Melee Splash

I think this gem has outlived its life. In other arpgs you look for ways to add/improve aoe on your single target attacks, and in PoE you absolutely are required to make a significant sacrifice to get it, (whether thru ascendancy or a gem slot), and it only comes in one form. On top of this, most melee builds have a more active play style which is quite fun for a lot of people.

Melee splash should just be incorporated by default into all single target attacks. The only other real way to get aoe procs is CoC, and even then you need Melee Splash for more chances to crit. As long as this sacrifice is required, the game will exclude a lot of potential builds from better leveling and higher level gameplay (versus other non-melee splash spells).

Also, I never initially set out to make an exile that will absolutely need a 6L to be functional.

All support gems that take away damage are suffering and should be changed to provide a reasonable amount instead.

Seriously, after the travesty that is the pierce support, there are no excuses.

This gems with a more damage modifier might actually allow melee skills to compete with EQ.

I think a great way to make this support gem much more usable is to make it work like Earthquake's initial hit. It turns the entire skill into an AoE and no longer requires you to click on single enemies. Either that or make it similar to Ancestral Warchief's attack which is very similar to Earthquake's initial hit. IDK if someone else already mentioned it but what do you guys think of this idea? Of course the reduced AoE damage would have to be changed since the entire supported skill would be an AoE and no longer a single target skill that does some bonus AoE.

Melee splash was improved a lot since the last i played it, but is not enough for me. Compared to the op builds still completly shit and in this game you need to kill monster by a lot.
Heavy strike is still low in this process, so make it worth if someone uses it.

So remembering other games (that i barely remember) this can go this way: "you strike your enemy with such force, that your melee attacks affect to other enemies" to lv20 30% MORE damage, the splash damage would still the same BUT modified by strength. Str would increase the area of effect and area of effect damage.

Make melee great again.
You can make it work for aoe melee attacks too. A spectrum of items that increase strength by percent can be added to the game.

I feel like this support gem needs to have a keystone on the passive tree with the same effect. Preferably around the duelist area.

Why:
I have been trying to optimize my dual wield frenzy build between the ascendancy classes, the three duelist and raider/pathfinder.

I was doing the math on damage for each of the specs all running more or less the same passive tree and the best ascendancy class is the slayer every time because they don't need this gem and can take faster attacks or physical to lightning. Also due to the build slayer doesn't need unwavering stance which saves extra passive points and gives them that extra boost.

The gem setup would be:
Frenzy+Melee phys+multistrike+added fire+weapon ele+(Phys to lightning/faster attack/melee splash)

The build relies on attack speed also for life on hit, so the raider had an advantage there until I tried slayer with faster attacks and once again it had better damage and more attack speed than the others.

Conclusions:
Because certain skills require melee splash to even be useful at clearing packs of mobs, those skills benefit more from going the slayer class even when duel wielding 1h weapons and gaining zero benefit outside of just the melee splash from Slayer.

Extra info about my math:
I only calculated increased elemental damage for raider due to the passive so all the duelist numbers I had were lower than they should be. Also the slayer build has extra skill points because of unwavering stance for an extra 78 increased melee damage without which it would only be better than the Raider build

Slayer build:
http://poeplanner.com/AAQAAPEULwB2uR0V7Irw6UbKkITZR369NmVNvqdgQWNwEdVXl0Mxv9VTu0SeIWDBi4FBNe867XTxKaUshVoa2sF07QUteu9M_04qW6-QCg2N_MWHduOfSn3uDqOKsbMMc5VmA4fTfgBeGY7tgwguI_ZNko19-WMV8ButBLF7FFT-veYF-Zsm6NbndG1sNj2dqmyMYqxVhaXLtMUV_Y2BSxyPwdYHD6sWvyaVYeJVS_-TsJJR2TIBshnPeiSLwzoqOOsUmy3EgoTvouoS4WegfXX-umHrelN1_YRv4tXtQbVIOrPN6lHalSSygIa0hacnn6U1DHAAAAAAAA==

Other build:
http://poeplanner.com/AAQAAO00LwB0uR0V7Irw6UbKkITZR369NmVNvqdgQWNwEdVXl0Mxv9VTu0SeIWDBi4FBNe867XTxKaUshVoa2sF07QUteu9M_04qW6-QCg2N_MWHduOfSn3uDqOKsbMMc5VmA4fTfgBeGY7tgwguI_ZNko19-WMV8ButBLF7FFT-veYF-Zsm6NbndG1sNj2dqmyMYqxVhaXLtMUV_Y2BSxyPwdYHD6sWvyaVYeJVS_-TsJJR2TIBshnPeiSLwzoqOOsUmy3EgoTvouoS4WEhGlU26AHnpzCfyxRN_Eu8nxiR7FyElIlxe9RiFyyUqs1r1AAAAAAA

Raider acendenacy:
Avatar of the veil
Avatar of slaughter


Final thought:
The differences in damage in the builds are fairly minor and I still think that Champion or raider would be better for the build because of the utility. But because this skill gem adds nothing yet is required for how the game is played, it makes the 2H weapon ascendancy potentially better even if you gain nothing from it outside of replacing 1 skill gem. A keystone on the skill tree will.

The game requires melee splash, it allows single target skills to be used. Keep the skill gem for minions and things or a build that cannot make it to that side of the skill tree. But add a keystone like the slayer class one because melee splash enables skills to be used.

I am currently making a build using Viper Strike and Melee Splash. It feels okay for the most part, but sometimes it gets really hard to hits, because you have to actually hit a mob before the aoe procs. It would feel 100 times better if you weren't dependent on hitting a monster first.
It would up the playability of Melee Splash, if the linked skill would work as any other AoE attack, where you are not relying on hitting a monster nor accuracity. This would make it much more enjoyable to use "single target" attack such as Viper Strike, Infernal Blow, Glacial Hammer and so on.
In exchange for not depending on accuracity, the supported skill could simply have 35%-26% less damage no matter to all enemies hit, instead of dealing normal damage to primary target and less to surrounding enemies.
Also there are no visual effects to clarify your radius.

All in all my proposition is that Melee Splash should not depend on hitting an enemy before activating, and that some visual effect should be added to the gem to improve the clarity of it.

Big Melee Splash buffs are exciting, but we still desperately need that change so that it still procs even if you don't hit an enemy initially. Is it just not technically feasible? :(

I posted 2.5 years ago in this thread about how Melee Splash was terrible for a variety of reasons. I waited 2.5 years for you to do something about it. Ancestral Call was that thing. I'm running Double Strike as an AOE skill in Abyss league and it feels amazing. Thanks!

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Jennik wrote:

I posted 2.5 years ago in this thread about how Melee Splash was terrible for a variety of reasons. I waited 2.5 years for you to do something about it. Ancestral Call was that thing. I'm running Double Strike as an AOE skill in Abyss league and it feels amazing. Thanks!

I react quite late to this but I find it very interesting, only could you explain a bit : are you using melee splash WITH ancestral call or substituting Ancestrall Call for Melee Splash (being still not satisfied by Melee Splash).


I just started using Ancestral Call with Melee Splash on my Heavy Strike (on a build I started in Harbinger League and started to play again yesterday in Standard after respec) bleed / bloodlust RT Gladiator.


I feel quite happy with Ancestral Call + Melee Splash on Heavy Strike and how it allows to clear packs nicely (with one blow) !


Of course I have to swap these supports in case of facing a tough single target ( multistrike + Ruthless in my case).



I feel like for attacks with high base damage like heavy strike, vigilant strike (maybe double strike as well) making them "AOE" through melee splash was already an option (that's what I tried in Harbinger) and adding ancestral call is nice bonus in my opinion.