Is melee really that bad for pvp in this game?
By
ageone,
Posted on: 2009-03-25 08:46 in Everything about PvP
Melee that use ranged attacks (even though they are being slightly reduced soon) are very strong in this game.
haha, ya it is an oxymoron, but there you have it.
I don't PVP much, in fact I have only done it a few times. What I did gather quickly, however, is that melee is not the strongest and most viable option if you are looking to take PVP by storm. This is just a generality, but I found that I (as a brute) was not able to land many hits on a blaster buzzing around, and I was using taunt liberally.
To answer another of your questions, the general consensus is that brutes don't fare as well in PVP due to their peaky dmg buff of Fury. There normally won't be tons of enemies tossing attacks at you to generate fury, and I believe you might have a hard time getting close to most pvpers to be able to generate a ton of fury. Most tend to roll scrappers or stalkers for PVP. Remember, with 0 fury, a brute will do less base damage than a tanker.
Words to the wise aren't necessary- it's the stupid ones that need them.
"You're right...I forgot...being constantly at or the near the damage cap is a big turn off. Definitely not worth it."
- Vitality
well they normalized damage in i13 so base modifiers don't really do much anymore compared to cast time. Basically long animations hit harder regardless of AT.
This is why spirit shark spammers are so popular for brutes, stalkers and widows, the attack hits like a ton of bricks and does more damage than almost all melee attacks.
Now granted melee class ranged attacks are being reduced a bit in i14, but they will still be effective. Elusivity is being reworked a bit too though so SR, ice armor and widows won't be quite as overpowering in all likelyhood.
At any rate melee class using ranged attacks is very viable currently. Melee class using melee attacks - much less so.
I personally think Brutes have it the best of all melee class for a couple reason.
1: Super strength has rage who doesn't love rage.
2:They can select spirit Shark, and like others just said it hits like a ton of bricks
3:Hurl boulder yet another ranged attack.
Stalkers second best because they can move around undetected.
Then Tanks, then Scrappers.
Melee can do fine in PVP but now it's all about building the right powers to work as a melee class.
I do just fine on my SS/Elec, but thats just it right there. For Brutes and Tanks, it's really SS or nothing to be competetive against the majority of opponents, followed up by having either WP or Elec as a secondary.
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Would like to focus on burst melee damage with some survivability cooldowns thrown in. What would you suggest playing?
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The most feared AT in Zone PvP is a Melee AT. 
Roll a Stalker.
I'd start with */Ninjitsu. It has very good survival/Cooldown tools. All Stalkers do awesome burst damage thanks to Assassin Strike.
You also have the added in bonus of not having to worry about other Stalkers. (the exception is in lol Warburg)
Now when it comes to organised PvP (Arena), from what I've seen Melee'ers are out.
The exception would be Villian side Arena teaming, which I've *heard* consist of at least 1 Stalker.
Happy hunting!
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Now when it comes to organised PvP (Arena), from what I've seen Melee'ers are out.
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Yup.
Melee's are very strong in zones, mainly due to the "un-organized" atmosphere of zone pvp. Not many people run around in organized and tight knit teams in zones, which means that spiking and debuffing is at a minimal, as well as coordination. This recipe is perfect for the melee toon who has enough survivability to survive solo or on a small team against a small handful of attackers, and enough damage to possibly (not all the time) take out his enemy before they take him out. Without the full and coordinated support of healing/buffing AT's, or the support of a perfectly coordinated spike team in which to take out a melee quickly, squishy AT's fall prey to the Melee AT in zones.
Again, in an "organized" team based atmosphere, such as team arena based matches, this is not the case. Melee's fall victim there as thier defenses and damage are not enough to keep up with the "specialized" AT's of that environment. Thier melee nature tends to hamper them as well. This means that they will contribute very little to thier team as they cannot grant any true buffs, heals, or debuffs while at the same time not being able to output enough damage to get many (if any) kills. In fact, most melee's outside of Tankers are even pretty "easy pickens" for most organized teams, so a melee on your team may only contribute deaths unfotunately, which is not something you want if you expect to win.
Due to this lack of contribution, most melee's are left out of team settings in pvp. The only melee's I've seen really work decently on teams so far are Stalkers and Tankers, and even then it's not a very common practice.
Taking what DM replied into account.
I'd also advise that if your inclination is Melee, the PvP enviroment you'd get more enjoyment out of is the zones, it's usually a good place to start anyway.
No, you can do good with a melee character for PvP. However, you will want to have good travel powers. For a melee toon aiming at Zone PvP, it would be:
-Super Speed AND Super Jump (switch to CJ when scrapping)
-Super Speed AND Combat Jump
-Super Jump
sort of in that order of usefulness.
IF you want a way to deal with Flying enemies, the regular way would be having Air Superiority (if you can jump high enough to get the flying guy), OR Impale from the Spines set, OR Hurl from Super Strenght, or a temporary Web Grenade (sells in Siren's if your team control the zone). However with SS+SJ you can just flee. It's impossible for a Fly toon to effectively chase either SS or SJ, in most occasions.
Hands down the current "flavor of the month" PVP melee sets are Spines and Super Strenght.
- Dual Blades Stalker Guide
- Mastermind guide to Pain Domination
Spines is depressing. Just go make a SS tank. They do more damage. Even without rage.
I'm trying this game out and my main focus in MMOs is pvp. I've always preferred melee characters, but keep hearing range is king in pvp. Just curious what melee classes do best in pvp.
I'm looking at playing a Stalker, Brute, or Scrapper. Would like to focus on burst melee damage with some survivability cooldowns thrown in. What would you suggest playing? Or should I just give up on the idea of being pure melee in pvp?