Give the ranger more interesting spells

[Pandjed]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but with the bow pass and my musings about the Arcane Archer as a ranger tree, I came to some conclusions. One of them is, that the AA is a not very helpful tree for a ranger. Let's take a look at some abilities:

• Provides several ways to enhance the to-hit: Ranger is a full BAB-class which really profits from high Dexterity because of Evasion and AC for heroics. Alternatively, you can use Falconeer for to-hit/dmg to make use of the AA's DC-related abilities. To-hit is no problem for a ranger
• It offers SP and temporary SP: While the intend may be to make Ranger use their magical arrows all the time, Rangers don't really use their spellpoints to any degree that would need those extra points so overly dearly
• Elemental Arrows may give universal spellpower, but they scale off elemental spellpower. Rangers have no other reason to equip any of those four spellpowers
• Dispelling is a nice thing, but mostly because you can't land a CC or Instakill for a Deathward or so. Rangers don't have those inherently
• Shattermantle is a cool effect, but rangers don't have any effect or spell that checks spellresistance... at least where you expect one. I mean, charm/hold animals check SR, but do animals have SR in the first place?

You can argue, that the rest will make it up, but let's be honest here: It doesn't. Maybe the AA is more of a supportive tree for the team? It can be, but ranger don't really have a supportive nature in themselves, they're mostly about DPS.
The AA is basically a caster-supportive tree and therefore works much better on casters. Enhancement DC for a wizard? Sure! Getting rid of some SR for the insta-kill? Great! Getting rid of that nasty Deathward? Love it! Having elemental spellpower for your arrows and your spells? A dream! Though be careful, most CC and IK is INT or CHA-based, so having your WIS high for the debuff/CC-stances won't help there.

Being a tree that can be chosen by any elf, I know that there are some nice synergies players can pull off, but even the design idea (putting an "Arcane" Archer on a Primal/Divine third-caster) is kinda strange and it really has little to no synergy with the ranger.

While I believe that my favorite idea how to deal with it (namely, making AA elf-exclusive and give rangers a new magical archery tree that uses more of a wilderness theme and gives bonuses and actives ranger want) may be a bit too crass and meet some dislike, I thought: How about taking a look at the way too short and underwhelming ranger spell list.

If we look at the other third caster (the paladin), we see a lot of spells that are outright from enhancement trees (Holy Sword, Zeal, Angel Skin, Righteous Command). While the ranger has some nice spells (like Freedom of Movement or Ram's Might), many of them are... suboptimal.

So maybe adding some spells that work like attacks (just like the druid) and need the ranger's choice of weapon to work (Two-weapons or bow) may add some spice AND give some sorely needed synergy between the ranger and the AA tree. I speak of things like Lightning Arrow, that shoots a lightning bolt from your bow, that does +[W] damage and electric damage that scales with electric spellpower, suddenly making every ranger glad to slot an item for it, as it's one active attack. Zephyr Strike, that works as a cleave attack with two weapons, that has a chance to knock opponents down based on a Dex-DC.

After the alchemist, I'm sure that there are many talented spellmakers in the dev team, that may make it work. Then suddenly, a drop of defensive buffs (like energy resistances), lowering SR, and getting all those temporary spellpoints would make more sense on a ranger, and the class itself may express itself in new ways.

Please consider this.

[Somebody87]

I agree they need a spell update.

I would change a few other things although there might be the problem of some of them clashing with the tabletop version that DDO is based on and some players wouldn't like that.

First, I think ranger should get the vigor line of spells ending in regenerate. This would give them something far handier to use their sp for and even justify healing AA builds.

Second, I would change the Arrow of Slaying to an instakill like assassinate or coupe de grace that uses enchantment DCs. A twenty-second cooldown and activation conditions like mob helplessness is fine because they really shouldn't be relying on it. It would just give CC-focused rangers a bit of a kill bonus to compensate for their lack of damage.

Third, the cores should all stack with each other. That should really go without saying but for some reason, they don't. Having to pick your DR breaking makes no sense because a player will think about it for a grand total of three seconds before each chain. The only reason to not have them stack is to render rangers unable to bypass multiple DR types at once which is mean considering bows are so weak to start with.

Fourth, Elemental damage should stack with enchantment imbues. This means AA archers could do both damage and CC but considering how lackluster both their damage and CC is it kind of balances out especially with the proc nerfs that came with the double shot mechanic changes. Also, getting the wisdom for enchantment DCs costs them effective evasion which is one of their strongest defensive features. Also, Deepwood stalker should get ALOT more sneak attack dice in their late cores. They should be doing similar sneak attack damage to elemental arrow damage.

With these changes, ranger would be a strong solo class like paladins or alchemists with choices between survivability and casting ability.
All this sounds like it would make rangers OP but take a look at alchemists, sorcerers, wizards, or any other class with a large amount CC with decent damage.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I'm disappointed that "Entangle" and "Spike Growth" cann far too easily be broken with the power creep of NPCs these days.
Apart from the lowest levels, these are not useful spells anymore,
because NPCs become stronger and stronger,
to match the power creep / arms race on the players' side.
I'm disappointed that the only offensive / CC spells, Rangers and Druids have, really aren't useful anymore.

[MacDubh]

hmm, existing spells could be made more ... relevant? Useful? Worth bothering with?

Entangle, Snare, Spike Growth seem useful to attacking Rangers but useless to us. Do monsters/enemies just have massive STR and shrug off such attacks?
- these could be reworked, make a DC based WIS, wilderness lore, whatever, remove metamagics as Rangers don't use and protects against imbalances from multi class demons

Barkskin
- extend the range to make it relevant to L20, add a PRR every 3 levels too. Fairly unlikely to impact balance.

Longstrider
- change to stacking 5% running speed. Nice to have, unlikely to impact anything.

Sneak - yes DWS gives this a bit, more would be nice. Maybe nice to have some ranged diversion based on Hide skill. i.e. shoot from cover?

Perhaps a Terry Munro killshot for Rangers somewhere ....

[crazycaren]

I would just be happy with boosts to cure spells and adding a heal so the spells were more useful.

[OfElectricMen]

The only thing I agree with here is race restricting AA. Elf, Half-Elf.

[droid327]

Yeah I'd like to see more utility spells mixed in, especially in the upper levels - Ranger doesnt really offer much past 11 levels in a lot of cases. FOM isnt what it used to be either.

I think Paladin is a good model, since like them Ranger is mostly a martial class. A Ranger equivalent of Righteous Command would be a good start, and probably Angelskin too. Invisibility wouldn't be antithematic for them either since they are a stealth class. I'd also like to maybe see an improved version of Entangle that fully snared mobs and rendered helpless, like EBT without the damage tick. They should have more plenary CC than just anti-animal. Lastly, maybe a few select thematically-appropriate DOTs, like Melf's SLA in AA, and/or Creeping Cold from the Druid spellbook.

Furthermore, I'd like to see some Heal Amp baked into DWS in the T5 and upper cores, too. Again, like Paladin, they need help getting more out of the limited cure spells they get.