Guild Wars 2

I got this game around Christmas, played for about 5 days, and went back to WoW. One of the biggest turn-offs about the game (besides general lack of end-game content, or incentive to play), was the fact that there was essentially a huge gap between ranged and melee combat effectiveness.

According to a thread I made around that time period, this seemed to be the general consensus of other players as well (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-feels-incredibly-anti-melee/page/2#post1088197).

Has anything changed in the last two months that addressed this?

the problem here is arena net sees no problem with how melee and bosses work, being 1-2 shot while your groups range stands still dpsing was apparently a design decision. Typical response you will get is just use your ranged weapon, ofcourse if you play a guardian your scepter damage is absolutely horrible and the entire point of playing the class is to be effective IN melee range not kiting everything around

Nothing has changed top address this so called “gap” in the last 2 months.
Additionally, nothing has changed in regard to “end game” content because the game isn’t going to end soon… the phrase “end game content” is somewhat ironic when you thing about it, as it goes against what it is saying by prolonging the end of a game with the introduction of new content which implies that the content ISN’T the end of the game.
This begs the question… why is it still called “end game” when no game with end game content has ended (due to content reasons like a single player game) after the players have finished the “end game?”

since people learned how to play melee everything did change. unfortunately developers didn’t change the game to better suit you, since this is what you were asking.

UnicornViolet.3081:

According to a thread I made around that time period, this seemed to be the general consensus of other players as well

It is more the consensus of a subsample of players on the forum (those who visit the forum, those who entered a thread titled “Game feels incredibly anti-melee,” and those who post in said thread). That’s practically a setup for filtering in people who agree with you.

Considering the prevalence of berserk gs warriors and the desire for them in every dungeon, I’m inclined to think melee is in a very good place and you just haven’t yet found your groove in that place.

The game does feel incredibly anti-melee when you first start. Once you get the understanding and knowhow of the game, you slowly realize how wrong you are.

If you want an _easy_mode_ class that shows you how to melee, somewhat incorrectly, but it’s still melee, try rolling a Thief. You can spam Dagger/Dagger3 for days and it’s melee, plus you won’t die in PvE.

If you, however, wish to actually play the game, I would highly suggest sucking it up and playing through, it gets a lot better.

In PvP, I pretty much only die to melee.

In PvE, I pretty much only die when I make a mistake (usually while on my ranged weapon set).

I play melee and it’s easy, you just need to learn how to dodge.. Most boss have a long cast time allowing you to dodge.. If you can dodge right you will take no damage.. But like all games ranged is easier.. Even in wow it is easier as a range as opposed to a melee.. I remember you have to run out a lot and make sure you are not at the dragons front or tail in wow.

Personally I love playing melee, prefer it on every class. Sure there are always a few situations where ranged is better, but I find the vast majority of content is way more fun in melee range. And the fact the the favorite dungeon teams are made up of melee warriors and guardians make me think that melee isn’t all that bad.

I believe the change is still to come. Some quote about adjusting range attacks that involve no-risk (I’m assuming certain ele and necro grount targeting attacks).

With that being I said, bullcrap. Certain situations require cetain tactics. If you stand next to grenth with your daggers out, that’s your fault. Go range and prosper.

If you kite the beginning room in TA with the worms and shoot everything with a bow, that’s your fault. Stand next to the worm and prosper.

It’s been my experience that melee have higher damage (warriors and thieves can dish out insane burst) and better mitigate damage. Ranged have better damage avoidance and more control, but do less damage. Also consider that Heavy armor is reserved for melee-based professions. Keep in mind that you cannot compare an unskilled melee player with a skilled ranged player; it is best to compare “skill-capped” players when talking balance.

ANet seems to concur for the most part. You can read their opinion on it here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeons-favouring-ranged-combat/first#post1441494

Going to be anecdotal here for a moment…. I like TA, it’s one of my favorite dungeons because it has more mechanical depth.

There are two different group compositions I’ve done for TA that stand out in my mind:

Group #1: 3 GS ‘zerker warriors + 2 melee guardians. We steam rolled everything, killed everything, and no one went down. It was a rush, it was amazing, and one of the most fun runs I’ve had in TA.

Group #2: 1 ’zerker warrior with a longbow, 4 rangers with longbows. I was stunned, and flaberghasted when I joined the group to be the only person not on a ranger. We cleared with ease, dangerous foes were kept at range, imporant targets were called and hammered into the dirt…. I had every pre-concieved notion I had of how the dungeon worked fundamentally altered.

So, I ask the question: What gap is there between melee and ranged? Both methods are viable, both work just fine. Melee range is a risk / reward system…. you get higher damage working in melee range, but more exposure to 1 hit boss mechanics. Less time to ‘see it coming’ as it were.

Want to be powerful in GW2? Learn how to float between melee and ranged based on needs and be effective in both ranges

CassieGold.7460:

Both methods are viable, both work just fine. Melee range is a risk / reward system…. you get higher damage working in melee range, but more exposure to 1 hit boss mechanics. Less time to ‘see it coming’ as it were.

Want to be powerful in GW2? Learn how to float between melee and ranged based on needs and be effective in both ranges

This

Quick Mouse.7635:

CassieGold.7460:

Both methods are viable, both work just fine. Melee range is a risk / reward system…. you get higher damage working in melee range, but more exposure to 1 hit boss mechanics. Less time to ‘see it coming’ as it were.

Want to be powerful in GW2? Learn how to float between melee and ranged based on needs and be effective in both ranges

This

Agreed, this is what I was having a problem with on my Thief. When I got my first pistol and heard the noises it made, I was hooked on running pistol/pistol. As we all know, this is an underpowered weapon set for most of the content in GW2. Since pistol/pistol was single target only, I used shortbow as my other weapon to supplement my AoE damage when necessary. I ran these two weapon sets for a long time, not realizing how ineffective I was until I decided to start killing stuff with my sword so I can get 5,000 kills for the achievement.

Now I run sword/pistol for a lot of content. The amount of damage done in melee versus the amount of damage done at a range is so different (for thieves at least).

Basically, just know your character’s limit (your skill basically) and when to back out to a ranged weapon. I run sword/pistol until things get too hairy, then usually I have pistol/pistol as my other set because it will be bosses that require me to go ranged.

To go off the TA examples, I usually melee the wurm boss, but sometimes we take too long to kill it and the other 6 smaller wurms start spawning and all of them start tossing their spit attacks at us. Sometimes I can evade enough with pistol whip to avoid the damage, other times I have to shortbow out and attack from the safe spot until I regen enough health to get back into the fray.