Ranger Archive

There is a chance that a creature that detects you while you are scent masked will attack you.

Ok maybe the confusion is caused by what this means: "a creature that detects you while you are scent masked" - does that mean they can detect you and it won't disrupt your mask scent? That is what it seems like at the moment. If that is what they implemented I think that was the wrong thing to do. If an aggro creature detects me, I want my mask scent to fail so I can take appropriate evasive action. As it is now, we have no notification. You just get aggroed all of a sudden and your mask scent is seemingly uninterrupted.

Let's all just agree that it is working as intended, but for the bulk of us, this represents a nerf, since its in a considerably worse condition than it was before. Which backs up my propostion that the only direct attention we have recieved in the megapatch consists of a bunch of nerfs to an alrady dysfunctional profession.

Ok, Pyradius, you mention being able to run near aggro mobs on higher level planets without getting aggro and without losing mask scent. My Camouflage mod is +90. The only thing I lack that would add to that is the Master Ranger skill box. I was on Endor a couple of days ago (post patch). I died once and nearly died a second time from things aggroing me. Yes, my mask scent was on. No it did not fail. Why did they aggro me?

I guess I would be fine with the way it is working now with ONE MAJOR CHANGE: PLEASE notify me when a mob has seen through my mask scent. Even if it doesn't cause it to drop, let me know that a mob has seen me anyway so I can take some sort of protective action!

My exp with maskscent is that everything but the creature I am attacking at the time sees me and attacks, the one creature I'm shooting at sitting blissfully unaware of me while all others mob and kill me....think I'd rather it worked the other way around

I have been having the same experiance. I think it is kind of silly that the creature I am shooting sits back, ignorant of me firing away at it, while all of its buddies come to the rescue.

I cant even walk through a herd of Feral Banthas now without getting attacked, and remember, if one attacks you and you auto-fire back, they ALL detect you. All this while Mask Scent is still up... I HOPE this is not the way it is intended to work.

Many people can pass through a pack of vicious creatures unmasked and remain undetected out of shear luck, I cant even rely on my Master ability to do that.

Perhaps some rangers are uneffected by this "bug". Perhaps those same rangers are just extremely lucky... Whatever the case, we are obviously experiancing extreme diferences when it comes to Scent Masking, so please try not to say we are wrong or that this is the way it is intended to be.

Forgot one thing:

Why can I be scent masked, standing 50m away from a dragonet or scyk and still get stalked? I mean, if they are going to be able to sense me with mask on, shouldnt I have to be much closer? Like 15-20m even.

There is an easy way to tell if something is going to detect you. If they get the "?" or "!" over their head, they're noticing you, despite your Mask Scent.

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Pyradius wrote:
There is an easy way to tell if something is going to detect you. If they get the "?" or "!" over their head, they're noticing you, despite your Mask Scent.

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Umm yeah, we already know that. What we don't know is why, when the mob gets the "?" or "!" over their heads, does our mask scent keep going? I mean, people without the "benefit" of mask scent randomly have some creatures ignoring them and some aggroing them. Using Mask Scent shouldresult in noticiblyfewer mobs noticing you and when they do, it should get disrupted. What is the benefit of even using mask scent? I have actually been aggroed more often while it is active than when not using it at all.

Why does it keep going? Well my question to you would be, Why on earth would you want your entire mask scent to break over one creature? You seem to like the "warning message" it sends you. I on the other handprefer the fact that all the other hostile creatures around me won't insta-aggro just because one non-vicious creature detected me.

Stalking creatures stalk people regardless of Mask Scent. As for your success rates, they are a stark contrast to my own so without knowing more about how you play I cannot comment on that.

You don't understand what I am saying. I have noticed that it makes no difference whether I have mask scent going or not. I still get noticed and aggroed no matter what and it actually seems to happen MORE often when I DON'T have mask scent on. And, if one creature attacks me, chances are all his buddies will join in anyway (especially on the higher level planets where everything is BAF), so why NOT have it fail if you get aggroed?

Yes, maybe we are all used to the way it used to work so we are all confused. I just think since we have this nice little ability, we should get some enhanced feedback to go along with it, something not available to non-Rangers (What's that? A unique Ranger ability? No, it can't be!). Sometimes, red things pop right next to me or behind me. I would have to turn to see whether they hadthe ? or ! above their heads. If I could just get some kind of message that would pop up when mask scent DOESN'T break but when the nearby creatures are nonetheless aware of some presence nearby it would be so nice. Something like (and I put this in another thread on the same topic) "Your footfalls have broken a dry branch which has alerted the nearby creatures". That would be a logical explanation for why mask scent didn't fail, yet you are still in some danger of being discovered.

I understand perfectly what you're saying, however we have simply had different experiences through our usage.

It's called Mask Scent. In other words, you are covering up your scent from creatures. Realistically, you would have no clue it was successful until you saw the creature's reaction to your scent (aka ?, !).

"And, if one creature attacks me, chances are all his buddies will join in anyway (especially on the higher level planets where everything is BAF), so why NOT have it fail if you get aggroed?"

Have you been to Endor? There are lairs upon lairs all in one area, some aggressive, some not. With the old mask scent, you could totally be sneaking past a lair of mantigrues, and end up having it broken due to something totally unrelated to the mantigrues. I don't know how you play, but if I got the combat music while mask scented, I would keep moving until I got to a somewhat safe location to do combat.

One more combat tip, aggroing one creature does not innately bring a friend. Either the other creature would have to see through your mask scent, or you would have to deal damage or receive damage while in the range of it's buddies for it to join in. Therefore, you get aggro, you move asap to a somewhat clear location where you can do combat.

I'm a master ranger and haven't had anything break my scent at all since the patch. It just wears out by itself. I did notice a really stupid bug though, which is what was happening on Lok with Nym Kusak Guardians constantly. I'd walk past a large Nym base and all of a sudden, a Kusak Guardian would spawn out of nowhere and attack me. Now, I'm all for surprises, but it's not my birthday. If a creature is there, it's there...if it spawns out of nowhere, there is a bit of frustration going through my head because there should be some failsafe perhaps to red mobs attacking you when they randomly spawn like that. It shouldn't attack me just because I'm there and the matrix gods decided to spawn it next to me. It spawns JUST to attack me and with no other purpose at all. And to top it off just for kicks, it never even broke my masked scent. Try to figure that one out.

-Z