New melee auras, a reference guide

[hotshot64]

Note: this thread will primarily reference r5 gems, and unless otherwise stated all numbers will involve them.

The "new" melee auras are:

Sharpened steel r5: Increases melee attack speed by 8% and makes your noncritical weapon strikes cause an additional 15% damage, dealt in a 1 minute bleed. Costs 60 energy every 5 seconds.

Melee haste aura r5: Increases your melee haste by 10%. Costs 60 mana every 5 seconds.

Weighted Steel r5: doubles melee min and max damage but lowers melee speed by 45%, 50% for 2 handers. Costs 60 energy every 5 seconds.

R5 mana/energy thief: steals 5% of melee damage in mana or energy.

Common sense would dictate we use all gems available to us, but sadly we have 3 aura slots so which should we prioritize? Well, that depends on your own unique build but I'll put my personal thoughts and guide here.

Several typical melee builds:

140 melee
140 defense
59 magic
1 recovery


140 melee
140 defense
1 magic
59 recovery


A typical meleer will max melee, and usually (but not always) defense. That leaves 60 stats to be spread through recovery and magic. In the past, your average meleer would use those as negs for stones. With the new auras, new uses for those stats have opened up. a meleer might add a bit of pst, drop some levels into magic for mst, and have an easier time running the auras. Or a meleer could use pre/mre to their advantage.

This works just fine if you want to run Weighted/Sharpened steel and melee haste in your aura slots, but if you drop one for an open slot for a melee or energy thief, you can easily maintain those auras. An energy theft rune and gem combined will run r5 weighted and sharpened steel, and a little mre will cover the melee haste if you pull it.

But which gems are best for me, you might ask. Well, that depends on your build, but I'll put out some numbers.

Sharpened steel + melee haste r5 provide a total of 17.2% haste. They use an equal amount of mana/energy regardless of skills. These gems are essentially no brainers, so long as you can maintain the mana/energy costs. Whether or not you are willing to sacrifice a gem or rune slot for theft is what will determine whether or not you use them.

Weighted steel is controversial and may not be for everyone. For a dual wielder, weighted steel provides double damage with a 90% additional delay. That is a total of 10% extra dps and therefore probably worth it for most. For a 2 hander, however, the gem provides no additional dps. Therefore, for a 2 hander, the gem is primarily useful for burst damage, such as an opening swing.

For those who can 1-hit monsters, all 3 gems are likely to be useful. You should only have to pay the upkeep cost once, and weighted steel increases your chances of 1-hitting those monsters.

However, for those who cannot, the choice becomes difficult. Weighted steel allows for large opening crits, but causes long delays.

Nearly a 19% decrease to the time it takes to kill a monster is a big deal, so these gems are nothing to be scoffed at, despite the high cost.

[terrorbladestorm]

With these new gems, I find it really beneficial to have mre and pre atleast 70+

If not, you will find yourself wasting minutes of rrt recovering your mana after combat (when you cannot drain because the monster is dead)

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I run a sharpsteel r2, melee haste r2, and a energy thief. No mana thief rune. I also have over 1k mana, but only 150 energy. I have about 72 pre, and 110 mre. With this build, I never run out of energy due to the energy thief, my mana will drop 200-300 per fight, but with 110 mre, it recovers in roughly 30 seconds, which is about the 1min after fight rrt waste.

What if you dont wait in between fights? I run transdescence runes and mana devamp, but unfortunately you have to draw these gems out. In my experience, having over 1k mana has never been a deterent to using my melee haste gem because i am always howevering around 800-900 mana.

[hotshot64]

Thanks for your insight. I've also found mre/pre, even just a few extra points, makes a huge difference. What makes an even bigger difference is replacing the auras with other gems a few seconds before the mob is dead. That way you still get the auras till the end of battle, and don't lose mana/energy in looting.