Fanmade:Ranger

The Ranger class specialises in using projectile and thrown weapons to deal damage and help others.

The Ranger is not an official class: It's a fan class. Author(s) of the article are: Tigreye007. He made the class for the Diii.net Skill Tree Contest in September 2008.

Background

Diablo III Class [e]
Ranger  Fan-made Class
Role:	Ranged
Primary Attributes:	Dexterity
Class Skills
Skills and Traits
Background
Origin:	Sanctuary
Affiliation:	Unknown
Friends:	Unknown
Foes:	Unknown

TODO: Background - Someone with a good grasp on Diablo Lore: Feel free to take this on!

Class Design

The Ranger excels in ranged weaponry, with quite a few updates on the Amazon from Diablo II. With a tree for projectiles (bows and crossbows), a tree for thrown weapons (javelins and boomerangs), and an enhancement tree that will enhance both of the other two trees, this character class allows quite a variety of builds centred around a well-rounded ranged attacker.

Here are some design sample builds below to give you an idea of the Ranger's versatility:

Power Ranger: Max out either bow or xbow mastery, Projectile Mastery, and Bending, Concussing, or Stun shot (single target abilities that increase quickly in damage). In enhancements, Max Poison Tip and Copy Self. This is intended to be a single-target powerhouse, maxing damage dealt to one target.

Chaingunner: Max out bow or xbow mastery and Rapid fire. Max Preserve stamina, pierce, and Poison Tip. Your main skill of Rapid Fire will cause you to spit out projectiles like an automatic weapon. Stack on some poison damage and pierce, and prevent yourself from running out of stamina, and you’ve got a winning combination.

Boomeranger: Max Quick Throw, Chaotic Throw, Poison Tip, and Defensive Stance and Summon Barrier. With your Chaotic Throw flying through the air for long periods of time, and lengthy delays in recast, you will need to boost your defenses and/or prevent enemies from getting near you. Quick Throw will cause the boomerang to fly extremely fast around your area, causing more damage per cast. Adding Poison Tip is just gravy.

Curethrower: There is a healer/buffer class possible (with Throw Potion and Helpful Shot being your main abilities), and of course a nice variety of area effect damagers and other fun skills (For example, finish the class with Poison Explosion, Tie-up and Pierce)

Attributes and Skills

Attributes

Starting Attributes

• Strength: 10
• Dexterity: 15
• Vitality: 8
• Willpower: 8
• Life: 40
• Mana: 20
• Stamina: 20

Attribute Increase Per Level

• Strength: +1
• Dexterity: +2.5
• Vitality: +2
• Willpower: +1
• Life: +5
• Mana: +2.5
• Stamina: +2.5

Ranger Skills

The Ranger skills are arranged into to three distinctive skill tree categories:

• Projectile Weaponry Skill Tree
• Thrown Weaponry Skill Tree
• Enhancement Skill Tree

All three trees have a combination of active and passive skills. Active skills are used in combat, while the passive skills boost or change the behaviour of the active skills.

Many skills by default will drain stamina on use, and will require a specific weapon type (bow, crossbow, or thrown weapon) in order to successfully activate. Stamina is restored simply by resting.

TODO: Images/Formatting

Projectile Weaponry Skills

Tier I Bow Mastery - Passive, Increase physical damage and accuracy with bow weapons Crossbow Mastery - Passive, Increase physical damage and accuracy with crossbow weapons

Tier II Shot Spray - Fires multiple projectiles in a random arrangement at the target (i.e. a shotgun blast), the number of which depends on the level of this skill. Projectiles that miss will continue on their path. Damage area also increases with each level.

Concussing Shot - Shoots an arcing projectile that lands at the targeted area, and explodes radially from that point of impact, potentially stunning, blinding, and damaging enemies within the radius. Stun chance and damage increase with level.

Bending Shot - Shoots a magical projectile that will bend around other monsters and obsticles to reach the intended target and with 100% accuracy. Damage and range increases with level.

Tier III Multi Shot (Requires Shot Spray) - Similar to the multiple projectile shot in D2. Number of projectiles increases with level. No damage penalty.

Stun Shot (Requires Concussing Shot and Bending Shot) - Projectile will bend around and reach target with 100% accuracy, damaging and stunning them. Chance to stun: 100%. Damage and range increase with level.

Tier IV Hail of Fire (Requires Multi Shot) - Shoots a massive amount of flaming projectiles into the air and rains them down on a oval-shaped area. Fire damage and area increase with level.

Rapid Fire (Requires Multi Shot) - Dramatically increases attack speed with bows and crossbows (Use at level 1: 100% increased speed - holding skill down at higher levels should be similar to a chain gun). Speed increases with each level (no cap on speed)

Tier V Elemental Shot (Requires Hail of Fire) - Similar to Multi Shot, but assigns Fire, Cold, or Lightning damage in sequence to each projectile - Cold Arrows will slow the targets, Fire arrows will burn the targets (Damage over time), Lightning arrows will shock (briefly stun) the targets, damage and # projectiles (slower than multi shot) and elemental effect increase with level.

Projectile Mastery (Requires Bow -OR- Crossbow Mastery)- Passive, increases critical hit chance and pierce chance, as well as increases damage dealt with Close Combat skill, with each level.

Tier VI Suicide Shot (Requires Stun Shot) - Completely drains stamina (also has a stamina cost applied before draining): Sends 1 projectile directly to each mob within area of effect, which damages and has a chance to stun them. Damage is modified based on amount of Stamina drained. Stun chance/duration and area of effect increase with level.

Close Combat (Requires Projectile Mastery) - Use your projectile as a close range weapon and impale a single enemy. Damage is based on ranged weapon damage (all modifiers applied) as well as projectile mastery level. Damage and chance for deadly strike (instant kill) increases with level. Instant Kill chance switches to Critical Hit chance in the case of Bosses.

Thrown Weaponry Skills

Tier I Throwing Mastery - Passive, Increases physical damage and accuracy with thrown weapons

Recoup - Passive, resupplies your stacks of equipped thrown weapons over time, Increases your chance to find magical throwing weapons (in addition to your normal loot).

Tier II Double-throw - Passive, Allows you to dual-wield throwing weapons. Active - Throws two weapons as a 1-2 punch. Attack speed and damage increase with level

Retrieve (requires equipped boomerang) - Allows you to send a boomerang-class weapon to retrieve otherwise-unreachable items (such as health orbs that dropped down to a lower level) and toggle switches. Range increases with level.

Tier III Quick Throw (Requires throwing mastery) - Passive, Thrown weapons fly through the air quicker (and boomerangs return just as quick) so they can be thrown again. Flight speed increases with level (higher levels are nearly instant)

Leech Stamina (Requires Throwing Mastery) - Passive, Thrown weapons drain stamina from the target. Stamina drained is added to your stamina pool. Amount of stamina drain increases with level.

Tier IV Tie up (Requires Retrieve, equipped boomerang) - Magical boomerang with trailing rope will travel around a group of enemies (nearest the target) and tie them together, slightly damaging them and rendering them temporarily immobile, and grants you a temporary increase in run speed. Damage, Duration of immobility and run speed increases with level.

Throw Potion - Allows you to throw beneficial magical potions at party members, which will cause the party member to "use" them. (click the spell, click the target, then click the potion from the list). The types of potions available increases with each level.

Tier V Strafe (Requires Double-Throw) - Sends Magical versions of your thrown weapon quickly to nearby targets with 100% accuracy. Num of targets increases with level.

Static Throw (Requires Quick Throw): In addition to the damage from the thrown weapon, a static field is cast around the target, dealing lightning damage that drains 25% of each monster's life. Range and area of effect increases with level.

Tier VI Chaotic Throw (Requires Tie up, equipped boomerang) - Throws magical versions of your boomerang that hit the target, then randomly turn and veer around in the area, piercing and hitting everything in its path - party members regenerate stamina and hit points if the boomerang passes near them. Length of flight and damage increases with level.

Charged Throw (Requires Quick Throw) - Adds large amounts of lightning damage to each throw (throws look like lightning bolts). Holding the mouse down charges the skill instead of repeating the attack, adding more damage when released. Base and charge damage increase with level.

Enhancement Skills

Tier I Preserve Stamina - Passive, Decreases amount of stamina used by each skill by a certain percentage

Tier II Defensive Stance (Requires preserve Stamina) - Passive, Increases the chance to evade melee, ranged, and magical attacks. Chance increases with level.

Pierce - Passive, Increases the chance that your ranged attacks will pierce through your enemies (Stacks with Projectile Mastery)

Tier III Dexterity Conversion (Requires Defensive Stance) - Passive, Adds a percentage of your Dexterity to your overall strength, allowing you to equip heavier armor

Poison Tip - Passive, Adds poison damage to all ranged attacks, amount of which increases with level

Tier IV Summon Barrier (Requires Defensive Stance, Consumes Mana) - Summons a wall that your ranged attacks will go over, but ground-based enemies cannot cross. Size and strength of wall increase with level

Disappear (Requires Defensive Stance, Consumes mana): All enemies lose sight of you for a moment and begin to attack a different target, and an amount of hate is shed. Length of invisibility and amount of hate increase with level.

Tier V Poison Explosion (Requires Poison Tip) - Passive, Upon impact with ranged weapon, a burst of poison spreads within area. Damage and area of effect increase with level.

Helpful Shot (Consumes Mana) - Enchants your weapon with healing power that heals party members, and heals wounds, removes curses, cures poison - enemies hit by this are damaged and blinded. Amount of healing power increases with level.

Tier VI Copy Self (Requires Summon Barrier, Consumes Mana) - Summon a copy of yourself that mimics all of your ranged attacks, but is very weak defensively and is immobile.

Soul Enchant (Requires Helpful Shot, Consumes Hit Points) - Drains 10% of your current hit points, and adds a large amount of physical damage to any ranged attack based on the amount of hit points drained. Damage modifier increases with level.

Development

This class was developed as part of the skill tree contest in September, 2008. The ideas behind the skills came from a variety of games I have played throughout my existence (as well as a couple of originals). The games I have played in the past include Diablo II, Final Fantasy XI, and World of Warcraft.

The work put into the skill tree took approximately 6 hours over the course of a week. That may seem like a lot of time to some people, and very little time to others, but either way, I had fun with it and I am glad I can now share it with the rest of the Diablo fan community.

References

• Diii.net Skill Tree Contest Page