Best solo melee class?

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by Cecily [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I dislike the negative AC on those hoops. I generally run Fingerbone Hoop / Vindi earring for AC/STR/MR on my melees.

Yeah, Snaggles and I disagree about the relative importance of gearing for AC on a ranger. But instead of yelling at him about it I appreciate the context in which he has his priorities and adapt his advice to apply to my own, different, context. I find that leads to a much more enjoyable and productive discussion than treating every disagreement like high school debate club and going on about rhetorical fallacies and shit.

Appreciate your input too, thanks [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, I don't believe that. I could explain (again) but you'll just ignore my reasoning so you can argue with me some more. You're far too stubborn to ever change your mind and I'm not interested in arguing about this with you. I wanted some advice on upgrades from the rangers in this thread and Snaggles provided an excellent suggestion for an upgrade path.

As you can see, Bcbrown cannot rebut my arguments yet again. I understand he is biased and trolling. This is his normal routine when responding to me. But this is a weak response even then.

If he knew the answers, he would simply counter my points.

1. He can't explain how Woven Bark earring is unqiue clickie-wise.

2. He cannot rebut the basic idea that most players typically have a set of resist gear they swap to. This means you have to know how to play without your non-resist gear.

3. He has no response to the basic fact that great non-clickie spells have cast times around 4 seconds too.

4. He can't explain why saving mana from clickies is unimportant. He cites the idea that he doesn't use his mana. This implies he doesn't need to heal either. Maybe he needs to use his mana a bit more to speed up killing if he isn't using it.

[Cecily]

He's talking about earring upgrades, not snare clickies, you child.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Cecily [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

He's talking about earring upgrades, not snare clickies, you child.

If you read the thread, he is wearing woven bark earring. So yes, it is related. Unequipping a max HP item like Hammered Golden Loop will remove that extra HP you have if you are at full HP. So even swapping between woven bark earring and HGL affects the utility of HGL to some degree.

[Naethyn]

Ranger should be the least impacted by negative AC as they are only just above cloth when it comes to how much real ac they get.

[Botten]

Originally Posted by Naethyn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ranger should be the least impacted by negative AC as they are only just above cloth when it comes to how much real ac they get.

In regards to damage reduction... when recognizing raid tanking
Warrior > Knight > Monk > Bard > Ranger = Rogue > Shaman > Necro (Who would make a Necro the raid tank!?!?)

But in an exp group tanking in an exp group with Velious gear is serious business!!!
Top BiS or nothing!!! /s

*sigh -.- Rangers can tank in an exp group just fine.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by Naethyn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ranger should be the least impacted by negative AC as they are only just above cloth when it comes to how much real ac they get.

Yeah it seems like most people with a lot of experience with melee in EQ think AC isn't very important on a ranger. When I did a little parsing I didn't find any ranger-specific limitations on AC, but I was also comparing to a druid and a cleric so I don't have a high degree of confidence in my conclusions. I found that there's a hit distribution where roughly a third of hits are either for min or max value, and that adding AC shifts hits from max value to min, and that once there's <3% hits for min value adding AC doesn't help.

My interpretation of the "don't bother gearing rangers for AC" school of thought is that when raiding you're either not getting hit or you're bumping, so it's not a priority. That makes a ton of sense, but I'm not 60 yet so I'm still gearing AC for when I'm tanking.

I'd love to hear your detailed thoughts on ranger AC, and perhaps your thoughts on the parsing I did in this thread.

Originally Posted by zelld52 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There are entire pages of this post that are hidden from me. Ah, well. Was it anything good?

Just the usual.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just the usual.

Unfortunately true. Bcbrown and Cecily will continue to use the argument from authority fallacy, while proving no evidence or counter points of their own.

If they are so confident in their knowledge, they wouldn't use fallacies to try and win a debate.

[Cecily]

Originally Posted by Naethyn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ranger should be the least impacted by negative AC as they are only just above cloth when it comes to how much real ac they get.

I'm looking at it from the perspective of it's a bad idea to make a weak point worse. Like there's certainly a point where piling on more AC to a ranger offers minimal benefits, but I don't think it works the other way around. You're bringing your character closer to the naked baseline, and I don't see any way that's not worse.

[Goregasmic]

Originally Posted by Naethyn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ranger should be the least impacted by negative AC as they are only just above cloth when it comes to how much real ac they get.

So far it seems like rangers take more damage because their lower defense stat leads to taking more hits compared to warriors and knights.

If rangers take more hits that could technically mean AC has the most importance to them since it keeps those extra hits lower on the distribution.