Ranger Archive

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akflyer wrote:

>Snippy<

Couple of questions before I make the BIG decision to drop MCH (which I have loved)- For the questions assume Master Ranger.

-How effective are cammo kits? How many shots can I get against strong foe before detection (generally)?

I love them, and so do people I hunt with, especially BEs. (I can't help butsqueal for joy when I see an unbuffed BE crawl up to Mutant Rancs and poke them with needles. Of course my hand is always over the /rescue command, just in case -- but that's another issue right there.)

However, some Rangers don't care for them, but -- and I might just be crazy -- I've found a significant difference in the duration and strength of the camo. Granted, I don't use speeders on Dath (racing around breaks it faster) and I don't burstrun through lairs /flailing like a madman, but I've nevertheless noticed a big difference between maskscent and conceal. Significant enough that the whole /conceal command is extremely integrated with (my view) of the Rifleman skills -- so at this point, if I dropped Ranger, I'd have to drop Rifleman. IMO, those two go together too well; they've merged into a single profession, lol.

To give you an idea of its power? I've walked through groups of Nightsisters (anNS Ranger was in there,ironically)and spammed headshot3s at Ancient Bull Rancors without much of a notice (for awhile, anyway, lol). But, if it does break, there's always.... (next topic down

-Are traps useful for Riflemen given that they only seem to work at 45ish meters?

IMO, they're much more useful to Riflemen than to melee (except, if you're really tricky, melee people can pull with traps sometimes). The phen darts and adhesive mesh traps are about the only ones I use -- both, unfortunately, from the scout tree.

On Shadowfire, there's a good spawn of wooly on Endor -- that means Screetcher killin'.I soloed 12 lairs or so this morning unarmored and unbuffed, and trust me: those phen darts saved me a couple of times, lol. (Back to camo: although I don't think it ever "broke" per se, a few Screetchers did wander a bit too close and noticed me -- that's when the snares came in.)

Bottem line: I never died, lol. But those phens + kiting are really effective against some animals.

Also, I think with my playstyle, the trickery I could contrive with a trapping droid would profoundly increase the usefulness of traps, but I can't seem to find any (or DEs to make them).

Anyway, I love traps; I always have at least four phens and one adhesive handy. Yes, they could be 10000x more useful, but it's a lot of fun to tinker with the system that we've got and figure out all the clever tricks you can to utterlyabuse it. That's what a lot of being a Ranger is about.

-How much more do you harvest at master than just scout?

A scout with food and droid -- not much. Otherwise, about 1.5 times as much..? I don't know; someone else take this one, lol.

If all you like is harvesting, I wouldn't become a Master Ranger though.

-Is track really useful despite the limitations? (I've read the track stickie)

Well... it is kind of messed up. I don't know exactly what to add if you read the sticky.

However, I will say thatafter I recently started a new character, I reaaaallly started to miss tracking (I even found myself hitting my hotkey for it several times, lol).

So yeah, I think it's useful. Just don't expect to go out and be lead directly to Krayts or anything.

-Anything else to HELP me push myself off the edge to let my pets go...

IMHO, it's all about playstyles. I've tried CH/Rifleman for a little while, so I kinda know what it's all about.

You'd be using Rifleman differently -- no spamming strafe2s while your pets tank. My experience of the CH/Rifleman combo was that very "gunner" role, standing behind and whackin' everything with strafeshots. (Someone on the Rifleman boards summed it up: *Send in tanks* /strafeshot2 /strafeshot2 /strafeshot2 /strafeshot2 /strafeshot 2 /harvest /harvest /harvest /harvest... lol).

Now, I'm highly biased: I love Ranger, but I love the Ranger/Rifleman template even more. So I obviously think this playstyle is 1000% cooler than hiding behind pets.

What you get out of this template is room to abuse the Ranger skills in ways that are only limited by your ingenuity. Granted, I don't know how much of a purist you are, but I very rarely wear armor, and actually like the challenge of going unbuffed/unarmored;and the very nature of "rifles" as a weapon class -- with the range and concealment mods -- promote survival for us crazy guys. (That's why I'm the "naked ranger" to some of my friends -- I don't wear armor, even on Dath; people think I'm crazy, lol.)

Basically, there's a few key properties of rifles (particularly concealment and range) that, imo,go along with the Ranger skills (esp. camo &trapping) very well. Doing this *forces* you to play the game carefully, and it becomes like a puzzle -- use all your wit, clever trickery, and luck to take out that Rancor lair, and, ontop of that, do it as quickly and as efficently as possible. It can be done pretty well, too; maybe not as fast as a swordsman could do it, but I think you'd be surprised.

That's what my experience comes down to: this template is one for exersizing every ounce of your street-smarts out in the wild. (Have you noticed how much more clever Rangers are? That's why.) You'll regularlyuse every tool, weapon, and skill you have -- or at leastI do -- just to keep those peskyScreetchers off you. Use that autorepaing TankBot you have. Have your trapping droid launch a phen dart and agrothe mob.(Can you see I love droids yet?)And I think that's why it's so much fun: you have to be clever, and you have to think about what's going on;and you have to be prepared to exploit certain kinks in the game's mechanics, e.g.phen darting the Rancor thatagros you and running up a hill to kitehim, maybe thinking that those malkloks willhelp ya out-- stuff like that. Ok, maybe that wasn't the best example; it makes us sound like we're weak and running away all the time, but, you know, you have to be prepared.

You're probably wondering if this is in any way effective. Well, yes -- if you are accustomed to the profession. I got over20k of wooly hide off those Screetchers this morning and, darnit, I'm proud of that -- they didn't use their nasty disease or anything on me once. A MAS/Swordsman friend of mine went later and gave up because he couldn't take the beating to his mind. So now *I* set the prices.

Everything is different everyday. You'rewit,luck,and gile, your grace and sense of adventure, -- your strategy and intuition --will get you into and out of trouble all the time. Because you have to use your brain and are always in danger of being discovered/dbed in a second,somany normalhunts are turned intopassionate memories ofoutragous events, miraculous escapes, and heroic defeats. You'll be filled with tall tales in no time. I can't describe it, but it's magical. It's like having the wonder of a newb everyday.

I have a blast; I don't think I could be in another profession -- even Jedi. I couldn't recommend this profession more. But, like I said, it comes down to playstyle.

I know Its a lot to ask, but I just can't decide.

It's no problem. We'd all hate to see you waste your time (and pets) changing to a template that you didn't like.

Thank you for your time.

/bow

You're welcome!

/hi5

~Lycurgus (Valcyn)

MCH, MRM

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Rooks wrote:

Hi and welcome to the Ranger boards first off.

About Tracking. The MOST important thing you must realize about tracking is that you have to allow the server to spawn the creatures before you track them.

My normal procedure when hunting CH rares is to go 200m in my search area, stop, wait a few moments and then do an /areatrack.

Tracking is not perfect, but once you get the hang of it you can do great things with it.

I have helped 3 differant people with their Hero of tattoine quests by simply locating the pirates and boar for them.

Being a Ranger is kind of like being a Senior in College. While all the freshman are running around partying and being TKMs, Swordsman, BHs, CM and whatever FOTM that comes next.

Rangers are just a tad more Mature, we still party and have a great time, we just do it OUR way is all.

Good Luck.

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...and we do it in full paramilitary camo, not that "other" garment not worth mentioning

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Serraphin wrote:

Get 4-0-0-0 Scout and a droid unless you think area track is worth it. Arguably a knowledge of where things tend to spawn and a speeder reduce the need for area track almost completely. Thats about it. The rest of scout and Ranger is a "daydream." I wish that weren't true but it has been for a long time. The longer you play Ranger the more you realize the skills don't do anything helpful except add eyecandy while you roleplay and ranger that is outshone in his chosen profession by any combat template with maskscent.

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Sorry, I beg to differ I have tracked the Mark of the Hero NPCs and Boar for over a month, almost on a daily basis. And I can tell you that not only do I find them faster than anybody with friends out on speeders combing the area, I can also tell if the Pirates are spawning in a different area other than the usual WPs provided on some guides on the net.

So I can tell you that most of the comments regarding /areatrack being bugged or acting strangely kinda surprise me, since I use it daily in this and other fashions.

Now, regarding the original poster, I can confirm what some others have pointed out. This is a playstyle/lifestyle choice, most of us do it because we love the idea and we can mess with our tools in very creative ways (like looking for a trainer in a big city with /areatrack, or pulling a mob from the water where you cant fight using a trap, or even using your camps to summon factional NPC support from the Control device right before raiding an enemy base/city).

Regarding how much we harvest than scouts and such, I've found that I harvest a lot more when using vegash (31 or 32) and my current harvesting droid (102), even when the scout is using the same kind of vegash and droid. This difference is, of course, more noticeable when harvesting big creatures.

I think as a rifleman you would love /conceal, /cover, boom boom strategies And I have found that it /conceal breaks less often (not sure if this holds when both skills have the same mods though, my Maskscent is at 100+117, and my Camo is at 115+140), and you have the great advantage that you can conceal your group if they dont have Maskscent available.

Not sure what else I can tell you to make you jump, not even sure I should help you jump , but I can tell you this: the profession is great as it stands, and I think that with a few minor enhancements it would totally rock (ie. traps that work on players, ability to launch JTL spaceships from high tech field bases, improved harvesting bonus, stealth in PvP, you get the idea )

Good luck with your choice, I know it's not an easy one, but I would be so bold as to tell you that you wouldn't regret it.

A Krayt hunting we will go

Seraph, you WILL be infected with our sweetness and light (feels other rangers glaring at her) er... camo and dead animal parts if you hang around here too long, just warning you.

/shed on Seraph

Theres some /fuzzy for you.

Lycurgus, if you love the profession, you will LOVE the profession. Ranger, like any other profession, is what you make of it, and what you do with it, and how much you enjoy doing it. It sounds like you already feel the spirit of the Ranger profession. Use the tools as you see fit, and as are useful to you, and most of all - enjoy yourself. I don't think you will have any problem doing that - I thoughroughly (sp? arg) enjoyed your post.

Welcome to the profession!