Melee VS. Ranged

Great Guide +1 but you could have added a section on Troll Warlord's first ability

Ranged Troll is exceptionally inefficient, and Brew is just an all around great hero, he can do it all.

Troll Warlord fixes the Melee vs ranged argument

For a Melee mid I often saw Brew in TI2 out laning heros like invoker.

Thanks, I'm glad it helped and that you found this useful.

+1

I normally place ranged Heroes, my play style likes it, however I do like a few melee heroes and have never thought that i could be out laned.

Awesome words on players making guides, makes me nervous now though on how people are reacting to my own guide on Sniper.

Anyway this has helped me consider more on my item build for melee heroes in the future when I verse ranged ones!

Chosing enigma if he was melee though changes a lot of the dynamics of the lane. Another melee char usually means he is paired with one or two ranged, which would change who else is picked up (again generally speaking). It's like the difference between enigma and ES or Tide.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm dismissing the article, I agree with the premise. But ranged definitely has an advantage early in the laning phase. So much so that it almost forces a stout shield from a melee last hitter or they simply take too much easy damage. Over the course of the game when most melees become beefier (either health or armor or both) the advantage is gone. It's normally gone by about level 8-10 in all reality, but that's mostly due to that being nuke burst damages peak performance

I'll replace Bloodseeker with Night Stalker, I don't know anyone who hasn't been torn a new one by an NS. A little more convincing. Thanks.

A more common pick could be the NS for mid. TA isnt melee but also has a very short attack range. Her passive does make harrassing alittle easier too. Beastmaster can be picked for mid but isn't that much.

It all has to deal with the heroes' kits. If Enigma was melee he'd still be picked up, he's good because of his abilities not because of his attack range. Every role has strong melee/ranged variants.

Using BS as an example wasn't bad, its true he's a great laner, he's not picked up in competitive play because he is untested and and most common competitive picks are just pure counters to him. He's a very situational hero.

Using BS as an example as a good mid lane melee is misleading IMO. He has a specific mechanic that heals himself on last hits for what? 50ish at level 1?

The number of "decent or good" melee chars that can handle mid is slim while nearly any ranged can at a basic level (especially against a melee).

You also can't talk about animations either because that goes both ways. Some melee have terrible animations (though admittedly ones that generally don't get last hits. Ie ES or Treant protector). Ranged can also make last hitting easier by standing in melee range when possible.

I'm not saying that ranged are better than melee in this game, but to gloss over the fact that almost always a ranged char is a better laner than a melee is odd. If it were balanced as you kind of make this article to believe, a melee/melee lane wouldn't be that bad, but it almost always is bad.

Look at pro team comps, how many non-carry melee chars do they generally have? Maybe 8ish are taken and certainly almost never more than 2 per team

Thanks for clearing up the orb walking strategy, I noticed the creeps didn't retaliate the same way vs autoattacks but didn't know why.
Also, I always assumed the Vanguard protection was based on attack type, not the hero carrying it! This makes Vanguard x99 times better for me now. :P

Keep up the good work, it's a pleasure to read these guides.

by the way, skadi stacks with all lifesteal, melee or ranged - the ingame popup is wrong/unchanged.

+1. Liked presentation and content - especially detailing the benefits of melee.
I know it's unfinished, but it's a bit difficult to say what it's missing (brain dead atm) - maybe the xp thing, the fact that melee heroes are much easier to last hit with, due to animation and projectile speed - not to mention the fact that some projectiles actually hit the creep before it actually hits them (visual vs actual projectile)
I feel you should include benefits of ranged, too. The whole point is to fully inform the reader so that they may come to a decision on their own of what they prefer - can't be biased just because the public is.

Ranged is a LOT safer, and takes a lot less harass - however, melee heroes usually get stout shield, which blocks most of the incoming damage. Melee heroes get bonus xp even if denied, so there's less pressure to last hit and they can just sit within exp range.

Also maybe some research on ranged vs melee str gain? do all or most ranged heroes have lower str gain than melee? (I would like to know this but I really could not be bothered at 4am) same thing with movespeed, possibly - because CM and Lion are slow as hell.

perhaps include the weirdos too. wisp ranged str support, ogre magi melee int support.

wow, long freaking comment. would be VERY much obliged if you could give feedback on some of my guides too :)

keep this updated! and we'll make it top rated so people actually read it