Update 66 Preview 1: AOE Ranged Attacks

[Jeronimo]

Why is kiting frowned upon? It's a legitimate tactic.

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

 

[Kritikal]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

Because of this^^^^

 

[Onyxia2016]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

Very, very true. I adopt the philosophy of, "You ***** it, you tank it."
It I as the tank have not hit or intimidated yet, as in still running the mob group, and some at range jumps the gun, well good luck.
I am not chasing you and the monsters down. Best you can do it run toward me and I will try to pull them off you.

If the tank tries to chase the monsters down they are putting the entire party at risk cause someone else is going to hit a monster that will go after them and before long it is chaos with party members running in different direction each trailing monsters. Add to this accidently pulling even more monsters and things go south quick.

 

[HoopleHead]

I got a melee curse on my crossbow. Can I wield my crossbow as a melee weapon?

[Imagines how long the X-Bow lasts when used to club kobolds instead of perforating them]
..
"Kobold still hates yew"

 

[HoopleHead]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

Ranged Users need to do 2 things:

1st, get Shot on the Run

2nd, learn how to move in a tight circle around the target while continuing to face it, so the rest of the party doesn't have to chase you (or simply wait till you get caught on something and get eaten)

 

[Scrag]

[Imagines how long the X-Bow lasts when used to club kobolds instead of perforating them]
..
"Kobold still hates yew"

Dunno if you ever played Ultima 3 but the yew bow from the town of... yew? maybe dawn... was really fantastic.

 

[HoopleHead]

Dunno if you ever played Ultima 3 but the yew bow from the town of... yew? maybe dawn... was really fantastic.

Played all the Ultimas.. but Underground was probably my favorite... Might & Magic was always fun too.... that along with virtually everything Sierra released

 

[seph1roth5]

Yeah...I think the vast majority of people don't consider IPS even halfway decent AoE. In theory yeah it hits everyone in a line, but in practice it takes 2-3x longer to line up a single shot to hit 2 targets. Much more if you want to hit 3+ targets. With long, flat corridors you have a chance to not completely suck, but even then, enemies scuttle back and forth a bit.

Throw on top of that missle misfire, lag, weird line of sight on races...having to toggle it with archer's focus...IPS is like the flaming sphere SLA. If it happens to actually work and hit someone, great! But most of the time it's just a waste.

 

[Abax11]

On top of all that, lag don't help a lot trying to hit more than 2 mobs or the arrow don't "shooting".

 

[Elminster]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

I mean... I hate to say it... but...

Melees are done.

I have come to the realization they will NEVER be on par with a distance killer. It's just built-in to not only D&D but in real-life as well.

It'a over, for melees.

I'm transitioning to Ranged now with these AoE changes.

And if you're smart, you would too.

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

I mean... I hate to say it... but...

Melees are done.

I have come to the realization they will NEVER be on par with a distance killer. Itms just built-in to not only D&D but in real-life.

It'a over, for melees.

I'm transitioning to Ranged now with these AoE changes.

does this mean you will stop playing a caster and will switch to ranged?

 

[rabidfox]

does this mean you will stop playing a caster and will switch to ranged?

Naw, they'll ask for SSG to nerf melee and casters in a week from now because their ranged can't keep up with them.

 

[Lazuli]

• Improved Precise Shot applies AOE to every attack, activated or otherwise, and represents 100% of your total attacks over time when turned on.

If that were true. But is not. IPS is difficult to use. It's not as easy to line up the mobs in a straight line, and the shots tend to go over the heads of the mobs.

IPS gives you a chance for all of your attacks to hit multiple enemies, but that chance is far from 100%.

 

[SpartanKiller13]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

It's why ya max Intim on every melee IMO. If you want you can grab those mobs, and if you don't want you can just keep going while the kiter does their thing.

I mean... I hate to say it... but...

Melees are done.

Pfft just dip /1 Wizard so your melees are casters, GG. Since all casters are OP, right?

 

[Lazuli]

Yeah...I think the vast majority of people don't consider IPS even halfway decent AoE. In theory yeah it hits everyone in a line, but in practice it takes 2-3x longer to line up a single shot to hit 2 targets. Much more if you want to hit 3+ targets. With long, flat corridors you have a chance to not completely suck, but even then, enemies scuttle back and forth a bit.

Throw on top of that missle misfire, lag, weird line of sight on races...having to toggle it with archer's focus...IPS is like the flaming sphere SLA. If it happens to actually work and hit someone, great! But most of the time it's just a waste.

This.

 

[Kritikal]

Whenever Steelstar makes claims like the one above, it proves he does not play an archer.

The Devs Theory-craft.

 

[Mickeymouse]

Summarizing a Discord conversation with Steelstar: The current implementation of IPS is holding ranged back from more interesting gameplay.

Thats sad to hear.. I mean, some people even in this thread are so bad at this game to think ranged don´t have AOE, when it really just comes to down to skill and/or implementation. That said, I don´t mind seeing more options for ranged.. Kinda surprised they haven´t copied the warlock chain-attack yet tbh.. that would be cool. Exploding arrows also cool. Splitting arrows could be an option, also cool.

 

[Lazuli]

It's why ya max Intim on every melee IMO. If you want you can grab those mobs, and if you don't want you can just keep going while the kiter does their thing.

Pfft just dip /1 Wizard so your melees are casters, GG. Since all casters are OP, right?

From what I made clear in topics from a couple of months ago, there are many melees who consider it a waste to invest in intimidate. But then it's someone else's fault if they don't retain aggro, of course.

 

[rabidfox]

Because you'll have the kiter peddling backwards followed by a bunch of angry mobs followed by a bunch of angry melee team mates trying to catch up to hit the mobs... like some kind of looney train.
There are ofc a few kiters that knows how to kite in very tight circles when there are melees that can assist, but too many amatuer kiters have given the playstyle a bad name.

Circle kiting is nice. I'll salt packs before opening up with my good weapon (if no one else is salting or CCing), it lets the melee shred them. It's a group game; so I want the other 5 or 11 people to be able to do their stuff too.

 

[Jeronimo]

Circle kiting is nice. I'll salt packs before opening up with my good weapon (if no one else is salting or CCing), it lets the melee shred them. It's a group game; so I want the other 5 or 11 people to be able to do their stuff too.

That is the way.