So... 1.06 was "about Paladin".
If we assume that Obsidian listens to its community, the next update could be the other class which received the most complaints... Yes, I look at you, Ranger ! In your opinion, what could be this patch ?
For me it could be quite different from what they did with Paladin : boosting its abilities.
In my opinion, many of Ranger's abilities are pretty solid and appealing : stacking accuracy abilities, stunning shots, driving flights... Some may be subpar, but any other classes has subpar abilities too. IMO, the ranger's problems are of 2 kinds :
- Its defining trait, the pet, is not that great. Sure, it has its uses. The most complaints come from the fact that it keeps dying all the time, leading to a big malus to Ranger's abilities. The problem appears especially in boss fights and harder difficulties... exactly when you would like your party members to be the most effective !
- The other problem is that Rangers do not really have a critical purpose where they would excel : rogue is better at ranged damages, the pet itself is a weak melee and a poor off-tank. The requirement to have your pet in melee simply cancel the advantage of a ranged hitter. Currently, its "2 in 1" nature makes it a passable filler for a party, but it is hard to imagine why one would use a ranger to fullfill a given role.
The solution should be about what makes ranger unique : their pets.
Pets have indeed some cool traits :
- They are infinite pools of health (something I think only melee wizard with "Infuse Vital Essence" could be ) )
- They have 2 engagements (which makes melee ranger the class with the maximum possible engagements, equalling fighters !)
Pets could work as meat shields... if only it didn't trigger sadness ! (not to mention the lost abilities like staker link)
And currently, nothing is more frustrating than loosing a pet in a fight, especially due to the rarity of resurrection powers... and no second chance for your pet )
So, what I would find really cool :
- Pet overall buff, especially at high level (classic)
- A pet resurrection ability !!!! something like 1x per encounter (with a nice buff like "Unbroken". A short duration and important buff to "revenging" pet damages would be a really cool "trap" to use.) or maybe 3x Rest (which would address the problem of boss fights.
- Suppression of the sadness malus
- Defensive Bond modification : I currently find it far too situational to be attractive (even if the idea was cool). Something like a boosted deflection and / or reflexes when the pet is close from its master would be more appealing, especially for melee ranger build.
- Applying some Passive Talents and/or abilities to both Ranger and pet : Superior deflection, Interrupting blows, Aiming skills, etc... This would remove the need to "choose" between master and pets at each level up, and would enable a better scaling for the pet. (IMO this would be cooler than an overall buff... It would be far more interesting to build )
Not sure it would really address the "ranger purpose" problem though. But I'm pretty sure a "per encounter resurrection skills" by itself would make it far less frustrating to play.
Do you have any other ideas ?
PS : And one minor thing would be cool : let pet damages be counted as Ranger damages ! Currently, it is not the case, so this "heavy hitter" damages appear to be even lower than what they actually are !
I agree that D&Dlike Ranger with a few spells like in previous IE games could have been cool. The same is also true with Paladin. But I don't think Obsidian is going to change this now. Or maybe they could make it an ability and merge it with stuff like binding roots ? The same is true for pet removal. In PoE, Rangers are probably going to be more "Beastmaster with a bow/gun" than anything else. They will not change this in a close future (maybe one day in an expansion ?). By the way, if you just want a ranged warrior, I think a Rogue dressed in green could be OK ? They even have DoT and crippling shot for the "ranger" flavour... Honnestly, I like the "Beastmaster" way they did it, because it is quite unique. I admit I love unique features more than the flavour of the "old IE ranger" without animal companion. About pet talent they would get by levelling, I think that it would be less interesting than a way to actually "build your pet" like you do for your ranger. Being able to build them as off-tank / DPS / Utility without sacrifying completely your ranger would be cool.