I have been playing unarmed since a week before the EA launch and I feel that it is really under powered. Here are the negatives:

• Low dps even with max dexterity. The attack speed for unarmed is too low or the damage numbers need to be increased.
• You are forced to invest into INT to be able to do some damage and get the required mana regen.
• Very few abilities compatible with unarmed. No frenzy to increase attack speed. You basically become a hybrid mage.
• The point distribution on unarmed is hard as you need the health from CON and STR to be able to survive. Pair this with INT and it becomes hard balancing act. I don't want to carry a shield in my off hand to make me more survivable(Playing unarmed to be unarmed). We need more abilities in DEX that are useable for DEX builds.
• None of the crafted gear seems to be ideal for unarmed.
• Even in the talent tree you are gimped compared to melee STR. I feel DEX melee builds(Not Rogue or Archer) are at a disadvantage in general. In the talent tree as unarmed you have to spend more points to get into the unarmed tree. Then you have to heavily invest into evade so you take less damage. This however fails you when taking on harder mobs. What I am getting at is you should get more reward for investing in unarmed. In the final tree point why not give us higher attack speed or greater evasion past the cap or even a body block chance increase to make us survive more. The bash is nice.
• Another issue is you have to use skills that toggle e.g Cloak of Frost, with the frost fist effect and magical abilities with that. This consumes a lot of mana and requires you to invest into the the mage tree to get regen. These toggle skills mana requirements need to be reduced especially if it is used for close range. Same applies for the close range spells with a low area range.

I was stubborn and kept going with unarmed and found a balance, however most of the content takes long to kill due to the lack of damage. I found frost in general to be nice for unarmed during team fights and lightning for solo content. However I don't want to be a mage. I know that martial arts is planned, but please give our fists some damage boost in the meantime.

@Mudz I tried that in the Beta. It was challenging but fun. Hoping the skills will be expanded to have more non-magical options.

I have been playing unarmed since a week before the EA launch and I feel that it is really under powered. Here are the negatives:

• Low dps even with max dexterity. The attack speed for unarmed is too low or the damage numbers need to be increased.
• You are forced to invest into INT to be able to do some damage and get the required mana regen.
• Very few abilities compatible with unarmed. No frenzy to increase attack speed. You basically become a hybrid mage.
• The point distribution on unarmed is hard as you need the health from CON and STR to be able to survive. Pair this with INT and it becomes hard balancing act. I don't want to carry a shield in my off hand to make me more survivable(Playing unarmed to be unarmed). We need more abilities in DEX that are useable for DEX builds.
• None of the crafted gear seems to be ideal for unarmed.
• Even in the talent tree you are gimped compared to melee STR. I feel DEX melee builds(Not Rogue or Archer) are at a disadvantage in general. In the talent tree as unarmed you have to spend more points to get into the unarmed tree. Then you have to heavily invest into evade so you take less damage. This however fails you when taking on harder mobs. What I am getting at is you should get more reward for investing in unarmed. In the final tree point why not give us higher attack speed or greater evasion past the cap or even a body block chance increase to make us survive more. The bash is nice.
• Another issue is you have to use skills that toggle e.g Cloak of Frost, with the frost fist effect and magical abilities with that. This consumes a lot of mana and requires you to invest into the the mage tree to get regen. These toggle skills mana requirements need to be reduced especially if it is used for close range. Same applies for the close range spells with a low area range.

I was stubborn and kept going with unarmed and found a balance, however most of the content takes long to kill due to the lack of damage. I found frost in general to be nice for unarmed during team fights and lightning for solo content. However I don't want to be a mage. I know that martial arts is planned, but please give our fists some damage boost in the meantime.