6000 hours of Melee Scientific Expert Tells You the Truth- Melee changes ACTUALLY 100% suck

Fuck.

The 2x gem damage increase is a BAIT for already #1.

1. Totem was 50% of your total DPS before, although it got added to the gems, there were so many nerfs elsewhere.

+5% DPS

2. Gladiator definitely sucks because it cannot play any archetype fully because you never get to use all 8 points properly. The block is also useless because you get max block with 6 points on tree + shield anyways.
Slayer for 2x DPS and AOE, Champ for 1.5x tankiness stays.

+0% DPS

3. Rage on tree is 100% bait, it gives less or same damage as an average passive but with conditionals.

+0% DPS

4. The tree in general is overall less damage now, massive Thread of Hope positions nerfed. Theoretical good points need travel which end up making them not worth. Most of the changes were adding block to things.

-10% DPS

5. Best builds will still always be with shields because the dual wielding nodes are as bad as shield nodes but weapon type / crit nodes are not. So in the end shield has 4 more affixes for ANYTHING + 2000 armor + more block.

+0% DPS

6. You will need more defensives as melee than before, especially because all physical related damage is now hitting harder with player aura and phys taken as nerfs. Life passives nerfed.

-10-20% DPS

8. Cull/blind/maim etc. totems gone.

-10-20% DPS

9. Right now all that you need is 90 free mana, which is about 9%, with just 1 mana leech affix on a rare jewel - this will not be the case anymore in 3.25. You will need to spend at least 3-6 passives or use worse gems to fix this new issue.

-10-15% DPS

TL;DR

Warden, bleed, retaliate etc. memes can be worth fiddling around with. Cyclone, Reave, Lacerate etc. is way worse than before.

I'd be fine with a super tuned up version of far shot for melee across the board that also applies to your durability. More proximity, more damage, and more resilience. But something ONLY melee can utilize..

It's a bandaid fix, but I think the idea of specialized characters is pretty cool. I like making smiters or spearazons specifically to take out ubers in d2 and be a team's boss-runner. I like to do the same on poe but it's pretty unanimously been mines for a while now.

The ultimate incentive (for me personally) on melee is to be a very strong very beefy character that maybe doesn't clear insanely but whatever I fight is just going to die with little chance of killing me back.

It's more of a bandaid suggestion, but at the very least I want it to feel different from the mess of "offscreen and clear as much as you can" in poe. Maybe it can just fill a different role for now.

"

Kaboinglefop wrote:

I'd be fine with a super tuned up version of far shot for melee across the board that also applies to your durability. More proximity, more damage, and more resilience. But something ONLY melee can utilize..

It's a bandaid fix, but I think the idea of specialized characters is pretty cool. I like making smiters or spearazons specifically to take out ubers in d2 and be a team's boss-runner. I like to do the same on poe but it's pretty unanimously been mines for a while now.

The ultimate incentive (for me personally) on melee is to be a very strong very beefy character that maybe doesn't clear insanely but whatever I fight is just going to die with little chance of killing me back.

It's more of a bandaid suggestion, but at the very least I want it to feel different from the mess of "offscreen and clear as much as you can" in poe. Maybe it can just fill a different role for now.

There's no harm in making melee strong because it has never been overly popular even when it had insane damage numbers. Even now there are 2 billion Alberon builds that barely anyone play.

I made this thread only to make people more aware that these melee buffs and a bait, and that you will end up disappointed if your goal is to farm Uber Pinnacle / T17 etc.

I haven't nailed it down yet, but I do think there is something there. We just haven't discovered it yet.

"

Lonnie455Rich wrote:

I haven't nailed it down yet, but I do think there is something there. We just haven't discovered it yet.

Exactly like there is Alberon's for 2 billion meleedamage, there are rare and good niche builds coming from this patch.

But the main, plain, take an axe and spin melee got dusted and busted.

Source: Trust me bro.

my main worry is attack speed from totem being gone, the numbers look good on paper from what i've seen though. we'll know more after leag start

Most of new threads seem to forget about stronger weapons from quality and enchants (thou bows also get those, but not spell casters maybe?). Other than that you may be right on listed stuff, but there are still unrevealed new uniques, kinda interested in seeing those.

As for myself, i was thinking on rolling max block (+ lucky block) glad (not bleed) with ward stuff. Good block chance should give enough time for ward to recharge (base 2 seconds) and there is this new belt which gives 50% ward from body armor which is like 1500+ ward. Although with new stuff being revealed i might still change starter character, but it will be smth with ward. As for strng stacking boots, i really dont care, thats perversion sure, but its existence aint gonna ruin my fun of running random botched build :)

Source: Trust me bro

"

Rextec wrote:

my main worry is attack speed from totem being gone, the numbers look good on paper from what i've seen though. we'll know more after leag start

Yeah, especially with Paradoxica being the best weapon, you are bound to play with slow attack speed. Can't say I don't miss Dual Wield 2+ AS Jewelled foils!

"

Andrius319 wrote:

Most of new threads seem to forget about stronger weapons from quality and enchants (thou bows also get those, but not spell casters maybe?). Other than that you may be right on listed stuff, but there are still unrevealed new uniques, kinda interested in seeing those.

As for myself, i was thinking on rolling max block (+ lucky block) glad (not bleed) with ward stuff. Good block chance should give enough time for ward to recharge (base 2 seconds) and there is this new belt which gives 50% ward from body armor which is like 1500+ ward. Although with new stuff being revealed i might still change starter character, but it will be smth with ward. As for strng stacking boots, i really dont care, thats perversion sure, but its existence aint gonna ruin my fun of running random botched build :)

That's not going to change much. In the grand scheme of things, you are starting off at least 10-40% weaker than the previous season.

And then you get to have your new implicits and uniques. Even if the game spit out 700 pdps foils, it doesn't matter because Paradoxica is about the same DPS.