so who is 'brave' enough to play melee in 3.17 (LOL)

I did run a cycloner, two in fact. However, one did get abandoned.

With that said, I did eventually turn my league starter elementalist into EA ballista totems.

A lot of my cycloner's deaths were performance based running this old computer and freezes and all that mess. But other times it was pretty clear that he wasn't able to handle certain things reliably, like the big innocence treant kitava brine recipe for example.

But, despite being able to kill from off-screen, the cycloner was still surprisingly better at a few things, namely when speed or something like sustain from leech became a big deal.

The things that tend to make melee worthwhile tend to get nerfed hard, tho likely because ranged builds usually have some way of incorporating the same or similar defenses.

A few weeks back I found an item that used to be a decent offhand way back before that part of dual wielding got nerfed... then of course there was the nerf post hollow palm to attack speed....

Basically things that make melee fun and enjoyable just dont last because of what ranged can do.

I tested a Cyclone Impale build in 3.17, and felt good.

I will league start with Skelly mages, but will very likely do another cyclone build as well. I just love the gameplay.

got the plan since several leagues to start a melee char as soon as i get a amazing physical or elemental weapon drop. so far, nothing.

sometimes there were items that could be crafted further but for the exalteds needed for the process i could also have bought one.

just look at poe ninja

and look at HC SSF / HC Archnem glacial hammer, wild strike, heavy strike

you will see like 2-3 people most with potato dps compared to spells


this is what i love. the end of melee is here GGG secretly hate melee

it is the first ARPG without melee xd

I guess none here plays HCSSF, because a few leagues ago, melee impale call of steel was crushing everything else in races. Why? It had great AoE.

What truly makes melee bad is twofold, weapons for melee are harder to craft and AoE compared to bow and spells are a joke. Damage for all 3 are pretty similar these last few patches and that's why melee feels worse, melees reach is laughably weak, not it's damage.

In a low budget with two 6ls, melee damage is better. Main 6l, plus Ancestral Warchief/Protector with Multiple Totems, bossing becomes a joke on most cases on which bow or spells can have problems.

Melee is not weak, it's just... melee.

I'm planning to, but I also consider any gem that has melee tag to be a melee skill. There are plenty of viable melee builds like boneshatter, lightning strike, cyclone, viper strike etc.

But there's a lot of gatekeeping around what melee is, and someone here will inevitably cry about how none of those are 'true' melee.

Im gonna be playing Gladiator heavy strike (single target) and ground slam (clear)

Getting all content down.

#dontcomplainaboutmelee

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Chickenwink wrote:

Im gonna be playing Gladiator heavy strike (single target) and ground slam (clear)

Getting all content down.

#dontcomplainaboutmelee

if that is your real plan then drop Heavy Strike. Ground Slam deals ~same damage while being AOE. on the first glance Heavy Strike's 'double damage' and high %effectiveness prevails but what lets it down is: necessity to solve 'range', 'extra strikes', 'splash' + bad support gem selection + no support for Blood and Sand. and it has knockback.

Heavy Strike is a dead skill (im playing it now btw, it really is complete garbage) that is outclassed by both BoneShatter and Ground Slam. mechanic wise and numbers wise

but.. dont let me stop you. just dont expect to find any guide on that - streamers cannot play turds and melee guides are very, very rare nowadays

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AdRonZh3Ro wrote:

I guess none here plays HCSSF, because a few leagues ago, melee impale call of steel was crushing everything else in races. Why? It had great AoE.

What truly makes melee bad is twofold, weapons for melee are harder to craft and AoE compared to bow and spells are a joke. Damage for all 3 are pretty similar these last few patches and that's why melee feels worse, melees reach is laughably weak, not it's damage.

In a low budget with two 6ls, melee damage is better. Main 6l, plus Ancestral Warchief/Protector with Multiple Totems, bossing becomes a joke on most cases on which bow or spells can have problems.

Melee is not weak, it's just... melee.

in what content and with what gear? i pretty routinely make builds 'on a budget' - i do not aim at pinnacle content, just to farm some 300+ delve, high lvl temples, heists - the content i actually enjoy. but when i go and measure the build vs 'fixed content' (shaper, sirus - stuff i KNOW the HP/mechanics so i can gauge the REAL damage) it is the melee that lags behind

sure, going from 350pdps to 700pdps weapon doubles the damage, casters do not have such upgrades. but what they have got are numerous scaling vectors you can improve over time without ruining your bank. melee's source of more multiplier is a weapon and.. what else? 9-15 flat phys from a ring?

my two recent builds are:
- non-crit Shock Nova (EOverlord + lucky lightning damage + Kitava's Thirst) WITHOUT converting to cold (sad to know that converting to cold is the correct way of playing lightning skills)
- Heavy Strike 'stun' (with Callinellus Mace) Jugg

melee one actually costs more because i had to 'fix' Fortify with quite expensive cluster jewel. Stun works fine in low-end content, and i was LUCKY enough to stun Hydra 4 times during a fight but the damage is just not there

shock nova on the other hand is much faster to move (i ran out of sockets and miss faster attacks on leap slam), clears great and legit 50% shocks shaper for A LOT of damage. Orb of Storms + Sigil of Power + Arc (Kitava's Thirst) + seamless more multipliers (Intensify + Elementalist AOE node + auto applied exposure) is just a mountain of damage

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sidtherat wrote:

Show me the pob of your heavy strike build. Or turn your account off private see where you went wrong with it cause you’re so wrong about heavy strike.

Just seeing those items you posted I really hope that isn’t your idea of anything close to being geared. The stuff you posted is straight after campaign tier of gear, literally no scaling off any of those items, and it looks like you just saw +phys damage and went for it. Both steel rings are a meme in itself. You new to the game? Playing ssf and you’re not supposed to?

So many questions from these items alone