Original Post — Direct link

Before going into anything here are the items.

Cold Blooded

Applying Ice to a target increases melee damage by 135% for 5 seconds.

Avenger's Boon

Hitting an enemy increases melee damage by 110% for 20 seconds.

So prior to the Anthem launch, I was pretty hyped about how people and even Bioware Dev's talked about if you wanted to make a melee ranger, you could. Well I am here to tell you that it is awesome.... on any content that is below GM1.

So lets talk about the perks about ranger melee.

Ranger melee has a 2 second cool-down between uses unlike the interceptor that can melee until the cows come home. Additionally, the unique way the ranger swings its "mace" make it miss more than it hits and the only consistent way I found to hit enemy's is to leap up in the air putting myself at death risk and smash down. If they are laying down, your going to miss 90% of the time. If you are dashing and try to melee, your probably going to miss. This alone needs fixed and feels very unrewarding. The only reason I even try to melee is to self prime.

So now lets talk about these abilities. One only gives a 5 second buff, while the other is 20 seconds. Why is this so inconsistent between masterworks?

Both give a decent increase in damage but lets talk about the elephant in the room. If you go to melee in GM2+, its a suicide mission. The class fantasy of ranger is a gun toting bad-ass with iron man like abilities not "One Punch Man". I feel like I am being punished for not only obtaining these masterworks but for trying to utilize the perks and putting my self at very high risk of dying for damage for ZERO reward. I could deal the same damage with my pistol from complete safety...


This can easily be fixed with one of two things:

If they are dead set on making the ranger melee, make it for a reason like on melee you could have any number of other perks like the following

On melee:

  • 50% shield restored

  • 25% reduced damage for 5 seconds

  • Assault Launcher 35% cool-down reduction

  • Etc, Etc

If they can let go of ranger melee, literally any other perk like increased squad weapon damage, increase any other ranger damage, increase ranger combo % by X.

I think they took the whole "ranger melee" thing a bit too far and realized these end game mw perks are useless for endgame and only for hard mode goofing around which even with a 2 second melee cd and wonky melee hitbox isnt fun.

External link →
about 5 years ago - /u/BioCamden - Direct link

Thanks again for the feedback Nullifics. So the discrepancy between duration is all based on balance calculations we did (the size of the boost you get, how easy it is to trigger, etc). In terms of melee Ranger builds, we absolutely had success internally with some really cool melee Ranger builds. We continue to review Masterworks for usefulness and balance. I’ll definitely pass this feedback on so we can review it.

about 5 years ago - /u/BioCamden - Direct link

Originally posted by Mephanic

In terms of melee Ranger builds, we absolutely had success internally with some really cool melee Ranger builds.

That's fine, but I do not want to play one anyway. If I want to go melee, I'd play Interceptor.

Also, Pulse Blast is really a terrible choice for a melee buff perk. It's a long range ability, able to detonate combos from very far away, reaching enemies that a Frag Grenade or Sticky Grenade cannot.

Which of the Assault Launcher gear pieces do you feel would fit the melee build better?

about 5 years ago - /u/BioCamden - Direct link

Originally posted by Mephanic

Blast Missile. You can use it like an explosive shotgun up close. :)

Hrm ok I can see that. Unfortunately we won’t be changing it at this stage of release with lots of folks already owning both, but point definitely taken. :)

about 5 years ago - /u/BioCamden - Direct link

Originally posted by Favure

I’m sorry but I just put together a melee ranger build with MW frost grenade and MW pulse blast, which equates to a 235% melee damage, I also stacked on the MW component granting me an additional 30% melee damage, so with all buffs and passives active I was able to reach 265% melee damage and on gm1 and I wasn’t even able to kill or barely even do half the health of a red bar scorpion or red bar scar.. where was this tested this on hard mode? I know this is a week or so old and I’m not trying to be an ass but a lot of these MW perks and components feel horrible on the ranger and the good ones like recurring vengeance (MW seeker missile) doesn’t even work if you get a combo kill.

This melee build is in no way viable especially due to the fact that it wants you to freeze an enemy, follow up with a long range detonator then rush in with a melee before your buff goes away to not even be able to kill the weakest enemy on gm1. If rangers melee had no cooldown or the buffs also added a 50%-75% cooldown reduction to rangers melee allowing him to use it every second as opposed to every 3 seconds I could see this being only somewhat useful, its just the fact that its a primer and its not really meant for damage. Can you please have the team look into some of his MW’s and either make the melee more useful or change the perks completely?

Thanks for the awesome feedback Favure. We’re actively and regularly reviewing all of the Masterworks. More to come.