Ranger Archive
Thread: The Tinkering Ranger
I really was looking forward to being a Master Ranger. I have enjoyed the entire journey so far. Now, however I am faced with a decision. I also love crafting. I know i will never make great weapons or beautiful houses. I will just make mid level items. So i guess if you see me in the wilderness you can just call me the Wandering Tinker. Alas, the lack of points to be truely self sufficient.
ILiado Master Scout/Novice Ranger, Tyrena
And Craftsman (gasp)
"Now, however I am faced with a decision. I also love crafting."
- There have been abundant suggestions to deepen the Ranger's crafting system. Currently it is woefully mundane compared to other systems.
- Other Rangers feel the same way as well, from grand ideaslike the Modular Camp proposal, down to simple ideas likehaving two experimentation lines on traps, its obvious that some of us want more depth in our crafting.
- I agree, I love crafting things. With all the options and decisions that are required in the process of building something like medical stims, or weapons, or armor... I think we Rangers have been left out in the dust. 
- Hopefully GreenMarine's vision includes a more robust crafting system.
* crossesclaws *
N'Raas.
You are so right. I breezed through survival xp because i spent all my time in camps crafting and sampling. I had survival 4 before anything else. I just wish I could do both.
ILiado Master Scout/Novice Ranger, Tyrena
Rangers are NOT hardcore crafters. We craft our necessities and that's about it. By nature we should be traveling light and not staying in one place for too long. I do have a factory but I only place it to make what I need and as soon as my crates are completed, I redeed and take it with me. I don't put stuff in the bank (and still wouldn't if auto-insurance wasn't enabled) As a ranger I really don't believe in tying myself to a location or even sticking around in one area for too long. Even my guild mates have urged me to plant a house near our guild hall. To this day I still refuse. Anyway, I'm not trying to flame. I'm just trying to lay out what I think a Ranger is and what it isn't. I think the devs should work more towards making us more Ranger-like and less artisan-like.
I'm not a Ranger yet, but I'm almost to Master Scout, and headed that way.
However, I've got a host of other skills I also want to have some advancement in, and some basic skills I don't want to give up.
I have a vision of having an extremely self-sufficient, versatile character, and the more I think about where my character is heading, the more I realize I will probably not have the skill points to be a Master Ranger and still do those other things.
After thinking about that for a while, I've more or less decided it's OK to not be a Master Ranger. Why do I REALLLY need the title of Master? Mostly to make myself feel good. But I feel even better about having those other skills and achieving a vision for my character that I like. So, I, too will probably be a "tinkering ranger", though I prefer the old cliche "jack of all trades, master of none."
Someday, my Ranger/Fencer/Pisoleer/Medic will be complete... 
I am not particularly good in PVP situations and I will probably never be able to solo large creatures even with my CL23 pet.
However, I can heal myself effectively and I can survey and build stuff I need. I am a dork because I want to keep artisan 1/0/0/0 so I can make creature habitats.
Ikoru.
I don't believe you are a dork. I really feel that we are just letting our real life personalities take over our characters. I'm an Engineer/Drafter in rl and live in a secluded area. Guess I just can't get away from it.
I will not worry about being "uber" and just stay middle of the raod and hope the others I group with (rarely) will allow me to hunt bigger badder Mobs.
ILiado Master Scout/Novice Ranger, Tyrena
I have to agree with jcow. I had artisan all the way up to eng 4 and survey 3 (no cooking, no business) and nerfed it totally to jack up my medic and pistoleer skills. Miss it, sorta kinda (I made some kick butt couplers and barrels) but he bigger question was, would it keep me alive (no) and am I making money doing this (not really). I decided then to go with medic and pistoleer, for PvE and PvP.
I did use the time sitting in camps to make minor stuff, but found for the good stuff I had to wait til I got the HTFB to experiment. Now that I have the HTFB I lost my artisan skills, catch-22 in action.
JB
Staying alive... beats running through town in your undies
"does anyone feel that wanting the ranger to be a crafting profession also is like having your cake and eating it too"
- We can dream can't we?
"Rangers are NOT hardcore crafters. We craft our necessities and that's about it."
- The other systems all for both options.
- You can craft with experimenting on meds, and they are still usable.
- OR... You can craft using top resources, in advanced components, on the best machines to create the absolute finest medical items possible.
- I would like the option to delve deeper into Ranger crafting, to make items that better suit my play style.
- Adding more depth does not stop others from crafting in a minimalist method. However not having the depth does limit those who want more robustness in the system.
If more emphasis is placed on Ranger crafting I feel the devs will take the approach they've been taking with everything else. Rather than keep current traps the way they are and making the experimented ones better, they will just nerf the current traps we make and makeit nearly a requirement to spend time and resources making top of the line traps. Although,I don't think they could nerf ranger traps more so than they currently are.I could easily see our new line of traps being mostly useless unless the best resources and best experimentationis done.
My two cents.....keep the change.