Gloom Stalker is the best Ranger in Dnd 5e! - Advanced guide to Gloom Stalker Ranger

gloomstalker Ranger this is literally Garrett from the thief series and you can really feel it if you take advantage of umbral sites it's the best Ranger in the whole game and is the absolute king of first turn Nova I've probably played this subclass more than anything in the whole game and I can firmly tell you that this combined with the Rangers kit makes every street fighter build look pathetic welcome to pack tactics I love this subclass it's super powerful as I progress through the features you'll start to realize why Street Fighters are not that appealing now don't get me wrong obviously a Battle Master with Sharpshooter and crossbow expert is very effective at killing single targets but so is this and it's got more stuff on top of that like juggling good berries if you don't understand what I mean by that link in the description Book coupon what if the DM doesn't allow goodberry juggling they're still good I would still spend first level spell slots on them also by the way it's really funny when people Nerf Ranger because usually the people who nerfed them are also of the opinion that Ranger is the weakest class in the game it's really silly logic well coupon Fighters have action search and eventually it gets more attacks than Rangers that's actually not true at Ninth level Rangers get conjure animals and if you pick the eight animals and obviously you have eight attacks plus two normal attacks and then a bonus action attack if you have crossbow experts that's 11 attacks in total for like an hour now sure the animals die quickly but there's still a very effective Wall of Flesh now technically Pastor that Trace is even better than that but for another reason and we'll get into that eventually if you want to know how to use Contour animals effectively and very quickly check out this video it's one of my favorites as for Tasha's optional features I actually don't need to talk about them to prove my points anyways we have to start gloomstalker magic starting at third level you learn additional spells When You Reach certain levels in this class as shown in the gloomstalker's spell table the spell counts as a ranger spell for you but it doesn't count against the number of Ranger spells you know this is a very good spell table by the way but the funny thing is you most likely won't use them very often rope trick is the biggest stand up for emergency cover like if the fight isn't going in your favor then you cast this for an advanced guide on the spell check out this video fear is a very good shutdown spell but it actually sucks for you because conjure animals is better in every way because it doesn't rely on having a good wisdom score greater invisibility a lot of guides will tell you this is amazing but they're flat out wrong because you get more out of umbral sight and pass without Trace here's why and this is exclusively passed without Trace when used optimally this nearly doubles the power of your entire party the mechanical strength of surprise is utterly insane because early damage in a fight denies more actions than damage later in a fight the early damage is more valuable monsters will have to save twice against spells like Webb because surprise still grants them their turn your party gets to set up positioning and difficult terrain to Halt enemies and you can usually kill the most threatening monster in the encounter outrights without letting them take an action this will allow your party to take on far more challenging encounters than would be possible without this spell also this is cheaper than greater invisibility let's not forget that I made a video about surprise but I prefer you read the tabletop builds article on surprise instead because it's way better it also goes over how strong past without Trace really is if you want to truly know how to optimize a ranger then you have to know how surprise works and it is crucial get your party to buy into this playstyle you should communicate with your party to take Proficiency in Stealth at character creation so that your minimum possible roles are extremely likely to beat most monsters passive perception AKA PP yes passive perception is called PP anyways this is basic team optimization now to clarify you can play however you want and if the party doesn't buy into stealth you'll still be effective and make it towards the end of the campaign Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition is a very easy game but this is an optimization Channel and I have to talk about the best stuff in your kits anyways the point is greater invisibility can't do any of that you also get more value out of upcasting Contra animals or conjured Woodland beings seeming is very fun but it's very late it's a good spell you know what's also good this video is sponsored by three Diego's where you can get high quality and affordable selection of dice terrain and other accessories for tabletop gaming what makes them really stand out is their massive collection of Miniatures and terrains minis they sent me The Tavern bar props for my cave yes I own a Tavern now it came in two sets I actually got more than that but anyways some of these minis come already painted I didn't get these painted so I got a friend over to paint them for me and he said it was extremely easy to base coats you can also get stunning dice at all price points and all sharp dice come with a leather dice box for free I've got those too by the way when you buy a set of dice they will be shipped out on the same day the guys over at 3D egos are super friendly and give out fast support fantastic service also by the way look at their massive selection of things to help you optimize all orders over over 35 dollars will get free shipping in the US and orders over a hundred and fifty dollars will get you twenty five percent off the entire order check them out Link in the description they pimped up my cave thank you very much 3D Eggos for this kind gift we love it later alligator back to the video dread ambusher at third level you master the art of the Ambush you can give yourself a bonus to your initiative roles equal to your wisdom modifier at the start of your turn of each combat your walking speed increases by 10 feet which lasts until the end of your turn if you take the attack action on that turn you can make one additional weapon attack as part of that action if that attack hits the target takes an extra 1d8 damage of the weapons damage type this is a loaded feature you get three features in one feature better initiative is always good I shouldn't need to explain that the 10 for Speed increase that only lasts on the first turn is nice it's pretty useful to get into a better position or behind cover and last but not least the additional weapon attack and if the attack hits you do an extra 1d8 damage at level 3 when you first get this it already more than doubles your DPR technically it's even more than that because you also get umbral sight on top of this here's umbral site you gain dark vision out to a range of 60 beats if you already have dark vision from your race its range increases by 30 feet you are also Adept at evading creatures that rely on Dark Vision while in darkness you are invisible to any creature that relies on Dark Vision to see you in that Darkness absolutely wild this is the Garrett feature and I love it you are literally invisible for free against creatures who have dark vision that means you get advantage on your attacks easily in Dungeons and at nights and of course the enemies have disadvantage on their attacks against you my old xanathar notes say you are invisible to about 1 656 out of 2073 creatures in all of the book box combined it's actually more than that but I still think this is a value to know this is outdated information by the way your invisibility can't trigger the enemy's opportunity attack when you move away from their reach also when you make a range attack in melee while being invisible you still have advantage on your attacks now to optimize these two crazy features is obviously used past that Trace when you get it and also look for dark spots in dungeons so you have advantage on your attacks this is what I call a Garrett play style you can also try to convince your party to travel at nights to always be invisible at all times how will that benefit them not only does the gloomstalker do more damage because of always having Advantage but the rest of the party are also just overall stronger because it's easier to surprise encounters or straight up avoid them but Steve doesn't have dark vision that's why why I recommend the Gloom stalker to buy everyone in the party a bullseye Lantern it functions like a flashlight if the gloomstalker is in the back they won't be affected by the light and even if they were it's really easy to get out of it I'm the only content creator on YouTube who's made a full video on Bullseye lanterns it's really important for gloom stalkers to add to it because I have more experience now if you have a cart or whatever you can surround it with Bullseye lanterns and have the gloomstalkers just sit in the carts that way the gloomstalker has Advantage because he's invisible and all the people who don't have dark vision can see everything it works in everyone's favor also look how much light it gives off it's massive with a full surround optimization doesn't just end with builds it also involves items and this is a very good example next Iron Mind by seventh level you gain proficiency and wisdom save giving throws if you already have this proficiency you instead gain Proficiency in intelligence or Charisma saving throws your choice great feature wisdom saves can shut you down easily so having this is very helpful if you already had this proficiency for some reason and have to pick I recommend Charisma because that comes up more often than intelligence however intelligence saves are usually the thing that gets you killed fast if you know you're fighting mind flares for example then pick intelligence next stalkers flurry at 11th level once on each of your turns when you miss with a weapon attack you can make another weapon attack as part of the same action this is actually a significant DPR increase when you think about it especially with pass without trace the math for it is kind of annoying to find but just know that it's very good book coupon you said it wasn't worth it in your build video I've changed my mind and also so back then I didn't know about the full power of past that Trace even though even back then I had tons of Ranger experience there's always something to learn about Dungeons and Dragons Gator that's part of the fun Capstone time shadowy Dodge whenever a creature makes an attack roll against you and doesn't have advantage on the roll you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on it you must use this feature before you know the outcome of the attack roll this is a bad feature for its level if you got it at lower levels then it would be okay if I got this well I would still use it that's everything you can probably tell at this point that this is my favorite subclass of all time there's so much team optimization here and I love it end the video remember to check out 3D Egos and if you like what you see they hope during your purchase thank you for watching bye bye

Channel: Pack Tactics

Views: 77,957

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Id: 6QgOj80XEI4

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023