Ranged should never outdamage melee

The recent Meteor Shower bug and Deadeye changes made me think about this a lot. I think it's really backwards that some of the highest damage in the game comes from ranged classes. In general, it is FAR harder to land a skill with tiny melee range than it is to dump a huge 1200 range AoE. Why is GW2 so backwards in this regard, and do you agree that melee should (in general) outdamage ranged due to requiring more skill and accuracy to land melee skills?

There is no such thing as a “ranged class” in this game. All classes have melee and ranges options. Elementalist and Thief are high damage classes in general, so I don’t see anything wrong with their ranged options out-damaging the melee options of other classes.

Only time there is an issue would be their ranged options out-damaging their own melee options. Melee has the most risk, and should be the most rewarding in that regard.

But Ele and Thief are squishier so they should deal more damage.

It's not a matter of melee vs ranged so much as a massive problem with single target vs aoe.

Ranger shouldn't be as bad as it is in organized WvW. It's only "bad" because Ele, Necro, and Rev can put out just as much damage per skill but to entire groups of enemies vs a single target. (also projectile hate issues)

@"Substance E.4852" said:It's not a matter of melee vs ranged so much as a massive problem with single target vs aoe.

Ranger shouldn't be as bad as it is in organized WvW. It's only "bad" because Ele, Necro, and Rev can put out just as much damage per skill but to entire groups of enemies vs a single target. (also projectile hate issues)

plus scourge have lots of ranged Aoe.

@Oglaf.1074 said:There is no such thing as a “ranged class” in this game. All classes have melee and ranges options. Elementalist and Thief are high damage classes in general, so I don’t see anything wrong with their ranged options out-damaging the melee options of other classes.

Only time there is an issue would be their ranged options out-damaging their own melee options. Melee has the most risk, and should be the most rewarding in that regard.

How about core Engi? That one has no melee options.

@Alatar.7364 said:

@Oglaf.1074 said:There is no such thing as a “ranged class” in this game. All classes have melee and ranges options. Elementalist and Thief are high damage classes in general, so I don’t see anything wrong with their ranged options out-damaging the melee options

of other

classes.

Only time there is an issue would be their ranged options out-damaging

their own

melee options. Melee has the most risk, and should be the most rewarding in that regard.

It has ranged options that are in practice essentially melee weapons, such as the Rifle and Flamethrower Kit etc.

Technically ranged, but most effective in melee range.

I disagree at least in PVE. for PVP and WvW Sure.

@Dante.1763 said:I disagree at least in PVE. for PVP and WvW Sure.

I should probably say that I am saying this from a PvP/WvW perspective. Landing a melee skill on an AI enemy is far simpler than a real enemy.

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@Dante.1763 said:I disagree at least in PVE. for PVP and WvW Sure.

I agree with that. But when they nerf ranged for PVP or WvW it nerfs it in PVE and its not needed there and can be terrible for classes that only really have decent ranged options, and considering that many bosses have mechanics to target ranged players...ive died more at range than i have in melee these days due to the lack of buffs, and healing. However, used a ranged weapon in melee range shouldnt be punished simply because its a ranged weapon.

@Mea.5491 said:But Ele and Thief are squishier so they should deal more damage.

But melee classes need to be close to the mob and take damage to deal damage, so they should deal even more.I mean if you're squishy but don't need to facetank, then you're not squishy.> @ugrakarma.9416 said:

@"Substance E.4852" said:It's not a matter of melee vs ranged so much as a massive problem with single target vs aoe.

Ranger shouldn't be as bad as it is in organized WvW. It's only "bad" because Ele, Necro, and Rev can put out just as much damage per skill but to entire groups of enemies vs a single target. (also projectile hate issues)

Define ranged...You have to understand that in GW2 there's several "ranges"...Scourge works in mid-long range, since most of it's skills are 600-900 range. A Longbow Ranger, for example, works in the 1500 range, so extremely long range.

I should let you know that they fixed the ele meteor shower effect, you can read the latest release notes on it. As to the other stuff, well, if you considered back in the day of the PTV shout warrior, you would see why ranged got a boon to their effect... I just think Anet took it overboard lol.

Ever heard the term glass canon. I think it first appear in 1979 these kids playing dnd and one of them made a warrior wearing no armor and a Greatsword and would rush into battle.

OP is not correct. There are definitely situations where ranged should equal or outdamage melee. Deadeyes have to give up all of their mobility and utility for that damage, and Elementalists are very squishy and, frankly, should be as capable (if not more) at range as warriors are in melee. Combat shouldn't be designed on a simple "melee > range" balance dynamic - there are many more factors that have to be taken into account.

That's disregarding the obvious fact that this game does not have melee and ranged classes and that all classes have capability in both melee and range, which is how it should be.

In what world does ranged outdamage melee? The meta strategy for pretty much everything has always been melee-focused, due to the way boons and support work.

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:

@Oglaf.1074 said:There is no such thing as a “ranged class” in this game. All classes have melee and ranges options. Elementalist and Thief are high damage classes in general, so I don’t see anything wrong with their ranged options out-damaging the melee options

of other

classes.

Only time there is an issue would be their ranged options out-damaging

their own

melee options. Melee has the most risk, and should be the most rewarding in that regard.

And tool kit and bomb kit are actually melee.

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@Dante.1763 said:I disagree at least in PVE. for PVP and WvW Sure.

This is true. BUT.. given the opportunity to switch between melee and ranged weapons when I know a PvE boss frequently surrounds the area immediately around itself with fields of death, I'll usually switch to range combat for a much easier (and safer) time. There is just no comparison in difficulty between melee and ranged in these particular cases, and when I'm lobbing ranged attacks with little concerns and 99% of the melee force is suddenly downed in one boss move, I know I made the right call by hanging back and attacking from range.

Outside of the advantage of localized boons, I've never really found myself in a situation where melee was the safer/easier place to be.

Not really given the fact that there are a lot more counters to range than there are to melee. It's not that "ranged should never outdamage melee" but more like those who lack in other areas should always outdamage those who don't. If you're offering a lot of support to the group then you shouldn't do more damage then someone with few / no support options (given that the rest is about equal), if you're primarily focused on AoE damage then you shouldn't be doing more single target damage as someone who's primarily focused on 1on1 combat and vice versa.

isnt it because of boon share that meleers is favored?

So being hit by a sword should do more damage than a rifle? I don't think so.

Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight.

@LucianDK.8615 said:isnt it because of boon share that meleers is favored?That's one reason another one would be that many AoEs have a maximum number of targets so it's generally safer to stay with the group. Also some bosses seem to put higher priority to players which are further away from them so there's that.

@Dreadshow.9320 said:Ever heard the term glass canon. I think it first appear in 1979 these kids playing dnd and one of them made a warrior wearing no armor and a Greatsword and would rush into battle.

If that anecdote is true -- I should definitely remember that one. Might impress my geek mates, too!

Also, what is the problem again with Deadeye? I mean, I'd also like to mash buttons and win, but we actually have to trade something in, might it be a stipulation (kneeling) or a initiave-consuming malice system or actually switching weapons back and forth and...

Excelsior.

If you are ranged tho in ove u lose out on them sweet boons.

@Edge.4180 said:

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@Dante.1763 said:I disagree at least in PVE. for PVP and WvW Sure.

That’s why I’ve grown to love Spellbreaker. You’re actually encouraged to put yourself in harm’s way in order to trigger Full Counter in PvE as when done properly it results in higher DPS. :D

Classes or weapons them self because classes are both melee and ranged for the most part and there are super close ranged of 130 and the longish of 300. There also the factor of hp def and def skills and they do very a lot.

If you turn wish this then you need to out right standardize skills and base effects. So wars no longer have high hp or def as well as ele no longer has low hp or def (i mean picking up a wepon that is melee or ranged should not effect your hp or def at all so your going to have to remove that point of balancing comply from the game as well has having def skill.) As well as do a varying ranged 130 ranges doing more dmg then 300 doing more dmg then 600 etc...

Its easier to say this is a bad ideal on many levels but it realty dose require to show you WHY is a bad ideal.

Its simply this GW2 is not a wepon class one wepon game and each class has ranged wepon and melee weapons to only balance dmg off of ranged alone is class destroying at best at worst its simply ends any other chose of weapons for all of the classes in the game comply.