Here are some suggestions for low levels to deal with numerous trash trivially. I'm sorry I dont' have anything to add that is directly related to your suggestion, but it might be argued that the purpose of Melee classes is to take hits, and not spam them. That quality is what is supposed to distinguish them from ranged attackers and spell casters.
1) Twink yourself out with gear filled with +FireDmg jewels. I recently noticed a lvl 12 jewel with 13-33 dmg
(previous best I've ever seen was 14-22). You could even topaz-craft a hat and quad it. You probably won't need to stock up on the low level +FireDmg charms since the jewels seem to have been buffed. When you're done, you should now have a set of low level (lvl 11-14) gear equippable on any char (or merc), and that does an avg of about 250 FireDmg to attack. Now equip RavenClaw, and attack with exploding arrows. I've had similar chars around level 16 (first set of decent fire charms) doing about avg 500 dmg per explosion. If you're SC, I don't mind feeding you some jewels. Also, Blue might still have my old topaz-crafted hat (he makes more new chars than me, so it made sense).
2) Get a MoonStone Topaz, and with a level 1 char, gamble an ammy. Topaz-craft it with that char so that it's level 14. The ammy will pretty much only have the mods "lvl 20 Nova on struck" (avg 175 dmg) and "adds 1-400 lit dmg to attack". This makes for a pretty easy romp through A1 and A2. Although that ammy might seem overpowered, keep in mind that by the end of A1 (or multiple people in game) it will take more than one proc of lvl 20 Nova to kill trash.
3) Buy a multishot rogue, give her low Dmg jewels. This is particularly easy if you''ve got a lvl 11 char gambling for jewels for option (1). lvl 3 and lvl 6 +Dmg jewels are very common and practically useless for player-chars, and jewels on a low-level gamble screen are much more common than later. Buy a 3os hat/armor from charsi and your rougling should be capable of an avg 150 dmg every shot.
A later-game alternative is to just make a Convictor. They're an amusing build, especially if you've already got their gear waiting. "Voice of Reason", "Rift", and "Wonder" are all very decent weapons for AoE. DragonHelm works alright for AoE too. Just keep in mind that a Convictor will never be a godly boss killer or anything, but he's fun for any type of trash.