Why do you play light armor or a ranged spec in OPR?

General Discussion General Discussion
41

I play a ranged spec because it allows me to get a good view of the whole battlefield. With my bow and my build I consider myself an opportunity maker. I can see and pick off stragglers and flankers. I can contest other bows/mages and even musket players (yes I will actually countersnipe other muskets from 100m away). My opening shot will chunk healers enough to force a retreat or to keep them focused on survival. In the middle of a clump I can see who is low and hit either the whole group at once with a pen arrow or explosive shot, or I can focus the injured target with a volley using rapid shot. I can also hold a point vs solo players very well and can assist my team pushing across the field with my charged shots while staying in base.

While my bow is my primary support weapon, and typically nets me the most kills/damage from outranging most opponents and supporting my team, my sidearm the rapier is my actual main weapon and serves me well in escaping a gank or engaging in 1v1 or 1v2 scenarios. I can put serious pressure on healers and fight against most melee specs with its versatility and mobility. I do run the typical Grace tree since it is the most viable side and works in any scenario. Evade is more often used offensively, Fleche to escape ganks, and Riposte where needed (typically for defense against cc lock since most people can easily see and avoid it but can be used to catch people off guard sometimes).

The caveat to this is that I dont run light like most other players. I run medium as that is the most comfortable for me to engage other melee range opponents as well as quickly sidestep attacks without being out of range of a counterattack. It allows me to fluidly move between attacks and sometimes several opponents coupled with rapiers skills. In the other hand I sometimes cant escape or even catch certain builds that do use light armor, but I am able to safely engage without worrying about being 2 shot and the bow is still useful against those who try to run. Its a ranged skirmisher build that is mostly supportive in a team but still capable in solo situations.

I’ve been a bow/rapier main since the start so I have been through most iterations of the build through various buffs/nerfs. Its fairly strong now and even stronger in a light build. They do need to touch on rapiers blood tree IMO. It could be solid but right now its not quite good enough to warrant use over the versatility of grace.

42

I play a musket because I like guns. I have played a musket since launch day.

However. The reason I do not play melee or even mage is because of how fast I get destroyed in melee range.

In 5 stacks of resilience and 8x diamond gems and heavy armor I was getting obliterated in melee.

Recently tried mage, I got was literally globaled in 1-2 seconds after being stunned.

I swapped back to Musket mid OPR. At least I can have some fun.

43

Damage / Burst , otherwise you cant kill a fckn healer at all

44

Thats my feeling as well. People act like light armor rolling takes skill. Its a misconception. Its the easy mode of this game.

Light armor melee is 10x easier than medium or heavy when a healer isnt propping you up.

1 Like
45

true
Light armor and hatchet is absolutely the most forgiving combo in the game

46

Its the most forgiving melee combo. It is nowhere near as survivable as Rapier or even Mage + Entombed.

47

Simple, melee is miserable unless you are full light and smashing your forehead on your dodge key over and over

2 Likes
48

i dunno… undying and the ability it drop all cc’s and run is pretty significant. you don’t even need timing for that

49

It has a decently long cd for the death prevention and ranged kiting is superior for avoiding the need for such an ability to begin with.

50

Regardless what people answer, the main reason its Outpost scoring system.

This is broken system because its mainly based on DPS, that’s why big majority play only DPS builds.

People blaming premades its wrong and stupid in my point of view. U are playing an online game, its just normal to team up with friends/company/faction.
If u are so bad that nobody wanna team up with u, then do NOT blame the game.

Its irrelevant if premades will be allowed or not, OPR’s will be the same as long scoring system doesnt change.
Premades or not, until scoring system change players will keep play light and mostly ranged for easy 3.000 points.

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51

Pretty much my reasons for not playing anything melee.

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52

So, I’ll preface my response with this, I’ve been a Medium Armor mage for over 900 hours of gameplay on my US East character (My main) because i’ve been more or less forced into playing on 360ms latency in fights (Because all my friends live near that server so i wouldnt force them to play EU with me). Medium armor gave me that safety net of “Oh i have an extra dodge, more armor and i only do 10% less damage than light players ?” So that was an obvious choice for both survival and DPS while under those conditions.

I recently made an EUCentral character to level up and play PvP with <150ms (in most times, except for when the server randomly lags for 10 seconds at a time), This character has been running Light armor Mage (same as my other USE character build wise except armor class). Having hit level 60 yesterday and immediately gone up to 550GS by spending the 70k i saved up on some good light gear for PvP and 600GS weapons, So far from what i can see, If you have 2 brain cells to rub together for warmth, You can do so much more with light armor right now vs medium. Allow me to explain my opinion on that further.

Medium armor, around 1350/1350 resistances, Plus any gems you equip (I run full Onyx’s for that bonus 20% mitigation vs all physical damage (Damn musket spammers are the bane of my existance). I was STILL taking upward of 2500 damage from a powder burn shot, Plus the extra 2k it would do in ticks over 13 seconds. Spear players would STILL crit me for over 1800 damage plus bleed stacks/CC/Rend/Slow or whatever other CC they had on said abilities. Great Axe Gravity well would STILL suck me into the center even if my heel was BARELY inside the AoE of it, Resulting in me having to waste 2 of my 3 dodges just to get out of it’s slow radius while my head got caved in by the other team.

Light armor currently as of my understanding (haven’t caught up on the patch notes in a month, So some of these might have been changed/reverted), Light armor now gets 3 dodges with hearty rings, going double the distance of Medium dodges, Light armor deals 20% Bonus damage just for existing vs Mediums 10% bonus, Light armor also gets I believe 30% bonus healing from Life stave users just for existing vs Mediums neutral 0% bonus and heavies -30% heal strength (for SOME reason, Like anti heal doesnt exist in the game for a reason).

Light armor more or less has made me go from “Oh no I might actually die to this 3 man who’s attempting to gank me” to more along the lines of “Oh no, They’re about to waste their time chasing me when i can just Dodge to double my distance, Dodge again for even more distance, Drop Slows/AoE’s to hinder them while i get MORE distance since my stamina has half regened in the time it took to cast those, Let me dodge again” Or better yet, All of that PLUS a Rapier with Evade for +20 stam every use and Fleche for an extra 10m distance between me and them. Either they chase me and never catch me if i play correctly, Or i run medium and more or less have half the escape-ability with less healing, 10% less damage output as a DPS and what feels like the same resistances in group fights anyway.

The extra resistances in PvP and PvE In my opinion, In 90% of situations don’t matter worth a damn and that is the ONLY thing that Medium armor had going for it since light and heavy got 3 dodges with Hearty rings. You can simply run x3+ Resilience stacks on your armor or Shirking Fortification (OR BOTH in my EUC characters case) and most players only manage to kill you IF they get on top of you with hard CC and you forget where your dodge button is. :joy:

I feel there should be an even representation of ALL types of armors/weapons, Not "Oh here’s 40 players in this OPR Match, 25 of them will be Light armor Dexterity players running Rapier/Spear/Musket/Bow with the same 3 or 4 abilities on every setup, 3 Tanks struggling to do their jobs and survive since they don’t heal anywhere near as much, 6 Mages running the same damn loadouts with Ice/Fire/Void if they want CC’s or anti-heal vs light armors 30% bonus and the 6 healers all running Light armor with a Life Stave and Rapier so they get 3 dodges, Plus self heals, Plus Fleche and another Dodge after they use Evade (with I-Frames) for the +20 stamina instantly.

Long wall of text, for that I apologize, But the sad state of the armor spread among players right now is something I feel fairly strongly about.

53

you shouldn’t lie to yourself.
players play ranged because they take no risks, can almost never die and earn a lot of score without effort or difficulty.

it’s not because of the groups of players, the players now only melee in groups in OPR precisely because they are full of ranged players and without a group, without a heal, the melee can’t even play.

it is necessary to nerf the possibility of dodge light without the slightest stop (like stopping after the medium dodge), and hope that the rapier nerf corrects.

the ranged have really too many advantages, same level of perks (attunement, mortal reinforcement)

1 Like
54

@THOR_Dominikson I can mostly agree with this, Melee/Close range mage players carry all the risk in fights these days, Ranged players sit back stacking 2k+ every couple seconds plus AoE’s doing near the same to everything nearby it.

Healers in light pop a self heal, dodge x2, Evade with rapier, Fleche away then dodge another 2 times… There’s zero chance of catching that as a melee player unless you also run Light + Rapier and some anti-heals :rofl:

Supposed “Glass Cannon” builds running 400 Dex might only have 8k HP, But DAMN they will take half your DPS’s out of the fight or annoy the life out of them till they waste their time trying to chase you away from your rock 60m outside of the actual group fight, By the time you reach them, They’ve either peppered you with 4 more shots wasting your health potions, Or they’ve just waddled away to another rock laughing all the way there.

1 Like
55

They can nerf light armor into the ground…and the same people complaining about it will start complaining about something else.

Good players would adapt and remain good players. Bad players will find a new boogeyman to blame and complain.

This is how its always been, and how it will always be.

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56

Exactly! Half a year ago we had the same whining about heavy armor.
AGS is happy to follow suit, this makes sure the meta shifts and everyone has to farm new bis gear. Keeps the game active.

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57

I used to play paladin (heavy) healer because I like heavy armor in any mmo.
After the heavy armor nerf, well light armor is the only option both for damage and healing.

Its just how AGS want new world to be, everyone play in light armor.

58

Exactly this for me aswell

59

I play a magician, and with a short break for medium armor I play light from the beginning. I just like it - mobility and damage. Unfortunately, I am a risk taker, and I often score points, which does not always end well for me :joy: Besides, there is often no healer, so the only chance to survive is to run away. I don’t follow fashion - I play what I just like.

60

This. I play MOBA too and the perfect hero for me is the one who has good mobility so i can make interesting and important moves. initiate when there is no initiators and when things go bad, get out fast.

I have been using bow since launch and it stuck with me. also, i need gear to play any other role and i don’t have that.