jarvs

Hopefully the changes coming up will allow melee rangers to use WS because without it, there`s no point in playing a melee ranger or picking the subclass. Also with the lack of talents right now there`s no other options to customize the ranger, but that`s a whole other thread on its own. It`s a shame that rangers only rely on Mark and WS to do any damage when there could be more done to diversify the class. Like i said earlier in the thread, if they nerf WS, the class wont have anything to back it up besides the pet which on its own is not interesting.

Oh, no, it's *great* at dealing damage. That's not a problem. But it deals damage via clicking two buttons (marked prey, wounding shot), setting your pet to attack, and just sitting there doing nothing. It's boring as hell, at least to me. Yeah I guess it comes down to personal preference, I to hate how the ranger plays right now and in Poe1, I cant see how people like the low maintenance characters.

I don`t think anyone is questioning the rangers ability at dealing damage because like you said its really good, the problem for me is what the Stalker is meant to do.

In my opinion Rangers should automatically have heal pet when they start out. it could be easily be replaced with something to spruce the class in general. Instead of relying on sub-classing.

I like this thought process, I don`t get why they don`t add in any short of trap builds. I`m not denying that rangers suck at damage they`re actual pretty good at it. The idea of working with your pet besides Stalker`s Link seems like a great idea but it sounds hard to implement. Also the idea of having multiple shots would be great instead of aiming for who has mark and auto shooting people to death.

Ya you`re right I was very tired when I made that post, Its a pretty large damage increase so it an offensive ability. The main point is that Rangers in general need more to them and make sure they can use it with melee. They need to make them more interesting and to make sure the sub-classes make sense, we have the Sharp Shooter who focused on the ranged weapons while Ghost Heart which in my opinion should be the sub-class that focuses on the pet then the stalker at the moment is really nothing.

I think is should be labeled as utility/survivability not as offensive like the Roll, not to mention I would ever take it considering that it costs three Bond and could be better spent else where. As for Marked Prey I consider it a support ability were its supposed to be comboed with and spell such as Sworn enemy and Flames of Devotion.

So...melee rangers are designed around being super boring? Yes. They are effective, yet boring. They would be a lot less boring if they'd let all their abilities be used with melee attacks. Yeah probably the worst fate in any RPG, when the your favourite class is good at what it does but is boring as hell. Rogues are allowed to use there abilites with ranged weapons so I think they`re going to change it like it was in PoE1

If they allowed Rangers to use the ranged attacks as melee I think it would help out with the issue.

A good point but what would be the purpose of having the Stalker sub-class in the first place? They could have a meleed focused ranger and nerf ranged damage or something on those lines if not you could make it the sub-class that is more oriented to the pet but most people are looking for a melee ranger with a pet or without the pet.

I definitely want a ranger class without pet-- always have. Ranger as a class in BG was interesting. Ranger as in Aragorn/Drizzt (yeah, he has the panther), is interesting. just give me a quick moving striker that flow from ranged to melee, and can function as a tank when required (channels the soul of it's dead bear pet, or something). Let wizards be the pet-master. A great subclass would be a wizard who has reduced spells, but gets to build and customize an Animat, and empowers it through a fight while casting a limited selection of skills when it can. That`s were I feel that new talent Evasive Roll would synergize amazing well with the Stalker sub-class. If the Stalker is in trouble just roll out and start shooting things up, I feel the stalker shouldn't have a pet and be a bit more tanky like you said.

If that were the case people are going to be disappointed because they still need to deal with a pet which has to be summoned or they face the penalty.

exactly what I was thinking, I feel that something is missing from all the sub-classes so they just made a basic template for all of them. Josh said there will be an update soon so here's hoping change will happen. My concern is what to add for Ghost Heart and Stalker, for GH should it just be buffing your pet so its extra tanky or a big damge dealer with abilities? For stalker I`m hoping there`s going to be melee abilities not just a poor mans SS.

When I saw Stalker as a sub class that what I was thinking but with a pet. I got so excited when I saw it but based on what i`ve seen in the beta it has to relation unless they patch abilities in.

The issue with stalker is exactly that it is only useful if multiclassed at the moment. Most all the issues with Ranger is if you play it single classed your basically a sharpshooter no matter which sub you pick or if generic.. This is the issue and it needs to be fixed, Josh even said that wounding shot might be to good and might be nerfed. If wounding shot were to be nerfed what will rangers even have? There needs to be more abilities to add flavor instead of relying on WS.