Hunter Class?

Ok so what's these rumors of a new Hunter class?

I have no idea what you are talking about, but if such rumours exists they are very unlikely to ever have a chance of coming true.

EQ can only support 16 classes and it can only support 16 player races, these are hard-coded limitations of its current architecture and changing them would be very expensive, difficult & risk breaking the game completely.

One of the more code-savvy posters explained why in another thread, something to do with the bit-register for races & classes being only 2 bits in size each.

While new classes & races in EQ are not impossible, they are just incredibly unlikely to ever happen.

Plus...aren't they called Rangers in EQ?

We can always dream though can't we? But yea, a Ranger sounds like a Hunter to me. There was a game that is no longer in existence unfortunately and the name escapes me that had about twenty to thirty classes and a good number of races as well as I recall. But when you really got down to it they were basically all the same classes anyway to an extent. For example and I am just going by memory and making things up along the way to fill in the gaps of memory, which are many... there was a Hunter, a Ranger, a Woodsman, a Lumberjack and a Warden. That is five classes that in retrospect, besides an initial 5+ to this stat or 5- to this one, was all in the realm of the exact same thing.

As I recall you could not change anything on character start up, but the main idea of the five classes in big differences between them were slim. Then you had the same thing for the tank classes and the magic classes, etc. EQ to an extent has the same thing now, but less so or was in Classic anyway. But the more they blend each race and class and add spells that were really only initially intended for one class into another or add AA points to meld classes and race perks even further, it basically becomes what I described above in mind set. You lose that uniqueness to each class and race.

So, what would you expect to see in a hunter class, that is not already in a ranger class makeup?
If there is something new you would like to see, please explain. There's certainly room to make improvements in ranger class.

Like :

Ranger Tanking ability (Ranger gate) ..........
You have been slain by a level 1 bixie. You are now level 114.

Minimum bow distance .........
Your target is too close to use a ranged weapon!
Your target is too close to use a ranged weapon!
Your target is too close to use a ranged weapon!

Dot spells selection......
only one is worth using

Ranger Nuke selection..
Summers , (rest cast too slow and reduce dps, not worth using).

Exodus............
Druid AA that they gave to a different class. but not rangers.

Heals.......
Can cast one good one every 30 seconds.

Ranger DPS ........
Nerfed Damage bonus, Nerfed Disc Timers, Still need to split the melee disc from the bow disc so they are used independently.

Pulling ability
Nerfed cover tracks timer and mana usage, as well as fails often

I'd be curious as to what a Hunter class would have, that could not be added by just fixing ranger class.

For a minute I thought it might be an online class on hunting.

I think they plan to release it along with the Psyker

They could expand on "stances" e.g. Warriors can be Tanks, dual wield, and 2hand specialized. They could give specializations such as this to other classes:
Berserker: 2h Specialized, Ranged Specialized
Ranger: Ranged Specialized, 2h Specialized, dual specialized
Rogue: Ranged Specialized, Assassination specilized (dual Daggers), Bounty Hunter spcialized (1hs/1hb)
Cleric: Heal Specialized, Undead Specialized, Magic Specialized
Shaman: Heal Spec, DoT Spec, Nuke Spec
Wiz: Fire Spec, Ice Spec, Magic Spec
Mage: Pet Spec, Fire Spec, Magic Spec
Beast: Pet Spec, 1H Spec, 2H Spec

Haha

Seriously, this one is driving me crazy.
Even more when paired with:

for kicks.

The overlap is short, and it's annoying.
And frankly, in tight places like old school dungeons (Droga comes to my mind), the minimum bow distance is really irritating and can be shortened by a pinch.

Nadisia plays a squishy ranger? Say it ain't so...

Yeah Sturm, one of my boxes (actually, hubby's box).
It's one of the last active alts created, so she's still pretty badly geared but it's a pretty cool box.

I like its utility, and the buffs (and Auspice + GGotF /yum )

Honestly speaking, while I would never play a ranger (because I have never played anything with a blue bar), I love having them in group because they make my DPS shoot way up. Either Derka or Nathanial are who I group with, especially in ToV missions.

Yep, Ranger mana bar goes away pretty fast, almost like it never existed 2 minutes into fights.

Some how I forgot to put that in my previous post.

All the best gear and full AA don't seem to change this.

games 20 years old their wont be a new class. they have issues balancing classes already and issues with the code, their not going add a new from the ground up class that will be doing the same as every other melee or caster, just added more new AA to try add a bit of fluff to old classes to play little different.

Aren't hunters from wow?

That's because they changed the fundamentals of the classes and even made the uniqueness of races less prevalent. Each class was to represent a specific need, a niche if you will. Over time they have, as one person so eloquently put it, blended or melded them together with everyone else. Adding more AA's would only be more smearing of DNA between everyone already, unless the new choices for said points are geared directly for that particular class in unique ways. Kind of like undoing what was already done.

Edit: And if we are going to add a class, can we add prostitutes please? I need to spend my hard earned plat on something.

Not just no, but hell no. The game doesn't need more classes, and spending limited resources on a major undertaking like this is ridiculous. It wouldn't drive any new subscriptions, there's nobody out there thinking, "you know, I might give EQ a try if only their existing classes had a little more variety", and the idea that an existing player after 21 years has played the existing classes all the way through and is so bored they might quit now, but would only keep playing with a new class is completely unrealistic. That doesn't even address the idea of balancing a new class with existing classes, the whole thing is just a horrible idea.

Stances are the best way to introduce more roles and variety without increasing the class count.

Berserker tank,2h dps, 1h dps
Warrior Tank, 2h dps 1h dps
Rogue Tank, dps
Cleric heals, dps, tank
Ranger Tank, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS
Monk Tank, DPS

You could go on but the issue here is it would require too much balancing and way more work then we would ever think. So short answer never going to happen.