Melee Needs some Love

I'm training up my 2-handed Axe (Bludgeons), currently 80+ bludgeon and 60+ Obsidian Arrow with a STR focus. I was able to solo pretty well in Twins Foothills. Recently, in a bid to summon a Water elemental, I switched to a training deck that sported dual wands and water attunement + the appropriate Water spells (coupled with Earth and Fire arrows for DPS). Result? I practically breeze through Twins Foothills now.

Please don't be mistaken, I'm not saying Magic is OP. But as a Melee focused player, it came as quite a rude shock that the class I wanted to focus on is so gimped in terms of damage output. I am still working towards being a secondary tank for my guild, but now I am seriously having second thoughts. There are 3 main problems I have with melee right now:

1) I'LL BE MISSING YOU: Even at 80+ Bludgeon, I am routinely missing the targets more than half the time on Auto Attack. Even with Dex trained, it doesn't seem to be improving my hit rate much (about 36 dex now). Sure, at higher adventurer levels I should miss less, but take note that I am still at the same adventurer level when comparing the hit rate of melee compared to magic. This comparison is thus quite fair.

2) LOW DAMAGE: Damage is alright when it hits. However, it still doesn't hit as hard as the magic arrows.

3) WEAPON REPAIR: My axe decreases in durability pretty fast, so there is a definite running cost in terms of repair kits associated with using melee attacks. In comparison, the tier 2 magic arrows do not suffer such running costs. My wands only took a few points of Durability damage.

Now, I would love to compare melee with ranged, but that would not be fair because I haven't actually trained in bows before. I have however read a few posts that imply ranged has an even higher damage output compared to magic. I would appreciate if anyone who has used both Ranged and Melee in this release to contribute your feedback as well.

Thank you for reading my lengthy rant. What I hope to achieve with this feedback is the much needed LOVE melee has been missing for such a long time. Additional feedback and advice is appreciated. Cheers and have fun Avatars!

 

I've always done melee characters at first, then later added an Air Magic deck. Pre-final wipe, I was adventurer level 91 with GM's in both blades and bludgeons. So far this time I have 108 blades. I agree with what you've said. The only thing I can add is that melee does get a lot more effective at higher levels.

 

Awesome! Kindly share if possible, at what level would you experience a bump in melee effectiveness? I'm lvl 82 bludgeon.

 

I've done lots of 100+ critical hits with my blade. But then my blade skills add up to 563. Most are in the 50's with Bladed Combat at 82. I eat up archers for breakfast...usually killing them as soon as they turn around to run away. Bladed Glyphs work even if you are moving. I haven't used Bludgeon, but I assume it is similar.

You are right in that my sword takes a lot of damage. I use auto-attack though, so it swings a lot. That's why I make my own weapon. I also make my own repair kits. When it finally wears down, I just scrap it and make another one.

What helps me a lot is to use some secondary skill for a ranged shot to pull the mob closer. Usually I use Obsidian Arrow, but the Ice Arrow works good as well. When they reach me I kill them.

 

Not so much a bump as a gradual increase. Air Magic lightning spells have a higher DPS in my experience, but Blade skills above 90 are sufficiently effective that you can relax and enjoy the game.

 

Melee in PvP is usless.

I will have to put my 2 daggers in bank and do as all other PvP players, become archer or mage

 

As melee, the only real barrier to PVP i have found is air mages. In fact a group of air mages is still pretty much the death of any other build. They are packed with stuns, buffs, mass AoE range and add blink to that and ..well ... poop. As for melee bludgeons not being strong, maybe have a chat with Oba, he can be a beast with it.

 

I am just starting out with pole-arms. I grabbed a wooden shield and a spear from solace bridge and have been working with it. I am using push and push as melee. For spells I am using flame fist, Stone fist, and ice fist. I do have to say at the low levels at least that the spells hit way harder than the melee hits currently. Stone fist does the most damage for me actually. I just started using flame arrow and obsidian arrow. So my opinion at least at low levels is that magic is better than melee, at least pole arms.

 

As a Double Daggers Melee, you cannot imagine how it's BROKEN in PvP !

 

The fact is:
1) It's really hard to stay mobile while using the deck system, so you end up face tanking a lot anyway
2) There are a lot of good magic/melee combos
3) Melee have lots of AoE
4) Melee don't really run out of focus and you can use auto / charged attacks

Frankly, even with a "mage" build, there are a lot of reason to equip a melee weapon.

 

Focus consumption is very high at gm actives, im forced to regen with healing grace and passive stance but this -100 resistance and słów is horror (should be like - 25% resist) And i noticed that auto atacks do very little compared to skills.

 

I have to ask is all you are doing is using Auto Attack ?there are 7 skills in the Bludgeons Tree and each do somthign a little different and when worked up they do sigficantly more damage?

sorry but the #80 at the top really does not say alto about the bludgeons tree in general.

Also understand that 80 in Bludgeons use in Auto Attack with 0 other points in any other skills in the tree mean actually only 40 in the skill since it is 1/2ed

 

Yup, I'm fairly invested into the Bludgeon tree right now, here's a screenshot of my build so far. I've stopped training it to get my Water Elemental, so using Dual Wands for now.



With 520 points invested in Bludgeons, I am fairly sore about the Tier 2 Magic skills doing consistently better DPS than even my hard earned Bludgeon skills (didn't invest in Knock Back because why would I push them further away from me? I want to pound their face with my axe!)

 

Heavy tree has hard counters to stun builds (Hard Headed, Knight's Grace) and including an amazing distance closer Body Slam.

Top it up with some air affinity, Well Grounded. Unlocked thrust spam weaving in some fists or other favorite glyph (coup de grace)

 

yeah thats great vs a single air mage who doesn't know how to play heh

 

I support that melee needs some love, even though I am a mage. The weapons go down in durability so fast.

 

Thank you for your kind understanding of melee's predicament. I'm so glad you understand that my intention is really NOT to nerf Magic or Ranged, but to bring melee up to the same level as Ranged and Magic in terms of damage capability.

Quite frankly, there are no restrictions to mage or archer builds using Heavy Armour, so there is no real need to gimp melee to such an extent. Melee already suffers from the requirement to constantly be facing the enemy in very short ranges, making it a necessity for us to chase down nimble mobs or players. PVP is out of the question for a pure melee player and that sucks big time. All the enemy players need to do is step outside of our limited striking distance and we are screwed.

Yes, we can always pick up ranged or magic, so why keep whining? Precisely because melee should be a viable option as well! It's all about player freedom to choose what we want to specialise in right? So why the apparent disdain for melee?

I would find it more rewarding to be melee if, after investing sufficient skills into our melee tree, we are able to hit our target most of the time once we are able to close the distance between us. I would have already suffered a few magical or arrow strikes before I'm able to finally catch up to that nimble mob, and would feel immensely satisfied if my first few strikes find their target instead of constantly missing. THAT is what frustrates me the most.

 

I have been using blades myself and not had to much of an issue in PVE, but PVP is a nightmare, that and I am not a fan of dual wielding, I think if it was a passive instead of offhand attack being another button to click it would be better. So I am as well putting away my dual weapons and my poison potions.

 

In PVE there is a very REAL problem melee faces: Dead Trolls and Phoenixes. Everytime these boss mobs die, they will cast a death blow (Troll falling damage or Phoenix fire blast) that outright MURDERS anyone standing nearby. It's frustrating being the only ones dying in these boss encounters AFTER we defeated them. Another reason NOT to choose melee.

 

I think its right that Mages should do more damage than melee, and that Melee has better chance of survival due to armor than the mages.