The Ranger Damage Problem is Sic Em

[Eurantien.4632]

A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Really sic em should just be removed from the game. Even if you nerf marskmanship damage modifiers, people will just rotate over to skirmishing for different damage modifiers, Nature magic for mightstacking, or just take different damage modifier on marskmanship and go pure longbow dps. Yet these builds could all still use Sic Em for super high damage bursts.

[Rickster.8752]

Most classes have outliers. Shadowstep for thief. Life steal in blood magic for necro. Sic Em for Ranger. Magic bullet for mesmer.

They all need addressing as they are all too good

[ArlAlt.1630]

@Eurantien.4632 said:A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Some of us were literally suggesting that Sic Em needs to be normalized, much like the rest of Damage mod skills did, some 2 balance patches ago or was it 3? And all the Ranger mains were saying how Sic Em is not the problem we should look elsewhere.

[ZhouX.8742]

@Eurantien.4632 said:A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Really sic em should just be removed from the game. Even if you nerf marskmanship damage modifiers, people will just rotate over to skirmishing for different damage modifiers, Nature magic for mightstacking, or just take different damage modifier on marskmanship and go pure longbow dps. Yet these builds could all still use Sic Em for super high damage bursts.

I don't even think many use sic em anymore since it was nerfed before but I can see your point on the multiplicative dmg modification so I could agree with just removing it... So many top rangers would care less if it was removed... It'll only stop the memers running high dmg no survivability builds then they'll move on to another class.

But we both know, even when they remove Sic em they will still complain about ranger because ranger was complained before sic em was even remotely considered a utility worth slotting back in the day.

Thieves don't like sic em because 2k range reveal, not so much the dmg modifier esp now since d/p is sort of the go to now because higher condi = shadow arts.

[Arheundel.6451]

@ZhouX.8742 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Really sic em should just be removed from the game. Even if you nerf marskmanship damage modifiers, people will just rotate over to skirmishing for different damage modifiers, Nature magic for mightstacking, or just take different damage modifier on marskmanship and go pure longbow dps. Yet these builds could all still use Sic Em for super high damage bursts.

I don't even think many use sic em anymore since it was nerfed before... So many top rangers would care less if it was removed... It'll only stop the memers running high dmg no survivability builds then they'll move on to another class.

But we both know, even when they remove Sic em they will still complain about ranger because ranger was complained before sic em was even remotely considered a utility worth slotting back in the day.

Thieves don't like sic em because 2k range reveal, not so much the dmg modifier esp now since d/p is sort of the go to now because higher condi = shadow arts.

This..exactly this..Ranger keeps in check many outliers like necro -and condi rev , no much as keeping in check but rather deliver a challenge, not otherwise possible on other professions

[Aktium.9506]

@"ZhouX.8742" said:But we both know, even when they remove Sic em they will still complain about ranger because ranger was complained before sic em was even remotely considered a utility worth slotting back in the day.Yeah well "back in the day" those damage mods were still there in the form of Signet of the Wild and Signet of the Hunt. I don't think there's a single Ranger player from back then who didn't try to make a Signet burst build with the old Rampage As One work at some point. The only reason it was never oppressive back then was because it was completely defenceless against Thieves and would get blown up in a split second. The damage was always disgusting, ask OP he played Ranger at that time. Now Ranger has more defences and Thief has had a lot of nerfs to its bursting capabilities.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

pls delete

[ZhouX.8742]

@Aktium.9506 said:

@"ZhouX.8742" said:But we both know, even when they remove Sic em they will still complain about ranger because ranger was complained before sic em was even remotely considered a utility worth slotting back in the day.Yeah well "back in the day" those damage mods were still there in the form of Signet of the Wild and Signet of the Hunt. I don't think there's a single Ranger player from back then who didn't try to make a Signet burst build with the old Rampage As One work at some point. The only reason it was never oppressive back then was because it was completely defenceless against Thieves and would get blown up in a split second. The damage was always disgusting, ask OP he played Ranger at that time. Now Ranger has more defences and Thief has had a lot of nerfs to its bursting capabilities.

Explain having more defensives with builds that slot sic em for burst damage? For sic em to work you would need to slot maximum modifiers now which means you lose almost all defensives.

I agree with OP in the sense of just removing it but what would even be considered a meta build for ranger in it's current state wouldn't slot sic em, it's not worth it. You need the stun breaks and condi clear from WS. The only thing you'd take it for is reveal at this point and rev can do this with GoD on a much smaller CD.

This is why removing it is fine, because it'll actually weed out people who just meme ranger for damage w/ no survivability and good ranger players who know not to use it simply won't use it even more.

[Aktium.9506]

@ZhouX.8742 said:Explain having more defensives with builds that slot sic em for burst damage? For sic em to work you would need to slot maximum modifiers now which means you lose almost all defensives.You didn't understand a word of what I wrote, did you?

The old builds analogous to today's Sic 'Em Rangers lacked multiple traits and minor traits with defensive functions that flat out did not exist back then or have since been buffed. Those old builds and what we have today are worlds apart in terms of survivability for the stated reasons. Not that this is inherently a bad thing. Ranger was also almost completely unviable in competitive back then too. There was the one guy on NA running it in tourneys and no one else really. So the survivability that has been added was arguably needed.

[lorddavito.2395]

No, it's not.

[Crozame.4098]

GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

[Eurantien.4632]

@ArlAlt.1630 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Some of us were literally suggesting that Sic Em needs to be normalized, much like the rest of Damage mod skills did, some 2 balance patches ago or was it 3? And all the Ranger mains were saying how Sic Em is not the problem we should look elsewhere.

Yeah back then that was correct. Two r three patches ago the main problem was seconds of unlimited unblockable attacks after merging. There was virtually no defense besides dodges or LoS to soulbeast ranged damage. The problem wasn't so much the damage because everything had higher defense and damage then but the fact there were way less ways to mitigate it due to the long unblockable uptime. Now that things have been toned down and the unblockable functionality was removed (and now back in marksmanship - but only 2 hits) makes the pure all around damage modifier more of the problem than anything else.

[Eurantien.4632]

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

[Crozame.4098]

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

it is still OP. less than 5 second GS2 which does up to 7k? 20 CD block which can also stun

[Sandzibar.5134]

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

Youd much rather remove/nerf sic em yes yes we know.

What about the fact that sic em makes the other non-GS weapons bearable? and if you nerf it yet again.. you force everyone to use GS.

Isnt the issue Sic Em + attack of opp combo really? why dont we remove that component from maul :/

[Teratus.2859]

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@ZhouX.8742 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:A lot of these threads are complaining about Core Ranger pets DPS being too high and Soulbeast DPS being too high and the things these have in common is Marskmanship and Sic Em. Personally, I think the marskmanship dps is justified because it requires the set up of CC and does more damage on an interrupt. Sic Em, however, is a damage modifier that requires very little investment, no set up, and affects both issues people have with ranger at the moment.

Really sic em should just be removed from the game. Even if you nerf marskmanship damage modifiers, people will just rotate over to skirmishing for different damage modifiers, Nature magic for mightstacking, or just take different damage modifier on marskmanship and go pure longbow dps. Yet these builds could all still use Sic Em for super high damage bursts.

I don't even think many use sic em anymore since it was nerfed before... So many top rangers would care less if it was removed... It'll only stop the memers running high dmg no survivability builds then they'll move on to another class.

But we both know, even when they remove Sic em they will still complain about ranger because ranger was complained before sic em was even remotely considered a utility worth slotting back in the day.

Thieves don't like sic em because 2k range reveal, not so much the dmg modifier esp now since d/p is sort of the go to now because higher condi = shadow arts.

This..exactly this..Ranger keeps in check many outliers like

necro -and condi rev

, no much as keeping in check but rather deliver a challenge, not otherwise possible on other professions

I'd have to agree with that purely on the grounds that i've had a number of salty whispers in WvW recently from mostly condi/hybrid Revenants I think.

I just block and laugh at such comments because im not even playing a fine tuned WvW build, im using my PvE build and similar playstyle so all the salty comments they throw at me because I killed them only diminishs their own skill as a player, specially the ones who I beat one on one.Call me what ever you like, I still killed you with a PvE build xD

I don't use Sic Em or Soulbeast there either I don't care much for SB tbh specially now with the petswap gone and Sic Em is an ok skill but there are others I'd rather use for survival personally.Im only going there for the daily exp chests anyway, So I don't take it seriously at all.

[Enduronex.4865]

Anything that can hit for over 10K in a single hit is almost always fundamentally broken because it can be combined with stealth (which rangers have regular access to via Hunter's Shot) , and is therefore, not counterable in many circumstances. Worldy Impact, Maul are to two skills I have issues with specifically. Especially Maul which can readily have it's cooldown reduced.

The worst part is that rangers can also do 9K vollies from range with Rapid Fire and 6K barrage as well, all from 1500 range.

Something's gotta give on ranger.

Then one's that's done, finally reduce the range of the pull on symbolbrand, that's pretty unhealthy balance wise. My holographic shockwave's range got nerfed, so.... it's your turn, firebrands.

[Eurantien.4632]

@Crozame.4098 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

it is still OP. less than 5 second GS2 which does up to 7k? 20 CD block which can also stun

I think this argument goes for a lot of weps and classes, just works in different ways. Ranger has all its GS damage in maul. But that's a trade off that if you dont get hit by maul ranger wont kill you. For like power mesmer or something as an example you need to dodge 4 and 2 for damage. For war you need to dodge 2 and 3 and 5. But they do slightly less damage than maul.

It's all about trade offs. A ranger with 7k mauls is running Bm and Mm and Sb and has little to no condi clear or sustain.

Nerfing GS just will make sic em more needed and rangers to find other ways of doing more damage. Also it forces more rangers to go glass because GS will then be garbage on druid and core.

[Teratus.2859]

@memausz.7264 said:The worst part is that rangers can also do 9K vollies from range with Rapid Fire and 6K barrage as well, all from 1500 range.

The Barrage is situational since it's a GtAoE and you can easily get out of it tbh, plenty of dash, leap, blink etc skills around for this to be a very easy thing to do for most people regardless of class.. thus wasting the Rangers skill entirely.I use Barrage mostly to put down AoE on forts etc or block up choke points such as hallways or gates as well as causing annoyance in capture points or enemy groups.For duels or general combat it's less effective I find because people just run out of it most of the time as I said above, it's more effective to cast it on my location then and use it as some kind of defensive shielding to keep the enemy away, but that doesn't work on anyone using a ranged weapon so again it's situational and rarely will Rangers ever be able to get the most out of it's damage.

Rapid fire is the only thing really that makes LB viable as a damage weapon and it has so many counters.. reflects, projectile destroy, blocks, obstructions hell you can even dodge the whole thing.It is a good skill though and if you can land the whole thing it can obliterate someones HP.. it absolutely nukes Warclaws lolBut it all depends on whether you can land it, if it gets blocked or reflected then it's very easy for another player to punish you for it while the only skills you usually have left at that point is a slow auto, a short stealth and a knockback.. and maybe a barrage shield if you havent used it already.So it's endure or swap weapons at that point.

[Eurantien.4632]

@Sandzibar.5134 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

Youd much rather remove/nerf sic em yes yes we know.

What about the fact that sic em makes the other non-GS weapons bearable? and if you nerf it yet again.. you force everyone to use GS.

Isnt the issue Sic Em + attack of opp combo really? why dont we remove that component from maul :/

Axe is fine without sic em... and sic em sure as hell ain't making sword or short bow or dagger bearable, they're too far gone for power builds.

The issue could be attack of opportunity synergy but like... how is a glass ranger with no sustain but a 5k heal on a 30s cd (also it's only condi clear) the problem?

[Eurantien.4632]

@memausz.7264 said:Anything that can hit for over 10K in a single hit is almost always fundamentally broken because it can be combined with stealth (which rangers have regular access to via Hunter's Shot) , and is therefore, not counterable in many circumstances. Worldy Impact, Maul are to two skills I have issues with specifically. Especially Maul which can readily have it's cooldown reduced.

The worst part is that rangers can also do 9K vollies from range with Rapid Fire and 6K barrage as well, all from 1500 range.

Something's gotta give on ranger.

Then one's that's done, finally reduce the range of the pull on symbolbrand, that's pretty unhealthy balance wise. My holographic shockwave's range got nerfed, so.... it's your turn, firebrands.

Dawg, maybe play one shot engi? We know you're salty about the engi being like the worst class right now but... it's got some stuff going for it. Just got to adapt. Hopefully you get some buffs!

And longbow is the most counterable weapon in the game.. so idk what to say man

As for give glass ranger is weak to condis and being pressured and has low sustain. Just a lot of people out there are running these tanky ball comps with nothing mobile enough to really pressure ranger.

[Eurantien.4632]

We nerf sic em and damage is lowered for ALL ranger builds. No more pets "one shotting" either. This is an all around change that every skill now hits less hard.

We remove marksmanship and all we do is make it so ranger doesn't get big damage from a maul after you get interrupted.

• There is counterplay to this in that you only have to dodge maul. Or you only have to not get interrupted. So you stab get away from the ranger. Blind. Block. Stunbreak and dodge after a CC. But if we nerf sic em that damage wont be as big.

Without nerfing sic em but nerfing marksmanship, ranger will roll skirmishing or other marksmanship traits and now you'll be eating big longbow dmg or axe dmg or gs auto dmg as now every hit (actually) will hit harder than they are now not JUST maul.

OR ranger just goes back to WS gets more tanky more sustain and still does solid dmg with sic em.

So what option is best?

Or is that we just want ranger to be completely and utterly unviable in 5v5?

[Crozame.4098]

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

it is still OP. less than 5 second GS2 which does up to 7k? 20 CD block which can also stun

I think this argument goes for a lot of weps and classes, just works in different ways. Ranger has all its GS damage in maul. But that's a trade off that if you dont get hit by maul ranger wont kill you. For like power mesmer or something as an example you need to dodge 4 and 2 for damage. For war you need to dodge 2 and 3 and 5. But they do slightly less damage than maul.

It's all about trade offs. A ranger with 7k mauls is running Bm and Mm and Sb and has little to no condi clear or sustain.

Nerfing GS just will make sic em more needed and rangers to find other ways of doing more damage. Also it forces more rangers to go glass because GS will then be garbage on druid and core.

Are you serious? GS5 stuns and reset GS2; GS4 has the potential to stun too; Also there are random pet CCs, and pets hurt a lot. And on top of that, you still have LB.No sustain? You can stealth from LB, you can invul when merge with certain pet, you can also GS3 and stealth with smoke field.

They indeed need to nerf GS to some certain extent. In most other builds, one weapon set is offensive and the other is defensive. But for ranger, LB is offence, and GS is both offensive and defensive. Thats too good, and need to be balanced.

And you compare the power Mesmer; their burst CD is much longer. Ranger is simply OP, no need to defend it.

[Eurantien.4632]

@Crozame.4098 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:

@Eurantien.4632 said:

@Crozame.4098 said:GS should be balanced a bit. When traited with BM, 4.75 second maul which hits a lot, and can be refreshed by 5. and also GS4, 20 second CD, which is shorter than Revs shield and war shield. And it has knock. Note that although rev's shield heals, rev cannot move. And war's shield stance has no other functionality (very few players in sPvP run defence right?)

Personally not a fan of nerfing GS yet again

it is still OP. less than 5 second GS2 which does up to 7k? 20 CD block which can also stun

I think this argument goes for a lot of weps and classes, just works in different ways. Ranger has all its GS damage in maul. But that's a trade off that if you dont get hit by maul ranger wont kill you. For like power mesmer or something as an example you need to dodge 4 and 2 for damage. For war you need to dodge 2 and 3 and 5. But they do slightly less damage than maul.

It's all about trade offs. A ranger with 7k mauls is running Bm and Mm and Sb and has little to no condi clear or sustain.

Nerfing GS just will make sic em more needed and rangers to find other ways of doing more damage. Also it forces more rangers to go glass because GS will then be garbage on druid and core.

Are you serious? GS5 stuns and reset GS2; GS4 has the potential to stun too; Also there are random pet CCs, and pets hurt a lot. And on top of that, you still have LB.No sustain? You can stealth from LB, you can invul when merge with certain pet, you can also GS3 and stealth with smoke field.

They indeed need to nerf GS to some certain extent. In most other builds, one weapon set is offensive and the other is defensive. But for ranger, LB is offence, and GS is both offensive and defensive. Thats too good, and need to be balanced.

And you compare the power Mesmer; their burst CD is much longer. Ranger is simply OP, no need to defend it.

You cant stealth with smokescale and still get merge invulns you have to pick one...

GS 5 and 4 do no damage. So... just stunbreak and dodge GS 2? or kite the ranger? Ranger GS has no way to catch up now that crippling throw is gone GS 4 and 5 are both stationary skills so if you just run away... they cant hit you... so again only thing you have to dodge is GS 2!

If a ranger is close enough to LB 3 and then maul... that's some brave shit and good on them. But... you know you could always just about face and run away!?

Still I 5k heal every 30s ain't much. I dont know what you play but whatever it is has ways to beat ranger. Especially when your teammates can help you out.

No other professions gets cry nerf threads where the class mains are just blatantly telling people how to beat them like this...

If you're getting hit by GS 4 or 5... you misplayed. Only time I get hit by those is when I'm deliberately face tanking the ranger lol. And then I think, "that was dumb" why not just kite out those skills!?

Y'know a patch ago when symbolbrand became good I got thrashed by all of them. I hopped on it. Realized damn if people just kite away from me I cant do shit. Hopped back on my class and did just that. Turned on impossible fight into the possibility of a won fight. I recommend it.

[ZDragon.3046]

@Teratus.2859 said:

@memausz.7264 said:The worst part is that rangers can also do 9K vollies from range with Rapid Fire and 6K barrage as well, all from 1500 range.

The Barrage is situational since it's a GtAoE and you can easily get out of it tbh, plenty of dash, leap, blink etc skills around for this to be a very easy thing to do for most people regardless of class.. thus wasting the Rangers skill entirely.I use Barrage mostly to put down AoE on forts etc or block up choke points such as hallways or gates as well as causing annoyance in capture points or enemy groups.For duels or general combat it's less effective I find because people just run out of it most of the time as I said above, it's more effective to cast it on my location then and use it as some kind of defensive shielding to keep the enemy away, but that doesn't work on anyone using a ranged weapon so again it's situational and rarely will Rangers ever be able to get the most out of it's damage.

Rapid fire is the only thing really that makes LB viable as a damage weapon and it has so many counters.. reflects, projectile destroy, blocks, obstructions hell you can even dodge the whole thing.It is a good skill though and if you can land the whole thing it can obliterate someones HP.. it absolutely nukes Warclaws lolBut it all depends on whether you can land it, if it gets blocked or reflected then it's very easy for another player to punish you for it while the only skills you usually have left at that point is a slow auto, a short stealth and a knockback.. and maybe a barrage shield if you havent used it already.So it's endure or swap weapons at that point.

the issue is that ranger is too good at both ranged and melee combatFor most professions with a ranged weapon once a foe gets within a certain range they become considerably disadvantaged even if they swap to an alternate melee weapon. its usually not strong enough to stop someone whos weapon exceels in melee pressure.

Unlike most professiosn rangers kit excells in ranged and melee combat when they weapon swap. For example a thief is deadly with sword or dagger at close range but if they swap to short bow they lose pressure considerablyIF a necro has good pressure with axe and scepter if some one gets to close they lose pressure considerablyIf a warrior cant get close their pressure is is considerably lowered

With ranger if you foe is at a distance long bow gives good enough pressure even main hand axes have good ranged pressureThe moment someone gets close you swap to gs and you pressure is still extremly good you dont really feel backed into a corner becaus the gs kit is that strong. The moment a foe starts to retreat from you another weapon swap to long bow keeps you ranged pressure good.

ITs honestly easy to see why people feel like ranger is doing too much cause most other match ups have a weakness once you range them or get close ranger kind of has the best of both worlds. ITs good at long rage and its not the best in melee range but its certainly good enough to be considered high pressure and before the nerfes many people considered it to out perform warrior in melee range so i mean have what you will with that. This is just looking at the weapons and excludes things like beast skills you gain from soul beast or any other mechanics that fills rangers unique kit.

There are even condi setups that still apply to this with shortbow and sword / dagger in any case its just got the best of both worlds.To be clear its not a bad feature to have as part of class but perhaps that means it shouldnt have as much damage as it has currently in exchange for having such a flexible combat kit that most other professions dont keep even if they have both a melee and a ranged weapon.