I'm Surprised to Find that Melee is Easy

That was glaciator I presume?

TBH I find it hard to put ground slam, flicker strike into the definition of 'melee' (1 being AoE, 1 moving you around a which avoids a lot of danger) and I think we'd all agree spec throw certainly isn't. That build certainly avoids a lot of issues cleave, sweep, dual strike etc etc just can't avoid. Would like to see you do the challenge with one of the purer melee skills personally.

Ofc spec throw isn't, but it's a fact that mobility and AoE are king and you won't get much better than Ground Slam with high crit and flicker. (I think Kai could improve his speed by flickering to nearby packs as well)

I had this discussion with a friend actually, you could have 10 million "purer melee" Dual Strike and it would still clear slower than 10k Tornado - the mechanics of the skill have so much bearing on it. But atm, in terms of melee playing competitively, we both agreed we ain't touching it. (And he used to be a melee fanatic)

Does whirling blades count as legit melee? That's my planned build for 1 month league. I'll be wearing a Maligaro's Restraint.

Whirling Blades' biggest issue is engine issues. You'll get stuck on pebbles, get stopped on invisible walls, will spend 70% of your time desync'd and roped into mobs you thought you spiraled out of, and to top it all off it has extremely low damage. However I've noticed that if you WB into an actual wall on some maps you can WB immediately right after with no cooldown so you can ping pong.

It's got movement built in so it's more like flicker than swinging at nearby foes in melee range.

But that said... If you can make anything fun/good out of it, in terms of using it to kill, I'll be surprised. It plays like it's really meant as either a way to proc cast on crit or a way to add minor additional damage while moving as if you had a quartz flask up, rather than a build-defining skill... But hey, who knows! Let us know how you go.

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Chundadragon wrote:

Also you may post your melee/ranger's gear and I can give you a complete valuation on the price. Also show which legacies you are using, I can't really think of many you could use unless it's Facebreakers or BoR.

you'll just have to trust me on this one, Chunda.

the Cycloner has a sick helmet and chest armour, tons of leech, a CWDT setup (which the Ranger doesn't), and although doesn't currently use the Legacies, I can put any of those on him in a hearbeat: Legacy Saffell. Legacy Facebreaker. a pretty good Legacy 20 Onyx...
pretty much the only slot where the Ranger holds an advantage, is weapons equipped: a 5-link Lioneye's Glare + a really sick quiver, vs. a 5-link Wings Of Entropy.

obviously, my chances of ever having a Mirror-Geared character - melee or ranged - are absolute zero, so my comparison in the previous post is purely abstract.
however, even when comparing my own flavour-of-the-month TS/Frenzy Ranger vs. flavour-of-the-month, "not-really-melee" Cyclone Marauder - the difference shows.

more so, when comparing to a "real melee" like my Dual Strike "Blender" Duelist (who btw has crazy corrupted gloves and belt + 2 very good swords).

what I'm saying is, ranged are obviously all about avoiding all damage altogether while dishing out their own, while melee are obviously all about going in toe to toe and smashing skulls.
therefore, like davidnn5 said, the use of melee weapons and skills (fuck Spectral Throw. seriously. fuck it) should actually have inherit offensive and - more importantly - defensive bonuses.
that would be a proper first step, to balancing melee vs. ranged in this game: a good definition of roles.

let's start with a defensive buff to "lol y u no use shield?" 2-handed weapons.
haven't dared playing a 2-hander melee (excluding a Staff Static Striker), since my HC Main RIPed.
look no further than the Engineer in Torchlight 2, for a glimpse at how fun a 2-handed melee can be, without requiring an insane BiS/Mirror-grade weapon.

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BearCares wrote:

Does whirling blades count as legit melee? That's my planned build for 1 month league. I'll be wearing a Maligaro's Restraint.

Really doesn't work well, been tried with mirrored low-life gear and it was mediocre and annoying as fuck.

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Chundadragon wrote:

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BearCares wrote:

Does whirling blades count as legit melee? That's my planned build for 1 month league. I'll be wearing a Maligaro's Restraint.

Really doesn't work well, been tried with mirrored low-life gear and it was mediocre and annoying as fuck.

O I believe you. But I have... machinations.

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BearCares wrote:

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Chundadragon wrote:

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BearCares wrote:

Does whirling blades count as legit melee? That's my planned build for 1 month league. I'll be wearing a Maligaro's Restraint.

Really doesn't work well, been tried with mirrored low-life gear and it was mediocre and annoying as fuck.

O I believe you. But I have... machinations.

Tell me more ':)

Maligaro's Restraint is an absolute necessity =p But I don't want to give any more away than that. Or it won't be awesome when you see the completed build after 1 month league. Heck, it might not be awesome even then.

But this build... I'm putting all my years of knowledge of PoE into it.