How will the Tempest fighter and the Ranger differ?

[Gundark]

WotC has a preview build from their upcoming book Martial power. The preview is for a fighter build called the "The Tempest" (a 2 weapon fighter), they also previewed an at will for this new 2 weapon fighter.

Dual Strike * Fighter Attack 1

You lash out quickly and follow up faster, delivering two small wounds.
At-Will Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons.
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC (main weapon and off-hand weapon), two attacksHit: 1[W] damage per attack.
Increase damage to 2[W] per attack at 21st level.

It seems pretty close to the Ranger power twin stirke

Twin Strike * Ranger Attack 1

If the first attack doesn't kill it, the second one might.

At-Will Martial, Weapon
Action Melee or Ranged weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons or a ranged weapon.
Targets: One or two creatures
Attack: Strength vs. AC (melee; main weapon and off-hand weapon) or Dexterity vs. AC (ranged), two attacks
Hit: 1[W] damage per attack.
Increase damage to 2[W] at 21st level.



How will the 2 builds compare? Will they feel too much like the same thing? Or will they still feel differnt enough?

 

[garyh]

Two difference in those at-wills are immediately apparent to me.

1 - The fighter can only target one creature with both attacks. The ranger can target two.

2 - Rangers can use non-offhand weapons in both hands. The tempest fighter (from other parts of the preview) don't get that, and in fact get bonuses when using light/offhand weapons. So that's a damage bonus overall to the ranger.

 

[Ximenes088]

Looks pretty cosmetic to me. The math I've seen so far suggests that a TWF fighter will end up doing slightly more damage than a sword-and-boarder at the cost of slightly worse AC, but he'll still have better AC than a two-hander and slightly worse damage. Role-wise, this isn't going to change a fighter's role at all. He doesn't get the quarry damage bonus that means so much to rangers and he's got no special mobility powers. He'll still be in there doing his fighter thing, except he can now use two different weapon power sets at once with minimal issues.

 

[TerraDave]

This seems the most "strikery" of the builds (and thats not a bad thing).

But as implied above, the fighter would still have combat superiority, more hp and healing and a slightly better AC, while the ranger would be more mobile, more skill oriented, and do more damage.

 

[Cadfan]

Its not a very fun answer, but honestly the only way to tell will be to review the actual powers for the class.

Consider the ranger without powers other than Twin Strike. He's got hit points, ac, a two weapon attack, and his quarry ability. From that information, you'd never know that the two weapon ranger is one of the most mobile classes on the battlefield, because his ability to shift freely is usually attached to his class powers.

Chances are that the two weapon fighter will be similar. Without knowing better what sorts of things his powers do, we can only guess. My guess is that the two weapon fighter will function very, very similarly to current fighters, and will differ from the ranger in that the two weapon fighter won't get the shifting abilities that the ranger receives. But that's just a guess.

 

[Remathilis]

The obvious one to me is if they are fighting a gargoyle who suddenly takes to the air, the ranger can draw his bow and continue use twin strike while the fighter is stuck with a basic ranged attack.

 

[Rechan]

The obvious one to me is if they are fighting a gargoyle who suddenly takes to the air, the ranger can draw his bow and continue use twin strike while the fighter is stuck with a basic ranged attack.

I had a similar thought; I have a ranger in my party, and he likes to alternate between swords and bow (even though his dex is four points lower than his Str). All of the twf attacks (except for say, Dire Wolverine strike or any other close burst attacks) also allow for two ranged attacks.

 

[TerraDave]

The obvious one to me is if they are fighting a gargoyle who suddenly takes to the air, the ranger can draw his bow and continue use twin strike while the fighter is stuck with a basic ranged attack.

And the fighter will get a juiced-up opportunity attack, and if the gargoyle attacks anyone else, it will be a at a penalty.

 

[That One Guy]

I'm kind of curious about why comparing just the two powers? I also think that the three encounter powers for the tempest fighter imply a certain... style of play. Sliding (enemies) and going for combat advantage more than the other builds. Also, I'm really guessing that like most of 4e its value won't be easily observed until in play. This doesn't really give the fighter ranged possibilities (like the ranger's twin strike), but it does allow for close blasts/bursts that use off-hand throwing weapons to be pretty wrecking. Makes MCing into rogue look realllly nice.