot
Prime Quarry - +2 to hit your Quarry with Prime Shot
Improved Prime Shot - +2 attack with Prime Shot. Replace Prime Quarry
Hawkeye Warrior - +1 to hit target of your Elven Accuracy for the encounter: great on solos.
Hunter's Advantage - +2 damage with Hunter's Quarry when you have CA.
Wintertouched/Lasting Frost: powerful combo when combined with a Frost Bow. +5 damage to most foes and +2 to hit thanks to CA. High opportunity cost however (2 feats + dedicated enchant).
Wild Elf Luck [FRPG] - better than Elven Precision
Lethal Hunter - Effectively +1 damage per round per tier.

Survival
Toughness - bonus HP, helps stay alive at low levels.
Armor Spec: Hide - +2 AC over leather
Combat Anticipation - +1 defenses against all but melee attacks
Skill Training: Endurance - for related feats (optional: drop one of the other recommended skills at character creation for Endurance)
Martial Freedom - +5 against slow/immobilization
Martial Resolve - Roll at start & end of turn against daze/stun/weak/immobilization/slow. Replace Martial Freedom (optionally, keep both)
Uncanny Dodge - No +2 to hit you when enemy has Combat Advantage.
Defensive Advantage - +2AC when you have CA. Great if you're using Prime Shot from point blank range.

Kiting/Utility
Quick Draw - Invaluable for designating your Quarry plus getting your bow out in the same turn. +2 Initiative bonus.
Fleetfooted - +1 speed is constantly useful
Running Shot, Fast Runner - Lets you run every turn, without penalty to attack. Increase your mobility by 4 squares/move.
Secret Stride - full movement while stealthed.

Defensive feats can be dropped in favor of offensive ones, depending on how much danger you are facing; however my opinion is it's better to survive and do slightly less damage. Dead rangers do no damage.

Running shot, Uncanny Dodge, and Fast Runner form a complementary set, which enable the archer to run each turn without penalty (no combat advantage to-hit bonus to enemies, no to-hit penalty to self), and at +2 movement for a total of +4 base speed. This is for utility purposes: having superior mobility during combat and being able to keep all enemies at range. The relative value of this tactic should be considered carefully in actual play. If it's unnecessary in order to remain at range or acquire targets quickly, then one or all of these feats can be dropped in favor of others. Uncanny Dodge may retain its value regardless.

Feat Progression (This is me actually committing to some, rather than just saying "Hey, these are nice!")

1 Toughness
2 WeapProfGreatbow
4 Martial Freedom
6 W. Expertise: Bows
8 Weapon Focus: Bow
10 Lethal Hunter
11 Armor Spec: Hide
12 Lasting Frost
12 Wintertouched - replace Toughness
14 Fleet-Footed
16 Prime Quarry
18 Called Shot
20 Uncanny Dodge
21 Martial Resolve - replace Martial Freedom
21 Martial Mastery
22 Imp Prime Shot - replace Prime Quarry
22 Combat Anticipation
24 Predatory Action
26 Hawkeye Warrior
28 Hunter's Advantage
30 Bleeding Precision

Recommended Powers:

At Will
Twin Strike: 2 attacks
Nimble Strike: shift 1

Encounter
1 Fox's Cunning - reaction attack
3 Disruptive Strike - Interrupt, save a party member
7 Biting Volley - 2 attacks, Extra crit, or Hawk's Talon - +WisMod to hit.
*11 P: Combined Fire
13 Pinning Strike - Utility
*17 Arrow of Vengeance - Reaction attack
*23 Manticore's Volley - Good damage; alternately Dazing Volley for utility.
*27 Hail of Arrows - Very useful when facing a group

Daily
1 Hunter's Bear Trap
*5 Spitting Cobra Stance - This is fantastic, and worth keeping to high levels.
9 Attacks on the Run (Ranger's Recovery also nice)
15 Confounding Arrows - Nice utility
19 Two-in-One Shot
*20 P: Quarry's Bane
*25 Ranger's Resurgence - Decent damage, and reuse an encounter.
*29 Five Missile Dance

Utility
2 Yield Ground
6 Serpentine Dodge or Weave through the Fray
10 Shed the Mark - drop mark effects at will
12 P: Archer's Glory
16 Evade the Blow - avoid dying!
22 Master of the Hunt
26 Never at a Loss

* - keep at 30

Ziana wrote:

No replies means I've either done something embarrassingly wrong, or there's nothing to nitpick.

Or it might just have gotten cycled off the front page so fast no one saw it.

Honestly, it looks reasonably decent. But I've barely looked at Rangers. (Can recite the rules for Wizards backwards and forwards however!)

I think your feat ordering is a little strange - shouldn't you take those epic feats at the start of epic as they're (theoretically) stronger than your 7+th pick paragon feats?

I'm also mildly confused by Blind Fight. It helps melee characters, but it only works with adjacent foes, meaning it isn't that useful for a ranged character.

I would also consider Trickster as an epic destiny - it probably has more to offer than Demigod.

Personally I'd take Demigod for an Archer/Ranger, mostly because of the Divine Miracle, never running out of encounter powers might be big help in a big battle, also the "Increase two ability scores of your choice by 2 each" helps

Suggestions from others have lead me to reconsider just how bad Elven Precision is. It may be more attractive than some of the other feats I have listed.

Yes, I only listed feats I'm selecting, Def. Mobil. is a given.

Lethal Hunter isn't terrible, but it's so small that it may be overshadowed by other utility or defensive feats.

1d6 to 1d8 is an average increase of 1/round. That increases to 2 and 3 per round with tiers.

3 damage per round to your Quarry at epic levels, when you've got powers like Lightning Shot (2W+Dex/3W+Dex, bloodied), Dex around +7/8, and a Flaming Longbow +4-6 with +4/5/6d6 damage on a crit, I think you can see what a minor fraction of total damage Lethal Hunter will be.

Weapon Focus at least offers +damage (1-3) per HIT, and rangers are capable of multiple hits per round.