The Super Dev says we are being evaluated

[Yon]

<div>Anyway I was in San Jose for a fencing competition and it turned out the GDC (game devloper's conference) was also there and someone had some free passes and my brother and I got in.  I was really cool but what will interust everyone here is at the SOE both I talked to a guy named Allan who is apparently the real head of community relations (the boss of blackguard and apparently Blackguard is a fake)  and I talked to him about rangers for a bit.  He said that the team was currently looking into every ranger skill and evaluating us clsoely.  He said they were looking at thorny trap and steam and stuff and were still evaluating the ranger class. </div><div> </div><div>So I don't think LU 21 was the end all of the ranger changes.  More are to come, hopefull and I think for the better. </div><div> </div><div>He also said to me, "You have to admit you were overpowered."</div><div>I replied, "Yea but it was fun"</div><div> </div><div>Anyway he seemed very sincer and I beleive him. </div><div> </div><div>Also he said that the unfixed spire in zek was on purpose 0o   (Faydwer expansion maybe?)</div>

[Fennir]

<div></div>sweet.   it doesn't seem like very much needs to be done and it sounds like they're starting in the right place.- fix stream and trap so they work consistently.- look at the damage on precise shot and triple volley line.  if they're going to cost 2 and 3 arrows respectively and have chances to miss even more dmg, they should be more powerful.  precise should do 2x as much damage, at least.  triple volley probably needs a 50-75% increasethat might be just enough to push a good ranger to between 800-1000 or higher consistently<div></div><p>Message Edited by Fennir on <span class="date_text">03-31-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:00 AM</span></p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<div></div><p>Can we also not forget Stealth.</p><p>And perhaps fix the way Parry works.  There is no way a stunned Goblin, being attacked from Stealth from behind, ought to be able to Parry anything!</p>

[Balerius]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Fennir wrote:<div></div>sweet.   it doesn't seem like very much needs to be done and it sounds like they're starting in the right place.- fix stream and trap so they work consistently.- look at the damage on precise shot and triple volley line.  if they're going to cost 2 and 3 arrows respectively and have chances to miss even more dmg, they should be more powerful.  precise should do 2x as much damage, at least.  triple volley probably needs a 50-75% increasethat might be just enough to push a good ranger to between 800-1000 or higher consistently<div></div><p>Message Edited by Fennir on <span class="date_text">03-31-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:00 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote><p>Fennir, it still puzzles me to no end why you repeatedly post things like "it doesn't seem like very much needs to be done" or how earlier you maintained that you thought that the LU21 "fixes" had restored our dps.  And now in this post you think that only a couple of minor tweaks to a couple of CAs to get us to "800-1000 or higher consistently" and that this would be sufficient.</p><p>Assassins do 1000-1300 dps or higher on epic mobs consistently <strong><em>now</em></strong>. Swashbucklers, brigands, berzerkers, monks, and bruisers do 800-1000 dps or higher on epic mobs consistently <strong><em>now</em></strong>.</p><p>You may be satisfied to only have ranger dps made equivalent to t2 melee classes.  I am not.  We need significant upgrades to our CAs.  Not minor tweaks.</p><p>Our goal should be restoring rangers to dps equivalent to other t1 dps classes...especially assassins.  If you want to settle for less; if you think we should only be t2 dps; if you think we should remain significantly below our predator brothers in dps, you might consider letting folks know that when you post your opinion on where rangers dps currently stands and what (if anything) you think is left to be done.</p>

[Fennir]

It's plain to see in my post that I think we could use more boosting.  Since we obviously agree on that point, whatever argument you're trying to spark doesn't really appeal to me.  Where could an argument about how much of an increase we need go?  The devs are looking at us some more, that's a good thing, let's leave it at that.the numbers i threw out arent set in stone, and i couldn't care less what DPS t2 classes do.  that's the devs problem.  of course i want to be even with assassins (although I believe on a non-AOE fight there is no reason why a well played assassin shouldn't be able to beat out a ranger by a little bit).  i often beat warlocks on anything but an AOE fight and beat wizzies 30-40% of the time so what of them?anyways, If you want to follow me around warning 'folks' that i don't know what's good for the ranger class because i believe in minor tweaks over sweeping changes (u liked LU#20 maybe?), feel free, but that's not my problem.<p><span class="time_text"></span></p><p>Message Edited by Fennir on <span class="date_text">03-31-2006</span><span class="time_text">02:03 AM</span></p>

[ColbieDtreehugger]

<div>Ok going to throw my 2 cents in as a 5 year ranger of EQ and raider...</div><div> </div><div>Stream of Arrows - The timer on it needs to be fixed. Plain and simple. When you have to drop 8 AA's to get your CA close to working correctly is kinda a bummer. Also I feel SoA should a set line or close to it for what kinda DPS we should be set at. If mastered it should by set where over 30 secs we should be doing whatever a mastered rangers DPS should be....make sense? Like mastered ranger should be doing around 1100DPS then over a 30 sec time SoA should parse right at the 1100DPS ro close to it. It should be that median for us. Make it apart of our progression rather than a special skill. Just dont over power it.</div><div> </div><div>Pets -  Our pets KILL our attack as. We can't used stealthed abilities (we can but must have perfect timing), as when the pets are making it attack, our toon is acting as if we made the attack ourselves and breaks our invis.</div><div> </div><div>Triple Volley - It's not bad. I think it could use a LITTLE increase but not too much.</div><div> </div><div>Precise shot - I think this defeniately needs to be looked at. Almsot seems to be one of my worst abilites. Used to be pretty nice in T6</div><div> </div><div>Traps - Dont use enough to have an opinon of what's going on, but I do know peeps are upset with them.</div><div> </div><div>AA - I ave read a couple times timers are wrong when they are supposed to decrease casting by 33% but casting is at 20%?! I haven't times it myself but have seen many posts on this as well.</div><div> </div><div>What would stoke me the most would be SoA being fixed like above. Not only would it level out our DPS to where ti should be but it would also keep us from being the most power hungry craeatures in the game. I used to be decent with power, but now I fly through it more than anyone else by far.</div>

[TwistedFaith]

For the record, I have SERIOUS doubts about the original post.As for the rest:Triple Shot: Vastly underpowered, whats worse is that to get anywhere near the damage it states we are once again relying on all three arrows hitting, pure luck for DPS FTW.Precise Shot: Nice fast casting, but awful damage considering it's a T6 skill.It's been said before but without the procs the base damage on the skills is pretty poor. At the moment i'm relying on critical hits to up my DPS, this is great but when you consider our brother assasins hit harder and they also pour points into increasing their melee critical hit chance, it leaves us lagging behind again.As for streams, well it's broke. Seems to me it was done intentioanlly to force people to put 8pts into Finesse just to get it back.

[hieronym]

<div></div><p>the only way to increase our DPS to that of other T1 classes is to increase our ranged CA damage. If i can spend a fight doing melee CA damage and be a little lower in DPS than what I would be using ranged CA,adamantine arrows and most ranged CA at master or adept3 then something is seriously wrong.</p><p>For us to be playing with AA lines or focus aim for a higher chance to crit hit to possibly improve our DPS in a fight is just wrong. If we are lucky for crit hits then our DPS is improved. If it doesnt go off we have nothing. It should be if a crit hit goes off our DPS is increased, if it doesnt go off then we are still T1 DPS.</p><p>Increase the damage of our ranged CA skills and we will be where we are meant to be.</p>

[Jay]

<div></div><div></div><p>It's funny how much our skillset has changed in the last few LUs.</p><ul><li>Focus Aim line went from being arguably our most useless skill to being one of our most important (for 10 whole seconds).</li><li>Precise and Triple lines used to be two of our most useful skills, but they're too ineffective to be considered so any longer.</li><li>Stream of Arrows used to be our most dominant CA and was very powerful, now it's broke as a joke and only used for AFKs.</li><li>Amazing Shot line went from a nice utility CA with mediocre damage to being one of our biggest single-shot arts.</li><li>Thorny Trap went from a very useful utility skill to being nothing more than colorful hotbar clutter.</li></ul><p>It's an interesting (for lack of a better word) time to be a Ranger, there's no doubt about that. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Message Edited by Jay42 on <span class="date_text">03-31-2006</span><span class="time_text">01:07 PM</span></p>

[TaleraRis]

<div>Alan was Absor I believe, but I didn't think he was in PR anymore.</div>

[Saihung23]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Yonar wrote:<div>Anyway I was in San Jose for a fencing competition and it turned out the GDC (game devloper's conference) was also there and someone had some free passes and my brother and I got in.  I was really cool but what will interust everyone here is at the SOE both I talked to a guy named Allan who is apparently the real head of community relations (the boss of blackguard and apparently Blackguard is a fake)  and I talked to him about rangers for a bit.  He said that the team was currently looking into every ranger skill and evaluating us clsoely.  He said they were looking at thorny trap and steam and stuff and were still evaluating the ranger class. </div><div> </div><div>So I don't think LU 21 was the end all of the ranger changes.  More are to come, hopefull and I think for the better. </div><div> </div><div>He also said to me, "You have to admit you were overpowered."</div><div>I replied, "Yea but it was fun"</div><div> </div><div>Anyway he seemed very sincer and I beleive him. </div><div> </div><div>Also he said that the unfixed spire in zek was on purpose 0o   (Faydwer expansion maybe?)</div><hr></blockquote><p>I think you may have a hoard of rangers falling in love with you now <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  </p><p>I know I had to stop myself from kissing the screen <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Thanks for the information and for asking the right questions and not being ashamed to admit we were overpowered.  Now if only those summoners would take note of that and admit it themselves :/</p><p>Saihung</p>

[A]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Jay42 wrote:<div></div><p>It's funny how much our skillset has changed in the last few LUs.</p><ul><li>Focus Aim line went from being arguably are most useless skill to being one of our most important (for 10 whole seconds).</li><li>Precise and Triple lines used to be two of our most useful skills, but they're too ineffective to be considered so any longer.</li><li>Stream of Arrows used to be our most dominant CA and was very powerful, now it's broke as a joke and only used for AFKs.</li><li>Amazing Shot line went from a nice utility CA with mediocre damage to being one of our biggest single-shot arts.</li><li>Thorny Trap went from a very useful utility skill to being nothing more than colorful hotbar clutter.</li></ul><p>It's an interesting (for lack of a better word) time to be a Ranger, there's no doubt about that. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><hr></blockquote><p>Actually Trap works again and is again reliable.</p><p> </p>

[Jay]

<div></div><div>So they fixed the uneven ground and floating mob problems? Is it still the size of a quarter? <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><div> </div><div>I'll put it back on my hotbars and try it out, I guess. I basically forgot I had it, though, so I dunno if it'll get much use anymore.</div>

[Velocidad]

<span><blockquote><hr>Jay42 wrote:<div></div><div>So they fixed the uneven ground and floating mob problems? Is it still the size of a quarter? <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><div> </div><div>I'll put it back on my hotbars and try it out, I guess. I basically forgot I had it, though, so I dunno if it'll get much use anymore.</div><hr></blockquote>It is still rather small on the trigger event, but the aoe aspect of it is decent enough sized that a group of mobs will be trapped unless spaced way out. But it does work on all ground. I haven't fought a hovering/flying creature in awhile so no idea on that.</span><div></div>

[Asla]

<div></div><blockquote><hr><div> </div><div>AA - I ave read a couple times timers are wrong when they are supposed to decrease casting by 33% but casting is at 20%?! I haven't times it myself but have seen many posts on this as well.<hr></div></blockquote><p><chuckle>  I can help out with this one.  Over the years you may have noticed that Sony and math don't get along well...</p><p>Everybody is noticing that under 'regular' math, the reduction is about 26%.   Take the old number, multiply by 0.74, voila', works out perfect by 'normal' means.  </p><p>Here's the Sony concept - Old Number / (1 + percentage decrease (i.e. 1.35))  So, by Sony standards, this is considered a 35% decrease. </p><p>Mathmatically identical.  So, yes, it's only a 26% decrease, but by 'Sony Math' it's a 35% decrease.</p><p> </p>

[klepp]

<div></div>not much needs to be done? naaah just fixing our dps or giving us utility.. preferrably the 1st option...    but i suppose will settle w/ some more utilty/soloablity and accept the fact fighters can out dps me.

[Runewind]

<div></div>What do you mean exactly by BG is a fake? o.O I mean...that seems a little odd. Although....I always did have my suspicion that he was just a really well written auto-response program...<div></div><p>Message Edited by TwistedRiddles on <span class="date_text">04-03-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:22 PM</span></p>

[Yon]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>TwistedRiddles wrote:<div></div>What do you mean exactly by BG is a fake? o.O I mean...that seems a little odd. Although....I always did have my suspicion that he was just a really well written auto-response program...<div></div><p>Message Edited by TwistedRiddles on <span class="date_text">04-03-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:22 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote><p>LOL</p><p> </p><p>I mean that Blackguard is not the REAL director of community relations and PR guy for SOE.  A guy named Allan is the head PR guy.  I think hes a person, but maybe he is a super robot, or perhaps a fully developed EQ2 bot.  He exists only in game......</p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<div></div><div></div><p>Balderdash!</p><p>The <strong>real</strong> head of SOE community relations is a robot named Gort.</p><p><em><font size="1"></font></em> </p><p><em><font size="1">"Garth, Klatu Barrada Nickto"</font></em></p><p><em><font size="1"></font></em> </p><p><em><font size="1" color="#000000">.</font></em></p><p>Message Edited by Mary the Prophetess on <span class="date_text">04-04-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:25 PM</span></p>