Ranger skill - Shield throw, replacement ideas

[Dalero]

So after testing Shield throw, I found out that the chance for it to break protective shield is so low that it's basically useless. The damage output is low, weight did not matter when throwing a shield, all it did was cost you a defense and some lag pretty much.

Now the help file on bows has this blurb here: Spellcasters can deflect a significant portion of incoming arrows using the
protective shield spell, and rogues can move quickly enough to attempt to
dodge arrows using the counterbalance skill. Defensively empowered monks can
also attempt to dodge arrows outright, while raging berserkers can ignore
much of the pain caused by arrow wounds.

Turns out protective shield blocks all bow skills, which hampers a huge part of a rangers tool kit.

What I propose is this: Rework the shield throw skill into some sort of empowered bow skill or empowered arrow skill. Rangers really don't have much use for mana, so make it an activated skill that drains mana either per round or per tick. Give the skill a flat chance for bow skills to punch through or shatter protective shield in reality. Have it increase as you use the skill. Fully mastered it could near guarantee success.

An alternate option would be for a ranger to empower arrows in his quiver, let them stay charged for x hours, maybe start with 3 or 4 arrows and cap out at either 5 or 10, or even his entire quiver, depending on ease of implementing.

A couple reasonable checks for this could be cooldown, limited time the ability stays up, and high mana cost.

This skill has the potential to be overpowered, it would need to be tweaked a bit. But I think it's a fun idea thats pretty thematic for rangers, and a way to address an unused skill.

[Davairus]

We talked about that in the chat. Of course by now I forgot the entire conversation. I think the outcome was that the thrown shield would bounce up to 3 times and return so that rangers could do a limited AOE. Not a particularly useful PVP skill, but similar to thief dagger throwing, and that's the direction for rangers to be going toward (i.e. like rogues). We also talked about this interacting with the ranger pets, e.g. throw your shield and your wolf runs after it, ends up knocking over your opponent like a dumbass (dogs do this). Along the lines of being like rogues, I wouldnt mind a way to decorate a shield and camouflage underneath it, so one could have a favored terrain for camo. I kinda hate that only the half-elves can have reliable camo.

[Dalero]

Forestmeld ends at 50, so they lose that reliable camo advantage if that's what your'e referring to.


I think rangers kit is a bit more warrior oriented than rogue oriented myself, even with the prone/camo/track/survey additions. (survey is fickle as hell, I only got decent information a few times, and only 1 recent location if I remember correctly.)

If you're not wanting to add to their pvp kit, than this is probably the way to go then. The dog knocking a person over bit, I thought you were referring to the ranger that threw his shield getting knocked over. If it knocks an opponent over? that makes more sense.

I'd still favor the more arcane archer approach of punching through protective shield, but that's a personal beef with protective shield making all arrow skills useless. but honestly, anything's better than shield throw's current state.

I'd say just make the change and see what happens. It's not a critically needed change since rangers are still in pretty good shape, just a wish for a skill that doesn't make you feel lyou wasted practices on.

[BlackWidow]

Some comments/thoughts to add:

1. Don't rangers have the enhanced damage skill apply to their offhand weapon attacks? I know that's the case with shadows and for years I've assumed it's the same with rangers due to their offhand alacrity...

2. Dual wielding is generally the way you beat pure casters anyway. Sure, you don't have bash or bodyslam, but those lag skills are still blocked by protective shield. I suppose I could see a ranger having some sort of plant entanglement ability similar to trip (though druids would probably be more thematic for this). Myria's tattoo does directly cause entanglement in wooded areas though...

3. Perhaps the ranger could have traps (mantraps?) that they can set akin to a thief's tripwire. Beartraps could be a ground-based trap which applies caltraps while adding a round or two of lag for entering or leaving a room. Something with vines could be an aerial tripwire (or I could possibly watch the third episode of Star Wars to get ideas since I think Nycticora said that was an inspiration for aerial tripwires). I suppose I'm getting off topic here...

4. The point I'm trying to make with #3 is the side of rangers as users/tenders/whatever of plants is not fully explored and there could be something done with that. We currently have herbs as the main skill directly involving plants...