Lets just do away with Ranged and Melee and just have one class type:

RANGEDMELEE

Seeing as Melee cant be balanced with Ranged, and seeing as Ranged has been decided to be "the meta", give Melee some god damned guns so we have a fighting chance.

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If JPA / Raptor / Stormboy & Ground Assault (CSM & LSM) could equip Ranged weapons:

JPA / Raptor / Stormboy:
Bolter / Shoota + [ insert chosen melee weapon here ]

Ground Assault:
CSM: Bolter + God Mark + [ insert chosen melee weapon here ]
LSM: Bolter + Storm Shield or: Bolter + [ insert chosen melee weapon here ]

Slugga Boy: <added because we cant forget ORKS! *edit*
Ork: Shoota + Scrap Shield or: Shoota + [ insert chosen melee weapon here ]

This essentially does away with Ranged and Melee, they'd just be one class, then it wouldn't matter what meta is the one to use because everyone has the same.

Then it'd be "Storm Shield OP / God Mark OP / Jump Pack OP" go put one on then! its sitting right there ready for you to put on!

(excluding Eldar cuz their Melee is fine, speed makes their Melee viable)

Where exactly do the Orks fit in this plan of yours?

Where do i sign for a Storm boy with Big shootah?

It wouldn't be a bad idea for a fresh game, but that ship has sailed for EC already.

Also, it's not impossible to balance ranged and melee, it'd just take changes to weapon handling(both ranged and melee) that are a bit outside of the current scope of possibilities for EC.

@DarkGraven & @Aceryl Added Slugga Boy into that (forgot to add them, and I had run out of time on my lunch break lol)

Slugga Boy: <added because we cant forget ORKS! *edit*
Ork: Shoota + Scrap Shield or: Shoota + [ insert chosen melee weapon here ]

@RemoSupremo

Yep I know, its that bad, this is how desperate Melee has become, no fix in sight for the vastly over balanced buff to Ranged and Nerf to Melee so just give Melee Ranged weapons till a fix can happen.

And yes this essentially wipes out Melee and Ranged classes replacing them with one class that does both.

It dosen't matter, if your in Melee range you can utilize both options, Ranged or Melee. And there's no bias as its your choice if you decide to engage in Melee and risk being shot down

Right now Tactical is pretty much a RangedMelee class anyway, only with a Combat Knife not a ChainSword through to Power Fist. Their just a better option because Ranged is the meta right now.

Those that want to go Ground Based RangedMelee would have more static surviveability where as Airbased RangedMelee would have more Agility based surviveability.

Its so simple its almost beautiful.

So...basically remove everything except JPA and give JPA all weapons?

Honestly melee isn't even in a bad place unless you're charging face first into bolter fire. I've done rather well with it this patch actually, all the issues are rather minor.

It's just became harder and for support it's became hell a lot harder(but not apo, with more armor and bolter). Melee right now require skill and timing, some broken things like previous fist JPA was nerfed to ground but melee is still viable for at least 2 factions LSM and Eldars. First have good shield and healing beacons, second good speed to compensate and some others mechanics like steals and melee suppress.