Basic Math - The Failure of Diablo Melee

[Elric of Grans]

I always hated melee classes: smart people use bows, in all games (even when archery sucks, like it does in most games). As such, I have next to no experience to relate with you on this. I just accepted what you had to say and was with you, until I read this:

Nevertheless, regular trash mobs are hitting me for 3k a pop. If I take as many as four hits, I'm already almost dead. (Four hits? Are you serious?)

Are you serious? My Demon Hunter is also in Act I/Normal. She is taking 1K damage per hit from trash and can take 18 of them before death, which is never even the slightest threat. Now, Elites are a completely different story (though I *did* tank an Electric/Mortar/Extra Health one earlier, because his melee damage was dramatically less than the Mortar damage). I cannot help but think you have made poor decisions equipment wise. I also have only used what I found or crafted, but it sounds as though my Demon Hunter can melee better than your Barbarian, and this can *only* be gear-based (especially when melee characters take 30% less damage than ranged ones *before* equipment is factored in).

I am *certainly* not going to disagree that there is a basic math failure at work, however. Take the Demon Hunter's Shadow Power Defensive Skill. 20% (or 30%, with a Rune) Life Leech. Sounds disgusting. Imagine a Diablo (1) spell that did that! In practice, utterly useless. Enemies hit so much harder than you do that you need a barrel load of health, which means my health:damage ratio is something like 30:1. 20% is such a small amount that you do not notice it. This comes down to a very basic math fail.

This is not just Blizzard, however. I have noticed most RPGs (especially Action RPGs) playing the `big number game', which has been on the rise since the Playstation allowed more than 999 HP It seems to play a psychological game where the average player does 14832324623804 damage at level one and feels like a total badarse, but anyone who gives it half a moment's thought realised they are still having to swing four times to kill a rat, so the big numbers are utterly meaningless.

EDIT:

If they are going to buff skills, they should remove the difficulty scaling on stuns and make melee snares much better. If you're able to control enemy movement you're able to fight on your own terms, which is imperative for melee characters.

I sooo agree with this. Stuns and Snares seem almost meaningless in Hell difficulty; I can imagine they must be completely meaningless in Inferno. Completely invalidating skills goes against their policy of allowing as many builds as possible to be viable.