Hello, i am writing this now as i have become increasingly concerned and worried about the state of the Ranger Class. I believe this something to do with what the Devs vision for the class is and was and that has blurred. In comparison the vision for Assassins has always been T1 single target DPS and the counterpart to Wizzies. The outcome is that if you asked player about Assassins they would give the before mentioned description, however if you asked the player about the Ranger class people arent sure if we are T1, T2, Auto attack or now a pet class or what utility we bring to group and raid . Lets go back in time in 2006 , when i started playing as a Ranger, we were T1 single target DDs but the difference to Assassins was that we were built around Auto Attack and Off - Stance instead of cast Chains. Around 2010 Devs started to have the vision that if couldn't compete on T1 Single Target DPS to make us more of an AE DPS Class but not as good as Warlocks for example. So basically we are no High end single target nor High AE DPS Class back than. After a long break Stats started to go up and everyone was became more or less a caster, even more so with Ascension Spells, but how would this translate to ranger whose combart arts and abilities have always been weak as we are suppose to be the Auto Attack class. Now in PoP Devs had a "Vision" for the class to "bandaid" or weak CAs with enormous Passive DPS, Heartseeker Hawk and Makeshift Arrows increased trigger. The only "active" part of the Ranger was to make sure both spells were on Ancient level. Before we go on and i want to point out that i do not Advocate or want an increased Makeshift Arrow as i wouldn't solve anything. Now with this expansion Devs again had a vision of handing out passive caster auto attack to every class. The way it was set up it benefited every class except... the Ranger... The class that was designed around ranged auto attack. First of all bow damage hasn't been increased in years and second Auto attack multiplier do not apply to bow. The situation is so bitter that warlocks and Wizzies do more auto attack damage than ranger with bows.... Further "bandaids" to our class were putting in first Abilty Doublecast buff on Focus Aim a RANGED AUTO ATTACK BUFF, secondary putting Auto Attack Multiplier on Hunter's Instinct although it doesn't apply Bows... All the "Visions" and "Bandaids" made the Ranger a T2 to T3 DPS Class with now meaningful Utility. To give an example on how bitter the situation for Ranger is than that cant even use Essences of Malice anymore..... I have the following points for discussions where i think changes would be most beneficial. 1.) Auto Attack - By class design we are suppose to have hardest/ and high hitting Auto Attack of all classes, followed by Inquis and Zerks. Please beef up bows to a point that they are in line with melee weapons. Auto - Attack multiplier need to apply to bows and give us more buffs. Even on the point you may not agree with me but Rangers SHOULD have the highest AA damage, no (Beastlord) Pet should do double the dps than the Ranger class does and no Mages should even be close to Ranger. It goes both ways, beastlords keep saying Rangers are not a Pet class and their pet should not do insane damage like the did and i AGREE. 2.) Archer's Fury - Our Off Stance, back in the days Quickshot was our highest parsing ability, the heart of our dps. IN EoF it was recognized by devs by putting on Wounding Shot, a dot to Quick shot, on the Ranger class leggins. The same in RoK. The off stance needs to have significantly improvement so that the abilites parse where they should be. 3.) Huntsman - Our Lvl120 what "feels" like an ascension ADC, CB and WDB Buff. Is the spell better than what Assasins get ? Surely it is! It looks even good on the paper. But is it new tool to come closer to Assasin, Beastlords and other DDs the answer is NO! It does nothing for it and even worse it comes on the expansion of two temp buffs Focus Aim and Killing Instinct which replacesthe latter.. Focus Aim - Focus Aim V had 42% ADC (Ancient Level) on Beta compared to 24% on live. I dare to say a much more improved FA does more for the Ranger. Killing Instinct has 79 CB (Ancient level) compared to 129 CB assasins got on their buff last expansion.....Again i would rather have Killing Instinct buffed. Would i would like to see for Huntsman is: 1.) Damage Proc to ranged attacks like "Mark of the Huntress 2.) Bow Damage Buff 3.) Arrow Buff 4.) Making Hawk Attack a Permanent pet 4.) Utiliy - Ever since i played the ranger class the devs credo is "You are either T1 dps or utility" and this bias thinking has always being a problem. It is OK for BLs to do high DPS and have the best utlility of all DD classes. I have never been and advocate of nerfing classes but you tell all classes "DPS or Utility" or give all DD classes meaningful utility. Hawk Attack should be a permanent deaggro Buff. Maybe heartseeker hawk can be chnaged toa buff that gives Attack an offensive component besides deaggro. Focus AIM, please give it a small portion ADC for the group. Dear Devs what ever you plan for the class PLEASE speak with longtime Ranger and High end Preds, so that get this class back to where it belongs.
At the very least they should be adjusting Bow dmg since auto attack seems to be the flavour and whilst at it , make the Pet weapons DR also respectable if they insist on letting summoned pets have high passive dmg from autos.
Adjusting the bow damage sounds easy but it could bring a bigger imbalance. Lots of that mechanic is shared with the channelers. If they adjust the bow damage to bring rangers on par with sins, they'll also give a huge boost to channelers that are already way OP. It's a catch 22. Even though they adjust rangers on par with sins, they would still be missing utilities to be considered in raid. I would bring a sin or a swash any day before a ranger.
Oh boys what are they doing to rangers now =( Maybe they could add a line of code if class.ranger then bow.dmg(RangerLoveBuff) Hey is auto atk back a thing now? I miss those days dearly and bring back, what was is called, rain of arrows?
If i see the damage on raids they should minimum doubles up the base dmg of all ranger spells. Sin with fatal follow up outparses ethershadow assassin easily. Beastlord is in every way over powered. last raid im using new bow for testing… Autoattack on ranger 3,2billion, Sin 5,7billion and beastlord 8billion? WTF is going on? My ranger have also the higher melee stats and 1200cb more then the BL and a much higher cb overcap because of p2w… the only way to close up to the other classes currently is to wear the level 100 epic 2.0 bow with the purple ravaging rune. And only because they have removed celestial gate and none of the other wears the old ravaging rune which still works. Unfortunately this works only for T1 content… And i think they will also remove the rune if they read this post… because they hate rangers. There can be no other explanation. Perhaps we are not spending enough money for station cash compared to the other classes.
Actually, if they'd just give rangers even a tiny bit of utility--say, a couple of arrow attacks that debuff--then rangers would be more wanted. But hey, this is why we have alts. When we get a new expansion, you can shift to the alt that's the FOTM and win.
I am playing ranger as main for 15 years i don't want to play something else. I want that they do their job. If an alt is an option than also to play another game! They promise for 2 or 3 years that they balance the classes. Every expansion they say we do it next year on new expansion and nothing happens.
Anyone who's played this game more than 5 years knows that every xpac that is released changes class dynamics so that one or more classes jump to the forefront of being "overpowered," while one or more are thrown under the bus. Defilers, inqy, wardens, assassins, dirges, and rangers are just a few examples in recent memory. Players have been screaming (literally) for years about class balancing and it never happens. I have ideas on why that is and I'm sure many of you have similar ideas or theories. Point being, as long as DBG and EQII are "alive," you're not going to see it, so while I don't like the answer, "deal with it," it's a reality. Probably why many have 12-14 alts so they're ready when the new FOTM hits, haha.
Sigrdrifa /Bhayar, while i do understand your point, i still believe its harsh to tell people play a different class. I know many player who only play one class and maybe have a "fun" alt (a second crafter), to either play a different class or suck it up.... The status quo of the game, and by that i mean the population, is in no state to alienate player bases. The Dev(s) in charge of who handed out Auto Attack like candy should have known the impact it will have on classes but chose to as a means of player progression. Why don't we give DDs cures/heals and get rid of Priests or give Guardians the FFU Chain from an Assassin so that they can parse like Monks in the next expansion ....
Rangers currently offer little utility with exception of the damage increaser on searing shot line. Their bow attacks doing less than melee weapons seems unintended when other classes with pets have what seems to be 2handed / bow dmg on a short delay. They could give rangers damaged reduction / power regen/ heals if they are going to be middle of the road in DPS. Though they would be sharing those functions with another t1 scout that likely does x3 what a ranger can do with same stats. Await the class balance, coming soon Nov 2020.
The only complaint I have is that bow damage rating has swapped to the same as a "1H" If you look at the epic 2.0 from several expansions ago you'll see the rating is twice what bows are now. Whoever said auto attack multiplier doesn't count for bow damage hasn't been paying attention to the tool tip or parse. It only doesn't count towards spell weapon damage which you aren't using as a ranger.
Note: I have a fae ranger and enjoy playing her. That doesn't mean I'd ever try to make her into a raider, because as currently constituted, rangers would have to do way more DPS than any other class to be included in a raid because of their utter lack of utility. Over the years, people have lamented rangers having to be the "only class that pays for their DPS" i.e., having to purchase/craft arrows and poisons. I expect Makeshift Arrows was a direct response to that, although I think crafted arrows still are better. There have been laments that "ranger kiting" was no longer a tenable strategy (it totally is, it's just that it doesn't work on everything). In other words, rangers having issues isn't new, they're the red-headed step-children of EQ2 in some ways. Sure, you should advocate for the class. But if you are not having fun playing your favorite class, maybe select a next-favorite class and play that until the wheel turns and rangers are once again valued? Or play for the love of the class, warts and all... my main is a paladin, and when I started out, paladins had to try to accumulate both WIS and INT, because they operated like a hybrid priest/wizard with taunts. In fact, there was a slice of time when a pally did better DPS wearing cloth robes with high INT... and now pallies just use STR, like every other tank. And poor shadowknights! They're godlike NOW, but they used to be bad wizards in plate armor that were awful, so there's a great example of how things can change.
It was tested in Beta and afterwards by some player swapping between Assassin and Ranger and Auto attack Multiplier doesn't affect Bows.......
Test it again. You don't even have to try hard. It's literally on the character page. See damage, eat auto attack multiplier damage/drink. See damage increase for both melee and ranged proportionately to each other. The problem is the bow's damage rating being the same as a 1h (instead of 2h) Also keep in mind the speed of the weapon influences the damage per hit. Hopefully your bow is still set to 8 sec. Whoever "tested it on beta" failed or it was changed since then.
Read my post again and highlight the section where I say, "play another class." All I was pointing out is the rise of fall of classes seems to occur every time DBG launches a new xpac rather than just balancing them as they should. I know many people have different alts (I primarily do it so I have one of every TSing class). If you inferred I was saying just play another class, then you read something in my post that wasn't intended.
What do you mean, rangers increase all incoming by 5%. The worst out of the four "scout dps" is by far assassin's. People are just really bad at math. Plus having three allows you to run each of the poisons.
If you enjoy it, you are welcome to do so. However, you can keep such completely unqualified notes to yourself. We already read your post. No reason to repeat yourself. The ranger has never really been on top. There was always some class that did higher dps. And these are always the classes where people opened their mouths. If you are silent and nothing is discussed, everything stays the same. Why should i wait on something never happens? BL and Sins are in most expansions on top of dps especially on raid. Every time the game mechanics are adjusted, theses classes unfortunately also benefit. If not, they cry and get what they want soon. No we are crying. I don't have to be overpowered to be in the front. That is not what is intended. The ranger just shouldn't go from a tolerable T1 dd to a mediocre T2 dd because nobody opens his mouth!
Yeah today the fix the destruction set. From today again T2 dps. Yesterday i was grouped with some wizard which without set does nearly the same damage than a ranger with the broken set bonus. Seems to be very balanced.
