For context I have played a Hunter in World of Warcraft for 15+ years. I prefer the Classic WoW iteration of Hunter, but I also enjoyed the Legion Melee Hunter and played a Hunter in Season of Discovery.
So far in AoC I have managed to get to level 19 playing almost entirely solo. I have mostly been focused on professions and completing all of the commission board missions multiple times per day. I have had a few PVP encounters, but they were mostly limited to high level players ganking me or low level players trolling me by killing my mount. I have had a handful of legitimate PVP encounters, they were all fun, but there haven't been nearly enough for my taste. Most of my experience with the combat system has been in the form of solo-PVE.
Right out of the gate I absolutely LOVE the movement abilities in this game. Traversing the world as a Ranger feels amazing. Strider and Call of the Wild let me sprint FAST and Disengaging up cliffs and over ravines literally never gets old. Jumping off a mountain and then using Disengage to take no fall damage feels slick. Air Strike + Disengage is like a double-jump. Even outside of combat these kinds of abilities feel great. I dabbled in Fighter a bit and Blitz is an equally satisfying ability to press.
I like the sprint and dodge mechanics, but I don't think I have ever used block even when I was wearing a shield. Dodge and Block need to be more responsive. The animation windows seem erratic. If I dodge at the exact same moment during an enemy attack animation, sometimes they miss and sometimes they hit me, it feels random. It feels odd that there is no stun or counterattack window for a well times block or dodge. Enemies just continue attacking like nothing happened which often makes it feel like I would be better off just standing there and attacking rather than trying to time dodges and blocks. Which brings me to my biggest frustration with combat as it exists right now. The weapon combo finisher system and the block dodge system work AGAINST each other and give the player conflicting priorities.
Dodging, Blocking, or using a movement ability SHOULD NOT reset the weapon combo counter. If I attack once, attack twice, then dodge an enemy attack, my attack sequence is reset. THIS IS WRONG!!!! My next attack after dodging should be the 3rd attack in the chain, the weapon combo finisher. This should probably be the case for certain skills as well. It feels exceedingly odd and frustrating to attack, attack, perfectly time a dodge or a block, and then have the attack chain reset. The way it is now just makes me want to stand there and get hit so I can finish my weapon attack chain. Players should be rewarded for executing well times blocks and dodges, not punished.
Ranger specific feedback;
- Hunts/Marks don't feel quite right either. Losing the passive buff when you activate the Mark feels bad and until I unlocked Siphoning Regeneration, I basically never used the active portion of any of my Hunts.
- The animation lockout after using Powershot is infuriating
- The little hitch at the end of Disengage is annoying. If I disengage off of terrain, let me get the extra distance, don't slam my character into a brick wall. This is especially annoying when fighting mobs because it gives you just a little less distance than you want. Even with the slow, mobs are right back on you practically the second you land.
- The delay when casting Air Strike is terrible. It takes like half a second before your character moves and then you hang in the air for an eternity before you start shooting. It makes it VERY hard to use in combat.
- Disengage and Airstrike should count as dodges if you time them correctly during an enemy attack animation. It feels odd to time a kickflip perfectly and then get hit by the cleave you just dodged even though you are 30ft away.
- I would love for Ranger to have ONE melee ability so that when an enemy closes on me I can press the melee ability and immediately switch from Ranged attacks to Melee attacks. Manually switching from bow to melee weapon and back again is awkward.
- Cast at cursor functionality? Does it exist? If not I need it for bear trap and vine field. Both of those abilities feel great by the way Vine Field especially feels completely unique and powerful Ranger exclusive.
- Snipe, Headshot, Lightning Reload, Thundering Shot, Salvo, all feels great 10/10.
- Focus seems a little undercooked. Powershot is your only tool for building and nothing else directly interacts with it outside of attacking to build more, but as previously mentioned its hard to get 3 attack sequences off and dodge enemy attacks at the same time.
