How's melee going?

Melee is sick this league. Especially if you play strikes, the new anoint that increases strike range by 40% means any strike skill can hit the entire screen with a few extra hits in your build.

I have a casual softcore molten striker going this league (usually play hc or hcssf) and I'm just flying through 280iiq T17 maps and melting Uber bosses.

I did VGS Zerker as my league starter (as axe but actually changed to mace because stun is so easy/reliable with the new values, then ironically ripped to porcupines in a T16 due to missing "destroy on kill")

Honestly is was fantastic as well one of the smoothest league starts I've had, never even upgraded to a 5l even lmao.

Moved from that to a one with nothing sunder bleed glad and that's been S tier so far, extremely strong all round only weakness is single large attack hit and I can't really do anything about that so the character is "done" by my standards.

So personally I think the melee changes have been superb though the buff to life values on items is the best change for HC - we've gained either 500-1000 extra life or the wiggle room to use an extra unique or two both make an absolutely massive difference to how many builds are "viable".

Feels nice!

"

Draegnarrr wrote:

Moved from that to a one with nothing...

Doing Hollow Palm too, but a classic Cycloner. Is it as fun as it is squishy, and not really doable for you HCSSF guys. But I'm working towards getting it to either 78% attack block or 65/65 - can't decide what's best on top of my 100% spell suppression.

Anyhow, Hollow Palm is fun with Kalandra reflections.

I love it.

I'm trying to avoid abusing the usual skill gems and builds this time around.

I used to be like, "oh wow melee is fun," when all I was doing was using herald skills and their AoE effects to annihilate everything. I had to bonk things with smite occasionally but in hindsight it didn't feel like a melee build at all.

So I have a few rules for myself when doing melee builds now.

- No herald skill gems.
- No 'melee' skills that are effectively ranged skills.
- No offensive AoE skills beyond travel skills and Melee Splash Support.
- No minions, except maybe an emotional support golem.

Now I have to actually use some brain cells, since the game is no longer playing itself and killing 90% of the enemies for me, and so far it's very enjoyable.

"

BlakeDrapeta wrote:

I love it.

I'm trying to avoid abusing the usual skill gems and builds this time around.

I used to be like, "oh wow melee is fun," when all I was doing was using herald skills and their AoE effects to annihilate everything. I had to bonk things with smite occasionally but in hindsight it didn't feel like a melee build at all.

So I have a few rules for myself when doing melee builds now.

- No herald skill gems.
- No 'melee' skills that are effectively ranged skills.
- No offensive AoE skills beyond travel skills and Melee Splash Support.
- No minions, except maybe an emotional support golem.

Now I have to actually use some brain cells, since the game is no longer playing itself and killing 90% of the enemies for me, and so far it's very enjoyable.

welcome to "tru melee" experience.

its much better now. could be even better but it will do exile. it will do.

With a LL Ball Lightning of Orbiting Hierophant (cylone) at 1 div +/- i'm cleaning all T16.
I guess it's "ok tier" but maybe the meta build do better than this.
I have seen some people play "bleed melee build" with op dps.. but really squishy.
I will try to rise my dps at 45m dps and 22k shield for try T17 ^,^
The melees are not in good condition but it is slightly better.

My Big Hit Ice Crash inquisitor doing quite alright tbh
A few upgrade here and there and I can push out more DMG
The only problem right now is Fast Regen ES monster, Block (big MOFO), and Tough Ward base Monster. I'm looking for a way to overcome these monster but still didn't see how I can do it.

Leveling overall is great Especially Early game and on Late game, in Mid game where your skill didn't Scale too much yet can still be a problem for someone that didn't used to Melee type just yet.

Overall, it's quite good TBH, more build variety that isn't a Pew Pew or Swoosh Swoosh.

"

hereatha wrote:

With a LL Ball Lightning of Orbiting Hierophant (cylone) at 1 div +/- i'm cleaning all T16.
I guess it's "ok tier" but maybe the meta build do better than this.
I have seen some people play "bleed melee build" with op dps.. but really squishy.
I will try to rise my dps at 45m dps and 22k shield for try T17 ^,^
The melees are not in good condition but it is slightly better.

one way of seeing it is GGG gave melee more dps so they can focus on other things such as defences. but the way things are, its still better if you can oblitarate all opposition before they become a problem rather than dealing with defences which dont matter when the enemie's mods align a certain way.

Been playing my Bleed Eviscerate Gladiator since league start, got all 4 voidstones.

I use Lacerate when Retaliate is not active, and Glacial Shield Swipe with Maim support for CC and apply maim.

He is extremely tanky (apart from big dots) and damage is actually pretty good.

Tip: Activate Bleed tincture on tougher mobs / bosses to apply fat bleeds.

Things completed:

Simulacrum - 15/15 Waves
Shaper / Elder
Uber Elder
Sirus
Maven - bad at mechanics, keeps making puddles throughout the stage lol but managed to defeat after a few portals
T17 - big robot boss
T16 / guardians is easy mode now.

Elemental and Chaos resist cap
80 attack block / 78 spell block / 80 spell suppression + lucky.

Freeze immune (pantheon), Shorter ignite (pantheon), Shock Immune (tempest shield), Poison immune (armour/evasion mastery), corrupted blood immune (jewel), semi-bleed immune (flask trigger on bleed)

Opted to not go with versatile combatant, invested in gear + tree instead to maximise block. Paired with % life recover on block shield, you're practically un-killable by mob swarms.

When fighting Kosis in simulacrum I'd rather have a bunch of mobs hitting me and heal me from behind lol.

Bleed might not be for everyone but I like the ability to apply the bleed then have the opportunity to move around while it does damage if needed.

Have not tried ubers yet but since it's a dot build i guess it won't be best for it.

All in all I personally enjoyed the Glad this league and will continue investing into him further as there are still things for me to upgrade.