Most games do it backwards, where ranged characters are practically demigods and melee fighters inherit all the risk and none of the reward. Compare and contrast a Diablo I warrior vs. sorcerer. The warrior had no abilities at all and the sorcerer could kill everything on the screen with a single click.
GW1 set the precedent for doing it right. Melee combat is always riskier than ranged combat (even in GW2; see bearbow), so it does more damage. In GW1, the game completely revolved around warriors and all other classes existed to keep those damage machines alive. GW2 continues in the correct direction of keeping riskier melee better than risk-free ranged. All 4 martial classes use their ranged purely for support, and do their best work in melee.
1. “Most games” which games? And now, which of them are MMOs? Because I think you refer to single player games.
World of Wacraft, despite your hatred towards Blizzard, has good foundaments, and that’s why players are STILL excited about this game. After 10 years, MMO!
And I tell you, Ranged and Melee are on the same level of DPS, or very very close. Why? Because if one class like Hunter would do more/less damage, class like Warrior would be completly abadoned/flooded and nothing else would be okay. Something we have in GW2 now. You have a DPS meters there, mind you.
Ranged&Melee DPS is pretty similar because of couple factors:
a)Fight Mechanics – Whole group recives damage. If boss has to do AoE with range of 1800 to reach players using bows, so be it!
b)In some fights I admit, Ranged players may be closer to safe zones in particular encounter phases. But what’s up with melee? Do they die?
No! They just have better defense allowing them to stay closer or get to the safe zone too. They don’t have increased damage to do that, because that would not solve anything. They have better defense at their disposal, so they can reach safe zones alive and be no worse than ranged. And it’s not harder or more risky.
2. You compare Diablo I to MMO now. It’s like giving and example of how something works in Call of Duty to field officer during war in Afghanistan.
Diablo I, to begin with, is single-player Hack’n’Slash game, never aspired to be balanced or MMO, is an old, but gold game. It’s 18 years old also and can have outdated mechanics.
3. Bearbow is not safer because it’s ranged. It’s safer because Bears have good threat-holding in game without threat and taunting (?) and are good in tanking thanks to stats. You argument is totally invaild. The moment mob starts to ignore bear and runs to Ranger, all advantage is lost.
4. From what I know, GW1 wasn’t just about Warriors. They were mostly used for tanking and bodyblocking/CC from what I remember, more than actual DPS. It was a game with certain roles to fill and differs greatly from GW2. You could build many other classes to be DPS for group. Warriors were okay because of high physical damage resistance. Again, defense.
5. I can’t agree with your statement. You want a game where you have literally two groups – Melee players, the all-better players and Ranged, the Noobs.
I agree that current design of PvE makes ranged less risky in certain encounters, but that’s a fatal fail in game design from ANet, not a good direction, God help us!
Now tell me- what would be the purpose of having Rifles, Pistols, Bows in game? For newbies who start the game? So they can just take some better, melee weapon once they get more experience and just thow away ranged option because it’s just designed to be bad and for bad?
6. So ranged for pros should be only for some support? Like utility when they rest from melee?
What you suggest here is total erase of Ranged aspect of the game. And mind you, that’s huge aspect of the gameplay. You say that we can more or less, just ignore:
-Longbow
-Shortbow
-Rifle
-Pistol
So why bother in Ranged combat? Why not make that support aspect melee? It’d be easier, more skillfull. Keep ranged options as a tutorial maybe? Like “if you suck, just stand back there and do anything”.
You see, we could adapt Dark Souls combat system to GW2. I like it, it’s skillful. If you don’t dodge something, you die. But where does it evolve? You don’t need any progress or armour, since it just slows down your evades.
It makes whole aspect of RPG worth nothing. And it’s okay for a single-player game.
If you want to do the same with Ranged combat, you might as well go back to Diablo I.
Every MMO has to have ranged combat and it has to be not worse or better than melee.
As I stated previously, the fail in design is that you increase damage (and boons too, which greatly reduce threat in melee and further buff it up, mind you!), where to solve the problem of riskier melee you have to increase defense.
Before you post again, please hold for a second and think about it.
[rude]Antagonistka – Revenant, EU.
[SALT]Natchniony – Necromancer, EU.
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http://www.twitch.tv/rym144 
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