Ranger Bird [Runic: Bird of Prey and other Birds]

Kedrin

Dalayan Pious Diety
I want to start off by saying I aim to be as positive as possible in this post. I personally feel that there is a great deal of small problems with the class I play most often, Rangers, however I want to just focus on this one specific topic. Thank you beforehand for everyone's input. I will now begin to bitch.

History:

In 2012 rangers became a pet class after the classes Runic 2 was changed to Runic: Bird of Prey from Runic: Flaring Blades.

The following ranger spells were also added to the game:
  • Greater Rangefinder (63)
  • Rangefinder (50)
  • Lesser Rangefinder (30)
These bird pets were weak pets that did very little DPS themselves (~10 DPS) however would place a debuff on the mob they were attacking that would benefit the ranger.

Runic: Bird of Prey would proc Spot IV
  • Slot 1: Increase Archery Accuracy by 16%
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Damage by 10%
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 28
Greater Rangefinder would proc Spot III
  • Slot 1: Increase Archery Accuracy by 8%
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Damage by 6%
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 17
Rangefinder would proc Spot II
  • Slot 1: Increase Archery Accuracy by 4%
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Damage by 4%
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 11
Lesser Rangefinder would proc Spot I
  • Slot 1: Increase Archery Accuracy by 2%
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Damage by 2%
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 5
I personally never had the first three ranks of this spell. However, the hit points of the bird pets compared to their level follows this pattern:

Lesser Rangefinder (30) = Health: 5 (Average)
Rangefinder (50) = Health: 3 (Weak)
Greater Rangefinder (63) = Health: 3 (Weak)
Runic: Bird of Prey (65 Runic 2) = Health: 2 (Wimpy)

As you can see, the pets get less HP compared to their level as you progress in level.

The Runic: Bird of Prey bird has 5,280 base HP. That is the same HP as the 53 Mage pet Defender of Sihala.

You could imagine this lead into a great number of problems as the ranger raids. Keeping their pet alive throughout most fights at T13 - T14 (heavy AE fights) is very difficult; requiring the group healer to begin a group heal simply to avoid my pet dying and having to hear me complain.

Idea:

I believe the best course of action would be to convert these pets into familiars. Think Wizards spell line (Relic: Arcane Familiar).

This would remove the pet class abilities from the ranger class entirely. Leaving that flavor of play towards real pet classes.

Idea’s Problem:

If you were to simply change these spells today rangers would run into not having enough buff slots.

Idea’s Problem Fix:

Add these familiars to the ranger’s quiver lines that are already in the game.

Runic: Bird of Prey (Runic 2) debuff of Spot IV would be added to Runic: Quiver of the Legion (Runic 1)
  • Slot 1: Summon Familiar: Bird4
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Accuracy by 16%
  • Slot 3: Increase Archery Damage by 10%
  • Slot 7: Add Weapon Proc: Legionnaire's Arrow
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 28
Greater Rangefinder (63) debuff of Spot III would be added to Quiver of the Sun (65)
  • Slot 1: Summon Familiar: Bird3
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Accuracy by 8%
  • Slot 3: Increase Archery Damage by 6%
  • Slot 7: Add Weapon Proc: Sun Arrow
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 17
NOTE: Please remove the Slot 1: Blindness from the Sun Arrow debuff

Rangefinder (50) debuff of Spot II would be added to Quiver of Cold (63) && Quiver of Flame (61)
  • Slot 1: Summon Familiar: Bird2
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Accuracy by 4%
  • Slot 3: Increase Archery Damage by 4%
  • Slot 7: Add Weapon Proc: Cold Arrow
OR
  • Slot 7: Add Weapon Proc: Spell: Flame Arrow
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 11
Lesser Rangefinder (30) debuff of Spot 1 would be added to a NEW ranger spell Poisoned Arrows and effect already in the game from the item Shade Leather Quiver
  • Slot 1: Summon Familiar: Bird1
  • Slot 2: Increase Archery Accuracy by 2%
  • Slot 3: Increase Archery Damage by 2%
  • Slot 7: Add Weapon Proc: Arrow Poison
  • Slot 12: Decrease Armor Class by 5
The Slot 12 AC debuff could either be rolled into the procs themselves (more work) or just remove them and add the 28 AC debuff onto the ranger spell Exposure
  • Slot 2: Decrease Resist Cold by 25
  • Slot 3: Decrease Current Hit Points by 550
  • Slot 5: Decrease Armor Class by (5 + 28) = 33
This would help rangers get the ac debuff portion of the Runic 2 a bit more quickly and then a Ranger that already has Runic 2 would break even. This would be a nerf to any ranger without their Exposure spell however I do not feel it would have a large impact.

TLDR:

I wish rangers bird pets would be more like wizard's familiar. This would lower the continuous death loop of rangers birds and allow a better playing experience for not only the ranger themselves but the healer in their group.

EDIT:

I did notice the flaw that I left out a replacement idea for the then vacant Runic 2 last night, however it was getting to be quite late in the evening so I opted to go to bed.

Runic 2 replacement idea.

Bring back Runic: Flaring Blades. This spell never had a chance to get balanced before it was changed into the bird pet. It was brokenly overpowered since it was not normalized via weapon delay. This allowed for very large numbers to take place when the ranger equipped a 6 delay weapon.

I believe we have learned a great deal since then and the current status of Glacial Strike reflects that. I could see Runic: Flaring Blades being an AE version of Glacial Strike without the up front DD of the spell. This would avoid the running into melee to instant nuke move that some rangers like to do.

Hopefully this is clear. I will post a mock up of the way I see the spell working once I get home from work tonight. Thank you.
 
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I always felt like the birds were designed to be hawk eye or whatever from live with more hoops when woldaff or whomever thought rangers were going to be excited to cast raidwide pet runes but then that got nixed and the birds never got adjusted. Micromanaging your avian friend was a complaint even when I played and I can imagine its only gotten worse.
 
This is a good idea and I tend to disagree on many topics brought up on Rangers. I genuinely hate itemizing Companion Health IX and still having to worry about my pet's health almost 75% of the time, OR give up and lose 16% accuracy and 10% bow damage. What is upsetting is that there was once talks of pet changes "coming soon" that would ultimately solve this issue altogether, and make other pet classes happy as well. I'm fuzzy on the mechanics of this proposed change, but it was something along the lines of if your pet isn't first or second on the hate list it wouldn't take damage? Not sure.

Continuing off of this proposed change though, I'd like to see AT LEAST the Runic bird spell recycled into something productive rather than just melded into another spell and forgotten about. Thade started talking a bit about it yesterday, and I sort of liked the idea a lot of having a Ranger choose if he wants to be in an archery mode, or melee mode. Rangers already have a spell line granting them a bow dot proc, and with this change also would enhance their bowing abilities. They also have some of, if not, the best melee abilities and skills in the game and have no way of taking advantage of that, along with their pretty bad weapon choice to do numbers.

They also have a pretty underwhelming spell line granting them a rare weapon proc:
- Level 39: Call of Sky - 35 magic dmg, .001s stun
- Level 50: Call of Earth - 4ac buff, 45 magic dmg, 2s stun ---- (For some reason this is also categorized as a damage shield buff, but provides no DS component)
- Level 55: Call of Fire - 70 magic dmg, .001s stun
- Level 60: Call of the Mound - 4ac buff, 82 magic dmg, 3s stun

Proposed Changes:
- Level 30: Call of Sky - 45 cold dmg, 1s stun
- Level 44: Call of Earth - 60 magic dmg, 2s stun
- Level 55: Call of Fire - 80 fire dmg, 3s stun
- Level 60: Call of the Mound - 4ac buff, 90 magic dmg, 3s stun
- Level 65: Runic: Call of the Elements - 25ac buff, 50 cold dmg, 50 fire dmg, and 50 magic damage per tick for 3 ticks, or until next proc

Next make both the Quiver line and the Call line only castable out of combat. You're left with a Ranger who before battle can decide if he wants to be ranged dps, or melee dps. This in my mind would function similarly to a mage choosing an elemental form. The melee option is also further enhanced by the recent Glacial Strike changes, and opens the door for a third tome line option as well. Recently there was an option put on the table -- Whirling Tempest, which to my belief grants the Ranger a % chance to convert your melee damage into magic damage that bypasses armor and scales with focus effects. It also reduced the stamina cost of Whirling Strikes stance, and some other minor things. This would've been cool, and wasn't sure why it never made it fully into the game.
 
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A simple solution would be for rangers to have handle ranged attacks like monks handle unarmed. Delete the bird, have rangers gain accuracy bonus when unencumbered by melee weapons.
 
would changing the ranger pet to a familiar like wizards have be a simpler solution?
 
Beatings shall continue until morale improves.

And the continuation of no one wanting to invite you to their group, because the ranger class is a pain in the ass to heal, in a raid with your own guild. Feels good man. Nothing wrong here.
 
If the changes in Upcoming Pet Improvements ever goes in, I think this problem will go away.
 
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