Combat Advantage and Ranged DPS

silverwolf

As a Warlock main I used to be in Melee range in Mod 15, Pillar of Power and the Shadowstalker rings made this type of range beneficial.

However in Mod 16 you will find it more noticable that the Combat Advantage has a radius around the enemy where it doesn't actually function. What this means is that ranged classes still need to be within just a few feet ( I tbink about 15' but not certain) of the enemy in order to benefit from Combat Advantage (that's 1118k points in Mod 16 and 130k in the next release).

So it's surprising that you have gear that increases the damage dealt by a percentage when the player is at 50' on more, they will lose Combat Advantage. Further, some of the boss environments are not even big enough for the ranged DPS to get to that range - unfortunately - the synergy in the game towards ranged DPS just isn't there.

If we take a look at the Warlock, they have the ability to use an ability that will give them combat advantage even at range IF they perform a critical hit - so for a Warlock to fight at range they are forced to slot No Pity No Mercy and then hope they perform a critical strike. Where is the flexability in that ?

If the Cleric, Wizard or Ranger were to play at ranged, they don't even have that ability so they lose out on Combat Advantage unless they play in Melee range.

You need to find an acceptable and workable solution to this issue, for all the talk about making more options available to the player, you've curtailed that to one type of combat only.

silverwolf

Here's a classic example of how stupid this is ...

Item : Buckled Boots of the Successor
Class : Ranger
Equip : Sniper's Advantage : When you are 50' or further away from your target, your Combat Advantage is increased by 5%

The Ranger CANNOT gain combat advantage damage from over 15' due to the CA radius around the enemy meaning that the above effect cannot be of any beneficial use to the player.

Please examine the synergy of the game and CA better.

kangkeok

Either the 15' CA radius limit is a bug or the developer don't know their game well enough or they are bias and don't care about range gameplay. Pick one Cryptic.

mebengalsfan

Just mark this up as another miss with mod 16 update. No surprise as mod 16 definitely feels like part timers are working on this game not even meeting up to discuss where each person is at with development.

This reminds me of the old theory that some students had with specific professors in college; some believe the professors were so lazy that grading papers were a stair throw method where the one that landed the furtherest got the highest marks and the closest to where the professor stood got failing marks. Meaning, no effort was made to actually do the work.

autumnwitch

IMO this issue, and so many others in MOD16, screams lack of good (read as competent) leadership. I know they are short of staff now but honestly some of these mistakes are truly baffling.

I also suspect that the powers that be are putting enormous pressure on the NW team to get new content out the door and in doing so, they are publishing without even close to the "best practises" level of QA. So I don't want to point my finger totally at the dev team because they are most likely, at this point, working to save their jobs.

I hope things change because the game in the state it is in now is inching closer to big trouble.

vorphied

It's true that Combat Advantage and its interaction with range is an arguable issue, but it's a longstanding one.

While more players are attempting ranged combat now that PBAoE buff synergy is basically gone, I think that the dev team's apparent lack of concern has more to do with the non-issue it is for many players more than it has to do with a severe triage operation.

Yes, they definitely ARE missing many important things in their drive to publish new content; however, CA failing to function at range isn't close to the top of the list. I think they're more likely to tell players that CA is working as intended than they are to "fix" it so that ranged players can benefit from it TBH. Fighting at close range is still the best practice either way, so personally I'm fine with whatever.

What they should do is stop putting in items that grant bonuses for fighting from long range, because players naturally assume that they should be able to make good use of them. It's very misleading.

masteroga

It's 20' not 15.

silverwolf

If there's no combat advantage damage from range and the ranged classes lose the big amount of DPS that comes from CA then any item that's specifically geared towards a ranged attack should have a suitably large %age increase to make up for the loss of CA. Sometimes simple solutions work for complex problems.

kangkeok

I always thought the person who hold a sniper riffle has more advantage than the person who hold a combat knife at 400m. However the situation turn when they are at knife point. I proposed that character that holds melee weapon get combat advantage at melee range while character that hold ranged weapon to gain combat advantage at long distance. As for magic/divine users, no limitation.

nigelnightmare1

RANGER/WARLOCK/WIZARD. Unless I'm playing as part of a group I find it almost impossible to play ranged as I get swamped/surrounded almost immediately during combat. Even Boss fights as they summon minions.
Especially WIZARD in mod 16 as I used to rely on Crits and AOE attacks.

silence1x

I seem to remember this issue being around forever, not just Mod 16. Archery spec could not get CA nor group buffs (back in the day) if standing at the max range for archery feats/passives. I don't think anyone has looked at it in quite a while because most rangers are melee. Mod 16 - Warden melee, previous mods - Combat melee.

If you give Rangers a bow, the class should not be hampered because it pew pews from range.

sobi

Why isn't this looked into in Mod 17? All these new items with a bunch of CA will be a waste for ranged players. If it's intentional and ranged classes are compensated for it, then state it clearly Cryptic. Stop making people build trash.

ecrana

CA range is being extended on PC so this thread is moot at this point. We'll hopefully get the change shortly after PC.