But to get that, you have to farm GM1. More specifics in that regard below.
You're absolutely correct in that there are components that are geared towards hovering as a Ranger. The context, though, is how useful a Ranger's hovering Avenging Herald build will be once a player hits 30. This is why I mentioned the DPS output and survivability specifically in the context of freshly farming GM1. Because in order for the Hovering Ranger build to truly come online, one needs several Masterwork components. Far more important at that stage is the ability to survive an unexpected 1 shot burst as getting downed represents a far higher loss of DPS than making it to cover and waiting for shields to regen. And getting 1k in health or shields in one universal component is a bit more likely than getting the two piece ranger specific combo of Thermal and Vented Thrusters.
Muster is.. situational. In a full damage build it will likely be quite effective but Anthem absolutely has aggro mechanics and bursting will 100% draw aggro from everything around your target. So popping Muster while in Hover without a Colossus ready to immediately taunt before you're in a majority of MW gear is going to lead to a bad time quite quickly. Non-MW Bulwark isn't tanky but it does come in handy for res. I don't have a 36 Bulwark at the moment (only 33) but even that gives a 2.7k health buffer to get an ally up if necessary. And while farming GM1, you're likely going to be ressing and being ressed far more than at previous points in the game.
Thank you for the clarification Jest! I haven't had a chance to play an endgame ranger build yet so the context you provided is definitely helpful. I was overlooking the aggro mechanics work because from my experience, using the taunt on the colossus lead to my death so I was much more in favor of using shield pulse on that guy. Same with bulwark point vs musterpoint, you make a very good argument for its practical uses!
I guess I was thinking that you wouldn't loose much from not using universal armor and shield components on the ranger because combined they give 1K armor + 1K shield total. On the other hand, each ranger component give you 500 armor and 500 shields so combining 2 ranger components would also give you 1K armor and 1K shields
However like you pointed out, this is more about the viability of the hover playstyle on a ranger at the GM level, and that is something I should definitely take into account if it is entirely reliant on masterwork component. My goal is to first make base builds that do not rely on masterwork (kinda like the no legendary builds in Diablo 3) since those give you a good understanding of how the characters work before you get to add masterwork synergies as another layer of complexity!
