Template:Tested-build
A Touch Ranger makes use of a ranger's durability in getting close to his opponents and "touch" skills from the necromancer's arsenal to steal his opponents' health. This build uses a high rank in Expertise to reduce the energy cost of the key skills Vampiric Bite and Vampiric Touch.
Attributes and Skills
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  Ranger / Necromancer
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Attribute Rank |
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| Expertise | 12 + 1 + 3 |
| Blood Magic | 12 |
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Equipment
- Druid's Armor, With Rune of Superior Vigor and Rune of Superior Expertise
- a weapon set, such as one of the following:
- A Staff with +5 energy and additional health or armor, such as Kole's Torment
- A Blood Magic wand, such as the one available from Karl Jakobs and blood magic focus, such as the one availabe from Volsung Stoneketil.
Usage
- Get close to your target and spam Vampiric Bite and Vampiric Touch.
- Use Dodge to chase down kiting targets and avoid attacks that can be harmful to the build (such as crippling attacks).
- Use Whirling Defense or Throw Dirt when targeted by warriors, rangers or assassins. this is not only important for avoiding the damage, but also the harmful conditions like crippling and Deep Wound.
- Use Offering of Blood when you can get the full benefit of the energy gain and you are not taking too much damage. Use it as often as it recharges if you can.
Counters
- Use anti-spammer strategies, such as Diversion.
- As the ranger needs to get within touch range, just stay away from them. Use any combination of snares, kiting and knockdowns to achieve this.
- The life stolen per second is not enough to overcome focused damage and health degeneration.
- Signet of Humility, Arcane Thievery or Arcane Larceny can be used to shut down Offering of Blood, which is crucial for the build. When used in combination with even mild energy denial such as Energy Burn, the ranger will soon be out of energy.
- Blackout is devastating to touchers.
- "Can't Touch This!" will cause touch skills to fail.
Variants
- Zojun's Haste, which, paired with Dodge, gives an almost nonstop speed boost and heavy protection against rangers.
- Barbed Signet, Vampiric Gaze or Shadow Strike for additional ranged attacks. Be warned that the latter two are expensive spells.
- Life Siphon or Well of Blood to counter health degeneration. Be warned: both are costly spells.
- Blood Renewal makes a good self heal.
- Signet of Agony and Distracting Shot with a Barbed bow to replace Throw Dirt and Whirling Defense gives the build an interrupt and the ability to inflict 44 second bleeding (significant damage over time.) You can still have Blood weaponry as a secondary set.
- Escape can be a great replacement for Offering of Blood if energy is not in short supply. Escape as an alternative elite, when paired with Whirling Defense can give the build nearly constant 75% protection from being "hit" and gives near the speed boost of dodge for longer duration and without the inconvenience of ending when you attack, making kiters more vulnerable. Note: where kiting becomes less an issue, energy management becomes more of one. In this case, try putting those unused attribute points and a minor rune in Wilderness Survival and use Troll Unguent as a self heal when energy gets low...with Wilderness Survival at 4 you still get +5 regen for 10 seconds, it comes in handy when crippled and being kited. At maxed Expertise it only costs 2 energy.
- Lightning Reflexes in place of Dodge if you don't think you'll have problems catching kiters.
- Strip Enchantment in place of Resurrection Signet for Alliance Battles or 8-Team Competitive Missions such as The Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood, where Resurrection Signets are useless.
- Use the 6 left-over attribute points and put them into Wilderness Survival, then using Serpent's Quickness as a way to increase pressure on your target.
- Touch of Agony and/or Wallow's Bite should not be overlooked.
- For players who only own Factions, a spare points Melandru's Shot could be used, with Vampiric Bite and Wallow's Bite as the damage. This will be less effective and conditional to enemies faced, however.
- Storm Chaser instead of Dodge can help with energy management (energy gain while taking elemental damage), even if it isn't that great, because it can also track down kiting foes in the same manner as Dodge.