I consider myself a “smart” player. By that I mean, I’ll push the enemy and go further than a lot of PUGs that are afraid to get hit, but I won’t throw myself right in there. In terms of positioning, I’d be in the midst of my allies, so they benefit from Selfless Daring and my shouts, but a bit towards the front so that I can be within melee range.
Hmm in WvW, “melee range” is usually away from your group. I’ll try to describe the how most battles went from my experience and give an input so you can have an idea of what you might enjoy best.
[Cowards Battle]
You can usually see a distinct line of enemies and allies, and they keep moving forward/backward throwing stuff (ranged attacks) around.
You’ll see a bunch of players moving to the flanks to avoid the bloated mass of players in the middle, escaping the AoE, but fighting enemies who also went to the sides.
Very few dare charge in, since this is a high risk low reward situation. With all players attacking in range, anyone who comes closer becomes the focus of the attacks.
The most common professions that charges are Guardians, Warriors, Thieves and Elementalists, as they have plenty ways of running back to their team with blocks/invuls/teleports/etc.
This is the most common zerg x zerg battle you’ll fight.
For this type, having a Scepter/Staff is essential, as you won’t get to do much with melee except to kill those who charge in your team.
You can provide support with healing and boons, but these battles are usually… fruitless, very few die, if you pressure the enemy they just retreat and come back a few mins later.
Most unorganized groups fight like this.
[Turtle Battles]
Turtle battle, that’s how I like to call it, is when a group just stands in one place, all together, and they don’t move at all.
This may sound suicide, but it works surprisingly well when you got a good team.
Guardians rotate themselves with Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary, Shield of the Avenger (not so much since now it’s dying too fast), and whatever projectile protection you can get.
Everyone (including Guardians) throws whatever AoE heals they can. You’ll see these turtles stacked with 1 min regeneration boons, and constantly healing (Symbols’ Healing, Empower, Battle Presence from the Guardians).
This makes all AoE and group utilities 100% effective, since it’s hitting and protecting every ally, and then the battle becomes damage x healing/mitigation.
Smart enemies don’t come close to the turtle (obviously) as they get insta-downed when 10+ melees, standing still doing nothing, all hit attack at once. Rangeds keep fighting with enemies, and so goes on.
Retaliation is huge in these fights too, a single Symbol of Wrath can down an enemy caster alone.
(As an Elementalist, I already fought turtles like these and I cast all my heavy AoE sequence of my “sorta-glass cannon” Elementalist. I downed myself with hundreds of 350ish damage from Retaliation alone (that I couldn’t stop, since the AoE kept raining).)
Here you can take full advantage of your support build. Again, melee is pretty weak, but even the Greatsword and Sword/Shield have their uses.
[True Battles]
This is the type I enjoy the most, as they are the most chaotic you can get, but are also the rarest I’ve fought.
Instead of sticking only to ranged attacks, a team rushes forward and clash directly with the enemies. Being a heavy melee with good defense here is where it shines most, as you probably won’t have any chance to get away from the battle.
This mostly happens with organized guilds or groups, since they don’t want to be stuck in a “Cowards Battle”, but they want to wipe the enemy and move forward.
This is where any build works, and dealing damage is important as you help your team get kills.
So, I don’t think your idea of being in “melee range” will always work. However, if you take into account most situations, being support really pays off.
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