My first person view on the combat tree

Today, my young adult fellowship will be having an interesting topic. Namely the impact of technology on the human mentality (if you don't know what it means, it means with great power comes great responsibility). I find it quite interesting that this topic will be all the more important given the impact of Pokémon GO. I'm already questioning whether it's truly fine to have a place of religious worship as a PokeStops and Gyms. Call me a prude, but I'm not amused at all by the notion of my church opening up for people playing some F2P game app created by the Japanese.

Ok, that's only technically true at best because Nintendo is a bit like Capcom. You got Capcom Japan and Capcom America. Same logic for that company which gave us multi-cultural plumbers, some King Kong spoofs, and some guy made famous by a girl.

Because I only have around half an hour to go before taking public transport, let me just give a brief analysis on the latest module and what to expect from combat hunter rangers.

Note: Above statement was actually written during Sat. I don't have to spell out which day this post is upped.

Verdict on rangers like this guy

For too long, Cryptic had shafted the combat tree. If you think archery got a harsh treatment, at least it started from mod 6. For the combat tree, it's been a downhill ride ever since Caer-Konig decided to hand the limelight back to the Cult of the Dragon. Ironically, mod 6 was the reason behind trappers being the vogue rangers post-mod 5 till mod 9.

I have to say that anemar did a really good job in balancing the hunter rangers. I won't say the combat spec will out-dps the great weapon fighters and trickster rogues, but the gap has been narrowed (if not totally closed altogether). I spent 2 respec token trying to see how the reworked melee HR would turn out. Suffice to say, we won't be seeing a trapper's monopoly this time round. [I've yet to mess around with Korey (since I've got no plans to change her archery path) or Kariss (since I've spent too much time trying to complete Icewind Dale with Myrreas so far).]

Note: Procrastination is a wonderful thing, reverse procrastination is even better. At this point of time, I alrdy respec both Korey and Kariss.

One thing I've realized is that Blade Hurricane is now far harder to proc unlike other final paragon feats. There's a logical reason behind this. Due to a massive buff to the combat feats, anemar was right to ditch the original 4 hit execution. Despite having only a 10% increment to Piercing Blades, the synergy stack with Lucky Blades, Fluid Hunter, Battlecrazed, and the Endless Assault heroic feat should be nothing to laugh about. In other words, you'll need to go straight for the jugular by executing 2 at-wills after your first encounter power. No matter how you look at it, Flurry effect got nerfed (and this is not to mention the likelihood of a 60 sec cooldown).

However, this is not to say that this change will affect your Drizzt. Because encounter powers always deal a higher damage than at-will powers, having a maxed out Endless Assault is not really a bad thing (more specifically a good thing). My recommendation is either you have at least two AoE encounter damage moves or two fast hitting at-will moves (for an effective Flurry constant proc game. And yes, you can also opt for using just a specific fast hitting at-will move as a viable alternative).

At this point of time, there's still no predictability in Arylos' rediscovered paragon tree. Right now, I'm messing around with a few combinations. Plant Growth is officially my staple encounter with Oak Skin being that effective means of living out a certain iconic song. Tricky part lies in the one in between the two keys. Right now, I'm messing around with a double restraining order with Hindering Strike as my chosen one. However, I find that Gushing Wound has been massively upgraded (3K+ to 4K+ in damage plus mass hemorrhage). At the same time, Fox's Shift also offers a potentially better return when it comes to the DDR (read: not Dept of Diagnostic Radiology, but rather Dept of Dps Rampage) due to Blade Storm being my selected artifact class feature (quite literally a multi-hitting move plus an excuse to do that occasional stance jump). Tbh, Hindering Strike is good in a sense that it offers much needed defensive security (note: CC is your BFF apart from whoever the person doing a Neoprint with you while in secondary school. Don't believe me, try asking Genj. I mean the CC, not the Neoprint). Ofc Fox's Shift is a more effective means of balancing dps and CC, but I need to mess around a bit with this combination to see whether I'm comfy with it. Like Joachim "Der Löwe" Löw, I don't stick with a fixed formula for success. Like the Teutonic Löwe, I prefer a fast hitting game.

Then again, RoboK(l)op(p) is also another German who thinks like a Teutonic cavalry commander...
Just don't ask me whether Hamburg will have someone like those two...

Another issue I realized is that Sigil of the Hunter isn't that useful anymore. In order to pull it off, you'll need an effective line of sight and precise manual aiming. This can be very troublesome if the game is lagging.

(Either because your sis is running something like this or something's srsly wrong with the frames per sec. Or maybe even something innocuous like your dad using the vacuum cleaner and that the resultant sound vibration ended up disrupting the wifi signal. Might as well I start trying to find out whether Joseph "not a Stalin" Schooling is truly an angmoh like Stalin. *shrugs*)

Hence, I decided to switch my active artifact to Lantern of Revelation. Believe it or not, the effect is far better on the first impression basis. This is due to foes affected by the burn taking 16% more damage on mystic status for like 6 secs (note: just upgraded this beautiful beast to legendary status, no intention whatsoever to promote Emma "Duchess of Megawatts" Watson's latest[?] Disney flick). I'll be experimenting more on this come Arylos' next Bryn Shander run. And speaking of running the roost in Bryn Shander...*

*I may have settled down on a fixed moveset. For now, at least.

There's a change in plan...

Originally, I decided to use 1 character per day with Arylos taking up my weekend. However, things didn;t work out that well because I suspect myself to be a case of OCDP. At the same time, I tend to lose myself once getting 100% focused. It's a bit like battling alcoholism, but not really that bad. I've survived more than 14 days' worth of no computer (that includes mobile devices as well) and I've got no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. Therefore I decided to do a six quest management. In other words, I'll try to use only 2 characters in a day. Because Arylos is my main, therefore the community will see him regularly. As for the alternate characters, I'll only choose one to play per week. For Arylos, it's most likely 6 quests at most. For that other alt, it's most likely half that number (i.e. most likely 3). Hopefully I can discipline myself before my future girlfriend does that for me. *shrugs*

Final verdict

The combat tree is now officially buffed. Blade Hurricane got nerfed, but it's because the rest of the feats have been upgraded quite significantly. I won't say the combat tree can out-dps the likes of GWF and TR, but the consistent dps game has been properly addressed (something which the combat tree has always been abt, be it in the right or wrong way).

Which means the role of the combat HR in any given party is to maintain the dps momentum (unless ofc you choose to eschew Scything Blade. Which is a dumb idea if you're to ask me). Last time round, the damage dept wasn't good enough to perform such a role. This was mainly due to poor melee at-will damage (which resulted in the synergy between Piercing Blades and Scything Blade average at best) and a less than average critical dps (no crit stat feats available plus the aforementioned synergy problem). At the same time, there's more focus on the defensive aspect last time round (i.e. mostly based on deflection and lifesteal). As for the dodge distance, the combat HR wouldn't be able to jailbreak like a TR upon getting ganked by any mob while the deflection stat was always beneath that of the TR (read: TR is the only class with a 75% deflection severity together with the highest base deflection). Which is why more focus was done on the defensive end last time round.

Unlike the great weapon fighter, you can't choose to be a tank. And this is not to mention that the GWF has a better dps sustaining game (which is why the destroyer spec is so imba). Unlike the trickster rogue, your CC potential is nowhere near a scoundrel's level (read: stunlock unless you use Crushing Roots. Even then, CR is more of a trapper/archery thing). And this is not to mention that dexterity is the TR's primary stat, in which it affects critical chance (which is why the executioner spec is still so scary since it plays damage stacking).

Unlike the control wizard and scourge warlock, your damage game is 99%, if not 100% physical (read: it's a no brainer that physical damage is basically a Jack of all trades, the master of none.when compared to non-physical damage). Radiant damage (for devoted clerics and oathbound paladins), in particular, is most likely foolproof.

When it comes to dps, the archery tree is the only HR paragon path that is strictly hdps (and it still is). However, it can't keep up with a CW thaumaturge or SW fury spec (thaum spec is all abt consistent dps increment while the fury tree is more towards a one-shot game). So where does this leave the combat HR?

The relevance between the melee HR and sustaining the party's dps game lies in the AoE game. The HR does have the 2nd best AoE reach after the DC. This is the one area any GWF will lose out. Last time round, the dps didn't do justice to this understated strength of the HR. However, the archery tree is considered more of a single target hdps unlike the combat tree and trapper HR. In other words, the combat HR is all abt playing dps support more than anything else (unless your team got a tank, but no other melee dps). I won't say the combat tree would outstrip a destroyer GWF or an executioner TR in the damage dept, but most likely this paragon tree is now able to match the other paragon paths when it comes to melee damage. All in all, I'm liking what I'm seeing (and playing) now. This time round, using a melee HR is nothing like what I've done prior to switching Arylos to a trapper spec.

So yeah, I doubt I'll do an Arnie unless the devs decide to do it first.