Ranger veteran is, in my opinion, one of the coolest careers in the game. Focusing on utility and scavenging consumables displays a stark difference in playstyle from what the other careers offer.
With that said i don’t think it would be controversial to place our ranger rather low on the power ranking of our available careers. While a buff in some respect seems in order i still want to preserve the central theme of a scavenger and not make him a “slayer with stealth”.
The idea that springs to mind is then to expand on his already implemented focus, and give ranger veteran an extra slot for potions and bombs. This would let you better capitalize on his existing strengths, as in the current patch bombs and potions often get saved as a last resort for critical moments, witch in turn makes a majority of the consumables get left by the wayside because of an already full inventory. An extra slot for these consumables allows for spending of a potion or bomb in the natural flow of the game without “wasting” the saving grace in a worst case scenario.
This would make ranger veterans talents actually feel more used during the gameplay, compared to runs where you get just the potion you need for a patrol and save it all map, only to never get a patrol spawn.
Your idea is pretty cool, but I don’t know if it would be simple to realize.
An easier idea could be to buff pots/bombs talent. It could give an item every 3 specials (nope > nope > drop > nope > nope > drop).
Honestly I don’t know if it would be better a talent that give both pots and bombs (like now) or if it would be better separate them (also because the “ammo sharing” talent is mathematically worse than “more ammo per bag” one.
% to not consume items passive should be buffed.
Ult should have a shorter cooldown but it should not increase the damage.
I like RV too as he has access too some of the best support abilities in the game: Being able to spawn ammo, bombs and potions and specials are not on short supply on higher difficulties. The 10% chance not to consume items upon use is also nice altho I’d rather have a consistent version where it’s “once ina game” or have a cooldown or specfic reset counters (boss kill or kill x elites/specials etc), but maybe that would be too OP…
On the other hand, what RV really could use is some ranged damage buff (either direct flat increase like BW/Pyro, or higher crit chance)
My biggest issue with Ranger Vet is that Bardin’s melee weapons feel really awful to me. Slow weapons like 2h hammer/axe/pick don’t offer enough survivability on RV, shields & 1h hammer don’t provide enough offense, and 1h axe & dual hammers are really, really boring.
Before they nerfed grudgeraker’s armor damage into the ground, that gun was fun enough for me to play Ranger Vet even if the melee options were dull. But now that I can’t just ignore his melee weapon the career feels tepid to me.
So I’d really like to see dual axes available to Ranger Veteran & Ironbreaker. Even after the nerfs in 1.3 dual axes are still one of the most satisfying melee weapons to use in the game. I believe they’d breath a little bit of new life into those careers.