How's melee going?

Improved a lot for me.

I never really used totems because of the clunkiness to cast them + they weren't "thematically correct" for my build anyway.

So I gained a lot of dps + more tankiness from endurance charges.

Had to adjust a bit to fix the mana cost, but it's nothing dramatic.

Still, I didn't like the buff to end charges. I don't like when so much tankiness is behind an "optional" build mechanic like end charges of fortify.

What if I want to make a melee build that doesn't use end charges?

Ofc it would be "wrong" according to the min/max philosophy, but arpgs are also about experimenting something new, rerolling, trying different things while also not feeling very weak.

Even baking more tankyness into the small ascendancy points of marauder, templar, duelist and shadow would have been better and more consistent.

Something along the lines of: New Keystone at the bottom left corner of the passive tree with "You take 30% less damage -- 40% less attack speed with bows and 40% less spell damage" would also have been better.

Started out Sweep Gladiator as that was first characters in 3.15-3.17

It's not good, Warstaves which have block are useless for Gladiator.
At least in 3.15 I can get 75/75 block.

Block is great ONLY if you use shield.

I also play lacerate.

Overall, it's just bad. The loss of 20% more physical ascendency is painful to swallow.

Bleed sucks, since aggravate can be found in tree, the ascendency felt pointless.

Retaliate is great, but again, limited by weapon type, which sucks. 2H or warstaves stuck with a single Retal, or the Cry. Basically Gladiator are almost forced to play Axe + Shield.


Switched to Champion.

Banner is awful as F. The Ascendency, Cluster and Masteries doesn't work well AT ALL. Perfidy is a necessity, but it's a dead armor due to poor life and defense.


Overall, Melee felt awful and freaking PIANO.

-Retaliate
-Warcry
-Tincture
-Banner

Every single thing are conditional or have short window. It's awful

Mana is horrible, it doesn't go well with attack speed making Dual Wielding Glad into a much more horrible state.


Overexert + Rage is the real Winner.

Pretty good. I don't know how much melee it is with aoe that blows up the whole screen, but it has certainly made builds possible that weren't before, which is good. I'm playing ice crash, no way I using this skill in the previous league. Seems more balanced now with some of the build types, there are sill people playing non-melee builds which is good.