Showing Posts For Ruar.7280:
I have been deployed for most of a year and played during leave, but I haven’t been in the game in the last 5months so wondering what, if any, major changes have happened now that I’ll be playing again soon.
I’ve looked over the forum some but haven’t seen a lot to answer my questions. I’m more than happy to do my own reading if there is a link or two that could help.
I saw something about a change to pet agro to combat botting but I’m not sure what the details are.
Is LB still poor damage and not worth using?
What about 2hd sword, did it ever get any improvements. I recall it being rather slow for the amount of damage it did.
I saw all the issues with the pet still but that was something I was getting used to dealing with.
Are there any new pets?
1- Make F2 skills instant cast with no casting delay or wind-up period. Incredible frustration results when the pet is rooted in place while an animation runs which caused the target to get out of range.
2- Make “guard this spot” a part of the command bar and not a utility skill. We need more control of the pet. Sometimes pulling a mob is a good idea but the pet has to be set to passive or else it charges into the fray, why can’t we just set it to guard a spot while we work the mobs and then move on later without using up one of our three skill slots.
3- Option to put F2 skill on automatic so it fires in combat whenever it refreshes. Some pet skills are better if they would fire automatically. While setting up a macro key or remapping to an attack key will solve the problem, why not just build the option into the pet settings?
My personal top 10.
1. Pets need to have an innate speed buff so they can keep up with targets and increased HP pool. I’d also make all pet skills fire instantly and compensate with longer cool down times.
2. Longbow skill 1 needs to start gaining damage from 1000-1200 and have a higher 0-1000 damage output.
3. All arrows need to fly faster to the target.
4. 1hd sword reworked to have at most one attack with some kind of player movement linked.
5. 2hd sword needs to hit harder or swing faster.
6. Skills and traits should lose the “utility” feel and instead by more focused on providing a direct benefit. Alternately allow the Ranger to use more skills and traits to compensate for the relative weakness but higher utility factor.
7. More damage to compensate for weak armor or more armor to compensate for utility design. I’d prefer simply boosting damage output since Ranger appears to be a kiting/maneuver class, but given the number of battles in restricted terrain it’s difficult for a Ranger to live up to the implied method of fighting.
8. Add rifle as 2hd option.
9. Spirits made invulnerable to damage, have larger range, and be guaranteed boost not a % chance.
10. Pet revive needs to have amount healed greatly increased or moved to a pet skill option instead of taking up one of the player skill slots.
There are limited resources available to make changes and balances to all of the professions. We all know Ranger is lacking, but it’s been stated the root of the problem is deeper than just simply poor weapon skills. In an effort to help streamline the process lets have a thread listing top 10 changes you would make to Rangers. I’ll update the first post with the most popular suggestions to keep track of where Rangers would like to see resources devoted.
I’ve enjoyed playing the game so far and I’ve tried several different characters. I haven’t tried everything but I can see an issue that will probably cause me to give up the game after a few months.
The issue I see is the lack of options in weapon skills, utilities and traits.
Now, I imagine at this time some people are saying “are you kidding, we’ve got more options than we can load at one time, how can you say there needs to be more?”
Currently I can pick two to four weapons and I get a total of 10 options (excluding elementalist) with which to attack. I think having 10 total attacks to work with is just far too few. Sometimes I want to have a condition build, or maybe AE, perhaps I want something that lets me control movement, or more defensive. If I don’t have the right weapon already selected then I’m just SOL until I lose agro and reset the fight.
What I’d like to see instead is 20 skills for my greatsword and I can load 5 of them. I put in a condition, one movement, a pure dps skill, a block, and another condition. My alternate weapons are a sword/axe combo and for these I load up five AE options. Someone else might load more DPS into their GS build but give up some utility and defense.
The point is each player will be able to choose the weapon that best suites them as well as the skills which fit a preferred playstyle.
As for utilities, I think the limitation of only 3 slots for utility skills is entirely too limiting. I think a better method would be 6 slots; with 3 slots being for passive abilities and 3 for skills that have to be activated.
This allows for players to customize buffs while still having some options for the middle of fights.
Weapons:
Longbow auto-attack needs to hit harder or shoot faster. The special abilities seem to be balanced, but the default is rather pathetic compared to shortbow. I also really dislike the current range variable scaling of damage. I think the 0-1000 area should be higher than current, 1000-1100 a little better, and then 1100-1200 slightly higher. This means in most situations the longbow will do decent damage but someone trying to maximize can hold their range if they want.
Shortbow spread poison should be changed to a single target attack with decent damage. Having a five shot spread results in most of the arrows missing in a group situation, or agroing an unintended target. If it has to be AE then make it a ground target like barrage but with a poison cloud instead of waves of arrows.
Greatsword needs more damage. The swings are slow and while the potential exists to hit multiple targets the short range means you have to be up close to multiple foes while wearing leather armor which is simply a fast way to get killed.
I’d also consider changing maul to have a longer lasting condition, more damage but increase the recycle time proportionally. This might just be my personal preference to avoid having to hit the attack all the time though.
Axe could use the five axe spread attack changed as well. I’d prefer some kind of group bleed, a 100ft slashing twirl doing 3kittenage would be nice.
I won’t comment on 1hd sword because I won’t use it with all of the uncontrollable movement attacks. Having a retreat and leap as the default auto-attack is bad.
Skills-
The traps are fun and I think the ability to ground target them will increase their appeal. My biggest objection is having to be limited to 3 slots when the class is clearly built around the idea of using utility to make up for a lack of damage. I think having five non-epic skills would make sense.
The signets are fairly worthless except for the regeneration. Toughness isn’t needed on a dps class, swiftness is a gimmick and worthless in a fight, the condition one is very situational to include sacrificing the pet if activated. Some of the activation abilities would be nice to use but not when there is a long timer.
The spirits are fairly worthless as well. The don’t move so there’s no adjusting if the fight area changes, the buffs themselves are also week. Swiftness… this buff again? If this was quickness and increased attack rate I’d use it, but I can’t see how running around slightly faster than the already reduced combat speed is of any value. Chance of protection? Yippee. The boost to damage is useful in limited situations, but I have yet to join a group fight where I was in a fixed position and knew about it before combat began.
The traits are pretty good, I don’t really have a lot to comment on them as some are useful and some less so. This is a trend for all the professions however.
Overall I’m fairly happy with the Ranger. It’s a fun class, has an interesting dynamic with the pet, and I get to run around with a big kitty cat at my side. However I’m beginning to see some of the problems reflected in this forum and I think I’ll give my warrior a try for a bit to see how it feels. Hopefully the issues with Ranger are just growing pains and all will be well in the future.
I started the game with a Mesmer but the shatter mechanic is rather frustrating and too much micro so I tried out a Guardian. While I liked this class it didn’t have the on demand heals I learned to enjoy with my EQ Paladin so I thought I’d give Ranger a try.
I have enjoyed the Ranger the best so far and I thought I’d take a little time share my thoughts, both positive and negative. Keep in mind I’ve only played PVE and my comments are confined to that part of the game.
Play style- I prefer Longbow and Greatsword, unfortunately I’ve found both to be lacking as general purpose weapons. I rarely kite, I prefer to let the pet engage and I support and go toe to toe if needed. I like the regeneration signet, I’m trying out zephyr, and then have a spirit pet or trap for my third slot.
My typical setup as evolved into using Shortbow for any caves or restricted terrain and Axe/Axe when I face groups of mobs. I still use Longbow when in the open area and as much as possible as I really like the knockback and barrage. I still try Greatsword because I like the look, but the damage is just disappointing compared to Axe when facing a group, and the bows are much better for single target.
I specced my traits for Nature up to 10 first to boost healing and now I’m working my way up the power branch to boost dps. Initially I had a harder time staying alive than killing mobs but that is starting to change as I get higher level.
Pets-
I went around and collected a majority of the pets and found the Lynx and Polar Bear to be the best for me. The lynx is out most of the time but he dies fast so the bear ends up making frequent appearances
Overall assessment-
The ranger is kinda squishy, but the pet and utility provides decent survivability. Auto-attack dps is lacking and I have to admit I’m disappointed by how long some fights take. Multiple mobs are especially vexing as the pet can’t last long enough for the low multi-target damage output. Whirling axe is fun, but one cycle won’t even get most mobs down to half health, and after that it’s just a bunch of running around hoping I can stay alive until whirling axe resets.
Recommended changes-
Pets:
DPS pets need to do more damage to put them on par with the tank pets toughness. Relying on precision to boost critical is not a reliable mechanic and power + precision should both be boosted to compensate.
F2 delay times need to be reduced to allow pets to interact with targets faster. I don’t like using the special attack because the pet stops attacking for too long before executing the command.
I’d also like some way to have a tank pet, single target dps pet, and ae pet to switch between but I’m not sure how to make it happen. Maybe if each pet had both single target and AE attacks as default the problem would be solved.
More to follow below