Just going to list a few examples of where mechanics are extremely punishing to melee and greatly favor ranged classes.
Sanguine Depths
The red and black elementals that leave massive puddles everywhere that deal incredibly high damage and grow really fast. As melee I can barely hit anything, especially when ranged mobs with uninterruptible casts stay inside.
Mistdancers in combination with either gargoyles or hunters. The traps are barely visible with the 10 million effects going on at the same time, and the mistdancer+gargoyle pull after the 3rd boss is just cruel because you can’t even position your camera properly. Half the fights I spend running around trying to find a spot I can actually stand on…
Mists of Tirna Scithe
The spirits in the maze that have the uninterruptible cast that puts a circle around them and then push you out. It’s massive and basically forces me to stand afk next to the mobs unless someone happens to be able to interrupt it after the cast, because they will just instantly recast it.
The Gorm in the last bit that will put the acid/poison circle on you dealing damage to everyone nearby. A lot of healers can’t dispel that and it basically forces you to again stay out of range being unable to deal damage.
Longer fights on the last boss (especially on Tyrannical) make it nearly impossible to (A) see the puddles under the boss and (B) positiong yourself in a way you can hit the boss.
Theater of Pain
Kul’tharok’s grabby hands… Some fights I get every single one of them, most fights I get at least half. The grabby hands are always out of range of the boss and the vast majority of burst via trinkets or buffs I can do are interrupted because I have to move out of range.
Affixes
- Spiteful slappy hands (and tbh other random mobs in dungeons too), the range of melee hits is bigger than the mobs are. In case of slappy hands another slappy hands fits between you and the one hitting you
- Prideful circles require constant movement and repositioning for multiple melee, so you don’t hit each other. It’s not as bad but still at times have to position myself in a way where I literally can’t hit the boss.
Then there are some generic skills that you can deal with, but also only affect melee players:
- Whirlwind of the mobs before Hakkar
- Plagueborers in Plaguefall
- Last 3 minibosses in Spires of Ascension, because it’s nearly impossible to stand properly, dodge the frontal and dodge 3 puddles at the same time while also avoiding the new spears and puddle the right one spawns with the leap attack
It’s not that ranged have no issues, but most of them come from affixes, not the dungeon design. The SL dungeons are very movement heavy for melee players and I think it can be tuned down a little. Make the circles/puddles smaller, expand slightly slower, make things like grabby hands in ToP prefer ranged players etc. When you constantly have to move out as melee, you can’t DPS. Ranged can mostly side-step and keep DPSing.