That’s true, but getting to mobs as a melee, especially when you don’t know where they are, is a different ballgame.
When I first started playing Last Epoch, I thought meteors raining from the sky was just zone design. It took me a minute to realize these were coming from mobs outside the realm of view.
And I play on 32:9 ultrawide.
Melee play style having a harder time is an age old problem in almost every game. No amount of reasonable tinkering can bridge the gap of distance. It’s like someone said, you naturally have more time to react when you are farther away. There are options to mitigate the problem, such as increased damage per distance traveled and there are mob types that does precisely that. But that doesn’t solve the problem of ranged classes just one shotting mobs before the mobs can react.
The problem that I’m seeing is everyone (including Kain who was more gentle and subtle about it) is telling you the problem doesn’t really surface until higher corruption levels, which you are not at. I always tell my kids to focus on what you can do and don’t get hung up on other people because in the end, you only truly have control over yourself, not the people around you. At this point you’ve given your feedback and people have told you to give more info on what’s going on because at your level, the problem isn’t so bad that it’s an inherent game balance problem but moreso a problem of your build or how you play.
Both things can be true - your build/play is not optimized and that melee classes have an inherent disadvantage built into them. At this point all you can do is focus on your build/play. Devs will tackle the melee problem which lets face it, they have been working on.
The problem is, in an ARPG, 99% of players won’t have fully optimal gear when they start farming for more optimal gear–if ever. So, this argument that my gear isn’t perfect, and that’s the problem, is a slippery slope fallacy. A constant goalpost in motion.
A completely irrelevant goalpost when my success rate far exceeds my failure rate.
I want to emphasize this because this seems to be the point everyone ignores.
If I told you I completed 10/10 EMs, at any difficulty, you wouldn’t question my gear or build whatsoever.
If I told you I completed 10/11 because, in the last echo, I got randomly one-shot by a mob hanging out off screen, you’d tell me my gear/build isn’t up to par and I need to wait 30 more hours to justify my feedback? That’s absurd.
Every response I’ve gotten here is just people constantly moving goalposts. It’s not a surprise, though, because I’ve seen these same responses on these forums for years.
Forums populated by a handful of people. Yes, a handful, because LE averaged maybe 2-3k concurrent players until last month. Very few of whom beta tested 1.0 or got to late endgame in previous iterations.
Anyways, I digress. The next problem is the fact Kain himself said melee is at a disadvantage compared to range. This was the core thesis of my argument. Full stop. Vindicated. Validated. Why are you still arguing this? Whatever.
Yes, he also said they don’t look at balance until 300C. However, this is leaving out a massive part of the grind between 100-299, which more people will experience than not. Many games have made this mistake before. There is currently a massive disparity in class representation. Just look at any leaderboard, poll, etc. And to say you’re not even looking at the literal barrier to endgame entry is a huge red flag. Not a qualifier of fact or perfection.
When it comes to builds, f we’re saying some builds won’t be viable, then I agree. That’s the other clearly stated element of my original thesis. However, less build diversity is not good for any game. Especially an ARPG. However, telling me its a gear or a build problem when I’m giving you reasonable information and facts that don’t align with this, all I see are credibility issues.
Many things can be true simultaneously and many things can also be untrue simultaneously. It’s also true that many people can be wrong about something even when they all agree.
Moreso why I don’t understand you then? No build should ever at any point be at 100%. My character isn’t at EMs and I still die occasionally, which seems to be your problem. If you’re getting one shot from a mile away that isn’t a melee versus ranged problem because ranged characters will die for the same reasons you do if you’re getting off screened. If anything, melee characters generally build more defense and more defensive options are available for melee characters. What one shots a melee character will one shot a ranged character. I can understand if you’re dying at close range from an untelegraphed attack. But ranged characters will also die from ranged attacks. No one is moving the goal post.
The problem people have with you is your holier than thou attitude and snarkiness. A lot of people were never snarky or attacked you, but you always seem to have a thorn on your side when replying. Instead of assuming people can’t read and that they’re always attacking you, try to understand what they’re saying or if they’re not understanding, maybe you’re not clear.
And I don’t think you understand Kain’s statement on 300c. Not that they’re just balancing around 300c, but that they’re balancing up to 300c. What holds true for 300c will hold true for anything below if it’s a matter of general balance.
You cannot make a general blanket statement about build balance based on your experience with one build on spellblade. It could be your particular build doesn’t work well, but as others have pointed out, there are other spellblade builds that push very well. If you’ve tried out every spellblade builds that are reasonably optimized and they all suck compared to other classes, then by all means your statement on build balance has some merit. But you don’t and that’s a clear fact.
Also, check out the build tier list by maxroll: Tier Lists Last Epoch - Last Epoch Maxroll.gg
Look at hardcore tier list, which prioritizes survivability over everything else. Most if not all the S tier builds are melee.
I’ll give you that spellblades are poorly represented in the tier lists and that is something EHG will have to figure out. It’s good to have perspective and these guys almost play LE for a living so they know their stuff. But also realize there are almost no games out there with perfect balance. There are always classes that fall behind whether due to changing meta or power creep.
If you’d read my original post and subsequent discussions, you’d understand not a bit of what you say is true. You are probably the 10th person to come into my feedback thread and act like they have the authority to tell me my opinion isn’t valid.
You’re welcome to exit the discussion anytime if you don’t like my “holier than thou attitude”, just like you were welcome to come in here spewing a bunch of nonsensical analogies about your kids. Such arrogance.
I don’t put much stock in tier lists, but I’ll bite. Please show me all the S tier melee builds on the corruption tier list.
No, wait, I’ll help you out:
Softcore Tier List:
Hydrahedron Runemaster
Bleed Warlock
Wraith Necromancer
Blast Rain Marksman
Plasma Orb Runemaster
Torment Warlock
Explosive Ballista Falconer
Ballista Falconer
Hardcore Tier List:
Frostbite Swarmblade Druid
Swipe Werebear Druid
Cold DoT Werebear Druid
Judgement Aura Paladin
Spark Charge Runemaster
Lightning Swarmblade Druid
Earthquake Werebear Druid
Bleed Hammerdin Paladin
Holy Trail Javelin Paladin
Druids and Paladins. Definitely not representative of all melee. Nor are these all exclusively melee builds. Hammers are ranged. So is Javelin.
I bet you don’t even know about the Healing Hands Paladins stacking ridiculous amounts of ward, hp, and damage. Exceptions are not the rule. Stop being ridiculous. More importantly, stop derailing feedback just because you want to be combative.
This right here explains why you aren’t really looking for any differing opinions and attract strong backlash. You might want to work on your toxicity.
You have no ownership over any thread, even if you started it. Just as you have your right to be a douchebag, we have the right to call you out on it. You have the right to ask us to leave and we have the right to ignore it. No one is telling you your opinion isn’t valid. What a lot of us are doing is disagreeing with you. Take it as you will. There may be arrogance in telling you what I tell my kids, but there’s also arrogance on your part with your nose up high and acting like you’re the only one who knows how to hold an argument. You’re the one being combative with everyone that disagrees with you. Take a good look at yourself. Pot calling the kettle black is a phrase made for people like you.
Your entire rant is about melee vs. ranged disparity. Here, I’ll even refresh your memory:
“It’s clear why the consensus is that melee sucks in LE. I spend all my time dodging telegraphs and get punished for attacking due to the constant barrage of stuns and AoE ability spam. It also doesn’t help that to continue gearing up, you really have to run EMs for the best loot. It simply makes no sense whatsoever to require the best gear in the game before starting the endgame gear grind.”
Tell me, is swarmblade melee or not? Swipe? S tier is also not the end all be all. There’s echo warpath, shadow daggers, and dancing strikes all there. In hardcore tier list. What are they? They’re all melee. They all require you to be up close and personal. Heck, some of them require to be closer to their targets than spellblade does. Hardcore requires survivability first and foremost. These builds all have one thing in common: they are built to take hits.
People are handling endgame well, melee or ranged. Apparently you are too. So it’s not my fault I can’t understand you bitching about this topic. You want to say spellblades are underpowered, sure I’ll give you that. But to say melee is the problem? Other people’s experiences say otherwise. Echoing what others are saying: get good.
And presenting comments out of context is a surefire way to both undermine your credibility and expose the fact you’re not here for anything constructive in the first place.
Neither are you. Get good. Thanks.
My melee swipe werebear - one of the tankiest I have ever played - I just did not die unless I was stupid and made a mistake
Right. Get good. Says the guy who provides a list of ranged classes to support his claims of melee dominance. You have provided nothing of value to the conversation, least of all, any argument that upends my original, or subsequent comments. You are a cliche of a human-being who deserves every bit of “holier than thou” attitude I am able to muster. Thanks.
Your words right back at you: learn to read. And I’ll be arrogant once more: I tell my kids learning to accept when you’re wrong is a path to improvement. Denial will get you nowhere except being ignorant your whole life. I’ll do society some good and give you that advice. Maybe someday it’ll hit you 
Let’s play a game. It’s called put up or shut up.
This isn’t even an optimized version of my build, but I bet it’d run circles around yours.
Your turn. Ante up or stfu.
You would be right at your place on reddit.
Haha looks like I hit a nerve. I will repeat what I said earlier: learn to read. I was very clear my character is not at endgame. For what it’s worth, I have a day job and have a side business with four kids. You can run around my level 70 falconer and level 30 paladin all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that you need to get good 
By the way, you can’t shut me up (a mod could though seeing as we’re both engaged in a flame war 
)
As a forum user with “level 2” trust, I hereby declare peace in this thread.
Hit a nerve? I think this is a pretty straight-forward way to assess your actual endgame melee knowledge and establish credibility.
But then again, I guess it’s easier to take a dump on others who are willing to put their ideas out there for you to casually shit on, or wait for someone else to post their build so you can sit back and nitpick while not offering up your own.
Frankly, your opinions mean nothing to me because you lack the actual conviction to learn, understand, or back them up.
Man I found a gold mine.