Overview
Sorry for tracking in sand, commander! Specialist 5000SD at your service, I’ll be handling your training with 
Ranger/ 
Etoile. It’s quickly rising to become one of Ranger’s best subclasses; with access to a 70% damage reduction, lenient conditionals and on-demand super armor that synergizes with Ranger’s playstyle, what’s not to love?
However Etoile has its downsides, the big two being:
- Healing outside of Etoile skills and consumables are rendered nearly useless
- Standing Massive being unreliable if enemies can physically move you.
On a minor note, Hunter subclass is more consistent for damage as Etoile requires players to alternate attacks for extra damage (+61.4% Hunter vs +49.5% Etoile), but it can be overlooked in some cases.
With that being said, Etoile greatly improves upon Ranger’s playstyle, while offering great bonuses to survive most, if not, all content.
Important Skills
Step Roll Advance
Extends invincibility during Step and Dive Roll.
Automatically learned at level 1.
This skill gives you 0.13 additional iframes, equal to having your dive roll at level 4.
Etoile HP Restorate
Gradually restores HP when below a certain HP threshold.
1 SP for prerequisites or max
Passive healing is nice, especially when you can’t heal outside of consumables. Note that this skill must be maxed for best benefits, as the HP threshold at 1 SP is a mere 5%, jumping up to 50% HP at max.
Damage Balancer | Damage Bouncer (Huh???)
Significantly reduces damage taken while significantly reduces healing from everything, except for Etoile skills, consumables, and objects.
Max this or go play Hunter subclass
This skill is insanely good for Ranger and is one of the main reasons why it beats Hunter subclass; 70% damage reduction enables Rangers to safely eat hits while dealing damage, helpful in Ultra Hard content where everything hurts. Though, this doesn’t protect you from instant kills and one-shots, and having to manually heal without skill rings such as Quick Mate, or Atomizer Lovers can be very dangerous, so take caution.
Standing Massive
Prevents attacks from interrupting you while stationary.
You take this or you go play Hunter subclass
This skill is the other main reason why it beats Hunter subclass; Standing Massive is a on-demand super armor that greatly synergizes with Ranger due to two big reasons:
- Standing Snipe requires you to be, well, stationary for a +43.75% damage boost, and…
- Most of your attacks, notably End Attract and Satellite Cannon, require you to be stationary while charging.
Coupled with the fact that the only other passive like this is locked behind a 
weapon ability, this skill is a mandatory investment, otherwise you may as well play Hunter subclass for similar benefits.
However, Standing Massive has a ~1.1 second delay before it activates, and any enemy that can forcibly move you will deactivate the skill, so take caution.
All Attack Bonus Et
Gain a damage bonus for your attacks and pets.
Max this.
It’s a +30% boost to your ranged attacks, so there’s no reason to not to max this skill for damage.
Etoile JA Bonus
Grants a damage bonus to Just Attacks.
Max this.
It’s a +15% boost to your ranged attacks, so again, no reason not to max this for damage.
JA Critical
Grants a critical bonus when you do a Just Attack.
Max this.
This is one of those specific cases where critical builds would work better on Ranger, since this skill alone gives a whopping +50% crit rate! Combined with a R/ Crit Strike R, you can reach +75% crit rate, making critical damage investments potentially worthwhile.
Perfect Keeper ring also becomes impossible to maintain on Etoile, so that’s a major factor as well.
Same Arts PP Save
Reduces PP costs when consecutively using a PA in a combo. Has a cap on PP reduction.
3 SP min or max.
A great skill that synergizes with Ranger’s gameplay, as you’ll often spam one PA for good DPS; examples includes Divine Launcher T-0, aerial Piercing Shell, Homing Emission T-0 and End Attract, which are used very frequently in a combo.
At max, this skill can grant up to 80% PP reduction (taking 16 consecutive casts to reach), compared to leaving it at level 3 for 25% PP reduction (taking 3 consecutive casts to reach)
3 SP is the bare minimum for best benefit per SP cost, as it also synergizes with Tech Arts Count Bonus when maxed.
Tech Arts Count Bonus
Grants bonuses to damage and PP reduction when using different PAs in a combo.
Max this.
Again, a great skill that synergizes with Ranger’s gameplay, and especially with Standing Snipe; using one PA grants bonuses to other PAs (max 3 when at 10 SP), allowing for combo rotations like Parallel Slider T-0 (tapped) -> End Attract x 3. Alternating with new PAs resets the bonus, making this skill incredibly lenient for great bonuses.
At max, this skill grants a +15% damage bonus, and a 10% PP reduction.
High Level Bonus Et
Grants a bonus to all damage you deal.
Max this.
It’s 5 SP for +5% damage, and there’s nothing else to take after essentials, so why not?
Optional Skills
Etoile Boost
When taking damage, grants bonus damage reduction that decays over time.
0 or 1 SP.
Etoile Boost is more of a insurance against multi-hits, as it grants +75% damage reduction (against the first hit) that decays at a rate of 25% per second. When taking hits, however, the boost raises by +15% per hit, meaning you’d have to get 5 times in less than a second for max boost again.
It’s up to you whether to invest into this, I personally took it since it’s only 1 SP.
Flat Attack Bonus
Applies a damage boost to attacks when failing a Just Attack.
0 or max.
This is a nice safeguard incase you mis-time your JA window, as it provides a +30% damage multiplier (equivalent to a normal Just Attack boost) at max.
Do note that JA Critical won’t apply due to obvious reasons (it’s in the name!), and purposely mistiming your Just Attacks is a poor habit to have, so this can be skipped if needed.
HP Up, 
PP Up, All Attack Up, 
All Defense Up
These skills assumes that your skill tree will only be used as a subclass. Invest on these skills at your own discretion.
Etoile Multipliers
| Skill Name | Effect(s) | Total Effect(s) |
|---|---|---|
| All Attack Bonus Et | 1.3x | 1.3x |
| Etoile JA Bonus | 1.15x | 1.495x |
| Tech Arts Count Bonus | 1.15x | 1.71925x |
| High Level Bonus Et | 1.05x | 1.8052125x |
| Just Attack | 1.3x | 2.34677625x |
Etoile’s total multipliers are 2.3467x (234.67%), making this a very potent Ranger subclass.
Strategy
Managing Tech Arts Count Bonus
Tech Arts Count Bonus (TACB) is a very potent passive that allows Etoile to outdamage Hunter in most cases; when alternating between PAs, you gain a +15% damage multiplier on the next 3 PAs (at level 10 TACB) before the boost wears off.
A explanation is shown below on how it interacts with PAs. The following situations assume that TACB is at level 10, and boosted attacks will be bolded to indicate that the +15% boost is being applied:
- Parallel Slider T-0 is used as filler to activate the damage boost for End Attract three times, before it deactivates on the fourth cast:
- Parallel Slider T-0 > End Attract > End Attract > End Attract > End Attract
- Crazy Smash is used as a filler to quickly refresh the damage boost on Divine Launcher T-0:
- Crazy Smash > Divine Launcher T-0 > Divine Launcher T-0 > Divine Launcher T-0 > Crazy Smash (TACB bonus refreshes) > Divine Launcher T-0 >Divine Launcher T-0 > etc…
- Homing Emission is used as filler to boost Impact Slider before using a dive roll to cancel the kick portion of Impact Slider:
- Homing Emission > Impact Slider > Dive Roll Cancel > Homing Emission > Impact Slider > Dive Roll Cancel > etc…
- You can use Launcher’s normal attacks to preserve TACB and activate Standing Snipe bonuses:
- Crazy Smash -> Normal Attack (Standing Snipe bonus activates, TACB preserved) -> Divine Launcher T-0 (Standing Snipe and TACB boost) -> Normal Attack (Standing Snipe bonus activates, TACB preserved) -> Divine Launcher T-0 -> etc…
Sample Standing Snipe | Stationary Fire Rotations
- (Stationary) Parallel Slider | Slideburst T-0 > (Boosted) Impact Slider
- Homing Emission x2 -> (Boosted) Impact Slider
- (Aerial) Piercing Shell x2 -> (Boosted) End Attract
Using fast filler attacks like Homing Emission, Piercing Shell, Crazy Smash, etc., to lead into stronger attacks allows Rangers to maintain a ~171.9% damage boost on virtually all their attacks.
Skill Builds
- Ranger/Etoile
- General skill build that covers most needs. Ranger skill tree only has essentials filled.
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