Ranger Archive

Iknow a lot of the elite professions are "hurting", but I want to detail the problems with the Ranger profession. I hope that you (the Devs) take this information into serious consideration and fix the profession.

Rangers, in their current form, are literally a joke. This class has a lot of potential but it was horribly implemented. The skill trees are nothing more than an extension of the Scout skill trees. No creativity or thought was put into designing a unique elite profession. I have seen many people call Rangers "Scout 2" and I agree with that labelling.

Wayfaring Skill
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PROBLEM
This is merely an extension of the Scout's Exploration skill line. It provides no new skills or abilities. Even though Terrain Negotiation skill is increased, there is no noticable difference (if it is even working) in the skill after Exploration III. Camoflauge skill does appear to improve the ability to conceal one's scent better though.

SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE/FIX
Rangers need something unique in this line to seperate them from Scouts. New skills and/or abilities ... OR ... Terrain Negotiation needs to actually improve the Ranger's movement speed as a whole, not just when running up steep terrain.

Frontiering Skill
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PROBLEM
Again, this is merely an extension of the Scout's Survival skill line. No new skills or abilities gained. This is about the only lackluster skill that a Ranger has in his/her arsenal. The camps are nice-looking but it's not really much of an improvement over what is already gained in the Survival line until you reach Frontiering IV.

SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE/FIX
The lower-level Ranger camps could stand to be something more than just a slight increase in the regenation bonus. I am fairly content with this skill line right now but it's not much different than the Scout's.

Field-Bioscience Skill
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PROBLEM
Again, another extension of a Scout line. No new skills or abilities gained. Creature knowledge skill doesn't appear to do *anything* unless you're a creature handler. I am not an expert with the game but maybe I'm just missing something about this skill; anyone care to enlighten me? Harvest skill doesn't appear improve either. Throughout the course of gaining skill I haven't managed to increase the amount of hide/bone/meat I can get from harvesting very weak to very high "level" creatures. Besides gaining a creature to-hit bonus, this skill line doesn't appear to actually improve anything.

SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE/FIX
Rangers need something unique in this line to seperate them from Scouts. New skills and/or abilities ... OR ... fix the existing skills so that they actually do something beneficial.

Advanced Trapping Skill
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PROBLEM
Again, another extension of a Scout line. No new skills gained. This line is *very* broken and doesn't work at all. The Rescue skill is the only new ability available to the Ranger and it doesn't even work. Also, Rangers only get two new traps. The two traps the ranger *does* get are worthless (even if they did work) -- we already have a trap that blinds/stuns creatures.

SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE/FIX
Remove the Rescue skill. Rangers are not "tanks". Give them something better, like maybe "Frighten Creature" and make the thing run away instead; the last thing I want is something that is mauling another player to starting beating on weak-old-me. Rangers need traps ... LOTS of traps. Lots of variety. Rangers should get at *least* twice as many traps that are available to Scouts.

Summary
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Compared to every other elite profession, the Ranger is practically a starting profession with another starting profession as a prerequisit. Nothing about Rangers is unique and the profession does not gain anything than Scouts don't already have -- they are just "improved Scouts".

Please take this into serious considering and fix Rangers.

Thanks for reading.

Good write-up!

I've only just recently entered the Ranger tree myself, but I've also heard other people asking what the Creature Knowledge ability can do for us. What it does, in my experience, is tell you a lot of information about what you're confronting. If you target the creature, and "Examine" it, you'll notice that the list of information it gives you is considerably longer than what a non-Ranger or non-Scout would get. As you go up in skill, more items are added to the list of creature details in the Examine window.

You can see what the creature's weaknesses, vulnerabilitiesandstrengths are, how hostile the creature is, and how "ferocious" it is (which, as far as I can tell, is an indication of how likely they are to assist each other when tearing you to shreds). It also tells you what kind of hides/meat you can harvest from the creature, and how many of each kind are available on that particular creature.

The Creature Harvesting skill, I've found, does increase the number of items you can harvest, which is evident when you use the "Examine" feature above. If you look at a creature, it may say you can harvest something like 9 Leathery Hides. I've found that my increased Creature Harvesting means that I'll be able to harvest *more* than the base amount given in the description. For instance, one creature I examined said it had 43 Hides to harvest, but when I actually harvested it, I got 61.

As for your other points -- I agree, the skill trees need a bit of beefing up, and you make some very good points. Something other people have mentioned and I'd love to see is the re-introduction of the Concealment skill, which I don't think you mentioned. AndI totally agree on your assessment of the Rescue ability. When I'm working with friends, we learned very early on that I was *not* beefy enough to take the blows, so I can't see many cases where I'd ever want to use the Rescue ability to draw aggro to myself.

T.

Awesome summary and fixes!

Another possible suggestion I saw on another thread that would be a great addition to the Ranger class would be Tracking (including tracking other players).

I agree, tracking would be a great skill to have. I spoke with a Creature Handler who spent hours looking for a specific creature. If tracking were implemented it would provide a good oppritunity to make money. I have been a ranger for quite a while now, and I enjoy it, I like the mystique. I have looked at some other classes, and many of them aren't"beefy-er" than ranger, but I could be wrong. Also I feel if you want to be a sniper type character, the ranger is essential. And of course, i would like to see the ranger made stronger, and I think tracking is the best way to do that.

Traps effecting humaniods or pvp players for that mater would be nice.

They need to rip the code for tracking right out of EQ and paste a copy of it into the SWG for Rangers. That was an awesome Druid/Ranger ability there when you were looking for a specific critter... especially if you are a Creature Handler. Would be handy for tracking other PCs or NPCs too since the radar is only color coated... not really showing names.

Yes I agree tracking players would be nice, also stealthing from players would be fantastic. All the ranger skills sem to focus on PVE, when I reach master ranger i would like to pvp as well which the current ranger skills won't help me do.

Well, I have applied to be the Ranger correspondent for the community and I assure you that these issues and suggestions will be communicated to SOE if that happens

As much as I would also love a Tracking ability, I'm not sure it's entirely feasible in the way people are asking. The EQ version of tracking, for instance, wouldn't work to my knowledge. In EQ, with the zone layout, everything everywhere in the zone is spawned, alive and moving whether you're nearby or not. SWG uses a much more dynamic spawning system, and often the creatures, lairs, POI's and such don't spawn until you get there. And what's more -- things that spawn for you may not spawn for someone else in the same place. Everything is dynamic, and the creatures aren't already out there, waiting to be found.

With this system, I'm not sure a "traditional" tracking system would work, since a traditional system kind of relies on the spawns already being there, whether you're in the area or not. I think that, if a tracking system were to work, it would have to be like the BH tracking. A tracking device (like the BH's droids) would lead you to a series of waypoints and finally to a spot where it would *cause* the creature you're tracking to spawn. The distance travelled and the number of waypoints followed would need to be sufficiently far away so as to prevent abuse where a Ranger could essentially create "spawns-on-demand".

At least, that's my understanding of it -- I could be wrong.

T.

Some of the other things that I would like to see:

Wayfaring----------

A new skill should be added to this tree that increases overall land speed in addition to Terrain Negotiation bonuses...like a "Pathfinder" skill.This could bebeneficial for use with Rescue, because it would allow the Ranger to outmanuever(outrun) the creature rather than attack it. Also theGroup Terrain Negotiation skill should be removed from Squad Leader and put into the Ranger tree.

Advanced Trapping ----------

I think this skill shouldbe dramatically improved or removed for the addition of a new skill tree. Personally I think Tracking skill could be implemented along this line, but change the name to something other than Trapping.

Other suggestions---------

When I envision a ranger, I envision an individual with a highly developed empathic relationship with the land, and is capable of surviving away from the city for extended peroids of time. As such I feel thata high level Ranger should developean abillity similiar to Meditate, except thatthis abillity slowly reduces BF. Thisabillity only works on the Ranger, but I feel its essential for those of us whowant to explore the worlds, and not have to stay within running distance of a city everytime our BFgets high. However, to prevent Entertainers from losing there job, this abillity shouldn't decrease BF all the way...maybeat low levels have it decrease BF down to175, 150, 125 and finally at Master Ranger have it somewhere between 75-100.

Also, I think it would still be in the realm of the Ranger avatar, if Rangers could get low - mid level pets from CH's.

Peace and Prosperity

D'Shan Kaen

good post, nice to see more pissed off rangers on here besides just myself

Newest Ranger Brokeness *this is from myself, and another higher up ranger*

1.High Tech Field Base- Doesn't Heal Wound Dmg. It will not disband until you personalydisband it.

2.Thismayjust be for Tatooine on Eclipse- We are now only getting 1 hide per kill *regardless of its level* and its always different kinds of hides.

3.The creature to hit bonus- Thisonly applies to normal Ranged Attacks.Not special attacks, just regular bang bang. Thisis very pointless to me and myfriend since we are both melee'rs.

4.Terrain Negotiation- After 50 skill is reached, the50+ points add to your movement while PRONE. Again this seems completely pointless.

obviously we can't have everything implemented into the ranger, but another idea i had would be something along the idea of medicinal herbs. yeah, we have the forage thing right now to get some status buffs.. but it'd be cool if we could make the equivalent of a stimpack.

i also like the tracking and meditation ideas. i always though concealment sounded like fun too. i agree with the fact that rangers should be able to stay far out in the wilderness, not just wondering around the outskirts of town.