Aion 2 Ranger PvE build: skills, stigmas and macro

Active skills and specialties

Each note gives the rank to aim for and the specialties to slot at that rank. Where creators disagree, both picks are shown.

Deadshot is the skill to get right first. FRESHY and TheWhelps both pick the same three specialties at rank 20. Until then you have two slots, and TheWhelps runs Skill Speed and mobile. Once Deadshot reaches 16, he suggests the extra damage line in place of mobile if you are comfortable standing still while it charges.

The two guides split on Gale Arrow's third slot. FRESHY takes the longer duration, and TheWhelps takes the bonus for hitting fewer targets. Both take the mobile version and the shorter cooldown, so start there.

Skip ranks on Arrow Scattershot for PvE. It only fires at staggered targets, and both guides say bosses are not staggered often enough to justify the points.

Creator tip

You don't need to level every skill equally. Get your core damage and buff skills up first, and leave the skills that barely contribute to your PvE rotation for later.

Stigmas

Stigmas level separately with stigma points and gain a new effect at ranks 5, 10, 15 and 20. You do not choose these effects; each rank unlocks the next one.

Vaizel's Authority and Bow of Blessing are in every Ranger build we checked. The other two slots:

Griffon Arrow is the pick FRESHY and TheWhelps share, so take it third.

TheWhelps levels the four stigmas evenly to each breakpoint, then pushes Vaizel's Authority to 20 as soon as he has the points. At rank 20 it gives a 50% chance on Critical Hit to reduce all skill cooldowns.

Creator tip

50% chance to reduce all skill cooldowns by 1 second on critical hits. This is a huge DPS increase. This is the moment where Ranger kind of clicks.

The game data records the 50% chance but not the length of the reduction. The one second comes from TheWhelps.

Passives

TheWhelps and aLuckyRO put Focused Eye first and Hunter's Resolve second. FRESHY also counts Concentrated Fire among the most important, because Ranger's bleeds and burns trigger it. After those, level the passives that add damage, and leave defensive ones for spare points.

Rotation and macro

FRESHY sums up Ranger PvE as 80% holding the macro button and 20% clicking by hand. The manual part is your buffs, Marking Shot and Deadshot.

1. 1 Buff

   Cast Bow of Blessing, Vaizel's Authority and Supporting Fire if you run it.

2. 2 Mark

   Cast Marking Shot for Precision. Keep it off the macro: its movement can interrupt the chain.

3. 3 Charge Deadshot

   Fire a fully charged Deadshot while Precision is up. It deals 35% more damage with Precision.

4. 4 Hold the macro

   Hold your macro key and left click Snipe for MP. Recast Marking Shot when Precision has about 2 to 3 seconds left, then Deadshot again.

The in-game macro runs the skill rows you add to it and moves on to whichever skill comes off cooldown first. FRESHY's macro is Gale Arrow, then Drill Dart, then Vaizel's Authority. TheWhelps builds two rows starting from Griffon Arrow and Gale Arrow.

Set the delay between macro steps by your ping. aLuckyRO's values:

Next steps

• Ranger Daevanion guide: the nodes that add the skill ranks above.
• Ranger gear: the gear, Soul Binding lines and Manastones for this build.
• Ranger guide: the class overview and every Ranger page.