Ranger Archive

Hey everyone,

I had posted this under Xion's last rant, and I thought that a new topic all its own would further generate on topic discussion, and some new ideas. Here goes:

I fully agree with Xion's analysis of what the ranger class could/should be. As far as the opinion that rangers shouldn't be a combat class - or shouldn't have anything to do with combat, let me offer up some counterpoints from my perspective.

Let's start with that whole ranger thing. Xion is dead on here. Let the scouts scout. They're the guys trained in survival and wilderness travel who take point so to speak. Their role should be intelligence gathering, traversing the wilds, using their wilderness experience to benefit them in probing. Their ability to go out on thier own makes them invaulable to a military commander for intelligence gathering purposes, or allows the solo/casual/non-pvper to go off and enjoy a big game hunt without the worries of needing to head back to town constantly to refresh and refuel. A scout is still an enjoyable class under any of these definitions, with all of the same abilities and tactics they currently have. Nothing should change with the scout class (other than the mechanics described and brought up to the devs on the scout board).

But the rangers...

The ranger SHOULD be a more military/combat oriented class. We should be the class that goes in behind enemy lines, skirmishes with enemy troops, and rolls up their flanks. We should be more like the rangers in todays military service - guerilla fighters and light infantrymen, completely able to operate within the wilds. I feel that as a ranger, I should be redoubtable in defense, tenacious in offense, and unmatched in swift hit-and-run raids. We should be unparalleled in overland movement, and dead hard fighters as well. We should be fully able to track enemy troop movements, as well as migrating animals. Not to mention the ability to do all of this from the shadows of some sort of /conceal.

Currently the ranger is none of this. I think SOE missed out on the opportunity to add a class that fits the description above when they chose and implemented the ranger skillsets. I daresay that no one reading this would argue with me that the current ranger abilites have nothing new and unique to offer anyone who is already a master scout, and therefore to a lesser extent a novice scout. The ranger can just do scouty things better.

I hate to use these words, and I don't use them lightly, but to acheive what I think a ranger should be would require a complete change to the current ranger certs. It would likely have to require a consolidation of the wayfaring and "camp-building" lines into a single tree. Traps would work differently - no longer the grenade bomb kind, but booby-traps and the like. Imagine a swoop entering a forest to find out that someone stretched a line between two of the trees...

So now we would have a camp/wayfaring tree, and a trapping tree. The camping tree would be consolidated to represent our increased abilities to operate effectively in the wilds, and the changes to the trapping tree would better represent the type of trapping we do. So that leaves two lines...

One of the lines should be a stealth/camoflauge line all to its own. The wayfaring line accurately represents our abilities versus creatures, so this new line should better reflect our ability to stay undiscovered from humanoids (namely, your faction enemies or anyone you don't want to have find you). /Conceal would go here, as well as new camoflauge bonuses. For anyone asking why the current camo bonuses wouldn't apply to anything in this tree - well, it's a lot harder to hide when someone's actively looking for you. This tree would only apply to swoop gangs, rebel scouts, Imperial stormtroopers on patrol, and so on and so forth. The only way to balance that camo ability is to reduce its effectiveness when used against an intelligent, technologically advanced foe. The new type of camo check would do that nicely.

Our last tree to fill then, should be a combat-oriented tree. It's difficult to decide what should go here. The bounty hunter's abilites suit him VERY well in doing what he does. The commandoes are the hardcore of the weapons junkies, bringing in the stuff that goes boom very loudly. The elite professions are fairly well thought out, with the assault, sniping, and close-range gunfighting archtypes pretty well taken care of. Any new combat abilites could borrow somewhat from these, or they could be completely unique. My personal favorite would be some sort of ability to allow the individual involved in combat to directly support his comrades, sort of like a covering fire ae ability. It would have to be tweaked no doubt, considering the current way pvp damage is dealt. It would deal low damage, but force position changes so that the folks being fired on would be unable to pursue effectively while the firererers (ha!) could scramble back to cover. Of course, this may very well be overpowered in that it would be used more in an assault role than a defensive one. You get the drift though. More combat support abilites than raw damage.

All in all, I think the points I've splattered up there would do a great deal more justice to a ranger class than the current skillset. I know I've forgotten something, and left a lot open for discussion, but that's just what I wanted to do Have fun and drop some feedback in here