Ranger Archive

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert in anything.I’m just giving an informed opinion based on my observations of SWG and past RPG experiences. Everything is open to criticism. Also please excuse any grammatical errors. I didn't go thru it all and proofread it. Tired of writing, will do it later, maybe...

We’ve all countlessly discussed what we hope for and where we would like to go. The point of the following is simply a further supposition into what we are and what this means in terms of skills desired. Every profession in SWG has dedicated players asking for changes and improvements on its skills. Some of the suggested skills and abilities seem to make sense while others don’t.The reason some ideas don’t seem to make sense is because the ideas may seem to not fit the “scope” of the profession.Well then one must ask: “What is the scope?” Truly noone knows for sure but the devs (since they programmed it but in concept they could be off). Nevertheless, I’m sure the devs used some sort of map to find a conceptual balance among all of the profession.I obviously don’t know what it was specifically but from my own experience in RPGs and observations of SWG, I offer the “role-group” theory.

The role-group theory states that all professions in SWG (except politician and Jedi) can be placed under 3 primary role-groups: combat, crafting and support. A role-group is a grouping of professions that share a common function or role within the SWG. All starting and elite professions can be placed under one role-group whereas, hybrid professions possess a multi-functional role since they are hybrids of at least 2 of the 3 primary role-groups.

(Sidenote: Due to changes since beta hybrid prerequisites don't necessarily reflect the role-groups to which they belong.)

Marksman focuses on ranged combat and Brawler on melee combat. Together these professions constitute the basis for all combat and damage-dealing skills and abilities in SWG (excluding Jedi of course).As such both of these profession form the basis for the “Combat” role-group (combatants) in SWG.

Artisan is the basis of all of the crafting professions in SWG and thus creates the “Crafting” role-group (crafters). The Crafting roles exist solely to add to the element of a player-based economy to the game.Everything created by these professions can theoretically have been offered through an in-game function such as in-game armorsmiths, tailors, etc., but to create a wholistic virtual world, an actual economy fueled by the creation of goods (and not just services) offers players another avenue of play besides engaging directly in combat or aiding combatants during combat.

The last role-group is what I will call the “Support” role-group (supporters). “Support” is a very vague term and is so for a reason. Healing, buffing, and debuffing can be three different roles altogether although they often complement or supplement one another. The existence of one of these roles can offset the need of the other (e.g. if one can’t heal the player, one can buff the player making him less likely to be hit or de-buff the enemy making it easier to hit). Overall the function of the professions in this group is to heal the player in- and/or outside of combat and to give the player advantages against a potential attacker thru buffing the player or de-buffing the attacker again in- and/or outside of combat.

Entertainer, Medic and Scout will all be considered part of the Support role-group although entertainer is a special case.Entertainer professions both heal and buff players, and overall enable them to fare better in combat (yes this includes Image designers, see stat migration). However they differ from scouts in that they offer support solely through non-combat methods and also have what some would consider their primary in-game function: adding to the social atmosphere. Entertainers are to the social atmosphere of SWG, what crafters are to the economy. Unfortunately their influence is not as significant as crafters as the social component of any MMORPG will be always depend on the unpredictable nature of the player community. For classification sake, entertainer professions will be deemed the “non-combat” portion of the support role-group i.e. non –combat supporters.

Medic and Scout will be considered part of the same part of the support role-group and deemed “combat supporters.”Both Medic and Scout possess abilities to aid the player in combat. Medic focuses on basic healing of damage and wounds for the most part while Scout has a more diverse array of skills, geared towards creature opponents (mobs) and the wilderness. As far as actual player support, the scout can learn more useful knowledge about creatures than a non-scout, create camps that can heal one’s wounds (or allow a medic and entertainer to heal wounds outside of the necessary city buildings), and de-buff mobs through the use of traps. Both medic skills and scout skills should theoretically allow combatants to fare better in the combat (against creatures only for scouts) than without these skills. This means that a single player with combatant/supporter skills should be more powerful in combat than a combatant of a single profession. Combatants of more than one combat professions should fare better if the professions in question, complement one another’s weaknesses well. For example, a TKM/Master Medic or TKM/Master Scout should have a higher chance of successfully soloing a enraged rancor lair than a TKM/Armorsmith (considering all had comparable accessories without any form of extra-professional buffing), while a TKM/Master Brawler should have an even higher chance of success than the medic or scout.

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

Now that the foundation is done, let’s get to figuring out who we SHOULD be based on game mechanics and not our creative imaginations and in-game RP. (Let’s do that after the game mechanics favor us and not before. )It’s interesting to note that while much of the SWG community thinks of us as the most “useless,” I’m sure they would think of doctors as the most useful profession. Skillpoints alone we should be comparable to doctors. Also, however, we are comparable to doctors in that we are both the elite versions of the only two combat support role-groups. While we are super scouts, doctors are super medics. Herein lies the problem. The difference between a Master Medic and a Master Doctor, is enormous in terms of beneficial skills. The Master Ranger however, boasts little benefits compared to the Master Scout.

Medic to Doctor

Improved Abilities

1. Increased wound treatment speed


2. Increased wound treatment


3. Increased medical use


4. Increased medical crafting (assembly +experimentation)

*Interesting note- Doctors don’t get any improvements on medical forage.

Unique Doctor Abilities

1. /healstate


2. /healenchance (buffs)


3. /curepoison


4. /curedisease


5. /reviveplayer


6. fireblanket

Scout to Ranger

Improved Abilities

1. Increased trapping


2. Increased harvesting


3. Increased creature knowledge


4. Increased camping


5. Increased foraging


6. Increased terrain negotiation

*Interesting note- We GET improvements on foraging.

Unique Ranger Abilities

1. /rescue


2. /areatrack


3. /conceal

Only 3 abilities are unique to being a ranger and the /conceal is nothing more than an improved /maskscent. We see how ranger fails to fully evolve from the scout stages with this lackluster development.The unique abilities are the most pertinent in discriminating between the starter and the elite. Let’s not even discuss how helpful the “improved abilities” are.Previously I highlighted our improvement on foragin and did so for a reason.Medics receive a useless skill called /medicalforage, which essentially is an unreliable and extremely weak version of /survey+/sample. It allows them to borrow anotherrole-group skill in order to craft medical supplies. It's only true use lies in an extremely new player's arsenal who needs supplies to craft to higher levels. The uselessness of this skill becomes apparent once the new player finds that becoming a crafter him/herself if only temporary or acquiring credits to buy their own supplies, is indeedless time-consuming, more fun and overall moreefficient.

For scouts, /forage isis our buffing abilities as we can find fruit and eat it to buff ourselves or giveit to others who would like asmall buff. The problem is thatthis form of buffing is so weak and so filling that it has no use thatforaging food is wholly inefficient. The only true benefits to foraging are the foraging offish bait (which can also be and often is foundby searching creature lairs andby fishing itself) and foraging food to feed to one's creatures. For a non-CH ranger, foragingis an exercise in futility. Another skill that finds its useto begood in concept or for RP purposes but worthless in terms of game mechanics. While it may seem trivial, I think this difference in increased foraging mods from medic to doctor vs. scout to rangersignifies the fact that doctorsbecome a more specialized version of medic than a ranger does of the scout. A "super medic" should be a Master Medic as a "super scout" should be a Master Scout. An elite profession from these master starting professions should be specialized and unique from their prerequisites.

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

About Combat

From a role-group perspective, we are combat supporters. Our skills as rangers should enhance the player’s chance of success against a potential attacker during (or not) combat either singularly or within a group. Again the profession system of SWG allows each individual character to perform various roles therefore allowing one person to be a combatant and combat supporter. Therefore our skills don’t necessarily have to be beneficial specifically to other players. For example, /maskscent cannot be used on other players but it supports the individual player’s role of avoiding combat against potential enemies. Therefore as rangers we can also have abilities that only work on the individual. The ever-popular request for a stealth(vs.pcs) skillas rangers is a good example of an individual-affecting skill we could receive.

There have been many well-thought and well-conceived ideas on skills that would enhance our abilities so I will not discussthem. However there is one popular idea that I must acknowledge. This idea is the introduction of a “ranger weapon.”I have expressed my opinions against this idea in other posts for the simple fact that it never made “sense” to me. Well considering that our role is that of combat supporters and not combatants, including a damage-dealing weapon within our skillset goes against our primary role of combat support. Having any weapon certification is clearly the domain of a profession that requires Marksman or Brawler as a prerequisite. While it may look good from a roleplaying ranger’s perspective, in-game it does not conceptually fit. Unlike other games, Ranger in SWG is not a combat profession and including weapon certs in the profession is conceptually abberant to SWG.

About GCW

As far as the GCW is concerned, it seems that no profession is given a SPECIFIC GCW role except for a few of the hybrid professions. Alsothese roles are only for base-raiding activities. Overall most professions have an indirect role in the GCW. Combatants participate simply in their primary fighting skills. Supporters participate through their support of combatants in and out of combat. Crafters participate through providing goods to combatants and supporters to enable them to do their duties efficiently. Therefore, to improve the ranger’s role in the GCW, just improve the ranger’s role in combat. Of course specific GCW content could be added to the ranger profession but overall it is not necessary. Generally cries for GCW inclusion are the result of problems in basic game mechanics. Doctors do not ask for specific GCW content because as a whole they have pivotal roles in general combat. In a balanced match of 3 vs, 3 (same skills, same buffs, same armor, etc.), if a doctor/TKM were added to one group andranger/TKMadded to the other, the group with the doctor would have a higher chance of winning.

About the Economy

I briefly touched on the economical aspect of SWG through the mention of crafters.However each of the role-groups possesses a role in the economy.While crafters’ primary function is economical, the other groups find their economical role secondary.Combatants are the primary consumers of SWG.They are in constant need items that improve their combat prowess.They also are the primary group to introduce currency to the economy.While every role-group has a potential to make credits through in-game missions, destroy missions are by far the most profitable avenue to build revenue from a non-player source.Mission terminals, npc missions and loot from npcs are the only avenue for actual credits to be introduced to the player economy.Therefore as consumers, combatants introduce the most reliable source of credits into the economy.

Supporters function in the economy by providing services to combatants and crafters. The services performed cover a wide spectrum, although the most important service by far is possessed by the Scout. The service in question is of course, /harvest. This skill is essentially provides the foundation for the economy since without its inclusion, crafters could not perform their duties.I would think that this skill was made profession-specific because if it weren’t, the economy would not exist. There would be little need for economical interdependence among professions.Also crafters would be even richer than they are now.

As far as the ranger is concerned, its obvious that our improve harvesting ability is not enough compensation for 140 skillpoints but again this has been discussed and adequate solutions have been offered. For the time being, our primary income rests on our /harvest ability supplemented with /areatrack work and maybe /conceal (although /conceal does not work well on non-scouts and is usually not needed. Compared to doctors over medics, rangers have little use/differentiation over scouts. There is no question to the difference between doctors over medics, in terms of the services they provide to the community. In-game rarely does one see requests for medics (except from inexperienced players maybe), but the the request for doctors is constant and the reasons for the request are varied (disease healing, buffs, mission accompaniment).Whereas rangers only recently found themselves inconstant need fortracking byJedis and Hero-badge seekers. Otherwise,requests for meat, hide and bone are made to the general populaceof scouts. A combatant specializing in more than one form of combat with some scout, often proves to be a better (faster)harvester than the master ranger/combatant. Only /areatrack is a potentially profitable skill unique to ranger although its profitability is not reliable.

I hope this perspective, offers some insight on how we can go about discerning who we are as rangers.This started out as a post about… Umm I can’t remember anymore!It evolved into the role-group theory after my connection went mysteriously dead for a week so I had a lot of time to process some things.At any rate, peace be safe and prosper.

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

^

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

Very well written post.

(Not sure about the choice of colours though!!!:smileyvery-happy

I sense 5 stars somewhere in the force.

Oh my Gawsh!
Thar's gonna be a baby leezard Rangah!.
o_O

Draknev
The Last Ranger Correspondent
Subterfuge and Sabotage, Concealment and Camouflage:
Colonel: Rebel Alliance

Thank you.

You've summed up exactly how I feel about our role as Rangers and a support class.

Well done!

Now, if we could only get the developers to read this and take it to heart.

Hello. I have read your post, and found it very imformative and well-written. Kudos for that. Upon reading it, I found ideas and arguments formulating in my mind, and the most relevant one is the following. When you compare rangers and doctors, you do so using only one facets of your theory, that of supporting combat. For example, when you say in pvp that tkm/ranger group 1 vs tkm/doctor group 2, group 2 has a better chance of winning, you fail to include the fact that doctors, for the most part, are combat-enhancing supporters, Rangers are not.

Thats is basically what I feel is missing in your post. Rangers, as they are designed, should be the backbone of this game's economy. They should be the main, and in my honest view, they only providers of organic resources taken from creatures. As it stands, thats how I believe the devs designed the Ranger profession, as a Crafter supporting class, not a combat-supporting class. That would go a long way in explaining why Rangers are so "useless" in combat roles, as they weren't specifically designed for such.

The one way I feel this could be remedied is if 2 things happen:

A) Get rid of the harvester droid. This has no business being in the game. There is no reason why a person should be able to harvest at the same level as a Master of the same profession by using a droid. This is my opinion only, and perhaps someone can justify this in a way that would be acceptable, but as far as Rangers go, I believe it belittles this honorable profession. Imagine if you could just pick up novice medic, and have a droid that buffs for you at master doctor level, so long as it has the buff packs in it. Well, that is what Rangers are experiencing with the harvestor droids.

B) Scouts should have some of their skills modified, while others increased. A master scout should, in my honest opinion, harvest at about 25% of what a Master Ranger can harvest, plain and simple. I believe scouts should have exploration maxed as master scouts, and save a whole branch for new ranger skills .

When you compare medics to doctors, rangers to scouts, while a good base for comparison, it would be much easier to show the discrepencies of the combat classes instead. Lol, the last statement was weirdly said, let me extrapolate. For example, How does a master brawler to ---> tkm compare in raw power and damage. There is no comparison, and to boot, you can master a 2nd combat class aswell, making the value of master brawler next to useless when compared to a master melee profession.

Master scout vs Master Ranger is really not the same case. At the moment, a master scout is capable of harvesting as much as a Mranger with a droid, can run the same speed, has maskscent which works also as well as conceal (when they do work), and because camps and traps are not really practical, those two skill branchs don't really compare (both are equally useless).

So, to finalize, There is no justification for the skill point cost to master ranger as it is. There is no point in taking this profession other that being part of this amazing fraternity we all feel together. Misery(the ranger profession)loves company(those that are rangers anyway)

Stratgan Ronilar - Master Ranger

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

Stratgan, just smiling at your very last comment ... "Rangers love company".

Man, we all appreciate here the Ranger community and I for one love hunting as part of a group.

Two of my PA members and myself wentout on a hunt two days ago for carnivore meat, and in a group of three we seemingly harvested less than I can harvest myself.

One was only novice scout, one was somewhere in the middle of training Ranger.

To me it seems clear that harvesting is a solo activity - I am WAY more efficient hunting alone than in a group.

Almost seems to me that as much as Rangers DO love company, our number one hunting activity is forced on us as a solo affair.

Oh my Gawsh!
Thar's gonna be a baby leezard Rangah!.
o_O

Starsider: Blakk Star (Lost Child of the Ras'ka)- Master Ranger/TKM
Ahazi: Kojo Anonkye (Master of Ras'kan Martial Arts)- TKM/Stickfighter(Master Fencer)
Kettemoor: Underdog (Badass Bothan B-Boy)- Master Musician

Is it fair to say that Rangers have been hurt even more substantially as the game progresses in age for the following reasons:

1) Traps are no longer beneficial becuase most allies have "Elite" or stacked combat professions that no longer benefit from the Ranger using them in a supportive Role. Subsequently, Rangers having an Elite combat class no longer benefit from traps simply becuase the game that would require the assistance from a Trap usually will require "Buffs" to be hunted in quantity and the said "Buffs" negate the need for traps.

2) Foraging - I think we all agree this is useless.

3) Camping - Again useless other then for Eyecandy. Most of my friends are on Teamspeak and would rather talk and share stroies on the run not around a pretend fire that does nothing to enhance the group. Since the doctors usually have their own droids and downtime is an inefficient use of gametime for most groups. Camps do not repel hostiles and provide no real benefit except to the most archane and stalwart lot amongst us.

4) Harvesting- Droids killed it. Many will argue with me but I just have too many combat stacked friends with novice scout and droids that will out harvest a Master Ranger anyday. I ask them to help me Hunt Krayts, they dont ask the Rangers anymore. Why?

5) AreaTrack- Arguably borked. Again many in this forum will disagree with me but creatures must spawn to be tracked and creature spawning has issues. Also, most people I know have datapads, notepads, and droids full of waypoints. They check those and usually find spawns long before they will need a Ranger to find it. I have friends who completed the Hermit quests with no ranger. Why? Because guilds share information with their members on frequent spawn locations.

6) Camo- Mask Scent is free and better. I won't argue this point. If enough Rangers like Camo as it is well then we will never get it fixed.

7) Rescue- Useless. If you really need to use it this day in age by the time it works the person you are assisting will either be dead or burst running with the 2000 or 4000 Scout that they have for Terrain Negotiation and mask scent. If you want to tank for the group there are much more efficient ways than Rescue.

I may be taking the harshest view but I believe it is our Scout abilities that support the economy and as such from that perspective Ranger as a profession taken as a whole of SWG, from the BIG picture, Supports neither the Economy or Combat. It is merely a profession we love and many have managed to cling to their titles and for that I must give them credit. I could not justify it anymore so I had to let it go. When I was a Master Ranger/Master Rifleman the only thing I could offer my group other than loyalty was my Rifle, Ranger was never needed. I had even been heckled on many occassions for wearingmy Master Ranger title. But for those of you that remember the Hologrind days I will give this prediction. The GRIND has returned for Ranger and here is why. People will sonn figure out that the fastest progression to Jedi in the current implementation is Master Rifleman, 0040 Ranger. Why? Well Combat XP is 3 to1 FS and Rifle is 30 to 1 FS and if I remember Scouting is 5 to 1. Anyone who has been a Master Rifleman with any level of hunting knows how quickly with doctor buffs, Ahrisa Food, Composite Armor 80-90% Kinetic you can chew through Enraged Rancor or Mutant Lairs or the Geo Lab with a Tenloss and a friend to tank. We will see an influx as people come to get the Scouting Cap for XP and grind out their Jedi in this manner. This may be bad because again it will provide a temporary inflation the Ranger population to further support a /ingore response that everything is working itself out in the Ranger world.

Good Day