What constitutes melee damage?

LizziAS · October 2018

Specifically, does a bow do melee damage?

Merlin13KAGL · October 2018

No, bow is ranged.

Melee is Dual Wield, S&B, 2H.

It's not about distance, it's about weapon type.

EDIT *Additional requirements and exceptions in comment #7.

Mayrael · October 2018

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

No, bow is rannged.

Melee is Dual Wield, S&B, 2H.

It's not about distance, it's about weapon type.

So you wanna tell me that hidden blade is melee?

TheShadowScout · October 2018

I always thought "melee damage" is damage done by physical melee weapons like swords, axes, maces... you know, the kind of things you need to go close to an anamy to use.

While bow would be "ranged damage"... no matter if you use it to shoot that arrow at a target 30 feet away, or at the one standing right next to you...

And then there is "spell damage", which usually would be all the magical stuff; including class skills, tho stamina morphs make this a little less clear-cut...

Chilly-McFreeze · October 2018

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

No, bow is rannged.

Melee is Dual Wield, S&B, 2H.

It's not about distance, it's about weapon type.

Flurry's first 4 hits and that flying dagger would like to have a word with you

Ladislao · October 2018

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

No, bow is rannged.

Melee is Dual Wield, S&B, 2H.

It's not about distance, it's about weapon type.

It's not about weapon type.

In general, direct damage stamina skill with <5m radius deals melee damage. For example, Venomous Claw (Ardent Flame), Whirlwind (Dual Wield), Low Slash (One Hand and Shield).
But at the same time there are several exceptions, for example, Blade Cloak (Dual Wield) or Relequen set (fixed bug).

Honestly, this is such a slippery topic that it is easier to personally check the interesting skills with a set like Viper's Sting.

Merlin13KAGL · October 2018

Mayrael wrote: »

So you wanna tell me that hidden blade is melee?

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Flurry's first 4 hits and that flying dagger would like to have a word with you

Let me clarify. "Melee" in this game is based on weapon type regarding LA/HA. So, no bow, regardless of distance.

Regarding skills, again, falls under the melee weapon lines, and has a 'range' of 5m or 7m (IDR which one, but I beleive it's tje latter - the same distance at which you can still land a LA/HA) or less.

So, no, hidden blade is a ranged attack in an otherwise melee line. Flurry should absolutely count as melee (assuming my 7m recall is correct). It gets convoluted between direct damage and DoT/channel regarding CP, but it should still fall in the melee range.

There will be exceptions (Shield charge probably isn't considered official 'melee' either). Bow, however, can never be one of those exceptions. (IMO, it should be, if you're close range, and damage should be increased, but this is not how ZoS defines things. Eat an arrow from full draw at point blank, and it's gonna hurt a whole lot more than one that travels 40m)

So it's still less about distance (which should be the defining factor, and more about weapon choice.

TL;DR; Bow/staves have zero change of being melee, bash being the exception. Short range attacks, including LA/HA will be. @Ladislao is correct in that there are also melee skills from non-weapon lines.

I'd go with "physical" damage, 5m or less ("physical" including in game listed: physical damage, poison damage (tooltip, not enchants or crafted), disease damage sourced from a 5m or shorter range skill. Magic, Oblivion, Elemental and /or >5m, not.

You can always test by throwing on some Viper and seeing what does/does not proc.

It's yet one more thing in this game that is both unintuitive and very poorly defined.

Ratzkifal · October 2018

Bashing with a bow = ranged attack?

ssorgatem · October 2018

Aren't Destructive Touch and Impulse melee abilities? (from destro staff)

Merlin13KAGL · October 2018

Bashes are always melee.

DivineFirstYOLO · October 2018

There is not really a red line you can follow..

As far as i remember the initial hit of flurry is considered melee damage, but the other ticks are DoTs.

Steel tornado on the other hand is melee (no matter what range). I tested if orc passive (swift warrior - increases your damage with melee weapon attacks by 2/3/4 percent) increases steel tornado damage last week on PTS. No matter what range - it always did more damage when i had a point into the passive - tested 1-2m away from dummy and also as far as possible so that i would still hit it, 8-9m.

Steel tornado also procs ravager...

Remember to always test stuff on your own..there is a lot of BS on the forums and sometimes stuff gets changed without being mentioned in patch notes.

Merlin13KAGL · October 2018

DivineFirstYOLO wrote: »

There is not really a red line you can follow..

As far as i remember the initial hit of flurry is considered melee damage, but the other ticks are DoTs.

@DivineFirstYOLO That's direct damage vs DoT damage.

Bloodthirst morph is not melee, any of the hits.
Steel Tornado and Deadly cloak are melee, even though they technically shouldn't be.

Steel tornado on the other hand is melee (no matter what range). I tested if orc passive (swift warrior - increases your damage with melee weapon attacks by 2/3/4 percent) increases steel tornado damage last week on PTS. No matter what range - it always did more damage when i had a point into the passive - tested 1-2m away from dummy and also as far as possible so that i would still hit it, 8-9m.

Steel tornado also procs ravager...

Remember to always test stuff on your own..there is a lot of BS on the forums and sometimes stuff gets changed without being mentioned in patch notes.

In short, it's completely stupid, like most of the categorizations this game offers, and should be verified in game, as you suggest.

Don't even trust the tooltip - let the proc sets tell you what's really going on behind the scenes.

The fact that you can make contact at 5 meters with a 6 inch dagger is the first indicator their methods are jacked up. It only goes downhill from there.

Viper to test for melee.
Skoria to test for DoTs
Nerien'eth to test for Direct damage.