Guild Wars 2

When trying out different double melee builds builds i always come to the same conclusion..Shoutbow/heavy condi pressure( Especially this,apply and you can run around like headless chicken ),everything including bow is optimal,Hambow is still viable but not optimal anymore.Anything not including bow is neither optimal and in most cases not even viable since there are to many hard counters going on.

Especially when you look at mace builds,you have to pay close attention to the range,you have to deal with dodges/stabi/ports/stealth/blinds/blocks/invulns and closing the gap,in some cases it’’s doable but in most it’s not,especially if you meet players who know what they’re doing and can easily outkite you or read your skills.Wheras with bow you can be sure to have great condi pressure and should have no issue with people trying to kite you.Bow is our only optimal range weapon where rifle is heavily lacking in multiple ways.Playing anything with bow feels easymode compared to running double melee.

I first created a warr to be able to be the frontliner wielding double melee weaps,at this point i’m only crippling myself by doing so,even though i have the most fun using these builds but being forced to run a certain setup is something thats getting on my nerves.

I was never too fond of bow and heavily favor melee builds but i like to have the choise.Where warrs or any class for that matter are being pushed into a certain direction is where things are going wrong,it’s even noticable in wvw now where range is king and melee is pointless.Is there ever a change coming in any way to make melee builds more viable ?

Brace yourself for the upcoming power creep. It’s going to be a whole different game except with one similarity: it’s going to be the same devs who made the cele/hambow/spirit ranger meta whose going to be working on it.

While Mace is strong but hard to play, reaching the point of “viability” or easy and effective should probably never happen. Warrior shouldn’t really have instant cast other than Fear Me to be honest.

I’ve been messing around with Sword/Shield + Mace/Sword with Physical Utilities and been having a bit of luck with it (well, more fun than luck). Bulls Charge and Savage Leap to close in and traited my blocks to reflect and interrupts to put Confusion. The only real problem I ever have is with conditions, I only have one cleanse (Cleansing Ire) and that only works if I manage a hit (in melee range), so if they block/dodge then it’s gone and so am I. I don’t know, maybe I’ll put on a Warhorn or a Purity Sigil to compensate for my lack of cleanses.

Regardless, range does feel like were the meta is at. When I do go range, it does kind of feel like PvP on easy mode when I compare it to melee.

Well shoutbow is getting one hell of a buff with the upcoming traiut changes and They seems pretty excited to bring the hambow back to fight against the hambow guardian during the ready up. So I wouldn’t get my hopes up about a viable melee only build. Soon we will have hambow rangers, thieves and mesmers.

The problem with Mace/X is that it is completely outclassed by Hammer. I would buff offhand Mace to make it pair better with main hand Mace, by making Tremor work a lot more like Elementalist’s Magnetic Grasp (where hitting Tremor on your target gives you a leap to the target)

Idk about all of you but pVp I’d not where melee war shines. Gs + X builds are insanely powerful in WvW with very high defense and power damage along with crazy mobility and near condi immunity.

I think Hammer/GS is plenty viable even in sPvP, but maybe not optimal at high level. Tarcis took a round from The Abjured on his Hammer/GS build, but that was just once.