Ranger Archive

Let me start by painting a picture. Mid-December I decided to take a brief hiatus from SWG. Tired of the "later... later... later" we were getting from the devs, and looking for a general change of atmosphere in my gaming, I moved to the Xbox, then to Web Programming, and now back to SWG. My time away from the game has given me the chance to reflect on my expectations for the CU as well as on my expectations for the Ranger profession.

That said I'd like to take a moment to talk about the changes I hope to see come through the CU.

When I left my ideal picture of the Ranger profession made it look alot like a combat profession. Hoping to find some middle ground between hunting animals and people I most often thought of the profession as something like Combat Medic. Drawing from its two spheres of influence (if by name only) Combat Medic represents a mixture of combat skills and medical skills. (not to mention nunchuck skills)

The long contested feeling that Ranger was not combat oriented created a question for me. It's undeniable that we do not have a "combat base" as defined by the devs. We are most certainly, though, a combat profession.

Though never called a "support" profession (the name that encompasses Medic, Entertainer, Doctor et al.) we most certainly have a role in that regard too. Just ask a Jedi who they turn to when their hunting for the trials, and ask the community who they turn to when tracking. We may not heal HAM or buff, but we most certainly provide support to other professions.

The final 3rd of the equation comes from the "crafting" professions. Again, indirectly (not definitively but influentially) Ranger is a crafting profession. I'm not talking about crafting traps, but rather providing resources (as Artisans do to all the Crafting professions).

Of course this creates a problem. While Rifleman can excel in a branch of combat; while Weaponsmith can excel in a branch of crafting; and while Dancer can excel in a branch of support; Ranger is trapped in the middle.

This leads us to ask about BH, CM, BE and the like. Well, these professions have been clearly defined within their builds. BH has a definite role which they accel at. Despite each branch in its build, at the end of the day BH hunt people.

Similar statements can be made about each of the other "Hybrid" professions.

That brings me to Ranger. The profession which we currently find in limbo. What is the Ranger profession supposed to be?

What are the sum of its parts?

We currently face a number of questions concerning harvesting changes and how they affect the profession. I think that removing the harvesting restriction is a great thing, I think that adding the bonus to groups (without taking ranger into account) is bad. But I think that its important to remember that right now we don't want to hang our hat on Harvesting.

There are other great ideas that lead to a full version of Ranger that would greatly benefit the community. Getting too wrapped up in having Master Ranger the #1 harvestor gets us back to the restrictive idea that Ranger should only be fighting creatures.

If we're going to find our role we need to be willing to give a bit, and I think that giving a bit on harvesting is one place to do this. Though we'd prefer to not be left out of the harvesting changes, and though we'd definitely not like to see everyone get access to what we consider OUR skills, we don't want harvesting to be our 1 and only defining piece.

Just as a final assessment. I think its important to think of Ranger in 4 distinct ways. We know Ranger as the Hunter, the Tracker, the Harvestor and more. The thing is to be ready to take a step the Devs have yet to make (at least publicly), and to start defining ourselves within the community. Owen's documents are great to this end.

I just caution against inadvertantly choosing a path we do not wish to tread.

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WildBil2Me wrote:
I just caution against inadvertantly choosing a path we do not wish to tread.

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Your post lead to some awakening, it was refreshing and I totally agree with what you stated. It is hard to let go of the little we have to our advantage, and it becomes even harder as we are totally insecure of what is to come regarding our profession, that's why we stick to our guns.

Of course as you say..... by us protecting our abilities, we can be choking the possibility for greater things.... I am not sure WildBil, if I would allow myself to lower that guard... it is a nasty little gamble you are asking for.

Even though, it should be considered....

After so long of playing the game I've learned that there are two audiences for a post. Those that I expect to reply and those that I don't. You can imagine who belongs in each group ... ultimately I think its as important for us to to hold our ground as it is for us to give some.

Making sure that the Devs know what we think is key to our profesion while we come to terms with what will ultimately be our niche is key.

At the end of the day do we want to be harvestors or something more? If we want to be something more ... then what?

Ultimately the biggest question is does it matter? Without some sort of Developer interloping are we just spinning our wheels?

After this long New England winter I know alot about spinning wheels, just waiting for the thaw to get some traction now.

I First applaud you on a very well thought out post.

I disagree though. I think we already share our skills, as it is pretty easy for people to pick up some some novice scout skills, many of these novice scouts harvest. So in a sense i think we are sharing our skills. I know a lot of people who have basic scout skills just so they can pickup some extra resources.

I think our profession is defined very well. We are the Elite PvE profession, especially for hunting animals. Other professions that are designed to aid combat pale in comparisson to our PvE (monster) fighting ability. Traps are very helpful (even though i wish they'd be more helpful in higher level monsters), and the terrain negotiation can be a very nice escape tool. We also get the most out of mask scent and Camoflauge.

What i wish is that we had a little better role in the other aspects of combat assistance (PvE (NPC's) and PvP). I think traps that work against people would be best suited for this yet i digress.

But I think a Ranger's Identity is his ability to fight Animals. When the CU comes i get the feeling that soloing Kimo's and Krayt's is going to be a thing of the past. I hope they incorporate Rangers to be very helpful in leading an expedition to find and kill the hunted animals in a group.

Remeber Ranger's are men of the land. We are supposed to know every creature inside and out and be able to use the land, and that knowledge of the creature, to our fullest advantage. This is what a Ranger is. When i think of what a ranger is, i think back to the pioneer days when there were men who set out hunting and trapping creatures, tracking animals for hunters, and blazing new pathsfor people trying to go west. Obviously we can't do all this, but maybe there should be exploration bonuses for exploration POI's or something.

I think Being the Elite PvE profession is the perfect fit for what a ranger is, and i hope that it is kept that way.

That is just my opinion though.

The core problem still is for me that my personal vision of a ranger very, very obviously does not reflect the one from the revamp documents

I naturally *DO* know that 'cracking down' on harvest topics pushes us into the corner where we already are, the creature hunter, but unlike others 'creature hunter' is what I want to be the core role for ranger in the future too, not some "recon specialist" .

Excellent post. 5*

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WeiQuin wrote:

If I can go out and track/kill besties in the wild, why can't I conceal myself from a squad of soldiers? The same skills are required to conceal yourself from a humanoid as are needed to conceal yourself from a creature.

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I agree entirely. I would love camo to remove you from a players radar. If they target you it breaks the camo for that player only. If somebody in a group attacks you it breaks your camo for the entire group.

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WeiQuin wrote:

I maybe the ONLY Master Ranger that doesn't hunt for profit.

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