Anyone who is now playing this game or stuck with it from sub only to it's newly successful model could you please answer a question for me? I would love to return to the game but I'm wondering how the classes for Assassin and Ranger have fared? Do the mechanics for Stealth work properly now on the Assassin? I remember the painful problems of being in a cave with a covered entrance in the middle of the night (game time) with only one torch being clear across the other side of the room, and EVERY mob in the place could see me even though they were 3-4 levels below me when i played the Assassin.

Also, the shooting skills of the Ranger just didn't have much CC and i was wondering if they had made strides in improving this class?

thanks.

grum

Originally posted by itgrowls

Anyone who is now playing this game or stuck with it from sub only to it's newly successful model could you please answer a question for me? I would love to return to the game but I'm wondering how the classes for Assassin and Ranger have fared? Do the mechanics for Stealth work properly now on the Assassin? I remember the painful problems of being in a cave with a covered entrance in the middle of the night (game time) with only one torch being clear across the other side of the room, and EVERY mob in the place could see me even though they were 3-4 levels below me when i played the Assassin.

Also, the shooting skills of the Ranger just didn't have much CC and i was wondering if they had made strides in improving this class?

 

thanks.

grum

My main is a PvP 10 Ranger and I love it.  The CC's revolve around "traps" and essentially the generall strategy is to use distance and use the traps to snare/knockdown/light people on fire when they get close to you.  The Ranger was one of the most overpowered classes and as such recieved a few nerfs.  They honestly feel very balanced though and a lot of people complain that they are still to good in PvP.  Rangers do have a few bow skill cc's, one called line breaker(featable) which is a knock back which effects everyone in a small radius near the person your targeting and Pin Down which is a run speed slow.  Also keep in mind that when I say knock back in AoC its actually a knock down which is very powerful as players can not use a "cc" break to get our of it once they are knocked down so it always lasts for its full duration.  If you absolutely want more ranged CC there is an Alternate Advancement(AA) shot which acts as a "Mez" shot.  There is also a featable skill Concusive blast which is a point blank aoe stun centered on the ranger.

Assassins do scary damage. I recently leveled one to 80 and have started playing it and I also enjoy it very much. A geared, AA'ed assassin can 2-5 shot a clothie caster if done properly.  They are a more difficult class to learn because their range is very limited (i.e. you have be be standing right next to the person to get your combos to hit.) Although I say they are difficult to learn a properly played Assassin is a force to be reconed with. Stealth works now properly but is still the same with regards to the environment having an affect on your stealth. In PvE  using shadows and bushes and such improve your stealth and you can tell by looking at a little icon near your radar to see how well you are hidden.

Another thing to keep in mind is that players have been playing for a while now and there are very geared very well progressed characters out there being played by very skilled people that could give you the bussiness and make you look silly.  I can't tell you how many times I have wiffed a combo on my Assassin and died horribly while doing almost no damage to the person I was PvP'ing against.

Either way I hope you do choose to play AoC again.  I really do love it since coming back and it has a lot of very cool things to uncover if your willing to put in the time and effort to build a character capable of doing things.  Any class you pick has very good things about it so my advice is to play a class that you think sounds cool!