Essentials are melee heavy

[Mengu]

A Slayer out of the gate can attack with a bow at +7 vs AC and do 1d10+9 damage, in Battle Wrath Stance. Later on, Quickswap even gives him some action economy switching between melee and range.

Thief is also quite good with ranged basic attacks, though his range is not as impressive, he has a number of tools that get him combat advantage at range from first strike, to stealth, to Ambush Trick and Tactical Trick. Even without combat advantage, a shortbow does 1d8+10 with Feinting Trick, or 1d8+8 with Acrobat's Trick at first level.

So really, half the HotFL classes, Mage, Slayer, and Thief, are competent ranged attackers, if they care to be. Considering the Mage can make two or more attacks with AoE's or Arc Lightning, that's a decent bit of ranged power for a party.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Thief is also quite good with ranged basic attacks, though his range is not as impressive, he has a number of tools that get him combat advantage at range from first strike, to stealth, to Ambush Trick and Tactical Trick.

Escape Artist's Trick and Sneak's Trick look promising for getting CA, too. I'm not clear, but it looks like Escape Artist's Trick could be used in the way that Deft Strike was pre-Essentials -- hide around a corner, pop out using the move portion, attack with CA because still "hidden", then move back around the corner.

It would be a fascinating article for someone with a good understanding of Stealth to write: how closely one can mimic the Thief's tricks with combinations of feats and powers that the pre-Essentials Rogue had access to.

 

[tentfox]

After reading through some of the replies of this I had a look at Thief and Slayer, and I was surprised just how absolutely amazing the Slayer is with a bow, better than in melee if he stacks Dexterity. For some reason I thought his stances and dex to damage power was for melee basic attacks, however it is just basic attacks.

The thief seems to be just as competent at range as in melee.

I guess I was working off of preconceived notions of Slayer and Thief being melee classes when they are actually just well build versatile strikers.

 

[BobTheNob]

So what about with the warpriest. Yes melee, but whats to stop them taking Implement ranged attacks from existing material?

 

[Lord Ernie]

So what about with the warpriest. Yes melee, but whats to stop them taking Implement ranged attacks from existing material?

Considering every one of the Warpriest powers are 'Cleric attack X', I believe you absolutely can select cleric powers, although there is some debate on the matter. It's mostly centered around the "you gain powers from class features which only give you access to your domain" argument, similar to how Mages get Magic Missile. That would only leave the old Cleric dailies as possibilities.

If you are going to use old cleric powers, do be sure to use Crusader style weapons or get a good Holy Symbol, though.

 

[MrMyth]

After reading through some of the replies of this I had a look at Thief and Slayer, and I was surprised just how absolutely amazing the Slayer is with a bow, better than in melee if he stacks Dexterity. For some reason I thought his stances and dex to damage power was for melee basic attacks, however it is just basic attacks.

The thief seems to be just as competent at range as in melee.

I guess I was working off of preconceived notions of Slayer and Thief being melee classes when they are actually just well build versatile strikers.

The Slayer is still primarily geared towards melee - Power Strike only works for melee basics, and at later levels he gets specific benefits with axes or swords. But yeah, even despite that, he is very effective at ranged.

And the thief, yes, can absolutely be built as a ranged character, and actually has a few more tricks than the normal rogue to gain CA even when on his own and deprived of hiding spots.

 

[sigfile]

The Slayer is still primarily geared towards melee - Power Strike only works for melee basics, and at later levels he gets specific benefits with axes or swords. But yeah, even despite that, he is very effective at ranged.

While this is pure speculation at this point, the fact that the slayer -- out of the box -- only gets bonuses to two weapon groups suggests to me that there's more weapon group support coming. I'm excited to see what support they'd lend to a bow slayer.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Actually concidering what I've heard from the people I talk D&D with, most people seem to prefer Melee characters over Ranged, There is very little risk in being able to attack enemies from 20 odd squares away.

Huh? So wouldn't that mean they'd prefer Ranged over Melee? Less risk or less chance of death = better for the PCs.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

While this is pure speculation at this point, the fact that the slayer -- out of the box -- only gets bonuses to two weapon groups suggests to me that there's more weapon group support coming. I'm excited to see what support they'd lend to a bow slayer.

That would be good. At a minimum, there really ought to be support for spears and hammers. I know, Knights do hammers, but Knights and Slayers also both do heavy blades, so clearly the idea was never to define them by their weapons, per se.

 

[Drakhar]

Huh? So wouldn't that mean they'd prefer Ranged over Melee? Less risk or less chance of death = better for the PCs.

Not really, most people concider it boring.