(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
Ranged = snooze fest; Melee = get one-shot
Now this doesn’t just happen with bosses, it applies to a lot of trash to. I can’t count how many times I’ve got bored of ranged DPS and Shadowstepped into melee…only to get one-shot by who knows what. It happens all the time, in every instance, with all sorts of mobs and it’s frustrating.
I can get behind melee being the high risk/high damage option. That’s ok….but melee would have to deal 10-times more damage than it currently does to off-set the risk you put yourself in.
I really hope this is addressed soon because I’m already seeing “LFM XYZ explorable mode…no melees”.
I agree to an extent when it comes to bosses (some bosses more than others), but you can melee trash without hardly any risk as a thief if you (or one of your teammates) spams blind fields.
[AS] Tarnished Coast
As a Guardian, I don’t use any range at all. I’ve only played around half of the Explorable Paths, but I almost always come out with the least number of deaths. Heck, even the least downs. I’ve only come across a few situations where it is best to just keep my distance.
It is not the class either. I’ve a thief contact who regularly runs with me, and he rarely goes range, and he rarely dies.
~Sorrow’s Furnace~
Guardian
Guardian
Same here I only use pistol-pistol or shortbow in dunegons. Many of the fights are not melee friendly at all.
As a Guardian, I don’t use any range at all. I’ve only played around half of the Explorable Paths, but I almost always come out with the least number of deaths. Heck, even the least downs. I’ve only come across a few situations where it is best to just keep my distance.
It is not the class either. I’ve a thief contact who regularly runs with me, and he rarely goes range, and he rarely dies.
From that I can conclude that your DPS must be crap. I mean damage PER SECOND. meaning you spend more time outside of melee range and not getting agro then actually committing to the fight. You must be letter all the range dps and/or NPCs taking the agro. But yes I do agree that it takes skill to stay alive to fight melee in dungeons because it’s a fine line between actually contributing meaningful DPS and being downed all the time cuz melee attracts too much agro.
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
I find that people just lack understanding of the game’s mechanics and just how much freedom they give you in making your character.
The devs have made melee statistically more dps then ranged. In other games, the devs counter the downfall of melee (being hit) by giving the class more evasion or defense then ranged classes. In GW2, you’re allowed to make yourself 100% offensive, or 100% defensive, and anything in between.
The problem is that too many melee “dps” players don’t understand that they have been given too much slack and they hang themselves with it. They choose to be completely DPS centered and make no attempt at slotting any vitality, toughness, healing or defensive abilities.
As a melee player, this may be “ok” to do in SPvP. The ol kill fast die fast. But in these dungeons you simply can’t get away with it.
My first time running through AC and other notorious “hard” paths, I thought the game wasn’t balanced correctly. Then I tried out a little mix of offense and defense and found that I still had great DPS and could survive perfectly in all situations. Any attack that was “too big” to take, it was telegraphed so you can dodge it.
So my advice for any melee dungeon runners, try a more 34% defense and 66% offense approach to your character. You will then see just how easy these dungeons can be, and you’ll still be on par / better dps then ranged players.
Also, learn your fields and bring a team that understands how to use them.
Once you understand everything about these dungeons, how to properly spec and gear your character, and learn the game mechanics, there isn’t a dungeon you won’t be able to do.
i said at launch that melee was not going to be worth the time and effort put into doing it.
Fan boys say: LAWL DODGE
but i retort but what if i have no more dodge meter? what if boss just using normal attacks you cant avoid? what if boss has an aoe hits for 200 yards or more? fact of the matter is melee is at a massive disadvantage… because ONE mistake and its a dirt nap. If you stack tons of defense then you can take maybe 2 hits before you die… and you do such low damage its not worth it…
So as OP clearly stated its either… be ranged or die constantly… its why i stopped playing the game. As enjoyable as setting and story can be… the mechanics of the game are just terrible and not talking idea of no trinity(tank and spank) i’m talking the idea that mobs and bosses should instantly kill anyone they look at.
Insta gib mechanics are bad end of discussion!
I play melee 90% of the time. I do not ever get one-shot.
Keep as much Aegis, protection and retalitation as you can, you can do this directly through some traits/skills, or even better with combo fields.
I play melee 90% of the time. I do not ever get one-shot.
Keep as much Aegis, protection and retalitation as you can, you can do this directly through some traits/skills, or even better with combo fields.
It’s probably slightly different for a Guardian compared to other classes as they have very high base-line defense.
And before people tell me to dodge or go defensive etc….I’ve done all that. I’m not an “ololol bigkitten fat crits” guy. I do whatever it takes to get the job done. I run a 15/30/5/20/0 build with balanced stats (Lysia’s Exotic set).
I could fully accept if this happened to a all-out Berserker set player. But it happens a lot. And when I say one-shot I don’t necessarily mean a single ability. Some mobs like to chain together certain attacks etc. that still end up killing you unable to react (yes, even with stun breakers).
I think the melee hate in this game is a culmination of multiple elements coming together.
1. Far more anti-melee mechanics in game than anti-ranged.
2. These abilities have much shorter animations and are less visible than many ranged abilities….thus harder to avoid.
3. Particle effects, point of view etc. all limit what a melee can see coming.
I think that’s an element that needs re-balancing. Especially if you consider how many fights are really quite boring from a ranged PoV.
An important note is being side-stepped here in the Ranged/Melee discussion that was mentioned by the first poster. It doesn’t matter if you’re ranged or melee… the bosses have so much HP I sometimes literally am trying to keep myself from browsing the internet while fighting these guys. Some of them don’t even hit hard or have any fancy thing that players have to worry about. They just have enough HP to where you have to stand there and whack at them for 20 minutes. Yay….
“i said at launch that melee was not going to be worth the time and effort put into doing it.”
- Exotic Melee weapon (Only one in the group needs this, the “Tank/Melee role character”) – Explained further down why.
This guy seems to use melee in explorable. I don’t know. Should I trust you or the guy who listed an in depth guide with Screenshots of him killing an explorable boss?
One player using melee not even touching the boss doesn’t make melee viable.
Anyways, I’m quite happy with melee. Only problem is when enemies decide they want to follow me all of the time.
Start kiting. I have no clue why any thief ever dies, they have so many tools at their disposal to not get hit, as a warrior(dps) who often tanks I am quite jealous. I die in less than 3 seconds stated, but I kite and dodge roll all the important attacks and can still dish out my dps every 7 seconds because of my regen.
lol you realize dead that in that pic there are 3 hunters and 2 theives. and its prolly safe to assume that the theives are using ranged as well…
It helps to pay attention to cooldowns on monster abilities and to prepare yourself accordingly.
If you are expecting an attack and don’t have a defensive cooldown or energy for a dodge, stay away.
“Take more defensive approach, take 60% offence and 40% offense”
Bah!
But we were promised we can play the way we like… And what if one likes 100% offence imba crits zero survivability? In other games it’s perfectly doable (take fury warrior in wow) and you can still be very valuable addition to the party. In GW2 you either spec the only possible way or you can forget about dungeons as the no aggro concepts with bosses running like a pinball without any aparent reason and one shotting player after player completely breaks specs that are not THE ONES. It’s not fair and not what the manifesto promised, right?
I’m a glass cannon necromancer that uses melee quite often in dungeons. Sometime mobs can be melee np; meanwhile, others are best to avoid melee entirely. I have no issues overall. You’re saying that mobs one shot you with “who knows what”. You should understand what is one shotting you. Look at your enemy. If he’s locked on you, run. If he’s telegraphing an attack, observe him and act accordingly.
“Take more defensive approach, take 60% offence and 40% offense”
Bah!
But we were promised we can play the way we like… And what if one likes 100% offence imba crits zero survivability? In other games it’s perfectly doable (take fury warrior in wow) and you can still be very valuable addition to the party. In GW2 you either spec the only possible way or you can forget about dungeons as the no aggro concepts with bosses running like a pinball without any aparent reason and one shotting player after player completely breaks specs that are not THE ONES. It’s not fair and not what the manifesto promised, right?
You can go pure glass cannon if you’re accostumed to dodging and avoiding damage. Otherwise, I recommend using a toughness build until you’re at the point where you can avoid most of the damage.
I used to actually “tank” on my warrior with a glass cannon build (greatsword, level 70 exotics in power precision condition damage) Got through Arah exp using this build on my first try, tanking everything on the way. Tanking just means you can take and keep the aggro without losing it/dying. And I did just that.
TL;DR: Glass Cannon builds take skill in this game.