ED's for melee

[Col Kurtz]

Hi ya'll!

One of my old pnp pals is back and I'm pretty sure it's his 1st character to get to Epic. Are players still using Sentinal/ Dreadnaught/ and Fury of the Wild ? he's just a 2 weapon swinging ranger- I should know which to tell him, but it's been years since I ran a melee in epic and destinies got that wacky update since then.

Thanks

 

[droid327]

The common wisdom for TWF melee now is Primal Avatar mantle for the damage procs. I like Exalted Angel mantle for melees as well, personally, especially if you're soloing - the auto-heal is enough to carry you in low-mid Reaper, and that frees you up to go more aggressive on offense than if you have to manually heal. Shadowdancer probably is a good main tree, you get support for Sneak Attacks, light armor, dodge, and debuff proc-chance-on-hits that TWF can make good use of. Crusader as a main tree is another good general melee-DPS option, especially once you get the "special imbue" in T5. Draconic splash can help with Lightning Imbue damage as well.

 

[Teh_Troll]

The common wisdom for TWF melee now is Primal Avatar mantle for the damage procs. I

In what parallel universe is this reality?

 

[droid327]

In what parallel universe is this reality?

Ok what mantle do you suggest for twf..?

 

[Edrein]

In what parallel universe is this reality?

Beats me. I assume they must be referring to some sort of TWF imbue build. The only melees running Primal for the mantle should be imbue builds that are maxing their dice.

 

[KylerrTheMajty]

Best ed for melee is Draconic but you need to tr first ?

 

[PyrotechRick]

One of my alts is a melee using Primal Avatar. The mantle damage procs with melee attacks as well as adding +3 imbue dice (with shared mantle) so it's not bad at all for melee. Maybe not top tier but not bad. It does lend itself to builds that max imbue dice though.

I have another Melee (Swashbuckler) that does very well with Fatesinger. I think that it really depends on your build and what kind of Melee you are. There are really only a few destinies that are no good for a melee character (Shiradi, Magus, maybe Draconic - unless you tr )

 

[axel15810]

I'd advise your friend to experiment. Run in one for a week, respec (costs a bit of platinum but not too bad) and try another, then another, etc. etc. It's the only way to really learn the destinies and what you prefer. There's several viable destiny options for melee depending on where/how you want your character to shine.

 

[Aebro Komatme]

My tempest main is using FotW for his main tree, using adrenaline for epic strike.

His secondary his LD, using Dread Mantle for his epic mantle.

His tertiary is SD, mainly cuz 75% threat reduction and permanent night shield. DD is nice to have too.

Is this an ideal setup? Probably not, but I’m often the last guy standing in R10s.

 

[Spook]

Ok what mantle do you suggest for twf..?

Ones that offer +1W

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

I'd second the suggestion of simply experimenting, including with the less obvious ones as secondary trees; sure it might not be the most effective numbers-wise, but having a bit of draconic for casting while raged & imbue dice plus primal avatar for the mantle procs & imbue dice plus shard storm with it's upgrades can be pretty fun on a barbarian.

 

[Arcanaverse]

End of the day, you can't really go too wrong and experimenting is certainly a good way to go. Lots of mixing and matching you can do.
Fury of the Wild is probably going to be one of the better way to start though for a ranger. Gives some CC, big damage and aids in recovery and all of the extra doublestrike will serve them well in their first time through epics.

On the Primal Avatar mantle being good for melee dps. Even without a focus on imbue (or even spell power), its pretty great. The high proc rate and low cool down with decent burst damage is excellent. Ranger can even cast some spells to proc as well unlocking the mantle's full potential. Combined with the other tools in the tree, its great for cruising through questing.

With all the different flavors, you're going to have a good time with it. I'd recommend trying it out to anyone.

 

[Teh_Troll]

Ones that offer +1W

This

 

[Teh_Troll]

. . . but I’m often the last guy standing in R10s.

Considering how drunk you were in raids last night I find that hard to believe

 

[Aebro Komatme]

Considering how drunk you were in raids last night I find that hard to believe

That was two nights ago.

I completely wasted Thirsty Thursday by drinking nothing but iced tea that did not originate on Long Island.

 

[Teth]

Mantle is going to be really dependant on the build you are using. For a twf ranger chances are youll be rocking ld + fotw + sd. Mantle wise ld is the most dps, but sd mantle with the conceal upgrade is very good for a ranger. Fotw mantle is rarely and should be rarely used as there are way better options both offensively and defensively.

 

[Col Kurtz]

interesting, thanks ya'll

melee needs some kind of healing
3rd)...so a splash with PA for cocoon used to be my choice
main)...with LD or Fury. Fury strikes were pretty OP back in the day but shone running solo more than in a party. Hard to build your strikes up when running with casters and such.
2nd)...Sentinel for obvious defense splash >but thats far better w a shield>maybe exalted for some more heal s and heal boosts ?

I haven't seen what a 1st life deals with, for many years,in Epic as far as unlocking destinies(we used to spin around the tree unlocking adjacent destinies)
...curious what he'll have available to use and how they get unlocked now, if it changed ?

 

[somenewnoob]

My tempest main is using FotW for his main tree, using adrenaline for epic strike.

His secondary his LD, using Dread Mantle for his epic mantle.

His tertiary is SD, mainly cuz 75% threat reduction and permanent night shield. DD is nice to have too.

Is this an ideal setup? Probably not, but I’m often the last guy standing in R10s.

This is close to what I do on my melee's. FOTW mostly, with adrenaline. LD for mantle (and 3 cores). But I go DC for the 3rd for the extra melee power in the cores (3).

 

[Aebro Komatme]

interesting, thanks ya'll

melee needs some kind of healing
3rd)...so a splash with PA for cocoon used to be my choice
main)...with LD or Fury. Fury strikes were pretty OP back in the day but shone running solo more than in a party. Hard to build your strikes up when running with casters and such.
2nd)...Sentinel for obvious defense splash >but thats far better w a shield>maybe exalted for some more heal s and heal boosts ?

I haven't seen what a 1st life deals with, for many years,in Epic as far as unlocking destinies(we used to spin around the tree unlocking adjacent destinies)
...curious what he'll have available to use and how they get unlocked now, if it changed ?

If you go far enough in the FotW tree, primal scream will give you a heal every 30 seconds. Out of reaper it hits me for just under 4k HP. With the recent changes to self healing they did to reaper, it still hits for a lot even in R10. That said my HAmp is 270 w/ affirmation lgs in my offhand.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

I played around a fair bit with my EDs on my THF barb. Eventually went full T5 LD including mantle and nearly full T4 Fury. Only got one point in SD right now but that's where I'll be adding for the goodies like SADs and evasion next.