Ranger Archive
Thread: What kinds of skills/abilities would you like to see to flesh out Ranger?
There are very few people that are going to master this tree, and mastering it isn't going to be very easy. That being said, for those of us that are planning to undertake the task, what skills/abilities would you like to see or see changed in order to make mastering Ranger a rewarding experience? (because we all know, right now, it isn't).
Rescue - I see this as fairly pointless in its current form...a 'chance' to trade places with the person on the top of the mob hate list isn't something that I would consider a useful skill...okay yeah, I can envision snatching the doctor out of the jaws of the rancor at the last moment, which would probably result in the ranger getting killed. I think that rescue should have a timer put on it, and be made to where you remove someone from the hate list, rather than trade places with them.
Conceal - taken off because it caused unexpected behaviours - the only thing I would like to see conceal do is take your blip off other peoples' radar (and so you wouldn't show up in PvP if they were tabbing through targets). The higher your skill, the longer your blip is gone. Mask scent for vs. creatures, Conceal for vs. humanoids.
I also think it would be nice if at a very high level, like master ranger, you could conceal a group member as long as they didn't move, or perhaps a group mask scent ability.
Mineras
Eclipse
I have pretty much decided I am going to go Ranger. But as you said, there isnt alot there in the ranger skill tree that is "rewarding" much less makes us usefull to groups. I think some sort of trapping usable against playersand their pets for the PvP side. Our trap skill isnt trapping per se, more a hand grenade toss that goes off. We dont "set" a trap. I think we should be able to "camo" ourselves better than the code allows for now. I was in beta but I never tested Ranger skills so I dont know what "weird" things were happening to the AI when camo'd. But it should be looked at again and brought back. Also i like the group camo idea as well.
I have heard that the terrainrun speed bonus is capped at explore 4. So whats the point in thatskill line after master scout? (i could be mistaken, i read it on a board somewhere)
Rescue is a nice idea but like you said, it will most likely end up as a dead ranger instead of whoever. a very selfless thing to do.
But to really answer the question, what dorangers do? What do you think a ranger should do?To me Rangers can hunt, track,blend in with terrain, survive in the outdoors, animal lore, and befriend nature. So how far off are the Devs really in what theyput together? A ranger with mastery in a weapon/brawling skill is a very solo character. Is it really supposed to be in a group or PvP? The only thing I mentioned we dont have is "befriend nature" which to me is the ability to tame an animal. Hmmm an animal tamer/ranger/scout.
ehhh im just thinking outloud.
I would like to see the ranger and scout camps revised. Lower the heal (wounds only, not ham bars)rates for the scout camps. Using the heal rates of a medical center as a basis; make the scout camp's wound heal at .15 for basic, .25 for multiperson, and .35 for improved. Ranger camps healing at .55, .75, and .95 respectively. Under this formula, basic camps would take just over 6x the heal rate of a medical center. This will help cure the ninja camping and make rangers a valued memeber of large groups, as well as appease some of the medic who would like all wound healing removed from camps. Also, make the two largest ranger camps permanent until they are disbanded or the character logs off. The exp caps for ranger camps could also stand to be increased (I think the largest ranger camp has a max exp value of about 1600).
Change rescue to prevent deathblow by creatures.
Add more aoe traps to the ranger line.
Add tracking to the creature line.
Max out the terrain negotiation speed bonus with master ranger. Or, make the ranger speed bonus apply to all terrain (i.e. faster movement in water and on flat land).
I think rescue is pretty much a waste of time.. I also think that some traps should work against players not just creatures. I would like to say more but I'll wait until I get to a ranger than I'll have more to say.
I wanted to go Ranger, but there really is nothing there worth the effort or the points spent.
I think everyone is in agreement about two things.
The scout is the master of things vs. Creatures.
The ranger should be a continuation of that, but also with a smattering of their skills evolving into PvP.
1) Traps. Advanced traps in the Ranger line should affect NPCs as well as creatures.
2) Conceal. First, get the ability back and working like it should versus creatures. It should work the same vs. creatures as it did before in beta, but the 2 upper skills boxes of conceal should work against players. I don't just mean make you invisible forever - that's too powerful. However, advanced conceal skills should take you off the radar of players until you attack at the very least. You might even be "invisible" to other players....until you attack. Make a refresh time of 15 seconds or so (might need a new skill to do this), and that certainly would add some spice to the Ranger tree without being overly powerful.
It would be a start in making this profession somewhat interesting. As it is now, I'm going to avoid it, but watch it to see if the Devs do anything about it.
Ok here is my Take on Ranger and Scout both!
Right now Scout is only Tolerated because it is a Pre-Req for alot of the More popular Profesions, like Creature handler and Bountyhunter for example. Other then that Only Novice Scout is realy desired, there is nothing a Master scout can Do that a Novice can't, that is arguably beneficial. The Entire Ranger tree Only compounds this fact in that you only gain Some BIG camps that no one will use(due to lack ofaditional gain and Resource matierials needed)and a single Special Command(Rescue) that is Either Broken or Useless.
So i Am Gonna Restate my Idea From beta that Would Make the Profesion more Playable and Enjoyable:
Why not Combine the Exploration and Wilderness survival trees into one? the Way i see it these both go together, ie "the more time out in the wild(camps) the better you can get around on unfavorable terain(terain negotiation)". Ok Now with that done, you now have very distinct 3 tree's; Wild, Hunting, and Traping(although traping and hunting Go together too the way i see it, they don't realy use the same Skills they are both distinct) So now you can put a NEW branch on the tree, My Beta idea was to put a Survival knife Or Walking StickDefensive line in. This would Not be A Big Damagebranch to pick up for Combat, it would be a defensive skill set designedfor selfProtectionout in the wild. With posiblylike 2Creature oriented Attacks, Not usable on players or NPC's, and 2 Defensive moves designed to aviod incoming attacks.
This scout "combat" brach would serve as a Basis for the Ranger "Combat" branch Which would Just be A Ranged Extension of this, using Bows (can everyone say laser bows? and Bowcasters for wookies?)for example. With the Same idea behind it, Defensive for the Most part but with a Special VS creature attack. This would also Give a reason for the Revised Rescue (Hehe =D)ability. The New Rescue would Rescue a player from combat, by Breaking the combatbetween that player and theNPC(s) that wereengaged inCombat. With Just 2 Players this would have the Same effect it Does/Should now, Where the ranger Get Beat on in place of the person he saved so they have a chance to run away and Survive. However in a large group it Would allow the ranger to Take an Active Position in Combat Where he could Rescue people from combat Who were not So Lucky, Again Emphasizing the Defensive role, and Alowing the Agressor's attention to be Shifted to Somone Else still attacking(not nessisarily the ranger).
I would just like to Se something Along this line for the ranger, Aslo it could fill the lack of a Defensive combat class, Although if you paid attention Even with my Ideas the ranger is an Indirect Combat support class (hehe, i think i made up a new term =D) Not looking to Overpower the Ranger at all, Just looking to Add some Flavor to it, and Give it Some options other then Having to Master an Elite Combat Prof' too.
Hope ya Guys like my Idea,I Hope the Devs like it more tho =D
Increased crawling speed? When, oh when am I ever gonna be crawling? here comes a bigrancor to attack me, hmm maybe i should drop and crawl away. Now combined with a hidden/camo skill this would be helpful, hide and crawl (to reduce my ingame physical visibility, smaller target harder to actually see). But in PvP people can just tab through the targets and find you anyway. In PvE maybe mask scent and crawl away to avoid detection by animals, still why crawl? Unless the code of the game is written to where your stance increases or decreases your detectability by Mobs, no sense crawling. Anyone?
Personallyi think we should continue to gain run speeds through terrain.
There are very few people that are going to master this tree, and mastering it isn't going to be very easy. That being said, for those of us that are planning to undertake the task, what skills/abilities would you like to see or see changed in order to make mastering Ranger a rewarding experience? (because we all know, right now, it isn't).
(no particular order)
1. Let traps work on player pets, but don't give xp. (only ranger traps)
2. Give a real speed bonus, not only uphills.(only for rangers)
3. Let traps work on npc-droids and give xp. (only ranger traps)
4. Let traps work on player droids but don't give xp. (only ranger traps)
5. Remove wilderness survival xp from game, remove trap xp from game, let camps and traps give hunting xp instead. (for scouts and rangers)
6. Fix the inventory full bug with /forage. (for scouts and rangers)
7. Make forage worth it. After the latest changes in beta, even a rangers (just needed 155k WS xp for master ranger) foraged buffs aren't worth it. I can only eat 1 /foraged food. I want to be able to eat 10 and use the stacking effect of it. It should be easily possible for a master ranger to buff himself 1500 more of a pool. There is already a downside, keeping the pool bigger than the duration of buffs requires player skill and coordination. I don't really know why you removed the only interesting ability from the camp-tree. (at least for rangers)
8. Make camping funny and worth the resources. Let the camper fight in his camps and give him a damage regenaration bonus for it (at least for rangers). Beeing able to heal wounds is not worth any resource -doctors are able to have a medical droid with them.
9. Let maskscent work on humanoid NPCs (only for rangers -> after a given +concealment skill)
10. change the slash-command for /maskscent so that it does support '/maskscent on' and '/maskscent off' (only in superrare situations someone wants to use /maskcent to turn it off, so it's very weird that /maskscent is a toggle) (for scouts and rangers, obviously)
11. When harvesting for bone (with /harvest bone) on a critter which has no bone to harvest, give only a warning message (and don't harvest anything). Currently there would be no message, and you cannot harvest anything from that corpse anymore. (for scouts and rangers, obviously)
12. Implement some kind of tracking for particluar mobs. Something which works like /survey. (at least for rangers)
13. Let the Creature ToHit Bonus work for melee, too. (rumors say that it doesn't work)
14. Add +meleespeed, +rangedspeed and +AccuracyWhileMoving to master ranger box.
Changes in this order I would like to see (From most wanted to least)
- A run speed boosting on each of the different specs on one of thelines(Wayfaring?)..so that we can outrun other players fairly easy.. This would make Ranger very useful for chasing down runners in PVP and for even distracting them by blitzing through.. Plus - all the exploring we do..I'd LOVE to save time by having a faster run speed. =( I played a Bard too long to survive much more without "Selo's Accelerendo" or even "Spirit of Wolf"
- Conceal.. make it so it's back in game and working..and in PVP make it so we're invisible until we attack. So that way we can be true scouts and even pull off stealth attacks. This would add more reason for people to be Rangers
- Possibly a Companion ? Maybe make it so when we reach Novice Ranger we are given some sort of wolf pet or something that stays smaller while we're advancing.. And then when we reach Master Ranger it's fully grown. This pet when it dies should work like faction-pets, resummonable. Or make it so we get a 1 pet limit when we become novice ranger.. That way we can BUY one.
- Creature to Hit Bonus for ALL attack types (It's unfair and makes no sense that melee and hand to hand can't do this, and fyi I'm Pistol so it won't affect me but it's only fair)
That's all I can really think of immediately, but I think they would all greatly help.. I really want a run speed booster for us that's a permanent boost.(And stacks with burst run) I mean we grow up in the wild, so to speak, it only makes sense we run faster - we're used to being around wild animals and sometimes needing to run..
I'm interested in Ranger, too. My vision of the profession is a go-anywhere PvE master. (PvP value is a secondary consideration for me right now, but it would be nice to be useful.) For this to be a valuable profession, there MUST be areas where it is extremely unhealthy to go without a Ranger as a guide, and there should be reasons to go there. This is a content question, not a class balance issue.
The phrase, "I want to go to <place> to do <activity>, I need to find a Ranger." should be commonplace. Otherwise, with all the BHs and CHs who have scouting skills, Rangers could easily become useless.
It's too early for me to judge the value of a Ranger's skills, but I know that the PvE content to support a go-anywhere guide sort of profession has to be there for the Ranger to work.
Dara K'Estell <Chilastra>