Basic Math - The Failure of Diablo Melee

[Roland]

From what I've read, I'll bet anything that Discipline regeneration is the key issue - survival in Inferno seems to rely primarily on defence, and from what I've read of the classes, Discipline regenerates slower than every other resource in the game. If the thing most necessary to survival is the rarest resource, then survival would probably be difficult. Either 1) Discipline regenerates too slowly/Discipline costs are too high, 2) DHs need to gear even more defence than other classes, 3) some kind of skill combo which makes them much more viable simply hasn't been discovered yet or 4) Blizzard really didn't test this class in Inferno all that much and thinks they're much better/more balanced than is actually the case.

Discipline regeneration is fine. It's supposed to be a scarce resource, and anyway you can get several pieces with +Discipline (Cloaks and Quivers at least, and I believe some bows / crossbows / hand crossbows). However, you hit the nail on the head (sorta) with #2. The basic problem with DHs is that they have zero passive nor active skills that buff their base defensive stats. That means they hit the ceiling on armor and resistances far sooner than any other class (Witch Doctors at least have Jungle Fortitude, for a flat 20% damage reduction). This makes them all the more reliant upon their defensive skills, which for the most part have been nerfed into the ground due to exploitative combinations. No matter how high you get your defenses through gear you're almost guaranteed to get one- or two-shotted in Inferno, often times before you could even use your defensive skills.

With the exponential increase in difficulty it becomes more and more challenging to gear up for it. Already I can tell that 4k armor and 200+ resistances aren't going to cut it in Act II (and I'm a fair ways from even hitting that goal), and there's only so much further I can take my 41k life pool. I don't see how it's even possible to become anything but a one-shot kill in Act III - and, perhaps, even Act II.

Hmmph. I'll tell you which resource regenerates even slower than that. Monk spirit doesn't regenerate at all naturally! They actually have to risk themselves to build up spirit, and when you come across something like shielding arcane w/e BS, you are totally screwed.

No you're not. You just have to kite until their shields wear off - like everybody else. At least you get boosted armor and resistances, meaning you can take a few hits, as well as invulnerability yourself (and multiple movement-based skills). Even I can take half a second of Arcane Sentry (finally) with my Demon Hunter - in the end of Act I. I'm willing to bet Act II and beyond is another story, but regardless if a DH can do it a Monk or Barb can do it better, and easier.