Ranger Archive

Since it looks like they have/will be finaly fixing BE (and because I was getting bored) a week ago I dropped Ranger and half the scout skill set (500,000+ XP gone in one evening - that hurt!) to pursue my original game goal.

Having played around for a week without the "Uber Ranger Powers" I can compare my "new" playing style with that of the Master Ranger I was a week ago.

The result is kind of disappointing.

To put this in perspective - I was a Master Ranger/Master CH, entirely PvE and I only very rarely group. People who regularly group or are into PvP may have an entirely different exprience. Possibly I was playing the wrong profession for my playstyle.

I agonised hard and long before dropping the ranger skill and this sort of commentry would have been useful to me then - so the following observations are made in the spirit of helping others evaluate the possible impact of taking/dropping the profession.

Traps: Once I hit master I never used them at all - so I don't miss them. They are far too weak to be of use against the tougher mobs.

Rescue: never used it (but I personally don't group much)

Camoflage: Only used it a few times - and it really wasn't very useful (maskscent seemed to be just as effective, if not more so). If I grouped more this might have been useful for masking other party members.

Maskscent: Reduced effectiveness. No more waltzing about Endor just stabbing the button when it breaks! That said, with a little care (as opposed to NO care) I've not been aggroed yet. The loss isn't insurmountable (and bear in mind I now HAVE to sneak up on those mobs to steal thier DNA). The longer time until refresh on it breaking (20s. as opposed to 5.) is a potential killer - but I seem to have got away with it so far.......

Movement: Is noticeably slower - but not crippling. I use my mounts much more. Before I had to keep stopping to let my pets catch up and don't need to do that now. For me personally then, no great loss.

Camps: That Hi-tech base was an amazing pose-piece. Unless I was posing though I always used a basic camp (usually just for pet re-summoning). I'm not hugely into posing, so no great loss.

Forage: 1 crate of Bofa-treats for the pets. Sorted. (Whatever happened to those "unique" foragable items?)

Creature Knowledge: This is the skill I miss the most. I've still got hunting IV so have only really lost details of CL and specials (so will have to compile a bestiary from other sources). This just adds bookkeeping - but I really miss it.

Burstrun: If you can't outrun it in 30s. it'll kill you anyway.........

Tracking: Not as missed as I thought it would be. Admittedly BE means I don't actually need to hunt critters as much as I used to - but weirdly the ability I miss is being able to identify other players at range (especially when they are being inconsiderate). It used to be too unreliable for use as anything other than a very rough hunting guide, and if I was after anything specific I'd mission for it rather than hunt anyway.

Creature harvesting: The slight reduction in goods really hasn't been noticeable.

Basically, after losing Ranger, my playstyle hasn't changed much at all!

I have to be a little more careful around red mobs than I used to be. I have to plan a little more about how I am going to get from A to B (especially if there is rough terrain involved).

Loss of the profession has had no effect on combat at all (I use a pistol - might have got more out of it had I used a rifle).

Overall I think the Ranger is primarily a support class. I was probably not using the full potential since I almost entirely solo. The few times i did group my skills weren't called for since someone else was always wanting to work on thier scout skills. Since I was already a master we'd use thier camp, etc, etc. The classes primary advantage is in rapid movement without being aggroed (leaping mountains with a single bound!), which is a boon if you are heavily into exploring.

I don't want to 'dis' the profession - but for me dropping it has been no great loss, although it was nice while it lasted.

Oh, one final thing. The thing I miss the most.

Rangers are (comparatively) rare and I found a certain "esprite de corps" amoungst the ranger community that does not exist to the same extent in other professions. That feeling of doing someting a little unique (not totally combat or business centered) and the kinship with similarly inclined people I really do miss.

Good hunting to you all!

That post pretty much sums it all up for us, thanks for taking the time to write it up. Most of these issues have been brought up before in various posts, but not in some time. What you wrote are my feelings exactly, at this point there is nothing that I would truly miss if I dropped it. Right now, I am just trying to wait to drop the skills until I hear what the devs may be changing, but of course we have not heard anything specific in a long time. It is kind of sad that it coms down to that, but we really are just glorified scouts...and even then, we do not get that much over them.

Yep, what rs1990 said.

This profession needs a lot of work, and suffice to say that the minor advantage gained by having the skill set is probably not sufficient for most players.

Hope to see you return in the future though, when the profession is improved.

Honestly the only thing I use out of this class right now is the camo kits. I find it invaluable to be able to run past the mobs that hate me and my guild. If it wasn't for these camo kits I doubt I'd really be getting any benefit from this class as tracking rarely works for me or ends up despawning all the critters, I'm not sure. I have run from one end of a planet to another quite often without seeing a single thing on my track.

forgot to add I intend to stick this class out for the forseeable future though as I enjoy the RP aspect.

Even if the profession is 'fixed' I won't be back I'm afraid. I only really took it up in the first place because BE was so horribly broken. (I have a thing about pets - Mage in EQ, Metaphysicist in AO, Elementalist in DAOC, theer's a pattern here!)I'll beCH here regardless of how much that profession gets nerfed and BE is the natural adjuctunt to that profession. Ranger IMHO comes in second because of the 'outdoors' and hunting aspects.

I don't think the Ranger profession is 'broken' as such - it's just that for an 'elite' skill the benefits have nowhere near the 'oomph' the skill points invested would imply. There are many, many very good suggestions in the 'state of the profession' thread that would massively enhance the profession without unbalancing the game. Unfortunately I can't see many of them getting implimented in the near future (six months say), if at all.

By far the biggest problem is that there is practically nothing unique about a Ranger that anyone else can duplicate with only a very minor investment.

Take camps for instance. With novice scout (which I need for CH and BE) I can make a basic camp. Add a med or crafting droid and I've an instant hi-tech base.

Creature knowledge: this can be replaced with a couple of bookmarks.

Movement: Kaadu (or 2) and I can move as fast.

Traps: My gun and pets have far greater special effects and do more damage at fargreater rangeto both 'humanoids' and creatures than any ranger trap (which affects only creatures)

It's disappointing more than anything else. I've ditched well over 80 points worth of skills going right up to 'elite profession master' and the only real loss I've found is a slight reduction in run speed...........

Every master ranger I know on Chilastra has dropped the profession, as far as I know I was one of the last Master Rangers. There are plenty of people 'dabbling' in the profession (judging by the number of requests for training I got) so the metrics on numbers of novice rangers would indicate a healthy profession. I suspect though that if you compared the numbers of profession masters we'd see a different story

Anyway - I didn't want to write a whine post (although it looks like it's ended up as one).

You folks sticking with it - I salute you and sincerely hope they do something to make the profession unique and 'effective'.

I usually don't respond to these "I'm leaving the profession posts" but I will here because its all true. When you look at the benefit to cost ratio for the profession its amazingly low. A few weeks ago this was nagging at me too and I was tempted to give up my Master Ranger status to divert more points toward Master Brawler which would really boost my tanking ability and allow me to fight harder creatures that I can't take now.

So I did. I started by giving up my weakest line, the Trapping line. I gave up the entire line as I put points into Unarmed, Fencing and Polearms basics. And then I noticed it felt different. I wasn't any stronger or weaker of a character but I was different. I wasn't who I had wanted to play since I got the game, which was a Master Ranger, and I didn't like it. I came to the realization that making a more powerful and more effective character wasn't going to improve my gaming experience as long as I wasn't the character that I wanted to be. So for me, the choice was clear.

I got all four boxes of Trapping back (fortunately I had a pool of 160,000 trapping exps prior to giving up the boxes to draw from) and I got my Master title back. Yes, I could be stronger, yes, I am likely wasting a lot of points in almost useless skills. But I just have to be a Master Ranger and I'm afraid I won't enjoy this game unless I stay with that dream.

So good luck my friend with BE, I'm glad to hear you'll be playing the profession you had wanted from the start as well. I for one can understand how muchplaying the character you have envisioned regardless of stats or power contributes to the enjoyment of a game like this.

Well I have to agree and disagree with this (which also means I guess I'm disagreeing with my Antarian brother Costik sorry bro:smileywink

Most of the things that did not work are well known and will hopefully be fixed or made to work as advertised at least ie traps and camps. But what profession doesn't need to be fixed? I've been browsing a lot of the profession boards and have yet to see one that has all things working smoothly. Beleive me when one shows up I'm there.

Anyway...I find tracking skills to be great. As my pistoleer skills are so low I can't get missions for the critters I'm after so I have to use it. I haven't really had much of an issue with it. Most of the time I find what I'm looking for after about 1 to 3 uses. Only once did I travel for a while and come up totally empty handed. But then I search for several animals that drop the same thing as oppossed to just one animal. I do find it amusing that I can take down almost all con yellows and about 1/3 to 1/2 reds (depending on the planet) but can I get a mission for them? Noooo.

Mask scent - has only failed to save my arse once and that was by the bad luck (laziness) of getting aggro'd by NPC mobs, running from them, mask scent wore out and got a facial by a kigmola (sp?). When I pay attention and the mask drops in the middle of red dots I just stand still until I can raise it back. If they did not detect at that moment I was fine. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Creature Harvesting - If I'm filling an order those few extra units really add up aftertwenty lairs and who knows how many creatures.

HoweverI will agree with everyone wholeheartedly on two things. 1) The comaraderie is outstanding as a profession and is a real pleasure. 2) The RP aspect is even cooler - Everyone knows the ranger in the group, does everyone know the pistoleer of the group? There is still an air of mystery around Ranger that has not worn off yet, and I hope it never does. A lot of people still look at us as Aragorn, thank-you Tolkein, and if we get the right combat skills it is possible to perpetuate the feeling. I feel there is a lot of respect and some awe for Rangers, at least on Tarquinas. "oh, your a bounty hunter, ok" "oh your a bounty hunter too, oh well ok" "oh your a ranger, can we go hunting?"

Visa

I also have to reply to the original post. I salute you for a well thought out post. I am sticking with Ranger...but if I wasn't, I sure know the best argument for leaving....it's yours. It is always nice to hear from someone who takes pride in his/her professions...even when they are leaving one. Best of luck in your endeavors...once and ranger...always a ranger though.

Diobe Soudaw

Kettemoor Ranger

Bestine/Tatooine

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Stjerne wrote:

However I will agree with everyone wholeheartedly on two things. 1) The comaraderie is outstanding as a profession and is a real pleasure. 2) The RP aspect is even cooler - Everyone knows the ranger in the group, does everyone know the pistoleer of the group? There is still an air of mystery around Ranger that has not worn off yet, and I hope it never does. A lot of people still look at us as Aragorn, thank-you Tolkein, and if we get the right combat skills it is possible to perpetuate the feeling. I feel there is a lot of respect and some awe for Rangers, at least on Tarquinas. "oh, your a bounty hunter, ok" "oh your a bounty hunter too, oh well ok" "oh your a ranger, can we go hunting?"

Visa

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I have to agree with almost all that is written by everyone in this thread, but most of all this part of it. Although Master Ranger may not make you an uber player, the mystique about it makes up for it somewhat.

The thing about Ranger (we would hope) is that we should not be super strong in all respects but that we can do things no one else can. Just a few things. Track, Camo, the big camps, the creature knowledge and harvesting.

Although I think there are some good ideas in the Wish List, if all of these things that we alreday have WORKED the way should, it would be ENOUGH. I don't want to be Superman.. I want to be that guy quietly sitting in the back of the room that pulls a rabbit out of his hat when its needed. I don't want Ranger to be so cool and so powerful that it gets flooded with other players. Do we really want to be like Bounty Hunters or Commandos?


So... to the devs... take this person's quitting to heart and listen to him.. just FIX what's broken, and make it so Ranger's stay Unique and Powerful in their own way. Don't spend all your programming hours adding tons of new features. Give us a little, but just fix what we have or improve them so that Rangers alone have these unique skills to a degree that no one else has.

I have experienced the same feeling of being a special class of character that you guys mention here. Always plenty of BH's & CH's and everybody sure makes you feel special when you are the only ranger in the group. I am all for fixing these small problems with the profession...but don't fix our uniqueness...Ilove being that quiet figure out amongst the horizon...staring out over the dunes of tatooine...always there to lend a hand to a lost soul or group looking for the hunt.

Diobe Soudaw

Kettemoor Ranger

"...I track 'em.....they swallow you whole....we both win!"

I have been giving up SLOWLY, BH, master marksman, for pistoleer, in order to master it i will have to give up a couple of boxes in Ranger, and they will eventually all go. While I am mastering other things. After I accomplish a few things, check out other professions I will be back to ranger.

I will probably cry when i give up the Master Ranger box, the rest will go fairly easy. Working on my 5th month as a Master Ranger.

bump!