Ranger Archive

Here are some general stats I have been taking over the last week. I tested traps at Novice Ranger and then again at Master Ranger, same traps Adhesive Mesh and Phenc Dart, on Gurkswhich all con white to me. I choose Gurks because there are a lot of them and because white con fits with the Dev idea of what we should be able to solo. 'Nothing happened' below is when you get the graphic, but no success/fail message, no impact, no xp, etc.

Novice Ranger with 60 trapping skill: 86 of each trap thrown:

Phenc: 64 hits, 12 failed to effect, 5 nothing happened. (turns out I only threw 81, bad counting on my part)

Adhesive: 52 hits, 13 failed to effect, 21 nothing happened.

So with the 'nothing happens' bug in place you are hitting 79% and 60% respectively. With it removed you are getting 84% and 80% respectively. The 'nothing happening' bug happens mostly on the last trap of a stack, thus you get much more with the adhesive trap as its stack size is only two. Out of 339 traps thrown I have gotten the 'nothing happening' bug on only 2 occassions that were not the last trap of a stack.

Master Ranger with 100 trapping skill: 86 of each trap thrown:

Phenc: 64 hits, 15 failed to effect, 7 nothing happened

Adhesive: 57 hits, 10 failed to effect, 19 nothing happened

So again with 'nothing happens' bug in place you are hitting 74% and 66% respectively. With it removed you are getting 81% and 85% respectively.

Some interesting items:

1- At master ranger I switched the order, so I threw Phenc first and adhesive second, while at novice I threw Adh first and Phenc second. Notice how the hit percentage changes as well (when you remove the nothing happened completely). In both cases I dont move untill both traps are thrown, so the only difference is range and the creature moving, one of which is having an effect on the accuracy of traps.

2 - 40 points more in trapping skill has no noticable effect on my accuracy.

3 - the bug effect on adhesive trap makes them pointless to use in my opinion

4 - snare actually does a root, though the creature gets hit, makes a small charge, and then doesnt make a noticiable move forward until it expires. In general the duration is much longer on average than the adhesive trap, with almost no 2 sec effects you often get with the adhesive

5 -I would say 90% of the time when a creature is charging youbecause of the fact that you cant move while tossing a trap and because a trap takes so long to throw you are getting beat on before you can get out of range again, assuming a successful snare/root.

6 - XP caps are messed up on trapping. Minor issue to be sure, but the general rule of your cap being 2x your current requirement doesnt apply to trapping.

Conclusions:

1 - I really think the 'nothing happens' bug needs to be addressed. This has been in the game since release, since beta actually, and there is no reason it hasnt been addressed. If a fix can be found, then I suggest increasing the stack size, with the immediate change of Adhesive traps, I see no reason why they are a stack size of only 2.

2 - Obviously trapping skill means nothing against white cons, though I have read posts of other people noticing a difference against red con creatures. Not sure what to make of that, maybe an accuracy cap of some kind? I may if I feel like it do another test on red cons, then untrain and try them with only novice ranger to see. This needs to be fixed, at master ranger I should be more accurate then 80-85%. I have way better accuracy with my rifle at master level, I dont see why traps shouldnt be the same.

3 - Trap throwing speed. I havent tested this yet, trying to find a way of testing how many traps I can throw in a min or two with a slow weapon vs a fast weapon equiped to see if thats really a factor like I have read. In any case traps should have their own speed. At this point I feel it takes too long to throw a trap, an improvement with trapping skill would be a nice addition.

4 - Lets remove the stop when you throw. Either that or increase the range to 64. One of those implimented is fine, two means throwing a trap on a charging creature is going to get you smacked into the dirt.

5 - is accuracyof a trap supposed to be effected by creature movement or range? If range, can traps be given a range rating. I assume its movementand there isnt muchthey can do, since theaccuracy number is based on your equiped weapon not the trap.

Good show indeed Culdor, keep up the good works.

Hopefully we can get some of these issues addressed in the following months.