Melee Fantasy

I read the post for early discussion of changes and saw there were going to be some nerfs to monsters to help out melee players.

As somone who plays to live out this elemental melee fantasy, I have to say it's really fun but just really frustrating. I really enjoy flying through packs and doing a flicker strike around to help clear but so many times I will kill things and even with 1500HP and 1k energy shield there are just so many 1 shot mechanics... and then i lose my breach that I was saving becasue if i die in a breach i lose the breach for that map. I wouldn't get so disappointed with this rippy gameplay if i still had a 6 portal defence, but even then.. the only time I used a 6 portal defence was with a LA Deadeye in PoE 1.

I feel like the game is literally pushing me towards playing different way other than how I want to play.. and it's really disappointing.

When i played LA deadeye in PoE 1, I knew that that build would only carry me at my own personal skill level to maybe 2-3 Voidstones. In this game I feel like Ranged builds are the only optimal way to reach the highest tiers of end game, or builds with more range than what i have.

Again.. I'm not some god-tier player, I am just a casual who likes to come in and crush some monsters for awhile and try to improve my build and fight some bosses.

Do I want this game to become easy? No. I just feel like there could be some minor adjustments made to make it feel less punishing for a trade style league.

Also. Flicker strike really needs a buff for AoE clear without having to spec into something like Elemental Expression.. more elemental explosions and freezes on Crit hits without that skill would make it alot of fun.