He was level 25 -- even con, not anything amazing as far as gear goes, but a few of his skills..well lets just say that I'm a little annoyed. First off, he had "Freeboot" -- a Group stealth that was better than Hunt Adept 1. No big deal. Then I was following him, and he was using his own self-stealth...and going about twice as fast as I was. Ok...ok...that's alright. So he can sneak places I can't even GO to, faster than I can...whatever. Then his pathfinding overwrote mine. Alright, I mean, I can't travel faster, even outdoors, being a ranger grants me...no movement benefits, no stealth benefits over a swashbuckler...that's fine, at least I can outdamage him. But I couldn't. At all. Ever. My Makeshift Carbonite arrows can do a backshot for around 200, my Shadowblade hits in the area of 250, and my other spams of attacks do 60 - 80. With yellow con poisons. And weapons that con yellow. And he CONSISTENTLY outdamaged me. *sigh* Think they'll let me change classes? I'm not bent out of shape or anything, not gonna run off and be a swashy, I'm just a bit bummed out, thats all.
Pink Armor was the breaking point for me. I think SOE wants us to get violent. Sure sure, all these are small things... but they do add up... And why the hell does SOE keep track of the highest melee hits on the server... but then not give all DPS classes the same chance at getting on it? I mean, **mods 4 teh win!!1!** is the point of having Highest Melee Hit if it's only amongst Assassins? I am fairly sure I can hang with an Assassin in DPS, but definately not in high hits. They should break it down between subclasses IMO. I mean, even some of our really hard hitting specials are broken into 2-3 hits - thats not even giving us a prayer of getting on the chart. Yes, Swashbucklers are nice... and I may add that they get a Mez and a Taunt in the 20s. So.. I dunno what SOE was wanting to do with them... But the main thing is... the mez... I want a mez.. All I get is this crappy Cheap Shot. Swashes get both. Like I said, give our hawk a distraction ability or something. They do good damage as well, I can vouch for that. They may not hit as hard as some of our bow specials, but their normal attacks and such do keep pace with us rather well.
And we have...what? 1 knockdown attack? I was looking at the Swashy skill list, they get 2 knockdowns every 10 levels. I need another almond joy. gah.
im not sure why people are worried about dps pissing contests allready, to my knowledge there arent even any parsers out for eq2 yet.
theres the ORIGINAL parser. your brain You'll notice that most of my post was about the stealth stuff. Speed of movement, etc. But yeah, when I can clearly see a swashy with more utility outdamage me, I think being worried doesn't NOT make sense.
Not in one yet. I am confident that Rangers (if played correctly) have higher DPS than even Assassins. Who knows until it's parsed though... All im saying is my Swash friend can pretty much keep up with me in DPS. We each take turns pulling mobs off of tanks so I know he is decent.
I am ranked #26 on my server for highest melee hit, and tonight it should go up a bit with the 333... I am fairly happy with the overall dmg ratio vs defensive ability of my class; my Warlock friend gets jealous of me a lot because he can't solo anything. but I REEEEALLY think we need a high-speed stealth ability....
whats killin gme is looking at skill list for swash's...sure they might not be able to pull out the 250dmg etc etc etc..but all of there skills are on 30sec timers...most dont require stealth...OR a bow....SOOO.... Rangers need to deal with being able to back up to bow ranger (possibly taking more agro from other mobs), only able to get ablities off once a fight (well the big 2). Even if swash's could do 125dmg with their 2 or 3 big attacks....thats more dps then me. PLUS they get lots more group friendly skills. Rangers can't even do highest burst dmg on scouts. Assassins have same set up as rangers only dont have to deal with bows 90% of the time. So they are cheaper and do more burst dmg. HMMMMM can we say something doesn't sound right. OH about SoE keeping track of high melee hit..yea thats stupid. No one will ever touch a assassin. at least if things keep up the way they are going. 750dmg at lvl 24ish...give me a break. Magic dmg is possible with al classes. because of HO's. the leader on Lavastorm is a ranger actually. had a 600 and a 750ish dmg magic HO at lvl 20-22. But i think in the end its going to be Wizards and Assassins.....how stupid. They need to break it down by class...or drop that out all together. Now the other rankings ok those are fair..but come on..dont make me start an assassin just to make the leader boards.....and heh instent they get their 24 skills they make it. it almost always does at least 400-500dmg....last time i checked that was DOUBLE what any of my attacks were doing.
A well played assassin will always outdamage a well played ranger. What we are over looking is our bow. It may not do overwhelming damage but the damage is done at a distant. You (or I for that matter) may not view this as a good way to balance, but that is the way it is done. I don't mind Assassins doing more damage than me from stealth, I don't mind Swashies doing more damage from the straightway position, but I do mind that both wear the same armor as us and have the same health. Message Edited by Dieguy on 12-03-2004 01:11 PM
I think my major hangup, in retrospect, was that he could move faster stealthed. I don't want a group stealth ability, we're a self sufficient class, not meant to really be utility for OTHERS, but I would like self stealth that's unbeatable. Maybe only outdoors...I don't see why high level rangers wouldn't be able to RUN stealthed, when outdoors. Unbalance the game? No, I doubt it. Stealth has appropriate limitations.
Not sure about the rest, but I don't think Assasins are necessarily the only heavy hitters. I am on Butcherblock server, started playing the day after release I believe, maybe 2 days. I am currently ranked #15 on my server for highest melee hit and am a Ranger. http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/pplayer_achievements.vm?characterId=111176108 Talamas
butcherblock is one of the newer servers iirc, once more assassins get their big 5min refresh CA you will drop down the list very fast, my best hit is 364 and im currently ranked 53rd on Unrest, there are 3 rangers with bigger hits than me, but none rank higher than 41st on the server, i would be surprised if there are any rangers on the game-wide top 100. Rogues are supposed to have faster refresh CAs, they also shouldnt have to use sneak in battle, because they dont get CAs that can compete with shadowlunge, backshot, or tripleshot. On the other hand i agree that we should have fast sneak, i was super pissed when sneak and hunt stopped stacking, and i think position restriction should be taken off of attacks like shrouded strike, and movement restrictions taken off most if not all bow CAs. As far as comparing dps in any legitimate way goes i'm waiting on a reliable parser, watching numbers go by either over the mobs head or in text makes for a very rough estimate.
I totally agree on the fast sneak point, and somewhat think we should have group stealth also. PREDATORS are supposed to be the masters of stealth. Most of our high damage attacks are based off of it. Only a small counterpoint to our damage. No other scout class can get off 3 or 4 high damage shots before even getting hit (ranged). I guess that somewhat makes up for the difference, but not enough in my opinion.
We need an exclusive outdoor zone "sneak" ability, where we move possibly at half speed, depending on your skill in it. A fast sneak in dungeons wouldn't make sense considering we are outdoorsman. As for damage, yeah, when soloing, I can get a mob to half health usually before it even hits me, and I think of that as a major advantage over the other scout classes.
You guys should use your ranged attacks to your advantage. Just get a group of 6 rangers together and pull orange mobs. If you setup a system where you all fire at once, they'd all die before they get to you.
Im bloody pissed somewhat about rangery damage output too to some degree. Im a lvl 29 ranger and my higherst melee hit is with a piercer and not with a bow allthough I got one of the best bows one can get out there on my server. I upgrade all my skills that are sold on the market and that makes me even more pissed that my highest damage hit isnt with archery. Allthough my guess is that this is pre-lvl 30 before us rangers get more archery skills than at my lvl now. But seriously SOE if I wanted to do more damage with my close range weapons then I would make a assassin with short recast time skills than long recast time archery skills Period. :smileymad:
