Ranger Archive

Yeah, that was me who did the so-called "blasting". I'll say what I said again with as little attitude as possible- this isn't LOTR and this isn't a Star Wars movie. There are lots of skills in this game that don't match up with real life/star wars lore/alternate lore. I simply was expressing frustration that ideas that COULD be good are cheapened by derivitive and ultimately innefective arguments. The idea itself wasn't bad. I just felt that attempting to justify through LOTR simply brings up the greatest SWG Ranger dilema: the problem of identity. The problem arises from the vairous pre-conceptions that come from the word Ranger. Yeah, Aragorn is cool. Army Rangers are cool. But by attempting to make SWG Rangers like them, we fracture the Ranger into people who want the "Wilderness" (Aragorn) and those who want the "Combat". I simply belive that this fracturing is a result of people seeing Ranger in terms of some other work of fiction.

True, there is no specific Star Wars Ranger. However, that again isn't entirely important in my mind. There are plenty of things in Star Wars movies that don't happen in Star Wars galaxies. If the game were like the movies, Lightsabers would kill in one hit, there wouldn't be cloning, Princess Leia could've bought a set of composite armor and gotten buffed and been invincible. Lots of things don't add up. The Antarian Rangers work well for me as a premise, since they acted as "guides". That connotates anything from explorers to experienced fighters who can lead a Jedi through a tough battle. That's what I think is important about Ranger: the bevy of choices that SHOULD be there. Rangers right now are simply the "masters of the wilderness" even though we don't live up to that role. We basically are the trackers and the gatherers. Not what I think anyone really wants from Ranger. I can just see Aragorn trying to explain to the Fellowship that he'd love to go protect the Ring, but he has to go get some of the great Nazghoul meat that's in shift. I use that referance not to justify my argument but to show that even the people who DO use methods of defining Ranger I think are wrong should agree that Rangers should be more than they are. What appeals to me is a blending of the "Wilderness" and the "Combat" fields. A character who can choose to remain peaceful (a Ranger/BE should be peaceful lol) or can, with combat training in a weapon, be able to hunt.

Part of what confuses people about me when I say I want combat and PvP for Ranger is that they assume I mean I want to be POWERFUL in those roles. I don't want to be an uber PvP person and even in combat, I don't want to see Rangers using a Ranger weapon to solo a Rancor. What I want is for a Ranger to have a weapon that,in conjuction with their usual weapon, makes them leathal. A bow that can cause massive bleeds, but not much initial damage, or a weapon that can poison and confuse a creature. The point being that a Ranger weapon should SUPPLEMENT a combat prof, or be used only in times of dire need, not used as another massive damage weapon. That's my definition of a Ranger-- a Star Wars GALAXIES Ranger...not just a SW Ranger. By blending the two sides, we can have a skill that can be used in a variety of ways from the guide to the tracker to the harvester to the big game hunter. By spreading the available skills to applications in the GCW and Ranger, we will have a diverse and unique set of skills that balance us not only in terms of other players but also give us an identity that we can each use our own way. I will likely continue to hunt and kill big game...but I want to know that if I ever get the itch to PvP, I will not be useless. But some people might find Ranger better as a complement to BE or CH. and that's fine too. I want this Proffession to be usefull to the most people possible.

In the end, the devs may not want stealth and they may not want to balance Ranger out, but I doubt that they will go against the general consensus of Rangers. In the end, I think that we are likely to get some of the more general combat ideas that we've suggested, but not all. Ithink that if we show a reason that Rangers should have a more diverse skillset by giving reasons that don't drag Aragorn into the reason why we should get it, the developers are likely to listen. In the end, they've said every prof has a role in the GCW. I think that we can show that Rangers, too, would/should have a role, and by giving them ideas, we'll help to get that accross. I agree that perhaps that person didn't deserve the stark and bare response I gave him. I've heard the phrase Aragorn or LOTR aproximately 500,000 times on this board now though and I've always felt it was out of place. I simply posted my take on the thing, and I apologize if that came off as an insult. I don't mean to be a jerk but...man...there are just times that I think peoplethink that Ranger isjust the beta test fora LOTR MMORPG.

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Odajja wrote:

the Camo/stealth/ scout armor would be nice. Ive always said that if yougain master of a class you should be able to get thats class armor. IMP/REB im not picky.

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