Shattered Kingdoms

Run away and do what? As long as they remain within range you'll continue to be pelted. Also, when someone storms your city, is that the answer? To run away from it?

There should be some sort of way to mitigate ranged combat.

I've heard more than a few workable ideas, and another is to simply have there be an additive miss chance for every rank between you and your target. For scouts their pet would be excluded.

Any knowledgable opponent has an advantage over those that know not.



Alright, you lost all credit right there. Based on a char I played three or fours years ago? Come on, I'd expect better from a former-IMM.



Casters?

Sorc = charmy + ethereal

Necro = undead horde + ethereal

Warlock = three rounds of stone skin + elemental + magmar

Priests = get the hell out of dodge because they are healers. Any merc worth their salt (despite their specs) will take them eighter way without back up.



Irrelevant. If you are talking about the highest level you are talking about group combat. Pick a side. One vs one, one versus group, group vs group? If your talking high-level stuff here you can expect a reciter to come with triple harm and a papyrus. Tell me right now that won't take someone out.

Not even to mention that a simple little skill like dirt kick can TOTALLY stop this supposed third rank ranger. I won't even get into the thirteen art blind or colorspray.



Honostly thats an insult. Cannibal and I have been literally handing defenses and counters to you all. Do not play like it can't be. If you want the play by play point by point drawn out hand book to responding to this threat you'd ask us. But too bloody bad, find it out for yourself.

Closing point.

I -still- have yet to die to ranged combat alone.

I may use it, yes, but I have yet to feel what you have to be whining about despite that fact that Cannibal and I are on opposing sides.

I support the command Cover that Achernar preposed, it only makes sense.

Out.

Exactly.

Totally, if the shooter was in another 'room', they could shoot from the flank or behind to reach a victim on the 3rd row. But in the same room when two groups are facing each other, and the target behind two physical entities.....

Okay, okay. I don't have the time or the patience to cut this post up and reply to every single part individually, so I'll lump most everything together in one spot.

One. Lolth was right for once, just remove the knowledgeable part and you've got the current situation. The only knowledge you have to have is who will hook me up with some ammo and the weapon for my ranged spec. That's it. That's no "supreme knowledge winning the day" that's a currently overpowered facet of the game getting used more and more.

Me being an ex-Imm has nothing to do with it. I hated you before I was an imm, while I was an imm, and now that I'm not an imm. You were almost always an annoying person without any grasp of the way the game works unless someone told you how it did over YIM. Seriously, I don't like most of the "twink" community, however I tolerate the most of them simply because they DO know what they're talking about. You didn't. Don't. Probably never will. To sum it up, I'd rather play with Mitch than you.

As far as your breakdown of ways a caster can avoid it, it's lacking to say the least. So. Your answer is ethereal. Wait, the answer is scrolls. You can't use scrolls while ethereal on non-ethereal targets. So it's one or the other, okay, maybe you just didn't make your point very clear. As far as ethereal goes, for Sorcs that's going to be another I can't do anything to you, but run. Why? This isn't back in the day, people aren't whipping out soul spiders on people. Charmies are no where near as powerful as they were even a few years ago, let alone back when they could wipe out a group on their own. This will most likely allow the Sorc to live to see another day, but that's about it.

It works much better for Necros as long as you're dealing with a very well prepared Necro. Of course, it's baseline that he has a eth wand since they are fairly simple to get. However, for him to be effective with just his undead horde, he's going to need all those bad boys equipped with decent stuff, and preferablly have more than one or two wraiths in there. So yes, a highly prepared necromancer can come out on top in this situation of a 1v1, but my problem with it is the Mercenary didn't require any prep but gathering some ammo for their weapon and typing skirmish necro. It's not any sort of an equal playing field, and it's without a doubt the most unbalanced tactic to come around in a long time.

Warlocks are kind of a toss up, if you're saying that the warlock is prepared to fend off the attack, then it's just as easy to say the Merc has SS piercing arrows as well, meaning that warlock is still pretty much screwed.

With all of that covered, the issue is specifically the drastic imbalance of ranged combat to melee combat. There is no reason for any mercenary to choose to fight in melee instead of ranged. You put out damage equal to, or greater than in melee at ALOT less risk.

Then if that wasn't unbalacing enough, Mercenaries are just as good in Melee if you ever happen to actually get to them. That's the problem. At least Scouts are weaker in melee than in hand to hand. Ranged combat as a whole needs some sort of nerf, and it needs to effect Mercs more than Scouts. That's all.

If a mercenary wishes to specialize in ranged combat, good for them, but it should be at a cost of their armour. A mercenary who wants to use ranged weapons should have to wear light armour with a penalty to wearing heavy. They have to be more nimble to move around and shoot.

That is the dumbest idea I have heard. Wimping Mercs armor bonus so they can move around. What the hell, You do not have to be that nimble to shoot a bow or crossbow.

Haha, that's funny, you took my compare data of ranged weapons and LEAD THE WAY. That's awesome.

I doubt you would have even bothered if I didn't make a list of ranged weapons.

I'd suggest it is pretty difficult to shoot a bow quickly in a full suit of armour.

Its easy. Seriously increase the PE cost for shooting. Scouts have herbs of refresh, which can be their method of being longer lasting shooters. Mercs can still shoot fast, but they'll tire and be useless while a scout can gather herbs, camo, ambush, and still kill the merc in the wilderness.

A

Or a merc can spend two minutes buying refresh vials that do the same thing. All that does is wimp ranged combat as a whole.