Hey all this is my first post on these forums so just wanted to say hi and im very excited for the release of ESO.

Anyway my concern is that Melee will be decimated in PvP in ESO. I watch the videos of PvP and see ranged classes having such large advantages when it comes to Defending keeps and being out of reach of melee. Also Lag will effect melee more further contributing to the ease of use as far as being Ranged goes.

Im a big fan of the Warrior or Rogue/assassin archtype and hope they arent at too much of a loss in PvP.

thoughts? thank you for reading!

Use Heavy Armor!

Range is always better then melee I am sad to say, not going to lie to you.

Melee has less aoe, is more weak to more CC's then ranged (Roots, and slows) and Melee tends to put itself in danger more, but since this game doesn't have tab targeting this also means melee can sort of shield wall their friendly players.

that doesnt really help answer my worries... Will being ranged/caster be a huge advantage in ESO?

think about it you can shoot players from above as ranged, but melee have to be next to them making melee irtually useless when attacking and defending a keep unless you suicide into the enemy..

yeah its sad.... oh well looks like ill ditch the Warrior idea for more of a Sorcerer....

there is nothing worse than feeling gimped just to play what you want to play.

Keep a shield up, make sure you're moving and not standing still, keep an eye on the enemy, sprint to close distance, use your own ranged fighters to keep them pinned down etc. Much like real combat, range has the advantage of...well...range. Melee fighters need to be prepared for that and devise tactics to counter it.

you can use 2 weapons, no reason to stay a pure melee, if you are a dedicated weapon user, going for bow is viable and strong since you are pumping stamina, so it will benefit from it far more than if you were to use a resto staff on a purely melee (stamina focused) character.

Now it comes down to wear heavy armor or not, obviously you get better resistances at the trade of less stamina management, but if you can pump that stamina up and up and up, it should work to stay and focus on heavy armor, but medium will always benefit you more. Of course you can go 4/3, but you would lose a lot from both armor trees, while gaining a little from both.

Don't hold lag as a cause, not for now anyway, its gonna be a stress test, there will be lag.

Also any character you choose for melee you have AAAALLLLWAAYS more range than a pure ranged character.

DK fiery grip

templar javelin, ball of god that hurts even without magicka pumping, charge, pure slaughter.

Nb just teleport /lol

All of these close gap spells have MORE ranged than the actual range of pure range characters, so getting to them shouldn't be difficult, staying alive after killing them is another deal.

you can always go with the pack and simply ping pong ranged chaarcters with fiery grip javelin spam, since hey, their range isn't that rangeful after all lol.

Remember that u have the option to switch between 2 weapon set ups, so u can use a melee set up and a ranged set up. Works well for pve and pvp, thats why I designed my dk build as dual wield + bow. Also I do believe that melee has a enormous advantage over ranged in short range, u just need to be skilled enough to keep that range while attacking them.

Melee will always have uses though, just ranged seems to have more advantages.

I mean this game has no CD's and Critical charge seems like a wonderful gap closer for 2H weapon users.

Okay story time.

As warrior in WoW, I will always have my Sword and Board and sit in defensive stance, until I was sure that focus wasn't on me then I would swap to battle stance and go to my 2H weapon.

Honestly I suggest as melee to run Sword and board, a bow or a resto staff, as your 2nd weapon.

ok great this is sounding much better. i forgot about gap closers...

but still the advantage of defending and attacking keeps as a ranged is far suprior, unless you can charge up walls :/ Being able to sit at the top of the keep and rain fire down on the helpless melee underfoot seems very appealing.

You can't expect to be up front in melee and not take a lot of damage, its just not rational.

You basically have frontline tanks/heavies, then ranged damage dealers in the back with healers in the middle. If you want to play as a heavy armor melee character, then you will probably be okay in pvp up on the front lines soaking damage and swinging away furiously at the enemy ranks.

If you want to play as a squishier melee like an assassin, then you basically need to roam around in smaller groups and not engage in bigger battles. Or you can sneak up behind the enemy lines and try to pick off ranged/healers that stray too far from their group, or are wounded.

i played Melee in GW2 and in the GvG pvp zones melee was destroyed, large packs of players all floating around together firing ranged everything out leaves the few Melee in the middle helpess and doomed.

Well everyone has a job at sieging a keep.

You may be manning a siege weapon

Defending a seige weapon.

Slaying enemy players

Sitting near the road to block reinforcments.

Those are a few things I named and there are still tons of more things you can do in siege, sure range can shoot people on the wall, but I am sure you won't be sitting there as death fodder while you wait for the wall to fall.

Well GW2 doesn't have the trinity so they don't have the lovely healers to heal up their melees

I personally am going to play Destro staff/Resto staff Sorcs, I plan on playing more of a support role.

Every class has its uses. I played a Nightblade and spent my time between killing players and burning their crap to the ground. Then if they made it through the walls, I groupd up and put as much hurt down as i could on key players. I felt no disadvantage. Now if you want to add a mod and watch the numbers roll during a zerg then fine, but that is not my style.

Remember you can use two weapons (two skillbars) so as a meleer just bring a bow with you.

2h has a jump with half a map, makes the hulk shiver in shame, also when you arrive you knock your target like a bad ass, for pvp, if melee, go 2h.

(oh and thats 1 weapon skill ONLY, dk, templar and nb, all 3 have some magicka based gap closer as well)

There are a number of teleport to, charge, or yank opponents to you type skills as well as the ability to somewhat set up stun-lock builds or snare enemies to defeat ranged kiting builds.

Sorcs has a blink that gives you a spell shield, That is pretty gap closing to me, also they have increased speed lighting form that makes you beefer and increases Movement speed.

ok thanks guys. there is obiously more to the PvP than i think, its not just player vs player head on its strategy which i love!

ok /thread thanks again all!!!!

Lets not forget that werewolves get a "pounce" ability that has 20 meter range, and increased movement speed.

Just so you all know, ranged isn't very ranged at all. You can shoot your bow like 30 feet tops, everyone in tamriel is apparently packing slingshots. Most every charge ability can take you right to them, also, use the Steed stone, it increases your run speed which will give you an edge.

for the steed stone part, that can be taken out of equation since everyone can use that.

But yea, class/weapon skill based on melee offer a type of gap closer that is equal to the range you have already, and the scatter shot ability is severely lacking since max you get is maybe 10 m of range (which is nothing since AA has almost 3m* range already)

*(or yards, cant remember how they put it ingame)