Ranged weapon worth it on melee char?

[Thommust]

Hey guys, 

As title says, is having a ranged weapon on a primarily melee character worth it? Is it worth firing that one volley of ranged attacks off before having to switch weapons, and therefore deal with the switch weapon delay, or should I just keep my melee weapons out all of the time...? I really feel like I'm taking up an unneeded weapon slot with a ranged weapon most of time.  

 

Or is there times where I should have ranged weapons on all my characters in general...? Because pretty much all of my fight have my character just switching weapons instantly. 

 

What do you think?  

[Silvaren]

I often wait until my priest will cast all buffs and while waiting for oponents and setting up ground (placing Chilling Fog) some characters can use arquebuses for initial salvo. It depends mostly on the distance. Sometimes is better to use selfbuffs, figurine and summon some help or use any different items like potion, scroll or spell granted by equipment.

[summatsupeer]

For me it depends on two things:

1. Do they have potions to drink or spells/scrolls to cast before engaged?

2. Do I need an alternative melee weapon setup?  If weapon&shield do I want a 2 hander as backup to help finish high DR enemies?  If main weapon is single damage type do I want an alternative as backup for high res/immune enemies?

The damage burst at the start could be nice to  take out an enemy at the start but if hit chance is low I don't think it's worth it over the options above.

[Boeroer]

Most of the time I don't bother with a ranged volley before switching to melee setup. It is effective (no doubt, especially when using arquebus - or blunderbuss against low DR enemies) but it's also a lot of tedious switching that I try to avoid. I will use it though if I have to take out certain enemies asap in order to avoid even more tedium - like taking out a Lagufaeth Broodmother or a Xaurip Priest before they can cast some stuff that may prolong the fight unnecessarily. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Boeroer

[claudius]

Some classes have abilities to use right at beginning of fight like fighter and their accuracy buff ability.

Edited December 28, 2019 by claudius

[Boeroer]

It's also good to use opening volleys if you have one (or more) Priests with Inspiring Radiance. It's absolutely awesome to have an all-stackable +10 (or +20/+30 depending on the number of Priests) accuracy buff for everybody - but it's also rather short-lived. My preferred use of the +10 ACC is to apply hard CC of course, but not everybody has that and those who have not can shoot a high dmg projectile with improved accuracy into enemies' bodies to great effect.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Boeroer

[Thommust]

Thanks for the info. guys! 

I think for the most part I will only salvo for chunking out high-value targets such as clerics or spellcasters and other than that just dive right into melee with my chars.