Melee in PoE 2. How movement focused is it going to be?

I'm a longtime player of PoE who really enjoys playing melee characters. I would say ~80% of my characters are melee duelists. Often using flicker strike for map clearing and simple high damage attacks like double strike or ground slam for bosses. I really enjoy the power fantasy of blasting maps with flicker. I also like the endgame bossing gameplay of finding openings and diving in to stand-and-deliver big damage.

With all the emphasis of building movement into melee attacks I'm wondering if this playstyle will still exist in PoE 2? From what was said and what we were shown I'm worried that all melee characters are going to turn into these micro-movement characters where you have to dance around enemies with a bunch of skills performing combo rotations. I'm totally fine with that being the case for this new monk class and maybe some other new classes. But I don't want the feeling of playing a melee character to change too far from its current state.

Beyond Flicker Strike, which I could understand why they might not bring that back even though I really want it, I just want to be able to stand and hit. Wondering what everyone else's thoughts were on this? Again if its more just a Monk thing then I think its cool. But does the idea forcing all melee into a micro-movement or combo playstyle bother anyone else? Or is this step good or even necessary for some reason?

It probably won’t be exactly the same since there’s a lot more emphasis on multi skill gameplay. That said, I’m sure there will be good movement + attack skills. For example - The monk culling fist move I can’t seem to remember the name of has a fairly significant range to it. It’s not at flicker levels but probably around the same as consecrated path.

The videos tell a pretty clear story imo. PoE2 melee will be Dark Souls with a more zoomed out camera. Attack, dodge roll, attack, dodge roll, until the boss dies or you get oneshot. Pretty sure every single boss we've seen followed that pattern.

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suszterpatt wrote:

The videos tell a pretty clear story imo. PoE2 melee will be Dark Souls with a more zoomed out camera. Attack, dodge roll, attack, dodge roll, until the boss dies or you get oneshot. Pretty sure every single boss we've seen followed that pattern.

Exactly, honestly I am not sure if PoE2 will be better than the first one. I certainly am excited for it, but Dark Souls has never been my thing. You can tell these guys play a ton of dark souls and want to turn POE into that.

For myself, it's more been boss designs along to higher gearing requirements.
Melee is just otherwise less efficient in mapping.

It's their bosses that hate melee and I see the same thing going on in PoE2. Some league bosses recently I've seen some obvious anti-range mechanics which I haven't seen in PoE2 yet.

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Jradlot21 wrote:

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suszterpatt wrote:

The videos tell a pretty clear story imo. PoE2 melee will be Dark Souls with a more zoomed out camera. Attack, dodge roll, attack, dodge roll, until the boss dies or you get oneshot. Pretty sure every single boss we've seen followed that pattern.

Exactly, honestly I am not sure if PoE2 will be better than the first one. I certainly am excited for it, but Dark Souls has never been my thing. You can tell these guys play a ton of dark souls and want to turn POE into that.

My problem isn't really with dodging. I just don't like to idea of movement built into skills that I use for damage. To me mouse clicks and dodge rolls seem like they would be plenty enough to dodge the attacks we've seen on stage. I just don't want my character position to be constantly getting offset by whatever attack I'm using.

I'm okay with that in games like Monster Hunter or Dark Souls because the games are built more around that focused in 3rd person combat. But from my experience playing games like Lost Ark where a lot of player abilities move your character around I'm not a fan of it for isometric ARPG type games. It can lead to situations where you feel like you are fighting your character for movement control. Sort of like how old Multistrike locked you in place for the repeat attacks.

I understand opinions may differ. And its always cool to have more options in games. But precise control of character movement is one of the most important things in ARPGs to me. If I get hit by an attack it should be because I clicked into it somehow, not because my character steps forward a bit every time he swings his sword.