Ranger Archive

Delta,
Just curious now because I've seen you say this in a couple of different threads. Not sure how to quote you without having the "Quote" button, but what you said was:

"Overall, the 60% rule was needed to increase Scout participation in groups, which I think it will."

and

"We've had two and a half months with no incentive to group. Now that there is a bonus to grouping, players will slowly begin to change their playstyles to include more grouping. We need to see what the long term effects of the new rules are here - it's only been two days."

What bonus to grouping? I just don't see how any of these changes really encourage grouping, in fact I'd argue that the new changes completely discourage grouping. By virtue of being in a group, we all get less resources. I know this has mostly all been said before.

But anyway, just curious as to how you and others view a Ranger/Scout's role in a group. I'd argue like many have that we tend to be solo'ers in general. The game mechanics in general do not reward grouping enough, and even less so for a Ranger. The only way I see that we would really add to a group is if we got SL-type abilities like /group burstrun, /group harvest bonus, etc. Being able to conceal and make camps just doesn't seem to be very valuable at the moment. Anyway, was curious as to what you meant by the two quotes above.

Thanks,

I'm not Delta but I can make a stab at this.

As a Scout, I wasn't concerned with my resource haul. I was more concerned with my xp. Personally, I would have gotten much more xp and leveled faster without a group, but playing with my friends was a higher priority. For those that are doing scouting to simply hit Bounty Hunter/Creature Handler, why group when you have ninja looters and rotations? The harvesting changes have encouraged grouping in this manner.

As a Ranger,I'm much more interested in my yield. I can go to harder planets and get rarer hides/bones. Ithas become a source of occasional income and a way to help my in-game friends out.For me, grouping still takes priority,but I would certainly opt to solo if I was just trying to fill an order for a customer.

Rek,

I am typically the "point man" in a group. I use my skills to find creatures to hunt, and to help the group navigate through the wilderness.

Granted, I am usually a group leader, and my role in my PA and my "natural leadership abilities" (read, being a bossy **edit**) generally put me in charge of the hunts that I am in.

Now with conceal, I use my skills to make the group members more survivable by camo-ing them, I still take point and determine what's best for us to harvest, as well as when and where to camp, etc.

I view the Scouts role in the group as being just that - Scout. They move ahead, pick out a path, or find things to hunt. They use their examine skills to determine what a creature can do, which ones to attack, and which ones to leave alone.

While Scouts and Rangers perform well solo, they do have important roles to play in groups. And I've had a significant amount of success with them.

B

Ok, thanks for the response. I can see this role in a PA or a sort of "regular" group I suppose, or just grouping because you think it's more fun. Everyone could have their own reasons for grouping in general. But I wonder if a pick up group sees a Ranger as valuable addition or necessity for their skills alone. I admit that I think once /areascan and /track get in, our stock should go up 100%.

However, I guess I was reading your comments into a discussion about the /harvesting. In that context they do not make sense to me. Maybe I just read it wrong.

Still, it is interesting to see what people think. I guess I'm usually in a group of 3 at the most, and the primary thing for all of us is to do damage and kill stuff. I feel like I don't use my Ranger abilities too much in a group, but I really do my "Rangery" things when I'm solo.

rek I messed with a few idea's over the past few days. Even had a chance to try some of them out.

#1 Bunny Run's with dancers, Took a few dancers to find squall's on Rori. Tamed em, trained em, transfered em. Ranger Tracking, Fire Support.

#2 Usually I don't run point as delta suggested, I sweep the rear In wide arch's to cover the non scouts on Hilly terrain. I've even used conceal on Some of the Non-Scouts for an added bonus. Very nice when treaking across Dant.
In the hills, speed is my advantage.

#3 Rescue How ever Lame it might be in some peoples eye's it can be a life saver. Well it is for me when 2 grand wrix's are guarding me and I rescue the 1st group member in trouble.

#4 PVP Raids Against Rebel's in Moenia or Rebel Raids to Kaadraa.
In a group PVP effort I pull the role of point man scout, tracking helps but mainly because I've spent soo much time in each town, You have a tendency to know many people on either side, So that covert ranger sitting in the cantina watching the pretty lady , you never know whats going on with that. Great for spying, that and the added bonus as a non combat focused class you can run into town gather your intel and run back out with only your PA tag suggesting the other wise.

#5 Smaller Groups, My greatest joy in this game is taking that novice scout out for a hunt, showing them some traps and letting them harvest the lot of things, Kaadu's and Gualama's are huge xp for a scout.(At least from what I remember)

#6 Hunting Party's, I've revamped my character to more of a fire support role, I will never out dps a High lvl pistoleer with a kayatt fwg5. So out comes my 109-184 3.3 speed e11 rifle and my spray stick. Call out my other 2 gun's (Tusk Cat pair) and prep that hq camp

Have changes forced up to group more, yes
as I said in a previous post, it all for the better x-fingers

You are asking about 3 topics here:

1) "By virtue of being in a group, we all get less resources"

If you hunting the same mob with a group you would solo, you are correct. But there is the problem. Expand your target range. If you are killing CL15 targets solo, go kill cl30+ with a group. You should be killing targets with a group you could not dream of approaching solo.

So, with a group, you kill harder targets, and kill faster, both that add to your return in harvesting. Plus you are gaining xp aLOT faster then when soloing.

Now, if that is not the case, the problem is not the harvest rule, but the group itself.

2) Not bonus, but incentive!Incentive to group: Now, in the past I cringed when I was part of a group, and more scouts joined. The more scouts the less harvest and the less scout xp for me, It really made me think of things I "suddenly" had to do away from the group. Now, I want all those scouts to join - come BH, come CH and all your others, and please make sure you loot, because if you do not need it, I will take it off your hands

3) What is the role of a Ranger in group? The game mechanics do reward a player well -see above. And before asking for SL abilities, look at the SL forum hehe. But hey, Ranger costs 140 skill points, leaving 110 points over for one more Mastery of an Elite/Hybrid professsion. You can be a squad leader with those extra points, or a Master rifleman, or a Master Swordsman, or .....

What skills does a ranger bring to a group, what makes a ranger desirable to a group? Is that your question? I wonder how Image Designers, Chefs or other similar profession feel about that question *grin*. But back to our profession: The first thing we bring to a group is ourself! Sure, the skills we have are not mandatory or in high demand as a Healer, such as Doctor or Combat Medic, but they are a nice addition to any group, and with some more development time we will see our camps, tracking and conceal skill be fleshed out and fine tuned.

The first time I /rescued someone (a poor entertainer trying to make a few cred that got hit by the aggro mobs outside of a Rustuss), I was literally jumping around the room afterwards, dancing, hootin' and hollerin'. I was so impressed about how it worked!

Rek, my play style is similar to yours. I'm not part of a PA or any real regular group. I have a RL friend I play with, and when we are both on we group/hunt/mission together. This is actually a lot of fun, not jus because we are friends outside of the game, but we are getting good as a team. He is TKA, Rifle, Ent, Artisan, and his tanking with my ranged support and traps are working great together. We have noticed our tactics and ability to take down tougher and mulitple targets is improving. Most of the time I'm either with them or solo.

I have found all pick up groups, are to disorganized to reallyuse the skills of a scout/ranger. They just blast through the wild, and team up on things, some will shoot at anything that moves, and generally total chaos. Which is one of the reasons I don't like grouping.

Now I have recently in the last week, been hanging with a group. It stated as a pick up group, but we all worked well together and have fun. About 4 of us are usually on the same times, some of the others join on occasion. We have been working on our tactics, and getting the "its a dot on the radar shoot it" people to settle down. We go through some nasty parts of Tat, lots of dewbacks, feral bantha, Dunestalkers, dune lizards and tuskens. There are a few scouts in the group, but Im the only ranger, and I think the only one who does scout as a primary profession. So the group is slowly learning to let me take point, take the risk, and use my hours of solo in the deep wilderness to help them get to our hunting spot.

Unless someone wants to make some survival xp, I setup camp. If we get attacked while in camp, I stay in camp and shoot from there, so the camp stays up. I know I can trust the TKA to taunt things off me.

That's my experience. I still enjoy doing solo exploring or hunting.