Melee Weapons. Why so imbalanced?

Is it me or are melee weapons just completely imbalanced? Faster is always king still. Range on weapons seems broken if claws and axes have the same. 2H's are pretty darn useless and have same range as foils.

Even on RT builds, foils are king due to their superior attack speed and range. There is no better option for anything melee build. Slow weapons = worthless, they don't have anything making up for the low speed.

Has anybody used a 1H mace in the past year or 2? Doubt it. (unless they magically dropped some godly rolled one, but thats unlikely)

Has anyone used a sceptre, ever in their lives? Nope.

Has anyone ever used a Gavel end game (not a mjolner)? Nope. There is no reason that you would ever use that.

If you ask me, there should be a meaningful difference between and axe, mace and claw. Right now they are only used if you get a lucky drop or its all you can afford. But you would never want one of those over a fast, high DPS sword. The only reason I could see is dex requirements I guess, but you would still be wishing that you could have a foil instead.

It's still faster is always better no matter what.

they should multiply by 2 or 3 the stun possibilities of 2h maces, eliminate the attk speed mods on them and raise the strength requirement.


imo, Maces should be slow, hard to carry but stun like hell.

Armors. Why so imbalanced?

Is it me or are armors just completely imbalanced? Evasion is always king still. Energy Shield on armor seems broken if armor and evasion has the same. Armors are pretty darn useless and have same bonus as Arctic Armour.

Even on block builds, evasion are king due to their superior damage reduction. There is no better option for anything melee build. armor = worthless, they don't have anything making up for the big hit mitigation.

Has anybody used a armor build in the past year or 2? Doubt it. (unless they magically dropped some godly rolled one, but thats unlikely)

Has anyone used a armor/es, ever in their lives? Nope.

Has anyone ever used a Glorious Plate end game (not a kaom's)? Nope. There is no reason that you would ever use that.

If you ask me, there should be a meaningful difference between and evasion, armor and es. Right now they are only used if you get a lucky drop or its all you can afford. But you would never want one of those over a nice, high evasion armor. The only reason I could see is dex requirements I guess, but you would still be wishing that you could have a hybrid armor/es instead.

they should multiply by 2 or 3 the armor rating on items, eliminate the dual armor/es mods and raise the strength requirement.


imo, armor should be strong, hard to carry but protect from hit like hell.

Yup!
And to make matters worse they go and nerf flat phys %.
The selection and range of viability is more limited than ever. And there's no fix in site. No comment from GGG. It's been this way for 2 years.
I stopped playing melee ages ago. Viable, effective weapons are atrociously expensive and very hard to craft.
Which..is off topic! But ya, range of viable melee options for weapons is boring and pitifully small.

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DamageIncorporated wrote:

And to make matters worse they go and nerf flat phys %.

which actually nerfed all weapon bases. ;/

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If gamers balanced games there wouldnt be any playable games.

Yeah right. Are you also suggesting that the developers of any games you consider to be good are not also gamers?

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Attack speed is definitely king (and always has been), and in the current balance, crit is king over non-crit. This extends past just melee.

Leaving crit aside for the moment, I would love to see a general damage buff (and/or intrinsic buff) for low base speed weapons and for some sanity to come to melee weapon ranges. A 1h anything ever having more or equal range than a 2h anything is just crazy.

Another option would be to restrict the attacks to be a little bit more weapon-specific (ex. GH) as opposed to less weapon-specific (ex. ST).

Imagine if WB/VS were claw/dagger only instead of the claw/dagger/1hsword.
Imagine if there was an axe-specific skill, or molten strike was axe/mace only.
Imagine if ST was 2h only.
... and so on.

(It would also allow GGG some surface area to start creating new melee skills.)

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Charanjaydemyr wrote:

WB removed from swords? Oh, Pneuma. You're going to give me nightmares.

Was a bad example. :P

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Charanjaydemyr wrote:

That said, given GGG's famed restriction of resources, they likely did consider that but figured if two+ skills do essentially the same thing, might as well just make them one.

Skill selection is pretty much the only reason people play with maces at all right now.

It's also the reason why no one cares about axes. Swords get to use all the skills axes get to use + others, they're faster by default, and in the case of foils, have intrinsic crit multi and massive reach. Eech.

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AntonChigur wrote:

If you ask me, there should be a meaningful difference between and axe, mace and claw. Right now they are only used if you get a lucky drop or its all you can afford. But you would never want one of those over a fast, high DPS sword. The only reason I could see is dex requirements I guess, but you would still be wishing that you could have a foil instead.

It's still faster is always better no matter what.

lol, not at all man.

I guess everyone wants to use a 1.7aps foil over a 1.2dps platinum kriss right? The only reason someone would use a kriss is because they cant afford a foil? Or an ambusher maybe? lol, no. Platinum Kriss at 1.2 aps is the king of melee weapons.

Claws are op as hell, I could turn that around completely and say only reason you would use a sword is because you cant afford a proper claw/dagger. Thats not exactly true either but its far closer to the truth tbh. Dual wield claws you end up with like 4% mana leech and 11-14% life leech + 15 life on hit without having any leech or loh on jewellery or in your gem slots. Its absolutely ridiculous how good claws are.

1H axes and maces are pretty shit I agree, mainly because there are few good skills for them, no implicits worth talking about, no specialty that is worth talking about. Scepters have great potential but just lack convincing skills, the weapon itself is fine.


There is a point there though, you miss the mark when you talk about swords vs claws etc imo, but if you just look at swords only, then within that yes, something could be done for slower bases, same with most melee weapons outside of daggers, where the slow ones are sick for melee. 1 handed axes with like 1.1 aps.. why? just why? What a nonsense weapon, its as if it only exists to fill a gap of being bad.