Ok guys, starting today im going to compile the questions and answers we have on the ranger revamp into one place. Hopefully this will cut down on the questions that will get repeated and allow us to know where we currently stand.
Changes to Current Professions:
Scout
Question: What is Scout loosing?
Answer: Nothing. Although there was initial concern that Terrain Negotiation would be distributed throughout Ranger, the devs have since come public in saying that scout will have the same TN as they do now. Camps, Traps, Mask Scent and Harvesting Mods are all accounted for.
Question: What will Scout be gaining?
Answer: Scout will be gaining Ranger camps, the Sonic Pulse and Flash Bomb traps, the trapping mods and the havesting mods contained within Ranger. Structure of these changes remains unknown at this time.
Ranger
Question: Where are our current traps going?
Answer: Our current traps are being moved to scout trapping. Mods will go down too as trapping mod will no longer be needed in ranger.
Question: Where is camo going?
Answer: Nowhere at this time. Camo is changing somewhat now. It will be needed for the wilderness stealth abilities so dont throw away those camo kits.
Question: Where is camping going?
Answer: Camping has left us as there has been no notable points in the revamp doc plus the tiers dont seem to support it. Camps will go to Scout.
Question: Where is areatrack going?
Answer: Areatrack is leaving at this time, the devs feel it doesnt provide a good enough experience. They did say that if done correctly it could make a return in some form. Hopefully we can get them to add in a well thought out tracking package before the revamp hits.
Question: Where is forage going?
Answer: Our beloved forage is leaving us im afraid. This point also leads onto another question, how will people get base bait? Perhaps forage will be added back into scout somewhere, at this time we just dont know.
Question: Are we getting any combat mods?
Answer: Currently, the plan is to give us combat mods. Specifics are yet to be determined but initial impressions indicate General Ranger Accuracy, General Ranged Speed, Ranged Defense and Melee Defense. The Devs are listening though and will be once the revamp hits TC so speak up.
Scout/Ranger Skill Changes
Question: Will /burstrun mod be made useless, at the moment it seems very underpowered?
Answers: At this time it will remain the same according to the devs but the revamp document states: "Burst Run Efficiency: This existing skill modifier gives the ranger a much needed boost of speed if they are uncovered at an inopportune time".
Template Interaction:
Skill Points
Question: Is the 140 skill point cost for master Ranger staying?
Answer: No, the skill point cost is being brought in line with other professions
Question: What are the pre-reqs for Ranger?
Answer: The pre-reqs have yet to be nailed down. Initially suggested as Carbines 4 and Ranged Support 4 but seeing as though we (those of us who are not blinded by our own carbine templates) hate the idea of being forced into carbines, there is a chance that this will change before going live. Head to the revamp thread and put your opinions down there.
Profession Tree Layout
Question: How will the new Ranger be layed out in terms of skill tiers?
Answer: Although change is likely, at present, in the following way:
Hiding & Concealment
Stealth & Subterfuge
Anti-Personel Devices and Traps
Persuit and Countermeasures
Background:
What is a Ranger
Question: Why cant i be a hunter?
Answer: Rangers can still be very adept hunters, now its even possible to spend more skill points in combat skills to give your ranger more combat abilities to use in hunting. Just because ranger has move away from creature focus doesnt mean you cannot be a hunter, infact rangers were never the ultimate hunters before hand.
Question: Are Rangers Now Just Rogues?
Answer: Nope, Rangers are Rangers but more orientated towards the 'Spy' type of set up. There are also heavy links to Recon specialism too with personal insertion and extration possibilities and trapping.
Question: Where did the Hunter, Wilderness Specialist and Outdoorsman visions go?
Answer: The devs opted for the Military Ranger and Recon Specialist visions focusing around stealth, insertion and extration with heavy orientation around pre-planned combat. Whilst not a perfect revamp, that was never to be and decisions needed to be made. We did ask for everything we got though with the exception of stealing (more on this in abilities section)
Question: What is this about Antarian Rangers i keep hearing about?
Answer: The Antarian Rangers are from the Star Wars Expanded Universe and basically were these great warriors, pilots and survivalist. There are lots of Rangers in the EU and the vast majority revolve around policing, military and survival. The devs liked this vision and feel the more high tech recon unit ranger fits in better with the game rather than the fantasy hunting ranger role which the game simple could not support.
Role
Question: What was our role?
Answer: Our role previously, before the revamp announcement, was that of an organic resource collector, a mobile version of the profession that never was, the Miner. We also had knowledge areas of intel gathering through creature knowledge, stealth through camo, tracking through areatracking and trapping obviously through trapping. These allowed us to harvest more organics from a single creature and know more about the targets we were killing.
Question: What is our new role?
Answer: Our new role depends entirely on your template as Ranger has become so mixable with other professions to make a unique template. Our main role as a single profession would have to be the Recon Unit, able to sneak around, gather intel lay lay down traps that are the envy of the military. Some of the main template roles that come to mind are?
Sniper: Rifleman/Ranger: Stealth movement, extraction and combat.
Rogue: Swordsman/Ranger: Melee DPS, Stealth movement and ability to jump opponements.
Recon Unit: Ranger/SL/Combat: Stealth movement, group enhancement and leadership aswel as intel gathering and target spotting.
Demolitions Expert: Commando/Ranger: Go in, place your mines and traps, move out and wait for the ticker to stop.
Wilderness Survivalist: Ranger/Scout/CH: Go into the wilders, hide from your enemy, trap them and aid from your companions.
Man Hunter: Ranger/BH: Get your mission, track down your mark, lay in wait to strike.
Pathfinder: SL Mobility/Ranger/Combat: Know the way, lead the way, make the way
Group Interaction
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Abilities
Camo & Stealth
Question: How does the whole stealth system work?
Answer:Stealth has been changed with the Ranger Revamp and will reflect the following information: Stealth essentially removes you from sight and from radar with various restrictions depending on the specific skill. The differences can range from having to be prone, not being able to move to slow movement speed however the all have these common characteristics:
Taking any offensive action reveals you instantly (The exception to this rule being Rifleman's ability Conceal Shot)
Interacting with some objects in the world instantly reveals you (could be switches, terminals, containers, etc)
Some commands cannot be executed and require you to reveal yourself before executing the command
All of these buffs can be "toggled off" at any time you wish to become view-able by others
Some non-combat actions can also reveal you (like healing for instance)
You are afflicted with a movement snare when you are stealthy (or rooted when just using camo kits)
Trapping & Devices
Question: Who will make our traps and devices?
Answer: We will. The dev's minds are still set that we are survivalists and should be adept at staying out in the wilds. Because of this we have to be able to create our own equipment out in the field. Expect that camo kits, some traps will require organic components too, the extent of which this is enforced though remains to be seen.
Counter-Measures
Question: Will our counter-camo skills be able to detect Jedi and Rifleman under concealment and cloak?
Answer: Jedi Force Cloak is a mind trick so we cannot detect that, however jedi cannot mind trick machines and therefore our motion detectors can detect them. Riflemen are not personal concealment experts so they will be open to exposure from tracking Rangers.
Skill Tiers:
Traps
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Camps
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Stealth/Camo
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Hunting
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Mixed Questions:
Question: When is this Ranger Revamp going Live?
Answer: We just dont know for sure. As a thought out guess i would say that the changes are in design/alpha stages right now so it will be a good few months before we see them. I would expect these changes to be around for Chrismas or perhaps before. Basically: We just dont know yet!
Question: When will these changes be hitting TC?
Answer: Again we just dont know however expect the changes going live a few weeks to a month before hitting live.
Ill update as we go along and add more areas when/if needed.
Scout xp no longer makes sense since Ranger is no longer a creature profession (it will suck if they leave Ranger with Scout xp when they have no skills that help them kill creatures).
Paks Master Ranger/MasterCreature Handler -I support ATK play
Man, losing the Battle Armor is harsh... /wave my cool Rebel Battle Armor
Bipolo "Stalker" Naefae Retired Master Bounty Hunter & Mandalorian Mercenary " End of passion play, crumbling away. I´m your source of self-destruction! Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear. Leading on your deaths construction! " The Retired Jedi Hunter
WOW! I'm totally blown away by the fact that we're getting revamped.... I think I'm in shock...
When will this be going to live? Or to TC even?
I better hurry up and get the final 550,000 scout xp I need to convert to FS Senses xp for Luck 4.
Once I had Luck 4 I was going to drop Ranger for CM, maybe I won't now... as a matter of fact, I know I won't until I at least try it out.
Losing my Clone Battle Armor is gonna stink, but a couple pieces are at 0 condition anyway, I just wear it for the looks. It looks real good with my DC-15! Guess I have to look into some Recon armor. Or go with my hooded cloak, rather spy looking I'd say....
I like the idea of us being akin to LRRP's or SeAL's, but the pilfering doesn't sit well with me.
The more I thik about, I suppose a spy would need to be able to garner information anyway he can, so it may have a role.
I wonder if there'll be a respec period again, like before.
I forgot, TRACKING IS GOING AWAY! This is not good... Tracking is one of the things I liked about Ranger (even though it was somewhat borked).
The new bio-linked Trap seeker thingy looks interesting, but I still think Tracking should be retained.
A recon scout/spy would still look to the ground to help him/her/itself in gathering info on enemy movement and size. Maybe this should be moved to Master Scout or a modified version in Ranger for Player/NPC tracking and leave the creature tracking in Scout... I don't know, but the loss of such a unique skill is disheartening.
AS an ex-ranger who really liked the things like tracking, camping, and foraging, as well as the whole image of being a "pathfinder" type. I'm really sad about the death of the ranger. I like this concept they are introducing, but not to replace rangers. Make a new class, don't replace a great profession that just needs some tweeking. :-( I miss the days of having a camp in the wild, harvesting hides, and having folks stop by the camp in their travels. I miss living on my own in the wilds for days at a time, tracking my prey across dantooine........oh well...
RSCody wrote: AS an ex-ranger who really liked the things like tracking, camping, and foraging, as well as the whole image of being a "pathfinder" type. I'm really sad about the death of the ranger. I like this concept they are introducing, but not to replace rangers. Make a new class, don't replace a great profession that just needs some tweeking. :-( I miss the days of having a camp in the wild, harvesting hides, and having folks stop by the camp in their travels. I miss living on my own in the wilds for days at a time, tracking my prey across dantooine........oh well...
It's not going away, wel most of it, it's going to scout.
Heh, gone for a few hours on a friday evening and all hell breaks loose. So I spent most of the night reading the original thread, but gave up when it became another Jedi whine fest. Personally I'd have liked to hear this news before I unlocked and dropped all my ranger skills on my primary, but I'd planned to get ranger back on my alt anyway.
For the changes... The GCW *is* Star Wars, it is the endgame, and it should be ongoing. I like the fact that we'll now have a part in it. And this takes a step towards the idea of having multiple ways to get past a guarded door that the dev team has looked forward to. Kill the guard as combattant, steal keycard from guard as ranger, charm keycard from guard as entertainer, buy keycard from guard as smuggler, etc. Losing tracking will be an adjustment, but what we gain will be more of an adjustment. Don't like the PvP or NPC game, then you're in luck, you're gaining all these new Camo skills for creatures, and you can be FAR more effective in avoiding NPC fights, on top of that you'll probably be gaining General Accuracy to make up for any loss of Creature Accuracy. I see this as an opportunity for Rangers to be desired in a group for how they can make things happen without starting a fight against the whole area. Rangers could be really effective in the DWB or the Corvette with some effective indoor stealth hopefully the HEP will work there.
It will be interesting to see how we all roleplay this out. I don't see my skillset changing enough to warrant a huge change in playstyle. I find myself sneaking around places because I'm experienced at trying to get places without dying or without laying everything to waste. After reading most of the opinions and sleeping on it, I think I'm going to enjoy the new skillset.
What I'm interested to see is how many "capital" Rangers will still leave like they threatened because the scout pre-reqs are dropping to 2 trees. I seem to remember getting a lot of abuse over that thread.
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Experience the greatest Star Wars saga ever told -- yours. ________________________________
Not that anyone needs me to say this, but this FAQ should really be made a sticky, because anyone considering ranger really should have a nice snapshot view of the changes in store.
Bipolo "Stalker" Naefae 
Circe' Pojia 
