Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Martial Power 2: Two-Handed Rangers and Ranged Warlords?

In today's Ampersand article in DDI, we are shown a new mechanic from Martial Power 2, called Combat Styles, which grants bonuses with specific weapons to certain powers, both at-will and encounter. The really interesting part, though, is how the previewed styles strongly suggest what two of the new builds in the book will be.

The ranged Warlord build, hinted by a combat style called Adamant Arrow, is confirmed to be capable of using longbows, though it is too early to know if there will also be support for thrown weapons, and whether the primary ability will still be Strength, or something different like Dexterity. What is certain is that a new at-will called Paint the Bull's Eye will consist on a ranged weapon attack.

The idea that there will be a two-handed weapon Ranger, on the other hand, comes from a style called Black Hood Student, which was already present in an earlier playtest article. Among other changes from that version, the ranger at-will previously (and wrongly) supposed to be used with two-handed axes was Careful Strike though, like most ranger melee powers, it required dual wielding. On the latest preview, however, they mention a new power, called Marauder's Rush. I'd bet that that one works properly with Greataxes, and that it is not the only one in the book to do so.

2 comments:

  1. Don't know about you, but I'm all about a ranged Warlord.

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  2. My favorite Warlord build remains a homebrew one I did with Wizard multiclass. Ranged attacks via Wizard power, Eladrin feats for healing and implements, etc. Helps when at-wills don't require hitting.

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