Archery and Ranged Combat

Hi all,

are there any news about Archery and how it will work? The last Discussions are already very old.
I've played a lot of MMOs and always choose a Hunter/Ranger/Archer/Sharpshooter/Marksman or what ever the class was called. But the focus was always on using a bow and arrows.
Over the years and different MMOs I've learned that Ranged Combat seems to be difficult in terms of Gameplay and Combat mechanics. If you play Solo and are not able to keep your enemies at distance, the Developer have to find a solution or you better can take a Melee Classes directly which performs much better in Close Combat.
So to deal with this Problem, there are different solutions out there on the Market. Some worked fine other broke the whole class.

How could AoC implement a Ranged focused Class in a MMO?
- Pets:
The Pet can be used as your Tank for taunting your enemies. The problem with a Pet is that the Player has to rely on the AI of the Pet. If the Pet is not able to find its way to the target directly, the whole combat is a mess. It is even worse if the Pet mechanic relies not only on tanking but also on damage making. In Addition not all Players want to use a Pet as a must have.
- Mobility:
The class can use most of his Skills even while moving and this grants high mobility when using Ranged Combat. This allows a smooth Gameplay. But on the down side you have always to kite your targets. This may work in large environments but in caves or Dungeons you will always pull more adds.
- Crowd Control/Support Skills:
You can slow enemies or even stun them e.g. with Traps or special area attacks. Or you can backflip or go stealthy. This could be a good Option - in my opinion the best one - to be able to keep distance to the enemies and it gives you some different situational Options at hand. In addition this could be helpful in Groups and in PvP.
- Switching to Melee:
First you bring the enemies HP down with some arrows and after the enemy reaches you, you are forced to switch to a Melee Weapon to finish the target off. This is is worst Solution in my Opinion. You not only have to skill and use close combat Skills but you also have to wear a proper Melee Weapon to be able to do constantly damage on the same level. The Gameplay is not smooth because you always have to switch Weapons.

For sure there are some more other Mechanics out there or Hybrids. Maybe all of these Mechanics will be in AoC and we can control which one we want to use by choosing the corresponding sub-classes. This would be great because you are able to catch all Play styles. But I think it is to complex to implement.

Looking forward to get some more Details in the near Future!

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Comments

mcstackerson

From what i know, all of those are options in AOC.

We have combat pets. You have slots for both melee and range weapons. You should be able to build towards mobility and/or crowd control.

It will most likely come down to how you prefer to tackle this.

Veeshan

i think everyone can get a combat pet it reduces your power in someway i beleive though i could be wrong though.
falconer probaly gets a falcon i would suspect :P

tbh you probaly get all 3 options and extra depending on ur secondary, Sentiels i suspect will get ur CC, scout will get movement or temporay stealth, you probaly get a melee/ranger hybrid with strider

CROW3

A number of us are patiently waiting for the Ranger to show itself. If I recall correctly, Ranger was the next archetype in the shop for the devs post-Alpha1.

I’m super curious as to whether bows will retain the action orientation of APOC or if they’ll downshift to tab.

Just a matter of time. 🧘

Caww

just remember... Ranger Down !!!

20 years and it just doesn't get old for me...

Deepwood

CROW3 wrote: »

I’m super curious as to whether bows will retain the action orientation of APOC or if they’ll downshift to tab.

Personally I don't like Mechanics like it is implemented in TESO which is more a kind of action oriented Combat where you have to aim and holding your Mouse Button affects your Damge Impact and Range. But I think the Combat Mechanics of AoC are in General a Topic to discuss. At the Moment it seems that they haven't decided yet in which direction they want to go.
I also hope that there isn't some kind of Ammo Mechanics implemented. As far as I can remember, each MMO that had an Ammo Mechanic implemented skipped it sooner or later because it is more a Handicap than a reasonable Gameplay Mechanic.

CROW3 wrote: »

If I recall correctly, Ranger was the next archetype in the shop for the devs post-Alpha1.

Thanks for the Information, didn't know. Would be cool to have some first Insides and Thoughts how they want to Design the Ranger Archetype.

superhero6785

Remember, they've said they will be balancing content around group play. Some classes will be better solo than others, but neither is "supposed" to play solo anyway. A group of 3 tanks will progress very slowly since they can't kill things quickly. A group of 3 glass cannons will also struggle because they lack crowd control. Any one player will have their own struggles depending on class. They are developing content to be balanced for a diverse group to encourage that classic MMO social engagement.

Dizz1

I just hope devs can find a balance between realistic and fun.

Like I personally think that ultimately Ranger should able to shoot arrows while moving(not discussing how fast should able to here), and should able to do fast shooting like hold arrows in bow hand or draw hand and shoot arrow after arrow without reach your quiver after each shot so shoot a round of arrows feels like Morse code but slower ．．．．－(．:shoot an arrow －:reach quiver to prepare next round of arrows) then shoot another round of arrows(according Ranger skill on AoC wiki I think they planned to do this I guess and I like this), and shoot trick arrows like shoot an egg with oil or pepper powder that synergies with other skill(like flame shot will ignite target hit by oil egg) or weak the target for a period of time(like hit by pepper powder egg will make target have more chance to miss attacks).

CROW3

Neverwinter I thought had a good (and intuitive) balance between active white damage (LMB) and activated skills for a non-tab target.

Deepwood

If the content is balanced around group play I would expect that each class will have its special ability to bring in some special value for the group. For example in WoW a Hunter can shoot a Flare to expose hidden Targets. Or you can use a Trap to incapacitate an enemy. In some boss fights these abilities helped the team to survive or to give them some more tactics at hand.
Remember that they said that the Ranger for example also brings some special ability like tracking rare mobs for special rewards. Or that Thieves can find hidden Treasures. That would be also cool.

SirChancelot

I completely get that each archetype should bring some utility to help the party succeed
My concern is balancing range versus melee. If you have projectile shots or even hitscan attacks that can miss compared to melee weapons with large swing arcs will that inherently put bows below melee weapons?
Will this automatically put spells that apply dots that no longer need targeting but continuously deal damage better at DPS?

I'm just curious to see how they make it even(ish)

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