What are they doing with rangers in deadfire?

[draego]

Ye it just a RP thing Boeroer. I know monks they are super powerful. Maybe its is just a role thing for me. Since my last few runs have been as melee ranger dps i am jealous and dont want some companion to do a better job than me at my role. Which i know monks can do. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by draego

[DigitalCrack]

But yeah really hoping with the addition of subclasses we can get some more active variants of the more docile classes if they decide to keep the "set and forget" type classes as such. Trying to get back on topic, Ghost Heart at least adds an active of summoning a ghost pet. Sounds like that subclass could end up swinging more the way of a caster type which would hopefully translate to more active abilities involving ghost.. stuff? Anyway curious to see where it goes. Which leads into me wondering how much subclasses will add or change from the base class in general?

[Regggler]

I'd love to be a monk! I just... like meat too much... and women... and video games... but apart from that, the monk lifestyle is for me!

 

Don't worry, you can still be a "wine and meat monk"

 

Fun short article: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/liquor-stains-and-incense-the-shaolin-temple-in-new-york

While Zahua typically is all about escaping live's "snares", he still exposes quite some qualities of a wine and meat monk, what with all the drugs and his cheerful disposition towards intoxication.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Regggler

[Archaven]

Does something magical happen once you have 6 party members?

 

more than magic . hope what i prefer doesn't hurt anyone in the process lol

[FluxWing]

To solve the lack of active abilities, I would like to see something like a combo-system with your animal companion, that rewards a more active play-style if you chose to specialize for it with talents.

 

Simple Core abilities for both Ranger and Companion:

ex. (like from Fallout)

Ranger:

• Aim for Leg
• Aim for Arm
• Aim for Torso

Animal Companion:

• Go for Leg!
• Go for Arm!
• Go for Torso!

 

But when combined they add extra effect:

 

Combinations:

 

Go for Leg! + Aim for Leg = Target Pinned to the ground, (adds rooted X sec)

Aim for Leg + Go for Torso! = Lunge (target knocked down)

Go for Arm! + Aim for Torse = Ignores target's deflection bonus from Shield.

Aim for Arm + Go for Torso! = Go for throat (extra crit chance + extra crit damage)

...

 

 

 

So the Ranger and companion acts as a power resource, making each-other stronger.

Just like the Cipher builds focus, and Monk receives Wounds, but also more thematically for the Ranger's symbiotic bond with his Companion.

Nor does "Aim" overly represent melee or ranged weapon usage. It should work for a Legolas, Aragorn, Minsc or Drizzt type Ranger.

[rjshae]

What I really want to know is, can I finally build a ranger like this?

 

Can I get a rabid super chipmunk companion named Anklebite?

[CornyCarrot]

But yeah really hoping with the addition of subclasses we can get some more active variants of the more docile classes if they decide to keep the "set and forget" type classes as such. Trying to get back on topic, Ghost Heart at least adds an active of summoning a ghost pet. Sounds like that subclass could end up swinging more the way of a caster type which would hopefully translate to more active abilities involving ghost.. stuff? Anyway curious to see where it goes. Which leads into me wondering how much subclasses will add or change from the base class in general?

 

I think the Ghost Heart can offer a opportunity to have your cake and eat it too. At least for the people who want a more "Strider" type Ranger, but also like the pet concept (e.g. me).

 

As far as I know from the lore, the souls of Ranger and his/her Companion share a symbiotic bond. Perhaps that's why the Companion can still be summoned by the Ranger, as it cannot truly "move on" while its master is still alive? Anyway, you can easily justify, based on the existing lore, that the pair can utilize this bond even after one of them dies (hence the summoning mechanic). But then it can also be used in reverse - instead of allowing the Companion to help directly, the Ranger can draw upon its soul power to strengthen himself. Such Ranger would be considerably more powerful than his peers who haven't lost their animal friends, but would naturally lose this edge if he decides to summon his ghostly pet (because all that soulpower is spend on maintaining the summon).

 

From mechanics perspective this would translate into additional effects for the Companion upgrade talents/abilities. These would improve both the Ranger and the Companion, with Companion side being a bit weaker than its living counterpart. The catch is that the Ranger buffs would be suppressed while the ghostly Companion is up ad about. Additionally, the Ranger part of the talents would not just mirror the Companion's, but be their own thing with emphasis on more active effects (hopefully).

 

The end result would be a flexible Ranger that is much more powerful on their own, but has the option to summon his Companion when the situation requires less raw power and more numbers. The latter however, would not be on par with vanilla Ranger and his permanent ally, for obvious balance reasons (hence why slightly reduced buffs for the ghost pet).

 

As a side note, this also solves a minor inconsistency regarding the petless Ranger's power source (i.e. why is it called Bond if there is no pet, alive or otherwise). 

Anyway, they can take this subclass in many different directions, which is awesome.

[MortyTheGobbo]

I've also never been a fan of rangers being shackled to an animal sidekick. But it's also true that they need something to set them apart from just being rogues or fighters who happen to hang out in the wilderness a lot. In PoE, this something is pets. I'm curious about the subclass that replaces the pet with a summon. We'll see how it does in play.

[DigitalCrack]

 

But yeah really hoping with the addition of subclasses we can get some more active variants of the more docile classes if they decide to keep the "set and forget" type classes as such. Trying to get back on topic, Ghost Heart at least adds an active of summoning a ghost pet. Sounds like that subclass could end up swinging more the way of a caster type which would hopefully translate to more active abilities involving ghost.. stuff? Anyway curious to see where it goes. Which leads into me wondering how much subclasses will add or change from the base class in general?

I think the Ghost Heart can offer a opportunity to have your cake and eat it too. At least for the people who want a more "Strider" type Ranger, but also like the pet concept (e.g. me).

 

As far as I know from the lore, the souls of Ranger and his/her Companion share a symbiotic bond. Perhaps that's why the Companion can still be summoned by the Ranger, as it cannot truly "move on" while its master is still alive? Anyway, you can easily justify, based on the existing lore, that the pair can utilize this bond even after one of them dies (hence the summoning mechanic). But then it can also be used in reverse - instead of allowing the Companion to help directly, the Ranger can draw upon its soul power to strengthen himself. Such Ranger would be considerably more powerful than his peers who haven't lost their animal friends, but would naturally lose this edge if he decides to summon his ghostly pet (because all that soulpower is spend on maintaining the summon).

 

From mechanics perspective this would translate into additional effects for the Companion upgrade talents/abilities. These would improve both the Ranger and the Companion, with Companion side being a bit weaker than its living counterpart. The catch is that the Ranger buffs would be suppressed while the ghostly Companion is up ad about. Additionally, the Ranger part of the talents would not just mirror the Companion's, but be their own thing with emphasis on more active effects (hopefully).

 

The end result would be a flexible Ranger that is much more powerful on their own, but has the option to summon his Companion when the situation requires less raw power and more numbers. The latter however, would not be on par with vanilla Ranger and his permanent ally, for obvious balance reasons (hence why slightly reduced buffs for the ghost pet).

 

As a side note, this also solves a minor inconsistency regarding the petless Ranger's power source (i.e. why is it called Bond if there is no pet, alive or otherwise).

Anyway, they can take this subclass in many different directions, which is awesome.

thats actually a pretty cool idea to have abilities the Ghost Heart can use when the pet isnt summoned, like he feeds off its ghost powers while it isnt materialized but then he can summon and opt to forgo those powers (temporarily) to have a numbers advantage.

[injurai]

I've also never been a fan of rangers being shackled to an animal sidekick. But it's also true that they need something to set them apart from just being rogues or fighters who happen to hang out in the wilderness a lot. In PoE, this something is pets. I'm curious about the subclass that replaces the pet with a summon. We'll see how it does in play.

 

It's just unfortunate that pets were so lackluster in the past game. The fact that Rangers can depend on their whole party to put distance between them and the enemies, means pets feel kind of superfluous. They tend to not offer all that much utility, and what they do is pretty limited. I'd like to see far more options for building up pets. Some classes get so many spells, like druids. Rangers just felt sort of lame, and the pets even more so. Even Druids felt lackluster in animal form. But at least that didn't seem to detract from their base. Pets seem to detract from the base Ranger, but pets don't really add all that much imo. So the whole class was one of my least favorites.

 

I actually had to re-roll because I hated Ranger's so much. They were the first class I picked.

[Boeroer]

You definitely never build a wolf with Predator's Sense, Vicious and Merciless Companion and used Persistence...

[draego]

Ye i agree wolf hit like a truck after you add all the talents and abilities. I also think they need to track the damage the animal does. I think it would surprise people how powerful they are. They were definitely not weak. I hope at least one of the subs has even more potential with the animal. I really dont like the idea of the ghost ranger but i like that there are different subclasses for different play styles.

[DigitalCrack]

Ye i agree wolf hit like a truck after you add all the talents and abilities. I also think they need to track the damage the animal does. I think it would surprise people how powerful they are. They were definitely not weak. I hope at least one of the subs has even more potential with the animal. I really dont like the idea of the ghost ranger but i like that there are different subclasses for different play styles.

Can't speak for everyone but my big gripes were lack of melee anything by design (you can but not intended) and the "sit and forget" approach to the rangers abilities and talents basically made him a snooze fest to play outside of a few unique melee builds and even then...

[draego]

Ye i can understand that. My last few ranger builds are all melee. I enjoyed the positioning game to get the most out of my animals sneak attack and my survival skill. I want to play that way now in POE2. My first play through was a war bow ranger which was fun for me the first time but now i like the ambush flanking role i am using my ranger pet combo for. I think multi classing can add lots of active abilities. I am sure i will play my first ranger as pure class. Hopefully the Stalker class Josh mentioned turns out interesting. He gave no details just the name. i guess they get that from BG but curious what POE version will be.

[rjshae]

They have only mentioned one subclass so far and there are two to come. The one they mentioned is this: your animal companionhas died some time in the past but you now have the ability to summon a ghost animal companion or something like that. So a petless ranger with a summon. I personally dont like this because i like the animal companion but i know a lot of people, including you, will because then they can be a ranger without the animal companion. I to hope that one of the subclasses will be melee focused or pet focused instead of ranged. I play mainly melee rangers now in POE1. I had more fun with those.

 

I'm going to guess that the spirit animal does cold damage? Maybe they will also acquire some of the other abilities of shadows or phantoms?

[MortyTheGobbo]

 

I've also never been a fan of rangers being shackled to an animal sidekick. But it's also true that they need something to set them apart from just being rogues or fighters who happen to hang out in the wilderness a lot. In PoE, this something is pets. I'm curious about the subclass that replaces the pet with a summon. We'll see how it does in play.

 

It's just unfortunate that pets were so lackluster in the past game. The fact that Rangers can depend on their whole party to put distance between them and the enemies, means pets feel kind of superfluous. They tend to not offer all that much utility, and what they do is pretty limited. I'd like to see far more options for building up pets. Some classes get so many spells, like druids. Rangers just felt sort of lame, and the pets even more so. Even Druids felt lackluster in animal form. But at least that didn't seem to detract from their base. Pets seem to detract from the base Ranger, but pets don't really add all that much imo. So the whole class was one of my least favorites.

 

I actually had to re-roll because I hated Ranger's so much. They were the first class I picked.

 

 

 

You definitely never build a wolf with Predator's Sense, Vicious and Merciless Companion and used Persistence...

 

Yeah. I never played a ranger PC, but Itumaak becomes a machine of murder with the right abilities. I didn't even use Predator's Sense, I think. Vicious Companion and Merciless Companion were enough for sick damage.

 

If pets  need something, it's better survivability. They kind of die easily, and you only get supportive abilities for them at a high level.

 

Edited April 11, 2017 by MortyTheGobbo

[DigitalCrack]

They get a ton of modal options and lots of passives and that to me was a huge miss. (no melee aside) there are all kinds of trap related abilities or even actives a ranger could have had and is a ranger-y skillset. Or even simply taking half the modals and make them actives instead would have enhanced the fun factor in PoE1. So for deadfire really hoping they are one class that really gets work put into revamping it at a base level. Most the other classes can be taken care of with addition of subclasses but rangers need some fundemental changes to really "fix" the issues I have with them anyway.

[DigitalCrack]

Ranger

 

Ghost Heart - Animal companion must be summoned as a spirit. They are not affected by Bonded Grief and the companion is more powerful, but the summon is limited duration.

Sharpshooter - Bonuses to Penetration and Accuracy at range, but slower actions and lower Deflection.

Stalker - Stalker and companion gain bonuses to Deflection and Armor Rating when close to each other, suffer Bonded Grief when too far apart.

 

 

above is from update #40 which I am sure most have seen but figured I woukd get some ranger specific converation going again. I believe it was mentioned (in one of the many vids) that the sharpshooter would be closest to PoE1 ranger and that the base class is better balanced between melee and ranged now. So I am psyched to see what these changes entail, also loving the swing in playstyle between all 3 subclasses.

[draego]

Going to try a stalker first. hopefully the bonuses allows for a flanking strategy. If the bubble is to small it would kinda stink.

[1varangian]

I would like the animal companion as an option or a specialization instead of being forced to have one as a Ranger.

 

I like the Ranger as a concept but don't want to have a personal pet running around.

Edited October 13, 2017 by 1varangian

[MortyTheGobbo]

Without the pet, rangers would need some other feature to set them apart from rogues or fighters who happen to hang out in the wilderness a lot.

[DigitalCrack]

I would like the animal companion as an option or a specialization instead of being forced to have one as a Ranger.

 

I like the Ranger as a concept but don't want to have a personal pet running around.

The Ghost Heart is supposed to be the "petless ranger" or as close as we will get anyway. They are not effected by any of the bonded grief effects and the pet isnt even there unless summoned in battle. which makes me curious how he will even work given that rangers resource is "bond" makes me curious to see how that subclass will work resource wise considering they are technically bond-less.

[veteran81]

I look forward to playing a ranger & barbarian multiclass. Would be cool if carnage applied to ranged weapons in Poe 2. It may not be op but I like it from an RP stance.

 

In Poe 1 for melee rangers, I went 2h-sw with tidefall, choose the berserk cross talent. The dot from the sword worked well with the pet.

 

Also ranger / cipher and ranger / mage I.e arcane mage might be pretty cool too. Really look forward to Poe 2

[DigitalCrack]

I look forward to playing a ranger & barbarian multiclass. Would be cool if carnage applied to ranged weapons in Poe 2. It may not be op but I like it from an RP stance.

 

In Poe 1 for melee rangers, I went 2h-sw with tidefall, choose the berserk cross talent. The dot from the sword worked well with the pet.

 

Also ranger / cipher and ranger / mage I.e arcane mage might be pretty cool too. Really look forward to Poe 2

yeah right now I am torn between rolling a Ghost Heart/Mind Blade or a Ghost Heart/Mage Slayer (or whatever that barbarian subclass is called ha)  mostly for RP although I am sure they aren't terrible combo's.  I like that you can actually look at the class ability trees on creation as that may help me with this decision once the game is released.

[rjshae]

Fire on the Run -- an enhanced version of Marked Prey. The ranger fires at the marked target while moving, but suffers an accuracy penalty while doing so.