Does HC melee have ANY advantages over ranged/spell?

Grim Dawn General Discussion
1

Hi all

I have a few mid level Hc guys

64 conjuror
68 BM
40 commando
60 druid
36 commando

All spells/ ranged.

And … a 27 Melee BM

http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-uVDwB2

And he seems to have big problems

health 5k
OA 681
DA 728

A. dps is average

B. He seems to take more damage than any of my ranged guys.

C. I have a feeling his resists will need to be higher than the ranged peeps.

Am I missing something here?

Using sacred strike as main attack
Devotions
Bat
Falcon
Dryad.

I know most games - ranged outdoes melee - I was hoping for a difference in GD as it’s such a great game.

Turnip

2

Hi! You are playing a “melee” character without any melee skill…

If you put 16/1/12 points in Cadence / Fighting Form / Deadly Momentum, you wil see quite a difference.

3

ok thanks for that - but isn’t sacred strike a melee skill?

4

Think you mean Blitz in this case and while yes it is, you have no combat skill and no AoE while it and Flash Freeze are on cooldown. :wink:

Edit… in the soldier tree you various options, Blade arc with transmuter to bypass cooldown, Forcewave same with transmuter, Cadence as KoalaeiO has mentioned, Markovians and or Zolhans both give an increasing % chance to be used instead of a normal attack.

With the arcanist tree you could use Iskandr’s elemental exchange to give your attacks more damage or PRM with or without IEE. PRM can get rather expensive in energy cost as you get further on

Edit 2… max your soldier skill bar as this is your best way of increasing your base health/energy and stats.

5

Oh well, no spammable* melee skill.

6

Lol…indeed and with both having approx 4 sec cooldown, could fire one every 2 seconds, but that’s a long time in GD as we all know. :wink:

Personally I find ranged in GD slow moving and melee has a much faster clear speed. :smiley:

7

I’m actually using Cal Tempest which is pretty strong and I’m clearing quickly, and I intend to max the soldier bar so in later levels I can choose one of the attacks described above: at the mo CT and sacred strike with shield charge is doing good clearing, but does poorly head to head with bosses.

It seems a skill like devastaion and TSS beat stuff on the soldier tree.

My TSS devestation druid brings bosses down more quickly.

It seems I take less damage as a caster with no shield than a melee guy with one.

I’m really interested how this guy progresses as I think he’ll be strong at around 60

I’m 31 at the mo.

TYVM for all feedback.
Most welcomed.

@Jaknet - is there one of your choices you prefer if I play with Cal Tempest?

8

This is encouraging … we shall see (if I don’t rip)

:slight_smile:

9

If you’re just looking at the soldier tree then for reliable single target boss damage Cadence would be my choice, but this was looking at your mastery bars and assuming (wrongly as ever :p) that you were concentrating on the Soldier for the melee, but if you’re going further in the Arcanist tree then as you say you have Devastation (I’ve not used it to be able to say how I think of it.)

Also if you’re going more for the Arcanist skills you might want to max that bar for the increased spirit gain…though for melee the Soldier bar is probably better for the Phys = more health and better armour.

Edit…

Try not to RIP, good luck. Regards the ranged/melee speed I was thinking more of ranged as in guns, etc as CT is more of a close AoE than a ranged attack, well that’s how I think of it anyway :wink:

10

Try not to RIP, good luck. Regards the ranged/melee speed I was thinking more or ranged guns etc as CT is more of a close AoE than a ranged attack, well that’s how I think of it anyway :wink:

11

>Does HC Melee have any advantages over ranged/spell?

Having lots of HP, armor and DA.

12

I think soldier need to be more TANKIE! It’s very awful compared to other players at begging of the game.

13

This is a necessity - not an advantage

Turnip