Make Melee Great Again this 3.25!

:)

I don't know. Has Flicker Strike ever been bad? That always seemed like a viable skill in any patch. If I were to play more leagues it's a strong skill I would end up choosing.

Using the two tables in this link as a reference, https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Melee_skill ... there are 89 total skills. There may be some skill gem(s) missing just as an FYI idk.

I guess my question is - when would you want X,Y,Z skills to be strong and to feel strong? What is your expectation of "strong" in the video game. Where do people place the goalposts? Do you want the skill gem to be strong by itself or do you want the skill gem to require gear / char levels / cluster jewels / other?

I'll comment on a few that stood out, might be correct or a flawed opinion.

- You can league start Boneshatter. You can play endgame with Boneshatter.
- Some people might still play berserker Blade Flurry, but that comes with uniques like paradoxica and redblade banner.
- With serious investment one can play Cyclone but as a hit-based build not a week one league starter.
- Dual Strike of Ambidexterity has gained popularity.
- Earthshatter with warcries is a button intensive build for some players but I think a player can league start this and acquire all voidstones.

- Flicker will always be a thing for some players. People will still play it with investment.
- Frost Blades strength has always been mapping but can feel lame with single target, until you get a great weapon and other uniques.
- Glacial Hammer iirc received a nerf indirectly with the removal of the alt quality trauma support gem.
- Heavy Strike. Its a good goalpost skill gem for some players ... do you really want to play the game using Heavy Strike. Do you really want to defeat uber sirus using Heavy Strike.
- Ice Crash is niche but people will dump currency into an Ice Crash build.

- For Lacerate I never tried or played it so, idk what you think.
- I played Lightning Strike this patch. Great gem.
- Last patch Molten Strike and the transfigured gem were used in Valdo farming. Nimis grants this skill gem a lot of power with its built-in projectiles.
- Puncture not really seen as a melee skill but rather for bow-based bleed builds.
- Rage Vortex in my opinion, on zero gear does the highest damage. A player can and will destroy regular pinnacle bosses on a berserker Rage Vortex character.

- Smite is used on aura stacking and/or armour stacking characters.
- Sunder is a nice campaign skill. Probably need echoes of creation if you wish to continue playing a slam skill like Sunder.
- The transfigured gem for Volcanic Fissure I haven't played but iirc I've heard nice things about it.
- For Viper Strike, the poison tincture helped this skill significantly. It can be a pain to play.
- Lastly Frenzy, an old school build but if you have 10 frenzy charges or more its meaningful.

In order to be great again, did it not have to be great at some point in the past?

"

jack_aubrey wrote:

I don't know. Has Flicker Strike ever been bad? That always seemed like a viable skill in any patch. If I were to play more leagues it's a strong skill I would end up choosing.

I'd argue that flicker strike has always been bad :p

Well that determination was a step in the right direction for helping out melee finally!

Don't worry if your melee build was using determination there is already one change.

GGG: "we heard you guys hated bosses with overwhelm damage reduction destroying your armor so determination will now grant less armor."

I look forward to additional "improvements."

Make room for the "melee is great, you are bad" guys.

melee is fine as long as you don't play it...