Which Ranged Class has the highest Single Target DPS?

After playing for a second weekend and leveling three classes to 10—Fighter, Ranger, and Mage—I’ve had the chance to test them to decide which one to focus on from level 10 to 25. However, I still have serious doubts between Ranger and Mage.

Personally, I enjoy playing a Single-Target Ranged DPS , and right now I’m undecided on which class will perform better. During the first weekend, many people were saying that Mage was stronger in both single-target and AoE, and there were several complaints about the Ranger’s DPS, with some people placing it in the B-Tier.

However, after this second weekend, where people have now reached level 20 and even level 25 with good gear, it seems like Ranger scales quite well in the higher levels. I’ve seen videos from players like Veramos reaching critical hits of up to 1.8k, as shown here: https://streamable.com/5d3fju
He even mentioned hitting a 2.4k crit off-camera.

Seeing this, I get the impression that Ranger could be a better single-target DPS class, while Mage might be more focused on AoE. Still, I’m not entirely sure.

For those who have played and reached levels over 20, what’s your opinion? How would you rate the single-target DPS of Ranger and Mage on a scale of 1 to 10? Which one do you think deals more damage?

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Comments

Vhaeyne

2.4k crit seems in my grasp.

I am only level 15 on my ranger and I have seen 1.6k crits depending on my build. Right now my weapons are kind of crap because every bow that drops is a spell bow or a short bow. We don't seem to have a single apprentice work bench on my server yet for me to craft a better lvl10-20 weapon.

I did the same thing when I got to lvl9 on my ranger and went back and tested bard, warrior, and tank to see what I really wanted to take to 25.

I am going to stick with ranger and push it as far as I can despite it's weaknesses.

nanfoodle

Ranger wins ranged AoE pulling killing, they are at this point that best solo class. Mage is best ST DPS from ranged.

Artharion

nanfoodle wrote: »

Ranger wins ranged AoE pulling killing, they are at this point that best solo class. Mage is best ST DPS from ranged.

I think is exactly the opposite. Mage AoE (even in the website says it) and ranger ST.

AoE
https://x.com/CrixVibez/status/1853332935518433689

ST

https://youtu.be/FRkB4LvXl9k?si=sOZHwCia-kjyJLRF

https://youtu.be/m-nPwLdIX4Q?si=9h3SoakLLZs3MHkX

nanfoodle

As for the ranger, I have been watching in game pulling fields of mobs. Sometimes 10-15 mobs at a time. But time will tell =-)

Spif

You're both right, since you're saying different things.

Ranger is currently the king of solo/small group multi-pulls and AE kills. This is mostly due to charged-scattershot since you can cast it every 6-7 seconds. It can snare and add bleed too! The AE root ability helps, but isn't really necessary. They also have great mobility for kiting, so a healer isn't necessary.

A mage in a group with healer and a tank to aggro/position mobs will do more AE damage, but I have not played one yet so can't say for sure.

Artharion

nanfoodle wrote: »

As for the ranger, I have been watching in game pulling fields of mobs. Sometimes 10-15 mobs at a time. But time will tell =-)

I'm not saying Ranger doesn't have good AoE, I'm saying Mage's is better. And the same with ST. Mage has good ST, but Ranger's is better.

Vhaeyne

With the bleeds and aoes I am personally loving kiteing groups of mobs around. I prefer it to raid grinds because I get all the drops.

I would not mine if mage was more burst aoe DPS and ranger was more AOE DPS over time.

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