Make Melee Great Again this 3.25!

"

Lonnie455Rich wrote:

There's the problem, why should someone be expected to be an expert to play an archetype that is very basic and primitive as melee. You're hitting something with an axe, you're probably a simple man that just wants to hulk smash.

It's always been like this in any other game that melee classes are harder to master and Poe is no exception to that.
In Poe's case you need to know how the boss fights work as it's slightly harder to avoid some things in close range and you need to learn your limits of how durable your character is as you literally face charge into monsters.
All can be of course ignored with proper defensive layers.

Thinking about other games in pvp for example you end up getting kited like crazy by other players if you're unable to learn to play melee.
Yes Pvp is a bad example but even in PCs most other games give you a slap in the face as a melee if you're totally braindead while range DPS get to avoid a lot of problems easier.

A wise man once said, "Grow or die" and it's pretty much the same case with melee in PoE. You either learn to play it properly or you don't.

PoE is just designed in a way that melee will never be able to compete with ranged, considering the same investments.
In other games this is not such an issue.
Maybe in PoE 2 melee will be in a better spot, we will see…

"

odds wrote:

PoE is just designed in a way that melee will never be able to compete with ranged, considering the same investments.
In other games this is not such an issue.
Maybe in PoE 2 melee will be in a better spot, we will see…

Yeah, you're 100% right.. hopefully PoE2 address this. As a melee player, I look forward to a new melee gameplay (hopefully it won't be clunky and allows you to move or change direction/target during most of melee skill animation like other rpg - best are Monster Hunter melee playstyle).

"

betabotz90 wrote:

"

odds wrote:

PoE is just designed in a way that melee will never be able to compete with ranged, considering the same investments.
In other games this is not such an issue.
Maybe in PoE 2 melee will be in a better spot, we will see…

Yeah, you're 100% right.. hopefully PoE2 address this. As a melee player, I look forward to a new melee gameplay (hopefully it won't be clunky and allows you to move or change direction/target during most of melee skill animation like other rpg - best are Monster Hunter melee playstyle).

mhf2 plessy hipcheck says hi

I'm always looking for that same thrill I got from CI Melee Reave back in 2013. Then when Blade Flurry came out, I got that same feeling again. For me, melee has not felt that good since. I have tried to play spell and ranged builds, though I've only ever once managed to get one through the acts and that was just to take advantage of affliction league. I am allergic to ranged builds.

I don't know what it is, though if there's melee in a game, I need to play melee. It's like something irrational where I need to be close to make the interaction feel more intimate. Even in shooters, I want to be up close where possible. It makes me feel disgusting when using a sniper.

I think PoE's a very experienced though tired old train that's almost at its terminal destination. Where most of its occupants will board the next train and those left are the ones who're asleep or content with the futility of remaining onboard.

"

kdubbarizzle wrote:

- Heavy Strike. Its a good goalpost skill gem for some players ... do you really want to play the game using Heavy Strike. Do you really want to defeat uber sirus using Heavy Strike.

Interesing example on how bad melee pure strike is now, just run to hillock with heavy strike and any other of the starting skills to compare and see how the mechanic is extremely underperforming also in low levels.

Bad damage aplication compared to range not compensated with higher base dps (because you need to approach, select and click), and the need to stack a lot MORE defences (reducing your target potential DPS).

Also, current monster density (including many big boss arenas) and mob ranged nukes like revenants makes any single target build not desirable.

"

Halugar wrote:

"

kdubbarizzle wrote:

- Heavy Strike. Its a good goalpost skill gem for some players ... do you really want to play the game using Heavy Strike. Do you really want to defeat uber sirus using Heavy Strike.

Interesing example on how bad melee pure strike is now, just run to hillock with heavy strike and any other of the starting skills to compare and see how the mechanic is extremely underperforming also in low levels.

Bad damage aplication compared to range not compensated with higher base dps (because you need to approach, select and click), and the need to stack a lot MORE defences (reducing your target potential DPS).

Also, current monster density (including many big boss arenas) and mob ranged nukes like revenants makes any single target build not desirable.

Typical Range Playstyle: Skill>Move>Skill>Move>Skill>Move>...
Typical Melee Playstyle: Run Towards Target>Skill>Dodge>Oppsss(Failed to do the mechanics)>Dead.

"

Maybe in PoE 2 melee will be in a better spot, we will see…

There is absolutely nothing in POE2 gameplay videos so far to suggest it is any better. It is instead incredibly worse, such as having to go to town to replenish flasks.

Absolutely nothing was learned about melee design moving from POE1 to POE2 melee design.

If the intended way to play melee is to not be in melee range and not get hit in melee, then melee gameplay is dead on arrival.

No other ARPG does this absurdity except POE.

It isn't really melee combat where the laws of physics don't exist.

The skill that feels most like "melee" to me is Leap Slam. In that sense, PoE 2 looks like my cup of tea. (Those instant travel skills feel better because it compensates a tiny delay that spoils the joy of reflexes.)

"

jack_aubrey wrote:

I don't know. Has Flicker Strike ever been bad? That always seemed like a viable skill in any patch. If I were to play more leagues it's a strong skill I would end up choosing.

It's such a trope or straw man when people keep pointing to a very few skills that work with lots of investment or a single build that works with light investment for only a short amount of difficulty (trash at bossing).

What Chris Wilson said is true, only about 10% of the player base played melee, but that is because there are so few melee builds that are efficiently viable compared to other non melee builds.

PoE is a game about being as efficient as possible with the resources you have. You can't be anywhere as efficient with melee as you can with non-melee. Over and over this has been proven by who wins and what they use. When people say "Make melee great again", what they actually mean is make melee as efficient as non-melee.

Good part is I think a lot of these changes Neon has been posting are helping to fix these things. I'm fairly optimistic about this patch so far when it comes to melee efficiency.