Thought exercise: Could the Ranger be a martial controller?

[chronoplasm]

I think that making the Ranger more controller would step on the Seeker's toes a little too much.
What if the Ranger had a defender build? We sure could use a ranged defender.

Hunter's Vigilance Ranger Attack 1
At-Will. Martial, Weapon
Immediate Reaction
Ranged Weapon
Trigger: An enemy with your Hunter's Quarry placed on it attacks an ally you can see.
Effect: Make a basic ranged attack against the triggering creature as a free action.

 

[chitzk0i]

You must choose to alter the power before you roll for attack and the ability is wasted if the attack misses.

You really only need to say "use it before you roll".

If the power already had a burst, blast, or area of effect, the radius of the effect increases by 1 square. For instance, spray of arrows is a Close blast 3 effect. When hunter's volley is invoked, it becomes a Close blast 4 effect.

There's nothing that lets you apply this to a burst or blast, so why is this here?

.....You may purchase a feat entitled extra volley, which gives you one additional use of hunter's volley each encounter. You must be a ranger and possess the hunter's volley class feature to purchase the feat. This feat may be purchased multiple times; each purchase grants an additional use of hunter's volley each encounter.

This is not a class feature. It's a feat.

Extra Volley
Requirements: ranger, hunter's volley
You can use your hunter's volley class feature an additional time per encounter.
Special: this feat can be take more than once.

Hunter's Strike: Once per turn, if you succeed in hitting a target using a Ranger at-will attack power, you may also use a minor action to make a basic attack against a target you have not hit this turn. You must use the same weapon for the basic attack as you did for the at-will attack. You cannot switch weapons between the at-will and the basic attack. Therefore, the target of the basic attack must be within the same range as the target of the at-will attack. You may use your move action as normal, if you wish to position yourself before the basic attack.

Are you getting rid of twin strike? Otherwise, yay, triple strike!

My main issue here is that AoE does not a controller make. Just look at first level: after you use your single close burst for the encounter, you're a ranger with and extra basic a round instead of hunter's quarry.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think that making the Ranger more controller would step on the Seeker's toes a little too much.
What if the Ranger had a defender build? We sure could use a ranged defender.

Hunter's Vigilance Ranger Attack 1
At-Will. Martial, Weapon
Immediate Reaction
Ranged Weapon
Trigger: An enemy with your Hunter's Quarry placed on it attacks an ally you can see.
Effect: Make a basic ranged attack against the triggering creature as a free action.

I like the concept but its actually too good. Basically you ALWAYS have HQ except maybe the first couple of blows of a combat, and thus its essentially a free extra attack every round. EVERYONE will have this for archer rangers. This plus Twin Strike is bang bang bang, and an MBA is even stronger than the twin strike damage. Its also possible to spam HQ and at that point you have a choice of targets.

It needs to be more limited somehow. I LIKE the idea of an at-will power but this feels more like something you want to do once per encounter. Have it hit one target and put a status effect on them. It will be fairly good and work really well with spamming HQ.

 

[chronoplasm]

I like the concept but its actually too good. Basically you ALWAYS have HQ except maybe the first couple of blows of a combat, and thus its essentially a free extra attack every round. EVERYONE will have this for archer rangers. This plus Twin Strike is bang bang bang, and an MBA is even stronger than the twin strike damage. Its also possible to spam HQ and at that point you have a choice of targets.

It needs to be more limited somehow. I LIKE the idea of an at-will power but this feels more like something you want to do once per encounter. Have it hit one target and put a status effect on them. It will be fairly good and work really well with spamming HQ.

Makes sense. Makes sense.


How about this?

Watchwolf Ranger Attack
Encounter. Martial, Weapon
Immediate Reaction
Melee or Ranged Weapon
Trigger: An enemy under your Hunter's Quarry attacks an ally you can see.
Effect: The ally may shift a number of squares equal to your Wisdom modifier and you make a basic attack against the triggering enemy as a free action.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Makes sense. Makes sense.


How about this?

Watchwolf Ranger Attack
Encounter. Martial, Weapon
Immediate Reaction
Melee or Ranged Weapon
Trigger: An enemy under your Hunter's Quarry attacks an ally you can see.
Effect: The ally may shift a number of squares equal to your Wisdom modifier and you make a basic attack against the triggering enemy as a free action.

Yeah, sounds cool. The ally doesn't avoid the blow, but they do get a chance to shift out of a bad spot if they want or get a chance to set up some better flanking etc, plus you get the attack. So its probably strong enough to be worth considering vs other encounter powers but not going to up your damage output by 40%.

Of course this still leaves the question of what WOULD be a good at-will. Whatever it is would want to do a bit of control in some fashion. I'm thinking a push 1 ranged attack, but that doesn't quite do it and wouldn't be unique either. all the status effects are too potent for at-wills, but maybe if it marked the target in some fashion. Straight mark isn't terribly controllerish but something could be worked out.