Melee Patch 0.7.10

Feedback and Suggestions
1

:cry:

I’ve been working three different melee characters: a damage Forge G, a bleed Forge G, and a newer Defensive Paladin.

Specifically, I tested the paladin with the new changes. My Pal is a scepter and shield, level 46. Primarily defensive passives, say, 75% defensive, 25% other/offensive. Prepatch all good, nothing too easy, nothing too hard. Boss fights were a lot of running and lunging, even as a defensive tank. All of my resists were high in the 59-64% range. Physical was 63%.

Tested in Heoborea Forest. Had to run from a dog. Once I figured all my passives were reset, I spent the points up and retried. Okay, so not… bad… but very much not great. Every other fight against white-con mobs (normal) turned into an epic (oh my GAWD I’m about to die) fight. I’m having to run from combats as a tank as if they were pre-patch BOSS fights.

With all my passives respent, my Phys Resist is zero. Armor shows an apparently capped 30% + 3X Area Level = 35%. I can take a piece or two off and see no movement below 35% - so I must be capped. My gear is Tiered up to T3 range, some higher and fractured. Well, let’s just say I’m a PoE vet and I know how to not ruin a character through gear/build choices.

I’m having to run from packs of weenie trash mobs that number anything over 5. My armor has dropped so low and I know you’re classifying them separately now. But I only reduce 35% off my immense armor investment? Really? I now have zero Physical Resist? Not low, but ZERO. I’m stubbing my toes on branches in the terrain and getting damaged. Why am I wearing armor? My shield got nerfed? Why? It was hardly seeming to fulfill its purpose before the patch.

I know this is beta/EA. No problem. I don’t hate the game. But here’s my feedback: as a melee player/tank with weap and shield, this nerfage (insert Pepe face here) feels… bad man. Feels bad.

The good: my Fire and Lightning passives went from ~60 to max. (shrug)

Just my input. I did not try my level 50+s - I didn’t want to get depressed. I’ll let the dust settle for a week and probably delete all my melee characters and start over. Seems like maybe a mage would be better if I can’t be a tank. This really feels like PoE FOTM class-shifting, though. Ugh - bad taste in mouth.

Great game! I hope I can play a melee again, someday.

2

The cap for armour is 65% (I think, maybe 60). You’ll likely have to rework your gear to make it fit in with the new resists schema.

Block is now significantly more powerful, since it provides a separate defensive layer on top of armour and on top of resists. So you can get something like up to 60% DR on block, 75% from resists & 65% from armour. Plus any “proper” damage reduction (like the forge guard used to get before it was reworked).

Frailty will also help since that’s 18% damage reduction on the outgoing damage from mobs.

And block is even easier to get now with Shield Bash.

3 Likes
3

I feel like those that return to old characters without adjusting their gear for the new defenses will likely feel this way. Starting with a new character and building up your gear and defenses appropriately will produce a different result.

Armour is a significantly strong stat, block is still very strong, and slowly capping your resistances as you level will produce a strong Sentinel character. There are so many changes, and I imagine it will take time for people to adjust to them.

3 Likes
4
  • Kite Shields now grant 1200 to 1800 block effectiveness and 25% to 27% block chance (from 1000 to 2000 and 25% to 29%).
  • Solarum Shields now grant 600 to 1000 block effectiveness (from 600 to 1600).

These are not buffs, no matter which way it is spun. I understand the mechanics behind it changed and that was the point: I now have to run from normal white mobs as a heavy armor/shield tank. I cannot take hits from ranged mobs (what’s the shield for?). Shield usage did not get better, it got worse.

Of course, I can certainly adjust: the idea of a heavy tank using a shield and armor (passives and gear) won’t work like it used to. I get that. Unfortunately, for my particular build/reliance, these are not good changes. So… I’ll ditch the useless build and probably try a caster.

5

This is wrong. Context matters.

I don’t know your gear, but set affixes changed drastically. Look at them if you have any.

6

Yes they are, you’re comparing block effectiveness in the new world with the block effectiveness in the old world. In the new world, it’s a separate layer of defence which can get up to ~60-65%, previously it would have added another ~20% damage reduction on your protections. I’m using a kite shield on my Spellblade (no other sources of block & no block effectiveness on the shield) & getting 52% damage reduction @ lvl 69.

Which will give you more damage reduction? 20% or 52%?

This is a massive buff for shields.

3 Likes
7

Alright, I’ll take your word for it that I got buffed.

I am now dying to white ranged mobs that didn’t kill me before. My build got buffed to death. :joy:

8

What is your Glancing Blow now?

Itemization just changed. You basically have to re-gear.

9

He’s saying the mechanics got buffed, not your character.

As stated in the preview and as others already said: You need to rework your gear. If you do that you’ll see that everything is fine. The defense changes are HUGE. So your gear is not balanced now.

10

I had zero Glancing Blow before the patch: I was building towards outfitting my builds with it by saving shards.

I honestly can’t figure out what particular part of my build was effected by the mechanics changes, but my armor/shield build got royally wrecked - bad.

I already deleted that one and am going to test my bleed build, now.

11

I wasn’t trying anything tricky. Understand that I’m the PoE type player who won’t play non-melees because I hold out the hope that PoE eventually designs a workable melee class. :rofl:

That said, my armor/shield build in gear was specifically armor, block, and the particular resistances I needed. One or two pieces had melee speed. All of my pieces (except two uniques) were tailored (crafted). I’m not sure where I could focus on armor or blocking more than I already had as I am a straight and narrow melee builder with my melees. If it isn’t armor and shield, I don’t take it.

Exception: weapon was crafted for melee damage, not armor or blocking.

For whatever reason, the new armor and shield changes didn’t buff me, they hurt me. The only new changes I could make to my gear would be to move away from armor and blocking. So…

Anyway, off to test my bleed build…

12

Hey… Chipping in here to try and give you some hope.

Am playing lvl 95 VK Rive main build and its very obvious that the new changes brought in 7.10 has unbalanced my characters gear… even more so in the Monolith lvl 75+ maps. I am WAY over protected in resistances now (almost 350% with the new changes) but my armour/physical is far too low and the removal of GB (which I had maxed out) now means that I need some restatting to balance the build to compensate. I currently have to chug a potion far more often than previously so its very obvious to me that the gearing is messed up.

I dont use block at all so I cannot comment on that part of it, but I have a feeling its just different and things need a little tweaking…

On the plus side, its obvious to me that all my stacking of set affixes are no longer needed and I have space for much more and potentially different boosts… Damage does not seem to have been affected much so thats a good start, and the ‘spare’ affix space might also allow for more damage buffs…

Its different and yes, I too thought , WTF , but after messing around I realised the changes needed and while its going to be a headache respecing gear (thank god for the loot filter), I dont think its a huge trainsmash for melee focussed builds…

13

Further testing…

Clarification - specifically: the new “buffs” have destroyed my ability as armor and shield to withstand ranged attacks. Even the weakest ranged attack 2-shots me. And I was a face-tank…

Yes, player damage > monster feels, at the very least, just as good as it was before. No complaints. I had a Rive bleed build I’m looking at now. Just as good in damage as before. Dies in two hits to ranged whites.

I will be checking my gear. It just boggles me that my super-ridiculously-extra defensive build is apparently “not tanky” enough.

14

Felt the same initially… I had no problem facetanking almost everything but after a few maps I felt decidedly squishy on 7.10… until I realised how much the loss of GB and my lack of armour actually means in the new system.

Dont think its gonna be a problem though… just need to go farm slightly different gear affixes… :wink:

EDIT: Ranged is traditionally a facetanks kryptonite and I have always had trouble with them. Any deficiency in defence will always let the buggers nail you from afar… Best solution I have found to mitigate range arseholes is movement skills/buffs - get to them as fast as you can.

15

Definitely. I skill up Lunge on every melee I make. :sweat_smile:

Rive speed bleed feels great. At least as good as before. But the ranged deathshots are bad on him, too. SMH. I could withstand them before, though I always focused them down first anyway. I’ll have to find some mitigation for it somewhere in the new gear stuff. Armor and blocking don’t work against ranged on my old gear. Essentially melee-crippled until I can farm up whatever it needs.

16

As I (& others) have said, you need to rework your gear from scratch, make sure you’ve got balanced resists.

You could also post your skills & passives on here & we’ll give you some comments/advice.

Melee in general is not even slightly weak. I levelled a Paladin & it was fine defensively.

Edit: Though starting from scratch may help as then you can see all the nice new work they put in on the first few chapters (& maybe see some of the new uniques).

17

i m new to game and changed a lot my skill on my paladin, i had to up all my defense but lost a lot damage,so i took only buff skill with rive (third hit 100% crit with 10% leech) & bleed,2 first hit +50% speed, and global 77% speed melee hit , i ve a lot leech health, 73% block chance, 102% glancing blow, 98% crit def, all my resist 40-48%, armor 63%, and i only die in map from fire golem, even with fire resist 50% & 19% damage goes as phys from an idol, they hurt way too much, even in lader 25 i died XD (there was 3), i ve 0 ranged skill so is painfull to kill them, i ve try face tank with all my leech, untill biggest aoe killed me :confused:
about the little ranged pack, if you re busy with big hp mob, lunge to pack, fast kill and with leech it heal you then go back to hp bag, little melee mob coming i like cause they heal me :smiley:
idk how was game before i m here few days only :slight_smile: so maybe start over a new char as they say, i guess we ll get lot of changes as it is beta, when i see ladder, i think lich is a bit too much OP atm :stuck_out_tongue: , but i didnt try yet :wink:

THOSE STAT WERE PRE PATCH, i ve DL game full on windows because i didnt had update on steam, i m looking at it now, at lost lot phys def and gain too much elem, got to balance this :slight_smile:

18

The new patch looked interesting so I reinstalled and went straight to the lv100 VK.
After some quick farm and recrafting to patchwork and remake the tank I went with what to me looked like decently tanked yet more focused on deeps than what i had before, since i yelded and put crit everywhere i could:

1920×1080

Unfortunately the aoe spam and ground dots were still the same as before, maybe worse. At wave 50 the deeply feared kite galore was already starting to take shape. The void scorps were still bosses who decided where you had to stand

Waves later my valiant VK drowned in a barrage of poison pools by the small flower men plus that uniquitous fire juggernaut. It didn’t even make it to w100 when previously it did like w180? …

Or maybe i got too much used to play a real tank in a balanced game and didnt kite well enough with my melee char here in LE (seriously I still don’t get why facetank is a big nonooo but kitetank is left unchecked in LE)

I can stay to beta test for some more time, but don’t have much willingness and faith left, I don’t even have much strenght to whine about monster balance like i did in the previous patch :confused:

19

The good thing about all this, Zaen, is that the changes are part of the testing. If it doesn’t work out like they thought, they change it again - back or further, whichever.

Be of good cheer and look forward to testing these things - the game is not “done.”

20

I’m a die hard melee fanatic. Gonna mark this to come back and comment once I get some of the new stuff under my belt. Starting a brand new character to build it up and get a feel for these new changes.