the reality is there are many issues built into the game. I will try to explain.
*Melee queue and Animation locks- also no casting Melee attacks while moving or they will be interrupted and go on Cooldown. Majr waste of major Cooldown.
*Dodge mechanics don't work as intended- dodging simply doesn't work as intended. Based on invisible terrain mechanics, sometimes a dodge won't move you far at all. The way dodge mechanics were designed to work, the dodge doesn't actually dodge a attack. It simp,y makes you immune to the next attack. Problem with the mechanic, is that many times the game won't send you far with a dodge because of terrain issues, and also since just about all attacks are AoE, this makes the game read certain attacks as if they hit the target, even when dodging. Think of this as a double hit. First AoE hit was avoided by dodge, but the attack is still in animation, and the game reads it as a second hit after dodge fades.basically nulling the original dodge in the first place. You will see what I mean when you start dodging a lot of AoE in WvW as Melee.
and yes, it's pretty stupid right now that Melee plated classes are so squishy right now. They have slightly more armor than Adventures.
and I played Guardian. They have ranged? Lol. Range my ass!!! Staff is mid range up close weapon with nice AoE blast. No where near the range of even the Engineer's pistols. Only scepter has any good use at range, and even that is limited. You have a root and AoE attack, and the auto attack. That's it. Not that great as people making it out to be. guardians are Melee fighters. You will be up close if you fighting, but at range if you only play support.
melee fighters get the hot target in WvW and PvE. Simple as that...
How many times will we tell you?
Dodging works like a charm. The only time a dodge doesn't move you far is if you are crippled or chilled.
Only certain abilities can be used on the move and you have a lot of abilities that move you. If those abilities could be used on the move, some particular melee set-ups would be extremely deadly. This is something "If you can't stun, they'll run". Stun (immobilize, daze, stun) and then get yourself in range to use the ability. It's about the player not the game.
Dodging does not work like a charm. Nor does the hit detection. Nor does charge attacks. The combat is a mess and needs work. I have no idea how people can defend it, even after 10 mins of play I could tell that the combat was far from polished and the more I played the more I learned how unpolished it really is.
I'm glad ArenaNet is taking in all the feedback that they recieved over the weekend and are trying to make the adjustments. My thing about the Melee is that I hope they don't make too many drastic changes to it right now. I like the feeling of having to considered the benifits and the risk when switching weapons and preparing to go in Melee.
To some that might be having problems, I want to let you know that Melee does put out more DPS than range. Your attacks are a good deal faster and the raw damage output is different also. The thing about Melee is you have to understand that their are risk and rewards for it; just like with range dps'ing.
It's much harder to see Mob abilities and of course you have a shorter time to react to them. Getting out of the way or blocking what have you for specific class.
As I found myself getting used to the combat in GW2 I also found myself becoming more and more proficient with Melee. In large group of mobs I would range no doubt, but when the numbers started to dwindle and mobs weren't so bunch I was able to switch to melee and dispatch of scragglers pretty quick.
Players need to understand the Risk and Rewards for Melee and DPS and remember they are never limited to one. If you choose to ignore the weapon switching in this game you are just gimping yourself. It may be a new concept for most but it's how the gameplay works. It's there on purpose and wasn't just some cool feature they decided to put in for tickles
I don't like this line but there's a little L2P and L2Profession here... The more time in game; the more people will begin to get it. Once you see how the weapons and skills work and how you have alot of choice in between how you wish to encounter something. I feel people will settle down a bit and things will start to click a lot more for them.
Also this game is not about taking as much damage as possible before going down. There's no true tanks, dps, or heals. No trinity we know this.. It's now about AVOIDING as much as damage as possible. Mitigating your actual time in the line of fire. Do you really think you should be able to sit there and take some killer slash from a Dragon or Giant or any other BAM like mob. That's something that was made more prevalent in your WoW-esque games of day. The feeling of danger is refreshing..
There's been the chance of Insta-death in Role-playing games since the start. In some rulesets monster have specific powers ment to instantly kill (D&D since they all basically use this).. Good to see some finally making it back into the MMO realm. Even if it's of the mainstream variety..
TL;DR Melee is good for the most part.. You need to understand the Risk and the Rewards
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Dodging works like a charm. The only time a dodge doesn't move you far is if you are crippled or chilled.
Only certain abilities can be used on the move and you have a lot of abilities that move you. If those abilities could be used on the move, some particular melee set-ups would be extremely deadly. This is something "If you can't stun, they'll run". Stun (immobilize, daze, stun) and then get yourself in range to use the ability. It's about the player not the game.
Dodging does not work like a charm. Nor does the hit detection. Nor does charge attacks. The combat is a mess and needs work. I have no idea how people can defend it, even after 10 mins of play I could tell that the combat was far from polished and the more I played the more I learned how unpolished it really is.
Dodging worked for me quite well in Beta. Often when our forces were routed in WvWvW, I could escape a large pack of players chasing me. I did this by using dodge when I could to avoid their attacks, while running to a keep or safety of guards.
It also alllowed me to kite most mobs indefinitely in PvE.
I would say it works quite well. If anything Dodge is OP rather than UP.
Warriors can take more damage due to higher armor but if a hit would flatten an elementalist in one hit then likely it would flatten a warrior too.
When warriors take hits that deal 1/3rd of their health in damage in the early levels then there is something seriously wrong. There's a difference in challenge and outright quarter sucking arcade play. While I played, dodging and moving didn't do crap. I was still getting hit by melee even when far away. Arrows would fly right into me even when dodging and moving. No idea how people find getting downed every 10 seconds by that stuff to be fun. I've beaten the end bosses of Vindictus, and cleared all the content of the PSO2 beta, so it's not like I am not used to action combat but this isn't action combat. GW2 combat is a tab targetting game with poor hit detection and a worthless dodge ability.
This is good news. I thought the thief was terribly underpowered. Backstab did practically nothing. Upgrading the class and the weapons would definately help!
The game favor ranged right now because of many reasons, few of them are:
-The game is heavily based on movement and people just started playing and probably have hard time moving well. - The game have more mass event pve and pvp than any other game, and probably as much as all of them put together, and it is and will always be easier to go ranged in those. - Dodge is a huge part of combat and its way easier to react well when a bit further your opponent, because you have more time reacting. - The overall difficulty is higher than in other mmo where combat is about dummy whacking, thank god ! - But they are a lot of other tiny aspect that might come into play, like the fact you get the swap ability at lv7, but a lot of people are going in WvW before and pretty much never reach lv 7, and a lot of other things.
As i said in the official forum post, the fact people are going ranged for now is a good sign that the game let you use what is best for your situation, but i'm pretty sure people will use more melee as they get better at playing the game, and will looking to raise their damage output. The game let you use 2 set of weapons, so yes definitely use a ranged and melee if you feel so, that's actually one of the strong point of the combat, so people want to go ranged right now because its easier and give them more survivability? i think its good if anything.
They are only 2 mmo i know of where swapping weapon is a basic ability everyone have to master, so if people haven't learn to use it properly for now, i think nothing is strange really. Maybe they could make few mobs with charge abilities that will swap from range to melee quickly, so to have people learn react and also use this aspect of combat at their advantage. People will need to get used to this, and it might take a bit more time for people that only played mmo, and never played fps for ex.
Please don't make fun, but which classes are considered melee? I notice even casters use axes and the sort.
He just told you, warrior, thief and guardian. I played elementalist, and if you're melleing with elementalist then you're probably playing wrong?
Honestly i totally disagree here, yes some class have more of a ranged or melee flavor to them, but in fact it is more of a personal archetype than real in game fact.
So i played warrior, as good with ranged as with melee, the long bow on them was super effective. The theif? same, short bow, and pistol are super effective weapons, as much as daggers. Elementalist? you have 3 setting, long range with 2h staff, medium range with 1h staff, short range with daggers, and you can even combine them!.
So really ranged or melee class? NO! they are different range setting for each wepon combos, use them at your advantage! each class seam to be able to use both, certainly all the class i played.
Dodging works like a charm. The only time a dodge doesn't move you far is if you are crippled or chilled.
Only certain abilities can be used on the move and you have a lot of abilities that move you. If those abilities could be used on the move, some particular melee set-ups would be extremely deadly. This is something "If you can't stun, they'll run". Stun (immobilize, daze, stun) and then get yourself in range to use the ability. It's about the player not the game.
Dodging does not work like a charm. Nor does the hit detection. Nor does charge attacks. The combat is a mess and needs work. I have no idea how people can defend it, even after 10 mins of play I could tell that the combat was far from polished and the more I played the more I learned how unpolished it really is.
I can defend it because I spent 90% of my time in the structured PvP and the PvP lobby testing out builds and skills and set-ups. The problem probably is lag and lag makes it feel like dodging is ineffective but it isn't ineffective because when people use it on me and when they I use it on them, I and they whiff all attacks. Of course I'd definitely like to have a bit more dodge time but it pretty much makes you invulnerable so.... more dodge time might not be advisable.
A melee class can wear plate mail and still be no tank?
A ranged class like Elementalist or Ranger does LESS damange than a melee like Vanguard?
Heavy armour does not protect you even with chain or plate better than cloth, so you have to move like a mokey?
If people die all 2 min's it's their fault and the game is good?
Oh and event scaling has still not been implemented? I recall how many time Trion assured their invasions are going to be scaled, and that never worked out.
I'd say this game has some serious issues in the combat section. When a plate mail guy is squishy like a cloth type, and when melee classes make more damage than Mages or Rangers they got a few things wrong about games, I say.
Blegh. You just sound confused. Half of your questions don't make sense.
There are no tanks.
Melee does indeed usually do more damage. Rangers and ele can melee too.
Heavy armor does protect you more.
You do have to avoid big attacks.
People don't die in two minutes unless they aern't doing it right.
Event scaling has been implemented. It needs further balancing.
You're just so far off base it's difficult to know where you are getting your info from.
You know it's quite a simple thing, given it has been the rule in about 50 MMOs by now or so.
When will people get it? The way things are done in GW2 are not always the way things have been done before. You have two options: take it or leave it. I don't care which.
To the OP, the only problem I had playing melee was losing sight of the enemy due to particle effects. If I could see it clearly, I could watch for the tells indicating a big hit was coming and dodge. If I couldn't see the telegraphed hits, which was frequent, I was left watching my health bar so I knew when I had to bail out and heal. That's the only problem I had with the system.
As for heavy armor being squishy as cloth, that's patently false. My Guardian was able to soak up the standard damage far better than my duelist Mesmer, but the big blows still could take half my life. By contrast, my Mesmer would be left with a sliver of life. There's clearly a difference, but the bottom line is that NO profession is durable enough to take that kind of damage repeatedly. Heavy armor wearers just have more of a buffer against it than light. To be effective, you must avoid damage wherever you can.
Elikal you need to try the game, you cannot make assumption and take them for granted because the game is very different from your usual trinity tab targeting mmo, in that domain at least.
Since I have always played warrior types (as far back as the early 80s in PnP days), I will add my two cents:
The way ArenaNet implemented it is poor. Just because we have a dodge mechanic doesn't mean every class should need it. Let's start with this, just from an immersion perspective - a plate mail wearing warrior does not roll and dodge! Part of the reason for thieves, for example, to dodge is because of the lighter armor. Heavy armor is to soak up damage because you don't dodge.
Secondly, GW is making a big mistake. Not that I mind the different mechanics, but every class should not be required to play the same way in combat - that's what keeps alting fresh and interesting.
I loved GW2 BWE. I am okay with the combat system. But as a officer of a guild more than 150 strong, I can see a LOT of issues getting GW2 to become a mainstream MMO with the guild because of the current combat mechanics (and the pressing need for a tutorial area in the beginning).
GW2 will be a great game and I will play it. But it is lacking in some areas to really become a mainstream game. I'm all for the breaking of commonplace, boring MMO play (questing on rails, themeparks, the MMO trinity, gear grinds, etc.) but I personally believe they are making a HUGE mistake moving away from long established RPG standards.
People play warriors because they like to go toe-to-toe with the enemy. I don't want a dodge - give me a block (that works faster than molasses) and parry. Make me trade off between attacking and defending. But don't have me rolling in full plate mail (truly immersion breaking).
As to the dodge mechanic, they should tie it to armor types rather than everyone having three. Warriors should get one for the big boss, oh s*** moments. Rogues and Rangers should have three, since this is where they excel. Casters should have two, since they are focused more on intelligence than physical prowess.
Dodging does not work like a charm. Nor does the hit detection. Nor does charge attacks. The combat is a mess and needs work. I have no idea how people can defend it, even after 10 mins of play I could tell that the combat was far from polished and the more I played the more I learned how unpolished it really is.
Yea, even though you seemingly dodged at the right moment, enemy damage sometimes went through anyway. Skills did not always activate properly and would make the combat appear out-of-sync and sloppy.
However, the sole reason for the above issues was due to server lag (at least in my case) in combination with my poor performing PC. So i have no doubt, that once they fix the technical issues which plagued the beta event, we'll see a much improved and enjoyable combat experience.
I am interested in guild wars 2 but my reflexes aren't what they used to be because of health reasons. Could I still enjoy the game being slower in my reflexes?
I am interested in guild wars 2 but my reflexes aren't what they used to be because of health reasons. Could I still enjoy the game being slower in my reflexes?
That's a hard question to ask without knowing what type of reflexes you have. What types of games do you play?
Gamers reflexes are generally faster than non-gamers are on some scales.. One of our perks..:P
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
I played a guardian most of the weekend, and with the right skills you could go toe-to-toe for longer times with up to three mobs before having to roll out and heal. But I do agree that rolling in heavy armor looks a bit silly. They really should use a different animation for the defensive move of heavy armor users.
I am interested in guild wars 2 but my reflexes aren't what they used to be because of health reasons. Could I still enjoy the game being slower in my reflexes?
I say yes. Just play ranged fighter or support.
Those roles are still fun.
guardian for example, has short ranged combat, and short ranged support (other than a few elites). Just WASD into enemy and lay down the support and run out (or dodge out if you can do that with your current disability)
Dying gets annoying, but anybody can Rez you. So just try to stay near your team and away from enemy when it looks like you are about to go downed, or focus fired.
dodging doesn't really do much in most cases anyway, since you will still get hit.
the game could use more support focused players anyway. Just run around tossing buffs and shields. Or play ranged fighter. You are good to go.
I played a guardian most of the weekend, and with the right skills you could go toe-to-toe for longer times with up to three mobs before having to roll out and heal. But I do agree that rolling in heavy armor looks a bit silly. They really should use a different animation for the defensive move of heavy armor users.
You play Engineer?
I was doing that as a level 2 without full weapon skills. 2 enemy vs my level 2 engineer. They only got me from dodge mechanic issues and siege arrow spam. Wow they had tons of that siege arrow AoE spamming going on. Was hard to fight and avoid that mess. But wow that was a fun experience. NPC are stupid when fighting ranged fighters. Only glitches could allow NPC to hit me. SMH...
A melee class can wear plate mail and still be no tank?
A ranged class like Elementalist or Ranger does LESS damange than a melee like Vanguard?
Heavy armour does not protect you even with chain or plate better than cloth, so you have to move like a mokey?
If people die all 2 min's it's their fault and the game is good?
Oh and event scaling has still not been implemented? I recall how many time Trion assured their invasions are going to be scaled, and that never worked out.
I'd say this game has some serious issues in the combat section. When a plate mail guy is squishy like a cloth type, and when melee classes make more damage than Mages or Rangers they got a few things wrong about games, I say.
They have it RIGHT actually.
Melee SHOULD do more damage than ranged.
He takes more risks he is in melee range. Melee need to dodge more often , need to position better + takes damage from melle AND ranged attacks.
Ranged don't have to worry about most of these things.
Finally game that takes all that into account.
Of course you can boost ranged / nerf melee and you will have pew pew fest like in most mmorpg's.
I am not biased I am playing necro mostly that is ranged btw.
There are no tanks in this game as well , so don't know where you took it from ?
Heavy armor characters like Guardian and to lesser extent Warrior can usually take more beating than in example Elementalist or Mesmer.
It is all good actually.
Elikial - I respect many of your posts , but have you actually played GW2?
Scaling IS implemented and imho it scale preety well.
I can move fine with WASD. Heck dps on wow finds I move too much. I did try Tera and could dodge all right. Just when I read fps combat, I'm not so great at that. Hence why I only pvp as a healer/support.
Everyone seems to be forgetting that there are much balancing to come, and likely even many revisions of current systems. Perhaps even complete revamps.
We'll know what is different in a month when the next BWE comes around.
For now, don't take the bad from this BWE as fact. Much of it is likely to change before release.
That is the first rule of beta: Most things are subject to change.
MMO's played: Ragnarok Online (For years), WoW (for a few weeks only), Guild Wars, Lineage 2, Eve, Allods, Shattered Galaxy, 9 Dragons, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Star Trek Online (Got someone ELSE to pay for it), Champions Online (Someone else paid), Dofus, Dragonica, LOTRO, DDO and more... A LOT more. I've played good AND bad. The bad didn't last long. :P
guardian for example, has short ranged combat, and short ranged support (other than a few elites). Just WASD into enemy and lay down the support and run out (or dodge out if you can do that with your current disability)
Dying gets annoying, but anybody can Rez you. So just try to stay near your team and away from enemy when it looks like you are about to go downed, or focus fired.
dodging doesn't really do much in most cases anyway, since you will still get hit.
the game could use more support focused players anyway. Just run around tossing buffs and shields. Or play ranged fighter. You are good to go.
The underlined is blatantly untrue. I played 3 classes and dodging worked on all 3. There is no range class and no melee class in GW2. Every class has melee and ranged capabilities. Some have more than others but all have both.
guardian for example, has short ranged combat, and short ranged support (other than a few elites). Just WASD into enemy and lay down the support and run out (or dodge out if you can do that with your current disability)
Dying gets annoying, but anybody can Rez you. So just try to stay near your team and away from enemy when it looks like you are about to go downed, or focus fired.
dodging doesn't really do much in most cases anyway, since you will still get hit.
the game could use more support focused players anyway. Just run around tossing buffs and shields. Or play ranged fighter. You are good to go.
The underlined is blatantly untrue. I played 3 classes and dodging worked on all 3. There is no range class and no melee class in GW2. Every class has melee and ranged capabilities. Some have more than others but all have both.
guardian for example, has short ranged combat, and short ranged support (other than a few elites). Just WASD into enemy and lay down the support and run out (or dodge out if you can do that with your current disability)
Dying gets annoying, but anybody can Rez you. So just try to stay near your team and away from enemy when it looks like you are about to go downed, or focus fired.
dodging doesn't really do much in most cases anyway, since you will still get hit.
the game could use more support focused players anyway. Just run around tossing buffs and shields. Or play ranged fighter. You are good to go.
The underlined is blatantly untrue. I played 3 classes and dodging worked on all 3. There is no range class and no melee class in GW2. Every class has melee and ranged capabilities. Some have more than others but all have both.
The underlined is true. Just because YOU didn't have a problem with it doesn't mean others didn't. Dodge did less then nothing in my case. In most cases after I dodged I warped back to where I started to begin with.
Comments
Dodging does not work like a charm. Nor does the hit detection. Nor does charge attacks. The combat is a mess and needs work. I have no idea how people can defend it, even after 10 mins of play I could tell that the combat was far from polished and the more I played the more I learned how unpolished it really is.
I'm glad ArenaNet is taking in all the feedback that they recieved over the weekend and are trying to make the adjustments. My thing about the Melee is that I hope they don't make too many drastic changes to it right now. I like the feeling of having to considered the benifits and the risk when switching weapons and preparing to go in Melee.
To some that might be having problems, I want to let you know that Melee does put out more DPS than range. Your attacks are a good deal faster and the raw damage output is different also. The thing about Melee is you have to understand that their are risk and rewards for it; just like with range dps'ing.
It's much harder to see Mob abilities and of course you have a shorter time to react to them. Getting out of the way or blocking what have you for specific class.
As I found myself getting used to the combat in GW2 I also found myself becoming more and more proficient with Melee. In large group of mobs I would range no doubt, but when the numbers started to dwindle and mobs weren't so bunch I was able to switch to melee and dispatch of scragglers pretty quick.
Players need to understand the Risk and Rewards for Melee and DPS and remember they are never limited to one. If you choose to ignore the weapon switching in this game you are just gimping yourself. It may be a new concept for most but it's how the gameplay works. It's there on purpose and wasn't just some cool feature they decided to put in for tickles
I don't like this line but there's a little L2P and L2Profession here... The more time in game; the more people will begin to get it. Once you see how the weapons and skills work and how you have alot of choice in between how you wish to encounter something. I feel people will settle down a bit and things will start to click a lot more for them.
Also this game is not about taking as much damage as possible before going down. There's no true tanks, dps, or heals. No trinity we know this.. It's now about AVOIDING as much as damage as possible. Mitigating your actual time in the line of fire. Do you really think you should be able to sit there and take some killer slash from a Dragon or Giant or any other BAM like mob. That's something that was made more prevalent in your WoW-esque games of day. The feeling of danger is refreshing..
There's been the chance of Insta-death in Role-playing games since the start. In some rulesets monster have specific powers ment to instantly kill (D&D since they all basically use this).. Good to see some finally making it back into the MMO realm. Even if it's of the mainstream variety..
TL;DR Melee is good for the most part.. You need to understand the Risk and the Rewards
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Dodging worked for me quite well in Beta. Often when our forces were routed in WvWvW, I could escape a large pack of players chasing me. I did this by using dodge when I could to avoid their attacks, while running to a keep or safety of guards.
It also alllowed me to kite most mobs indefinitely in PvE.
I would say it works quite well. If anything Dodge is OP rather than UP.
When warriors take hits that deal 1/3rd of their health in damage in the early levels then there is something seriously wrong. There's a difference in challenge and outright quarter sucking arcade play. While I played, dodging and moving didn't do crap. I was still getting hit by melee even when far away. Arrows would fly right into me even when dodging and moving. No idea how people find getting downed every 10 seconds by that stuff to be fun. I've beaten the end bosses of Vindictus, and cleared all the content of the PSO2 beta, so it's not like I am not used to action combat but this isn't action combat. GW2 combat is a tab targetting game with poor hit detection and a worthless dodge ability.
The game favor ranged right now because of many reasons, few of them are:
-The game is heavily based on movement and people just started playing and probably have hard time moving well.
- The game have more mass event pve and pvp than any other game, and probably as much as all of them put together, and it is and will always be easier to go ranged in those.
- Dodge is a huge part of combat and its way easier to react well when a bit further your opponent, because you have more time reacting.
- The overall difficulty is higher than in other mmo where combat is about dummy whacking, thank god !
- But they are a lot of other tiny aspect that might come into play, like the fact you get the swap ability at lv7, but a lot of people are going in WvW before and pretty much never reach lv 7, and a lot of other things.
As i said in the official forum post, the fact people are going ranged for now is a good sign that the game let you use what is best for your situation, but i'm pretty sure people will use more melee as they get better at playing the game, and will looking to raise their damage output. The game let you use 2 set of weapons, so yes definitely use a ranged and melee if you feel so, that's actually one of the strong point of the combat, so people want to go ranged right now because its easier and give them more survivability? i think its good if anything.
They are only 2 mmo i know of where swapping weapon is a basic ability everyone have to master, so if people haven't learn to use it properly for now, i think nothing is strange really. Maybe they could make few mobs with charge abilities that will swap from range to melee quickly, so to have people learn react and also use this aspect of combat at their advantage. People will need to get used to this, and it might take a bit more time for people that only played mmo, and never played fps for ex.
He just told you, warrior, thief and guardian. I played elementalist, and if you're melleing with elementalist then you're probably playing wrong?
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
rangers can use greatswords and they are good at it
also air elem with dual daggers is a good melee too if you know how to play it
all depends of skill of the player and utility skills/ traits you use
Honestly i totally disagree here, yes some class have more of a ranged or melee flavor to them, but in fact it is more of a personal archetype than real in game fact.
So i played warrior, as good with ranged as with melee, the long bow on them was super effective. The theif? same, short bow, and pistol are super effective weapons, as much as daggers. Elementalist? you have 3 setting, long range with 2h staff, medium range with 1h staff, short range with daggers, and you can even combine them!.
So really ranged or melee class? NO! they are different range setting for each wepon combos, use them at your advantage! each class seam to be able to use both, certainly all the class i played.
I can defend it because I spent 90% of my time in the structured PvP and the PvP lobby testing out builds and skills and set-ups. The problem probably is lag and lag makes it feel like dodging is ineffective but it isn't ineffective because when people use it on me and when they I use it on them, I and they whiff all attacks. Of course I'd definitely like to have a bit more dodge time but it pretty much makes you invulnerable so.... more dodge time might not be advisable.
This is not a game.
When will people get it? The way things are done in GW2 are not always the way things have been done before. You have two options: take it or leave it. I don't care which.
To the OP, the only problem I had playing melee was losing sight of the enemy due to particle effects. If I could see it clearly, I could watch for the tells indicating a big hit was coming and dodge. If I couldn't see the telegraphed hits, which was frequent, I was left watching my health bar so I knew when I had to bail out and heal. That's the only problem I had with the system.
As for heavy armor being squishy as cloth, that's patently false. My Guardian was able to soak up the standard damage far better than my duelist Mesmer, but the big blows still could take half my life. By contrast, my Mesmer would be left with a sliver of life. There's clearly a difference, but the bottom line is that NO profession is durable enough to take that kind of damage repeatedly. Heavy armor wearers just have more of a buffer against it than light. To be effective, you must avoid damage wherever you can.
Since I have always played warrior types (as far back as the early 80s in PnP days), I will add my two cents:
The way ArenaNet implemented it is poor. Just because we have a dodge mechanic doesn't mean every class should need it. Let's start with this, just from an immersion perspective - a plate mail wearing warrior does not roll and dodge! Part of the reason for thieves, for example, to dodge is because of the lighter armor. Heavy armor is to soak up damage because you don't dodge.
Secondly, GW is making a big mistake. Not that I mind the different mechanics, but every class should not be required to play the same way in combat - that's what keeps alting fresh and interesting.
I loved GW2 BWE. I am okay with the combat system. But as a officer of a guild more than 150 strong, I can see a LOT of issues getting GW2 to become a mainstream MMO with the guild because of the current combat mechanics (and the pressing need for a tutorial area in the beginning).
GW2 will be a great game and I will play it. But it is lacking in some areas to really become a mainstream game. I'm all for the breaking of commonplace, boring MMO play (questing on rails, themeparks, the MMO trinity, gear grinds, etc.) but I personally believe they are making a HUGE mistake moving away from long established RPG standards.
People play warriors because they like to go toe-to-toe with the enemy. I don't want a dodge - give me a block (that works faster than molasses) and parry. Make me trade off between attacking and defending. But don't have me rolling in full plate mail (truly immersion breaking).
As to the dodge mechanic, they should tie it to armor types rather than everyone having three. Warriors should get one for the big boss, oh s*** moments. Rogues and Rangers should have three, since this is where they excel. Casters should have two, since they are focused more on intelligence than physical prowess.
Just my two cents.
Yea, even though you seemingly dodged at the right moment, enemy damage sometimes went through anyway. Skills did not always activate properly and would make the combat appear out-of-sync and sloppy.
However, the sole reason for the above issues was due to server lag (at least in my case) in combination with my poor performing PC. So i have no doubt, that once they fix the technical issues which plagued the beta event, we'll see a much improved and enjoyable combat experience.
* Waves at Pushkina *
I am interested in guild wars 2 but my reflexes aren't what they used to be because of health reasons. Could I still enjoy the game being slower in my reflexes?
That's a hard question to ask without knowing what type of reflexes you have. What types of games do you play?
Gamers reflexes are generally faster than non-gamers are on some scales..
One of our perks..:P
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
I say yes. Just play ranged fighter or support.
Those roles are still fun.
guardian for example, has short ranged combat, and short ranged support (other than a few elites). Just WASD into enemy and lay down the support and run out (or dodge out if you can do that with your current disability)
Dying gets annoying, but anybody can Rez you. So just try to stay near your team and away from enemy when it looks like you are about to go downed, or focus fired.
dodging doesn't really do much in most cases anyway, since you will still get hit.
the game could use more support focused players anyway. Just run around tossing buffs and shields. Or play ranged fighter. You are good to go.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
You play Engineer?
I was doing that as a level 2 without full weapon skills. 2 enemy vs my level 2 engineer. They only got me from dodge mechanic issues and siege arrow spam. Wow they had tons of that siege arrow AoE spamming going on. Was hard to fight and avoid that mess. But wow that was a fun experience. NPC are stupid when fighting ranged fighters. Only glitches could allow NPC to hit me. SMH...
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
They have it RIGHT actually.
Melee SHOULD do more damage than ranged.
He takes more risks he is in melee range. Melee need to dodge more often , need to position better + takes damage from melle AND ranged attacks.
Ranged don't have to worry about most of these things.
Finally game that takes all that into account.
Of course you can boost ranged / nerf melee and you will have pew pew fest like in most mmorpg's.
I am not biased I am playing necro mostly that is ranged btw.
There are no tanks in this game as well , so don't know where you took it from ?
Heavy armor characters like Guardian and to lesser extent Warrior can usually take more beating than in example Elementalist or Mesmer.
It is all good actually.
Elikial - I respect many of your posts , but have you actually played GW2?
Scaling IS implemented and imho it scale preety well.
It's in beta people.
Everyone seems to be forgetting that there are much balancing to come, and likely even many revisions of current systems. Perhaps even complete revamps.
We'll know what is different in a month when the next BWE comes around.
For now, don't take the bad from this BWE as fact. Much of it is likely to change before release.
That is the first rule of beta: Most things are subject to change.
MMO's played: Ragnarok Online (For years), WoW (for a few weeks only), Guild Wars, Lineage 2, Eve, Allods, Shattered Galaxy, 9 Dragons, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Star Trek Online (Got someone ELSE to pay for it), Champions Online (Someone else paid), Dofus, Dragonica, LOTRO, DDO and more... A LOT more. I've played good AND bad. The bad didn't last long. :P
The underlined is blatantly untrue. I played 3 classes and dodging worked on all 3. There is no range class and no melee class in GW2. Every class has melee and ranged capabilities. Some have more than others but all have both.
Yah ok, whatever dude...
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
The underlined is true. Just because YOU didn't have a problem with it doesn't mean others didn't. Dodge did less then nothing in my case. In most cases after I dodged I warped back to where I started to begin with.