Ranged basic attacks are not that important. Most casters will use ranged at-wills anyway and powers that grant ranged basic attacks are rare. If you want to optimize a character to use ranged basic attacks (lets say you have a warlord in the party that aims to give as many ranged basic attacks as he can), then you can probably afford to choose one of your at-wills to support that.
How will superior implements work?
Yes and no. In terms of personal power, ranged basic attacks are, as you say, just not that important.
But the fact that many ranged attackers don't have RBAs -is- really significant on a network effect level. It makes warlords and other leaders that take powers giving out rbas particularly weak, which means people don't take those classes in environments other than "we're all making up an optimized party together" -- which means that, in turn, ranged attackers who spend resources on having rbas are usually just wasting those resources. It's a bad situation all around.
Thought no list of ranged attackers with good rbas is complete without mentioning, you know, rogues -- with a great to-hit, and if they mis with the attack on their turn, amazing damage. (and rogues, like rangers, will pump static damage as they can, since while they don't attack twice, they do tend to hit).
But the fact that many ranged attackers don't have RBAs -is- really significant on a network effect level. It makes warlords and other leaders that take powers giving out rbas particularly weak, which means people don't take those classes in environments other than "we're all making up an optimized party together" -- which means that, in turn, ranged attackers who spend resources on having rbas are usually just wasting those resources. It's a bad situation all around.
Thought no list of ranged attackers with good rbas is complete without mentioning, you know, rogues -- with a great to-hit, and if they mis with the attack on their turn, amazing damage. (and rogues, like rangers, will pump static damage as they can, since while they don't attack twice, they do tend to hit).
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
The thing is, how many classes really lack an RBA? If your Warlord is dishing them out, then retrain an at-will to Magic Missile or whatever. Which class is deficient in both STR and DEX and has no RBA usable at-will? Avenger maybe? Perhaps specific builds of some other classes, but its probably NOT all that common to have a party with more than 1 character who simply CANNOT muster an effective RBA. In a 5 person party where the warlord has 3 allies that have RBAs I expect it will be pretty rare he can't find someone to grant an effective attack to.
People dump on MM and call it lame, but honestly its not all that lame a power. It just has a lot of small little benefits that may or may not matter in a given group but when they do matter it becomes a pretty useful thing to have. Likewise with other miscellaneous RBA enabled powers. Any martial character without a backup ranged attack is already a fool, so...
People dump on MM and call it lame, but honestly its not all that lame a power. It just has a lot of small little benefits that may or may not matter in a given group but when they do matter it becomes a pretty useful thing to have. Likewise with other miscellaneous RBA enabled powers. Any martial character without a backup ranged attack is already a fool, so...
N8Ball
Explorer
If you will read my post again I think you will find that I have suggested a material tradeoff in the mechanics.
One of the major criticisms of the expertise feats is that they add no flavor to the character, they're just a bland bonus that scales with tiers.
My suggestion was to offer a static bonus (likely +1 att) with superior implements and some other benefits associated with the implement (something like the wizard mastery abilities, or a +1 to dmg).
The tradeoff would be giving up a scaling bonus and blandness for a static bonus, flavor and some other minor coolness.
Mechanically, the expertise feats would probably still have a slight edge, but having a worthy alternative to the expertise feats would be welcome, because there really isn't right now.
And anyway, it was just an idea, and would certainly need to be polished and balanced a bit before it could be used.
Marshall
First Post
Huh?!?
Its easier to list the classes that DO have an effective RBA. Ranger, Rogue and Seeker. There are specific builds/powers in other classes that may permit one, but thats it.
If you're not a DEX based ranged specialist, your RBA is crap.
cmbarona
First Post
... unless you're STR-based and use a heavy thrown weapon. Those classes' RBAs might not be as great as the DEX-based ones, but it's certainly not "crap."
Edit: On a related topic, 5 bucks says PHB3 has "Ranged Training."
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Ryujin
Legend
Perhaps referred to as "Zen Archery" or something similar...?
It might have Focused Training in addition/instead -- giving you your chosen stat for both ranged and melee attacks with a specific type of weapon. But yeah -- classes that build Str or Dex as a raw stat have a ranged option (and an RBA) -without- having to take powers that give them one. Warlocks are forced to take an RBA. Everyone else might or might have the option to pick one, but some classes don't even have that (Chraladins, as I've mentioned, have basically no non-encounter ranged attacks. Sucks to be them if the encounter turns "all ranged, all the time", doesn't it?).
Destil
Explorer
Warlock (since they all have to take blast, and 1d10 isn't bad).
For a free attack, it's not bad at all. For an at-will that doesn't do anything else...not so swell.
The Seeker's Wisdom-based isn't it? With a Dex secondary? Does it get an at-will attack power that it can use as a RBA?
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