Ranged Attack Speed and Kiting

[Coldin]

Why does the melee guy have a lower strength than the archer has dex? Did he forget Rage + Madstone + Madstone?

I was curious about that too. We're assuming a super-maxed dex ranger, and a not so maxed melee ranger. (Btw, what about Ram's Might?)

[Coldin]

Do you see a problem?

Not without real world testing, no. Considering a few other issues archers have (missed shots, difficulty in leading a target), it's difficult to say whether it becomes a big issue. Though, perhaps the other rule regarding manyshot should be invoked as well. Only one shot in a volley can be considered a crit. All others always deal normal damage regardless of how good the attack roll was.

[Angelus_dead]

He'd not be equally-vulnerable vulnerable to caste/ranged mobs. As I said, he would be more prone to steal get their aggro.

1. Just having aggro doesn't mean they're equally able to attack you. Many DDO monster spells are less able to harm someone at a distance.
2. Your description did not include a way that the ranged character would be more likely to pull aggro from a caster mob, unless it was an implicit consequence of having higher overall DPS.

Looking at it from the perspective of the mob, a melee monster would be less-inclined to aggro on an archer because he might not be able to catch him. But if a caster mob can throw his spell just as easily on melee or ranged players, then he wouldn't have a preference in who to attack.

[Mercules]

I have an Arcane Archer... I played a Ranged Fighter previous to some of the changes to Range(still have her around but don't play her much as Repeaters are fantastic at low levels but do not scale well up to 12+ unless you have the really rare and expensive ones(Banishers/WoP/Greater Bane) which I can't seem to find/afford.

I can attest that the old system where you could not reload without standing still made ranged attacking impossible. The new system makes it so I can actually play a ranged character.

Yes the DPS is lower(when Many Shot is not going) on my Ranger. No stacking multiple d6 of damage types(like the Acid-PG and Force Arrows or Holy GrBane with Force Arrows) does not come close to making it up.

I play a ranged character because I can contribute to a team. I can target the caster way in the back and take him down, often before Melee can jump through a bunch of mobs to get to him. I can kill that mob without having to chase them willy-nilly all over the place or even through a doorway jammed with melee mobs.

I also don't "kite". When I pull the agro I move towards and through the nearest melee focussed character and let the mob run into them. Most of the time the mob will get hung up on that character, or the other mobs already fighting there. I am then pumping shots through the other mobs already engaged with the melee and the mob that was after me. Sometimes the melee pulls the agro off, sometimes their added Glancing Blows or occasional TWF hits help kill it quicker.

I'll do the same thing with a Firewall or CC. I'll move through it back and forth(tumbling or jumping) and kill it that much faster, all the time trying to put a few shots through it at an angle so I catch other mobs and drag them into the firewall as well.

Play smart and the range helps the team out, killing things that might otherwise cause issues. Then again Finger of Death does that almost as well(when things aren't immune to it).

[Fetchi]

Yes, but sometimes it's an effective way to avoid being damaged.

Rarely.

That depends on the monster in question.

Clearly.

Not "completely" false. There are times when it works, and times that it doesn't.

Maybe not "completely" but certainly more often than not , it doesn't.

If you focus on high-level quests then it doesn't, because devils don't respect spatial distances.

Clearly.

To do that would not solve the underlying problem, which is that range and melee don't stack. First the kiting situation would have to be resolved so that both melee and ranged can contribute to a typical combat. Once that's done, a developer could look at improving ranged DPS to get it to be balanced.

It may not solve the underlying problem, it would however solve an immediate problem.

While I would agree that a synergy is needed between melee and ranged, it isn't likely to be addressed nor corrected "in the life time of an elf," as Codog so eloquently put it. Therefore, my (and many other players) suggestion to increase RoF progressively as you level, thereby increasing dps as well, is a simple and effective solution.

[Coldin]

While I would agree that a synergy is needed between melee and ranged, it isn't likely to be addressed nor corrected "in the life time of an elf," as Codog so eloquently put it. Therefore, my (and many other players) suggestion to increase RoF progressively as you level, thereby increasing dps as well, is a simple and effective solution.

It already increases with BaB...but it is a small increase, and only really noticable when comparing a 1st level vs. a 16th level.

Ranged really needs to start out at a faster rate for it to be enjoyable throughout all the levels.