Skill points

[Religolibri]

You can go in hide really fast if not dotted, you mez the tank and deal with the weaker opponent. It's imba in pvp. There's no chance you can apply dot with it so it don't break by himself.
It's a powerful tool that can save the ass of lots of people and reverse a situation which wasn't on your side.

The best use you can do with it in minis, is after you die and come back to where things boil up. You go in hide at the last moment before joining teammates and mez the right enemy depending on situation.
Unusable ? Come on...I don't even think I played a mini without doing this at least 3 times.

[Touchii]

I agree with Aell on mezz shot, it sucks

[GeneralFear]

lol, crappy ranger never using melee. Go roll demo.

Looks like we play the same toon, but have opposite views on how to play it, lol. The only melee combo that would make sense for a ranger besides the two CCs, imo, would be one called Coup de Grace, or something like that. It would work sorta like a melee TtS, dealing massive damage to finish an opponent off who is already on low health. But it should have a long cooldown, so you couldn't use it as an opener, or stand there spamming it like that stupid-looking, idiotic deft stabs. The main tactic for a ranger should be to stay out and get out of melee range, plain and simple. That's why it's called a RANGEr, not a MELEEr. Just my opinion though... guess we have to agree to disagree.

[Aell]

That's why it's called a RANGEr, not a MELEEr.

Not this rampant fúckwittery again.

A ranger is called a ranger because he ranges. He is a scout, a skirmisher. As such, melee abilities are not only appropriate, they are essential.

Is etymology too hard for you?

[-tomhet-]

ranger is a forest protector.
a traker and a hunter skilled both in melee combat and the usage of bow silent and deadly in the forest.

[GeneralFear]

Not this rampant fúckwittery again.

A ranger is called a ranger because he ranges. He is a scout, a skirmisher. As such, melee abilities are not only appropriate, they are essential.

Is etymology too hard for you?

Eytomology isn't the issue. The ranger HAS melee abilities now... just not as strong as his ranged ones... and that's the way it should be as far as I'm concerned. It just seems to me that if melee was so important for the ranger in AoC, then it would be impossible to shoot a bow or xbow at close range (as in Wow). But it isn't. Personally, I like the AoC ranger playstyle much more than the WoW one. That's why I play this game. End of story.

[Religolibri]

Aoc gives much more liberty to player. It still look dub when somebody come at close range of rangers and the only thing they do is jumping, between bow white hits and finisher. Looks ugly as **** imho. But well ok, they can keep that like that.

[viroku]

Eytomology isn't the issue. The ranger HAS melee abilities now... just not as strong as his ranged ones... and that's the way it should be as far as I'm concerned. It just seems to me that if melee was so important for the ranger in AoC, then it would be impossible to shoot a bow or xbow at close range (as in Wow). But it isn't. Personally, I like the AoC ranger playstyle much more than the WoW one. That's why I play this game. End of story.

Well if you always play ranger at maximum range it means you are not playing it in best way possible for team. Than you just keep traps for your benefit only and if you lay them pre fight and people run away instead going for you they are wasted.
But lets forget about that, i dont see reason why you wouldnt use melee cc if your traps are on cd? knock, fire trap, deft stabs+fire advantage is quick and nice burst.
Im not saying im using melee all the time on my ranger, specially since i have only pvp 5 sword on it but it has its usage

[skavenkris]

Actually you are all forgetting the main ability that used to allow Rangers to combine melee with ranged, that is Immolation. Prior to 1.4 it was the best way for Rangers to get in close range and survive, I loved using it. Now it is hidden at the end of the least used tree line which absolutely nobody feats (or barely remembers it apparently).

I haven't seen a ranger use it literally in years, for a good reason. I tried it early on, but it just takes away your best weapons for little/no return. It was always a situational ability, but it did give us more options.

Mezz sucks btw, though I still use it occasionally.

If I wanted to melee I could play a barb. If Funcom wants to allow barbs to use a bow with some worthless combo similar to our deft stabs, that would be fine with me; not that the Trolls wouldn't find something else to QQ about.

I suppose if Funcom really cared about the couple of Rangers who want to combine ranged and melee without going back to original trees pre 1.4 (but not including several Trolls in this discussion) they could for example swap feat tree locations of shield bash for survivalist, and Master Trapper for Marked Target; would not even need to design new feats or create whole new trees.

Please note this would result in the reduction of the use of Master Trapper...

[Aell]

If Funcom wants to allow barbs to use a bow with some worthless combo similar to our deft stabs, that would be fine with me;

Me too. Actually I'd like to see every melee class get a ranged combo.

I'd also like to see mana-users get a melee combo. Because hitting things is fun and it might just convince those losers to drop the 2-button easymode stuff.