Save melee !

[Cthonian]

How many, do you think, will be there melee users after 14.2 ?
Almost everyone will go for ranged,
60% will use shotguns,
and finaly almost everyone would look the same:
primus coat and shotgun...
may be few nanomages who preffer Neleb's robe or even nano-cloak
( but the longer this game last the higher % of solitus there will be ).

I compared now ( once again ) melee stats with ranged,
for example True Katana vs. Nova Flow -
almost the same max damage, but Nova has crit 500, True Katana only 150;
and almost everyone, who uses Nova uses or at least plan to use Flashpoint as well.

I think while with melee you risk to be rooted
and die without even a chance to hit your opponent,
this risk should be rewarded by higher damage.

Then it would look like:
average Enforcer fear NT
average NT fear Soldier
average Soldier fear Enforcer

Then average players would belong to 4 groups:

Group 1 : melee users, most damage, no roots.
Enf
MA
Adv *)
Doc **)

Group 2 : rooters with less powerful ranged weaps
NT
Crat
Agents
Trader
Fixer

Group 3 : no roots, both melee and ranged equal advantages
MP
Eng

Group 4 : no roots, the best ranged skill but still less damage then melee users.
Soldiers ( only )

*) Adventurer can go for ranged as well to play with rooters, but should not make as much damage as Soldier
**) sure melee damage of Doc would not be higher then
ranged damage of Soldier, but since he has no roots he would lose vs. other Doc with melee

Sure, by making melee stronger you nerf Soldiers,
but hey, there could be a nice solution:
make Soldiers to rootbreakers ! ( and fix rootbreaking cafee-making inexperience )
Then Soldiers could hunt rooters even solo,
and in a group they could help others to break roots
( but this should be more difficult then to break root on themself )

With the last change, i dont think any of these groups would be too strong or too weak.

With melee users being more dangerous a rooter
would be more useful in groups,
what would also help a bit NT/fixer professions
( not sure if traders need any help *grin* )

Melee should not do much more damage, then ranged,
but at least a little more !
( say 20% )

Else you could take melee completely away from the game,
as well as short range "ranged" weapons...
I just think it would be a big loss for the game,
the whole atmosphere...

Quantar, MP 76 with Katana
( who will probably go ranged too )

P.S.
guess i will not have to wait long for flames
( but if you do flame me, tell what is your solution to save melee heh )

[Detonate]

100% Agree!!!

Bump!

[Arinia]

Right now as an enforcer, my reward is more HP. Roots suck, and hopefully rage will work again soon to help with that.

I do actually less damage than a shotgun user, even if we both have critbuffs. They just have a higher crit.

Something that I'd like to take advantage of when rage is working again is that fact that I can attack while running, and gun users can't. With gridspace freedom on, and a super high rage, my nano resist should be over 1k and my runspeed about 1600+. I should be able to resist some roots at least, and run past them before they have a chance to shoot me too many times.

But, this is not the way I envisioned playing my enforcer. I imagined people running from ME, because they'd die if they got close to me for too long. Right now, shotgun classes come right up to me, because they are not afraid.

[________________Crin]

I thought one of the benefits of melee over ranged attack were that melee attacks could distrupt casting nanos and ranged attacks couldn't. I hate it when I see that casting animation start up knowing there is nothing I can do to stop it. Even running out of range has no effect.

I totally agree about shotguns (or is that crit buffs). They are screwing up the game.

[Cthonian]

With melee doing 20% more damage then ranged AND insta-rootbreaking an Enforcer could kill everyone;
Just fixing rage and "cafee-maiking inexp" and leave melee as it is,
would mean to limit melee weapons to Enforcers only.

By making melee stronger Enforcer will get the most advantage,
so i thoght root breaking could be reviewed given to Soldiers only.

Anyway i guess, it would be still not enough for Soldiers;
may be they could get a nano ( self only ! ) that allow them to shot while running,
but doing just with X% of default damage
What this "X" should be - i'm not sure now ( 20? 30? )

P.S.
BTB ?

[Arinia]

Rage never "insta-broke" roots.

Since it's impossible for you to roll one to find out (because rage is now broken) I'll tell you:

• Get rooted.
• Cast rage.
• Wait 2 ticks of dot (2-4 seconds minimum).
• Get message "Nanoprogram Pyramid Marketing Terminated"
• Wait at least 2-4 more seconds for the game to realize that you are unrooted.
• Now you can move.
• Move 2 feet.
• Get re rooted, because even with the +400 NR bonus (from rage, bringing total to 600ish) you can't resist the root.

Lather, rinse, repeat, until you are out of nano.

Debuffing yourself with Heavy Weapons imcompetence actually took less nano than rage and was more practical, even though you had to select yourself (I don't know how many times I've debuffed a trader/agent I was fighting with HW incomp, they probably are laughing at me).

If rage worked it would be worth the extra nano, but general incompetence nanos were almost ALWAYS the better choice.

[____________Arterous]

wanna know whos annoying??
that btb--->now person

[Cthonian]

OK, "insta-rootbreaking" was wrong then,
but it's still a big advantage over other melee users...

MA or melee Adv. would just have sit there and wait for another big nuke...
( the rooter could even go drink cafee or zone/restore nano/zone back ---> nuke/root,
or go look for someone to help him to finish this poor melee user )

[_______________Chill]

A good thing to start would be to make brawl always interrupt casting (like bash in EQ).