Ranger Archive

Ok. I've been a master ranger for some time now. Now that they patched the Mask scent I see no reason to be a ranger anymore. I enjoyed the 2-3 shot window when I attacked something. That is now gone!Tracking? Worthless! I used it a couple times just to see what it did, but it serves no specific purpose. Wayfairing? when player mounts and rides come out that'll be worthless. Trapping? works great......if you can attack something that isn't social. Otherwise thats as worthless as the rest. Camo kits? They go bye bye as well once I attack. I'm a little pissed. I spent all the time mastering ranger...and for what? Now I'm thinking of droping it altogether and picking something else. Any ideas?

Uh how is tracking worthless? If you need to find nuna's because they drop 900+ OQ avain meat that you can sell for 20 credits a unit what is the best way to find them? Tracking.

If you are in a city and need to find a trainer or NPC what is the best way to find him? Tracking

If you were ganked by a member of the opposite faction and you need to find them to seek your revenge what is the best way to find them? Tracking

If you are a Ranger/CH or have a CH friend who needs to find a baby of a certain creature what is the fastest way to find it? Tracking

If you are on Tatooine with a group of people trying to find more Krayts to kill in the graveyard what is the best way to find them? Tracking

The nerf to maskscent & conceal sucks but it was warranted I could kill anything white con or lower before it even hit me and I'm sure there are some that could do yellows and even reds. Wayfaring will still has it's uses and camps will only get better. So please if you have a gripe make in constructive and not just spout off and make false claims it doesn'thelp in getting devs to improve the class.

Matthew

Respectfully I disagree with your postition.

1. yeah they patched mask scent, personally i think it makes sense in a perverse way. Mask scent uses (in theory) musks to cover the scent of your character to make the animals not notice you. When you start fighting there are other clues to your presence to the animals. Firstly sound. The critters hear you shooting. They hear the growls of their buddies getting attacked. This overpowers the subtle mask that we apply to avoid combat.

2. Personally I have made over 100k credits helping track everything from npc's overt players, krayts to babies for taming. There was a great post earlier about using tracking to hunt players in PVP. I suggest you read it. IMHO, tracking is the best thing that we have.

3. We dont know how mounts will affect rangers yet, whether their terrain neg. skill will be used or will ours stack with the mount. I say wait and see. If they do make terrain neg. useless, then the ranger community will petition the devs (they listen) to make some equitable changes.

4. Trapping is my bread and butter. I would be useless without my traps, and hey the social patch adds a little of the fear into hunting and keeps me on my toes. I change tactics adapt and overcome. Now my hunting is more fun than ever.

I love being a ranger and yes, there are bugs in this profession, and if you read the pistoleer forums as well as I do, you know that they were severely under represented last patch. All of the professions have bugs and gripes. If or when you switch, you will find those bugs as well.

The point of this game is to have fun, and I for one have no fun playing General Sherman and cutting a path of destruction across a planet. Its like saying you beat Diablo with the cheats and trainers. That's why im not a commando. I prefer what rangers do.

I find a lot of worth in what I do and I make a good living doing it. Maybe ranger is just not your style of play, if so....drop it....have fun....thats why we play these games.

This is not a flame, I hope you find your profession niche.

---

Starraider wrote:

Uh how is tracking worthless? If you need to find nuna's because they drop 900+ OQ avain meat that you can sell for 20 credits a unit what is the best way to find them? Tracking.

If you are in a city and need to find a trainer or NPC what is the best way to find him? Tracking

If you were ganked by a member of the opposite faction and you need to find them to seek your revenge what is the best way to find them? Tracking

If you are a Ranger/CH or have a CH friend who needs to find a baby of a certain creature what is the fastest way to find it? Tracking

If you are on Tatooine with a group of people trying to find more Krayts to kill in the graveyard what is the best way to find them? Tracking

---

Not really disagreeing with you but:

It's just as easy, if not easier, to findcreatures to hunt via missions since our radar is too small to be that worthwhile.Finding trainers is much easier using the /find command as it actually gives you the waypoint and a path leading to it (I did use it to find the rebel coordinator to do the COA2 quest though). Last time I PVPd (which honestly isn't often) I kept my target after I died so I had no need of tracking. It's easier to use missions to get babies, though that ability might have been nerfed recently. I am often used for tracking Krayts, but more often than not someone else sees it before it shows up on my tracking screen.

And tracking is still ganked with a bunch of bugs. In Corellia there is a quest NPC that won't show up on tracking merely because he is on a 5 foot platform. I was tracking to find the Rancor cave on Dathomir and didn't see any Rancors. I turned the corner and there was an ancient bull rancor guarding the entrance. Neversaw him. Oh well. The planets are huge and a 500m range really is not as handy as it would appear, especially after they reduced the spawn levels. It can be handy for rare spawns, though.

Yes there a bugs but it is not worthless like the original poster commented. Also finding creatures has become a lot hardernow that missions have been changed and don't give missions for some of the harder spawns anymore.

I also have never been able to get the find command to work with elite profession trainers.

It also works to help find a certain type of npc like (a noble) for doing a quest that you can't find without running around or using track.

With all due respect starraider, I pay my monthly fee and put one HELL of a lot of time into becoming a ranger. If I want to "spout off" about something I'll do just that. I think everything I stated was a ligitimate gripe. I was asking for help in deciding what to do. I didn't ask for your put downs just because you don't agree with me.

Guys,

If we want to see these threads go away, we really need to quit responding to them (as I respond to one - yeah, I'm a hypocrite.)

Matthew,

C'mon. Use your head. If you got to Master Ranger, I'm sure you fully recognize the benefits of the profession beyond the 2-3 pause you got because of a bug that had nothing to do with mask scent. I'm not going to go into it, because I think you're a smart guy and can figure that out for yourself.

There are dozens of Master Rangers in the game who love the profession. If its not for you, then try something else. But please - the best way to get an answer...a friendly answer...on these boards is to post them up constructively. Calling us all worthless and then asking for help is not the best way to get stuff done.

And FYI - paying your monthly fee gives you the privelege to post here - true. But what gets you the privelege to get a meaningful response from this community is your willingness to show respect. It goes both ways.

Good luck in deciding what you want to do with your character.

B

Well MatthewDaMad I wasn't trying to put you down I was stating that things aren't as bad as you make it sound and as much as you have the right to your opinion I have the right to mine. Quite frankly I am tired of all the complaining and nerf crying about balance fixes to things that were obiviously game-breaking. You can't tell me that 3 to 4 hits on a mob before it even knows where you are isn't game breaking. If you don'tthen I really don't know what to say.

I've justheardalot ofcomplaints with the AT-ST fix, CH fixes, BH Fix, Pistoleer Fixes. Every single thing the devs havefixed has been done to improve the game. People were soloing Krayt dragons with their pets which just shouldn't happen as the Krayt is supposed to be the large group encounter of SWG. I can solo my way through 90% of the content in this game which just shouldn't be possible.

I'm sure we will be getting enhancements soon that will make the class better they've already promised better traps, camps and improved tracking. To answer your initial question I would say stick it out it will get better but may take some time. The other option is drop Ranger and go BH, CH or Commando but I am sure there are more balance fixes(nerfs) coming for those classes.

I'm not trying to get in a flame war here just trying to point out they way I see it. Which is basically what you asked for which is other peoples opinions of the current situation of Rangers and where they may be headed.

And another CH/Pistoleer is born.......

1. You get the same free shots if you're prone and a few m away.
2. Maskcent and conceal are tools to get you from A to B without risking a fight. The change reflects just that.
3. If you understand the limitations of areatrack you can get the most out of it. It is way faster to locate a creature with areatrack than with Tab.
4. Wayfaring terrain negotiation? At 50+ it gives faster crawling speed. One other thing is that the scout and ranger correspondents are still in discussion with the devs as to how terrain negotiation affects mount speed.
5. Traps are not useless. Since I changed my hunting approach from solo hunting to group hunting my traps can make some difference. I mostly use scout traps but the trapping skills in ranger make sure I don't waste a turn trapping that rancor. A long time ago I learned not to waste them on cl 100+ creatures.

I am dropping ranger, but only because my weapon of choice works better imo in groups and I want to try squad leader. Ranger skills have their place in SWG, if you're not comfortable with them you should find another profession that suits your gaming style.

Just take a couple days to think about it. Obviously your upset and we all have been there. If in a couple days you still feel the same way then do something different, but I think you'll come around.

You are obviously unhappy with it, so drop it and move on.

Several reason for and against doing it have been presented...read, debate, decide and move on.

Abomi - Wookie Ranger - Starsider

PWA

do yourself a favor and don't drop ranger for SL. It is the most broken profession in the game.

Anyway, back to the topic. Traps aren't that useful. I spend most of my time killing big game (talkin 150+ stuff) in small groups. First of all, they don't land often. They don't last too long, and their effect on larger game is minimal. There are trap changes coming however, though I don't know what they will do to revive the line.

As a whole, I don't think rangers are that great. Currently, Tracking is the only useful thing (I have used it almost constantly since I got distance tracking). It needs some tweaks, which again are in the making, but definatly the best ranger skill.

As a whole, camo has never served me well. Almost everyone I ever group with has mask scent toa decent level, and many have master scout (Good mask scent and ability to examine for CL, all the terrain negotiation you need - good place to stop IMO)

I play aranger for the roleplaying more than anything. We are far from the worst off as far as bugs (SL for example - BEs, chefs, ...) If you are a power gamer, there are definatly better professions, but I wouldn't call rangers "worthless" exactly.

Anyway, Just my 2c