So I wanted to see what the fuss was about melee..

The best defense in PoE is "dont get hit 4Head". Thats why melee is worse.

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鬼殺し wrote:

Given that I think isometric ARPGs are essentially dead outside of the PoE niche, I sure as shit am not holding my breath.

Actually after huge PoE success there are more and more PoE-like games coming up.
Wolcen, Lost Epoch, new Torchlight, one game that looks like Torchlight but its not Torhclight.

Not saying they can compete with PoE/Diablo, just saying that ARPG genre is getting new tittles most likely because of Path of Exile success.

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KZA wrote:

I'd rather that melee be inferior in SOME aspects and superior in others. Give more choices and have pros and cons to each of them.

There are only two aspects to the game in which inferior/superior matters: damage and defense.

And oh yeah, stacking either one to absurd heights renders the other meaningless as long as you can hop over a very low threshold.

There aren't enough dynamics in the game to support 'melee' or 'ranged' or any other category having strengths and weaknesses that truly matter - join the Shags camp - play what's fun aesthetically. Cause if you're playing for any other reason you're going to be locked into one build only.

That or play a game where your choices don't matter as much. You can play dozens of games were every choice you make only provides a slightly different path through the game, but all are assured victory in the end.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

Melee doesn't work well in this game simply because the other options are better and there's content out there designed to test the limits of every build. So what if melee builds top out at a lower level than other options. Big deal. Play for the fun of it and get the fun out of melee that you can. You can't expect every build to be able to defeat the game.

Choices have to matter, or there's no motive to choose.

Yes. Melee is generally inferior to ranged, and ranged is generally inferior to spells.... and that's ok. Play the game for fun and none of that matters.

I don't think I have ever read a completely honest opinion about the current state of the game.
It's not a complaint, nor am I complaining. But I do keep reworking different melee builds, and afterwards stripping them to try something else.

I refuse to give up on Whirlwind...um I mean Cyclone.

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innervation wrote:

There are only two aspects to the game in which inferior/superior matters: damage and defense.

You are wrong. There is also SPEED and UTILITY. Why do you think Pathfinder is most popular ascendency for a long time? Because not only it one of the fastest ascendency, it also has a lot of utility.
Only people who do Uber Elder care about damage/defense. Most people care about speed.

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Aynix wrote:

Only people who do Uber Elder care about damage/defense. Most people care about speed.

Hmm... I'm Uber Elder killer (at least two times per day) and actually I have to care about speed too. From my point of view it looks like this:
To kill Uber Elder I have to do 8 T16 maps first. Because of Syndicate clearing of each map take me 3 minutes in case of "ordinary guardian" and 3:45-4 min in case of Elder guardian, due to their phases. Without syndicate (and necessity to decide, what to do with defeated members) One T16 take me accordingly 1:45-2 minutes, including boss fight and ~3 minutes when it comes to Guardian map. It means, full "Uber Elder run" without Uber Elder killing, which is quite fast take me at least 28 minutes, but that’s only theory, as in fact there is much things which can slow me down, like Incursion or Zana's mission on map.

So average run is probably something around 35 minutes. And then I have to spawn him again – It takes from 0 minutes (Shapers influence appears in map centre after completing first map) to even 1 hour, when speed is essential. If I would like to do such things with melee char… well, I couldn’t do it, as currency from watcher’s eye is important source of my incomes, without them I couldn’t equip my chars so well.

"

Shagsbeard wrote:

Play the game for fun and none of that matters.

^ this tbh