I have played a melee since the game went live and have always enjoyed the role. I currently play 2 wf barbs on Khyber. My question is to you tanks that want to craft equipment rather then weapons, ie - bracers, goggles, helms, necklaces etc. What do you guys/gals think of the way the equipment crafting is looking for melee's??
So far I cannot justify making any known item except to maybe get the clicky for the affinities, and that is not at all epic imo. Making an epic level 1 equipment that gives a 50% to do 1d4 elemental dmg, and tier 2 being 1d4 elemental dmg is 1 of the only add-ons available for tanks. I dont think that amount of dmg would even be effective in WW on elite, I could imagine doing Devils elite with that proc from my epic item, what sort of a difference could that possibly make?? just doesnt make sense?
What about Regen: 1 hp per minute at lvl 1, 1 hp per 30 secs at lvl 2 (not stacking with level 1) and speculating 1 hp per 15 secs at maxed out for a total of 4 hps per minute. Again that wouldnt even make a difference in WW elite unless you wanted to wait 10-15 mins between every skirmish to recoup the hps from that lighting bolt you just ate. In high end content you could fight 1 devil and be down 100 hps+ so you would be sitting for 25+ mins. The only use I could have seen is if you went down to negatives in hps and stabilized, but now that has its' own regen, so the regen wouldnt be useful there either. Simply, I cannot see a use for regen at its current rate given melees hps are ranging at low end like 300 to high end 600+. With hps in mind, I'll add another possible add-on for melee's or any class.
The +to X skills and +10 hps add-on. This is in fact the add on I made with negative-negative as my affinity. In total this gave me +3 to my swim and jump and +25 hps at level 2. I am assuming that the final level will follow a similar path already seen being +6 swim and jump and +50 hps(10 at level 1, 15 stacking at level 2, and 25 stacking at level 3). I cannot say that +50 hps isn't a good thing, but really if +50 hps is a major increase in your hp pool, then I would wager your hps may be a little low for a melee. In fact you get more from taking a toughness and toughness line (+68 hps) then you do from this epic item. On the other side casters are getting 400, Sorcs 800 which isnt near the % of pre item to post item as +50 hps are for a tank. Assuming a sorc has 2200 spell points that 800 increase is 36% assuming a tank has 400 hps that is 12.5% not nearly the same. For me my barb has just a bit over 600 so for me that is an 8% increase. For a squishy with 200 hps that is a 25% increase. If the spell points dont override their magi, archmagi item then that spell point % increase goes up even further to 40%+ depending on what magi or wizardy they are using.
The +stat being on weapons is also strange, it would be great to craft a piece of equipment to give you that extra + to your +6 stat item you have now in that slot, but a weapon? Would a melee ever swap out his/her SoS or Greataxe, or a great dps 1 hander to grab an extra couple points into a stat? I really don't think so, but a caster may do just that to increase the dc on their spell's when they really needed them to land, or they used up the spell points from their magi item and now can swap to something different.
Unique abilities like Madstone Rage, Demonic Shield, Scourge Chocker (thought the slow down is deadly), Bloodstone these are much more exceptional then the above items, and in the realm of what i envisioned when customizing my own raid item. I did not invision any of the above for my customized raid item, but in terms of options it is pretty much the list I get to choose from. I realize that some affinity abilities may be superb, but any class can make the same affinity combo and enjoy the benefit. Again, I do not feel that taking near useless abilities on your epic item to get the affinity combo for some affinity ability is epic. Should the melee's be taking any of what looks to be coming close to a completed first raid altar upgrade list, to get to that affinity?
This is not meant at all to be that one class has it better then another, this is about having a chance to create the raid item we want, which is what this mod is all about. What if a melee is happy with their hard earned weapons and wants to make a great epic equipment piece, do any of the above sound like something you'd be geared up to spend hours and hours farming to create??? Not to me.
Post your thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Prey
Extinction
Hand of the Black Tower