Ambush

Much like other specialty skills; charge, cleave, blackjack etc. you should be allowed to ambush after a fight has started. And put a timer on it for affects so it can't be spammed or anything. Or don't allow any of those skills to be done while the other person is hurt and suspicious. I don't know, just thinking of things, might be a balance issue.

More I think about it, maybe not. I don't know, would be nice but probably doesn't make much sense.

The skills you mentioned are completely different and have different purposes. Comparing them to each other is wrong.

Ambush is a skill I never practice on my rangers. I do not see it doing more damage than a good murder round. I do not think rangers should even have a skill with this design anymore, personally. A high damage opening skill is best left to thieves or ninjas, in my opinion. If this skill were to be messed with and left with the ranger class, perhaps make it a specific ranger path's ability.

Ambush is a backstab with lower damage and other name. I see no point in allowing it on hurt enemies.

You raise a good question because I never see anyone use Ambush. I suggest Ambush also does something other than damage. Like a 0 hours missdirection or auto-dirt kick. Then again Rangers aren't particulary weak.

Ambush is pretty cool as is, but I'm always open to new and exciting ideas.

At the moment, if I'm not mistaken, it can deal a massive amount of damage (Unspeakable on unsancd opponents in some cases), along with a free shot from your bow (landing a mal, or hitting a vuln), and it lags your opponent. Not much, but enough to get a nice attack round along with pets getting an open murder round.

I personally don't think ALL the skills in the arsenal of a class should be super useful always. IMO, some skills should be extremely situational or just right out useless. A high proficiency in a certain class means not just doing well with it, but knowing which skill to practice and which to leave out.

Ambush is such a skill, like many others. And that's perfectly fine.

Just my 2 cents.

10 minutes ago, f0xx said:

I personally don't think ALL the skills in the arsenal of a class should be super useful always. IMO, some skills should be extremely situational or just right out useless. A high proficiency in a certain class means not just doing well with it, but knowing which skill to practice and which to leave out.

Ambush is such a skill, like many others. And that's perfectly fine.

Just my 2 cents.

Well said.

I think it's a poor design choice to purposefully adding useless skills/spells, like kick for most classes.  I'd rather each skill is useful, even if its situational.

This is not the same as skills or spells that are useful for other aspects of the game, such as detect good/evil for RP.

Ambush evokes an image of cornering your prey.  Maybe make it hard to escape the opening round or two of attacks without actually lagging the target.

I've always though of Ambush as lurking behind the foliage, stalking your victim. You quietly nock your arrow, draw back, and when the time is right, fire, and then spring from the the cover of the forest, weapons swinging. Surprised and shocked by the attack, it takes a round for your victim's flight or fight instinct to kick in.

Along those lines; if anything were to be changed with Ambush by the imps, I would say augment the ambush skill based off of the Rangers chosen lore.

Beastmaster: Ranger pets ambush with you, with reduced damage.

Archer: Fire two arrows instead of one, and automatically enter rapid fire mode.

Tracker: Throw a ranger staff along with the ambush.

And that's it, was just thinking about putting a sneak attack during a fight.

Path related ambush would be nice. 

Maybe beast instead could be where your pets initiate the attack so they're tanking first.

That right there is why I make these posts, to get y'all brainstorming.

While it would be pretty cool to see, I don't think rangers need anything else. I've never had an issue pumping out damage as a ranger.. I just think it would be unnecessary.. Especially when we could have other things coded instead..

Because rangers need tweaking to become viable in pk and pve.

All in all excellent ideas, but they would unbalance them, so unless you're wanting to add in something to rebalace, such as a 3 round lag for ambush, then I don't see it happening.

It goes without saying that any addition would come with an adjustment in an appropriate way.  I don't think it'd be enjoyable just overpowering anything.

If murder + ranged attack is a bursty opener, then make the ambushes a different flavor that isn't just raw damage.