Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Our Portal Knights ranger build details attributes, talents, skills and equipment choices to conquering story and boss content. The ranger is one of the two ranged classes offered in Portal Knights who specialises in bows, crossbows and slings with an agile playstyle of dodging attacks. Capable of focusing on multishot (raw damage) or critical (utility from equipment) for damage output both of these options are detailed below.
Table of Contents:
– Attributes
– Talents
– Skills
– Equipment
Portal Knights Ranger Build Attributes
The two primary attributes for the Ranger are dexterity and agility. Players should prioritise dexterity for the core game content due to the attack damage boost.
For hard bosses if players find they are getting one hit and would rather the safety of being able to survive an attack (will depend on gear) players can place 10-20 points in constitution which should be sufficient to survive at least one attack from all bosses and provides some safety against these high difficulty enemies.
Portal Knights Ranger Build Talents
A default balanced talent build for ranger players for that I recommend is:
Sentry Stance > Dodge Chance > Potion Mastery > Orb Thief > Sharp Shooter > Combo Swing
The ideal talent placement will depend on your playstyle and broader build choices which are detailed below:
Level 2 Talents
Level 2 talents are straightforward with players selecting the talent that aligns with your weapon of choice which is usually bow or crossbow.
Level 5 Talents
- Sentry Stance: Generally the default skill in your builds given the massive increase in damage if you haven’t moved which encourages you to stand your ground when possible. Significantly more effective in co-operative gameplay as solo players will often have to move constantly.
- Fading: An alternative when facing difficult bosses where the extra safety of this skill activating can be useful, the long 90 seconds cooldown means you can’t rely on this heavily though. If you prefer a faster mobile playstyle then you should also pick this skill as sentry stance will not help you.
Level 10 Talents
- Dodge Chance: The best option in your level 10 talent pool with a flat 10% chance to dodge any attack that comes your way and improves your survivability.
- Evasive Manoeuvre: A weak option given it only provides a small movement speed boost when taking damage. Generally a ranger build focuses on reducing the chance to get hit and dodge rolling is sufficient against most enemy types in the game to get you away from danger.
Level 15 Talents
- Potion Mastery: With no other options in this tier the talent lets you use health potions to maximise effect to recover any damage taken until you can acquire sufficient other sources of health restoration through leech or orb chance.
Level 20 Talents
- Orb Thief: The best option in this talent tier which provides a chance to regenerate your health. While 5% seems low with your fast attacks and using multi-hit equipment of this build you’ll be able to gain some life after most attacks. It won’t replace potions completely but it can help you recover the smaller amounts of damage you take from enemies while exploring or the minions of a boss.
- Dodger: While the dodge chance provided is a high percentage in practice if you are performing an evade roll you are unlikely to get hit for the next 2 seconds while this buff is active so will rarely activate.
- Unstable: Can be a fun option when you are experimenting with the various bombs of Portal Knights but these don’t offer significant damage or utility over your standard attack so won’t be used heavily.
Level 25 Talents
- Sharp Shooter: A good default option from your level 25 talents tier as you’ll often be engaging your enemies at 10 metres or more initially when exploring or fighting bosses. Note that this requires no enemy to be within 10 metres of your character though so may not always be possible to achieve in smaller spaces or for long durations.
- Cheat Death: Another survival focused skill this talent can provide additional safety when facing tough bosses as it is a free immunity every 90 seconds. Your damage will suffer because of this though as you are giving up some powerful percentage damage boosts in this tier.
- In the Face of Evil: Can be good for the aggressive ranger player during Portal Knights progression who doesn’t mind getting in the face of their enemies and dodging around them. With enemies regularly spawning in packs of 3 in most worlds this can result in a consistent 15% boost to damage and simply comes down to your preferred playstyle if this will trigger more often than Sharp Shooter.
Level 30 Talents
- Combo Swing: For a ranger build based around multi strike chance (generally recommended) this is a great foundation of that build giving you a 10% chance to deal your damage twice to enemies that you attack.
- Exploit Weakness: An alternative option if you are building a critical strike based build that rewards you with 15% damage increase for a short timeframe. At the higher tiers of critical builds you can consistently trigger this and always have it active.
- Survival Instincts: Generally players will have enough regeneration and healing available to them through other means that this is not needed and not worth missing out the damage talents in this level 30 tier.
Portal Knights Ranger Build Skills
The ranger uses the most limited skill options of the base game Portal Knight classes as their direct attacks are generally more powerful. Players should consider using the following skills and consumables:
- War Cry: While you don’t invest in strength as a ranger this is a decent 10 second damage boost when playing solo or with a group that doesn’t have a warrior or druid in the party to cast it in short bursts.
- Explosive Shot: The primary spell of the archer and available through the archer station this spell can be a useful area of effect option while progressing through the game although it has a long cooldown. It’s particularly effective against enemies that have a fire weakness.
- Ranged Damage Flask: While not a spell this consumable should be a staple of your build when facing bosses given the large boost to range damage for 120 second duration.
Portal Knights Ranger Build Equipment
Given the best equipment in Portal Knights needs to be farmed from chests or enemies acquiring the best in slot ranger build pieces will be a significant journey. The below includes the important stats to maximise your ranger build.
As a ranger your equipment should focus on:
- Multi Strike Chance: For a multi strike focused build this is the most important stat to optimise and allows your attacks to hit multiple times.
- Additional Strikes: Triggered when multi strike happens this multiples the number of additional strikes you get. With equipment that offers this it is not uncommon for a single multi strike to result in 3 or 4 additional attacks that quickly multiples your damage output.
- Critical Strike Chance: Critical strike is slightly less effective as a build than multi strike but still deadly if you can manage to stack a sufficient amount through gear. If you lack multi strike or additional strikes gear it can also be a good mid game alternative as it is slightly easier to obtain.
- Critical Strike Damage: Only useful when you’ve built up adequate critical strike chance first and turns each critical into an even deadlier damage dealer.
- Dodge Chance: Dodge chance can quickly add up over multiple equipment pieces and give the ranger a fantastic way to avoid all damage which is a key part of their character design.
- Utility: Lastly you can focus on whatever utility you feel like your ranger build is lacking be it life leech for survivability, flat health to improve your durability or a particular skill offered by a piece of equipment.
Some potential items in each equipment slot for your ranger build are as follows:
Weapon
- Titanium Masterwork Ballista: Used in multi strike based builds
- Titanium Masterwork Longbow: Used in critical based builds
- Joren’s Pyre or Bolt Bringer or Crystalline Ruin or Righteous Swarm Unstable: Used in critical based builds, each of these is more powerful than the longbow and have an elemental affinity although can be hard to acquire and you need to factor in elemental resistances.
Head
- Plunderer’s Helm
- King’s Archer Cap
Torso
- Elite Eliminator Jerkin
- Primal Unleased Chest Piece
- High Reaper Robes
Arms
- High Reaper Gloves
Legs
- Gladiator Champion Legbraces
- Avenger Legbraces
Cape
- Cape of the Ranger Prince
Ring
- Ring of Divine Protection
- Ring of Fire
