Ranger Balancing

[Draskyl]

So it actually shocked me to not find any posts on how seemingly lackluster rangers are in DPS especially towards the higher echelons of content. One of the primary issues I see is that our weapon ratio and overall damage spread (my ranger can hit anywhere from 31 damage to 4.4k) is causing inconsistencies in my ranger boxes output.

Granted my character is relatively new (Only has the bare minimum DPS AAs, AM3, EQ, Combat fury) he does have a ST bow which isn't by any means a poor weapon, and he constantly is out DPS'd by my paladin. Now I know my paladin is a much more progressed character but I still feel like a dps class should be able to do it's job with a reasonable amount of gear and AAs.

For comparisons sake my paladins DPS stats are all capped minus accuracy (103) and my ranger is the same, except capped accuracy. Both our combat skills are maxed obviously and again, I hardly ever beat him even with activating Trueshot. My paladin is using a 80/22 weapon from ToV while my ranger is using a 89/20 ST bow (no air aug yet).

This is a problem. I don't really care how you try to justify it there is no way that a tank class regardless of gear (our DPS stats are both identical anyway) should be doing more damage than a DPS CLASS with a better tiered weapon.

Let's try to justify the fact that rangers do less damage than pretty much any other DPS class, and say that we can KIND of tank, and KIND of heal. Well that's all fine and good except that classes need to be GOOD at one aspect to be worthy of bringing to higher end content, not sub-par at 3 different things. This isn't even touching on the fact yet that rangers do halved damage to anything that is rooted (much of the end content is rooted just for those who may be reading this who are newer to the server).

Especially for the lower tiered guilds who are trying to break into higher content, there is really no reason to bring more than one ranger for the extra buff and just have him /autofire and do basically no damage. I feel like this class is in dire need of attention and a significant buff in dps.

I'm curious as to what everyone elses' thoughts are on this subject, I know the GM's have their plate full with the new content tier balancing and such. This kind of issue to me is very important and should be one of the higher priorities if at all possible, class balance really makes a server feel rich and every class having a viable role is essential to let the player base participate in the way that they want.

So to all you ranger players out there I now understand your pain, I am open to suggestions as to what you guys think we could do to fix them! I know the Devs are very active on this server so I'm sure this threat won't go unloved.

[Rorsche]

I'm a progressed ranger, full AA, donor bow, plus Air Aug's. And yes, we're very poor dps. With other abilities being sub-competitive, we're generaly useless in high teirs, especially when encountering rooted mobs (i.e. Cazic Thule), where we only do half damage. Draskyl is correct about damage ratio's also. On average I do anywhere from 33-7000+\- a few with my bow. Trueshot helps but only lasts 2 minutes, with a 45 minute cool down. Considering melee classes and dealing out the same kind of damage without restriction, it makes rangers very useless. It's a fun class and I would rather not see rangers die off.

[notr3x]

rangers are hmm rangers!! lol joking aside i run 3 rangers with no donator bows, ST bow and some better and my rangers kick ass. they do not heal liek a cleric, they do not tank like a warrior, they dont range dps like a wizard but they are rangers and do great. they do bad ass range dps click and forget. i dont know what u want to make ur ranger like a tank, they are not lol rangers are not broken at all bro. best range dps click and forget in game imo.

[Draskyl]

rangers are hmm rangers!! lol joking aside i run 3 rangers with no donator bows, ST bow and some better and my rangers kick ass. they do not heal liek a cleric, they do not tank like a warrior, they dont range dps like a wizard but they are rangers and do great. they do bad ass range dps click and forget. i dont know what u want to make ur ranger like a tank, they are not lol rangers are not broken at all bro. best range dps click and forget in game imo.

I'm not trying to be rude but I fail to see any logic in this post aside from they're good for not having to really do anything to do meh DPS. I was simply explaining that they can't do anything BUT DPS and are lacking in the department, this is why you see essentially 0 Ranger mains now a-days.

I refuse to accept the argument that you can just not do anything on the class and be just as effecient as an excuse to do such poor damage. That is terrible design and logic all around and I'm sure with the great devs we have here they can fix something up that will make them more entertaining to play and more competitive on the DPS charts. After all this is their ONLY VIABLE ROLE.

Again, this is not meant to be derogatory towards you in any way but there is a huge issue with a class that is designed to be AFK. And if they are satisfied with keeping it that way then at the very least make them viable for damage, anyone can roll a Monk or a Rogue and just make a social macro and do twice the damage.

Also inb4 "lolrampageformeleebrorangersbestnumberoneclass"

But in all seriousness, I do believe this is an issue that needs to be looked at thoroughly before dismissing it as a "well we can be afk" class.

[Kron]

to add credibility to your claim, why not post some parses? It will help ascertain if there is a problem or not

parse with bow and melee

[Draskyl]

I'll add parses later tonight, we have some people within the guild who run them. I'll run parses individually for both characters on dummies etc over an extended period of time (Prob 15+ minutes each) and throw them up.

[Kron]

good man

[anacondar]

I currently box 3 rangers in my crew of 7 (SK, bard, cleric, 3x ranger, shaman)

I can pretty much guarentee myself any kill steal from my guild if I use just the 2.0's on rangers, shaman, and bard. Per shot my rangers will hit for max (22k ish without trueshot or ring of the wild active) and over 27k with them active. Coupled with the insane amount of proc damage (8k crits on claw of the hunter) I fail to see how rangers are sub-par dps. My rangers hit for max about 75-80 percent of the time with their 3600 Attack power and misses are rare if seen at all with sharpshooting VIII.

Now, aside from their usual dps they have long lasting cooldown durations with trueshot being a 2 minute disc (over 3 minutes with enhancement AA + dark enhancement or ancient enhancement), on a 34 minute re-use timer. In tier 8 they are also able to get Protector's Fury which will last for 1:45 given the same enhancement items/ AA's.

I will say that on bellycasting mobs + rooted mobs the dps my rangers do is abysmal, but hey... i'd rather have a few mobs be annoying / tough to kill than not be able to dps them at all. Any magic immune mob wizards and other caster dps goes to 0, and there are some ranged only fights popping up in later tiers that melee dps can't touch... whereas rangers will just have dps reduced in those cases, not become completely worthless for the fight.

[Draskyl]

In regards to the post above, if higher tier rangers do reasonable damage then that's fine, I can't speak for anything above T5. The information I was going on was from other Rangers who are further progressed than my own. However, in the current levels of content that I am at the damage they do is minimal at best. I will post logs later showing what I am speaking of.

Also you fail to mention if you're using donator bows on the Rangers, and any class given a Bard and Shaman clicky will do ludicrous amounts of damage. That doesn't mean rangers are good that just means your particular composition is good for damage output. In any case as I said later tonight I'll post why I think there's an issue and maybe that will shed some light on it.

As far as melee or casters being useless on some fights Rangers are in the same boat, so if anything that situation is a wash

[Rorsche]

Whoa that is BS Anaconder. I'm half T6 geared and using a donor bow. I can only do 22k with my 2.0 clicky, Trueshot, and Intensity of the resolute all active at once. You're hitting for 27k? I call bs on that one. Also Trueshot does not have an enhanced duration with AA's.