Couple more questions re; skills Rangers

I hate to keep coming to the forum to ask questions, but usually when I ask in-game, no one will answer. Not sure if they are as clueless as me, or just too lazy to respond. Anyway just want to say thanks to all the people who have helped me on these forums.

My question is this. I'm a level 12 R/N and have 12 skill points to use, but what good are they? The only place I've found someone to train skills is Ascalon, and I already have all the skills I want by doing quests. TBH, not even sure if I've used any to this point through a skill trainer.

Also in one of my weapon slots I"m using an Ascalon bow w/piercing damage of 12-21 that says damage +15 while health is above 50, (think I got ripped off on that one, paid 600G for that sucker lol), but noticed that if I equip that bow, my energy goes from 30 down to 25. Why would that be?

And one more question. I have been using all long bows in my travels and have yet to come across a decent short bow, and the weapons dealers never seem to have them. Although I don't know, it seems like having a good short bow might be good in some instances. Should I look for one?


Again, thanks for all the help. Thank God for this forum.

First question... your skill points will be more useful later in the game. There are trainer all over the place as well as lots of towns with trainer that are off the beaten path.

Second question... Sounds like a pretty desent bow for starting. What weapon do you have equiped in place of the bow? If it is a staff or a wand with an off hand then that would be why you lose energy.

Third and final question... Shortbows and Half-moon bows have a quicker fire rate there for do more damage over the long corse. The trade off it shorter distance. It is best to have a good one of each. Longbow for pulling and sniping, sortbow for everything else.

Oh and as for ingame question feel free to ask me if I'm on...
<------ My IGN

Actually I just figured out how to use a second weapon slot yesterday!

So the way I have it set up right now is: in weapon slot 1, I have a longbow of fortitude w/ piercing dmg of 9-13 with +5 energy and +20 health and in the second slot I have the pre-mentioned Ascalon bow. At least now I see why I'm losing the 5 points energy, but I thought you always had 30 energy regardless. Probably just stupidity on my part as I do have a few runes on my character.

As far as a staff or a wand, I wasn't even sure I could use one of those! I keep finding them, but as a bow needs two hands, figured I'd be dead meat without the bow. Is this not utilizing all the stuff I could be using? I've been wondering about that. If I un-equip the bow and put some sort of energy wand or whatever (if I can, as a Ranger I wasn't even sure if I coud do this), and use just my necro skills along with my pet would that be good in some situations?

I really appreciate you and others taking the time to help.

Well, some (most) necro wands/staffs also have a requirement on them, so depending on how you play your R/N, using up a third weapon slot for more energy is definitely plausible.

A R/N Necromaster can be quite effective, even with very little in Beast Mastery. Snipe with the longbow, get your little friend killed (with Death Nova on it), then exploit the corpse for health or minions. Then, when the bad guys die, exploit THOSE corpses.

Unfortunately, a Ranger doesn't have enough energy to keep that up at will, especially if you want to do some actual bow damage. Thus, having the wand will help with gving you more energy (because even as a pure ranger, 3 pips of energy regen is NOT enough). Couple that with some Druid's Armor and cast away.