Enjoying the game but the imbalance between melee and ranged is unfortunate

I consider myself a casual player and I've played over 1,500 hours so far since 0.1. The first character I played was an Invoker way back in 0.1. After that, most of the playtime has been on my Deadeye and Amazon in 0.2, my Stormweaver in 0.3, and now in this league a Lich and Blood Mage. I've tried playing a Wolf Oracle build but once I've entered endgame, I just can't force myself to "sweat it out" further at level 85. Gone back to playing my Blood Mage now at level 97 since it's way more fun to play.

Playing as a melee character in this game is just way too punishing. Thematically, it doesn't make sense either. The tankiest builds are ES caster builds like Varashtas and Liches, while Warriors just get no love. Makes me wonder what's gonna happen when Templar drops. I've tried playing a Warrior myself but never got past Act 1. Playing my Invoker in 0.1 was a blast when stat stacking was still a thing, but now that that build has been nerfed to death... I just can't go back to melee. Going through the campaign seems ok... but endgame is just endless punishment for melee characters.

I'm still enjoying the game, yes.... as a spellcaster. Probably not going back to melee anytime soon (if at all) unless armor and life get proper love. Want the best damage? Play ranged/caster. Best survivability? Also ranged/caster.

Hope you guys address this.

I dont think they can really balance it and make it feel the same ever unless they change the amount of ground effect/circle around monsters.

I usualy prefere melee distance in every games i played. Here i now tend to avoid it or have a secondary skill i can use from range for thoose situation.

Guess they try to fix it by adding "melee" tag on range/huge AOE skills... Doesnt satisfy my love for melee but it is what it is.

Whatever they do to defense or skills, it will always be more difficult in melee distance because of monsters behavior.
Not saying it's impossible to play melee, but it will never be balanced.

Too many monster mods are disproportionately punishing to melee characters.

Thanks for the replies. It's a shame if they won't be able to balance the feel of melee in the endgame. Casters and ranged play is the best for optimum play unless you want to really challenge yourself. Don't get me wrong... I know there are plenty of viable melee builds in the endgame... but the effort needed to get them to that point seems thrice the amount compared to casters and ranged.

Yea... That's kinda always been a thing sadly.

Even when PoE1 was new and not a ground effects disco. Melee wasn't great. Usually relying on perma Stunning or similar mechanics to function. GGG just doesn't understand melee.

Melee isn't even melee in PoE most the time. It's mid-range casting with weapons.

I've played majority melee in most games my whole life and they just don't seem to get that there's certain perks melee needs in order to compensate the fact they're melee. It need one or a mixture of 3 main perks. More survivability, more DPS and/or more CC output.

It's worth noting Survival can come in many forms. eHP, Gap closers, iframes, etc.
One massive perk is Line of Sight. Something entirely lost of them in general.

ggg just need to accept that people want to be tanky or even chonky, that is literally what melee classes are missing and ability to have crafting materials without tradeslaving

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Xzorn#7046 a écrit :

Yea... That's kinda always been a thing sadly.

Even when PoE1 was new and not a ground effects disco. Melee wasn't great. Usually relying on perma Stunning or similar mechanics to function. GGG just doesn't understand melee.

Melee isn't even melee in PoE most the time. It's mid-range casting with weapons.

I've played majority melee in most games my whole life and they just don't seem to get that there's certain perks melee needs in order to compensate the fact they're melee. It need one or a mixture of 3 main perks. More survivability, more DPS and/or more CC output.

It's worth noting Survival can come in many forms. eHP, Gap closers, iframes, etc.
One massive perk is Line of Sight. Something entirely lost of them in general.

"I've played majority melee in most games my whole life and they just don't seem to get that there's certain perks melee needs in order to compensate the fact they're melee. It need one or a mixture of 3 main perks. More survivability, more DPS and/or more CC output."

This right here. Seems intuitive doesn't it? But yeah they really don't seem to get it. Mentality seems to be: oh you wanna play melee? Well here are drawbacks on top of drawbacks.

Wanna be tanky? Too bad... go for Lich or Verashta.
Wanna deal high damage? Then ... go for bows.

Melee is playable with triple the effort and nothing positive from the experience other than the flavor, I guess.

There is a disparity between range and melee in this game


But the post attempts to make it seem melee can’t even perform at all in this game and you have users chiming in here you can’t be tanky either



I assure you these claims are false. And are down to personal experience with attempting and not succeeding at melee, rather than anything objective.

"

Mashgesture#2912 a écrit :

There is a disparity between range and melee in this game


But the post attempts to make it seem melee can’t even perform at all in this game and you have users chiming in here you can’t be tanky either



I assure you these claims are false. And are down to personal experience with attempting and not succeeding at melee, rather than anything objective.

Nope, read the whole post.

The crux of it is: Yes you can become tanky and high damage as melee but it's triple the effort compared to casters / ranged classes. And even then... you'll still be outclassed by casters in the tankiness/damage department at the top end.

The disparity in terms of effort needed to achieve the same results between melee and ranged is what's being raised. Is it worth it?

Sure it's easy to say that it boils down to personal preference... but are they really just gonna leave it at that?

Is that the best answer to this issue?

"

CrianPH#6541 a écrit :

"

Mashgesture#2912 a écrit :

There is a disparity between range and melee in this game


But the post attempts to make it seem melee can’t even perform at all in this game and you have users chiming in here you can’t be tanky either



I assure you these claims are false. And are down to personal experience with attempting and not succeeding at melee, rather than anything objective.

Nope, read the whole post.

The crux of it is: Yes you can become tanky and high damage as melee but it's triple the effort compared to casters / ranged classes. And even then... you'll still be outclassed by casters in the tankiness/damage department at the top end.

The disparity in terms of effort needed to achieve the same results between melee and ranged is what's being raised. Is it worth it?

Sure it's easy to say that it boils down to personal preference... but are they really just gonna leave it at that?

Is that the best answer to this issue?

Except that’s exactly what you’re saying:

"

CrianPH#6541 a écrit :

oh you wanna play melee? Well here are drawbacks on top of drawbacks.

Wanna be tanky? Too bad... go for Lich or Verashta.
Wanna deal high damage? Then ... go for bows.

Like maybe melee just is not the archetype for you. You saying in here that you made a 85 character and then gave up sort of screams:

"I tried something new, didnt like it, went back to something I am familiar with"




How come I dont have any of these issues with melee but you do?

Am I a god? Obviously not.


I played warrior for every patch of this game. I know some but not all there is. Yet I landed on something giga this patch. And the patch before, and before that all the way to .1



There is a disparity between ranged and melee, 100%.

But there isnt this unforgivable chasm that you seem to believe. Where you cant build something tanky, it cant do any damage, and it will take triple the investment as a ranged build.


I built both this league. And the melee build with 4.1k life, pure armour. Is 40x tankier than my 10k+ ES hybrid caster.

And the melee character does more damage. And thats WITH the disgusting buff they gave to staves this league, which didnt need to happen at all.