I don't understand your post Gorath. If the game would be rebalanced for a class system (which is NOT what i want btw) then 2handers will have problems using shields, archers will do just fine by running away and shooting only from range (just no melee ownage from archers like now), and so on.
2hers pick up a rank 0 shield or put 1 lonely solitary point into shield for the board shield and that problem is solved. Most 2her whine about ranged comes from the fact they refuse to do this, not that they "can't" (which is why their whine is bullshit.) 0-1 points gives you all the benefits of being a 1her/shield vs range, with all the power of a 2her/polearm in melee. Talk about broken
I am playing a specialized character because i like to maximize on what i'm doing, i tried a hybrid build and while it was more versatile and more powerful, it felt stupid to play. I prefer losing by learning to do more difficult stuff than winning by oneshotting people with throwing while being mostly melee specced. What i did call for is to make it harder for hybrids so skilled players would do well, while the maiority would chose to specialize.
Right here you prove my point. "
than winning by oneshotting people with throwing while being mostly melee specced."
Your complaint is about ranged, not hybrids themselves as it doesn't seem you have a problem with say a 1h/2h hybrid utilizing the langes messer and fighting axe for instance. Thanks.
There was some crazy polearm spammer today, he was so fast with my bad 70 ping i couldn't see the animation in time. Only way to kill him was from range or to get a lucky facehug->bump->hit which won't work against more skilled players for obvious reasons. He would also kill most people on my team by just spamming, so we started camping a roof and i had to use a xbow with 1 wpf, just because of that guy.
So the specialized guy was more powerful than all those hybrids on your team in melee, and it was only because of the ability to shift your combat to range that you were able to take him down? Sounds balanced to me. That's the benefit of the hybrid, multiple roles. That's the drawback to the hybrid: Not as good in those roles as pures.
Ranged weaponry is ok, people should be able to play what they enjoy, to oneshot str based characters in heavy armor is NOT OK
Str based characters one shotting balanced builds in medium armor isn't ok either. How is that statement any less valid than yours? Agi based characters should never be 1 shot. Headshots are headshot man, they oneshot everyone (except for flukes). Your STR build with heavy armor should not grant you limitless protection, and I guarantee you that you can take more abuse than my balanced build (18/18) character in medium armor by far. This just sounds like a case of either grass is greener, or the headshot blues. I guarantee you that if you're getting one-shot by a ranged weapon anywhere other than the head: It's from a pure build thrower or archer, not a hybrid. If you're getting one shot by a ranged weapon in the head, well then no shit, it's a damn head shot.
Archers do fine in melee currently, it's a real fight most of the time, of course they all chose a polearm because with they high agi it can be spammed. So what's the reason to go full polearm, or full archer, when you can do both let's say at 75% efficiency of a specialized character. Summed up it would be 150% efficiency vs 100% of the specced one, while you should be at 50% efficiency if you chose to do 2 things at once, that way it would be balanced.
Where are you getting these arbitrary %'s? Look, what your whole post sums up to, as I said before, is that ranged guys should never be able to beat you in melee. And melee guys should never have access to any ranged weapons. Class based. Nowhere in your entire post did you say anything counter to this. In fact you've just been reinforcing the idea.
If we're going by your arbitrary %'s thing then your math is still fail because of your bias as it would be more like:
Pure melee 100% melee / 50% ranged (Just picks up an xbow with no skill investments whatsoever) Total = 150%
Pure ranged 50% melee / 100% ranged (Just picks up a random 2h/polearm and can kill people fine provided he can manual block) Total 150%
Hybrid ranged/melee 75% melee/ 75% ranged (Lower than either pure in their field, better than them in their off-field) total 150%
This is how it works unless you either:
Refuse to pick up an xbow at all on your melee character
Refuse to pick up a melee weapon at all on your ranged character