Bryony

Just a brief comment and question for other 80 Rangers using their Epic, and possibly those who came up with these things.

Prior to the Epic bow, Coveage could have been an interesting new art for a Ranger. Now that I have the Epic, and Mythical version of the bow I'm not so sure. I'm curious if anyone else finds the bow mechanics plus Coverage to be a bit counter-intuitive?

So far as I can tell, with the way the range on the Epic bow works, backing out to be able to use Coverage on the one combat art it works with (Sniper) actually creates a loss of dps. You are better off if you simply stay in and use your combat arts and auto-attack from the range specified by the bow. I suppose you could save Coverage for your joust, if there is one, but that seems a bit extraordinary. You lost dps a bit from auto-attack on sniper anyway, having to back out of the
range of your bow to use an art that triggers Coverage and then sniper seems a bit more of a loss. Other classes have new level 80 abilities that are far more useful and weren't negated by their Epic.

Maybe it's just me, but does the Epic bow make Coveage pretty much useless in a PvE setting, not to mention PvP?

Thoughts?

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Dantel

Given that most AoE's in this expansion, from my memory, do more damage the closer you are to the mob, I found myself having to joust for melee ca's but spending a lot of time at Repeating Arrows range. That made coverage useful.

However the Mythical and ginormous monster hit boxes warrant getting or being as close as possible to the monster so it's kind of a /boggle moment.

There obviously was some loss in continuity when it came to designing our epic for this expansion, leading me to believe they either weren't working on our epics prior to RoK launch like they said they were, or they changed it from whatever broken or retarded weapon it was going to be.

Even before the Epic, it was arguable how useful Coverage was.

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Nesse

Snipers isnt the only CA it works with, its just the most beneficial and to be honest. If not for the fact that near by attackable mobs tend to screw this up, I dont think it would be too big a deal to work into the rotation. Right now, the main problem is its not nearly as reliable as it should be. However, since our backshot can be used on the move, and triggers coverage, you really shouldnt lose any DPS on the way out, and maybe slow down your next CA by a few seconds at best as you joust back in. Of course, if snipers isnt up, then your next best bet would be selection, and you basically lose nothing.

Personally, I think you're only looking at one way to use the ability and over looking other combinations. However, you also play on PvP... and I realize that things are different over there. So maybe thats the difference.

That being said.. its clear that too many ppl have their hands on rangers. No one talks to anyone else when it comes to how rangers are meant to function. Everyone has their own idea. Items are designed to be used close, CAs that are designed to be used far away... The devs need to sit down and talk about what they think rangers should be, and stick with ONE vision rather then letting everyone do something different.

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Safana

without mythical: coverage adds dps if used properly
with mythical: coverage is a loss of dps in the way you said

only time i use it are some ranged situations and when i solo (spy, fittest surv, coverage, stealth fire/sniper arrow)

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Bryony

(I copied this from a similar thread we have going on the official forums, but yeah Sniper is the only one it works with, explanation to follow. All of the arts mentioned will put you into Coverage stealth, but only Sniper will work to get you the Coverage bonus once there.)

Unfortunately that's not quite correct. Coverage is mislabeled and can often be listed in a way that is misleading. I have checked with GM authority to be sure this is the case previously, as well. (I will post the GM response in a moment.) When discussing this with a fellow Ranger who assured me his Coverage worked with those arts, in addition to Sniper, I submitted a petition asking if mine was working improperly. I was informed that mine was working properly and that others may be misunderstanding the mechanic of this art. Or, if you ask me, are expecting it to do what it says it should do and being confused when it does not.

Let me explain. Coverage can only be used from a certain max range AFTER certain ranged combat arts are executed. Those arts being: Stealth Fire, Rear Shot, and Fittest Survival. If you are at the proper range, and you successfully manage one of those arts you can then use Coverage. (I have Coverage macro'd to these arts so I don't have to worry about clicking it.) Coverage will then put you into stealth. Once in Coverage stealth the ONLY combat art you can successfully use (that won't break the stealth) to gain the benefit of the Coverage bonus, and for Coverage to work is: Sniper Arrow.

Here is the GM response to my inquiry:

"This is GM XXXX from Sony Online Entertainment's In-Game Support. I have read your petition and I understand your abilities "Stealth Fire" and "Fittest Survival" break your stealth when you use them. You might be pleased to know that that is how the abilities were designed by the development team. If the abilities are working differently for your friend he should petition to have his character checked. I hope this clarifies the issue, and if you have any further questions or concerns feel free to reply to this petition or submit a new one."

So, if this helps, it may be why in many cases Coverage is not working for some. It must be used in the afore mentioned way to work. And, once in stealth it will only work if you use Sniper while in Coverage Stealth. Any other art will break the stealth and waste your time and dps.

Which brings me back to the original issue of my post. I tested it more last night and it's a definite loss in dps to try to use Coverage in raids at all with the Mythical Bow (and the group epic as well I assume) and I really can't see a way this will be useful for a T8 Raider using this bow. Obviously this will be the bow we are using and I'm wondering if Coverage will be another art to go in the I never use it bin like Repeating Arrows which I don't plan on using any more in T8 than I did in T7. It is essentially rendered a useless art in its current form in my opinion.

That said, I don't really have an issue with the range on our bow. Granted, I've had to get used to jousting with Melee, I have died repeatedly trying to get used to it while testing the range. It is indeed more dps at the right range, and hopefully once our ammo and other fixes go in with the next LU will be worthy of the kind of dps we should be doing. Even without the ammo fix the bow has me close to where I feel like I should be, not all the way - but we're getting somewhere.
I did think it was a little odd to take away a Rangers 'range' and bring us close in. but I guess I was just so excited to get some dps back finally I was willing to take what I got. Seemed like it would make more sense the other way around, but I wouldn't mind hearing an official explanation on why the bow was designed to work this way. I'm willing to listen if there's a reasonable arguement for it. Right now, I'm happy to just be able to begin to do the kind of T1 dps a Ranger should be capable of in T8.

I do like being able to auto-attack point blank, I think that has little more application for PvP servers. I don't mind having to get a few meters to use CAs, but it does completely cancel out the use of Coverage for me. If I back out to use it I'm wasing time, wasting dps, and I really don't see any point as it stands. Coverage went in before Epic Weapons, and I would assume this didn't occur to anyone when designing the bow. That's why I'm posting this now, because there's enough broken with high end Rangers at the moment we really don't need another useless combat art, and certainly not our 80 special. I'd like to see it fixed to be more suited to something we can use that works with our lovely Epic Bow.

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Bryony

Wholeheartedly agree.

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Nesse

Sorry, but Im going to have to disagree with you here. First of all, you got this information from a GM. Let me tell you a little something about GMs. They dotn know their head from their ass. When rangers worldwide were swapping the Qeynos Cutlass for the Kilij, it took me 6-7 times to find a GM that would. They all pretty much said that it wouldnt, and couldnt be done. Even though everyone was having it swapped at that time.

Second of all. ALL CAs break stealth. The requirement is only that you BE stealthed to use it. Yes, even Snipers. The only real difference here is that Snipers has a 4-5 second cast, where as the others are under 2s.

More then that, if coverage was only designed to be used with Snipers, then it should have stated that, and not that it would boost the damage of the next stealth attack. Im fairly certain that is does in fact work with our other 2 stealth attacks. However, to be sure, I'll make it a point to log in and test that when I get home tonight to be absolutely sure.

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Bryony

I don't mean to argue with you, but you're wrong about this one. I got the information from testing it - and when someone told me it was not the case I petitioned because I thought mine wasn't working properly and I wanted it fixed. The GM merely confirmed what my tests and personal use of it told me.

I assure you Coverage does not work and will not give you the bonus from any other art but sniper - and Sniper does not break the stealth instantly until the art goes off like all of the others do. All you have to do is get ACT and test it yourself though, it's very easy to see. You don't even need ACT to do it, but it gives you more information. But, when you go to test just watch - all of the other arts will pop the Coverage stealth immediately and won't work at all. Sniper keeps the stealth like it should and works just fine (at the right range.)

The way I have explained is the only way Coverage will work and give you the bonus. It's not personal opinion, it's the way the art works. I agree it's mislabled and misleading - it reads like it SHOULD work with those other arts, but it seriously does not work with them.

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Caleeb

After spending 1 minute to danak bay testing what I already knew, I found that coverage does work with stealth fire. Simple test, spy -> fittest survival -> coverage -> stealth fire (all of this whilst the mob is snared of course). Stealth fire hit for 6127, and the normal top end is ~5700 (could've been closer to 5.9k due to talon strike, but that doesn't matter). I have no way of debuffing a mob's mitigation, so the only explanation: Coverage upped the damage.

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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Crychtonn - Bylar

If it only works with Sniper shot then please explain how I use it with Stealth Fire everytime I'm out killing Megalodon? Tell me how when I'm jousting and AE in raids it works with Stealth Fire? I've also used it with our stealth AE but very rarely, mostly on the group of adventurers in PR. If it's not working for you then there is something wrong or something different on the PvP server. Because I guarantee it works just fine on my server.

In regards to your original posts. Yes, Coverage is pretty useless if your have your mythic bow. The only times I ever use it is while jousting AE's. If the mob has no AE then it just doesn't get used. The requirement of being 10m from all mobs needs to be dropped. It was a stupid condition originally and is beyond a stupid condition now.