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Honestly, every Ranger i've seen so far has been an archer. A little love for the melee Ranger is welcome.
Again, this is just IME.
My E as well. I've created a TWF ranger, in my catalog of characters, but I've never seen one played in 4E. Every 4E ranger I've seen in action was an archer.
__________________ Ari Marmell
aka
Mouseferatu
--Rodent of the Dark
Honestly, every Ranger i've seen so far has been an archer. A little love for the melee Ranger is welcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouseferatu
My E as well. I've created a TWF ranger, in my catalog of characters, but I've never seen one played in 4E. Every 4E ranger I've seen in action was an archer.
The rangers in my groups are both TWF guys. One was originally designed as Archer, but with the other striker of the group being a Warlock, the player switched to TWF. Unwilling at first, but now he gets this certain gleem in his eyes when Elrohir draws his swords...
Is it possible that one of the reasons for the Archer's popularity is that he's the only class that really rocks the bow? That's one of my pet peeves.
So, are you saying that you would like to see someone do for the archery style ranger what the swordmage did for the fighter? A witch hunter or magestalker?
__________________ -Kaodi
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
-Iago, Shakespeare's Othello, Act III. Scene III. Lines 180-186.
While other classes do have ranged attacks, no other class rocks the bow like an archery ranger does. Does your vision of your character include a bow & arrow? Better at least multiclass in your future.
So, are you saying that you would like to see someone do for the archery style ranger what the swordmage did for the fighter? A witch hunter or magestalker?
Putting this behind a spoiler, because it's a tangent.
Spoiler:
I honestly was hoping the Avenger would be the Witch Hunter, ala WFRPG/Warhammer Online.
But I just like ranged weapons, and it seems like the Ranger is the only guy that gets to bust them out to their most useful effect. Granted, the Bard, Artificer have builds that facilitate ranged weapons, but some are just okay and they're very magical (which I Like, but I'd enjoy a martial counterpoint too). The archer rogue is less potent, because getting CA at range is much more tricky. So the ranger is the only guy that really rocks ranged weapons.
I felt that the Warlord should have ranged weapon powers; a guy who leads from the back ranks, firing his bow while saying "You, go over there!" Instead the Warlord is the guy in Front saying "You, come here!"
I've pondered things like ranged defenders* (both with weapons and magic), and a ranged (magical) Avenger. Nothing ever really came of fruition, and even if it did, I'd be making it just because it doesn't exist and I like it.
*Yes I know, a ranged defender would act like a controller. But I had worked out a concept of how it might work.
So what do folks think of the powers in the article, since those have yet to be discussed?
Last edited by Rechan; 13th July 2009 at 07:38 AM..
I've seen only one Ranger in play, a TWF that put lots of points into both str and dex so he could shoot a bow whenever the situation warranted it.
The abundance of archers might have something to do with Rangers being the only ranged striker that uses a weapon. Then again, it might be because of LotR.
Most of the powers seem to be "Twin Strike +." Though I do like the counter-attacking and misdirecting powers.
__________________ If "A" is broken, that isn't a valid reason for "B" to be so, even if they vary in degree.
Tactician style Gamer, or so I have been told.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."-Albert Einstein
Last edited by Leatherhead; 13th July 2009 at 09:15 AM..
As a bit of a meta-note, the level 6 utility doing psychic damage follows a trend I've been noticing for rangers and martial classes in general. There seem to be a lot more doing psychic damage from being just THAT scary.
I'm hoping this is testing the waters for a martial controller type class that works on similar principles, probably by PHB4. I also think this has something to do with the demise of Ki. Before, such a power would have been the Ki power source, but now Martial can feel the love too.
As far as I understand it, that build is underpowered especially in comparison to the TWF ranger (the TWF ranger in my group does awesome amounts of damage).
But being ranged in itself is a problem. 4E is a game where every character carries his or her healing, so any character who isn't in the frontline taking hits for the group is a weak link for a party.
To make ranged combat truly work in the 4E context, you really have to plan for some ability for the archer to transfer his or her healing surges to the front-line troopers.
So playing an archer ranger is probably going to work out okay in a group with an Artificer (haven't looked in detail, but I seem to have read one of his stchticks is being able to transfer surges).
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