Anyone else feel that the ranger class is getting more and more away from feeling like playing a actual ranger. With the upcomming nerfs, we are in my opinion becoming simply wizards in chainmail. There doesnt seem anything rangeresque about the class anymore, the nerfs are just eroding the fun factor from the class. I'm waiting for the final nail in the coffin and fully expect to see amazing shot nerfed in some way or another (distance most probably). I know a few other rangers disagree but I still believe PVP has been the death of this class and will continue to effect PVE rangers. I finally hit my 50th AA last night and think it's time to retire my ranger. He's got all adept3/masters and lots of relic but he just doesnt feel like the ranger I used to love playing when the game first came out.
I am done caring about this game or wasting energy on it. Rogues and Berzerkers do more auto-attack damage than we do. Let me say it again: A berzerker wearing platemail and wielding a tower shield and large sword can shoot a bow more effectively than a Ranger - a person who has dedicated their life to mastering the bow. I am in a holding pattern now - jsut waiting for a new game to come out so I can cancel my subscritpion and never ever give SOE another dime again. SOE has shown total disregard for their player base. In all fairness, it is not completely their fault. They were forced to release a product that should not have been released and now are playing the catch up game. In the process, they are alienating their entire customer base with poor decisions and even worse PR. The game is getting better, I am not disagreeing wth that. But, this game will wind up keeping its new players and any player that has been around for sometime will still have the bitter taste in their mouths of lu-13, lu-19,lu-24 etc.... How many times can SOE change, change and change again. No planning, no decision making, nothing. Do we all remember these debacles: The ring changes - nerf, release, players spend money, nerf again a week later, waste players money lu-13 - crushed the life out of certain classes (although it was probably necessary for the game) lu-19 - Fixed a broken mechanic (bug) that was in the game since day 1. SOE has the gall to call its player base exploiters for playing the game within this mechanic lu-24 - another "necessary" combat update Bugged content released that is known to not be working Disregard of the opinions of the testing player base Bugged items that are never fixed Itemization that has no real plan. They admitted they had no itemization in the past and now are struggling to catch up. Most importantly, and probably the straw that crushed the camel. All of these changes were done without a nary of PR to soften the blow. Hell, anti- PR was used with the proc change when the alienated their player base by calling us exploiters for playing the game they designed. Wow!That felt good :smileyvery-happy: SOE has sucked the energy out of me for this game. I am wiating for the next game and cannot wait to hit cancel. I will never play another SOE game again and will tell everyone who will listen not to play another SOE game.
RAWR!! Hey, I'll be sorry to see you go, man. You've been a fellow veteran weathering the storms around here, and it's never fun to part ways but I respect your decision. I can't really disagree with much of anything in your post. My solution? Stop caring so much. Get back to it just being a game, and quit worrying about nerfs and re-nerfs and counter-nerfs and LUs and combat updates and the like. My litmus test is: "Would I still enjoy gameplay if I wasn't reading Test notes and griping on the forums?" If the answer remains "Yes" (and it has), I keep playing. If I take the gameplay out of the context of all this extra information, and just think of EQ2 as the game I play when I log in, then yes, it's still a good time. I have good friends playing and some characters I really like and I enjoy my time in-game. It's all the extra knowledge that clutters it up, for me - knowing how changes are being tested (or not), dreading LUs, hearing about upcoming nerfs in Test notes... it's an exercise in futility. So I try to isolate actually playing the game from reading and talking about the game, if I get to the point where I'm entirely too frustrated about an activity that I do in my free time for fun. I'm still enjoying playing a ranger, but I will admit that some of the flavor is gone. I don't feel terribly unique or useful anymore; it's hard to point at our class and find much that we do that someone else can't do better. But I'm still really attached to my character anyway.
Sony has two tactics for all ballance/bugs.. And it is well known but subtle 1: Fix the content that needs fixing, do what you can to patch it up 2: If 1 fails, open a new expansion. Add new ballance and abilitys, any real problems. Dont add them in so people forget about it..
I'll admit, I've remained like a mushroom on the boards as I just choose to be blissfully ignorant of changes and nerfs. I never knew I was broke and never thought I was inadequte in anyway. I provide damage and I give the meeces cheese. Heck every so often I keep catnip and yarn in my back pack for the Kerrans to keep them happy while I'm blissfully shooting stuff and watching my money go out the window on arrows. Broken? Eh. Guess it's all a matter of perception. The arrow thing is a problem. However, I'm happy with my damage. Guess I never knew what it was like to be uber so I never missed anything. By the way I love being a ranger. Message Edited by Nikki656 on 06-13-2006 09:35 AM
Rangers have more flavor than snapple! Heh...sure I dont like the Storm of Arrows thing (read: I hate the change to SoA)...sure I dont like all the changes that come and go... But one, I know no other class has it easy either...if I went and played any other class as exclusively as I play this one, I would be half insane when changes came and went...and two, like other posters have said...if I never came to the forums, I would likely never think I had many problems... I know I was pretty vocal out there on some proposed changes...and likely when I hit the wall (70/70/50) I will also go and play my Templar Roboto more and give him a name in the world of Norrath. However, I will never stop favoring my ranger because rangers kick **** and are just that much cooler for it. content but still insane
Thanks Jay! I agree with what you said. Your test is certainly a good litmus and one that I employ all the time. I think you have to if you are going to play EQ2 with any sense of sanity. I I love playing my Ranger and always will! I dont run parsers and I am not in a min/max guild so I always have a group and a spot in a raid. It is not the gameplay that is driving me out - I enjoy the game but I will admit I have hit a wall at 70 and there are only a couple of things for me to do when I log in (Claymore, TS,raids). The not-caring I am talking about is a very disinterested type. I need to care about my character to have fun, but I don't. I think the problem is exacerbated by overall burn out. It is not that I don't like my Ranger or EQ2, it is more that my hatred of SOE overrides the other :smileyvery-happy:. I am new to SOE games - never played any other MMO by them. After my experience with EQ2, I dont think I ever will. The problem is that SOE knows that we become attached to our characters. We loathe to give them up and waste all that time spent leveling them up and creating backstories. Most of us really become attached to our characters. Born from this attachment, is a strong desire to continue playing no matter what happens. SOE is banking on this attachment keeping people from leaving the game in droves. Well, for me it is a combination of things - summer, eq2 burnout, and SOE - but the MMO claws are slowly loosening and I find my attachment waning. I am going to use this lull in my attachment get out while I can and stop giving money to SOE. With that said, I am not stupid enough to leave without having another game to go to:smileyvery-happy: I did not mean for this thread to turn into an "I quit" thread because I am not. I just felt the need to vent a little and I did - nuff said.
Kudos to the poster who is fine as he is - and glad you see it that way. I simply feel frustrated that in a group, there is nothing I can do to help my group mates. I can't make them attack quicker, harder, or faster. I can't improve their stamina or strength or agility. I can't help them sneak. I can't share my arrows with the pulling tank who has run out most of the time as they are no trade when salvaged and I refuse to pay two plat for arrers when I earn at best a plat a week. I can't even make them run faster as when it counts, they all have horses or carpets. I can debuff fire damage - but my wizard likes his ice comet. I can debuff defense - but the zerker does so much damage know one notices. I do damage. I do damage quite well - if I use poisons that I pay for, arrows that I could pay for (would improve my damage a smidgeon I am told if I bought "proper" arrows). I used to do more, but apparently I was scaling out of all proportion in theoretical future levels (which are not coming in with Echoes of Faydwer). Despite all this... I'll still play a ranger. It's the genre I have most affinity for, though I genuinely doubt the contribution I make, in practical terms. I think others do it better. Ker Message Edited by Keredh on 06-13-2006 10:12 AM
It can only hurt if you care. Apathy all the way! Seriously though, I like playing my Ranger. The problem is, we're just not as good as we should be. We're okay, but there's nothing special we can do - damage, utility, skills. I don't mind the lack of utility because I played a ranger to just inflict massive pain. But it's as people have said, tank classes can beat us often and we're not close to the other damage classes. I think the problem is very simple: Bows have inferior DR compared to equal DW or 2H (just look at grizzie's bow compared to the 2H/DW) Our AAs are rather crappy. Classes which get dual-attacks just kill us in DPS because they get a huge boost from their big melees. (This also affects assassins) Assassins get a significant advantage because of their Assassin's Mark CA which is a huge chunk of dps Note that none of these problems have anything to do with the *amount* of damage in a particular CA. Thus I think SOE thinks we're "equal" to the assassins, when we're not. To be honest I've been playing my alts (monk and necro) and they are superior, although a different playstyle.
My ranger has a mohawk! Flavoricious. Honestly if I had it to do over again I am not so sure I would be playing a ranger. I always liked the idea of a ranger but its a struggle now to stay in the top 5 in damage in my un-uber guild. I still play ranger as a main but there are reasons I am called the Alt King! When I get tired of the struggle to matter I just pull out an alt and re-enjoy the early zones and the changes there. Course a couple of alts are catching up to Ranger boy now so soon I may have to make le decision... Mystic, troub, ranger... whose the least ****!
I have to agree with this 1000%. Our AA selection blows comparitively After looking at all the other class AA lines, it appears that predators are the only DPS class that did not get either a double attack or a CA reuse/cast timer reduction. Double attacks... wow! And for both melee AND ranged attacks? Rangers and Assasins should be so lucky. We got a reuse timer reduction (only for long resuse times, though) and a cast timer reduction; but these are all 'end of tree' AA's that cost 8 AA points apiece. Other archtypes get combination reuse/cast reducers that sometimes arent even at the end of the tree, costing only 1 AA pt! Imagine. Rangers have to spend 16 AA's to reduce SOME of the wait for timers to come back up. In addition, 4 of our 5 AA lines are primarily geared to melee combat. Even the CA in the archery line is essentially a melee attack! In my opinion the AA lines for the ranger are not well thought out and leave us gimped compared to other DPS classes.
I think most classes probably don't really like their AAs. But the lack of double-attack is really hurting. Remember, double attacks I believe get another set of proc possibilities. The only reason I like Poise is because of Focus. And it makes rangering feel more interactive. But as far as end stuff goes it's pretty tame. We don't have any great end skills.
Sadly, I have to agree with Xney and Prandtl. This is why I don't think about AA lines too much, b/c in the end, I find ours to be rather disappointing. Some of our AAs *sounded* cool at first, but at this point, they're rather underwhelming. And don't even get me started on the overalll balance / fairness of the AA offerings that different classes get...
I love my Gwyn and I won't give her up. The changes coming are upsetting and disappointing, but I'll still be here giving feedback and trying to make things better for rangers at all levels.
Hey Bongo, Let me try and find those refernces. 1. Well for the first one - you jsut need to read the description of the Ranger class on the EQ2 website. We are masters of range. 2. This one was back when the argument about the change in legendary imbued rings went in. People were complaining about why the chagnes and Dev said the rings were overpowered and they were jsut finding out because they had no itemization in the game. Basically, devs were out there willy nilly making items with no master plan. It is somewhere in this thread I think. http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testfeed&message.id=46901#M46901 3. The exploiter statment by Blackguard himself. "Some players have been using this to their advantage by deliberately equipping slow weapons in order to give their fast-casting combat arts a better chance to proc." http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...essage.id=47688&view=by_date_ascending&page=2 Both of these are very long thread. THe 3rd one I found the comment for you. The 2nd one I just posted the thread. Sorry but you will have to scroll through for a red name to get the post.
My favorite dev post is the one where they were saying "IF the rangers dps is all based on procs...". Like, there's 50 rangers all saying this is the case. it's obvious to any n00b with a parser at the time. And what they said, about re-adjusting upwards if that were true, has never come to pass. They did a teeny change upwards on only a few skills instead of really looking at it. Argh. The second best was the lack of itemization. That's just mind-boggling but all too easy to believe.
