Just want to preface all this so nobody gets bent out of shape over anything…I’m a new player to Vanilla/Classic. A big part of why I’m looking to play is world PvP since it’s something I feel I never got satisfaction doing by the time I started playing WoW later into its life. I may say things that are completely wrong and that’s why I’m here to get some clarification.
As I’m learning classic I can’t help shake the feeling that melee is a bit easier to learn than ranged when it comes to world PvP. I personally feel this way because to me it seems like it takes a bit more effort and mechanical skill to kite as a ranged class than it does to chase someone as a melee class. Is this feeling completely wrong? Obviously I understand that both takes skill and you can run into all different skill level players. I just have kind of always personally felt it’s a bit easier to chase than it is to kite. Is there any truth to this?
Not at all.
Ranged classes have more forgiveness in positioning, tend to be less gear dependent, and I mean, range.
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My personal experience, but I absolutely have an easier time in wpvp as ranged. Kiting is much easier for me than constantly breaking snares to keep up with ranged.
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It depends on the player, I suppose, but both can be frustrating.
Unless you’re soloing, you will either peel or be a peeler, depending on role.
Kiting is no more/less frustrating or difficult than chasing. What it boils down to is you as the player. Which do you prefer to work with?
There is no definitive answer to what you’re asking. Everything is situational and mechanical.
What you are good at will be easier than a class/spec you choose simply because you heard it is “the best”.
My advice would be to go with what kind of mechanics make you feel passionate about your spec.
For example. you can’t get enough of opening with Pyroblast, or, you LOVE using Execute for the kill. Those moments are what make you as a PvP player, not particularly whether or not you’re the best or playing with the best specs.
When I was brand new to the game, I played a caster and a rogue.
Keyboard turning on the caster wasn’t the end of the world, but on the rogue? Yeah not at all viable.
Thanks for the responses! I think from my personal experience I’ve always felt like I had an easier time sticking on a player than I had kiting. I feel like it’s been much harder for me to learn the mechanical skills it takes to kite someone without backpedaling while still getting off the correct abilities to keep melee off of me and still do damage.
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ITT: mongo melee pretending it takes more skill than range 
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In classic only warrior and rogue are melee on horde. You can say enhancement shaman is, but how? Stormstrike, which is a level 31 talent, just causes 2 auto-attacks to occur. Every ability shaman has, are ranged spells and totems. Warrior is terrible in wpvp, especially solo. Rogue is good and very easy if the player is good.
Seeing as youre posting from hunter, im guessing that is the class you are thinking seems hard to kite and play with in wpvp. This may surprise some people, but imo hunter is the most difficult class to play well in pvp, especially for less experienced players. A bad hunter will beat a bad caster yes, but against good players, hunter is the hardest to master.
Hunter is the current class I’m trying out in Classic. I’ve always loved playing hunter for PvE so I definitely wanted to make one. I’m still trying to find the class that I could maybe focus on for world PvP.
Just focus on becoming very good with the hunter man. They are an awesome class and extremely good in pvp, if played correctly. Need to get a swing timer for your ranged wep, so you can know when to kite, and when to stop for a shot. You have further range than the other classes, use that to your advantage, and dont let casters get in your deadzone. Most cc abilities have a 20-30yd range, and you can shoot for like 42yd with talents. Use that to your advantage.
Just get used to being killed by rogues. If a crippling poison procs on you, it is gonna be over.
I feel like “learn” might be irrelevant in discussing pvp. In general, the greatest tool anyone has is experience. A close second being general knowledge of how other classes work. In other words, take your preferred class and just do pvp, and in your off-time roll another class and learn the broad strokes of their methods.
I’ve played all but Shaman in PvP. Here’s my opinion in skill required to be good on scale 1 to 10.
Warrior: 5
Mage: 8
Rogue: 7
Warlock: 2
Hunter 4
Paladin: 3
Shaman: 4
Druid: 7
Priest: 3
Obviously these can vary wildly between specs, so take it with a big grain of salt.
Generally I find that the skill required to be good at a class depends largely on the number of tools available that have PvP relevance. For example; a Shadow priest has very few spells available in shadow form, whereas a good fire mage will still be using every frost spell, often multiple ranks of each. But also, some classes simply dont need to make use of all of their tools to be successful, with the main culprits IMO being Warlock and Hunter.
Nothing about running at your target and pressing buttons in difficult.
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Yes and no.
On the one hand, you are correct that proper kiting is mechanically more involved than just bum rushing someone.
On the other, the skill floor for kiting is not particularly high, while the skill floor for successfully staying on a skilled kiter (as melee) is incredibly high.
Spend some time playing Warrior and try fighting a good frost mage. That should tell you all you need to know about just how “easy” it is to be melee in Vanilla.
Bear in mind that “world PvP” as an organic concept in Vanilla revolves largely around solo play. A ranged player often has much easier time resetting or disengaging from an unfavorable fight than a melee for the reasons stated above.
Here’s how your thread will go:
A Bunch of ignorant melee telling you no, followed by a bunch of ignorant ranged telling you yes.
I said Yes and No. Now I’m having an identity crisis, thanks.
I don’t understand the ad hominems. I’ve played and enjoyed many classes. I’ve found them all to have their own challenges.
But mele has a higher skill ceiling. Calm the heck down.
As a Warrior, who’s mained a Warrior since Vanilla, I’ll only say this:
I’m getting popcorn.