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

counter the points - what's changed? the totem DPS moves to his character that has less opportunity to deal damage.

He can switch to bleed and poison maybe for some increased sustained damage if the 3.25 numbers are favourable. What else can he possibly do? there have been no other changes to melee since 2022 or before then until now. I don't think melee defences have been buffed since 2022 either (in fact they have lessened with the blind nerf, the mana reservation mastery nerfs, fortify passive investment nerf, melee range and ancestral call range nerfs).

:EDIT:

A sour taste that came up so far for one of my builds is that Shield Crush wont be supported by Tinctures since the wording is "Attacks with melee weapons".
Not only did a lot of skills got like 200% - 300% which is a more Multiplier but Shield Crush and respectivepy Spectral Shield Throw lost a ton of more multipliers from Totem/Berserk with only a little bit of flatt added compensation. Now the exclusion from Tinctures in addition hurts extra big.

I think the Shield Skills missing essential more multipliers now for a good ceiling or simply were overlooked at least the Shield Skills with a melee tag but using a "Off-Hand" weapon.

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Mashgesture wrote:

This post is aging so poorly every day we get closer to league start, and now we have the gems updated. Already have 6-8 melee builds coming out.

Lacerate, GS, ES, RV, Dual Strike, Glacial hammer, Shield crush...

Seeing a return and buff of a couple projectile ones as well LS, Molten, Frostblades

All having 0 mana, damage, and mitigation issues.

All but Lacerate and Ground Slam on that list were already decent melee builds though.

Molten Strike got shadowed by Fissure of Snaking but was still good. Smite would be in there if they hadn't nerf'd it due to the Vaal version. Double Strike and Cleave of Rage have been a thing.

Personally, I'm more interested in new options. Pestilent looks pretty good and Trickster isn't gunna suffer Attack speed or mana issues.

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Xzorn wrote:

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Mashgesture wrote:

This post is aging so poorly every day we get closer to league start, and now we have the gems updated. Already have 6-8 melee builds coming out.

Lacerate, GS, ES, RV, Dual Strike, Glacial hammer, Shield crush...

Seeing a return and buff of a couple projectile ones as well LS, Molten, Frostblades

All having 0 mana, damage, and mitigation issues.

All but Lacerate and Ground Slam on that list were already decent melee builds though.

Molten Strike got shadowed by Fissure of Snaking but was still good. Smite would be in there if they hadn't nerf'd it due to the Vaal version. Double Strike and Cleave of Rage have been a thing.

Personally, I'm more interested in new options. Pestilent looks pretty good and Trickster isn't gunna suffer Attack speed or mana issues.

Eh not to the level or anywhere near to what they are now. Slams havent even been a thing for years.


You should check out the POB update, they are doing something pretty cool with builds from creators loaded into it.

My tests have been showing melee to be massively improved, hybrid bleed quake slayer should be nearly immortal and able to handle all content on a pretty decent budget.

Yea, the retaliate and exert gems saved melee like crazy. Non-bleed one-handed Reave, Cyclone etc. are still basically 3.20-3.24 without retaliate.

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zzang wrote:

A sour taste that came up so far for one of my builds is that Shield Crush wont be supported by Tinctures since the wording is "Attacks with melee weapons".
Not only did a lot of skills got like 200% - 300% which is a more Multiplier but Shield Crush and respectivepy Spectral Shield Throw lost a ton of more multipliers from Totem/Berserk with only a little bit of flatt added compensation. Now the exclusion from Tinctures in addition hurts extra big.

I think the Shield Skills missing essential more multipliers now for a good ceiling or simply were overlooked at least the Shield Skills with a melee tag but using a "Off-Hand" weapon.

You need to bear in mind that a single jewel can take SST and Shield crush from 15% crit to roughly 80 ish. Mine takes me from 25% to 100% capped crit chance. SST and shield crush, while slow, are very strong. Try the new rage, warcries and 50 valour banners in PoB and you will see.

after 3 days on pob, can confirm bait. if it was shit before its probably still awful, MAYBE the new enchants can be build defining, theres 100% gonna be a retaliatory meme build, bleed got something...

feels like totems got replaced with pressing warcrys or giving up your much loved mana reservation

and banners? nobody wants them just get rid and buff gems even more.

but yeah, pob numbers dont lie and i cant cook much.

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hmcg020 wrote:

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zzang wrote:

A sour taste that came up so far for one of my builds is that Shield Crush wont be supported by Tinctures since the wording is "Attacks with melee weapons".
Not only did a lot of skills got like 200% - 300% which is a more Multiplier but Shield Crush and respectivepy Spectral Shield Throw lost a ton of more multipliers from Totem/Berserk with only a little bit of flatt added compensation. Now the exclusion from Tinctures in addition hurts extra big.

I think the Shield Skills missing essential more multipliers now for a good ceiling or simply were overlooked at least the Shield Skills with a melee tag but using a "Off-Hand" weapon.

You need to bear in mind that a single jewel can take SST and Shield crush from 15% crit to roughly 80 ish. Mine takes me from 25% to 100% capped crit chance. SST and shield crush, while slow, are very strong. Try the new rage, warcries and 50 valour banners in PoB and you will see.

I know about the jewel im using it for several years now.
Im crit capped too but this is not an issue with the standard legacy jewel. Crit capping non shield skills isnt a big problem either and is besides the point.

I was able to generate rage before with a offhand swap and my gloves.

The missing more multipliers from Berserk and Totem hurt quite big times plus the exclusion from Tinctures with barely any compensation makes me think that Shield skills with a melee tag got overlooked.

As for Warbanner with valor. Its not up when you enter a boss fight like uber pinacle so i think thats just a pure pob warrior setting.

Against ordinary map bosses you most likely overkill them with any build and dont require the valor build up.

As for Warcries they only exert Slam attacks which exclude Shield skill gems.