Quote from spirit2roam;1289916:
You do have valid points, and truthfully, I wanted to keep my Bhafel Hunter. However, I'm trying to play devil's advocate trying to find reasons not to keep the bow considering other hybrids like Puppet + Ninja / Ninja + Gunner, etc, and the fact that I've been contemplating recently to sell it for some um...physical dinero to invest into other things.
Although, I'm still hesitant on that considering all the time that was spent trying to make this thing. If I was quitting for good, then honestly I would probably be selling the account right now, but I'm still wanting to play so at this point I didn't know if it was worth selling or am I going to regret it in the future.
Puppet is more of a utility though, so putting puppet as a hybrid isn't very conventional anymore. I mean, I'm sitting at nearly 1k max unbuffed with bars (over 1k if I am not lazy enough to level a bit more) as well as crisis reforge, and I still almost never pull it out except for setting up for easy lightning rod in party play. Range is still much more relevant in terms of game play, and I know the renovation for archery was basically shit in the hole, but they did make it easier for you to actually hit targets, which is really the only thing they did right in the update. Just for all intensive future things, it's not a good idea to sell the bow. You're always able to make more money, and also it doesn't take that much money to set up for other classes for range, leaving your options open with less resources.
Also worth noting, it's your game to play. I'm not gonna say range is the best class out there, because objectively speaking, if I did, I would be a dirty liar. But, it's not useless either and still definitely has its merits. What's the fun if you're just going to blend with the others, get a RKA and a wig and reforge them for FH? All I'm saying is do what you like within the boundary of what's actually viable. I'm saying range is included here because not too many specialize on range, but it definitely is viable. Another example is me making a bone breaker for G19 raid lance. I know demonics is the most efficient (and probably smartest, tbh) way, and unfortunately, my lance is only a few points off of making it "superior" than demonics, but what's the fun of just copying exactly what another person is doing? I'm still not an advocate of things like tanking, which goes against the core principle and viability in this game.
Quote from bob;1289903:
in my honest and really biased opinion, range sucks dicks.
It takes the most effort to get dex and it'll always come back and bite you in the ass if you miss your arrow (especially at point blank). It heavily relies on gear so unless you are already balls deep in range gear or dex is your highest stat by a long shot, i'd give it up.
If you're not very far into range or have a gear for it, yeah it sucks dick.
But, in reality, it isn't worth discussing the early stages. And in the end, aren't all classes really dependent on gear anyway to reach their max potential? I agree that range doesn't give the best rewards, but it's not the worst either. At true end game, it doesn't matter how much you put it in, it's what you put out. Sadly for close combat, outside of Bash, Final Hit and Rage Impact for bosses, it's really not useful. Range, on the other hand, has a perk of long range attacks that do hit better thanks to renovation, and multipliers aren't bad either. While I praise Bash as a skill in general, and while I still think Bash is absurdly powerful, there still are limits. The biggest one is that you have to be up close, and if you don't do enough damage against advanced heavy stander mobs, it won't do you much good. Range on the other hand, has more room to work with in those situations. Close combat is still the more meta defining class, but range has situations where it will be more useful.
Quote from Drizzit;1289918:
Close combat is currently the best in terms of raw damage output, or so I'm told. I've never been endgame enough for it to matter.
The statement is almost true. Elf Final Shot Magnum with Magnum Shot reforges and CC can rival/outdamage it though. But then, we're talking end game for that.