Fang Or Dual Ether?

[Bakim0n0]

The only weapon I know of that does not ignore armor on charge attacks is Ether Daggers. This is one out of nearly 30 melee weapons.

 

Scindo does not have longer range. The ranges are identical.

 

All slashing weapons are triple infested damage and Gram is no different.

 

As for Furax... I dunno, it's niche to be sure. It has really high attack speed and decent charge speed, which combine to make its charge attack dps pretty good. In terms of single targets it would probably be the best melee weapon against bosses and heavies... but Gram is just so much safer and more useful against everything else.

 

The few disadvantages Gram does have are not even worth caring about.

 

The entire melee system and all melee weapons need a complete overhaul, IMO.

I just tested the damage thing, I'm mistaken (or something has changed) and both do the same damage.

Ankyros also do not ignore armor on charged attacks; but that doesn't change the fact that not all melee charge attacks ignore armor.

Unless something has changed Scindo has a bigger radius, it might just be hard to notice in the heat of battle however, there is one major major thing you're neglecting...

Heavy weapons are not condusive to keeping pace with runners / doing speed runs. Part of what gives Ethers more suited overall is the speed and they still do loads of damage.

As I mentioned in the first place, it's very situational and all the weapons are highly related to taste.

[BurningVanities]

I see no love for the Amphis. :( It's my favourite weapon right now because the charge attack looks awesome and that thing wrecks Corpus nonsense.

 

 I was considering an Amphis as well, anyone else have thoughts on it?

[Bakim0n0]

Amphis is ok, a good CC heavy.. I still favor the Bo for the reliability of the jump attack.

[darrenalilim]

I have both Dual Ethers and Ether Daggers. Should I sell off the Daggers? I have limited weapon slots.

[GrayFox]

Which of these would be better for someone like Frost or Ash?  Or, any other suggestions on a melee weapon to use? Heck, any suggestions on a weapon setup?  I'm new to these two guys and not sure what route to take.

 

Thanks!

 

With the common idea of "it depends on your intended gameplay/game style" I'll just share my experience with the two (i have both potato'd):

Fang:

Being the weapon with the fastest attack speed, it never failed to amaze me during the time I was using the hell out of it, combined with how I planned on using it with ash (sprint + max stamina) I wanted to melee as much as I can and combine a few shots when necessary, fusing the fang's attack speed with movement speed I imagined playing with it mobility in mind.

 

Rating: (Overall Experience) 8/10

 

Dual Ether:

 

I was quite hesitant at first, since I'll be letting go of my fangs, I was even conflicted during the Livestream with what to choose between Dual Ether and Ether Daggers/blades, I waited for a few days after its release, reading up on reviews/comments from other players and decided to go with Dual Ethers since the dagger counter parts are quite.. "meh". With its innate armor ignoring capabilities, we all know that feeling when we crafted a weapon and fresh out of the foundry oven, testing it out gives the satisfaction of "ah... those credits and materials were worth it".. or so for my case it was. While it lacked the attack speed, it made up for the multi-hits, the stagger effect for each hit and the charge damage. Yeap I had fun with it.

 

Rating: (Overall Experience) 8/10

 

Comparison:

 

Why both at 8? First off, I'm making room for future weapons that I might find more adequate to have the higher scores (I'm giving scores based on how I see them act on how I play, these "ratings" are not here to belittle other weapons or what not, since we all see the weapon uses and other factors differently)

 

As mentioned above, I have both potato'd. I supercharged my fangs way before the ethers were in (as most of us did) and of course it didn't disappoint. For the Dual Ethers, I had doubts on whether I should or shoudn't, since I am, like most of us, don't have a S#&$load of potato's to just slap on every weapon, but after a few considerations, I decided to take a risk and I didn't regret it at all.

 

To summarize it, I kept both weapons, potato'd both weapons to have fun because I do have fun using them, as other people have posted here in the forums or some of the players that share my view, when a game just revolves on having the max load out that it gets boring, then you hit a brick wall. I view every game as a means of fun, whether I don't have the best weapons as people say, as long as I play well that I'm not causing delays for a public/private team and I perform well... AND I'm having fun... then I'm good with it.

 

An idea of this is I have a potato'd grakata, one of the most recently "critiqued" rifle to date, again, I'm having fun with it and it goes well with how I wanted to play it - massive crits for pin point shots, while having the option to consecutively "spray" aiming head to head to head if I'm encountering a mob or so.

 

TL;DR: get them both, rank them to 30, you'll get the mastery rank xp, it's just which would you prefer to potato :)

[ThePresident777]

Let's do it this way--what makes you think the Fragor is better?

 

Not a trick question, just an honest inquiry.

 

Fragor stuns and ignores armor.  Gram does more damage against non- ancient infested.  But, non-ancient infested don't have that much HP where as Ancients have armor and tons of HP.

[Einsig_SV]

Gram also ignores armor. Almost every melee weapon does with charge attacks.

 

Gram also has a rather huge jump attack knockdown area. Any extra range Fragor has is kind of frivolous.

 

Gram has the fastest swing and charge among heavy weapons (I do not count staves as heavy weapons at all) so its DPS with charge swings is completely unmatched in all but a few niche situations that no one should care about, situations where you shouldn't even be using a melee weapon at all.

 

At wave 20 Xini, my Ash can kill an ancient in 2 swings with stealth up. And I don't even have a potato on my Gram.

 

In all seriousness, why do all but 2 weapons get free armor ignore? I think it's making the balancing of melee weapons impossible right now.

 

But really, this thread has gotten way out of hand. I'm as much to blame for this derailment as everyone else, but I think we need to move on and take this discussion to a thread where it belongs. The thread already got appropriate answers.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Ion_Sig

[Keyza]

Gram also ignores armor. Almost every melee weapon does with charge attacks.

My whole Tenno life is a lie :/ !

Are there any melee weapons whose charge attacks doesn't ignore armor ?

[ThePresident777]

Gram also ignores armor. Almost every melee weapon does with charge attacks.

 

Gram also has a rather huge jump attack knockdown area. Any extra range Fragor has is kind of frivolous.

 

Gram has the fastest swing and charge among heavy weapons (I do not count staves as heavy weapons at all) so its DPS with charge swings is completely unmatched in all but a few niche situations that no one should care about, situations where you shouldn't even be using a melee weapon at all.

 

At wave 20 Xini, my Ash can kill an ancient in 2 swings with stealth up. And I don't even have a potato on my Gram.

 

In all seriousness, why do all but 2 weapons get free armor ignore? I think it's making the balancing of melee weapons impossible right now.

 

But really, this thread has gotten way out of hand. I'm as much to blame for this derailment as everyone else, but I think we need to move on and take this discussion to a thread where it belongs. The thread already got appropriate answers.

 

According to the wiki Gram has the same charge time and charge damage as Fragor and Scindo, so how does Gram do more charge DPS?

[Einsig_SV]

The wiki continues to state what the actual charge time and swing speed of Gram is. The fact is that the fire rates and charge speeds the game tells us are almost always wrong. There's an entire page dedicated to showing this issue and figuring out the real fire rate and charge times of melee weapons.

 

What the game doesn't tell us is that attack speed factors in to your charge time total. Weapons with higher attack speed will swing faster after charging finishes, which results in finishing the attack animation sooner and allowing you to charge another attack sooner. Charge time has to do with the actual period of charging the swing, or the "windup". Fury works like a slapdash Reflex Coil because of this, but not as strongly, and both of them combined result in the fastest charge attack rate possible.

 

With both of my 50% charge and fire rate mods, my Gram makes me feel like I'm playing my Fiona in Vindictus spamming Butterfly Swing.

 

Sadly, I have yet to notice a significant effect from putting Fury on the Glaive.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Ion_Sig

[stacey69]

Which of these would be better for someone like Frost or Ash?  Or, any other suggestions on a melee weapon to use? Heck, any suggestions on a weapon setup?  I'm new to these two guys and not sure what route to take.

 

Thanks!

For me its always...

[Menoetius]

Bro, Plasma Sword all the way!

[Phoenix86]

Fang is anti-grineer only, not other uses of it.

 

Dual ethers are useful against all kind of enemies

[ThePresident777]

The wiki continues to state what the actual charge time and swing speed of Gram is. The fact is that the fire rates and charge speeds the game tells us are almost always wrong. There's an entire page dedicated to showing this issue and figuring out the real fire rate and charge times of melee weapons.

 

What the game doesn't tell us is that attack speed factors in to your charge time total. Weapons with higher attack speed will swing faster after charging finishes, which results in finishing the attack animation sooner and allowing you to charge another attack sooner. Charge time has to do with the actual period of charging the swing, or the "windup". Fury works like a slapdash Reflex Coil because of this, but not as strongly, and both of them combined result in the fastest charge attack rate possible.

 

With both of my 50% charge and fire rate mods, my Gram makes me feel like I'm playing my Fiona in Vindictus spamming Butterfly Swing.

 

Sadly, I have yet to notice a significant effect from putting Fury on the Glaive.

 

Ah, that explains why Fragor charge seemed a bit faster with fury mod.

[Judgebanks]

Dual Zorens are the top tier 1%. You know exactly why!

[Sehop]

Wouldn't duel zorens be better with ash's smoke screen? With the crit and what not?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Sehop

[Judgebanks]

Wouldn't duel zoreans be better with ash's smoke screen? With the crit and what not?

You don't use Dual Zorens for damage, that only brings shame unto your clan.

[Einsig_SV]

Dual Zorens are for going fast.

 

Gotta go fast.