Hi Thomas.
I watched the recent streams you had with Zizaran and Raxx.
You talked a bit about the problem with ranged playstyle (Basic attacks being ranged), and that enemies would die before they engage with you, which kind of ruins the combat aspect of the game.
I can understand that. Here is a solution on how to fix it…
(WE ARE MANY WHO WANTS TO PLAY AS TRUE MAGES OR ARCHERS)
Solution:
- Turn basic attacks on wands & bows into ranged attacks (Potentially also staffs)
- Reduce basic attack DMG on these weapons with 50%
- Increase focus generation on these weapons with 50%
Result:
- True mages and archers can exist - Even during the early game (100% Ranged playstyle)
- Enemies do NOT die before they engange (Due to very low basic attack DMG on ranged weapons)
- Ranged weapons acts like an increased focus generator, while putting out reduced DMG
(If this require a small nerf to runes that support ranged attacks on these weapons, due to the increased focus generation, then that is a compromise im more than willing to take)
Would love your opinion on this solution 
Stamina based attacks for bows and wands with only damage reduction aren’t a solution, especially when you also want them to generate more focus. (Fast focus generation already trivialize whole combat)
Since we have weapon swap… it will trivialize combat even more with stamina based ranged attacks which also generate extra focus.
There is already a solution to your problem: Parry and there is also focus on dodge affix if you can’t parry.
And if none that works, you can also go play Diablo or PoE.
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That’s not really an honest solution tho. I like a ranged melee hybrid and am a parry enjoyer…
That said if you’re playing with a bow the entire point is to start the fight shooting then you can jump in with melee (imo pure ranged feels boring).
At this point I think giving ranged weapons charges for “autos” maybe 3-4 (not a crafted arrow) which you gain passively over time (in and out of combat). That way you have more than 0 basic attacks from range that don’t require focus and less that unlimited attacks with stamina. Kinda like hunger but for ranged attacks. As long as you don’t regen too fast it could be a nice alternative resource spam.
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I think the better solution is this:
Make their stamina basic attack be an MELEE range SPELL. This could even be an AOE type of thing and is used for generating focus.
The rune attacks could then be ranged.
This solves the ranged issue without taking away being a ‘mage’.
Another possible solve is to reduce damage by distance for ‘stamina’ attacks. So for bows (and potentially spells) you could have the normal stamina attack be very weak damage wise and reduced focus gen. Basically you get max focus gain/damage when the distance is melee range and this drops off over distance.
Rune attacks would still be powerful.
I think this may solve the issue of cheesing the system.
Thoughts?
A melee auto attack feels rather redundant when it’s an offhand item to me. And impractical if it was a 2H main weapon.
I like ranged + melee but can’t stand the visuals of carrying a sword and now or any other 1H plus bow. So it’s knife+bow for me. I’d be nice if there was a 1H fist to pair with now but I digress.
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Yes I did half the campaign as 1-h dagger and bow. I’m not a fan of bow being an off hand 1-h weapon. I think it should be 2-h. You can still toggle to knives or whatever…that’s the whole reason multiple main handers exist. I personally would be fine with building focus up meelee 2-h knives then unleashing bow attacks…but there’s a group that just want to play bow. So…that’s the solution I was trying to present.
You could I suppose allow an arrow stab when in melee range like Legolas does.
Personally I’d still like to try charges on the auto before anything else just to see how it feels but I will say another thing I’ve asked for in the past could help.
Let it function as a weapon swap on hovering the rune input regardless of weapon in main hand.
For example if you’re playing bow + knife you could say you’re more carrying a bow and a knife the bow is only really equipped when you stow the knife by hovering the rune input.
Probable is this interaction doesn’t happen with 2H weapons in the main slot. If they fixed it so can play 2H and bow on one item slot each I think it’d improve the feel of melee/ranged hybrid and the identity of bow in general.
That said, why I’m still on the charges aspect is that if you can generate focus to auto attack you can also gain focus to spam any other ranged abilities. Same goes for stamina. If you have a ranged weapon and you just can’t use it, it feels like what’s the point, right?
With charges there’s a much more, pick your spot kind of approach. Honestly the system could be expanded to all ranged abilities so that they consume a certain amount of charges based on their usefulness. That way ranged players can not play the entire game at an arms reach, but they can feel like the weapon their carrying has impact.
I do feel the elegant solution would be for bows to use a self-regenerating ammo system that generates one ammo charge per 2-3 seconds, with a cap of 10, so you can’t just spam safe range but have the option of ranged attacks and making them count when you need them while being able to generate focus for rune attacks.
For staff and wands it’s a difficult balance, because I know range affords some safety, but at the same time cloth armor is so fragile that you need that safety because melee on cloth armor is just suicide to generate focus. Then again, so many enemies have ranged attack spam or screen length lunge attacks that the range safety argument starts falling apart.
The mage playstyle just does not feel good as it exists because right now mesh melee builds can cast spells just as well by doing more melee damage with melee weapons and having significantly better survivability to boot and their melee weapons even stagger really well on top of doing more damage.
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