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Ranger Feedback - Update Idea

I think most of the community agrees that the Ranger's main issues are the following:

- Lack of class fantasy.
- Lack of range advantage over other classes (related to the above)
- Better mobility
- Lack of defensive abilities
- Slow cast times
- Greater differences between longbow and shortbow use
- Lack of melee abilities.

Rather than providing similar feedback, I've been updating the class for a while to try to address some of the issues most frequently requested by the community.

First, there are the skill changes, and then I'll discuss the reasons for the changes.



SKILLS BASE:

The range of all abilities has become relative to the range of the equipped secondary weapon. Some abilities have cast distance modifiers. [To clarify: If a skill's range is not mentioned, its range will be that of the equipped secondary weapon.]

The mana cost of all abilities should be reduced to 50%.

- Hunt of the Raven ---> Rework:
- Hunt pasive buffs keep the same (When you throw the mark you lose the hunt temporarily).
- Appeased Spirits buffs ---> To earn the buff you need to perform a weapon finisher on the marked enemy. You can obtain it again by performing additional weapon finishers during the duration of the mark.
- The hunts will be separated in 3 groups (Like other multi-select skills from other classes):

+ Agresive (Bird)
- Raven -> 10% Accuracy (Pasive) / -25% Evasion (Debuf) / 20% Accuracy (Temporal buff)
- Eagle -> 10% Critical Chance / -25% Critical Avoidance / 20% Critical Chance
- Falcon -> 10% Penetration / -15% Mitigation / 20% Penetration

+ Defensive (Bear)
- Grizzly -> 5% Mitigation/ -25% Physical Attack Speed / 10% Mitigation
- Polar -> 10% Critical Avoidance/ -20% Critical Chance / 20% Critical Avoidance
- Panda -> 5% Evasion/ -25% Accuracy / 10% Evasion

+ Movility (Feline)
- Tiger -> 10% Resistance to Movenment speed reduction / -20% Resistance to Movement speed Reduction / 20% Resistance to Movenment speed reduction (The Movement Resistance speed reduction also applies to self-slowing abilities when cast).
- Lion -> 5% Stamina regeneration / -10% Stamina regeneration / 15% Stamina regeneration.
- Cougar -> 25% Dodge distance/ -25% Dodge distance / 40% Dodge distance.

- Mark Prey [Range increase +5m relative of the equipped secondary weapon] ---> Improved: Rewritten to update previous changes.

- Salvo ---> Improved: Apply one stack of the Enchance Armament per arrow instead just the first.

- Focus ---> No Changes.

- LvL3 Camouflage ---> No Changes: Just fix bugs and improve reliability.

- LvL6 Thorns ---> Improved: Damage Increase (at least scaling). Aditionally when hit by critical hit consume 1 stack of bledding and that target become Hemorraging.

- LvL8 Strider ---> Improved: Additionally provides 10% increased movement speed that decreases over 10 seconds and reduces the cooldown to 30 seconds (But it can only be thrown at one target at a time.).

- LvL10 Regeneration ---> Replace with: Campfire (channeling skill). Can only be used outside of combat. Provides health and mana regeneration to all allies around the Campfire. [Upgrade: could provide faster regeneration or stats boosts.]


TIER 1:

- Scatter Shot [Range decrease -10m relative of the equipped secondary weapon] ---> No Changes: Just improved functionality on rough terrain.

- Disengage ---> No Changes: Just bug fixes.

- Headshot ---> No Changes.

- Enhance Armament: Weight ---> Improved: Snared and Chilled not share immunity.

- Power Shot [Range increase +5m relative of the equipped secondary weapon] ---> No Changes.

- [NEW] Unbalancing Impact (Melee): Hit the leg of your enemy, dealing (100%) physical damage and become Snared. If the target was Snared, become Off Balance (Cannot move or rotate for 2s).


TIER 2:

- Enhance Armament: Barbs ---> No Changes.

- Barrage ---> Improved: If your secondary weapon its a shortbow, while casting this ability perform a 15m dash in you imput direccion. If your secondary weapon is a longbow, increase the damage multiplier by (5%).

- Hunt of the Tiger ---> Reworked: Moved to Tier 3 [Check the Hunt of the Raven ability for changes].

- Snipe [Range increase +5m relative of the equipped secondary weapon] ---> No Changes.

- Bear Trap ---> No Changes.

- Vine Field ---> Nerfed: Now dont root in the first hit, instead enemies in the field acquire 1 stack of Snared per second (Like the old upgrade). The bleed and hemorrhage portion remains unchanged. The new upgrade provides: When a enemy in the field receives 3 or more stacks of Snared become Rooted and all Snared stacks are removed.

- Lightning Reload ---> No Changes.

- Thundering Shot ---> Improved: Base cast time adjusted to (0.8 - 1.2s).

- [NEW] Blow to the Liver (Melee): Hit the liver of your target dealing (125%) physical damage and apply Weakened for 3s.


TIER 3:

- Enhance Armament: Concussion ---> No Changes.

- Party Stride ---> Improved: Additionally provides 10% increased movement speed that decreases over 10 seconds.

- Hunt of the Bear ---> Reworked: Moved to Tier 2 [Check the Hunt of the Raven ability for changes].

- Call of the Wild ---> No Changes.

- Raining Death [Range decrease -5m relative of the equipped secondary weapon] ---> Improved: Add one more volley for a total of 3.

- Air Strike ---> Improved: Adds an extra projectile that allows you to travel further and increases the area of the projectiles by 25%.

- [New] Explosive Shot (Cast time 0,8s - Cooldown 45s): Fires a shot what explodes on contact dealing (200%) physical damage to the target. If the target are Burning, apply Conflagrating. Both upgrades are exclusive, you can only choose one.
- Upgrade 1 - Heavy Load: The explosive trigger a second time (1s) dealing (75%) physical damage extra. If the target its Weakened also applies Deafened for 2s.
- Upgrade 2 - Fragmentation explosive: The arrow now explodes in a area arround the target dealing (50%) physical damage to every enemy target in a 15m area around the main target. It also applies a stack of your Enhanced Armament to enemies in the impact area.



Explanations (I'm only going to write about the relevant changes):


SKILLS BASE:

The range of all abilities has become relative to the range of the equipped secondary weapon. This allows for a better differentiation of range between the longbow and shortbow, avoiding unpleasant situations where you had auto-attack range but not skill range, and vice versa. Some abilities have range modifiers, primarily static abilities (increasing their range) and area-based abilities (reducing their range).

The mana cost of all abilities should be reduced to 50%. Currently, the Ranger's ability intensive use time is about 2/2:30 minutes. This seems extremely limited to me (which is only slightly reduced in other classes), as it forces us to use Refreshing Followthrough on our weapon if we want to extend our battles even slightly. While the Bard, with his Pensive Melody song, provides mana regeneration, it's not enough. I think DPS should at least be able to use their abilities without outside help for 5 minutes, both to allow for longer fights and to reduce downtime between moob pulls.


- Hunt of the Raven ---> Rework: The latest changes improved the situation with Hunts and Marks, but they weren't enough. Waiting for the marked target to die or for the debuff to expire isn't adequate. Allowing the buff upgrade to be obtained through weapon finishers gives the player control and incentivizes the use of one of the game's signature mechanics. This also allows the buff upgrade to be available more time if the player correctly times their weapon finishers, allowing for greater skill expression.

Currently, the three available hunts are offensive, meaning the player only selects one that fits their build and forgets about the rest. In my approach, this allows the player to select (if they wish to spend all three skill points) hunts for different combat situations, allowing them to have an offensive, defensive, or mobility. The player is still limited to one mark every 30 seconds, making the decision important, but at the same time they can change hunts at any time and receive the "minor" buff.


- LvL6 Thorns ---> Improved: Currently, Thorns aren't particularly relevant, especially at higher levels. Improving their scaling and adding the ability to apply Hemorraging upon critical strikes makes them a more useful tool for bleed-based builds and as a way to partially discourage enemies from focusing the ally receiving the Thorns.

- LvL8 Strider ---> Improved: It's a useful ability right now, but it's something you can cast and forget. I think adding a temporary additional speed buff upon casting allows for more interesting uses of the ability in combat, whether on yourself or on an ally to try to escape from a bad position. Additionally, the cooldown has been reduced to 35 seconds to allow for this new use, but at the same time, it's limited to only one player having the buff at a time.

- LvL10 Regeneration ---> Replace with: Campfire (channeling skill). The regeneration ability has minimal impact and doesn't seem to fit the class fantasy. But at the same time, the fantasy of a Ranger is that of someone with great resilience and survival skills in the wild. With this ability, I think both needs are met. It provides sustain between pulls and a fun roleplaying experience for the Ranger around the campfire for their class fantasy.


TIER 1:

- Scatter Shot ---> No Changes: The range adjustment is made to be similar to the current range with the short bow and 5m greater with the long bow.

- Enhance Armament: Weight ---> Improved: Snared and Chilled sharing immunity is a big problem. Chill is a very important debuff for the mage rotation, so if a Ranger (or another class) uses immunity on Snared, you'll have all the mages and the party leader angry at that person.

- Power Shot ---> No Changes. The range has been adjusted to be the same as the current one with the shortbow (35m) and (40m) with the longbow. Single-target and long-cast abilities have a greater range than the other abilities to compensate for the disadvantage of being immobile (or slow-hit) for a long time.

- [NEW] Unbalancing Impact (Melee) (20s colddown): This new melee ability provides Rangers with a new tool when the enemy is on top of them. Previously, Vine Field was used for this, but it's no longer possible because its new mechanic requires prior setup. Making it impossible for the enemy to rotate is very useful for shortbow users, as they can attack from behind the enemy.

TIER 2:

- Barrage ---> Improved: This ability had been left in an awkward position after the mini-rework. It now allows for more diverse uses across bow types. Shortbow users have a damage-dealing ability that allows them to reposition themselves on the battlefield. Longbow users have a higher-damage, but more static, ability.

- Hunt of the Tiger ---> Reworked (Check Hunt of the Raven). In this case, this group of Hunts is moved to Tier 3, since the mobility bonus seems to me to be the most powerful buffs.

- Snipe ---> No Changes. The range has been adjusted to be the same as the current one with the shortbow (35m) and (40m) with the longbow. Single-target and long-cast abilities have a greater range than the other abilities to compensate for the disadvantage of being immobile (or slow-hit) for a long time. While it's a skill that grounds you and is extremely slow to cast, the extra range should make it more comfortable to use (especially for longbow users).

- Vine Field ---> Nerfed: This may be one of the most controversial changes. It's currently the Ranger's best ability, and there are both positive and negative aspects to this one. I think to make the class more interesting, it's necessary to give it more power in other abilities and reduce it in this one. The functionality really remains very similar, the main difference being that you'll now need to apply 3 (or more) stacks of Snared for Vine Field to root (if you've unlocked the upgrade) when cast on an enemy. If the enemy doesn't have the charges and stays in the area long enough, they'll also end up rooted.

- Thundering Shot ---> Improved: I think the arrow's slow flight time to target is fine as it allows for some counterplay. But that already slows down the skill enough to make it a slow cast on top of that. So by reducing the cast time a bit, the Ranger has access to another fast-casting skill in his arsenal.

- [NEW] Blow to the Liver (Melee): Enhance Armament: Concussion offers us a great tool for slowing down attacks from magical enemies, but the Ranger has nothing to slow physical attacks. This new melee ability gives us the ability to apply Weakened to an enemy and reduce the burst of damage they can inflict on us while we try to get away from them.


TIER 3:

- Raining Death ---> Improved: This ability feels disappointing (as does the entire Ranger tier 3). You see that you do similar damage as with Double ScatterShot, but with a 45-second cooldown. Increasing it to 3 volleys, I think, is a good compromise; you get more damage, but you're a few tenths of a second more grounded.

- Air Strike ---> Improved: The vertical mobility of this ability is great, but the horizontal mobility is insufficient; a jump+dodge travels a similar distance but faster. Increasing the distance by firing an additional projectile and increasing the impact area would allow for better use both for repositioning and for offensive purposes.

- [New] Explosive Shot (Cast time 0,8s): The Ranger requires a single-target ability for its tier 3. This ability provides a new, fast-casting single-target shot and interaction with other classes that apply burning. Upgrades allow you to specialize the ability to deal more damage to the target or add an AoE explosion to conflagrate more enemies.



If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

What are your thoughts on these ideas? Do you expect to see any of these changes in Alpha 3?
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