Meleeing at 25 yards?

[Epoch86]

Ok so I have always played an Archer type class since I started playing MMORPGs, and I also play a Bard here in FFXIV. But why, and how, can monsters melee me from 25 yards away? I know it's a melee attack because I can see them do the animation for it. And no its not a ranged attack. Even some skeletons with just swords can hit me from range. If they can hit me from that far away what's the point of having Archer/Bard move while attacking? It makes no sense that we can kite, yet we can still get hit by things that can't use ranged attacks. Just my two cents.

[Urthdigger]

Ok, first I'm going to assume you're just using hyperbole and not ACTUALLY having an issue with things meleeing from 25 yards away (The yalm measurement in-game corresponds to yards). That's a pretty long distance, the maximum distance your own attacks can fire.

Monsters can move at the same speed you do, and can melee while running (Players can do this too!) However, due to the small amount of lag, their position on your screen is where they were 1/3 of a second ago. This usually doesn't matter, but it does create the illusion that an enemy chasing you is further behind that it appears (Pro tip: If you're a melee trying to strike a running monster, aim a yalm or two in front of it). That said, they are ways to get around this.

The first is to get a head start somehow. Enemies stop when trying to use a special attack, which will make them fall behind enough to not hit you. You can also make use of abilities like Repelling Shot which move you, or Shadowbind to bind the monster while you run ahead. Finally, the ability to fire while moving is very useful against monsters with large AoE attacks (Like most primals) where you'll spend a significant portion of the fight running around, as bard is the class that loses the least damage potential while moving (Most melee have a weak ranged attack, monk has none, and each caster does have a few instant-cast spells they can use while running)