I do agree that the classes need to not be balanced completely equal. The difference though with mage and other classes is going too much into the extreme. And from my experience and everyone I played with, it is just easier to do higher dps as an end game mage then other classes. I know ppl who outdps themselves as mage playing it for maybe 50 hours. And then playing ranger for 1000 hours for less dps xD. I myself will spam fireballs only and outdps every non mage while not having tilesets up lol. The skill to reward balance is out of proportion here. Maybe if a mage was forced to use a more complex cast pattern to do good dps I would have accepted it. But it isnāt currently. There is madness in other classes and their skill difference too. But is less rewarded.
What I would like to see though is that the difficulty of the classes are brought in mind on their dps increase curve and either all dps get end game execution difficulty that is about equal which will give same dps, or the difference in dps will be have to be less extreme then it is now.
??? When you say āendgameā do you mean endgame gear, or very good at mage. When you say āeasierā do you mean that they can easily do lots of damage after practicing a lot, or that they can easily do a lot of damage with less practice compared to other classes (VERY doubtful on that one). What I think you mean is that once you reach end game skill level on mage, you can easily do more damage than every other class at their own āend game levelā. Obviously? It takes a lot of practice to reach endgame skill level on mage, so once you have reached that point you can do lots of damage when compared to other classes that are able to reach endgame skill level more easily (ex: shaman). This is a also due to the fact that mage is a really well made class, while scoundrel and ranger just arenāt. Iāve been saying this for a while. With the way that the classes are right now it is going to be extremely difficult for the devs to balance the classes based off the current mechanics. Classes besides mage are going to need mechanical changes, and to be quite honest, I donāt see that happening at all.
They must have sucked pretty badly at their classes if you were able to out dps with without tilesets or afflictions. Thatās all I have to say about that.
Once again. Shaman. The easiest class in the entire game has the second highest dps. I completely agree with you when it comes to scoundrel and ranger, but as I said above, it will be very difficult to boost the DPS of those classes without making them too strong or still too weak. There will have to be a change to how those classes work to make this happen. As you said earlier, scoundrel tile sets are too difficult. Maybe making scoundrel tilesets easier to proc would be a step in the right direction. I donāt even know what to do about ranger.
I have logs of Scott pulling absurd numbers from just fireball spam. Itās not that the people he plays with sucks, itās that heās ridiculously awesome.
Even though Sift you guys can spam great but even myself logging in after so long and trust me we can run together my casting is nothing compared to you guys yet spamming fireball is my go to bc it kills faster simple as that. Like frost is literally a waste of cast usually bc you can just spam fireball and any decent mage can now kill just about anything before even reaching attack distance. Especially when picking them off one at a time. Groups are still easy too just takes a tad more effort. I also only have +3 gear for all armory and weapon. If I had +5 gear and +6 wand I would kill even easier so I canāt even imagine guys like you two and @Werehound. I honestly would hate to see the mage take another nerf after the mistake of triplicity changes. Also for the learning curve for Mage compared to everything else it just literally doesnāt compare. So I think In a sense the Mage should be OP compared to other classes. For itās obviously the hardest class to learn and reach max potential. Iām honestly torn, itās 50/50. If they balanced every class right perfectly then yeah but the odds of that happening are unlikely. So Iād rather maybe not touch it just in case you accidentally make things worse.
Why are there so many posts about mage in a thread for rangers?
Balancing classes should also take into mechanics. I remember a lot of groups preferring ranger over mage for squiddie in oldbus. Boss mechanics that are easier or require a certain group composition help to make endgame more diverse. If one class is vastly superior to another for a certain role and no mechanics require the use of the other classes, then the endgame loses diversity and fun.
I like smoke arrow in the same way I like fireworks. Itās fun to have pointless effect spells, I hate how this always gets cited as what it wrong with ranger. Smoke arrow is fine, but the class does still needs to be competitive with the other classes.
I always thought itād be cool if the ranger became more of stealth or rouge class. Maybe with an ability that allows sneaking past mobs or shorter leash distances. Or having smoke arrow apply a āmasked scentā type buff to everyone in radius.
Mages got brought up bc all classes need rework and mage has always been the most argued over with both sides having valid points.
Smoke arrow is absolutely fine like you said itās just like fireworks, for entertainment basically.
I do remember there being A LOT more rangers around in Old School. Even if you werenāt one you leveled it too anyway. As far as mechanics I think the class needs rework to fit reborn rather than make the game fit the current state of class.
As far as mechanic changes I would love to see a rouge like skill tree for ranger. Iāve made several post before saying a stealthy rouge like class would be fun especially on pvp side of things. I could even see them switching to daggers and throwing knives for the rouge set up. Throwing knives so itās still a range class hence being a ranger but your daggers when used as melee can have poison effects or other buffs like maybe a weakness or even bleed. Maybe instead of daggers have those fist claws that look like wolverines claws idk what the weapons name is IRL.
Tman used to shoot the red tails at starter area all the way from guild city I swear Tman is the only reason I know how to properly shoot with the ranger and reach max distance with it.
Why I can stand at portal and hit things by Highsteppe gate? Literally doesnāt need any more range considering you can already stand outside of leash points and hit them all day long. Why would you want more useless distance? I donāt think youāve ever seen max distance shots or youād understand why this is so unnecessary
I canāt count the number of times Iāve been in a boss fight and had arrows deal no damage because Iām too far away. If I can see the arrow hit the mob, I expect it to deal damage.
The only range limitation Iāve found so far is my own render distance. Iām on the quest so my max distance isnāt too far, but I canāt think of any reason to be so far away from the target. Past 30 meters for the precision lvl 30 talent, you donāt gain anything for being at such a long range. Being closer generally makes it easier to hit weak points anyway, so you should be sticking around that 30 meter range
While in crypt I stood where the troll is and shot arrows from above onto Lich king while my party was in his arena and I still did damage to him so how far exactly were you? Did you test anything else or just jump to a conclusion?
Have they updated projectile max-distance in the last month? Some of the big guys that run around on Guild City end up have me standing 40-50m away. My arrows hit fine but I donāt deal any damage.
I swear Tman is the only reason I know how to properly shoot with the ranger and reach max distance with it.