Is Melee Physical Competitive?

If you wanna go phys bonk with that dps goal in mind the obvious way to achieve that is probably earthshatter. The new delayed EQ can likely do it as well though it's more of a boss killer meme than an actual build imo. Dual strike of ambidexterity and double strike of momentum should also have a lot of potential though i haven't done any tinkering with them yet.

You are correct in that phys damage has relatively few scaling vectors and it's definetly somewhat behind elemental builds but if all you want is 100 mio dps then that's plenty possible.

Here is a ES slam build i quickly threw together. No league powercreep involved and no crazy gear (800 pdps weapon and no other crazy rares). 30 mio dps initial hit and 20 mio per spike so hit 4 spikes (which is easy) and you have a hundred mio. With more investment you can easily surpass that. Build isn't exactly squishy either.

https://pobb.in/RzSExdjDM3dX

Weapon/flat phys damage along with crit and attack speed is more than enough on it's own to reach those kind of numbers, you don't need fancy scaling vectors for it.

Also restating it for the billionst time since people seem to be still unaware of the obvious, but using POE ninja as a measure for anything beyond current popularity is foolish. The DPS stat is heavily biased towards certain skills because of how POB works. Having a 100 mio dps on POE ninja doesn't mean you'll realistically have it ingame while there are plenty of skills who wouldn't show anywhere near the top of the DPS ladder while easily exeeding that value in game.

Can confirm that dual strike of ambidexterity is fun as hell.
Slow bonker that can stun well paired with a fast offhand + ambidexterity notable and quick and deadly large cluster jewel notables makes it easy to scale the damage. The gem is miles above the standard variant in terms of fun and damage.

I played Cleave of Rage this league as Berserker. It was hard to get some defenses, because of the Abyssus helmet and the ascend node, but it worked. Made more then 20mill dps and felt great.

"

bennisen wrote:

I played Cleave of Rage this league as Berserker. It was hard to get some defenses, because of the Abyssus helmet and the ascend node, but it worked. Made more then 20mill dps and felt great.

I was using Abyssus on my Juggernaut as well and frankly, it does add lots and lots of damage, but ultimately ditched it because dying is not fun. It's crazy how much you have to invest into an item to come close to the damage it provides lol.



Abyssus is still a lot more damage, but I'll take 20% higher max hit over that any day

"

ArtCrusade wrote:

"

bennisen wrote:

I played Cleave of Rage this league as Berserker. It was hard to get some defenses, because of the Abyssus helmet and the ascend node, but it worked. Made more then 20mill dps and felt great.

I was using Abyssus on my Juggernaut as well and frankly, it does add lots and lots of damage, but ultimately ditched it because dying is not fun. It's crazy how much you have to invest into an item to come close to the damage it provides lol.

Abyssus is still a lot more damage, but I'll take 20% higher max hit over that any day

I just used indomitable Resolve over the forbidden jewels. Gives you 25% less damage to sources of any damage. With 23 fortification and a good amount of armour it felt good.

But one of the jewels was very expensive.

"

bennisen wrote:

I just used indomitable Resolve over the forbidden jewels. Gives you 25% less damage to sources of any damage. With 23 fortification and a good amount of armour it felt good.

But one of the jewels was very expensive.

Sadly don't have that option, but if it works it works! :D

Bleed builds are also still decent for melee builds either lacerate or sst/shield crush bleed are at least good enough to farm t16 maps and do most non uber bosses. At least for ssf they are decent but I wouldn't really touch physical melee if I was taking the game seriously though.

Armor Stacker is probably the best all-rounder melee build if you want to dump mega divines into it.

Will a totem caster build blow your melee build away per cost/hp/dmg yes it will but can you still make a melee build and have fun sure you can.

Also I once made a reave physical/chaos build that had almost 1bil dps however it had no defenses at all besides omega damage and aoe. Mings heart is one of the best dps items in the game for physical builds. Combined with varunastra sword you can get some crazy dps if you cut almost all defenses.

"

ArtCrusade wrote:

"

bennisen wrote:

I played Cleave of Rage this league as Berserker. It was hard to get some defenses, because of the Abyssus helmet and the ascend node, but it worked. Made more then 20mill dps and felt great.

I was using Abyssus on my Juggernaut as well and frankly, it does add lots and lots of damage, but ultimately ditched it because dying is not fun. It's crazy how much you have to invest into an item to come close to the damage it provides lol.

Abyssus is still a lot more damage, but I'll take 20% higher max hit over that any day

Echoes of Creation say hi.

"

Aynix wrote:

"

ArtCrusade wrote:

I was using Abyssus on my Juggernaut as well and frankly, it does add lots and lots of damage, but ultimately ditched it because dying is not fun. It's crazy how much you have to invest into an item to come close to the damage it provides lol.

Abyssus is still a lot more damage, but I'll take 20% higher max hit over that any day

Echoes of Creation say hi.

Was considering it, but doesn't fit my build. My DPS is super consistent whereas Echoes would be dippy

"

Phrazz wrote:

"

feral_nature wrote:

doesnt matter if it has melee tag - returning projectiles can gunshot, so your doing 95% of your dps in close range. spectral throw is the opposite - you need to be at optimal range to do optimal damage.

You can add "Point Blank" to bow skills, doesn't make it "melee", even though you do more damage at close range. I wouldn't call a minimum AoE RF "melee" either, even though you're at "close range".

But we are discussing semantics here. You're debating subjectively based on what you "feel" is melee, I'm talking objectively based on the classifications in-game. We just have to agree to disagree.

what has feel to do with doing 95% of your dps in close range? i think its you who is fixed on skill gem having a range tag.