Lets think the matter with a game designer prospective.
IF ranged damage is as effective as melee, what will happen? Will you favor a melee class over a ranged class? By human nature, NO, every player will pick a ranged class. See every FPS game, if all guns on average take 3 shots to kill, melee will usually able to 1 hit kill. Therefore, if ranged attack is as effective as current melee attack 3-4 shot killing a player; melee attack should be able to 1-2 shot another player.
What about sniper rifle? There are sniper in FPS game. Yes, but we forgot how restrictive to mobility a sniper in those game. Scoped you are totally uable to watch your back, you are almost rooted, rof is extremely low.
If sniper is what you are looking for in GW2, unfortunately, we don’t have one yet. When one day there are new weapon, new skill introduced that increase ranged damage effeciency but highly restrict mobility, there we can have sniper class.
Moreover, think about wvw, combat are focus group fight, if range damage is able to take down a foe effectively, image 3 rangers will be able to kill a melee class within 2-3 sec, who will want to play a melee class anyway?
