Ranger Archive
Thread: Melee Rangers why bring a knife to a gunfight?
I was just thinking (OMG, call the media, a thought!!) and while I am taking nothing away from the melee rangers... When was the last time anyone hunted without a firearm? (bows not included, no bows here)
Ok, I can see hunting with non-firearm weapons, as the cavemen did. But since the invention of the spear and the sling, virtually all hunting has been done with a weapon. I have never ever seen Kung Pow used to smack a durni into next week.
Hold on, I am not flaming the melee people, just asking a question. A hunting blind won't work for y'all as it is designed for standoff weapons - rifle, shotguns, pistols. Rangers get ranged attack bonuses, not melee bonuses (bonusi ?). Mayhaps the Devs never thought that Quai Chang Caine Flox would be wandering the streets, relentlessly kung fu-ing gubbers. Maybe that's a hint. Maybe that's an oversight. I dunno.
The profession was more or less designed around real life. Very few people hunt with pikes, staffs, swords, or their feet. Not saying you can't do it, just saying it's not practical. I so love being able to shoot a red at range, instead of having to run up to it and smack it about the head and shoulders. I mean what is more cost/time effective - shooting at range and dropping the red line to less than half before the beast charges you--or-- running up to a healthy beast and smacking him about ? Good thing we got medics, as the melee bunch needs them more than I do, a statement from experience on missions.
Anyhow, y'all picked your professions,take thebad with thegood and go from there. One of the meanest hunters I know is a fencer, another is TK. I support their choices, but reserve the right to wonder why.
Once again, this is not a flame, just asking the age old question --- WHY??
JB
Answer: Hunting in SWG is not a gunfight. It's a melee fight.
In the real world, most animals flee from a hunter rather than charge him. In the real world, a hunter can kill an animal in one shot, or in enough shots that any charging animal dies before it closes.
In SWG, MOBS are almost exclusively brave and agressive - even chickens and bunny rabbits charge you if you attack them. And any challenging creature will be next to impossible to kill in one shot, and very difficult to kill before it closes with you. The only way to kill a creature in SWG without engaging in melee is to use tactics to prevent it from closing (warning shot, traps, kiting), or use a pet to engage it in melee while you blast away (and this IS engaging the creature in melee).
The melee ranger merely decides that rather than forestall the charge, he will meet the charge. I am a range and melee scout (hoping to be ranger). I shoot first, do my best to hold off the charge, then switch to melee when the creature finally gets to me ("So, you think you'll be safer in my face? Taste Ryyk Blade you blood-thirsty fiend!")
If ranged hunting in SWG worked like real-world ranged hunting, melee rangers would seem silly. In a world of charging, flesh-and-blood tanks and super-human player characters, it seems to make perfect sense to me.
JB
Well said JB.
Im Master Ranger making my way towards Master TKA. Im an Apprentice Gunfighter but i only use a handgun to call a creature down.
I dont know why anyone would bring a knife to a gunfight, frankly i prefer my fists and feet 
"Hunting in SWG is not a gunfight. It's a melee fight."
I'm with Jai-Bri on this one.
Most of the critters in the game are Melee combatants, so eventually you will end up in close range combat with them.
Those few that have ranged attacks (Spineflaps for instance) will eventually change to a melee attack.
Ranged weapons do have an advantage (stopping kiters, final blows on fleeing critters), but not enough advantage that I would give up TK for Pistol.
OMG THE CARNAGE IT'S LIKE ALL THE GNORTS ARE THE WHITE RABBIT'S FROM MONTY PYTHON.
*paitiently waits to continue rant as noob's head rolls by*
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD RUN! WHERE'S THE HOLY HAND GRENADE OF ANTIOCH WHEN YOU NEED IT!
Because Knives are fun...
And this is not the real world. In the real world I shoot deer with a 7mag Browning and they die with one shot and never charge (bears are a different story). In SWG I can whip out my 2Hand curved sword and cut down giant turtles in three swipes, which is for me much more fun than shooting things with a digital rifle (I have a commando on the Tempest server and rifle 4 was the most boring skill to obtain). Sure a gun is useful for pulling away one critter from a mob that might pack...but traps work the same for that. Being a master swordsman and a master ranger I find that I am in demand more because of my ability to tank and set up nifty camps. In fact the only time I find the sword to be an impractical weapon is in PVP where I risk being kited to death by cowards with guns, althought two stacked mind hits from my hammer insures that they don't run far.
How can you make your foes fear you if they are not near enough to see their doom in your eyes.
I think you are thinking from the human vantage point.
If you have ever seen a reptile hunt, like an iguana, their accuracy and speed is superhuman. An ape, even a chimpanzee is 8 times stronger than a man, an orangatang and gorilla... even stronger. Look at a cat. My cat can jump on a cabinet, to the top of a open door and then to the top of another door to get to the top of a bookcase. An eagle can see a mouse from 1000 feet in the air.
In a game where you are dealing with alien species you can not compare its abilities to your own real world abilities and assume your most efficient way of killing is your most efficient way of killing.
Have you ever seen the movie Alien? Who fared better in that movie? A human with a gun or the alien? Who was the better natural killer... The alien with its bare hands, or the human? Lets say the alien could have used a gun, would it? or would it just disregard the gun and come tear your head off.
Its fair to say that the most efficient method for fighting for some of the alien races like trandoshans is actually better for a melee than ranged; this would be true even when fighting an animal.
Races/beings that prefer to fight with their hands are not new to fantasy/sci-fi and sometimes people try to place to much real world physics on a game where life is measured in points of damage. In the Star Wars world I point you at the Jedi. Despite a Jedi's reflexes and precognition, everytime you see or read about a jedi in a fight in space (Like Obi-Wan and Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones) You cant help but think, "Wow I sure bet this would be over already if Obi-Wan could use his light saber (A melee weapon)."
Well said, Jai-Bri.
From my own perspective, I chose melee for several reasons. The discipline requires you to know your character, and know your skills, weaknesses, the creature you fight, and your surroundings. To do well, you really have to know all of this well.Meleerequires morethinking. Melee takes more heart. As far as communities go, the melee communities seem (in my humble opinion)far more mature, and marginally less apt to rant, flame, and whine.
I apologize if this offends anyone,that is not my intent, but the vast majority of ranged weapon users I run into are very poor, skill-wise. Running around in circles and figure 8s looking like a bloody idiot, bleed-shotting and running away for 5 minutes till it wears off, and getting mobs stuck on terrain and objects is not my idea of good fighting or tactics, nordoes it appeal to me in any sense.
There's some kind of almost savage honor in it for me. To stand there and give as good as I get. It boils down to 2 statements, and which one I prefer:
1. I can go up to 64m from a levelxx creature, shoot it, run around kiting it for 2 minutes, and kill it. And pray god it doesn't hit me more than once.
2. I can walk up to a level xx creature, and throw down toe-to-toe. It may nearly kill me, but I will kill it, and we'll have a winner within 1 minute of time.
-Onei Linn
Sorsha Havblaster: Bria
My answer is simple: It's more fun. Whatever it is I'm fighting,I get to see up close and personal.
I originally started as a rifleman and picked two-handed as my melee backup. Then Iran out of points climbing the Ranger tree and had to pick one or the other. Melee was more fun (and a lot harder to climb)
And harvesting is soooo much easier as a melee fighter. No need to keep running back and forth to shoot, harvest, shoot, harvest. Whatever I kill is laying at my feet and I'm immediately onto the next one.
I'm using a riffle... apperantly very unpopular in some points of views... to bad for them that they have a problem, I don't have a problem. But it sure looks like for some, that it could be turned around.
Comparing that to so high-level of realisme as JB does, is actually a little weird for me... Even though spears, bow, crossbows and such ranged weapons excited in the medieval ages, they still hunted bores with spears in close range, simple because that the hide was to thick (Bad comparing JB, sorry to say)
I got every respect for those choosing melee instead of ranged. I chose ranged because I'm also a PvP'er, not only a PvE'er. I see both advantages and disadvantages no matter what you chose, it's simply a call to what you would like to do. I don't think Tera Kasi Artists have much of a chance of going (without maskscent and concealment) into fighting a mountain squill lair without some sort of backup. Don't say that I can do that (yet), but I've managed to solo a single mountain squill (two was chasing me), it's simple a matter of tactic. On the other hand ranged fighters have problems if they fight to many at a time, and if they don't have their burst run. Running is not a cowardly act, it's a tactic choice, just as how you hunt
(Okay may sound a little weird, just so tired. And appologises if there is to many typos...)
Excellent point, JB. As I get higher on the TKA tree (nearing master), I'm finding I stand a much better chance of staying alive, and so I'm enjoying more and more my Ranger/TKA choice (it was not quite as fun when I had to punch chubas because everything else would take me out.) Sure, this applies to every skill tree, but I DO actually enjoy being in the fight.
Granted, we serve therole of Intelligent Pets when groupingwith others.ButI'm right in there with the pets, punching those Ravenous Tortons (or other dinosaurs) in the face, and loving it. I can keep their pets alive with my specials, run away when I need to heal, and jump right back in. No, I don't do the thousands of damage points that my CH/Rifle friends do, but I contribute quite a bit and help save others when needed.
The real sorrow of a TKA is fighting large creatures, especially on a slope. It's bad enough that their ideal range is outside my max range--so they keep moving away from me. Now, put a dinosaur on a major slope and just TRY to hit him as he sprints +/- 30m from your position! It's semi-maddening, so I'll pull them to flatter ground if possible . I'm also sad that I can't really help with larger Krayts and other monsters that tend to hit for 2K (well without lotsa food, drugs and armor, anyway.) My traps don't work on em, if i hit them once I'm dead....but hey, I CAN use Intimidate on em! Oh well....
Didn't realize the irritation that marksmen get during harvesting...that's kinda funny. But yeah, I do harvest as they drop and move to the next one; it's quick and easy.
I think thatmost melee players agree that melee is fun! What could be better than to actually see that Kaadu quacking at you as you strike it repeatedly? Perhaps it's not the optimal hunting solution, but I don't wanna be a Bounty Hunter/Ranger.