The Ranger
The Ranger is akin to the joker of the battle board. The Ranger is adaptable to any situation as long as their Weapons and Suits allows for it. You can choose to have the unit fight with a wide variety of battle equipment that allow it to fight up close or from a distance. Along with this wide range of battle options, it can bond with an Illuvial to gain some power from that Illuvial.
Weapons
The Weapons of a Ranger make it adaptable to any team composition. The Weapons determine what Dominant Class, Affinity and other Stats the Ranger has. Five types of Weapons exist: Dagger, Shield, Gauntlet, Spear and Staff. The Ranger can become a short range Damage dealer by equipping a Sword, or a Healer by equipping a staff among others.
Suits
To add to the ranger’s survivability, so that it can fully showcase their fighting prowess, you can choose to equip a suit of armour. Similar to how Illuvials and armaments have a Tier and Stage, the Tier determines in part how strong the suit is. The Stage of the armour further increases the strength of the suit. A Tier 0 Stage 3 suit is usually less durable than a Tier 3 Stage 1 suit.
Bonding
When the Ranger has a Suit and Weapon equipped, it becomes a truly formidable asset on the battle board. Unlike in movies, however, where the main character seems to be able to overpower the enemies by themselves, the Ranger is not strong enough to do everything on their own. Illuvium places importance on teamwork and to showcase that, the Ranger can bond to an Illuvial of your choosing. When they bond, the Ranger will gain a single Affinity and Class bonus from the chosen Illuvial. This bonding can not be changed unless you remove the bonded Illuvial!
A fire Ranger with a Fighter Class would be able to bond with Atlas who is Water/Bulwark. After doing so, the Ranger will gain the Water and Bulwark characteristics on top of the Fire and Fighter ones. It then becomes Steam (Fire + Water) and Behemoth (Fighter + Bulwark)
In the case of a composite Illuvial Affinity or Class, the Ranger will gain the Dominant trait instead! Take this into consideration when you build your team later on. If you want to gain the Arcanite class on your Ranger, but also want to have a sword, you will need to have a dominant Psion Class to bond with.
Dominant Affinities, Classes and the Ranger
For Illuvials, their dominant Class and Affinity are set when they are obtained. An Axodon for this reason can have two forms while most Illuvials have four. Axodon always has a dominant Water Affinity because he has a Tsunami (Water + Water) Composite Affinity. For its Class, it can either have a dominant Bulwark or Psion Class upon being obtained. When bonding with the Axodon, it can mean that you can get a second Harbinger if you bond correctly, allowing the first threshold of [2] to be reached. Having two of the same composite Class or Affinity can drastically improve your team’s power!
At the same time, you can switch up the dominant Affinities to neutralize the enemy Hyper point acquisition! The best bet is to have a variety of dominant Affinities on the board. Some Earth, blocking Fire enemies from gaining points, while others should have a dominant Air to block the Water. After all, if you rock a lot of Earth Dominant, the enemy Water Illuvials will go Hyper fast. Slowing that down with a number of Air Illuvials will be beneficial to your round’s conclusions.
General Overview
Now you know about Illuvials, the Ranger, their weapons and suits and even Augments! You are about ready to go into the PVP arena! But before you do, you may want to create your own team. There are some prebuilt ones, but you can’t just rely on someone else right? Go out there and explore the almost limitless possibilities!
