[Neraphym]

I've decided to play on my warrior a bit more. I rarely play melee (I HATE snares), but I'm probably going to make this my second best character. I may even give her Fissure armor if I feel like it. She already has two great items I got as drops on Neraphym. Colossal Scimitar (10 Sword) and a Gloom Shield (10 Str), black and silver respectively. And that is Templar armor dyed silver.

[Cspace]

By Grabthar's Hammer, your signature is evil!

[Neraphym]

Meh, I'm going to finish EotN on my Dervish so I can give Neraphym another completed handbook. Then I'll probably be all melee'd out. Might do EotN on my Necro after that. It'll be a while before I am ready to do melee again.

[Goto]

That's a really awesome weapon, hadn't seen the Colossal Scimitar skin before.

I have to admit I don't have too much patience for my Warrior anymore. Dervish is just more fun, at least for me. And yes, snares are horrible.

[Aaron]

Melee isn't very fun. I didn't have the patience to finish Nightfall on my Dervish. I had a Warrior in Factions, but deleted it. There's currently a Level 14 Warrior sitting there in my account that I put a lot of money into, but never had the ambition to max out. I guess I'm just a spellcaster by nature.

[Goto]

Different people have different playing styles, but I appreciate being able to keep damage away from my more vulnerable allies, as well as dealing some pretty significant damage. Tanks also make the best leaders (as long as the players are suited for it), since they should always be towards the front of the group and should probably be pulling so as to get aggro. Also the Avatars are awesome, particularly Balthazar.

[Rylkan]

I want to see an AB match where everyone on one side was a Dervish in a form. Imagine the fun of having so many gods running around.

[Zoo]

Seems a lot of us have this thing in common . Can't say I'm too fond of the melee classes myself, although I am kind of liking my assassin (even though he runs funny when he's wielding blades). Have a warrior just out of pre- and whenever I log onto her I kinda run a few steps and then think "forget this." I'm not much of a caster either. Rangers are definitely my thing... can take and deal a good bit of damage, run fast, pet's useful (and I just like them, have to admit ), can't say I've done much pulling with anything else, but I like it better than the ones I have tried (so far as to give my casters longbows).


As for the topic , that sword's pretty cool.

[Goto]

Well there's not really a significant difference difference between pulling with a ranger as opposed to with other classes, other than needing to change weapon. Then again I doubt most rangers are fighting with a longbow, so even that isn't an issue. Admittedly it's a little bit awkward with a caster because they usually don't want the aggro on them, but if you're a caster in a party of henchies there isn't too much choice.

Then again I'd have to say I'm the opposite, I'm biased against Rangers. I've seen some useful roles for them by playing with Lynn and Rylkan, and the interruption is certainly good. A lot of the time they seem to be trying to do so much that they don't do any of it particularly well, though. They can't tank as effectively as Warriors or Dervishes, can't usually deal the same kind of damage as the melee classes, nukers, etc. and they can't provide healing or support as effectively as a monk, rit, etc. They're certainly fairly good at surviving without support, but that's of limited use in such a team-based game. I'm not saying they don't have their uses sometimes, but for me they're never an essential class to have along.

[Ratty]

Aye, I agree with just about everything Goaty has said, hehe. I find it difficult to lead the group as a squishie in Hard mode, simply because I get the aggro, and the spike damage can get pretty high . Can get around this slightly by flagging a warrior hero ahead of the pack when movie, it's just a bit tedious though.

Even with that down side, casters are still my favourite. Dunno why, but melee classes are just really quite boring. ... Omg, just thinking about it, the two classes I like (E and N) don't really have much of an energy problem. XD I guess that could be it, I like characters that use a lot of energy

EDIT: Oh, and just thought i'd like to point out that I did almost all the dungeons without a single tank My whole party was full of Squishies (And a ranger) Ok, sure, there were three monks, but I was laughing when anything that took longer than a second to cast would be interupted, and everything died so quickly

[Moogalite]

As I'm playing my ranger pretty much all the time all the people who used to know me knows that I used to be a hardcore caster I love the rangers versatility and the fact I can farm with a ranger more than nearly any other class except for warrior and eles its awesome
I used to think 1.5mil exp on my necro was a lot till i got on my ranger lets put it that way

[Aaron]

Rangers are effective in groups. Think B/P.

[Cspace]

They may not specialize, but they can adapt to a lot of situations, and fill out a group rather well by handling anything that's lacking. A ranger that goes for versatility will need to know what he/she is doing because the skills may not be maxed, but having a range of skills can in itself be a strength if one knows when to use them. While a fighter wouldn't want to step back, and a finger wiggler wouldn't want to charge, a ranger can do alright either way.

Unless they're going with a strict ranger build, a ranger is like a group's midfielder. Not offense, not defense, but they can help with either when a need arises. A ranger can fill in for many other roles, while also bringing a pet and doing something ranger-ish like interrupting. They may not have such a defined role, but a smart ranger can be a great help for a group.

[Goto]

I generally try to run a fairly balanced team from the start, which decreases the advantages to taking an all-rounder who is going to be able to fill multiple roles. If they're not going to fulfill any of those roles as efficiently as a dedicated character would, I'd rather just stick with a dedicated character doing something that is going to be necessary throughout the mission. It's not like a ranger is going to be adapting itself for multiple situations simultaneously. Anyway, a lot of this kind of stuff comes down to playing style. I spend a lot of my time playing solely with heroes and henchies, in which case you definitely want to be giving them a role to fill within the party rather than leaving them up to their own devices to choose what to do. Basically my view of it is that if a party is reasonably balanced to begin with, and everyone does their job well, you can cover the weaknesses of any one individual member and the need for flexibility is greatly diminished.

You also don't want to leave the healer hero under Rat's control, in case he decides to flag him so that Dunky rushes solo at a group of Mursaat and Jade in hard mode. <_<

[Rylkan]

'Okay folks. Stop the debating here please. I don't mind it, in fact, I have a bit to add myself on a couple important points (no, I will not just try to jusitfy my beloved rangers, ) But we shouldn't clutter alpha's thread with this."

----Word of Gord----