How to Fix Strike Melee by a 20 League Veteran of Everything Melee - KissMeQuick( me)

Oh, good to know some skills are only good due bugs, as ancestral call striking "extra targets" will instead hit the boss twice because reasons and is "just" doing bugged twice amount of damage instead of the bugged thrice amount of damage. Cool.

"

AdRonZh3Ro wrote:

Oh, good to know some skills are only good due bugs, as ancestral call striking "extra targets" will instead hit the boss twice because reasons and is "just" doing bugged twice amount of damage instead of the bugged thrice amount of damage. Cool.

The double hitting is not a "bug" its a feature of additional ancestors. This feature got patched out for Molten Strike explicitly.
Additional Ancestors are a implementation done to help strike skills with their misery which became a mandatory glove mod on rare gloves if you dont wanna waste a precious damage gem slot for Ancestral Call instead of just adding it to Strike gems by default.

Only a few selected Strike Skills can double hit though. Mostly those with a ranged part.

Lightning Strike hits two times if out of melee range. Needs a bit of practice.
If doing right you see 2 lightning pillars from the sky hitting the ground.




Also from the 3.19 patch notes

"

Fixed a bug where Lightning Strike could hit a single target twice from one attack

It was mentioned double hits are still possible with Ancestral Call but no triple hits not anymore.

So i really don't see the reason to still complain about buffing melee. Just keep using LS.

"

AdRonZh3Ro wrote:

So i really don't see the reason to still complain about buffing melee. Just keep using LS.

i am a Vengeance Paladin spammer from Diablo 2.




i downloaded this game in 2018 when i found out about Wild Strike and Glacial Hammer

Ive never actually played spells seriously or another char other than Templar.

over the years i saw how busted other skills got to finish the game.

ive watched PoE Ninja over the years never really saw feature of strike skills on the top tier on hardcore ( yes molten strike for a bit ). ( until boneshatter )


some of us folks play for theme. and i dont mind if i never beat end game ( i never have ) just asking for some help as a strike player enjoying your favorite skills. it just kinda downturning when you use a spell and are able to do the same content with half the investment.

i did voltaxic burst inquisitor for the lulz and i got the yellow maps on hc first try.

also im still waithing for them to do Viper strike with a staff so i can viper strike. hope that comes out for PoE 2

"

Orbaal wrote:

But what do I know... ^^

we're slaves to GGG's will. we can bitch and complain but in the end we all have to just wait and see..

there are definitely better melee skills out there. just that its a small handful.

you bring up a lot of thought and consideration for your point of view. i appreciate that rather than just "no youre wrong melee is fine, quit whining".

[Removed by Support]

suggestion forums never get any kick back really but il still say +1 to this thread.

I have yet to see someone "prove me wrong" on how increasing defenses over increasing damage will improve uptime against bosses like Maven and Sirus that litter the ground with degeneration, but it seems they haven't done them yet.

Armor, life, regen, fortification and max res should be bumped in the Marauder side. I also mentioned, several times, that putting less damage taken by nearby enemies on blood stance on Flesh and Stone would largely benefit melee. The ones that DO use Flesh and Stone that are not melee only use them for their sand stance benefits anyway. Also sid keeps insisting that builds that are not melee use Fortify, but it's as simple as adding a line that "Fortify can only be granted if you're using a melee weapon" and is removed if you swap weapons(to bow, wand, w/e...).

If anything, it's about time that phys weapons stopped being so ridiculously hard to craft. That alone would fix a lot of damage issues (all T1 elemental damage 4x easier to get than T1 phys % and hybrid AND removing quality craft, that's horse shit).

"

AdRonZh3Ro wrote:

So i really don't see the reason to still complain about buffing melee. Just keep using LS.

You know if other Strike Skills had 500% damage effectivity as well im 100% sure they would see play. From my POV its a damage issue. There is no corner where melee shines its just bad everywhere.

Some time ago GGG implemented slams. There was a skill Earthshatter (which got nerfed hard) that added up to 500% damage effectivity when counting all spikes plus warcries did up to 250% more damage when exerted and 100% double damage.

It was extremely clunky and exhausting to play but guess what it saw play because the damage was there.

All that got nerfed in multiple iterations now. I think only the double damage warcry for 2 exerted attacks is left.

noone proved you? actually pretty much everyone here in one or another way did that - but you consider that an opinion (and rightfully so) not a proof.

there are two MAIN issues with melee right now:

1) certain skills have shit numbers. simple as that. it is not about mechanic, it is not about feels or whatever. they have shit numbers, period

when a skill deals 5% less damage than its peer - it can be handwaved because it is just a small nuisance

but discrepancies WITHIN melee archetype are just outrageous. instead of trying to rocket science it via changing mechanics and feels - just f.. change the numbers first so players playing these skills are not auto-robbed out of any chance of success

Cleave is one such case - its numbers are GARBAGE compared to LS (what we can safely consider a baseline - altho LS is still carried HARD by Elusive/claws, create it with swords and it is just 'ok').

A simple note: Lightning Strike (hitting twice ofc) has HIGHER single target %damage than Heavy Strike. sure there are non-linear %doubledamage vs flat ele etc but the fundamental multiplier is 266% vs 430%

when out of 20-30 'melee' skills 10 have good numbers and 20 are garbage even before you start building around them NUMERICALLY then you end up with POEs melee situation

this is a first problem and it should be solved regardless of ANY other changes. GGG did balancing pass on spells and they more or less align at ~550% (with one or two exceptions - Forbidden Rite is at like 9999%..) and there is a nice variety, every spell - no matter if you like the mechanic or not - is viable from numerical standpoint. ive done Shock Nova, BodySwap and Voltaxic Burst. all selfcast, all end-endgame viable - regardless of Voltaxic Burst playing like ass i could still do it.


2) second problem is: melee has to spend trough the nose to get to the same damage level as spells. count the tree damage passives on your melee and caster characters and compare - including mandatory travel nodes ofc. in general melee spends MORE passives on damage - not because of greed but because of necessity. then there are ~mandatory passives like Fortify cluster(s) that only pretend to be optional

this discrepancy can be REALISTICALLY solved only by upping the melee's damage baseline. no other 'trick' will work - everything else can and will be stolen by other archetypes - just like fortify. just like Call to Arms. just like Molten Shell.

you up the damage. you free up build 'budget' (i hope you understand this concept). you spend the savings on defences - just like in your idea. because melee has tools available - some defensive passives down there are good - but there are no spare passive points left to take them


about your ideas:

- longer Fortify will be EASILY abused by shield charge casters (its damage scales from levels and shield stats - it deals enough damage to grant you a stack)
- most casters use 'melee' weapons anyway:

so you cannot block it with this criterium
- bumping defensive nodes - cool, i like that, but these are already pretty lit and noone takes them. no spare passives
- Flesh and Stone? make it real good - ill use it on any character - so this does not help melee 'only'.

POE is so fluid in character building that making something so seemingly simple as 'make only melee tankier' is pretty much impossible without abuse


but +1 for phys weapons rolling. current mechanic is pure, untreated, sewage