Ranger pets and talents are sooo bad :(

[JONNIN]

Think of your bear at lvl 2 as a Young Bear , roll on easy difficulty there will be 1 Young Bear in the cave and test then , i think bear pet vs young bear will do just fine

 

It might handle that, but normal difficulty is normal.   Saying that the pet can break even, bearly (lol), on easy-mode is not really making me want to rush out to roll a new ranger.    When you face ogres, the pet should be able to take a couple of hits from an ogre.  When you face dragons, the pet should be able to take a couple of hits from a dragon.  The stupid test I gave aside, the pets don't scale at all and after about level 4 or 5 the pets fall over dead instantly, the ranger is perma gimped with the dead pet debuff, and that makes the class as a whole underwhelming.    No matter how you slice it, it makes zero sense that the bard has pet dragons and the ranger has a 1 week old bear cub.

 

Maxmin vs role play ?   Ill bite there too.  The ultimate ranger for fame is either aragorn, who is nothing like a pure archer with a pet, or for the pet /d&d ideal of the class: drizzit.  Drizzit had a cat that could go toe to toe with demons, dragons, the second best swordsman in the universe, ogres, orc-kings, and anything inbetween.    My bear can take on a bear cub with a 50-60% chance of success. 

Edited May 4, 2015 by JONNIN

[B4nJ0]

 

Edited May 4, 2015 by B4nJ0

[Luckmann]

BG1's Ranger companion was Kivan, the most Legolasian sharpshooting machinegunning "gonna kill half of you before you get close" Archer there ever was.

Man, I always liked Kivan. Second only to Xan when it came to favourite BG1 CNPC:s.

[Crucis]

 

The ranger is unplayable for me because of the pet death penalty.  The stupid pets die nearly every other fight and penalize the ranger for it.   Get rid of that, I can live with the weak pets.   Or beef them up .. to say at *least* 1 ogre status, by level 7 or so?   

 

Rangers are not "unplayable" even with weak AC's.  Just don't send your AC charging into melee at the start of every battle.  Hold them back until your front line is fully engaged, then consider sending them in to flank those enemies.  Or if you're fighting Shades, just keep them in the rear to attack the inevitable shade teleporting into the rear.

 

I will say that I'm not a fan of AC's because of the AC death accuracy penalty.  I wish that AC's were an optional talent to select at the first level up, rather than a fixed requirement of the class.  Also, given the total lack of nature magic, PoE rangers don't seem nearly as much of the defenders of nature as they do in DnD and the old IE games.  The PoE rangers, except for the AC, seem more like dedicated ranged fighters than anything else.  And I don't think that the AC's make Rangers unplayable.  They're just annoying to have tagging along, given that the rangers can't afford to have them in melee constantly without having the AC get killed far too quickly.

[Jimmysdabestcop]

A Sidenote....Minsc did get an extra attack for being a ranger if equipped with a 1 handed weapon in original umodded Bg1. Now he did come with a 2H sword but you could change it. BG1 original unmodded didn't have real dual wield only pseudo dual wield so it just added an extra attack for Rangers. Then later with mods when they dumped BG1 into BG2 engine he could proper dual wield. And in the EE editions he could as well.

 

Ok back to rangers....

 

I actually do agree the Barbarian/Monk are to melee focused but since this was a ranger thread I didn't want to bring it up. It would be hard to make Monks ranged because of wounds. But it could be possible if they were given some kind of ranged psuedo Kai power attack. Barbarian I'm not sure if it could be made ranged either like previously stated so much is based off of having 50% endurance. I do like playing the Monk and Ranger still in PoE. I actually don't like the Barbarian at all for some reason. But their damage bug was a pretty big turn off. Maybe I will try after next patch.

 

I just think every class should be able to have abilities that work in both melee and ranged. Not every ability has to work in both but there could at least be choices. If you take these then you cant take these other abilities. Or some abilities that work both, some just ranged and some just melee. Then its up to the player to decide.

 

Not every single player likes to min/max or design the perfect character or even the perfect party.

 

I mean you have a Rogue most of their abilities/talents work both melee and ranged but then they do have specific abilities that only work in melee. Even though their defenses aren't that good the player has the choice where to line the Rogue up at because of their abilities working in both types of combat. For example if a rogue couldn't sneak attack or death blow from ranged their class would be worthless as a ranged class.

 

Now take a look at the Ranger who has defenses and Endurance for melee but all his abilities are ranged. He does get the speed bump from Swift Aim and the follow up ability so if you also take Cautious Attack the speed penalty will be suppressed. Which makes the Ranger an even better defender with no penalty. But then no other abilities. The Ranger should have been designed with enough flexibility just like the Rogue. 

[otakon17]

 

Vicious Aim: +10 Accuracy

Stalker's Link, or whatever it's called: +10 Accuracy

Ranger's base accuracy is 30, +5 from average.

 

So very soon you can have a Ranger who has base +25 Accuracy relative to others. And there are plenty of ranged weapons in the game that stun or knock down on crit. What else do you want ? There's a hunting bow, war bow, all arbalests do that, scepter of prone, rod of stun, there might be an arquebus from a warden reward. The hazel wand triggers Jolting Touch.

 

Marked Prey is +40% damage on a single target. Bad ? Stunning Arrows - bad ? Driving Flight with a powerful ranged weapon makes you deal 150% damage essentially.

 

Also, PotD is the least tested and least balanced difficulty level. Quick and dirty.

 

Ok. Range Rogue:

 

50% from Sneak attack, if flanked or conditions so in party that is not a problem.

1xPer encounter Blind strike (Sneak Attack) + 0.25 damage

2x Per Encounter Cripliing Strike (Sneak Attack) + 0.25 damage

Dirty Fighting plus Vicious Fighting = 20% Hits convert to Critics.

Witherin Strke- target Weakened 1x plus 0.25

Deep Wounds- DOT, weaker than Ranger one, ok, but it is still here.

Backstab wtih Blunderbus anyone?

 

Finishing Blow and Devastating blow for low Endurance bosses, Accuracy and great damage bonus.

 

Also Escape for fast run behind tank or Shadowing Beyond for positioning and fight reset.

 

In party I would take Rogue for range sniper. Accuracy is not that big issue if you take Wood Elf plus Marksman.

 

Ranger just do not cut for me as ultimate range DPS. He has some nice skills, yes, but not enough to be "Ranger" imo.

 

And I would take ranger anytime if his pets would not suck and be better to choose from. Wish I could have Crystal Spider as pet....

 

I am ALL for a Honey Badger pet. But yeah just chiming in, Pets need their own level up page basically, that would alleviate splitting between either making an effective Ranger(with a squishy, nearly defenseless pet) OR a mediocre ranged damage dealer AND a mediocre tank. Also, boost their defenses and stats and give their damage types variety. Seriously far as I can tell they all do Piercing damage, at least give them all Piercing/Slashing(Best) damage types. DR boost means nothing in the long run since even then at least 20% of the damage goes through(and super attackers that do 50+ damage in a single attack will flatten it anyway).

 

Vicious Aim: +10 Accuracy

Stalker's Link, or whatever it's called: +10 Accuracy

Ranger's base accuracy is 30, +5 from average.

 

So very soon you can have a Ranger who has base +25 Accuracy relative to others. And there are plenty of ranged weapons in the game that stun or knock down on crit. What else do you want ? There's a hunting bow, war bow, all arbalests do that, scepter of prone, rod of stun, there might be an arquebus from a warden reward. The hazel wand triggers Jolting Touch.

 

Marked Prey is +40% damage on a single target. Bad ? Stunning Arrows - bad ? Driving Flight with a powerful ranged weapon makes you deal 150% damage essentially.

 

Also, PotD is the least tested and least balanced difficulty level. Quick and dirty.

 

Most of the Rangers abilities rely on the Pet attacking the same target that they are. Which if they're dead, doesn't work out so well PLUS when the pet gets knocked out(and it will usually unless you have more than 1 frontliner) they take substantial penalties.

[otakon17]

The chanter is the pet class.  His pets scale with level and do not invoke a penalty when they die.   Hmm, a bear with 10 DR that does 5 damage per hit or a PAIR of ogres or a dragon?  Which, if they actually die in a combat, can be replaced?  And the chanter may not have the ranged abilities of a ranger but you can sure build an elven one that can do reasonable ranged dps.  

 

The ranger is unplayable for me because of the pet death penalty.  The stupid pets die nearly every other fight and penalize the ranger for it.   Get rid of that, I can live with the weak pets.   Or beef them up .. to say at *least* 1 ogre status, by level 7 or so?   

 

Here is a perfect example of how to understand how bad the ranger pets are: a simple little duel you can do at home in about 10 min.  

Step 1: roll a ranger with a bear pet; difficulty only on NORMAL.  Feel free to take any level up pet enhancements you want.   

Step 2: work your way thru the intro and to the bear cave in the area before the first city.  

Step 3: duel   the bear in the cave with your bear.  do not help the bear, just duel bear on bear.

step 4: reroll to a working class after seeing how the level 2 bear enemy destroyed the level 2 bear pet. 

 

I am NOT saying the pet should kill or significantly damage or anything else the enemy here.  But the NPC will ONE SHOT the pet, unscathed.   The pet should be able to at least hold him there for, I dunno, 3 or 4 shots with a bow?  It can't do that. 

Actually, on Normal the bear in there is level 5, check the Bestiary. Even then, come back at level 5 and watch your Pet still get wrecked.

[b0rsuk]

 

 

The ranger is unplayable for me because of the pet death penalty.  The stupid pets die nearly every other fight and penalize the ranger for it.   Get rid of that, I can live with the weak pets.   Or beef them up .. to say at *least* 1 ogre status, by level 7 or so?   

 

Here is a perfect example of how to understand how bad the ranger pets are: a simple little duel you can do at home in about 10 min.  

Step 1: roll a ranger with a bear pet; difficulty only on NORMAL.  Feel free to take any level up pet enhancements you want.   

Step 2: work your way thru the intro and to the bear cave in the area before the first city.  

Step 3: duel   the bear in the cave with your bear.  do not help the bear, just duel bear on bear.

step 4: reroll to a working class after seeing how the level 2 bear enemy destroyed the level 2 bear pet. 

 

I am NOT saying the pet should kill or significantly damage or anything else the enemy here.  But the NPC will ONE SHOT the pet, unscathed.   The pet should be able to at least hold him there for, I dunno, 3 or 4 shots with a bow?  It can't do that. 

 

Why, it totally makes sense that a level1 class ability should be as strong as a full-fledged Fighter companion ! A companion bear should outperform Eder at holding a bear ! A party of rangers should be able to kill an Adra Dragon with their animal companions, without firing a single shot ! That's how strong ogres are.

 

Things you propose should make Ranger class take two companion slots.

 

I'm forced to conclude I'm just a much better Ranger player than you.

 

 

CriticalFailure, on 04 May 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:

    On the other hand, I find it harder to envision a raging barbarian pew pew-ing enemies with a magic rod in a murdering rampage, as in b0rsuk's example. Everything's possible, I suppose, but let's just say I'd find it more unusual than a melee ranger.

 

Why ? Conan the Barbarian used bows on many occasions. I'm not talking about Arnold the Bodybuilder. Why is a tribal warrior one of the worst classes to use a bow ?

 

 

Most of the Rangers abilities rely on the Pet attacking the same target that they are. Which if they're dead, doesn't work out so well PLUS when the pet gets knocked out(and it will usually unless you have more than 1 frontliner) they take substantial penalties.

So having more than 1 frontliner is something outlandish ? No wonder you struggle with Rangers.

I blame the default NPC companions. You get only 1 Fighter, no Monk, Rogue or Barbarian. But you get TWO spellcasters right away, and a chanter whose default weapon is an arquebus (even though he has perfectly fine Deflection and does a good job with Weapon&Shield Style).

Edited May 6, 2015 by b0rsuk

[JONNIN]

 

 

 

The ranger is unplayable for me because of the pet death penalty.  The stupid pets die nearly every other fight and penalize the ranger for it.   Get rid of that, I can live with the weak pets.   Or beef them up .. to say at *least* 1 ogre status, by level 7 or so?   

 

Here is a perfect example of how to understand how bad the ranger pets are: a simple little duel you can do at home in about 10 min.  

Step 1: roll a ranger with a bear pet; difficulty only on NORMAL.  Feel free to take any level up pet enhancements you want.   

Step 2: work your way thru the intro and to the bear cave in the area before the first city.  

Step 3: duel   the bear in the cave with your bear.  do not help the bear, just duel bear on bear.

step 4: reroll to a working class after seeing how the level 2 bear enemy destroyed the level 2 bear pet. 

 

I am NOT saying the pet should kill or significantly damage or anything else the enemy here.  But the NPC will ONE SHOT the pet, unscathed.   The pet should be able to at least hold him there for, I dunno, 3 or 4 shots with a bow?  It can't do that. 

 

Why, it totally makes sense that a level1 class ability should be as strong as a full-fledged Fighter companion ! A companion bear should outperform Eder at holding a bear ! A party of rangers should be able to kill an Adra Dragon with their animal companions, without firing a single shot ! That's how strong ogres are.

 

Things you propose should make Ranger class take two companion slots.

 

I'm forced to conclude I'm just a much better Ranger player than you.

 

You probably are a better ranger than me (seeing as how I have close to 10 games with a main character of most of the classes), but you (intentionally?) seem to have misread what I said.   I have not focused on any one class really -- and if I could claim to have done so, monk would probably be the one I have done the best with.

 

When I said beef it up to ogre status, I meant tank side, not damage side.  I don't care if at level 12 the pet is doing 1 damage per swing.  But it needs to not die easily if there is going to be massive penalties.  You get a debuff AND about 1/3 or more of your skills are borked when your pet dies.   And if you know some way of keeping the pet alive after mid-game, *share* that info.  yes, I can keep it out of combat, but that is only slightly better than dead and even there it still dies to enemy aoe.    If the pet is expected to be alive and in melee combat for skills to work, it should not die from 1 hit in nearly every fight.  Period.

 

As for the dragon, well... 5 chanters and a tank could drop 10 ogres on the dragon.    That would   be a paladin tank/healer to babysit them while they work up the chants.  This would be stronger than 6 rangers each with an ogre quality bear, dps and all....   which just goes to show that crazy home-made parties can be unbalanced and very powerful, this is but one example of such.   And like I said, as the ogres die, summon more.   The bear is not stacking up to that very well.  Neither are the deer or the wolf or the rest of them.  

Edited May 6, 2015 by JONNIN

[luzarius]

Honey Badger pet? That is brilliant, whose idea was that? Too bad the game isn't moddable or we could add that in all skyrim like.

[b0rsuk]

Come on, whose idea it could have been ? How cool it would have been to have an animal companion that can chase a lion away by biting him on his balls ? An animal the size of a small dog.

You can even see the badger casting voodoo spells at 3:30.

 

Wasteland 2 misrepresented honey badgers. In that game, they're dumb brutes with 200 HP.

 

It would be fun if rangers had animal-specific talents. For example, you could teach your honey badger to reload your crossbow in the alternate weapon set.

 

By the way, figurines are among the very best items in the game and enable you to solo the Adra Dragon on PotD. Animal Companion is like a per encounter figurine. Is that so bad ? And even if it does get knocked out sometimes, it often doesn't matter at all because the fight is almost over.

Edited May 6, 2015 by b0rsuk

[JONNIN]

By the way, figurines are among the very best items in the game and enable you to solo the Adra Dragon on PotD. Animal Companion is like a per encounter figurine. Is that so bad ? And even if it does get knocked out sometimes, it often doesn't matter at all because the fight is almost over.

 

well, no.  The animal is not as strong as the figurine pets,  and when it dies, it causes all kinds of problems for the ranger.  A figurine pet dies, nothing else happens.   And it does not get knocked out as the fight ends, it is knocked out in the first couple of swings on higher difficulty settings, even on normal that happens enough to make the entire class a bit weaker/unbalanced.   I would rather have a 2 or even 3 round stun upon pet death than this neverending penalty to damage and skill use, something that acknowledges the death of the pet in a reasonable way.

[KDubya]

The pet gets you a disposable per encounter damage sponge.

 

Send it in first to take the alpha strike, use it as a focus for AoE attacks. If the pet is still alive at the end of the fight you are not using it right

 

Even when the pet dies your ranger with vicious aim and higher base accuracy is still as accurate as a ranged rogue and has higher base endurance and deflection to survive any ranged attacks that target your backline.

 

All of the damage that the pet soaks up is damage that your frontline does not need to endure, it reduces the attrition style losses to health that forces rests and risks perma death (if playing without maimed).

 

For my playstyle I like to have a ranger in the party. I like per encounter, steady state type groups that are heavy on durable melee that can dish out damage while outlasting the enemy rather than a massive nuke fest with five glass cannons and one super-tank. For me the ranger dishes out dependable, accurate ranged damage and gives you a disposable suicide soldier that bounces back fresh every fight.

[Raven Darkholme]

The pet gets you a disposable per encounter damage sponge.

 

Send it in first to take the alpha strike, use it as a focus for AoE attacks. If the pet is still alive at the end of the fight you are not using it right

 

Even when the pet dies your ranger with vicious aim and higher base accuracy is still as accurate as a ranged rogue and has higher base endurance and deflection to survive any ranged attacks that target your backline.

 

All of the damage that the pet soaks up is damage that your frontline does not need to endure, it reduces the attrition style losses to health that forces rests and risks perma death (if playing without maimed).

 

For my playstyle I like to have a ranger in the party. I like per encounter, steady state type groups that are heavy on durable melee that can dish out damage while outlasting the enemy rather than a massive nuke fest with five glass cannons and one super-tank. For me the ranger dishes out dependable, accurate ranged damage and gives you a disposable suicide soldier that bounces back fresh every fight.

My front line just doesn't take damage?

[KDubya]

 

The pet gets you a disposable per encounter damage sponge.

 

Send it in first to take the alpha strike, use it as a focus for AoE attacks. If the pet is still alive at the end of the fight you are not using it right

 

Even when the pet dies your ranger with vicious aim and higher base accuracy is still as accurate as a ranged rogue and has higher base endurance and deflection to survive any ranged attacks that target your backline.

 

All of the damage that the pet soaks up is damage that your frontline does not need to endure, it reduces the attrition style losses to health that forces rests and risks perma death (if playing without maimed).

 

For my playstyle I like to have a ranger in the party. I like per encounter, steady state type groups that are heavy on durable melee that can dish out damage while outlasting the enemy rather than a massive nuke fest with five glass cannons and one super-tank. For me the ranger dishes out dependable, accurate ranged damage and gives you a disposable suicide soldier that bounces back fresh every fight.

My front line just doesn't take damage?

 

 

That is a much larger problem with AI, and combat mechanics.

 

If you design a super-tank that through stacking skills, attributes and equipment achieves near unhittable defense, and then combine that with abusing the AI mechanic of the enemy bunching around instead of disengaging and going after your backline, you will have in effect broken the game.

 

If that is your playstyle then a ranger is useless for you, in fact anything other than a super-tank and a team of ranged glass cannons would be useless for you.

 

To fix that they'd have to:

 

1.) Have monsters disengage from your non-damaging super-tank, eat a disengagement attack and then mob your glass cannons.

 

2.) Have more monsters have a teleport ability to get past your super-tank and hit the glass cannons.

 

3.) Give monsters an ability to teleport your backline into melee range like the high level fighter ability can.

 

4.) Give monsters an alternate ranged weapon set and have them focus fire down your backline.

 

5.) Players could self regulate and not use builds and tactics that trivialize encounters.

 

Since, I believe, that someone has soloed the game with every class on PotD, the tools are in the game to overcome all challenges posed by the AI if the player goes all out to win, even without using a full party. Based on this the only sure way to address the problems are option 5 and self regulate.

[CriticalFailure]

 

CriticalFailure, on 04 May 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:

    On the other hand, I find it harder to envision a raging barbarian pew pew-ing enemies with a magic rod in a murdering rampage, as in b0rsuk's example. Everything's possible, I suppose, but let's just say I'd find it more unusual than a melee ranger.

 

Why ? Conan the Barbarian used bows on many occasions. I'm not talking about Arnold the Bodybuilder. Why is a tribal warrior one of the worst classes to use a bow ?

 

To be clear, I don't necessarily consider a tribal warrior and the barbarian -class- the same thing. The former could perfectly have a different class, and the latter is pretty much a berserker (it would actually be a more appropriate name, IMO). Now, my concept of a berserker/raging warrior is that of a melee specialist. With that I don't mean they shouldn't use bows occasionally nor be competent archers; I just don't see ranged combat as the focus of the class.

Edited May 6, 2015 by CriticalFailure

[Raven Darkholme]

 

 

The pet gets you a disposable per encounter damage sponge.

 

Send it in first to take the alpha strike, use it as a focus for AoE attacks. If the pet is still alive at the end of the fight you are not using it right

 

Even when the pet dies your ranger with vicious aim and higher base accuracy is still as accurate as a ranged rogue and has higher base endurance and deflection to survive any ranged attacks that target your backline.

 

All of the damage that the pet soaks up is damage that your frontline does not need to endure, it reduces the attrition style losses to health that forces rests and risks perma death (if playing without maimed).

 

For my playstyle I like to have a ranger in the party. I like per encounter, steady state type groups that are heavy on durable melee that can dish out damage while outlasting the enemy rather than a massive nuke fest with five glass cannons and one super-tank. For me the ranger dishes out dependable, accurate ranged damage and gives you a disposable suicide soldier that bounces back fresh every fight.

 

My front line just doesn't take damage?

 

That is a much larger problem with AI, and combat mechanics.

 

If you design a super-tank that through stacking skills, attributes and equipment achieves near unhittable defense, and then combine that with abusing the AI mechanic of the enemy bunching around instead of disengaging and going after your backline, you will have in effect broken the game.

 

If that is your playstyle then a ranger is useless for you, in fact anything other than a super-tank and a team of ranged glass cannons would be useless for you.

 

To fix that they'd have to:

 

1.) Have monsters disengage from your non-damaging super-tank, eat a disengagement attack and then mob your glass cannons.

 

2.) Have more monsters have a teleport ability to get past your super-tank and hit the glass cannons.

 

3.) Give monsters an ability to teleport your backline into melee range like the high level fighter ability can.

 

4.) Give monsters an alternate ranged weapon set and have them focus fire down your backline.

 

5.) Players could self regulate and not use builds and tactics that trivialize encounters.

 

Since, I believe, that someone has soloed the game with every class on PotD, the tools are in the game to overcome all challenges posed by the AI if the player goes all out to win, even without using a full party. Based on this the only sure way to address the problems are option 5 and self regulate.

I'm all for the ranged option and smarter enemy casters ofc.

[Crucis]

The pet gets you a disposable per encounter damage sponge.

 

Send it in first to take the alpha strike, use it as a focus for AoE attacks. If the pet is still alive at the end of the fight you are not using it right

 

Even when the pet dies your ranger with vicious aim and higher base accuracy is still as accurate as a ranged rogue and has higher base endurance and deflection to survive any ranged attacks that target your backline.

 

All of the damage that the pet soaks up is damage that your frontline does not need to endure, it reduces the attrition style losses to health that forces rests and risks perma death (if playing without maimed).

 

For my playstyle I like to have a ranger in the party. I like per encounter, steady state type groups that are heavy on durable melee that can dish out damage while outlasting the enemy rather than a massive nuke fest with five glass cannons and one super-tank. For me the ranger dishes out dependable, accurate ranged damage and gives you a disposable suicide soldier that bounces back fresh every fight.

 

 

I have to disagree.  I think that risking the death of the AC so quickly hurts the effectiveness of the ranger over the long haul of the battle, and is a poor use of said AC.  I think that it's better to hold the AC out of the first wave, and use it as a second wave flanker, or a reserve to plug holes or intercept enemy flankers, or to act as a rear area defender in battles like those where Shades teleport into your rear.  The AC may still die, but it's better than throwing it away as you suggest at the certain cost of a hefty -20 penalty to the ranger's accuracy.

 

 

 

 

[b0rsuk]

I have three front line characters in my current game - PC monk, Pallegrina and Kana. Am I doing it wrong ? Itumaak has plenty of support, this is on hard. I send him in after the initial engagement, or just place him between two frontline characters so it can only be engaged by a single enemy.

Edited May 6, 2015 by b0rsuk

[Jimmysdabestcop]

I also like 3-4 melee. With at least 2/3 of them on the front line. my current hard playthrough I have 3 frontliners, a bear, quarterstaff ranger for reach. Only 1 caster a cipher. Just wanted to really change up the party.

 

I also really think the pet is hurt by not having scripts. Scripts at least could control the pet better. Guard xx party member; only attack whoever the ranger attacks; only attack if engaged; etc

 

Now you have to really put some management into them because pets are basically squishy melee chartacters. End game I honestly get tired of managing the pet. If he kets KO'ed so be it. Let my ranger suffer that encounter I'm not really relying on my ranger that much.

 

And they probably should have broken up the PoE Ranger into 2 seperate classes. PoE Ranger takes out everything ranger like and just focus on like beastmaster. All of the counter strike, surprise attack, shadow fighting, melee characteristics have been taken out of the ranger. The PoE Ranger is like a zoo keeper archer. Might as well have called it anything else besides ranger.

[CriticalFailure]

I like low micro parties, but I find that melee characters sometimes obstruct each other if there's too many of them, especially if Itumaak or some other animal is around as well.

[MoxyWoo]

I like low micro parties, but I find that melee characters sometimes obstruct each other if there's too many of them, especially if Itumaak or some other animal is around as well.

 

Yeah, others have said this before, but the pet micro is a little annoying.  I usually had them trail behind in the last row so everyone was firmly being "engaged" to let the AC have a chance to survive.

 

If I wanted to micro a thing that much, I'd use any other class that gets "benefits" from doing so, where as ranger feels like its just avoiding "penalties" for doing so.

[peddroelm]

this thread made me go and (rigorously) test the skills and question

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78239-abilities-various-other-damage-related-mechanics-revealed/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1685422

 

They work as advertised but don't make much sense because ".. Animal Companions have extremely slow attack speeds, cannot enchant weapons, not DR bypass and don't live long in melee range..

If their role is not damage dealing - why waste so many of the ranger perks on (next to) useless perks ?.." 

 

But the balance guys don't agree with this since they nerfed Marked Prey's damage bonus for Ranger & AC in 1.05 ..

Edited May 7, 2015 by peddroelm

[Crucis]

this thread made me go and (rigorously) test the skills and question

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78239-abilities-various-other-damage-related-mechanics-revealed/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1685422

 

They work as advertised but don't make much sense because ".. Animal Companions have extremely slow attack speeds, cannot enchant weapons, not DR bypass and don't live long in melee range..

If their role is not damage dealing - why waste so many of the ranger perks on (next to) useless perks ?.." 

 

But the balance guys don't agree with this since they nerfed Marked Prey's damage bonus for Ranger & AC in 1.05 ..

 

Honestly, when I've played a Ranger or leveled up Sagani, I don't bother with the AC class abilities/talents, and focus strictly on upgrading the Ranger him/herself.  The AC seems sorta like a little more than a decoy, but nowhere near a full fledged party member.  Not bad for flanking or acting as a rearguard to make life more difficult on Shades, etc. who think that popping into your rear and going after your spellcasters is a great idea.  I don't like having to aggressively mocromanage them, but OTOH, I don't want them charging into melee and getting nuked and nerfing my ranger's accuracy either. 

 

On the whole, animal companions seem like more of a pain than they're worth.

[MoxyWoo]

Yeah, I read originally the Ranger had shared health with the pet and a few other niceties like +20 accuracy when stalker's was up vs 10...  Then the last few days of beta they basically nerfed them to the ground with the wounding DoT changed to whatever weapon type they were using, and some other stuff.

 

Not sure what happened, even with the above it just comes out to a "good" class and not an overpowered one, but that's me.

 

I think the AC micro and melee being crowded enough is what bothers me the most.  I mean on paper, it seems okay, like pulling with your lion who has faster movement past a beat stick line, but then they get tagged with one arrow = death = your ranger is sad, or similarly, just trying to micro them to be a melee off-offtank is annoying, etc.