Melee is NOT underpowered. I would even go as far as to say it is slightly overpowered compared to magic. The simple fact is, that magic users have nothing in terms of actual 'DPT' (I suppose the best way to reshape DPS into a turnbased alternative :D). Mages can burst, buff, debuff and manipulate but they are hardly ever enough to single-handedly tear down a big HP pool - after a couple of turns their cooldowns are in the way and all you do is fire off overly costly single shots.
Melee is extremely powerful starting from level 1, gets ridiculous at level 7 and stays that way until cap. Man-At-Arms is one of the most useful skill lines in the game. So lets compare Man-At-Arms with your average magic user.
- Cure Wounds is unsurpassed as a level 1 spotheal, which becomes available through magic only through Water of Life and very expensive/demanding (statwise) spothealing at higher levels.
- Dust Devil is utter and total destruction in a 360 degree radius on a well designed and buffed Warrior. Add a slow effect, Bully, and Oath and you have a walking nuke. A Pyrokinetic mage has Explode as its AoE nuke, but this also damages allies and the mage itself making it far less useful apart from the significantly lower damage.
- Whirlwind builds upon Dust Devil with a higher damage cap and radius, while being on a separate cooldown. This allows for two AoE nukes in a single turn if planned correctly.
- Battering Ram is unsurpassed as an AoE knockdown. Knockdowns combined with Bully add 50% damage. Add in Oath and Melee Power Stance and you have a solid 125% damage increase for at least 1 full turn. It also serves as an escape and a 'taunt' of sorts through the knockdown. Magic users... have nothing that compares.
Should we really continue into the skillset offered past level 7? I will just mention Flurry to close this meaningless discussion, which is one of the highest single-target damagers in the game.
Oh, and did I mention the Bully talent? It's a musthave in my book.
Apart from the skill line itself, if you want something tanky pick up 1h/shield, if you want max damage go two-handed, but that would be pretty obvious stuff to me.
Last edited by Vayra; 09/07/14 05:53 PM.
