I created my first Ranger not long ago, as I really wanted an archer-type. Seeing as there are so many classes in EQ2, I would've thought one of the Scout classes was a (more or less) pure archer. I'm only L12, but so far I have just as many assassin/stealth-type abilities as I have bow attacks. Will this class continue to be a assassin/archer hybrid? Is there a possibility of a pure archer build for this class?
Tabris93 wrote: You can't exactly expect to keep firing arrows when your enemy has come into close combat can you? In group situations you can shoot arrows to your heart's content, but if you are soloing those melee, stealth, stun and positional attacks can prove useful.
Oh, absolutely, a few melee attacks are necessary for exactly those types of situations. But so far I have more melee attacks than I have ranged attacks, and so I run out of ranged attacks long before the enemy is dead. It seems so far that the class is meant to be a stealth assassin/ranged hunter hybrid class, and so I was just wondering how the class will develop in terms of ranged attacks vs melee attacks at higher levels.
Tabris93 wrote: Well i've got my ranger upto 33 and it seems to be a 50-50 or 60-40 balance of ranged/melee, i think the best part is that we have melee attacks, arrow consumption for highly-active rangers at level cap is high so having those melee attacks can save you arrows against non-AOE mobs so instead of needlessly using up arrows on trash mobs you can just melee them from behind with standard and positional attacks.
Here's the break down of why rangers seem to only have melee stuff at lower levels: When EQ2 first came out you didn't pick your class (formerly called a subclass) until you got to level 20. It used to be that you picked your archtype (in this case a Scout) when you started your character and at level 10 you would pick one of three classes (for Scout these are Predator, Rogue, and Bard) and at level 20 you would then pick a subclass (Ranger or Assassin). Pretty much all Scout are the same for the first 10 levels, they get the same CAs and play very similarly, at 10 they start to diversify, and finally at 20 you really see some class specific stuff. The classes in general don't really shine until you get to about 30, where you get some of the start of the unique stuff for your class. On a side note, Rangers do use their bow as their primary attack, but your melee stuff will always be strongest. At 90, even in raids, rangers tend to try to get to a "sweet spot" between 2 and 5 meters where you can use both melee and ranged CAs. When soloing, once you get good, you should be able to kill a lot of solo stuff before it gets to you, but that wont come until you have more levels, better equipment, and a good number of AAs.
General_Info wrote: That wouldn't be a good idea if you care about DPS. Our auto attack DPS blows out melee auto attack DPS out of the water. So much so it is viable rangers use 'scout' shields and now even reforge the block stat to something else and be better for DPS than a weapon in the secondary. That's the reason why we use the sweet spot. We are basically using ranged auto attack while casting melee CA's. Ranged CA's are what you do jousted or waiting for the better melee CA's to refresh.
Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: Listen to this man (Neiloch), he speaks the truth. Under no circumstance should you use your melee attacks, our ranged DPS far, far, far exceedes our melee weapon skill. You would be crippling yourself and solo/group/raid doing that. If you are worried about arrow consumption, become a woodworker and make your own. If you want to boost your DPS further, macro your melee skills with /auto 2 so it uses your ranged attack after the melee ability.
I was also concerned about this ine arly levels. I'm now level 66 and have a lot more ranged attacks and notice that my melee abilities are incredibly weak by comparison. I still have to melee quite a bit though. Against single mobs, not so much as my ranged abilities will take them down quickly. But if I'm playing with my merc(tank), I'll send them in to get a group, unload all my ranged abilities, then run in and melee while all my ranged abilities are on cooldown. But it does get a lot less melee oriented as you gain levels.
Do not discount your melee abilities, especially your flanking attacks. In a short burst fight yes ranged CA's are nice but in any kind of meaningful, longer fight if you skip your melee CA's you will be damaging your DPS quite a bit. They reuse faster and several of them have better DPS performance than several ranged CA's. They can also trigger effects just like any other CA (save for some ranger specific procs that proc off ranged attacks). In many fights where I dominate the parse my flanking attacks, bloody reminder, lightning strike and arrow rip out parse ranged CA's such as searing shot, crippling arrow, miracle shot and trick shot. It is impossible to play pure ranged and do respectable top end DPS. No matter how good you think yo are doing playing like this it can instantly be improved upon by large amounts by using melee CA's.
Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: Melee attacks are always welcomed but it is about 50/50 betwene melee abilities and ranged. My personaly disappointment is with our Master Strike as it should not be a stealthed melee ability.
I think of the class and playstyle more as an assassin with a bow than a pure archer. Though it's obviously gonna play a lot different at low levels soloing than it does raiding at cap.
Neiloch@Butcherblock wrote: So that new sheild I got I should go ahead and reforge with some more dps and use that instead of dual weilding? that the dps is why I am hesitant to get rid of my second weapon as my dps is lower with teh shield then the weapon, everything else except for crit chance is better on it so if I can get the dps up I can then get more crit chance with an adorn.
As your melee CAs are not effected by dual wield and you will not wabt to melee when DPS matters, then stats are the most important stat on your melee weapons, so if a shield is better, use that.
Rangers are not who can fight from afar, they are who can go the farther by their own means. You can use the AAs to make it the more archer you want. I use them for tanking lol.
