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Advice for a melee away team.

rustiswordzrustiswordz Member Posts: 824 Arc User
OK the toon in question is a KDF, however this thread could be for any faction. Any advice for a good Melee only away team? Weapons, traits, species and so on.

PS: while on the subject isn't it about time they released the d'k tahg and mek'leth klingon weapons among others. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Klingon_blade_weapons

and the Fed security officer armour and helmet costume http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090531062301/memoryalpha/en/images/9/92/Perez.jpg
Monkey see, Monkey do. Monkey flings Feathered Monkey poo... :D
Post edited by rustiswordz on

Comments

  • centersolacecentersolace Member Posts: 11,178 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    The Melee selection is rather lame. Which is a shame given the series is basically "Fistfights in Space". :D

    As for suggestions, Klingons and Gorn have natural melee bonuses.
  • catliketypingcatliketyping Member Posts: 611
    edited May 2014
    Melee is a decent way to kill Borg without auto remodulators. Klingons have amongst the best melee traits by default.

    Lunge is a good way to close the gap with Bat'leths, which are a bit slow to get on target... not to mention the fact that Lunge is a nice melee attack.

    Hypospray Dylovene is pretty powerful for a Sci BOFF.

    Otherwise, I can't say that I did anything different with my BOFFs other than throwing melee weapons on them.

    For Klingons, as many Bat'leths as possible. Nausicaans should get their Nausicaan swords. I liked putting a sword on the Jem'hadar guy.

    EDIT: I typically use a Nausicaan Tegolar Sword, or sometimes the Nukara Lightsaber. I prefer the Tegolar, though, because it sits on your hip rather than on your back when not in use. It's all about appearances, really ;)
    Nessia (KDF Sci)
    IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
  • rustiswordzrustiswordz Member Posts: 824 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    i've been using a Falchion on my Sci Orion Female toon, she's lethal with it. Let rip with the fire kit trait. Charge in and start slicing. :D

    :D
    Monkey see, Monkey do. Monkey flings Feathered Monkey poo... :D
  • jslynjslyn Member Posts: 1,791 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Lunge is a good addition, as was previous stated.

    Sweeping Strikes is useful

    Physical Augmentation Armor buffs your melee damage

    Some Rep Traits buff your melee damage

    Some Races buff melee damage: Vulcan, Romulan, Android, and some others


    Weapons:

    The Crystalline Sword aka the Lightsaber (from either the Rep Store or the Lobi Store) is a nice weapon. It absorbs incoming energy fire to buff the weapon. Which buff you get depends on what energy type is absorbed.

    Unarmed Martial Arts is what I find to be more fun. Yes, it does less damage than a weapon but it is faster and has a lot more combos with a lot more status effects (use the wiki to learn them) to balance it out. Tactical Captains get a buff to unarmed damage, or so I hear.
  • artemisa0kartemisa0k Member Posts: 142 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I haven't made any yet full on melee with melee weapon yet (tend to use pulswave one em)

    However stats wise

    Race - Ferasan, Catian, Klingon, Gorn, Bajoran, Aenar, Rigelian, Lethean, Orion, Tellarite
    and Jem'hadar along with some of the other special ones I would imagine.

    Trait's wise I'm partial to Lucky then whatever damage or utility type ability's you can get really.

    Ability's :

    Tac - Battle strat, lunge, target optics, smoke grenade would be pretty decent lunge as high as possible.

    Sci - Gravitic field, tric scan, dylovne, heals probably the best bet

    Eng - mines, shield rech, reroute, med gen, support drone's or something possibly

    Weapons wise really comes down to personal choice however swords are probably the more useful since you do a little charge to close in and then attack which should allow for fewer misses in theory.

    Armor - forget the name but the stuff that give's CritD or rep set/jem are probably the better way to go the phys stuff might be decent as well.

    Really haven't messed around with a melee team much usually I like them to be firing from one side while I lunge in and through to go for a massive pulsewave flank shot. Lunge boff's are quite good with pulsewaves as well as would the cats I imagine.
  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    In my experience, boffs with melee weapons rarely use them at all, so it doesn't really matter what you give them. :(
  • originalspockoriginalspock Member Posts: 809 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    warpangel wrote: »
    In my experience, boffs with melee weapons rarely use them at all, so it doesn't really matter what you give them. :(

    and they give you carpal tunnel with the constant rejusting of character position to keep in attack range. frankly I am a bit surprised that the lirp and the bat dont do what the sword does (run toward the target automatically)
  • timelord79timelord79 Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I noticed recently that boffs switch to hand2hand combat when an enemy gets into melee range.
    Though they try to get back to some distance if they can to switch back to their main weapon.
    11750640_1051211588222593_450219911807924697_n.jpg
  • smokeybacon90smokeybacon90 Member Posts: 2,252 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Don't forget to use the melee knockback doffs. They stack up to 3, which makes for hilarious results. Also there is a melee crit chance/severity boosting security officer.
    EnYn9p9.jpg
  • icsairgunsicsairguns Member Posts: 1,504 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I like to pew pew on the ground too so 3 grenade doffs one of the new tct kits with grenade skills buff KHG ground set with the grenade launcher on rifle and photon and toxic grenades on kit so I can chuck 3 grenades at once all with separate cool downs. one of which is usually off cooldown by the time im done with the 3rd. and always a Klingon ... now it im after Borg only like on defera bladed weapons all the way it just faster
    Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days. Ch'ar%20POST%20LoR.JPG


  • edgecrysgeredgecrysger Member Posts: 2,740 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I will never make a pure melee team. Melee behaviour is really terrible for just 1 toon, imagine 4 of em. You can put one of your boffs with a melee weapon, but you will need backup fire from others. If you make all your team with melee weapons, sometimes some of em will get stuck without doing nothing, because this game is so lame in this matter. And not all boffs can use melee weapons. Some of em will just do nothing, just looking at the stars lol. And some of em will do nothing unless they are close to your enemy. There are a lot of things to consider when using melee weapons, STO is not designed for melee weapons, since the behaviour of your boffs will be really erratic most of the times. I tried it once, and automatically i swithed back to energy weapons after 3 days. I had a jemhaddar, a klingon, a gorn and a reman with melee weapons, and only the jemhaddar and sometimes the reman were "active" using melee weapons. The klingon and the gorn were just standing besides me without doing nothing lol.

    I always wanted to make a melee team, but i discovered that in STO, there are too many problems to make this work. Too many.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    artemisa0k wrote: »
    I haven't made any yet full on melee with melee weapon yet (tend to use pulswave one em)

    However stats wise

    Race - Ferasan, Catian, Klingon, Gorn, Bajoran, Aenar, Rigelian, Lethean, Orion, Tellarite
    and Jem'hadar along with some of the other special ones I would imagine.
    Actually, among the best for melee are some of the boring, ordinary ones. Vulcans, Romulans, and Andorians. Vulcans and Romulans get a straightforward +10% melee damage. Andorians... technically their trait isn't melee focused, it buffs ALL damage they do when it's active. But it works nicely for melee. *makes list*

    Good:
    Andorians; bonus damage at low health(Fury), their other traits let them resist immobilization

    Borg; tough as nails, and Neural blast is a great way to setup for melee, some have efficient though.

    Caitians/Ferasans I know Ferasans have bonus melee damage, I think Caitians are defensive, but both are great since they have pounce.

    Gorn/Saurians; Reptilian strength!, ones with efficient are best left on your bridge, but the others are good for ground

    Jem'Hadar; shroud works really good comboed with melee

    Klingons; probably have the biggest boost to melee combat of all the races

    Nausicaans; make good melee fighters due to physical strength too

    Orion; MALE orion characters excel in melee combat, Boffs? Boffs have either Physical strength or seductive at random, those with it rock in melee, Seduce is a fun way to incapacitate enemies while you stab them.

    Remans/Romulans/Vulcans have physical strength to boost melee, and generally good ground traits, though Remans and Romulans usually have at least one space trait too.

    Okay:
    Aliens; have random traits so you never know what they'll come with...

    Bajorans; kinda average, but useful, their abilities just buff ground combat, but do it well

    Betazoids; generally good ground boffs, Pacification would give an easy opening for a melee hit, somewhat defensive though

    Ferengi; good ground boffs, not melee focused though

    Pakleds; can have physical strength, and have generally good ground traits, but their species trait is more of a con than a pro

    Rigelians; not bad, but largely defense oriented on ground

    Tellarites; good ground boffs in general

    Trill; boffs have all ground traits, and useful ones, but nothing specific to melee or ranged

    meh:
    Aenar; primarily defense fighters

    Bolian; all ground, but their traits aren't that good for melee

    Breen; ranged combat focused traits

    Humans; like Bajorans, but with only 3 ground traits on boffs.

    Letheans; more of a ranged race than anything else
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • no09dysonsphereno09dysonsphere Member Posts: 410 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    I will never make a pure melee team. Melee behaviour is really terrible for just 1 toon, imagine 4 of em. You can put one of your boffs with a melee weapon, but you will need backup fire from others. If you make all your team with melee weapons, sometimes some of em will get stuck without doing nothing, because this game is so lame in this matter. And not all boffs can use melee weapons. Some of em will just do nothing, just looking at the stars lol. And some of em will do nothing unless they are close to your enemy. There are a lot of things to consider when using melee weapons, STO is not designed for melee weapons, since the behaviour of your boffs will be really erratic most of the times. I tried it once, and automatically i swithed back to energy weapons after 3 days. I had a jemhaddar, a klingon, a gorn and a reman with melee weapons, and only the jemhaddar and sometimes the reman were "active" using melee weapons. The klingon and the gorn were just standing besides me without doing nothing lol.

    I always wanted to make a melee team, but i discovered that in STO, there are too many problems to make this work. Too many.

    This. A million times this. The melee AI is terrible. Melee boffs, even the ones with lunge and swords, will wander around staring into space. For the few times they manage to find a target, they'll run back to you after killing it, look around, and then occasionally amble over to a new target (by which time the ranged boffs will have finished off everything anyway). Melee boffs are terrible, don't use them.
  • alfamegaalfamega Member Posts: 268 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    OK the toon in question is a KDF, however this thread could be for any faction. Any advice for a good Melee only away team? Weapons, traits, species and so on.
    i strongly suggest against it.
    i've tried it myself on my kdf toon for role playing purpose. it went very very bad. because of very bad path finding of bridge officers. they literally stand still one step away and doing nothing about 80% of the time.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    For Boff abilities....

    Sci should have nanite health monitor, dylovene, and either other heals or immobilization debuffs. If you're going the hold route it might be a good idea to try finding a telekinetic boff. It's not easy and fed-side it's something only found on aliens.

    Eng work well with bombs and drones

    Tacs are best, since they have actual melee skills. Lunge and sweeping strikes make it so much better. squad buffs are also good.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
  • peter1z9peter1z9 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    A while back the devs improved the boff AI for tactical melee skills. The AI manages to make excellent use of sweeping strikes and lunge now. On my Romulan Tac, I have both myself and my 2 tac boffs set up as melee while keeping my 2 science boffs ranged. That way, they stay back and heal us while we hack, slash, and dropkick away. It worked extremely well on all the old Borg storyline missions.

    Sadly, the boff AI is still incredibly stupid when it comes to just using melee weapons. Pairing up melee weapons with sweeping strikes and lunge does help though. But it is pretty pointless to give a Sci or an Engi boff melee weapons (unless the Engi is set up for bombs and mines).

    Also, if you are drowning in EC, the purple tactical melee kit modules are a huge buff over the old melee kits. But it will cost you a lot.
    "Our Bugs are working as intended" - Cryptic
  • edgecrysgeredgecrysger Member Posts: 2,740 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    peter1z9 wrote: »
    A while back the devs improved the boff AI for tactical melee skills. The AI manages to make excellent use of sweeping strikes and lunge now.

    I dont think so. I still have 1 melee unit in every character, and he acts really terrible most of the times. I only have em cuz i put the special khaless sword of the anniversary in em lol. Thats the only reason.

    No, you must be playing another game. In 75% of the cases, my melee boff will stand besides me without doing nothing, unless you are really close to your target (and he already have the lunge and sweeping strikes skills). He will eventually go to attack my target, do 1 lunge, 1 attack and come back to me to stay besides me without doing nothing, again.

    I have really learned that when i use a team of 3 ranged weapons + 1 melee, it is like if my team is formed by 3 guys, not 4.

    And this is the classic behaviour of a melee toon. And never changed since, well, since i have memory. Not to mention, the ones with stealth abilities.. lol, dont even try it.

    The AI of ground fights is terrible in STO, and melee stuff is even worst. I only have melee away members for the visuals lol, nothing more..
  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Isnt melee broken still? last time I had a BO with a melee weapon they would run back and forth and do squat. Also they had problems with a bathleth (sp). I recall folks saying to use swords instead on your boffs.
  • catliketypingcatliketyping Member Posts: 611
    edited May 2014
    tigeraries wrote: »
    Isnt melee broken still? last time I had a BO with a melee weapon they would run back and forth and do squat. Also they had problems with a bathleth (sp). I recall folks saying to use swords instead on your boffs.

    It works well enough. Some of us KDF players took to doing Assimilation (Elite) with pure melee using our Bat'leth collections while rounding out our kit module collections.
    Nessia (KDF Sci)
    IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    It works well enough. Some of us KDF players took to doing Assimilation (Elite) with pure melee using our Bat'leth collections while rounding out our kit module collections.
    < Some Feds(and Romulans) do that too. :P
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    My character Tsin'xing
    Costume_marhawkman_Tsin%27xing_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_488916968.jpg
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