We all agree Duelist has been demonstrably unused since forever, so why can't GGG just buff him directly and his area?
Some buffs like:
* Make Armor/Evasion more viable by giving the Duelist more of the Armor Evasion nodes with high %Life
* Added a bunch of new leech specific nodes in his vicinity (area) not long ago should have %Life (5-8) and increased all stats by 25% or no adding %Life but increased stats on all nodes by 100-120%. Because as they not - they useless weak and not cost all path to get them.
* The first 5 nodes leading to the first notables (melee damage and attack speed node) should increase stats by 40-50%. I think it would be fair to give duelist superior damage
* Increase stats for most notable node near Duelist by 25% and add more %Life node.
* Create new type of node, for example - melee non critical damage or melee non critical physical damage near Marauder and Duelist area.
* Because of the way item affixes work, you can really only use pure armor or pure evasion gear, so half the hybrid defense stat is wasted. So create more Eva/Armour node or change old node in Duelist to Trihybrid node (life/eva/arm) or just eva/arm to make viable eva/arm gear.
* Iron Reflexes should be close to Duelist.
* Create movement speed node with life leech near Duelist.
That's for Duelist.
Now melee as mechanic and skills:
You wanna do damage as a melee? Well you're going to have to stay on shocked ground and in a web of slow from the cold Searing Bond totems (or Poison cloud, Tarred ground, Chilling ground, TS, Slow effects, etc), or stunned melees in the meantime a ranged character gives no fucks and has a way higher dps uptime.
I don't have the time to go through every single mob in the game,but the melee/range disadvantage is huge for the simple reason that the developers did not take time to think about this when they designed the mobs. Melees ALWAYS taking all kind and source of damage all the time! Special from Bosses.
Why is this so ? Melee skills don't deal more dmg than ranged ones,
both types of characters have a basic cap of 75% on resists,and almost no melee skills give any form of extra damage mitigation.
I was hoping GGG would fix this by the introduction of Counterattack and Warcry skills,but unfortunately they seem to do nothing but "helps character deal more dmg",or things like slow opponents.
* Create new notable node or add behind Resolute Technique nodes that would be to give extra elemental/physical/chaos mitigation buffs but at the cost of spells and ranged abilities doing no damage.
* Do proper mob design so melee and ranged have an equal playing field.
* Reduce Slow effect, Cusre effect, etc for melee skills
* Increase stats near Marauder, Duelist and some Templar area nodes by 30-40% and add more melee notable node, more defense in that area.
* Create or design new melee gems, for example melee leech. Add more life leech then normal one, higher leech rate, max life per second and mana leech for melee. And more support melee gem.
Another problem with Melee is: Burst damage. You can't recover when you get killed in half a second by certain enemies getting the pounce on you (Especially with the nerf to CWDT+EC+IC). It's just a bigger issue when melee is more prone to desync and has to be in the enemies' faces!
I think would be good:
* More Reduced Enemy Crit Multiplier nodes (Paired with %Life or big and high flat Life).
* Uniques/New Flask Type/New Node or mods that give melee additional ways to consider damage mitigation. Maybe an energy shield sort of effect that pops up when on low life for melee that has a cooldown.
* Increase base life for all classes and life gain per level.
* Buff leech node and their stats, they are very small and useless. Buff stats for 100-120% or add %Life and stats by 30%.
* Buff armour for better work with hard hits and multiple smaller.
Another melee problem is: horrible AoE size! The poor AoE means they lack an effective clear speed when compared to most archer/ranged builds
Melee Splash and all melee skill should have much higher AOE.
Two handed weapons node and Weapon specific node should have better notable node and higher stats, special Mace, Axe, Sword (non crit one), and Resolute Technique should have some sort of damage stats, maybe %more physical damage or something else.
Blood Magic keystone and Mortal Conviction nodes should have more life and there should be Unique jewel that adds 4% increased Life Regeneration Rate AND 250% increased Melee Physical Damage while no Mana is Reserved (special for BM builds) to compensate no usage aura (like Unique Clear Mind, but for melee).
Leech should be buffed for melee build as mentioned at start. Those new leech node near Duelist and Marauder are waste of space in tree because they have no value, not worthy at all. Need increase their stats as was mention or add %life at them.
Non crit build should have much higher stats in their nodes and better notable node, as Axe, Mace and non crit Swords, also Two Handed even more higher stats with life (Flat or %), buff all base weapon damage for 2H, and 1H Axe, 1H Mace.
Don't buff Chaos, it's already crazy strong and request nothing with all good benefits
