Rangers in Velious?

[Noselacri]

People who tell you rangers become great are lying. They get a few things that make them a somewhat viable class, which it frankly isn't until then, but it's still the worst class in the game until the Luclin/PoP era. What rangers gain in Velious amounts pretty much to a spell that lets you level solo, and a discipline that makes it not completely idiotic to bring a ranger to raids. The class will still be the worst in all the categories in which it has a foot in the door -- the worst tank of all the taunt classes, the worst heals of all classes that get healing spells, the worst DPS of the classes that can be qualified as actual DPS classes, the worst buffs, the worst nukes/dots. The worst in the game at everything you can do (except tracking and archery, wahey!), and to make matters worse, the most overplayed class in the game happens to have better versions of every spell you have. Then some simpletons will tell you that every class is fine and player skill can magically eliminate all of the aforementioned disadvantages, but the fact remains that the ranger class is by far the most underpowered in the history of MMORPGs. Play ranger if you can live with those shortcomings, not because you think they can be avoided through sheer love of your class or some bullshit.

[VincentVolaju]

How well does the Rangers snap aggro Flame Lick spell, compared to SKs snap aggro Disease Cloud?

[melkezidek]

Flame Lick owns Disease Cloud

[renegadeofunk]

I was checking out the ranger spell list and all of the grayed out spells look pretty good actually. Are not all of those Velious? I see weapon enchantment procs (stun+damage and fire damage), new aggro reducer, self only ATK buff, ranger-only group ATK buff, ranger-only targetable ATK and HP buff with some sort of spell blocking thing(?), self-only AC and DS buff, and the aforementioned panic animal. Add in the penalty removal and weaponshield for emergencies/raiding and things really don't look too bad.

[Vadd]

My Ranger is 26 now.

I think he solo's pretty well with his bow.

MOST importantly, he is very fun to play.

[YendorLootmonkey]

Rangers ARE fun to play, due to their versatility.

The min-maxers on the servers just aren't really keen on inviting them to groups because they aren't specialists. We are more useful in 3-4 man groups where you maybe have a tank and a healer, and need someone to handle pulling (particularly outdoors), DPS, crowd control (rootparking), slowing (Swarmcaller/Earthcaller), utility buffs, etc. But even then, you can just replace with a bard and add mana regen to the group. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As mentioned before, the removal of the hybrid XP penalty and addition of Panic Animal helps get you opportunities to XP. A few ATK buffs and weaponshield disc make you more useful at raids. It's certainly a step in the right direction, but not as much as the archery AA's and some elemental bows would provide beyond Velious.

[Ephirith]

I wanted to play a monk, but it was just too god damned boring.

Rangers can forage vegetables and hold two weapons.

*edit* just realized iksar monks can do both those things

[VincentVolaju]

Yeah I decided to go against Rogue and do a Ranger instead because I figured Id get too bored of a rogue, just auto attacking and spamming backstab/hide macro. Im thinking ranger will be much more fun cause I can do a little of everything. A little tanking when pulls go wrong, a little CC for root/snares to help out in bad moments, some decent DPS with DWing / Dbl attack etc., plus Ill get SoW eventually and some other useful buffs. I think itll be pretty fun.

My main trio group setup is going to be War / Cleric / Ranger... so I am guessing Ill be tanking for the first 30-35 levels, until the Warrior gets some decent proc weapons and starts pulling aggro. Then when he does switch to becoming the main tank, Ill be able to help him out with rooting mobs for him etc. I think itll work out nice.

[Danth]

Originally Posted by VincentVolaju [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How well does the Rangers snap aggro Flame Lick spell, compared to SKs snap aggro Disease Cloud?

Better, but Disease Cloud isn't the highest aggro spell a Shadow Knight gets.

Rangers don't become overpowered in Velious, but they do become decent. The removal of the hybrid experience penalty will make them more accepted in groups almost by itself. As always the Ranger remains extremely enjoyable in the mechanical sense--I'd always considered it one of the most fun classes to actually play, class balancing issues notwithstanding.

Rangers, geared properly, make decent tanks up to about 45-50 or so. At 50+ their lower skill caps and inferior mitigation becomes a serious liability.

Danth

[Zapatos]

When you're in velious and your raid's spot healers are calling LoM partially into a 300k hp fight from the massive AE damage all the melee are taking, you can step right out of range and comfortably shoot with your bow until heals catch up. Sure you don't have AA's and it's not as good as hack and slash, but live dps>dead dps.

Direct your attention to the Ventani the Warder encounter if you still think rangers will be useless [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]