I was thinking of switching to a ranger in order to be able to do this supposed head-shot grinding, but I admit I don't know much about it. The reasons I was thinking of it is to be able to easily grind on one person so that I can spend more of my online time hopefully grouping or raiding. I don't want to box other than perhaps for some early PL'ing. How exactly does headshot grinding work? What level is headshot grinding start to be effective? Is it limited to only a few areas that you can do it (based on headshot AA level)? Is it mindnumbingly boring or does it keep you on your toes? Feel free to add your own tidbits.
snare/root a mob and shoot it until you get a head shot proc to kill it (3,4,5) may be necessary at higher levels. Starts to be truly effective at level 73 with Vinelash Generally there are only a couple places per rank of that work well, normally 2 others that are ok. It is very cool for a few weeks and gets boring as crap after a couple of months. It peaks at 90 is decent until 95 and then you find yourself trying to look for groups after not making many friends for quite a while. If you want to group/raid I would suggest playing a different class unless you have friends to play with, rangers at this point are mostly a solo class due to the fact that head shot is so effective and what they bring to a group isn't exactly needed. Besides there are SO many people that play ranger for head shot alone it is kinda scary.
If you are not PLing the ranger then don't bother making one if all you are interested in is headshot. I don't know what class Dalmoth plays, but it is obviously not a ranger. The class is versatile and can hold down several hats in a group (DPS, CC, Tanking, Pulling). Other can do any one thing we do better, but that as it should be. The class is a hybrid after all. In raid we DPS primarily. Specifically to headshot it is mind numbingly boring. It is even more effective at 100 if you have the gear/AA count than it was at 93 when Feerrott opens up. If you don't want to put the effort that it takes to get gear and build up AAs then this is not for you.
fwiw I do play a ranger and I know what we can do and I posted from the standpoint of what people perceive of the class. Playing a ranger to its fullest potential probably takes more work than any other class I have played to date. The only advantage the class really has is that if you can take the boredom you can wrack up 7-8k AA in a few months quite easily. The issue is that as I see it, rangers require that level of AA count to start to be truly effective in all their roles.
I tuned my ranger to become a headshot mastah. And he's very effective in his mid 80s. Of course I have maxed his tanking AAs, but where the fun lies is his 5 AAs that open up a can of whoop-a$$ in either headshotting or melee. 2 overhaste AAs that last over 1 min, super accuracy and super dmg AA clicks. And of course Auspice, ImbuedFerocity, that have other applications. At 1k AAs and level 73 he opened up. I currently have just over 2k AAs and play casually. When higher level rangers watch me work they are amazed at how effective I am, and often tell me so. Once you learn to bunch up your mobs, aim your Hail of Arrows, and tune your autofire in a proper macro you'll be able to kill 15 mobs in the time it takes most groupers to kill 1 high level mob. It's all about the # of arrows you launch and if they hit the mobs. Kills will come automatically. Sometimes I watch higher level rangers and want to suggest to them how to tune their strategies to be more effective. But I keep my mouth shut... No one wants to hear someone tell them how to play their class. Gosh if some ranger came along and told me, "you'd be better off if you did this and that," I'd tell him to __ himself. Keep in mind, when it comes time, I tank nameds in lower HoT and can burn down what needs to be killed really fast. Rangers bring a lot to the table, as you master headshotting, put some time into the other dimensions and become an all round hybrid. Jack of all trades > Master of One.
On my ranger I personally found headshotting to be extremely underwhelming and monotonous for personal grinding. It is nice to have that option available to you in certain situations though. Just remember that soloing AAs is a very minor part of the game.
Just something to consider, but at this time there are no plans to add more levels of headshot. So it's passed its peak efficiency at this point.
hitherto ... if you remain F2P and stay at level 90 for a while, you'll be just fine. Down the road ... never say never.
It gets really old really fast just like swarming. The devs have few creative ideas anymore so they have removed this because they have no idea how to give it to others.
I hope at this time means this expansion. If its something to mean far into next expansions. Well unless you make a concentrated effort to "Balance" all classes in all factors of game IE: No more mages/necros soloing or moloing named IE: No more Bards/SK swarming IE: No more one class having to get 35%+ more AAs (Look at the Caps) IE: No more Some Classes having 4-9 on a raid, where another might have 1 IE: No more difference in what you can Molo (Merc Solo) IE: Well.... you get the drift.
I think all of us know why headshot got nerfed. Not because it was too powerful. Not because it didn't have it's uses. Not even because of class balance. headshot got nerfed because of some rotten apples who were jerks with it. Those who wiped out entire zones of quest mobs and wouldn't even share them when asked. Those who refused to go to instances and instead sat in populated hot zones ripping apart a good portion of them etc etc.
I am somewhat relieved that HS will not be upgraded in its current form. Initially the Feerrott instance was fun, especially in a nice forest zone with a little wandering chaos to keep me on my toes. But I got tired of being hounded by friends to do them. I managed to reduce it to occasional Lesson burns but no hours on end. The sad part is that I think Rangers *should* have a rare, special arrow strike on most mobs. It should be a very very rare proc but what fun to get that rare perfect hit. Would not be game imbalancing that way.
Headshot got nerfed because the game is less dependent on balance and really just about whether something annoys a dev at the moment. The fact that the many reasons for needing faster AA gain on certain classes and other issues have been brought up and really the only response we get is "Yeah, but I don't like it and so I'll ignore reason or logic because I get to decide based on personal feelings."
To answer your question. Headshot grinding is still very very effective. Ranger and HS is still by far the easiest class to put easy AAs on if you can deal with the boredom. If you want proof of how stupid easy it is to put on AAs just look at Magelo. There is like 200 people in the 9000 plus AA range, compare that to other classes and look at relative time played and its a no brainer. It is true they did not add levels to HS in RoF but if you work AAs at level 95 it's no issue. Get your 8000 AAs then level up. Have fun with the HS
The reason why most of the people in 9000+ aa range are rangers is that most classes top out in the 8000s.
The reason why so many Rangers are at 9000 AA plus is because it is by far the easiest to hit 9000. Again the totals and relative time played on the charters tell the tale. ( and yes go ahead and include Rogues, Necro, and Zerkers in the comparison, Rangers can put on crazy AAs with decent group gear and the reason it's so easy is Headshot) Side note if you look at number of AAs Glyphed on top rangers the numbers are off the charts
never bothered to use a ranger for headshot but dont they need really good gear to rip it up like the ntov bow etc?
Doesn't take much gear or aa at all to headshot. However, the more gear, the more AA and the more skilled the player the greater the exp is. Someone just rooting a single mob at a time and headshotting it down will not get near the exp of the ranger pulling 5-20, vinelashing, using tomes, spells, and extra bow attacks.
By all means, try out classes to find out what you enjoy. Just remember, specific abilities that exist in the game that seem amazing may not be there in their current form at some point in the future. The devs are aware of seemly overpowered abilities and you can be pretty certain they will be changed/nerfed/sunsetted at some point. We just have no idea when that will happen.
