Been noticing for a while the game is REALLY stingy on melee range for players. It’s getting honestly really annoying, plus a friend of mine is about to give up on monk because of it.
Some of the issues I have noticed since WotLK classic:
On a paladin, I’ll be tanking a mob. It’s hitting me with its melee attacks, I’m hitting it with basic white hits… but I go to use hammer of the righteous and I get an ‘out of range’ error.
With warrior, I’ll be tanking a mob and hitting it with most moves. It goes to cast a spell so I try to interrupt, and the interrupt gives me ‘out of range’ even though i’ve been hitting the mob with other things and no one has moved.
Mobs generally seem to have a melee range of “infinity” but player characters have to literally be in tongue-kiss distance of a mob to be able to hit it with a melee attack.
This also creates another extremely annoying problem where it feels like the tolerance for melee range for players is like 3 pixels… so if the mob jinks half a step they’re now behind me and I get a “you must be facing your target” error. Sometimes it goes from ‘out of range’ to ‘you arent’ facing the target’ so fast it’s maddening.
Why the heck is the melee range tolerance for players so damned small? Why does a 7 foot tall purple monster of a night elf with a sword longer than their height need to be chest-to-chest with a mob to hit it like they’re a gnome with a 4 inch dagger?
Can you guys please relax this insanely tight melee range tolerance a bit? Melee in this game is already frustratingly tedious with all the ‘melee get out and watch for a bit or you’re going to die instantly’ mechanics. Can you throw them a small bone here please?
You realize all races and weapon types have the same range, yeah? Do you actually believe you have a longer melee range because you’re a tall race? If so then that’s probably what’s causing your issue
No, I don’t believe ranges vary. My point is that it’s illogical the way it is. The tolerance for being “in melee range” so our attacks work is too small.
There are two issues he seems to be expressing. The first is mechanics. The second is immersion in the game.
You’re only answering the immersion point without considering the other part.
Melee is already punishing in WoW compared to ranged combat. Melee players have to be extremely close and regularly are forced to abandon hitting an enemy due to mechanics Having them also need to stand exactly on top of a mob to make their abilities work is needlessly frustrating compared to other MMOs.
Things get even more frustrating because characters will move in combat. A tank grabs the boss and stands still. Sometimes the boss will adjust how close they are to the tank. If the tank has to adjust to be in range for their melee abilities it risks the boss adjusting how close it is again.
Every time the tank or the boss move it means all the melee players might have to move as well.
Meanwhile the Hunter or Mage or Shadow Priest is 20 or more yards out not having any problems whatsoever.
How is standing toe to toe with a mob while some attacks are hitting it and some getting errors a ‘skill issue’? The character model and mob appear to be in melee range… but the game says otherwise.
And worse, the tipping point between “not being close enough” and “now the mob is behind me” is like 3 pixels. It’s incredibly annoying, especially when you have a tank that can’t stand still for 2/10ths of a second.
From just that statement? It’s not. But you conveniently left out the first part of my post that said it could be a rare bug. Otherwise, you’re withholding or straight up not seeing critical information that may indicate a skill issue
I don’t think it’s a bug because it’s so consistent across multiple characters and not only me. It’s that Bliz has set the tolerance for what counts as “in melee range” too small, and I think different abilities (like pummel or HoR for example) have different ranges… hence why basic melee swings reach but those moves generate out of range errors.
Wasn’t there some post awhile back about Bliz reducing player melee range? Or was that retail. Honestly I don’t know why they are so stingy with melee range. Being in melee already comes with enough problems. Having attacks constantly fail because the mob moved 2 and a half pixels is pointlessly frustrating.
Then I don’t know what to tell you. I almost exclusively play melee, both tanks and dps, and have never had anything like what you’re describing, neither have I ever seen anyone mention this be a genuine issue, just the usual complaints of “melee have to deal with more mechanics”
I’m really just asking Bliz to consider giving melee a few more pixels of leeway in range to make it less of a frustrating dance between being out of range and the mob’s now behind me.
Been messing around on a monk lately and it’s not exactly what I would call fun. Complex rotation, being in melee range, and constantly getting range/facing errors when trying to attack makes me want to set the character on a shelf. (I realize that’s a personal preference thing) but this is a game we play for fun. When it feels more like a chore than fun, we do something different. (I mean different character. Not threatening to stop playing wow).
Pathfinding in Classic is ATROCIOUS and is only getting worse. I honestly don’t think the DEI hires at Blizz know how to fix it, because you can see the pathfinding issues becoming worse over time in Classic(something that only happens when you try to cover a hole in the code with newspaper, without actually fixing anything, then later add additional content on top of the newspaper, breaking it). This is probably why you are getting melee errors.
Anyone who has done dungeons can attest to the fact that mobs have been progressively taking weird routes to melee players. The same thing happens in reverse. The game is having trouble detecting objects as it attempts to get into melee range.
Why are you getting so defensive here? The guy is just describing something he’s experienced that he doesn’t like, but you just immediately feel the need to jump in and scream “SKILL ISSUE!!!111one”
Curious what kind of content you’ve tried in the past then. Tauren hitboxes are/were? different sizes, even allowing them to attack through walls causing mechanics issues on bosses like Chrommagus. Maybe that’s gone now but it’s not a thing to pretend it can’t happen. Ever max range a boss that’s stationary? I mean true max range and a stationary mob, usually one that spawns like a worm or similar mob. You can hit with autos but won’t be able to use abilities. The range is like… 1/100th of a yard though.
The technical furthest back was a Molten Core in SoD, for Classic was some unfinished leveling for Vanilla and TBC Classic, and then a day 1 Naxx in Wrath Classic, and then actual furthest back my first actual raiding experience was the weekly quest in OG Wrath. Probably Razuvious or something. First actual raid would have been Trial of the Crusader
Up until WotLK Tauren hitboxes were double every other race’s hitbox. It gave them a MASSIVE range when moving due to leeway. Tauren were the only race to have larger hitboxes though. It all became standardized in WotLK.
There actually used to be a trick in TBC where you could altf4 out of game when using Engi teleporter to fish for size increases and double up the already larger Tauren hitbox for melee range cheesing and dps uptime on boss/adds.
I think they “normalized” it a bit too hard, though.
It’s really frustrating to have to more or less be standing inside the mob to be able to hit it. Especially with so many random tanks seeming to think Twilight protocol instances are timed content that needs to be cleared as fast as possible so they never stop moving.
Not asking for giant hitboxes. I don’t care whatsoever about PVP. This is purely a PVE focused ask. Players need a little more reach with melee attacks against mobs.
And for crying out loud, instead of giving us a “you must be facing your target” error if the mob steps 1 pixel toward us and is now considered ‘behind’ us somehow, can melee attacks just auto-turn us to face the target?
There is also something going on where different abilities seem to have different ranges. It doesn’t feel like it’s all based on our hitbox. (most notable example is trying to use interrupts on a pally/warrior/dk and getting an out of range error for the melee interrupt when everything else I’m doing is in range just fine.
There is a bug where this can happen if you alt+tab out while pressing buttons. If I’m pressing one of my attacks down and alt+tab to check another window, it gives me similar errors. Once I alt+tab again it fixes it. Shift, alt, and control can also be considered stuck and things get weird. Just gotta press them all one by one and alt+tab to fix it. Something messes up inside the game and it won’t let you cast spells due to them being stuck on either one of those keys plus whatever you are pressing. It could be using another keybind by accident. If that doesn’t fix it during these situations, definitely try recording and see if it’s a bug you can recreate.
Sometimes I don’t notice tanks inching away or mobs moving away because I’m twitchy. So I stand 5 seconds hearing OUT OF RANGE NOT IN RANGE I NEED TO MOVE CLOSER spammed before I’m like oh.
Mobs can reposition themselves too… Very annoying. But usually if you move around.