Guild Wars 2

I am new, but I have taken every profession to level 29 to try them out. It seems that ranged weapons are better at leveling for ALL classes. With ranged weapons it feels like I spend running up to targets, it is easy to stand in one space and reach out to kill quest mobs, and easier to avoid damage.

Am I doing it wrong? I want to level a warrior so I tried to do it melee and utterly failed compared to leveling with longbow or rifle. I found myself running more, losing targets as they spun around me, taking more damage, etc. And other than Sword-2 I did not see any way to close the gap to a target.

Do most people use ranged to level? Or am I missing some fundamental skills of playing melee that would make it more fun.

Thanks for any advice.

I always carry both ranged and melee. Ranged at start to begin the fight then switch to melee when the target is close enough. Dodge out and switch back to ranged if my health drops too much.

As to taking damage, yes you will take more damage with melee. You can minimize this by constantly moving towards the back of the mob.

You might watch this video for pointers. It’s old now but still relevant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKWeaXZeOY

And maybe this one also. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/videos/view-553-melee-vs-ranged-in-pve-why-the-fuss-enigmius-talks-guild-wars-2-beta/

Melee weapons are pretty much always superior. You shouldn’t have much trouble hitting in melee as most attacks are cleaving, try to get some swiftness ( as a warrior you can trait in arms for on crit swift, and after level 40 you’ll have signet of rage)

In general melee does more damage than ranged. For a warrior I use a great sword and an axe/horn or axe/axe (I use the horn number 4 skill for running through territory quickly then replace it with a second axe before combat).

(Go to the wiki and type in “warrior skills”). Notice Greatsword number 5 skill – rush. Try it out. Also try GS number 3 skill. When using an axe mainhand when you have enough adrenaline use the F1 (or whatever key you have it remapped to) skill to leap at our foe. Those 3 skills help the warrior get to their foe quickly. Also axe skill 3 throws an axe to cripple a foe so they can’t get away.

Ranged is easier, but it’s a good idea to get the hang of using melee weapons because as other people have said they generally do more damage than ranged weapons and there will be a lot of situations, especially in dungeons, where staying in one spot at range isn’t an option.

When you’re in that situation you need to know how to dodge, position yourself and see what’s going on at close range so it’s a very good idea to start practicing now.

Awesome! Thanks all!

Also rather than running up to a mob, whacking it, then running to the next, try to aggro 5 mobs by hitting all of them once with your ranged weapon, then switching to a melee weapon and hitting them all as they approach.

You’ll literally kill things 3 times faster in a warrior.

For engineers or guardians, up to 5 times faster.

Hayashi.3416:

Also rather than running up to a mob, whacking it, then running to the next, try to aggro 5 mobs by hitting all of them once with your ranged weapon, then switching to a melee weapon and hitting them all as they approach.

You’ll literally kill things 3 times faster in a warrior.

For engineers or guardians, up to 5 times faster.

I like doing something similar on my ranger.

I attack from range with my short/long bow (whichever I happen to be using), then as they run towards me I throw down spike and flame traps (traited so I can ground target them) so they arrive bleeding and on fire (and poisoned if I’m using my short bow), then I switch to sword/torch and finish them off.

It’s actually more fun if I can pull in multiple mobs at once. Especially because ranger sword attacks are very mobile (when the auto-attack doesn’t root you to the ground) so I can bounce around between them or jump away and drag them after me as I need to.

If you have problem surviving. Use range weapon.

I would say melee weapon are way better though. Because you deal more damage with melee. And many melee weapon also provide movement ability that makes you more mobile.