Monsters and Memories Ranger Guide

01The Ranger at a Glance

The Ranger is the wilderness veteran of Monsters and Memories — a chain-wearing fighter who switches between two blades up close and a bow at range, then patches up the group, lights the campfire and leads everyone across open country. You’re a damage dealer first, but the utility you bring outdoors is what makes groups glad to have you.

The official class page puts it plainly: a Ranger’s skills “have been honed by a lifetime spent living off the land, not by channeling nature as a magical force like the Druid.” What looks like magic is mostly fieldcraft — tracking, snares, poultices, foraging and a good fire — with a little light woodland magic on top.

02Is the Ranger Right for You?

The Ranger is a good first class for players who want to try a bit of everything. You’ll learn melee positioning, ranged play, threat and group support all on one character, and your self-healing and foraging make early soloing forgiving. The trade-off is that you do many things well rather than one thing best — which in a group-focused game is a strength.

03Choosing Your Race

Seven races can be Rangers at Early Access. Your class adds +1 STR, +3 DEX, +2 AGI and +2 WIS to your race’s base stats, and you get 10 bonus points to spend at creation. Starting values before bonus points:

Spending your 10 bonus points

Rangers deal physical damage with blades and bows, so Strength and Dexterity come first. Stamina matters because you’ll sometimes hold an enemy in Survivor Stance, and your poultices and regeneration use mana, which Wisdom supports.

• Recommended for most players:+4 STR / +3 STA / +3 DEX. Solid melee and ranged damage and enough health to off-tank briefly.
• Wood Elves, Goblins and Deep Elves start light on STR and STA — push those (+5 STR / +5 STA).
• Dwarves and Ogres already have STR and STA, so lean DEX and AGI.
• Add 2 or 3 WIS if you plan to do a lot of healing between pulls. Skip INT and CHA.

04Recommended Traits

You pick one trait from each of four categories at creation (see the New Player Guide for the full lists). For a Ranger:

05Getting Started

Your starter quest

Every Ranger begins with a class starter quest that teaches the basics and hands out your first gear. For the full step-by-step walkthrough, with every NPC, location and reward, see our Ranger Starter Quest Guide. Individual quest pages: Ranger Starter Quest (Night Harbor) · Ranger Starter Quest (Faelindral).

Where to buy abilities

• Abilities and spells are bought from your class vendor in your starting city. Ask a guard for directions if you can’t find it.
• Tracking is a skill you train at your guild; it grows as you level.
• Underdocks starts (Goblins, Deep Elves, and some Humans and Ogres): ask a guard for the Ranger trainer, and see our Underdocks and Ail’Vorith pages. Boats connect the Underdocks with Night Harbor, and the Ranger chains run on the surface.

06Your Toolkit

The reworked Ranger kit is built around openers and follow-ups, stances, wound care and fieldcraft. You also get Meditation and Channeling at level 8, Dual Wield at 10 and Double Attack at 15.

07Abilities to Prioritize, Levels 1–28

Because the rework redid the level schedule, treat these as priorities rather than exact levels. Buy each as soon as your trainer offers it:

The rule of thumb: combat openers and follow-ups first, then a stance, then healing and Mantle of the Hunter, then travel and utility. Upgrade your poultices and regeneration as they unlock — they’re your group’s between-pull recovery.

08Playing in a Group

In a group you’re damage first, with backup: steady melee or ranged damage, a spare tank when an add shows up, and faster recovery between pulls.

Before the pull

• Cast Hunter’s Focus on the group and a barrier on your tank; keep Mantle of the Hunter on yourself.
• Choose a stance: Warden if you’ll melee, Marksman if you’ll shoot, Survivor if the group needs an off-tank.
• Outdoors, use Tracking to find the target, and Lull Beasts or Nature’s Calm to split a tight camp.
• Use Longstrider or Speed of the Pack to get the group to camp — then switch to a combat stance before anyone pulls.

During the fight

1. Let the tank build aggroGive the tank a few seconds, then open with Opening Strike or Leading Shot depending on where you stand.
2. Opener, follow-up, repeatEach opener unlocks one follow-up. Rending Cut and Barbed Shot bleeds deepen on repeat hits, and your bleeds don’t conflict with another Ranger’s.
3. Weave both bleedsIn Warden Stance, Rending Cut refreshes your Barbed Shot bleed; in Marksman Stance, Barbed Shot refreshes your Rending Cut bleed. Open with the other weapon to keep both running.
4. Pick up the extraIf an add breaks loose, switch to Survivor Stance, Taunt it and hold it with Kick and Hamstring Slice until the tank is ready. Aggro control is limited — hold the line, don’t replace the tank.
5. Control and finishTanglefoot or Hamstring Slice on runners and packs; Twisting Roots to hold one in place. Save Apex Predator for named mobs.

09Soloing

Rangers are among the more comfortable classes to solo, especially outdoors, because you can fight at range and in melee, snare, root and heal yourself.

• Open at range: Leading Shot and a Barbed Shot as the mob closes, then switch to blades with Opening Strike and a Rending Cut.
• Keep both bleeds up: in Warden or Marksman Stance, each weapon’s follow-up refreshes the other weapon’s bleed.
• Snare and step back: Hamstring Slice or Tanglefoot slows the mob so you can get distance for your bow. Twisting Roots holds it while you heal.
• Heal between fights: a Healing Poultice, regeneration and a sit to meditate. Forage food, drink and cureberries to cut trips to town.
• Use Survivor Stance when a fight turns into a slugfest — the extra parry and AC keep you alive.
• Stay outdoors: Shroud, Invisibility versus Beasts and Lull Beasts let you pick your fights and avoid the rest.

10Leveling Path

A suggested route for a Ranger. Your fieldcraft works best outdoors, so mix open-country hunting with dungeon groups when you can find a party.

See Where to Level in the New Player Guide for more spots, and the Poacher’s Knives quest page for Keeper’s Bight.

11Gear to Look For

Wear chain and stack Strength and Dexterity, then Agility, Stamina and a little Wisdom for your poultices. You need three weapons: two blades (Finishing Blow needs a weapon in each hand, and Dual Wield arrives at 10) and a bow for Leading Shot and your marksmanship follow-ups. Compare weapon damage against delay, not just stats. Extra AC and HP pay off whenever you step into Survivor Stance.

Early gear (roughly levels 1–16)

Upgrades for later

Stats from our item database. Item levels aren’t published, so “early” is based on where they drop. Check that an item is usable by Rangers (and one-handed, for your blades) before you chase it.

12Stances, Openers and the Campfire

The opener rhythm

Your combat abilities come in two sets, swordplay and marksmanship. Opening Strike (melee) and Leading Shot (bow) share a cooldown, and using one unlocks one follow-up from that set. The rhythm is opener, one follow-up, opener again — and each time, you choose the follow-up the fight needs.

The four stances

• Warden (melee damage): melee hits harder; Hamstring Slice also lowers the target’s AC for a few seconds; Rending Cut refreshes your Barbed Shot bleed.
• Marksman (ranged damage): bow hits harder; Maiming Shot also snares; Barbed Shot refreshes your Rending Cut bleed.
• Survivor (off-tank): more parry and AC; Hamstring Slice also slows the target’s attacks. Pair it with Taunt and Kick.
• Longstrider (travel): your group runs faster outdoors while near you. Anyone who takes damage slows back down for a while.

A refresh only extends a bleed you’ve already applied — it doesn’t deepen it, and it does nothing if the other bleed isn’t on the target.

Recuperate and your Hearth

Recuperate needs the warmth of a campfire — any campfire, including your own Hearth of the Ranger, which burns longer than a normal fire. The whole group recovers health and mana quickly for a short while. You can’t fight while you recuperate, and if something attacks you mid-rest you can click off the buff. The developers note that the long cooldown “lines up well with buff durations,” so it’s a natural moment to rebuff.

13Common Ranger Mistakes

• Fighting in Longstrider. It’s for travel; switch to a combat stance before the pull.
• Using the wrong follow-up. Each opener only unlocks one — pick the one the fight needs.
• Letting a bleed drop. Weave your other weapon’s follow-up to refresh it.
• Trying to main-tank. Survivor Stance holds an add for a while, not a whole fight.
• Calling Recuperate during a fight. You hit weakly and take more damage while it’s up.
• Forgetting your bow in dungeons. Your marksmanship set needs a bow, arrows and some distance.
• Skipping Tracking. Train it at your guild; it gets better the more you level.

14Ranger FAQ