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Melee

From Path of Exile 2 Wiki
Revision as of 02:26, 12 February 2025 by Qetuth (talk | contribs) (→‎Terminology: expanded terminology section)
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Melee
Tooltip
Melee Attacks are those that directly hit with a melee Strike or a Slam, dealing Melee damage. Melee attacks usually scale from Weapon or Unarmed damage.

Any Projectiles these attacks create do not count as Melee damage.

Melee generally refers to one of two things:

  • A playstyle defined by a set of skills (usually attacks) performed while either unarmed (meaning to have no weapon equipped), or with a martial weapon, where your character either performs an attack at a target within your strike distance, or performs a slam on the ground to hit all enemies within the slam's area of effect.
  • A gem tag denoting skills that use the aforementioned melee playstyle

Melee weapon types

Weapon class H Martial Dual Wield Off-hand Strength Dexterity Intelligence
Maces 1/2 Yes Yes Mace, Shield/Foci, Sceptre 100% 0% 0%
Axes 1/2 Yes Yes Axe, Shield/Foci, Sceptre 75% 25% 0%
Flails 1 Yes No Shield/Foci, Sceptre 75% 0% 25%
Swords 1/2 Yes Yes Sword, Shield/Foci, Sceptre 50% 50% 0%
Spears 1 Yes No Shield/Foci, Sceptre 25% 75% 0%
Claws 1 Yes Yes Claw only 0% 100% 0%
Quarterstaves 2 Yes No 0% 75% 25%
Daggers 1 Yes Yes Dagger, Shield/Foci, Sceptre 0% 50% 50%

Melee skills are limited to specific martial weapons, meaning that bows, crossbows, sceptres, staves, traps, and wands cannot be used for melee skills. Any specific melee skill will generally be limited to one weapon type- for example, Ice Strike requires the use of a quarterstaff.

Terminology

Strike

Main page: Strike

Strike refers to a subset of melee attacks. Strikes either target a single enemy or all enemies within a swing.

Slam

Main page: Slam

Slam refers to a subset of melee attacks. Slams affect enemies within a radius and hence always have the AoE tag and are often good for crowd control.

Combo

Main page: Combo

Combo is a counter that tracks the number of melee hits done by the character in the last 8 seconds. Some skills can only be activated by achieving a certain combo count. Final Strike is the final hit of a combo.

Gems

A list of gems with the Melee gem tag:

Skill gems

GemTierGem requires strengthGem requires dexterityGem requires intelligence
Frozen Locus1YesYesNo
Glacial Cascade1YesYesNo
Killing Palm1NoYesYes
Vaulting Impact1NoYesYes
Boneshatter1YesNoNo
Earthquake1YesNoNo
Rolling Slam1YesNoNo
Staggering Palm3YesYesNo
Tempest Bell3YesYesNo
Armour Breaker3YesNoNo
Shield Charge3YesNoNo
Shockwave Totem3YesNoNo
Wind Blast5NoNoYes
Ice Strike5NoYesYes
Perfect Strike5YesYesNo
Tempest Flurry5NoYesYes
Resonating Shield5YesNoNo
Earthshatter7YesYesNo
Siphoning Strike7YesYesNo
Storm Wave7NoYesYes
Wave of Frost7YesYesNo
Leap Slam7YesNoNo
Hand of Chayula9YesYesNo
Sunder9YesYesNo
Volcanic Fissure9YesYesNo
Shattering Palm11YesYesNo
Stampede11YesYesNo
Supercharged Slam11YesYesNo
Whirling Assault11YesYesNo
Flicker Strike13NoNoNo
Gathering Storm13YesYesNo
Hammer of the Gods13YesYesNo
Ancestral Warrior Totem13YesNoNo

Spirit gems

GemTierGem requires strengthGem requires dexterityGem requires intelligence
Wind Dancer4NoYesNo
Magma Barrier4YesNoNo

Support gems

GemTierGem requires strengthGem requires dexterityGem requires intelligence
Bloodlust1NoNoNo
Fist of War1NoNoNo
Impact Shockwave1NoNoNo
Aftershock2NoNoNo
Heavy Swing2NoNoNo
Practiced Combo2NoNoNo
Behead3NoNoNo
Culmination3NoNoNo
Tremors3NoNoNo
Upheaval3NoNoNo

Version history

Version Changes
0.1.0
  • Introduced to the game.