Started another Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough last weekend. Thought my ranger build felt super weak – kept dying in basic fights near Emerald Grove. Annoying as hell. Spent like four hours tweaking stats, changing gear, still got crushed by those stupid harpies. Total waste of a Sunday morning.
Then remembered some forum posts mentioning “build tier lists” somewhere. Scrolled through Reddit while chugging coffee. Found this massive community ranking of different class setups. Honestly didn’t trust it at first – just some random opinions online, right?
Decided to test it anyway. Searched tier list for “ranger”. Saw Gloom Stalker subclass ranked S-tier for damage. My dumb brain had picked Beast Master because pets looked cute. Followed their exact stat spread: 17 Dex, 16 Wis, dumped Charisma like they said. Grabbed the specific feats listed too. Even copied their stupid spell choices.
Holy crap. Cleared the harpies in two rounds next try. Legit pounded my table – coffee spilled everywhere. The Deep Gnome fight? Barely took damage. The guide even mentioned positioning near cave walls to avoid ranged attacks. Would’ve never figured that out myself.
Spent the whole evening checking tier notes for other party members. Made Shadowheart a Light Domain cleric instead of Trickery – her spirit guardians suddenly shredded crowds. Swapped Wyll to Fiend warlock from Archfey – eldritch blast actually hurts now. Found this weird paladin/warlock combo for Karlach ranked “broken” tier. She one-shot the Phase Spider matriarch.
Biggest surprise? All the garbage traps I’d been using got called out in the “F-tier” section. Ever tried dual-wielding ranger weapons? Don’t. Tier list straight up says it’s mathematically trash. Also learned:
- Tavern Brawler feat turns throw builds into monsters (Karlach yeeting goblins now)
- Wizard 1 dip for scroll learning saves so many spell slots
- Healing word’s bonus action heal > cure wounds’ full action
Finished Act 1 faster than ever before. Still missed zero content – tier builds optimize power not skip story. Wish I’d checked before wasting 20 hours last month on my weak monk-thief experiment. Bottom line? That tier list isn’t about copying – it’s avoiding trash combinations. Feels like cheat codes from someone who failed first.