Basic Math - The Failure of Diablo Melee

[Sirian]

I pinned most of my hope for Diablo 3 on the talent, experience and skill of Blizzard designers -- with the lessons of Diablo 1 and 2 on hand, plus their successes with World of Warcraft, where melee is eminently viable.

Well the verdict is in, and the grade? Fail.

UPDATE

The following four things have occurred since I made my initial report:
1. I bought a few pieces off the AH to replace my worst gear slots plus get a stronger weapon.
2. The rest of my group retooled a bit as well: some change of skill and rune choices, some limited gear buys, and some practice at staying alive.
3. Two passes through Act 2 Hell have been completed, and five character levels gained. (Almost to 60 now).
4. Health globes started dropping comparable to how they behave in other difficulty levels, instead of the near-complete dearth we were experiencing.

That last point is BY FAR the most significant. Getting a regular number of globes off trash kills, one from nearly each champion or boss kill, and some during a fight from just beating on tougher champions and bosses, is night and day compared to the near-absence of globes for the several sessions upon which my initial post is based.

A lot more health globes lying around is akin to having more potions to use, which lets melee stay in the fight much better -- currently at a level I WOULD call viable, in combo with the rest of what changed.

So now I'm deeply curious. WHY are there so many more health globes dropping now?
A. Did Blizz increase the drop rate in Hell recently?
B. Are health globe drops tied to clvl-vs-mlvl, where the leveling up we've done has completely changed the balance with only a few levels gained?
C. Are health globe drops tied to gear in some way? DPS output, rate of brief stuns imposed on the mobs by having enough hard enough hits to cause them to pause momentarily?
D. Some unknown factor.

My gear purchases on the AH, which totaled less than 50k spent and a net cash change of zero because I sold some stuff, too -- the new items brought a 50% increase in Health (from 16k to 24k) and a DPS increase of about 30% (3700 to 5000), with little other change. The stats I prioritized were Vitality, Armor and Strength in that order, but I limited myself to a price range of 10k or less per item.

The health globe drop rate increased dramatically, right after the gear acquisitions. But the patch also occurred then, as did backing up to the beginning of Act 2 again, so a clvl-mlvl change was there too.

Over the course of the second pass through Act 2 Hell, I was able to obtain three new pieces with Resist to All on them -- all obtained in the very last portion of the act. I bought one, a ring, from the vendor. The others were group drops (four of us sharing items).

Tacking on about 50 Resist All, on top of the extra life and DPS, and the health globe drops, things feel fine again. For the moment. But I saw nary a Resist All affix on anything until I got close to Belial.

Without knowing why the health globe drops were SO TERRIBLE on my first pass through Hell Acts 1 and 2, I remain unsettled. If the slight change in ratio of clvl to mlvl did it, then the problem will return with a vengeance in Inferno and only worsen the deeper in one goes. If the gear did that, and not a patch change or the clvl-mlvl change, then it becomes even stupider than it looked at first glance that gear needed for the current Act (once you hit Hell) doesn't drop until two Acts later.


- Sirian