How We're Approaching the Melee Rebalance in 3.7.0

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NiobMordodrukow wrote:

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There have actually been calls to nerf one particular melee build - Molten Strike

Lol, i guess, he s talking about Blade Flurry. But the truth is: nobody gives a shit about it, because you dont need 150 mil dps to kill the bosses. And the clear speed of BF is far from the best.

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Exile009 wrote:

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Rockell wrote:

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Exile009 wrote:

Hmm...you don't mention anything about armor and block. If you want melee to be popular, you're gonna have to do some work on those two as well, especially the former. And be sure to make them synergize particularly well with melee, rather than just be an easy option for all kinds of builds.

Max block builds are insanely good already and can clear anything in the game.

High armour builds can do all endgame.

What?

Have you made a max block build without using that ascendancy? After the last big block changes, mind you. As for high armor...what?

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Chris wrote:

Edit: And Cyclone is now a Channelled skill.

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Exile009 wrote:

1) You haven't answered the question I asked. Max block has always been strong and still is - it's getting to max block/spell block that's harder nowadays. Unless you play that ascendancy.

2) Your layering is cute. How much do dedicated MoM builds rely on those, compared to how much MoM is doing for them? How much do pure big ES or high hp builds need it? And just "don't get hit"? Lol! Layering of defenses is good policy, sure, but the fact that armor needs to rely on it far more than other defensive setups says plenty about how effective armor is. At that point, how much difference is your armor even making, versus all the other things you've piled on top of it? Armor has its current poor reputation for good reason - you can just as well choose to layer something else on instead of investing into it and you'll likely end up even tankier. The question isn't 'is armor plus a whole bunch of other good stuff any good?', it's 'is armor any good?' Else all the other good stuff is just carrying the armor - and hiding how ineffective it is.

3) There have actually been calls to nerf one particular melee build - Molten Strike. These are usually attacked only because it's one of only a handful of actually strong melee skills (currently) and so people who want to play melee cling to it as one their only options. If the rest of the melee options were also decent, Molten Strike would absolutely be on the chopping block. And MS builds aren't armor-reliant - that's not why it's strong. Neither are Tectonic Slam builds - and those are played on Juggs! I've literally seen a Jugg Tec Slam player say he hasn't bothered with armor (despite being a Jugg) as he found stacking all the other defensive layers better (and he still felt his build was tanky). The funny thing about armor is that it actually gets better the less you're reliant on it - to the point where relying on it at all is silly.