I have to totally agree with this post. Rangers arent just Archers, I melee in groups as much as use my ranged arts, no wonder rangers get a bad name on most servers. Ive posted before in other slots about this, go watch Lord of the Rings thats a good example of a ranger, read up D&D on Rangers, Rangers = Close range combat & Long range Combat. Your selling the whole Ranger Community short by posting stuff trying to nerf our short range melee skills. I have never had a problem getting into Raids or Groups because I work hard for my Reputation. Im not saying you have to do close in melee, just back off with the ranger = archer, its your choice if you dont want to use half of a rangers combat arts, but leave off with Nerfing the rest of us. More damage is done to EQ2 by the players than anyone inside SOE. I carry 3 sets of weapons specifically for close in work, depending on what im doing. Seeing threads like this no wonder devs dont pay much attention to what we really need. Ranger Class Specific Gear, Weapons and Armour.
I'm making this post only to point out the conflict in your argument. This kind of acquiescence is the reason problems persist. On one hand you state it is a useless skill yet defend it as functioning as intended, Given that reasoning, do you really intend to suggest that the developers have *intentionally* given us a skill that is intended to be useless to us? If we want broken mechanics or skills fixed/ adjusted then we have to push for it. Quiet acceptance will only leave us frustrated. In the case of Hawk Dive, if you all agree it's useless, then there *is* something wrong.
And people wonder why WoW has millions of subscribers, and EQ2 has a several hundred thousand... Anyway, interesting thread this has turned out to be. We're kinda having three different discussions at once, but hey, kudos to all on the lack of flaming, BS, accusations of whining, and general immaturity. Right on. For my 2 cents: I certainly won't argue that Rangers *can't* be great DPS on raids. They can, I've seen it. Been in a few raids where the other ranger regularly hit 1400+ and outdid sorcerors and summoners alike. But he's an A-game, top-of-the-line player, like a few of the folks we have here who are kind enough to share their experience with us. I'm not one of those players; I don't have the time, skill, or inclination to be. Sure, I've topped a few parses myself, so have other rangers in my guild, but that doesn't mean everything is A-OK in rangerland. I still think we spend more money and more time to have less DPS *and* less utility than several other classes who were supposed to be below us on the damage ladder. Now, that doesn't really matter to 70% of the rangers out there, and more power to 'em. If you're having fun, do what it takes to continue having fun - whether you're level 12 or 70, whether you're soloing, grouping, or raiding, whether you place every night or once a week. For me, I didn't shelve EQ2 because the ranger class wasn't instantly number one on raid parses. I don't put that much stock in parses anyway - I play for fun, not to be uber or compete with my allies. But I got sucked in to that very mentality for a while, despite my casual player roots, and all it did was turn fun into work and make a game into a job. The other aspects (confining myself to class-related issues) that led me to the overall 'blah' feeling were more intangible than DPS numbers - like the lack of a unique ranger role, the genericization of classes across archetypes, the bland look and feel of most equipment, the blatant recycling of models, etc. Frankly, I think EQ2 has too many classes, and the "just another scout" feeling (and the continual balancing problems) is a result of that problem. Anyway, in the end, EQ2 is still a great game with a ton of potential; I just got tired of waiting for that potential to be fulfilled. I made it to 70 with my favorite class, ran the same instances and raids for months, and just plain got bored. As Gerdos said, if you aren't part of a solid raiding guild, your ability to experience the remaining content begins to evaporate once you hit the cap. That doesn't mean EQ2 is inherently flawed; there *should* be content that you have to have a good raid force to experience, that's a necessary part of the game. But for me, as a generally casual player, I eventually felt like I was out of options. I got tired of the time commitment required for raiding, and bored with the same instances every week. I just started looking for a new place to spend my gaming time, and found that I was having a lot more fun elsewhere.
There is no conflict in my arguement. Its not a broken mechanic.. Its been stated before that Hawk Dive and all other pets WILL break stealth. Dont believe that? Grab windrazer, wait for it to proc, then try and stealth. Pets breaking stealth is not just a ranger thing.. It happens to everyone. Hawk Dive sucks. Period. Therefore making is useless in the eyes of many rangers, however, Im sure there are quite a few solo rangers out there that will tell you they enjoy Hawk Dive, and that they find it useful... ask most raiding rangers.. its useless.. Its a matter of perspective. Hawk Dive would most likely have been a great addition to a rangers arsenal IF the proc mechanice of DoF werent fixed. Back when rangers could actually pull agro off their MT this "skill" would have actually come in handy. As far as rangers go now, we dont need any more hate reducers. No one that I know of has "quitely accepted" Hawk Dive in its current state. Its been modified at least once, and was considered for another modification that fell threw before the end of beta. That right there tells me that the Devs are aware of the "current state of suck"(tm) but just dont know what to do to make it useful. It sucks that we had a Dev walk into the forums and announce the great change only to revert that before beta ended... but what can you do?
Er...go ahead and put in the fix that fell through? (And either ignore the griping about it on PvP servers or implement a different fix there.) ...But that's just a thought. I'm kinda heading in the same direction as Kaeros myself. I've been having an absolute blast with the beta of an upcoming MMO.
Honestly I see the problem directly tied in to SoA, if I were SoE, id be looking at ways to incorperate the SoA EoF AA, with hawkdive to make it so its not overpowering..
Imma have to say to the guy parsing on the top off all the parses in his guild raids. Not to flame, but your not super uber and doing everything right, some of your guildies are doing something wrong. Ive tried everything on top of everything to get ahead of our necro's and assassins, and if they want to beat me.. theyre going to. probably while glancing over at the tv too.
More aa's, better gear, more masters.. That helps.. Again - learn to button mash instead of click - that will increase ur dps right there.
if i just could use poisons with my warden, i could outparse my ranger thenagain, i have heals and some nice group utility... evac and ports... muahahaha ++Xan so you still wonder, why theres something wrong with the ranger class??
Rangers aren't just archers, right but they are PRIMARILY Archers. Even maxed out for melee damage you will not get even half your damage from melee, its from a bow. I'm a raiding ranger and what has made me angry is the fact that we are the ONLY class that is not rewarded with an item for our primary utility (ranged dps) from any of the Big/Major questlines of the game. We don't get a bow in the prismatic 1.0 Speak Like a Dragon series We don't get a bow in Godking Peacock's Quest We don't get a bow for the f'ing Claymore Quest All of which I've completed, none of which help our ranged. We have to hope for *2* rare bow drops for our equivalent in 2 or more raid zones to get the equivalent of any of that and what others are getting. One for ammo, one for damage. Spell casters get orbs, symbols, staffs that help their spell/healing damage, tanks get shields and blades to help them stay alife and keep aggro, all non rangers get weapons that suit their style. That's just not right.
At this point I'd take the ammo too, though I don't care if its ranger only. Its at least something that aids in our primary damage/utility, class purpose. As it is the dual wields are meh primary hand proc only. I'd still like a bow on even one of those quests, just once a magic quiver to make arrows like ichorstrand though would be just as keen.
When I'm not raiding I'm almost always solo. I tried to incorporate hawk dive into my regimen when I got it. I really, really wanted to like it. It's kinda sorta sometimes possible to get the mob to aggro the hawk, but generally it's way more trouble than it's worth, and I haven't bothered with using it seriously in either raiding or soloing in quite some time. Sometimes I let it fly as a joke, and squawk a line from the Wizard of Oz. That's about all the use I find for it.
One of the advantages of being a ranger is we are ranged thats the whole point. I think melee is only an option when mobs don't have an ae or your close to them or have a master strike. However the new aa's are positive my dps has improved even did 2445 on alzid in labs last nite and if you get an illusionist in your grp there new buff that buffs double attack on 25% of attacks is very sweet as well.. However no one can say things are ideal for rangers still ammo cost issues and lack of decent bows. Rain caller is an amazing solo bow so i can't complain there either. Perhaps once Emerald halls gets onto farm status and i have 100 aa's and a nice shiny bow i'll quieten down. Alot of the top raid rangers don't complain cos they've got nothing to complain about they've got all the gear and top parse however we're so dependent on that gear i think. I'm enjoying my ranger more but still feel i've alot to learn in my mind there the hardest class to play properly.
Unfortunately, with the adjustments made in EoF it's usefulness to soloers was reduced. In adding the fact that the bird deagros itself, they also reduced the amount of hate the bird siphons. I played with the bird solo when in KoS now and again. It was difficult to keep the mob on the bird, you really had to use your deagros. I've played with it after and now it's even harder for the bird to keep agro.
