This is an old Sticky, and perhaps needs a bit of cleaning up....Current Issues I have with the class (These are what I see as issues Hammie, so I really don't care if you agree or not!) I am going to add possible solutions to each issue that I see, so I'm not just complaining. I LOVE the fact we can DPS now, and I see only a few minor tweaks that need to be brought to the DEVs attn. Also, while I may mention other classes from time to time, my main focus will remain on the Ranger. SoE says the classes are balanced, I disagree, that's all I'll say on the matter. Here they are, in no real order...other than the first one... 1. Utility. Utility. UTILITY! LFG! I need a Tank, Healer, Bard, Chanter, ASSASSIN, and one other DPS. We are a filler class, while our sister class (last time I'll talk about class balancing, I promise) gets actual use in a group. One possible solution? Hawk Attack is permanent, and not affected by AoE attacks. This gives us a similar hate transfer to the Assassin. The Mystic has a pet that is Immune to AoE, so it has precedent. 2. Coverage. Min. distance to the mob, and it takes way too long to cast (even though it says instant). Maybe it is using the stealth function to invis us, rather than its own function, and that is causing the delay? Solution: Remove the delay. 3. Ammo. Not a huge issue here, and I like what SoE did with the broken "Makeshift Arrow" ability. However, it still is a bit of a pain to have to buy or make the copious amounts of arrows that a Ranger will use during the course of a 3 hour raid. (By the way, it's usually around 3000 arrows and that's with the current Ammo Conservation from the mythical and using arrow rip when it's up.) Solution: This is a tougher one to solve. To eliminate Arrows from the game would affect a lot of classes and tradeskills. There are very nice higher end arrows that could be rendered useless if Rangers don't need to use them anymore. Maybe give Rangers the ability to summon arrows that are equal to the Spirit Blessed variety? It would have to be something worthwhile. By that I mean a high quantity, or a low cast time to make it useful. I don't want to see the current Makeshift Arrow ability go away, but I would like to see something better than wasting a red adorn to save a few arrows. Another Solution, Make the Mythical Buff Ammo Conservation much higher, around 75% or so. 4. Poison. It doesn't crit anymore. There is an entire AA line for poison that NOBODY I know will use, as it does not really do anything. Most of the scouts I know will still use poisons, because it's a little bit of dps, but not what it could be. Solution: 1. Change the poisons so they do greater damage. 2. Change the utility so they actually hurt the mobs, i.e. slow casting, major debuff, remove ability, stifle for a short time, ect. 3. LET THEM CRIT! 4. Remove them from the game and give a poison ability to all scouts, one for each "color" of poison, revamp the AA line so scouts can decide which type of poison they want each poison to use. Example, Red poison AA can do massive damage, or can DoT, or can do damage plus health regen, Purple Poison AA can do int style debuff and affect casting speed, or can do melee style debuff and affect how hard a mob can hit, or can do a combo of both, Blue poison AA can decrease hate, or add a slowing affect, or a small bit of both. Please feel free to analyze, complain, tell me I'm wrong. Fixing these things, I feel, would greatly improve our class, and in some cases, all Scouts in general.
Landacet Back after 5 years of no playing time. So I came back to the game about 2 months ago, right after the whole hacking issue to find out that raid assasins could solo epic x4 mobs in old expansions. That first of all got me excited about what kinda dps we can punch, I am now in La cosa nostra in guk. Former Raid Tank For Keepers of the realm and highest dps for rangers in the server for 4 years in that time. Rangers still have no utility and have to work hard for dps. Yet there have been signs of improvement, not only are there a couple of rangers that can hit over 300k and squish most assasins but I have seen it myself that i can dish out very high dps even in rygorr, Now as I am beginning to get fable gear and hopeing to get Hardmode I see my dps increase by quite a bit even with no Dirges or Illusionist in group. Its hard to get our dps to where it should be but its all not bad especially when you know your class, you know your combos and you know your timers and group debuffs. If you have any question regarding what my aa line is or what Combinations i used. Dont hesitate to send me a tell.
Kyriel wrote: Not really. 70% of a rangers parse in DoV is autoattack/procs if their gear isn't totally horrible and they're buffed correctly.
some utility suggestions. i know rangerse are pure dps but they arent top dps and some little throw-in utility that isnt totally game changing would be nice. first, let me say, i dont really want any utility interfering with my rangers dps cast order. my sub-par ranged dps already singles me out for the "mechanics" guy. meaning, if something needs to be clicked, put the ranger over there he can dps from range and we want our heaviest hitters to stay dpsing. or a mechanics add that pops in at a certain time, let the ranger kite him around while, again, our heavy dpsers stay dpsing. so, with that in mind, some "out of combat" utility i think is a really good idea, and one iv offered to soe before and was obviously ignored. a sort of fresh water flask type item that gives a small (but still useful) heal, similar to what summoners have with hearts and shards. i know, this is mostly useless, but pre-endgame it actually might be handy for some. a cure item of the similar vane to the above item. out of combat summon, gives group or even raid-wide a cure item, separate from other cure pots. in some expansions the dots are so overdone and sometimes dots come when pots are on reuse, and healers have other crap to worry about. again, i dont think its game changing, but its a silly little thing that a ranger could offer to a group. both of these items, 1 and 2, are truly in the "flavor" of a ranger, sort of wilderness scout foraging for useful stuff. most people will probably argue that these are healer things, but id argue that mana regen is a chanter thing yet necros and conjys get hearts and shards...so why not?
i always wished rangers had more utility, some people dont, thats just my preference. i wouldnt mind having 4 pets to that would group buff the archetypes based on the pet that was cast. multiple buffs(2 max perhaps). have a pet tree where you can choose what the pet does and how much. the tree doesnt have to be tied to AA. level based points im thinking. Lion - fighter: + hate, dps increase, + taunt, +defense Bear - priest: - hate, + healing/wards. + spell reuse. + spell recast Wolf - Scout: - hate, + melee, +range Tiger - Mage: -hate, + spell range attack, + spell auto attack, + spell damage the options for the pets could be endless for what they could do.
Gkar wrote: I've answered you in a tell but I thought I would post my thoughts here as well. There are a couple of fundamental problems with your suggestion. First off, from what little I know about World of Warcraft, this sounds like Rangers as they exist there. The EQ2 Ranger is NOT a pet class, and it shouldn't be. It is supposed to be ranged melee DPS and nothing more. Although as a Ranger, I agree that we do get the short end of the stick as far as utility goes, I don't see making us a pet class being the fix that needs to happen. Secondly, you've described a scout dps class that provides variable utility to a group or raid based on what pet they select to use. This sounds a lot like the role I expect Beastlords to fill when they are released in just over a month.
They better not make rangers a pet class. That was my most hated thing about Hunters on WoW, they were completely screwed if they didn't have their pet. If I wanted to do that I'd play a summoner. One of the main reasons I quit rift as well. Wanted to be a good ranged scout on Rift? Better dump points in pet skills. Might be alright if the buffs were the main part and the pet actually existing in the world was more vanity than anything, but wouldn't be an hour before people started DEMANDING the pets do just as much DPS as summoner ones which is just wrong for so many reasons. Hard enough trying to convince devs to make Ranger's true bow experts when people aren't randomly suggesting they just rip off WoW Hunters.
Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: Did you completely miss my post? I highly doubt this sort of change is coming for Rangers. What Gkar is imagining is almost exactly what I expect from Beastlords.
Umm no, just so happens I was replying to another person that happens to be in this thread. But yes I agree, sounds like what beastlords will be. From what I heard the devs say beastlords are gonna bring new meaning to 'pet class' as in 'you're absolutely nothing without your pet.'
personally i like pets for ranger, but that my preference. it wasnt meant to be a controllable pet. i was just representing the buf with a visual que.. technically it could just be a regular spell.
I've actually found the hate siphon of my Hawk Attack quite useful if I'm in a lopsided group where the tank isn't the same tier as the DPS. Plus it doesn't just help me out, helps everyone in the group that isn't a fighter. He doesn't die often either if I tell him to go passive, opposed to melee range of a mob. I put points into lowering its reuse as well, that way if he doesn't die there is only about 3 seconds every use that he isn't up. The 'natures focus' became slightly more useful since they instituted that 'over cap' stuff for weapon skill stats. Not much though, something like 4% damage increase for melee's in the group. What I would like them to do, which I've been asking for most of the time I have been playing a EQ2 ranger, is adjust that little balance calculator they use. For whatever reason they put way too much value on something being 'ranged' while wearing chain for us thus gimping ranged CA's (compared to melee ones) and making us rely too much on melee CA's for maximum DPS potential. If they're taking requests would be nice if they made melee CA's ranged and work point blank too, except for a few select ones (arrow rip, immobilizing lunge). And I'm still waiting to see the ammo requirement removed for all ranged weapons or an ammo requirement added for caster auto attack, lest ranged auto attack exist in a state of hypocrisy.
