Excuse me so much, I thought since no one else seems to notice that a key class feature for the HR is getting mauled to bits for no good reason, I would shime in with my opinion.
Since Stormstep Action is a class feature tied to the Stormwarden PP, it can hardly be a key class feature for the HR, because ... Pathfinder won't even have it.
Huh? Is this not the place to voice concerns regarding the upcoming HR changes? Excuse me so much, I thought since no one else seems to notice that a key class feature for the HR is getting mauled to bits for no good reason, I would shime in with my opinion. You know, so the devs knows that they are making a huge mistake.
I don't think it's being nerfed for 'no reason'. As it is now, Disrupting Shot + Stormstep + some feats allows certain encounters to be pretty much spammed. This was clearly not intended.
So quick summary: Teamhunter's work: the drop can;t always be picked up, but generally - nice skill. Clear the Ground: on live - 412 dmg, on preview 510 dmg. That means around 25% dmg buff, not 50% Oakskin: very nice buff. I thought it will be OP, but it is fine. Thorn Strike: nice buff as well, especially the speed of casting. Split shot: can;t tell atm due to wrong algorithm, but 25% nerf seems reasonable. Ambush: Waste of slot in my opinion, useless skill. Bear trap: Too short stun effect. It last aproximately as long as casting time lol. Boar charge: works fine, thanks. Could u do the same to aimed strike (doesn;t require target) ? Slasher's mark: Very nice daily. Fox shift: In pve - ok, in pvp - 33% nerf (if fighting single target) makes this skill not slot worthy. Cruel Recovery: not using that one. Useless, too weak.
I don;t use skill with roots, but I heard they are broken in pvp, almost every class can cancel it with a dodge.
I hope u are reading this, ty for your work
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
I'm a computer science person myself, and I more or less literally grew up in the science university that my dad taught Mathematics (Statistics in particular), and Computer Science, as it was still a part of Mathematics at the time. I will tell you that he has often told me that most people, including students both undergraduate and returning often have a bad grasp of Mathematics. When to apply a percentage calculation to which part is very important. It should be noted that if you do it wrong, you get completely incorrect calculations.
Also note that the Hunter Ranger, though good when specializing in archery, which it is best for, and sometimes hybrid, often has the melee damage kind of drop off around Character Level 30 (maybe even earlier). So the Archery needs to be sufficiently powerful to balance the fact that: 1) The Hunter Ranger isn't too good at melee (and is best this way) and 2) The Hunter Ranger tends to be more squishy than say a Great Weapon Fighter. Not to mention that Split Shot is just about the only multiple shot skill it has.
As for the Pathfinder, I would suggest making it more Archery friendly, as the Stormwarden is rather towards Melee but not very nice for Archery. There should later on be a Paragon Path to support hybrids better, for those who like hybrids, as I have not seen anything truly hybrid friendly for the Hunter Ranger. If I were to be in the dev team as a designer or analyst, I'd say each one needs a path of its own to truly cover the different ways it can be played.
Actually, I also have comments on the entirety of Neverwinter as a whole as well, and since they are simple, I will mention them here. For Module 3, Resetting the entire leadership board scorings would be wrong, and I would make a guess that many of the players who took PvP seriously would simply up and quit entirely. What should be done instead is to have leadership board keep 2 kinds of scores. 1) Since joining. and 2) a reset score starting with Module 3. It isn't that difficult from the point of view of database architecture. You just need to keep the scores for each module and add them to together. It is merely a derivative attribute. UI isn't a big problem either, since you can easily make the Leadership tab have a drop-down feature to select, or you could just put them all on the same page.
As for Glory, etc. you could do the same by adding it as extra info in the page the info shows on. Rather simple, no? Actually, if I had the chance, I would have loved to help with the development of Neverwinter, since I have various medical problems that prevent me from doing normal work, and surviving is hard, but I seem to do well at analysis and design of various things. Malaysia is a tough place after all, though each USD or Euro a month may not seem like much to many, but here it's worth more than 3 times as much. Well, enough about myself and back to the Hunter Ranger.
Finally, I would think that it would be useful to refer more to the D&D 4e guide books, as well as the many variations it has, and try to incorporate the rules of 3.5e as well as 4e loosely, so that the play can eventually be given the option to choose if they want a more 3.5e approach (point buy, etc.) or a 4e approach (4e's point buy is worse than the set selections of stats). as for starting stats, it should be made clear at character creation what the stat progression is like. The players should also not be forced to roll the stat allocation, but to just choose from the list how they wish to arrange it, since rolling is pointless in the fixed stat method (and yes, we know the Sword Coast Adventures daily prize d20 is rolled and the prize determined even before we click to roll it. It is however a very efficient method to do so from a programmatic point of view. But some players might prefer to roll as they go, so that's another possibility to account for.
After all, this is an MMO, and an MMORPG at that. It's more or less a service industry. What matters most is the experience. Good experience will make people want to participate more, and there should be things like sharing what we wish to share, etc. For example, I may have assets that I wish to make available to my guild. It may be a Tool or a Person, but there should also be a means for people to place a "for guild use" asset in the guild banks (profession banks would be welcome) where people can select to use assets there, when doing professions, but the proper owner would still be the only one who would be able to retrieve it (to prevent scamming)
P.S. Some better inventory system would be welcome. (bigger bags, or say an overflow bag for events like dungeon delves, skirmishes, etc., which you can deal with the items later, as there is little or no time to deal with inventory during events). a details power and feat calculator maintained, so that players can refer to them during character creation, and these builds should be possible to save/alter for future reference. This will also keep players entertained. Better still, multiclassing would be nice to introduce, giving the game more flavour. There should be things to occupy players, power builders and roleplayers alike, and events to get them to intermingle.
I don't think it's being nerfed for 'no reason'. As it is now, Disrupting Shot + Stormstep + some feats allows certain encounters to be pretty much spammed. This was clearly not intended.
You are comparing apples and howitzers. First the encounters are tied (the ranged determines the melle and vice-versa) so you are not exactly choosing the best encounters available. Second you need to compare HR encounters to other classes. If an HR drops all 6 encounter on cycle and ends with disrupting to maintain the cycle it had the aggregate output of say Shard. Some of those encopunters are doing a couple thousand a piece.
I'm not gonna be very popular around here saying this, but it has to be said by someone just so when things go live people don't only then go crazy about things being considered OP in PvP.
Careful Attack: I suggest you look at the AP gain from Careful Attack, I currently seem to be able to put it on 2-3 targets and keep dots up on them and my AP gain is at crazy levels without me even using anything I can just stand there and constantly gain AP while keeping up DOT's with Careful Attack.
Slasher's Mark: I do like the idea behind his daily, and the fact it gives a good alternate in PvP to the two non 100% daily's it certainly is interesting. However I currently think it's giving a little too much stamina / guard especially in the HR's case. By doing that thing I just said above I can spam shift for the entire duration of it and by the time the debuff ends I'm over 50% AP again. Just a little something that is working a little too good compared to how it is attended to work, I shouldn't be able to even get close to perma shifting.
Hunters Teamwork and Careful Attack can affect multiple targets at the same time. It seems like a bug, but I hope not as it doesn't seem OP and improves the usefulness of those two abilities. Maybe the tool tip hasn't been updated?
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gabrieldourdenMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,212Arc User
Big piles of this. I am one of those who has been using a wide range of powers from go. If you surf the Wilds you can find plenty of people telling me how 'wrong' I am for doing so. Point is even then the output from encouters is lackluster. You need split to make up the difference. And Mod3 will result in even less use of encounters because they are also nerfing StormStep.
This pretty much sums it for me (except the bit about Stormstep as I never use it). I have a build that is specialised in regaining encounter powers via the Royal Guard Armor, Prime Critical and attacks that hit many times like Rain of Arrows and Split the Sky combined with a Plaguefire Enchantment. So I typically regain encounter powers fast, but still Split Shot is the main DPS power. Rain of Arrows is ok if there is a static target or if a CW casts singularity but it is not the bread and butter of an HR's DPS.
And then comes the big question: what does an HR bring to the table in a party? The answer at the moment is "only sustained DPS" except for the Nature build. There are no spike damage powers except Aimed Shot that is quite situational, almost no control in a typical Dungeon with lots of mobs as HR control powers are mainly single target and buffs are lackluster unless you go the Nature route (that I admittedly know little of).
I normally go in dungeons with my guild, so finding a place is not an issue, but what I see is that a GWF with less GS than me will deal more damage and tank at the same time, not to mention what a CW can do (more damage and far more control). By the way my low single target DPS makes me a liability in the two most iconic fights of the game so far(Fulminorax and Valindra).
I found myself a niche as an area debuffer, being able to spread Plaguefire all over a relatively large area of any battlefield and getting DPS due to several Split the Sky clouds up at any time, but that's really a niche.
For these reasons I went to test the Pathfinder with quite some interest. The first thing I realized was that I had to change playstyle as Split the Sky is a Stormwarden power and is the basis of my debuffing build.
Looking at the new path the interesting things seem to me Ambush and Bear trap. These two powers could change the flavour and playstile as you get two thing the HR needs: some respite from aggro (or enemy attention in PvP) and some serious control. I respec'd my HR to get the longest Ambush and Bear Trap stun effects possible (thus shifting from a full Archery build to an Hybrid) and started to explore the Dwarven valley that I already tested with my current archery build.
The Pathfinder "Solo" seems quite ok as Ambush helps in dealing with the inevitable aggro. Still my encounter powers remain quite lackluster and I have to use the two-at wills for DPS (Aimed shot and Split Shot). Split Shot still rules as often mobs come in groups anyway, so if the goal of the nerf to it was to make encounters more platable, well, it didn't work for me.
Ambush is anyway not that interesting. The main issue is that you lose stealth if you attack and as far as I can see you lose stealth immediately as you start charging Aimed Shot, meaning you get immediately rushed if you try, and most of the time you never get Aimed Shot out before being interrupted. I would at least suggest that you should lose stealth when you effectively make the attack, and not when you start charging it. At this time Ambush is more a defensive power that I use to get away and reposition than a real "Ambush" one. My suggestion would be than any encounter direct damage power (not area) used from Ambush should automatically crit or ignore the enemy's defense/deflection. This would make the current lack luster encounters quite more appealing and turn this power into a real ambush.
Bear Trap: interesting idea but I don't like the execution. First of all it takes forever to get it out. The animation is nice but quite long. I can see some use in PvP like placing it in front of me when I see a GF/GWF heading my way but the long anymation time makes it not that viable. I used it in a "friendly" PvP with a perma-stealth TR and it helps a bit if you place two of the close to you, but still it forces you to stay in a static position which is not really the environment you find in dungeons for example. And throwing it to a typical mob is almost a sure miss as they move around all-time and the area is very small.
The other issue I have is that the stunning period is very short. It may work in PvP where I can use Boar Charge to prone the target but stunning 1 mob for 2-3 secs in a dungeon is worth nothing. Honestly it's better to spam Split Shot and do 30-50k damage. My suggestion would be to make the area not one single trap but a line of traps and make the effect not stunned but prone. This would let the HR stop a charge of monsters, cut the battlefield in two in PvE and offer it some defense from the proning domination we see in PvP at the time being where the HR's only defense in melee is usually frantic dodging.
A similar HR could take easily a nerf to Split Shot then. Area DPS will probably drop but with crits from Ambush maybe single target damage will go up, and the added control from Bear Trap would be a boon in any dungeon situation that could bring the HR back as an interesting class for dungeons.
Le-Shan: HR level 80 (main)
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
Feedback: Electric Shot vs. Split Shot I logged some Target Dummy at-will spam on the latest build. If you short-charge Split Shot so that it fires approximately every 1.3 seconds, it averages about 25% more damage per second than Electric Shot spam. The comparison is even worse when Electric Shot's 3-hit rotation is disrupted.
By contrast, Clear the Ground and Split Strike were approximately even over time.
Electric shot is nowhere near in line with split shot (even nerfed split shot). It should be significantly more than split shot quick spam since you can't charge it.
Also, ambush can be seen by players in PVP? That sucks. That's the main reason I was thinking of going for the new path. If the stealth doesn't work in PVP I'm not sure there's any good thing pathfinder brings to PVP. I was really looking forward to incorporating ambush into a new playstyle for HR in PVP.
And nerf to stormstep is dumb too imo. Besides split the sky, it's the only good thing stormwarden has.
The new at-wills seem very lackluster even though you can use them on multiple targets.
Splitshot nerf is enough of a nerf to HR and I'm not totally sure it's even necessary. The other buffs seem like high percentages, but they don't make up for the nerf. The reason HRs use splitshot spam is because the damage on our abilities is low (and still is low after the buffs). Consider your buffing abilities by like 40-100% and they still are lackluster compared to say a CW's abilities. That should show you how bad the damage on them is.
It's not like HRs were consistently getting top paingiver or something.
The fox shift nerf I can see. Everything else meh.
All I can say is other than against a single target foxes shift wise I'm actually almost buffed in PvP from what I was. The new at-will allows me to have a constant dot ontop of the dot of aimed strike keeping both of these up on the other team ends up giving constantly ticking damage and pretty much a spammable 100% daily that allows me to spam shift for 15 seconds without any need to recharge my stamina.
Ambush does not seem like a very good power at all though, I wouldn't mind the grass being seen but the fact using aimed shot breaks the stealth right at the start of the charge and it breaks on DOT's my build and probably most other's builds simply doesn't work with the power. It sort of lack synergy with almost anything.
Anyway too late for any meaningful changes now, in 5 or so days we'll see how the changes work out in game and hope that it all works as planned.
Edit: Oh and FYI foxes shift is actually buffed for aoe damage making it better to counter to be staying away from each other instead of standing in a huddle like the current PvP counter to it.
All I can say is other than against a single target foxes shift wise I'm actually almost buffed in PvP from what I was. The new at-will allows me to have a constant dot ontop of the dot of aimed strike keeping both of these up on the other team ends up giving constantly ticking damage and pretty much a spammable 100% daily that allows me to spam shift for 15 seconds without any need to recharge my stamina.
Ambush does not seem like a very good power at all though, I wouldn't mind the grass being seen but the fact using aimed shot breaks the stealth right at the start of the charge and it breaks on DOT's my build and probably most other's builds simply doesn't work with the power. It sort of lack synergy with almost anything.
Anyway too late for any meaningful changes now, in 5 or so days we'll see how the changes work out in game and hope that it all works as planned.
Edit: Oh and FYI foxes shift is actually buffed for aoe damage making it better to counter to be staying away from each other instead of standing in a huddle like the current PvP counter to it.
So you don't use split shot at all? Constant single target ticking damage doesn't seem as great as spamming 5k crits on the whole team.
I'll have to see about the daily I guess.
No it's not too late! They can make ambush an actual stealth.
My Harem: Dawn HR, Erin CW, Piper TR, Zoe GWF
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
edited May 2014
I take it the 50% buff to clear the ground won't be happening, despite it saying that on here....
So you don't use split shot at all? Constant single target ticking damage doesn't seem as great as spamming 5k crits on the whole team.
Well it's mainly about how fast I get to 100%, I'm sure I no longer hit as much aoe DPS at the start of the match but the benefit of the build is spamming slashers mark to be able to give the team a spammable dodge while hitting that person. I found in the dummy room putting the DOT's on the 3 dummy's and then using Marauder's Escape once will get me up to 100% again pretty much by the time slashers mark goes away where I can use it again. The secret of the build being viable is plaguefire, I'll say no more as I don't want too many people using an exact copy of the build before I've even had the chance to see if it works well in PvP.
Reapplication of Careful Attack by holding the mouse button while targeting the reticule builds Action Points too fast with DoT based Enchantments (Plague Fire, Bilethorn, Flaming), making it so that 100% Dailies are spammable within 3-5 seconds. Furthermore, Careful Attack as it is now can be reapplied to multiple targets, potentially generating too much threat when used.
The bug itself is a double edged sword that could easily be OP in PvP and easily kill a HR in PvE over generated threat. Spammable Daily speaks for itself and shouldn't make it through to live like this.
Reapplication of Careful Attack by holding the mouse button while targeting the reticule builds Action Points too fast with DoT based Enchantments (Plague Fire, Bilethorn, Flaming), making it so that 100% Dailies are spammable within 3-5 seconds. Furthermore, Careful Attack as it is now can be reapplied to multiple targets, potentially generating too much threat when used.
The bug itself is a double edged sword that could easily be OP in PvP and easily kill a HR in PvE over generated threat. Spammable Daily speaks for itself and shouldn't make it through to live like this.
op in pvp mmm may i ask what daily that hr has would make it op in pvp :-) as you must change path to get it....
Forrest maby but hardly plz enlighten us, I would be eager to know...
op in pvp mmm may i ask what daily that hr has would make it op in pvp :-) as you must change path to get it....
Forrest maby but hardly plz enlighten us, I would be eager to know...
ok I can think of one that would be rather nice spammeble seismic shot whish non use rest well be nice but hardly make any major differance its not like our dailys are making huge dam -:). Forrest nice sure but hell spamming rapid **** does more dam then spamming disruptive shot ).
Dont think it will be a major differance as you have to change to much worse path in pvp then existing,,, could be wrong but i guess right build/gear can make them more a nuissence in high lvl pvp as point holders....
I'm not terribly interested in exploiting a bug to get 100% action points fast, then using those action points to use an OP feat and have unlimited shifts.
I am however very interested in having a short cooldown, short duration stealth (Ambush)- IF it is fixed so players can't see you when you use it.
I'm not terribly interested in exploiting a bug to get 100% action points fast, then using those action points to use an OP feat and have unlimited shifts.
That i get and agree fully on :-). But i still dont get the OP part, spamming shift isent exactly going to kill the enemy and using the "exploit" isent either so what you do is fill your daily and shift alot making the enemy laugh or .....
Slashers Mark base damage is around 5-6K and crits for a striking resemblance to most Ice Knives. It's a long gap closer, and for a long duration after, you can spam dodge, not taking damage...and spam that daily in every five seconds.
Reapplication of Careful Attack by holding the mouse button while targeting the reticule builds Action Points too fast with DoT based Enchantments (Plague Fire, Bilethorn, Flaming), making it so that 100% Dailies are spammable within 3-5 seconds. Furthermore, Careful Attack as it is now can be reapplied to multiple targets, potentially generating too much threat when used.
The bug itself is a double edged sword that could easily be OP in PvP and easily kill a HR in PvE over generated threat. Spammable Daily speaks for itself and shouldn't make it through to live like this.
The fact re applying it is causing an increased amount of AP is something I didn't notice and seems more like a bug. However I did suggest the AP generated be cut in half for the actual every 1 second hit DOT type feature in how it is actually supposed to be working. I see it as being OP in other ways with these DOT type enchantments, the fact you can have a 15 second DOT is always nice to have to keep enemy's from ever mounting up.
I have no idea how you got it to 5 seconds though. I could only get to 100% every 15-20 seconds if all I did was use marauders escape and dodge the entire time while keeping the dot's going on 3 targets.
Also slashers mark only hits just more than a maxed split shot currently on live, damage is fine.
I have no idea how you got it to 5 seconds though. I could only get to 100% every 15-20 seconds if all I did was use marauders escape and dodge the entire time while keeping the dot's going on 3 targets.
Also slashers mark only hits just more than a maxed split shot currently on live, damage is fine.
Must be one he** of a dot if that is to be considered OP :-).
Slashers Mark base damage is around 5-6K and crits for a striking resemblance to most Ice Knives. It's a long gap closer, and for a long duration after, you can spam dodge, not taking damage...and spam that daily in every five seconds.
Crit what once every 1/2, 1/3 of times and does what dam after mitigation, deflection and resists...
And i challange anybody to do that every 5-6 seconds i will personally give 1 mil AD to anybody that succesfully lands it on me every 5-6 second 4-5 times in a row :-).
It might be fun and dandy and cool to figure out something that makes you daily pop like crazy but making hr OP - still cant see it.....
The fact re applying it is causing an increased amount of AP is something I didn't notice and seems more like a bug. However I did suggest the AP generated be cut in half for the actual every 1 second hit DOT type feature in how it is actually supposed to be working. I see it as being OP in other ways with these DOT type enchantments, the fact you can have a 15 second DOT is always nice to have to keep enemy's from ever mounting up.
I have no idea how you got it to 5 seconds though. I could only get to 100% every 15-20 seconds if all I did was use marauders escape and dodge the entire time while keeping the dot's going on 3 targets.
Also slashers mark only hits just more than a maxed split shot currently on live, damage is fine.
On applying to multiple targets with the following setup:
Encounter Powers:
Marauder's Rush
Thorn Ward
Rain of Arrows
At wills
Careful Attack
Split Shot
On Weapon: Plague Fire Enchantment
The following tests were done, (1) me only.
1. Drop Thorn Ward
2. Study 3 dummies
3. Rain of Arrows
4. Marauder's Rush (by the time of this cast, AP had gone from 0 to 50%)
5. (1-2 seconds, AP will spike to 75% or higher)
6. Slashers Mark :: 1-3 seconds at feated 75% and 1-5 seconds at 100%
alternate: 7. Seismic Shot at 100% :: 1-5 seconds
Other scenarios, (2) other people hitting on studied targets,
1. Study 3 dummies
2. Marauder's Rush
3. Slashers Mark :: 1-3 seconds, feated or not
alternate: 4. Seismic Shot at 100% :: 1-3 seconds
I may be daft i see some fun stuff here (actually very funny) but to become a carnage you need actual dps also and i just cant see it.
3-4 peeps fighting on 2 in pvp ignoring the HR maby but then they deserv whats comming just cant see the massive dps from this, or is it just me ?
Comments
Since Stormstep Action is a class feature tied to the Stormwarden PP, it can hardly be a key class feature for the HR, because ... Pathfinder won't even have it.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Teamhunter's work: the drop can;t always be picked up, but generally - nice skill.
Clear the Ground: on live - 412 dmg, on preview 510 dmg. That means around 25% dmg buff, not 50%
Oakskin: very nice buff. I thought it will be OP, but it is fine.
Thorn Strike: nice buff as well, especially the speed of casting.
Split shot: can;t tell atm due to wrong algorithm, but 25% nerf seems reasonable.
Ambush: Waste of slot in my opinion, useless skill.
Bear trap: Too short stun effect. It last aproximately as long as casting time lol.
Boar charge: works fine, thanks. Could u do the same to aimed strike (doesn;t require target) ?
Slasher's mark: Very nice daily.
Fox shift: In pve - ok, in pvp - 33% nerf (if fighting single target) makes this skill not slot worthy.
Cruel Recovery: not using that one. Useless, too weak.
I don;t use skill with roots, but I heard they are broken in pvp, almost every class can cancel it with a dodge.
I hope u are reading this, ty for your work
They... LIED to usssss.....
Also note that the Hunter Ranger, though good when specializing in archery, which it is best for, and sometimes hybrid, often has the melee damage kind of drop off around Character Level 30 (maybe even earlier). So the Archery needs to be sufficiently powerful to balance the fact that: 1) The Hunter Ranger isn't too good at melee (and is best this way) and 2) The Hunter Ranger tends to be more squishy than say a Great Weapon Fighter. Not to mention that Split Shot is just about the only multiple shot skill it has.
As for the Pathfinder, I would suggest making it more Archery friendly, as the Stormwarden is rather towards Melee but not very nice for Archery. There should later on be a Paragon Path to support hybrids better, for those who like hybrids, as I have not seen anything truly hybrid friendly for the Hunter Ranger. If I were to be in the dev team as a designer or analyst, I'd say each one needs a path of its own to truly cover the different ways it can be played.
Actually, I also have comments on the entirety of Neverwinter as a whole as well, and since they are simple, I will mention them here. For Module 3, Resetting the entire leadership board scorings would be wrong, and I would make a guess that many of the players who took PvP seriously would simply up and quit entirely. What should be done instead is to have leadership board keep 2 kinds of scores. 1) Since joining. and 2) a reset score starting with Module 3. It isn't that difficult from the point of view of database architecture. You just need to keep the scores for each module and add them to together. It is merely a derivative attribute. UI isn't a big problem either, since you can easily make the Leadership tab have a drop-down feature to select, or you could just put them all on the same page.
As for Glory, etc. you could do the same by adding it as extra info in the page the info shows on. Rather simple, no? Actually, if I had the chance, I would have loved to help with the development of Neverwinter, since I have various medical problems that prevent me from doing normal work, and surviving is hard, but I seem to do well at analysis and design of various things. Malaysia is a tough place after all, though each USD or Euro a month may not seem like much to many, but here it's worth more than 3 times as much. Well, enough about myself and back to the Hunter Ranger.
Finally, I would think that it would be useful to refer more to the D&D 4e guide books, as well as the many variations it has, and try to incorporate the rules of 3.5e as well as 4e loosely, so that the play can eventually be given the option to choose if they want a more 3.5e approach (point buy, etc.) or a 4e approach (4e's point buy is worse than the set selections of stats). as for starting stats, it should be made clear at character creation what the stat progression is like. The players should also not be forced to roll the stat allocation, but to just choose from the list how they wish to arrange it, since rolling is pointless in the fixed stat method (and yes, we know the Sword Coast Adventures daily prize d20 is rolled and the prize determined even before we click to roll it. It is however a very efficient method to do so from a programmatic point of view. But some players might prefer to roll as they go, so that's another possibility to account for.
After all, this is an MMO, and an MMORPG at that. It's more or less a service industry. What matters most is the experience. Good experience will make people want to participate more, and there should be things like sharing what we wish to share, etc. For example, I may have assets that I wish to make available to my guild. It may be a Tool or a Person, but there should also be a means for people to place a "for guild use" asset in the guild banks (profession banks would be welcome) where people can select to use assets there, when doing professions, but the proper owner would still be the only one who would be able to retrieve it (to prevent scamming)
P.S. Some better inventory system would be welcome. (bigger bags, or say an overflow bag for events like dungeon delves, skirmishes, etc., which you can deal with the items later, as there is little or no time to deal with inventory during events). a details power and feat calculator maintained, so that players can refer to them during character creation, and these builds should be possible to save/alter for future reference. This will also keep players entertained. Better still, multiclassing would be nice to introduce, giving the game more flavour. There should be things to occupy players, power builders and roleplayers alike, and events to get them to intermingle.
Not necessarily a lie though. Could be they plain miscalculated and got the maths wrong.
Well HOPEFULLY they *correct* it then. Only 2 weeks left.
You are comparing apples and howitzers. First the encounters are tied (the ranged determines the melle and vice-versa) so you are not exactly choosing the best encounters available. Second you need to compare HR encounters to other classes. If an HR drops all 6 encounter on cycle and ends with disrupting to maintain the cycle it had the aggregate output of say Shard. Some of those encopunters are doing a couple thousand a piece.
Careful Attack: I suggest you look at the AP gain from Careful Attack, I currently seem to be able to put it on 2-3 targets and keep dots up on them and my AP gain is at crazy levels without me even using anything I can just stand there and constantly gain AP while keeping up DOT's with Careful Attack.
Slasher's Mark: I do like the idea behind his daily, and the fact it gives a good alternate in PvP to the two non 100% daily's it certainly is interesting. However I currently think it's giving a little too much stamina / guard especially in the HR's case. By doing that thing I just said above I can spam shift for the entire duration of it and by the time the debuff ends I'm over 50% AP again. Just a little something that is working a little too good compared to how it is attended to work, I shouldn't be able to even get close to perma shifting.
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Hunters Teamwork and Careful Attack can affect multiple targets at the same time. It seems like a bug, but I hope not as it doesn't seem OP and improves the usefulness of those two abilities. Maybe the tool tip hasn't been updated?
This pretty much sums it for me (except the bit about Stormstep as I never use it). I have a build that is specialised in regaining encounter powers via the Royal Guard Armor, Prime Critical and attacks that hit many times like Rain of Arrows and Split the Sky combined with a Plaguefire Enchantment. So I typically regain encounter powers fast, but still Split Shot is the main DPS power. Rain of Arrows is ok if there is a static target or if a CW casts singularity but it is not the bread and butter of an HR's DPS.
And then comes the big question: what does an HR bring to the table in a party? The answer at the moment is "only sustained DPS" except for the Nature build. There are no spike damage powers except Aimed Shot that is quite situational, almost no control in a typical Dungeon with lots of mobs as HR control powers are mainly single target and buffs are lackluster unless you go the Nature route (that I admittedly know little of).
I normally go in dungeons with my guild, so finding a place is not an issue, but what I see is that a GWF with less GS than me will deal more damage and tank at the same time, not to mention what a CW can do (more damage and far more control). By the way my low single target DPS makes me a liability in the two most iconic fights of the game so far(Fulminorax and Valindra).
I found myself a niche as an area debuffer, being able to spread Plaguefire all over a relatively large area of any battlefield and getting DPS due to several Split the Sky clouds up at any time, but that's really a niche.
For these reasons I went to test the Pathfinder with quite some interest. The first thing I realized was that I had to change playstyle as Split the Sky is a Stormwarden power and is the basis of my debuffing build.
Looking at the new path the interesting things seem to me Ambush and Bear trap. These two powers could change the flavour and playstile as you get two thing the HR needs: some respite from aggro (or enemy attention in PvP) and some serious control. I respec'd my HR to get the longest Ambush and Bear Trap stun effects possible (thus shifting from a full Archery build to an Hybrid) and started to explore the Dwarven valley that I already tested with my current archery build.
The Pathfinder "Solo" seems quite ok as Ambush helps in dealing with the inevitable aggro. Still my encounter powers remain quite lackluster and I have to use the two-at wills for DPS (Aimed shot and Split Shot). Split Shot still rules as often mobs come in groups anyway, so if the goal of the nerf to it was to make encounters more platable, well, it didn't work for me.
Ambush is anyway not that interesting. The main issue is that you lose stealth if you attack and as far as I can see you lose stealth immediately as you start charging Aimed Shot, meaning you get immediately rushed if you try, and most of the time you never get Aimed Shot out before being interrupted. I would at least suggest that you should lose stealth when you effectively make the attack, and not when you start charging it. At this time Ambush is more a defensive power that I use to get away and reposition than a real "Ambush" one. My suggestion would be than any encounter direct damage power (not area) used from Ambush should automatically crit or ignore the enemy's defense/deflection. This would make the current lack luster encounters quite more appealing and turn this power into a real ambush.
Bear Trap: interesting idea but I don't like the execution. First of all it takes forever to get it out. The animation is nice but quite long. I can see some use in PvP like placing it in front of me when I see a GF/GWF heading my way but the long anymation time makes it not that viable. I used it in a "friendly" PvP with a perma-stealth TR and it helps a bit if you place two of the close to you, but still it forces you to stay in a static position which is not really the environment you find in dungeons for example. And throwing it to a typical mob is almost a sure miss as they move around all-time and the area is very small.
The other issue I have is that the stunning period is very short. It may work in PvP where I can use Boar Charge to prone the target but stunning 1 mob for 2-3 secs in a dungeon is worth nothing. Honestly it's better to spam Split Shot and do 30-50k damage. My suggestion would be to make the area not one single trap but a line of traps and make the effect not stunned but prone. This would let the HR stop a charge of monsters, cut the battlefield in two in PvE and offer it some defense from the proning domination we see in PvP at the time being where the HR's only defense in melee is usually frantic dodging.
A similar HR could take easily a nerf to Split Shot then. Area DPS will probably drop but with crits from Ambush maybe single target damage will go up, and the added control from Bear Trap would be a boon in any dungeon situation that could bring the HR back as an interesting class for dungeons.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
I logged some Target Dummy at-will spam on the latest build. If you short-charge Split Shot so that it fires approximately every 1.3 seconds, it averages about 25% more damage per second than Electric Shot spam. The comparison is even worse when Electric Shot's 3-hit rotation is disrupted.
By contrast, Clear the Ground and Split Strike were approximately even over time.
Also, ambush can be seen by players in PVP? That sucks. That's the main reason I was thinking of going for the new path. If the stealth doesn't work in PVP I'm not sure there's any good thing pathfinder brings to PVP. I was really looking forward to incorporating ambush into a new playstyle for HR in PVP.
And nerf to stormstep is dumb too imo. Besides split the sky, it's the only good thing stormwarden has.
The new at-wills seem very lackluster even though you can use them on multiple targets.
Splitshot nerf is enough of a nerf to HR and I'm not totally sure it's even necessary. The other buffs seem like high percentages, but they don't make up for the nerf. The reason HRs use splitshot spam is because the damage on our abilities is low (and still is low after the buffs). Consider your buffing abilities by like 40-100% and they still are lackluster compared to say a CW's abilities. That should show you how bad the damage on them is.
It's not like HRs were consistently getting top paingiver or something.
The fox shift nerf I can see. Everything else meh.
All I can say is other than against a single target foxes shift wise I'm actually almost buffed in PvP from what I was. The new at-will allows me to have a constant dot ontop of the dot of aimed strike keeping both of these up on the other team ends up giving constantly ticking damage and pretty much a spammable 100% daily that allows me to spam shift for 15 seconds without any need to recharge my stamina.
Ambush does not seem like a very good power at all though, I wouldn't mind the grass being seen but the fact using aimed shot breaks the stealth right at the start of the charge and it breaks on DOT's my build and probably most other's builds simply doesn't work with the power. It sort of lack synergy with almost anything.
Anyway too late for any meaningful changes now, in 5 or so days we'll see how the changes work out in game and hope that it all works as planned.
Edit: Oh and FYI foxes shift is actually buffed for aoe damage making it better to counter to be staying away from each other instead of standing in a huddle like the current PvP counter to it.
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So you don't use split shot at all? Constant single target ticking damage doesn't seem as great as spamming 5k crits on the whole team.
I'll have to see about the daily I guess.
No it's not too late! They can make ambush an actual stealth.
Well it's mainly about how fast I get to 100%, I'm sure I no longer hit as much aoe DPS at the start of the match but the benefit of the build is spamming slashers mark to be able to give the team a spammable dodge while hitting that person. I found in the dummy room putting the DOT's on the 3 dummy's and then using Marauder's Escape once will get me up to 100% again pretty much by the time slashers mark goes away where I can use it again. The secret of the build being viable is plaguefire, I'll say no more as I don't want too many people using an exact copy of the build before I've even had the chance to see if it works well in PvP.
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Reapplication of Careful Attack by holding the mouse button while targeting the reticule builds Action Points too fast with DoT based Enchantments (Plague Fire, Bilethorn, Flaming), making it so that 100% Dailies are spammable within 3-5 seconds. Furthermore, Careful Attack as it is now can be reapplied to multiple targets, potentially generating too much threat when used.
The bug itself is a double edged sword that could easily be OP in PvP and easily kill a HR in PvE over generated threat. Spammable Daily speaks for itself and shouldn't make it through to live like this.
op in pvp mmm may i ask what daily that hr has would make it op in pvp :-) as you must change path to get it....
Forrest maby but hardly plz enlighten us, I would be eager to know...
Every other daily we have..
ok I can think of one that would be rather nice spammeble seismic shot whish non use rest well be nice but hardly make any major differance its not like our dailys are making huge dam -:). Forrest nice sure but hell spamming rapid **** does more dam then spamming disruptive shot ).
Dont think it will be a major differance as you have to change to much worse path in pvp then existing,,, could be wrong but i guess right build/gear can make them more a nuissence in high lvl pvp as point holders....
I am however very interested in having a short cooldown, short duration stealth (Ambush)- IF it is fixed so players can't see you when you use it.
Here's to hoping.
The fact re applying it is causing an increased amount of AP is something I didn't notice and seems more like a bug. However I did suggest the AP generated be cut in half for the actual every 1 second hit DOT type feature in how it is actually supposed to be working. I see it as being OP in other ways with these DOT type enchantments, the fact you can have a 15 second DOT is always nice to have to keep enemy's from ever mounting up.
I have no idea how you got it to 5 seconds though. I could only get to 100% every 15-20 seconds if all I did was use marauders escape and dodge the entire time while keeping the dot's going on 3 targets.
Also slashers mark only hits just more than a maxed split shot currently on live, damage is fine.
A Playlist of my CO PvP video's
Must be one he** of a dot if that is to be considered OP :-).
Crit what once every 1/2, 1/3 of times and does what dam after mitigation, deflection and resists...
And i challange anybody to do that every 5-6 seconds i will personally give 1 mil AD to anybody that succesfully lands it on me every 5-6 second 4-5 times in a row :-).
It might be fun and dandy and cool to figure out something that makes you daily pop like crazy but making hr OP - still cant see it.....
On applying to multiple targets with the following setup:
Encounter Powers:
Marauder's Rush
Thorn Ward
Rain of Arrows
At wills
Careful Attack
Split Shot
On Weapon: Plague Fire Enchantment
The following tests were done, (1) me only.
1. Drop Thorn Ward
2. Study 3 dummies
3. Rain of Arrows
4. Marauder's Rush (by the time of this cast, AP had gone from 0 to 50%)
5. (1-2 seconds, AP will spike to 75% or higher)
6. Slashers Mark :: 1-3 seconds at feated 75% and 1-5 seconds at 100%
alternate: 7. Seismic Shot at 100% :: 1-5 seconds
Other scenarios, (2) other people hitting on studied targets,
1. Study 3 dummies
2. Marauder's Rush
3. Slashers Mark :: 1-3 seconds, feated or not
alternate: 4. Seismic Shot at 100% :: 1-3 seconds
Too
late
to
change.
Such Carnage
I may be daft i see some fun stuff here (actually very funny) but to become a carnage you need actual dps also and i just cant see it.
3-4 peeps fighting on 2 in pvp ignoring the HR maby but then they deserv whats comming just cant see the massive dps from this, or is it just me ?
Slasher's Mark has a 2% Guard gain for HRs which does not make sense. I just noticed this.