Melee Question (Rift Noob): Stop Auto-Triggering Ranged Auto-Attack Question(s)?

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Greetings and happy Fae Yule/New Year!

First, a confession: I'm a *total* noob to Rift. I've only played a little over a month, even though I bought the game in 2011, so naturally, I'm very upset with myself that I wasted seven years *not* playing Rift. In case it's relevant, my play-style is pretty simple right now. I'd like to start raiding/pvp eventually, but as I'm new to Rift, I want to take my time getting there so I do things right. Therefore until I'm more experienced, I'll be sticking to soloing/questing, open world content, some light RP (yes, I'm one of those role-players lol xP) and learning the lore and world of Telara.

But to the issue at hand. After switching my Rogue from Bladedancer/Assassin with 0-pt RS to Bladedancer/Assassin with 0-pt Ranger, I noticed that my toon automatically switches from daggers to my bow/rifle for auto-attack. This took me by surprise, as I hadn't experienced it before (i.e., from level 1-20). It also made me curious enough to spend 30 minutes searching DDG and even Google to learn more, but to no avail. And I like so I took my time lol.

These are the main questions that are driving me nuts trying to answer lol! Any help is *very* much appreciated, but thanks just for reading this even if you can't help me. Although I have only a month of experience in Telara, so far the community (both Guardian and Defiant) is one of the kindest and most generous and helpful I've ever seen. You guys sure beat weekend trade or Barrens chat on WoW.

1. Is this behavior OK or even supposed to happen for a (primarily) melee spec?
2. Does it cause any interrupt in one's DPS output or rotations? It seems somehow like it would to me, but I know almost nothing about Rift yet and most of the info online seems to be outdated or unavailable.
3. Is using a 0-point Ranger soul even ok for my toon's build and play-style (I described it above this list in case anyone needs to know)?
4. Regardless of the above questions, is it possible to disable my toon switching weapons and Auto-Attack from melee to their Ranged equivalents besides using a soul other than Ranger for the 0 points?
5. Should I know anything else about whether and how this behavior effects me, my party or anything else?

Well, thanks in advance again. You guys are awesome, whether you answer or not, and I'll see you online!

-Thesaric@Deepwood

P.S. After I posted this I realized this is probably not the best place for the thread. I apologize, and tried to find a way to move the thread to the Newcomer's sub-forum, but was unsuccessful. I hope it's not a huge issue, and in the future I'll definitely be more thorough in my search for the appropriate forum.

[Maltie]

But to the issue at hand. After switching my Rogue from Bladedancer/Assassin with 0-pt RS to Bladedancer/Assassin with 0-pt Ranger, I noticed that my toon automatically switches from daggers to my bow/rifle for auto-attack. This took me by surprise, as I hadn't experienced it before (i.e., from level 1-20). It also made me curious enough to spend 30 minutes searching DDG and even Google to learn more, but to no avail. And I like so I took my time lol.

1. Is this behavior OK or even supposed to happen for a (primarily) melee spec?
2. Does it cause any interrupt in one's DPS output or rotations? It seems somehow like it would to me, but I know almost nothing about Rift yet and most of the info online seems to be outdated or unavailable.
3. Is using a 0-point Ranger soul even ok for my toon's build and play-style (I described it above this list in case anyone needs to know)?
4. Regardless of the above questions, is it possible to disable my toon switching weapons and Auto-Attack from melee to their Ranged equivalents besides using a soul other than Ranger for the 0 points?
5. Should I know anything else about whether and how this behavior effects me, my party or anything else?

The weapon change makes 0 difference to your dps, its just a visual effect. All of your damage is based from your Main Hand weapon (even your ranged attacks), this was changed with the most recent expansion


As for the 0 point ranger, that's pretty much the offsoul you're going to be using at level 70 for every dps spec, so its fine to use it

[TheSpacesBetween]

Just an extra note - Ranger at 0 works at 66+ if you legendary the pet, that's the reason for it, but while leveling if you're planning to use it at 0 for the pet, keep in mind it will only scale to level 30. So you might want to think about another 0 pointer until then.

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Thank you SO much for the quick, well-worded and very helpful reply. This is just further proof of how awesome the Rift community is! xP

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I really appreciate this tip! Actually, I didn't even notice that, despite the tooltip text "usable until level 36" lol. Thinking about it, until I start raiding, or at least till I get to the legendaries stage, I suppose I'll stick with RS for the teleport or something more practical for soloing/leveling. Thanks for the advice!