The combat styles are not balanced

[MyNameReggin]

After 42 hours, my tier list is:

1. Melee
2. Ranged
3. Magic

Melee is heavily favoured especially when vault clearing. You have defence: parry, dodge, block and tempest shield. You have good offence with immediate counters and spell buffs.

Ranged, the damage is higher but you are animation locked and forced to dodge which consumes a lot of stamina. This feels balanced after getting the crystal bow which has a special that can stun but that is end game. The lack of mobility does not justify this style and really falls off at Tier 3/4. Your dps is falls off the cliff as enemies are tanky now. Overall dps is lower.

Magic is ass after Tier 2 and it is still ass after getting the staff of light. It has the best cc out of the 3 styles but the damage is so ass. However, this is my go to deer killer.

There is no prayer in the upcoming roadmap. So ranged and magic has 0 defence other than dodging. I am forced to run a shield + tempest shield as a secondary to maintain dps. They should remove the animation lock, allow these styles to at least run/walk while shooting. Kiting needs to become a viable play style. Also to buff both dps.

I can only see ranged and magic to be viable in PVP.

[BobDinosaur]

Ranged and Magic skills are not implemented yet, which is one reason this is so. Animation lock is another.

[Bear^]

Given that ranged and magic isn't implemented yet it's difficult to say if it's balanced or not. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out in the end.

[Masquerine]

One advantage range/magic has is that if you jump on an object that's like 5' above or below an enemy where they are unable to path to it, they just stand still and let you kill them for free. They have no survival instinct to avoid out of reach abuse.

[1966madmax]

Originally posted by MyNameReggin:

After 42 hours, my tier list is:

1. Melee
2. Ranged
3. Magic

Melee is heavily favoured especially when vault clearing. You have defence: parry, dodge, block and tempest shield. You have good offence with immediate counters and spell buffs.

Ranged, the damage is higher but you are animation locked and forced to dodge which consumes a lot of stamina. This feels balanced after getting the crystal bow which has a special that can stun but that is end game. The lack of mobility does not justify this style and really falls off at Tier 3/4. Your dps is falls off the cliff as enemies are tanky now. Overall dps is lower.

Magic is ass after Tier 2 and it is still ass after getting the staff of light. It has the best cc out of the 3 styles but the damage is so ass. However, this is my go to deer killer.

There is no prayer in the upcoming roadmap. So ranged and magic has 0 defence other than dodging. I am forced to run a shield + tempest shield as a secondary to maintain dps. They should remove the animation lock, allow these styles to at least run/walk while shooting. Kiting needs to become a viable play style. Also to buff both dps.

I can only see ranged and magic to be viable in PVP.

I can't hope for the next roadmap. Ranged and magic attacks therefore have no defenses, except for dodging. I'm forced to use a shield and a storm shield as secondary weapons to maintain my DPS. They should remove animation lock and allow these styles to at least run/walk while shooting. Kiting needs to become a viable playstyle, and also to improve both DPS.
I played the game avoiding melee. Ranged combat is very good if you combine the magic bow/staff with mage armor, which gives you a -50% Stamina Regen Delay buff. With this buff, don't move for 1 second and your stamina is at max.
Longbows are very good and are my favorites. With Hunter's Stagbow, it takes 2 to 3 shots to kill Tier 4 mobs. For bosses, you can take out Vulgar from a distance without any problems and quickly.
As for magic staffs, fire magic is destructive on goblins and werewolves. With the air magic, you can kill the werewolf king without any problems. The special attack unbalances him, then two normal attacks and you start again. No problem.
Short bows like the Crystal Bow are good in melee, but for damage, nothing beats longbows.
You say that at levels 3/4 your damage per second (DPS) drops considerably, and that's not true. You kill werewolf rangers in 2 shots with the Hunter's Stagbow, wolves in one shot if you're not too far away, otherwise two shots. Bosses like Vulgar are a real pleasure to see your health bar drop so quickly. Magic isn't useless; it allows you to easily destroy mob troops when you know how to use it. Waves of goblins attacking you are easily dealt with with fire magic. Area magic allows you to temporarily knock down or paralyze enemies, then deal them one or two normal attacks, and then start again.
Choosing the right armor type is very important. If you have stamina issues, choose mage armor. If you have movement speed issues, then choose archer armor, and for tank-type defense, choose warrior armor. It all depends on your playstyle.

[Rose Brigade]

I'm gonna be honest, I found myself overpowered with Range and Magic more than Melee, and that's considering Melee has boosts with the leveling.
Sure your Parry combo is strong, but with Fire combo with magic, I can destroy swaths of enemies at a distance or up close without getting touched, and with Ranged, Charged headshots are 1-2 shots for pretty much everything in the game including T3-4 Vault guardians. The only non-boss enemy I've never 1-2 shot are the Garou Thanes, and those only take like 5 full charged headshots.
I wouldn't say anythings balanced, but I definitely have concerns for when we DO get Ranged/Magic unlocked because if they feel this strong now, what are they gonna be like after the skills unlock.

[1966madmax]

Originally posted by Rose Brigade:

I'm gonna be honest, I found myself overpowered with Range and Magic more than Melee, and that's considering Melee has boosts with the leveling.
Sure your Parry combo is strong, but with Fire combo with magic, I can destroy swaths of enemies at a distance or up close without getting touched, and with Ranged, Charged headshots are 1-2 shots for pretty much everything in the game including T3-4 Vault guardians. The only non-boss enemy I've never 1-2 shot are the Garou Thanes, and those only take like 5 full charged headshots.
I wouldn't say anythings balanced, but I definitely have concerns for when we DO get Ranged/Magic unlocked because if they feel this strong now, what are they gonna be like after the skills unlock.

It's the same style as what I wrote and indeed when the magic and ranged skills are unlocked it's going to be crazy at a distance