Ranger BM vs Archer

[barto48]

Hello
In the beginning I want to apologise for any mistakes, I just creat an account here and English is not my native language.
My character in 4th ed. is ranger, elf. I use Archer build and Beast Mastery as fighting style. I've heard many stories about rangers dealing vast amount of damage. But it turned out, that reality is diffrent from legends: our fighter very often deals more damage than I do. Build details:
Ranger Elf, level 4 (5 to-be)
Build: Archer
Fighting style: beast mastery
Skills: Nature, Perception, Stealth, Acrobatics and Endurance
Feats: Improved initiative, Elven precision, Lethal hunter
Ranger at-will 1: Twin strike
Ranger at-will 1: Nimble strike
Encounter 1: Hindering shot
Daily 1: Sure shot
Utility 2: Begin the hunt
Encounter 3: Cut and run
hp: 39
Speed: 7
init: +11
Str: 15, con: 12, dex: 20, int: 12, wis: 16, cha: 10;
Favourite weapon: longbow (but I think about taking feat that allows me to use greatbow)
Companion: wolf
Is there any possibility to increase damage dealt by us (me and wolf), or there is not much more that I can do?

Bonus question: I've heard, that Archer being superior over Beast Masters (talking about fighting style), but I don't see much diffrence in powers and feats (excluding Prime Shot and Running Attack). By far I find it more usefull to be BM than Archer: companion provides CA, it is 'a little tank' - can take some dmg (yet he is rarely attacked for he don't attack much), sometimes it deals OA, works as a plug in narrow corridors, helps me in scout tasks, increases bonus from defensive from +2 to +3... I can't see why Archer can be better than BM, who uses bow and an arrows to deal damage and companion as a 'helper'. I don't know if I am right or I missed something. Write what You think about it too.

[Kurald Galain]

But it turned out, that reality is diffrent from legends: our fighter very often deals more damage than I do.
And that would be because you're level 4.

Here's the deal: your Twin Strike deals [W]+mods+[W]+mods+quarry. The fighter deals [W]+strength+mods. At level 4, mods will be pretty close to zero, meaning the fighter wins, if barely. But what if your mods are +15, which is quite a reasonable figure at higher levels? Yeah, ranger wins easily.

Your short-term solution is to replace Cut And Run by Disruptive Strike.

[Hawk7915]

What Kurald said. You need to gather more mods to damage: prioritize taking some combination of Bow Expertise, Superior Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow), and Weapon Focus: Bows as your next three feats. The feats you selected are fine, but these feats will dramatically improve your DPR and all scale with level except for Superior Weapon Proficiency.

In regards to the pet, optimizers greatly deemphasize the out-of-combat utility of a pet in terms of using it to scout, stand watch, or soak attacks and save someone a surge. But, +1 attack from Prime Shot is worth a lot in the long run and ultimately all the beast-centric encounters and dailies suck and the pet scales really badly, so from a pure numbers perspective the Archer path ends up winning.

[georgie_leech]

What Kurald said. You need to gather more mods to damage: prioritize taking some combination of Bow Expertise, Superior Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow), and Weapon Focus: Bows as your next three feats. The feats you selected are fine, but these feats will dramatically improve your DPR and all scale with level except for Superior Weapon Proficiency.

In regards to the pet, optimizers greatly deemphasize the out-of-combat utility of a pet in terms of using it to scout, stand watch, or soak attacks and save someone a surge. But, +1 attack from Prime Shot is worth a lot in the long run and ultimately all the beast-centric encounters and dailies suck and the pet scales really badly, so from a pure numbers perspective the Archer path ends up winning.

Worth noting in that there's some scaling for Greatbow in terms of higher [W] on powers as you level, though Twin Strike is largely left behind in that regard. Double Attack at will scales just that well.

[Waddacku]

As for the BM/Archery comparison, the most fundamental thing is that BMs can't take the Battlefield Archer Paragon Path. Prime Shot is good, too, and you can improve it further, but Battlefield Archer is just that good.