Guild Wars 2

It is obvious the devs at ANET spent a lot of effort and time creating a well balanced, and thought out sPvP system that relies heavily on skill and teamwork to succeed. Also, they eliminated gear progression, which means one player can’t just wipe a bunch of others. In other words in a 1 v 2 situation you are going to lose. All great concepts. But I finally realised what I miss from other MMO’s that unfortunately GW2 severely lacks,…

GW2 lacks true melee and ranged classes because every class has ranged and melee attacks. It’s a great concept, but for someone who enjoys playing ranged classes and kiting people, it is just not possible. I miss playing a true ranged class. A class that has greater range than other classes, and where the melee needs to lock you down, or close the gap, and you focus on kiting and killing them. I miss THAT. Here if you create a gap they just pull out their rifle\pistol\bow and keep hitting. I don’t want to be melee…but have too in order to survive. I miss that dance where you keep yourself at max distance from the zerg, try to find open spots to cast your spells, pre-kiting when you need too. That just doesn’t happen here. And I’m sure players who like melee miss having the back up of healers, and hate the fact that EVERYONE has ranged attacks to waste them. I don’t know..I’m not a melee player. Does anyone else find this?

Anyway, maybe this just isn’t the game for me and perhaps I am burn’t out but I just don’t find pvp enjoyable and end up feeling frustrated. It was a pleasure to log in to SWTOR the other night and remind myself how fun it is to play a ranged class…as sad as that sounds, and I was only a lvl 10 Sorc so it’s not like I was maxed out with the best gear.

It is perfectly fair to have different weapon sets. Defining classes as ranged/melee/healer/tank is past, at least in GW2, and I hope this old system won’t be copied in future games. Arena Net made a step forward.

I don’t know what would be frustrating for you. You can play a ranged class with crippling traps and swiftness boons. Thief or ranger seems to be perfect for this role.

I’m actually eternally grateful that Anet decided against Range focused and Melee focused classes. It causes too much circular design.

Your standard range focused class is going to have ranged attacks as their DPS focus, with some melee escapes, and speed boosts. Now you have to design all your melee around that fact – they’re going to need gap closers, snare cleanses and roots. Of course now your ranged class is going to need a root breaker , or else they’ll get owned every time melee gets close and roots them. How many of each does each class get? Where does it stop? What about your other "Primarily Ranged’ Classes (usually casters)? What about the interaction between Melee classes; can this speed boost designed to allow class X chase down a ranged player be used in an undesirable way against other melee? Its hard to find that perfect balance, and fights start to boil down to “well, He had ability Y off CD, and my ability Z was on CD, so he won”.

At least here you have options. You can also tailor all your utilities and traits to keep Ranged up as long as possible – that way, if you blew all your tricks and your opponent is -still- in melee with you, you’ve got that option to switch, rather than just getting pasted.

Frizz.6704:

GW2 lacks true melee and ranged classes because every class has ranged and melee attacks. It’s a great concept, but for someone who enjoys playing ranged classes and kiting people, it is just not possible.

Ranger longbow/short bow or Axe substitute
Thief shortbow/ p/p or p/d
Warrior Longbow/Rifle
Mesmer Staff/ Great Sword/Scepter
Engineer Rifle/Pistol/Elixir Gun / Grenade Kit (longest range in the game when traited can kite other ranged with this)
Elementalist Staff/ Scepter
Necromancer Staff/Scepter/Axe
Guardian Scepter

your complaint is invalid as even in other more traditional mmos sometimes a ranger has to deal with a mage. It just so happens here anyone can be ranged on any class.

As others have said, I’m eternally grateful that there are no true ranged/melee classes in the game. Nothing sucks more than getting rooted and being shot full of holes because “you’re a melee class so you cant use ranged weapons.”

It also keeps you on your toes and encourages strategic gameplay.
Just got immobilized? Time to swap to range/whatever instead of well, I can use a rootbreaker, or sit here and die.

I much prefer the ability to have 2 weapons at the same time over just 1.

TheGuy.3568:

Frizz.6704:

GW2 lacks true melee and ranged classes because every class has ranged and melee attacks. It’s a great concept, but for someone who enjoys playing ranged classes and kiting people, it is just not possible.

Ranger longbow/short bow or Axe substitute
Thief shortbow/ p/p or p/d
Warrior Longbow/Rifle
Mesmer Staff/ Great Sword/Scepter
Engineer Rifle/Pistol/Elixir Gun / Grenade Kit (longest range in the game when traited can kite other ranged with this)
Elementalist Staff/ Scepter
Necromancer Staff/Scepter/Axe
Guardian Scepter

your complaint is invalid as even in other more traditional mmos sometimes a ranger has to deal with a mage. It just so happens here anyone can be ranged on any class.

My argument isn’t invalid you just either a) don’t understand, or b) never read what I said. You actually proved my point.

evilapprentice.6379:

I’m actually eternally grateful that Anet decided against Range focused and Melee focused classes. It causes too much circular design.

Your standard range focused class is going to have ranged attacks as their DPS focus, with some melee escapes, and speed boosts. Now you have to design all your melee around that fact – they’re going to need gap closers, snare cleanses and roots. Of course now your ranged class is going to need a root breaker , or else they’ll get owned every time melee gets close and roots them. How many of each does each class get? Where does it stop? What about your other "Primarily Ranged’ Classes (usually casters)? What about the interaction between Melee classes; can this speed boost designed to allow class X chase down a ranged player be used in an undesirable way against other melee? Its hard to find that perfect balance, and fights start to boil down to “well, He had ability Y off CD, and my ability Z was on CD, so he won”.

At least here you have options. You can also tailor all your utilities and traits to keep Ranged up as long as possible – that way, if you blew all your tricks and your opponent is -still- in melee with you, you’ve got that option to switch, rather than just getting pasted.

So on the one hand you talk about the incredible complexity and huge number of scenarios that can play out when you have ranged\melee classes, but then state that you have more options without?

Frizz.6704:

evilapprentice.6379:

I’m actually eternally grateful that Anet decided against Range focused and Melee focused classes. It causes too much circular design.

Your standard range focused class is going to have ranged attacks as their DPS focus, with some melee escapes, and speed boosts. Now you have to design all your melee around that fact – they’re going to need gap closers, snare cleanses and roots. Of course now your ranged class is going to need a root breaker , or else they’ll get owned every time melee gets close and roots them. How many of each does each class get? Where does it stop? What about your other "Primarily Ranged’ Classes (usually casters)? What about the interaction between Melee classes; can this speed boost designed to allow class X chase down a ranged player be used in an undesirable way against other melee? Its hard to find that perfect balance, and fights start to boil down to “well, He had ability Y off CD, and my ability Z was on CD, so he won”.

At least here you have options. You can also tailor all your utilities and traits to keep Ranged up as long as possible – that way, if you blew all your tricks and your opponent is -still- in melee with you, you’ve got that option to switch, rather than just getting pasted.

So on the one hand you talk about the incredible complexity and huge number of scenarios that can play out when you have ranged\melee classes, but then state that you have more options without?

In this case, Complex != Good. Its overly complex, and generally leads to “Trump” abilities. Ability X is designed for “Ranged Class” to snare melee classes. Ability Y is designed for “Melee class” to drop snares and boost speed, so they can close with “Ranged Class”. Do this 3 or 4 more times, with slightly different parameters (Knockback, Roots, Daze, and so on and so on), and what you end up with is a predetermined advantage for whichever player has the most “Deal with my opposite class” skills up when combat starts.

In GW2, if I’ve decided to diversify and make sure I have both a Melee and a Ranged weapon equipped, I can still play a crazy melee focused character, but if all my “catch up with that Ranged Class” skills are down, I have the option to switch to a well designed ranged weapon, and still have a chance – I’m not free pickings just because my “Catch up with you” utilities are on CD, and that’s a good thing.

Evilapprentice is right. PvP fighting design in GW2 is pretty much the best among all MMOs available on market.

It’s just very hard, and it’s not hard because of no cast bars and dodge system, but because of chosing your own build and using it to it’s maximum potential. I see many people playing builds which doesn’t make any sense, and of course they fail hard while not even knowing what’s going wrong.