Yup blade is our highest dps CA. Given the cast time and the total damage it is the highest for a single target. Infact sniper shot is just about in the same boat as stream as far as a raider is concerned.
I agree with the OP to an extent. There are no doubt alot of dev's that work on the items/skills/buffs etc etc.. and over and over it seems that not all of them understand what is useful for rangers. Our class gears/buffs quite different from other scouts, and sometimes I'm unsure they realize that.
We should make a list of all the new items in this expansion that have +pierce +slash +crush on them. This to me, is not only a slap in our face, but a clear indication SOE has dev's creating items they don't realize are useless to rangers. Argue all you want about rangers needing to do melee dps as well, but I see absolutely no reason why there can't be +ranged on the items as well.
I don't have complaints about our dps, I do have complaints about how we manage our dps. The reason SOE is having trouble balancing our class is we follow different rules in achieving dps. I wouldn't expect to see ranger balanced until all the dev's figure out how we work.
- Katsugen