I’ve been playing aRPG’s and other MMO’s where marksman/ranger/archer w/e is present and many games have different take on the class. In PoE you can build your bow character be almost melee, squishy with high damage or something in the middle. In WoW, you either have MM spec where you don’t have pet and preferably kill something before it gets to you or play BM and have a pet to tank it for you. In Diablo it doesn’t really matter, because it’s dead game (lul). What I want to say is, I haven’t, for a long time, played a game, where you needed to seriously kite your way as marksman and where you had tools to do it (traps, stuns, fears, invisibility, feign deaths, pet protection), but it was rewarding. In most games, you stack enough dmg or survivability to basically ignore game mechanics. What’s your take on this?
When I think of a Ranger/Hunter/Marksman I always think of kiting. To me, that’s the trade-off for being range. You want to keep enemies away from you, you are vulnerable to melee attackers.
The idea of having a Tank Marksman doesn’t sit well with me (but variety is the spice of life!). I would be bored just standing still and not caring about my health.
Having the utility, like you mentioned, is what brings fun and skill into the class.
Definitely believe that a Marksman class should embody what the term ‘marksman’ actually means. I liked POE’s idea of having a flexible play-style dependant on your choices of class/ascendancy, but the glass cannon aspect of other games I have played fits better I think to the concept of a character who values precision and and accuracy, usually at a range that keeps them away from harm.
- I prefer the armor breaker/penetration/ piercing approach to rogues/assassins/rangers/archers/marksman...etc.
- I prefer the precise power based sniper, that rely in precision and solid damage rather than criticals/ % based abilities, coupled with it i like to have means to "hold position" without necessary having to directly face damage head-on or use set traps n cd in constant movement.
- Being squishy or tanky depend of how the game let me accomplish these matters with the better efficiency and synergy.
I believe for the most part that a ranger class character should mostly move around and kite his/her opponents. If you are down to one or two fairly easy mobs, then by all means stand and fight, but otherwise, keep moving. No plate armour for my ranger. To me that just seems like a fighter class character got bumped on the head and they forgot what their actual vocation was 
Marksman is definitely solo-character, right? No pets…
If pets, add another class that tames pets and uses them in combat.
Marksman = high dps, high crit, fast attacks (weapon types: bow, pistols, you name it)?
Squishy class with dodge mechanics, evasive, possibly king of CC, with diminishing returns, ofc.
I agree that a ranged class should be a ranged class, not a class using ranged weapons in melee range, highly armoured to survive heavy hits.
High mobility and the ability to hit from afar, possibly using debuffs/ traps/ whatever to prevent attackers from closing in; camouflage or some other means staying out of sight, decoys and the like would be this character’s specialty.
This needs to be balanced in a way, of course, that the occasional hit that could not be evaded kills instantly, but standing there and taking hits constantly should be punished.
Hello,
We are in the process of removing the boards for the mastery classes.
I’ve moved this thread from Marksman to Rogue as a courtesy.
Completely agreed with this!