Despite player buffs over the years, Melee is still stuck in the game's old design, while intentional and unintentional game design changes and recent fights actively punish you for playing this style. Casters, on the other hand, have a newer design, despite Drain Bolt being introduced a few years ago. However, unlike Melee, items like Primalist Claw have a newer design to them, and when combined with items and techs, the overall strength of caster or so Drain Bolt has skyrocketed to absurdity. Except for one thing near the end, I'm not going to mention Bipeds because that's a rabbit hole too big to account for, so I'll just refer to Dragons.

Melee was basically the meta for dragons for a long time for two reasons: one, Gold Rage had a 15 second cooldown even though it could miss, and two, Caster barely had any spells of worth. The only spells that dealt damage were Prime Bolt and the four AoE attacks. You could include Drulkar's Wrath and Volcano, but those attacks are always more for show than for power.

There has been a shift in the playerbase recently. Years ago, we were 75% melee and 25% casters; now, we're 95% caster and 5% melee. When you reach the second town in the game, it's difficult to persuade a player to play one playstyle over another. Melee must close the distance with the enemy at risk of being hit, whereas Casters can stand 30m away from the enemy and pelt them with Drain Bolt. If the enemy is melee, which most foes in this game are, the caster rotation for most fights is Primal Chains + Drain Bolt on repeat with little to no threat. Melee really doesn’t start to get rolling until Gold Rage gets higher in ranks relying on damage procs from things like Hunter’s Retribution.

How did we get this point you may ask?

Drain Bolt was initially released as a single spell with no ranks years ago. It was untechable and was mostly regarded as an improvement over Prime Bolt because it was superior in every way and was a quest reward. Later on, a formula was added to the first initial questline at Khemarius at Kirasanct as well. This allowed players to tech the final rank of Drain Bolt, greatly increasing its power. The questline has been reworked and now begins in Kion, making it even more accessible.

Casters over the years have received several buffs that paved the way for the meta we have now.
  1. The existence of new Primal spells is possibly the most necessary but less impactful buff. Primal Strike (Silver Strike), Primal Burst (Gold Rage), Primal Spark (Tail Whip?), and Primal Chains. Aside from Primal Strike's unusually close range and Primal Burst's behavior more akin to Ravage than Gold Rage, these spells are welcome and a nice parallel.
  2. Primal Chains, along with other roots, lose the "amount of x hits" and "damage" tags. This isn't important in Epic Bosses, but it allows players to fight mobs from a safe distance for the majority of the game.
  3. The cumulative amount of -Delay buffs. Drain Bolt had only Primal Alacrity (-25%) when it was first introduced, with the spell itself taking an average of 4.5 seconds to cast. Avaraldo's Potion of Alacrity (-10%), Key of New Rachival (-25%), Alyssa's Touch (-5% — -30%), Altered Stance (-5%), and Light Skala (-11%) are now available. Combine all of these buffs, and you'll have a spell that fires x4 as frequently as before, with a delay cap of 1 second. Furthermore, nothing can counteract it anymore because Sigil of Ascent effectively renders Delay debuffs obsolete. This, I believe, is the most powerful but indirect buff.


Furthermore, the enemies and Epic Bosses in this game have barely changed in strength to accommodate our newfound strength. This could be due to population decline, as I understand the bosses must still be killed and the vets will not be around forever. However, there is no new fight that challenges their newfound power; the only Epic that remains remotely a threat prepared is Reklar, and that is because he removes buffs, stuns frequently, and hits hard in general. Falgut's Phase attack used to be fairly powerful, but it was nerfed due to the playerbase's inability to adapt. Most Epics in this game can be AFK'd, Drain Bolted, and only looked at once to see if the mez from Paralyzing Gaze broke you out of your auto attack. I argue that Surtheim was changed so that he could no longer be AFK'd Drain Bolt and that you must now pay attention to the boss.

How drastic is the Damage and Sustain difference between the two playstyles?

To clarify, Damage is the amount of damage your character is expected to deal. Sustain refers to how long or well your character can survive a fight. Melee and Caster, in theory, should complement or be the inverse of each other. Melee, for example, may have the most damage but the worst sustain, whereas Caster may have the least damage but the best sustain. Unfortunately, the game now functions in such a way that Melee has the lowest damage and sustain. Drain Bolt effectively at Endgame being on a 1 second cast time with around 1000 damage means you get healed 450 Health every second and this is Casters' main source of Sustain, whereas Melee source is Drain Strike which is on a 45 second cooldown, heals 76% of the attack and is prone to missing. Valkor Blood Talon epic claw has always been good and is primarily used for "tanking" or to go source for Melee survivability. Unfortunately, it is now regarded as "bad" due to superior options and the disadvantage of being a DoT, which means it can only truly affect one person in the party. Other options, such as Ahala's Sweet Brew, can be used for both playstyles and are therefore not worth mentioning for comparison purposes.

Everyone who plays Istaria knows that it is never a stable game. However, bugs can ruin the experience, especially if they are combat-related. This game has a bug that I've dubbed the DoT bug. It's been in the game for months, with only band-aid fixes to keep the power from spiraling out of control (mostly for players than enemies).

Context for DoT bug

The DoT bug is a bug that effects every Direct damage DoT in the game. Some examples include Bite, Seeping Blight, Breath of Acid, etc. When the conditions are met, every tick of the direct DoT increases over time. Which makes a reasonable and decent DoT into something that unmanageable or broken depending on what side is receiving it.

As a result, Gold Rage was temporarily capped in order to keep the DoT bug from becoming too severe for players. This meant that Melee's hardest hitting ability, Gold Rage, received no % damage buffs from anything. I recently heard that this had been slightly lifted. Another example is bosses with built-in immunities, such as Queen's heart buff, which makes DoTs deal 0 damage, so Bite's damage can be ignored for the most part.

Furthermore, recent Melee nerfs fueled my motivation to write this post. The first was the unnecessary linking of cooldowns of certain abilities, which didn't bother me too much but was still pointless. The one that really puzzled me was Demon Claw being nerfed to provide a Shredded Armor cooldown. We're deep into the Caster Meta for dragons, and you choose to nerf Demon Claw now? When you had literally years to accomplish this?! I'm not going to argue that it was perhaps deserved because it rendered other armor debuffs useless, but don't do it when Melee is at its lowest point ever.

Furthermore, this is a trend I hadn't noticed but it applies to a lot of mobs, but few monsters and Epic Bosses have damage reduction to specifically only Melee in some cases. Do you want some old and some new examples? In Doom, Dwarves have an ability called Incorpeal Shift that reduces melee damage by 40%, while Mylocs' Greater and Lesser Spirit Shield only work against melee. Ignore Pain and Dwarven Toughness are only useful in melee combat. Falgut’s minions have a shield that disable certain elemental melee attacks (used to be all). Anchors have damage reduction (Shielding of the Cabal) against Melee and the Silvane’s Defiling Anchor HAS IT TWICE.

For the sake of comparison, I ran some setups on my dragon to see the difference between melee and caster. This isn't the best setup, but it's what you'd expect a dragon to have when fighting alone with random mobs.

Melee Damage in Melee Gear


Caster Damage in Melee Gear


Melee Damage in Caster Gear


Caster Damage in Caster Gear


Because gear is more important than TP, I switched gear setups during these tests. Using their best Epic Weapon, their stats range around 2k in Strength or Power. It goes without saying that the 500s from the melee setup tests are whenever Shredded Armor is produced. On both counts, it's perplexing that Melee does half as much damage as Caster with their best equipment setups. If you're wondering about the buffs, they're as follows: Conqueror/Primalist, +20 Melee/Caster Damage, Violet Flame Damage, Determination/Drulkar’s Focus, Drulkar's and Promote Vitality/Intellect. Keep in mind that Drain Bolt can be teched, whereas Melee must demote their claw to use techs.

So How to Fix This?

I understand that the developers are probably afraid of nerfing Casters because they have effectively created the second coming of the Gold Rage meta, and we saw what happened when they did. So, in order to avoid this, and because, as I previously stated, the powercrept of the players has risen above the challenge of the game to the point where we simply need a new challenging area and fights, I am going to make some melee buff suggestions.

  1. Buff Claw Mastery’s Base Damage
    Claw Mastery, I assume, is the passive that only affects Melee Damage, and it checks out relatively well in some numerical testing. During that testing, I discovered that Melee autos lose around 100+ tootip damage to be comparable to a Drain Bolt teched with Primalist Claw equipped. However, the values below Drain Bolt are unteched.

    Old: Current Claw Mastery values on Live
    New: New value through adjustment
    Drain Bolt Comparison: Drain Bolt Damage Tooltip relative the level
    New Adjusted Ranges: Ranges comparable to Drain Bolt without the “shared” ranges.


  2. Change Ethereal Claw To Have A Lifesteal Buff
    I'm aware that the combat preview has made Ethereal damage obsolete, so I propose giving Ethereal Claw a lifesteal effect to help Melee's sustain issue. Level 21 is a good starting point for gaining some survivability. I recommend a full 100% drain for 1 minute with a 2 minute cooldown, which you can then combine with Shield of Gold, which has a 1 minute uptime and a 1 minute downtime for defense. This only applies to melee attacks.
  3. Make Drain Strike AoE
    This could be by design, but Melee lacks true AoE damage. Tail Whip, the only Melee AoE, is a decently damaging stun attack. As a result, I propose making Drain Strike an AoE Drain attack. This can help with AoE damage and provide some sustain.
  4. Claw Strike Gives A %Dmg Damage Increase To Melee Attacks
    Claw Strike is mostly a forgettable ability, sometimes causing damage loss, according to what I've heard. To make it more interesting, I recommend giving it a 30 second or 1 minute buff that increases your melee damage by 10% or 20%, encouraging you to keep the buff up in order to dish out more damage. "Sharpened Claw" is the buff's name.


I'm hoping that at least some of these suggestions are implemented. Yes, Melee can complete all of the game's content and solo every epic boss (not counting the mechanical ones like Falgut). However, I'm not going to keep lying to myself and say it's in a good spot when I see the drastic shift in the playerbase and the only positive I can give melee is Gold Rage's Crippled debuff. I mentioned at the start that I was going to talk about one biped-specific item, the Boar Hide Mask. I understand that it causes your melee attacks to deal double damage, has a -15% delay, and has a Direct DoT. I hope Melee isn't "taxed" as a result of this obsolete item.. If it is, please stop and either ignore or delete it. Hopefully, some buffs will be added soon, and some players will be able to use this playstyle again, because I'm sick of seeing Dragons stand on their hind legs and hearing cast_spirit_01 + hold_spirit + release_srg_power from every group and almost every player.


Sincerely,

A very tired crimson dragon