Guild Wars 2

Instead of trying to balance ranged weapons by giving them lower DPS, which doesn’t really work, instead balance them by giving melee weapons defense/parry ratings to make characters meleeing tougher than characters at range.

Why would you say it does not really work? Currently both ranged and melee weapons have their use, which means both are relevant in their own context.

Silverkey.2078:

Why would you say it does not really work? Currently both ranged and melee weapons have their use, which means both are relevant in their own context.

For one, too many characters stay at range as much as possible, despite the DPS loss, because of how dangerous melee range tends to be. For two, using ranged weapons shouldn’t be less rewarding than using melee weapons. It makes way more sense for the differentiating factor to be defense rather than offense.

Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky

Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Thaddeus.4891:

Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky

Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Disagree.

Thaddeus.4891:

Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky

Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Precisely

Thaddeus.4891:

Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky

Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Only in a fantasy MMO.

Neural.1824:

Thaddeus.4891:

Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky

Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Only in a fantasy MMO.

What do you think this is?

@Einlanzer
Many (if not most) of the “meta” (or at least used-to-be-meta) sPvP builds have one ranged and one melee set. You play range, but if you manage to get close to/immobilize the enemy you try to burst him with melee.
Also, most melee weapons also have defense mechanisms, so they are actually using both increased defense and increased offense to make up for the loss of range.

Thaddeus.4891:

• Melee weapon = More dps, but more risky
• Range weapon = Less dps, but less risky

Sound just perfect for me.

Yes, that sounds like the right theory for balancing their damage capability and other utilities.

@OP: you could argue that the melee doesn’t do enough damage for the risk. I don’t think you can argue that “since too many people stay ranged, we should reduce melee damage”

I don’t even think you could argue that melee should get better defense, since that would decrease the risk.

I think instead what you are saying is: “what can we do to get more people to understand just how much better DPS is at close range and/or understand how to mitigate the risk?”