While buffing weapon damage is a step on the right direction , it must be done per a wep basis and not a straight blanked x% buff .
But Even with said buffs , Even talking out Ar and block chance off the picture , melee Will aleways be behind due to lack of real aOE .
Build in aOE (límited to weapons Range)into Niche skills must happen in order to truly lessen the huge caster vs melee gap.
in this game it’s not melee that’s the problem but ranged AOE.
why would anyone play a melee build (no matter how strong) when almost every ranged AOE build clears half the screen in just 2-3 seconds with no real mana cost ?
if you want to make melee viable you need to massively, MASSIVELY nerf aoe
Mostly because it’s fun. Also…barb, a melee class, is by far the best magic finder in the game.
all the barb can do is farm some specific, easy to access locations and hork the bodies to basically double the drops (and repeat the process at-nausea)
if you want to play the game like an automated slot machine then sure, the barb is great.
but my guess is that “normal” people want to just play the game, not turn it into a chore.
My ww barb can farm the whole game easily solo and up to p3 without switching the mf sc with maxdmg/ar charms. Until p5 it is as fast if not faster than my tesladin. In full games it indeed starts to fall behind, but if you target Pits, as I usually do in full mf games, it’s more than adequate.
yes, my bad, obviously melee is just fine in this game compare to magic aoe builds…
Don’t get me wrong…melee could definitely use a buff, but there are still more than viable melee builds, though they can be quite expensive in order to be competitive.
“viable” is something totally different.
thorns aura paladins are viable, they can finish the game just fine, but we all know that it’s not what we’re discussing here, we’re talking about “balance”
Indeed. But the solution is not nerfing casters, but buffing melee.
buffing melee will not solve anything.
even if you hit for 1 million dps, you still need to hit 1 to 3 monsters at a time, while a sorc clears the screen with 2-3 casts with half the gear.
The gap is big…can’t deny that. If you are focused on pure efficiency and clearing speed, melee falls behind bad behind casters.
You should definitely try playing a well geared WW barb or a Tesladin and you would feel a tad different. Especially for solo play.
I agree with Zaman, a well equipped baba with bis gear and enigma for tele ww, clears any area pretty quick, and is very enjoyable. (and you can stack 2-300 mf easy)
They also do ubers very well.
That does not mean melee does not deserve some attention,
What they need to do is add splash damage for melee, with different elements involved. Kind of like freezing arrow 
That would actually be pretty cool. Instead of having a mastery for each weapon type, they could make only one weapon mastery to encompass them all, keeping just throwing mastery separate and add some kind elemental masteries that offer you some kind of aoe/splash/cleave damage.
That would definitely close the gap to casters and also make all sunder charms useful on a barb depending on your element of choice.
and this is how you would do it, very good application!
come on devs help the melee chars out
Now I’m dreaming about a throw barb that could rival a Javazone and a WW/Frenzy barb that would make a tesladin blush. :))
Also they could buff in a similar way the shifting druid by allowing tp while morphed and maybe adding some kind of cleave/splash on Bear and wolf.
Paladin doesn’t need any more love. :))
I think improving weapon damage is a step in the right direction, but more can be done. The developers should Improve Itemization by also improving weapon durability, buffing superior weapons, continue improving sets, and completely overhaul uniques with tailor-made improvements. This would breathe new life into the game.
AM leaning more towards skills with aOE incorparated to them While being somewhat logical to the fantasy of the char…so
How come a dude/gal with súper human strength and a 2 meter blade cant swing it’s Big wep in an arc yo cleave it’s enemies ? (Cleave replaces the useless stun , 2h wep req)
What about vengeance exploding on hit in a 1 meter radius with each strike?
Bears and wolves : (same as barb) … etc etc .
The idea of slaping elemental damage to every 1 seems a bit off . With skills dedicated to aOE melee can choose to specialize on aOE or single target … wich imo is a Nice choice /cost .
But it still will be a big game changer hands down. I would like edeath along with other unique weapons receiving these same buffs. It’s hard enough to find a ethereal death cleaver as it is. So why not do these buffs?
I suppose we can increase the range of most the weapons by 1 except for daggers and wands maybe.
That’s why we need to make environments a little bit harder. Increased monster life and faster run/walk along with altered movements would be the key to boosting things up. There is always room for improvements.
this would be good except barb is probably the best mf build in game
rather nerf the casters a bit it’s easier
No reason to nerf any build now. This mess all started in patch 1.11 when the unique large charm made it’s debut. Now every build has these 2 unique charms to buff up all skills by 4, attributes by 20-40, and all resistances by 20-40. This was done before considering how much more powerful casters were going to be than melee characters. As I suggested make environments a little bit harder. It’s too late to go back on this.