devs hate melee

[Siegfrid24]

From my experience playing as a melee and as a caster,
Its easier to solo legendary content as a caster at least on Draconic mantle because you can kill before getting killed.

As a melee i don’t hit hard enough and i can’t survive long enough to clear quest while the investment of my character lie heavily toward melee .

In legendary group content (I wish there was more R1 group and not mostly r6+) a caster even if weaker can still contribute a little .

My frustration come from the fact that the devs only seems to care about casters…

I checked lamania preview for lvl increase , melee get nothing , boosting TWF from 80 to 100 just show that they have not realised you can’t do sustained melee damage in legendary group content you have to avoid being hit because packs of mobs shred you really fast if you don’t move around.
Its the same for melee mantle and melee epic strike they don’t help you clear content.

My feeling is they look at numbers in some test dojo and don’t try to play it.

I totally understand that their job is coding and once their day is done they don’t want to *play the game* but i feel they don’t know what thoses numbers translate to in terms of gaming experience.

Anyway i have been playing theses last few months being frustrated and hoping for some balancing first with the new iconic i was dreaming of monks and especially ninja spy rework….
Then i was hoping for something good coming with lvl increase…

It does not matter anymore like Amscar says in ´what goes up’ Time to move!

[boredGamer]

Casters without proper: gear, build and reaper points struggle just as much as melee in the same boat. It's just not as noticeable as they sit in the back doing very little but not dying often.

If you're going to be a melee in high reaper you need to have your house in order.

It’s just so much easier depending what you’re doing. I just banged through a bunch of iconic and epls on fvs because it’s just so easy right now . Two button room clears, next room. Useful in high skills at cap and then tr.

Same toon on melee takes forever . But don’t fight the waves, ride the waves. Much more enjoyable. That said, I hope melee get some love in certain ways.

[TedSandyman]

As a die hard melee player I can tell you for sure that gear isn't the issue. I have most of the melee gear and have farmed it for years. I recently switched over to playing an alchemist to get completionist again.

I have caster gear, but it is only what I have found over the years and nothing that I have specifically farmed. And with a modicum of items the alchemist is by far easier to make into a super character than anything I have done with any of the melee classes.

My melees are good, but my best melees don't even come close to the damage doled out by a moderately geared elemental dps alchemist build. I don't single shot things, I single shot whole groups of things, including reapers and bosses.

I have SOOOO much mana it isn't any kind of a limitation in most dungeons. I very rarely have to rest. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off and throw pots at things. I can hide, step out, throw a volley of pots, and jump back again and again till everything is dead. I can mass kill before most things even know I am there.

I ran precious cargo with a group. There was another alchemist and a sorc. We had the enemy ships killed before they could ever catch up to the main ship. I hate that quest normally, but it was trivial with high DPS ranged casters.

Reapers are a joke. I see three at a time with a group of mobs and multivial kills them all in one shot. Or at least knocks them down to nearly nothing easy to finish off with a second AOE vial. And if I don't quite get it killed I just back peddle till my vials reset in a ridiculously short amount of time.

And then throw in the Draconic destiny and oh my is all I can say.

I have evasion and great saves. Ran Rackams Trial Epic Reaper and simply ran through all of the traps. I have insane self healing. The reaper nerf really doesn't matter when the nerfed heal can fully heal you in one shot or the healing SLAs can fully heal in four or five shots at 2SP each.

I can only imagine what alchemist was like before it got nerfed.

I'm not bragging because I haven't done anything to brag about. I'm playing a very over powered class. Just put the right points in the right places and any child could do as good. Yeah, I play reaper, but playing a caster in this game is still like playing it on easy.

I will go back to a melee after my three alchemist lives, but only because I enjoy the game being a bit harder.

[Siegfrid24]

Caster is EASY mode
Melee is HARD mode

Everything is working as intended and is well balanced.

When you explain things like that everything make sense!!

I just wish they gave you a warning when you create your character lol.

[fatherpirate]

melee got a bit easier with the cat people (if your willing to play one)
Picking up evasion in the racial tree gives a straight melee toon (light armor only)
help with the traps and a bunch of enemy caster range issues.

[Discpsycho]

melee got a bit easier with the cat people (if your willing to play one)
Picking up evasion in the racial tree gives a straight melee toon (light armor only)
help with the traps and a bunch of enemy caster range issues.

(Mostly) straight melee: rogue, monk, fighter, ranger, barbarian, paladin, druid, bard

(Mostly) straight melee using light armor: rogue, monk, fighter, ranger, bard, druid (wolf only)

(Mostly) straight melee using light armor without evasion as a class feature or in their tree: fighter, bard

(Mostly) straight melee using light armor, without evasion as a class feature or in their tree, and that wouldn't take ~14 points in Shadowdancer: uh...maybe Fighter...?

The evasion really only helps a) heroic levels for b) folks with lots of racial AP who c) aren't splashing rogue, which bards often do for heroic TRs. I'm not convinced this is enough to say melee got a bit easier to play

[Siegfrid24]

I like Cat scratch in the Tabaxi Tree, I *think* its the most usefull thing for a TWF.

[draven1]

Sadly, it seems Devs didn't get any lessons from their previous mistake: over-buff AOEs. Especially, divine-spell-based ones: Sun Bolt, Holy Smite, Flame Strike, Fire Storm, Celestial Bombardment, Divine Wrath.

And they shouldn't reduce the mob's MRR much in reaper. I've even warned about this situation in advance, when they nerf mob's MRR in reaper and bring new Draconic, Primal Avatar, Exalted Angel ED revamp, devs didn't listen.

[kuzka111]

butp

[kuzka111]

butp

[kuzka111]

Still w8ing for some melee def buff or ac revamp or some respond from dev

[SpartanKiller13]

Still w8ing for some melee def buff or ac revamp or some respond from dev

Have you considered looking at the preview forums? There's currently a melee def buff being previewed for the next update lol. Being rebalanced between different classes/builds, but in general more melee HP and overall removing EDF = easier healing/scroll rezzing for melees.

Go looking instead of necroing threads XD

[Stradivarius]

Have you considered looking at the preview forums? There's currently a melee def buff being previewed for the next update lol. Being rebalanced between different classes/builds, but in general more melee HP and overall removing EDF = easier healing/scroll rezzing for melees.

Go looking instead of necroing threads XD

There is no "melee def buff" on Lam right now. And I lost about 1K HP on my Barb so not sure what you mean by HP buff either.

Coincidentally or not, my casters actually got an HP buff. So, the only thing I'm seeing on Lam is further caster buff. The game devs seem hell bent on somehow buffing up God.

[Bjond]

currently a melee def buff being previewed

There is no "melee def buff" on Lam right now. And I lost about 1K HP on my Barb

All my melee builds are getting hammered by the "Lam HP buff", too. From what I see, it's a caster buff and a melee nerf. There are gross conceptual problems with the way it's being done that end up actually nerfing most melee builds.

Go looking instead of necroing threads XD

Absolute agreement here. Stop with the stupid "bump" posts. The bumped threads had some interesting conversation until the necro started ruining them.

[kmoustakas]

all the devs are casters, sorry to say

I don't think they actually hate melee. I do think their PLAYING skill is invariably limited thus their design decisions miss their target.

[badm0f0]

[QUOTE=Bjond;6516085]This part isn't true. I have a DPS melee that has tanked R8 (including dooms) with minimal PLs and about 35 reaper points (at the time). He's got 60'ish now and more EPLs. I have another moderately similar one that has tanked R6 with hire heals and could probably tank R8 with a real one.


Having played a barberian for 10 plus years and would like to know where to get this healing hire that runs r6 ? Maybe if you park him at the door sure .

[thegreatcthulhu]

All my melee builds are getting hammered by the "Lam HP buff", too. From what I see, it's a caster buff and a melee nerf. There are gross conceptual problems with the way it's being done that end up actually nerfing most melee builds.



Absolute agreement here. Stop with the stupid "bump" posts. The bumped threads had some interesting conversation until the necro started ruining them.

I guess I take exception to this, my Paladin gained HP, but he's not by any means deep into the past lives.

[Tilomere]

Having played a barberian for 10 plus years and would like to know where to get this healing hire that runs r6 ? Maybe if you park him at the door sure .

R6 is a solo difficulty, there is no need for a hire.

Past that use the dryad because it can't run into combat.

[slarden]

R6 is a solo difficulty, there is no need for a hire.

Past that use the dryad because it can't run into combat.

I don't think R6 is a solo difficulty for most people. The Vengeance reapers and increased horrid wilting damage significantly increases the chance of dying compared to R4 which doesn't have any super punishing mechanics. In particular I've seen so many people die to vengeance reaper circles when they were far outside it - there has to be some bug with it.

As far as soloing with a barbarian, a dual box bard with sustaining song parked at the quest entrance is much better than a hireling cleric in my opinion. This doesn't prevent also bringing a hireling, but it's a much more reliable source of healing over time that isn't debuffed by the reaper self-healing penalties.

[Bjond]

R6 is a solo difficulty, there is no need for a hire.

I don't think R6 is a solo difficulty for most people. The Vengeance reapers

These are both true. If not for Vegans, I'd probably solo r6s instead of r4s. The hire is there to keep the group topped off and it does "pretty good". You can tell your hire to "defend" one of the ranged players; ideally one that likes to play fairly close. Then it doesn't run into melee. I'll also park the hire then move the fight off a bit or park it before leaping into a pack for intim. Still gotta bring a stack of rez scrolls for it, though.

I sincerely wish hires were "summon & forget", but they're not. If SSG made them immune to damage, there would still be no worries about hires replacing players. I had those worries, too, until playing SWTOR. The hires there are literally better than 2/3s of the real players. Even so, you gotta be truly horrid to be kicked for a hire -- like piking from the zoneline or training the group over and over bad.

I never saw someone that was actually trying (but doing v.poorly) kicked for a hire. People just plain like grouping with real people over hires even when they're worse at the game.