Melee pvp is a nightmare

Lynx7386 · June 2014

Is there any way to actually make melee pvp work in this game?

All of our objective points are fortified. Players fight from atop walls, or have to attack enemies that are atop walls. It seems like both sides of the battle stand back and wait for the enemy to come into their zergwall.

Trying to play a melee combatant in this game is just maddening. You cant attack an enemy, or even get close to an enemy, without being turned into a meat puree by the enemy lines. Hell, there are even NPC casters up on the walls that you simply cannot get to.

Am I wrong in the conclusion that, if you want to pvp in this game, you have to use a ranged weapon? It's all bows and staves on the battlefield now, anyone trying to use dual wield or 2handed or a shield doesnt stand a chance, and even if you dont get slaughtered right away you're pretty much reduced to standing around twiddling your thumbs while the ranged players slug it out to the point that you can charge in without having 15 to 1 odds against.

I have two main characters I split my time between - my first is a dominion khajiit nightblade, who started out with two handed and has since tried out both 1h/shield and dual wield (which I'm using currently). He wears all medium armor, and focuses heavily on crit chance. Stealth seems useless with nearly every caster (which comprises probably 80% of what you see on the battlefield) has magelight up and running, and it seems like even the lowliest enemy NPC is capable of spotting you a mile away through stealth, especially those damn warmages. I cant get into range in any of these big battles, and even if I manage to teleport to an enemy target I get torn apart.

My other character is a daggerfall khajiit templar, wearing 2 heavy/5 light with a resto staff and focusing on healing and ranged casting. He does -great- in pvp (though, granted, not as well as those sorcs and dk's that can still outdamage me). I feel a hell of a lot more useful to my group when I'm holding back and healing my allies, and if anyone gets within 28 meters (more with those alliance war buffs) I can throw out some fiery lightballs to deal some damage, even have a chance at some kills.

Should i just give up on melee entirely at this point and don a bow or (less likely due to my medium armor) a staff? It seems like even in the pve dungeons a ranged damage dealer is far better off with so many point blank aoe spells flying around that have a nasty habit of one shotting melee damage dealers.

I dont necessarily mind the bow, but I wanted to have a front lines character and that just isnt possible right now from what I'm experiencing.

Cody · June 2014

I met this Dc Nb, he was a player that relied on stealth and critical hits, similar to you. he used dual wield daggers. he was pretty awesome. I Never saw him die, and I watched him fight a lot. its not exactly front lines type, but it is melee:/ he used that teleporting strike things NBs have a lot, and I think used haste to attack REALLY fast. you could try something like that. but melee is not impossible. in fact, there are a lot of DK melees out there that do well(granted they do things like spam talons and use all those OP abilities DKs seem to have, but it works)

SwampRaider · June 2014

I used to be a sneaky Medium Armor DW templar who would use a combo of biting jabs, blood craze and blinding light, along with other melee abilities.

I NOW am a Resto staff/bow DPS templar. and my survivability is through the roof. I actually can kill 2 v12 nightblades with relative ease, as opposed ot my melee templar who had a rough time.

Today I became a light armor/staff convert

krim · June 2014

this is why you have two bars....

Lynx7386 · June 2014

What's the point in having two bars if one of them is never actually going to see any use?

I see a lot of players going with one bar for melee and one bar for ranged, but that melee bar is just going to sit there and be useless when you're spending almost all of your time fighting at a distance.

Personally, I use the same weapon type on both bars for my characters now, and simply set up one bar for single target and one for aoe, or one for healing and one for damage. Feels a lot more effective (and intuitive) than using seperate weapons.

krim · June 2014

Lynx7386 wrote: »

What's the point in having two bars if one of them is never actually going to see any use?

I see a lot of players going with one bar for melee and one bar for ranged, but that melee bar is just going to sit there and be useless when you're spending almost all of your time fighting at a distance.

Personally, I use the same weapon type on both bars for my characters now, and simply set up one bar for single target and one for aoe, or one for healing and one for damage. Feels a lot more effective (and intuitive) than using seperate weapons.

I get what you are saying. If you spend most of your time defending keeps melee is definitely not the way to go.