Ive always been a fan of rangers, why? i dont know I come from a 53 Ranger in EQ1 and i loved how much damage i did with my weapons BUT i hated the way the bow was hardly used for more then pulling (had better spells for that anyway) What id like to know is this....In Everquest 2, what kind of role do rangers play in combat? Are they back with the castors launching arrows at the mobs or upclose in malee range like in EQ1. Nothing stopped me from sittin back with the castors in EQ1 but the damage i did with the bow in that situation would be 1/5th the damage i would do with my blades Can someone clarify this for me so i can figure out if i want a SK or a Ranger Thanks
Oh im sure you can switch between the two, but are they outputting the same amount of damage? Like i said about EQ1, i would do much more damage in malee then i would kicked back. In dark age of camelot i was back with the castors doing WAY more damage then i would in malee (which is what i want)
I was always a ranger fan also. I played one in EQ1 to lvl 65 with 300+ AAs. At early lvls, yeah you HAD to depend on melee cuz archery did less damage and was stricly situational ..and for pulling. But around 60ish u got skillz, disciplines and AAs that made archery far exceed melee. I had my dps with both parsed several times. Archery was better. It depened on your skills and bow/arrow also. In groups I did hellacious DPS with my bow. I only meleed when I was forced to because of mutiple mobs and breaking mez/ los. I used the bow exclusively during every raid also. I was always highly sought after for my high dps in groups. It makes more sense for archery to become "viable" as a main attack form latter on in the game rather than sooner. There are skills that would unbalance the lower levels if they gave them early on. These skills are designed to gradually improve archery as you "grow up". SO u get em in a specific order. You are meant to melee 1st and bow eventally will become your final and main attack. Or atleast a viable alternate form of attack. With the variations they have in subclasses, archery is really the only thing that can make a ranger unique. Moorgard said somewhere (cant remember), that the Ranger will eventually specialize in archery. I expect them to gradually add to archery skills and at the higher levels it will be THE prefered attack form for Rangers. Just look at the weapon choices. At lvl 10 u might have a 2-7 dmg bow..with a sloooow delay. Of course it's gonna be lame fighting with that. The better stuff with the good stats are gonna be harder to get and come at higher levels. That hard hitting fast damage bow u get at level 40 (and when you skills have went up), is what will really make u bank those swords. Finally, I think because of the min-max distance, and the situational combat arts, archery HAS to be planned as the primary attack. They're making it comparable to melee, ie. making the same amount of risk as melee, with the min range requirement. EQ1 only had a max range. You could stand 300 meters away and shooit mobs if u had a high range bow Anyways, that's my opinion on archery being viable. Look for it to be latter on as EQ1 was.
One thing my 53 ranger suffered (which is holding me back from making another one) was the troubles i went through trying to find a group... If a group didnt know how good i was at the class (and i was pretty **bleep** good) they would normally pick any other fighter type class over me...leaving me sitting in a big zone for longer then i wanted I dont like the fact that they are making arrows ammo that you need to refill, almost all other OMMORPG's have abondoned this idea and just focused on the fact that you need a bow
well, i came from a 56 outrider on eq1, and i love, i mean, LOVE the fighting in this one, its SOOOO much more exciting than eq1. all kinds of combat, dual wield, man, it rox.
Rapinis11, If you had trouble gettin groups at 53 thats understandable. If not in a guild it was hard for rangers. At 50 i think, rangers started to get decent cuz thats when they got double damage with every bow shot. Then u got disciplines (trueshot) at 60. AA points increased damage with skills like archery mastery 3 and u got a skill called endless quiver, which meant your 1 arrow never ran out. And rangers got critical hits with bows too. The dps was awesome. If you had played into the 60s i guarantee you would have been BEGGED to join groups. At 65 i tanked in exp grps..i pulled.. i nevered needed a heal if i wasnt the main tank, cuz I NEVER got hit in any group or raid. I stood back and fired arrows 99 percent of the time. Also, i rarely died at high levels. On many group and raid wipes rangers were the last to die or you got away (via sow+camo or sneak or weaponshield). Many times i was the last survivor on raids and had to do the CR. And, i was better dps than rogues. Its all in the skills, the gear and knowing how to play the character. It's gonna be the same way here.
