Ranger Archive

• Solo ability takes a huge hit from having a Master Combat profession


• Grouping with players you don't know often leads to situations that can be unfun


• SWG really has a few bad apples playing it

Major Bonuses:

• You get to meet some of the nice people in SWG


• You learn to go out of your way to find a group, meaning you meet new people


• Your solo ability (with some planning) is not as bad as most people would think


• Bigger creatures are less of a problem because you are usually in a group

Why Ranger complements Squad Leader:

• You can help the group find enemies and get extra info on those enemies


• The field bases serve as a good rallying point and can be kept up during the fight by a Squad Leader (as you won't have any combat skills making it worth your time to attack)


• You never need to wait up for those people without TN (+60 group TN at Master)


• Being mostly useless in combat means you can focus on directing the group instead of fighting (better traps would still fit in here as you would be making sure the states stick and not worrying about damage numbers as well). You'd actually be amazed at how frantic it is to lead a squad in a krayt fight. You'd also be amazed at how rewarding it can be. In a decent sized group, the Squad Leader skills really make a difference as long as you have the HAM and presence of mind to use them (e.g. against a krayt, being able to heal dizzy and stun for everyone in the group really helps a ton).


• Not being directly engaged in combat means that you don't end up in a state where you can't use SL skills nearly as often (I've noticed that being Dizzy means I can't use most of my skills but I'm not sure on the other states)

The benefits of Squad Leader:

• Stat Mods for everyone in the group: +60 TN, +60 Burst Run Efficiency (yes, I can burst run with no HAM costs but there is still downtime and I think it's the same as before), +30 Ranged Defense, +30 Melee Defense (with the defenses supposedly taking people over the caps)


• Rally: While I remember how annoying this skill always seems on a hunt (no harvesting while rallied), it really makes a noticeable difference in combat. When Rally wore off fighting a Krayt, the tanks' HAMs started dropping noticeably faster. But be warned that you can't res while rallied (among other things). This is the only skill that ends up giving you a TEF for using it. Everything else lets you stay covert if you really want. This skill will last longer if you use it multiple times (before it runs out). So you can keep your party rallied as long as you want assuming you have the HAMs and don't fail too often (which actually is my biggest complaint with the skill--I often need to use it 6 or 7 times before it sticks so make sure to start using it before the previous rally wears off)


• Formup: Clearing Dizzy is extremely helpful for keeping your tanks tanking. The Krayt stayed put a lot more when the tanks weren't flopping around on their backs. And being able to do it without having to get close helps.


• Steady Aim: Really not all that useful from what I can tell. It seems to improve the to hit chance of the group for the next attack. But it uses enough HAM that you are probably better saving the HAM for Formup and Rally


• Volley Fire: Not too important when there is only one target (like with a krayt) but I can see this being extremely useful in a place like the deathwatch bunker. It lets you make sure everyone is attacking the same target (killing it off ASAP, usually starting with the weakest one). I have yet to try it out properly but I can see it helping


• Boost Morale: Not very useful to me so far but I can see situations where it would help. This skill just distributes the wounds evenly between the party. The main use I would see for it is when Combat Medics use mindheal. Healing mind gives them focus and willpower wounds. By spreading those out, you can ensure that your medics can keep healing.


• Retreat: A very fun and useful skill. It gives everyone in your party but you Burst Run. This really helps when closing down on a target (especially against kiters). It also helps to keep your group ahead of the enemy. The HAM costs are a bit high but the effects are very noticeable. I personally think of it more as an in battle tactic than a retreating method (as most people don't like to pull out until they are dead). You can use this skill as often as your HAMs allow. And, with the +60 Burst Run Efficiency (taking me up to +130), I can still easily burst run after using it on a real retreat.

Paying attention while leading a squad is very important here. You can give them a lot of bonuses but you do need to balance it all out (HAM costs are quite high but failure rates on Rally are also high).

Solo ability:

• Squad Leader bonuses ONLY work in a group. So you will always want a pet of some sort out and grouped with you when you are not grouped with other players.


• 18 left over skill points allow for a reasonable selection of skills. I personally recommend either CH, Medic, or tier 4 in a marksman skill.


• Medic can be extremely useful ina group although it puts an additional strain on your mind (mostly useful when grouped--you can't kill anything significantly harder with just medic skills).


• Tier 4 in a marksman skill gives you the ability to do a bit of damage in your group and also gives you some ability to solo. Personally, I think it is a better idea to focus on helping your group in combat than to try and add a bit of extra damage. Yes, it helps but not enough for me to consider it worthwhile. The solo ability is not as good as with CH.


• CH is almost pointless in a group. You will only be able to get a CL 19 pet (I'm currently using a CL 14 pet [with the ability to call CL 16 but not pet to fit in there] because the xp cap cut off my extra ton of CH xp) but that is enough to tank with pet stims. A decent novice marksman pistol can supplement the creature's damage. And it seems that a CH can have a pet and a droid out at the same time, allowing for a droid to further add to the damage (although I'm still working on getting a droid for this). Good armor might do the same but I prefer not using it (especially with the added insurance costs and such).


• Ranger traps actually work on the stuff you can kill here (occasionally...I was still missing 3 or 4 times in a row on the really low level mobs outside cities).


• You WILL see a lower cash flow from missions and such. Hunting on starter planets can actually present a bit of a challenge. Using Squad Leader skills (mainly rally) with your pets can help. You still can make money, though.

Well, I hope this is interesting to someone else. I was actually surprised by how well Squad Leader was working. But I can see it being a bit difficult to use if you are stacking it with a combat profession. The HAM costs (when unbuffed) really keep you from doing other stuff too much. It also requires a bit of attention in the battle. Yes, the profession could use a bit of work. But it can really change the tide of battle in its current form.

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Squad Leader
Eclipse Server

Can I ask what combat abilities you have? I mean, you can harvest well , and lead with the best, but ya can't kill anything.

Sorta pointless to my way of thinking.

Those who can do, those who can't -become officers.

JB

not Warrant Officers either

I thought i read somewhere on here that Nemo0 was a second Lt.

Ebe.

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JBMat wrote:

Can I ask what combat abilities you have? I mean, you can harvest well , and lead with the best, but ya can't kill anything.

Sorta pointless to my way of thinking.

Those who can do, those who can't -become officers.

JB

not Warrant Officers either

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As it is, I can't kill anything too big solo. My current template is Marksman 0/1/0/4 (pistols 1)/Master Squad Leader/Master Scout/Master Ranger/CH 0/0/0/2. I will be dropping marksman pistols to get 0/0/0/3 CH when the xp is done. It is a big change from Master Rifleman but that was part of the point. But, even with the above template, I am surprisingly effective solo. The group bonuses seem to apply to my pet (I'm not sure but my CL 14 womp rat [1700 HAM] is tanking well enough for me to take on multiple 3k HAM mobs without too much trouble). And, given that the most valuable resources seem to spawn on really weak critters, I can manage to kill what I need to harvest easily enough. If the best resources are on something big then I am best off finding a group anyway. The whole point of the exercise was to get me back into the state of mind where I wanted a group. When I can just go and solo a krayt ancient (in about 2 hours of concealshotting...) it's not all that fun. It is a MMORPG. I wanted to get back to the multiplayer portion.

Yes, when solo, I am almost utterly useless. But, in a group, that actually seems to make SL a much more useful profession. When I used to join a group as a Rifleman, I could only add a bit of extra damage. Now I'm helping the other people survive so that they can do the damage. And I'm enjoying the change.

As for my ingame rank, I'm a Rebel Colonel. And I did manage to solo an ST just the other day with the above template. It wasn't easy but I did win (without buffs or armor). I'm finally having a bit of a challenge with the game. SL is definately not for everyone. I just thought I'd let people know a bit about my experiences with it if they wanted to try (as it does fit well when you already have all the Scout prereqs done).

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Squad Leader
Eclipse Server

Thanks for the info bud. This was what I had originally planned my template to be as I wanted to just help the group in a fight, but alas, Ichose instead to compliment Ranger with Fencer.