Guild Wars 2

Let me start by saying yes, I know it is very difficult to balance between melee and ranged. But this game is crazy!

I have played ranger, necro, and warrior. Granted, maybe I should have not expected to have any easy time with melee on the ranger and necro (even though Anet said we would be able to)

The warrior, however! Holy crap, they are strong ranged! Melee just isn’t worth it in hard fights or dungeons. If you step up to a boss you will get killed in short order, even using blinds, stuns, dodging, etc liberally. You find yourself stepping out melee range just to let your skills recharge. Meanwhile your ranged buddies are pew-pewing away.

Now lets observe how a ranged DPS/support does a hard battle:

Circle strafe mob, dodge out of red circles, use kiting abilities when they get close (which is not often). Ranged is so much easier its insane! In some dungeons I barely even have to move because the boss is so worried about that poor warrior and thief in my group.

Anet! Fix this! I feel like choosing melee is just plain a bad decision. That is unfortunate for “melee” classes like thief, warrior. It also makes weapons like the dagger nigh-unusable for necros and ele’s and the like.

Who says a warrior or thief has to be melee?

For really hard hitting enemies, I may simply switch to longbow on my warrior, or dual pistols on my thief.

I’ve also done this for events with lots of enemies that spawn in different areas. For instance, one dredge event in Diessa Plateau, they kept popping up trying to build a wall. My warrior started to run back and forth to the enemies, but ranged characters were taking them down faster than I could get to them. So I also switched to ranged, and that worked just fine.

On the flip side, when I’m just out exploring or doing hearts or smaller random events, my warrior and thief have no problem switching to melee weapons and dishing out damage there too.

Edit: I should add a disclaimer that I haven’t done any dungeons yet, so maybe I’m totally uninformed there.

I am a warrior and I have no issues with this. My 15k damage hubdred blades is well worth any risks.

I’ve run a greatsword guardian through my trip to 80 and beyond. I’ve had no trouble playing melee in any gametype.

Oddly, I find the bias to be against ranged.

I have 1 of each profession – and every one of m characters except for the engineer performs better in melee than in ranged. The engineer just has no melee option that I have found at her present level…

Melee is harder to play, but gets all the excitement, does more damage, and has more control over the dynamics of the battle.

In dungeons, my warrior will use my rifle only to start pulls – if the group lets me, I can often pull a single target out of a pack without aggroing the others, and then wait for it to come around some LoS barrier, and have at it with my hammer.
- I almost feel like a tank at times, I end up so much more potent than the ranged that the mobs eventually focus on me and I start using knockbacks and knockdowns, LoS, and kiting, while the ranged ‘do stuff’ over to the left somewhere. If we’ve got multiple melee, then we trade it all back and forth and it gets a lot easier.

This repeats for even my light armor characters – switch to melee and get in there and I can be a lot more effective.

Now this is odd.

I play a sword/pistol Mesmer, and I do exceptional in melee range.
I fight elite lair bosses (spiked purple portrait rings) in melee range.

You ask how I do that Ina light armor class?

I am speccd for vigor, I disable and blind the targets, I use blurred frenzy and distortion.

No one is expected to face tank in this game. I have tanked for many groups on my light armor Mesmer, because I use the entire arsenal of abilities giving to my class.

Yes, sometimes I have to fall back to ranged in order to give me time to refresh my Cooldown cycle but I spend the majority of time in melee.

Honestly maybe the game isn’t the problem, maybe its the players perception.

I have a Warrior and Thief. I use ranged to start a fight and blades to finish it. Without fail. To do anything else is waste of good dps without consequences. All weapons have their purpose.

Actually I pretty much agree.
I believe the problem lies in that a warrior who is slappin’ em up and a warrior who is pewpewing from a distance has the same amount of survivability (more on range if u consider kiting skills)
Classes who have to get up nice and close to do their dirty work, who have to chase down their targets and hit them in the face are SUPPOSED to get bonuses to survivability like hp, armor or shields, whatever they wanna make it but there has to be a benefit to it, u cant just give them equally viable ranged and melee options and then make them equally tough in both situations coz in harder fights it kinda forces us to go ranged.
to Raf: (post above me) That is all good and merry on mobs isn’t it, works fine, but your point goes completely down the toilet when u are fighting a nice long boss fight doesn’t it? You end up hanging back and hitting it with ranged coz u can do same sort of damage only u don’t have to worry about getting hit by its short-medium AoE stuff.
This is definitely the case for warrior, I have not tried Thief yet tho.

Dead player do no damage so I suggest you go range if it mean you not dying.

As a warrior, I have no problems meleeing. You need to pay attention to your enemies moves and dodge his attack properly. Also, why should melee have an easier time, when some of my hits as a warrior can go as high as 27-30k spammable aoe damage? There needs to be a weakness otherwise warriors will roflstomp even more(which we already do).

I have no problem as a melee Thief in dungeons, PvE or WvW. I use my utilities
to blind, stun and daze to completely avoid damage, If I get aggro I take measures to lose aggro and continue to melee while controlling my incomming damage with smoke and avoidance. Melee is more challenging but it is far more enjoyable experience because of this.

Elthurien.8356:

I have no problem as a melee Thief in dungeons, PvE or WvW. I use my utilities
to blind, stun and daze to completely avoid damage, If I get aggro I take measures to lose aggro and continue to melee while controlling my incomming damage with smoke and avoidance. Melee is more challenging but it is far more enjoyable experience because of this.

Gentlemen, this is how you play a melee class. Take heed, especially if you’re playing thief. He knows what’s up.

you guys miss the point: that melee requires skill, and ranged doesn’t. they should make it harder for ranged (you seriously hardly even get attacked that often in dungeons, its kind of boring), or make it easier for melee.

I personally still find it baffling that people are ‘still’ referring to some professions as ‘melee’ and others as ‘ranged’.

I find it quite fun. I will start at range w my warrior with a rifle …. use my shots until they close in , whack em with the rifle butt switch to axes and finish em off. If they still have some life I can switch back hit w rifle butt and shoot at range all over again.

Hocofaisan.2593:

Now this is odd.

I play a sword/pistol Mesmer, and I do exceptional in melee range.
I fight elite lair bosses (spiked purple portrait rings) in melee range.

You ask how I do that Ina light armor class?

I am speccd for vigor, I disable and blind the targets, I use blurred frenzy and distortion.

No one is expected to face tank in this game. I have tanked for many groups on my light armor Mesmer, because I use the entire arsenal of abilities giving to my class.

Yes, sometimes I have to fall back to ranged in order to give me time to refresh my Cooldown cycle but I spend the majority of time in melee.

Honestly maybe the game isn’t the problem, maybe its the players perception.

100 times this. I play a mesmer as well, Greatsword and Sword/Sword. In melee range I have distortion effects, blocks, dodge rolls, and even feedback for ranged enemies to mitigate damage.

The key to playing this game right is to 1: own a melee AND a ranged weapon. and 2: Learn when to melee and when to range. You have the ability to swap weapons. Why the hell aren’t you utilizing it? If you’re fighting a big boss with tons of melee damage, wait for an opening whilst shooting him with whatever ranged weapon you have, leap in with your melee weapon, do some great melee damage, and then gtfo and continue using your ranged weapon.

TL;DR – Learn to swap weapons as necessary and things will become much easier, I promise.

DusK.3849:

Elthurien.8356:

I have no problem as a melee Thief in dungeons, PvE or WvW. I use my utilities
to blind, stun and daze to completely avoid damage, If I get aggro I take measures to lose aggro and continue to melee while controlling my incomming damage with smoke and avoidance. Melee is more challenging but it is far more enjoyable experience because of this.

Gentlemen, this is how you play a melee class. Take heed, especially if you’re playing thief. He knows what’s up.

Right… DusK and Elthurien (cool name btw) I can see that you have learned to play the game -_- congratulations.

However you and most ppl here seem to be completely missing the point we are trying to make:

Yes melee is fun and rewarding
Yes you can be good at it
Yes melee is more enjoyable (depending on what you like) and in most cases more challenging

However: There is no reason to do it! (other than if you really want to) There needs to be advantages and benefits to being in melee, that doesn’t mean buffing warrior, heck nerf the ranged stuff for all I care I would just rather have my warrior feel like a warrior or else what is the point? He becomes more a ranger than the ranger is (as the ranger is not quite as good in melee or ranged which he makes up for by having a pet, so more of a hunter/tamer tho I’m not here to argue class names)

See knowing that there is no benefit (other than enjoyment) to being up close and personal, most ppl tend to whip out their ranged weapon on tougher bosses and because every class is “viable at range” we suddenly have almost everyone using the ranged option because it means they don’t have to learn the bosses moves and dodge as much, it means they can hang further back and have a higher chance of survival and reaping the rewards.

Look at most of the replies saying how good they are for being melee
Silly boasting of pointlessness.
Well done, your awesome!…./pat on the back. Silly people.

Anyway….The OP is 100% correct. Melee is harder than ranged and the pve is harder as melee.

I play guard and have it easier compared to some melee classes and if i switch to ranged in pve its just less dangerous. I’ve not really found a fight so far that is easier on melee to be honest. With a lot of the reaction game being about spotting animation cues or reacting to projectiles melee just get it badly.
Yes you can play up close and do well. This wasnt the point. Your an idiot if you thought the OP was saying you cant melee. Its just more taxing than ranged with a larger chance of dying.

basically if you want to be melee you have to gear defensively, this means toughness is vital its something i am just now coming to grips with. While i love my power/precision and high damage if we want to take a hit looks like we need to gear for toughness… only really won’t matter cause we will probably still die in one hit to any real challenging boss… and devs seem set on the one shot mechanic for 90% of enemies in game.

Love the game i just am not a big fan of mobs doing 50-60% of my health in a single blow, especially when they are random minion 342…

or maybe you are just better at ranged than melee in gw2.

The problem with mob balancing is Mob Based AoE. Do away with that, and the problem is greatly reduced.

As a ranger that likes to run around like a chicken with its head cut off during combat, I find myself downed or dead in dungeons more than my melee counter parts, particularly guardians and warriors.

That could just be speaking to mistakes in my play style, but still.

I (as a warrior) like to watch the boss a while from range with my rifle and see what are the attacks I should avoid. When I think I’ve got the handles right I go in with melee, because even with some downtime dodging and blocking, melee still does a ton more damage than ranged.

Of course sometimes I misjudge and end up downed, but most of the time the boss fights are long enough for me to figure out the mechanics and adapt.

It’s also much more rewarding (in an out-of-the-game rewarding sense) to fight a boss in melee and succeed than stand at the sidelines pew pewing.

Bassario.3465:

However: There is no reason to do it! (other than if you really want to)

At least as a warrior I can give two advantages over my ranged mates (one at a time, not both)

1. Last longer against aggro without being downed.
2. Do more damage.

Obviously I have to choose which role I’m going to fill before entering the dungeon, and I have to stay alive to fill #2, but when I manage either one, it’s very rewarding.

Yes. Save all your initiative for your blinds and smokes, which are the most costly abilities you have as a thief. That will make sure your damage output is somewhat sufficient. Hands down range is the best, the reason is because of the zerg fests. Zerging you focus closest target, melee is the closest target and thus gets focused down

Ha! I use my bow to set up my fire combos, which are awesome! Love my warrior.

I think you need to step outside of the defining box you may have for a ‘warrior’ and play the class creatively. There is no right or wrong way to play it. Part of the fun is discovering your class and it’s many abilities. For me, I found sword/axe with bow to be a ton of fun. For the next guy it might be a different set of weapons. If you get really good at your class, no one can pigeon hole you into a ‘uber play-style’, because honestly… you will develop your own play-style for your warrior which will be just as viable as a warrior who plays his class different.

Agreed that the game is meant to be creative in the way you play it and switching between range and melee is a good idea. But it does feel that if your up close and personal that your just going to get hit in the face and die.

What happens to those players who want to play with 2 melee weapons and want to stay on the enemy. They will get rofl pomped into the ground.

Right now it feels like melee is being forced to be melee and ranged just to survive. ( I know thats how I feel) It makes the game feel less “dynamic” and feels more linear.

Obviously if your not going to dodge a bigkitten hammer coming down on your head or if you stand in the middle of 50 players your going to die. But their should be some flexibility to stand next to a champion or a few players and do some real damage in a reasonable amount of time.

Everything needs balance and ratio. Right now I think the scales are leaning more to Range being a bit more accessible to play.

I don’t have any issues with melee as a warrior. I switch off between ranged and melee for boss fights, moving in and out as necessary, and rarely go down.

And there is a considerable dps advantage to melee. When soloing, I can see clearly how mobs last easily twice as long against ranged attacks as they do against melee. I typically only used ranged while soloing if I need to kite (or just feel like it).

Now, melee is at a disadvantage in WvW, but only because the closer you are to the enemy, the easier it is to get swarmed. But again, that’s why you have weapon swap.

A warrior shouldn’t have to play ranged to stay alive. Why have the class at all if it is pointless in dungeons.

Yes, you can play ranged…yes, this game is different than “insert game”…yes, I could learn the mechanics and adapt.

But, I want a hard hitting melee fighter and that is all I want. Why would any moron lug around a giant 2 handed hammer, just so he could shoot people when the action got tough?

All I care about is them doing away with the 1 shots. If the damage is avoidable and noticeable then I don’t mind. There is obviously a bias, every fight favors range, I can prove this by going shortbow and never dying or running out of initiative as opposed to going melee and being completely screwed once I inevitably run out of initiative and cooldowns (in like.. 6 seconds), being FORCED to retreat and go range. This is MY problem. I can play my way, huh ANet?

Suuure, looks to me like every class is forced to go range or die repeatedly. I’m sorry if I roll a thief to play melee, this has nothing to do with trinity or being bad, I simply enjoy playing melee in any game I’ve ever played. If I wanted range, I’d roll a ranger. I like that you have both melee and range there for when you want it, but it shouldn’t be forced like this.

That said, it’s not like I am staying melee obviously or I would be dying 24/7, I have adapted, but it’s a lot less fun. And I seem to remember Colin writing and entire article on “is it fun”…. no, it’s not fun being forced to play a certain way. It’s also not fun dying in 1 hit, get this through your thick skulls ANet please.

I don’t understand this thread or the minority of players agreeing with it. I main a warrior and also have an elementalist. This game is one of the few that is actually even if not favors melee. This thread seems to be a typical complaint thread with little context or proper perspective and lots of QQ.

With my warrior I’m able to stay in melee for long periods of time and have the HP and defense to actually survive and get away if I do start taking a lot of damage. With the exception of a few one shot attacks from bosses which must be dodged I have almost no trouble at all. I am usually doing the most damage while being the lowest level and I’m also holding the aggro a lot of times controlling the fight. Sure I have to use knock downs and kite a bit if I take too much damage but that’s every single character in the game at least I can take the punishment. When I’m in dungeon groups I rank the melee characters at the top of my list. From my experiences I rarely die while my ranger, elementalist, engineer, mesmer, friends go down farm more often due to not being able to take any hits.

You need defense and also a few defensive skills like stability etc. You can’t just go 100% dps and expect to stand there and wack away that’s so silly I shouldn’t have to explain why.

I hate to be so negative but this thread is one of countless threads on here with no basis or legitimacy. This really is a learn to play issue. I feel I can say this as I’m one of these melee toons the game is so biased against and I feel like I’m extremely powerful and actually feel sorry for other classes sometimes.

^You’re a warrior, nuff said.

Rukia.4802:

^You’re a warrior, nuff said.

So who exactly is having problems thieves? I don’t know the mechanics and skills but I would think you would have an option for many defensive traits and skills? It could be thieves have a survivability problem I’m not sure but from what I understand they have some of the highest DPS in the game especially spamming heartseeker so I could see some of them pulling agro and dying due to that broken skill alone. If you are expecting to not have to move in combat or use defensive skills and in your case stealth I’m not sure what to say “staying on your toes” is what makes this game fun to me.

Finally I think the guy who started thread is a warrior no and if so I believe my post is very relavant? Thanks

Your post isn’t very relevant when you assume I’m not moving and using my skills… just silly. I faceroll most content, fact is a lot of bosses and mobs are incredibly overtuned and kill me in 1 hit. I’ve done pure vit and toughness builds on thief, they don’t scale well with medium armor clearly.. because I still get 1 shot.

A thief has to depend on evades, and they aren’t unlimited. That 1 second where I’m not evading is literally the 1 second where I die instantly, vs almost any boss. It’s silly.

Amiron.1067:

100 times this. I play a mesmer as well, Greatsword and Sword/Sword. In melee range I have distortion effects, blocks, dodge rolls, and even feedback for ranged enemies to mitigate damage.

The key to playing this game right is to 1: own a melee AND a ranged weapon. and 2: Learn when to melee and when to range. You have the ability to swap weapons. Why the hell aren’t you utilizing it? If you’re fighting a big boss with tons of melee damage, wait for an opening whilst shooting him with whatever ranged weapon you have, leap in with your melee weapon, do some great melee damage, and then gtfo and continue using your ranged weapon.

TL;DR – Learn to swap weapons as necessary and things will become much easier, I promise.

I play a mesmer the same way (except I use a focus instead of a OH sword most times), and have the same experience. Hit and run is so much fun and being in melee can be a thrill due to the danger, but I must admit I do find it easier to be at range. Generally I jump into melee for high damage burst and then drop back when my controls are weening thin.

Also, a tip for other mesmers using Feedback in melee. It seems the bubble works both ways. I use it on my melee target and the field seems to repel all ranged attacks against me from outside the bubble, so I don’t have to worry about getting shot in the back by minions.

Xaielao.8510:

I personally still find it baffling that people are ‘still’ referring to some professions as ‘melee’ and others as ‘ranged’.

Heh, same here. The people who view the game in that light are shooting themselves in the foot and limiting their potential. No matter what profession someone chooses, they’ll need to learn to operate and alternate between both ranged and melee combat.

PVE = Melee
WvW = Ranged
sPvP = mix

Rukia the thread is about melee in general and the guy who started the thread is a warrior. Thieves are 1/3 of what I consider the primary melee classes warriors, guardians, and thieves. Saying someone’s opinion is irrelevant because they play a warrior in a thread about melee is silly and completely ignores the context of the thread. If you want to start a thread about thieves not having enough survivability in PvE by all means go for it.

Reqnine.6394:

What happens to those players who want to play with 2 melee weapons and want to stay on the enemy. They will get rofl pomped into the ground.

Right now it feels like melee is being forced to be melee and ranged just to survive. ( I know thats how I feel) It makes the game feel less “dynamic” and feels more linear.

“Learn to play melee” – its harder because you have to be awake. But honestly you can stay up -AND- do more damage once you master it.

This is mostly profession independent – mostly because engineer has no melee option. Otherwise -EVERY- profession will do more damage in melee, and -CAN- survive once they learn mobility.

Ranged is for the less skilled players to be able to participate. Or to go to temporarily to set something up or wait out a cooldown from not having it all timed right.

Mesmers are also a primary melee class in my eyes…
Main Hand and Off hand sword is pure melee awesomeness.

Amiron.1067:

Hocofaisan.2593:

Now this is odd.

I play a sword/pistol Mesmer, and I do exceptional in melee range.
I fight elite lair bosses (spiked purple portrait rings) in melee range.

You ask how I do that Ina light armor class?

I am speccd for vigor, I disable and blind the targets, I use blurred frenzy and distortion.

No one is expected to face tank in this game. I have tanked for many groups on my light armor Mesmer, because I use the entire arsenal of abilities giving to my class.

Yes, sometimes I have to fall back to ranged in order to give me time to refresh my Cooldown cycle but I spend the majority of time in melee.

Honestly maybe the game isn’t the problem, maybe its the players perception.

100 times this. I play a mesmer as well, Greatsword and Sword/Sword. In melee range I have distortion effects, blocks, dodge rolls, and even feedback for ranged enemies to mitigate damage.

The key to playing this game right is to 1: own a melee AND a ranged weapon. and 2: Learn when to melee and when to range. You have the ability to swap weapons. Why the hell aren’t you utilizing it? If you’re fighting a big boss with tons of melee damage, wait for an opening whilst shooting him with whatever ranged weapon you have, leap in with your melee weapon, do some great melee damage, and then gtfo and continue using your ranged weapon.

TL;DR – Learn to swap weapons as necessary and things will become much easier, I promise.

I agree, but some people just don’t get it. In all other games, melee classes…well…melee….stand flatfooted, swing a weapon ( you smash buttons) , let your healer make up for your mistakes.

I love the concept of the warrior class here. Not some infantryman, but a well rounded “warrior” who can as easily switch from ranged to blades and back again as the situation demands.

Melee all you want, but if you are losing health..switch back to ranged and fade back until, firing all the time, as health builds up, then leap back into the fray.

Why is this so hard get around?

I watch players in melee die/down a lot more than players at range. Does show that ranged users have a huge advantage in harder fights.

Hint: Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

Have to agree with other posts, love the flexibility of the warrior and switching weapons based on the fight.

I just want to know how the Champion Troll in Queensdale has a homing boulder? I have seen that thing go darn near 90 degrees to hit me.

Pikafan.3792:

Hint: Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

What game are you playing again? Melee lacks flexibility? I believe all the classes except maybe Guardian have ranged options. Thieves and warriors can dodge out and switch to bows or guns just as easily as a ranged class can run into melee. I for one do this routinely as part of my gameplay whenever I take a big hit or appear to be taking to much damage. I really don’t understand some of you at all. It’s like we’re not even playing the same game.

Pikafan.3792:

I watch players in melee die/down a lot more than players at range. Does show that ranged users have a huge advantage in harder fights.

Hint: Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

On the other hand you have two weapon sets to swap between so you can choose melee and ranged on the same character, so you can swap from melee to ranged.

Also the melee dps is usually higher than the ranged dps as to make up for the time lost when dodging. Ranged is easier in that sense but not better.

The only thing that is lame is that one shot kills instagib that happens with some bosses. One mistake you’re dead is a bit rough, for the rest it’s all about choice and skill.

Proeliator.8740:

Pikafan.3792:

Hint: Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

What game are you playing again? Melee lacks flexibility? I believe all the classes except maybe Guardian have ranged options. Thieves and warriors can dodge out and switch to bows or guns just as easily as a ranged class can run into melee. I for one do this routinely as part of my gameplay whenever I take a big hit or appear to be taking to much damage. I really don’t understand some of you at all. It’s like we’re not even playing the same game.

<Removed – Keep it friendly folks ~ Dalmarus>
Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

Keywords: Players using ranged weapons…..players wielding melee weapons

A thief or a warrior switching (from a melee weapon) to a bow or gun would be equivalent of a player using a melee weapon becoming a player using a ranged weapon.

In conclusion, because of your myopic ignorance, you utterly fail to grasp it is the melee weapons having a disadvantage over ranged weapons that people have problems with, not the classes which are predominantly melee having a disadvantage over classes which are predominantly ranged.

(Ranged weapon > Melee weapon) =/= (Ranged class > Melee class)

Then again, I don’t expect lower lifeforms to be able to grasp finer nuances that only humans get.

I understand that one shot kills can be annoying. But why is the boss killing you in one shot? Are you spec’d for dps only? How many points do you have in Vitality and Toughness….or are you just unlucky?

This game gives peeps a surprising amount of flexibility…along with a good dose of responsibility. So if you are dying in one shot…they first thing to do is ask..why?

First off: before people begin commenting on various issues, they need to make clear whether they’re talking about PvE, W3, or sPvP, because the performance of each class and each role is completely different in each. I will be addressing PvE in this post, because that is where the disparity between melee and ranged is the widest.

The problem isn’t so much “ranged is easier than melee” so much as it is “some classes are designed with far more flexibility compared to others.”

I’ve noticed that a lot of Warriors and Mesmers are the ones that tout melee being as easy, or even easier, than ranged, and this does not surprise me at all. I started out playing a Ranger and mostly used ranged, because I found that even when kitted out for toughness, dodging and healing, I was still not really able to do anything in close range. My friend started a Thief and tried to focus mostly on melee, albeit also going with survivability stats, traits and skills over damage. His melee survivability, like mine, is insufficient against instance bosses; this is not to say that he cannot survive, but rather that he must spend so much time focusing on evading/CCing/healing that he can’t actually do any damage with his daggers, whereas when he stands back with his pistols, pumping out damage is all he does.

So that was my experience leveling up to 80 and clearing all of the instances. Then I rolled a Guardian and a Warrior, and my friend rolled a Mesmer. The difference in the class design was stark: my Guardian, for instance, has three blinds on low cooldowns and can straight up ignore several attacks in a row on slightly longer cooldowns, and that’s before we even get to the Utility skills. Warriors and Mesmers also can shrug off or sustain through a truly massive amount of punishment while still dealing out competitive damage. Frankly, I was amazed at how much more effective these classes were at dealing with the problems the game presented to them.

But I am a problem solver, and I did not discount the fact that we were simply more experienced when we rolled our second characters. So, taking the knowledge I had gained playing as and with these new classes, I returned to my Ranger and went back to the drawing board. I looked through all of the weapon skills I had discounted, all of the traits, the utility skills. But the tools just weren’t in the toolbox.

To sum things up: every class can be effective in every part of the game, but not every class is built to be competitive. There is no imbalance inherently built into melee and ranged, at least as far as the PvE instance encounters go, but rather the classes themselves are imbalanced as to how they can deal with threats. Rangers have melee skills, yes, but they lack essential tools that allow other classes to excel in those areas. Several classes seem to be very underdeveloped when compared with other classes (for instance, simply compare the amount of weapon skills that Rangers and Thieves get compared to Warriors and Mesmers.) Maybe this is by design; maybe they intentionally built Rangers and Thieves to use ranged attacks in instances and melee only in PvP. But it does not necessarily have to be that way in the future.

Pikafan.3792:

Proeliator.8740:

Pikafan.3792:

Hint: Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

What game are you playing again? Melee lacks flexibility? I believe all the classes except maybe Guardian have ranged options. Thieves and warriors can dodge out and switch to bows or guns just as easily as a ranged class can run into melee. I for one do this routinely as part of my gameplay whenever I take a big hit or appear to be taking to much damage. I really don’t understand some of you at all. It’s like we’re not even playing the same game.

<Removed – Keep it friendly folks ~ Dalmarus>
Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

Keywords: Players using ranged weapons…..players wielding melee weapons
A thief or a warrior switching (from a melee weapon) to a bow or gun would be equivalent of a player using a melee weapon becoming a player using a ranged weapon.

In conclusion, because of your myopic ignorance, you utterly fail to grasp it is the melee weapons having a disadvantage over ranged weapons that people have problems with, not the classes which are predominantly melee having a disadvantage over classes which are predominantly ranged.

(Ranged weapon > Melee weapon) =/= (Ranged class > Melee class)
Then again, I don’t expect lower life forms to be able to grasp finer nuances that only humans.

Removed – keep it friendly folks ~ Dalmarus

Pikafan.3792:

Players using ranged weapons have the flexibility of running into melee to deal damage if they so wish. The same can’t really be said about players wielding melee weapons running into ranged.

Please explain how this matters in the least bit? What class is this an advantage for? I haven’t made every class but let’s be specific here? What class is using a ranged weapon effectively in melee or would even want to? I haven’t seen one. I’m also using the language you embedded in your first post which was about “flexibility” Melee can switch to ranged and vice versa. That’s the epitome of flexibility. Does the weapon swap bother you or something? Also many of my melee weapons have at least one ranged attack on them so again you have no point at all.

Pikafan.3792:

In conclusion, because of your myopic ignorance, you utterly fail to grasp it is the melee weapons having a disadvantage over ranged weapons that people have problems with, not the classes which are predominantly melee having a disadvantage over classes which are predominantly ranged.

You’re grasping at straws here. Melee weapons deal more damage. That’s called balance. It’s the one shot mechanics that are a problem if anything and I think it’s fine there needs to be some danger or else we would all be asleep while playing.

I don’t play a warrior (I play ele), but I agree with the OP.

Go mention going D/D ele in an explorable dungeon in our forums, see how fast you get laughed out.