Relevant Ranger patchnotes for GU56, the patch we were all hoping would finally address some of our concerns: Spirit-blessed arrows now have a slightly different icon. Void-warped Wood now stacks in piles of up to 200. ... I'm pretty stoked, how about you guys?
what are u talking about we got a shiny new bow if u want to spend 150 raid marks on it ... but heck if u dont have a easy mod tox bow by now... thanx rothgar and zxelgad for the ranger changesim so looking forward to FFXIV myself Uncle
If they are smart they are at least planning a big PvE GU before the release of FF14. I always gave it up for EQ1/EQ2 for the dedication to PvE content but this recent trend towards PvP seems to indicate they don't plan to do that anymore when that was basically the only thing they had over most other MMO's including raiding. FF14 is poised to crush EQ2 in the PvE area if this continues and they have been getting demolished in PvP since launch by countless MMO's, now they are just getting crushed slightly less. Difference between getting disintegrated and being cut up to a fine pulp. They're working on having sub-par everything instead a few good things. And if its a grab for more customers FF11 also proves this can be done through having a stellar PvE game with only small amounts of PvP, their subs have been beating EQ2 for years, can't imagine FF14 being any different.
In fairness to the Dev's this is only the first of what I expect to be many pushes to Test before the next GU. At this point the only thing we know for sure is that there is still a lot of polish needed and that at least one Raid zone is missing. Other than that anything could be included. To be honest I'm not expecting much. Partly because its less disappointing when nothing happens (everyone loves a cynic) but mostly because we have a lot of complex issues that have lead to the current state of a relatively unique mechanics class. I don't think ours is going to be a "slap a few abilities in and make some minor changes". Our fixes are going to take a while to develop and code and it sounds like most of the programmers are tied up with performance issues (though I could be wrong on that). Most likely our turn is going to have be in a GU dedicated to class balance or in the next expansion. And that is provided the SP and Leads see our problems as a greater than a slew of other "current issues". Before you get too mad at specific Dev's remember no time frames were given for even the minor things we were promised so far. GU56 was our expectation, not their promise. But still that doesn't stop be me from being disappointed with what I see so far.
I never truly expected major mechanics changes this GU. By which I am talking about the ranged ae auto attack and ranged flurry. But I did expect some at least minor tweaks to our ranged DPS. I expected this because frankly, its ridiculously easy in terms of executing it. The balancing of it and how much to add would be much harder than actually doing it. A little harder to do, again in terms of numbers, not coding, I would love to see a 'vanguard' solution that gave us ranged variations of melee attacks. they would just share the same timer so we couldn't 'double up' on them. For example we get a ranged version of 'Bloody Reminder'. Maybe even a different name like 'Piercing Reminder.' Make it different by shifting some of the initial damage to the dot portion, or all of it. This way the AA's for the skills wouldn't have to be adjusted either (like the one for the bloody reminder line in TSO). Repeat for other major DPS skills. Don't get these variations through AA or anything either, they are just put in. Maybe make it so their only usable in offensive stance (as if rangers use defensive a lot...). I just think the vanguard rangers are stellar, and before any one suggests it rudely yes I do play it as a matter of fact and raid on the weekends.
Everytime we ask for our spot in the lime light they're sooooo busy working on more important things. I'm glad they invested so much of this time into revamping the travel system which has worked perfectly fine for the last 6 years... I'm sure the next update we will get to look forward to the return of highpass hold for level 20's, or a revamp of thundering steppes and then have them pass us over again for another 4 months while they fix them. This is such crap, I wish for once they would listen to what the players want (Velious and mechanic fixes) instead of some low level crap that we have to much of already. One person asked at the last dev Q&A if they could put out one update with just fixes to classes and Xelgad's response was that they're doing that and adding new content on each update. I don't see it... During beta testing when we had a dev join our vent for a raid he had no clue about how to play this game. One player asked if their beta buff toon could have some T4 gear and he didn't know what that was, he summoned a bunch of VP gear, then he forgot his mic was on, sat there talking to someone else in the background, joking about how serious people take this game and that real women actually play! We try telling them we need fixes and even how to do it. they think they know better...
This was the first thing come inot my mind..no changes..... It was pretty clear in beta that most ranger would give the devs time till GU 56 to come up with something. It semms they didnt and dont care.... Fyreflytes "fixing" the hitboxes of mobs is the only thing going to happened at the moment..... I think a lot including me will not continue with this game as it stands now.....
To be fair I doubt the new zone stuff took away from resources to fix rangers or classes in general. More likely the people who could 'fix' us spent most of the past couple of months working on PvP, considering from the looks of the patch notes a large portion of the GU is PvP related. Basically travel revamp, new good starter city, new easy-moderate x4, 3.0 shaders, minor tweaks, and a pile of PvP bull that means absolutely nothing to me. At least they had enough sense to work on a new x4 since most high end guilds have cleared most if not all the raid content. Updates also indicate they are STILL playing warhammer online. Least they could do is add a version of public quests while they are trying to steal all the PvP features. http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Category:GU56
Personally I think that the Managment team are just liars who will tell you whatever you want to hear so you keep your Sub up. Its pretty much being proven by the 1000+ posts on the beta forums, next closest scout was 305? posts, and here we are with Melee auto attack still doing more EXT DPS than Ranged EXT DPS, our CAs still behind Swash,Sins, Wizzy,Warlocks not to mention some TANKS. Instead of rebalancing the CAs and Bow Mechanics that are already in place, we get the empty promise of they are trying to come up with new ideas on how to fix us........ Hey MANAGEMENT, you have time to fix your ridiculously broken PVP Battle Grounds, BUT you dont have time to fix a class thats been nerfed in one way or another every xpac for the last 3+yrs, intentionally or not we have been nerfed, you have been told this for 3+yrs and still you keep blowing smoke up every Rangers butt in this game, in case you havent noticed you are losing the customer Ranger base and the ones that havent quit are betraying in what I would consider a large group....NICE !!! Hey Greg your walking into a nice and angry player base, hope you can hire at least 1 competent person to fix Rangers.
While I had very little hope for a complete rebalance this GU (especially when it seems like, from all the dev comments, they are STILL talking about whether we need fixes or not), I was hoping for something. Because frankly if there's no change in GU56 that means no significant change for another three months. I'm okay with a three month GU development cycle when it comes to content, I am increasingly frustrated by all class fixes relegated to the three month cycle as well. It means that even if they do start making fixes, we won't see it until August at best. That's half a year from expansion release. That's not acceptable. I'm going to repeat what I've said before: all I want is a solid answer. Are you going to fix the ranger class, yes/no? If no, then I can look to betraying or finding another game. If yes, don't make us wait for the GU cycle. I would be more than willing to wait longer if I knew that something WAS being done. That something WAS coming, and that once it was finished and thoroughly tested, it would be released WITHOUT making us wait an extra few months just to hit the GU cycle. Rangers have been at a crisis point for some time and I am very sick and tired of hearing about how so many other things take priority. Certainly, the whole team can't drop everything they're doing to fix one class, but class balance issues are far more important than (as much as I may enjoy them), fluff quests, or Battlegrounds, or a travel system revamp, or all these other bells and whistles that, while nice, are not the core game. When the core game is broken you MUST fix it in a timely manner, or you will start hemorrhaging players. And it's not just rangers that need some serious attention. Balance is completely insane and has been for some time now, and every expansion seems to just make it worse.
Only thing I have come up with is that they convinced themselves class balance is 'never ending' and trying to ever fix it completely is futile. Even accepting that it might be 'never ending' that just means significant resources should be dedicated to it at all times to maintain at least a moderate balance.
neiloch@Crushbone wrote: I'm seriously wondering if it's a "# of players issues". Well we have x number of active rangers so it can't be that bad and the problems are tough code fixes... On to X problem that effects more than just highend grouping and raid rangers. I'm honestly trying to keep an open mind but after the general comunity perception of the former class dev's class bias (hey his class is getting more and more powereful and getting cool toys and ours is not) and the previous SP's constant stream of "Rangers, whatever" jokes it's hard not to be a little paranoid/bitter on the balance issue. kartikeya wrote: This would go a long, long, long way to satisfying the community. Hell just telling us what the plan is, even if we had to wait until August, would go a long way. At this point we have no idea what anyone is thinking other than a few vague comments from Fyreflyte, though they only touched on function not class balance, and they had the usual "when we get around to it" stipulation. Please just tell us what you are thinking. The silence is just compounding the issue at this point.
After such a massive effort on beta to try to get the Devs attention, even going so far as to bullet-point every single problem that we experience, I'm through trying. They're ignoring us. But don't worry, guys. I'm sure that fix is coming up just around the corner. It's shaped like a carrot.
Sydares wrote Yes a carrot that keeps you paying your subscription in the vain hope they will fix the class you have put 5 years of effort in. SOE is not stupid - they know people are very attached to their characters and will not let go easily. However, at some point, you need to vote with your wallet as that is the only language SOE understands.
I bet if you started tearing SoE / EQ2 / Dev Team apart on how poorly they have handeled the Ranger class over the last 3+ years, and how many posts have went ignored , or how the class has went from a T1 DPS class to a T3 sit the bench class over on there wonderfull Twitter and Facebook sites you would get plenty of attention...squeaky wheel on in a highly visible place wouldnt make them happy at all.
geez that's such a good idea I'm kind of reluctant to do it. In the sense of how effective it would be in making them look bad. These days with how popular those are, doing that would almost be like trashing them during a television commercial
Venez@Permafrost wrote: Do what we want or we'll make you look bad everywhere? Even if that works all you're doing is guaranteeing bad blood towards the class in the future. Blackmail (which this is a version of) might get results now but I think you're creating a worse relationship in the long term and effectively lose your ability to influence things in the future. I would recommend against this approach. If you're that upset the more appropriate response is to just flat out quit paying the subscription fee.
Nevao wrote: Didnt say do what we want or else, I said publicaly let it be known that they are not interested in keeping ALL of there customers happy, that all they really want is your money and then give examples at how poorly they have handled this class as a example. I think after pushing a group of customers in the closet and refusing to deal with a HUGH list of complaints for over 3yrs, fully deserves some negative feedback so others know what they are getting into before they decide do buy this game and give a monthly Sub. It would also let future customers have a heads up to not start a Ranger if they have any plans at all of joining a END Game Raid Guild. And do you honestly think I care about the relationship of the future Management team ??? The whole dev team, management team turns over way to often for me to even worry about that, We have had how many Devs, GMs, Producers ...in the last 3yrs?? As far as im concerned the whole management/development team is totally unstable,which has been proven by the lack of dedication to addressing Rangers for over 3yrs. I dont want to cancel my Sub, I want my class that I have played for 6yrs to be fixed,I have continued to pay them for 6yrs for 2 accounts and have 2 more unactive now because of my disgust with this whole ordeal. I think that 3+yrs is more than adequte time for them to fix it. I have /feedback and posted in every beta for the last 3yrs, I have posted on multiple forums for the last 3yrs, offical and unoffical - that I know the Devs go to, even if they are not allowed to post on them (Great choice there btw to limit your community feedback btw). Ive been thinking about the whole blog idea for Myspace,Twitter,Facebook for quite some time now. I will eventually type out a whole thing with old posts,data posts, anger posts, idea posts, with dates from multiple sources and post it myself, because quite frankly after 3+yrs im tired of feedbacking, posting,begging,wishing,hopeing that ANYONE at SoE will fix Rangers.
