I wonder if they will make melee less boring to level?
That's their main objective with this league.
I know there is much we don't know about legion, but, for a first foray into melee in PoE, what sort of starter build should I be looking at.
IMO Tectonic Slam Juggernaut is the best starter melee build one should try at this stage of the game. It checks all the boxes:
*Build mostly is situated in the bottom left side of the tree making it intuitive to level up.
*Combines very straight forward synergy of Endurance Charge generation of Juggernaut with the Endurance Charge requirement of Tectonic Slam.
*Being Juggernaut and Endurance Charge based means you are tanky and have sustain through life regeneration. Armor, high life, life regeneration = good for starter.
*Allows you to scale damage with just unique weapons. You can use Razor of the Seventh Sun if you want to go cheap and allows you to get full elemental conversion (which is good in this game).
*Because Juggernaut has a lot of Accuracy and Attack speed, the build feels very good by default and you can also go Crit. You have option to go Crit or Elemental Overload as EO isn't too far away from where you need to be pathing.
*Great for doing Uber Lab.
*Insane AOE for a melee build, destroys maps.
*Good single target, occasionally you will get lucky and just consume a bunch of Endurance Charges and chunk bosses.
*Pretty much all of the gems you need for the build are red which means gearing is straight forward. Get a bunch of Armor bases and a lot of life. Again, this is intuitive to level and gear up.
*Can scale higher with more expensive gear if you want to but it can take on all content in the game so you don't even need to.
*Can even use Onigoroshi for a cheap 6 link option.
My other favorite Melee builds include:
*Elemental Cyclone build (Slayer, Raider, Scion). Nghamu Axe fireballs based is pretty popular and tried and true. Can also use Voidforge instead and scale physical damage.
*Frostblade Champion/Raider. Fast, insane clear speed for a melee build and pretty fun to play. Champion for more damage/defense, Raider for more speed.
*Molten Strike Juggernaut. Super tanky, decent clear speed but instant bossing capability.
*Reave/Blade Flurry Champion. With a couple of gem swaps you can have both insane single target and great AOE map clearing potential.
*Concentrated Path Chieftain/Juggernaut. Solid and effective build with good built in movement for AOE map clearing and decent single target damage.
Pending buffs, these melee skills would be worth looking into:
*Sunder used to be the Tectonic Slam of old, same for Ground Slam. If these skills get buffs then they could be worth using again. Vaal Ground Slam is VERY fun to use and I have used it to even stun Uber Elder!
*Earthquake used to be a meta a while back until they gutted its AOE and nerfed damage (and not really kept up since them). Plus various other changes to meta made 2H worse and worse. EQ seems in a better spot going into 3.7 for various reasons so definitely worth looking into but needs less duration and better AOE to be worth using again.
*Cleave allows anyone to have perma fortify up (using the Unique Cleave jewel) without putting it on movement skills. With buffs on Cleave through melee patch, this could be worth using again. This is like a tankier version of Reave/Blade Flurry build.
*Infernal Blow now effectively having melee splash like most melee numlock skills would make it more fun to use. With some single target damage boost this could be a really fun melee skill to use.
*Lightning Strike is alright but has a HUGE issue with pathing and targeting versus terrain. With pathfinding being improved in 3.7 and buffs, this skill could be something that could replace Frost Blades. However, this has always hardly been a melee skill as you pretty much just scale projectile damage with it.
*Double Strike and Lacerate for bleed builds if bleed is improved. Double Strike already has insane single target (and can now hit multiple targets) and Lacerate is in general a very solid melee skill by default.
*Flicker Strike people talk up but it's always up to player preference since it can cause headaches. It has always been an insane clear speed skill though if you are into that sort of stuff.
*Wild Strike is a fun multi elemental build to use instead of Frost Blade in most cases. Great clear speed but lacking in single target damage usually.
*Sweep is getting reworked but this was basically the 2H version of Reave... only much worse. When GGG reworks a skill, they usually go ham so this one is worth keeping an eye on.
