Melee (still) feels squishy?

[Rooflesstoofless]

Physical melee damage from mobs feels way overtuned. I've conquered the conversion from standing in one spot to fight mobs to dodging, kiting, and weapon switching and 1v1 against mobs I can usually walk away with no damage to my toon unless I'm fighting trolls, not paying attention of where I'm walking, or run into the occasional mob with a huge health pool.

We can dodge ranged attacks from mobs (I was messing around with dodging centaur arrows today) but even when I am hit on my light armored Mesmer it doesn't do a ton of damage. Contrary to this, if I miss a dodge or don't get out of the way for a single melee hit I get a huge portion of my health taken out (even when stacking vitality and toughness when possible).

Is anyone else running into this when they've played the game?

PS- The only reason this annoys me is because a.) I enjoy melee, and b.) the game is suppose to allow people to play the way they prefer (being melee focused shouldn't come down to picking among only a few classes). I know how to use my pushback (2h sword) and temporary stealth (DW swords) but those can end up on CD when the second or third mobs comes to lop off my head.

[Deleted]

Well they did not change anything for the stress test so it's possible.

try next BWE

[Zogarth]

I played as a ranger only using melee weapons yesterday in some games and i absolutely owned with 1h sword and 1h axe because of my cazy surviveability and movement

[grandpab]

They know it's not perfect and that there still needs to be some tweaks.

The trade off right now is that melee noticeably does more damage than ranged.

[agracul]

i think we're not supposed to be in melee unless we're drawn into it. thats why all classes have ranged abilities and can use ranged weapons. tonight i started a guardian and switched to staff, later to wand+shield to roll through content being ranged and push enemies away from me. if they overrun me in melee, i switched to 1h mace or a sword+focus for blind and defenses and finished them off. i'm pretty much sure that is the gameplay anet wanted to make: make us adjust to situations and not just think "im a warrior i should run in melee"

[Delias]

Melee is supposed to be squishy, that's why they hit so hard. High risk, high reward. It will likely be adjusted so the risk is slightly less high, but it will still be the same type of risk/reward. If it's a problem, don't play melee.

[Speedy92286]

Guardians do not feel squishy. I was trying out the greatsword a little (while having a lot of shield traits, yay!) and it was amazing. It took five guys to put me down. Every time. I am thinking if I put some more traits into offense I would have probably killed a few more guys. The only issue I see with melee is that you have to be near a guy, and someone is always hitting you from behind. It is a little disorienting but fun.

Next BWE I will try out the Warrior a little more to see if it has any issues in melee. A Guardian using a greatsword has zero problems whatsoever, but a hammer wielding guardian, unless you are using a 1-handed sword, is easily kitable (from my own experiences).

What I've played of melee, they are fine, but are too easily swarmed. That is the only issue.

[Deleted]

I understood they wanted to make it like this:
-ranged, you're more inclined to have easier battles but hit for very little
-melee, you're more inclined to die, but when you hit stuff, you hit like a truck

So it's survivability versus damage, it's kind of a guardian versus a berserker type battle, one survives more but hits for less and one hits harder but sacrifices survivability for it, you can't have both.

[Uriel]

so there is not a Aoe Tankspec in any way? Like pulling several mobs and killing them (slowly) at once?
Thats my favorit leveling concept.. thats why i leveled as a Tank in Wow.

Sorry for the question.. havent played it yet.

[semantic]

so there is not a Aoe Tankspec in any way? Like pulling several mobs and killing them (slowly) at once?
Thats my favorit leveling concept.. thats why i leveled as a Tank in Wow.

Sorry for the question.. havent played it yet.

There are ways to work groups, but nothing like a WoW tank spec where you just mitigate everything and wear them down. It's more like trying to do it on a shammy, but you have more actual control over when and how you get hit. If you screw up (so far in my experience) you just get rolled. But you really never want to do this anyway. Not for the same reason as you do in WoW where you need to grind through quest A (10 mobs) quest B (15 drops) quest C (8 drops) etc, as fast as possible to maximize your time. There are mobs to kill and drops to collect occasionally, but by far the biggest XP rewards (if you're in a hurry for some reason, which there really isn't one of those either) is from events. I'm finding it hard to get out of that "ok how do I grind out this zone?" mindset.

I found what I expected with the melee this time. I was a little bit better, so it seemed easier. Most mobs 1v1 didn't really dent my warrior much unless they were higher level or had some special ability. With multiple mobs, working my mace/sword in combination with stuns started to really pay off. I hope they don't nerf the difficulty, because it will be really fun once I get in the swing of it.

If they need to change anything, it would be to somehow make the learning curve for melee combat slower. I'm not sure if they'd be better off with people complaining that it was too easy instead of what they have now (imagine if the consensus was "why would anyone ever choose Ranged?"). Just a thought.

I understood they wanted to make it like this:
...-melee, ...when you hit stuff, you hit like a truck

...

This is why I hope they don't change it. Every single melee weapon (and I unlocked every terrestrial weapon skill both main and offhand on my warrior) feels AWESOME. It is truly fun melee combat and they all feel heavy and different, and hit HARD. So fun.

[mafao]

Well they did not change anything for the stress test so it's possible.

You don't know that.

[terrahero]

You don't know that.

They said they used the same build as the previous BWE.

[Window]

Was playing my thief all morning if anything its pretty balanced i noticed alot of guardians / warriors and mellee rangers so it seems be be the overall view in warfronts at least

[ddsad2212]

This game is not about standing still and letting the enemy hit you, i think the guardian is broken because i can just tank 2 mobs at a time, melee squishy? No mostly there op and need to take more damage, been able to live 7 or 8 hits without a heal is way to strong.

[Lady Jane]

Both me and my boyfriend played as melee characters during this stress test. He a warrior and myself a guardian.
There are certain points where meleeing felt useless, especially in dynamic events where big pack of mobs were concerned, but then again, that's how it is, since in no other mmo would you actually pull a large group of mobs and survive, unless you were a hardcore tank, which is something this game does not allow.

On the other hand, fighting champions and veterans with just the 2 of us felt awesome. We would exploit the opportunities when they arose, while one was being focused the other would rain down punishment, dodging those big attacks on the second felt great since it actually requires a certain amount of attention. We are settled on playing those classes simply because it takes more skill to play properly, and we(coming from a long healing/tanking experience) like a challenge much more over casual kiting play, even if it means staying tight on your toes 100% of the time.

There are still things that need to be implemented like:
-Particle effects sliders(so that you can clearly see those attacks instead of them being obstructed by all sorts of flashyness)

At the end of the day we felt satisfied and let's say even proud, but we also agreed that there should be something done about armor/dodging. Meaning, a heavy armor character should not get one-shoted by any sort of a physical attack. I agree that a big champion attack should dent your health to about 20-30%, and if unlucky you could get finished off by adds, but in no way should you get so severely punished by certain death if you fail to dodge. In that perspective, adding another dodge to the stamina pool would also be a great idea, since 2 dodges sometimes don't cut it. It also makes the feeling of wearing all that armor seem stupid...so boost that armor rating for Pve Arena-net.

All in all, melee is for the brave and the skilled, and that's how we like it, but it should be a bit more forgiving, and that is a clear fact.

[Snow White]

Well, I think they definitely did something for you melee as far as "aggro" is concerned because on my ranger the mobs were ignoring my pet and coming straight for me A LOT more than they were last BWE. So that's something.

But yeah, you're supposed to be squishy.

[Cyclone Jack]

The point of melee is not to stay in melee getting hit. You need to maximize your control and mobility doing strategic hit and run strikes. Run in, stun/daze/knockdown your opponent and get a few big hits in, then get out and let someone else get in there. If the enemy goes for another player, keep hitting them in the back but be prepared to get out of the way if they change their focus to you. Standing in melee trying to go blow for blow will only get you killed.

[Malthurius]

The point of melee is not to stay in melee getting hit. You need to maximize your control and mobility doing strategic hit and run strikes. Run in, stun/daze/knockdown your opponent and get a few big hits in, then get out and let someone else get in there. If the enemy goes for another player, keep hitting them in the back but be prepared to get out of the way if they change their focus to you. Standing in melee trying to go blow for blow will only get you killed.

Enemies usually stop turning when they attack, so if you're constantly flanking your enemy you will rarely get hit. Only in large crowds of enemies did I find hit-run tactics necessary for melee survival.

[Repefe]

I tried melee yesterday and it was an adrenaline experience. You can die more easily than rangeds yes, but the beauty of fighting on the edge of death so to speak was very very fun; mesmer with the clones and switching and the channel dodge attack ... gave me quite the rush. Much more open to pick up a melee weapon with either ele or mesmer now.

And that in some situations melee style is not as effective ... you can use 2 weapons. Either pick a ranged one as 2nd weapon or pick one that has good defensive capability.

---------- Post added 2012-05-15 at 01:59 PM ----------

Enemies usually stop turning when they attack, so if you're constantly flanking your enemy you will rarely get hit. Only in large crowds of enemies did I find hit-run tactics necessary for melee survival.

Hihi ... noticed this as well. You see ppl dying on mobs that when properly flanking won't touch you at all.

[Sundreamer]

Well they did not change anything for the stress test so it's possible.

try next BWE

this...it was a stress test and not a BWE afterall

I tried melee yesterday and it was an adrenaline experience.

this hahaha, i've been like "OMFG OMFG OMFG" the whole time with my greatsword xD