Mace skills are too slow for no reason

Why do most of the mace skill have +X seconds added to them? It really makes no sense its not like they the most powerful abilities in the game. On top of that the monsters are also insanely fast compared to the players which means you are taking hits after hits just for using your abilities.

This creates a whole bag of problems that will never be solved with "numerical changes". Because the problem isn't that the slam skills are not doing enough damage or doing too much, it is because it feels bad and unfun.

I don't want the solution to "mace skills bad" be that they do more damage or something similar. I just want to be able to use them reliable instead of having to keep dodging mid cast because monsters are throwing stuff at me faster than my cast time forcing me to constantly reposition because no time is "safe" while ranged options get a free pass since they can move and attack way faster. There is a reason why most successful melee builds in PoE1 are mostly based on speed, are pseudo-ranged or both.

Now with all that information in mind, it becomes even worse when trying to complete the Trial of Sekhemas (Sanctum) where you pretty much have to avoid hits altogether.

So I propose the following to changes for start.

Remove the +X added seconds to attack time (it's an melee attack based character not a close range caster).
Make the baseline attack speed of all skills be at least 100% of base.
Leap slam should have a more fluid transition. Right now it feels like it stops to take the leap after running (which sometimes it feels slower than your movement speed which makes no sense).
Stampede should start immediately instead of doing it's foot stomp animation(I am already "running" at full speed no need to stop to take a charge).
Rolling Slam should move you at the same speed as your movement speed.

I can understand if the specific skill changes aren't added in the game, but I strongly believe the first 2 changes would be a net positive and should be added in the game.

Hope someone from GGG reads this even if they fully disagree.

Thanks for reading,
LiviuL

I think thats also a big reason why the class doesnt feel good. Many skills feel "passive" instead of "active" since they are either time delayed or slow. The standard mace attack for example is just really awful to use.

The rolling attack feels weird aswell. I would say action and reaction should be almost instant and movement etc. should feel faster and sharper.

If i had to describe it at the moment i would say it feels like a feather cat toy. It just feels sluggish.

Big disagree. I fucking love my slow boy. I would, however, LOVE to see support gems that increase speed of traversal skills but reduce their damage/stun/ailment build up, adds armor/evasion during skill use for certain skills such as those with "+n seconds to skill speed" or remove the +n to skill speed for some drawback, and increase speed of charge skills for some other disadvantage like adding cooldown.

Intelligent use of such skills and knowing how/when to use them for your build is key. If attack speed is really hurting you, consider going one-handed and building attack speed. Otherwise, I've got Sunder with increase AOE, Ancestral, and Aftershock on it and it feels great as a skill to use when needing to pull back and get some breathing room or just from a safe distance to keep up DPS during a dangerous enemy telegraph. If I can get a good attack speed roll on my weapon without losing base damage, I actually fully intend to get the -attack speed nodes in Warrior, 4 nodes for 92% increased damage is in-fucking-sane.

+1 on improving Rolling Slam's forward momentum with move speed, though. Also, most of the slam skills just need some tweaks to break animation lock after they complete. Boneshatter is HORRIBLE for this, nearly stand still for as long as an entire Sunder windup, I just dodge to break it and reposition.

I kinda like how chunky the mace skills feel.
Granted Maces/Hammers are not my favorite weapons.
That'd be the Greatsword.

If the Greatsword felt like the hammer I'd be pissed.

I kinda like how chunky the mace skills feel.
Granted Maces/Hammers are not my favorite weapons.
That'd be the Greatsword.

If the Greatsword felt like the hammer I'd be pissed.

I don't think mace skills should be made much faster (I like the weighty feel of most of them), but you are right that there is a fundamental problem with them vs how the majority of the game plays (most meta ranged/spell skills & the white mobs).

Mace skill timings are fine vs most boss monsters (although their ability to run away from a boss doing a Point-blank AoE needs to be improved), but, as you point out, they are far too slow vs normal mobs. My suggestions for dealing with this can be found in my thread: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3641973

Basically, I suggest melee should be able to interrupt mobs easier with knockback, should have i-frames or at least large damage reductions (super armor) during portions of the animations, and should be able to slowly strafe while swinging like ranged skills can. Additionally, a sprint system would allow melee to run away when it counts & kite mobs smartly to avoid hits.
That would be my ideal gameplay.

PS: mobs should also attack where you are expected to be when the attack lands based on current movement rather than where you are at the moment they start the attack to allow for players to "juke" the mobs up close by changing direction & must engage similarly when ranged [rather than the current brain-dead circle strafe]

Another thing that probably makes melee feel awful:

- the standard attack for the mace is slow, looks boring and pretty much takes away what any other class has - the ability to avoid damage, evade etc.


If i use the standard Melee skills - its so slow and even makes you stand still. There is no chance of even using it avoiding getting hit.


Maybe an idea would be to make it possible to do the standard attacke while moving - is there any reason why this cant be done?

Another idea would be some sort of block even with 2-handed-weapons that can interrupt your own attack instantly.

Warrior should never have been released in the EA missing so many weapon skills.

All the feedback they are getting and changes they are making are completely useless, 60%+ of the class isn't released yet.

Another thing i think is really imporatnt and not there yet - melee animations have to look and feel like there is weight behind them.

To be honest i think the standard mace swing looks like a golf swing.

The Rolling slam aswell - also why does the rolling effect not have some more damage on ground textures etc. to make it look like there is actually a massive hammer hitting the ground?

the real issue isnt with teh skills themselves but the mob design especially in act3 combined with lack of "space clearing" abilities that would give the class "space" to do those 2+ second high impact attacks

it SHOULD have been based on stuns and heavy stuns but frankly those last shorter than the attack animations - more better described as a STAGGER than a stun (meanwhile freezes last for what feels like 5 seconds and actually function fine as a setup state for high impact followup)

the skills as they are would be fine if all we had to deal with would be smaller groups of much slower enemies that are mostly melee and not turboboosted 20 mob packs with tons of ranged and aoe damage from act 3


at least to me warrior felt fine in first two acts despite the slower pace but in ACT 3 it became just "hope i can survive the 2 second windup of the slam" because the damage became unavoidable due to the act feeling more like someone ported PoE1 zone rather than one designed for much slower pace of PoE2