At the same time, John hoped to include a moment of hiccup from that stable genius. Not Kuok Kah, but Cao Cao. Letting go of Liu Bei was the dumbest moment of Cao Cao's life as a stable genius. It's like the Republicans legally selling the Senate despite retaining the Reps. Don't laugh, the GOP actually legally sold their property before. Don't believe John, go ask the folks at Alabama and Pennsylvania. Just don't ask John whether someone will be playing golf with Trump and chugging Steveweiser after November 6th. After all, many people like beer. Not just Brett Kavanaugh. Just ask the patrons of the Butter Factory before its
What this post will be all about?
In John's final lap in Barovia, he pointed out certain things about the Hunter Ranger concerning the next mod. Among other things, he will be elaborating on what to expect where every HR is concerned. At the same time, John may be touching on the tweaks involving some other classes (note that John doesn't have an empty slot for a Guardian Fighter). Come to think of it, should John start creating his own video game design apart from A Requiem From Winter Past? After all, no one should ever accuse a talking/typing otter of corrupting others if people can/can't be bothered with the ESRB.
Actually, John believes we're already corrupted enough. Psycho-Pass has never been more real, all that's left is Kogami Shinya. Thankfully, we don't need Makishima Shogo to prove a point. one Kogami is more than enough.
Come to think of it, Psycho-Pass might have (accidentally) endorsed the theology of original sin. Maybe that's why Kogami and Makishima were similar individuals. Wonder if John can pull this off on Edeaux de Serpentwine.
A block of text before John starts it...
"Many have tried and failed. The previous group was more fortunate. Alas, they only succeeded in repelling the devil with their lives intact."
Before dry words uttered by Madame Eva, Arylos chose to maintain the gridlock between his amber eyes and her aged gaze.
"You forgot they rescued Ireena," said Myrreas, his quip earning incredulous looks from Cyrea and Sheallyn while Kariss chuckled in return.
"Myrreas, we need her to..."
"I won't be the one causing his downfall," said Madame Eva, her composure interrupting Sheallyn's worried tone. "Neither will it be anyone in Barovia."
"Not even that most beautiful Ezmerelda?"
"Stop it, Myrreas. Or I'll shut your mouth for you."
Shrugging in Bhaasmond's face, the human rogue drew the portrait of a snickering man. The half-orc felt like strangling him, half of himself cursing the Night Terror for not claiming this impudent knave. Tymora must be out of her mind, concluded the Tormite paladin.
"The cards played a trick on me," Madame Eva said in a grave tone, her visage equally sombre. "It wasn't the previous party. Someone was instigating this, an entity totally different from those at work above Barovia."
"Who is that entity?"
Entertaining Cyrea's question, the wisest of Vistani pointed to Arylos.
"His god. The card Madame Eva drew was The Tempter, that which symbolises the monster Strahd."
"Oh, hello there. Here to share any information?"
Ignoring Myrreas' greeting, Ezmerelda d'Avenir gave a slight bow. Not to Madame Eva but Arylos. Jealousy surged within Cyrea despite the sun elf understanding that there's nothing going on between them. As for the wood elf whom others hailed as the Left Hand of Kelemvor, the Barovian's show of respect wasn't enough of a distraction.
"There was a rogue in the only party surviving Castle Ravenloft. We assumed it's her," said the monster hunter of highest renown, the sight of Arylos ever reminding the Vistani of her mentor. He and Rudolph van Richten were two sides of the same coin. Not just any coin but one minted in true Barovian fashion.
"The Tempter... you may not be one yourself, brave ranger of Kelemvor. But fate has decreed for you and Barovia two things. The first was your arrival. The second was to be you and Strahd being similar souls in different worlds."
Madame Eva's revelation shocked everyone apart from Ezmerelda and Arylos. Vikov Ulrich was right. Here there's a person whom Strahd was wary of. Before every Barovian, man and woman, child and the elderly, Arylos was given the offer to be his seneschal. If Strahd was merely toying with everybody who cared to listen, he wouldn't have erected the facade of a serious lord. Unless it was no mask at all.
Some notes on why the HR has a history of losing it like the UKIP
Okay, it's very likely that the devs will give one free respec token for the powers. Wait, make that two since we're talking about two loadouts instead of just one. If you're playing a HR now, should you be ditching it in favour of other alternatives? It's like someone asking whether he/she should ditch The Christian Science Monitor in favour of BBC, auto-resolve or no auto-resolve.
Now it must be stated that before the day of mid-term elections and Deepavali (hopefully, Kali doesn't come out killing vandals 4 teh lolz), the HR is viewed as one kind of player: Those who are either dumb enough or crazy enough.
When it comes to melee dps, the GWF bosses it with the signature ドラゴンころし. That plus the fact that combat HR sucks in closing in. Compared to the other two melee dps classes, the other being thr TR.
When it comes to ranged dps, the insanely long distance needed to maintain the 25% critical hit bonus for Stillness of the Forest means you're forever alone outside the buffing zone unless it's Terrifying Insight.
If you're a trapper, you'll need to be technical. But because dps is all about striking a balance between pace and amount, the only way to deal decently high damage would be Aspect of the Serpent+Marauder's Rush and Plant Growth. More specifically, you're most likely stuck with Marauder's Escape/Rush, Constricting Arrow/Steel Breeze, and Cordon of Arrows/Plant Growth. With the snake aspect ofc.
Debuff wise, only two moves work the best beyond Crushing Roots. Either Thorn Ward or Split the Sky. In fact, you really have to use either if you're doing a combat HR. Thorn Ward does give out damage to the rest of the party, though. Talk about an effective welfare system...
Buffing wise, that's the worst part. Originally intended as an effective way to make the HR as a tactically versatile class (especially the combat ones), it went terribly flat.
This shouldn't be what the HR buffing game looks like.
So how many mods did it take?
Too much has been said about the HR's lack of offensive firepower and too little has been said about how badly the buffing game slipped and failed.
John won't say next mod will give the HR more dps firepower. But the buffing game will surely give this much-discriminated class some major justice. In fact, the reason why players are complaining over the changes was that they saw the HR is primarily dps. Once you start seeing things from the support POV, then you may not want to switch classes that fast. At least not until the devs screw it up.
If you're going archery, you may want to consider Boar Hide. However, there's a problem. Going by the changes converting deflection to damage resistance, it's very likely that when the tooltip says "taking damage", it means those being buffed. Previously, the stacks will only be removed by X where X is the number of times you get hit. Let's be real here: If all it takes for the damage resistance stack to be removed is for yourself ONLY to get hit, then anyone can be Gakui's boyfriend (in case you don't know who is Gakui...). Now it must be stated that the term nearby can be very misleading so all John can tell you is that the range should be around 15-20 feet within eyeshot. Tank buffing wise, it's worth the value of Merseyside housing in J.Clark's own words. But for the ranged dps, it can be a lifesaver. For every and any Devoted Cleric, this is the best third party insurance available. Hopefully, this doesn't result in a screw up involving Prophetic Action.
Beyond gearing the party with the Calydonian Boar hide, the dps seemed to be upped. Not directly, but rather it seemed that using archery for next mod requires more tactical awareness and less brawn. If this works, it means there will be fewer players mocking dps players as dumb and button clickers. The mainstay for dps (for raiding, that is) should be Stillness of the Forest and Predator. If my interpretation is right, Predator should give you a 40% damage bonus for the entire 10 seconds' worth of duration while the 20% only applies to non-Prey targets on the first strike basis. Stillness of the Forest is the tactical part that will either tank like a Tankyrgios or come out on top of any dps argument. The crit got nerfed to 15%, but you got a damage buff at 15% as a tradeoff. Only time will tell whether the devs messed this up, but this guarantees the archery HR one thing: Whenever someone does an offensive party buff, your toon will no longer be forever alone. This is very important if we're talking about Hallowed Ground (i.e. the number one reason why archery HRs get screwed so far). The tricky part lies in the positioning. You'll need to stay put as long as possible, so try standing within the same firing zone as the rest. If possible, stand behind 2 party members with the DC being the last person behind.
You'll need Hasty Retreat for next mod. The reason why being that it's now very useful both in open-world and raiding. The former can be a lifesaver (especially in Barovia and Chult+Omu where the number of mobile mooks is too damn high) while the latter will play a large part in readjusting your positioning in case things don't look good.
Bottomless Quiver is also a must, no matter whether you're gunning for pure hdps or buff-dps hybrid.
If you're running as a pathfinder, use Ambush to max out the damage. If you're running as a buff-dps hybrid, use the Calydonian Boar buff.
Stance switching will be less advisable than right now. The reason why being that you'll need to maintain the dps momentum and attempting something like Agile Combatant isn't the best way to display how much a stable genius you are. Forget about Fox's Cunning. That one is for trappers.
Changes to Stillness of the Forest means you can afford to point-blank fire from behind so long you stay put as long as possible. What this means is that Scoundrel's Training should be more feasible. As a form of insurance, use the Calydonian Boar. You'll need it. Especially in epic Temple of the Spider where that once and future mutant is concerned.
AoE attack wise, it's still advisable for you to slot either Split the Sky (if you're a stormwarden) or Thorn Ward (if you're a pathfinder). This leaves one more slot provided the first one belongs to the Calydonian Boar. John strongly advises against Longstrider's Shot. That one is bound to screw Stillness of the Forest unless you can gauge accurately the distance so that Hallowed Ground won't leave you forever alone. Best bet, no matter how you see it, should be Commanding Shot. John suspects this will be the number one dps encounter for 99% of the archery HRs.
Note: If you don't want to use Thorn Ward due to a preference for Ambush, then at least use Split Shot as your staple at-will.
Conclusion for archery HRs:
This tree is definitely easier for players to choose between pure dps and buff-dps. For the former, John recommends Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Lone Wolf with the off-hand artifact power set at the former. 8% damage bonus+combat advantage+Stillness of the Forest=massive dps on a lower budget.
If you're a pathfinder, you may want to consider Aspect of the Pack with Primal Instincts if you want to opt for a buff-dps hybrid. Remember the Calydonian Boar. It can be your BFF when used with Bottomless Quiver and Primal Instincts.
If you want to use a stormwarden class feature, use either Twin-Blade Storm or Stormstep Action. The latter has undergone an effective Korean modification (not that every Korean has been modded). If J.Clark is a Neverwinter gamer, he'd have assumed whoever coming up with the idea of how Stormstep Action should work must have been from Liverpool. In reality, Stormstep Action is a cool power to have. Imagine stabbing that dumb ogre and teleporting away afterwards. Sounds like Nightcrawler, but definitely way cooler than a puff of brimstone smoke. Right now, the cooldown reduction has been fixed. At least on paper, that is.
Next up under this label: John will be elaborating more on the combat HR and details on why this build may be more raid friendly. Appreciating the quality of any end-game build is like understanding the beauty of a lady is never about whether her figure mirrors that of Narita Airport (John learnt that via a comment in the Hardwarezone forums).
Apparently, the future of HR buffing game looks as beautiful as Gakui. Wait, is that even an appropriate comparison?
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