I’d like to discuss the “Rapid Fire” mechanics in it’s true valuable meaning.
… After various calculations – I found out I’d rather avoid using it at times.
So my question is:
What it’s true purpose is?
~At former patches – it didn’t apply vulnerability and was only for the damage “burst”.
~After the vulnerability was changed from Hunter’s Shot to Rapid Fire – it became the main debuff stacking ability.
~It fires large amount of shots – increasing the chance of proccing Projectile finisher.
~…
But here comes the “but”
It has 4,5 seconds channel time and currently deals roughly 3400 dmg altogether.
My Long-Ranged shot (LRS) deals 820 damage at max range with a cast time 3/4 (1 second including the animation delay).
By my calculations – if I don’t use Rapid fire and let LRS fire for 4,5 seconds – I’ll be able to deal around 820*4 = 3280 with 0,5 seconds still unused.
That means the damage I deal is exactly the same. The only difference is the debuff applied and chance to trigger effects.
People keep telling me, how they manged to get 15K crits with it, but in reality, it’s the same as hitting 4 crits for 3,75K damage with LRS FOR THE EXACT SAME TIME – thus it’s like not using the ability at all.
I’m using it only at times when I’m facing a melee opponent… Is that really it’s purpose?
This has been the problem with the skill since day one. It’s a utility skill that’s meant to be used when the target isn’t at max range. The problem is they’ve attached the vulnerability to it which makes you want to use it every chance you get. But even this is of limited real use because Rapid Fire doesn’t put a full stack of vuln on the target immediately, but instead slowly over the full channel. So even the skill itself doesn’t take full advantage of itself.
Raw damage wise, and assuming a real total cast time of 4.5 (no aftercast), the skill’s coefficient would need to be 4.05 just do the same damage as max range shot. I would personally like to see it higher so the skill could provide a little burst. Something like a 4.2 coefficient or simply reduce the cast time with the same general plan of a 10% damage increase.
In a standard, max range DPS situation, yes, it is pretty lackluster. Because of this, you generally want to just stick to autoattack. However, it has 2 main uses:
1) Maintain DPS when a target gets close to you.
2) Set up burst in PvP situations.
An example of number 2 is using Rampage as One, then Rapid Fire to stack might on your pet. After this, you can use a burst pet ability like Blinding Slash.
1) more chance to hit. (a missed Long Range Shot hurts us more than a missed Rapid Fire Shot)
2) works better against Aegis and Blind (first shot gets blocked, but the next ones won’t)
3) works at any range for the same amount of damage (test it on medium and short range instead of long)
4) can track through stealth (Stealth can’t escape it as easy as Long Range Shot)
Running Fire/Air, Rapid fire will have a much higher probability of double-proc compared to long range shot, even if you’re running 100% crit chance.
Depending on your crit %, it might. I mean, you’re limited by the internal cooldown, so with a high crit %, there’s not a ton of difference between autoattack and rapid fire, but as your crit % gets lower, you start to become more limited by RNG for that proc and less limited by the internal cooldown.
In a standard, max range DPS situation, yes, it is pretty lackluster. Because of this, you generally want to just stick to autoattack. However, it has 2 main uses:
1) Maintain DPS when a target gets close to you.
2) Set up burst in PvP situations.
An example of number 2 is using Rampage as One, then Rapid Fire to stack might on your pet. After this, you can use a burst pet ability like Blinding Slash.
So that basically means that the ability has failed design, just as I predicted.
Because that ability is not only wasting it’s potential
(if an enemy gets in close range – I’m already switching my weapons. Standing still to maintain Rapid Fire against melee is a suicide)
- but it is just an ability that somehow strengthens other abilities or proc effects (Rampage as One / Sigils) while it was not even it’s purpose (or shouldn’t have been – no abilities should be effective only with a certain weapon/ability).
That being said, the only pro of this ability is that it gets you rid of Blind, or removes Aegis while keeping the main portion of it’s damage… Or keeping an open fire on stealthing Thieves…?
It may be just me, but it definitely feels like a failed ability. There are many class professions that have much higher burst damage that Rangers lack.
I don’t feel like Rangers are the no.1 class for sPvP. Not the LongBow version. Would it be a bad idea to give something more to this ability? Or probably reduce it’s cast time or trade some other part of ranger’s LB damage into Rapid Fire?
What I’d like to see is projectile combos become meaningful in the game, and skills that generate a large number of projectiles be meaningful in that respect.
1) Drop the 20% combo RNG. Projectile combos suck, so why restrict them?
2) Add an AOE condition component to fire/ice/poison projectile combos.
3) Add an AOE direct damage component to fire/ice/poison projectile combos.
4) Muddy Terrain is now a smoke field.
I always felt like the main problem in its current incarnation is when you are closer to the enemy and get to use it, actually popping the skill means you have less ways to get back to range (only slow backwards/sideways kite) than if you didn’t bother with it. I feel like it should be better at abridging that – transitioning from closer range desperate shots back to your home territory, so to speak.
In a standard, max range DPS situation, yes, it is pretty lackluster. Because of this, you generally want to just stick to autoattack. However, it has 2 main uses:
1) Maintain DPS when a target gets close to you.
2) Set up burst in PvP situations.
An example of number 2 is using Rampage as One, then Rapid Fire to stack might on your pet. After this, you can use a burst pet ability like Blinding Slash.
So that basically means that the ability has failed design, just as I predicted.
Because that ability is not only wasting it’s potential
(if an enemy gets in close range – I’m already switching my weapons. Standing still to maintain Rapid Fire against melee is a suicide)
- but it is just an ability that somehow strengthens other abilities or proc effects (Rampage as One / Sigils) while it was not even it’s purpose (or shouldn’t have been – no abilities should be effective only with a certain weapon/ability).
That being said, the only pro of this ability is that it gets you rid of Blind, or removes Aegis while keeping the main portion of it’s damage… Or keeping an open fire on stealthing Thieves…?
It may be just me, but it definitely feels like a failed ability. There are many class professions that have much higher burst damage that Rangers lack.
I don’t feel like Rangers are the no.1 class for sPvP. Not the LongBow version. Would it be a bad idea to give something more to this ability? Or probably reduce it’s cast time or trade some other part of ranger’s LB damage into Rapid Fire?
What? It’s actually a pretty solid design. It’s not a brainless spam-this-on-cooldown-for-deeps ability, but it’s also not always a dps loss either. You use it in the right situation to gain DPS or other advantages that autoattack doesn’t provide.
What? It’s actually a pretty solid design. It’s not a brainless spam-this-on-cooldown-for-deeps ability, but it’s also not always a dps loss either. You use it in the right situation to gain DPS or other advantages that autoattack doesn’t provide.
So that means it’s an ability that you use when your baseline DMG ability is not reliable – because this one is slightly more reliable. – Definitely a failed design.
It’s not like a DPS gaining ability – because if you are using it’s advantage of higher melee dmg than LRS – you are an idiot to be trying to melee out a warrior/Thief.
~You don’t use LongBow for melee situations unless you want to use Point-Blank shot or Hunter’s Shot.
~If you use Rapid Fire – you didn’t gain any damage whatsoever, but you restricted yourself to stationary backpedal.
~I somehow get the feeling its only cool purpose is to give Rangers the feeling of love, because high numbers are nice, even though they are Fake – because you didn’t deal that much damage actually – you would deal it with LRS anyways.
