Viability of melee characters on higher difficulties

[DaveO 88]

I've reached the Swamp in Gold with a decent Seraphim dual wielder. I've mastered Constitution and Armor Lore, but you do have to be careful there. I'm not looking to go beyond Gold unless I can figure out else I can do to mitigate the pain. I'm doing the Celestial Seraphim path due to the life leech set.

 

The skills I chose are below:

 

Tactics Lore - Around 1/2 of current character level

Armor Lore - Mastery

Dual Wield - Mastery(probably a mistake)

Constitution - Mastery

Celestial Magic Focus - 20 points

Celestial Magic Lore - Enough for mods on CAs I do use

Sword - only 1 point

Toughness - 1/4 of current character level

Spell Resistance - 1/4 of current character level

Exalted Warrior Focus - 20 points

 

 

I'm thinking that Toughness would have been a better mastery choice than Dual Wield since it has across the board damage mitigation.

 

I'm wondering if making Toughness the next mastery choice would do much to help on the higher difficulties.

[lujate 578]

My first HC Niob victory was with an Exalted Warrior only DW Seraphim. I went all Vit for stats. Here are the skills.

• Tactics Lore - 1st mastery
• Armor Lore - 2nd mastery
• DW - 1 pt only
• Sword Weapons - 1 pt only
• EWF - 4th mastery
• EP - 1pt only
• Toughness - 5th mastery
• Constitution - 3rd mastery
• Combat Reflexes
• Spell Resistance - 6th mastery (must have for Niob)

 

For gear, I used Endijian's Wings and the remainder of the Niokaste's set. For bosses, I used a 2H sword for LL%.

[claudius 104]

I played the Queen of Blades through platinum. There is a guide. It is similar to your build, but it has bargaining so it's not similiar. I feel dual wield at mastery is a good choice. Healing from Celestial can be awesome. Your build looks solid to me. seraphim can get a high toughness with armor/shoulders, toughness, and wings. That and healing should see you through.

[wolfie2kX 528]

I've reached the Swamp in Gold with a decent Seraphim dual wielder. I've mastered Constitution and Armor Lore, but you do have to be careful there. I'm not looking to go beyond Gold unless I can figure out else I can do to mitigate the pain. I'm doing the Celestial Seraphim path due to the life leech set.

 

The skills I chose are below:

 

Tactics Lore - Around 1/2 of current character level

Armor Lore - Mastery

Dual Wield - Mastery(probably a mistake)

Constitution - Mastery

Celestial Magic Focus - 20 points

Celestial Magic Lore - Enough for mods on CAs I do use

Sword - only 1 point

Toughness - 1/4 of current character level

Spell Resistance - 1/4 of current character level

Exalted Warrior Focus - 20 points

 

 

I'm thinking that Toughness would have been a better mastery choice than Dual Wield since it has across the board damage mitigation.

 

I'm wondering if making Toughness the next mastery choice would do much to help on the higher difficulties.

 

There's a couple of schools of thought on damage mitigation. Yes, you can go the route of Toughness, but, I don't see Dual Wield as entirely being a mistake.

 

Dual Wield lets you hit your opponents twice - and should you have any Chance for Dual Hit, 2 hits become 4. Throw in Pelting Strikes, and a DW Seraphim becomes Ancaria's answer to a Veg-O-Matic - she slices, she dices and makes thousands of julienne fries!

 

With the right weapons, DW is incredibly effective in damage mitigation - how? By eliminating your opponents quickly! The faster they become dead, the less opportunity they have to damage you.

 

It's sort of like Team Ferrari's strategy for the Formula 1 race today - Yes, we know the tires are crap and degrade quickly. Damn the proverbial torpedoes and full speed ahead! Ferrari won the race today because they didn't worry about tire conservation - They wear out - so be it. They came to race and Alonso won with Massa coming in 3rd.

 

The same should apply to a DW Seraphim - have a good set of blades, have all the life leach and Regen per Hit you can socketed, a good supply of healing pots, and just go in there and take the buggers down.

 

Granted, there are some enemies where that won't cut it quite so well, but for general mobs - it works very, very well.

Edited May 12, 2013 by wolfie2kX

[lujate 578]

IIRC, the DW mastery bonus only applies to left-click attacks.

[claudius 104]

Yes that's true, lujate. But mastery DW is still a good idea for attack speed and 'to hit'. You can socket 'to hit' but the DW mastery saves sockets.

[Ysne58 236]

I've found that I like wands plus pelting strikes. If she takes out all the melee, the rest of the hits are distance strikes.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Pelting strikes will give you an Area of Effect kill zone if you're using a non-ranged weapon... That means any sword, axe, club or wand will do that. Try it in any area with say, Kobolds - where you've got a small group of them and a Kobold Shaman in the area. Attack the small group and should there be anything leftover, the shaman will get hit as well.

 

I suggest the Kobolds merely because their shaman tends to stay back a bit and let the other minions attack up close and personal.

[lujate 578]

 

Yes that's true, lujate. But mastery DW is still a good idea for attack speed and 'to hit'. You can socket 'to hit' but the DW mastery saves sockets.

I believe it was Essjayehm that made the argument that weapon skills should be left at one hard point. I tried it and was sold. With a Niob level buff suit for BS and with DA, to-hit% and attack speed were never problems for me. Edited May 13, 2013 by lujate

[Ysne58 236]

But the only one of those that does a distance attack is the staff, after you get the staff skill. I like having the benefit of the ranged attack being added in with that skill.

[claudius 104]

What was DA again? I forgot. Is it the buff that lasts a certain duration and you keep up at all times? That would work.

Edited May 14, 2013 by claudius

[lujate 578]

Dashing Alacrity for movement and attack speed. IIRC, you could keep it up 100% of the time.