Does Trauma Support 'fix' melee strikes?

well bara you barely acknoledge damage difference when we show you triple damage.

heavy strike lvl 20. 0,85*313*1,4 = 372% and 0 flat damage
boneshatter
158 - 238 added phys. that alone on a 2 aps weapon is 400 base weapon dps !!! and you can use a shield on top. for a 1.7 aps despot axe it s 336 base dps so for a 600 dps two hand it s 56% more. let s just say 50% cause you might get other added dmg on top.
4% more Damage per Trauma, let s say 5 while mapping so 20% more
skill is 250% 0,85 so 250%*0,85*1,2*1,5 = 382
but you can get splash on the tree so gem splash plus tree splash = double damage
so basically are mapping with double damage just because of the gem.
and you get mantra of flames that gives additional fire damage.

now you have to use jugg as bone shatter so you re losing some damage scaling from zereker but you get a shittown of defense and undeniable the 40% more damage accuracy keytone and the attack speed from accuracy. no way you re gettting that double damage back while mapping. and you also get armor works towards ele damage. and the insane life regen. wich cost a ton going marauder.

now let s talk about infernal blow lol, 166% base damage lol. and flat fire damge, much harder to scale.
fenzy 180% with 3 frenzy charges
now you have to scale frenzy up to x4 damage while mapping. who knows, m&ybe frenzy stacking is that strong.

Splash damage from two different sources is not double damage and Mantra of Flames is drop disabled so that leaves us with 10% base damage difference going by your own math so where exactly is that tripple damage you are talking about?

I mean we all know that there are damage differences between gems but I highly doubt you'll actually get tripple damage in a realistic scenario from one gem compared to another using the same build. If i play around with my chars in POB inserting different skills it's usually 20% difference in overall dps give or take not considering any special effects like vaal skills and the like.

good that splash doesnt work that way. but then remains the single target trauma stack.

but you already forgot the old spectral helix ? 800 base. any comment ? was complaining at that time being one in your 3 usless categories ?

have you seen the damage on infernal blow ? 20% difference lol ?

and you already forgot about molten strike, ben is talking about 600% base damage ? any comment ? vengeant cascade.

splitting steel any comment ?

and you already forgot i just compared two melee skills.

pointless to start on numbers. told you. you ll cherry pick the honest maths i did on the fly, didnt do this comparison before.

btw i dont see why splash and boneshatter pulse would not stakc, would need to test, can someone confirm ?

Molten Strike with Vengeant Cascade with some extra balls from helm/skill tree will already be a 500%+ damage effectivity. Lightning Strike tripple hitting with vengeant cascade and an ancestor also pretty high up there.

Spectral Helix used to tripple hit with huge damage efficiency and probably was the reason it was popular for some time in hcssf before its nerf.

There are skills with way bigger gap than just 20% but as with the things in poe you need to build for it. There is no point in just replacing a gem and nothing else to make a proper judgement.

Some skills scale a lot more than others often due to some shotgun or projectile mechanics. There was this unique ring that i forgot the name when it was showcased first everyone thought it could save strike skills as the mod description sounded like it could make all strike skills double hit at first. Turned out the ring was a dud.

Edit: to exemplify the possible scaling gap of some skills here is a beyond node in solo delve 9k of one of my friends build: https://youtu.be/RKBpiP2i9dI?t=42

Edit2: above was the caster build copied the wrong link here is the boneshatter friend: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z7ntGu0S-y8

Check out the trauma stacks and do the math in regards to the damage number scaling from Trauma. Probably the reason GGG want us to scale with this gem now in a very specific juggernaut setup?

VC is busted and will be removed end of this league so Molten Strike and all the other projectile hybrids will drop back in line.

Yes, if we talk about those skills with VC the difference is huge, still not 3 times but huge. But that's not gonna last. Also why even bring up old spectral helix? The shit got nerfed because it was out of line and as a reminder, even before the nerf it was mostly used for leveling. Hardly anyone played it lategame despite busted numbers, why is that?

Swapping gems in POB only goes so far sure, but stuff like Earth Shatter vs Sunder or Dual vs Double vs Heavy Strike and the like are very much possible because all those skills work more or less the same.

Projectiles are a powerful scaling vector no doubt but scaling them means not scaling something else, you'll end up with vastly different builds making a fair comparison difficult.
But if i compare my MS Ascendant with my SC Jugg then yeah the Ascendant currently wins in single target by factor 1,5 or maybe factor 2 even. But after VC is gone i wonder if it's going to stay that way.

Again, i am not saying there are no differences, I am not even saying there aren't bad melee skills even i wouldn't touch heavy strike or cleave because they just suck mechanically. But there is a lot of excaggeration running around here regarding the actual damage difference. Leaving their frequent oversights aside, GGG is somewhat capable of doing basic math.

The other way to fix melee could be changing monster behaviour (abilities, tactic). Funny enough monsters dont know how to effectively fight with characters posing the biggest threat - fast moving, fast range aoe attacking.

Based on my experience MS, BS and LS will still be leading strike skills in terms damage and its important to notice that is the only reason why people would play them.
I guess if those gems (BS aside) got their damage halved on top of VC removal i would need to switch skills as i would consider them unplayable due to their damage alone.

Spectral Helix saw as i said plenty of play on HCSSF where easy access to damage matters a lot. The mechanic itself is clunky is the reason why no sane person with access to trade would bother. But in HCSSF the sole reason was its damage. Same with old slams its DAMAGE and nothing else. Slams won races due to their DAMAGE but oh god were they awful to play with their cooldowns.

I think those examples should already tell enough that damage is really important for melee tagged skills to be considered useful or interesting to build around and offset the other inherent disasvantages.

While damage is not everything mechanics are important too lets not try to brush it away as if damage numbers were not an important factor.

if obvious outliers that last for multiple leagues doesnt bother you i can see you dont give a damn about anything. good thing some people mind.

vengeant cascade will be nerfed. first we dont know yet and whytf was vengeant cascade a full damage on return? any commment ?

so if it was nerfed or will be nerfed there is no pb. ok, let s close all balance discussions.

I also consider MS to one of the best if not the best melee skill, even without VC so I agree with you on that.

It is not my intention to write damage off as something irrelevant. It's one of the most important stats.
I just feel that, given the relative differences in damage between gems and how easy it is to compensate for a lack of base damage with a bit more investment, that other factors are more important. Base speed, AOE/range, mechanics in general, those things are typically way harder to compensate for.

They could double HS damage and leave the knockback, I wouldn't touch it.
If they removed the knockback I wouldn't mind giving it a try.
Earth Shatter is another example, yeah the damage is awesome but I vastly prefer playing my Sweep Slayer over it, it's just smoother.
If there is actually a difference of 2 or 3 times or more damage then sure, I'll agree with you. In my experience this just isn't the case most of the time and when it is, it's usually clear outliers that won't last more than one league.

SerialF: I do mind outliers that last several leagues i just don't mind raging about cases that have long since been solved. As for the VC oversight, ask GGG. How would i know how they missed that shit?