Skill Revamps - Part 1

I'll believe it when I see it.

Curious at how these revamps will flesh out. End-gam is so dependent on mitigation/leech. Currently there seems to be a few skills that feel viable in the upper end-game. It would be nice if that was expanded some.

I like this in theory, but I worry about the current state of balance if some mechanics exist. I think the long ago decision to take away shotgunning and make aoe overlap a thing have caused serious problems. No skill without pseudo shotgunning or super overturned damage will ever be ideal for boss killing. In the current system there seems to be a binary way to balance skills that can still “shotgun” or “aoe overlap”. For example, if every barrage projectile can hit the same monster than to balance it equally for a single target skill you either have to balance it assuming that every build will always have the maximum amount of projectiles or accept that with high tier gear no skill will ever be as good for single target. If every skill could overlap, such as letting freeze pulse shotgun again, then every skill can be equally balanced. However, if additional projectiles remain a way to give huge multipliers to some skills and not others, then these overlap skills will always be either under-tuned, over tuned, or require extremely rare mods/corruptions to be on par with normal skills. Because of this, every skill must shotgun/aoe overlap or no skills must shotgun/aoe overlap for there to be any semblance of balance for single target skills

I think the game has suffered a lot when it comes to melee skill, esp single target ones.
Many of the new skills are effectively melee spells, that are both great at clearing and still good at single target.

But single target abilities often end up having to give up damage just to do likewise, and have terrible range to boot. Making them effectively worthless. And in addition it doesn't really matter what weapon you use, since there is no difference so far as mechanics are concerned, uniques not withstanding.
And the core base mechanics, of standing still and swinging at an unfeeling enemy simply isn't engaging.
So they are boring and ineffective.


As to how you could revamp a lot of the melee skills, one idea is to add movement in them. Not like every other movement skill that moves you a set distance and are primarily about movement, not damage. But the other way around, where these are damaging skills first and movement secondary.
For example, with skills like Double/Dual Strike, or Cleave. Where when you swing your character steps into it, moving a short distance. So you if you attack often enough, your essentially attacking while walking.
This wouldn't help get you from pack to pack, but rather move around within a pack to mop up enemies, and reposition.

Another idea could be making changes to melee weapons core mechanics, so each have more differences and effects on play style. For example, all two handed having inherit Melee Splash or Ancestral Call, but more limited in size and scope compared to the gem. (like shorter range)
Each could also be a little different. Two handed axes sweep more horizontally, so strike two more enemies on either side. Two handed hammers have a small aoe, and hit all target near your enemy.
And two handed sword had more vertical reach, hitting an addition two enemies in a line.

This would allow you to distinguish the differences between weapons more, while also giving a bump to short ranged melee skills without them having to eat up too much of their support skills in order to simply be used.

i hope you guys are going to buff storm burst to where its actually a viable skill

The new fated uniques and the skill revamps. A very good direction indeed. Im glad you are listening to the community in that regard. Giving love to skills that already has/had a fanbase will be appreciated.

But pls test your new content before releasing. See you in 3.3.

Improve double strike please !

"

Obbu wrote:

Going forward: are there any plans to add forward character movement to some regular melee skills, such as infernal blow, glacial hammer, heavy strike, cleave and so on?

Having skills animate steps forward while attacking would get rid of the feeling that they stop you moving while you swing, often resulting in a choppy gameplay experience and outright missed attacks.

Plenty of other games do this successfully: dark souls being a prime example. You swing your weapon and step forward, if you get right up against a creature, you don't move forward.

It would also turn knockback into a less negative mechanic for heavy strike, as you would be able to follow the enemies as you smack them around.

Gems like ancestral call have helped the situation out, to an extent, by increasing reach: but skills like cyclone serve as a perfect example as to why removing stop-start movement for close range melee is beneficial, as it allows melee players to keep pace with the fast moving gameplay of PoE.

Outside of the loss of control mechanic of cyclone (which should be removed) it is definitely the most enjoyable 'close melee' skill in the game.

It also manages to be fun without requiring you to shoot lasers out of your sword, or have ridiculous AoE size, because it facilitates fluid gameplay.

Don't you dare touch my Cyclone skill.

Cold Snap - remove cooldown.

better ground slam? also Im personally requesting ground slam MTX's