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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
How should ranger feel in Ashes of Creation?
Thrakedons
Member, Alpha Two
A friend of mine was reviewing my previous post and mentioned that I should give feedback on what ranger should feel like. These are the traits and feelings I think the ranger player should have when playing ranger. As always, my own personal feedback and I understand that everyone will have different feelings on this. The ranger currently feels like it lacks identity and doesn't feel like it inspires the player or makes you feel like you have an ace up your sleeve.
Ranger should have that feeling of saving their marks for an individual and when they do finally plant it on a target, they can unleash absolute hell on that target from half a mile away. (I exagerate as I'm trying to describe the feeling that ranger should have, not addressing balance as I'm not a dev.) If they fail, they should have an option or two to survive until mark comes back around for them to debuff the enemy or buff their damage on their opponent to unleash another waive of hell. Ranger should be that hawk like character looking for that target to place a mark on, that individual that wonders too far into their long range that they can't outrun the consequences in a second. And when they lose their target in a crowd, they can fire aoes, piercing shot or thundering shot, that do extra damage to their marked target and others if they hit their marked target in the crowd. Maybe even explosive arrows have a larger radius and more damage to others if they hit the marked target. Maybe a imbue fire arrows ability now explodes on impact when hitting the marked targets. (please intrepid, make marks impactful, defining, and diverse to create different ranger builds. Cleansing debuff build, hellish damage build, regen build etc.)
I want to laugh maniacally as they panic seeing the mark and try to get out of my range only to realize that its longer than theirs. When they see a mark on their name they should have that feeling of "oh help". Every hit on that marked character should feel stronger.
I want the ranger to have that feeling of long-range superiority (or at least the option to spec into it.). I want to have the feeling of actually hunting the person, of making them choose to face the hunter or try to get out of their longer range for some breathing space. In the same way dnd gives rangers hunters mark and you feel like that individual is now your natural prey, that's what I'd like to feel in ashes. Give us that feeling of drawing back heavily on that bow and realeasing heavy arrow after heavy arrow after our target.
If you guys have thoughts on what ranger should feel like, please list it below. These are just my wishes on how I want it to feel. Cheers!
Ranger should have that feeling of saving their marks for an individual and when they do finally plant it on a target, they can unleash absolute hell on that target from half a mile away. (I exagerate as I'm trying to describe the feeling that ranger should have, not addressing balance as I'm not a dev.) If they fail, they should have an option or two to survive until mark comes back around for them to debuff the enemy or buff their damage on their opponent to unleash another waive of hell. Ranger should be that hawk like character looking for that target to place a mark on, that individual that wonders too far into their long range that they can't outrun the consequences in a second. And when they lose their target in a crowd, they can fire aoes, piercing shot or thundering shot, that do extra damage to their marked target and others if they hit their marked target in the crowd. Maybe even explosive arrows have a larger radius and more damage to others if they hit the marked target. Maybe a imbue fire arrows ability now explodes on impact when hitting the marked targets. (please intrepid, make marks impactful, defining, and diverse to create different ranger builds. Cleansing debuff build, hellish damage build, regen build etc.)
I want to laugh maniacally as they panic seeing the mark and try to get out of my range only to realize that its longer than theirs. When they see a mark on their name they should have that feeling of "oh help". Every hit on that marked character should feel stronger.
I want the ranger to have that feeling of long-range superiority (or at least the option to spec into it.). I want to have the feeling of actually hunting the person, of making them choose to face the hunter or try to get out of their longer range for some breathing space. In the same way dnd gives rangers hunters mark and you feel like that individual is now your natural prey, that's what I'd like to feel in ashes. Give us that feeling of drawing back heavily on that bow and realeasing heavy arrow after heavy arrow after our target.
If you guys have thoughts on what ranger should feel like, please list it below. These are just my wishes on how I want it to feel. Cheers!
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Comments
Marks feel very underwhelming, yet I appreciate them in the sense that they can be used to coordinate burst of the entire group (such as firestarter bandits, clerics in PvP etc) - but the rest of the "death from afar" and hunter theme that Steven has for the ranger (according to the wiki) feels missing. Some kind of Focus resource, reset on marks if the target dies with it and/or some synergy between hunts and marks other than hunts being passive stances would go a long way!
The problem I see right now is that with rangers currently having the class fantasy of an apex predator, we're leaning in very closely to rogue's "ambush, assassination and vanish"-fantasy. The only difference between the two right now (judging by the abilities on the wiki) is that one of them is melee and one is ranged, in my opinion. Both rely on being unseen, using the element of surprise, high mobility, ammo/poisons, silence/interrupts/dazes and high burst at the cost of low survivability.
I am endlessly curious to see how Intrepid plan on separating the two, when rogue arrives. Or if we'll end up just having nature ambusher with bow and shadow ambusher with daggers. :]