Melee builds are the types of characters I enjoy playing in action role-playing titles. My first real Diablo II build was a Zealot, and this was the character that got me into playing melee characters within the game. I absolutely loved that whole fantasy of having someone with a sword and board. I wanted a character that can tank hordes of enemies, and being able to slice them down with haste.
The Zealot was the first character where I didn’t “brick” the build, and managed to take it to the hardest difficulty and that is where I truly learned how to build a decent character in Diablo II. Of course, I would also explore other melee build options because I loved playing the Zealot so much, and I wanted to explore other options.
Video credit: MarcusTheAbsolute.
What sold me on the Zealot build was it is an amazing class in the early game where initially, I used to think it was the best Paladin build I’ve played. Obviously, I was ignorant at the time, and my mind would completely change once I discovered the overpowered Hammerdin. I still remember watching Hammerdin players being able to solo high player count Chaos Sanctuary like it was nothing, and that’s where I was inspired to make a Hammerdin.
But the Zealot will forever be a character I have a big soft spot for because it was the character that gave me the full Diablo II experience. However, that doesn’t change the fact that melee builds in Diablo II desperately need a buff or a rework for future balance patches. Anyone who ever spent a good amount of time of playing melee and caster builds in Diablo II, should know how much the game is easier if you take the caster route.
The Caster vs Melee Experience
It’s important for me to mention that I started my first Paladin build as a Zealot and then I tried out Hammerdin. I still remember how brutal it can be to solo self found a melee character without any real help available. Finding a decent weapon is certainly an important thing for melee builds, and there’s no guaranteed way you can get one compared to the caster builds.
Some Holy Shock Action!
During at that time, I was not an experienced player, and I remembered I farmed random places hoping for a weapon upgrade. That’s because there is no such thing as a cookie cutter weapon like the Spirit sword that you can get for casters which will immediately give you a massive power boost throughout your Nightmare adventures. It’s even decent enough to be used in Hell difficulty too.
The Iron Maiden Days…
Keep in mind, I was playing Diablo II when the Oblivion Knights used to cast the dreaded Iron Maiden curse! I still have terrible memories of fighting monsters in the Chaos Sanctuary and the moment that curse went off, my character was instantly dead. The moment I made a Hammerdin, the Iron Maiden curse was no longer a threat to me, and it certainly made the area easier to play through. Basically, the leveling journey as a caster was significantly easier than a melee character from scratch. Even with Diablo II: Resurrected being out and releasing its exclusive balance patches, this is still the case.
Not only caster builds do have an easier time leveling from the low levels to the high ones, but they simply outperform melee builds in a lot of scenarios because of how consistent their damage is and they are good at density clearing. Even with the best damage set up you can give to your favorite melee character, it’s still not going to outperform against a high end Lightning Sorceress or a Javazon build.
Casters Are Simply Better
It may seem like there is no good reasons to make a melee character for either old Diablo II or Diablo II: Resurrected, but there are some certain advantages that melee builds do have over casters. First and foremost, they are great in the early stages of the game because casters tend to drink mana potions like crazy because of the lack of Insight or they’re not high level enough to have a decent amount of mana.
They’re also great for taking down the Pandemonium Event. Everyone who plays Diablo II religiously know how powerful Smiters are against that sort of content. I also found out that melee characters tend to be more durable compared to casters especially it is fairly easy to put on a lot of gear with high physical damage mitigation or having a lot of life steal to keep your characters alive even against some of the scariest boss packs.
One of the few weapons that gives you some sort of splash damage mechanic for melee characters.
But at the end of the day, casters are simply better in just the overall playing experience of Diablo II. They are not as gear dependent, and when they have their optimal gear, their power level is significantly higher than a melee character with high end equipment. Sure, there are some specialized builds like the Berserk Barbarian which is fantastic for magic finding and hunting down extremely rare items like Crown of Ages.
This build does have somewhat of a special advantage against like a Hammerdin, but the Hammerdin is still the superior class when it comes to just playing the overall content of Diablo II and simply feeling like an unstoppable force.
Melee builds just cannot compete against popular caster builds like the Hammerdin, and there has to be a change in the Diablo II meta world. No serious Diablo II player would ever want to start a melee build during a ladder reset and hunt down desirable items in the endgame. It’s always the casters that you want to start out with.
Fixing the Dilemma
There is definitely an issue for melee builds to put up against its own against casters. How can we improve upon them so they can be more desirable to use over casters? There are quite a bit of things I’d like to see Diablo II: Resurrected should address if Blizzard does plan on providing more balance updates for this game. The first and important thing is to simply remove physical immune mobs. The moment they do this, melee builds will instantly have an advantage over caster builds because they don’t have to deal with immunities.
Have you ever found an epic Rare weapon like this one?
There is the Bone Break Sundering Charm that allow this effect, but I personally wouldn’t use this because you become more vulnerable against physical damage, and damage reduction is an important stat to have for melee builds. I honestly think the Bone Break Sundering Charm should be reworked in something more akin to giving the player more Crushing Blow or Deadly Strike while taking a deduction on their Attack Rating instead.
Another big change is to remove the 50% physical resistance bonus for monsters in Hell difficulty. This will help out melee characters to do more damage overall, and it’ll certainly make them more fun to play on higher player count where the player doesn’t have to rely on the Decrepify or Amplify Damage curse to resolve the slower kill time.
Nerfing Grief Runeword
This one might be unsuspecting, but I believe a nerf to Grief has to happen. It is to allow melee builds to have more meaningful options. Grief is certainly one of the Runewords that does give melee characters a fighting chance because of how easy it is to obtain and how much of a power spike it can give to those types of builds. However, for the cost of a Lo Rune and it basically makes other Runewords like Death or Doom fairly obsolete. There needs to be some better balancing especially both Death and Doom are great weapons, but they’re way harder to obtain and craft, but they won’t come close to the raw physical damage of Grief.
Grief shouldn’t be nerfed down to the ground where it won’t be usable. It should still be a big chase item for those who love melee builds, but it shouldn’t be a weapon that can outclass many high end Unique weapons or Runewords like Breath of the Dying.
The flat damage modifier is simply the juiciest part of Grief.
As someone who’s been using melee builds for a long time and enjoy playing them, I hope to see them improve for Diablo II: Resurrected. I think it’ll be interesting to see veteran players having more incentive to play over a Zealot rather than a Sorceress, but as of right now, casters are definitely the superior builds. The only reason you would want to play a melee build is to mix things up or if you want a more challenging experience. Maybe, I will live long enough to see a Zealot being able to do full clear Chaos Sanctuary on players eight settings within five minutes in Hell difficulty.
As of right now, the future is unclear whether Blizzard will do some big gameplay balance changes to Diablo II: Resurrected. But if they ever want to come back to this beloved classic, I do hope melee builds will become better than ever. Slashing a monster to death will never get old in this game.
