Melee Damage vs Ranged Damage

[Spiritfingers]

Is there any reason to play hammer, staff or sword in this game....besides you liking the weapon? Ranged damage is higher and you can always hit agile mobs. It's hard to stay in melee range in this game. So melee weapons hit for way less damage and staying in melee range can be a challenge.

[ShieldBreaker]

Well archery has the drawback of needing to have ammo, lots of different kinds of ammo, and the ammo takes time to make and costs money. You don't have to watch your supplies with non-archery skills. Also you can't use a Shield with a bow equipped.

Each of the Range damage skills are concentrated in the fire, ice, piercing damage types, with sword and staff you can have setups for two physical types at a time. Staff piercing and crushing, sword slashing and piercing. You pair sword or staff with Shield and you add crushing to the mix. Hammer you got lots of crushing, with electrical that can be thrown in as well.

These are weak arguments against the range skills. Killing things that run from you is a pain without a ranged skill. However very few things run from you. Can't really give you a good argument to switch to a different skill. People have done charts that prove Archery is better.

[Dibbuk]

I use archery and sword, as I can do damage with sword that is faster than anything archery can deliver, both skills being similar levels.

[Spiritfingers]

As long as the mob stands there attacking you, I guess any type of damage will do. Content that is group oriented is a different story. If a mob switches targets, they will move out of range. Mobile mobs are even worse. I'm thinking Mants specifically. Maybe melee vs ranged won't be such a big deal once pathing is updated. Many things will move "in place" and by the time you attack, they are 20 meters somewhere else.

[alleryn]

It seems no one has mentioned yet that most if not all melee skills offer superior taunt, making a party with a melee and a ranged character quite possibly stronger than 2 melee or 2 ranged.

I might be wrong though, i just started this game.

[Spiritfingers]

I've been playing off and on for over 2 years and I still feel new. I am learning of the role of taunt as well. I know i have a taunt lowering skill on both my hammer and shield. I don't know that means in regard to this thread about how melee seems way weaker than ranged damage in this game.

[grumpygamer]

A little late to this post... My wife and I are now around level 35s... I am using Shield/Mentalism and she uses Archery/Fire. I focus on tanking stats and use taunts, aoe, and shield attacks while using buffs and heals to keep us sustained. She stays way back and burns mobs down. On bosses she takes care of adds.

So far this works great as a pair. We found that when we both ran pure damage (gear and skills) and no taunts we are often rolling the dice on difficult mobs and one of us would often get melted.

That's my 5 cents. :)

[Spiritfingers]

A little late to this post... My wife and I are now around level 35s... I am using Shield/Mentalism and she uses Archery/Fire. I focus on tanking stats and use taunts, aoe, and shield attacks while using buffs and heals to keep us sustained. She stays way back and burns mobs down. On bosses she takes care of adds.

So far this works great as a pair. We found that when we both ran pure damage (gear and skills) and no taunts we are often rolling the dice on difficult mobs and one of us would often get melted.

That's my 5 cents. :)

If you were solo most of the time, do you feel your shield and mentalism would do enough damage to kill mobs before your power ran out?

[grumpygamer]

We end solo'ing a fair bit for resources... I use psi power wave (you can easily stack it 2-3 times) combined with strong food keeps me up on power. You have enough single target damage (or aoe, if spawns are close) to keep moving.

[grumpygamer]

PS - Also, smoothies have strong power boost.

[cr00cy]

It seems no one has mentioned yet that most if not all melee skills offer superior taunt, making a party with a melee and a ranged character quite possibly stronger than 2 melee or 2 ranged.

I might be wrong though, i just started this game.

Well i wouldnt say "most". Form what i know only melee skills that have taunt are unarmed, shield, cow, deer and staff.

Well i dont play ranged skills (sometime i use mentalism, but thats about it), so i can really say if they are indeed stronger than melee. All i know is that most range players who i met seems to have higher damage than me (wolf/unarmed), Granted my build is not pure dps, and good part of my damag comes in Dots, but still i think i can agree that ranged specs have higher damage.

That beign said , i cant still 2-shot Onkara rakkies whit some buffs.

If melee have any advantege, i think it would be surivability - tough you dont need much defense if you can kill everything so fast it dont ahve time to deal any significant damage

[alleryn]

Thanks for the correction. I thought i remembered seeing a calligraphy recipe with taunt, but i guess i was imagining things.

[grumpygamer]

There are stats on armor that increase taunt a flat amount regardless of your class choices. It appears you can get up to 20-30% flat taunt for all damage. I think it's also worth considering melee vs ranged in terms of the extra utility you also gain from a melee ability set.

I think that ranged specs may have more burst / upfront damage. However, it's been my experience (comparing abilities with my wife) that melee abilities also can wipe out armor and make enemies vulnerable in a *focused* way that ranged tends not to focus on. Melee and support abilities also tend to reduce rage more than ranged does as well. Everyone seems to have extra dmg to vulnerable targets, but not a focus on making them vulnerable or rage reduced.

Just a few examples:
Acid arrow from archery does armor damage. Archery also has +dmg to vulnerable targets.
Fire has +dmg to vulnerable targets.

Sword has everything from armor reduction, rage reduction, bleeds and attacks with +dmg to vulnerable targets or +dmg based on rage.
Shield has a knockback, taunt, armor recovery, rage reduction to enemies, shields to dmg types.

Melee really brings to the table utility that ranged does not. Increased survivability. The longer the fights the more this becomes really apparent.

[Spiritfingers]

I think what you guys are describing is the challenge in balancing melee vs ranged. Ranged does a whole lot more damage but if a mob gets to you, its very different for ranged vs melee. The issue I'm having is that ranged players are always telling me that mobs are dying before they get into melee range. I as a hammer user will be in a battle much longer and thus will deplete my power - even with gear and food/buffs. I fear death in every battle I go into. I'm not sure ranged players have that same fear. Again, I'm not talking about dungeons where everyone can die over and over again.

[grumpygamer]

I think what you guys are describing is the challenge in balancing melee vs ranged. Ranged does a whole lot more damage but if a mob gets to you, its very different for ranged vs melee. The issue I'm having is that ranged players are always telling me that mobs are dying before they get into melee range. I as a hammer user will be in a battle much longer and thus will deplete my power - even with gear and food/buffs. I fear death in every battle I go into. I'm not sure ranged players have that same fear. Again, I'm not talking about dungeons where everyone can die over and over again.

OK... So what is your other skillset you bring into battle? What kind of armor are you wearing?

As a shield/mental who shield bashes for all his damage, my gear revolves around armor and damage reduction and I almost *never* fear dying to groups of mobs at my level (or slightly above).

At level 36 I have ~350 armor (14 dmg reduction) plus:

5 universal dmg reduction
3 slash/pierce/crush recution
8 poison reduction (I can swap out to 8 archery dmg reduction)
2 indirect poison reduction

Upon casting psi health wave, I can always have
21 (additional) poison reduction
21 nature dmg reduction
21 electrical dmg reduction

Even if you're not focusing on it like me, if you're melee you're going to want a few key pieces to swap in and out depending on the mobs you're fighting.

GG