Easy Improvement for AF: Give more stacks upfront when still

[jakeelala]

That way it encourages stationary play but also lets you move enough to live and play the game in a bad situation.

So run run run, boss fight, stand in place and start firing, 1 second later 10 stacks, decays two stacks per second of movement. Has anyone suggested this yet?

[jakeelala]

Also the obvious fix for Improved Precise Shot has always been either less targets based on missile type, or simply ranged weapon damage drop off. Thrown weapons should have lower range than stringed weapons, and heavier string weapons should be the longest range, accordingly, they should also have the lowest RoF. Thrown weapons should have the fastest drop off but also fastest throw and reload time ie high RoF.

Instead of balancing the combat styles which work pretty well today (AF vs IPS), you should just adjust the weapon characteristics to make them make sense and offer different pro's and cons in the context of the larger combat system you already have.

Wielding two repeating crossbows should be wildly inaccurate but moderate damage with a lot of potential hits from sheer volume.
Throwing shuriken should be many missiles quickly with high accuracy but low damage and not a lot of range.
Throwing axes should be slower than shuriken, but two handed, much higher damage, and less fall off due to high mass of a throwing axe. Should also be a combo of Dex and Strength modifiers.
A long bow should travel furthest, be most accurate at range, do very high damage as well, and have a low rate of fire. For long bows, you should synergistically receive higher damage from combined scores of Wisdom, Dexterity, and Strength at a certain threshold
A short bow should travel moderately far, be accurate at moderate range, do moderately high damage, and have a higher significantly higher RoF than a longbow
Throwing knives would be between axes and shuriken in terms of range, damage and RoF.

If you really wanted to do a good job, shuriken should not be able to pierce monsters with IPS, but they should instead be able to be thrown as a CONE of varying degree hitting multiple monsters in front of the thrower.

[DRoark]

Also the obvious fix for Improved Precise Shot has always been either less targets based on missile type...

IPS worked fine for over a decade. The only issue it had was using it with the Inquisitor tree. Changing doubleshot on INQ was the only change that was really needed.
Blanket-nerfing every ranged class wasn't the right option, and longtime players leaving is the result.

[droid327]

So run run run, boss fight, stand in place and start firing, 1 second later 10 stacks, decays two stacks per second of movement. Has anyone suggested this yet?

You're basically describing the Aimed Shot enhancement from DWS, but making it automatic.

The devs were very clear they were not going to subvert the "standing still" requirement for AF, so that kind of start-stop movement is not something they're likely to support.

[jakeelala]

You're basically describing the Aimed Shot enhancement from DWS, but making it automatic.

The devs were very clear they were not going to subvert the "standing still" requirement for AF, so that kind of start-stop movement is not something they're likely to support.

Yes, I am, but without a 3 ranger level requirement. I think it should be part of the combat style as opposed to part of Deepwood Sniper

[Draxis]

What if they made AF and IPS non-mutually exclusive, so rather than having to toggle them situationally, IPS just improves PS? Basically keep the -% damage of IPS, but also have it benefit from AF such that if you stand in place and build stacks, you can get that -% damage of IPS back. My biggest gripe is having to remember to toggle stances in the heat of battle, when you may want to enter AF for just a couple of seconds before going back to IPS. Right now I just keep IPS active and only toggle to AF when I remember that a boss is coming up (Which is horrible for new players who might not know where the boss fights are.)

[jakeelala]

What if they made AF and IPS non-mutually exclusive, so rather than having to toggle them situationally, IPS just improves PS? Basically keep the -% damage of IPS, but also have it benefit from AF such that if you stand in place and build stacks, you can get that -% damage of IPS back. My biggest gripe is having to remember to toggle stances in the heat of battle, when you may want to enter AF for just a couple of seconds before going back to IPS. Right now I just keep IPS active and only toggle to AF when I remember that a boss is coming up (Which is horrible for new players who might not know where the boss fights are.)

Also a very good suggestion