Or they just want to play that way knowing the limitations. I try not to judge too much as long as the end result I am looking for is the same.
My experience with random_archery_ranger_003 is that they truly believe that's what they're supposed to do. Same with the rouges that have been told they can backstab from the front now and just stand there and mash buttons. Or the monks that think they're pulling gods and spend 3 minutes delivering you a single mob while the tank could just rush the next target(s) and handle whatever is there. Lots of ignorant players in this game. Best to give them solid, helpful advice rather than perpetuate bad ideas with ways to make them slightly less bad.
Not in my experience. The last one, for example, knew nothing about how to pull by level 104 except to hit snare and train us with whatever she got agro on. Simultaneously she boasted about being taught how to play a ranger by a recent guildmate of mine, and that he skills were great. No HA, no lulls, no roots, no punts...just snare and run. Sadly that's pretty typical for me.
I think we are now talking about two different types of players. The ignorant player who is truly clueless and the player who has made a conscious decision to play a certain style and play that way to the fullest. This is after all a fantasy game though the way some people approach it you never would have guessed it. I do fall firmly on the side of maximum effort utilizing the "right" play style regardless of personal preference when a large group of people are trying to accomplish something (group or raid). Quit frankly I don't give a damn how they play as long as they are not a hindrance and are putting out more DPS then the merc's slot they took.
I do wish archery/ranged DPS was high enough to give the players of the class an option. I know I personally have loved playing the ranger class a long time ago in Dungeons and Dragons (or whatever they were called) and my first character was indeed a ranger. But I was hoping to be a pure bow ranger, which is just not feasible compared to the alternative of melee...
It is high enough to be viable outside of copsestalker/emp blades. The pure archer idea is not viable. Pureshot is a poor replacement for copsestalker burn. I'll post the archery parse shortly but here is the baseline. I am full TBM raid geared. Buffs were enchanter haste, shaman unity, self buffs (roaring weapons), gotf, oa x 2. First parse is using dual 20 delay T2 TBM raid daggers with 11 dmg augs. Combat dummy is set to level 110 with ~3600 ac ( should have lowered this). Combat Dummy Qela on 4/4/2016 in 5167sec Kraythos --- DMG: 186453046 @ 36085 sdps (36085 dps in 5167s) [100%] ------ Total: 186453046 -- Pierce: 182116722 -- DirDmg: 4336324 ------ Normal rate: 61.9% (33.8% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 38.1% (66.2% of DMG) ------ Attempts: 29835 -- Hits: 28317 -- Misses: 1518 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 94.9% Total --- DMG: 186453046 @ 36085 sdps (36085 dps in 5167s) [100%] Special: 2: Infusion 6: Staunch 7: Intensity 9: Armor G: Glyph M: Secrets K: Kiss X: Slain $: Saved by DI Produced by GamParse v1.5.1.7 And here is archery parse using Imperial messenger with grim momento and stone of sharpening augs. Same buffs as above. Also, I failed to mention that I had spider proc clicky going too which doesn't work from ranged. Combat Dummy Qela on 4/4/2016 in 3185sec Kraythos --- DMG: 107418358 @ 33726 sdps (33726 dps in 3185s) [100%] ------ Total: 107418358 -- Hit: 107418358 ------ Normal rate: 22.1% (9.7% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 77.9% (90.3% of DMG) ------ Attempts: 5414 -- Hits: 5119 -- Misses: 295 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 94.6% Total --- DMG: 107418358 @ 33726 sdps (33726 dps in 3185s) [100%] Special: 2: Infusion 6: Staunch 7: Intensity 9: Armor G: Glyph M: Secrets K: Kiss X: Slain $: Saved by DI Produced by GamParse v1.5.1.7
More parses. This time same setup as above with no discs running at all. Just enchanter haste, shaman unity, and self buffs including roaring weapons and arachnophobia nimbus. Dual wield T2 TBM piercers Combat Dummy Qela on 4/3/2016 in 3204sec Kraythos --- DMG: 71365654 @ 22274 sdps (22274 dps in 3204s) [100%] ------ Total: 71365654 -- Pierce: 68504244 -- DirDmg: 2861410 ------ Normal rate: 62.3% (34.2% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 37.7% (65.8% of DMG) ------ Attempts: 17960 -- Hits: 14371 -- Misses: 3589 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 80% Total --- DMG: 71365654 @ 22274 sdps (22274 dps in 3204s) [100%] Special: 2: Infusion 6: Staunch 7: Intensity 9: Armor G: Glyph M: Secrets K: Kiss X: Slain $: Saved by DI Produced by GamParse v1.5.1.7 Imperial Messenger Combat Dummy Qela on 4/4/2016 in 13789sec Kraythos --- DMG: 278206327 @ 20176 sdps (20176 dps in 13789s) [100%] ------ Total: 278206327 -- Hit: 278206327 ------ Normal rate: 25.6% (11.4% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 74.4% (88.6% of DMG) ------ Attempts: 22513 -- Hits: 18966 -- Misses: 3547 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 84.2% Total --- DMG: 278206327 @ 20176 sdps (20176 dps in 13789s) [100%] Special: 2: Infusion 6: Staunch 7: Intensity 9: Armor G: Glyph M: Secrets K: Kiss X: Slain $: Saved by DI Produced by GamParse v1.5.1.7 And how about some 2 hander action? Grannus' Grumblecruncher Combat Dummy Qela on 4/3/2016 in 3030sec Kraythos --- DMG: 65152960 @ 21503 sdps (21503 dps in 3030s) [100%] ------ Total: 65152960 -- Crush: 62531453 -- DirDmg: 2621507 ------ Normal rate: 61.3% (32.7% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 38.7% (67.3% of DMG) ------ Attempts: 6639 -- Hits: 5379 -- Misses: 1260 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 81% Total --- DMG: 65152960 @ 21503 sdps (21503 dps in 3030s) [100%] Special: 2: Infusion 6: Staunch 7: Intensity 9: Armor G: Glyph M: Secrets K: Kiss X: Slain $: Saved by DI Produced by GamParse v1.5.1.7
That is actually not as far off as I thought it would be. I obviously know 22k > 20k, but I was thinking archery would be much lower, like 15k. While it would be nice for archery to be 21.5k like the 2h parse was, it isn't so awful that you should be kicked out of a group if you compare those two numbers...
I'm not sure why someone would consciously want to play a ranger using ranged attacks. I'm always thinking in terms of raiding so for me it's all about pushing the most I can out of my class. Even as a grouping ranger why choose to do less DPS because you like to shoot arrows? There was a time 4-5 expansions ago when the bow came back for a few expansions and we were beastly with the bow at range. It was fun and I do miss the excitement of getting the latest and greatest bow. Now the bow is like ehh not on the top of my list. Gotta say though I love our class. I've probably switched my burn style 15+ times to change with the times. We are pretty solid DPS as a melee/caster combo class, we can still do semi-decent dps if the event must be ranged, lots of ways to protect ourselves plus other goodies. I wouldn't play any other class =)
my 2cp as Red Ranger; In a raid, max DPS is critical, it's melee, it's burning, it's keeping all of our dozen or so clickies and abilities on cool down, it's stacking adps buffs, coordinating MGBs, it's relying on everyone else to do their job (healers, cc, tanks). In a group, lots of variables. Bow DPS is less than two weapon DPS, PERIOD, FACT, It is know. HOWEVER, in a group, so many other dynamics come into play, am I the puller, am I the crowd control, can my healer handle me taking a few riposte or rampage, can my tank hold agro...... In both situations, more important than the actual parse data (unless you don't have the dps to get the job done) IS the player pulling their weight, are they stealth AFK, are they auto attack, are they a jerk. If someone is contributing and fun and putting in reasonable effort, I don't expect everyone to be competing on a parse every mob.
Approach ranged dps like you would melee dps and you should be totally fine in a group setting, possibly a raid setting depending on the event. If you are going to /autofire and cast a spell every 10-15 secs or so then your dps will suffer, however, the same would be true if you /autoattack and cast a spell every 10-15 secs or so. You won't be getting 350k+ burns with bow, but with the manaburn nerf you probably won't be doing that in melee anymore either. Before MB nerf a 280k-300k+ ranged burn was possible, probably not now though. Melee burns took more of a hit on the MB nerf than ranged did, will be interesting to see how the numbers compare over the next few weeks from different events. We could probably use an endurance based arrow attack similar to squall or focused blades,( a volley or aimed shot skill) perhaps a mini bow burn ability along the same line as empowered blades, just to give players more options in their dps styles. I would also prefer an upfront mana cost on our arrow proc AA's and allow them to proc from our archery based spells, this would make them more used and useful. As for macro's or spells. Well just keep casting anticipated, dicho, and focused, (add a few others depending on personal preference) and don't slack/afk alot.
It's been tough to see how much of a hit we take dps wise. Myself, Tadenea and Kraythos (or Karthos as you see above) are all seeing about a 20k dps decrease. Thank the maker we all ended up with Vander's Bane just in time for the nerf. I so wish we could have gotten one for our 4th Ranger, he's awesome. We all had to expect the nerf. The best burn with great sustained DPS class in the game can't also be the best ADPS class as well. It could have been much, much worse. I fully expected weapon procs to no longer take charges.
Yeah thats true it's actually still somewhat decent to make a set of nice double ice/fire proc weapons for when wizzys use there mana burn to get something out of it, seeing as swarms or vamp strike get nothing out of it but yeah the dps decrease was pretty significant as you say and honestly so was the Vander's nerf. Kind of got a double kick in the butt for Rangers at the same time which wasn't fun.
