Official Feedback Thread: Ranger Paragon Path: Pathfinder

gentlemancrush · March 2014

Greetings Adventurers!
We are happy to announce that as part of Module 3: The Curse of Icewind Dale, we will be adding a second Paragon Path to Hunter Rangers – The Pathfinder.

Overview
The Pathfinder is a ranger who uses carefully timed strikes and preparation to aid allies and land devastating blows on foes.

The Pathfinder has the following Powers.

At-Wills

Ranged: Hunter’s Teamwork: You mark supplies that the enemy is carrying, marking them with Hunter’s Teamwork. If the foe dies while marked they drop supplies that any ally can pick up. Picking up these supplies heals all teammates and restores some Action Points. Only one foe may be marked by Hunter’s Teamwork at a time.
Melee: Careful Attack: You study your foe and foes near him, exposing weaknesses in their defenses. Enemies studied in this way deal slightly less damage and take bonus damage the next time they are struck.

Encounters

Ranged: Ambush: You gain Ambush and Stealth for several seconds. Ambush causes your next attack to deal bonus damage (this effect is reduced on AoE attacks). Ambush is cancelled early if you move. Stealth is cancelled early if you attack.
Melee: Bear Trap: Toss a massive Bear Trap at target location. This Bear Trap stuns and deals damage to any foe who steps on it. This Power has 2 charges.

Daily

Slasher’s Mark: Leap to your target with a Slashing Strike, marking your target. When you or your allies strike the marked target you restore Stamina or Guard Meter. Costs 100% of your AP.

gentlemancrush · March 2014

Class Features

Battlehoned: When you are attacked you gain 100 Regeneration for 4 seconds. This effect does not stack.
Pathfinder’s Action: Activating a Daily Power increases your Run speed and Deflection Chance for several seconds.
Cruel Recovery: When you deal critical damage to an enemy you gain 1% of your Max HP as special Temp HP.

Feats

Archery: Quarry: You deal 1/2/3/4/5% bonus damage to targets affected by your Hunter’s Teamwork or Careful Attack At-Will powers.
Combat: Advanced Stalking: Your Ambush power can now last .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds longer. Your Bear Trap now snares targets for .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds.
Nature: Slasher’s Speed: The Action Point cost of your Slasher’s Mark daily is reduced by 5/10/15/20/25%. Pathfinder’s Action’s movement buff lasts .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds longer.

In addition to the new powers above, several other powers are getting some fixes and changes to help them fit into their intended roles a little better.

Fox Shift: This power now only hits each target one time during its activation. Additionally, the power was erroneously ticking an additional time at the start of its activation and this has been fixed. To compensate for this change and the fact that the power now cannot strike a target more than once, damage has been increased by 33%.
Fox Shift: This power now correctly makes you immune to damage and control effects while you are jumping from target to target.
Thorn Strike: This power has been reworked slightly. This power now has a 5' cylinder (up from 3'), a 13' reach (up from 11'), and has had the damage bonus reworked. This power now gains increased damage as enemy health diminishes. Additionally this bonus has been increased to a maximum of 30% (up from 15%).
Forest Meditation: Rank 3 now correctly retains the Rank 2 bonus.
Split Shot: The damage of this power has been reduced by 45%.

gentlemancrush · March 2014

Feedback
We need to collect as much feedback as possible. Given that, we would like you to categorize and color code your feedback so we can sort it and act on it most effectively! Please use the below format to submit bugs/feedback.

Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
Power: (Please enter the Power that you are providing feedback on here)
Please use “Bold” face text for the Type & Power then type your feedback in the body of your post. If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use BLUE.
(Concise Feedback & Screen Shots are much appreciated)

Examples:
Bug: Slasher’s Mark
I am not getting Stamina when striking a target who has Slasher’s Mark.

Feedback: Hunter’s Teamwork
The heal feels too small to use in most cases, but the AP restore felt really good.

Please try to play for a few hours to get a good feel for new powers. Thank you again for all your help Adventurers! We look forward to hearing back from you!

Chris “Gentleman_Crush” Meyer

gentlemancrush · March 2014

*NEW*

Fox Shift: This power may now strike any one target a maximum of 2 times.
Thorn Strike: Base Damage of this power increased by roughly 40%.
Split the Sky: Base Damage of this power increased by roughly 40%. Additionally fixed a bug with the way weapon damage was calculated by this power. There should be no net change from this fix.
Aspect of the Pack: Now correctly grants Combat Advantage to allies instead of only granting it to the Ranger. The Ranger still benefits from this effect as well.
Hawkeye: *REWORK* This power now grants you 15% bonus damage on the next attack. Allies gain half this benefit (based on the rank of the power).
Oakskin: Healing increased by 150%.
Commanding Shot: This power now also gains +10% damage when it ranks up.
Boar Charge: This power now requires a target to be fired.
Electric Shot: Damage increased by roughly 100%. *It should now be in line with Split Shot.*
Clear the Ground: Damage increased by roughly 50%. *It should now be in line with Split Strike.*
Slasher's Mark: Damage increase by 300%.

4/10

Ambush: No longer deals damage to allies, and now mentions that both effects are removed when using a power.
Careful Attack: Now lasts up to 25 seconds and only can affect a singel target at once. Damage no longer removes the effect, but instead can trigger the damage bonus once every 1.5 seconds. No longer reduces target's damage.
Hunter's Teamwork: Now also reduces target's damage.
Quarry Feat: Now correctly affects all powers.

rayrdan · March 2014

fox shift nerfed to the hell...ok i can do something probably...
but
Split Shot: The damage of this power has been reduced by 45%.
WHAT????? so now basically i m a companion and people will drop me in a new call to arms? this must be a joke. I dont do any damages in dungeons, barely did some in pvp and you're going to nerf 50% of my best at-will? i'm done

simplyawful · March 2014

gentlemancrush wrote: »

Split Shot: The damage of this power has been reduced by 45%.

Can we get confirmation on this, please? A 45% reduction in the damage of an At-Will attack is quite extreme, especially alongside the change to Fox Shift.

Thank you.

rhoric · March 2014

Way to kill another ranged skill by reducing Split Shot. You have basically killed the HR now with that. You need to stop making changes to damage on our skills. You have done that to every other ranged skill. You are making ranged specs useless now. Stop forcing us into melee or hybrid.

nwnghost · March 2014

I think Split Short certainly needed a reduction in the damage it dealt.

On live, there was literally no reason to pick/invest any other At Will except for Aimed Shot.

Split Shot always outdamaged Rapid Shot even against Single Targets and noone used Electric Shot in Ranged Mode at all.

In fact, you hardly needed to use Encounters for damage either due to the immense damage Split Shot dealt.

Decreasing the damage of Split Shot will effectively increase the desirability of other At Wills and put a bit more focus on picking Encounters for Damage as opposed to mainly utility, if you want to deal damage.

Now 45% does seem like a large amount and personally I would probably have reduced it by 30% instead, but it is hard to say without having tested this yet (due to build not being available on server). Imagine the devs have however.

yuccapalm · March 2014

Even if split shot were single target the dmg is way too high. With 45% dmg reduction it does still more dmg than the at wills of melee classes even tho its ranged.

rhoric · March 2014

Split Shot is not a high damage skill. If it was I would be using it all the time. I use it to open up then I use other skills. Split Shot has had it's damaged reduced before it doesn't need it again.

iambecks1 · March 2014

rayrdan wrote: »

Split Shot: The damage of this power has been reduced by 45%.
WHAT????? so now basically i m a companion and people will drop me in a new call to arms? this must be a joke. I dont do any damages in dungeons, barely did some in pvp and you're going to nerf 50% of my best at-will? i'm done

This is going on the test server , you won't be affected in the CTA , it won't be live for several weeks at the earliest.

destinyknight · March 2014

After the discussion about fox shift.
Seeing split shot's damage reduced by 45% After it was reduced already after thier introduction? Whaaat? I mean really what?
Who in gods name thought that was a good idea?

The most balanced class in the game and its already being wrecked. What the? I cant even...

Split Shot is not even a high damage skill.

tinead51 · March 2014

iambecks1 wrote: »

This is going on the test server , you won't be affected in the CTA , it won't be live for several weeks at the earliest.

Looks like i'll be playing my ranger for several more weeks then i'll be gaining another Bank Toon...

scoutmasterj · March 2014

Are you kidding with the nerf to Split Shot? If your idea is to to make other at-wills appealing, I don't think the way to do this is by make the existing ones crappier. There are a number of people who enjoy the full archery spec. If we wanted to be melee, we'd be TR's.

At least give us the reasoning behind the change. Help us understand why you'd make such a choice.

In the CTA's, epic dungeons and the like, the HR's aren't at the top of the Damage List, so why the heavy nerf? Please reconsider.

twilightwatchman · March 2014

nwnghost wrote: »

I think Split Short certainly needed a reduction in the damage it dealt.

On live, there was literally no reason to pick/invest any other At Will except for Aimed Shot.

Split Shot always outdamaged Rapid Shot even against Single Targets and noone used Electric Shot in Ranged Mode at all.

This is because both those At-Wills are useless and badly in need of a buff. Instead we get a nerf to the only decent At-Will the class possesses.

nwnghost wrote: »

In fact, you hardly needed to use Encounters for damage either due to the immense damage Split Shot dealt.

Decreasing the damage of Split Shot will effectively increase the desirability of other At Wills and put a bit more focus on picking Encounters for Damage as opposed to mainly utility, if you want to deal damage.

And what damaging encounters might these be? The only encounter with decent damage is Fox Shift and that's about to get nerfed into oblivion.

It seems the HR is moving to a support class only. And not a particularly good one in either PVE or PVP.

leillanna · March 2014

Split shot did need nerfed, but not by 45%. It needed a 25% damage nerf and electric shot needed a big damage buff to make both appealing. If this goes live along with foxes shift nerf without big buffs elsewhere the class will be seen rarely in PVE and PVP. No, let me rephrase that. Outside of guild groups who feel sorry for the poor HR it will never be seen in PVE pugs after mod 3. The class doesn't need a nerf anywhere. It needs it's skills balanced. I want to ask the devs a question. Do you understand that as of right now outside of guild groups an HR is almost never wanted for T2 dungeon? Do you understand we are outclassed by a good margin by GWF's and CW's in PVE content. Understanding that, we players who play an HR are simply baffled at these proposed changes without any buffs elsewhere. Excluding the buff to thorn strike of course which in of itself isn't going to be enough to offset/balance those two nerfs. I sincerely hope you have buffs coming elsewhere......

ghoulz66 · March 2014

That is a terrible way to tune split shot, a very terrible way.

They should have expanded the charge/damage ratio and reversed the AoE so it builds up, not get smaller. This would stop the insta-spam of it where it still did good damage.

Lawl, why didn't they nerf GWFs to the ground? They still make GFs inferior.

marduk6sic6 · March 2014

It was already hard enough to get a well geared high GS HR into any of the top tier dungeons as it stands. I don't ever see "LF HR for ..." as it is. With all these nerfs coming up, at least I know ahead of time to stop investing my time into a class that is not gonna be NEEDED O.o

p.s. See what happens when something new comes out and people constantly QQ about being OP....

destinyknight · March 2014

This is exactly what I said they SHOULD NOT do last night in the Fox Shift post.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?633331-Fox-shift-upcoming-changes&p=7541121&viewfull=1#post7541121

I even edited to bold and scale up the part I said NOT to do this, because I know very well they will try, its a track record of thiers.

And behold the very next day look here.

Split Shot reduced by 45%.

So we get two unnessecary changes thats just like putting weights on the legs in a filling swimming pool for this class.

archanarchist · March 2014

leillanna wrote: »

Split shot did need nerfed, but not by 45%. It needed a 25% damage nerf and electric shot needed a big damage buff to make both appealing. If this goes live along with foxes shift nerf without big buffs elsewhere the class will be seen rarely in PVE and PVP. No, let me rephrase that. Outside of guild groups who feel sorry for the poor HR it will never be seen in PVE pugs after mod 3. The class doesn't need a nerf anywhere. It needs it's skills balanced. I want to ask the devs a question. Do you understand that as of right now outside of guild groups an HR is almost never wanted for T2 dungeon? Do you understand we are outclassed by a good margin by GWF's and CW's in PVE content by a good margin. Understanding that, we players who play an HR are simply baffled at these proposed changes without any buffs elsewhere. Excluding the buff to thorn ward of course. That isn't anywhere near enough to make for nerfing two of our best abilities.

Actualy most of reson hunters arnt wanted in groups is due to them using split shot at start of pull it being a misive spike of damage and them grabing all the agro and scatering enemys all over, i knew compitent HR wearing all blues that would out dps compitent epic geared CW simply by using split shot then a aimed shot on last 1 standing and almost never used a single encounter cause it was a dps reduction, cause of the way agro is calculated in this game splitshot did need about a 45% reduction before a GWF or GF would have any hope of holding agro and making a fight not go completely fubar if there was a hr in the team

ikuruyo · March 2014

There goes my ability to solo on my HR. Or kill anything. I tried all of the other skills on my HR and found it took WAY too long to kill anything. The dmg output of most all of the skills is low enough that it was a couple of minutes to kill the encounters in the starter dungeon and it did not get much better at higher levels.

The dmg from split shot did feel high, but only in comparison to any of the other HR at-wills. The melee dmg was a joke and the other ranged at will was several attacks to kill one target. Walking into a room with 4 enemies would typically almost kill me. Boss fights where there are adds would quickly lead to death, eventually. Even with splitshot killing off the adds if I managed to get the angle right and hit them a number of the fights would be really close.

If the change goes to live I'll probably try to play my HR a little longer then just write it off as worthless. I enjoy being at range, the HR does not have the stats to be able to melee all that well or survive long doing so.

Split shot already had downsides, if used when in areas where there are enemies at range you could accidentally bring in adds. In dungeons this made it undesireable and dangerous at several places. The fact that it chooses a target and then tracks it as it moves means you could end up aiming where you did not intend. It also likes to pick the nearest target in your arc and since a small movement in the near changes your distant targets I have often been unable to hit the enemies I want to hit with it.

Meanwhile control wizards clear entire rooms with 1-2 powers from range and GWF clear everything from melee without much trouble. As a HR I was getting good as sneaking, picking my targets and dodging. A LOT of dodging. It was the only way I could live through much of anything.

simplyawful · March 2014

archanarchist wrote: »

i knew compitent HR wearing all blues that would out dps compitent epic geared CW simply by using split shot then a aimed shot on last 1 standing and almost never used a single encounter cause it was a dps reduction

That has a lot to do with the fact that blue HR gear comes with insane amounts of armor penetration, meaning your gs is actually higher in blues than it is with many of the epic sets and you are at the desired 24% ignore resists without any real effort.

On the subject of At-Will vs Encounter powers, many HRs consider that their Encounter powers (and Dailies for that matter) are intended by the developers to be proportionately less of their total damage than for other classes. The change to Split Shot seems to contradict this though.

alvadimarco · March 2014

After a 45% reduction in the damage Split Shot does, the other at-wills aren't so terrible by comparison anymore. Another good aspect of this is that people won't be spamming Split Shot in PvE anymore as if it's their only skill.

I do kind of agree with others that Electric Shot needs some work, though. The damage is... uninspiring.

With regards to Pathfinder, I think some of these skills will just have to be seen in action as they don't seem to take very well to description in text.

leillanna · March 2014

archanarchist wrote: »

Actualy most of reson hunters arnt wanted in groups is due to them using split shot at start of pull it being a misive spike of damage and them grabing all the agro and scatering enemys all over, i knew compitent HR wearing all blues that would out dps compitent epic geared CW simply by using split shot then a aimed shot on last 1 standing and almost never used a single encounter cause it was a dps reduction, cause of the way agro is calculated in this game splitshot did need about a 45% reduction before a GWF or GF would have any hope of holding agro and making a fight not go completely fubar if there was a hr in the team

I have a GF, I use her quite a bit in all T2 dungeons. Once I mark/lunging strike/enforced threat/Knights valor/supremecy of steel. I have complete control of the adds. Most of the time a little to much control....No, this much of a nerf isn't warrented for split shot. Hunter ranger is a subpar class in PVE content comparatively as it stands. No one wants them in a group because they bring nothing to the group another doesn't do better and the pathfinder paragon path doesn't look to me make it any more wanted in PVE and certainly does nothing for it in PVP. I would ask the devs what their vision of a ranger is. From what I see it doesn't appear to be the same as mine in the forgotten realms setting.

warpet · March 2014

i do not play hr but nerf of their main aoe dps skill by 45% is very bad idea it is hard atm to get team as hr this will only make it even harder

query523 · March 2014

Finally the devs have answered the numerous calls to nerf the HR's OP DPS! Is there an emoticon for sarcasm?

marduk6sic6 · March 2014

query523 wrote: »

Finally the devs have answered the numerous calls to nerf the HR's OP DPS! Is there an emoticon for sarcasm?

^^ THIS lol it was gonna happen...

arcmoon99 · March 2014

Split shot did need a nerf, but you didn't have to drop a nuclear bomb on it. 45% sounds extremely excessive. I say nerf the original damage but, maybe not nearly as much as 45%. That's just crazy.

Besides split-shot the new Pargon path... O_O! Everything about this path looks so much more fun than Storm Warden. It's more supportive , but that'll really help nature built HRs. Even for non Nature based HRs this path looks really cool.

alvadimarco · March 2014

I dunno. I don't see Pathfinder making HRs any more wanted in groups, honestly.

donblacksheep · March 2014

I don't even play HR, but in my opinion you are kinda destroying the class.
This nerf to split shot and fox **** is HUGE, you are killing the class, forcing people to be support? What if they don't want to be support?
I'm sure it can be effective and so, but nerfing other stuff to make it "interesting" is wrong.

You will only make people quit the class/the game. They indeed needed a small nerf, but this is too much, reconsider that please.

radtatat · March 2014

I always like the archer class in all MMOs/PC games I played. I like the play style of pew pewing at the back and using strategic movements to avoid being hit.

With HR in NW, I never even considered going melee or hybrid. When they nerfed the capstone for the range feat, I almost stopped playing my HR. But I persevered and finally found a comfortable set of skills to use and it worked out ok in PVE. When split shot was first nerfed, I took that in stride.

To me, HR's encounters are not typically damage dealing skills, unlike other classes. They are more utilitarian and offer some form of control. Split shot allowed me to kill mobs at a decent speed and to survive in PVE.

With the upcoming nerf to Fox shift and split shot, I will be putting my HR on the shelf and use it as an AD mule when Mod 3 starts. As for the new paragon path, it does not interest me at all after reading the descriptions.

Thanks for letting us know in advance so we can stop investing in HR now and save up for the next new class.

Official Feedback Thread: Ranger Paragon Path: Pathfinder

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