Melee Classes DESERVE 10% more movement speed and 20% damage reduction—Here’s Why!

In ARPGs, melee classes often face inherent disadvantages due to their need to engage enemies at close range. This exposes them to a higher risk of damage from AoEs, crowd control effects, and sustained enemy aggression, making survival more challenging compared to ranged classes that can deal damage from a safer distance. Providing melee classes with a baseline 5-10% movement speed increase allows them to close the gap to enemies more effectively, addressing mobility challenges inherent to their playstyle. Additionally, a 15-20% damage reduction from all sources compensates for the higher risks melee players face, ensuring they can maintain their effectiveness in combat without being overwhelmed.

These buffs also help balance the gameplay dynamic between melee and ranged classes. While ranged characters can often kite enemies and attack from relative safety, melee characters must position themselves strategically and endure prolonged exposure to threats.

The movement speed and damage reduction bonuses level the playing field,
encouraging diverse playstyles and ensuring melee builds remain competitive. This approach not only makes melee classes more viable but also aligns with proven balancing techniques in successful ARPGs, enhancing fairness and overall player satisfaction.

There's one, very big, very glaring issue with your plan.

There's no such things as melee classes in PoE.

Every class can use every weapon, so a mercenary could use a mace (or a sword, when they're added). Even for the melee weapons they have skills that are ranged (SUnder for maces, Stormwave for quarterstaffs, etc).

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Amorencinteroph#4321 wrote:

There's one, very big, very glaring issue with your plan.

There's no such things as melee classes in PoE.

Every class can use every weapon, so a mercenary could use a mace (or a sword, when they're added). Even for the melee weapons they have skills that are ranged (SUnder for maces, Stormwave for quarterstaffs, etc).

"there are no melee classes in PoE (Path of Exile)" overlooks the distinction between class identity and playstyle specialization. While it's true that every class in PoE can theoretically use any weapon or skill, the game inherently encourages specialization through ascendancy choices, gear optimization, and skill synergy. Many players gravitate toward specific archetypes—such as melee-oriented builds—that focus on close-range combat despite the flexibility of the system.

Furthermore, skills like Sunder or Stormwave may technically have a ranged component, but they are fundamentally tied to melee weapons and typically require proximity to enemies for effective play. These hybrid skills don't negate the challenges melee-focused builds face, such as vulnerability to AoEs, constant repositioning, and exposure to enemy attacks. Therefore, implementing mechanics like movement speed bonuses or damage reduction still makes sense to balance the inherent disadvantages of melee playstyles, even in a game where class distinctions are blurred.

I disagreed with melee needing more move speed and damage reduction for different reasons. Although the heavy armor move speed penalty is super annoying during early parts of the game as I suspect that much of the game is balanced with higher movement in mind ...

I think the bigger problems with "melee builds" revolves around the class already having huge affix pressure on gear while other "Ranged" builds can more easily sacrifice some defense for the [huge] benefits of incorporating rarity [and extra move speed] into their builds.


I'll grant that "melee" builds can have their gimmicks so they can emulate a more ranged [dynamic?] playstyle but if you want to go a more traditional "bonk on the head" approach you'll tend to suffer by comparison.

Okay I don't want a weapon swap mace on my sorceress just so I can run around faster and with free defense on it, that's stupid.

This would be a solution if they had just made different classes instead of the shared tree thing again, but they made their choice and have to deal with the consequences now, and of course melee is suffering because why wouldn't it. They need to stand next to dangerous enemies going supernova and they have to share the exact same nodes and skills that ranged can use. It's never really going to be balanced. See: fortify is supposed to be a melee skill in poe1, but of course ranged uses it on shield charge because that's a lot of mitigation for free.

In poe they introduced fortify, which ended up being placed on shield charge by wanders to give them all the benefits without the drawbacks. GGG changed fortify so it wasn't always 20% and now it's rarely used. This issue would be worse now that we have smart weapon swapping and most of the tree is generic damage instead of weapon specific wheels.

The game is simply more complex than that and you're suggesting a change that has been proven to not work. The key to melee is to layer multiple defenses and get good

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Amorencinteroph#4321 wrote:

There's one, very big, very glaring issue with your plan.

There's no such things as melee classes in PoE.

Every class can use every weapon, so a mercenary could use a mace (or a sword, when they're added). Even for the melee weapons they have skills that are ranged (SUnder for maces, Stormwave for quarterstaffs, etc).

I think this is a big part of why they have found melee to be so hard balance in PoE. Basically if they give melee a survivability tool, it will be available to ranged as well. Unless they do something like give melee skills inherent damage reduction that's active only when the skill is being used, but that would probably be pretty janky as well.

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SelkieTheSeal#5934 wrote:

"there are no melee classes in PoE (Path of Exile)" overlooks the distinction between class identity and playstyle specialization. While it's true that every class in PoE can theoretically use any weapon or skill, the game inherently encourages specialization through ascendancy choices, gear optimization, and skill synergy. Many players gravitate toward specific archetypes—such as melee-oriented builds—that focus on close-range combat despite the flexibility of the system.

Furthermore, skills like Sunder or Stormwave may technically have a ranged component, but they are fundamentally tied to melee weapons and typically require proximity to enemies for effective play. These hybrid skills don't negate the challenges melee-focused builds face, such as vulnerability to AoEs, constant repositioning, and exposure to enemy attacks. Therefore, implementing mechanics like movement speed bonuses or damage reduction still makes sense to balance the inherent disadvantages of melee playstyles, even in a game where class distinctions are blurred.

I think the point was more... how do you give melee classes such a specific (and very powerful) advantage in a way that doesn't trickle down into something that other archetypes will abuse. In other words, the implementation here needs to be such that a ranged character can't get this move speed bonus. What even is a ranged character, in specific details? What about hybrids? Does the game become about "switch to melee weapon to move faster"?

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Herbeh#6842 wrote:

In poe they introduced fortify, which ended up being placed on shield charge by wanders to give them all the benefits without the drawbacks. GGG changed fortify so it wasn't always 20% and now it's rarely used. This issue would be worse now that we have smart weapon swapping and most of the tree is generic damage instead of weapon specific wheels.

The game is simply more complex than that and you're suggesting a change that has been proven to not work. The key to melee is to layer multiple defenses and get good

Your get good argument completely misses the point about melee challenges in POE 2. Sure, layering defenses is important, but melee builds are forced to take way more risks than ranged ones. They have to be in the middle of the action, eating AoEs and dealing with boss mechanics up close, while ranged builds can chill in the back, dodging and kiting. Telling melee players to just "get good" is ignoring the fact that the game is stacked against them in terms of risk versus reward.

The Fortify example doesn't prove the concept was bad—it just shows that GGG made it too accessible, so non-melee builds abused it. That’s a design issue, not a sign that melee survivability tools don't work. With how generic the passive tree is now and smart weapon swapping, melee builds are left with even fewer ways to feel truly "melee." Dismissing this with "just play better" ignores the real problem: melee inherently has to work harder for less payoff in PoE's system. It’s not just about skill; the mechanics need better balancing to make melee worth the effort.

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Herbeh#6842 wrote:

The game is simply more complex than that and you're suggesting a change that has been proven to not work. The key to melee is to layer multiple defenses and get good

What defenses? There's nothing aside from the usual and life is not that viable unless you are able, lucky or rich enough to stack several max rolled T10 life and armour mods together on every piece possible.