Melee Ignite

Melee Ignite needs a CHANNELING slam skill with a playstyle similar to Flameblast.

Holding the weapon above the head and channeling into a huge ignite if you are able to stand still long enough. We don't need more ignite supports.

Thank You!

Another way to make Melee Ignite work is to add "Ignites you inflict are reflected to You" to Tasalio, Cleansing Water.

This would be so cool. But I don't think you will do it.

Melee ignite needs to do damage first. Why would you channel a slam for several seconds to do zdps?

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Baharoth15 wrote:

Melee ignite needs to do damage first. Why would you channel a slam for several seconds to do zdps?

well, I dont think there is a chance to finish channeling/charging slam as melee standing still for few seconds

Nah, standing still isn't an issue but you want to have at least some payoff for doing so. Ignite and bleed on melee are so piss weak you are better off just running something hitbased.

'melee ignite'? you mean what to do when your melee build gets ignited? use a flask


on a serious note, melee ignite is a meme, DOA, something that has no place in this game

the reason, as always with everything melee, is 'numbers'

Fireball, lvl 24 (21 +1 (amulet) +2(searing touch) so the most budget option available:

~3300 average base damage

'melee ignite enjoyer':

(just an example of above average weapon, nothing great. we convert it all)

850 MAX base

using Tectonic Slam (275% effectiveness) gives us around..

2300 MAX (not average, we are being generous)


so 'memee ignite' starts at a ~40% damage disadvantage in a skewed comparison. it takes a lot to catch up and only after that you start building. and if caster actually starts building there is not enough tools for melee to catch up. Fireball lvl 30 has ~6200 average base. good luck matching that when ~all the tools are shared.

it just doesnt make any sense to even try unless you want to clear mid-content with something that looks nice. effectiveness of memee ignite is non-existant, the recent GGG's changes in fact made it even worse by spreading the same power over more passives

ignites requires a big hit to work best but attacks tend to scale with attack speed more than with raw damage so may be the solution could be a new support that turns increase to attack speed into more damage.

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caboom wrote:

ignites requires a big hit to work best but attacks tend to scale with attack speed more than with raw damage so may be the solution could be a new support that turns increase to attack speed into more damage.

there are in fact TWO such supports, both added this patch

Sadism (you trade duration of ignites for their power)
Controlled Blaze (pseudo-complex support gem that maxes ignites out at ~4aps)

however these do not even try to be enough. if base damage difference is > 40%, then 'melee ignite' requires something enormous to catch up. remember that ignite is ignite. passives, most supports, items etc dont differentiate 'melee'/'caster' ignites. most tools used to scale them are shared.

Sadism is an 'ok' gem but if you want to use it - you replace one of current supports, net damage increase is marginal. it is mostly a playstyle thing

Controlled Blaze according to wiki maxes out around ~60-70%
it sounds great and all but.. you play DoT to 'not be there' and this support asks you to (over)invest into attack speed on DoT build AND barely rewards you for this. 70% more damage sounds cool but there is a ramp time and serious one. 'melee enjoyers' have to move A LOT as their legendary tankiness (that is also shared because who stops caster from using Determination + aura effect?) isnt worth much

in short, these two new supports are duds that were used as props to seemingly fix a dying part of the build spectrum.

i still cannot stop laughing: 'melee ignite stun' cluster. like what the actual quack?

so tried this out, with mid-budget option: Chieftain, Utula's and a pretty nice 1 handed mace:


the results are disastrous (and I have tried RT, crit and EO - all were flops of different magnitude)

The numbers:

Ignite scales from BASE damage. There are not many passives that actually scale Ignites in any meaningful way in the melee area. 16% increased ailments from small base == irrelevant value... lots of irrelevant values might have made an impact, but there are just a few. Same with weapons: getting casual 50%+ of fire multi from weapon while getting enough base is nigh impossible


This means 'melee ignite' with 1h mace is 'hit + ignite'. Most attack based supports actually work that way with most recent addition - Ruthless (best ignite support in the game)
SKILL + Ruthless + Ele Att Damage + Added Fire (it adds to the base) + Inspiration/FistOfWar/Fortify/Immolate). All these gems scale hit and ailment. Sure, there are ailment-only supports but the tradeoff is roughly net neutral.

Ignites do not stack (with exception we can safely ignore) and while attacking quickly increases avg value of ignite, at some point it makes little sense to stack attack speed: the hit portion grows accordingly but ignite part's growth slows down.

Due to hit+ignite being the only viable option, Controlled Blaze is a trap that should be avoided. It KILLS the hit component completely. It might be better with 2h, but with 1h it always felt great ditching this support.

Sadism Support is more interesting as once you get enough speed, you start wasting 'good ignites'. With Sadism and enough attack speed the overlap of good ignites is much shorter and damage delivery more efficient. Problem == standing still as ignites last .5sec now. Increasing the duration is actually tricky stuff:

'increases ignite duration on enemies' is a VERY rare mod: Cloak of Flames (great chest for Chieftains, so it kinda fits) and ~7% per regular jewel + elder helmet mod (but elder items are less appealing now due to implicits). There are 2 passives in marauder graveyard part of the tree in a cluster without notable so you miss out on mastery (that is also thrash but still).

that ofc means that outside POB ideal jewels with perfect corruptions you cannot actually stack that (unless you use Cloak of Flames) without prohibitive alternative cost.

Tools of the trade:

Reservations are very limited: Herald of Ash/Purity, Vitality/Precision (on life), Malevolence (raises INT requirements by ~100, actually makes a difference in gearing). And defensive options of choice.

Anger adds flat fire - but temple gloves give you more. Watcher's eye needs to be at least 2mod to make it worth using and these are expensive. What else there is that actually makes a difference?

Ignite support in passive tree looks mighty - few new clusters and passives. But it is mostly fluff without substance. Coupling Ignites with Stuns is


Trivia:

I think that Brain Rattler + Stormfire actually might make a workable Ignite setup but im burnt out and wont even POB it



Ignite for 1h melee being auxiliary damage source is fine. But even then the values are just.. unlinked Firestorm's meteor deals more, from range.

Kinda would like to see any successful attempt, saw people using Alva's sword, but the numbers.. just dont make me happy. I remember 100c arc ignite numbers and just cannot grasp why GGG hates melee so much

Bleed is bad as well. PoB says tons of damage, game says I can't kill anything.
I thought bleeding the trial enemies as they walk towards your totems was going to be big this league, I tried several times and nothing worked.

I farmed up an Uul Notels axe, had Utula's chest piece.. ton of life. I even went low life and bloodthirst. I didn't even bother with defenses. Ruthless, Fist of War, Chance to Bleed, Bloodthirst, Volatile... still felt like the enemies were regen life at times.

I was baffled so much that I honestly thought I should just quit the game. Like I just don't know how builds work anymore, it was that bad.