Hunter's mark and the Healing Spirit are my favorites, thanks for recommendations

No mention of Entangle or Fog Cloud? No Summon Beast or Conjure Animals? 

I had a ranger in my party that used Hunter's mark all the time, and to great effect. That, and he was a Hunter with the Collosus Slayer feature, so he was one of the top damage dealers too.

You can't use goodberry to revive an ally as written; a creature has to use its own action to eat the berry, which you can't do while unconscious.

It's still an excellent spell for out of combat healing though; since the berries last for 24 hours you can just burn any unused spell slots you have right before you take a long rest in order to stock up on berries for the next day. While it takes an action to each berry (so a 1 minute to eat 10 etc.) having just a stock of spare hit-points for a party can make a huge difference.

I've been using this with a Ranger of mine and I usually manage to stock up 10-20 berries for the next day. The main spell that character currently uses is hunter's mark which lasts a while so they don't get through a lot of their spell slots unless things go badly (or concentration breaks, but they have Favored Foe as a back-up when that happens). And I get a lot of mileage out of hunter's mark on that character as they have Polearm Master, so on many rounds I can be putting out four attacks, each with an added d6 damage, plus another d6 from Gathered Swarm (when I'm not using that that to shunt myself 5 feet to help trigger the reaction attack again).

Fog Cloud is underrated!

Quote from Haravikk >>

You can't use goodberry to revive an ally as written; a creature has to use its own action to eat the berry, which you can't do while unconscious.

 

I think you can feed the uncouncious character like a goose. You know, really thumb it down the throat. 

Zephyr Strike is my favorite spell ever made. Good article

this is embarrassing. Not only is it weird that an official source is in essence telling people what to do when they're playing, but they're doing it badly.

Cordon of Arrows is a pathetically weak spell, it doesn't even need explanation for how godawful it is. Hunter's Mark is notoriously weak, it shouldn't even need pointing out that a concentration spell that competes frequently for your BA for less than 3.5 single target DPR is bad. Easily half these spells are under a 3/5 in terms of usefulness. Zephyr Strike is bad, Steel Wind Strike comes way too late to be good, does less damage than fireball, and positions you unfavorably. Flame arrows adds significantly less damage than Pass Without Trace does and competes with it for concentration pre battle

Granted Rangers have a short list of spells but the fact that Conjure Animals isn't even on here (guess what, 8 cows still does like 60 damage a turn to a dragon (mildly hyperbolic, it's more like 45, but the point is that it's high)) is just dumb. Fog Cloud is also an obvious choice given that it shuts down a lot of higher level effects that rely on your enemies line of sight, allows you to hide in combat, and can negate enemy advantage. Plant Growth and Spike Growth are incredible area denial spells that should be on this list, at least above Cordon of Arrows of all things. Absorb Elements is a key defensive spell. That's 5 obvious spells off the top of my head that should've been here over the nonsense being peddled. 

Seriously I cannot believe somebody was paid for this article and put cordon of arrows at the top. it's outright awful. a second level slot for less than 4d6 damage and it'll be spread out over multiple enemies? even if this did damage to a single target (unlikely since you can't choose who it hits) it would be embarrassingly bad. attacking twice adds more DPR at no slot cost, and you can do it from further away, and the damage happens before the enemy acts. This is a spell that has a 31% chance of killing a single goblin over the course of 4 turns. this is bafflingly bad. in an intrigue campaign where you have to maybe assassinate a noble it's still barely functional, it misses once or rolls low and it won't do its job. this spell is a waste of ink in every book it's printed in. "but it functions as an alarm"  no it doesn't but also so does alarm, which is a lower level ritual. Alternatively a familiar will do the job, or one of your multiple allies since you don't need to sleep for your entire long rest. or you know, use hunting traps, or mules, or any of the many pieces of gear that cost under 10 gp that you can scatter around your camp site, instead of wasting a spell slot on this 1/6 spell. I'd give it a 0 but at least it technically does something, unlike Find the Path or whatever.

Quote from Chalkbrood >>

Hunter's Mark is notoriously weak, it shouldn't even need pointing out that a concentration spell that competes frequently for your BA for less than 3.5 single target DPR is bad.

Where are you getting "less than 3.5 single target DPR" from? It's pretty much exactly 3.5 single target DPR if you only assume one attack per round, which makes it perfectly fine at those levels, but it applies to every attack you can make so the more the better.

At 5th-level every Ranger gets a second attack; any Ranger can take the two-weapon fighting style and dual wield, while the bonus action conflicts in the turn you set the mark, it lasts an hour so you can do it in advance unless you're ambushed, and it still applies in later rounds regardless, so you can be making three attacks for 10.5 damage average.

As I said earlier, I've been using it on a Swarmkeeper with Polearm Master, so I can pretty easily trigger a fourth reaction attack for an extra 14 damage average per round, and that's without any critical hits (since the hunter's mark dice doubles as well in that case).

The fact that it lasts an hour for a 1st-level slot, and be transferred to other targets makes it a good value spell, and if you're attacking mostly at range loss of concentration isn't a major concern, it's more of one for a melee ranger but you can build for that; again on my Swarmkeeper I also have Sentinel, which not only gives me another possible reaction attack, but it can stop an enemy when they enter my reach, meaning I may not be attacked at all (by that enemy), and Gathered Swarm enables extra mobility.

Plus this spell needs to be taken in the context of Ranger sub-classes, most of which usually have their own added damage, so it adds up quickly. Gloom Stalkers even get an extra attack in the first round, so that's another attack augmented by hunter's mark.

Are there better things to spend higher level slots on? Absolutely, but it's a perfectly good spell for a 1st-level slot.

Granted Rangers have a short list of spells but the fact that Conjure Animals isn't even on here (guess what, 8 cows still does like 60 damage a turn to a dragon) is just dumb. Fog Cloud is also an obvious choice given that it shuts down a lot of higher level effects that rely on your enemies line of sight, allows you to hide in combat, and can negate enemy advantage. Plant Growth and Spike Growth are incredible area denial spells that should be on this list, at least above Cordon of Arrows of all things. Absorb Elements is a key defensive spell. That's 5 obvious spells off the top of my head that should've been here over the nonsense being peddled. 

I like conjure animals but those eight cows aren't going to do shit to a dragon; their chances of hitting a dragon's AC aren't amazing to start with (and even worse if frightened), but they can't hit it at all if it's not on the ground or moves around a lot.

Fog cloud is a spell that seems good but all an enemy has to do to counteract it is move, and the fog impedes you and your allies as much as your enemies; darkness is arguably better because you can attach it to an object and move it around.

Spike growth you won't get any arguments about because it's just good if used well. It needs pairing with Druidic Warrior for thorn whip so you can force enemies through it more (ideally your entire party should have that cantrip… 😈).

Quote from Haravikk >>

Quote from Chalkbrood >>

Hunter's Mark is notoriously weak, it shouldn't even need pointing out that a concentration spell that competes frequently for your BA for less than 3.5 single target DPR is bad.

Where are you getting "less than 3.5 single target DPR" from? It's pretty much exactly 3.5 single target DPR if you only assume one attack per round, which makes it perfectly fine at those levels, but it applies to every attack you can make so the more the better.

At 5th-level every Ranger gets a second attack; any Ranger can take the two-weapon fighting style and dual wield, while the bonus action conflicts in the turn you set the mark, it lasts an hour so you can do it in advance unless you're ambushed, and it still applies in later rounds regardless, so you can be making three attacks for 10.5 damage average.

As I said earlier, I've been using it on a Swarmkeeper with Polearm Master, so I can pretty easily trigger a fourth reaction attack for an extra 14 damage average per round, and that's without any critical hits (since the hunter's mark dice doubles as well in that case).

The fact that it lasts an hour for a 1st-level slot, and be transferred to other targets makes it a good value spell, and if you're attacking mostly at range loss of concentration isn't a major concern, it's more of one for a melee ranger but you can build for that; again on my Swarmkeeper I also have Sentinel, which not only gives me another possible reaction attack, but it can stop an enemy when they enter my reach, meaning I may not be attacked at all (by that enemy), and Gathered Swarm enables extra mobility.

Plus this spell needs to be taken in the context of Ranger sub-classes, most of which usually have their own added damage, so it adds up quickly. Gloom Stalkers even get an extra attack in the first round, so that's another attack augmented by hunter's mark.

Are there better things to spend higher level slots on? Absolutely, but it's a perfectly good spell for a 1st-level slot.

Granted Rangers have a short list of spells but the fact that Conjure Animals isn't even on here (guess what, 8 cows still does like 60 damage a turn to a dragon) is just dumb. Fog Cloud is also an obvious choice given that it shuts down a lot of higher level effects that rely on your enemies line of sight, allows you to hide in combat, and can negate enemy advantage. Plant Growth and Spike Growth are incredible area denial spells that should be on this list, at least above Cordon of Arrows of all things. Absorb Elements is a key defensive spell. That's 5 obvious spells off the top of my head that should've been here over the nonsense being peddled. 

I like conjure animals but those eight cows aren't going to do shit to a dragon; their chances of hitting a dragon's AC aren't amazing to start with (and even worse if frightened), but they can't hit it at all if it's not on the ground or moves around a lot.

Fog cloud is a spell that seems good but all an enemy has to do to counteract it is move, and the fog impedes you and your allies as much as your enemies; darkness is arguably better because you can attach it to an object and move it around.

Spike growth you won't get any arguments about because it's just good if used well. It needs pairing with Druidic Warrior for thorn whip so you can force enemies through it more (ideally your entire party should have that cantrip… 😈).

 sorry about my formatting, don't know how to use this site.

I'm getting less than 3.5 from basic maths, since you need to hit for damage to be done. 3.5 is the average of d6, you don't hit on every attack, ergo less than 3.5. Pretty obvious. TWF is notoriously weak, and also requires your BA, so moving Hunter's Mark to an enemy to hit with your TWF is a two turn thing endeavour.  Ditto with Polearm Master. if your enemy takes a very long time to kill then the marginal damage from wasting your initial BA to move hunter's mark to them isn't going to change much, and if they don't have a lot of health you should just be using your BA to hit them. and again it takes conc. At low levels you have low slots, which are usually better spent on restcasting goodberry for out of combat healing (if your days are long and have multiple encounters), or on simply defending yourself with absorb elements or entangle or using cure wounds to yoyo your allies. Or casting fog cloud. Or entangle for kiting. You admitted it's worse at higher levels but then still talked about it being good at higher levels, I'm not sure you know where you're at.

Cows have a +6 to hit, that's perfectly fine, CR 9 monsters still have like 17-20 AC (you know, the thing you ignored when you talked about Hunter's Mark DPR). Not to mention summon airstrike tech from tasha or xanathar or whatever. Or you know you could get raptors or wolves or giant bats. cows are an example I use as a joke because they sound funny. Conjure animals may fall off as enemies gain resistance or flight but upcasting it to 5 is still obviously better than casting most of the spells on this list. It also adds a lot of tankiness to your side of the field for obvious reasons (extra HP + area denial). At level 9 CA still shreds Aeroian Absorbers, Eladrin, Biomancers, Dullahan, Death Slaad, Guardian Naga, Giff Warlord, etc etc etc and those are all CR 10. 

Fog Cloud seems good because it is good. You use it to balance out an encounter, exactly like I said. Darkness is fine too, that aint news.

Quote from Chalkbrood>>

I'm getting less than 3.5 from basic maths, since you need to hit for damage to be done. 3.5 is the average of d6, you don't hit on every attack, ergo less than 3.5.

And yet you assume cows will do 60 damage per round to a dragon, because apparently cows don't need to hit and dragons don't have armour… 🤔

TWF is notoriously weak, and also requires your BA, so moving Hunter's Mark to an enemy to hit with your TWF is a two turn thing endeavour.

Not really; as I said, hunter's mark lasting an hour means you're under very little time pressure to set it up. While you can't always mark a target ahead of a fight, a Ranger who doesn't rush into every battle should be able to do it most of the time (it's only a bonus action after all), so your opening round will see the benefit on every attack, and more attacks is more simply more damage. Two-weapon fighting is only weak if you don't consider how to utilise it properly; with hunter's mark it can easily outperform great-weapon fighting, and if you'd prefer to go ranged there's very little to lose by adding damage to that (and less risk of losing concentration).

Whether or not to switch a target is just a determination you need to make; if you're casting hunter's mark in a fight with a lot of weaker targets (where you'll need to switch) then it's on you if/when that's a problem; instead of whining about it, a Ranger can just cast something else or save the slot for later. Having hunter's mark doesn't mean you're forced to use it all the time, just as a ranger with [Tooltip Not Found] won't use it every fight either.

Ditto with Polearm Master.

As above you can easily be making the bonus action attack most of the time if you plan for it, plus the bonus action attack from PAM is the least of its abilities; it's the reaction attack that's the real benefit, and has zero conflict with hunter's mark. The bonus action attack is icing on the cake, as you can easily get four attacks in a round from 5th-level. That's an average bonus of around 14 extra damage without criticals, and for every single round of combat during hunter's mark remains active.

At low levels you have low slots, which are usually better spent on restcasting goodberry for out of combat healing (if your days are long and have multiple encounters), or on simply defending yourself with absorb elements or entangle or using cure wounds to yoyo your allies.

Hunter's mark lasts an hour, so if you're likely to have a lot of encounters there's a good chance you can use it across multiple; the damage only adds up.

Goodberry is fine but its main benefit is spending the spell slots you didn't use the day before; 10 hit-points is less valuable than ending a fight sooner if the enemy does more than 10 damage per round, cure wounds heals about the same (slightly less actually), it's only benefit is being immediate, it's for back-up/emergency healing, it should not be a focus of a Ranger. And as I said before, hunter's mark is the reason why my Ranger often has spare slots, because I get enough value out of a few 1st-level slots that I don't often have to spend more, so can spare some for goodberry for the next day.

Absorb elements is great if you get hit for a lot of elemental damage, but it's useless if a target doesn't deal it, or deals less damage (making it harder to justify burning a slot on it), and the damage it gives is minor. Entangle or ensnaring strike can be great if they land, otherwise they're wasted. Hunter's mark is usually going to be more reliable unless a target has a very high AC; it's a great value workhorse spell that fits pretty much any Ranger build, there's a reason people like it.

Not to mention summon airstrike tech from tasha or xanathar or whatever.

If your DM allows conjure animals to be abused as a budget meteor swarm then of course it's going to be better, but you're in homebrew territory there because "unoccupied space" refers to spaces on a battlemap, i.e- a 2D grid of squares, it's not a free license to summon into the air. But hunter's mark is still better in that case because my DM allows it to deal 20d6 damage per hit concentration free (joking, obviously). 😝

Fog Cloud seems good because it is good. You use it to balance out an encounter, exactly like I said. Darkness is fine too, that aint news.

And exactly as I said fog cloud can be trivially countered by moving; it's not a "block all magic" button unless you have total control over the battlefield. Very few enemies in the game lack the ability to simply walk out of it and see you anyway, and they might even just use it as cover against your magic. You could try to do the same, but fog cloud doesn't actually make it that hard to harm players, especially if enemies have area effects or just wade in and start swinging (since you're actually no harder to hit if you're both blinded).

It's a highly situational spell that's often less useful than you think it'll be; darkness isn't "fine too" it's vastly superior for the simple reason being that you can bind it to an object and move it around, making it easier to use for cover or reposition if enemies do move.

can we go back to high-quality articles on a regular schedule? I miss the old ddb articles 

Quote from Chalkbrood>>

I'm not assuming anything, DPR calculations are easy maths. they do 14 damage on hit, I'm clearly not expecting all 8 to hit. try harder man, this is sad to read.

Cows do 7 damage on average on a hit unless you're assuming they magically get to charge every single round which only makes the comparison even more flawed, and resorting to personal insults is not helping your case any; calling people stupid because they disagree with you is not a good look.

You're ultimately comparing a 3rd-level spell you can cast twice at level 9 to a 1st-level spell you can cast twice from level 2, or up to nine times at level 9 (not that you'd ever likely need to do); the total damage on hunter's mark is limited only by the duration of the spell (the concentration) compared to conjure animals which is just as easily interrupted but is also limited by the ability of the creatures to do what you want them to do, and to survive.

Any creature with an area effect (like the dragon you mentioned) will wipe them out, potentially before they've made a single attack, and even those that don't will make short work of them. It's a spell that's useful in certain situations, but there's a very good reason that hunter's mark is a popular workhorse spell, and that's because it's rarely a bad option to have available, and rarely a waste of a 1st-level slot, and for the same 3rd-level slot it can last up to 8 hours (most of an adventuring day, if you can keep concentration that long). How much you get out of it is up to you; if you start from the perspective of wanting to use anything else, is it any wonder that you can't make use of it?

It's not like hunter's mark being interrupted is even that big of a deal; it only requires a 1st-level slot, and if you take the Favored Foe optional class feature you can simply use that as back up till you can re-cast in a more favourable situation, without burning any further spell slots.

But whatever, this is already way more text than is worth wasting on this; hunter's mark is popular for a reason, and contrary to what you seem to think it's not because everyone except you is an idiot.

Please stop being so rude, Chalkbrood.

I think the article is focusing on Ranger-centric spells, and while that is not an ideal way of writing a "best spells" article for a lot of reasons, your attitude isn't going to fix it.

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

Please stop being so rude, Chalkbrood.

I think the article is focusing on Ranger-centric spells, and while that is not an ideal way of writing a "best spells" article for a lot of reasons, your attitude isn't going to fix it.

 not really sure what you're referring to. I'm discussing ranger spells.

would be nice if they ordered the spells by level, but aside from that I think this is really good and helpful.

Kinda sad spike growth isn't in this list. I love using it for enemies to walk into while either retreating or defending a location. Invisible if they aren't there when you cast it or pass the check to know about it, difficult terrain, and deals damage for ever 5 ft. they travel. You're not always going to need it but when you do get to use it man is it a good feeling.

I'm sorry but this is not a good list. Some of the best Ranger spells aren't here and some of the worst are.

8 cows is obviously better than literally throwing away a precious spell preparation with Cordon of Arrow every single time...