Melee Combat

colonelmarik · June 2018

Waaaaaaay back in the beginning, when I created Colonel Marik, I wanted him to be noted for his skill with a Batlh'etlh. However, in all the time I've played, I've found it nearly impossible for him to fight using it.

Part of the problem is that initiating an attack roots him. While he's rooted, there's a half second delay before the attack actually goes off, and in that time, most enemies have already moved out of the way. It's really frustrating.

More, it's tough to fight an enemy in melee when he can just keep shooting at you. I mean, watch the shows. As soon as a character is engaged in melee combat, they stop shooting. That's because there's no way to counter lethal attacks while pointing a gun at an enemy who is close enough to hit you. As such, I think there needs to be some kind of significant penalty to using a non-melee attack once engaged in melee. Further, it should be very tough to shoot at an enemy who is engaged in melee combat, because you run the risk of hitting the wrong target! To that end, I think there should be some kind of recognition of this fact... perhaps any damage done to targets in melee should be divided among the characters engaged in that melee, or attacks randomly assigned to hit a random participant.

Either way, I'd like to see melee combat revisited so it's more viable.

gradii · June 2018

1. No rooting while meleeing.
2. Allow running and melee again
3. Universal kit module for some sort of lunge.

questerius · June 2018

Melee is one of those thing which i myself have not been able to master. This may be due to the fact that i prefer FPS mode instead of RPG mode on the ground.

Then there is the thing that many melee weapons only really gain their massive power though movement combos like up/down/left left.. which is probably best performed with either joystick or controller.

Maybe some specialists for melee can give pointers. One universal module which is useful for melee builds is the elechi module so it's best to grab that one from the mission.

ichaerus1 · June 2018

A big problem is that this game's melee system has holdovers from an old game that Cryptic used to run, before Paragon Studios took over. City of Heroes/City of Villains. Including the self-root. Whereas other MMOs didn't have the self-inflicted crowd control with melee, for some reason, Cryptic thought it would be a good thing, and kept it. Sure, a few of the weapons nowadays have a mini-gap closer in there(such as the Furiadon's Fangs and swords), but bat'leths stubbornly kept that quirk. The nerf to uselessness for Stealth Module didn't help either. Neither does watching your target scamper away laughing and firing his/her rifle while you do a fan dance with that bat'leth. It's not infuriating like DDO's wall-climbing kobolds that blast back with Chain Lightning, but it's still bad.

If you want to melee, there's only a few options you have. Frost eye laser module, Flash-freeze module, the Subspace Fold teleport module, Ambush, Cryogenic micro-torpedo, Motion Accelerator, Lunge/Felinoid Pounce, for example. Of this list, tactical holds the majority of them. I shifted my main character to doing melee now, put in melee oriented traits, and put the Furiadon's Fangs with CrtDx5/CrtH mods on it. If you're tactical, you'll want to throw on modules such as Rallying Cry, Trajectory Bending, and either Motion Accelerator or Ambush. For specializations, Miracle Worker/Commando, or Intelligence Officer/Commando. Load up on the melee doffs that add Critical Hit/Critical Severity

Melee doesn't have a whole lot of window margin for a sustained damage build. You have to burst and fast.

I haven't been able to really upgrade my gear other than the Furiadon's Fangs, but I managed this a couple days ago.
[4:58] Your Finishing Strike deals 11094 (3474) Physical Damage(Critical) to Hur'q Mutant.
Around 30%-50% Critical Hit, around 500%+ Critical Severity.

markhawkman · June 2018

As someone who uses melee on almost all of my characters..... I don't really see the problem. Seriously, I have such a wide collection of melee weapons I can't use them all. I actually figured out how to lock AIs where they can't fight back as I pummel them mercilessly.

Science is easiest if you want kit powers. Cold fusion Flash, the cryo modules from winter event, the science cold powers are REALLY good for melee. There's also a temporal kit power for immobilizing enemies, and the Intel tripwire drone. for basic science powers you have Tachyon harmonic, sonic pulse, and EG field(this is the one the Borg use to restrict your movement) all of which will give your opponent a really bad day if used right.

Engineer has a few options too. Fuse armor for one(yes, really, it's NOT actually useless). On Engi I usually distract with turrets, then stab enemies in the back while they shoot at the turrets.

darthvicious666 · May 2019

I've been melee since before the Nukara rep dropped, so I guess I have a bit of experience in this area.

Self-root while attacking is part of the bat'leth, hence why I gave up on using it. Swords do nice damage, and they have a built in feature that allows you to charge an enemy and attack, but their combos are kinda slow. I use the gloves, as martial arts has the fastest attacks and the haymaker is a guaranteed critical exploit attack. My record haymaker so far is 8k.

darthvicious666 · May 2019

questerius wrote: »

Melee is one of those thing which i myself have not been able to master. This may be due to the fact that i prefer FPS mode instead of RPG mode on the ground.

Then there is the thing that many melee weapons only really gain their massive power though movement combos like up/down/left left.. which is probably best performed with either joystick or controller.

Maybe some specialists for melee can give pointers. One universal module which is useful for melee builds is the elechi module so it's best to grab that one from the mission.

Movement combos? I hope this isn't some widespread belief... because it's completely untrue. You're correct about combos, just not the movement part. This isn't Mortal Kombat.

Melee has 3 different attacks for most weapons, 4 for swords. Left, Right, Palm, and Charge.
Palm isn't part of any combos and is available on every weapon, even non-melee.
Charge isn't part of any combo and is only available on swords, but it's a nice gap closer. It's performed automatically when you use either Left/Right and your target is outside melee range.
All combos require Left & Right for up to three attacks, and the third is usually where your exploits are. Triple combos aren't available for Martial Arts, however. (meaning LLL or RRR combos)

Beyond that, all you really need is practice. And turn off autofire.

questerius · May 2019

@darthvicious666 melee combat is an interesting topic, but it is probably best if you create a new topic and link to this one rather than reviving (necro) a topic from 2018.
@baddmoonrizin

baddmoonrizin · May 2019

Necro. /Thread

Melee Combat

Comments