by Larian

The recent changes to Rangers (and all archer classes) have indeed increased the fun factor of playing as opposed to a chore. In general, the community is very happy with these changes. That being said, there are still many aspects of rangers that were not addressed that need attention to make playing DAoC truly fun for rangers, as well as balancing the class out. The Ranger falls into a strange realm of not having any sort of niche in group dynamics, and as such is not really desired by groups. Anything a ranger can do, nearly any other class can do better! The one thing we do excel at is ranged RvR standoffs, but these situations are not the majority of play in DAoC.

1.) Group Desirability: As previously stated, rangers fall into a strange niche where they do not bring anything desirable to groups. While efforts to make us less of a liability to groups is appreciated, the crux of the problem is that anything (aside from recurve bow) we can do, other classes can do better. We do not bring anything to the group that they want, so are most often used to just fill out an 8 man group because they couldn’t find any other class. When I get my web page for Ranger Concerns up, I should be able to add in specific suggestions on how to accomplish this.

On a more global level, we need to find ways to introduce the groupability of several classes. This is a design goal which we're not sure when we'll have a chance to adaquately address.

2.) Pathfinding Effectiveness: With the proliferation of buffbotts, and the questionable effectiveness of our pathfinding buffs, most rangers only spec this line for the damage add spell. Even the “Run Away” spell is only useful in very specific and limited situations (due to it breaking from nearly ANYTHING). A Druid that spec to merely 34 in Nurture is able to over ride a Ranger that attempts to spec to 50 in pathfinding. While comparing one class to another is normally not encouraged, I point this out due to the large number of lines a Ranger must spec to be viable, in addition to the fact that his own spells are hardly ever useful in a group/buffbotted situation. Furthermore, the 15 minute duration frustrates the ranger community, again, especially when buffbotts are added into the consideration.

Pathing could use a review at some point. Get together with the community and get some ideas on what could be done to improve the line. The warden report (I think it was the warden) suggested changing self-buffs from 15 to 20 minutes to avoid the problem of groups having to stop every 5 minutes for various buffs. With this in mind, it makes sense for us to change self-buffs to 20 minutes and this will almost definitely happen.

3.) Quivers: With the option of three different damage types in arrows, as well as the vital importance of having the correct arrow for the situation to aid in survival, the current system for switching out arrows is overly cumbersome, and downright deadly to the ranger. Not only are precious seconds wasted in switching arrows, but the inventory window covers too large a portion of the archer’s view of the battlefield.

Quivers need to be put in for all classes that can use bows. (and xbows) Not sure when we'll have the interface "hood" up in order to slip this change in with some others, but it's definitely something we acknowledge needs to be resolved in some manner.

4.) Stealth Subskills: The ability of a ranger to perform scouting for a party is not a reality. While Camouflage was added to assist in this regard, our current movement rates makes scouting impractical for rangers. Also, skills such as reconnaissance and tracking are still missing. These skills are associated with rangers in such a way that many wonder if the class is even complete without them. Another set of skills that is often associated with rangers is the idea of Animal Handling (a popular one form the CritShot forums is Falconry).

Outside of what is being dreamed up for TOA Master level abilities, we haven't really been planning on adding anything here. We can look into the speed while stealthed issue if a solid case can be made.

1.) Recurve Bow: The hit rate in RvR is less due to the fact that we have no access to styles with the bow. As ANY class that uses styles for melee will attest to, styles will make or break a fight. The largest source of the perception that archers miss so much is due to the fact that we are using our bows unstyled, which is folly to say the least for anyone fighting in RvR.

No plans to change this. Since this subject has been discussed in depth before, I won't elaborate here.

2.) Pathfinding: The most serious issues were already raised in the Top Four Concerns. The utility of this line is seriously in question!

We're open to suggestions on this one.

3.) Stealth: Many of the missing skills for the ranger class can be placed in the stealth category. As it stands, there is very little motivation for rangers to even spec in stealth beyond whatever level the ranger needs to accomplish minor tasks. “Group or Melee Oriented” rangers go so far as tot totally ignore this skill (as well as many other skills) due to the lack of returns.

We're not unhappy with how stealth stands now and have no plans to make any changes. We should all watch to see how the recent changes play out over the next month or so.

4.) Celtic Dual: No particular issues, although there is still much debate on the formulas used for calculating exactly how Celtic Dual works in regards to calculating overall DPS as well as the effects of different weapons and spells on the effectiveness of this skill.

No plans to change CD at this time.

5.) Blades: Blades does not offer rangers many options in styles since most are reactive off skills the ranger does not posses (parry) or rarely (if ever) use (shield). Blades tend to be a popular desire for rangers since it is strong against the leather type armours that assassins use.

Be sure and bring this up during the style review.

6.) Pierce: No particular concerns at this time.

1.) Quickshot Icon: Please have this icon gray out when rapid fire is active. Currently the only way to tell is to try to select it or select critshot and then select it. Needlessly cumbersome!

No reason for this not to be changed. We'll look into making it happen.

2.) Perceived Power vs. Actual Power: The combination of stealth and range does make a well played (and properly speced) ranger a frustrating opponent. However, there is a perception that all rangers follow a specific template, are equally skilled, and with the same realm ranks. Just a few highly skilled people are making it seem that rangers are godlike. In addition, the new skills that are meant to (just barely) bring rangers to par in usefulness, have given the not so skilled players more visibility and utility. These combinations may case a hue and cry for rangers to be “nerfed” again. Realize that our skill combinations can make us frustrating, but we are far from “uber” by any stretch of the imagination.

If we felt rangers were "uber" the recent archery changes wouldn't have gone live. We're feeling good about where archers in general stand right now but want to let the recent changes simmer a bit to see how they play out.

3.) Spec Points and Skills to Spec: In order for a ranger to be truly effective, they need strong skills in bow, melee (including Celtic Dual), stealth, and pathfinding. This means that they must spread their points around in 5 skills. They can choose to be strong in one aspect (ignoring another aspect) or try for a well rounded spec that leaves them deficient in all aspects. Scouts have 4 lines to work on. The argument could be made that rangers (and even hunters) should be given 2.2 spec points per level.

No plans to give Rangers more spec points. Hunters are a seperate issue and solutions to the issues facing that class will not likely involve a spec point increase either.

1.) Lack of “To Hit” Bonus for Bows: Already mentioned in the spec line issues, but really needs to be mentioned again. This is a serious deficiency!

Something we'll be looking at with the upcoming expansions.

2.) “Neo” the Shade: People evading arrows should be a rare occurrence! Even with Evade VI or VII! The way evades are calculated for arrows should be significantly different from melee. After all, consider the speed of arrows as well as the difficulty in seeing them.

Valid arguement to make. Let the dust settle from the feedback and start a TL forum discussion on this in a week or two.

3.) Longshot and Volley: Many in the ranger community still feel slighted that these skills were made Realm Abilities instead of being included in the Bow Spec Line.

This won't change.

4.) Additional Realm Abilities: Since the ranger is often forced into a melee role, there is a reasonable argument to add in the following realm abilities to the list allowable to rangers: Dualist’s Reflexes (especially since we get Whirling Dervish) and Hail of Blows.

When we're doing the RA review, we should have some discussion on what RAs could be added to various classes.

5.) Can’t do anything with loss of endurance: While melee fighters are able to continue swinging their swords with a loss of endurance (albeit unstyled!), they can. However, a ranger cannot even send off weak arrows with loss of endurance, and rangers are not suited for melee, leaving them no options.

Well, they can still melee. And while this is a valid point, casters suffer the same issues. Not sure there's really a need for a change here.

6.) Lack of Melee Survivability: Due to many problems already stated (lack of “style to hit” and inability to shoot without endurance) we are often FORCED to melee, but we do not have the survivability for this. Leading to the joke of being a healer’s mana sponge.

We have no plans to enhance ranger melee at this time, although the style review may result in the class having a lot more options when forced into melee.

7.) See Hidden Debate: With the recent tweaks to Camouflage the debate has subsided, however, as the Team Lead, I would be remiss in not mentioning that a large portion of the community feel the whole See Hidden/Camouflage line should be removed from the game.

No plans to remove either or both. We're watching the recent changes but are satisfied at the moment that this is where it needs to be.

8.) Nearsight Debate: With most RvR battles lasting under 45 seconds, the 2 minute duration of Nearsight seems excessive. The immunity timer is a welcome addition though.

We feel this issue was solved with the recent change.

9.) Interruptions: Two main issues (dare I say bugs): the interrupt period during drawing actually extends into the aiming period about a half second AFTER the draw animation finishes. This is confusing, and the timer for interrupt should be matched to the timer for the draw animation. Furthermore, it is our understanding that attacks by grey-con opponents are not supposed to cause interruptions, and yet recently grey con pets have begun interrupting archery (and presumably just spell casting as well). Casters have a quickcast ability to counter this, but rangers are forced to melee to kill the pet, usually while being hit by enemy players for high damage.

Interrupt system will not be changed. After we're able to accurately assess the results of the recent archery changes, we can further examine this to see if archers need something like quickdraw shot or other abilities.

10.) Specialty Arrows: With the historical precedence of many different types of arrows, there should be an option for flaming arrows, as well as many other “effect” arrows. (The most humerous one suggested at the CritShot was to have one with a rope behind it so rangers can swing from tree to tree!)

Come up with some new ideas on this and we can look into adding them down the road, provided they add utility and not overall damage.

1.) Epic Armour: Briefly stated, the Ranger Epic Armour has a horrible “Imbue” value. Level 50 armour (not even level 51) significantly outperforms our Epic(?) armour. Our Epic armour has an imbue value of 177, while level 50 100% has an imbue value of 186. This disparity gets grosser even when considering level 51 (imbue value of 192) and the fact that everyone overcharges their armour. The distribution of stats, skills, and resists could use a rework as well.

Noted for item/quest teams.

2.) Bow Procs: While reactive procs seem to affect the shooter of the bow (a verified and annoying bug), we are still not able to place procs on bows, although there are items in the game that prove this is feasible (i.e. the stag bow from SI). Specialty arrows as already mentioned would also be appreciated. Both these effects need to be player crafted/imbued (while we’re at it, how about sparkly bows, and player added sparklies!)

These are things we're looking into.

3.) More versatility in Switching Bows: Continuing in the theme of cumbersome and impractical, allow rangers to carry bows in the 2 handed slot to allow for faster switching of bows. Even with the addition of Rapid Fire, there are many situations where a ranger has need to use a different bow.

With the recent addition of Rapid Fire, how many rangers still feel the need to switch bows in combat?