Greetings, glorious testers!
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
About ranger and bow balance
Snekkers
Member, Alpha Two
Hi, during current stage of alpha 2 i played only ranger and managed to get to level 22 and get into some pvp fights. The class itself feels good in combat and i like the overall kit, but there are parts that feel.. underwhealming.
Ranger abilities don’t seem to combo together well. The only noticeable synergy is that attack speed from Snipe boosts Barrage damage. The class mechanic (Marks/Hunts) feels pretty shallow. Hunts are like boring Warrior stances but without the momentum, and Marks are just flat damage buffs against marked targets. They’re not terrible, just not great as the defining class feature.
Ranger’s single-target damage is too low compared to Mage. Mages are supposed to be the kings of AoE, which is fine, but their AoE spells are doing as much (or more) single-target damage as Ranger’s single-target abilities. It makes playing Ranger feel pretty underwhelming.
One of the problematic abilities is snipe, it has long cooldown and high mana cost, it also require 3.5s cast time, and its damage, even though its big, doesn't seem like enough compensation in comparasion to other abilities of ranger or other classes. Mage fireball have half the cooldown, have the mana cost, no cast time and deals more damage if we include burn. I know that you can't just buff snipe damage without making this ability overpowered, and i like the idea of the ability in itself. I think the solution will be to nerf the damage/buff the survivability in PvP, so there is more room to have those high damage abilities, then you can increase snipe damage without hitting a threshold of enemies dying to one snipe.
But that being said, even if ranger is dealing more single target damage than mage overall, the different is not significant enough to compensate for mage ability to wreck the whole group of ppl at once.
From positives I'm a big fan of dynamic between selecting correct mark and correct ammo, all options provide good benefits and its not obvious which one should be used. Like I said, i don't think marks are bad, i just think its too shallow and basic for core class mechanic.
Range Difference: The range difference between the two bows is just 5m, which doesn’t feel meaningful in actual gameplay. It would be nice to see more distinct ranges, like short bow having around 20-25m and longbow having 40-45m.
Role Distinction: Short bow could be designed as a high DPS, close-range weapon for skirmishing, while longbow could serve as a long-range, slow but heavy-hitting option. This would help solidify their individual roles in combat.
Impact on Ranger Spells: It would be interesting if the attack speed and range of the bows influenced the cooldown and range of Ranger spells. For example, using a short bow could result in lower cooldowns but reduced range and damage on spells, while a longbow could have longer cooldowns but increased spell range and damage.
Mismatch Between Basic Attack and Spell Range: It feels awkward that the basic attack range of the bows is different from the range of Ranger spells. If both bows share the same spell range, the difference in their basic attack range becomes less relevant.
Distance-Based Damage: I heard an interesting suggestion that longbow damage (both basic attacks and possibly abilities) could scale with distance, rewarding players for maintaining maximum range for higher performance. This would add a skill element to using the longbow effectively.
Archtype
I’m not the biggest fan of Barrage being the main ability, but I can live with it.Ranger abilities don’t seem to combo together well. The only noticeable synergy is that attack speed from Snipe boosts Barrage damage. The class mechanic (Marks/Hunts) feels pretty shallow. Hunts are like boring Warrior stances but without the momentum, and Marks are just flat damage buffs against marked targets. They’re not terrible, just not great as the defining class feature.
Ranger’s single-target damage is too low compared to Mage. Mages are supposed to be the kings of AoE, which is fine, but their AoE spells are doing as much (or more) single-target damage as Ranger’s single-target abilities. It makes playing Ranger feel pretty underwhelming.
One of the problematic abilities is snipe, it has long cooldown and high mana cost, it also require 3.5s cast time, and its damage, even though its big, doesn't seem like enough compensation in comparasion to other abilities of ranger or other classes. Mage fireball have half the cooldown, have the mana cost, no cast time and deals more damage if we include burn. I know that you can't just buff snipe damage without making this ability overpowered, and i like the idea of the ability in itself. I think the solution will be to nerf the damage/buff the survivability in PvP, so there is more room to have those high damage abilities, then you can increase snipe damage without hitting a threshold of enemies dying to one snipe.
But that being said, even if ranger is dealing more single target damage than mage overall, the different is not significant enough to compensate for mage ability to wreck the whole group of ppl at once.
From positives I'm a big fan of dynamic between selecting correct mark and correct ammo, all options provide good benefits and its not obvious which one should be used. Like I said, i don't think marks are bad, i just think its too shallow and basic for core class mechanic.
Longbow vs Shortbow
Attack Speed vs. Damage: The current dynamic between longbow and short bow feels off. Longbow has a lower attack speed but is supposed to deal higher damage. However, in practice, the higher damage isn’t impactful enough to justify the slower attack speed.Range Difference: The range difference between the two bows is just 5m, which doesn’t feel meaningful in actual gameplay. It would be nice to see more distinct ranges, like short bow having around 20-25m and longbow having 40-45m.
Role Distinction: Short bow could be designed as a high DPS, close-range weapon for skirmishing, while longbow could serve as a long-range, slow but heavy-hitting option. This would help solidify their individual roles in combat.
Impact on Ranger Spells: It would be interesting if the attack speed and range of the bows influenced the cooldown and range of Ranger spells. For example, using a short bow could result in lower cooldowns but reduced range and damage on spells, while a longbow could have longer cooldowns but increased spell range and damage.
Mismatch Between Basic Attack and Spell Range: It feels awkward that the basic attack range of the bows is different from the range of Ranger spells. If both bows share the same spell range, the difference in their basic attack range becomes less relevant.
Distance-Based Damage: I heard an interesting suggestion that longbow damage (both basic attacks and possibly abilities) could scale with distance, rewarding players for maintaining maximum range for higher performance. This would add a skill element to using the longbow effectively.
2