Let's talk about combat / melee / archery.

[Dilapidated Potato]

Not everyone wants to play a ranged DPS / Caster hybrid. Pure Melee builds should be completely viable -- and the developers absolutely need to go back to the drawing board on how combat works in this game.

1.) Enemies need more variance in attack patterns.

2.) Enemies should be able to be staggered out of their wombo combo by well spaced/timed attacks -- especially with two handed weapons/jump attacks.

3.) Weapon durability either needs to be dramatically increased, or damage from melee weapons needs to dramatically increase.

4.) The material cost of arrows needs to be DRAMATICALLY improved, or arrow damage needs to be increased dramatically.

5.) Intelligence should not be a damage scaling stat for wands, spells, and a bunch of magical effects AND scale healing.

6.) Enemies should not need to be parried multiple times in order to be "Mercilessly" struck, and the animation for activating a Merciless attack needs iframes/better animations/audio/visuals.

7.) While I realize this is an early access title -- if you're going to sneak in a level 35 Staff for casters, you need to also put in a level 35 bow/melee weapons. This game already HEAVILY favors casters, and every other build basically feels like an afterthought.

8.) The fat toxic bosses have an acid attack that will basically oneshot even a full tank if you get into melee range -- which near as I can tell has almost no telegraph -- and if you're in an open area you basically have to cheese her attacks by standing somewhere she can't hit you and killing them with ranged attacks or find some pillar to bug her AI around. Oneshots need to be clearly telegraphed, and bosses need to have proper windows where they can be punished.

9.) Hyper aggressive mobs are fine sometimes, but you guys need to design the game in a way that takes into account the fact that not everyone wants to play a ranged DPS.... and if the only way you can challenge ranged DPS is to make mobs that are super fast and aggressive -- then you probably have made your ranged DPS too strong. Right now, there is literally no reason to play anything other than a Tank/Healer/Wizard hybrid -- and it absolutely ruins the entire combat experience for anyone trying to play a specialized melee build.

10.) Exploding Beetles. These beetles do far too much damage, the AOE is far too large, and when you kill them with Melee you might as well just throw your items on the ground and start running back. They either need to not explode when they die from the player, or they need to explode with a delay that is intended for people to walk out of.

11.) We need more melee weapons/attack animations along with some kind of poise/stagger/hyper armor/light and heavy attack / charged heavy attack system. Spamming RMB and trying to parry things gets old exceedingly fast.

12.) Archery needs some work. The reticle is too large/ends up covering too much of the target. We at least need some additional options for it. Personally I prefer something like what Skyrim uses with the two dashes to the side so I can see what I'm shooting / develop skill in aiming for head shots. The arrow physics could also use some work. Arrows in general don't feel very impactful.

13.) Sneak attacking with a bow is a staple. The talent tree doesn't have good support for it.

14.) The Assassin tree is a joke. It has nothing to do with being a stealth archer, or even a stealth melee, or improving stealth really. Exploding arrows? That doesn't even make sense as a place holder.

15.) The entire green/red areas of the tree need an overhaul. TBH I think the entire tree needs to be reworked from the ground up. I love the PoE style skill tree but it needs more depth, and in general needs to feel like you guys cared about more than just the blue side of the tree.

16.) I'd love to see actual base classes with class abilities/base stats as well as the ability to tweak base stats a bit, and different starting locations on the shared skill tree.

17.) I'd love to see stats for progression with each weapon type, and each class having proficiency at leveling certain stats up faster -- and have the stats improve over time with use.

18.) A bunch of flying enemies are completely immune to melee attacks. We need to be able to rip them out of the sky with the grappling hook or we need the ability to jump and melee in the air so we can actually hit them.

19.) The jump attack shouldn't be able to be body blocked by mobs that are underneath you. You can literally get stuck on top of mobs under you, and animation locked. It's absolutely stupid.


You have have created an absolutely beautiful map, that feels wonderful to explore.. and the building system in this game is absolutely incredible. But the combat system is honestly kind of terrible. It feels fine-ish until you hit level 25, and then completely falls apart.

But... Damage scaling is confusing, you've got maces that benefit from sword/axe talents, one handed axes that can't be wielded with shields... the tooltip information makes no sense in relation to what what is displayed vs how effective weapons actually are... physical damage types feel completely inferior... melee weapons break too easily.. the game is a joke if you use spells/wands... every build basically just turns into a tank/healer/wand/staff hybrid because arrows are too expensive to make and the healing talents are psychotic to pass on -- and quite frankly the spells are just too good to not have. Not needing ammo is insane.

Being able to scale your damage, and self healing, while wielding a shield and just cycling through the perfect wand for every occasion is so much better than every other spec/playstyle that you have to be kind of dumb to do anything else... and that just further propagates this lame playstyle where you just sit on a building wanding everything to death.

It needs a full on overhaul.

[Sir. Foxford]

Meh

[NinjaShade]

As a melee warrior I will say that I agree that the scavenger matron being able to puke on you with a killing blow is a bit discouraging. I resolved that fight by standing in a corner with a bow shooting her in the head repeatedly. I have no bow skills and the bow I used was not upgraded.

[The Seventh Son]

Originally posted by NinjaShade:

As a melee warrior I will say that I agree that the scavenger matron being able to puke on you with a killing blow is a bit discouraging. I resolved that fight by standing in a corner with a bow shooting her in the head repeatedly. I have no bow skills and the bow I used was not upgraded.

That specific move, along with Acid spells, are currently broken and not performing as intended. The devs have acknowledged this and have said it'll be patched.

[LegacyXI]

Originally posted by Twerkulies:

Meh

This is my exact response to melee/combat in the game.

[Malvarose]

+1

[Subsonic]

Melee builds ARE completely viable. I just hit 25 with a full melee build (all skills in the red except for a couple in the Survivor tree) and completed all the quests. So, the original post started with a false premise, guess I won't bother with the rest of that wall of text. Probably a lot of "I want this so I can play my way, the way I think it should work" type of comments. Amirite?

[NinjaShade]

Originally posted by Subsonic:

Melee builds ARE completely viable. I just hit 25 with a full melee build (all skills in the red except for a couple in the Survivor tree) and completed all the quests. So, the original post started with a false premise, guess I won't bother with the rest of that wall of text. Probably a lot of "I want this so I can play my way, the way I think it should work" type of comments. Amirite?

Any pro tips on how to fight those scavenger guys with two weapons? The greenish ones? I feel like even if I parry and inflict a little bit of that grey stun meter I still get hit by one of his weapons.

[Subsonic]

Originally posted by NinjaShade:

Originally posted by Subsonic:

Melee builds ARE completely viable. I just hit 25 with a full melee build (all skills in the red except for a couple in the Survivor tree) and completed all the quests. So, the original post started with a false premise, guess I won't bother with the rest of that wall of text. Probably a lot of "I want this so I can play my way, the way I think it should work" type of comments. Amirite?

Any pro tips on how to fight those scavenger guys with two weapons? The greenish ones? I feel like even if I parry and inflict a little bit of that grey stun meter I still get hit by one of his weapons.

I'm not a pro so I didn't do anything special. I dodged a lot, used jump attack frequently (with double jump to close ground) in groups, otherwise just try to dodge and get hits in from behind, dodge, hit, dodge....some mobs you just have to be patient. I know the ones you're talking about, they're tough. I've died to them. I use many potions and bandages, as a melee you have to invest in healing since you're frontlining the mobs.

And sure, players can win by cheesing all they want--if that's what they enjoy then go ahead. Or play a mage that doesn't cheese, using blink/dodge/double jump to avoid getting hit as much as possible--and still have healing spells/potions/bandages lined up for when you do, inevitably, take damage. Everyone does. Cheesing just robs yourself of the challenge. It's not cheating or anything, it's just easy mode. If you gotta do it then do it, it's a tactic. But if you want a tougher fight then stop cheesing and maybe play outside your comfort zone. Challenge yourself. This isn't a contest, it's fun, dammit.

[Lightning]

The green guys are resistant to magic i've noticed so i have to keep dodging around them while casting with my wand. I finally crafted the eternal acid now but i still haven't tried it on a high lvl yet, been busy crafting stuff and learning recipes lol.

Healer perk with the constant heal is good for any class imo, even ones with low int when i was a ranger i barely had int but it still procced about 15-20 hp per second.

[vandal]

I struggled as a melee fighter vs scavenger matron . Then i learned acid bite and oneshot them. Balance?

[Michael]

I've been pure melee the entire game and it's felt very easy to me. Beat all the bosses on the first try, that's pretty viable in my book.

[Michael]

Originally posted by NinjaShade:

Originally posted by Subsonic:

Melee builds ARE completely viable. I just hit 25 with a full melee build (all skills in the red except for a couple in the Survivor tree) and completed all the quests. So, the original post started with a false premise, guess I won't bother with the rest of that wall of text. Probably a lot of "I want this so I can play my way, the way I think it should work" type of comments. Amirite?

Any pro tips on how to fight those scavenger guys with two weapons? The greenish ones? I feel like even if I parry and inflict a little bit of that grey stun meter I still get hit by one of his weapons.

Don't try to parry, just block them then hit them a couple times between their combos and don't be greedy. They've never been able to break my guard that way.

Edit: This advice is for if you are using a weapon and shield, not a two-hander.

[Phantom]

Melee >>>> Magic > Bows through the entirety of the game

Melee does struggle vs flying enemies... because... height?

Melee is easy mode in this game

[HumbleImp]

Gernerally survival crafting openworld co - op games definitely have room for improvement when it comes to combat. But give these guys credit, its alot better than any of the other ones; valheim, icarus, moria, raft. Which game is doing it better?

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Michael:

I've been pure melee the entire game and it's felt very easy to me. Beat all the bosses on the first try, that's pretty viable in my book.

^
The only enemy type that consistently gets past guard are magic enemies (the flying fell wizards, sickle guys) and the giant dudes with swords on their 'powered' attacks.

Everything else you can just hold block until they stop attacking then attack back, or dodge around their back and hit them.