Melee vs. Ranged (PVE)

Anyone else have issues trying to successfully melee archers (PVE) in the game? I find it annoying, and at times difficult to chase them down to line up attacks. As often as not I find myself exercising a tactical retreat to drop extra aggro.

I've built around plate/shield/bludgeon, with earth fist for combo.

I'll usually use autoattack and random deck. I tend to move with mouse, and do combos and stacks (usually 2-3, 4 is pretty rare) using r key and 1-5 (I load most of my direct attacks 1-5, defensive skills and heals 6-0).

Elf archers are a good example. They'll constantly run away, shoot, run away, shoot... basically kiting me (yeah, I know it sounds hypocritical, "It's OK when I kits mobs in an MMO, but not fair when they do it to ME...").

Trying to maneuver to follow and line up attacks is not only a pain, it screws with the camera, because I'll get "dragged" (yes, it's me moving) through scenery like trees and completely lose visual.

So, before I go posting suggestions, since this has probably been discussed 100x:

1. Anything like /stick in the game?
2. Any good tactics folks are using to help with twitchy ranged foes, particularly those with slows?
3. Any *realiable* way to break line of sight to force a follow? I've had near-zero luck trying to put obstacles between us to avoid being pulled into more hostile mobs.
4. Are there tools I'm unaware of? I've got a fair number of stuns/KDs, but once the 20 second "cc defense" kicks in they do nothing about 99% of the time. I don't see any way (other than perhaps "trip" in the subterfuge line? But that seems like another pain to line up against fleeing targets.) to get snares or extra positional punishment.

 

I usually just get between them and the direction I don't want them to run, effectively pushing them out the mob aggro zone as they doesn't seem to run past you that often. They usually run the direction your facing, works for me at least with ranged mobs it's not 100% but I seem to be able to move them where I want more often than not. Hope that helps!

 

That's useful, thanks. I've had some luck with that...some mobs like the Reif-whatevers up north seem to be pretty herd-able, some like elves tend to run back through/around me. But you're right - any port in a storm!

 

Root them

 

Do you mean the earth spell "root?" I'm a little concerned about the fizzle... wearing heavy plate it's base 25% fizzle. Thoughts on success? Worth trying, I supposed. Only 100 gold.

Oh, and does "root" persist through damage?

 

Yes, earth spell Root. It definitely is worth of trying. And yes it lasts even if you hit your target.

 

I also use the root spell to stick them in place.

 

Yep, if your working earth magic anyways, root is a must. I wish the recharge time was a bit faster. But yeah. Also, shoot em back with a Obsidian arrow thing. Give em a taste of their own medicine!

 

So one week after wipe and players, myself included are roaming Tier 4s with ease - any problems with that?

Also Melee taking on a Ranged fighter - I should be hard and the Ranged fighter should work to stay away - I know I would.

There are many ways to tangle ranged chars - and it just takes time to learn them, and the skills needed to do it effectively (1 week - to soon)

 

Root 'em, stun 'em, use pets to distract 'em; avoid more than one of 'em, shield from 'em, hide from 'em, be quick to get rid of 'em!

 

@Weins201:

If "tier" means the number of skulls, then I typically hunt tiers 3-4. I don't have any real issues with melee types, nor casters, can usually take a couple at a time of yellows, or even 3-4, kill/loot one or two, retreat, come back.

As I said, the issue is archers who slow, run, shoot, slow, run, shoot. And honestly I've never died to them since wipe - it's just annoying, especially when my camera is 'dragged' through terrain as I try to hit them. It takes me on the order of 2-3 times as long to kill them because they just run all over the place.

I don't understand your insinuation that "one week is too soon." Are you saying that at some future point I'll have skills to combat this? I played before wipe. And same issue.

I'm asking what the "plenty of ways to tangle ranged chars" are. Here's what I know so far:

1. KD. Great, except for increasing immunity to CC, which makes it work ~once per fight unless it drags way on. I have this.
2. Stuns. OK, except see above, and they're percentage based and not especially reliable. I have this.
3. Earth root. It's ... ok. It does help a bit, but around levels 10-20 it's something like a few seconds cast, a few seconds' worth of root which is sometimes shaken off in about a second, then about 20 seconds of cooldown. So, again, about once a fight. I have this. It's certainly better than nothing, but I'm not working earth magic seriously; my intention was to test the real viability of a near-pure tank.

Complicating factors:
1. Practically ALL casts are iffy. Ref my opening post: heavy armor, weapon & shield. So I'm looking at 25% and up fizzle. That's not reliable for controls when I need it, and I have no plans to go deep in the focus tree to shave a few percentage points off fizzle.
2. Melee damage, at least for me now, is LOW. I've worked auto-attack, charged attack, and I use all useful combos and stacks as they pop up. I am working on strength, and the passive weapon damage skills. But even with crafted weapons (~iron is about all I can afford; not playing sufficient hours per day to have 10k to drop every few days as weapons break) it takes a while to beat down yellows. I take little damage doing it, so this is not worrisome. But it complicates the above.
3. I find trying to score a melee hit on an actively fleeing target, most especially trying to line up a combo or 2-3 stack, hard. That seems like a test of player dexterity, not intended game design. I'll quite often see a combo visually execute and it's not evaluated as a hit or miss - it happens when the fleeing archer is out of range.

Pets? I don't have any. What pets would a plate tank have until way, way deeper in skill points?

To make sure I'm being clear, this isn't a vent or rant. I was honestly asking what tools others used to solve the tactical challenge. If several others felt like it was inordinately annoying, as I do, then it might be worth a suggestion post. If I'm essentially booed off stage, then I won't bother. Just wanted to have the discussion. Personally, it seems to me like a fleeing target could be penalized, made very vulnerable. For example, turning to flee might dramatically lower resistance to all CC, making stuns or snares much more reliable. Or, strikes on a fleeing target might bypass a significant portion of armor, or greatly reduce dodge. Then turning your back on the tank would be a tactical choice with real consequences.

Although, I am curious whether players running "T4s with ease" are similar enough in template to mine to actually be relevant. My friends who play archer and caster archetypes have zero issues with archers. Of course.