OMG fix stream of arrows

[mossfire]

Ok Devs fix this. You guys have been doing great with the recent changes but this spell is terribly broken and needs some attention. Throw us 1 more bone with the bones that have been thrown already<div></div>

[z3oslo]

<div></div><p>Stream of arrows is usless as it is now, you do more damage with autobow attack. :smileyvery-happy: Its closer to be a taunt spell they way it is working now. So go defensive and be a tank is my advice :smileywink:</p><p>Thorny trap is another funny spell. What did Thorny Trap do for you lately? :smileyindifferent:</p>

[ReynardTheFox]

I've examined my use of SoA extensively over the last week or so and it seems that whenever the arrow that fires has a proc of any kind (poison, quickshot, weapon proc or buff proc) then the focus bar disappears and that means a 3 second delay till the next arrow.This does need fixed asap.<div></div>

[Star]

<div></div><p>SoA is utter uselessness now. Spend 30 seconds doing sup 300 DPS? Maybe if everything, and I do mean everything, else is down.</p><p>Thorny Trap however is quite usefull for soloing groups of mobs. It lets you split the group into single encounters which is quite helpful. However it has 0 group usefulness.</p>

[SIlly Muffin]

<div></div><div></div><p>I have utterly stopped using it.</p><p>Also noticed something interesting. SOA has "range" of 40m but my longbow has 35m range?  /boggle</p><p>In general, I cannot reliably get it to even work. It seems everytime i activate it it does nothing now. I've had it work maybe 1/10 times, and usually when i am shooting right next to the mob up its nostrils..- some groupies even think its another issue altogether .</p><p>("Look the Ranger is a stunned", "Did you LD", "Lag?&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Thus I am wondering IF there is some sort of range bug in SOA as well as trigger/timing bug?</p><p>muffin</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by SIlly Muffin on <span class="date_text">03-13-2006</span><span class="time_text">07:28 AM</span></p>

[nimbus2kgold]

<div></div><div>This used to be one of my favorite spells, even shelled out plat for the Master1 of it.  I barely use it now.  Basically I use it when i need to run to the bathroom quick and want to look like I'm still there and doing something. </div><div> </div><div>This spell is very very sad as is.  Please Please fix this. I beg you.</div>

[Brynshand]

<div><span><blockquote><hr>SIlly Muffin wrote:<div></div><div></div><p>I have utterly stopped using it.</p><p>Also noticed something interesting. SOA has "range" of 40m but my longbow has 35m range?  /boggle</p><p>In general, I cannot reliably get it to even work. It seems everytime i activate it it does nothing now. I've had it work maybe 1/10 times, and usually when i am shooting right next to the mob up its nostrils..- some groupies even think its another issue altogether .</p><p>("Look the Ranger is a stunned", "Did you LD", "Lag?&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Thus I am wondering IF there is some sort of range bug in SOA as well as trigger/timing bug?</p><p>muffin</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by SIlly Muffin on <span class="date_text">03-13-2006</span><span class="time_text">07:28 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>Well I don't have SoA yet thank god so can't share in your suffering...  Training an Alchemist while I wait for next update.You should take a look at ALL the bow arts - I seem to remember seeing one that was 50m range.  I think it was Hidden Shot?  Not sure...</span></div>

[USAFJeeper]

<div>I find SoA still really useful as well.   I even made a special macro to cast it.  I named the Macro "AFK for a beer".    I sure hate seeing my DPS go down using AFK, I mean SoA.</div>

[Star]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>SIlly Muffin wrote:<div></div><div></div><p>I have utterly stopped using it.</p><p>Also noticed something interesting. SOA has "range" of 40m but my longbow has 35m range?  /boggle</p><p>In general, I cannot reliably get it to even work. It seems everytime i activate it it does nothing now. I've had it work maybe 1/10 times, and usually when i am shooting right next to the mob up its nostrils..- some groupies even think its another issue altogether .</p><p>("Look the Ranger is a stunned", "Did you LD", "Lag?&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Thus I am wondering IF there is some sort of range bug in SOA as well as trigger/timing bug?</p><p>muffin</p><hr></blockquote>A lot of the box CAs have a ranger greater than the AA range of a longbow. I think of it as my ranger having something akin to the Far Shot feat from D&D (yes I'm a geek like that <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ). If you're close enough to be shooting "the mob up its nostils" that might be the trouble. Steam Shot will stop casting if the mob gets within 5m of you.

[SIlly Muffin]

<div></div><div><hr></div><p>A lot of the box CAs have a ranger greater than the AA range of a longbow. I think of it as my ranger having something akin to the Far Shot feat from D&D (yes I'm a geek like that <img border="0" src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-tongue.gif" height="16" width="16">). If you're close enough to be shooting "the mob up its nostils" that might be the trouble. Steam Shot will stop casting if the mob gets within 5m of you.</p><p></p><hr><p>Thats my problem. SOA doesnt seem to go off at ALL. The few times it has, I was relatively close to the mob. (but probably just outside of melee). Prior to KoS it seemed to work at even long ranges on raids. Yet, these days it seems after 90% of the time I activate it, I will stand there doing nothing until i use another CA. It just doesnt start shooting at all.</p><p>muffin</p>

[Avendelf]

<div></div>For the uh, thorny trap issue.  It <em>is </em>great, sometimes...but i mean im going to exaggerate here for humor's sake but this isnt far off from the truth...ive seen groups and even solo mobs come straight line at me with trap in between us...take one look at the trap and make a nice little curve around it then come at me again...as if they know its there and specifically avoid it...defeats the whole purpose especially with it being the size of a quarter.  Dunno it used to be awesome...now its nice...most of the time.  And i guess it only traps flying mobs and nameds and nameds guards when its in the right mood? (not epic, just heroic)

[pseudocide]

the only reason i kept SoA on my hotbar after lu20 was for raid mobs when i was oop, but now with grizzfazzles bow  autoattack as soon as i get a skill to take up the space i will, hell bounty might be a better use of space <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span><div></div>

[mochl]

<div></div>You know... if they got rid of the root/pacify of SoA... and let us use it as a kiting tool, i'd almost be ok if it was left the way it is now.

[ChaosUndivided]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>mochlod wrote:<div></div>You know... if they got rid of the root/pacify of SoA... and let us use it as a kiting tool, i'd almost be ok if it was left the way it is now.<hr></blockquote>I thought about that, but then I thought about how overpowering that would be.

[Steezi]

<div></div>longest CA we have is improved surveil at 50m... no bow arts go that far. (in fact if i remember correctly it has longest range of any spell in game) Stream would be our next furthest, but if your using a shortbow i dont know that the streamshots actually fire....

[Guy De Alsace]

I use Thorny Trap all the time...only thing that enables me to kill up arrow heroic groups relatively painlessly. I always get all the group in mine. Only time I get one that misses the trap is if one is a spellchucker and he casts instead of moving into the trap when it goes off. I usually place the trap right in front of me so the mobs converge on me, get trapped and I move back and pepper em.I never use Stream of Arrrows...just seems a pointless spell.<div></div>

[Jay]

<div></div>I removed Thorny Trap from my hotbar a few weeks ago, after attempting several uses and just having the mobs run right over it without triggering the trap. Stream is still on the hotbar, but I only use it for AFKs so it looks like I'm actually participating while I go grab a drink. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Star]

<div></div><p>Wow, I'm shocked. I've had no problems to speak of with thorny trap. I've never had a mob walk around it. Only time mobs have not been caugh is when they're a mixed grp and the casters stand back and cast at me while the melee mobs run in and trigger the trap while the casters are still out of range of it.</p><p>And on the original topic. Fix SoA please... make me want to use it again. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[ChaosUndivided]

<div></div>The Droag's and other Flying mobs (Beholders, dragons) in KoS have a tendency to fly right over the trap, that may be part of the problem many are facing.

[Stormhawk]

To be honest, I could care less if they fix SoA.  I'm having more fun without it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  It is considerably less dull when timing your melee and ranged attacks to fall inside of joust movements.<div></div>

[Asla]

<div></div><p>SoA - Very broken.  If it is supposed to fire every 1.5 seconds for 30 seconds, that would be 20 arrows.   As it is, my parses show 13-15 arrows at best, assuming no bow auto-attack got off in there.</p><p>For the ranger having trouble making it work - SoA has mutiple range issues.  For one, the icon lights up as usable when it's not.  Watch the rest of your icons; when they show you're in skill range, SoA is now usable.  The main problem --  when any other combat art can't be used, it gives you an error message.  (Target is too far away, you can't see the target, target is too close, etc.)   SoA doesn't do any of that once it's been triggered.  So even tho it's trying to 'cast' every 1.5 - 4 seconds, it doesn't generate the proper error messages.  (And since you're rooted, you couldn't do anything about it even if you knew.)  </p><p>With maximum AA points in Bow criticals, I'm getting 250-300 DPS from SoA.  (300 assuming that every shot goes critical).  Not sure if this is intended, but it seems this damage should have scaled up quite a bit more for lvl 70.</p><p>Also broken with SoA - As another poster mentioned, if a proc goes off along with SoA, even fewer arrows are ever shot since a long delay is added between 'casts'.   This also happens if a critical hit occurs.   The avatar pauses to do a 'critical hit' animation, which delays the next cast bar.</p><p> </p><p>Thorny Trap - I've noticed various problem with TT, but most seem to do with bad mob pathing.   For instance, in Palace of the Awakened, in the Foyer, it works perfectly.  Place it where you know the flying mob has to go, and it'll be rooted.</p><p>On the other hand, I tried to use this during a Sothis fight.  In this fight, once you engage the dragon, you have some slow-moving walking zombies to contend with.   Perfect use for a root/snare trap to buy some time.   I placed it in a chokepoint where the mob HAD to hit it....  and watched the mob walk THRU THE FLOOR and come up on the other side of the trap like a submarine.   I'm wondering if 'flying' pathing isn't just a general pathing break where the path doesn't get close enough to the trap on the Z-axis, therefore the trap never goes off.</p><p>Additional Thorny Trap break - the snare component is gone.   Don't know if this was intentional, but if not, it needs fixed.</p>

[kartikeya]

<div>Agreed on the SoA thing, that buggy cast bar or whatever is going on is really irritating. I rarely, rarely use it anymore, and I used to really love that ability.</div><div> </div><div>I still use trap a lot, because I solo a great deal, but good grief...I can manuever the mobs over the very small 'trap', however annoying that is, but I have seen the trap simply disappear rather than fire more times than I can count now. I'm not talking about it going off and the mob just resists, I'm saying the mob(s) step right onto the thing and it just poofs. Gone. I've had it up and disappear right after laying it as well. Really iannoying.</div><div> </div><div> </div>

[Star]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>AslanK wrote:<div></div><p>With maximum AA points in Bow criticals, I'm getting 250-300 DPS from SoA.  (300 assuming that every shot goes critical).  Not sure if this is intended, but it seems this damage should have scaled up quite a bit more for lvl 70.</p><hr></blockquote><p> </p><p>SoA does not scale with level and because of what I will call the "chase the stat cap" problem, if you're not keeping your STR at the stat cap (or as close to the stat cap percentage wise as it was at lower level) you will see a decrease in damage across the board on your CAs. I do wish they would code in a fix to this broken game wide mechanic.</p>

[A]

<div>SoA would still be viable if every arrow was fired every 1.5 second.</div><div>As it is I still use it on raids on big AE mobs because it is still better than ranged auto-attack and I have to do something while waiting for bow CAs to refresh and I rather not joust with the melee when I can do damage while safely out of AE range...</div>

[TerriBlades]

<blockquote><hr>Ail wrote:<div>SoA would still be viable <font color="#ff0000">if every arrow was fired every 1.5 second</font>.</div><div>As it is I still use it on raids on big AE mobs because it is still better than ranged auto-attack and I have to do something while waiting for bow CAs to refresh and I rather not joust with the melee when I can do damage while safely out of AE range...</div><hr></blockquote><p>And that there seems to be the major problem with this line, at times, SoA works prefectly for about 3-5 shots, but toss in an added proc, and it breaks the cycle, which is what seems to be happening. At least in my experiences with it. Personally I wish they would take this back to the way it was before. But maybe, just maybe, they gave each shot a casting timer to work nicely with the last AA in the agi line. if you shave 35% off each shot, instead of a 1.5 second shot, you are now down to a 1 second shot. Lets just hope they can work out the bugs of this revamped CA.</p><p> </p><p>Nesse</p><p>68 Ranger / Dirty Dozen / Oasis</p>

[mossfire]

bumped<div></div>

[Serventof Wrath]

<div></div><p>Please don't just write bump!!!  Its one of the fastest ways to get a thread locked and they really should fix this CA.  On the other hand it is nice to see that i'm not the only one that keys up SoA just to go grab a drink all sneaky like <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> </p><p>Oolan Woodswraith</p><p>58 Ranger Najena</p>

[Majes]

Havent used SoA but once or twice since KoS. It sucks. Please fix.<div></div>

[Bor]

This CA really needs to be fixed. At the moment the only thing it's good for is wasting arrows.<div></div>

[papasmurf1004]

<div></div><div></div><p>Agreed!!! Picked up the master 1 2 days ago and still haven't scribed it. No point really. I get 300-350 dps from the adept 3 version for 30 secs yet i do 700+ using skills so why use it.</p><p>The other skill that needs looking at in the ATTACK HAWK. Well thats what they call it lol. The aggro reduction seems handy i guess but with all the aggro reducers we already have plus always being in raid groups with a troub it just doesn't get used.</p><p> OOO one sec :; useability stream of arrows. /gsay brb need drink!!........................................... .....</p><p>Ahh thats better. Now where was i o yes the bird. While the bird is out my dps also decreases as i cannot invis due to the bird breaking it. So it has its uses in group situations but in raids it sucks. A nice dps acient spell would have been nice.</p><p>Overall very happy to be playing a ranger even though the drop in DPS is a bit of a shock at first but its not the end of the world and the changes in lu21 look pretty good. I still compete ok dps wise with the rest of the raid certainly not getting out dps'ed by monks like some of you have mentioned just the brigand/conjurer/necro/swashy/wizard/warlock/assassin LOL. But when we look at the raid total at the end of the night i normally sit 3rd or 4th overall and thats b4 the changes. I stopped single fight parsing a long time ago because truely it means nothing. Sustained DPS over a 2-3 hour raid is far more important and with choosing the right AA's and being in the right raid group i see myself being tier 1 DPS easily after LU21.</p><p>Wow went way of track on a rant-a-thon there sorry. Bottom line is FIX STREAM OF ARROWS!!!!!! make it 2 minute duration so i can get some toast as well :-p</p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by papasmurf1004 on <span class="date_text">03-16-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:31 PM</span></p>

[TheGodli]

<div></div><p>U cant always CA tho, with our long re-use timer, SoA was really handy to get some timers back up, but now its so crappy autoattacks do better, and i hate just standing about and end up using crappy moves that burn my power. The same things goes for triple arrow and precise shot, they do so little damage now, i dont really wanna use em if i know power is gonna be an issue. ANd all of these moves tends to get parried alot, and when they don't proc, whats the point in using them.</p><p>These were three of my favourite moves. Good for grps and doing good dmg, good for soloign based on the same reasons. plus they procced alot and kept mobs stunned, stifled or whatever, which just doesnt occur anymore. Either fix these skills or change them, i dotn wanna be wasting power on moves just to not stand about. Precise shot deals less damage than an auto-attack, and if ur hasted, auto-attacks do more dmg than stream of arrows could ever dream of doing.</p>

[SIlly Muffin]

<div></div><div></div><p>Wrong thread..</p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by SIlly Muffin on <span class="date_text">03-16-2006</span><span class="time_text">07:50 AM</span></p>

[Star]

<div></div><div></div><blockquote><hr>TheGodlike wrote:<div></div><p>U cant always CA tho, with our long re-use timer, SoA was really handy to get some timers back up, but now its so crappy autoattacks do better, and i hate just standing about and end up using crappy moves that burn my power. The same things goes for triple arrow and precise shot, they do so little damage now, i dont really wanna use em if i know power is gonna be an issue. ANd all of these moves tends to get parried alot, and when they don't proc, whats the point in using them.</p><p>These were three of my favourite moves. Good for grps and doing good dmg, good for soloign based on the same reasons. plus they procced alot and kept mobs stunned, stifled or whatever, which just doesnt occur anymore. Either fix these skills or change them, i dotn wanna be wasting power on moves just to not stand about. Precise shot deals less damage than an auto-attack, and if ur hasted, auto-attacks do more dmg than stream of arrows could ever dream of doing.</p><hr></blockquote><p>OMG... "Precise shot deals less damage than an auto-attack, and if ur hasted, auto-attacks do more dmg than stream of arrows could ever dream of doing." Please, I beg you to go test this. Have a tank friend hold a mob and compare. I think you will find that using these is not a waste of power.</p><p>EDIT: While I agree that SoA is now sub par and needs a slight bump up, this makes no sense. They need to just fix the timing thing or up toe DMG a bit. I don't want to see it doing the same DPS as when I'm working hard with all the other stuff because then that's just and excuse to be lazy. But a slight boost would be nice. Though I have to say this skill does really shine on LONG raid fights where you manage to run out of power since it has almost no power cost to activate. Basically in such situations it's good to keep your DPS up (since it does still do better DPS than AA + Max Haste).</p><p>Message Edited by jwmaynar on <span class="date_text">03-16-2006</span><span class="time_text">02:04 PM</span></p>

[Tarryn]

<div></div>What I would really like to see is for them to bump SoA up about 50% on damage, fix the timing issues to make it get in exactly 20 shots in 30 seconds, and give it a recast of about 10 minutes.  In other words, make it <em>well worth using</em>, without making it the only thing we use.

[4lta]

<div></div>they hate rangers they wont fix anything jus continue to break the class more with the new PBs changes ive heard of!!!!!! DEVs ..../fired and / fired CSRs for Never giving any kind of responce about this stuff EVER! go break some more classes like conj. oh wait a dev prolly plays a conj so they wont get nerfed only upgraded !!

[Star]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>4lta wrote:<div></div>they hate rangers they wont fix anything jus continue to break the class more with the new PBs changes ive heard of!!!!!! DEVs ..../fired and / fired CSRs for Never giving any kind of responce about this stuff EVER! go break some more classes like conj. oh wait a dev prolly plays a conj so they wont get nerfed only upgraded !!<hr></blockquote>Where do you keep all that anger? Perhaps you should look into releasing it in a constructive manner someplace other than these forums. :smileyvery-happy:

[jagermiester]

<div></div>You know when i use stream? When i am almost oop cause it uses [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] for power then i go get a beer. I open this beer and hope it calms me down after seing the pathetic damage i was doing. Then i get another beer. Then i go afk and af on the cleric for 10 mins cause i need to consume these beers faster. Then i come back and say "[expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] i wish i got a better master than soa back in the day" [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] was great when it had 0 range...proced all to hell basically slayed mobs. Now? ha i rather scribe our level 20ish ae melee attack. Atleast make it usefull to use as a ca again. There was no upgrade to the spell so i should be using it at level 70 in certain situations. You need to outweigh the stifle root factor with some killer damage and 600 dmg every 2 secs isnt killer.

[massem]

<div>It must feel awful that it actually affects your DPS when you go AFK :smileyhappy:</div>

[Tarryn]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>masseman wrote:<div>It must feel awful that it actually affects your DPS when you go AFK</div><hr></blockquote><p>The point is, as it is Stream of Arrows is only useful <em>for</em> going AFK.  If you're actually playing, it isn't worth using.</p><p>That is something that needs to be fixed.  Like I said, raise its damage by alot, increase its recast, and it would be useful.</p><p>It would be nice to have a way to hit the top of the DPS foodchain again, even if only for 30sec out of every 10 minutes...</p>

[TofuPatty]

<div></div><span><blockquote><hr>jwmaynar wrote:<p>OMG... "Precise shot deals less damage than an auto-attack, and if ur hasted, auto-attacks do more dmg than stream of arrows could ever dream of doing." Please, I beg you to go test this. Have a tank friend hold a mob and compare. I think you will find that using these is not a waste of power.</p><hr></blockquote></span><p>Sadly this is actually true of precise shot and the equivalent assassin double shot bow combat art.<span>  </span>It used to be a decent damage dealer before the change to the way procs worked, but a double attack of 225-350ish on each shot with a 20s recast at a cost of 79 power - straight ranged auto attack even with 0 haste and 0 dps mod blows it away badly.<span>  </span>For that matter, getting into melee range and scrapping it up with melee auto attack blows it away even more.</p><p> </p><p>I still fire it off every time it up because it's there, but a single auto attack bow shot will out damage both of the shots from precise shot, both from straight damage and the fact that the auto attack shot from the bow was not affected by the proc changes.<span>  </span>Precise shot is a horribly underpowered skill.</p><span></span><div></div>

[Lightomen]

<div></div><p>Stream of Arrows is in need of some fixing.  I was just inside max range of Stream of Arrows and cast it only to have it not shoot any arrows.  Why give it a 40m range if it does not work at at less then 40m?  In my case we were trying to kill a Bloodscale Flamelord inside the Vault of El'Arad in Barren Sky that we had never seen before.  It had a DS that hit me for 350 everytime I hit it.  I figured it was the Devs way of making sure the DS hit me was to break Stream of Arrows.  If the DS couldn't hit me then Stream of Arrows couldn't fire.  So if the DS had a range of 30m then Stream of Arrows would not work from 31m - 40m.  Once I was inside the DS range Stream of Arrows worked fine, if I was outside the DS range but inside Streams 40m range it would not fire arrows.  With our group setup the only way we were going to take out the Flamelord was to range him and with Stream of Arrows not working properly I was basically a non-factor and we eventually left the Vault without moving past the second floor.</p><p>I did /petition and /bug this issue and got a no-I-don't-play-this-game-GM response about checking my Quest journal and make sure I was proceeding in the quest as directed by the quest journal?!</p><blockquote><hr>Tarryn wrote:<div></div><p>and give it a recast of about 10 minutes</p><p>make it <em>well worth using</em></p><hr></blockquote><p>Am I wrong for thinking Stream of Arrows DOES NOT need a 10min recast timer?</p><p>Am I wrong for thinking that we need cast timers on par with the damage our CAs do?  Assassin's cast timers are all silly compared to ours.  I wonder how an assassin would react to his Assassinate/Decapitate spell taking 5s to cast instead of .5s?</p>