I feel like melee is severely underpowered and slightly useless.

[Fluff-E-Kitty]

Any dagger + 

[RafaelRamax]

Although some improvement has already been made, I agree that melee's mechanics need to be revisited in a lot of aspects. Combos, finishers, stances. There are many things that need some attention.

Even though there are some flaws, melees are not underpowered at all, yet you need to put little effort to build them. Be it on Forma or Mods. A wide range of melees can surpass damage of any other weapon type in high-level missions and can be used as the only weapon in 90% of all missions. Some are not that great, as some primary and secondary aren't as well. There are plenty of guides out there and some are very easy and cheap to replicate.

Here is MY OPINION about good melees I would recommend using. Each one of them has its unique playstyle and specs.

• Blade/Whip - Mios
• Claws - Venka Prime
• Dagger - Rakta Dark Dagger / Heat Dagger
• Dual Daggers - Ether Daggers
• Dual Swords - Dual Keres / Twin Krohkur
• Fists - Furax Wraith
• Glaive - Falcor
• Gunblade - Redeemer Prime
• Hammer - Arca Titron
• Heavy Blade - War / Zenistar
• Nikana - Nikana Prime / Skiajati
• Polearm - Orthos Prime / Lesion
• Rapier - Destreza Prime
• Scythe - Hate
• Sparring - Kogake Prime
• Staff - Bo Prime
• Sword - Broken War
• Sword/Shield - Sigma and Octantis
• Tonfa - Telos Boltace / Kronen Prime
• Whip - Atterax / Secura Lecta / Scoliac

Whips, Polearms, Staffs and Tonfas work great with Maiming Strike, but this is not the only way you can use them. Having a better understanding of Damage, Armor and Status types may also help you getting better results. I don't know if that is your case, but wielding the wrong tool for the job might give the impression the tool is useless.

I hope this could be of some help.

Cheers!

[Iludra]

I'm going to argue that melee is severely overpowered and very useful, but that depends on your playstyle. Experiment with different weapons and you may find a melee option that works well with how you like to play.

If you don't like how stances force you into silly animations, try Ninkondi with its awesome quick melee that slaps all the enemies around you with an elemental proc of your choice. It melts everything up to sortie 3, and that's even before you put Condition Overload on it. No Blood Rush or Meme Strike required whatsoever. There are other melee weapons with their own advantages, so just keep trying different things.

[IIDMOII]

I'm sure someone may have already mentioned this but melee working well entirely depends on what frame you are using. 

I hated melee originally but I love it now that I have some more durable and melee centric frames like Inaros or Valkyr.

I also don't have any of the meme mods and still clear rooms with ease.

I think there's a big disconnect somewhere between what the community thinks is good versus the content available. As far as anything on the starchart is concerned, you could face roll your keyboard with a starter weapon.

Edited January 21, 2019 by IIDMOII

[Marvelous_A]

Their damage is fine. Some stances which I mean most of them are garbage though.

[Aldain]

1 hour ago, Fluff-E-Kitty said:

Any dagger + 

That doesn't solve the melee power issue, all it does is trivialize missions provided you have stealth/stuns.

Solving the melee issue is actually making it so that the best solution to the problem isn't just cutting the knot with cheesy systems. 

[DatDarkOne]

1 hour ago, AzureTerra said:

Don't mind me, im just getting up off the floor where i was rolling about laughing.

This has been my reaction to reading this topic also.  Heck, I'm still laughing at it now.  

[SneakyErvin]

Tips to the OP and others with melee issues.

1. Dont use dedicated melee i.e equipped melee with weapons or individual stances that are bad.

2. Find the right stance for each weapon to make it feel smooth.

3. Just use polearms or staves, both have amazing quick-melee options along with some really good stance options if you wanna go dedicated melee. They also come with great range.

4. Tempo Royale is amazing for heavy blades. It gives wide fluid slashes when used with quick-melee and great controllable combos when you have it activley equipped. Tempo Royale+Berserker+Gram Prime my oh my the destruction.

5. Whips are overrated and only good for maiming strike/maiming riven setups. The actual swings are total trash and hindering for you.

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by SneakyErvin

[TheGuyver]

I'm reading this thread and thinking to myself "up until the Paracesis you could do 99% of the game content at any level and difficulty, excluding eidolons, will melee". 

Then I laughed.

Edited January 21, 2019 by TheGuyver

[Mach25]

8 hours ago, AzureScion said:

...

I love close quarter combats but I don't like how melee weapons work in this game.

What do you think of the current state of melee weapons?

@OP

Sit tight - melee 3.0 is in the works and the system will be more enjoyable then. They'll be releasing it in chunks, starting with the most popular weapons first (dev words). In the meantime, SneakyErvin's post should help in the meantime.

 

 

[IIDMOII]

2 hours ago, Legion-Shields said:

So keep meleeing and use that speed to steer yourself back toward your enemies. It’s not hard to point yourself in the right direction.

There are also several options that effect melee aiming and camera movement in the settings.

I don't recall which setting but there's one where the camera would fight you during combos. Disabled that and all is good now.

[AzureScion]

So far the only thing I've tried that are remotely close to being devastating is the Orthos Prime which is basically a less powerful Zaw. I've tried several other weapons like Kronen P, Destreza P, Nikana series, Hirudo (which won't trigger the healing effect for me), and the heavy stuff like Galatine/Gram. They lack the range to be destructive yet also lack in pure damage stats so that  even when I do manage to get close I barely deal any damage. Yes they're strong but I feel stronger and safer destroying things far away with my Plasmor or Pyrana without having to worry getting killed with squishier frames.

 

I tried the sliding method, it made me stop sliding everytime I hit an enemy like hitting some sort of a wall. The only time I feel slide attacks are relevant was back when I was abusing Valkyr's Hysteria but then again it's an exalted weapon so the stats are great plus she's literally invincible while having it on.

 

 

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

I'm genuinely surprised that the first few responses to this thread were thoughtful and informed. I expected to go down my...

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In all seriousness, you're right. Melee is a fundamentally flawed mechanic. Before Acolyte mods, it was pathetically underpowered. DE's solution was mods which attach additional scaling stats to the combo counter. This was a terrible mistake. Now melee is the most powerful thing out there if you only use melee, but toothpicks out the gate. Condition Overload is a nice way around this, but the mechanic is still broken at the conceptual level. You should be encouraged to use your entire loadout, not locked into one weapon.

The new upcoming Quick Melee mechanic shows that DE staff have had similar thoughts. I'm optimistic about the rework, but I think they are approaching scaling from the wrong angle. Scaling damage shouldn't be the focus of melee. Guns and melee should work together. Some thoughts:

• To please those who want to use melee exclusively: Replace the combo counter with Channeling, a new multi-stage powerup with nice VFX that ramps attack speed, movement speed and melee damage every so many hits. Final stage adds multi-hit and attack variations, such as short-range shockwaves or forced procs on certain attacks. Channeling state is color-coded: blue at stage 1, yellow at stage 2, red at stage 3. Screen flashes on new stage; screen filter and subtle embers on frame indicate state with color. Each stage has a timer that resets after so many seconds. Stage 1: 20sec; Stage 2: 10sec; Stage 3: 5sec. Building stages is fast, maintaining them is situational. UI displays "combo" as bar that fills on hit while continuously depleting, instead of hit count.
• Combo-dependent mods attached to different Channeling states.
• Switch Gun/Melee swap. Melee is tap, gun is hold.
• Melee draw has no "time", and can be canceled into during Quick Melee attacks. Attacks can be queued immediately upon swapping with no animation lag, and swap animation does not prevent actions like jumping or rolling.
• By default, Block is assigned to the context button. Guard Attack can be performed up to 0.33sec after releasing guard button. Aim input switches back to your gun.
• Add mechanics that cause guns to briefly buff melee, and vice versa, encouraging use of your entire loadout.

Barring these thoughts, I like most of what DE proposes with the rework, including aerial attacks and especially other ways of building combo (could pair nicely with my Channeling suggestion; blocks and counters contributing to powerup acceleration). Some of these problems could be solved by giving players complete control over bindings. Forbidding multiple inputs is especially limiting on controllers, since many functions in WF are only available in mutually exclusive states.

[BallisticSalsa]

Sounds like youre either bad at making builds or just dont have access to thw mods to make them good.

Excluding primes, you need.

Blood Rush- Scales crit.

Condition Overload-Makes status and hybrid weapons viable. Works best with status heavy frames and weapon kits.

Covert Lethality - Gives a reason to use daggers.

Life Strike - One of the few ways to make channeling worthwhile. Works great on health heavy frames as a fast healing option.

Berserk - Scaling attack speed. A staple on most blood rush builds.

Drifting Contact - A cheap extender for combos and a touch of status chance.

From this pile youll notice 2 things.

1. Melee is not built like firearms.

2.  Melee is very wed to its combo system.

So dont swing once or twice build your combo overtime. With body count or drifting contact you have time between shots to build combo. Before you know it you'll often be doing heavy damage very fast with each swing.

[JackHargreav]

There is the Lesion, the Sigma Octantis(If u get there), the prime Nikana, the Skiajati, Paracesis, Dragon Nikana (is alright), Prisma Dual Cleavers, daggers with Covert Lethality and any frame that can make enemies stunned or fall asleep. There is the infested Zaw pole arm and Rapier and the Desterza. All of these weapons are easy to mod. Lesion just needs a few dual stat melee mods to melt enemies. The nikana types just need crit chace and damage with the Blind Justice stance. Dual cleavers are good for a hybrid build and the same is true about the Octantis and the infested Zaws. Desterza really all you need is crit chance and damage since the stance already gives you a lot of slash damage. Paracesis is quest locked and needs 5 formas to reach It's "true" power (Remove damage resistance from sentients and deal more damage to them) but in it self It is already really powerful. And probably there are f*ck ton of other melee weapons that could be mentioned. So there you have it. Only problem is getting the stances probably.

Edited January 21, 2019 by JackHargreav

[Toppien]

my gram prime with max range, and scaling crit build dissagrees with you

honestly people who complain about melee is because they are doing it wrong, even the maiming strike users, compared to a normal build, a maiming strike build is really dumb

my only problem with melee are the stances, most of them suck, in general i say:

scytes have garbage stats but good stances

daggers are kinda balanced

great swords are the best in both stats and stances

normal swords lack damage and range

hammers suck

and wipes are used only for maiming strike XD

zaws are abused for the same as wipes but going really meta

katanas are decent

and single daggers are used for completing riven challenges XD

the rest are not really that popular, used only for mastery fodder

[Stormwylf]

I guess I just don't get it, two pages of this debate and DE is reworking melee, which should make this discussion meaningless.  (shakes head, moves on).

[Tricky5hift]

Zaws are technically the best melee weapons but that doesn't mean everything else is by any means bad or useless in comparison.

Also considering how melee weapons scale damn near infinity compared to firearms, I don't believe they are bad.

The only part that I dislike about melee are the one-dimensional stances and generally boring playstyle. From what we've heard about the melee 3.0 reworks, at least part of this problem should be addressed.

Edited January 21, 2019 by Tricky5hift

[schilds]

@AzureScion

No, no it isn't. Melee beats out pretty much everything endgame.

 

Not that it matters since they're reworking it and we have no clue whether it'll be better or worse.

 

[Obviousclone]

None of the melees in this game are bad enough that they won't take you through the starchart once modded with every damage increasing mod there is. As much as players on the forums and in region chat will hold their atterax/gram prime/paracesis/zaw up to the sky and tell you it's the best and solves all problems, you can just as easily stick a pressure point, a fury, and the 4 uncommon elemental damage mods onto an mk1-bo and beat literally everything up to Mot,Void into submission.

 

Melee is however incredibly lackluster/boring in the sense that all you do is tap the "e" button over and over to kill things. There's no reloading. There's no ammo. There's no aiming. There's no self damage, there's no scoping in. There used to be a stamina bar for downtime, but that has since been removed. Blocking and channeling just do not matter. It has been over 3 years since someone actually performed a "wall attack". And 99% of the playerbase has no idea how to parry and will resort to looking it up on the wiki and giving you it's definition since no one ever unironically uses it to fight things. Stance mods are a thing, but a lot of stances are bad due to a lack of good options (looking at you sundering weave and brutal tide), and a large number of the good ones are about just learning how to and spamming exclusively one combo (looking at you cleaving whirlwind). Or you spam slide attacks. Some people don't even do the slide spamming themselves, they use a macro program to spam instead (which is kind of pathetic, letting a program play the game for you, may as well be playing farmville on facebook at that point).

 

Right now, melee is actually pretty strong, but that has way more to do with abusing really strong mods. You either run a crit build that uses bloodrush and a combo duration mod (ahem drifting contact is meta) because the melee you are using has good enough crit stats (and bloodrush gives like +250% crit chance after reaching a combo count of 5 hits), or you run a condition overload status build because the weapon leans more towards status and condition overload's damage increase is multiplicative after all other damage calculations. Sometimes you will make the decision to put in range mods. Maybe you'll run crit on slide attack mods like maiming strike or a riven mod which has it. Pretty much every melee is going to have some attackspeed boost because animations are actually pretty horrible without

Is it weak? No.

Is it a really shallow system? Yeah, pretty much. Which is why everyone else is telling you that DE intends to fix this with melee 3.0 (hopefully).

[(XBOX)Skiller115]

Melee only sucks if you're using the following

All Duel Daggers

All machetes

All melee with low status and critical chance 

Wukong's iron staff

 

[NekroArts]

29 minutes ago, Stormwylf said:

I guess I just don't get it, two pages of this debate and DE is reworking melee, which should make this discussion meaningless.  (shakes head, moves on).

The only concrete thing about the rework is the stances (simplified combos) and new universal attacks (homing slam attack); no information or plans to make drastic changes to the weapons' stats itself.

[(PSN)Crixus044]

You have a long way to go in the game, believe me. I will tell you now, warframe is a much more complex game than your probably used to, so if you don't get it at first, don't fret. Melee is considerably more powerful than it originally seems.

I've been in the game for years, going from level 1 to 10099, melee-only has never let me down. Never

Edited January 21, 2019 by (PS4)Crixus044

[rapt0rman]

1 hour ago, (XB1)Skiller115 said:

Melee only sucks if you're using the following

All machetes

This hasn't really been true for a while now, Cyclone Kraken picks up the slack for Gazal and Nami Solo (can't really save machete/machete wraith), and a well built Zaw Machete can easily compete with other high tier melees.

[(XBOX)Skiller115]

14 minutes ago, rapt0rman said:

This hasn't really been true for a while now, Cyclone Kraken picks up the slack for Gazal and Nami Solo (can't really save machete/machete wraith), and a well built Zaw Machete can easily compete with other high tier melees.

Well y'all must have gotten something new because on console they are still garbage and I have never seen anyone use machete outside of leveling them up as well as their rivens being worth less than compost heap