Do beastmaster archers still have the archery OA trick?

[Rakaydos]

It;s been a few years since I played 4E, and I;ve been hearign about the wave of revisions since Essentials dropped. I was wondering if this trick, (Requiring an archery paragon path and a beastmaster feat) one of the few the beastmaster ranger still had, is still around. Also any other optimizations for a ranged beastmaster.

[Tegu8788]

Play almost anything else with a Fey Beast Tamer theme.

The Beastmaster is among the weakest builds, and given its class is considered the very best striker pretty widely, that's saying something. I don't know about the combo you are taking about, but for optimization, get out.

[Inevitability]

C'mon, don't be so rough... Beastmaster can work. I agree that if you go the sword-and-beast way, you lose a lot. Archery beastmasters, however, lose almost nothing if they decide to fight from a distance and use their beast to quarry whatever they want.


Rakaydos, you are most likely referring to the Sharpshooter paragon path, in combination with Beast Protector. It let you make RBA's when an enemy provoked an opportunity attack from you. Thanks to beast protector, this was every single time an enemy decided to hit your beast.

Sadly, it's been errata'ed so that you can only make the opportunity attacks against adjacent enemies.

[Rakaydos]

Damn, that killed a big reason to go for that combo. Oh well.

[Kurald Galain]

The Beastmaster is among the weakest builds,

The Beastmaster is among the weakest Ranger builds. It's still among the best striker builds, because a ranger still deals a vast amount of damage regardless of whether it's a beastmaster or not.

[Inevitability]

Something hilarious, however, is the fact that a non-ranger has an easier time getting ranger dual-wielding than a beastmaster ranger.

[Sol]

The Beastmaster is among the weakest Ranger builds. It's still among the best striker builds, because a ranger still deals a vast amount of damage regardless of whether it's a beastmaster or not.

Unless it takes beastmaster powers, which are generally terrible.

Particularly as an archer, there's not really much wrong with beastmastery, so long as you just use it for the, "P.S. I have a monkey" part. But even that is less true in Paragon due to how much better than any other archery PP Battlefield Archer is.

[Yakk]

My one-step beastmaster fix:

Weapon of Fur: Requires Ranger, Beastmaster. For the purpose of Ranger powers that require wielding or use of an off-hand weapon, you may treat your Beast as an off-hand melee weapon you are wielding. For attacks made through your Beast, use your Beast's attack modifier instead of what the power dictates. Use the Beast's stats for damage modifier, the beast's [B] in place of the [W], but use your own equipment, including using a different weapon you are wielding for enhancement bonuses to damage (not to hit) and magical properties. The non-magical properties of the weapon you are wielding do not apply. In addition, the attack originates from the Beast instead of you.

---

So now a beastmaster ranger can twin strike while using a greataxe, and have their bear deliver the off-hand portion.

If they are a ranged beastmaster, they can use off-hand strike and their beast delivers it. (twin strike doesn't work in this case, as it is either ranged or melee, not both)

It also means the entire rest of the ranger kit works with beastmasters.

The wording is a bit rough, and I'm sure there would be ways to exploit it.

[Inevitability]

I like it, and Battlefield Archer is still a reason to be a 'pure' archer, but how about melee rangers? As you said, a two-handed weapon, combined with a beast is going to be stronger than two one-handed weapons.

[Yakk]

The beast accuracy/[B] will be worse than a melee ranger's off-hand [W] and weapon properties with any investment.

You also lose prime shot, and the melee "prime" boosts are significant with feat support.

The above also costs a feat to get what melee rangers get by default.

You don't get toughness. You cannot take the lightning autodamage paragon path.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

My one-step beastmaster fix:

Weapon of Fur: Requires Ranger, Beastmaster. For the purpose of Ranger powers that require wielding or use of an off-hand weapon, you may treat your Beast as an off-hand melee weapon you are wielding. For attacks made through your Beast, use your Beast's attack modifier instead of what the power dictates. Use the Beast's stats for damage modifier, the beast's [B] in place of the [W], but use your own equipment, including using a different weapon you are wielding for enhancement bonuses to damage (not to hit) and magical properties. The non-magical properties of the weapon you are wielding do not apply. In addition, the attack originates from the Beast instead of you.

---

So now a beastmaster ranger can twin strike while using a greataxe, and have their bear deliver the off-hand portion.

If they are a ranged beastmaster, they can use off-hand strike and their beast delivers it. (twin strike doesn't work in this case, as it is either ranged or melee, not both)

It also means the entire rest of the ranger kit works with beastmasters.

The wording is a bit rough, and I'm sure there would be ways to exploit it.

*slow clap*

That is pretty damn awesome.

[MunkeeGamer]

*slow clap*

That is pretty damn awesome.

Yak is always awesome.