Ranger Archive
Thread: Playstyle post CU
JBMat wrote:
Needless to say, I haven't made any radical changes in my playstyle. Shhot, scoot and toss is the new method which was the old method.
I still use traps and tactics, although my new weapons class does make it easier to kill things. I am wearing armor, just because it has no encumberance (no helmet - I hate helmet head) and it was a gift I never used.
Just for giggles today, I solo'd an enraged rancor. Took less time than it did before, and I got hit less as the p darts tend to snare and stop movement. Yawn - so much for the "you will need to group argument". Wonder if I can drop a Kimo solo now? or a Krayt?
Is it just me or did some things get easier to kill?
JB
Kimo? I dunno... Krayt? yes.
At least as of last week I soloed a bunch while running around looking for Tuskens.
My playstyle isn't much different. Right now I start with a P-Dart and follow that with Knee-Cap. If the creature isn't dead in a few shots I throw another P-Dart and games over.
I'm not sure if we've really seen the game become more difficult, or even if we've seen high end content become "elite." But one thing I can say is that the game has become a bit more enjoyable than before.
Of course I was really bored ...
JBMat wrote:
Is it just me or did some things get easier to kill?
With the respec I dropped all my CH so granted, I now have access to more Rifleman options, but I don't think that can account for one shot kills on NPCs and dropping Rancors without even having to go for a job. A couple knee-cap shots, a trap here or there and just plug away. I can do things post-CU I wasn't able to pre-CU. If the goal of the CU was to make me more reliant on groups it failed... I need them less now than I did a few weeks ago. Which is fine... suits my playstyle and availability much better anyway.
I definitely agree with you guys - I feel just as powerful now as I did before the CU, with the only difference being that before the CU I needed buffs. Now I can go out and start hunting right away and quit whenever I want not feeling bad because I wasted 1.5 hours of buffs. And now I actually feel challenged. Before the CU it was just /headshot, /headshot, /headshot (and maybe /prone before it all if the creature was big). Now I have to think through what I'm doing, and it's a welcome change.
I know that we didn't gain much from the CU -- I am disappointed here because I had hoped that the CU would prop up ranger a bit -- but I do think that the CU has made our existing skillset a lot more valuable.
Maskscent and camo, even though they break a lot, are more important in worlds where even a fight with a low-level creature might mean 2-3 mins, and traps are invaluable not just for snaring and rooting things but also for putting states on creatures (like stun, etc...). Yes, I know that our best traps come from scout, but a lot of our trapping skill (which seem to help the traps stick) come from ranger.
For example, I've helped take down the katarn 3 times and every time my traps played a key role (anyone who has seen it knows that if it gets close enough to eat you, you're dinner).
I've seen a lot of post here claiming that we're weaker and that combat is worse, and it's really hard for me to understand where the posters are coming from. My thought is that they all came up in the days of uber buffs and broken armor and never played the game that we played when we were noobs and no one knew about buffs or could afford great armor so we learned how to use our skills.*
Iseult
Master Ranger/ Mediocre Carbiner
Bloodfin
* note: this sentence refers to no one in particular, so please don't report me to the mods for 'personal attacks'
rsabogremlin wrote:
I find that it's much easier to kill things now too. I was on Tattooine on Friday night and ended up at the Krayt Graveyard where I soloed a Krayt Dragon Ancient. After a P-Dart and a kneecap shot it stayed stationary for the entire battle, which took all of 10 minutes (used an average Advanced Laser Rifle).So at least Krayt Dragons are easy now.
/cry
Soloed? Krayt? Ancient? Wrong, oh so wrong....
Okies, playstyle before CU: I fought critters unarmoured and unbuffed, I knew what was too tough for me because it killed me, and I know what I was too tough for cos it gave dash all XP. I would suit up and get drunk and drugged to go fight anything humanoid, mostly because they had weapons that'd hurt me and tended to bring their buddies along to enjoy the fun.
Playstyle after CU: I still fight critters unbuffed, cos there are no buffs worth the name now, so no loss there. I wear armour as it's jut fancy clothes and has no encumbrance. It also seemed a pity to have been lugging a perfectly good set of compo around in a droid for the past 6 months and never having worn it more than, oooh, twice. Critters I dizzy, dart, kneecap, dart, then sap them down to the ground. I'm learning again which will bring friends and which deathblow, but for the most part I'm looking for stuff at or lightly above my uber lvl63 fighting weight, no matter what it is, cos if gives good XP.
Humanoids? Well, plenty of wild spawns of them around and they seem to be pretty low level. Still, for the most part all I want off them is faction points and loot. Cleared the Tusken Bunker a couple of times the other day, went home with a bag of weird loot many, many credits and fan mail from the jawa and alkhara bandits cos they just love me so now.... (I've not told them that they're next on my list
) )I've been hunting more, on planets that I tended to give a wide berth to in the past as things killed me far too easily. Unfortunately, I'm now LESS ranger and more rifleman/BH and that's what's made the difference for me.
so, these krayts, they're soloable, eh? Usually a little nest of them up in the Jundland Wastes behind my place.... might have to go take a looksee...
DaveG wrote:
JBMat wrote:
Is it just me or did some things get easier to kill?
In a way, yes. For a level 80ish player versus a lower leveled creature, our specials are almost overpowered (I recorded a 2.3K hit against lvl54 beetle today). This is yet another symptom of the inherent and unfair imbalance of the combat level system. I found today that while I could kill a lvl 54 mob in three shots (advanced sniper shot), it still took a while to kill the thing because of the warm up and cool down times.
So in comparisson to the old system, the combat revamp (you know what to put here) is more damage but slow motion. This is why I find the combat revamp (insert) to be really boring. Not only are you stilljust hitting buttons like before, but you actually have to sit and wait for the privledge of hitting those buttons, rather than storing them up and sitting back and watching to see if your "programmed que" would work or not. The warm up and cool down times are really killing the flow of combat, imho. Because of those, combat is neither intuitive or engaging. It is really boring because you're sat watching your tool bar rather than watching the action!
So yes, some things are easier to kill because the combat level system has unbalanced everything, but while it's easier, it's also very boring because the combat que got replaced with the "timers".
Well, for the record, pre-combat-revamp, I made it a principal to always hunt unbuffed (and I mean doc buffs, not foods), and I only carried armour for emergencies. I could even solo rancors and Kimo'swith nothing more than brandy and very careful sniping.
Iseult wrote:
...
I've seen a lot of post here claiming that we're weaker and that combat is worse, and it's really hard for me to understand where the posters are coming from. My thought is that they all came up in the days of uber buffs and broken armor and never played the game that we played when we were noobs and no one knew about buffs or could afford great armor so we learned how to use our skills.*
* note: this sentence refers to no one in particular, so please don't report me to the mods for 'personal attacks'
GDKs and Kimo are soloable.
On Sunday I headed out to hunt Kimos for Advanced battle Armor Cores.
Stopped by Kimo town. Pulled the GDK P-darts, knee cap, p darts knee cap, lay down and sniper shot.
Went to the volcano hunted there and my daughter showed up to help.
The only time it got hairy was when more than 1 Kimo decided to jump in. Again P-darts are your friend. At one point I pulled 3 enranged Kimos thought I was dead.
P-Darted all three and killed them at my leisure.
As long as the battle stays one on one and you keep kimos at bay they can be solo'ed.
But its faster and a bit more fun with a partner.
Before the CU I only ever used food buffs, used Ubese in emergencies, and could unload huge damage on mobs before they even saw me. And that's NOT using concealshot! I actually felt a little over powerful, though it was balanced by the fact that I was taking real risks. I couldn't stand there in a composite godsuit if an opponent got a shot in at me.
Post CU I can still unload a lot of damage, but much more quickly end up with several opponents at close range. Rifleman isn't really designed to work now without another elite combat profession, and Ranger eats up so many skill points that I feel like my hands are tied. I finally respecced a few boxes from Ranger to Carbineer just to get a defensive knockdown shot.
Now that accuracy adds up to more damage if it exceeds your opponent's defenses, I do get the feeling our bonuses against creatures are kicking in significantly. It seems like every shot takes out a huge bite. That also wins huge hate in a group situation, so I take all the damage. If the group includes a CM that's not so bad.
I'm not that discontented. Rifleman and Ranger still complement each other well. I'd be happier if Rifleman specials worked better, or still granted some defense against group aggro. But now that we're ruled by Combat Level, Ranger feels much more expensive than before. I wish we could forgo the camping/foraging line by dropping it from Scout as well.