BDO Ranger Guide, Builds, Skill Guide and more!

Welcome to our BDO Ranger Guide traveler!

I’m Alex and you already know that at that point. And if that’s the first specific guide for a class chosen by you from our BDO Class Mega Guide (link), and you don’t know me yet - I am an experienced Black Desert Online player that is familiar with almost every class in the game. After gathering tons of intel about each class, testing it out in the meantime, I decided to create a mega-guide for all classes available in the game, as well as comprehensive guides for every specific class, to prepare players that will join our community through their console copies of Black Desert Online?

In this BDO Ranger Guide, I will tell you about the Ranger, Elven lass that uses a Bow in her pre-Awakening form, and a Kamasylven Sword with a Dagger as her Awakening weapons. I will try to cover everything, from pre-Awakening grinding to useful skills, to specific combos, roles of a Ranger in Large Scale PvP scenarios, crystals, tips and tricks and more. And with the recent release for Xbox - posts like this are really useful.

You may also like:

BDO Accounts - BDO Silver Coins - BDO Power Leveling - BDO Items - BDO Hacks and Cheats

What role does Ranger fulfill?

Ranger is a mixed bag. Many players stay away from this class, leaving Ranger with a really low player-count. Definitely the most annoying thing about ranger is her resource management. It’s incredibly hard to manage her Stamina bar in a proper way, as it basically forces you to play a “Stamina mini-game” during each encounter so you can cast your skills freely. You have to look at your bars more than any other class in the game, and you have to learn to control it, which by itself is really off-putting for new players. And after you manage to learn this, is it really worth it?

Kind of. It depends on what are you aiming at. If you want to focus on grinding and PvE then this class is not for you. It’s extremely difficult to grind effectively at high-end areas beyond Desert Fogans for example.

The class got extremely nerfed when it comes to PvP scenarios outside of 1v1 duels. Stamina nerfs really hit her hard. I can’t specify how many times, increased loss of stamina cost me a fight that would’ve decided some more important things that I was fighting for.

With that said Ranger can still do pretty well at higher AP, and is actually really viable. An elven lass can still do massive burst damage, but she needs the proper situation to unleash her burst. She can be fun as hell if you enjoy the red journey playstyle (Open World PvP killing players for fun and grind spots), as you can become unstoppable if you know what you are doing.

During Node Wars and Sieges she’s great at small skirmishes here and there outside the objective. She can kite pretty well with her Bow’s Shotgun Skill, and her burst can demolish the entire enemy backline, but going to the point when you can actually do that is very tricky, you will have to work really hard to put yourself in a situation when you can effectively flank and burst people down from the rear, and it’s really hard when enemy guild knows what they are doing, as map is the best friend for anyone who is willing to counter flankers.

The easiest and the most effective way of playing as Ranger in her current state is to stand behind your frontline, get a good sight of the enemy team, and set up your bow combos, using Awakening primarily for defense when you get jumped on or if you want to gang up on an enemy. And your usefulness will be largely impacted by your enhancement on armor, weapon slots, and accessories, as you will not do much without full TET boss gear or TET + Tri Accessories, so you have to upgrade ASAP. It's expensive, enhancing is repetitive.

Ranger Preawakening Guide

Dagger of Protection

Status: Dagger of Lock This Skill

This ability will lie to you. It does not protect, there is no Super Armor, no Forward Guard, it only works as a Counterattack, it will debuff enemies, but it’s useless. The damage it deals is absolutely laughable, and it can get in your way when you are applying your combos. Lock it straight away and don’t use it, unless you are an absolute madlad.

Charging Wind

Status: Super Armor 200% Black Spirit Rage

You will use this skill as a followup to Penetrating Wind. The main reason for it, is that Charging Wind can be charged to deal additional damage and projectile speed, and Penetrating Wind will cancel automatically into Charging Wind applying max charges instantly. It will almost never be used alone unless you decide to use it as a 200% Black Spirit Rage. It’s an Air Attack that will deal additional damage to targets floating in the air, and it has a chance to Down Smash.

Crescent Kick

Status: Unsafe Float Device - Lock It

Works as an Air Attack and Air Smash in some instances, and applies Floating on good hits. Unfortunately, the animation is quite long, and it’s unprotected, meaning that you are not going to use that. There are better skills with Crowd Control in Ranger’s kit after Awakening, meaning that you will want to lock it.

Razor Wind

Status: Preawakening PvE Grind

Very decent skill in early PvE when it’s off-cooldown thanks to the damage. Unfortunately, it will lock you down in place for a long time to fire off all hits. It’s a low priority skill that you won’t use for long. Take it early and forget about it later into the game.

Pinpoint

Status: Lock it

Pinpoint is a weak ability that will not only deal with low damage, but it’s also unprotected and slow. You won’t use this ability and it can get in a way of your combos due to its key command. Lock it straight away.

Dash Kick

Status: Lock it

Useless kick with knockback capabilities. It deals low damage, it’s unprotected. It’s not worth it to use it in any scenario. Lock it away.

Evasive Shot

Status: Essential Animation Cancel At Ultimate: Evasive Shot

Evasive shot while weak by itself when you reach Ultimate: Evasive Shot it will let you animation cancel your important pre-awakening skills. Sometimes it will activate an Air Smash, especially after Blasting Gust. It’s also a fun fact, that when canceling certain skills your evasive movement will be faster if you move to the right.

Evasive Explosion Shot

Status: Swap + Important Preawakening Invincible Frame + Stiffness CC

The first part of the skill will apply Stiffness and is unprotected, but after you fire off your shot you will be absolutely Invincible up to the point that you land and go back into your battle stance. It’s one of your two Super Armor moves in your Preawakening. This skill will swap weapons when used from the Awakening. You can spam this in PvE to get infinite iFrames, but in PvP, it will only count as an iFrame when used off-cooldown. Learn the timing of the iFrame so you get everything out of it, dodge the Crowd Control, avoid the damage - simple as that. You will only need Evasive Explosion Shot III, and maybe the Absolute version further down the line when you have spare Skill Points, don’t take the other parts of a tree.

Round Kick

Status: For Flow: Sharp Feather

Useful for Flow combos like Sharp Feather I, used for long-ranged damage thanks to the Air Attack multiplier. Outside of Flows this skill is not useful at all, and should not be used on its own. Use it only for flows. Therefore you won’t need to level this up, keep it at level 1 for those useful flows.

Tearing Arrow

Status: 100% Critical Hit Rate Air Attack

This ability can deal huge amounts of damage for a skill from Pre-awakening Skill Tree, but it has to be charged to do so. It’s unprotected so it’s risky to use it. It’s not our core ability, so if you want to level this up - you better make sure that you’ve got all skills from Awakening and the most important skills from your Pre-awakening Skill Tree.

*IMPORTANT*

There’s also a strange little trick to this ability. If you use Tearing Arrow and follow up with Blasting Gust, Blasting Gust will have more range. It’s a strange little bug (or a feature) that shouldn’t work or exist, but it does.

Blasting Gust

Status: Powerful Knockdown Tool

Blasting Gust is one of our best long-range Crowd Control, as it will apply the strongest CC in the game - Knockdown. It has a very long range and can be used to fish for CC. Crowd Control is everything in this game at higher levels, as with high AP counts it will take one good CC to follow up with a combo that will 100-0 your enemy. I highly recommend visiting Critical PvP videos, as lots of mechanics regarding this skill, and almost every mechanic that Ranger has in her whole kit.

Blasting Gust is unprotected, but with certain combos, you will be able to reduce the time that you are unprotected while still getting all the benefits from this ability. Good combos should reduce your unprotected time to about 0.6-0.9 seconds. It will be very hard to react to, and people will counter that either due to luck or desync that Black Desert Online- sadly still has.

Will Of The Wind

Status: Powerful Down Attack

This will be the best skill to use when your enemy is on the ground thanks to its damage and Down Attack multiplier. In itself - this ability is really slow and will lock you in an unprotected animation for the whole duration, but when combined with Evasive Shot - you will be able to unleash this ability like you would unleash a machine gun simply spam this ability and hold A/D+F. It’s becoming really fast and powerful, even though the damage is greatly reduced in PvP. It’s one of your main abilities when it comes to damage, at least in Pre-Awakening Skill Tree. Max it out.

Penetrating Wind

Status: Main Ranger Preawakening Ability

It’s the main ability for a good set of reasons. It has most likely the most damage out of all Pre-Awakening Skills. It can combo really well with other abilities. It has a very long range. It comes equipped with +100% Critical Hit Ratio and it works as an Air Attack + Down Smash (Knockdown too in PvE against monsters). Besides our Rabams and Awakening kit - Penetrating Wind will be a gateway for damage and long-range poke in Large Scale PvP scenarios.

This Skill will be used with Flow: Sharp Feather, Flow: Kiss of the Wind, it will be followed by Tearing Arrow, and it’s a perfect cancel for Charging Wind, completely nullifying its charging time, applying maximum damage instantly.

Also, Penetrating Wind will be out go-to ability during Large Scale PvP fights. As a Ranger, you want to spend most of your time harassing from distance and fishing for Crowd Control to open up windows of opportunity for your teammates. Rabam skills, Penetrating Wind and its combos will be your main sources of offense, and your Awakening will be mainly used to fend off enemies off of yourself, as a form of defense.

Descending Current

Status: Accuracy Rate Debuff

It’s a good skill to apply multiple Accuracy debuffs to packs of enemies, but the damage is really lackluster. If you are planning to take this skill you can take it down the road when you have all core abilities and the entire Awakening skill tree. This skill is not a priority.

Spirit Healing

Status: Useless MP recovery

Ranger is a very MP hungry class. It’s really hard to manage your MP, and it’s the single most frustrating thing about playing a Ranger. Without good MP management, you won’t be able to use your skills, without Super Armors or Forward Guards - you can consider yourself dead.

This ability could help you regain some MP, but you will get an additional MP only through basic bow attacks, which you will not use in PvP because it is unsafe. It gives some basic MP recovery, your resource will regenerate over time but it’s not worth the points. I would not recommend taking it, it’s a waste of Skill Points.

Call of The Earth

Status: Unprotected Accuracy Rate Self Buff

This Buff will increase your Accuracy by a small amount. It has a 20-second cooldown and 10-second uptime, meaning that you will have this on you 50% of the time. It’s not protected so you will have to use it with caution. Also keep in mind that if you decide on leveling this up, you will want to get it to Call of The Earth VIII at max, since for some reason Call of The Earth IX and Call of The Earth X won’t grant you additional stats, besides reducing MP needed to cast this buff.

Infinite Mastery

Status: Health Points

700 additional Health Points - it’s a lot. You will need it. The single most important passive in every character’s kit.

Skilled Hunter

Status: Additional AP Against Monsters

No reason not to take it. You will spend a lot of time grinding, and if you can take something that will make you grind quicker - why not?

Rabam Skills

Rabam Skills connect two skills out of your kit granting you basically one more ability to use whenever you’d like. There are four Rabam Skills and you can pick two at level 56 and 57.

Squall Shot

Status: Short Range Knockdown with Weak Damage

Squall Shot connects Charging Wind IV and Penetrating Wind IV. These two are very important skills on its own, as you can combo these skills reliably getting huge damage potential in return with some handy cancels. It will also boost your Magic DP by 15 points for 10 seconds. It works as a Down Attack, has a chance of Down Smash, and it will apply Knockdown on good hits. This skill will sadly lock you in animation after the shot and the range is pretty short, but It’s an amazing ability nonetheless.

The major downside to this ability, however, is the lack of combo potential out of it, since it will block you from taking any actions after you use this ability.

Tearing Shot

Status: Long Range Stun with Good Damage and Combo Potential

This Rabam connects Charging Wind IV with Blasting Gust III. Its cooldown is almost two times longer than that of a Squall Shot but it’s a small drawback for the capabilities it offers. It will both Slow and Stun enemies on good hits, it applies a very long DoT in a form of Bleeding Damage, it’s an Air Attack, it has a 100% Critical Hit Rate, and it won’t lock you in animation- which is actually a big deal.

Lack of ending animation means that you will be able to combo out of it. While Squall Shot is a good Knockdown tool that works great by itself, its combo potential is lackluster since it takes away a large portion of time from your Knockdown debuff. This is why Tearing Shot will be your go-to Rabam for level 56.

You will be easily able to follow up your Tearing Shot with Blasting Gust, to first apply a Stun, and then to Knock your enemy Down leading to some truly devastating combos.

Fury Arrow

Status: Very Decent Knockdown Fishing in Large Scale PvP

This ability connects Ultimate: Tearing Arrow + Penetrating Wind IV. It will lock you in place for some time but the shots will come out really fast. It’s a great peeling tool as each shot will Knockback, pushing enemies away from you and the last hit will Knockdown. It’s an amazing ability in Large Scale PvP, as you want to poke people from mid to long-range. The defensive tool is always good for a ranged class. It can really mess peoples’ engages.

Roaring Arrow

Status: Powerful Looking Shot with Knockdown

This one connects Ultimate: Tearing Arrow with Razor Wind V. This Rabam will as well lock you in one place, as your Ranger gets down on her knee and loads powerful shots that will Knockdown enemies, or apply a Down Attack, even Down Smash sometimes when they are already on the ground. It’s a great tool for debuffing groups of enemies during Node Wars and it will boost your DP by 20 points for some time.

Tearing Shot is an obvious choice and you will take it one hundred percent of a time. With one slot left you will have to make a choice between Fury Arrow and Roaring Arrow. Both are very useful and it comes down to preference. Personally, I go with Fury Arrow as it allows for a faster CC application, and you can follow up with some nasty combos after this ability knocks someone down. Hit confirm into devastating combos, easy as that.

Ranger Awakening Skill Guide

Awakening: Kamasylven Sword

Status: Very Important C Swap

Why our swap between Awakening and Preawakening is important? Because when switching from a Bow to Kamasylven Sword you will be granted with a Forward Guard status, that will linger through the whole animation. And the length of that animation will depend entirely on the way you use your C swap, as you will be able to activate your C swap in three ways. C+W in Preawakening state will force you to do a Forward Strike which will provide you with a short Forward Guard state. C+S will also do a Forward Strike, but Forward Guard will be much shorter than in the case of C+W. When it comes to C+A/D - it will do a Sideways Slash, granting you a pretty long Forward Guard state.

When it comes to swaps from Awakening to Preawakening, none of these have any protection, and the most important swap will be C+D, as it is the fastest swap in your kit. Other swaps are kind of irrelevant.

Spirit’s Shackles

Status: Grapple

Grab is one of the best PvP mechanics in the entire game. It will apply the longest Crowd Control in Black Desert Online - Knockdown, opening windows for devastating combos. The best thing about grabs and grapples is that they will only be countered by reached Crowd Control Limit or Invincibility Frames. Grab will go through every Block, Forward Guard, and Super Armor status.

Guardian

Status: E Buff

Every class has an E Buff. E buff will most of the time increase Speed of most actions, granting some Evasion, Accuracy, maybe regaining some resources. When it comes to Ranger, she will get +30% Attack Speed, +30% Movement Speed, +15% Evasion, +20% Critical Hit Chance, and +500 Mana, everything for 30 seconds with a 3-minute cooldown. For a bonus, the entire animation of this self-buff is filled with Super Armor, and for 10 seconds after the E Buff gets activated sprinting will cost no stamina.

Wind Step

Status: Dash, Gap Closer + Invincibility Frame

A very important skill in Ranger’s Awakening Skill Tree. It’s a dash that will grant you a decent amount of iFrames for the whole duration of the movement. It can be used On-Cooldown but it won’t grant you iFrames, it will only work as a movement tool that people will be able to punish, therefore it will be very important to pay attention to the cooldown of this ability, you will want to iFrame through powerful engages, or to get out of messy situations. When dashing forward you will collide with enemies. There's no collision when you dash backward, but the dash will travel less distance.

Use this dash wisely, pay attention to its 3-second cooldown, and save it for dodging Crowd Control, or avoiding huge bursts of damage.

Cold Blade

Status: Attack With Self Buffs

Cold Blade is not a good attack skill on its own. It’s true that this will apply Stiffness on the first hit, bleeding on three good hits, and it will Knockback on four good hits, but it’s unprotected, and if your enemy knows how this skill works you will get punished hard. Crowd Control from this skill is not only not worth it- it’s telegraphed heavily too.

On the other hand, the ranged Accuracy Rate for 10 seconds on good hits is a pretty good buff that will be useful in PvP, of course, if you manage to quickly disengage after this skill to use your ranged abilities, as it will boost your damage by a decent amount. It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a special combo that you should know about.

Kamasylve Sword Training Ability (your basic Awakening Attack) has a +10 AP Buff on the third hit. If you combo Cold Blade first and the second attack, with a basic attack, the basic attack will count as a thirst strike of Kamasylve Sword. This means that both buffs - Cold Blade’s buff on the second hit, and Kamasylve Sword Training’s buff on the third hit will apply. This means that you will gain +12% Ranged Accuracy, and +10 Ranged AP.

On its own - this attack is nothing special when it comes to damage, you will use that mainly for buffs, and outside of that - there’s no place for this ability. Do not prioritize it in Awakening Tree.

Breezy Blade

Status: Super Armor Gap Closer.

Breezy Blade is our spammable Super Armor tool, that will work as a Super Armor every four seconds. You can spam this ability without stopping but it will be highly unsafe, the skill itself won’t protect you, it will deal close to no damage, and the gap that it would close is much shorter. It lacks Crowd Control, as it will only slow the movement of enemies in PvP, but it will flow naturally into Flow: Rushing Wind, and you will be able to cancel this Super Armor combo into your bow stance to try your luck with applying damage and CC through Shotgun, Blasting Gust, etc.

Thanks to its protection and quite a fast recovery it can be used in Grapple combo, to set up your grapple. Keep in mind that your enemy can grab you as well since Grabs ignore Super Armor, and they can be only avoided by distance or Invincibility Frames.

Flow: Rooting

Status: Lock it

Flow: Rooting is an extension to your Grapple ability - Spirit’s Shackles - but it’s not worth it to use it for two reasons. First, Spirit’s Shackles is a great grab by itself that will guarantee a Knockdown if grapple connects and isn’t resisted, your enemy will stay on the ground for a long time allowing you to finish them with one quick combo. Flow: Rooting will greatly reduce the time your enemy spends on the ground since it works as a Down Smash. Down Smashes are great for Knocked down enemies, but only if you can apply them at the last possible moment, as they somewhat reset the grounded timer, adding a new - shorter one.

Flow: Rooting applies Down Smash instantly after your enemy gets a Knockdown Crowd Control, meaning that he will spend the time on the ground as if he had gotten Down Smash to his face - meaning much shorter time spent on the ground. Second, Flow: Rooting has a long animation, and you sure as hell do not want to put yourself in a vulnerable state. While it comes down to preference, as some people may find some use for it - I have it locked, as I see no point in using it. I prefer doing things the old-fashioned way.

Flow: Rushing Wind

Status: Breezy Blade Flow with Super Armor

Very good Flow extension to linger your Super Armor for a bit longer while dealing some good damage and debuffing your enemy’s Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 20% each. It flows naturally, it’s quick, it makes Super Armor way longer, keeping you a bit safe for a longer time, and you can cancel it into Preawakening to cast Shotgun or apply some Preawaening Crowd Control. It will stun enemies but only in PvE so it will be used as a Super Armor, as some amount of damage, and as an extension to a really good protected dash. It will also flow from Vine Knot pretty naturally so keep that in mind.

Wailing Wind

Status: Powerful PvE Ability and MP Regeneration

Wailing Wind is a great ability when it comes to the pure utility that doesn’t involve Crowd Control, even though it will apply Knockback. Per every good hit you will regain +50 MP, which makes it a great MP regain tool in PvE (in PvP a bit risky as it is unprotected and will only Knockback unprotected enemy movements.

But the main reason why it’s so amazing in PvE -especially endgame PvE in spots like Aakman - is the Ranged DP debuff and Critical Hit Rate buff. Any kind of Evasion debuff or DP debuff is truly invaluable in every endgame grinding area since monsters have high defense statistics.

Outside of PvE debuffs, it’s a 100% Black Spirit Rage skill, and it will get amazing add-ons through that. It’s Ranger’s highest damaging BSR skill, it will apply stiffness, it will knockdown, and it will grant you Super Armor for the entire duration of the skill.

Keep in mind that this skill will deal more damage to targets in the center of its radius.

Flow: Tempest

Status: Wailing Wind Flow with Knockdown

It will be hard to utilize if your target is not stunned currently, but it’s possible. It flows out of Wailing Wind naturally, adding more damage and applying Knockdown on good hits. The main reason why it will be hard to Knockdown enemies with it is that the Knockdown will be telegraphed with an initial cast of Wailing Wind, and enemies that know how this Flow combo works will avoid that. But if a Striker decides on engaging on you with Nimbus strike that is fully unprotected when he lands, you can find that little window when your enemy can’t do anything after he finishes the animation to Knock him Down.

Vine Knot

Status: Floating Tool with Attack Speed Self Buff

Vine Knot is a double-edged sword. It can be used to fish for some quick Float here and there, but it’s unprotected and most of the time it will get you punished, and you will get Floated, or even worse - knocked down. It’s a good idea to use it mid-combo as it works as an Air Attack and an Air Smash, or as an Attack Speed Buff.

Flow: Heavenly Knot

Status: Swap To Preawakening From Engage

It’s a good ability to use after Vine Knot miraculously Floats someone, or after a successful grapple with Spirit’s Shackles. This will allow you to swap to your Pre-Awakening state in an instant opening up some Bow combos. Especially useful after you manage to apply a Knockdown, as you will be able to use your Umbrella skill to apply Down Attacks

Flow: Piercing Wind

Status: Ultimate/Extreme: Charging Wind after Super Armor Engage? Gimme That!

After using Breezy Blade or Flow: Rushing Wind you will be able to cast Shotgun ability straight away while swapping to your Bow and Arrow setup. Works great as a main finisher in a combo.

Elven Rage

Status: Forward Guard + Super Armor

Elven Rage is a powerful Super Armor + Forward Guard tool with which you will trade to then follow up with a Flow to catch people off guard with a Float thanks to Flow: Disillusion. On its own, Elven Rage will boost your DP +10 for 10 seconds, it will Knockdown enemies in PvE only, and it works as a Down Attack.

Nature’s Tremble

Status; Forward Guard Down Attack with a Debuff

It’s not only a protected skill, but it’s also a part of our most damaging combo after you manage to get a Grapple. It will be also used as one of your main DP debuffs, as it will reduce the DP by 15 for 10 seconds, which will be necessary for PvP and High-end PvE grinding sessions to finish off enemies (human and not) easily.

Flow: Disillusion

Status: Punish Tool after Super Armor + Forward Guard

Disillusion is a great follow up Flow for Elven Rage. As Elven Rage is fully protected, and Disillusion itself is a natural flow, and it will apply Floating on good hits, which makes this Flow a dependable baiting tool that will help you get a chance to Crowd Control your enemy after you trade your Super Armor with the enemy, which will work as long as your enemy can’t reliably turn his first Super Armor into another Super Armor, Forward Guard or an iFrame faster than you can switch your Elven Rage into Flow: Disillusion.

Flow: Disillusion is unprotected so you will have to figure out how other classes work, against some engages from the enemy - you can expect some lingering Super Armor, some other CC Flows with no protection, or maybe someone will expect you to activate Flow: Disillusion, he will prolong the Super Armor for one more attack, or he will follow up with a Super Armored Stiff or Stun, who knows? It’s a great tool when you use it with thought and preparation.

Regeneration

Status: Buffs + Useful Addons + Knockdown + Down Smash

Regeneration is a very useful skill, and a pretty unsafe one when used without 50% Black Spirit Rage, which will actually grant you Super Armor for the entire animation. Is it worth it to use that without BSR? In some instances - yes. And there are two cases where it’s worth it.

Besides base buff of +10 Attack Speed for 10 seconds Regeneration has two very reliable Add-ons that will aid you in combat against other players in PvP scenarios - PvP Attack +15 for 5 seconds, and All Critical Hit Rate +20%. This means that you should be able to use it as a self-buff before the fight. Since it’s not protected you have to use it with care. Before or during the fight.

Besides the buffs, this will be a great ability to use near the end of your combos. Thanks to its Down Attack and Down Smash capabilities it’s a perfect way to end your combos on knocked down enemies, not only to apply extra damage thanks to Down Attack but to keep the enemy down on the ground for a longer time, as reapplying Down Smash - which in itself has a 30% chance to activate - at the right time can lead to an increase in Downed state when it comes to time spent on the ground. Reapplying it too fast would actually remove the Knockdown state, taking away from the precious seconds from the longest Crowd Control in the entire game, so it would be more favorable to use Regeneration in the end.

Ranger PvP Guide

As we’ve covered almost every ability that Ranger has in her kit, it all would’ve been worthless if you don’t know how to use it in PvP. This guide won’t mention grinding tips, as you can figure it out easily by yourself - for what exactly lets you grind in the most efficient way. It will vary when it comes to grinding spots, as early spots won’t require you to apply DP debuffs, because when you are at the right spot early you will know that by the EXP you get, and the time it takes you to kill a group of enemies (max 2 abilities).

Near the end, at spots like Aakman, you will have to spend more time for each single enemy, meaning that DP debuffs will be necessary, but you will spend so much time getting to that point at which you will be able to afford to grind at Aakman, that you will be already a very experienced player, that won’t need any guide on skills or PvE. 

Ranger Buff Guide

Buffs are a very important asset for every character. Skill and level is one thing, but a better choice of buffs from food, elixirs, villas, and things like that can make a weaker character beat a better-geared character. I won’t lie to you - gear is everything. While you can have skills and outplay potential - everyone can make mistakes. You get caught with CC while having much weaker gear - you will get one-shotted. And if you catch your enemy in the fight and you are not able to finish them off when they are on the ground - you might not get another chance.

There are many engage and bait tools that will let you apply Crowd Control, but it’s the most important thing in 1v1 duels... almost. Mind games and predictions that come with PvP are even more important thing since it will allow you to dodge CC and apply your CC skills. And when you manage to do that (which will take the most amount of skill) this might be your only chance to finish off your enemy.

To make sure you have everything necessary to finish off your enemy - bring the best gear with the best buffs from food, elixirs, and other things. To be the most effective at PvP you will have to spend tons of money on buffs necessary to make a difference in Large PvP scenarios. It will not only take money but time too. When it comes to Foods for example - to get the best effect in PvP you will have to cycle through 4 types of food. Knight’s Combat Rations, Kamasylvia Meat, King of Jungle Hamburg, and Valencia Meal. Most types of food will be available for 120 minutes, and the cooldown for eating each food is at 30 minutes. It means that to get every buff for PvP from buffs, especially for NodeWars and Sieges will take about 2 hours to get every buff necessary for scenarios like Large Scale PvP.

Outside of Foods - the other default consumable items - Elixirs, or Potions if you will. It’s simple in the party, each party member will use a Party Elixir, and you will get all the buffs that will boost your stats by a ton. And the elixirs you use - it will depend on how much time you have before a fight. Of course, if you are expecting a fight - let’s say you are a red player that looks for people on grinding spots to ruin their day, or if you are preparing for a spot retake - you will have more time to get all the useful buffs. And if you get jumped on, you obviously won’t take a long series on elixirs, cuz you will be focused on not dying, so you have to exchange that for a quick stat boost.

If you have time - there are 14 very important elixirs and one or two minor potions that will boost your statistics for PvP. These Elixirs are:

Blue:

Endurance

Concentration

Fury

Human Hunt

Shock

Life

Defence

Party

Draining

Carnage

Assassin

Death

Grim Reaper

Perforation

Sky

Detection

Minor

AP Enhancer

DP Enhancer

Outside of that, there are potions like Elixir of Deep Sea Perfume of Courage, Superior Whale Tendon Potion, or Tough Whale Tendon Elixir. The perfume will be used as a stable basic buff, and the other two will be there for special scenarios where you have to use them to survive.

And if you do not have the time to pop your elixirs - you can exchange them for a single quick potion - Beast’s Draught. It will grant you less and weaker stats, than the series of 14 and MORE potions, but it’s a good exchange if you need some quick stats as you are getting jumped on by a deranged Musa willing to take your spot from you.

There also Alchemy Stones. These items can be put on your character and activated when you need them. You will opt to get Vell’s Heart (the rarest item in the game worth a few billion silver), but before that, you will have to rely on at least Sturdy Protection or Destruction stones.

Outside of item-reliant buffs - there are Furniture buffs, Villa buffs, Amity buffs, but these are less consistent and will always include some preparation, you won’t travel to the other side of the map just to get a buff from NPC that will be active on spot for a few minutes before it runs out.

Buffs are overpowered but they require lots of planning, inventory space, inventory weight, and resources of course. 2 Hour Siege will require you to spend 50 Million silver on just Elixirs. It’s a lot but on a higher level - very manageable.

Ranger 1v1 Guide

It’s really hard to talk about specifics about duels as Ranger. While Node Wars are kind of simple in a general manner - you primarily use your bow skills from afar and switch to Awakening for buffs and/or defense. But there are so many things that go into duels - to list everything - it would take me a few more years to list every occurrence in PvP that may happen against all classes in all scenarios. I will try to generally talk about Ranger PvP in 1v1 duels, what you can focus on, and how to succeed.

There are two skills that in an ideal situation - you will use before engage to buff your stats. These skills are Vine Knot and Wailing Wind. Both will grant you +20% Critical Hit Rate +10% Attack Speed. After that - you are good to go.

Will of the Wind is definitely the best ability that Ranger has if you cancel it with side movement. At high AP counts (above 261) in 1v1 you can just apply a Knockdown through Grapple and spam this ability to finish your enemy, and chances are not that low to actually succeed with that tactic. Generally, if you want to base your finishing combo on Way of the Wind and Down Smash, it’s a good idea to Grapple > 5x Will of the Wind > Regeneration to apply a Down Smash.

And if you want to start out your engage from the range - Tearing Shot (stun) > Close the Distance > Blasting Gust (Knockdown) will work just fine. That’s one of the reasons why Tearing Shot is the Rabam skill that is optimal for Rangers, and considered core.

Utilize your range

You can also use the range for your advantage. Many people miss this but Ranger’s Bow will still break the guard really fast, and deal huge amounts of damage against people that are in Super Armor or Forward Guard state. You get the privilege to stand a few meters away, applying Tearing Shot, Blasting Gust, Penetrating Arrow, Charging Wind - forcing your enemy to either run away or chase you down, in which case you will switch to Awakening to defend yourself from the weakened enemy. But still - lots of abilities for Ranger are not protected, so you will have to be careful, as long-range CC from your enemies still applies to you.

Ranger has an S block in Awakening. As long as you move backward you will block everything from the front, as long as your guard meter is not broken by powerful abilities with high AP counts.

Also - unlocking mouse movement will be crucial to get out of sticky situations, that will happen due to your use of certain skills. It’s not only for offense but for defense too. People that know Ranger class will, for example, rush you from the side as soon as you activate Elven Rage, as the first frames of this skill are Forward Guard, and it takes some time to apply Super Armor. You will use your mouse movement to redirect abilities like Elven Rage or Nature’s Tremble to keep your enemy on your front to avoid the Crowd Control from the side or back.

But if you truly want to grasp how you should act in PvP duels with other players, you should watch fights of top-tier masters of this class, and then - experience everything by yourself. You will spend lots of hours in Black Desert Online - make those hours count. Find some friends for duels, fight multiple opponents at once as you get stronger, fight other classes and learn the ropes of their skill trees, engages, or tactics.

Ranger Node War Guide

Node Wars generally speaking is pretty straight forward. You should opt to stand behind your team and poke people with useful bow skills. Your bow can deal devastating amounts of damage even to enemies who are guarding (easy guard breaks) or are in Super Armor state. You will use Tearing Shot, Fury Arrow, Penetrating Arrow, Shotgun, Blasting Gust, and Charging Wind, canceling animations and creating combos that will allow you to for example skip the charging time of the ability while still applying full damage as if you would charge it to the max with Penetrating Arrow into Charging Wind combo.

With that being said you don’t HAVE to do that as there are plenty of things to do. You do not have to stay behind and depend on your lucky Crowd Control to let your team or your damage follow up for some kills. You can decide on going ham as your Awakening skills have a decent radius and range, and your 100% Black Spirit Rage skill - Wailing Wind, is a very powerful hard-hitting ability that can Stiffen and then Knockdown your enemies.

Ranger can be a very mobile class that will be hard to notice and is close to perfect in diving the backline as long as you have great gear buffs and combo, specially designed for demolishing groups of enemies. It’s not easy, it’s definitely harder than playing Sorceress (her “infinite” spammable iframes), or Striker (natural tankiness and the amount of Super Armors), but you will be able to do that.

You can say that Ranger in Node Wars and Sieges is an all-arounder, with the little exception of tankiness. She can be a Long Rage poker, Long Range Nuker, Long Rage Crowd Control fisher, Long Range Assassin, Melee Range Assassin, Flanker, and more. She is not a straight-out jack of all trades and master of none, she’s just really flexible in what she can do. Do you want to flank? You have the tools to do so. You want to ssatand with Wizards and Witches behind your team and apply tons of damage and Crowd Control from afar? You have tools to do that. Do you want to tank? You do not have tools to do that, but if you want to be useless - it’s a way to go too.

Closing Remarks

You can read every guide in the world and know the theory in-and-out but your execution might be lacking. Use knowledge found in this guide, and other guides too in your day-to-day play, use things you’ve read about in this guide and apply it to your next duel. Experience everything, see what works and what doesn’t. Which moves will punish you hard, and which are safe to use. To become a true master of this Class, you will never stop learning. Start today rather than tomorrow, and set yourself on a path to greatness.

Please subscribe to the Official Ranger Discord https://discord.gg/HjXSfkf. It's recommended to sign up for a multitude of reasons. Rght there you will find complete guides for beginners, in a youtube video or gif style, or from famous streamers. Right there you will find a great ranger stream on Twitch TV - Anfieldw. Every guide posted there gets many views, most of them are relevant to the newest patch. And in our book - this thing will upgrade your gaming session.  You will find everything there, which belt to wear, which stat increases should you take, when to switch off your Mark of Shadow Rings, When to press LMB in your combo to do some cancels, which armor set is best for you. Share. Save us the trouble of spreading our guides, and send it to your fellow Rangers in your guild

This is the end of the Black Desert Ranger Guide. I hope everything covered here will be useful for you, and you will look at widely considered weak Ranger - a little bit differently. BDO Ranger Guide is not the only guide available! Keep in mind this guide is a part of one huge guide - Black Desert Online Classes Guide 2019 where we managed to cover every class in a general manner. Each class will get its own guide just like this one, where we will talk about skills, how to succeed in PvP, and what each class will be used for. Share this guide with your friends on forums.

Check out our offers regaring Black Desert Online and many other games, like WoW, LoG, Lineage 2, League of Legends, Fortnite, and more.