Rangers don't get enough credit!Follow

DISCLAIMER: I am no expert on rangers and everything in this post is just my opinion! So feel free to disagree or correct me when wrong and don't have a hissy! =)

I've seen alot of threads lately that suggest this class may be more misunderstood than any other game concept. And of course the tired ranger-down jokes keep coming (but yes I still get a chuckle from the good ones)

First of all, if a ranger dies alot, he/she is a bad ranger. In 50 levels I think my ranger has died 5 times. Before you ask, she was never powerleveled and only received about 7 or 800p worth of twinkage at lvl 40 (if you can even call that twinkage). I think the main thing with rangers that has caused their ill repute is that many people dont realize what the ranger is about. Don't let the dual wield fool you, the ranger is NOT a tank - hence the name "RANGE-r". Granted, through the first 20 or 30 levels, a ranger can be a good assistant tank, or even act like a tank when accompanied by a good healer, or when soloing if somewhere with plenty of opportunity to stop and self-heal. In fact the ranger is a great soloist through the early game if you are careful to choose the right zones. But you really need to be practicing archery throughout because the ranger transforms from junior tank to archer. If you neglect your archery practice you will find yourself without any zones with mobs with low enough ac/dmg for you to melee.

At lvl 50, my ranger still has no problem soloing, fighting rooted and snared dark-blues with 4 stackable DOTs doing a total of about 150 per tick, while shooting arrows for 60-200pts each. She holds a "Glowing Black Sword" only for the dex it gives, and couldnt even remember the last time she had to swing one.

multiple stackable DoTs, DDs, AoE DDs, snares, roots, stackable DSs, self-heals, self-buffs, proc spells, dual wield, tracking and others make up this ******* of all-too-often unrealized potential. RANGERS RULE!!!

rangers aren't underestimated.........if anything they are overestimated........

It's been a while since a ranger has taken agro from me, because I don't invite their useless asses, so the ranger cracks from when their heads hit the pavement, don't reall make sense any more.

If you look at any melee class specific sites and read through the forums, you'll see that rangers are one of the classes they complain about the most being unbalanced. Rangers have good melee DPS, awesome ranged DPS in the mid50s-mid60s, lots of decent buffs and very good utility. These things all lumped into one class kinda miffs the pure melees. They don't like to see a class putting out almost as much damage as them (or more in special circumstances) AND have things like DSs, SoW, tracking and snares. Plus, being decent tanks in the right gear, and good for placing mobs with WS. They feel it makes them less desireable. BUT, they still make "gimp" ranger jokes.

Why, you ask? Because it's part of the culture. Plain and simple, it's part of EQ culture. If they did something tomorrow to make rangers the undisputed soloing kings AND gave groups huge incentives to bring in a ranger, people would invite a ranger in one breath and make a joke about him in the next. That's just the way it is. Part of that stems from the fact that so much of the playerbase is "old school", in the sense that the vast majority of the EQ populace has been playing since at least Kunark. It's an old seated stereotype and it won't disappear unless there comes a point in time when there are more people playing that started PoP+ then there are that played at least since Kunark. Well, we also know that that's probably never going to happen... so, those jokes will be around as long as EQ is.

We see evidence of these types of things in RL too. Racism, sexism, religious oppression, etc. Those old seated ideals didn't change overnight. It took generations of people changing their thinking, until there were more people that thought along the current ideals then there were that thought about the "old ways". We've all run into an old person that had some very twisted views as to the way things are, at least to us, but to them, that's what they knew for so long that when someone came along and said it was wrong, they just couldn't let it go.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this a report on stereotypes or anything, so I'll stick with the format.

My ranger was my first toon. He died A LOT for a LONG time, but that's because I was always getting myself into trouble ("hmmm, Maiden's Eye. I'm getting pretty high level for DSP, I mean, I'm 40 now. This zone is right next door, so it must be the next step for me, rig... loading, please wait"). I played him extensively until he got to level 57, about the time LDoN came out. That's when I discovered the necro though. A couple of months later, I discovered the bard. Now, my ranger just farms spiderling silks for me.

I remember one group in Plane of Valor at the west wall very clearly. Group leader was a high end ranger and I, as the enchanter was the groups crowd control.

The group was working well and the ranger was dragging in new mobs for me to park at a good pace while still remaining long enough to give good contribution to the groups DPS. then he disappeared for a while I was wondering what was going on. Call came in that 2 were on the way so I got ready to snag the straggler and let the group handle the first one....... not 2 but 6 appeared round the corner though as the ranger had run straight into a group of new spawns.

Well, I thought, time to earn my keep for a bit. Up I stand, all 3 foot 2 of gnomish power and proceed to do my super gnome enchanter bit. Only problem is that the first one resisted and the rest agro'd straight on me and I suddenly had 5 mobs swarming my butt while the rest of the group were busy thumping on a single mob. Result? Loading Please Wait!

Now the thing I remember this incident for was not that the ranger over-pulled but that I was the only one to die. Why? Because the ranger instantly went into CC mode, popped his weapon sheild, snared and rooted the extra mobs off and bought time for the rest of the group to get organised and beat them down. If I had know more about that ranger and what he would do I would have waited just that bit longer to let him pop weapon shield and took my time over mezzing. Then I wouldn't have died either.

A good ranger is a wonder to behold - no doubt about it. When they know their abilites and play to their strengths they are an amazing class. The down side is that everyone thinks they know how the ranger class is played and at some time most people will have tried the class and think its easy. It's these part time rangers who have earned the class it's mockery not those who have spent the time to learn how to play it well.

BTW: no-one should rate someones abilities by how often they have died. If a player hardly ever dies it could also mean that they are not pushing hard enough. I rarely get upset at a wipe, it just meant that the group pushed just that little too hard that time. But I'm an enchanter, we expect to take high risks with only a silk robe between us and an angry, quadding 1,000 hp per hit mob.

Edited, Tue May 17 10:57:21 2005 by FanDancer

I love my Ranger now level 52. One thing that is hard for me while playing with others say a Monk, Warrior type is why they are always running out to pull instead of letting me do it.

Here I am, a puller if not a main tank, can do damage of what 50-120 with most shots and Yes do miss but usually a very steady hit basis with bow. Target, do autofire, back up and keep hitting till back with group. Why wouldn't they not want to have a good deal of damage done before the target even gets to them is a surprise to me.

I was dual wield but the swords unless a little higher level than I am or have the money really aren't that good so have bought and almost capping in 2HS with a decent sword for the level.

Tanking not hard, personally I need to upgrade armor a bit more but with the spells, good weapon and armor, we can hold our own if needed in a situation.

Great soloer too and bowing sometimes really helps with target before I am even touched.

Have taken aggro away from a Pally (for the fun of it).

I still love my Pally but my Ranger is a lot of fun and taking them both all the way if possible.

As someone who has a high level ranger I can say that they have serious issues that hopefully SOE will someday fix.

I have tried almost every class (except Bard and Wizard) and I can say that my ranger was more fragile than any other class. Even my chanter could withstand dangerous situations better. I dont think this was matter of "knowing the class well" or "having the right gear."

There is definately some stereotyping of Ranger deaths, but there is also a measure of truth to that stereotype. I honestly run into more elf ranger corpses than any other in the game. When a situation goes bad on a raid or group, the ranger dies quite often.

Here's what I think:

1. Ranger dish out a ton of DPS, and they also are asked to be the puller in many of the high end outdoor zones. This means that by nature they are going to get a lot of aggro...

2. When they get in trouble, they don't have a "get out of jail free card" like FD, Mezz, or Gate

3. Shamans, Enchanters, Bards, and Beastlords all pick up a ton of aggro. They usually die less often (with the possible exception of Chanters). Why? They can slow.

4. Mitigation or Avoidance > Hp/AC. Why does a cleric go through mana faster when a ranger is tanking- even if that ranger has excellent AC/HP? They have garbage for mitigation/avoidance. AA's can help in this area though.. and I HAVE seen Rangers tank well in the high end of the game. But in general a Beastlord (leather class) can tank better than a Ranger with equal stats/AAs. Why? The beastlord is avoiding a lot more of those hits by being a leather class (innate avoidance boost). Don't believe this? try clericing for a Beastlord and Ranger with similar stats and see how fast you go through mana.

Here's another example: My beastlord, at 57 with 3 AA's and mediocre gear, could solo in areas that my Ranger couldnt handle at 62 (18 defensive AAs + great gear). Why? Beast's gimpy slow (30%) and avoidance meant that I could tank the same mobs that would take my ranger down in 1 minute. Now I know there are things my ranger can do that my beast can't, but my point is that my Beast could tank better at 57 than my Ranger could at 62 (w/ better gear + AAs).

Rangers have some great abilities, particular at the high end of the game. But they also have earned the jokes about Ranger deaths through their history. Again, hopefully SOE can rebalance the class a bit to make them more sturdy.

:)

Hmm thats not what I meant.. going back to re-read what I wrote...

well, missed the part about an innate av bonus the first time, but it's untrue anyway.

rangers and beastlords are on the same av table, rangers overall take around 9% damage less.

look at the TSW parse.

iirc, rangers took an average of something like 140 damage from the parse mob a round (and yes, that is averaging in zeros,) while beastlords took around 155.

I'm too lazy to dig it up, but it cant be that hardto find

that's an explanation of worn avoidance (the potime mod,) not innate avoidance.

it is easier to have a slower tank, just because they can slow instantly.

Q: Why don't Rangers have Feign Death?

A: They wouldn't survive the fall.