Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Ranger Desires Compilation and Analysis/Conversion
Azherae
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
The wait is over! With the new information on at least the considered directions for combat, this week's compilation can probably do the Rangers justice. References and data have been, as always, taken only from this official thread and this unofficial(?) one. One or two forum-active posters have had some of their data taken from the last Combat Desires compilation and similar, but this doesn't affect the aggregates significantly.
Disclaimer: While I am no Ranger, and none of my friends/group with actual intentions to play the game are Rangers, there's likely to be some bias in the schema, because in the Tabletop game I help design, Rangers have an ability 'Poisonmaking' which makes them have the option of being debuffers. Unfortunately this also seems to heavily fit both the overall flow of the Archetype and the wishes of some players. Therefore, please assume some unavoidable bias within the schema.
Things that Ranger-interested people wanted, with some sorta sort:
With the Rangers we are back to a class that is defined more heavily by their Augments, and need many abilities to put them on, similar to the Rogues. And again, a class that has, and needs, a wide variety of skills. Despite this, they generally have clear wishes, and after some thinking, I realized what the schema needed. Fortunately, at least some of what is required was already somewhat available in Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse, so I don't doubt Intrepid can work it in.
So, the schema for abilities didn't end up being complicated, there's just one specific requirement at the start...
Scions mostly need 'enough different shots to put any number of elements on them' but this assumes that my expectation for Intrepid's plans on Mage Augments is correct. In general, actually, most things desired fit in well enough with just 'lots of different ability shots and well defined Augments'. Even the 'Holy Avenger Celestial Ranger' has problems moreso rooted in not being able to get as many options at once as they need, than that they asked for things that would not be available anywhere. Falconers could just put a specific Summoning Augment on everything to keep their Falcon active (or visible, whichever). You can see this sort of thing easily in their Trends.
As always, I offer my concept of the Reverse Engineered Augments List (halfway down the first page, in a quote). It does a better job than I expected based on the desires of players, but that could also be simply that the names are thematically appropriate and line up well, reinforcing Intrepid's design. If nothing else, it's a good indicator that even those who don't do too much research beforehand are likely to end up choosing the secondary Archetype they need.
But regardless of saying all that, since the Reverse Engineered Augments are still my speculation, please bear in mind that...
THIS POST IS IN NO WAY AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT INTREPID IS ACTUALLY DOING
Do you need more than this for your Ranger to realize their full potential? This Archetype seems most likely to give some of those who don't know which secondary they want, some trouble to theorycraft, but given the correlations I'm seeing, I have faith that it can all be done, 100%.
Disclaimer: While I am no Ranger, and none of my friends/group with actual intentions to play the game are Rangers, there's likely to be some bias in the schema, because in the Tabletop game I help design, Rangers have an ability 'Poisonmaking' which makes them have the option of being debuffers. Unfortunately this also seems to heavily fit both the overall flow of the Archetype and the wishes of some players. Therefore, please assume some unavoidable bias within the schema.
Things that Ranger-interested people wanted, with some sorta sort:
1. Three Scouts (also willing to be Predators, of whom three wanted damage spikes and one wanted stealth), two wanted espionage, tactics, and stealth to help with unnerving enemies, another wanted to explore, another wanted a crossbow, and considered Falconer if that class could summon, one other ( @bot ) had more to say, some of which is in schema, one other wanted this class
2. One Bowsinger wanted debuffs that their allies could benefit from, or just to sing and shoot
3. One Sentinel wanted a long cast high damage opener and lots of CC (data taken from Combat Desires Compilation), two other wanted this class (one was considering Soulbow)
4. Two Scions (one also considering Spellhunter) wanted to have mobility and utility as a magic archer, six others wanted elemental crits/effects (even specifically some debuff), another wanted to sustain CC on targets, another wanted a 'super long range artillery caster', five others wanted this class (one of these wasn't actually explicit about this choice)
5. One Falconer (also considering Beastmaster) wanted to use it for their solo/gatherer playtime, another was curious about bird's eye view from their flying summon, another wanted two modes for their falcon, (autonomous attacker and closer range combo support), six others wanted this class
6. One Soulbow wanted AoE healing arrows and traps that would heal allies and hurt enemies, two others wanted to heal allies when dealing damage to enemies, four others wanted this class
7. One Strider ( @Arkson ) had more to say, some added to schema, another similarly (had mentions for Falconer as well), a third wanted to ensure that they could effectively use heavy armor, two others wanted this class
8. One Hawkeye wanted to snipe people in PvP, another wanted high damage and long-draw bow shots, another wanted to double down on tracking, mobility, and special enemy knowledge, four others wanted this class (two of which were considering Predator)
9. Two undecided just wanted to be elven archers shooting people, another four wanted sustained damage and mobility, (one of these probably to NOT be a Falconer), another wanted to 'play using FPS mechanics in an MMO', two others wanted 'Druid', and another (probably Soulbow or Hawkeye) wanted utility skills, another wanted to hunt PK-ers and use paralysis, etc, three more just wanted to fight from long range, two were going to choose secondary based on Augments, and one other Holy Avenger Celestial Ranger wanted... a lot of things
2. One Bowsinger wanted debuffs that their allies could benefit from, or just to sing and shoot
3. One Sentinel wanted a long cast high damage opener and lots of CC (data taken from Combat Desires Compilation), two other wanted this class (one was considering Soulbow)
4. Two Scions (one also considering Spellhunter) wanted to have mobility and utility as a magic archer, six others wanted elemental crits/effects (even specifically some debuff), another wanted to sustain CC on targets, another wanted a 'super long range artillery caster', five others wanted this class (one of these wasn't actually explicit about this choice)
5. One Falconer (also considering Beastmaster) wanted to use it for their solo/gatherer playtime, another was curious about bird's eye view from their flying summon, another wanted two modes for their falcon, (autonomous attacker and closer range combo support), six others wanted this class
6. One Soulbow wanted AoE healing arrows and traps that would heal allies and hurt enemies, two others wanted to heal allies when dealing damage to enemies, four others wanted this class
7. One Strider ( @Arkson ) had more to say, some added to schema, another similarly (had mentions for Falconer as well), a third wanted to ensure that they could effectively use heavy armor, two others wanted this class
8. One Hawkeye wanted to snipe people in PvP, another wanted high damage and long-draw bow shots, another wanted to double down on tracking, mobility, and special enemy knowledge, four others wanted this class (two of which were considering Predator)
9. Two undecided just wanted to be elven archers shooting people, another four wanted sustained damage and mobility, (one of these probably to NOT be a Falconer), another wanted to 'play using FPS mechanics in an MMO', two others wanted 'Druid', and another (probably Soulbow or Hawkeye) wanted utility skills, another wanted to hunt PK-ers and use paralysis, etc, three more just wanted to fight from long range, two were going to choose secondary based on Augments, and one other Holy Avenger Celestial Ranger wanted... a lot of things
With the Rangers we are back to a class that is defined more heavily by their Augments, and need many abilities to put them on, similar to the Rogues. And again, a class that has, and needs, a wide variety of skills. Despite this, they generally have clear wishes, and after some thinking, I realized what the schema needed. Fortunately, at least some of what is required was already somewhat available in Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse, so I don't doubt Intrepid can work it in.
So, the schema for abilities didn't end up being complicated, there's just one specific requirement at the start...
The first and foremost thing Rangers need is the ability to charge up the shot on almost every skill while in Action Mode. This would improve damage, increase CC durations, etc, but also prevent the class from having overwhelming DPS or attack speed to the point of imbalance. From there, a general trend of 'higher ranks in this skill improve damage and the damage multiplier from charging (not the CC one, to avoid a balance nightmare) would probably suffice. This would get most of the worries of 'Action Mode' stuff out of the way, and technically would be implementable even if the game went back to Tab Target only. This frees up the higher ranks of skills for other improvements.
Rangers are somewhat split between 'damage' and 'CC sustain' but with a general bias toward mobility. With the 'charge shot' added to everything, mobility becomes a skill based tradeoff that the player can make in the moment instead of a build issue, and improves the solo PvE experience.
Beyond that, it's just a matter of making a pile of abilities for people to put their Augments on. Since the other part of bias is already in, some of these terms will be lifted directly from the Tabletop I work on, they're not exactly 'copyrightable' given their simplicity, you probably won't even notice them.
Sniper Shot just deals big damage, and has some modifier based on an optimal distance, Power Shot is a bit 'opposite' relative to distance and gets a bigger multiplier when you charge it
Snare is a trap set outright, to root the enemy, whereas Shadow Pin is a shot that does this
Crippling Shot affects Evasion and/or mobility, probably wouldn't have two separate for these, but could, with another potential similar ability for lowering attack speed
Blinding Shot, Paralytic Shot, Bleeding Shot, Sleep Shot are practically assured
Camouflage of some kind was implied to be important, even if it wasn't full stealth
Rain of Arrows fits the AoE requirement of certain Soulbows, but this would be harder to get just right with an augment (not impossible, probably 'allies in AoE are healed based on damage done to enemies in AoE')
Knock(back) Shot might be good too.
Flurry, a multishot on a target, can be balanced by having it as a ground target AoE where all the shots go off, but each prioritizes some enemy that has not yet been shot, making it a single target ability that can be avoided in PvP but strong in PvE.
Prepared Stance, the ability to put oneself in a position with your arrows 'laid out already' or similar, to raise attack speed as long as one is within it
Various methods for 'marking' an opponent for additional damage, to round it out
Rangers are somewhat split between 'damage' and 'CC sustain' but with a general bias toward mobility. With the 'charge shot' added to everything, mobility becomes a skill based tradeoff that the player can make in the moment instead of a build issue, and improves the solo PvE experience.
Beyond that, it's just a matter of making a pile of abilities for people to put their Augments on. Since the other part of bias is already in, some of these terms will be lifted directly from the Tabletop I work on, they're not exactly 'copyrightable' given their simplicity, you probably won't even notice them.
Sniper Shot just deals big damage, and has some modifier based on an optimal distance, Power Shot is a bit 'opposite' relative to distance and gets a bigger multiplier when you charge it
Snare is a trap set outright, to root the enemy, whereas Shadow Pin is a shot that does this
Crippling Shot affects Evasion and/or mobility, probably wouldn't have two separate for these, but could, with another potential similar ability for lowering attack speed
Blinding Shot, Paralytic Shot, Bleeding Shot, Sleep Shot are practically assured
Camouflage of some kind was implied to be important, even if it wasn't full stealth
Rain of Arrows fits the AoE requirement of certain Soulbows, but this would be harder to get just right with an augment (not impossible, probably 'allies in AoE are healed based on damage done to enemies in AoE')
Knock(back) Shot might be good too.
Flurry, a multishot on a target, can be balanced by having it as a ground target AoE where all the shots go off, but each prioritizes some enemy that has not yet been shot, making it a single target ability that can be avoided in PvP but strong in PvE.
Prepared Stance, the ability to put oneself in a position with your arrows 'laid out already' or similar, to raise attack speed as long as one is within it
Various methods for 'marking' an opponent for additional damage, to round it out
Scions mostly need 'enough different shots to put any number of elements on them' but this assumes that my expectation for Intrepid's plans on Mage Augments is correct. In general, actually, most things desired fit in well enough with just 'lots of different ability shots and well defined Augments'. Even the 'Holy Avenger Celestial Ranger' has problems moreso rooted in not being able to get as many options at once as they need, than that they asked for things that would not be available anywhere. Falconers could just put a specific Summoning Augment on everything to keep their Falcon active (or visible, whichever). You can see this sort of thing easily in their Trends.
Noting that some of the Scouts might have reversed the class combination 'direction' (and really wanted Predator, some of these were explicitly thrown into the 'also willing to be Predators' section, but not all), but there's no way to tell with certainty that they were confused by it. Scions either wanted elemental arrows or just 'long range attacks'. Falconers generally explicitly wanted to have the Falcon, and the Soulbows (that noted specific desires) all wanted to heal, of course. The Striders generally had specifics in mind, whereas the Hawkeyes did not. Low counts of Sentinels and Bowsingers means there are no 'trends' to speak of.
As always, I offer my concept of the Reverse Engineered Augments List (halfway down the first page, in a quote). It does a better job than I expected based on the desires of players, but that could also be simply that the names are thematically appropriate and line up well, reinforcing Intrepid's design. If nothing else, it's a good indicator that even those who don't do too much research beforehand are likely to end up choosing the secondary Archetype they need.
But regardless of saying all that, since the Reverse Engineered Augments are still my speculation, please bear in mind that...
THIS POST IS IN NO WAY AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT INTREPID IS ACTUALLY DOING
Do you need more than this for your Ranger to realize their full potential? This Archetype seems most likely to give some of those who don't know which secondary they want, some trouble to theorycraft, but given the correlations I'm seeing, I have faith that it can all be done, 100%.
♪ One Gummy Fish, two Gummy Fish, Red Gummy Fish, Blue Gummy Fish ♪
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