and has been for years now. The Searling Might transmuter for Fire Strike heavily favors ranged chars, with a higher crit dmg %, higher total dmg % than Searing strike. Then there is Brimstone, which doesnt even work for melee weapons.
Cadence, which has only 2 modifiers and lower total skillpoint investment cost than Fire Strike. Cadence does at least 2x as much damage for about 20 less total skillpoints. One can easily test this as a Commando by getting a common weapon, resetting devotion points, unequip all equipment except common weapon. Reset all skills except max Fire Strike and modifiers, and Cadence and modifiers. FS is pathetic in comparison to Cadence
Searing strike could get a 100% Weapon Dmg bonus and melee Fire Strike would still not compare to ranged FS or Cadence.
No wonder every melee build guide is a boring generic Cadence snoozefest.
Let me ask you a few questions that everyone else will likely also ask you: have you played a Melee Fire Strike character before making these statements and if so, can you show us your character (i.e. using grimtools character database).
Melee Fire Strike build variants (Fire, Lightning, Chaos etc.) have been made and posted to the forums and they all seem to do well so I doubt it is the skill.
Fire builds tends to have more procs and resist reduction.
All in all you cannot compare just a skill vs another. You gotta take the skill within builds in general.
Purifier melee fire builds are good if well made. Also the damage of brimston is added to your melee damage (flat amount) although you donāt have the AOE aspect of it.
Yes i have a melee firestrike sorc with about 400 hours on the character. I dont need help with the build, the skill needs a huge dmg boost for melee characters.
It is even worse if you include how OP the transmuter is for Cadence. Not only does it work for ranged and melee, it adds flat dmg and can do 100% conversion.
A grimtools link of your build would still be helpful though
Then there is Brimstone, which doesnt even work for melee weapons.
Factually wrong. The flat damage of Brimstone works with melee weapons. Only the splintering effect doesnāt work with melee weapons and it would make no sense if it did.
Also, Cadence is a single target damage skill, it has to deal more damage than Fire Strike. Fire Strike is more of an AOE skill.
Last, Arcanist SUCKS for melee Fire Strike (and melee overall in my opinion). The entire mastery does next to nothing for melee (only Reckless Power really and maybe IEE and Fabric of Reality) and itās clearly targeted for casters. Donāt start saying a skill is weak when you choose a subpar combo for that skill.
Iāll just call this a bullshit. First off, Cadence hits for tons every third hit, while Fire Strike deals each strike. Counting only Weapon Damage, 420% for Cadence and 152 for Fire Strike at max levels, not overcapped. You can modify FS for melee one hands by 5%, increase crit damage by 10% and pay 33% less mana for it, while for two hands you gain 18% increased damage and 15% crit damage.
Now comparison in damage dealing, letās say we use any two handed weapon, Cadence deals 420% of Weapon Damage every third hit, Fire strike hits for 538,08 every third hit. Fire strike, counting only WD, deals 118% more weapon damage than candence, thatās even more than an additional auto attack using no auto attack modifier. About Brimstone, it does apply to melee attacks, but it does not do the splash damage it does for ranged.
Overall, your statement is totally invalid. Cadence is way weaker than FS. Now you can count everything in the skill trees, like % physical/fire damage etc. Thereās no way Cadence will be any stronger than FS. They will eventually even out after you get the Cadence buff.
Cadence base damage:
182 physical, 424 bleeding over 2 secs and 112% increased physical damage, then a buff that doesnāt apply before the third hit, which gives 106 physical damage, 84 internal trauma over 2 secs and increases physical damage by 65% and internal trauma and bleeding by 74%. Cadenceās base damage equals to 385,84 physical damage and 424 bleeding.
Fire Strike base damage:
38 fire, 56% physical damage, 50% chance for 108 physical, 136 burn over 2, 70% chance for 136 lightning, 50% fire damage, 60 fire and 84 chaos. Total base damage is 147 fire damage, 50% chance for 168,48 physical, 70% chance for 136 lightning and 84 chaos. For a total of 231+204 (burn) ~ 535,48+204 (burn) (if youāre lucky and get the random procs on it).
So, overall, Cadence has better base damage, 809,84 (while FS has 739,48), but Fire Strike has way more WD (538.08 for FS, while 420 for Cadence).
Both skills are literally exactly the same in efficiency. Cadence is worse if you donāt have 100% damage conversion.
EDIT: Well, actually, Cadence is still weaker, since FSās base damage applies every hit, while Cadenceās every third. Also, I forgot to count the 18% increased damage in FS base damage. so the FS base damage would be 272,58+240,72 ~ 631,8664+240,72, for a total of 513,3 ~ 872,5864 base damage).
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65611
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67990
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64126
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67620
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48400
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69692
Hereās a handful of Melee Fire Strike builds posted since the expansion. They all do well enough to be used at endgame. Melee Fire Strike is fine currently.
It is even worse if you include how OP the transmuter is for Cadence. Not only does it work for ranged and melee, it adds flat dmg and can do 100% conversion.
Discord got a buff because almost no one used to use it. I have heard/read that it only applies to the Cadence proc only whereas replacers like Fire Strike/Savagery deal their added damage (Fire/Chaos or Lightning/Bleeding) on every hit so is somewhat balanced in that respect.
Iād say arcanist doesnāt suck for melee as long as you understand how to maximize the damage when using it! Hint : high OA 
It sucks when comparing to Occultist, Soldier and even Nightblade. The first has RR, heal, flat OA and attack speed. The second speaks for itself. And the third has WPS if you go dual wield (and it got major item boosts like Cinderplate belt).
Arcanist overall is a very subpar choice for melee Firestrike, only surpassed by Inquisitor.
I was talking generally speaking. For firestrike melee build i go Inquisitor
That said I made a good spellbreaker doing acid/poison damageā¦ damage wise itās really close from what iāve seen with witch hunter but you got more survivability with the arcanist on top on having mirror when you get your damage reflected hardcore!
Also iām currently making a dualwield melee lightning build as a Mage Hunter ( Arcanist/Inquisitor) and as of now at lvl 75 itās quite good!
Fire Strike is OK, but Demolisher is very weak class for attack build. Resist reduction is unrealiable, defences are unreliable, no āexclusive buffā, etc.
Yeah sure, says the one that has a Forcewave Witchblade that died several times. While my Forcewave Commando that hasnāt died once and killed overtuned Grava and Kuba in testing. Finished AOM without dying once with level 68/75 gear too when AoM used to be way worse than it is now.
Flashbang and Blast Shield allows me to quite comfortably facetank a majority of the content with not much issues. So this āunreliable defensesā is nonsense and just screams as someone who hasnāt actually played with Demolitionist.
Imo, Demolitionist as a class is just boring. Not saying itās weak, it has its potential and definitely has very reliable damage, but well, there isnāt much to hype about, as for me (I like Grenado, though).
Am i not allowed to make a build that isnt a meta flavor of the month?
THis char works fine. Your post and most of the posts here dont discuss what i bring up in the OP. Just āuse these other buildsā. My char does quite well at end game things, just doesnt keep up with Cadence. .It is why i posted the OP.
THank you this is very good.
Can you explain why Searing Might gets more dmg and crit bonus that Searing Strike?
THese builds are great. If i start a new sorc char ever might try one.
But you dont have a book tucked under your arm!
On a design level, I believe Cadence was made to be stronger than Fire Strike for single targets. It is counteracted by having a low or awkward AoE though whereas Fire Strike with Explosive Strike is more well-rounded and reliable in dealing with single targets and crowds.
My memory might be off but around 1.0.0.4 or 1.0.0.5, Fire Strikeās transmuter (at this point it only had one) was changed having itās investment increased from 1 point to 3 and values changed.
Around this time, I remember some people complaining that this heavily impacted 2-handed Fire Strike builds so Zantai proposed that a 2nd transmuter be added in and did so with the next hotfix.
In short, balance reasons.
All of these were taken from the Build Compendium VII so I canāt take the applause :rolleyes: That would go to the respective creators or just the community in general for developing and improving on each otherās work.
Fire Strike has a ton of flat damage everywhere that by default favors the faster attack speed of one-handed weapons and DW even moreso. Two-handed weapons need a bigger bonus to come up to par just like they have the Kraken constellation that would be ridiculous for DW.
This is a DW FS Fire Burn Sorceress (Arcanist / Demolitionist)
Even without several WPS like Nightblade, The Offensive Setup is Aggressive enough
And I already tested The Defensive Setup can take down Some Nemesis
You may try it if you have Sorceress / Sorcerer
Perhaps your opinion about Fire Strike will be change 