Skill Reveal: Sunder

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Nazgúl wrote:

The skill looks fun.
I always play melee, and this will be my 2nd char on the upcoming league.

Still going ice tarp as main

Will also play Ice trap over melee. But Storm Call will propably my first pick. I guess i will go noncrit SC then..

That shameless Scion 2nd profession drag out... ;D

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Archimtiros wrote:

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HazaRdReborN wrote:

Another skill that shatters the ground... me hulk... smash!!!

Yeah melee seems to be a hard thing for most of these companies to think of. I've only seen Korean RPG's use melee in satisfying and creative ways. The rest always have this huge crush on magic and spell effects >.<

I love both, but I love me a really good melee a lot as well, and I am hoping they at least add some more useful skills in there even if they are not creative because at this point I am like "something, anything!". I just hope that this is a really good/effective skill in play. That I will know when I play it.

I am happy to see more melee skills. I am happy to see new spell skills as well. But something tells me that we would be getting twice as many of the latter or if not, just as many but more creative.

Well there are some interesting and fairly unique strength-melee skills (though the viability of which varies), such as Infernal Blow, Dominating Blow, Molten Strike, Leap Slam, Shield Charge and Ice Crash; Cyclone is an extremely popular build due to it's movement (though I hate the way it clips on the environment).

Could easily make another ground slam mechanic work too, just make it a bit different. Tornado Shot is a great example of an ability that is functionally similar to many bow shots, but with a unique twist (pus are fun).

I don't know, it feels like they are kind of redundant. And its normal because melee is up close which limits creativity... But does it?

We also have those sweeps and double strikes and what not (some are green gems). Then there is the avenge is it? Those other 2 skills that counter and hit back when you get damaged.

The shield charge... I really don't like it at all. Made a new build yesterday with Templar. My own thing. Basically I have done him with mace and shield, strength + inteli build with a hell lot of lightning damages all over the place. And that was one skill I wanted to test out. I was so disappointed in it :( Maybe my expectations where too high for it (I was thinking of something like Shield Slam in TitanQuest... that one was fast and the impact looked great, it made you feel like "damn, that shield just broke some bones". This is like he is just running a little faster through them all)


Sunder looks nice, it is a proper crowd clearing skill. Gonna use it on my tanky build I think. But initially I thought it was something completely different.

I was expecting it to be something that stuns and pushes the enemies back. "Sends them asunder" :P

I think that some utility melee based attacks is what is missing. Attacks that can actually be used for different play styles.

If you break it down it could follow the idea of:
A single hit powerful strike
A strike that deals damage in an arc
A strike that deals damage all around you
A strike that deals more ranged aoe damage (sunder hopefully)
A strike that quickly gets you into the fight (shield slam... but please, better than sheild slam guys, and leap as well)
A strike that allows you to move with multiple attacks on all enemies (cyclone, clipping is indeed annoying. Also very useful for leeching builds I think)

And add a skill for pushing enemies away in a circle, or in front of you, or heck have one for each.

And some skills to create certain conditions to the enemy (like bleed, stun, cripple, slow, weaken, whatever. It can be utilised with a lot more conditions)

Another one would be in my opinion that "blink" skill whatever it is called, where you tp to an enemy and hit them. This should have a melee version for quick mobility.

Because melee is limited in its attack range and the attack type (one hit, arc, all around, mobility) its not too easy to come up with new skills, that is why utilising the idea of creating certain conditions on the enemy is something that can be used in my opinion. Like bring a new aspect into the game like fear. Not as in they run away, as in their defences and attacks are lower.

A lot of the melee skills don't actually feel like melee skills. I mean that molten thingy whatever. Seriously? :P Its like augmenting your attack with lava bursts. More mage-like than anything else. Static strike as well.


So in all due the restrictive manner of this all, I think that one thing that can be done to fix this is (aside from making some of those new skills) is to create more synergy in melee skills. Maybe have a lot of those I mentioned become support skills. As in curses that are applied on hit (instead of having to do it your damn self with a million skill gems for crying out loud wasting them on one attack that will never be as effective as the same amount of skill gems for a buffed magic attack).

If they utilise a system where melee attacks can be comboed into singular skills, then and only then will the melee class start to balance out towards ranged and magic classes. Have for example a new leap slam, call it meteor strike I don't know, or something. Difference being that you "jump" high enough to pretty much leave the screen (the animation could have you simply vanish, like that lightning skill were you teleport), and then apear again over the location you are to land where you clicked.

Takes a little longer to recover, and creates yes a small area of effect like a seismic wave (nothing too new for the game). Then imagine being able to combo-synergise melee skills and melee support skills into it, to make it knockback the enemies, activate a curse/fear, and/or even create a shock wave in all directions for a certain range like this new sunder skill. have like 4 skills into one, and there you have it, a new skill that can be used in which ever way you want and deals a hell lot of damage, and gets you close as a melee class to keep fighting. (Hence, you can ditch knockback and add stun, or slow, or whatever).

Also, this will differ from a leap slam in the sense that you cannot be targeted during it. Leap Slam is b@lls against most groups. I used to use it to get close with characters without shield. Nope, just use whirlwind blades now... But, those are green gems... See what I mean? It gets all annoying! Leap Slam gets stopped in mid air sometimes by freezing enemies because who cares about programming invulnerability when you are in the air right? So, don't program it, make a skill that utilised different mechanics (completely disappear so you dont get targeted) and give it a small draw back (a small delay when landing).



The amount of things they could do with melee classes are a lot I think.

I mean, is it me or are there NO skills for pulling enemies in? Maybe I missed it? That is what a tank is for, pulling enemies in! And it also fits for a melee class, pull enemies into you and start hitting them.

Or another skill that allows you to leap onto your enemy (very small distance, like dashing almost at them) for when they are trying to flee. This skill could even get chain properties/support to it, allowing you to chain with dashes from one enemy to another each time you do it, making you again invulnerable during those attacks.

Make a fair few invulnerable mechanics in there. Why? Because that is the ONLY way to balance the melee class. They are right in the thick of it! A ranged class don't even give a damn about enemies they stroll around and job done! So you NEED to have something for the melee classes to give them the same kind of survivability. Especially for the squishy melee classes that are not tanks! Squishy like ranged classes, but also up close and always getting hit? Who even wants to play with such a class right?

Pfe not impressed at all !

Damn, melee is subpar compared to ranged/spells, with maybe two-three viable skills, how do we fix it... OH RIGHT, LETS MAKE A MELEE RANGED SKILL! Brilliant!

GG, GGG. Rant over. I like this game honestly, more skills=better. But we have more important issues than to add content for the sake of adding content. BTW - please, tell us, what are the tags of this gem? Can you LMP it? Does INC_AOE work for the width and lenght of the wave? If it has only melee + aoe tags then it seems pretty... boring. Of course, it can be crazy good at clearing packs, but its boring. What interesting combo can you do with it? The same as with every other melee attack?

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Like enabling characters to pull monsters towards them with a grappling hook like Brutus, which can be used as an attack skill (deals damage), a push skill (empires grasp) or a mass-pull (LMP+GMP+Chain)....?

This so much. Actually that skill would be A FIX for melee problems - pulling enemies means you dont waste time on walking, which is one of the reasons why melee sucks so much now.

Honestly nowadays when I play Melee I always go for Reave (Has AoE and it looks like I'm shooting Sword Farts), Frost Blades (Has Projectiles),Lightning Strike (Also has Projectiles), Ice Crash (Has AoE and blinds me temporarily),Cyclone (Movement as well as Melee).

Upcoming Ancestral Protector would also be another form of "Ranged" Melee.

This one makes me think of Ground Slam with Built-In Chaining.

So a Ground Slam with the looking of a Shockwave Totem.

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MaraWuti wrote:

GS is for stun-lock builds. Earthquake is for hit-and-run builds. Sunder is for linear-cluster aoe burn builds. Just because they look vaguely similar doesn't mean they actually function the same.

You are being too reasonable for this peanut gallery. Stop making good points and get angry!

Now can we make some of the existing melee skills less obnoxious to target? I really love my Infernal Blow build, but the actual execution of playing it is annoying.

This one does look like fun, though. Yay no namelock.

Just gonna leave this here and make a note to say how similar Sunder is to Earth Splitter... minus the fun and utility, being just another attack speed meta skill.