Ranger Archive

It seems that SOE's original 'vision' for the Ranger prof has a lot more in common with an EQ ranger than a modern or even space age military ranger. Even a glance at the skill tree of both scout and ranger tells you this.

We have mostly the same types of skills as a Ranger from the fantasy world scenario. But the problem is, we arent even as good.

In beta, we received all the surveying tools as a starting Scout. At that point I believe that SOE intended Ranger/Scout as a support and resource gathering prof. A jumping off point for the Miner class perhaps?

As the profs were revamped they seem to have lost thier sense of definition for both Rangers and Scouts. And lost sight of the impact on the ranger prof that making the Scout class a temporary jack-of-all-trades prof that beginning players would put points into to survive intially and later drop, would have on Rangers.

The other profs that will keep Master Scout or some portion of Scout as their jump off to higher profs have somewhere clearly defined to go (no matter how bugged or gimped atm). And a role in pvp.

The question is, are they going to continue to keep us in the Middle ages or bring us into the Space Age. I don't mind if it's the Middle Ages so long as those skills can mesh with and be advantageous to us in the Space Age world we live in.

At the end of the day, the differences in xp for CH, SL, BE, BH don't matter. As we all know its gained dfferently and geared towards the rate of gain (supposedly) anyway. It's the invested skill points that count. And we have to spend just as much as these other profs and get a lot less bang for our buck.

To give us worth in PVP, something that all these other profs have, would be simple. Just give us bonuses vs CH pets (and better bonuses vs animals in general). The concept is already there.The Bioscience tree IS our combat skill after all. It would be nice if we were sought out by other profs for our animal killing skills not merely our animal harvesting skills. I believe that was SOE's orginal intention. It just got lost somewhere...

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Esechoa wrote:
Time spent as master scout about 10 sec.

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Haha, you beat me by around a minute. Durn lag... ; )

I've got news for everyone, it's worse than that.

Even as a Master Scout, you really can't domuch more than a Day 1 Novice Scout noob.

Think about it. Even as I approach Master Scout, I have no more abilities than I did when I first started. And since everyone picks up Novice Scout, pretty much everyone can do what we do.

Forage? Never even tried it. It doesn't yield any XP and all it produces is fish bait. Even fishing doesn't yield XP.

Maskscent? I have yet to have it work for me, not even once. Rare is the occasion that I even think abouttrying it. It doesn't do anything for your hunting ability since the moment you open fire you're detected. I thought that it would help me negotiate tough planets where few dared to tread. Wrong. I just ran all the way across Dantooine and back without using maskscent and even though the radar was jammed with reds, I was never attacked.

The terrain negotiation is a nice extra, but really, is it all that special? Any farking chef or musician can go where I go, it just takes him an extra 45 seconds. Enhanced burstrun? Running away from a critter really really fast ain't exactly a sign of success.

Harvest enhancements? Big deal. An extra 15% or so when harvesting. And since 80% of the people can harvest themselves (because they got novice scout) you can't even really sell them for all that much.

Camping? The only reason people camp now is so they never have to do it again. And again, it's a skill you picked up when you got novice scout.

But when I advance in my rifle skills or brawling skills, I get new weapons. I get new attacks. I become deadlier in combat. To be honest, my rifle and melee advancement do more, much more, for my hunting abilities than anything in the scout tree has to offer, let alone the ranger tree.

Better traps? I dunno, the traps are somewhat useful but to be honest, I still have to make myself use them in combat, because I pretty much know I can kill my target with my rilfe and 2 handed sword skills (you know, the useful skills).

Any chef, image designer or dancer can plunk down 5 skill points and pretty much do everything you can do.

First, its 15 points for Novice Scout. Mask scent and camo become pretty effective later on. Camo is a passive skill that decreases the chance of a red dot agroing. It also allows you to get in a few more shots before they find where you're shooting from. The more advanced traps have allowed me to solo red con mobs. There is a noticable difference between Novice and Master Scout albiet not as big of a difference as other professions.

>>>There is a noticable difference between Novice and Master Scout

I don't know. Unless there's some huge advance at the Master level, I just don't see it (and I've been at it for 3 weeks). Are you sure that you haven't been at the ranger level for so long that you've forgotten how incrementally smallscout skill advances are?

>>>albiet not as big of a difference as other professions.

That's my point. When I advance in my other professions, I instantly benefit from it, I become deadlier in combat. I get new attacks and better weapons.

Scouts get skills that they only use to move further up the tree, traps being the only exception.

I run a little faster, but even chefs can run.

I harvest a little more, but even novices can harvest.

Forage is useless, as is maskscent.

And camping? Big deal, so you get new and improved camps that nobody uses.

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been on these boards since 6/26, and was on the dev boards since May 2001, and I have never laughed so hard before!!... this has to be the funniest post ever about SWG...

naturally, my opinion may have something to do with my delusional aspirations of being a real Ranger!

-C

I agree with being able to fight against the CH creatures more effectively than other combat classes. I also believe that my traps should be able to affect the CH's creatures. This ability alone would allow us to be of more assistance in player group fights. We distract the creatures that are unleashed upon our fellow players by effectively trapping them, and even out the fight by removing pets from the equation. Just my opinion: My traps should mean something other than "wild" creature use only.

i just got the ranger skills for a cooler camp

everything else just seems like crap

My vision of Ranger (work in progress)

Creature HuntingCreature/Humanoid Trapping Frontiering* Humanoid Hunting

Includes:

Creature Ranged to-hitTrapping Creature Bonus CampingHumanoid Ranged to-hit

Creature Melee to-hitTrapping Humanoid BonusTerrain Nego.Humanoid Melee to-hit

HarvestingRescueCamouflageHumanoid Defense

Creature Tracking ConcealHumanoid Tracking

Creature DefenseForaging*

Creature Knowledge

XP Costs:

I = 20,000 Scout 20,000 Trapping20,000Survival20,000 Combat

II=40,000 Scout 30,000 Trapping 40,000 Survival40,000 Combat

III = 60,000 Scout 40,000 Trapping60,000 Survival60,000 Combat

IV = 80,000 Scout50,000 Trapping80,000Survival80,000 Combat

*Foraging grants small xp

*Frontiering: by definition one who is a Frontierer travels beyound the known boarders traving over land and sea. Traveling outside ofcivilizations where there are no roads ormilemarkers to lead your path. You survive in the wilderness of what you can find, or scrounge up. It makes more sense(tome at least) thatterrain nego goes along with frontiering.

New traps to include: Lures (creature only), Humanoid traps (ranged defense, melee defense debuffs, movement imparing), experimentation on traps to effect: quanities, effect duration, to-hit

New modular camps toinclude: droid recharge, SOLID roofs, ability to enter tents, Evac capabilities at master, fox hole camps, blind camps

Terrain Nego that continues to effect up-hill speeds, flatland speeds, swimming speeds

Tracking that includes a bonus to radar effectiveness at long range, waypoint style tracking

all i can think of at the moment

Myrrdin Mauv

Ranger/Pistoleer

Starsider

Mayor of SYN City

I guess I missed the part where you offered contructive suggestions on ways of improving the class.

just add in conceal and have it remove us from the radar of other players. that would rock. we sneak in scout out the enemy base/city and report back to our troops of what is going on. plus when being chased hit conceal and if the enemy losses sight of us, we're gone. hiding in the trees, behind a rock. do that and rangers would be complete.

on my conceal idea, make itone of the lvl 1 skills to hide from humanoidnpc'slike mask scent looks for creatures. then, at master ranger, extend the conceal to work on player's by removing us from everyone's radar. of course like mask scent, you shoot or get shot, it wears off. it also if we get to close to other players it wears off. exclude other ranger from this, so that more than one ranger can sneak together. ok, that all i can think of now. what you all think?

I don't think truer words have been written. I worked hard (all those camps and critters) for my Ranger status, hoping that i would be able to make a pretty big difference in a hunting party or in the GCW battlefield. But, as it stands, I just crawl really fast (Note: I do crawl pretty fast for a Rodian) But the skill I use the most is my rifleman skill. Who cares about the Riflemen?

I want to be able to sneak undetected. Throw "traps"and fire at my enemies from the comfort of the shadows, where i thrive.... I want to be able to camoflauge myself to the point where i don't even show up as a little red dot on a stormtrooper's radar. I want to make my presence known while keeping my identity secret.

I want to be able to see farther, run faster, look harder, build better, hide safer, and attack easier than anyone who tries to hold a candle to me.....

I want to be a Ranger.