Whats the point of a ranged basic attack?

[Plane Sailing]

OK, I've been reading through the whole PHB, and I'm asking myself what benefit 'Magic Missile' and 'Eldritch Blast' get from counting as ranged basic attacks.

As far as I can see, the only time that ranged basic attacks get used are:

• You can make a free basic attack as a result of Surprise Attack - Warlord 7
• You can make a free basic attack that does no damage but knocks a target prone as a result of Beat them into the ground - warlord 13
• You can make a free basic attack as a result of Warlords Gambit - Warlord 15
• You can make a free basic attack as a result of Hail of Steel - Warlord 17
• You can make a free basic attack as a result of Victory Surge - Warlord 19
• You can make a free basic attack as a result of Relentless Assault - Warlord 25
• You can make a free ranged basic attack as a result of Stir the Hornets Nest - Warlock 25
• You can make a free ranged basic attack as a result of Superior Tactics - Combat Veteran 20
• You can get a bonus to damage from bracers of the perfect shot

There are a couple of Ranger powers that would allow a multiclassed character to take a basic attack when the power is used too.

It seems that from Paragon level onwards there may be some benefit to it, but throughout the heroic tier there is almost no impact from it being counted as a basic attack (except, of course, that it may make you more hazardous to your allies when targetted by certain powers!)

Have I missed anything important here?

Cheers

 

[Baumi]

No I think you got it all

Having powers as ranged basic attack is only a small bonus and it highly depend upon the group build. But don't underestimate bracers of perfect shot, these are one of the few items for arcane users to boost their damage directly. Also you don't give up anything, MM or or EB would still be useful without counting as basic attack.

But who know what the future will bring, it might become a great feature when the next classes and items arrive...

 

[Alabast]

There may be situations in game where a ranged basic attack is the best tactical choice for a melee character. A fighter can mark an enemy with a cleverly-placed thrown axe. Melee characters might have to fight off a bunch of artillery enemies across a chasm while waiting for an excruciatingly slow drawbridge to lower, etc.

 

[James McMurray]

If you're swallowed all you get are basic attacks.

If you're an Anarch of Shyr you get a free basic attack when you use your action point (though it might be melee only, not sure).

There's probably a few others, but in general it's an unimportant distinction, especially now that AV gives us lots of nice bracers for wizards and warlocks, so Bracers of the Perfect Shot aren't as easy a choice. But as they've been adding ways to help basics, I assume they'll continue to do so, and MM / EB will continue to grow in usefulness because of that clause.

 

[Lacyon]

It would be pretty sad if, when the vampire lord dominated the wizard, you could only direct him to beat his party members about the head with his orb or wand.

Scratch that, it would be awesome.

 

[DracoSuave]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The benefit of the attacks being basic ranged attacks stems from having a warlord in the party to exploit it. The other benefit of those powers is that they do more base damage than the other at-wills for those classes.

 

[Nail]

...but don't ranged basic attacks provoke OAs? ...so there are precious few times when you are pressed and want to make a ranged attack....

 

[Cadfan]

I think it just opens up future design space, and options for interaction with warlord type powers. Right now it doesn't appear to be exploited much, but I can imagine how the conversation went at WOTC:

Joe: Ok, Bob, the warlord boosts party damage by giving everyone extra attacks and stuff out of turn.
Bob: Great idea, Joe! But what kind of extra attacks? Can you use your daily powers?
Joe: Good point, Bob. No, that might be too good.
Bob: Thanks, Joe. And even some of the at wills might be a little odd when used out of turn.
Joe: That's true, Bob. How about only basic attacks?
Bob: Excellent idea, Joe! But what about classes without good basic attacks?
Joe: Well, Bob, it will provide extra incentive to invest in strength if you are a melee class, and an extra bonus for those melee classes that already use strength.
Bob: Good thinking, Joe. But what about wizards and warlocks, who are absolutely terrible at basic attacks?
Joe: Good point, Bob. Why don't we make certain spells count as basic attacks, for the purposes of these sorts of powers?
Bob: That would indeed solve the problem, Joe! Lets shall.

 

[HighTemplar]

Helm of heroes rocks.
Knight's move + one of those stated warlords power + helm of heroes is just the .

The way I see it, ranged basic attacks are useful for damaging foes without taking risks or without expending any ressource. They're just great, but can rarely be used. They should never be used when they could provoke AoO. Also as far as I recall, using a bow gives any class a ranged basic attack.

So what if your party is on the hunt and all grab bows, when they see foes, they get pretty much a free shot at them, getting some free damage in, as well as a good idea of the target's AC(or reflex from MM or EB).

As previously stated: aside from that there's not much to it.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Cadfan hit the nail on the head... I think this is more a case or synergy with the Warlord and/or future-proofing the casters. While there might not be a lot of stuff right now that allows for ranged basic attacks, there might be in the future.

Also, look at where your casters are, they're in the back row. If there was a Warlord power that granted everyone a basic attack against a target of their choice, the Wizard and Warlock might have some trouble. They'd probably be too far for melee, and since it's a special power they wouldn't be able to be spending extra actions to switch weapon. So enter MM and EB...as ranged basic attacks they would fulfill the requirements and allow them to add to the use of the power.

If that line wasn't in there, people would complain about it and it would probably have gotten errata'd in anyway. So they just saved themselves some work and future proofed it.