Guild Wars 2

So let’s go through some facts:
- We are given the ability to use 2 sets of weapons.
- We are given the ability to use 2 melee sets, 2 ranged sets, or 1 of each

Yet, when it comes down to business:
- If you have 2 ranged sets, you’re fine
- If you have 2 melee sets, you’re screwed

Is this the intended design?
What about those who only want to play melee?

I propose one of the below:

1. Give Melee some situational advantages and Ranged situational disadvantages, both in PvP and PvE
   - Make all melee gap closers such as Swoop , Rush or Leap of Faith deal more damage the further you travel before hitting your target.
   This will only increase damage dealt to targets that can maintain distance from you.
   - Add to PvE encounters mechanics such as skills that only hit targets beyond a certain range, or hit harder the further away you are, or block/reflect projectiles.
   - Add more areas in PvP and PvE with pillars and whatnot that allow melee to more effectively avoid damage. Essentially, melee kiting ranged.
2. The alternative, wich I don’t like, is forcing players to have 1 melee set + 1 ranged set

Unfortunately they try to balance everything for PvP.
So your skills and sets are gonna be bad because of their what if scenarios.
PvE is already done.

What profession and combo are you using?

I’m using a 2h sword + Sword/Shield combo on my warrior and i’m not having any problems.

Warrior never has problems.
Where have you been.

Thieves with a D/D and S/D set up aren’t screwed. Ranged DPS (relative to my thief) is low compared to my melee weapons. Also, one thing that I don’t like about using ranged weapons is that I have to kite around, which might grab aggro to a nearby unfriendly.

I don’t think forcing everyone to have one of each is a good idea. Everyone has their own play style, and they should have the freedom to mix and match.

I’m just saying you have issues with being pure melee in several aspects of the game, with many champions or situations clearly benefitting ranged, and none really benefitting melee in a comparable manner.

I’m surprised noone has jumped on you about learning to play yet.

GW2 is melee unfriendly. You can melee and it’s powerful but it’s not something you do generally. The game was design as kite and kill.

You can do it but at a large disadvantage relative to range. Even on a guardian, the wimpy sceptre is a more effective playstyle than going into melee; particularly vs bosses/champs.

there is a suggestions forum

why suggest something to take away player choice?

did you realize the engineer doesn’t exactly have a melee set?

mulch.2586:

there is a suggestions forum

why suggest something to take away player choice?

did you realize the engineer doesn’t exactly have a melee set?

This argument gets brought up over and over again, and it’s a bit of a fallacy.

Melee weapons cannot be used at range. All ranged weapons can be used in melee range.

That’s why the argument that “Engineers don’t have melee weapons, so professions that lack ranged options shouldn’t whine” misses the point. The OP’s point is that weapon swaps limit your weapon choice because one of your weapon choices should be a ranged weapon.

This is not true in every case, but it is true that the ability to be at range and stay at range is often an advantage, and if one of your two swaps is not a ranged weapon, you potentially put yourself at a disadvantage.

Eveningstar.6940:

mulch.2586:

there is a suggestions forum

why suggest something to take away player choice?

did you realize the engineer doesn’t exactly have a melee set?

This argument gets brought up over and over again, and it’s a bit of a fallacy.

Melee weapons cannot be used at range. All ranged weapons can be used in melee range.

again, why suggest a rule that takes away players’ choices?

I play a guardian. We have 1 ranged weapon and I don’t care for it much.

Mulch, I made 2 suggestions, not one.

Currently you have alot of false choices.

I want them to be true choices, either by a) making it so you can effectively use 2 sets of melee weapons with any profession without being kittened, or b) force us to use 1 melee and 1 ranged set

Just equality, that’s all.
Either ANet can make it fair for everyone to use any combination of melee+ranged, ranged+ranged and melee+melee, or they need to make it so players stop finding themselves in a situation where the weapons they want to use, are not the weapons they should be using.

The goal of my 2 suggestions is the same.
Obviously I prefer all weapon combinations to be allowed, and balanced.

Melee is great, it’s simply 8000% harder than spamming autotargeted projectiles from 1200 range.
My guild runs a pure melee wvw team and we eat ranged rabbits, but it actually requires a ton more skill and group cohesion than spamming ranged stuff like 99% of wvw people do.

Melee is not hard in this game, it simply requires more awareness. Particle effects may blind you, but that’s only in the open world. In dungeons with a group of 5, it’s very easy to still make out the tells of the boss and avoid as such.

A lot of people that play melee happen to tunnel vision a lot more, it’s a bad habit you pick up from meleeing in most other games. I know I definitely tunneled as a warrior in WoW and I see it all the time even in this game too.

Lastly, meleeing in this game forces you to be more honest about your capabilities than most other games. If you can’t dodge everything with reflexes like a ninja and always pay attention to your surroundings, don’t roll full Berserker’s, you’re not helping anyone. I had a Guardian in my group that had only 900 toughness but it was ok because he had “crazy crits!” he died more, like x10 more than my thief buddy who was rocking full Knights. Who did more damage in the end? The one who’s alive.

Going full berserker’s is going glass cannon, and you cannot blame the game for “being too hard” when you set yourself up like that, everyone loves pumping out max damage but if you can’t handle it, don’t do it. There are lots of viable gear alternatives for a damage focused role that won’t end with you getting 1shot from everything.

Lastly, more than any other game, they tried to blur the line between melee and ranged classes. There are still classes that focus on one more than the other but the distinction is weaker than ever. I don’t know why people refuse to take advantage of this. Any ranged abilities on a traditional melee class in any other game will be see as a godsend and gives you more flexibility. They gave you that in this game but why do people refuse to touch it, my question is why?

I think a pure melee set definitely does work, I have done it plenty of times in dungeons and what not, but that entails being locked out of your damage sometimes when mechanics force you out of range. Hammer + Sword/Focus on my guard gives a lot of staying power in melee range, but it also means my effective range is really short.

Full on melee also means you need to prepare more for taking hits than most specs. All of it is possible, but it really is up to the player to make it work. A lot of it is really common sense, and they give you all the tools to succeed as a melee in this game, just half the fools I see running around with Greatswords choose to ignore it.

And if anything, dual melee set is EASIEST to run in PvP (just not WvW) out of all the areas of the game too.

Try D/D elementalist. You don’t even get the choice to have a weapon set for ranged.

Take it into real life contrast: which would you rather have? A sword or a gun?
I bet you more people will go for a gun cause its easy to use (point and shoot) then it is to use a sword. Your also out of range from someone who has a sword. Same thing happens in games you take less damage at a distance then you would standing right up against them. They can only do so much to balance it and keep it closer to reality. Melee weapons have their uses mind you but you have to prepared to take some damage back.

nastyjman.8207:

Thieves with a D/D and S/D set up aren’t screwed. Ranged DPS (relative to my thief) is low compared to my melee weapons.

This is kind of the point. Melee weapons are supposed to do more damage, but have a lot more risk associated with them.

I think the only real problem is that the balancing isn’t done. I know for rangers the shortbow seems like the highest damage weapon of the set and the melee weapons are pretty lackluster.

I think some of you don’t get my point.

This has nothing to do with how much damage melee does, or how much skill it takes to play.

This is about how there are no situations where Ranged is unviable or heavily penalized, and plenty of them where Melee is.

There are encounter mechanics in PvE and all kinds of “terrain characteristics” in both PvP and PvE where Melee is screwed.
And I’m not even talking about bugs.

How to make it fair?
Ranged can deal damage in melee and in range.
Melee can only deal damage in melee.

- Make gap closers deal more damage the further you travel before hitting your target.
- Add to PvE encounters mechanics such as skills that only hit targets beyond a certain range, or hit harder the further away you are, or block/reflect projectiles.

Nurvus.2891:

I think some of you don’t get my point.

This has nothing to do with how much damage melee does, or how much skill it takes to play.

This is about how there are no situations where Ranged is unviable or heavily penalized, and plenty of them where Melee is.

There are encounter mechanics in PvE and all kinds of “terrain characteristics” in both PvP and PvE where Melee is screwed.
And I’m not even talking about bugs.

No that is the point. Damage on Melee weapons is supposed to be higher to compensate for the the risk associated with being in melee range. That is the trade off. More damage at more risk.

Well I made an adjustment to my suggestion.

First off, all charge attacks should hit harder the further away your target is.
This won’t make a difference in melee vs melee, or melee vs crippled ranged.
It will make a difference in PvE encounters where ranged can just run in circles dishing their damage, but melee must go in and out all the time.
It will make a difference in PvP situations where ranged kites all the time – melee doesn’t do damage while kited.

Melee can’t just deal alot more damage.
A little is okay.
I would even be okay with ranged dealing more damage than melee if more of their skills required them to STAND STILL.

So it really isn’t about damage.
It’s about what sacrifices do Melee and Ranged make to deal their damage.
Melee makes alot more sacrifices, without visible compensation.

So increase Ranged sacrifices and/or Melee damage.

Okay so barring the Elementalist. Every class can just swap from melee to ranged as needed. That would be skillful play imo.

Every situation where range is better then melee, well swap and now your ranged! Problem solved (again barring the D/D Elementalist which they could fix by making 1 or 2 of the attunements have ranged abilities).

So really I do not see the issue.

Water 1 skill is your (short) ranged for D/D Ele but it does horrible damage and vulnerability sucks, probably the worst skill I’ve ever seen in a game. It could at least add a short chill each hit so you can kite with it or hit multiple mobs.

@Lumines

People play melee classes for a reason, and no, that reason is not to play a ranged character (obviously…..) so I don’t want to be forced to use ranged. I get where OP is coming from, and in other games the reason why people want ranged abilities on their melee is because they’re being kited 24/7 and being a melee sucks 20 times more than being a ranged, just like in GW2. May as well just make everything ranged and get it over with imo.

@Rukia (quote button gone)

True if we look at it from a viewpoint of someone who wants to be JUST melee they will have a harder time with PvE. You are absolutely right on that. However I think its a tricky thing to balance just right and may take some time to correct.

There are mobs that do more damage the further you are. E.g. the snipers in CM that one-shot you at range, but if you’re next to them they either miss or don’t do damage (never checked the log to see which).

I guess what’s being asked for here (cuz it’s absurd to ask them to restrict us, like forcing guardians to have a scepter equipped, no thank you) is that there be more range type pve damage.

Maybe dragons could drop stuff not in melee range. Or spawn more mobs out on the ranged folks. Maybe add some obstacles to maps so that it’s not automatically easy to get line of sight, and melee people could use walls and such for cover.

@mulch
Yes, the snipers are a good example of something that should be more frequent in GW2.
I also mean enemies using stuff like Wall of Reflection (reflects projectiles), causing Ranged to be a bad thing for a little while.

I think my suggestion to make all damaging Charge/Teleport/Jump attacks hit harder the further you travel.
Even the side effects like Warrior’s Hammer Burst skill Earthshaker (600 range) could add 1/4 second stun if you travel at least 300, or another 1/2 second if you travel at least 500.

@Mog
Good for you.
Now tell me, when was the last time you solved a problem by swapping from a Ranged Weapon to Melee Weapon?
Did you ever think “Ranged isn’t working. I’ll just swap to melee!”

And I’m not talking of 1 specific skill the weapon may have that helps your Ranged rotation.
I’m talking of swapping to a Melee weapon in order to go Melee.

Nurvus.2891:

@Mog
Good for you.
Now tell me, when was the last time you solved a problem by swapping from a Ranged Weapon to Melee Weapon?
Did you ever think “Ranged isn’t working. I’ll just swap to melee!”

And I’m not talking of 1 specific skill the weapon may have that helps your Ranged rotation.
I’m talking of swapping to a Melee weapon in order to go Melee.

You are correct, you could stay ranged and be totally content and have an easier time in PvE. I agree with you fully.

I do still think the developers intend melee to swap to ranged if needed. I also agree that being pure melee is ludicrous when you can easily swap to range and have an easier time. This of course applies to PvE.

PvP is a different story. You should be swapping from ranged or melee depending on the situation. And yes in PvP there are times its better to be using a melee vs ranged weapon.

I’m fine with developers intending you to swap from melee to ranged if needed, as long as they give you enough need to swap from ranged to melee as well.

I know some melee weapons can be better than some ranged weapons, both in PvP and PvE, but not in a way that makes it relevant to this discussion.

I’m talking of wanting to get close and actually melee the enemy, rather than kiting and keeping your range.
Many melee weapons have ranged skills, and I’m not talking about those skills.

mulch.2586:

there is a suggestions forum

why suggest something to take away player choice?

did you realize the engineer doesn’t exactly have a melee set?

Well you are focusing on a specific portion of my suggestion without looking at the overall point.

Ofcourse I prefer everyone to be able to use everything, successfully.
The problem is, while you can go into melee with ranged weapons and attack in melee, you cannot go into ranged with melee and attack from range.

While it is useful and practical to go into range and kite, it’s not really useful and practical to go into melee and… stay closer to danger.

So, while I’m not asking a buff to melee damage, I’m asking that melee is given more situational advantages such that it can actually occur to players that it’s worth going into melee, whatever weapon they have equipped.

My counter-suggestion of forcing players to use one melee set and one ranged set, is just an argument hook to make my point clear.
It’s not something I truly wish to be done.

I swear, the same people play melee classes in every game and spend all their time on whichever game they currently play’s forums complaining that the ranged folk are sooooo OP.

:edit:

Did you ever stop to think that it is your fault that your character has 2 melee weapon sets equipped?

Name a single class with no ranged weapons to choose from!

Accept the consequences of your decisions. If you want ranged then equip ranged in at least one of your slots.

Ugh… Jestunhi, I’m not saying ranged professions are OP…
All professions can use ranged indeed.

I’m saying that it’s unfair that there’s nothing wrong with using 2 ranged sets, but there’s something wrong with using 2 melee sets.
Do you understand this simple explanation? Because it can’t get any simpler.

It’s fine for me that it’s useful to have 2 ranged weapons.
It’s fine for me that it’s useful to have 1 ranged + 1 melee weapon.
It’s not fine for me that it’s not useful to have 2 melee weapons.

Play what you like. Remember?
I like ranged on some professions. I like melee on others. I like a mix on others.
Let me play what I like without feeling penalized.
Or, penalize everyone equally.

If there are reasons for a melee character to attack from range, make it so there are reasons for a ranged character to swap to a melee weapon and actually attack in melee.

Nurvus.2891:

Ugh… Jestunhi, I’m not saying ranged professions are OP…
All professions can use ranged indeed.

I’m saying that it’s unfair that there’s nothing wrong with using 2 ranged sets, but there’s something wrong with using 2 melee sets.
Do you understand this simple explanation? Because it can’t get any simpler.

It’s fine for me that it’s useful to have 2 ranged weapons.
It’s fine for me that it’s useful to have 1 ranged + 1 melee weapon.
It’s not fine for me that it’s not useful to have 2 melee weapons.

Play what you like. Remember?
I like ranged on some professions. I like melee on others. I like a mix on others.
Let me play what I like without feeling penalized.

I want to play blindfolded. Should I be able to play with a blindfold without being penalized?

You can come up with whatever excuse you like, the fact is that if you choose weapons limited to 150 range then your attacks are limited to 150 range. No one forced you to, you made that decision.

Man up.

I’m fine manning up and dealing with the consequences of choosing two weapons with 130 Range, as long as those who choose weapons with 600-1200 range also have consquences to deal with.
Get it? Or still in denial?

Nurvus.2891:

I’m fine manning up and dealing with the consequences of choosing two weapons with 130 Range, as long as those who choose weapons with 600-1200 range also have consquences to deal with.
Get it? Or still in denial?

OK, let’s look at my ranger.

Here’s the consequences for SB & LB

SB – 4 situational control attacks with lower damage than #1 and an auto attack, low dps.
LB – auto attack has lower damage at close range, 2 situational control abilities with lower damage than #1 and 2 channels – single target & AoE.

Melee options on the other hand would give a much greater variety, which is why I use 1 ranged and 1 melee.

One thing which could be considered is interrupts vs ranged channels. However as soon as you go down that road you risk the opposite – ranged players standing no chance as soon as a melee character uses a gap closer.

:edit:

To confirm, #2 SB skill is actually better damage than #1 if no condition removal and point blank range (spread of arrows – all need to hit to do good damage)

Short Bow on ranger may have decent consequences as a ranged weapon, as you are encouraged to go melee to maximize the effectiveness of #2. More ranged weapons should have that kind of functionality.

Among my suggestions is making gap closers hit harder the further you travel.
This makes going closer to melee range a good way to avoid some damage.
It doesn’t do anything to improve damage of melee that manage to stay on the target.

All this said, I love ranged, melee and mix.
All I want is, while there are plenty challenges in the game that make ranged a must, a few that do the same courtesy to melee.

Jestunhi.7429:

OK, let’s look at my ranger.

Here’s the consequences for SB & LB

SB – 4 situational control attacks with lower damage than #1 and an auto attack, low dps.
LB – auto attack has lower damage at close range, 2 situational control abilities with lower damage than #1 and 2 channels – single target & AoE.

Melee options on the other hand would give a much greater variety, which is why I use 1 ranged and 1 melee.

One thing which could be considered is interrupts vs ranged channels. However as soon as you go down that road you risk the opposite – ranged players standing no chance as soon as a melee character uses a gap closer.

:edit:

To confirm, #2 SB skill is actually better damage than #1 if no condition removal and point blank range (spread of arrows – all need to hit to do good damage)

Hint: Shortbow has the highest dps across all ranger weapons. Low dps? You must be playing a different game than all of us.

Consequences? There are no consequences using a shortbow over a melee weapon for rangers. Except maybe for skill 2, but you can simply go into melee for a second or two, the Quick Shot to reposition instantly.

Pikafan.3792:

Hint: Shortbow has the highest dps across all ranger weapons. Low dps? You must be playing a different game than all of us.

Consequences? There are no consequences using a shortbow over a melee weapon for rangers. Except maybe for skill 2, but you can simply go into melee for a second or two, the Quick Shot to reposition instantly.

Highest dps available to a class does not mean the same thing as high dps.

It’s a shame that there’s so much talk of consequences yet no one will accept them when they make a decision.

I think the complaint about melee being harder is a good one in some games, but not GW2. Everyone except guardians have a viable range weapon. I prefer to play my guardian with 2 melee sets equipped. I keep a scepter just in case.

Playing melee is no where near as hard in GW2 as it is for some raid encounters in raiding games. This is not one of those games.

I’m not complaining melee is hard in GW2. It’s not.
I’m not complaining about numbers either.

I’m saying there aren’t really meaningful situations where meleeing is considerably better.
But there are plenty of situations where attacking from range is much better.
In some cases, mandatory.

Nurvus.2891:

I’m not complaining melee is hard in GW2. It’s not.
I’m not complaining about numbers either.

I’m saying there aren’t really meaningful situations where meleeing is considerably better.
But there are plenty of situations where attacking from range is much better.
In some cases, mandatory.

Any situation where your class has higher DPS with a melee weapon than a ranged weapon is one where melee has the advantage. Hell, any situation where melee has the same DPS but more control options than ranged means melee has the advantage too.

But somehow I suspect you haven’t thought to try to measure which weapons are actually best before making a thread claiming that some are better than others…

Sure I haven’t.
You have, right? That’s why you had such an accurate opinion on the Ranger Short Bow.

Let me tell you something.
I play 5 professions at the moment, and only because I haven’t bought 3 more slots yet – but will eventually.
I like all professions, and I do not wish any one of them to become stronger than the rest because I like the game as a whole, and I like challenge.

I’m not here to secretly ask for a buff to melee weapons for whatever my favorite profession(s) is/are.
I’m here to ask for a little more equality.

PvP has the issue of AoE being a little rampant, wich makes stuff like rushing in + Hundred Blades a real problem in itself.
But it’s not that different from multiple Necromancers rotating their Staff skills (Marks & auto-attack) simultaneously over a bunch of people, wich therefore die in a few seconds Bleeding, Poisoned and Chilled with any conditions that were on nearby allies transferred to those enemies.

That’s an AoE problem.

This topic is on something else that I’ve explained multiple times, but you seem to constantly distort into “how good weapon X is doing”.

Ofcourse every single weapon can do well.
My point being that Ranged weapons do well 100% of the time.
Melee weapons (with melee skills) do well 80% of the time.
That’s a bad thing.

Furthermore, against what you are saying, melee weapons do NOT have a considerably higher damage output than ranged weapons.
Several ranged weapons of several professions are plain and simply better at damage dealing.
Hundred Blades may be an exception, but it’s not superior in single target – only in AoE.

I think one reason for this is design of some melee monsters. If you are a melee and try to kill a ranged, what do you do? Use a gap-closer. What monsters do? Walk, usually even quite slowly.
This automatically makes ranged so easy option.

Another thing is you aren’t really required to do high DPS (especially when doing that means you will probably take more damage too).

Hmm…

If you think a SB is a high DPS weapon, instead of just the best of the (frankly poor) options rangers have available to them, then I don’t think anything good can come from us discussing balance.

Jestunhi.7429:

Hmm…

If you think a SB is a high DPS weapon, instead of just the best of the (frankly poor) options rangers have available to them, then I don’t think anything good can come from us discussing balance.

I never said it’s high dps.
I said it’s the highest of the ranger weapons.
Meaning there is no disadvantage in playing Shortbow as a Ranger, compared to all your other Ranger weapons.

In fact, in Ranger, Sword is relatively cool, in that you have alot of mobility and evasive capabilities.
In that regard, Ranger isn’t exactly the worst case scenario where it comes to this thread.

Some misguided ideas here, but it’s interesting to see this thread revived after so long.

PvP there’s little application of aoe, ime. What is very important is control of the nodes, which constrains combat to be in a limited space. If you try to kite from outside the node, you’re not winning the point for your team.

There’s a reason tourny teams usually formed with a bunker-build. There’s a reason almost every good player has a melee set. Those weapons usually have more control and are more effective at killing, too.

Ranger short-bow is self-mobile, but its control options (the cripple #4 and the interrupt #5) aren’t particularly strong with long cooldowns. It’s a good weapon choice but not without its limitations.

Oh great, so this “brilliant” suggestion is what caused my current situation of being forced to play melee on Ranger?

I don’t want to play melee, I want to play ranged and apparently, two years ago I would have been allowed to.

I’m sure the OP is happy, but what about people like me?

I have nothing against people who want to melee on Ranger, but it should never have been allowed to make ranged obsolete.

Sorry for the necro, but I just found this while doing a search.

Nurvus.2891:

I’m just saying you have issues with being pure melee in several aspects of the game, with many champions or situations clearly benefitting ranged, and none really benefitting melee in a comparable manner.

Champions and Bosses were not designed to be solo’d. So there is your solution for additional ranged damage while you melee. Make a few friends.

Tigaseye.2047:

I have nothing against people who want to melee on Ranger, but it should never have been allowed to make ranged obsolete.

What are you even talking about, melee has always been higher DPS than ranged, that’s just risk vs. reward. You’re free to play ranged as much as you like, but you will never see the results you can get from melee, and that’s 100% the way it should be.

SpyderBite.6274:

Champions and Bosses were not designed to be solo’d. So there is your solution for additional ranged damage while you melee. Make a few friends.

Lol you might want to check the date on that post you quoted.

Andred.1087:

Tigaseye.2047:

I have nothing against people who want to melee on Ranger, but it should never have been allowed to make ranged obsolete.

What are you even talking about, melee has always been higher DPS than ranged, that’s just risk vs. reward. You’re free to play ranged as much as you like, but you will never see the results you can get from melee, and that’s 100% the way it should be.

No, I’m not “free to play ranged”, at all.

If I join pretty much any random player dungeon group I am told to permanently stack and play melee and kicks ensue if I don’t.

…and before you say I can make my own groups, I am aware of that, but I should not have to do so just to be allowed to play ranged, on a ranged class called “Ranger”.

…and no, it is not “how it should be”, it is NOT like this in WoW and WoW works perfectly well.

Better than GW2 does, in fact.

Heavy armour melee classes still have the upper hand, in WoW PVP, which is not ideal, but at least in group PVE it’s far fairer than it is in GW2 and as a hunter, you are obviously actually free to play with a bow (as you can only play hunter with a bow, or a gun, in WoW).

hm dunno, as a mesmer point of view, it more feels like being kitten all the way if not going full melee sets.
gs: 1200
staff: 1200
but heres the trick
u either go full gs with power or full staff with condi dmg. u can hybrind of course, but tbh if you do so, u decided to play all alone in gw2.

next ranged weapon is scepter with 900 range , so u have to move a bit during fights, when switching (which gimps down your gs damage, which already isnt that good tbh)
and guess what, mesmer has the worst mobility of all professions (i played so far).

this could be easily solved with TWO greatswords,
but guess what, a weapon swap between two greatswords shares the same cooldowns.

i dont think melee is underpowered or subpar. its more like there are some really strange designing ideas behind some professions.

The only melee unfriendly thing that really exist in the game is the ranger sword auto-attack chain, sure it can be worked around and after some experience dealt with, but its general design is really faulted.

That’s definitely not always the case. Ranged may be more versatile than melee for all fight types. But there are plenty builds that are better off with 2 melee weapons than any ranged weapons. For example, look at axe/mace and greatsword warriors or both PvE dungeon meta guardian builds.