Newbie

[NetNomad]

Well I can certainly say I agree with you on the "don't start with a droid" opinion. A friend of mine started with a RAcast, then made a HUcaseal, and then jumped to a FOnewm... and I can imagine, that's a pretty damn big crash course there. Yeah, start with one of the four balanced characters.

Fabo: for rangers, I think this may be more appropriate:
Offline: RAmarl/RAcast (tied), RAmar, RAcaseal
Online: RAmar/RAcast (tied), RAmarl, RAcaseal

Offline, RAmarls can do the most damage out of any ranger because of her lv 20 support techniques, but a RAcast has the helpful ability to set and detonate his own traps quickly. Online, more often than not you are under the SAME shifta/deband, which is usually provided by a support FO, so a RAmar and RAmarl playing together under that shifta will leave the RAmar more powerful (Kefka once said RAmarl is better than RAmar online because of the support techs, but this is why I don't believe so). Even if there is no FO, when an equally-leveled RAmar and RAmarl play together the RAmar will do more damage because he'd be under the RAmarl's lv20 shifta (unless you have a rather stingy RAmarl who won't share her support techs ). I've never played a RAcaseal, and I don't really intend to in the future, but I put her last because her good qualities (DFP, EVP) have little to do with attacking the enemies, which online is mostly what you have to worry about (offline, theoretically, her strengths may be more apparant, because she'd have to block and take hits more often if she weren't in the presence of hunters doing the close-in damage).