Melee and the future of PoE2

Greetings GGG,

in this thread i will give my feedback concerning melee in PoE and a plea on how to (imo) greatly increase it's potential going into PoE2.
As to no new information on your current PoE2 state of the game, i speculate and discuss this topic based on past videos shown (i.e. PoE2 cleave looking like the current iteration).

Like i have stated in the last 9 years at random times via identical forum posts, melee does not feel impactful and fun as it is designed in PoE.
I have come across rumors that the engine is to blame and any new change will come from PoE2.

For the most part, i DO NOT WISH to use skills that fire projectiles, spells, cuts of wind or any other form of high fantasy distortion when it comes to skills labeled "melee". These can exist of course, but should never replace true melee skills or serve as an excuse to please melee players. They are spells from a weapon stat stick...

Looking back into past feedback, i have suggested an overhaul of enemy behavior and design, so that the need to clear a screen can be set aside for more engaging and rewarding action combat. This has been done to some extend. I will not go further into this branch of desgin other than encouraging more attempts to break monotony in encounters via exp and loot being given from creative sources during combat or tactical engages/choices/mob types.

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1) A short term solution to ease the life of melee players would be a new support gem that allows melee attack swings to pull in mobs. This should force small health and or low armor (can have high ES) mobs to be sucked into the swing center by large amounts and heavy high hp targets at low amounts.

The intention is to go bring mobs into melee range rather than having aoe melee explosions or range do the job. Ideally, the gem effect should be visually extremely low tier and not disturb the pleasure of watching your characters swings slice or hack mobs. A tornado effect or any high fantasy effect would be plain sheit. Excuse my wording.

2) This has been suggested multiple times by multiple players: equipped weapons have to come with more melee friendly weapon type fixed bonuses. Examples:
- Swords: + accuracy + mid tier fortify on hit + mid tier amror penetration
- Maces: + stun + high tier fortify + high tier armor pen.
- Daggers: + crit + low tier fortify + high tier armor pen.
- and so on

Any example should be focused on real life weapon usage of the past to increase immersion, hence armor piercing from dagger stabs and crushing mace hits...
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3) The old feedback in a new write up:

Combo strikes - any melee attack should be utlizing combo strikes in PoE2.
Examples:

Cleave: 3 swings, first i.e. right to left, second back from left to right and third can be depending on weapon type used.
Slicing weapons could do a 360° motion or while dual wielding cross cutting.
Maces and or 2h weapons could deliver a heavy overhead cleave stretching more forward than sidewards.

The concept is similar to i.e. current Glacial Hammer gem with a third unique hit.

This area of feedback covers all melee swings and the examples above would just be one of many. Important aspect would be to have a TOP TIER NEW ANIMATION for immersion reasons, to stay up to date.

I am eyeing Lost Ark's animation work here and would wish for a maximum quality effort to surpass this bench mark.
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Why all this? Explain your motivation:

It is all about immersion. The more realistic swings are made, the more i enjoy playing the character. The more high fantasy effects blur the screen, the less i am interested.

There is an art form in fighting and when you make an action rpg you HAVE to invest into great combat animations. This i see happening in the asian market a lot, think Black Desert or Elden Ring; basically animations that are motion captured and refined do the trick.

I understand that this will likely be impossible for PoE2, but i still wish to convey this feedback with utter importance to what i believe would amaze the masses of melee players.

TL:DR:
- new mechanics like "pulling in" to increase comfort
- new melee main affixes for weapon types to remove passive burden on i.e. fortify (it activates on melee hit with different effect based on weapon type, no gem needed)
- new combo animations for all melee skills
- new animations for all melee skills
- goal is to reach motion capture state of the art animations to increase immersion and defeat high fantasy band-aid screen clutter on fake melee gems

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
Last bumped on Jan 28, 2023, 7:58:56 AM
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