Guild Wars 2

So, here’s a question I’ve been wrestling with for a while. If you have a character that you’re playing as primarily melee, do you have your second set be ranged for the versatility, or also be melee for the larger selection of melee cooldowns?

All of my characters, in some form or another, use melee as their primary weapon. Now, this question doesn’t really matter for some of them because some classes really only have one melee weapon anyway (Mesmer, Necromancer, Engineer) or their melee options rely on different stats (Ranger). In these cases, you’re pretty much always going to have a ranged in your swap slot anyway. The real question is for Warriors and Guardians.

I’ve noticed that there are some major fights that are practically anti-melee. The enemies do heavy AoE damage around themselves, or they have a very high-damage attack that isn’t telegraphed and thus near impossible to dodge. In these cases, it’s handy to have a ranged weapon, and naturally it’s handy to have one in WvW. However, this is a very small percentage of encounters, and usually I find myself never using my ranged weapon except in these rare instances. I’d been wondering if it would be better to put a second melee weapon in my weapon swap so give me more melee skills instead.

Any help in pondering this would be appreciated!

I play a way similar to you, only ever using melee (but with a Guardian). I’m not too sure of what the Ranger’s melee skills are like, but I’m sure that there are skills that let you get into combat easily, like a jump or something. What I use for my secondary is a defensive melee set, for when I have to stay at close range. I can keep hitting people at melee range while I wait for the cooldowns. I’ve used this a bit in WvW, but not enough to say how effective it actually is. So as long as you keep your evades for running away when needed, I’d say go with dual melee. It works pretty reliably most of the time, and on most weapons there is some functionality outside of close range.

Sure, you are missing out on, you know, range, but it will feel more comfortable always being able to do melee damage. It also makes it a bit more fun, since you have to be running around a lot more rather than just spamming away.