Dawn of War Codex

Why does melee resistance make units take less damage from ranged attacks? This seems very odd...

EDIT: @Nurland, yes when they're in combat. Also, it appears it isn't to do with melee resistance, rather it just applies to any unit that is in melee combat.

Isn't the ranged damage reduction applied only when the squad/unit is in melee?

I guess it's to simulate firing into a melee brawl and your accuracy suffering and/or perhaps even doing some friendly fire if it were "real". In TT you can't fire on units locked in combat iirc, so might be a nod to that as well.

it does? how did you test it? does the range fire has to come from melee range or any range fire (lets say a sniper) will do 40% less damage to a unit that's in melee combat?

no. I just looked at the rbf in elite. Units with it just take 40% less melee damage. Doesn't effect ranged damage.

But if someone can answer this id be grateful. In the ebps of "melee" it says "in_combat_ranged_damage_modifier" and then a 0.5 next to it.

Does that mean units in melee take 50% less ranged damage?? Answers please lol

^yup

Well tbh people have told me it doesn't give any resistance to ranged fire, but you can (seemingly) see it when you ranged attack a unit that is melee'ing generators so I think that it does. It does make sense thematically. Melee resistance aura - resistance to damage when in melee combat. Not resistance to melee combat.

The old DoW2 wiki though says: "This unit always takes 40% less damage from melee weapons. Does not affect damage from ranged weapons." Which seems pretty clear in this regard.

I assume Torpid has noticed it too which is why they made this topic. Has always been something that puzzled me.

wa1243agh wrote:But if someone can answer this id be grateful. In the ebps of "melee" it says "in_combat_ranged_damage_modifier" and then a 0.5 next to it.

Well that would explain it.

Being in melee combat of any kind (yeh that includes warboss smacking terrain objects) decreases most basic ranged damage received by half. Does not affect attacks like artillery.

It's why Sluggas with Swamp 'Em up are so damn hard to focus down when they're in melee, since they're usually taking 75% less ranged damage.

There is indeed something that affects units in melee making them receive less ranged damage, I always assumed that melee resistence does that, it's mostly noticeable on heroes, an hero not engaged in melee combat will go down significantly faster than when in melee, or with banshees vs snipers, snipers 1 shot banshees models that are moving or not firing, but they won't if they are in melee.

Well used performing a special attack also take less damage period. From ranged and melee attack. Dont know the amount though.

wa1243agh wrote:no. I just looked at the rbf in elite. Units with it just take 40% less melee damage. Doesn't effect ranged damage.

But if someone can answer this id be grateful. In the ebps of "melee" it says "in_combat_ranged_damage_modifier" and then a 0.5 next to it.

Does that mean units in melee take 50% less ranged damage?? Answers please lol

So any unit in melee takes 50% less ranged damage, that explains it. I wasn't sure if this was a trait of melee in general (I thought no since none of the old wikis mention it) or if it was an unintentional effect of melee resistance (the effect always seemed around 40%). It definitely happens though, it's VERY noticeable.

That Torpid Gamer wrote:So any unit in melee takes 50% less ranged damage, that explains it. I wasn't sure if this was a trait of melee in general (I thought no since none of the old wikis mention it) or if it was an unintentional effect of melee resistance. It definitely happens though, it's VERY noticeable.

Not any unit, but most (if not all) units with melee resistance probably has it (someone confirm) but it's not exclusive to them. For instance it appears most set up teams also have a 0.5 ranged dmg modifier when in melee.

aye. I think this is a trait when being in melee combat and not part of the melee resistance buff.

wa1243agh wrote:Well used performing a special attack also take less damage period. From ranged and melee attack. Dont know the amount though.

0.5 and 0.25 during sync kills. Seen in tuning.rbf

That Torpid Gamer wrote:any unit in melee takes 50% less ranged damage

This. Only vehicles don't have it.

hakon wrote:

wa1243agh wrote:Well used performing a special attack also take less damage period. From ranged and melee attack. Dont know the amount though.

0.5 and 0.25 during sync kills. Seen in tuning.rbf

I knew where to look but was too lazy at that specific moment lol. Typical of me.

Dark Riku wrote:

That Torpid Gamer wrote:any unit in melee takes 50% less ranged damage

This. Only vehicles don't have it.

Are you sure? I had a look at the ig roster and most ranged squads (guardsmen, storm troopers, spotters, kasrkin) have in_combat_ranged_damage_modifier set to 1. Could be wrong about that being the deciding property thou.

Units in melee taking half ranged damage dates back to DoW1.

Had a closer look and it appears the following units don't have this "buff":

juggernaut (bloodcrusher I presume)
avatar
gk storm troopers
lg retinue members
ig guardsmen
ig kasrkin
ig spotter
ig stormtrooper
tyr termagaunt

that explains alot concerning lg dropping models left and right while still in melee

At first the devs decided not to give this trait to those units because even when engaged in melee there still are a few models that keeps shooting, for they cannot engage their attackers (too many models/too few).

Makes sense but it's a bit surprising on the avatar. Then again, so many inconsistencies in this game

Which is deeply unfair not to say stupid is that the avatar doesn't have it (that I find ok-ish) but every other walker does, including GUO. I was certain he did not. This should be modified asap.

True to be honest. If the avatar doesn't get it why does the GUO. I have actually always felt the GUO was a lot tankier, this would explain it!

i'd say take it away from the GUO!

Asmon wrote:At first the devs decided not to give this trait to those units because even when engaged in melee there still are a few models that keeps shooting, for they cannot engage their attackers (too many models/too few).

I think the lack of resistance makes sense on the GM squads, but for low model count squads like storms/kasrkin, shouldn't it be implemented that they receive the effects as well? Especially considering that they specialist squads that are better trained than GMs, and it wouldn't be all that off to say that they'd avoid some crossfire when engaged in melee.

i thought everyone knew this o.O
it is very noticeable indeed, even for medium skilled and experienced players like me.

so every walker has this, apart from the bloodcrusher, and as a sub-unit the avatar? seems weird

I think this was answered long ago, but what determines whether a squad is in melee combat? Swinging a melee weapon? Being hit by one? Based on how well melee squads tank ranged damage when hitting a generator I would guess it's the act of swinging a weapon, Does this mean a shoota squad walking away from a slugga squad does not get the damage reduction?

Also, it really feels like all vehicles lack this bonus. A walker in melee combat still seems like it loses big chunks of HP to lascannon and missile shots.

iirc it's only hitting something else. there was a discussion about the scout upgrade that gives regen out of combat and i think someone said that it only applies when the scout is shooting so they still get the bonuses while kiting.