Ranger Archive
Thread: An outsider's analysis of the Ranger Profession
I've been wanting to achieve ranger status since I first started playing the game. I don't know, rugged individualism has always been in my blood, so the ranger profession appeals to me.
However, I've started looking at what benefits, exactly, are conferred upon rangers and I don't see all that much. I'm not trying to disrespect the class, so please correct me where I'm wrong. I'm not a ranger yet, so 99% of my observations are second hand, that is, listening to what other people have to say about it.
Let's take it one tier at a time.
Tier 1 Wayfaring:
Terrain negotiation - Does this really come into play much in combat? My experience so far is that once your at the point where you have to turn and run, you're dead anyway. Better armor and stimpacks solve that problem, thus rendering terrain negotiation and superior burstrunsomewhat irrelevant from a combat perspective. Running away from a fight really really fast ain't exactly a sign of success.
Camoflage - I have yet to make maskscent work (I'm aproaching master scout) but others have assured me that maskscent works better once you reach higher levels and that it is useful in dangerous environments. I'll have to take their word for it. I've yet to see it work, let alone give me some kind of advantage in the field.
Tier 2 Frontiering:
Foraging - I have no idea what foraging does. I've heard you can find bait that allows you to fish, but that fishing doesn't yield any kind of XP. It seems like a pretty limited ability, but I could be wrong.
Camping -I have yet to hear anyone say anything about camping, other than what a time consuming and relatively useless chore it is. My experience backs that up. So far, the only reason to camp is so that you don't have to do it anymore.
Tier 3 Field Bioscience:
Creature-to-hit bonus - A no brainer, but pretty limited since themax you can getis +15.
Creature knowledge - I have all the creature knowledge I could ever need. Its called the Bestiary Database at swgcenter.com. Fill me in if I'm missing something.
Creature Harvesting - More bones and hides. Significantly more? Worth centering years worth of gameplay around?
Tier 4 Advanced Trapping:
Trapping - I have heard that the advanced traps are so useful against critters that other players can only drool in envy. True?
Rescue - Word on this board seems to be that using /rescue is a good way to get yourself attacked and killed. Not exactly what I was looking for.
Like I said, I'm trying to find reasons to go this route. But it seems to me to simply be a slightly boosted version of Master Scout. Please, tell me I'm wrong.
Where Rangers are right now, yes they are basically advanced versions of scouts. Rescue does have its uses but it is usually suicidal unless you are saving someone from something you yourself can safely solo. Terrain negotiation on the Ranger end will only improve your prone crawling speed actually so its even less use. Mask scent working better is excellent but it still has some problems that are hopefully going to be mostly remedied with the final version of the big patch.
Camps will heal you slightly faster but thats about it at the moment outside of nice eye candy...although whether by design or flaw, currently the top camp will not disband unless you logout or manually disband it. Foraging is actually probably one of the best things a Ranger has outside of rare foraging being bugged so you don't get the item. Foraging not only gives you things like fishing bait, but also food/drink items as well that you can buff your stats with or feed to pets.
As for the Ranger traps, they currently have some issues with them as well and sometimes will work perfectly fine, other times they won't...and both of them are area of effect...in general the traps in Scout tree are more effective and those *are* nice to use.
But, there is one thing to also consider, we have word from our correspondant that we are likely going to be getting some nice loving in this profession sometime after the first big patch...we don't know exactly what it is yet but as you can obviously see for yourself, the Ranger profession needs more content to it than what it has right now.