Game Design Manifesto: Improving Melee Combat in Path of Exile 2

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Reduce knockback in general, and tone down the rollers and other enemies that consistently push the player 50+ feet in a few seconds. Make physical damage reduction % also reduce physical pushback % if you insist on keeping pushback in. Other simple solutions also exist.

Reduce forced turning caused when the player gets pushed, this is especially noticeable when using abilities such as Sunder. It causes me to miss a LOT, which sucks.

Reduce bodyblocking, make more enemies maintain a slight distance instead of hugging you as close as possible. Other simple solutions exist.

Improve collision on abilities such as Leap Slam, Stampede, and Shield Charge. All of which are clunky in their own way.

Put more accessible forms of Phasing back in the game. How about a damn support gem called Phasing? Pretty sure absolutely nobody would be upset to see that.

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ReiCoringa96#2002 wrote:

Also remember that you lost damage while having double two-hand weapon from the giant's bloss node, i think the dev from this game just hate melee and don't care about making a game for these classes.

It never made sense to me that they were so afraid of having the melee class have the best damage as if it doesn't have the most downtime between attacks due to the need to dodge more often.

Also the need to stop all movement to use an attack is actual poop.

How to fix melee with one simple trick

make spells root you and give the biggest hitting largest AOE spells the longest root time

make melee not only "cast while moving" but not even slow you down.

/Fixed.

Fun fact Ultima online figured this tech out in 1997 In all the history of that great MMO melee and spells and bows managed to have strengths and weaknesses and almost always remain relevant through literally decades. This is BOTH PvE and PvP which is an even more impressive accomplishment.

Watch any martial arts weapons scrim... no one ever plants their feet and cleaves down like they are chopping fucking wood.

Weapons in most fantasy games are more simple and fluid to use than spells.

In most editions of D&D to cast a spell you need to be unencumbered, have cloth on, have both hands free (somatic components) be able to speak freely (verbal components). You also have to pass a concentration check if anything so much as breaths on you.

Why did D&D do this? 50 years of play testing and design iteration thats why. They knew that giving the most powerful things you can do the most restriction was needed or it would be dumb to play any other class. Its still ended up being silly at high levels.

Why did GGG make spells the most fluid, safe, free and easy playstyle with the best defenses? Because they don't learn from their own mistakes because they made the same errors in POE1 in 2013.

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stuff i've mentioned before but summarized

1. Nerf every skill down to be similar to mace skill's power level

2. mace and basic melee attacks needs to have more "chase" mechanics where they dash towards the enemy if close enough.

3. rebalance or remove monster speed/aoe/additional projectile mods.