06-30-2003, 01:20 AM
It doesn't describe any melee class well, because none of them can neglect resists and at least one of the other defensive abilities. I haven't personally seen any zero resist, two-handed, low defense barbs that don't use BO in hell. At least not live ones. Barbs do have excellent, narrowly focused skill trees and the best multi-target physical damage melee attack in the game, plus a very good PI killer skill. Bloody foothills, with all the PI critters, isn't where you see them hanging out, though, because they don't have a good elemental multi-target attack skill.
Life leech does indeed cover a great many defensive sins, but not all. Spearazons, for example, do well against non-PIs by using a very good multi-target attack that is uninterruptible, combined with massive leech. [ And dodge, the best defensive skill in the game.] Their lack of a good elemental attack presents problems, but in the current version you know what areas to avoid. If the monster distribution is changed as promised in 1.10, and the melee classes that don't have good multi-target elemental attacks don't get them, the grunts are going to be in a world of hurt.
The main problem with defense rating is that the investment is too high for the returns, when there are other ways available that are cheaper. 75% shield block is a lot easier to get than the equivalent amount of DR -- which also explains why you see few melee chars using twp-handed weapons: because the melee chars are using shields as a necessary defensive ability. Which makes sense: much more efficient to have a small heavy shield and put it where you need it than to cover your whole body in armor plate.
Life leech does indeed cover a great many defensive sins, but not all. Spearazons, for example, do well against non-PIs by using a very good multi-target attack that is uninterruptible, combined with massive leech. [ And dodge, the best defensive skill in the game.] Their lack of a good elemental attack presents problems, but in the current version you know what areas to avoid. If the monster distribution is changed as promised in 1.10, and the melee classes that don't have good multi-target elemental attacks don't get them, the grunts are going to be in a world of hurt.
The main problem with defense rating is that the investment is too high for the returns, when there are other ways available that are cheaper. 75% shield block is a lot easier to get than the equivalent amount of DR -- which also explains why you see few melee chars using twp-handed weapons: because the melee chars are using shields as a necessary defensive ability. Which makes sense: much more efficient to have a small heavy shield and put it where you need it than to cover your whole body in armor plate.