What is the best melee weapon right now?

[NeuralMachine]

So I keep trying to find this out and honestly I feel really conflicted. I've taken a break from this game for a decent chunk of time now and there is so much new content I feel a bit dizzy.But first thing is first: I need an awesome farming weapon.

Also hoping that I can be told the best riven and build for the weapon too. I'm willing to lay down thousands of plat for the absolute best riven if it's needed.

I see that apparently now zaws are maybe the best weapon? And then some others say gram prime is better but apparently it has HALF the range (making it brutally hard to farm with I take it?)?

Like I wanna just get an awesome melee and take it into arbitration or whatever and absolutely dominate. Like equip this melee zaw??? and go into arbitration and just go crazy.

 

Atm I have lesion and I guess it's fine? Idk. But everyone be talking about zaws or gram primes.

 

I also found this zaw calculator and idk how to even begin using it lol... https://semlar.com/zawcalc

I hope you guys can help me 😄

 

Adding: I hate the dash whip thing. It was hurting my fingers before. I do not want atterax to be my primary weapon I use for hours... :S

Edited October 27, 2018 by NeuralMachine

[(PSN)OriginalEquinox]

I suggest waiting for melee 3.0 but for now plague zaws are the best I think

[NeuralMachine]

Just now, (PS4)Equinox21697 said:

I suggest waiting for melee 3.0 but for now plague zaws are the best I think

Oh! Melee 3.0, any idea when that might be out? I haven't heard much about this yet!

 

Think my lesion can last until then?

Edited October 27, 2018 by NeuralMachine

[0_The_F00l]

Lesion is still great, 

But Zaws are better cause they can be modified to suit your playstyle. 

Current top tier is the Zaws with plague kripath strike (plague keewar is kinda on par) 

I normally suggest  to build for:

Speed :1 (will be near 0.95 or 1.05)

CC: 14

SC: 32

These stats are after gilding. 

The grip suggested is 2 handed and links that give above stats will be subject to grip chosen. Use the semlar zaw builder to get the names. 

This will give you one of the most flexible Zaws for a hybrid. 

You may want to tweak it for personal preference (more speed,less speed, more Crit, less status) 

The mods are going to be typical pressure point, bloodrush, condition overload, 2x dual status, drifting contact, organ shatter, Riven. 

Riven is kinda up to you but anything  with damage, speed, Crit damage, elemental damage with negative to impact would work wonders. 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by 0_The_F00l

[Dreddeth]

Generally speaking, there is such a thing as "best in category," but I'm not so sure about there being a "best melee" period since different weapon types are better at different things. The closest you can get is comparisons between weapon categories with overlapping purposes like Whip vs. Blade and Whip, or Claws, Sparring, & Fists, or the four types that Excalibur passively boosts (Longswords, Dual Swords, Nikanas, & Rapiers).

Edited October 27, 2018 by Dreddeth

[GnarlsDarkley]

50 minutes ago, NeuralMachine said:

Melee 3.0, any idea when that might be out?

Last Devstream they said they want to bring it this year...so let's see

Edited October 27, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[Makunogo]

best is whatever you enjoy using the most. 

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb 0_The_F00l:

Lesion is still great, 

But Zaws are better cause they can be modified to suit your playstyle. 

Current top tier is the Zaws with plague kripath strike (plague keewar is kinda on par) 

I normally suggest  to build for:

Speed :1 (will be near 0.95 or 1.05)

CC: 14

SC: 32

These stats are after gilding. 

The grip suggested is 2 handed and links that give above stats will be subject to grip chosen. Use the semlar zaw builder to get the names. 

This will give you one of the most flexible Zaws for a hybrid. 

You may want to tweak it for personal preference (more speed,less speed, more Crit, less status) 

The mods are going to be typical pressure point, bloodrush, condition overload, 2x dual status, drifting contact, organ shatter, Riven. 

Riven is kinda up to you but anything  with damage, speed, Crit damage, elemental damage with negative to impact would work wonders. 

 

 

I'd even say the plage keewar beats it by a bit on that setup. Plus Slash is it's most frequent ticking status, what's just some insane extra damage.

To add something too:

Primary stats for the riven are range, damage, attack speed and slidy crit.

Melee 3.0 will change moddet range appearently so rather aim for anything but that...may not make a significant difference later.

[Xzorn]

As of right now there isn't really a "best" melee weapon.

There's a best per category and some categories are better than others mostly thanks to stances but melee weapons are used in different enough ways you can't really say one is best. Heavy Weapons and Polearms are great street sweepers while Dual swords have massive ground finishers, Sparring has a charge attack Finisher and Hammers have a heavy CC.

It's about picking a style and the best in that category to compliment your loadout. There are very much "best" per category and Rivens / Stance can influence that.

When it comes to Polearms as you mentioned with Lesion; Zaws make the best ones but Lesion is no wimp and still very strong, It's just that Zaws can reach similar performance with much longer Reach. So they win. I actually think Blade-whips are a perfect example of the differences in a category. All three Blade-whips are good but for different reasons. Jat-Kusar will shred unarmored / Infested, Lacera will melt armor like butter and Mios is a middle ground between both options. The best one depends what you're hitting.

[hooperinius]

Right now anything with blood rush and condition overload is great, after melee 3 who knows.

[0_The_F00l]

5 hours ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

I'd even say the plage keewar beats it by a bit on that setup. 

Very close and not practically visible, but there are minor differences that puts the kripath slightly ahead on a strict one on one comparison. 

1) kripath has innate 2.2x crit multiplier, keewar has 2x. 

2) the hybrid stats (CC-SC) for kripath will be either 14-32 or 18-25, for keewar it will be 14-29 or 10-36 keewar leans very heavily on status, kripath can find a very good middle path. 

3)stances - now this is a highly debatable thing but kripath has pole arm stance which is not great by itself but twirling spire can do a lot of slash and impact procs really fast, staffs do not force proc slash but can do ground slams (excellent for exodia hunt) staffs tend to be a little faster on the same speed rating too but their animations are not as mobile (relatively), this is completely up to the individual and is not a major factor. 

4) IPS :keewar definitely has the ideal IPS for a status weapon, puncture procs that kripath does more often are detrimental. 

And last

The Keewar looks really cool, exactly how I was hoping a wicked scythe should look like (too bad it's a staff stance) 

The Kripath literally looks like you used it to poke a toxic waste drum. 

So each has its advantages and the difference is minor if you build them similarly. My personal observation has been that kripath tends to work better. 

 

[Sojufueled]

I got a really cheap riven for a less used Zaw strike (Mewan) and it's my baby. So I suppose my answer is anything with good reach and a decent riven you can get your hands on. 

[Ikyr0]

Plague Zaw Kripath built as hybrid. If you don't have the Zaw, no biggie. The Lesion is not too far behind. After that, probably Atterax.

I will say that reach distance (from Riven or Primed Reach) is overrated on the polearm. It's more of a QoL thing, as in you don't have to press as many buttons. I don't use range mods on my Zaw. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Ikyr0

[Xzorn]

3 hours ago, Ikyr0 said:

I will say that reach distance (from Riven or Primed Reach) is overrated on the polearm. It's more of a QoL thing, as in you don't have to press as many buttons. I don't use range mods on my Zaw. 

 

Weapon Reach can't really be overrated. Just underutilized.

If you're fighting something like The Index or PoE then you won't make good use of it.

It has potential to be one of the strongest stats on your weapon simply by hitting at an extra enemy per swing. It's situational.