Melee and melee totems

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Baharoth15 wrote:

Just going to point this out here, but your consequent insistance on making totems non mandatory will only lead to melee builds having 20% less damage and 20% less attack speed in the end. You won't get any compensation for their removal.

This stop whine and cut the bs with totems… the only thing you gone get is their removal

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Immoteph wrote:

Talking about remaking core archetypes right before the sequel launches is silly.

/topic

All im talking about is totem buff removal/transfer from every melee build. Its not so ground breaking as "archetype" revamp.

Melee and totems...

1. Need to stand still to cast multiple totems to get damage and speed
2. Need to get close to attack
3. Need to stand still to attack unless using cyclone
4. Totems die in 1 hit from end-game boss
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4, or forget about totems

It's so silly. We need to commit at least 3 gem slots and a couple of seconds of severe vulnerability to cast them. Then they die instantly when we need them most and for that vulnerability to have been for nothing.

It's great that we can get a short window of 20% more attack damage and speed before a boss fight/phase. The only issue is maintaining that is just too dangerous in a drawn-out end-game battle. So, the vast majority of the time, those totems are just eating 3 gem slots. When I run simu, deli, etc, I swap in counterattack gems as totems are literally a burden.

To top it off, many melee builds are gem-slot starved. To the point where you need aura implicit corruption on gear, or slotted rings. I require 2 items to give an aura each. 3 gem slots having 5% utilization is just annoying!

When you're going back into an uber eater or exarch battle after dying, do you cast totems? No, because you died for a reason. This is how niche they are.

I got an idea let's nerf all spell damage by 30% then let players use a *spell enhance* totem that has no health, takes like 2 seconds to form and get ready, and gives a buff to nearby units.

That's what they did to melee.

It didn't feel great.

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Eepis wrote:

I bet this topic has reached to your ears for years now. State of melee has been in dark place for long time. Overtime melee has become stale and boring and your data analytic results of 10% only play melee is your reason to not do anything about it, even it is the cause of it happening. It's like never ending, self feeding loop to the end of melee.

Simple fix to bring even spark of hope to play melee is to remove mandatory melee totem buffs meta. "I want to play melee, not totem caster..." but everything is build around having totems up. Simple question is.. WHY? Why i must keep totems up to deal damage as "INSERT melee gem"?

Make melee fun and viable playstyle without totems.

Maximum number of totems is 0, gain x amount of dmg or survivability. Im not smartest slayer in the town, but its very easy fix.

I agree with you 100%, I am a new player and playing bone shatter. Whenever I face bosses, it does not make me use bone shatter at all. Instead, it looks like I am playing with minions and respawning them every time they die. It is not even melee it is just totem spawner 90-95% and bone shatter for the 5-10% build. I just hope they merge some skills up like "spirits" or "war banner" and these will have both totems and aura effects with a huge radius so they don't deactivate when you get far from the boss because I think the devs forgot we need to dodge.

Since d4 created the mechanic Vulnerable it made me realize, if you equate this in poe. Ranged classes in poe essentially get vulnerable on all hits and melee have to cast 2 totems to get vulnerable. Melee also have to spec into panopticon to really make use of it and it feels really bad to spend those points on the tree. Not to mention a couple leagues ago they made it where you need to spend an extra skill point to get fortify.

If melee is " stale and boring " with the extra totem and buttons to press, how would taking away buttons result in more engagement?

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innervation wrote:

If melee is " stale and boring " with the extra totem and buttons to press, how would taking away buttons result in more engagement?

This is older topic of this totem discussion, there is more recent one out.

I believe what i meant by saying "stale and boring" is lack of updates or new mechanics to build around. And using totems for most of the melee builds will also become stale and boring in a long run, or do i say "samey and frustrating".

I much rather use leap slam, or some other gap closing ability to be able to position my self better or even evade mechanics in a boss fights. But as now, first action is to cast totem before anything else.

I think this as a bandaid fix, until ggg revamps/updates melee mechanics.