I chose the clerics long before I even started the game. I don't care about your cargo cult nonsense "muh pb games are all about melee", in a setting with both pointy sticks and energy weapons the choice is pretty clear cut to me.
Ranged/Cleric power progression:
Garbage - - - - - - - > (get plasma rifle / black hole) -> Cheat god mode - - - - - - - > endgame
Melee at least delays the inevitable CRPG superpower stage to later game.
Sums up my experience nicely. I started trying to use the cultivator bow before I had the stats for energy weapons and the result was "might as well not bother". Then I started with the laser, had some fun with the garbage hit boxes (about 1/3 of your shots go right trough the enemy without registering) but at least killing things was feasible. And then I got a hold of a plasma from the traveling merchant and everything changed. Main reason to go plasma is that plasma ball is both a stun and an AoE attack, so you can bypass the terrible hitboxes.
So for a ranged cleric the real game starts (and kinda ends) at level 15. You can bitch and moan all you want, it won't change the fact that the power progression in elex is one of the worse I have ever seen. Could it be possible for the game to have like a laser pistol with lower requirements and lower damage so you can do stuff a bit earlier? Nah! Impossible. All ELEX to the hybrid, lol.
Fetch quests or cheats, which is better and why?
i started genociding exiles around the forbidden valley at level 10
you are tiny grasshopper
Are all you people truly blind to the fact that Elex melee combat aka "the way it's meant to be played" is simply twitch action combat based around timed rolls and chained attacks? So...just like dark souls/witcher except clunkier.
Oh boy, ratface, how I envy your ability to put up with fetch quests for 3-5 hours just so you have enough xp to play poor man''s witcher for the next hours. And good luck going melee against albs packing flame throwers, that must be fun too.
With all that said, I'm currently lvl 19 cleric legate and enjoying the setting/story. Once combat takes its rightful place inside the toilet, the game becomes way more enjoyable.
Spam all the buttons boyos, cuz you won't be able to come up with a rebuttal to my points even if your life depended on it.