Why is melee so dead? Path of Projectiles.

[[Slayer]]

You can see that I like melee weapons by my name, but this game doesn't like it. The new melee skills at literally reskin of ethereal knives.

[Detergent]

Heavy Strike
Viper Strike
Vigilant Strike
Frenzy
Elemental Hit
Dual Strike
Double Strike
Dominating Blow

Take your pick. Any one of these skills can can clear all the content in the game.
But people want clear speed and efficiency so these skills are often overlooked due to lack of AOE.

[Lagwin1980]

melee v's ranged.

Assuming no diffrence in damage output

ranged wins, becuase they are at a distance and there for safer.

there are more than a few melee builds to use that can clear end game with ease, including glacial hammer.

In this league, smite, static strike, concecrated path, glacial hammer, infernal blow, cyclone have been used by one streamer to clear all content, he also includeds build guides and videos

[The Undead Watcher]

Etheral Knifes doesn't add a debuf that increases the dmg dealt for the next strike.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by Sword:

The new melee skills

They aren't melee skills - at least, Shattering Steel isn't, I'm not sure it's been stated whether or not Lancing Steel makes any melee hits. "These new projectile skills use projectiles" is kind of a weird complaint.

[Wolfram]

Do you mean like skills that scale with melee damage or skills that use melee weapons?

[X Kirby]

I'm running a Melee Juggernaut build with two Mjolnirs and Static Strike to cast a bunch of spells. I have to actually hit with a Melee attack to cast the spells though. Does that count?

I find this build to be particularly entertaining.

[Kitsunegari]

I've been running with a curse on hit attack (CoH, assassin's mark. Increased crit for a crit build) Lightning strike that could easily transitiion over to something like dual strikes to decimate enemies. It's all about how you wish to build.

Say you run around with whirling blades + fortify for mobility and buff
Dual strike > Multi > CoH > Curse (phys vs. ele) > Maim / Faster Att > Ruthless

This puts you into a group, you use skill once and it's like an AoE going off killing everything. Dual strike with this type of setup (though I don't use these exact gems) does 100k damage at character level 80. Melee is still very viable.

[Phobos]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAc_H4quPs

Seems good to me

[Sage]

I'm rolling through content with Molten Strike + Heralds of Ash and Purity + Molten Shell. I can't even remember the last time I had to pop a flask.
If you have enough life regen + mana regen, you can do melee too.

[kazaddum]

Originally posted by RandomHero:

Heavy Strike
Viper Strike
Vigilant Strike
Frenzy
Elemental Hit
Dual Strike
Double Strike
Dominating Blow

Take your pick. Any one of these skills can can clear all the content in the game.
But people want clear speed and efficiency so these skills are often overlooked due to lack of AOE.

Weak.
Weak.
Weak.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Most people use it with bows.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Mostly used with bows or wands.
Weak.
Good, but mostly for the Vaal version.
Meh.

[kazaddum]

Originally posted by Lagwin1980:

melee v's ranged.

Assuming no diffrence in damage output

ranged wins, becuase they are at a distance and there for safer.

there are more than a few melee builds to use that can clear end game with ease, including glacial hammer.

In this league, smite, static strike, concecrated path, glacial hammer, infernal blow, cyclone have been used by one streamer to clear all content, he also includeds build guides and videos

To be fair, that streamer is Mathil, he's really good at the game. For most players ranged skills are far easier than melee skills. And do not start me with the "bit this shooting skill has the melee codeword!" - it shoots stuff, it's thus not melee. Melee is poking the enemy with a tool that does not leave your hand while doing so.

[Aleksi]

Ah, the meta slaves complaining how they possibly can not use any other than the most op meta skills or archetypes. Get a grip on yourself m'dude.

[Detergent]

Originally posted by kazaddum:

Originally posted by RandomHero:

Heavy Strike
Viper Strike
Vigilant Strike
Frenzy
Elemental Hit
Dual Strike
Double Strike
Dominating Blow

Take your pick. Any one of these skills can can clear all the content in the game.
But people want clear speed and efficiency so these skills are often overlooked due to lack of AOE.

Weak.
Weak.
Weak.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Most people use it with bows.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Mostly used with bows or wands.
Weak.
Good, but mostly for the Vaal version.
Meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2GQ1oy6GM
Heavy Strike is not weak.. Slow, but not weak. Same goes for all the other skills I listed.
Just because your favorite streamers don't use melee skills doesn't make them weak.

[kazaddum]

Originally posted by RandomHero:

Originally posted by kazaddum:

Weak.
Weak.
Weak.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Most people use it with bows.
Not fixed for any weapon type. Mostly used with bows or wands.
Weak.
Good, but mostly for the Vaal version.
Meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2GQ1oy6GM
Heavy Strike is not weak.. Slow, but not weak. Same goes for all the other skills I listed.
Just because your favorite streamers don't use melee skills doesn't make them weak.

Considering that this was two versions ago and not uber elder, this sort of proves my point.
Even more once you take the ease of effective use into consideration, compare heavy strike to ele hit with a bow and the former is a sad joke while latter oneshots almost everything.

[Awesome!]

yeah why cant melee builds do uber elder? oh wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9emtELD509s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRu6sjSl9w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfCon3FaHVQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8ZOOPR9D8