Melee Weapons to be Used for Show!!

[Agravaine]

We are hunters, we don't need to be carrying around Thunderfurries or squid-sticks.

Tell that to my 2 hunter guildies who dragged myself and other friends through countless MC runs to get their furry thunders for the better part of this year.

On second thought, don't bother -- if we don't get to display them, their reactions will be worth it.

Oh, and about point blank range combat with a bow... it may sound stupid, but Errol Flynn and Orlando Bloom sure made it look good.

[Worba]

Which is why I kind of like that suggestion, since from one standpoint, it eliminates a few headaches (making ranged weapons not look stupid on various races' backs, not having to come up with new quiver looks, not dealing with ammo pouches), although it does create others (linking melee weaponry to ranged weapons is going to be time-consuming, what do you do for people who prefer staves/axes/dual wielding?, what do you do with pieces there's no match for?).

But yeah, I'm more curious as to what will happen than actually being concerned about it. I'm just happy for no minimum range. I already live for scatter shot, so I don't care about shooting at point blank range.

And that's your opinion, which is totally valid - and I know many others share that opinion..

No problem, I understand this isn't much of a concern for you; but obviously myself and those who'd like a little more attention paid to the matter will be watching to see how this progresses.

[Slickrock]

Oh, and about point blank range combat with a bow... it may sound stupid, but Errol Flynn and Orlando Bloom sure made it look good.
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Actually, we should get a +damage modifier for bows and xbows at min range... esp xbows... point blank with one? ouch.

[Slickrock]

And that's your opinion, which is totally valid - and I know many others share that opinion..

No problem, I understand this isn't much of a concern for you; but obviously myself and those who'd like a little more attention paid to the matter will be watching to see how this progresses.

But, actually, what is your point? Honestly asking here, what is it that you want to see? A return to using melee attacks? Display of using melee weapons when we are actually shooting? I'm not sure what your ideal situation is.

[GormanGhaste]

Reality is just going to have to defer to game mechanics sometimes. After all, the large size of many WoW 2H weapons makes them unwieldy at Very close range, and no one's complaining about that.

[Slickrock]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.
I won't miss flailing helplessly at a mob in melee range with my fishing pole.
I will miss DW weapons on my back (but I've been missing that since Wrath).
I won't miss melee weapons that stick out at odd angles, making me look like a wrecked merry-go-round mount.
I won't miss getting owned in PVP by classes with multiple closers.
I won't miss fighting with feral druids over our stat sticks.
I won't miss healers yelling at me to get in the blue circle when that forces me in melee range.
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me in melee range (Baleroc shards).
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me to keep running to stay in shooting range (Ryolith stomping around his island, we are the only class that has to adjust for that).

I think that about covers it... I feel for those that have collections of melee weapons for RP and fashion, but somehow they'll let you wear them. But I don't understand the desire to keep melee combat for us.

[Slickrock]

Reality is just going to have to defer to game mechanics sometimes. After all, the large size of many WoW 2H weapons makes them unwieldy at Very close range, and no one's complaining about that.

True. Polearms are almost a ranged weapon. In reality what we have is closer to halberds, polearms are a good 3 feet longer..

[Worba]

And that's your opinion, which is totally valid - and I know many others share that opinion..

No problem, I understand this isn't much of a concern for you; but obviously myself and those who'd like a little more attention paid to the matter will be watching to see how this progresses.

But, actually, what is your point? Honestly asking here, what is it that you want to see? A return to using melee attacks? Display of using melee weapons when we are actually shooting? I'm not sure what your ideal situation is.

There's a couple possibilities, but the one Kalliope suggested is my favorite so far - here's the early gestation of the idea (happened a little before you showed up):

Here's an idea: link a matching stat stick appearance to each ranged weapon. Chances are, there's a matching two hander in each tier (even the green quality tier) to go with it. Yes, it's a lot of work initially to hunt down the matches, but once the links have been made, it'd be easy to add them going forward.

And that's a constructive idea - that gives you the look without the kludgy macro swapping, allows it to work in MH and retire the ranged slot, avoids competition between melee / ranged, avoids needless bagspace consumption - I'd suggested something very similar a little while ago in fact. But yeah something like that would certainly be a big improvement over what's ~currently~ on the table, in my view.

EDIT: and it should automatically switch to melee strikes with that weapon, when you're in close range (visually I mean). Also for bonus points, maybe add a display setting that lets you display one of the following across your back: "built-in melee weapon" / ranged weapon / quiver / nothing. And in some cases, for variety, have a pair of dual wielders appear instead of a 2h'er.

Now since you raised the question, let's consider what would happen if you're point blank and use say arcane shot.

What will you see? You'd see your hunter swing his polearm and a flash of energy*, and you'd inflict a chunk of damage. Nothing out of place there, and you're enjoying the full range of functionality that's on the table now for 5.0.

I want to be very clear that no one is talking about sacrificing ~anything~...

Also, however strange or improbable a given 2h melee weapon may look to some, that is an accepted game standard and very much a part of the longstanding fiber of wow melee, so if that's a problem, escaping it by playing a class who can't equip melee weapons is a pretty lame solution.


*Remember if you're at point blank, there's not enough space to see something incongruous like a zooming energy comet, and once you got far enough back for AS to actually start looking like a comet, you'd be back to shooting your bow

[Kalliope]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.

We'll still have that. I'm sure they'll still be equippable for use.

[Slickrock]

Now since you raised the question, let's consider what would happen if you're point blank and use say arcane shot.

What will you see? You'd see your hunter swing his polearm and a flash of energy*, and you'd inflict a chunk of damage. Nothing out of place there, and you're enjoying the full range of functionality that's on the table now for 5.0.

I want to be very clear that no one is talking about sacrificing ~anything~...


*Remember if you're at point blank, there's not enough space to see something incongruous like a zooming energy comet, and once you got far enough back for AS to actually start looking like a comet, you'd be back to shooting your bow

If it's purely a visual thing, then yeah, go for it... I really would like to see DW again.

Only real issue I see is how are they going to tell what game model to use for the melee graphic?

I guess we have to wait and see how they intend to let us display melee weapons for show. That will tell us a lot about what the options are.

[Worba]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.
I won't miss flailing helplessly at a mob in melee range with my fishing pole.
I will miss DW weapons on my back (but I've been missing that since Wrath).
I won't miss melee weapons that stick out at odd angles, making me look like a wrecked merry-go-round mount.
I won't miss getting owned in PVP by classes with multiple closers.
I won't miss fighting with feral druids over our stat sticks.
I won't miss healers yelling at me to get in the blue circle when that forces me in melee range.
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me in melee range (Baleroc shards).
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me to keep running to stay in shooting range (Ryolith stomping around his island, we are the only class that has to adjust for that).

I think that about covers it... I feel for those that have collections of melee weapons for RP and fashion, but somehow they'll let you wear them. But I don't understand the desire to keep melee combat for us.

Most of which has exactly 0 to do with providing melee weapon animations when in melee range?

[Slickrock]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.

We'll still have that. I'm sure they'll still be equippable for use.

That worries me, because if it goes in the ranged slot, we won't have another weapon equipped. I'd hate to have to do a swap macro to start fighting crocs.

[Kalliope]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.

We'll still have that. I'm sure they'll still be equippable for use.

That worries me, because if it goes in the ranged slot, we won't have another weapon equipped. I'd hate to have to do a swap macro to start fighting crocs.

There is no ranged slot. Bows/guns/crossbows will be going in the regular weapon slot.

And yeah, that's my guess as to how it'll work. We'll be like the melee classes! Which, you know, makes sense, since we have weapon-based abilities, as opposed to the real casters, who can just cast spells regardless of what's in their hands.

[Worba]

Please, PLEASE let us keep fishing pole visuals...

/pray

[Worba]

Only real issue I see is how are they going to tell what game model to use for the melee graphic?

They already do this kind of thing all the time, in various forms; for example ever rolled a worgen? You don't actually get to do 2 sets of features choices, instead you just choose stuff for your worgen look, and every feature you choose for your worgen (beard, jewelry, hair, tattoos etc) has a corresponding match when you switch to human form.

So if they went with the "melee model" idea, every ranged weapon's item ID would be linked to a corresponding melee weapon item ID behind the scenes, and it would display the appropriate model (ranged or melee) according to what range you are at, or if you were out of combat, and so on.

[Slickrock]

Only real issue I see is how are they going to tell what game model to use for the melee graphic?

They already do this kind of thing all the time, in various forms; for example ever rolled a worgen? You don't actually get to do 2 sets of features choices, instead you just choose stuff for your worgen look, and every feature you choose for your worgen (beard, jewelry, hair, tattoos etc) has a corresponding match when you switch to human form.

So if they went with the "melee model" idea, every ranged weapon's item ID would be linked to a corresponding melee weapon item ID behind the scenes, and it would display the appropriate model (ranged or melee) according to what range you are at, or if you were out of combat, and so on.

Well, if that's the case, I hope we can tmogg that model...

[Quiv]

This is a good change although I was kinda looking forward to freeing up all those melee slots in my bank. Even with a full void storage, i have too much crap xD

[SylviaDragon]

I will miss seeing my fishing pole on my back.
I won't miss flailing helplessly at a mob in melee range with my fishing pole.
I will miss DW weapons on my back (but I've been missing that since Wrath).
I won't miss melee weapons that stick out at odd angles, making me look like a wrecked merry-go-round mount.
I won't miss getting owned in PVP by classes with multiple closers.
I won't miss fighting with feral druids over our stat sticks.
I won't miss healers yelling at me to get in the blue circle when that forces me in melee range.
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me in melee range (Baleroc shards).
I won't miss fight mechanics that force me to keep running to stay in shooting range (Ryolith stomping around his island, we are the only class that has to adjust for that).

I think that about covers it... I feel for those that have collections of melee weapons for RP and fashion, but somehow they'll let you wear them. But I don't understand the desire to keep melee combat for us.

I guess that sums things up for me as well. I'm going to miss the looks and dont look forward to switching weapons all the time just to get the look I want will be annoying. But the over all gameplay of it wont be too bad.

[Wain]

Since they're allowing this "cosmetic wield" for hunters, I'm hoping they'll extend it to other classes as well. Purely for selfish reasons. It's frustrating having Thunderfury sitting in my Shammy's bank and never getting the achievement because I can't actually wield it

[Kalliope]

Since they're allowing this "cosmetic wield" for hunters, I'm hoping they'll extend it to other classes as well. Purely for selfish reasons. It's frustrating having Thunderfury sitting in my Shammy's bank and never getting the achievement because I can't actually wield it

Agreed! My priest is proud of her stat sticks, especially the stranglestaff.