Poll - Strongest/ Weakest Class (1.2.0)

[no1fanboy]

Very strange that they made the wizard so strong and the priest and druid not so strong.

 

I must admit i found them both underwhelming when i played them.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Ranger is trash tier. Give him a OP AoE skill and he would be better.

 

Chanter definitly the strongest class in the game. Even better with a Paladin / Wizard multiclass.

[misterjimmy]

They only just rework ancestor's honor, most of high-level cipher abilities still trash.

[sekisko]

Ranger is trash tier. Give him a OP AoE skill and he would be better.

 

 

It's not trash, it's actually quite powerful once you get Driving Flight.  It's just too many pet skills when pets are underwhelming, and they have no reason to go single class with it.  As it is with 1.1, Hunter/Barb or Hunter/Rogue are the best dps in the game (assuming your not alchemy cheesing).

[hilfazer]

Now i'm totally sure Obs wants Wizards to be better than Druids.

[no1fanboy]

 

Ranger is trash tier. Give him a OP AoE skill and he would be better.

 

 

It's not trash, it's actually quite powerful once you get Driving Flight.  It's just too many pet skills when pets are underwhelming, and they have no reason to go single class with it.  As it is with 1.1, Hunter/Barb or Hunter/Rogue are the best dps in the game (assuming your not alchemy cheesing).

 

To say driving flight compensates for the multitude of abilities/ spells that other classes have access to is a complete abomination.

 

If you think driving flght is good go look at what a wizard, rogue, druid, priest, cipher, monk can do

[269811510]

The really stupid thing is that about 80% of the other classes are better at ranged then a ranger. They need to change a rangers name to pet master.

I really want to be pet master.But the pet just like a joke.

[draego]

I dont know, i am finding the ranger just fine. Playing veteran upscaled only. Still early. But i heard the same issues about POE1 that were untrue. Rangers could do tons of damage that went unrecorded since the game didnt record the animal damage as part of your damage. It made the ranger look weak but that was all it was, perception. Not sure ye if that is what is happening again in POE2 yet havent played enough to say. In poe1 my animal rarely if ever died. So far in pOE2 its the same, I mean my animal hasnt died once. I actually enjoy the animal. I do get its not for everyone since not everyone want to do micromanagement, but i enjoy that part. The animal is not a tank just to auto run into combat with.  I am playing stalker dual wield flanker type build. I also get that some players just want the archer gunner and not the animal. 

Edited June 30, 2018 by draego

[Purudaya]

The ranger in the PoE series is basically the beastmaster in every other rpg. I don't know why they needed to hinge the ranger on the pet/ranged offense combination; no other martial class is as restricted in what it can do.

1. Get rid of the pet. When I think of a ranger, I think of Aragorn or maybe Legolas, not Siegfried & Roy. It should be a subclass feature at best.
 

2. Create viable melee and ranged ability paths.
 

3. Augment with secondary stealth/nature abilities.

It's not that hard. I don't know why they keep insisting on a formula nobody seems to like.

[theBalthazar]

I think, there is no subclass with a highter pet. A true beast warrior. Sad.

 

Sharpshooter should be an expert of penetration. With a less complicated system. And an expert is not slower.

Edited June 30, 2018 by theBalthazar

[Parasol_Syndicate]

I feel like a decree that all classes must be underwhelming was laid down by free multiclassing. 
 

[MaxQuest]

I have never even bothered researching ranger sub-classes.

 

Just one look at there skill tree told me there was no way in hell i was ever going to roll one so i permanently mothballed them.

 

Obsdian have made the mistake of nerfing the actual ranger to compensate for the pet. I dont want a stupid pet I want a good ranger!

You do have a point here. Rangers have lots of abilities and talents tied to their animal companion.

But don't have enough of marksman stuff.

 

They get access to Wounding Shot and Gunner in the early game.

Plus Driving Flight and Twinned Shot in the late game.

 

Although I find Wounding Shot and Driving Flight amazing, do still wonder if ranger can achieve 75% of dps of monk or rogue.

Not to mention that the last two also inflict a range of various afflictions on the enemies, which additionally benefits the party.

 

---

Edit: I think adding a few forked abilities focused on ranged combat and party utility would ameliorate the situation.

Dunno, something like the following sketch ideas:

> Marksman: +5 acc with ranged weapons; with 3 mutually exclusive upgrades:

• Marskman aura: +5 acc with ranged weapons to all party members in 4m radius
• Denting shots: +5 acc with ranged weapons; consecutive ranged critical hits on the same target, lower enemy crush and pierce AR by 1 (stacks up to 5 times)
• Steady shots: +5 acc vs hobbled targets with ranged weapons; +20 acc vs immobilized, stunned or paralyzed

> Aspect modals (like fighter's stances):

• Aspect of the Viper: +25% taken and inflicted damage with raw dots from talents and weapons. Getting hit with melee weapons has 33% chance to sicken the attacker.
• Aspect of the Fox: +10 dexterity,  -30% damage coefficient
• Aspect of the Wolverine: continuously alternate two states: "Rabid" and "Apathetic". Each has a 10s fixed duration. Rabid gives +33% action speed with weapon attacks. Apathetic gives -25% action speed with weapon attacks. Can't switch the aspect while rabid and in combat.

> Which could be furthermore upgraded (like the already mentioned fighter's stances):

• Improved Aspect of the Viper: raw dots from talents and weapons also heal the ranger for 25% of damage dealt
• Improved Aspect of the Fox: evade the first weapon attack from every enemy, if not being affected by any body affliction.
• Improved Aspect of the Wolverine: critical hits while Rabid prolong Rabid duration by 1s and apply a stackable debuff on target that increases damage taken by 10% for 8s.

Edited June 30, 2018 by MaxQuest

[Takkik]

the drama about ranger is that in one side you have people who want a sharpshooter and don't want to have to deal with the pet. Even if you take ghost heart subclass the ranger tree is still full of pet stuffs that really limit interesting things to pick up.

On the other side you have people who want to play a beastmaster class but find the pet not enough developed.

 

With multiclassing, they should just create 2 classes from the ranger : a sharpshooter/hunter one, with traps, stealth, sniper stuff and a true beastmaster class where the pet is more dominant with better active skills. If you want the old ranger class, you just have to multiclass the two (or mix with any other class).

[baldurs_gate_2]

Instead of Twin Shots a Arrow Spray what targets everyone in a big cone shape AoE. With driving flight it would even pierce through the enemies and hit the ones in the second or third row.

 

But without a proper AoE, this class will be trash forever.

[djinnxy]

I don't expect to get any love for this one, but it is an idea. It wouldn't take much to put ranger over the top as the best dps class. Wizard in it's current state is op. Take away meteor shower and give wizard an elemental arrows spell at a lower level that only effects one ally for a moderate duration. Choose one element only on spell selection. Give them a later passive option to make them a small aoe blast.

[Hamhaus]

ranger would better if they just make the animal companions stronger, with increased AR, damage, and health each level up.

[no1fanboy]

i think the issue is that people dont care about the animal companion and want better stuff for the actual ranger

[Falk Schütze]

The animal companion is the problem. They are supposed to interfere the enemy and not tank. Yet, they cannot break engagement (only Maias bird can) and dont have an AI that breaks engagement when hurt. They have to be micromanaged in addition to the party. And because they are so squishy, they feel like a burden to the player.

 

Therefore they should A. be made tanky enough or B. have an AI and inherent abilities to retreat when hurt. Additionally, they should have better offensive stats that allows all ability points spend by the ranger on their animal companion to have a noticeable effect on their performance. Single-class Rangers are also lacking meaningful PL 8+9 animal companion abilities. The ability to have an inherently better, exotic, animal companion (dinosaur, dragon) comes to my mind.

[George_Truman]

Does the game count the damage that the pet does?

[Boeroer]

i think the issue is that people dont care about the animal companion and want better stuff for the actual ranger

You assume that the majority of players don't want an animal companion. Yet you have no proof of this claim. I personally liked the animal companion in PoE a lot (after it got buffed in one of the more early patches) and I think a lot of people felt the same. But since I can't say how many I don't claim that this is the general consensus.

 

I also ask myself if this is a poll or just a "rangers suck!" rant in disguise.

First you asked everybody who voted something else why they did it - and once ranger got mentioned the ranting started.

 

I think the "ranger" part of the class is strong enough - due to the high ACC the ranger can stack. It is also quite boring...

The animal companions are indeed too weak. It's not fun to make something weak merely viable with a lot of abilities. But still: an additional body in a party (that you can control directly) is a huge advantage. How else can you balance it other than nerfing other parts of the class? The animal companion is part of the class after all. Now one can like that or not, but it is as it is. A way out of this would be to make the animal companion a pickable ability and not an automatic one. It would nerf several other parts of the ranger (to balance the additional body). All abilities tied to the animal companion would be upgrades of that single ability that gives you an animal companion.

 

If you didn't take it then your petless ranger could be made stronger (or not nerfed).

 

Or you could make a fork: one ability branches out into pet stuff, one into non-pet stuff (making the petless ranger stronger) and the rest would be universal.

 

Whatever...

 

What I really really don't get is why Obsidian nerfed Evasive Fire. Sure, it was *really* good (and most people here didn't notice) but it wasn't that overpowered and gave me a reason to take ranger in the first place. Ah well...

 

Concerning the poll: I have a hard time to name the weakest class. Too many variables (multi/single for example). And also I think currently there is no clear "weakest" for me as it was in PoE. That might be a sign of good balance or that I didn't play enough.

 

However, I will pick ranger just because the nerf of Evasive Fire annoys me and Barbarian as strongest because of some broken combos of items+abilities...

Edited July 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[djinnxy]

 

However, I will pick ranger just because the nerf of Evasive Fire annoys me and Barbarian as strongest because of some broken combos of items+abilities...

 

 

 

 

That's it in a nutshell. Everyone is running around with their st. elmos fire helmet, bardatto chest protector, and scooby doo long axe because they saw some video on the internets. Not much about all that got balanced while things that made very little sense took a nerf or were over nerfed.

Edited July 1, 2018 by djinnxy

[Wolken3156]

i think the issue is that people dont care about the animal companion and want better stuff for the actual ranger

The companion was one of the reasons why Ranger was so good in the first game. The companions hit hard in PoE1 and have enough bulk to tank most enemies; easily a top class even if they were a little boring compared to the other martial classes overall.

 

In comparison, PoE2's animal companions are very underwhelming. You're now forced between powering up either the companion or the Ranger which limits their functionality a lot. Also unlike PoE1, they're very squishy in this game, and Bonded Grief is absolutely something you should avoid. Which make Rangers require a lot of micromanaging as a result, unless you choose to run Ghost Heart.

 

If can get over the limits of the pet though; Rangers are great multiclass though IMO. Marked Prey, Concussive Shot, Evasive Roll and Wounding Shot are all excellent. Also their base accuracy is very high, which makes them thrive during early game.

 

 

 

Anyway my picks are Paladin as strongest, and Priest as weakest. Priests are really in an awkward spot since outside of healing they flounder early game and once their good stuff is online they're not even necessary since other classes will have similar abilities available to them as well. It also doesn't help that they get compared to Druids, which have a better spell selection overall imo. Paladin was tough pick along with Chanter and Wizard but I felt Paladin earned my vote since they're so good, even when a lot of their abilities are broken and don't work properly. A testament to how incredible they are.

Edited July 1, 2018 by Wolken3156

[no1fanboy]

^^^^^

 

Ahh no. Rangers in POE1 where the highest dps class in the game becaue of twin arrow. They even out damaged rogues on single target damage.

 

On another note i think obsidian would probably be happy with these poll results. All classes appear quite balanced apart from rangers and priests.

[djinnxy]

Ohh! so close. I almost chose paladin as strongest. It was a tough choice there, but in the end offensively the wizard wins by a bunch and defensively the paladin wins by some. I took wizard as the strongest. I took priest as the weakest. By the point in the game priest gets gud ranger is so far ahead in damage the priest can't catch up even if it does have op end game spells. Defensively there is only a minor edge to the priest. So wizard OP and priest UP.

 

Edit: If you add gear into the factor that can be exploited OP is still wizard but tied with barbarian. UP stays the same.

Edited July 1, 2018 by djinnxy

[bringingyouthefuture]

Hmm, Ranger multi-class is pretty good agree- but only with Ghost Heart so you don't have to worry about your pet dying when the enemy charges you - which they like to do for some reason ... plus the bear can really take some damage when needed.

 

I don't know without min/max and just a high perception and marked prey they deal consistent damage, which I can't say the same for any of the other classes at low level.