Help me understand something....

So, I've been playing for a little over a month. Read a huge amount of the forum threads, watched ZiggyD's tutorials, etc. So I'm basically up to speed on the game mechanics, crafting and yadda yadda.


I'm playing a 2-hander mace maurader with heavy strike as main buffed with splash, added damage and blood magic. Not bad DPS and AOE for crowd control. I'm currently trying to upgrade my weapon to be able to do more, also using sweep with LGOH and 7.3% leech for when potions can be spared. And as a safety skill Vaal Ground slam with multistrike, works wonders to shove packs back when the @#$! hits the fan.

Was doing good with this until late act 3 merc. Mobs are now hitting me for like a 3rd of my life, sometimes a pack of like 4 will practically one shot me 1/4 of a second after I hit the mouse to attack. So, I capped my resist to 77, started running determination and vitality and farmed for a better armor set, 20%'d all of them. Still no luck.


I die so fast, the first pack of mobs (5-8) if I don't die, I'm out of potions. I'm using 2 life and one of each of the elements. Places like Lunaris or Spectre I can't live very long, have to keep running away and draw them out lol. Not a very warrior like thing to do, but it was the only way to get to and kill piety and dommy.


So, I'm not very effective and I'd like to know why? Using cry for 4 end charges, all resists at 77 (unless I pop one of the elems I'm fighting) damage reduction with charges at 79%, defense at about 6k.

Why am I dying so fast? Do these mobs have elemental pierce or something? Is my defense too low? The reason why I'm asking is because of the different video's and "check my build" posts Ive seen, They don't die so fast, if at all. So what am I missing?

You know, a lot of people call 2H builds a 'noobtrap', yeah, it's easier to get a good weapon, kill stuff and all that, however there's a catch. In PoE a good life pool and a goodly amount of defense on gear isn't enough to keep a straight melee char from dieing, plain ad simple.

You need additional layers of defenses, endurance charges, high block, spell block, iron reflexes - grace - determination combo, arctic armor, mind over matter, lightning coil...

A char that's right there in the thick of it needs more of the above besides his primary defenses, you got only endurance charges, that would perhaps be enough for a spectral thrower along great gear and good life pool, but for sweep - not in a billion. Besides, have you seen anyone using sweep in those videos?

How much life you got anyway?

2k life, working on gettin some passives for that. And sweep is not main, just a quick one shot to fill some life, then its back to HS. im using determination aura with vitality.


what i dont know is if these mobs have some kind of elem pierce or anything. when i go into barracks or battle front, with (123%) 77% lightning resist, those arc witches tear me apart, without being "charged" or shocked, or whatever it is that debuff. then, in the gardens, those big toothed grin mobs that pop out of the ground an shoot fire at ya, pop a fire flash get like 147% fire res, those shots still take half my life.

I'm getting more life, farming for better rings, but i've seen some of these builds that only have maybe 500-1k life more than me, and their life doesnt even move when they on lvl 70+ maps.


so what mob mechanic am i missing or not understanding. i dont have the dex for grace to be effective. is it my defense? what defense range would i need to be able to tank, say, Kole. He one shots me. seen 2 diff builds that got hit by him and their life barely moved.

i just dont get it. the mob mechanics. why they hit me so hard and those others not nearly so bad.

what am I doing wrong?

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Mulgrath wrote:

2k life, working on gettin some passives for that. And sweep is not main, just a quick one shot to fill some life, then its back to HS. im using determination aura with vitality.


what i dont know is if these mobs have some kind of elem pierce or anything. when i go into barracks or battle front, with (123%) 77% lightning resist, those arc witches tear me apart, without being "charged" or shocked, or whatever it is that debuff. then, in the gardens, those big toothed grin mobs that pop out of the ground an shoot fire at ya, pop a fire flash get like 147% fire res, those shots still take half my life.

I'm getting more life, farming for better rings, but i've seen some of these builds that only have maybe 500-1k life more than me, and their life doesnt even move when they on lvl 70+ maps.


so what mob mechanic am i missing or not understanding. i dont have the dex for grace to be effective. is it my defense? what defense range would i need to be able to tank, say, Kole. He one shots me. seen 2 diff builds that got hit by him and their life barely moved.

i just dont get it. the mob mechanics. why they hit me so hard and those others not nearly so bad.

what am I doing wrong?

Just so you know, most players aim for 2k life before they finish cruel, and 3k life before merciless act 3, and many much much more like 5k. as a melee you are seriously lacking in life pool.

Well, for starters, 2K life is way too low and I mean 'way way too low' for a char that uses short range skill. Just for reference, in this 1 month league my detonate dead (caster) shadow had 2,5K life at cruel dominus, that would be at level 53-54 or so, with self-found crap gear. At end merciless you should have at least 3K with a melee char, that's the absolute bottom of comfort zone.

All those guides and videos you watched probably have something in common - all layers of defense you chose are important, but without a goodly sized buffer, you're screwed and no ifs or buts about it. Damage mostly comes in spikes and if you don't have room to take it, it's over. You don't delay taking life nodes, it's the absolute priority.

If you've seen builds with just a little more life than you they have that little for a reason, they usually can't get more because they're using some defensive setup that justifies the sacrifice, and as you've been able to see, it pays off.

Ok, back to layers, let me give you an example: we all know armor doesn't really work on its own versus big enough hits, that's why Kole oneshots you, endurance charges always work well, lightning coil armor is always good, arctic armor is useful but you really must build for it and mind over matter fits the same bill. Now all those are useful, but see what happens if you stack all of them:
First off, lightning coil will reduce physical damage you take by 40% so your armor gets compared against a much lower number making it much more effective. Then endurance charges add flat reduction percentage on top of your armor leaving only a fraction of damage you would normally take. That fraction is then reduced by flat amount on arctic armor and a part of what is left absorbed into your mana pool.

There, that's what stacking layers of defense does, it does much more than the sum of its parts, as no part of that setup would do nearly as well on its own. There are a lot of effective setups and that was only an example, of course, and you don't really need all that to play, just pick something that works for you.

For your char I'd recommend getting more life on passive tree and gear, you want to have life on every part of gear that can have it, really. By getting larger life pool you will also reduce the duration of chill, freeze and shock. Also, ditch vitality and use purity of lightning, that's probably the most dangerous element for you, with fire being close second.

And keep in mind some enemies are there to kick your ass, there are very few builds that truly have nothing to fear.

And pardon my tone, I've just seen too many threads like this. It can be hard for new players to grasp how much work staying alive takes in this game and with every addition they aren't making it any simpler. I'm not really a resident doomsayer but still...

no need to pardon your tone, i can understand how old it gets. this game's mob mechanics is just something ive never seen before where you had to do as you put it, layer so much.

ive built basically for defense and damage, life was comming later, but i guess ima have to focus on it now. I do understand the amount of work that would go into a build that could facetank everything, to a certain extent, but i'm just a little confuzed as most noobs are lol.



I appreciate all the responses here, they've all been helpful. i guess thats what i want to be able to do is basically facetank everything and, if you've ever seen what heavy strike with splash does to packs of mobs lol, thats what i want to do. so i guess i need to research, for one the passives, and check into damage mitigation to facetank. the damageing part i think i got.


any suggestions on certain common builds that can facetank kinda playstyle, or uncommon builds? maybe i can take parts of those and see how it works.




thx again for the responses!

I like playing melee too and these things that help me survive just a little bit longer. Make sure you have the right flasks. When you go into the Battlegrounds make sure you have a flask that will dispel shocked. If you're dying to mobs that are attacking with fire, then make sure you have something that dispels burning, etc. Use the curses. I like using Temporal Chains to slow down the mobs while I rush in for the kill. I use Warlords Mark to help with Life and mana leech. It also helps maintain endurance charges with my Cast when Damage Taken gem. If aren't using one whatever you do make sure you get one. If linked like this it can do wonders for your defense.

If you are using 2H weapon and already have Heavy Stike, why not try Ground Slam? Your Defences seem very good just need more life. If the monsters hit you hard you can stop them hitting but stunning for example. That will boost your survivability through the roof. If you have problems with Arc mages and such, use fast movement skill like leap slam to instantly position yourself on top of them and begin the slaughter. Or just quickly retreat. Being able to move around swiftly will help a lot.
Link your gear and passive tree as well, there are always people here that will help with tweaking:)
Good luck mate.

melee builds mostly have a skill for single target damage and one for crowd control.

i would recommend exchanging life gain on hit in sweep with some melee damage support (it does make sense if you add multistrike), as fazlez1 said: warlords mark is your friend for life regen from killing easy enemy crowds.

and try replacing your heavy strike melee splash support with life leech. this makes it easier to regen if you lock on bosses and take hits. with sweep you already have a crowd control skill.

My first decent build was a 2H groundslammer, and i ran into the same issues.

i found that a decoy totem worked wonders. Placed off to the side so they all run off to the left or right. If placed inside the mob it'll die very fast.

Worked for most of the game, except the bosses with high spike damage. For these, you need high life and good dps, no real workaround for this build.