This is the Berserker patch. I don't think you can go wrong with that.
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Path of Exile 3.0+ |OT| To Oriath, Xbox Live, and Beyond
- Thread starter Dozer1003
- Start date
Used to have maim for physical scaling and then 100% ele conversion but now fortify is more damage lol, don't know what to pick cause I want to respec to champion with fortitude. Close combat could be it but weapon restriction and shady 'up to 59% more' - and the bottom is what 10% more?
Damn this guy's accent and reading are rough, often feels like he finished a sentence but nope, blurts out a couple extra words randomly lol
Tip6 is pretty naive, early ex and stuff are cheaper because chaos are worth more, selling early drops is fine to accelerate
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For gem swapping? What else is there for melee physical builds?
Depends if you're playing a channelling skill I guess
I planned this :
Rage support - Impale support - Infused Channelling support - Brutality support - (Melee Physical Damage supp | Fortify supp)
There's also pulverise, etc. Lots of options, close combat isn't that appealing I feel
I dont think you are understanding what I am saying.
Those are the gems I want to use for a character but I want to swap out Impale for a map appropriate gem since Impale isnt that good for mapping. What gem do I swap into? Not many green gen options that give a straight up damage increase to pure physical except Close Combat while also increasing mapping potential. That way I can swap in Impale for the boss sort of like Ancestral Call/Ruthless for Frost Blades or Conc Effect/Inc AOE.
EQ is going to be busted, and Marohi is going to be super expensive this league. They changed it right? The only info I found about it was that it now has pulverize, but I'm not sure if they swapped pulverize for inc aoe. If they just added pulverize on top of inc aoe that is going to be straight busted.
Oh I was just replying to the last message on last page. Idk, didn't think of it, I'll prob keep impale on for mapping, with 10+ APS on cyclone it should be fine
Can't you just use white sockets if swapping is an issue ?
I dont know, Rares are having their life total doubled, even if Impale is not optimal due to ramp up time, the only thing I would swap for bosses/tough rares is from Sand to Blood stance.
I know what i will be doing with my Glad :)
New reckoning on lvl 30 should have 150% base damage and 334 to 502 added phys.
And then you add supports to it:
Pulverise -> 34% more AoE, 45% Melee AoE damage
Multistrike -> 2 more attacks, 100% more melee on 3rd attack dammit doesnt work anymore with triggered ;/
Ruthless -> 132% more damage on 3rd attack
New reckoning on lvl 30 should have 150% base damage and 334 to 502 added phys.
And then you add supports to it:
Pulverise -> 34% more AoE, 45% Melee AoE damage
Ruthless -> 132% more damage on 3rd attack
I know what i will be doing with my Glad :)
New reckoning on lvl 30 should have 150% base damage and 334 to 502 added phys.
And then you add supports to it:
Pulverise -> 34% more AoE, 45% Melee AoE damage
Multistrike -> 2 more attacks, 100% more melee on 3rd attackdammit doesnt work anymore with triggered ;/
Ruthless -> 132% more damage on 3rd attack
Facebreaker cyclone
No Breach this league in Zana.I know what i will be doing with my Glad :)
New reckoning on lvl 30 should have 150% base damage and 334 to 502 added phys.
And then you add supports to it:
Pulverise -> 34% more AoE, 45% Melee AoE damage
Multistrike -> 2 more attacks, 100% more melee on 3rd attackdammit doesnt work anymore with triggered ;/
Ruthless -> 132% more damage on 3rd attack
Good luck getting this item.
I doubt it's that hard anyway. Easy to buy splinters. Probably will be a breachstone incubator too.
Don't invest in Reckoning, it's garbage, only good for curse on hit etc. I'd rather get a +11% to block chance rare shield.I know what i will be doing with my Glad :)
New reckoning on lvl 30 should have 150% base damage and 334 to 502 added phys.
And then you add supports to it:
Pulverise -> 34% more AoE, 45% Melee AoE damage
Multistrike -> 2 more attacks, 100% more melee on 3rd attackdammit doesnt work anymore with triggered ;/
Ruthless -> 132% more damage on 3rd attack
Why that Riposte trash doesn't trigger on spell block is another interesting one.
I used reckoning successfully in the past, thought not as damage skill. Now though, with all of those buffs? I think that damage can be decent for 3 gems put into the shield.
Any glaring issues or ommissions in this planned tree ? It's for berserker starforge cyclone, using blitz so low crit multi and medium crit chance.
It's planned for level 82, will probably go lower later to grab executioner and blade of cunning
It's planned for level 82, will probably go lower later to grab executioner and blade of cunning
Hey guys I am going to be making some small mini guides on Melee in general and some things to look out for when deciding on a build. There are many options and some of them seem to overlap so I will point out the unique element of each skill.
"STRIKE" MELEE SKILLS
Strike melee skills are the protypical "melee" skills (previously referred to as "numlock" skills). They have you come up to the opponent up close and personal to strike them. Strike skills don't have an AOE tag and thus cant be scaled that way. They are prime candidates for Ancestral Call support as well Melee Splash and Haemophillia for map clear. However, what they lack in clear they can make in other ways like enemy control and/or high single target. They also benefit heavily from weapon range as it increases their conal attack and allow you to hit multiple enemies at once despite being strike skills.
Dual Strike: Dual Strike and Double Strike are very similar skills and can be scaled in very similar ways (in fact if you gem swap them in your 6 link, they will both perform well with no severe DPS/effectiveness loss). Dual Strike has you hitting enemies simultaneously with both weapons and this gives it a unique property. By guaranteeing hits from both weapons you can exploit effects of both weapons at same time... like Blood Seeker which gives you instant leech. Dual Strike alsp comes with insanely high damage bonuses especially against targets on full life, like one of the Assassin Ascendancy nodes... making it an ideal candidate for Crit builds. If you like big single target damage with big grits and you are ok with losing some map clear then this is the skill for you. Dual Strike has a VERY powerful unique threshold jewel that gives it in build pseudo melee splash and chance to do double damage. This is a MANDATORY item for any Dual Strike build as it allows you to forego having Melee Splash in your 6 link and instead just get an Ancestral Call/Ruthless gem swap combo. Dual Strike must be dual wielded.
Double Strike: Double Strike is the faster cousin of Dual Strike. Double Strike lacks the high damage of Dual Strike but makes it up by being faster, having better in built side cleave from weapon range, better support for bleed and morr importantly doubles as a Vaal skills. Vaal Double Strike is one of the most powerful single target Vaal skills in the game even at just a 4 link but with a Double Strike main build you can also have a 6 link Vaal DS. For a brief period Double Strike becomes one of the highest DPS skills in the game with the aid of its Vaal gem. Despite being Double Strike in its name, its not restricted to dual wielding.
Dominating Blow: Dominating Blow is one of the most unique melee skills as it allows you to "dominate" enemies and assume a sort of pseudo summoner playstyle. It allows you to scale minion and aura for solid damage. Against rares and uniques, simply hitting them at intervals will summon minions for you so its not just an on kill effect. DB is more of a summoner build than a physical melee attack based build so I won't talk too much about here. But if you want something different then definitely check this one out. Lots of interesting uniques and Ascendancies like Guardian have solid support for DB.
Infernal Blow: IMO this is one of the most satisfying and fun skills in the game. Infernal Blow is a slow and not very damaging strike hit but it applies a status debuff on the enemy. Once the debuff expires, the enemy creates an explosion and the explosion is created by either hitting them a few time, let it expire after a timer or the enemy dies with the debuff on. Combined with Ancestral Call and melee splash which allow you to apply the rebuff on multiple targets... you can explode whole packs with a single strike unleashing one of the juiciest "pops" in the game. IB converts 50% of physical damage into fire and scales with fire/elemental damage as well which makes it have synergy with the Chieftain sub class. A unique to mention with IB is Kitavas Feast which is a big hitting 2H weapon that supports Sockrted skill with Melee splash and causes minions to explode for a certain % of their HP, creating natural synergy with IB. The main weakness of IB is the low single target damage but the pro is being able to explode packs one single hit. IB is one of the few skills to be usable as Unarmed making it a great Facebreaker build as well.
Heavy Strike: Heavy Strike is a niche but hard hitting strike skill. Unlike Dual Strike it can be used with 2h weapons for slower but harder hitting single hits. The unique property of Heavy Strike is that it reduces enemy threshold for stun, making it one of the skills in the game that can reliably stun even the strongest bosses in the game. Combine with other sources of reduce enemy stun threshold, high physical single hits and a unique like Tidebringer for further stunning potential. Map clearing with HS is very weak and relies on Haemophillia gloves, Melee Splash and Ancestral Call to do pack clears.
Glacial Hammer: Glacial Hammer is a single hitting strike that converts physical to cold damage. Can only be used with a a Mace or Staff. If the enemy is frozen and is on less than a 3rd life then will shatter and die. This gives Glacial Hammer a method to cull enemies if they can be reliably frozen. Luckily with the new patch, every 3rd hit of Glacial Hammer deals insane amount of damage for the freeze threshold allowing you to freeze even tough bosses. The build around of Glacial Hammer is a bit tricky as the cold conversion nodes are on the Ranger side of the tree where as the Mace/Staff nodes are on the left side of the tree. Glacial Hammer synergizes well with the Inquisitor ascendancy and especially well with the unique Frostbreath which doubles your damage against chilled targets. With Ancestral Call and Herald of Ice you can achieve sufficient map clear. Using Winter Burial you can not only perform a cold based melee splash but also Cold your remaining physical damage into cold damage.
Smite: A faster but smaller Lightning based strike that comes with a built in aura effect and also deals damage in an area after the strije. Smite is mostly uses for Holy minion based builds where you can buff up your allies with damage using Smite. While the damage isnt bad on Smite, the area of effect leaves something to be desired but with Ancestral Call you can get very good coverage. Because this skill is Lightning based, it can be paired with Impulsa chest for insane coverage. Solid option for Inquisitors.
Puncture and Viper Strike:
Decided to group these together because they are DoT (damage over time) based strike attacks. Puncture applies heavy bleed while Viper Strike applies heavy poison and chaos damage. Viper also converts physical damage to Chaos with some flat Chaos damage. While you can achieve high values of DoTs with both of them, the values don't really compare to the ones dished out by other melee skills as hits. GGG still has to do a pass over Poison and Bleed mechanics so until then these skills are just somethinf you use while leveling until you get to stronger skills with more versatility. However, Melee Splash and Ancestral Call can spread poison in a pack which can be good with Herald of Agony builds if you want to go that route.
"ARC" MELEE SKILLS
Arc melee skills are in between Strike skills and Slam skills. They have higher AOE than Strike skills but tend to have lower single target. They are however outmatched in AOE by slam attacks which tend to hit in a bigger area but are faster than slams. Exception is Sweep which even though animated like an Arc attack (as in directional damage), it hits in a 360 degree and hits very hard in a single hit. These skills tend to be usable by sword attacks where as slam attacks tend to require Maces and Axes. All of the Arc skills work EXTREMELY well with the Blood and Sand auras/stances so definitely work those in to the build.
Bladestorm: Bladestorm is the first of the Blood and Sand skills. Bladestorm does an arcing 360 degree slash but in a smaller AOE creating Blood or Sand storms that amplify your actions if you are standing in them. Sand form is clear speed based while Blood is single target based. 360 degree skills scale very well with AOE and while the damage on it might not be all that much the combination of its speed, scalability and storms can lead to an interesting playstyle.
Cleave: Cleave is the protypical Arc melee attack. It does decent damage for an AOE attack but neither its damage not AOE is remarkable... until you get its threshold jewel. With it you gain essentially permanently Fortify, freeing up a gem slot but also increased Radius on attacks as opposed to simple increased AOE. This is a massive buff to Cleave as it can do solid damage in a good AOE which makes it a mandatory jewel for Cleave builds. If you like a defensive skills with balanced AOE and damage then definitely try this out.
Lacerate: Lacerate is like the double strike version of the arc skills. It launches two arced AOE as it were a projectile but it's NOT a projectile. The AOEs can overlap based on proximity to the enemy and Lacerate gains bonuses against bleeding targets. This makes Lacerate a very balanced and all around melee skill. Lacerate is uniquely amplified by the Blood and Sand archetype which changes the behaviour of the arc. The notable one is the sand form which alters the angle of Lacerate so that it covers a wider area in front of the player. Unlike Double Strike though there is no Vaal version of Lacerate but Vaal Double Strike will work fine as a 4 link to aid in single target (like most of the skills in here).
Reave: Reave has a similar arc playstyle to Cleave but with each hit Reave gains stages up to 4 which increases its radius and AOE. With Vaal Reave, the maximum stages go up to 8 resulting in HUGE arcs with minimal investment. While Reave does not hit as hard as other melee skills, its speed and high coverage makes it a great mapping melee skill. Reave is often paired with a high single melee target skill for gem swaps.
Sweep: Sweep is a larger but slower arc, usable with 2Hs. It hits very hard with a ton of damage effectiveness and the circle arc makes it scale very well with AOE. Further more Sweep has a unique ability of knocking back enemies away on all hits making it a great defensive skill as well. Also synergizes very well with Blood and Sand stances. Using a unique glove that reverses knock backs, you can actually use Sweep to pull in enemies!
"SLAM" MELEE SKILLS
Slam skills are powerful single hits that hit the ground for big damage but at slower than normal speeds. They also hit in a circle usually which allows them to scale very well with AOE and radius.
Consecrated Path: Consecrated Path converts 50% of your phyiscal damage, creates consecrated ground on use, moves you toward the target with a dash if away from then and does more damage at close range. This is a strong multi purpose skill with fire scaling and the consecration ground makes it synergize well with regeneration builds. Conc Slam pairs very well with Marauder Endurance charge stacking builds which also happen to stack fire damage and regeneration, someone like Chieftain and Juggernaut. Items like Xophs Blood are huge for Conc Slam.
Earthquake: Earthquake has an initial hit that creates a second shockwave which deals the main brunt of the damage. EQ hits very hard and in a large AOE but has a delay to it making it clunky to use if you dont link it with Less Duration support gem. However with investment you can clear the entire screen with a single EQ with AOE investment and Pulverize support gem (which you can also get now on the Marohi Erqi unique weapon). The high single hit also makes it strong for bleeds. Vaal EQ creates mini shockwaves around you as you run. This has awkward synergy with EQ as you generally want to be Leap Slamming in between packs, not running. I would rather use Vaal Ancestral Warchief as my dedicated Vaal skill with EQ.
Ground Slam: Ground Slam creates spikes on the ground in a conal area. The cone can be widened with the Ground Slam threshold jewel for more coverage. GS does more damage against enemies at closer range and reduces enemy threshold making it a good candidate for stun builds. While the AOE and damage on GS isnt all that spectacular compared to other slam builds... GS has one of the best Vaal variants. It creates a massive 360 screen covering slam that has further stun threshold reduction making it something you can pull out in a pinch to wipe out waves or even stun bosses!
Ice Crash: Ice Crash is like the Cold version of Consecrated Slam but without the Consecrated Ground effect or the movement option. It hits in 3 waves doing good damage in close encounters and against stationary targets. With high cold damage investment you can attain reliable freezes on enemies with good AOE coverage. Conversion is awkward and needs a unique like Hrimsorrow.
Perforate: This is a very unique slam skill. It has two very different forms of slam based on which blood/Sand stance you are in. Blood stance causes a slam that causes 4 spikes to appear than can overlap in an area, great for single target. In sand form, you create multiple vertical slams around you in a star shape pattern for more coverage at the cost of single taeget damage. Overlapping AOE is always strong to have and this skill has a very defined single target vs aoe set up. This is an interesting type of aoe melee coverage for people who want something different from their usual AOE skills.
Tektonic Slam: Tektonic Slam is the longer brother of Consecrated Slam. It has more vertical reach and has a chance to consume Endurance charges for a bigger and stronger slam that covers nearly the whole screen. While baseline Tektonic Slam isnt absurdly strong, with Endurance charge investment it becomes one of the best melee skills. Juggernaut and Chieftain are great options but Scion can reasonable compete as well. Please note that using Multistrike will consume 3 times potential per attack but for Chieftains Endurance charge generation it still counts as only one use if the skill meaning using MS will be a net loss of Endurance charges for you. Tektonic Slam is another skill that can be used as Unarmed.
Sunder: Sunder used to be a great starter but has fallen as of late. With recent buffs and restoration of its vertical range, it again becomes a viable option for slam builds who want a little more range. Sunder scales very well with area damage because it creates mini shockwaves even at cost of area effect. The mini shockwaves allow Sunder to have solid clear and people pair up Multistrike to get wider coverage at a faster speed.
"ADDED PROJECTILES" SKILLS
These are attack based skills that scale off of melee weapons and have attacks off of them but have more of a focus on projectiles. Some of them aren't even melee but use similar support gems and uniques so might as well cover them as well.
Frost Blades: Frost Blade is one of the best clearing skills in the game. It has a fairly ranged initial strike which causes projectiles to appear in a fan behind the enemy. When paired with Ancestral Call, Herald of Ice, Multistrike and Chain from Touch of Anguish unique claws you csn gain off screening clearing potential. Frost Blade with generic cold and elemental damage as your want to scale up both the initial melee hit and the projectile hits afterward even though an enemy thay is hit by the melee attack cant be hit by the projectiles if in a 1 on 1 situation. Make sure you use the Frost blade Threshold jewels to get high cold penetration values for good single target which is where Frost Blade lacks in.
Lancing Steel: Lancing Steel is a long ranged projectile skill that scales off of your melee weapons. It is also an impale focused skill which is a very powerful mechanic in 3.7 if going pure physical damage. Lancing Steel projectiles can also hit a single target at further ranges which makes something like Beltimbers an excellent unique choice for it because they provide projectile bonuses and Far Shot. Pierce + Chain and Haemophillia can provide good map clearing. A solid skill if you like to play a long ranged game but want to scale physical off of your melee weapons.
Lightning Strike: Lightning Strike is very similar to Frost Blades in that it is a melee strike with a projectile portion behind it with a fan like pattern. Main difference is that Lightning Strike projectiles can come out without striking a target meaning you can scale completely lightning and projectile damage. However the damage effectiveness of LS projectiles are lower than normal but paired with Ancestral call you can get juice projectile over laps. LS has a nice Vaal skill for single target aid which it needs. It goes without saying that Impulsa and chaining + pierce is insane with LA for some absurd clear capacity.
Molten Strike: MS has historically been one of the most melee powerful skills in PoE. It provides potential for a ton of projectile generation due to Ancestral Call and high attack speeds plus sources of + projectiles. The projectiles fall on to an area and can AOE overlap for big sustained damage. Since there are many projectiles that means there are many hits which makes this perfect for on hit effects like life gain on hit to make a Tammy character or even be used to stack poison for Herald of Agony. The versatility on this skill is very high and synergies with keystones like Point Blank and Iron Grip. Grelwood Shank is a great unique for Molten Strike but players tend to use MS for essentially instant leech from life gain on hit sources so its paired with dual Nebulochs for insane tankyness. You can even pair with nghamu axe to further fuel your ball generation!
Shattering Steel: Shattering Steel is like the "shotgun" version of the machine gun playstyle of Lancing Steel. Both of these skills are projectiles that scale physical damage and impale but Shattering Steel is closer ranged. The small travel distance of the projectiles can be exploited with both Far Shot and Point Blank. Further more by using Fork you can achieve one of the few ways to truly "shotgun" projectiles in the game. With stuff like Bleed explosions you can increase the coverage of the skill or other mechanics like Pierce/Chain. People underestimates this skill in the past but with superior impale support this skill could be a monster.
Spectral Throw: Spectral Throw tosses a version of your weapon as a projectile. ST always pierces but can't chain or fork. It synergies well with sources of + projectiles at the cost of single target. But changing its projectile speed you can control how far it can go. High speed means longer throws but slower ST means more over lap which is why a GMP and slower projectile support is common. ST is a good skill to toss sources of added damage on but has since been power creeped over and may not be able to hold up against the new Impale skills but it's a cool skill to try and play, surprisingly smooth. An interesting Vaal skill as well.
Wild Strike: Wild Strike is a very fun skill that uses all 3 elements in a random pattern. With a melee attack you can throw out freeze pulse like attacks, Arc lighting spells and fiery explosions. While this can provide juicy coverage due to its coverage especially with Ancestral Call and Multistrike, its hard to scale as there are so many damage types. You have AOEs, projectiles and 3 different types of elements, and you don't know what will come next. So WS is scaled with generic elemental damage, penetration (Shroud of Lightnessess is an excellent and cheap 6link option) and crit. It also allows the use of the powerful Elemental Equilibrium keystone for a big damage boost. Good players can turns its versatility into a strength!
CHANNELING MELEE SKILLS
As the name suggests, these are channeling skills. Because if their high hit rate, they pair well with Cast on Crit and cast while channeling. Lots more support for channeling skill now so these skills may be seeing a lot more use.
Blade Flurry: Blade Flurry has historically been one of the most powerful single target melee skills in the game at the cost of having awkward use and AOE. It ramps up in damage while channeling and can be released for a big damage. Pairs very well with Impale or CoC/CwC set ups. If you want big boss damage DPS then definitely invest in this skill.
Charged Dash: A movement skill that moves whike channeling. Dishes out damage pulses while channeling. They have made this skill more controllable than in the past and its more usable for dodging mechanics. Its a fun but awkward skill to use at times so be wary before using it. It deals converted lightning damage.
Cyclone: An extremely versatile skill that is the cornerstone of most loot based ARPGs. While it comes with a movement speed penalty, it is still a skill that attacks while it moves and has very high hit rate making it great for mechanics like Impale and CoC/CwC. Its not uncommon to have a gem swap between Blade Flurry and Cyclone as Cyclone is great for map clearing and BF is great for single target... as long as you have sufficient movement speed. Cyclone also synergies very well with the Blood and Sand stances. Most builds around Cyclone are built with 2Hs like Starforge and Atziris Disfavour.
And last but not least....
Flicker Strike: Flicker is a weird teleport skill that attacks but has a cooldown. The cooldowns can be bypassed by consuming a Frenzy charge. Once you have full sustain on Frenzy charges you can chain constant Flicker Strikes and have am epilepsy looking at it. Flicker Strike has great mapping potential and mobility but awkward bossing. The Red Trail, Terminus Est, Golden Rule and Oro's Sacrifice are common Flicker based items and such it is not recommended as a build starter unless you use with Raider which has strong passive Frenzy charge sustain.
My Top 10 Melee Skills to look out for in 3.7:
10) Earthquake/Ice Crash
9) Cleave/Reave
8) Dual/Double Strike
7) Lacerate
6) Perforate
5) Tektonic Slam/Consecrated Path
4) Sweep
3) Flicker Strike
2) Blade Flurry
1) Cyclone
"STRIKE" MELEE SKILLS
Strike melee skills are the protypical "melee" skills (previously referred to as "numlock" skills). They have you come up to the opponent up close and personal to strike them. Strike skills don't have an AOE tag and thus cant be scaled that way. They are prime candidates for Ancestral Call support as well Melee Splash and Haemophillia for map clear. However, what they lack in clear they can make in other ways like enemy control and/or high single target. They also benefit heavily from weapon range as it increases their conal attack and allow you to hit multiple enemies at once despite being strike skills.
Dual Strike: Dual Strike and Double Strike are very similar skills and can be scaled in very similar ways (in fact if you gem swap them in your 6 link, they will both perform well with no severe DPS/effectiveness loss). Dual Strike has you hitting enemies simultaneously with both weapons and this gives it a unique property. By guaranteeing hits from both weapons you can exploit effects of both weapons at same time... like Blood Seeker which gives you instant leech. Dual Strike alsp comes with insanely high damage bonuses especially against targets on full life, like one of the Assassin Ascendancy nodes... making it an ideal candidate for Crit builds. If you like big single target damage with big grits and you are ok with losing some map clear then this is the skill for you. Dual Strike has a VERY powerful unique threshold jewel that gives it in build pseudo melee splash and chance to do double damage. This is a MANDATORY item for any Dual Strike build as it allows you to forego having Melee Splash in your 6 link and instead just get an Ancestral Call/Ruthless gem swap combo. Dual Strike must be dual wielded.
Double Strike: Double Strike is the faster cousin of Dual Strike. Double Strike lacks the high damage of Dual Strike but makes it up by being faster, having better in built side cleave from weapon range, better support for bleed and morr importantly doubles as a Vaal skills. Vaal Double Strike is one of the most powerful single target Vaal skills in the game even at just a 4 link but with a Double Strike main build you can also have a 6 link Vaal DS. For a brief period Double Strike becomes one of the highest DPS skills in the game with the aid of its Vaal gem. Despite being Double Strike in its name, its not restricted to dual wielding.
Dominating Blow: Dominating Blow is one of the most unique melee skills as it allows you to "dominate" enemies and assume a sort of pseudo summoner playstyle. It allows you to scale minion and aura for solid damage. Against rares and uniques, simply hitting them at intervals will summon minions for you so its not just an on kill effect. DB is more of a summoner build than a physical melee attack based build so I won't talk too much about here. But if you want something different then definitely check this one out. Lots of interesting uniques and Ascendancies like Guardian have solid support for DB.
Infernal Blow: IMO this is one of the most satisfying and fun skills in the game. Infernal Blow is a slow and not very damaging strike hit but it applies a status debuff on the enemy. Once the debuff expires, the enemy creates an explosion and the explosion is created by either hitting them a few time, let it expire after a timer or the enemy dies with the debuff on. Combined with Ancestral Call and melee splash which allow you to apply the rebuff on multiple targets... you can explode whole packs with a single strike unleashing one of the juiciest "pops" in the game. IB converts 50% of physical damage into fire and scales with fire/elemental damage as well which makes it have synergy with the Chieftain sub class. A unique to mention with IB is Kitavas Feast which is a big hitting 2H weapon that supports Sockrted skill with Melee splash and causes minions to explode for a certain % of their HP, creating natural synergy with IB. The main weakness of IB is the low single target damage but the pro is being able to explode packs one single hit. IB is one of the few skills to be usable as Unarmed making it a great Facebreaker build as well.
Heavy Strike: Heavy Strike is a niche but hard hitting strike skill. Unlike Dual Strike it can be used with 2h weapons for slower but harder hitting single hits. The unique property of Heavy Strike is that it reduces enemy threshold for stun, making it one of the skills in the game that can reliably stun even the strongest bosses in the game. Combine with other sources of reduce enemy stun threshold, high physical single hits and a unique like Tidebringer for further stunning potential. Map clearing with HS is very weak and relies on Haemophillia gloves, Melee Splash and Ancestral Call to do pack clears.
Glacial Hammer: Glacial Hammer is a single hitting strike that converts physical to cold damage. Can only be used with a a Mace or Staff. If the enemy is frozen and is on less than a 3rd life then will shatter and die. This gives Glacial Hammer a method to cull enemies if they can be reliably frozen. Luckily with the new patch, every 3rd hit of Glacial Hammer deals insane amount of damage for the freeze threshold allowing you to freeze even tough bosses. The build around of Glacial Hammer is a bit tricky as the cold conversion nodes are on the Ranger side of the tree where as the Mace/Staff nodes are on the left side of the tree. Glacial Hammer synergizes well with the Inquisitor ascendancy and especially well with the unique Frostbreath which doubles your damage against chilled targets. With Ancestral Call and Herald of Ice you can achieve sufficient map clear. Using Winter Burial you can not only perform a cold based melee splash but also Cold your remaining physical damage into cold damage.
Smite: A faster but smaller Lightning based strike that comes with a built in aura effect and also deals damage in an area after the strije. Smite is mostly uses for Holy minion based builds where you can buff up your allies with damage using Smite. While the damage isnt bad on Smite, the area of effect leaves something to be desired but with Ancestral Call you can get very good coverage. Because this skill is Lightning based, it can be paired with Impulsa chest for insane coverage. Solid option for Inquisitors.
Puncture and Viper Strike:
Decided to group these together because they are DoT (damage over time) based strike attacks. Puncture applies heavy bleed while Viper Strike applies heavy poison and chaos damage. Viper also converts physical damage to Chaos with some flat Chaos damage. While you can achieve high values of DoTs with both of them, the values don't really compare to the ones dished out by other melee skills as hits. GGG still has to do a pass over Poison and Bleed mechanics so until then these skills are just somethinf you use while leveling until you get to stronger skills with more versatility. However, Melee Splash and Ancestral Call can spread poison in a pack which can be good with Herald of Agony builds if you want to go that route.
"ARC" MELEE SKILLS
Arc melee skills are in between Strike skills and Slam skills. They have higher AOE than Strike skills but tend to have lower single target. They are however outmatched in AOE by slam attacks which tend to hit in a bigger area but are faster than slams. Exception is Sweep which even though animated like an Arc attack (as in directional damage), it hits in a 360 degree and hits very hard in a single hit. These skills tend to be usable by sword attacks where as slam attacks tend to require Maces and Axes. All of the Arc skills work EXTREMELY well with the Blood and Sand auras/stances so definitely work those in to the build.
Bladestorm: Bladestorm is the first of the Blood and Sand skills. Bladestorm does an arcing 360 degree slash but in a smaller AOE creating Blood or Sand storms that amplify your actions if you are standing in them. Sand form is clear speed based while Blood is single target based. 360 degree skills scale very well with AOE and while the damage on it might not be all that much the combination of its speed, scalability and storms can lead to an interesting playstyle.
Cleave: Cleave is the protypical Arc melee attack. It does decent damage for an AOE attack but neither its damage not AOE is remarkable... until you get its threshold jewel. With it you gain essentially permanently Fortify, freeing up a gem slot but also increased Radius on attacks as opposed to simple increased AOE. This is a massive buff to Cleave as it can do solid damage in a good AOE which makes it a mandatory jewel for Cleave builds. If you like a defensive skills with balanced AOE and damage then definitely try this out.
Lacerate: Lacerate is like the double strike version of the arc skills. It launches two arced AOE as it were a projectile but it's NOT a projectile. The AOEs can overlap based on proximity to the enemy and Lacerate gains bonuses against bleeding targets. This makes Lacerate a very balanced and all around melee skill. Lacerate is uniquely amplified by the Blood and Sand archetype which changes the behaviour of the arc. The notable one is the sand form which alters the angle of Lacerate so that it covers a wider area in front of the player. Unlike Double Strike though there is no Vaal version of Lacerate but Vaal Double Strike will work fine as a 4 link to aid in single target (like most of the skills in here).
Reave: Reave has a similar arc playstyle to Cleave but with each hit Reave gains stages up to 4 which increases its radius and AOE. With Vaal Reave, the maximum stages go up to 8 resulting in HUGE arcs with minimal investment. While Reave does not hit as hard as other melee skills, its speed and high coverage makes it a great mapping melee skill. Reave is often paired with a high single melee target skill for gem swaps.
Sweep: Sweep is a larger but slower arc, usable with 2Hs. It hits very hard with a ton of damage effectiveness and the circle arc makes it scale very well with AOE. Further more Sweep has a unique ability of knocking back enemies away on all hits making it a great defensive skill as well. Also synergizes very well with Blood and Sand stances. Using a unique glove that reverses knock backs, you can actually use Sweep to pull in enemies!
"SLAM" MELEE SKILLS
Slam skills are powerful single hits that hit the ground for big damage but at slower than normal speeds. They also hit in a circle usually which allows them to scale very well with AOE and radius.
Consecrated Path: Consecrated Path converts 50% of your phyiscal damage, creates consecrated ground on use, moves you toward the target with a dash if away from then and does more damage at close range. This is a strong multi purpose skill with fire scaling and the consecration ground makes it synergize well with regeneration builds. Conc Slam pairs very well with Marauder Endurance charge stacking builds which also happen to stack fire damage and regeneration, someone like Chieftain and Juggernaut. Items like Xophs Blood are huge for Conc Slam.
Earthquake: Earthquake has an initial hit that creates a second shockwave which deals the main brunt of the damage. EQ hits very hard and in a large AOE but has a delay to it making it clunky to use if you dont link it with Less Duration support gem. However with investment you can clear the entire screen with a single EQ with AOE investment and Pulverize support gem (which you can also get now on the Marohi Erqi unique weapon). The high single hit also makes it strong for bleeds. Vaal EQ creates mini shockwaves around you as you run. This has awkward synergy with EQ as you generally want to be Leap Slamming in between packs, not running. I would rather use Vaal Ancestral Warchief as my dedicated Vaal skill with EQ.
Ground Slam: Ground Slam creates spikes on the ground in a conal area. The cone can be widened with the Ground Slam threshold jewel for more coverage. GS does more damage against enemies at closer range and reduces enemy threshold making it a good candidate for stun builds. While the AOE and damage on GS isnt all that spectacular compared to other slam builds... GS has one of the best Vaal variants. It creates a massive 360 screen covering slam that has further stun threshold reduction making it something you can pull out in a pinch to wipe out waves or even stun bosses!
Ice Crash: Ice Crash is like the Cold version of Consecrated Slam but without the Consecrated Ground effect or the movement option. It hits in 3 waves doing good damage in close encounters and against stationary targets. With high cold damage investment you can attain reliable freezes on enemies with good AOE coverage. Conversion is awkward and needs a unique like Hrimsorrow.
Perforate: This is a very unique slam skill. It has two very different forms of slam based on which blood/Sand stance you are in. Blood stance causes a slam that causes 4 spikes to appear than can overlap in an area, great for single target. In sand form, you create multiple vertical slams around you in a star shape pattern for more coverage at the cost of single taeget damage. Overlapping AOE is always strong to have and this skill has a very defined single target vs aoe set up. This is an interesting type of aoe melee coverage for people who want something different from their usual AOE skills.
Tektonic Slam: Tektonic Slam is the longer brother of Consecrated Slam. It has more vertical reach and has a chance to consume Endurance charges for a bigger and stronger slam that covers nearly the whole screen. While baseline Tektonic Slam isnt absurdly strong, with Endurance charge investment it becomes one of the best melee skills. Juggernaut and Chieftain are great options but Scion can reasonable compete as well. Please note that using Multistrike will consume 3 times potential per attack but for Chieftains Endurance charge generation it still counts as only one use if the skill meaning using MS will be a net loss of Endurance charges for you. Tektonic Slam is another skill that can be used as Unarmed.
Sunder: Sunder used to be a great starter but has fallen as of late. With recent buffs and restoration of its vertical range, it again becomes a viable option for slam builds who want a little more range. Sunder scales very well with area damage because it creates mini shockwaves even at cost of area effect. The mini shockwaves allow Sunder to have solid clear and people pair up Multistrike to get wider coverage at a faster speed.
"ADDED PROJECTILES" SKILLS
These are attack based skills that scale off of melee weapons and have attacks off of them but have more of a focus on projectiles. Some of them aren't even melee but use similar support gems and uniques so might as well cover them as well.
Frost Blades: Frost Blade is one of the best clearing skills in the game. It has a fairly ranged initial strike which causes projectiles to appear in a fan behind the enemy. When paired with Ancestral Call, Herald of Ice, Multistrike and Chain from Touch of Anguish unique claws you csn gain off screening clearing potential. Frost Blade with generic cold and elemental damage as your want to scale up both the initial melee hit and the projectile hits afterward even though an enemy thay is hit by the melee attack cant be hit by the projectiles if in a 1 on 1 situation. Make sure you use the Frost blade Threshold jewels to get high cold penetration values for good single target which is where Frost Blade lacks in.
Lancing Steel: Lancing Steel is a long ranged projectile skill that scales off of your melee weapons. It is also an impale focused skill which is a very powerful mechanic in 3.7 if going pure physical damage. Lancing Steel projectiles can also hit a single target at further ranges which makes something like Beltimbers an excellent unique choice for it because they provide projectile bonuses and Far Shot. Pierce + Chain and Haemophillia can provide good map clearing. A solid skill if you like to play a long ranged game but want to scale physical off of your melee weapons.
Lightning Strike: Lightning Strike is very similar to Frost Blades in that it is a melee strike with a projectile portion behind it with a fan like pattern. Main difference is that Lightning Strike projectiles can come out without striking a target meaning you can scale completely lightning and projectile damage. However the damage effectiveness of LS projectiles are lower than normal but paired with Ancestral call you can get juice projectile over laps. LS has a nice Vaal skill for single target aid which it needs. It goes without saying that Impulsa and chaining + pierce is insane with LA for some absurd clear capacity.
Molten Strike: MS has historically been one of the most melee powerful skills in PoE. It provides potential for a ton of projectile generation due to Ancestral Call and high attack speeds plus sources of + projectiles. The projectiles fall on to an area and can AOE overlap for big sustained damage. Since there are many projectiles that means there are many hits which makes this perfect for on hit effects like life gain on hit to make a Tammy character or even be used to stack poison for Herald of Agony. The versatility on this skill is very high and synergies with keystones like Point Blank and Iron Grip. Grelwood Shank is a great unique for Molten Strike but players tend to use MS for essentially instant leech from life gain on hit sources so its paired with dual Nebulochs for insane tankyness. You can even pair with nghamu axe to further fuel your ball generation!
Shattering Steel: Shattering Steel is like the "shotgun" version of the machine gun playstyle of Lancing Steel. Both of these skills are projectiles that scale physical damage and impale but Shattering Steel is closer ranged. The small travel distance of the projectiles can be exploited with both Far Shot and Point Blank. Further more by using Fork you can achieve one of the few ways to truly "shotgun" projectiles in the game. With stuff like Bleed explosions you can increase the coverage of the skill or other mechanics like Pierce/Chain. People underestimates this skill in the past but with superior impale support this skill could be a monster.
Spectral Throw: Spectral Throw tosses a version of your weapon as a projectile. ST always pierces but can't chain or fork. It synergies well with sources of + projectiles at the cost of single target. But changing its projectile speed you can control how far it can go. High speed means longer throws but slower ST means more over lap which is why a GMP and slower projectile support is common. ST is a good skill to toss sources of added damage on but has since been power creeped over and may not be able to hold up against the new Impale skills but it's a cool skill to try and play, surprisingly smooth. An interesting Vaal skill as well.
Wild Strike: Wild Strike is a very fun skill that uses all 3 elements in a random pattern. With a melee attack you can throw out freeze pulse like attacks, Arc lighting spells and fiery explosions. While this can provide juicy coverage due to its coverage especially with Ancestral Call and Multistrike, its hard to scale as there are so many damage types. You have AOEs, projectiles and 3 different types of elements, and you don't know what will come next. So WS is scaled with generic elemental damage, penetration (Shroud of Lightnessess is an excellent and cheap 6link option) and crit. It also allows the use of the powerful Elemental Equilibrium keystone for a big damage boost. Good players can turns its versatility into a strength!
CHANNELING MELEE SKILLS
As the name suggests, these are channeling skills. Because if their high hit rate, they pair well with Cast on Crit and cast while channeling. Lots more support for channeling skill now so these skills may be seeing a lot more use.
Blade Flurry: Blade Flurry has historically been one of the most powerful single target melee skills in the game at the cost of having awkward use and AOE. It ramps up in damage while channeling and can be released for a big damage. Pairs very well with Impale or CoC/CwC set ups. If you want big boss damage DPS then definitely invest in this skill.
Charged Dash: A movement skill that moves whike channeling. Dishes out damage pulses while channeling. They have made this skill more controllable than in the past and its more usable for dodging mechanics. Its a fun but awkward skill to use at times so be wary before using it. It deals converted lightning damage.
Cyclone: An extremely versatile skill that is the cornerstone of most loot based ARPGs. While it comes with a movement speed penalty, it is still a skill that attacks while it moves and has very high hit rate making it great for mechanics like Impale and CoC/CwC. Its not uncommon to have a gem swap between Blade Flurry and Cyclone as Cyclone is great for map clearing and BF is great for single target... as long as you have sufficient movement speed. Cyclone also synergies very well with the Blood and Sand stances. Most builds around Cyclone are built with 2Hs like Starforge and Atziris Disfavour.
And last but not least....
Flicker Strike: Flicker is a weird teleport skill that attacks but has a cooldown. The cooldowns can be bypassed by consuming a Frenzy charge. Once you have full sustain on Frenzy charges you can chain constant Flicker Strikes and have am epilepsy looking at it. Flicker Strike has great mapping potential and mobility but awkward bossing. The Red Trail, Terminus Est, Golden Rule and Oro's Sacrifice are common Flicker based items and such it is not recommended as a build starter unless you use with Raider which has strong passive Frenzy charge sustain.
My Top 10 Melee Skills to look out for in 3.7:
10) Earthquake/Ice Crash
9) Cleave/Reave
8) Dual/Double Strike
7) Lacerate
6) Perforate
5) Tektonic Slam/Consecrated Path
4) Sweep
3) Flicker Strike
2) Blade Flurry
1) Cyclone
i just crunched the numbers, and the new talent tree actually increased my character's ES from 26k to 29k (thx GGG)
https://pastebin.com/Y5UhgPz6
but im going to shrink it from there a little (maybe 2.5k) and get a more armor (for molten shell) and leech to ES
https://pastebin.com/Y5UhgPz6
but im going to shrink it from there a little (maybe 2.5k) and get a more armor (for molten shell) and leech to ES
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After looking at the new tree the other day, I was pretty sure most CI characters wouldn't be affected negatively, except for Occultists, with the addition of the huge Int nodes and the Mana/ES nodes next to Mind Over Matter.
"Small mini guide"
Sure bro.
Kidding, very good overview. Do you ever stream? I wouldnt mind having you on my 2nd monitor on league launch.
I completely skipped over the new Shockwave support.
This is like Unleash for melee skills. Earthquake wants this for sure. Its a big multiplier for slow hits but not good for fast hits. Cool stuff I wonder what the AOE is on it.
And nah I dont stream, I don't play that much. I just play like a couple of builds on a league, kill Shaper/Elder and am usually done.
This is like Unleash for melee skills. Earthquake wants this for sure. Its a big multiplier for slow hits but not good for fast hits. Cool stuff I wonder what the AOE is on it.
And nah I dont stream, I don't play that much. I just play like a couple of builds on a league, kill Shaper/Elder and am usually done.
Spectral Shield Throw so bad even Dahbomb ignores it on his guide.
I dont know how good or bad Spectral Shield Throw is going to be and I have very limited experiences with it. You need someone like Octavian to really break down with a build and try it out.
I wouldn't league start with Spectral Shield Throw until other people have tested it. It also doesn't scale off of your weapon so its awkward to out into this particular skill list.
I played it in Beastiary.
It sucks. Dont bother with it, it really needs deep mechanical changes.
Rarely did any of my builds on my own, but going from the generic 2H Duelist posted in the last page I end up with this tree.
RT 2H (Sword) Lacerate/Double Strike Zerker
Decent or not ?
If the question 'why sword ?' comes up, I just want to play 2H and that Colossus Machete skin they released is something I want to play with :D
RT 2H (Sword) Lacerate/Double Strike Zerker
Decent or not ?
If the question 'why sword ?' comes up, I just want to play 2H and that Colossus Machete skin they released is something I want to play with :D
Some of the biggest hits in the game are 10K. IIRC thats the damage of Shaper Slam.just found out molten shell only goes up to 10,000 wtf lol
If you get hit close to the center you get much more since Atziri's flameblast has fire penetration.
Because Atziris attacks can lower your fire resistances and make you take more damage. 10K is Shaper Slam with capped resistance.
ah, ive been playing since 2012 and only vs'd them the one time heh
EDIT: erm, more like the end of 2013, i deff. started after 1.0
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Well if you want Tanky you probably don't want to go Berserker.
Tidebrraker Earthquake might be a think this league or there is always Double Nebuloch Conc Path/Molten Strike.
Jugg is pretty beefy. I guess it's not exciting because it didn't get a rework though.
This is the first league where I legit have no idea what I want to go with. I want to do something melee, that's all I know. Maybe Chieftain Concentrated Path? UGH, IT'S TOO MUCH
I wouldn't really expect to be able to do that. A lot of leveling fast is knowing the map layouts and being able to minimize the amount of time you spend in town. While it sounds basic its pretty challenging.
Thing I'm really excited about in this league is that there seems to be alot more variety in melee builds. It's going to make me actually make multiple characters this time around.
And by that I mean, tree and mechanics wise. You have rage, impale, different guard skills, stances, all this good shit that can be supported by the tree.
Melee before was always cookie-cutter for most skills. EQ, Sunder, Ice Crash etc.. would mostly all play the same with the same tree, barring ele conversion stuff.
And by that I mean, tree and mechanics wise. You have rage, impale, different guard skills, stances, all this good shit that can be supported by the tree.
Melee before was always cookie-cutter for most skills. EQ, Sunder, Ice Crash etc.. would mostly all play the same with the same tree, barring ele conversion stuff.