I am currently playing a range Hunter Ranger at lv 4. It has max Dex, 16 Con, Horde Breaker and a Bracers of Archery. The party contains a Drunken Master Monk, a War Wizard, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, a Rogue, a Hunter ranger (me) and a Life Domain Cleric, who is considering rolling new character.
My DM usually put some range enemies into the mix or sometimes let us fight in a close space. As the result, the backline isn't always safe from harm. So, I have a little hard time maintaining the concentration for the HM. On top of that, I often find myself end up casting Cure Wounds to heal others (we have a healer but it ain't enough).
At this point, I am considering switching out HM when I level up because I feel HM isn't doing too much for the following reason:
I have a little hard time maintaining the concentration
all my spell slot is usually reserved for healing
With max dex and Bracers of Archery, I usually kill a weak mob with one shot.
The party have a good amount of damage output
So I am wondering how necessary is Hunter's mark to ranger? Will I be fine without it throughout the whole campaign?
I say go for it. Give it a try. People say “rangers don’t specialize in anything”. Maybe true. Maybe not true. But hunter’s mark is just a d6 (or 2 with extra attack), and its only half as effective if you are taking out targets with one hit as you can’t switch the hunter’s mark target more than once a turn. What else is in the party? A ranger can deal damage and heal and be more of an asset to the party than only one or the other. I say let the other fighter types do the single target damage (which is what hunter’s mark is for) and you focus on the mobs, mooks, minions, henchmen, and the like, and keeping your party members alive. A single goodberry is great for raising a KO’d ally. Take hail of thorns, instead of hunter’s mark, and save it for groups of bad guys (remember that the additional targets are all creatures within 5 ft of the first target, so if the first target is large it can effect more spaces around it).
Hunter's Mark is a really good damage boost and is better than most/all of the similar-ish subclass features but in return requires your concentration and a spell slot. I found that depending on the subclass I can do well enough without it which lets me use my concentration on a different spell like Zephyr Strike instead.
If your main problem is with keeping up concentration, then the issue is not really Hunter's Mark. Most of the Ranger's more useful spells require concentration unfortunately so you gotta find one way or another to deal with it (higher CON, CON proficiency via feat, Warcaster feat for advantage on the concentration save) or use spells you are okay with being active only for a turn or so.
Cure Wounds is usually a fantastic spell, however not that great in hands of the Ranger imo since our spell slots are really limited compared to Clerics&Co. If you use all of your very limited spell slots for healing you aren't playing to the strengths of your class as Ranger. I can't say much about how much healing your group actually requires since I don't know how you approach fights etc., however I wanted to give maybe a few tips here. You don't need to keep your party at full health during the fight. Heal only if someone is in danger of getting downed, since there's no difference between 80HP and 20HP in terms of how effective a character is. Other spells might be more useful for preventing damage. This includes spells that deal damage since death is still the best debuff.
Hunter's Mark is a really good damage boost and is better than most/all of the similar-ish subclass features but in return requires your concentration and a spell slot. I found that depending on the subclass I can do well enough without it which lets me use my concentration on a different spell like Zephyr Strike instead.
If your main problem is with keeping up concentration, then the issue is not really Hunter's Mark. Most of the Ranger's more useful spells require concentration unfortunately so you gotta find one way or another to deal with it (higher CON, CON proficiency via feat, Warcaster feat for advantage on the concentration save) or use spells you are okay with being active only for a turn or so.
Cure Wounds is usually a fantastic spell, however not that great in hands of the Ranger imo since our spell slots are really limited compared to Clerics&Co. If you use your very limited spell slots for healing you aren't playing to the strengths of your class as Ranger. I can't say much about how much healing your group actually requires since I don't know how you approach fights etc., however I wanted to give maybe a few tips here. You don't need to keep your party at full health during the fight. Heal only if someone is in danger of getting downed, since there's no difference between 80HP and 20HP in terms of how effective a character is. Other spells might be more useful for preventing damage. This includes spells that deal damage since death is still the best debuff.
A few questions:
What are the strengths of the Ranger?
What are the subclasses that you can do well enough without HM?
What are the subclasses that you need the HM?
A few commons: We are at a low level. Some of us have hp at a high 30 while the other is at a low 30. So with 2 weak damage or one strong damage, it is about 30~40% of total hp gone. I know I don't need to top of my party member but in some situations, the Clerics just can't keep up. On top of that, the Cleric is a little trigger-happy on casting damage spell. Since I can't tell him what to do, I can only adjust on my side. Some of the big monsters that we have faced are multiple of Awakened Tree(CR2), multiple of Owlbear(CR3), multiple of Ogre(CR2). A homebrew Green Hag who can cast a nerfed version of the lighting bolt.
I am considering taking spells that are active only for a turn such as Lighting Arrow later on.
Are you using XGE? Healing Spirit (even post errata) is a good use of a ranger’s concentration for keeping your buddies alive. It’s a bonus action, and most importantly, a ranged option.
Are you allowed to multiclass? One level in druid gives you a lot. Healing Word. Fog Cloud. Entangle. But most of all the ability to mix up those spells when need be. Two levels can give you more ranged healing options (XGE) or more ho for the party (moon druid).
Try and sweet talk your DM in allowing the disarm combat optional rule from the DMG. It would give you something to offer to the group that isn’t damage but makes good use of your archery fighting style (I’m assuming you have that) and the accuracy bump it gives you.
Hunter's Mark is a really good damage boost and is better than most/all of the similar-ish subclass features but in return requires your concentration and a spell slot. I found that depending on the subclass I can do well enough without it which lets me use my concentration on a different spell like Zephyr Strike instead.
If your main problem is with keeping up concentration, then the issue is not really Hunter's Mark. Most of the Ranger's more useful spells require concentration unfortunately so you gotta find one way or another to deal with it (higher CON, CON proficiency via feat, Warcaster feat for advantage on the concentration save) or use spells you are okay with being active only for a turn or so.
Cure Wounds is usually a fantastic spell, however not that great in hands of the Ranger imo since our spell slots are really limited compared to Clerics&Co. If you use your very limited spell slots for healing you aren't playing to the strengths of your class as Ranger. I can't say much about how much healing your group actually requires since I don't know how you approach fights etc., however I wanted to give maybe a few tips here. You don't need to keep your party at full health during the fight. Heal only if someone is in danger of getting downed, since there's no difference between 80HP and 20HP in terms of how effective a character is. Other spells might be more useful for preventing damage. This includes spells that deal damage since death is still the best debuff.
A few questions:
What are the strengths of the Ranger?
What are the subclasses that you can do well enough without HM?
What are the subclasses that you need the HM?
A few commons: We are at a low level. Some of us have hp at a high 30 while the other is at a low 30. So with 2 weak damage or one strong damage, it is about 30~40% of total hp gone. I know I don't need to top of my party member but in some situations, the Clerics just can't keep up. On top of that, the Cleric is a little trigger-happy on casting damage spell. Since I can't tell him what to do, I can only adjust on my side. Some of the big monsters that we have faced are multiple of Awakened Tree(CR2), multiple of Owlbear(CR3), multiple of Ogre(CR2). A homebrew Green Hag who can cast a nerfed version of the lighting bolt.
I am considering taking spells that are active only for a turn such as Lighting Arrow later on.
In combat it's mostly consistent good damage. While other classes can nuke a particular target with big numbers, Rangers are good at dealing with multiple smaller enemies and at fighting a big bad that can't get nuked just like that. Mostly thanks to Hunter's Mark to be fair. Also versatility. Their spell list offers a little bit of everything. If you let yourself get forced into being your party's healer then you will always be subpar in that regard.
Take Goodberry so you can get people out of being downed and have some additional downtime healing available (you can cast it right before you take a Long Rest so you have them available for the next 16 hours afterwards). Take Fog Cloud to hide your party from the enemy. Keep in mind that unless the enemy takes the Hide action everyone is still aware of where they are. Not being able to see the target just means getting disadvantage on attack rolls, however not being able to see the attacker means giving advantage to their attack rolls so it cancels eachother out. What it does however is blocking spells and abilities that require sight, potentially letting you surprise the enemy, letting the characters who are in danger use the Hide action to get to safety regardless of where you are fighting, etc. Take Snare to set up a difficult to spot trap that potentially lets you take out an enemy before the fight even begins (doorways and similar are great spots). Take Zephyr Strike for extra mobility, a small burst of damage and most importantly freedom of movement so you can't get pinned down. Take Cordon of Arrows ... alright full disclosure I personally like Cordon of Arrows thematically but I wouldn't say it's a particular good spell unless you are facing a target with particularly high AC and bad DEX lol Take Pass without a Trace to give your whole party a massive boost to being sneaky. Suddenly even the Fighter in Heavy armor has a decent chance to sneak past the enemy. Take Silence to ruin the life of some enemy mages (potentially prevents way more damage than you could ever heal with Cure Wounds).
And that was just spells of the 1st and 2nd level. Rangers aren't healers. Their spells are their toolbox. They can do some healing but they shouldn't get reduced to just that since they aren't nearly as good as actually dedicated healers at it. If your party has trouble with taking too much damage before the fight ends and your Cleric thinks he's a Wizard/Sorcerer instead of taking care of the party, perhaps it's time to invest in some heal potions. The subclasses have a great collection of useful spells too, but since I don't know which subclass you are planning to go with I won't go further into detail here.
Beastmaster since it doesn't trigger on your pet's attacks. Also any class that requires constant use of the Bonus Action, like Fey Wanderer or the Horizon Walker. Sure you can cast it at the beginning of the fight and then use the Bonus Action to trigger their 3rd level feature, however if you fight against multiple smaller enemies then you can't keep spreading the Hunter's Mark at the same time. With those it only really works well against more durable enemies, really. also when you are Two-Weapon fighting you might not want to take Hunter's Mark either since the turn you cast Hunter's Mark or transfer it from one target to another you can't hit with your second weapon. Even worse when your subclass feature requires a Bonus Action as well (though the Fey Wanderer lets you use the feature together with two-weapon fighting with the same Bonus Action so that's neat). The Bonus Action economy as well as the concentration spell economy are the two important things to juggle as a Ranger. Often you just don't have the time to set up your damage over several turns and have to go for the one or the other option.
I'd say Gloomstalker since its feature is only active during the first turn, Hunter because it doesn't require any bonus action to activate so unless you go with dual wielding you don't have anything to spend it on anyway, and perhaps Swarmkeeper because it only requires one Bonus Action to activate and then it goes on for 1 minute without the need to spend another Bonus Action regardless of what you attack, but is limited by your WIS modifier so it's easy to use both in the same fight but it's also a fall back if you have no uses for your swarm anymore. That being said, my Swarmkeeper doesn't use Hunter's Mark and it feels great being able to have another concentration spell active instead. Not to mention that I already need my Bonus Action to attack with my offhand anyway.
I personally hate Lightning Arrow because it's a concentration spell for no good reason. All it does is that it allows you to use the Attack action, making more than one attack if available, however it interrupts your other concentration spells you might want to keep active like Fog Cloud, Zephyr Strike or the like.
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
You are not missing HM because you already have a very consistent damage output given your max DEX + Bracers of Archery... it’s +7 per shot. And of course you have Archery Fighting Style, so your attack base has a +9 bonus and it will go to +10 once you reach level 5.
So indeed you don’t need HM damage, but you need to find a good way to make use of your bonus action. Right now you could explore other good spells that would give you more battlefield control like Ensnaring Strike (best way to avoid concentration checks is to not be attacked) or even Hail of Thorns to maximize your AoE capacity alongside Horde Breaker (although I rather recommend Colossus Slayer).
If multiclass is allowed at your table, a couple levels of Rogue would be a no brainer for you -- Sneak Attack, Expertise and very good bonus action usage through Cunning Action (since you have an amazing attack roll, I would suggest start your turn attacking twice with your bow and then end your turn hiding yourself with your bonus Cunning Action to avoid getting hit!)
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It depends on the subclass and whether or not concentrating on hunter's mark is worth it at the moment. So long as the ranger is making multiple attacks, the damage bonus is efficient. If they dual wield, then even moreso. But some subclasses have other options that may be preferable.
Two of the subclasses found in XGE (Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer) learn protection from evil and good at 3rd-level, which requires concentration. Gloom Stalker can eventually learn greater invisibility. Even the, in my opinion, wrongly-maligned Beast Master might prefer spells like ensnaring strike at higher levels because of the Share Spells feature. And in the meantime, there may be other damaging spells, like hail of thorns, better-suited to help out because their Animal Companion is a beast in every sense of the word. (Seriously, their sustained DPR can get ridiculously high.)
That said, hunter's mark does have uses out of combat. It's great for tracking a foe over a long distance or period of time.
IMO, Hunter's Mark is very good, but you have to be a smart Ranger to use it. Use cover from a distance to discourage getting sniped and having to roll a Con save, mark the target that you know will die (to ensure your Hunter's Mark can be re-cast once it's dead), etc. I personally like more of the utility spells like Pass Without Trace, Plant Growth, Zephyr Strike, Cordon of Arrows, Lesser Restoration, Guardian of Nature, and Swift Quiver (like the other poster above, I'm biased because this spell just sounds cool).
If able to the Variant UA subclass then HM become an ability does not require concentration and can be cast number of times as your wisdom modifier. Gives you another spell slot. A great boost to ranger.
For a vanilla Ranger (ignoring the UA variants rules) it's a great spell for general use, but there are other concentration spells you might want to use instead:
If you're going ranged, you can do a lot of damage with Lightning Arrow, but will interrupt Hunter's Mark to use that, so if you're against a mob you might prefer to attack without marking anything and wait for chances to get multiple with lightning arrows instead. However, against a single target that you expect to have a lot of HP then Hunter's Mark away if you want to. However, you do also have Conjure Barrage as an option which won't interrupt Hunter's Mark, but does less damage overall.
For a melee Ranger, Hunter's Mark is great if you're going to go with two weapon fighting, as the cumulative damage will really add up. The main conflict for me in melee would be with Zephyr Strike which you might want if you prefer to be mobile, darting in to strike and then moving off if you get crowded to strike somewhere else instead, in which case again you may not want to bring up Hunter's Mark knowing it will be interrupted. There's also the issue of maintaining concentration within melee range for Hunter's Mark, as you're more likely to be taking hits that could interrupt it against your will.
Overall I don't think you'll see many Ranger builds without it, as it's good value if you don't want to burn too many spell slots in a combat, but you may find that your intended playstyle will interrupt it a lot, in which case you'll be better off taking something else. That said, it's also handy for tracking, so you don't necessarily need to be using it in combat at all if your goal is simply to follow at a discreet distance.
Regarding the class variants; it's hard to know what the final form will actually be, we'll find out in November I guess. Getting Hunter's Mark for free would be great, as you can still choose not to use it if it conflicts too much, but in the class variants WotC also made it require no concentration, which I'm not sure if we'll see in the end, as it arguably goes too far; being able to bring Hunter's Mark back up without costing a spell slot will already make a huge difference for juggling it against other concentration spells, and I think that's enough personally.
The spell is great to have in your toolkit, both for combat and outside of combat. Concentration and/or casting other concentration spells is the challenge of it, but I don't find it to be that big a deal. If you get three weapon attack hits out of hunter's mark before it goes away you are exceeding the spell slot cost/benefit of a 1st level smite spell or a couple of battle master fighter maneuvers. If it makes it through two full rounds you are REALLY getting ahead! If a sneaky little enemy gets away from the party this (no saving throw) is a great way to track them down at your leisure. The other ranger spells are used when conditions are optimal, which for most of them is when two or more targets are going to be hit by the spell's effects. If a paladin uses a 1st level spell slot and a 3rd level spell slot on smiting during a battle and a ranger casts hunter's mark once (hitting with it 3 times) and hail of thorns once (hitting two targets with it) we're looking at the paladin adding 27 damage to their base attack damage and the ranger adding 28.25 to their base attack damage. A battle master using all five of their d10 superiority dice is adding 27.5. Does hunter's mark "stay on" the whole fight. Nah. But the math adds up. If TCoE keeps the concentration free hunter's mark (which I doubt) it will be crazy for the ranger's damage output.
Considering only using a level 1 spell slot, I'd suggest fog cloud and ensnaring strike as a great and worthy replacement. The former can be used with a dumped wisdom (for whatever reason) while the latter would benefit from a higher wisdom. The great thing about hunter's mark is it only uses a level 1 spell slot. Goodberry and cure wounds would be other worthy replacements. Your total party makeup helps make this decision.
If we are higher in levels and looking for a little more "bang for our buck" for a spell slot use and your concentration that deals damage, spike growth is a good replacement. Hunter's mark might be a little better for a single target damage, but spike growth is MUCH better against several targets. And the more confined the area, the better. A ranger in a typical dungeon crawl, urban campaign, or any environment NOT out in the great wide open can use spike growth to very effective use. It's a win win. Either they enemies stay put, or are slowed and take a very decent amount of damage. It remains, of course, so after the first turn of placing it it can remain for area denial or a choke point while you continue to pepper arrows in them.
Once we climb a little higher in levels again, concentration is still a factor, but what we are doing both as an induvial and as a member of the party is changing. I find conjure animals to be worthwhile for the ranger in almost every circumstance. Even if they can't deal damage because of monster resistances, the can use the help action, grapple, soak up hits, or block enemy movement. That can do a lot more for the party's overall damage output than 2d6 a turn, or a lot more for the party's overall hit point pool than 3d8 + wisdom. Some of the options for the spell can can fly or swim and are large enough for the party members to ride. Many of the choices can fly adding that as a tactical element to add as well.
Hunter's mark is a great spell, to be sure. But it is more important when doing side by side comparisons of pure single target damage output builds than anything else. The tracking and perception bit is nice of course, but as has been covered in so many posts in other threads before, many tables don't use or value that part of the game (tracking and overland travel).
Also, since Tasha's has decided to dump the concentration free hunter's mark idea, hunter's mark remains an easy pick for the ranger class, IMO.
If you're using the new Favored Foe option it mitigates some (but not all) of the benefit of Hunter's Mark and opens your spell slot up to pick something else.
I am playing a gloomstalker and use it a lot, but I drop it frequently to cast Zephyr's Strike or other abilities due to getting rushed on the battlefield. It's a good spell but I don't necessarily use it every single time.
Also, I'm a variant human who took Magic Initiate and Find Familiar. Cure Wounds isn't an optimal use of my abilities but I've certainly saved quite a few party members in a pinch by having it and the ability to share spells with my owl familiar (who can fly in and out of trouble to land a shared-spell cure without getting the smackdown).
I think you're going to be fine regardless of what you take. Rangers are kind of swiss army knives and Hunters play very well. You seem to have a handle on things and you'll be an asset to the party no matter what direction you go.
You can definitely go without hunter's mark and be effective. With the release of Tasha's I'm excited about a ranger that focuses its first level spells on entangle.
But HM is quite the spell, and is never going to be bad on a ranger. Even builds and subclasses with negative synergy will find plenty of use for it. HM is fantastic for melting high priority targets and will always serve as a consistent boost to damage. I really like the spell as it carries so much weight by itself you can dedicate plenty of build space to silly quirks and random utility and still contribute in combat. I think a great goal to have with the spell is to try and use it out of combat as a tracking spell as much as possible. There's more to it than damage and it feels good to use it.
I like that Tasha's mostly introduced powerful ranger options that have negative synergy with HM. It's a nice twist to the ranger meta.
While you may not need hunter's mark, it's always a good spell to have. If you play with the optional class features from Tasha's I would suggest taking Favored Foe, and while Favored Foe starts off weak it could be used as a nerfed version of HM as it does scale up. With the limited amount of spells known for a Ranger you should really think about what YOU want to do with a character. HM is great for maximizing damage, but you could also take something like Fog Cloud, Ensnaring Strike, or some other spell and have just as much fun. In the end it's really up to what you want to do, but if you want to maximize damage output then just take Hunter's mark.
My firs thoughts about hunters mark was wow it is nearly like hex but rangers often fight hand to hand combats and a horizon walker uses bonus actions all the time and I know the problem of the cleric/druid without enough healing as I am a cleric and instead of solving combats with a upcast guiding bolt I need to heal our ranger from being deafend from mandess
but about the hunters mark mayby with tasha coming out it will be more useful with ranger features but without it as you are lvl 4 so next level I would change it to pass without trace as it is a spell that solves combat without the combat starting so I would not keep the hunters mark
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I am currently playing a range Hunter Ranger at lv 4. It has max Dex, 16 Con, Horde Breaker and a Bracers of Archery. The party contains a Drunken Master Monk, a War Wizard, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, a Rogue, a Hunter ranger (me) and a Life Domain Cleric, who is considering rolling new character.
My DM usually put some range enemies into the mix or sometimes let us fight in a close space. As the result, the backline isn't always safe from harm. So, I have a little hard time maintaining the concentration for the HM. On top of that, I often find myself end up casting Cure Wounds to heal others (we have a healer but it ain't enough).
At this point, I am considering switching out HM when I level up because I feel HM isn't doing too much for the following reason:
So I am wondering how necessary is Hunter's mark to ranger? Will I be fine without it throughout the whole campaign?
Fun topic! I like it!
I say go for it. Give it a try. People say “rangers don’t specialize in anything”. Maybe true. Maybe not true. But hunter’s mark is just a d6 (or 2 with extra attack), and its only half as effective if you are taking out targets with one hit as you can’t switch the hunter’s mark target more than once a turn. What else is in the party? A ranger can deal damage and heal and be more of an asset to the party than only one or the other. I say let the other fighter types do the single target damage (which is what hunter’s mark is for) and you focus on the mobs, mooks, minions, henchmen, and the like, and keeping your party members alive. A single goodberry is great for raising a KO’d ally. Take hail of thorns, instead of hunter’s mark, and save it for groups of bad guys (remember that the additional targets are all creatures within 5 ft of the first target, so if the first target is large it can effect more spaces around it).
Hunter's Mark is a really good damage boost and is better than most/all of the similar-ish subclass features but in return requires your concentration and a spell slot. I found that depending on the subclass I can do well enough without it which lets me use my concentration on a different spell like Zephyr Strike instead.
If your main problem is with keeping up concentration, then the issue is not really Hunter's Mark. Most of the Ranger's more useful spells require concentration unfortunately so you gotta find one way or another to deal with it (higher CON, CON proficiency via feat, Warcaster feat for advantage on the concentration save) or use spells you are okay with being active only for a turn or so.
Cure Wounds is usually a fantastic spell, however not that great in hands of the Ranger imo since our spell slots are really limited compared to Clerics&Co. If you use all of your very limited spell slots for healing you aren't playing to the strengths of your class as Ranger.
I can't say much about how much healing your group actually requires since I don't know how you approach fights etc., however I wanted to give maybe a few tips here. You don't need to keep your party at full health during the fight. Heal only if someone is in danger of getting downed, since there's no difference between 80HP and 20HP in terms of how effective a character is. Other spells might be more useful for preventing damage. This includes spells that deal damage since death is still the best debuff.
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
A few questions:
A few commons: We are at a low level. Some of us have hp at a high 30 while the other is at a low 30. So with 2 weak damage or one strong damage, it is about 30~40% of total hp gone. I know I don't need to top of my party member but in some situations, the Clerics just can't keep up. On top of that, the Cleric is a little trigger-happy on casting damage spell. Since I can't tell him what to do, I can only adjust on my side. Some of the big monsters that we have faced are multiple of Awakened Tree(CR2), multiple of Owlbear(CR3), multiple of Ogre(CR2). A homebrew Green Hag who can cast a nerfed version of the lighting bolt.
I am considering taking spells that are active only for a turn such as Lighting Arrow later on.
Are you using XGE? Healing Spirit (even post errata) is a good use of a ranger’s concentration for keeping your buddies alive. It’s a bonus action, and most importantly, a ranged option.
Are you allowed to multiclass? One level in druid gives you a lot. Healing Word. Fog Cloud. Entangle. But most of all the ability to mix up those spells when need be. Two levels can give you more ranged healing options (XGE) or more ho for the party (moon druid).
Try and sweet talk your DM in allowing the disarm combat optional rule from the DMG. It would give you something to offer to the group that isn’t damage but makes good use of your archery fighting style (I’m assuming you have that) and the accuracy bump it gives you.
Also versatility. Their spell list offers a little bit of everything. If you let yourself get forced into being your party's healer then you will always be subpar in that regard.
Take Goodberry so you can get people out of being downed and have some additional downtime healing available (you can cast it right before you take a Long Rest so you have them available for the next 16 hours afterwards).
Take Fog Cloud to hide your party from the enemy. Keep in mind that unless the enemy takes the Hide action everyone is still aware of where they are. Not being able to see the target just means getting disadvantage on attack rolls, however not being able to see the attacker means giving advantage to their attack rolls so it cancels eachother out. What it does however is blocking spells and abilities that require sight, potentially letting you surprise the enemy, letting the characters who are in danger use the Hide action to get to safety regardless of where you are fighting, etc.
Take Snare to set up a difficult to spot trap that potentially lets you take out an enemy before the fight even begins (doorways and similar are great spots).
Take Zephyr Strike for extra mobility, a small burst of damage and most importantly freedom of movement so you can't get pinned down.
Take Cordon of Arrows ... alright full disclosure I personally like Cordon of Arrows thematically but I wouldn't say it's a particular good spell unless you are facing a target with particularly high AC and bad DEX lol
Take Pass without a Trace to give your whole party a massive boost to being sneaky. Suddenly even the Fighter in Heavy armor has a decent chance to sneak past the enemy.
Take Silence to ruin the life of some enemy mages (potentially prevents way more damage than you could ever heal with Cure Wounds).
And that was just spells of the 1st and 2nd level. Rangers aren't healers. Their spells are their toolbox. They can do some healing but they shouldn't get reduced to just that since they aren't nearly as good as actually dedicated healers at it. If your party has trouble with taking too much damage before the fight ends and your Cleric thinks he's a Wizard/Sorcerer instead of taking care of the party, perhaps it's time to invest in some heal potions.
The subclasses have a great collection of useful spells too, but since I don't know which subclass you are planning to go with I won't go further into detail here.
also when you are Two-Weapon fighting you might not want to take Hunter's Mark either since the turn you cast Hunter's Mark or transfer it from one target to another you can't hit with your second weapon. Even worse when your subclass feature requires a Bonus Action as well (though the Fey Wanderer lets you use the feature together with two-weapon fighting with the same Bonus Action so that's neat).
The Bonus Action economy as well as the concentration spell economy are the two important things to juggle as a Ranger. Often you just don't have the time to set up your damage over several turns and have to go for the one or the other option.
I personally hate Lightning Arrow because it's a concentration spell for no good reason. All it does is that it allows you to use the Attack action, making more than one attack if available, however it interrupts your other concentration spells you might want to keep active like Fog Cloud, Zephyr Strike or the like.
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
You are not missing HM because you already have a very consistent damage output given your max DEX + Bracers of Archery... it’s +7 per shot. And of course you have Archery Fighting Style, so your attack base has a +9 bonus and it will go to +10 once you reach level 5.
So indeed you don’t need HM damage, but you need to find a good way to make use of your bonus action. Right now you could explore other good spells that would give you more battlefield control like Ensnaring Strike (best way to avoid concentration checks is to not be attacked) or even Hail of Thorns to maximize your AoE capacity alongside Horde Breaker (although I rather recommend Colossus Slayer).
If multiclass is allowed at your table, a couple levels of Rogue would be a no brainer for you -- Sneak Attack, Expertise and very good bonus action usage through Cunning Action (since you have an amazing attack roll, I would suggest start your turn attacking twice with your bow and then end your turn hiding yourself with your bonus Cunning Action to avoid getting hit!)
It's necessary enough to rangers for WotC to give it to them for free, no concentration, automatically at level one for CFV UA rangers.
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It depends on the subclass and whether or not concentrating on hunter's mark is worth it at the moment. So long as the ranger is making multiple attacks, the damage bonus is efficient. If they dual wield, then even moreso. But some subclasses have other options that may be preferable.
Two of the subclasses found in XGE (Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer) learn protection from evil and good at 3rd-level, which requires concentration. Gloom Stalker can eventually learn greater invisibility. Even the, in my opinion, wrongly-maligned Beast Master might prefer spells like ensnaring strike at higher levels because of the Share Spells feature. And in the meantime, there may be other damaging spells, like hail of thorns, better-suited to help out because their Animal Companion is a beast in every sense of the word. (Seriously, their sustained DPR can get ridiculously high.)
That said, hunter's mark does have uses out of combat. It's great for tracking a foe over a long distance or period of time.
IMO, Hunter's Mark is very good, but you have to be a smart Ranger to use it. Use cover from a distance to discourage getting sniped and having to roll a Con save, mark the target that you know will die (to ensure your Hunter's Mark can be re-cast once it's dead), etc. I personally like more of the utility spells like Pass Without Trace, Plant Growth, Zephyr Strike, Cordon of Arrows, Lesser Restoration, Guardian of Nature, and Swift Quiver (like the other poster above, I'm biased because this spell just sounds cool).
If able to the Variant UA subclass then HM become an ability does not require concentration and can be cast number of times as your wisdom modifier. Gives you another spell slot. A great boost to ranger.
Just my two cents, but completely optional playtest class variants don’t exactly scream “necessary” to me. Probably the opposite, to be honest.
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For a vanilla Ranger (ignoring the UA variants rules) it's a great spell for general use, but there are other concentration spells you might want to use instead:
If you're going ranged, you can do a lot of damage with Lightning Arrow, but will interrupt Hunter's Mark to use that, so if you're against a mob you might prefer to attack without marking anything and wait for chances to get multiple with lightning arrows instead. However, against a single target that you expect to have a lot of HP then Hunter's Mark away if you want to. However, you do also have Conjure Barrage as an option which won't interrupt Hunter's Mark, but does less damage overall.
For a melee Ranger, Hunter's Mark is great if you're going to go with two weapon fighting, as the cumulative damage will really add up. The main conflict for me in melee would be with Zephyr Strike which you might want if you prefer to be mobile, darting in to strike and then moving off if you get crowded to strike somewhere else instead, in which case again you may not want to bring up Hunter's Mark knowing it will be interrupted. There's also the issue of maintaining concentration within melee range for Hunter's Mark, as you're more likely to be taking hits that could interrupt it against your will.
Overall I don't think you'll see many Ranger builds without it, as it's good value if you don't want to burn too many spell slots in a combat, but you may find that your intended playstyle will interrupt it a lot, in which case you'll be better off taking something else. That said, it's also handy for tracking, so you don't necessarily need to be using it in combat at all if your goal is simply to follow at a discreet distance.
Regarding the class variants; it's hard to know what the final form will actually be, we'll find out in November I guess. Getting Hunter's Mark for free would be great, as you can still choose not to use it if it conflicts too much, but in the class variants WotC also made it require no concentration, which I'm not sure if we'll see in the end, as it arguably goes too far; being able to bring Hunter's Mark back up without costing a spell slot will already make a huge difference for juggling it against other concentration spells, and I think that's enough personally.
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The spell is great to have in your toolkit, both for combat and outside of combat. Concentration and/or casting other concentration spells is the challenge of it, but I don't find it to be that big a deal. If you get three weapon attack hits out of hunter's mark before it goes away you are exceeding the spell slot cost/benefit of a 1st level smite spell or a couple of battle master fighter maneuvers. If it makes it through two full rounds you are REALLY getting ahead! If a sneaky little enemy gets away from the party this (no saving throw) is a great way to track them down at your leisure. The other ranger spells are used when conditions are optimal, which for most of them is when two or more targets are going to be hit by the spell's effects. If a paladin uses a 1st level spell slot and a 3rd level spell slot on smiting during a battle and a ranger casts hunter's mark once (hitting with it 3 times) and hail of thorns once (hitting two targets with it) we're looking at the paladin adding 27 damage to their base attack damage and the ranger adding 28.25 to their base attack damage. A battle master using all five of their d10 superiority dice is adding 27.5. Does hunter's mark "stay on" the whole fight. Nah. But the math adds up. If TCoE keeps the concentration free hunter's mark (which I doubt) it will be crazy for the ranger's damage output.
Considering only using a level 1 spell slot, I'd suggest fog cloud and ensnaring strike as a great and worthy replacement. The former can be used with a dumped wisdom (for whatever reason) while the latter would benefit from a higher wisdom. The great thing about hunter's mark is it only uses a level 1 spell slot. Goodberry and cure wounds would be other worthy replacements. Your total party makeup helps make this decision.
If we are higher in levels and looking for a little more "bang for our buck" for a spell slot use and your concentration that deals damage, spike growth is a good replacement. Hunter's mark might be a little better for a single target damage, but spike growth is MUCH better against several targets. And the more confined the area, the better. A ranger in a typical dungeon crawl, urban campaign, or any environment NOT out in the great wide open can use spike growth to very effective use. It's a win win. Either they enemies stay put, or are slowed and take a very decent amount of damage. It remains, of course, so after the first turn of placing it it can remain for area denial or a choke point while you continue to pepper arrows in them.
Once we climb a little higher in levels again, concentration is still a factor, but what we are doing both as an induvial and as a member of the party is changing. I find conjure animals to be worthwhile for the ranger in almost every circumstance. Even if they can't deal damage because of monster resistances, the can use the help action, grapple, soak up hits, or block enemy movement. That can do a lot more for the party's overall damage output than 2d6 a turn, or a lot more for the party's overall hit point pool than 3d8 + wisdom. Some of the options for the spell can can fly or swim and are large enough for the party members to ride. Many of the choices can fly adding that as a tactical element to add as well.
Hunter's mark is a great spell, to be sure. But it is more important when doing side by side comparisons of pure single target damage output builds than anything else. The tracking and perception bit is nice of course, but as has been covered in so many posts in other threads before, many tables don't use or value that part of the game (tracking and overland travel).
Also, since Tasha's has decided to dump the concentration free hunter's mark idea, hunter's mark remains an easy pick for the ranger class, IMO.
If you're using the new Favored Foe option it mitigates some (but not all) of the benefit of Hunter's Mark and opens your spell slot up to pick something else.
I am playing a gloomstalker and use it a lot, but I drop it frequently to cast Zephyr's Strike or other abilities due to getting rushed on the battlefield. It's a good spell but I don't necessarily use it every single time.
Also, I'm a variant human who took Magic Initiate and Find Familiar. Cure Wounds isn't an optimal use of my abilities but I've certainly saved quite a few party members in a pinch by having it and the ability to share spells with my owl familiar (who can fly in and out of trouble to land a shared-spell cure without getting the smackdown).
I think you're going to be fine regardless of what you take. Rangers are kind of swiss army knives and Hunters play very well. You seem to have a handle on things and you'll be an asset to the party no matter what direction you go.
Can totally work.
I have a melee ranger and i dont use HM.
Because fav foe uses concentration but no spell slot, i basically decided to never take HM.
Instead i have zephyr strike, searing smite, absorb elements and other melee oriented spells.
It actually feels more versatile than with HM tbh.
You can definitely go without hunter's mark and be effective. With the release of Tasha's I'm excited about a ranger that focuses its first level spells on entangle.
But HM is quite the spell, and is never going to be bad on a ranger. Even builds and subclasses with negative synergy will find plenty of use for it. HM is fantastic for melting high priority targets and will always serve as a consistent boost to damage. I really like the spell as it carries so much weight by itself you can dedicate plenty of build space to silly quirks and random utility and still contribute in combat. I think a great goal to have with the spell is to try and use it out of combat as a tracking spell as much as possible. There's more to it than damage and it feels good to use it.
I like that Tasha's mostly introduced powerful ranger options that have negative synergy with HM. It's a nice twist to the ranger meta.
While you may not need hunter's mark, it's always a good spell to have. If you play with the optional class features from Tasha's I would suggest taking Favored Foe, and while Favored Foe starts off weak it could be used as a nerfed version of HM as it does scale up. With the limited amount of spells known for a Ranger you should really think about what YOU want to do with a character. HM is great for maximizing damage, but you could also take something like Fog Cloud, Ensnaring Strike, or some other spell and have just as much fun. In the end it's really up to what you want to do, but if you want to maximize damage output then just take Hunter's mark.
My firs thoughts about hunters mark was wow it is nearly like hex but rangers often fight hand to hand combats and a horizon walker uses bonus actions all the time and I know the problem of the cleric/druid without enough healing as I am a cleric and instead of solving combats with a upcast guiding bolt I need to heal our ranger from being deafend from mandess
but about the hunters mark mayby with tasha coming out it will be more useful with ranger features but without it as you are lvl 4 so next level I would change it to pass without trace as it is a spell that solves combat without the combat starting so I would not keep the hunters mark