New Keystones to buff True Melee Characters
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I agree that there needs to be two keystones on the skill tree (probably at opposite sides, like Marauder and Shadow), and that whatever is chosen shouldn't benefit to actual ranged characters.
But rather than make those keystones self-sufficient (with their eventual additional nodes), I would make them depend on how much you invested in defence, and impact defence itself rather than attack. For example : + Marauder-side : Your life nodes are X% more efficient (probably somewhere between 10 and 30%), you deal Y% less damage with spells and projectiles (probably somewhere between 50 and 75%). + Shadow-side : Your evasion, energy shield and armour nodes are X% more efficient, you deal less damage to targets far from you (as with the Point Blank keystone, but without the additional damage). You can also imagine using the way the tree is designed, like "for each defensive cluster your character has fully acquired, you get +1% to all max resistances". The point is to get melee characters to use these keystones to invest in defensive nodes, rather than use those keystones to skip it and go full damage. As for differentiating between melee playstyles, I don't think that those specific keystones should be the ones to do that. This is where other nodes and gear come into play. Finally, I like the idea of spells as utility, and the keystones, in my opinion, shouldn't punish that (like damaging monsters by warping out in the case of your adrenaline suggestion). |
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" Totally agreed there. " Yeah, I really like those ideas, but I would like to add that the range of certain melee attacks and their usability when compared to other ranged attacks Is severely lacking. Perhaps the Adernaline concept could still exist but provide only it's bonus range mechanic. I like the idea of more targets = more AoE. " Yeah, something like my concept for Adrenaline would do that quite nicely, or maybe the effects of the +AoE nodes and the Master of the Arena notable could be improved or something. I dunno, pure phys melee AoE skills just kinda suck atm. | |
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I'm not sure melee aoe really needs boosting compared to single-target melee. Both fill different roles, and should, in my opinion, keep those roles.
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" Im not saying single target physical melee skills need to buffed in any way. Heavy Strike and Double strike are both excellent single target skills. Its the purely physical AoE ones you could use in a True Melee build that are lackluster, such as Cleave and Sweep specifically. The only "Good" one I can think of is Leap Slam due to its movement property and wideish range, but it's built in attack speed restriction really limits it's damage on everything but the slowest two hander builds. Cleave and Sweep need to be improved in the area affected department to have any chance of competing with the likes of Spectral Throw + LMP, which still does very similar damage to these skills. I like how someone else put it to me ages ago: In games, Melee should be able to draw big circles, because they are in melee. Ranged on the other hand should draw smaller circles, because they are ranged. Last edited by Drazn on Jan 28, 2015, 7:24:31 PM
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After playing cyclone for the first time, and discovering the glory that is Vaal cyclone, I have come to the following conclusion:
We need more vaal cyclones. I'm not joking. I would run this skill on every melee character if it didn't cost 64 souls to cast the damn thing. Melee's biggest struggle is keeping packs tight enough to aoe effectively (let's be fair - melee's aoe while small is sufficiently strong), especially given how herald of ash interacts with animals - seriously, FUCK ignited monkeys. Vaal cyclone solves that. It brings every mob in the area towards you, and clusters them in a nice concentrated point perfectly within smacking distance. I don't even care about it's damage. If I have a 2 hander that deals over 10k damage in a single swing, it's still INCREADIBLY slow to walk from mob to mob to mob to mob and horrednously overkill them one at a time. That's melee's clearspeed limiter. Not DPS, travel time. Dragging them all to you to apply the smackdown all at once is INCREDIBLY satisfying and prevents all the annoying instances of "This monkey is faster than me in full plate armor... -.-" I don't want all the "knockback" effects and gems this game offers, I want the opposite. Why can't we bring them CLOSER?
Spoiler
And don't say enduring cry -.- that's about as effective as trying to kill atziri with a wet noodle.
"But we still had a lot of fun, please don't think this comes from hate.
We bitch because we like you and we want you to be great!" ~Miracle of Sound | |
" YES. THIS. OH GOD YES THIS. Give Sweep the ability to suck enemies in at a certain range (Increased by Base Weapon Range modifiers like using a 2Hander and Master of the Arena) and it would be AMAZING. Then give Cleave the range of Lightning Tendrils. Job done. |
