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[Suggestion] Revamping the Hunter Ranger Class
hiddenfate
Banned Users Posts: 0 Arc User
In original D&D the Ranger class (from a less dumb edition) had a few things going for it. You had advantages in nature based areas such as track, favored enemies, and free two weapon fighting. But with Neverwinter the HR is a class longing for a purpose. There is no particular reason to choose a favored enemy aside from Undead and Fey (for obvious reasons, I mean why would you pick goblins considering the sheer rarity of them past level 20). There's no reason to track your enemy because of the glowing trail so obvious that any semi-intelligent creature can find quest objectives. Two weapon fighting is restricted to the HR and TR and both are given it for free with other classes unable to use either. Animal Companions just don't exist for reasons only known by Cryptic and likely to do with money (which I can somewhat accept).
What we're left with is a class trying to be the "jack of all trades" in combat but ending up to just be a 4 of hearts in everything, easily wiped out by anyone unless you abuse the hell out of bugs and glitches. The dodge window is short and your stamina doesn't regenerate quickly which means anyone trying to debuff or pin you is going to have a very easy time of it. Your ranged attacks don't even begin to match a CW's whether it be single target or multi-target, an oppressor CW can outdo you in single target and a Thaum or Renegade CW will SERIOUSLY outdo you in multi-target. Your melee attacks don't match a rogue's or a GWF unless you abuse the hell out of Fox Shift (which acts like a weakened version of Bloodbath currently). Your healing ability......yeah I think we all know how Oak skin does compared to any cleric spell (even the most meager). The most interesting part of the class is the buffs which basically require you to have a party and takes away the ranger's solo capability.
One thing a ranger has over other classes is a weak ability to perform hit and run tactics using a combination of Archery focused feats/powers and liberal use of Marauder's Escape. But the cooldown on Marauder's Escape and the lack of any other hit and run powers makes it very difficult for rangers attempting this style (not to mention if anyone catches up with you you're dead because you can tank about as well as a CW with 15% more health).
I say scrap the "Jack of all combat master of absolutely nothing" idea for this class. All it ends up with is a class that's dull to solo and play and is only picked for dungeons when nobody has another CW guildy/friend to join the party (and there is always another CW guildy/friend). Any well rounded party doesn't need an HR. They can out-damage, out-heal, and out-everything them with any other class (GF can out-tank them). That's where this revamp idea comes into play.
I suggest turning the HR into a class which specializes in hit and run tactics with buffs that support the party from the back lines. This way in parties they can pick at bosses with damage over time effects and pick at the adds with various control effects while supporting everyone with buffs. In solo they can pick off weaker monsters while jumping in and out of threat areas of the tougher monsters, weakening them while they pick off the weaklings so that they're ripe for the slaughter when they're last.
I will only mention powers that should be altered, if I don't mention it then I think it already fits well enough.
Grasping Roots:
The first thing we need to look at is the Grasping Roots ability (without the bugs). If the target is not immune to crowd control effects or currently in a dodge window then both weak and strong grasping roots should have about 25% more power than they currently do. Duration should remain about the same though, a few seconds is pretty fair.
Shifting
Shifting should not consume as much stamina as it currently does (maybe half or less). A Ranger that focuses on hit and run tactics should be able to dodge around more than any other class excluding the TR (actually the Ranger having the lowest stamina makes no sense to begin with). Also increase the distance of shifting by about 50% or so seeing as the current version won't even get you 1/2 of the way out of a small sized AoE circle which almost always ends up with you taking damage unless you bug-dodge it.
Marauder's Escape
Increase the range by which you can dodge when you rank it up following the 50/65/80' route. Also add a full dodge window while Marauder's Escape is occurring which increases your Action Points based on the amount of damage you dodge (also boosted by ranking up). Alternatively just decrease the cooldown, it's our only hit and run ability.
Forest Ghost
Add a longer invisibility duration but reduce damage dealt with anything other than forest ghost by half for the full duration to compensate.
Aspect of the Serpent
To be honest this name makes no sense to me .-. how is a hybrid build related to a serpent? Instead of the weird stacking just make it so that this adds poison to your attacks (50% chance). Ranking up increases the chance and duration of the poison. 5 Stacks of poison on a target from this skill upgrades it to deadly poison.
Throw Caution
Make the change more dramatic, +30% damage in trade for -30% defense or even more. This type of skill is invaluable for hit and run tactics because it actively encourages you to "never" get hit instead of it just being a "hassle" to get hit.
Electric Shot
Burn this attack to the ground >.>
...fine. Make it so that each attack adds a stack of "Shocked" to a target which stuns them for a short period when it reaches 5 stacks. Also increase the range to normal.
Oak Skin
Either increase the damage reduction on it or increase the regeneration on it heavily. Right now it's practically useless without immediately topping it off with stag heart. This is arguably the weakest buff currently in stock.
Fox Shift
Flip it around a bit. Make it so that you can make a total of 6 attacks. You'll attack the nearest enemy first, the second nearest enemy second, etc. etc. OR you can strike one enemy 6 times (for decreased damage each consecutive attack). Each attack steals a portion of your target's speed. Ranking up grants you +2 attacks per rank to a maximum of 10. This way you still get a significant speed boost but with reducing damage you aren't going to one-shot a GWF anytime soon.
Cold Steel Hurricane
Increase radius, make the focal point on you, increase damage, increase stun duration, and add some sort of other beneficial effect to it. Either a dodge or a stamina regeneration bonus for a short time. Or just scrap it and replace it with a less silly daily power... please.
Even if all of the ideas are considered I do not want this stuff added in until module 3 is implemented and the current bugs with HR are fixed. We'd have to see how much rooting has going for it against unstunnable bosses when it no longer works (and doesn't affect other players in PvP when they dodge instead of its current state). Without knowing how a bug-less HR will play I can't make many more suggestions than this.
What we're left with is a class trying to be the "jack of all trades" in combat but ending up to just be a 4 of hearts in everything, easily wiped out by anyone unless you abuse the hell out of bugs and glitches. The dodge window is short and your stamina doesn't regenerate quickly which means anyone trying to debuff or pin you is going to have a very easy time of it. Your ranged attacks don't even begin to match a CW's whether it be single target or multi-target, an oppressor CW can outdo you in single target and a Thaum or Renegade CW will SERIOUSLY outdo you in multi-target. Your melee attacks don't match a rogue's or a GWF unless you abuse the hell out of Fox Shift (which acts like a weakened version of Bloodbath currently). Your healing ability......yeah I think we all know how Oak skin does compared to any cleric spell (even the most meager). The most interesting part of the class is the buffs which basically require you to have a party and takes away the ranger's solo capability.
One thing a ranger has over other classes is a weak ability to perform hit and run tactics using a combination of Archery focused feats/powers and liberal use of Marauder's Escape. But the cooldown on Marauder's Escape and the lack of any other hit and run powers makes it very difficult for rangers attempting this style (not to mention if anyone catches up with you you're dead because you can tank about as well as a CW with 15% more health).
I say scrap the "Jack of all combat master of absolutely nothing" idea for this class. All it ends up with is a class that's dull to solo and play and is only picked for dungeons when nobody has another CW guildy/friend to join the party (and there is always another CW guildy/friend). Any well rounded party doesn't need an HR. They can out-damage, out-heal, and out-everything them with any other class (GF can out-tank them). That's where this revamp idea comes into play.
I suggest turning the HR into a class which specializes in hit and run tactics with buffs that support the party from the back lines. This way in parties they can pick at bosses with damage over time effects and pick at the adds with various control effects while supporting everyone with buffs. In solo they can pick off weaker monsters while jumping in and out of threat areas of the tougher monsters, weakening them while they pick off the weaklings so that they're ripe for the slaughter when they're last.
I will only mention powers that should be altered, if I don't mention it then I think it already fits well enough.
Grasping Roots:
The first thing we need to look at is the Grasping Roots ability (without the bugs). If the target is not immune to crowd control effects or currently in a dodge window then both weak and strong grasping roots should have about 25% more power than they currently do. Duration should remain about the same though, a few seconds is pretty fair.
Shifting
Shifting should not consume as much stamina as it currently does (maybe half or less). A Ranger that focuses on hit and run tactics should be able to dodge around more than any other class excluding the TR (actually the Ranger having the lowest stamina makes no sense to begin with). Also increase the distance of shifting by about 50% or so seeing as the current version won't even get you 1/2 of the way out of a small sized AoE circle which almost always ends up with you taking damage unless you bug-dodge it.
Marauder's Escape
Increase the range by which you can dodge when you rank it up following the 50/65/80' route. Also add a full dodge window while Marauder's Escape is occurring which increases your Action Points based on the amount of damage you dodge (also boosted by ranking up). Alternatively just decrease the cooldown, it's our only hit and run ability.
Forest Ghost
Add a longer invisibility duration but reduce damage dealt with anything other than forest ghost by half for the full duration to compensate.
Aspect of the Serpent
To be honest this name makes no sense to me .-. how is a hybrid build related to a serpent? Instead of the weird stacking just make it so that this adds poison to your attacks (50% chance). Ranking up increases the chance and duration of the poison. 5 Stacks of poison on a target from this skill upgrades it to deadly poison.
Throw Caution
Make the change more dramatic, +30% damage in trade for -30% defense or even more. This type of skill is invaluable for hit and run tactics because it actively encourages you to "never" get hit instead of it just being a "hassle" to get hit.
Electric Shot
Burn this attack to the ground >.>
...fine. Make it so that each attack adds a stack of "Shocked" to a target which stuns them for a short period when it reaches 5 stacks. Also increase the range to normal.
Oak Skin
Either increase the damage reduction on it or increase the regeneration on it heavily. Right now it's practically useless without immediately topping it off with stag heart. This is arguably the weakest buff currently in stock.
Fox Shift
Flip it around a bit. Make it so that you can make a total of 6 attacks. You'll attack the nearest enemy first, the second nearest enemy second, etc. etc. OR you can strike one enemy 6 times (for decreased damage each consecutive attack). Each attack steals a portion of your target's speed. Ranking up grants you +2 attacks per rank to a maximum of 10. This way you still get a significant speed boost but with reducing damage you aren't going to one-shot a GWF anytime soon.
Cold Steel Hurricane
Increase radius, make the focal point on you, increase damage, increase stun duration, and add some sort of other beneficial effect to it. Either a dodge or a stamina regeneration bonus for a short time. Or just scrap it and replace it with a less silly daily power... please.
Even if all of the ideas are considered I do not want this stuff added in until module 3 is implemented and the current bugs with HR are fixed. We'd have to see how much rooting has going for it against unstunnable bosses when it no longer works (and doesn't affect other players in PvP when they dodge instead of its current state). Without knowing how a bug-less HR will play I can't make many more suggestions than this.
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