Guild Wars 2

So I love entering the battlegrounds only to sit inside a keep or sit back watching one side creep towards the other with red circles. Seems like that is all that happens, the side with the largest and most aggressive red circles is going to push the other while the melee types like myself only stand beside the circle tossers as like an empty threat.

I want to engage a group of people, but I cannot. The second I cross the red circle wall I am insta-downed with a sweet repair bill on the way.

Just for giggles lets suppose I make it across the valley of red-death and do my burst combo. Bull Rush, Frenzy, Hundred Blades and down a person. I get pounced on faster than I can react and he is back up and I am dead.

Does anyone else feel the same?

I can see your point, but also you need to adapt. As a ranger i would love to switch to my greatsword and smash some faces, but 90% of the time I cannot. At the moument, until the system changes from favouring constant zerging then melee isn’t as uselfull in full out zerg vrs zerg.

My only suggestion is to either carry a ranged wep with you and/or switch to a support roll if you are able to.

Yeah, get a longbow and target the AoE casters with it on at a time. Shoot them a few times and they’ll fall back. Also, communicate with your group; get all your melee players to rush them all at once. AoE duels are a pointless battle of attrition and the best way to break them is to break the other team’s resolve to stand. That’s where massed melee rushes come in.

Every class has access to both ranged and melee weapons in this game so there really isn’t any room for complaining.

I am a melee ranger and regularly charge into zergs kill and escape. I’m sure many that have seen me in action think to themselves, “how the hell did he survive that?!” I also have been known for dragging 5-7 players half way across the map with them beating on me, only to see them give up.

Melee is a viable option, but you really need to play with you traits, gear, skills, runes, sigals, ect. Its an all in or not. Theres no room for half kittening. Even my pet plays their part in my survivability.

I have been known for taking on a camp by my self. I’ll admit, repawns happen, but with steady focus, i can solo a camp.

If your not confident in your abilities, I would suggest a rifle. Rifle warriors can be quite devistating.

In WvWvW you sometimes always endup in a siege or zerg fight. Get a ranged wep in your bag, shoot some/longbow when needed. I always carry 2-3 set ow weps even if I favour the mele ones.

Still nothing forces you to participate in the big zergs. Often its not even the most effective way. Get some friends and have a 4-6 man team roam around. Hit some camps and caravans etc. In this smal battles mele do winders. Have a mesmer drop time warp for you and your smal team clear the camp before the 10 sec buff is out ready to move on to next camp.

Attacking Tier 3 keeps means putting up Trebs / Cata’s

Deffending a Tier 3 keep means stealth rush in AoE in the middle of a zerg and clear the Sieges out.
Both have cons and advantage’s

Lucky Arenanet made weapons that can be used as range for any melee class and vice versa

Name me 1 game where a warrior or any other class can survive a 40 man instand nuke

Adapt to the situation.

Don’t know about warriors but as a guardian, I can jump in, down 2-3 players and get out safely as long as I have my cooldowns. I don’t like waiting, I’ll shoot arrow carts if needed but sometimes it’s just better that someone goes in and makes a decent push.

You’re right, Rhyis, but the big difference between a warrior and a ranger’s ranged weapons is that the ranger has far more reach. A warrior’s rifle has very short range. Very short.

Why did warfare change from swords and blunt weapons to rifles and artillery?
Partly because it is alot safer. Simple as that.
What change can you possibly think of the make melee more viable in Pvp, there is absolutely none. Switch to ranged weapons or grab balista’s.

And this is how the game tactics will evolve. There are counters to the AoE zerg and as the organization on the servers get better they will start emerging. One example was already given above, a massed melee attack, especially with a good number of Guardians providing defensive buffs would have a good chance of doing some real damage.

As you mentioned, these kind of fights tend to be static, stating in the same general area for 5-10 minutes or even longer when the forces are well matched. That’s when flanking movements come in. Get a group of melee oriented characters together, swing around to the side or the back of the zerg and hit them hard before they know what’s happening. Even better, coordinate two groups and hit them from both sides at once.

Another good use of melee skills is forming a group of three of four and hitting smaller targets, which is also mentioned above. Or catching the inevitable stragglers that are trying to get back to the zerg and sending them back to their spawn the hard way, cutting off the other team’s reinforcements.

Thunderknuckles.9475:

You’re right, Rhyis, but the big difference between a warrior and a ranger’s ranged weapons is that the ranger has far more reach. A warrior’s rifle has very short range. Very short.

Stop using rifle, go Longbow warrior, you get two great AOEs

This is a problem for Guardians, they dont have any viable ranged option.

Guardian here…

You’ve gotta use a tanky build to be effective… there are several different builds that work well. If you’re expecting to be anything less than tanky then ou’re not going to have a lot of success in WvW.

I do we wish we had a viable ranged option though.

Thunderknuckles.9475:

You’re right, Rhyis, but the big difference between a warrior and a ranger’s ranged weapons is that the ranger has far more reach. A warrior’s rifle has very short range. Very short.

4 out of 5 rifle abilities have 1200 range. No different than every other class out there. The thing rifle is missing is aoe (which you can make up for with longbow), but it’s single target damage is absolutely devastating.

Warriors can do more damage from range than my necromancer can do from anywhere. There are no “melee classes”.