Melee PvP not using grief and/or fortitude?

Hi guys!

I've been of the PvP scene since grief was new and I just wanted to check in if there's any melee PvP'er that doesn't use grief and/or fortitude?

To me it looks like almost every build uses it. What happened to the good old unique armors, and other rw's (I "know" that grief tops basiclly all 1-handers in avg dmg).

Would it still be possible for a character to use Upg Eth Shaftstop or similar gear without getting killed by even lvl 50 HLD in progress chars?

To me it seems like grief has seriously unbalanced the RW scene for weapons, it's avg dmg beats everything .

I've been looking into making a barb or paladin of some sorts (not a smiter, I loathe them).

Cheers, Tasty.|||In my opinion there are no other melee weapons that is better than Grief in terms of damage output. Its ability to deal high consistent damage makes it THE pvp weapon for most top flight 'serious' melee chars(smiters, bvc etc) Unless you are able to get your hands on a seriously sick and off the hook rare weapon (eth, Cruel, IAS etc)

However if you are looking to have fun rather than just winning with your char. You can try making a Charger. A two handed charger one hits with Death runeword in an eth high damage weapon(eth glorious axe etc)

But in my opinion if you wanna make a Barb that can compete seriously in most duels, there is really no better substitute than Grief.

As with Fortitude, i think its inferior to Enigma, the strength gain from Enigma and the mobility it provides you far outweight the ED from Fort. Unless your making a specialised melee character that only partakes in Melee vs Melee, Smite vs Smite, Zeal vs Zeal, or Barb vs Barb etc.|||So... Fortitude for melee only and enigma vs all?

And grief vs all?

That sounds pretty lame .|||Well vs all just means you're mobile and can catch people. Without it, you wont catch people as easily. Grief, well that's just due to the damage anyway >>|||It's not that I can't afford the stuff it's just that... PvP was different before grief :/.

Oh well, just wanted to check in with you guys.

Doesn't huge def work vs melee anymore? (except smite).|||yes, that still helps.|||Except for fortitude and enigma are there any other viable armors?

For example if I were to make a wolfbarb or something similar (I know they aren't the best duellers out there).

I was thinking along the lines of Stone, Arkaines, G.Bane, Upg shaft, Upg duriels shell.

Those armors used to be pretty good atleast.|||I'm sure those are still good armors, but I'm not a melee guy, so I really wouldn't know the particulars.|||the upgraded e-shafts are still in demand. with shaft you trade the damage from fort for %dr so you could use a 2hander or some shield like exile and keep high %dr w/o stormshield.|||Ok .

I just wanted to hear your opinions since I don't want to get gear for my character that later ends up being worthless.

If I go for a shape shifter wouldn't big amounts of frw be better then shifting out and teleporting? I saw a youtube clip with someone having a ww/wolfbarb hybrid (wouldn't really call it a wolfbarb because of his playstyle).

Thanks for the answer on that sweetalmonds .

I myself thought it would be strange if the old high-end armors suddenly became worthless. From what I can tell fortitude is all about maxing damage while enigma grants mobility. But the older tankability armors haven't turned useless yet it seems, that makes me happy .