Hello everyone!
After playing the EA for quite some time, I've realized that if one is going to choose a ranger character, as of now it better be the hunter archetype, because the beastmaster does feel lackluster to me.
I always loved to play character that somehow side with nature and harness it's power in a good way, rangers and druids can do just that, to my disappointment though, I noticed that the beastmaster, does not bring nothing on the table that can really affect the way we fight our enemies, the interaction with the pet are very scarce.
To vary this I thought, once a player chooses the beastmaster archetype, you could get different varieties of bears,wolves and so on... Based on the race and origins you have chosen for your character.
For example, a Shield Dwarf might spawn an artic wolf summoning one, or a polar bear, but if our race is human or elf than the variant could change.
Alongside this it would be nice, if the animals could grow some bond with you, if for example you spent enough time and fought many battles with the bear, you can actually use some bond points to improve some of his stats, of course nothing too strong but something that gives you the feeling of actually evolving with your furry companion and not just call them out of a black hole and pretend they have always been there.
Now when it comes to fights, I have to say all of the beasts feel underwhelming, the only one that was actually strong maybe too strong was the spider, back at launch, now it got fixed and brought back in line.
The bear is supposed to take damage and assert zone of control over the enemies, you want him to be able to take hits for you and your mates but at the same time retaliate with attack of opportunity if the enemy decides to get out of the it's proximity without disengaging.
This is not possible since the bear's HP are very low, when it should at least equal yours if not be even more resistant, but of course in exchange it can not deal too much damage.
The wolf should be able to have more movement and also hit harder than the bear, with a medium to low healthpool but a good consistent damage, with maybe the ability to induce fear to it's enemies with it's howl, in a restricted radius and of course capped with the short rest requirement or long depending on how strong the ability gets proven to be.
The raven or eagle, could work like a rogue, when in stealth it could deal high critical damage and blind the enemies but with a very small health pool.
The warthog should feel as a ram charging into battle, you should be able to push enemies far away with it's special attack, this way it can become very useful in certain areas, allowing you too push enemies off the ledges, I would give it the second best Health pool, and ability to push enemies.
The spider, could get the same healthpool of the wolf, but be more evasive and provide damage over time thanks to it's venom this way.
As of now trading the satisfying dmg you can get out of the hunter archetype, for the beastmaster feels bad in my opinion, if the beasts would get balanced and given some variety or maybe even a short lore, that would increase it's appeal and usefulness in a party, under the form of interaction with the surroundings, for example find food for the camp supplies or if the road is blocked up ahead, we could use the raven to scout the other side of it, this way we could avoid being ambushed, I think many ideas could be implemented.
It's true that maybe some of these concepts or other ones might already be implemented for future acts down the line, but in this EA so far the class feels lackluster.
Thanks for reading!
