It's Time for Some Ranger Love!

[Turial]

No one is saying anyone should use ranged combat full time.

What we are asking for is an alternative to simply beating on every single mob in the game. Honestly as raids become more wars of attrition the game needs something between melee and casting for a damage dealing option that uses resources but doesn't consume them a the phenominal rates the melee and spell slinging can. Currently ranged combat doesn't fit that roll due to the slow rate of fire.

The rules governing ranged combat in pnp give some balance to ranged vs melee because a ranged combat user must have enough dex to hit the target as well as a decent str for dealing damage. As you increase your str you tend to loose out on the ability to have the high dex for taking on mobs accross AC values.

[Yaga_Nub]

If you are on ghallanda seek out Leafon The whirlwind, ranger/rogue/ftr drow tempest. I am but a leaf on the wind, a sword in the storm, the elven hurricane and will continue to champion the cause of elves and thier small kin the halflings for all times.

I'm elven as well and those little rat b*stards sure as hell aren't my kin.

[crschoen]

It's actually really annoying for a melee when a ranger pulls aggro, because of how hard Turbine made it to hit moving mobs, and how long it takes the ranger to kill it.

In pnp you would in most cases have attacks of opportunity every time the monster leaves a square you threaten. There should be a HUGE penalty to running past a line of fighters, but the mobs in DDO beeline toward the rangers/casters without batting an eye.

You just summarized, in one pithy paragraph, what I think is the biggest flaw with the DDO combat mechanisms. The game has diverged so far from reality now. Ever try to hit a caster or ranger goblinoid when it runs away from you? Good luck. Ever try to hit an ogre that is running straight towards a ranger behind the fighters? Good luck. Does this make any sense with P&P or what you would consider a "real" combat? Of course not.

I think this combat problem is related to another huge one: the fact that a party can just shield block (or even stand still) at a pinch point like a doorway and the monster will stand there dumbly and try to swing at the caster in the back who has a firewall on it. This is the old STK or VON3 end fight. It kind of feels like you're playing a Nintendo game against a stupid end boss. It doesn't feel like D&D at all to me. Can you imagine a DM running a game like that?

[Fetchi]

I think one thing people are disregarding are the incredible amount of HPs mobs have - especially at higher levels. I have a primarily ranged spec'd level 16 ranger who can hit just about every shot. Yet, it takes me forever to kill anything and a whole bunch of arrows (WHICH STILL TAKE UP ALL MY INVENTORY SPACE - WHERE ARE THE QUIVERS!!).

Let me ask you all this question: How many arrows does it take your ranger to take out a devil in the vale with a silver longbow? You can even take into account many shot and deepwoods sniper enhancements if you like.

I bet you are going to find it takes much too long to kill one creature for a 'ranging' toon than all other classes.

[winsom]

Let's not pretend all Rangers are broken. Ranged combat is what's broken, no matter who has the Bow out.

Or we could conclude that melee combat is severely-overpowered of the two combat styles, which is what I beleive.

[Steejan]

Hey Fetchi,

I run an L-16 pure bred 28 point human Ranger, Dex 34/Str 23 and I can tell you from my own Vale experiences, you got to find yourself a good banisher. (short sword, rapier or repeater) or what ever weapon type that works well with your build and its crit range. That way the baddies and their bloated hit points won’t mean jack to you!

In my mind, taking the devils on and trying to DPS them to death is a very slow and costly way of killing them.

My Ranger uses a Heavy Repeater and that is the only way I’d even consider locking horns with those baddies. If you can find a good banisher, that will help you immensely in the Vale since a large portion of its inhabitance can be banished. Also I have found out that wounders and punctures work pretty well too on the non devils and if you have a ranged or hand paralizing weapon that will making your adventuring there that much easier.

Since the Vale opened for business, that has became my Ranger’s newest solo loot run area and of course it take a little patients on my part to make the runs but it very attainable.

I do have to completely agree with you on the ammunition consumption issue. I typically go through 7 stacks of the 75% returning bolts while I’m making ONE Vale solo trip and in that trip that account's for visiting all the areas where the chests could spawn.

Also, its really about time for the Devs to do something with the ammunition stack size or at least give us some kind of quivers.

To answer the question your posed, as far as my Ranger goes, I don’t use anything but my banishing heavy repeater against any of the devils in the Vale and they only hang around bothering me, untiI I smack them down with a crit on my repeater, which usually is not too long.

Another thing that I have found VERY helpful indeed, is when you are running the devil area make use of the cats laying around there. Paralyze them and then charm them with your Ranger's Empathy feat. They make wonderful cannon fodder and the charm lasts a decent amount of time and those cats seem to grab and hold the devils agro for a long time allowing you all the more time to get them all banished.

All in all, I have found that my Ranger in the Vale, armed with the right weapons is an absolutely deadly opponent.

Oh and one more thing, I'm quite happy with the rate of fire my heavy repeater has at this time. Please don't drop it down anymore, if ya have to raise it, i'm ok with that but otherwise just leave it alone.

Steejan...

[Cyr]

I just came back for this weekend events free event...had not touched any of my chars for a few months. First thing I notice is that both my rangers (14 level chars now 15) had a new spell that pimps their damage 3 points higher per hit...then i see tempest enhancment and oversize two weapon fighting. So I grab a level of fighter with one ranger respec feats out for tempest and power attack and am doing +18 damage dual weilding with a ranger who was really really not made to be a high str fighter. I have to say rangers were strong before mod 5 for those who knew how to play them ie more than JUST a bow user. Now they are very competitive with the other classes even for those who are not the best at building characters.

If any class needs a boost it is paladin's they are the weakest class atm.

[Emili]

I just came back for this weekend events free event...had not touched any of my chars for a few months. First thing I notice is that both my rangers (14 level chars now 15) had a new spell that pimps their damage 3 points higher per hit...then i see tempest enhancment and oversize two weapon fighting. So I grab a level of fighter with one ranger respec feats out for tempest and power attack and am doing +18 damage dual weilding with a ranger who was really really not made to be a high str fighter. I have to say rangers were strong before mod 5 for those who knew how to play them ie more than JUST a bow user. Now they are very competitive with the other classes even for those who are not the best at building characters.

If any class needs a boost it is paladin's they are the weakest class atm.

I tend to agree, among all the full bab classes pure paladins suffer the worse, it is a constant spamming on yourself of divine favor just to equate to the typical fighter class... the ranger even a lower str one is easily adaptable with rams, favored and being able to pick up a bow or go twf at any given moment... even sword and board a mid str (22-24 standing) ranger equates to a high str pally due to the damage bonus's avail thru favored and rams. As for the rate of fire of arrows should you just take a w/p bow and manyshot whole mobs of 6-10 elite ancient earth elementals are dead before the timer runs out on manyshot. That same feat will deliver 90-140+ per arrow on a red named (arrows x4 at level 16), That's very far past the poor pally's smite capability and you do not have to be standing toe-to-toe to deliver it and have no usage per day.

[Omega2K]

Where's the Ranger Love, Turbine?

(Added Quivers to my Original Post. Great idea and long overdue!)

[salmag]

The only complaint I have is in the Manyshot cooldown timer. Lower it to 20-30 secs, or make manyshot a toggleable (as others have suggested). Two minutes is way too long a cooldown.

Could you imagine the uproar if Cleave or Power Attack had a 2 minute cooldown.

And noone is saying that a Fighter, Barbarian, or Paladin can not pick up a bow either.

[MylesMDT]

As a level 10 Ranger, back for the "Welcome Back Week," I still see a very flawed ranged system. The differences in the flaws are changed than they were 1 year, and 2 years ago - but it is still flawed. Rangers just need some love.