Almost 30 years of gaming... and first time i EVER played a ranged character.

i'm 33.
the very first game i ever played was the original "Golden Axe" from 1989, i was 7.
Even in that game, i refused to use the "ranged" (the special skill when you collected enough bottles) skills. Close-combat was the way to go for me.

Every rpg, mmorpg, mmo, everything you can imagine, the first thing i looked out for was "barbarian" or "warrior". I guess it was a habbit.

I have played numerous mmorpg's you probably never heard of, like "The Realm Online" from Sierra or "Legends of Future Past".

I even played Diablo and World of Warcraft. As Melee offcourse, i can't even imagine those games without a WW-Barbarian or a Melee DPS Human Warrior. My buddy played hunter, but i was like "whatever... melee man".

Years passed, and i got introduced to Path of Exile.
I had Diablo 3 pre-ordered. But i never picked it up. I was too busy in real life and quite frankly, i was scared of the game. I had played Diablo 2 LoD for years and reached a point i was a very respected member of the community. I didn't wanted to go back to the "18 hours a day farm" days.

After trying numerous of games, i came to realize i had no choice. It was either Diablo 3 or Path of Exile.
I got to be honest, for a free developer game, this game is the ultimate. You will simply not find a better AMmorpg for free. Not even close.

So, after years of Melee'ing in Path of Exile, i came to realization that i was simply playing the game for loot. I never took in account the ammount of deaths. I always picked up paths of melee. Stuff like "Cleave" and "Infernal Blow". But i finally, after so many years, came to realize :
Path of Exile is all about "Ranged".
Close combat? fuck you. Sure Cyclone and stuff, but really, compared to Ranged, fuck you!.

So a couple days ago i was like "hey, imma go give ranged a chance".
Since i never ever played ranged, in any game, i looked up some.
I decied to go with a "Tornado/split arrow" Ranger.

And all i have to say is : "All the fun i missed in the 30 years of gaming..."
I am clearing area's at lvl 60 MUCH faster that i was clearing the same area's as lvl 80+ melee.




Why am i posting this?
there are hardcore Melee-fans, like me.
I gave "Ranged" a try, and i didn't regret it a second.
All i am thingking is :
"What if i played Diablo 2 LoD for several years as a Amazon or a Sorceress"?
"What if i played World of Warcraft as a Hunter?

Since i started playing Ranger in Path of Exile, the game completely surprised me as it did like the very first time i played it.
I was playing Path of Exile for "just playing games to pass time", but now PoE completely became a new game to me.


Very first time i ever played a ranged character in any game, in 30 years...
And i must say... BOY I AM LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!!!!!

You had me at Golden Axe <3

Pew Pew! I agree they are loads of fun, I was actually almost exactly like you, strictly Melee for the first 9 or so months I played PoE before trying to make ranged builds. When I finally made my first ranger, I was like "wtf is this easy game" :P

Melee is and will always be my favourite though, I love running up to stuff and smashing it in the face! I just don't limit myself like I used to when it comes to class/playstyle. It keeps the game interesting for me.

Enjoy your ranged adventures!

I was the exact opposite in my preferences. I've always loved the archer and mage character archetypes in every game I've played that offered them. It wasn't until the past 4 or 5 years that I gave melee a shot.

Still prefer ranged, hehe.

PoE actually was the game where i was able to realize my dream of a really powerful Archer-like character. Was just as much fun as i anticipated.

In every MMO I get, I always look for the ability of summoning. Unfortunately for me they most of them disappoint

Nice. I usually played ranged when i was new now all I play is melee. Both melee casters and attacks. Cyclone Discharge is my favorite.

No Contra? :/

In almost every game in existence, when a ranged character is "balanced" compared to a melee character they are still much better on the mechanic of being "ranged." (100 damage up close is still worse then 100 damage far away)

Which then you have to make them statistically weaker then a melee character to achieve the actual metric of "balance." Other methods would be massive benefits to a melee character or arbitrary downsides to a ranged one. (Example melee in D3 has free 30% damage reduction, PoE has fority ect. Other games use ammo system or min range so if stuff gets close you will be unable to fire at it)

In every case people complain that ranged is too weak because to be statistically weaker that means you have to have better gear/be more skilled at kiting to used your advantage of ranged.

i was the same way. melee all the way. the only game before PoE that i played as ranged was Tera, and i highly regret playing an archer over a slayer in that game.

but PoE? i don't know if i'll ever go back to melee

I love playing melee characters, but I pack a bow in my secondary weapon slot in case I need to kite something.