Melee Invasion Viable Build

Why do i struggle to find a melee build that works in invasion? if this is case, then why isn't GGG doing something about this, any caster/ranger build i do, i go through invasion peacefully without even trying, and when i want to do a melee character, I'm lucky to live past level 20...


Is there any viable melee builds that you might know could you either link me or fill me in please. thanks

Looking for:

MEDIUM-HIGH DPS
TANKY/HIGH SURVIVABILITY
PREFFER ONE HANDER/SHIELD OR DUEL WIELD ONLY.

I got far actually with 2 handed being able to clear most bosses well into cruel. I went for stunning as a measure of defense and giving me an option to engage the enemy.

Unfortunately there are shotgun bosses out there which were already in cruel too scary too approach (but theoretically possible if you can close gap fast and stun lock) and already in normal some of the trap bosses bug out into an endless cycle of trap spamm. Now as ranged you do have some more room to dodge traps, but as melee if you get stuck in the endless bear trap spamm that is it.

Apart from that some attacks or things these bosses will do will be so insanely fast or simply broken that they still happen despite what looks like a stun locked enemy. For example I killed the cold trap merveil thingy stun locked, but at death suddenly there were 6 traps on the ground going off (not what killed me).

Desync/ lag is even more dangerous due to this as it can interrupt stun locks.

In cruel act 2 things became tougher for my melee, with more of this shit happening, but I could still tank it due to good life, enduring charges, resists and armour. The bursts that got through were ok. It still felt like this is one of the viable melee ways to go.

However to make sure what is going on I took my time to find every invasion boss, doing as many corrupted areas/ vaal zones as I could as to take that knowledge into merciless. This is when I learned that some shotgun bosses get too insane. Solution is to go semi ranged, but it just becomes a hassle, after all you are transforming yourself into a hybrid and hybrids don't really work. I also kind of knew that these leaks of burst damage would be lethal in merciless, still I could improve on my gear (though I was already 3k armour in act 2 cruel, but only 1.6 or 1.7k life, you have to roll with the gear you get dropped or spend playing trade tycoon 2.0).

I had not found anything with chaos resist yet and just after easily sweeping Oak under the carpet I went looking for the vaal boss of the area. Which happened to beak something a vaal construct with LMP and insane speed on his chaos/ phys projectiles. I noticed the damage wasn't too great when I got hit, but still substantial. By slowly kiting I found that searing bond was just too slow to help me out here, but I also noticed that my groundslamm would stun him. Which pretty much guaranteed a stun lock with heavy strike. I tp in and out having set my gameplan for this boss and go to face with him. He gets into stun lock and than some new shit triggers. Apparently some of these bosses also have the options to power up if they dip into lower life regions. Enfin despite the apparent stun lock, what seemed like 2 super fast attacks go off. 1 is some vaal bombs that go out in a spiral and some big burst from the mob itself. The damage is insane and I plummet 1.2k instantly. Than there is a DoT that is so insane that while potions were popped I die in 0.4-0.5 sec (death in 0.6 sec).

Considering that shit happened act 2 cruel, I gave up on melee ambitions for this league. Merciless will just be worse and scaling shows that gear progression w.r.t mob progression is heavily favored for the mobs, unless you trade tycoon 2.0 (and than I don't even self found completely but guildies helping out each other with loot). So with things as broken as they are, with the magic attacks happening with these enemies under stun locks the magical trap spamm when you kill the trap throwers it just does not seem plausible to play melee, unless you are willing to skip content and make other sacrifices to your play and probably RL schedule (you could also take even more time than me progressing and I do suggest doing all content as you learn from it, but yeah even when you take the safe route shit kills you).

That huge skeleton for example. I timed his attack. From start of animation to the hit it takes 1.5 sec. Scrap your reaction time off that and the time it takes to get out of range and you will see that it is pretty much impossible, around 25k armour and 4 endurance charges you can try going at him. Till that time cheese it or skip it. I carried a searing bond totem vs some of these bosses, but it aint felt right as a melee.

Are you willing to skip content than my build should be fine for you as compared to other builds it actually can do some of the bosses and without the uber gear other melee builds seem to rely on (stun with maces, should be obvious without a tree). If you are not willing to skip content and feel like me that if you have to this game becomes a tedious boring pile of crap, I suggest doing searing bond with flameblast for invasion. Or like my guild and like me that used to be HC only, switch to the ambush league and actually play a game. You feel you probably got to have all the time and non of the life to play melee invasion late game this season.

Alass I got little advice to give regarding to merciless apart from the fact some LMP becomes GMP, there will be more enemies that if they dip at certain % of their life they will power up their attacks. There will be more counter measures when you get into melee range. With what you can see as ranged (if you don;t have go check a video/ stream) or summoner things are pretty rough, hence my choice to stun the content I had to phase, which all things considered worked great upto that vaal construct, but not flawless.

Having said all of that and you are truly committed for the end game I suggest using a high mobility skill (flask, gear) such as whirling blades i.e. you are going to need that for several fights Atziri included to escape some damage.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAecCcQSzFCAUTRRxGJEaOCcvMok0jj38QT9CjkTnUEdR5lRJV-JYPVhjWfNfP2oeajtyqXK7d-V82YErgziGO4zPkFWUh57Fns2hbaIApKynMKeEqBipaKyqtC-5zbyfwBrG2NIh3sHfsuOf5K3qGOw47w7vfPAf8i_2SPcy97746w==

I also opted for stun mastery since it gives 8% life, 60% increased stun duration and 15% stun reduction. The tree above puts you to 75% stun reduction threshold after which further points don't scale as well, but since emphasis lies on these unique bosses it kind of is mandatory to get. 2% mana leech will be enough to support 4 links and you can run determination, need a bout 1 mana flask. Maces are quite slow and it is quite late when you actually start scaling with ats, which you do want eventually since it also helps with stun locks.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAecCcQSzBOQFLQ48EuEUIBRNFHEYkRmFGjgaPhpsJKonLyi1KS4yiTSONuk6Uj38QKBBP0KOROdQR1HmVElWBFfiWD1YY1nzXz9gS2FSZp5qHmo7cqlyu3TtddB35XrvfNmBK4M4hjuGYIzPkFWUh5e0mAqcJ565nsWezaCdoW2iAKLqpKynMKeEqBipaKyqrLq0L7akuc28n8AaxtjSId6W3sHfsuJD42rjn-St6hjsOO4U7w7vTu988B_yL_Pd9kj3Mve--Ov60g==

Knockback is actually interesting as it will stun enemies at the edge of groundslamm (eventually drop heavy strike) keeping them at a distance. I used fending on a build once with cleave and with flame totem and it was actually amazing. I don't know if with the slow base attack-speed it will be useful never got around this league to testing it ;)

200% inc armour and 216% increased life. The route towards duelist and getting those 2 handed nodes and armour nodes could totally be exchanged for aura nodes and going towards purity of flesh. I haven;t done the numbers, but than you would run more auras basically. No idea bout unwavering stance, vs titty bitch probably yes, but I wasn't in need of it up to cruel 2.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAecCcQSzCZYOPBQgFE0UcRZvFy8YkRmFGjgaPhpsHRQkqicvKS4yiTSONuk9_EE_Qo5Co0TnUEdR5lRJVcZV1lfiWD1YY1nzXz9k52aeah5qO3Kpcrt2CHflfNmApIErgziGO4zPj0aQVZHOlIeYCp7Fns2hbaIApKynMKeEqBipaKyqtC-2pLnNu-28n8AaxtjPZdDQ0iHelt7B37LiQ-Nq45_kreoY6wnsOO8O73zwH_Iv8932SPcy97746_rS_Ik=