Did the offensive stance get upgraded? That change was backed out on test , and unfortunately, I've swapped around a bunch of equipment, so I can't see it easily. It certainly didn't get the nice upgrade that it did before it was backed out. It looks like it was a release note error, rather than an actual change.
Effidian wrote: I believe that it did, however I will check for sure when I get home tonight. I did a screen capture of all of my CAs before the patch with a known setup, so I will compare the off stance to see for sure, and will let you know how much it increased for me.
"Unfortunately, from what I observed this is correct and I have total confidence in Etesith ability to work the numbers. I should say that I am also actually very proud of how seriously and positively rangers like Entilor, Effidian, Harry, Anekuh, Tyberion,..., and so many, undertook those test. Thats the spririt of our Ranger community. I was a pleasure to meet all of you at the parsing wall." - Corwinus Thanks for the vote of confidence Cor and I agree it was a true pleasure to meet so many at the "wall" and pool observations-theories-conclusions. I just wish it had been under a different set of circumstances. This includes classes other then rangers that were kind enough to help me gather some comparative data. If they keep the "testcopy" feature around we should schedule something fun to do there ... some sort of a mini ranger event ^-^. Regarding the age old questions of rangers/gear/stats and dps ... I am still grinding through the PILES of data and its become sort of a crusade ... so I will get to the bottom of the bottom sooner or later. Edit - " and yes ... once I get there I will post the details for all to use. " Ent Aka Etesith "at the Wall in 2008"
Okay, here's my overall take. Please people correct me if I am wrong. In looking at everything that has been done I actually think it possible, in the right group, for us to have an overall increase in damage, but only when you are 70+. Now please note, this is going to be a modest increase at best, but I think it will be there. The first reason is change in arrow mechanics (good for 70+ but 0-69 got nerfed all to heck which is well..retarted). Second more buffs procing to range. It will require 1 think however. To see this increase though, whether we like it or not (and this I think was also a little retarted), the way that the ranger is played needs to change. Its no longer going to be a time your CA's to work with your auto attack as much as it will be spam your ranged CA's go to melee until CA's recharge, wash rinse repeat. We are also DEFINITELY going to be burst damage thanks to increasing CA casting speed but not recharge, so I forsee us, depending on the speed of burning the mob, either saying "hey I am rockin" or "god do I suck". Now here is my problem with all of that. Our dev, while he says "I gave you what I said I would" lied through omission. I would have had no problem if he would have said in the Dev chat, and the "we are holding you to this" thread "EVERYONE we are making lateral shifts making you more melee dependant (because this is easier for us to manage) and more CA dependant because the PvP people are yet complaining again about how quickly you kill them." But he did not. Especially when you take his responses on the thread in context with the prompting statements/questions, he lied. He placed everyone udner a false impression by ommitting a key fact, mainly that his vision, as tainted, prejudiced and wrong as it is, of the class remained unchanged. This is just further evidence of his lack of integrity and scruples as further confirmed by his leaking of game exploits to his raid guild. This is my plan. I will likely never stop playing my Ranger or my Zerker. I see this game as what they call it, an mmoRPG and so betraying is just silly when at least the status quo is maintained (if this was a nerf I'd be gone.) That being said I am going to buy a game that should becoming out shortly. I am going to play it. If I enjoy it as much as, or more than, EQ2 I am never looking back and spending my money elsewhere. Why? Not because they nerfed my class, they did not do this. Rather SOE has had clearly 2, I would argue 3, instances in the last year when developers did things for the benefit of themselves and/or a small circle of friends at the expense of the gaming community at large. I believe this lateral shift is a yet another occurrance of this, caused by the dev's playing an Assassin and being in a Live Server raid guild as such. When this game first started Assassins and Rangers dueled for their spot on the parse, this is clearly not the case now and clearly will never be so long as this dev has a job and if there is something better out their I will not be paying the salary of a misanthrope.
Ok a quick reply before I head into game. Been meaning to post for a few days now. I have obviously had more time to try out the changes and I have to amend my earlier preliminary findings. I am liking the changes. I did not notice it at first but I have since noticed the quicker cast times is really helping me get off extra shots which often makes all the difference. My snares and slows are still unreliable but I think I am doing more damage. "Can we get some parses, or screenshots, or something showing the differences? So far all I see is "I can solo just as well as before", or "my bow lost 500 dps"," I assume that was partially aimed at me? Sorry I don't have any solid numbers, I could parse now but I never parsed before so there is no point. I freely admit the ambiguity of the evidence in my first post. "Sorry but I guess I was one of those that really liked doing 90% of my damage from 35m. Not looking forward to having to go back to scrambling around with the other 23 peeps in the melee." I agree with you 100 percent. I have a Brigand, not keen in playing my Ranger the same as my Brigand. While I am not saying we are just the same as the other scouts I did like before how different we were. I am not sure, as nice as better melee ability was, is the right soloution. But I will take what I can get. After a few more days to try out the changes, I am happy enough. Still some things I would like to see changed but I now have less of an urge to betray. (to tell you the truth, the character of my character is so bound up in being a ranger, I probably never would a have betrayed anyway, and what give up my pathfinding enhancement? I love outrunning guildies on horses and wargs too much to give that up" width="15" height="15">)
The feeling I have - and that is a feeling, cause even though I do parse, my grp setups change - is that I'm doing fine, perhaps even a bit better, but for sure not worse. Now mind you, I'm just basing this on the 2 or 3 instance runs I had after the LU. But the faster cast times of some of the CAs and added damage seems to help me. Cause I can fire it fast now, I even specced for faster recast of Roped Shot, and that seems to help both for solo and dps. Furthermore, I even have this feeling although I only used Ranger summoned arrows, and before the LU I used DT summoned ones, which would have worked the same before the LU, but with more to-hit bonus. Of course, I need to check it out a bit more, but it doesn't seem bad; although I must admit I don't know how the situation looks like in tier 8 raiding.
Valkenberg@Lucan DLere wrote: Man, do I feel silly, I've been playing that way all along. Never used a parser, it just seemed like that it was meant to be that way. ********? Maybe. But I've felt ridiculously uber compared to other classes all along, and at 52, have noticed no change whatsover in this "0-69 got nerfed all to heck" change.
Valkenberg@Lucan DLere wrote: Man, do I feel silly, I've been playing that way all along. Never used a parser, it just seemed like that it was meant to be that way. Retarted? (heh,if you spell that right, it gets censored with "I can't control my vocabulary" )Maybe. But I've felt ridiculously uber compared to other classes all along, and at 52, have noticed no change whatsover in this "0-69 got nerfed all to heck" change.
