About melee versus ranged

Although this issue is mentioned in the beta manifesto, it's quite unclear to me how GGG is planning to address this disparity and I once again want to raise the discussion about melee efficiency.

I'm now building a really boring cookie cutter Marauder (life based, 1 handed with shield, Infernal blow with melee splash).
I am not going to rant about armour/life sucking compared to ES/CI, for me this is a given fact and exactly the reason I now choose to build this Marauder.
I will in fact follow that obvious route, taking all accessible life nodes available and use granite flasks, Endurance charges, curses and whatever I can do to boost my survivability and survive those annihilating boss attacks like Vaal hammer and Kole Ground Slam.

And it is working out well, my survivability is fine. I am now in Cruel Docks with max resist, a large life pool and decent damage reduction.

So what is your problem? Well the disparity is not really a defensive disparity but rather an offensive disparity.
If you play in big parties this disparity is very obvious to me: Ranged toons running around much faster Power Siphoning, Freeze Pulsing, Lightning arrowing and one shotting everything from a screen away and me desperately trying to keep up and occasionally manage to participate in the fight.
And when I do participate in the fight, my close ranged semi ranged melee attack (Infernal Blow/Melee splash) in general does less damage to less enemies.

In my opinion melee attacks should do superior damage over ranged attacks, this is a rule that you can find in many games. And it is logical because ranged means saver and melee means more risk.

So what is GGG doing about this? I think they are trying to improve melee damage but that new support gems (melee splash/multistrike) just don't quite cut it. It is a step in the right direction but clearly not enough.
What else? Soul Taker axe and I read about 3 more unique axes that are coming. However this does not really address the issue, it is like a work around. Specific gear should never be like mandatory in order to be viable.

My suggestion is to reduce overall ranged damage.

-EDIT-
Recent post about similar matters: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/494456

So far my duelist is level 74 and I am melee and have had no problems. I have 2.8k HP, around 13k DPS on my cleave, and have max resists. My gear is NOT amazing whatsoever, if I had a soul taker, or a koams, or some other gear that is expensive by character would be beefy as hell. Now, obviously those items are expensive and rare so it's unfair to use them when comparing to most situations.

Even still, I think everyone that complains about CI being better is overreacting a little, if you have a good build it shouldn't be a problem. I don't use a shield and I am fine (though I am halfway to getting my soul taker, then I use daresso's courage + ST).

Like I said, my current gear is crap (was borrowing friends weapons cuz mine suck) and I do fine. If I can do fine as a melee character, anyone can. It's probably your build or something, my first character was awful (luckily got a full respec) and now my second and third characters are great.

I think you are not getting the point.

I am now level 60 and have no real problems with the content either, what I am trying to point out is that ranged is in general a lot more efficient.

I cannot agree with crap gear being viable..

Being a melee in a ranged dominate group is not efficient, if you ran with melee based characters in your group it would be better. Ranged / Melee seems pretty balanced now, the only issue is desync gives a massive gameplay advantage to ranged characters.

"

Decc wrote:

Being a melee in a ranged dominate group is not efficient, if you ran with melee based characters in your group it would be better. Ranged / Melee seems pretty balanced now, the only issue is desync gives a massive gameplay advantage to ranged characters.

Ranged/Melee is balanced how? I and many other players do not agree with you and motivate this quite clearly.

"

Startkabels wrote:

bullshit

l2p.

You tell me how should I play?

Responding to a motived complaint with "bullshit l2p" is very weak and childish.

Clearly you do not agree with me but are incapable of motivating yourself.

Funny because you are referring to other players as "idiots" and "morons" in your message history...

cool story bro.
the problem is YOU and not the dps of ranged characters.
i can keep up with my melee guy, if you cant, you doing wrong.

now l2p instead of crying for nerfs because you suck.

"

HeroOfExile wrote:

cool story bro.
the problem is YOU and not the dps of ranged characters.
i can keep up with my melee guy, if you cant, you doing wrong.

now l2p instead of crying for nerfs because you suck.

Do you realize how rude you are?

How can you say that the problem is me when the disparity is confirmed in the beta manifesto and other players are complaining about similar things.

BTW I do not need to learn to play, because again: I have no problems with the content, I am nearly pointing out the disbalance in efficiency here

OP may or may not have a point but its obviously a highly debatable issue as seen in many other threads.

Explain to him whether he is right or wrong or don't post at all. No need to be rude.