[Gecon]

I want to play the class that deals the most melee damage.

I started a monk some time after release. Reason was, I saw ranger (ugh, those tree huggers with their healing and stuff !), rogue (gah, I hate those sneakers and cutpurses), monk (um ?) and bard (songs !!! yay !!!).

Obviously, Monk had no feature whatsoever - except that they can hit. So I figured Monks must be the class that hit hardest, as they cant do much else. Later I've been told, no, thats wrong, ranger is the class that deals more damage. WAAH !!! Ok, I removed the Monk and started a ranger. She's only level 8, mind, so its not the end of the world to remove her again, but...

... now I had to read this:

Originally Posted by Wild

But as for damage, Talisker has always told me that Ranger would always be third behind Rogue and Monk in damage. Sometimes after patches one of the three classes is way higher in damage and it is tweaked down.... but at the end of the day, it will be as it was meant to be. If you like being highest damage, then Ranger is not for you.

ALL I really want is to play the one damn class that deals the most melee damage ! I dont care if they have extremely bad defense, if they suck solo, if they have no other feature at all. But what *** class is it now ?

Mind, I dont have really time to play it at the moment anyway, my Cleric really has priority, I just want to know which class that would be so I have a character where I can dump all good medium armor into that I find, and so I know what kind of weapons I have to collect for her etc.

Anyone got an answer ?

[Leishiu]

What's intended is not where the game stands at this point. In 3, 6 or 12 months, who knows?

[Bubbels]

The ranger issue is a really touchy issue for me. Rangers got nerfed in a big way back during Update #1. I have submitted data over and over again, Wild has at least read my posts on it and responded. But we have still to see anything huge come through. In short, Rangers where amazing at DPS and survival at release. Then came the nerfs.

In short. I have a bard I am bringing up now. He just last night passed up my ranger at level 23. I ran my bard through all the areas my ranger was at. The quests where so much easier as the bard just burned through them.

Dont take the bard songs for granted. This is not the EQ bard. You can get very creative with your songs and do alot of very interesting things.

[Thisle1234]

Well the only reason people say rangers dish out more dmg is because in a typical fight versus a mob you have enough time to usually get off 1 chain before it dies. Thats if you have a full group...

Rangers have an ability called Windsong. Its a crit finisher. I believe you first get this at level 14. Basically it will hit melee + xx for XX number of times. XX can be anywhere from 3-9 times. Very rarely does it ever hit above 4 times when you first get it. At 22 the ranger gets a combo move.

Blade of summer + Fleetblade before a windsong gives the windsong a chance to hit more times. This is how a ranger can get some serious dmg. Since a windsong can hit for so many times, a regular crit can be 2-3k dmg. An epic or legendary...and were talking alot more. Not to mention blade of summer does around 500-700dmg itself.

So rangers do get pretty "big" melee hits. But windsong does have a cooldown so after you use it your pretty much cut on dps until later on in levels when you get different chains.

[blues]

i think the monk got boosted lately, as the monk in my squad has started getting 20k + hits quite a lot. i have no problem with it at all either as a ranger, because when you play group centric all the time, you depend on your groupmates to kick some ass.

then again alot of solo mechanics and group mechanics are totally different.

[Bubbels]

Originally Posted by Thisle1234

Well the only reason people say rangers dish out more dmg is because in a typical fight versus a mob you have enough time to usually get off 1 chain before it dies. Thats if you have a full group...

Rangers have an ability called Windsong. Its a crit finisher. I believe you first get this at level 14. Basically it will hit melee + xx for XX number of times. XX can be anywhere from 3-9 times. Very rarely does it ever hit above 4 times when you first get it. At 22 the ranger gets a combo move.

Blade of summer + Fleetblade before a windsong gives the windsong a chance to hit more times. This is how a ranger can get some serious dmg. Since a windsong can hit for so many times, a regular crit can be 2-3k dmg. An epic or legendary...and were talking alot more. Not to mention blade of summer does around 500-700dmg itself.

So rangers do get pretty "big" melee hits. But windsong does have a cooldown so after you use it your pretty much cut on dps until later on in levels when you get different chains.

Are you talking 2-3k damage total from windsong with the combo buff up at level 22? That scenario I have seen. Just not 2-3k for each hit of windsong.

I really hate to rant here, but what do rangers bring to the group if they are not there for the dps? The str / dex with crit chance is nice, but something other classes can buff better. The heal will not turn the table of a fight. I dunno, I guess this is just my perspective. To me there just seems to be alot better classes to spend my time investing in.

Like the bard --> Chained reaction, amazing travel utitility (speed, levi, invis, underwater breathing), large range of buff songs (stat buffs, ac, resists, damage increase, health regen, energy regen, energy cost decrease). And not to forget an amazing ability to kite. Might not be as efficient as other kiter classes, but with enough patience and effort you can solo some rather nasty mobs.

[Sarith Silverwolf]

At 38 I do an insane amount of damage. Last epic windsong I remember seeing was like 6 or 7 hits for 1.5-2k each. Legendary crit shot for 10k+. As for utility, my roots and heals have saved groups many times, and with charm and fear, you can put together a pretty mean kiting group. Me + psi + necro were able to pretty much tear everything we came across into pieces. I can't really speak for the other offensive fighters though, as I have not grouped with one in recent memory, probably since CiS.

[arkand]

I have a 50 bard group with a a ranger and a rogue on a nightly bases and the ranger at 48 has better dps than the rogue at 48. As a bard I have low dps compared, but i greatly increase both of their dps outputs also having a cleric in grp really increases it also.

[Bubbels]

Originally Posted by Sarith Silverwolf

At 38 I do an insane amount of damage. Last epic windsong I remember seeing was like 6 or 7 hits for 1.5-2k each. Legendary crit shot for 10k+. As for utility, my roots and heals have saved groups many times, and with charm and fear, you can put together a pretty mean kiting group. Me + psi + necro were able to pretty much tear everything we came across into pieces. I can't really speak for the other offensive fighters though, as I have not grouped with one in recent memory, probably since CiS.

I would love to expand a little bit on what you mean by your heals have saved the group. Let me throw a scenario at you.

The mob is at 10% health. Your tank is at 10% health. Your healer just died. What do you do... heal or dps?

There is no wrong or right answer to the question really. I am just curious to understand the ranger mentality. As I said above I came in thinking that the ranger was my style, but then later on changed to another class.

[Caed]

In that situation it depends alot on if you windsong/blade of storm is on cd, do you have enough endurance to do a combo or high dmg in short time?
If not, I would heal the tank while my endurance regen.

[Strike Anywhere]

Originally Posted by Gecon

So what class does the most damage ???

The one with a bard in it's group.

[Thisle1234]

Originally Posted by Strike Anywhere

The one with a bard in it's group.

YEa thats pretty much true. While bards dont have the greatest dps, they do enhance the other offensive fighters DPS 10 fold. When i group with a bard on my ranger i blow shit up. Litterally i touch stuff and it just blows up...

[Rasputina]

Kinda suprised to hear Rangers are third on the eventual DPS chain for offensive fighters. I expected Rogues to be tops and bards to be bottom, but i guess I need to load up a Monk and take a look at their skills and such. I thought they would end up with more utility than Rangers but looks I thought wrong.

Regardless, glad to see the monks getting love, even if its slow in coming.

[Tild]

Originally Posted by Thisle1234

YEa thats pretty much true. While bards dont have the greatest dps, they do enhance the other offensive fighters DPS 10 fold. When i group with a bard on my ranger i blow shit up. Litterally i touch stuff and it just blows up...

Hehe, 10 fold might be stretching it =P

2 fold is about accurate. Whoever said their Monk gets 20k+ hits regularly...I'd like to know what sort of buffs he had. Unless you were fighting skeletons, that's a legendary hit. My typical epic hits on Thundering Fists is about 9-10k. If you're going for pure damage, at this exact point in time, ranger is the way to go. In the long run I believe rogues will be on top, then Monks, then rangers.

[Tarikko]

I could care less which does the most dps, I love bards lol.

My damage even as a tank with a 1h is noticeably greater with a bard, and by greater i mean "oh wow" greater.

[Gecon]

Duh.

If I understand the thread correctly, the ranger is still the strongest class in respect to melee dps.

Well, maybe I'll really have to wait for the Berserker class.

[Tenison]

Originally Posted by Gecon

Duh.

If I understand the thread correctly, the ranger is still the strongest class in respect to melee dps.

Well, maybe I'll really have to wait for the Berserker class.

Well in the grand scheme of things after balancing the list is supposed to go Monk>Rogue>Ranger>Bard. If they ever get around to balancing that is.

[Urglunt]

Originally Posted by Tenison

Well in the grand scheme of things after balancing the list is supposed to go Monk>Rogue>Ranger>Bard. If they ever get around to balancing that is.

No, they have said many times Rogues are supposed to be #1 on that list.

Mind you that means the rogue is in stalking 4 form, which at higher levels is more and more difficult to maintain thanks to the AE/DS bug breaking it, but that is the intent.

[Drekor]

Keep in mind that if you play with a static group weaknesses can play a major roll in which class would do more damage as not every class can exploit every weakness, find out what weaknesses your group provides check out which weaknesses the classes your looking at can exploit(and provide to your group!) and go with that, chances are if you can exploit more weaknesses you'll do more damage. As an example lets just say a ranger has the highest DPS solo stick them in a group where he has no weaknesses to exploit and his DPS won't stack up against say a rogue that can exploit multiple ones.

The situation is unlikely but it's a key component in maximizing DPS.

[Leishiu]

Originally Posted by Drekor

Keep in mind that if you play with a static group weaknesses can play a major roll in which class would do more damage as not every class can exploit every weakness, find out what weaknesses your group provides check out which weaknesses the classes your looking at can exploit(and provide to your group!) and go with that, chances are if you can exploit more weaknesses you'll do more damage. As an example lets just say a ranger has the highest DPS solo stick them in a group where he has no weaknesses to exploit and his DPS won't stack up against say a rogue that can exploit multiple ones.

The situation is unlikely but it's a key component in maximizing DPS.

Weaknesses scale badly. Where ~200 damage extra is pretty decent at 30, roughly the same is not really going to make much of a diffrence at 50.