Melee is CONSISTENTLY worse than Ranged, something needs to change

After playing to level 90 on eight different character with eight different builds, the stark contrast between melee and ranged skills becomes so apparent it makes melee feel like an actual joke. I die TEN times more often playing melee builds than I do playing ranged builds, and the main reason for that is just how the game is designed. At range (half a screen away from enemy/pack), you are generally NEVER taking damage, especially with ES/EV builds. With melee, you are forced to get in range of the most dangerous mobs in the game, while being SIGNIFICANTLY slower than any ranged character, with no real payoff for doing so. Armour needs to be buffed in some way, either by making it have no movement speed penalty, or by making it have more damage reduction against big hits.

TLDR Ranged builds inherently always have more survivability than any melee/armour builds.

I've got an 89 Druid and an 81 Merc in 0.4 and I concur. I didn't really have damage issues as a Druid but even with max resistances and 75%+ armor dying happened way more on the Druid than Merc, and a lot of the time you can't even tell exactly what is killing you.

It's because Armour sucks not because melee doesn't worth it.
Armour works only if you have prety amount of Life. 2,5k is a joke.

its because ggg in their "wisdom" wants a make """darksouls"" where you cant be tanky despite you being able to chonk throught in said darksouls games.

Ranged can attack while moving avoiding deadly hits while melee constantly has to interrupt their attacks to avoid a slam at the last second.

Being closer also means it's harder to avoid the hit as boss slams have huge AOE while your dodge roll is super short.

It's 1000x more hard to play melee. And with 1 portal citadels, every melee death fells game wrecking.

The Vison! It's alive!

Nothing much will change unless they change their whole approach and make major overhauls. They'd prolly need another 2 years for that lol... not going to happen.

They're essentially recreating The same PoE1 issues by not commiting to their original design plans for PoE2.

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PayneK#3102 wrote:

Ranged can attack while moving avoiding deadly hits while melee constantly has to interrupt their attacks to avoid a slam at the last second.

Being closer also means it's harder to avoid the hit as boss slams have huge AOE while your dodge roll is super short.

It's 1000x more hard to play melee. And with 1 portal citadels, every melee death fells game wrecking.

The problem is not melee bro. The problem is that defences in POE2 are decorative element. I play RPGs since 1990 and this is the first game i want to play with naked char becouse either with Armour it has the same result. Death!

The only thing melee builds need is tankiness. Or should I say affordable tankiness. You can't fix melee otherwise. Even if you give them all the damage in the world they will still feel inferior to ranged.

Melee need to be noticeably tankier than ranged builds and then people (especially casuals) will start playing it for sheer fun and comfortability. Melee will always be less efficient at clearing maps and shit, but it will be an enjoyable process which is the only thing that really matters.

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Flying_Mage#3858 wrote:

Melee will always be less efficient at clearing maps and shit.

This is exactly why tankiness alone won't solve it. What they need to solve is that exact statement you mention here without compromising What melee is.