Ranger seems underpowered....

[Last Jackdaw]

Watching my friends paying pally and a warlock and the just blow ♥♥♥♥ up?
The ranger plinks away weakly. seems pretty bad damage wise. What am I doing wrong?

[Stannis]

They finally made a version of Hammerwatch where the warlock doesn't suck

[Meow]

Try dual daggers on the ranger.
Bows seem to do a bit less starting out, but you can hit from range which is much safer.

[Poki]

Yea, ranger is so unfun compared to HoH1.
It seems they just imported the boring hunter from Hammerwatch 2, it was my favorite class in the first game but now its just meh.

I started with hunter, struggled a bit, rerolled a wizard and never came back to hunter again.
Wizard is such a better ranged character.

[Kalas Hydra]

ranger is really strong , build him for the basic atack (quick shot) (stack crit, dmg and movespeed) . also with few upgrades the marked shot deals ridiculous area dmg with few upgrades , so yes you play him wrong
also marked shot can be more ability focused style i quess if you get some mana regen going
yep just did another run and marked shot is ridiculous , just use marked shot and quick shot and its pretty overpowered , get some mana regen to spam marked shot and kite anything to death

[Huxxy]

Originally posted by Stannis:

They finally made a version of Hammerwatch where the warlock doesn't suck

Warlock was a beast in HoH1.

[RzR⁧⁧Telhalm]

Someone above already said it, but try using Ranger with daggers instead. Marked Shot + the daggers RMB is pretty spicy.

Ranged in the beginning is ROUGH I will admit but Ranger gets strong extremely fast.
Hitting for 5600 on a crit is always fun; try to grab items that give you mana-regen and spam Powered Shot [obviously full-charge] and don't bother left-clicking, or using abilities outside of Marked Shot.

[MarSprite]

Get rid of your bow, throw away your false impression of the ranger as an honorless kite monkey. Embrace the reality that the ranger is an extremely aggressive magical warrior. Engage with marked shot, then walk up and beat the crap out of your enemies with a sword, dropping traps directly on top of them. Go hard for the passives that give evasion or enhance your crit-rate. Put your enemies to the sword, or dagger, or mace, screw it -use any weapon but that pos bow.
I don't know, that's how I played hammerwatch 2 ranger, and it was easily the strongest character with its absurd health regeneration. I am using a sword because that was the way to go there, and maybe it still has the most aoe to it? go for melee aoe. This ranger seems built a little different, but the perks that make it immortal seem to be random finds in the level now. Still really ridiculous at level 6.

[Jabberwock]

Bow is fine once you start scaling and stacking crit and crit damage but as a basic auto early it's weak as it only hits 1 enemy for mediocre damage even when marked. Once you crit regularly and are constantly at max passive stacks it gets much better. Charged shot can do tons of damage in hallways but it just slows you down too much as well. The game dynamics change a lot as you unlock class specializations at lvl 10 so maybe hold off on judgement. It's worth sticking it out but there is also barely any downside to class swapping as you keep your town progression and can store weapons for other classes, earn some stars across all classes and whatnot.

[Timmetry]

As a long-time veteran Hammerwatch Ranger player: they finally balanced the bow. By making it weak enough so that if you're gonna fight from a long ways away, you're gonna take a LOT longer to kill things. It's the only way to balance it!

Bow has always been by far the safest and most spammable weapon in the game. It shouldn't be able to compete damage-wise with the up-close weapons.

You can still use a bow if you want! Just don't expect to clear as quickly if all you're going to do is run away. ;) Personally, I'm doing just fine lining up aimed shots and well-timed marks for big AoE, just using the little bow hits to finish things off.

[Flash]

Originally posted by Timmetry:

As a long-time veteran Hammerwatch Ranger player: they finally balanced the bow. By making it weak enough so that if you're gonna fight from a long ways away, you're gonna take a LOT longer to kill things. It's the only way to balance it!

Bow has always been by far the safest and most spammable weapon in the game. It shouldn't be able to compete damage-wise with the up-close weapons.

You can still use a bow if you want! Just don't expect to clear as quickly if all you're going to do is run away. ;) Personally, I'm doing just fine lining up aimed shots and well-timed marks for big AoE, just using the little bow hits to finish things off.

A Bow is always a pure DPS class with weak constitution. What u said makes no sense even if u want it to prolong gameplay. Lowering bow damage etc. means u need to compensate with armor or health.. ur making a heavy archer class but not everyone thinks heavy archer (usually placed in armies, not independent regiments). A bow is almost always as dangerous as a 2 handed sword since this is powerful piercing compared to a sword slash

[Timmetry]

Originally posted by Flash:

A Bow is always a pure DPS class with weak constitution. What u said makes no sense even if u want it to prolong gameplay. Lowering bow damage etc. means u need to compensate with armor or health.. ur making a heavy archer class but not everyone thinks heavy archer (usually placed in armies, not independent regiments). A bow is almost always as dangerous as a 2 handed sword since this is powerful piercing compared to a sword slash

In other ARPGs, sure. I'm talking about Hammerwatch titles specifically. I've played Ranger primarily in every single Hammerwatch game. But it always felt way too easy and overpowered. The way enemies work in Hammerwatch, if you get far enough away, it's very easy in most situations to never get hit. Most enemy projectiles expire before they even reach you. The vast majority of enemies will never even be able to attack you at all.

Again though, this is mostly an issue with players who fight from as long a range as possible. And with Ranger in previous titles, that was really the only way to fight. But not anymore! There are plenty of ways to do plenty of damage if you're willing to take a few risks to line up piercing shots. Not to mention the other tools at your disposal, though of course you'll still have those if you don't use a bow.

Ranger in HoH2 is NOT by any means a low damage class. It's only the auto-attack of the bow that is lower damage. The thing is, you have other options! Not just the mark, but the traps can do very high damage too. And the auto-attack can still finish off enemies from a safe distance. It's not bad for bossing either if you keep them marked. Keep in mind most classes and weapons are not going to be able to just hold down the button and strafe infinitely like you can. Individual arrow hits are low, but the steady DPS while staying very mobile is quite good compared to what other weapons to do in single-target scenarios.

[Viscule]

Hand crossbow has been the most successful for me with ranger.

[derw4tz]

I always play ranger first but i get so annoyed in having to spam charged shot for one hour +

Hand crossbow is cool but it does not work with the marksman trait

dmg wise i think hes fine; you are throwing 600+ crits out pretty consistently while beeing out of harms way, his skills are also pretty good

[Flash]

Originally posted by Timmetry:

In other ARPGs, sure. I'm talking about Hammerwatch titles specifically. I've played Ranger primarily in every single Hammerwatch game. But it always felt way too easy and overpowered. The way enemies work in Hammerwatch, if you get far enough away, it's very easy in most situations to never get hit. Most enemy projectiles expire before they even reach you. The vast majority of enemies will never even be able to attack you at all.

Again though, this is mostly an issue with players who fight from as long a range as possible. And with Ranger in previous titles, that was really the only way to fight. But not anymore! There are plenty of ways to do plenty of damage if you're willing to take a few risks to line up piercing shots. Not to mention the other tools at your disposal, though of course you'll still have those if you don't use a bow.

Ranger in HoH2 is NOT by any means a low damage class. It's only the auto-attack of the bow that is lower damage. The thing is, you have other options! Not just the mark, but the traps can do very high damage too. And the auto-attack can still finish off enemies from a safe distance. It's not bad for bossing either if you keep them marked. Keep in mind most classes and weapons are not going to be able to just hold down the button and strafe infinitely like you can. Individual arrow hits are low, but the steady DPS while staying very mobile is quite good compared to what other weapons to do in single-target scenarios.

The dungeons restrict movement to close quarters.. Ive been to 2 boss fights now and both send mobs to the player to close the distance. So range on the normal map isnt an issue or OP since u almost always get close enough that higher HP and attacks by melee is as significant as for a ranger.

Also for everything said, Ranger has lower HP and ability to wear high armor due to low strength. He does not gain evasion like in other ARPGS/RPGS due to dexterity which is ok to an extent but becomes a problem since dungeon mob ganging up is very commonplace in the game therefore rendering Rangers as a weak class

P.S. I have not played previous hammerwatch and im still levelling my player up so I cant debate the power/powerlessness of the ranger. I got a crossbow in my current run and im seeing my marked shot, traps on close contact for mobs working well and a lot of RNG working out for now

[MilkAlberry]

can you wizard do a gatling gun effect?(alternate left and right click with the right timing and you full auto things.