In my sessions melee is boss, I mean battle master is so crazy in the damage it can dish out and take. If you have a cleric for heals, with the use of the sprint and menacing attack, you can pretty much wipe out anything. Rogue is also nice, but more squishy which is the way it is suppose to be. But again, with their sprint they can cross an entire area, and attack practically anything with impunity.
With Wizard, it basically seems the only 2 go to spells are magic missle and heat ray that hit consistantly and do damage. Frost ray seems to suck, as well as fire ball.
Even with Lae'zel, with her limited run range not using sprint, you can most of the time use jump which uses less stamina, then run the rest of the way to wack something with Menacing blow and tear them up, and that is not even including riposte.
So yeah, I have played both melee's this includes both battlemaster and Eldritch Knight, both are way better with better hit ratios than either mage or rangers in my experience.
Menacing attack is another broken mechanic. The frightened creature should not run away provoking an opportunity attack and should be fighting back, albeit with disadvantage. Running away from fear is the result of a more powerful action, like the Fear Spell (level 3 spell not available to us). Frightened creatures would have disadvantage to attack but that's it. Also, are you running behind monsters and attacking? That will create advantage (another broken mechanic). Try just attacking head on without going behind them. You should still win but I think you will notice a stark difference on how many times you hit.
Give your wizard a decent DEX and a crossbow full of fire arrows. Put the wizard at height advantage and watch monsters die. It's not just wizards. Any class can do this.
Jump/Disengage is also broken. It's supposed to be a full action but Larian in their great wisdom allows you do jump and attack. It used to be, you had to make a choice. Move long distances and forgo an attack or just attack. Now you can do both.
Just to give you an idea how broken this game is, I built a custom all ranger party. No wizards or clerics. I hardly had any magic healing (I think I had one ranger with cure wounds). I used Larian tactics to the fullest except for barrelmancy. Nothing could stop me. I was rarely in any danger. I entered every battle at full health due to healing food. I backstabbed, jumped and used height. I used special arrows and explosives. It was boring. The funny thing was, I could have done the same with any mix of the current classes. I'm not bragging. Anyone can do this. And that's why I am siding with those who are asking for some balance.
