Melee is dead but I want it to be even more dead...

I've spent last 3 days in PoB trying to find some good ability to make a balanced in terms of offense and defense character, that could be played and leveled from campaign into the maps... and I wanna say, except the use of a totem buffs, I absoulutely hate how disgustingly powerful Boneshatter is...

It vastly outdamages all other abilities, even the ones that oriented for single target and bossing like good ol' Heavy Strike, Ground Slam; my boi CLEAVE which for some reason(probably because dual wielding isn't in a good spot) is worse than a Sweep; Ice Shatter...

Boneshatter has free built-in splash, and was better in my setup for 15%+ than a Heavy Strike without accounting that you would need constantly swap Splash for clear and Dmg gem for bossing.

And the thing that it's "downside" isn't downside at all and actually one of the most powerful game mechanic that allows you to constantly be hit, in a convenient way, unlike other methods that require you to wear some bad unique is absolute cancer.

I want Boneshatter to be dead, so at least you would have much more options at playing dead archetype, and mb GGG at least would pay attention to good old classic skills like Earthquake or my boi Cleave.

i think what you mean to say is that melee is too hard for you, it's not dead, it's just risky and requires a lot of attention on the players part, something ranged don't really need to do.

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lagwin1980 wrote:

i think what you mean to say is that melee is too hard for you, it's not dead, it's just risky and requires a lot of attention on the players part, something ranged don't really need to do.

Yea sure. Doing a bit of journalistic investigation of your profile you don't even play melee heroes. You also haven't answered anything about Boneshatter power "balance" vs other melee skills.

Boneshatter is probably the best melee skill in the game atm but imo that's not so much because of it's damage potential but because Divergent Boneshatter literally scales itself. The fact that it can go without crit while using trash keystones like precise technique and still get high damage is kinda unique among skills.

As for raw damage, i don't have enough practical experience with it to be a certain judge on the matter but i do want to point out that POB dps and actual in game dps might end up VERY far apart, with Boneshatter more than most other skills. Both your attack speed and most of your hit damage comes from trauma stacks which you have to build up first and then sustain them. May not be much of an issue for mapping where you aren't in much danger but for harder content like ubers your dps will likely plummet. Nevermind the prospect of killing yourself if you manage to get too many stacks. You also need a ton of investment just to deal with the drawback and are basically limited to a single ascendancy.

So yeah, definetely a powerhouse and i don't really care about it getting nerfed as i am not going to play it but i don't think it's neccessary. There are plenty of other strong options available and i'd wager a bunch of them actually beat Boneshatter in terms of real dps.

Boneshatter does a lot of damage on paper. In reality, unless you spend pretty much your whole budget on defense, you aren't ramping stacks that high on anything that needs the extra damage or you'll get killed. Hardly what I'd call a balanced character. I've played and deleted such a character before.

Not sure why you are swapping supports for clear and single target as Tribal Fury exists on the tree.

Since you are looking for people who have played melee, I played Glacial Hammer in Sanctum. Still have the character. It has a lot of synergy with tons of things given it is naturally Phys converted to Cold, which is the best kind. He was pretty tough to kill. He was my Vaal Temple killer (box explosions, needle storm from boss, none of that could kill him) and my Wave 30 runner (Kosis on Wave 29 couldn't keep up with his sustain). 2.8MM shaper dps with everything up but when you are this tanky, you don't need much.

Melee is simply a "no poor from this point forward" sign. It requires more investment than other builds, but claiming it is dead is stupid.

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TemjinGold wrote:

Boneshatter does a lot of damage on paper. In reality, unless you spend pretty much your whole budget on defense, you aren't ramping stacks that high on anything that needs the extra damage or you'll get killed. Hardly what I'd call a balanced character. I've played and deleted such a character before.

Not sure why you are swapping supports for clear and single target as Tribal Fury exists on the tree.

Since you are looking for people who have played melee, I played Glacial Hammer in Sanctum. Still have the character. It has a lot of synergy with tons of things given it is naturally Phys converted to Cold, which is the best kind. He was pretty tough to kill. He was my Vaal Temple killer (box explosions, needle storm from boss, none of that could kill him) and my Wave 30 runner (Kosis on Wave 29 couldn't keep up with his sustain). 2.8MM shaper dps with everything up but when you are this tanky, you don't need much.

Is 2.8M DPS really enough for sim wave 30 ?.. How much stacks were you getting, how long were the last waves ?..

Sorry, I checked my pob again, it's a lot more than I remembered.

This is Glacial Hammer, so no stacks.

Here take a look if you like:

https://pobb.in/YYwI6_BUJ-gU

The point of Simu is not dps, it's defense. You can do it with 1mill if you have enough defenses.

To get a lot of loot however, that's when you need to kill them fast. I can get 6 waves consistently with my Bladestorm, although admittedly i would get 7 waves with the same investment in a ranged build.

Boneshatter is the test case for the fact melee would be fine if they gave it decent enough damage and built in AC or melee splash.

Yes divergent can get nutty and you can get really juice values out of it but even the regular one drastically outperforms other melee skills. GH has its own bonuses as its getting on for the best freeze skill in the game and full cold conversions naturally better than most other options.