Need Feedback On Melee Weapons

[unmog]

This is more of a technical question, but I'm wondering which might be the better weapon overall. I know they all have different roles, however I don't have infinite weapon slots so I'm trying to find out which ones I should get. I already have a dark sword [not leveled yet] and Dual Ether [twice polarized now] but I'm considering the Gram, Fraggor, Scindo or Hate. [if Im lucky enough to get it]

 

I could use some help trying to figure out which is the strongest or best long term weapon is. I'd rather see some kind of proof or math instead of personal opinion but if you've already used some of these feel free to comment on your own experience with them too. Heck, I know some people swear by some of the daggers even like Fang, so if you have something to back one of those others I haven't yet considered please let me know.

 

Lastly, on a personal note before anyone suggests it though, I already have leveled a glaive to 30, and I find even though I have a lot of fun throwing it a lot that its random bouncy nature, how it sometimes doesn't hit enemies on its return to you and the lack of an ability to call it back sooner or fight unarmed while its out leaves you rather vulnerable and isn't something I liked. It causes the weapons DPS and overall deadliness to suffer with groups of enemies. Even with a maxed fury and pressure point to simply swing at enemies repeatedly I wasn't feeling it.

 

Its small attack range, low damage, inability to hit multiple targets and lack of armor ignore meant its primary use was really only for throwing and I couldn't really make up for it no matter what I did. I think the glaive would be a much better weapon if it sliced through enemies [since the thrown attack ignores armor anyway] and if you could call it back faster by pressing the melee button again. I was hoping they might include a special mod or something for the glaive specifically in U8 like they did for the bow but nope. Until then I just don't see it really comparing with the others I've listed above for dealing out damage. it's fine if you disagree with my opinion on the glaive and I know some of you might, I'm just saying I've tried it out rather thoroughly and I think it needs some more work despite being fun to play with.

 

 

 

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My technical questions

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1st question= Is elemental damage for charge attacks based off the charge damage or the base damage? I remember reading about Killing Blow and it said it didn't increase elemental damage but pressure point did. So is the elemental damage for charge attacks going to be better on the other weapons with a base damage of 50 instead of Grams 40 or DS's and DE's 30 or no?

 

2nd question= I see some weapons like Fraggor mentioning that Fury actually helps speed up its charge attack for some reason. So considering this, does anyone know what the final attack speeds and charge speeds for these weapons are with a maxed fury/reflex coil so we know who has the best potential?

 

 

 

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My thoughts

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Dual Ether= It's what I'm currently using and has been polarized twice now. Good solid all around weapon I think, deals extra damage to light infested, ignores armor, staggers most enemies, average damage and speed, high crit and slide damage. I'm looking for a solid upgrade though as its damage is only mediocre sitting at 30/100...

 

The Dark Sword= Apparently one of the best weapons for dealing damage to single targets, since it can give two charge attacks in the time it takes most of the other big hitters to do 1, but it doesnt hit multiples or ignore armor/stun etc and has base damage of 30...

 

Gram= It has one of the fastest attack speeds, large reach with a high 200 charge damage and hits a huge area, but its base damage is lower than the others sitting at 40. This again ties to my first question, is the extra elemental damage on the grams charge attack going to be lower because of this compared to the others below?

 

Scindo= Has high base damage, but swings slower than Gram. Also has a skin that raises base damage even more. Is that basically it? I feel I dont understand where the axe really shines in comparison to the others other than ITS AN AXE!

 

Fraggor= Pretty much the same as Scindo but has armor piercing, which is sort of a big thing especially in higher levels and makes me think it's the best overall. It has a rediculously huge jump attack radius, which is probably further enhanced with Reach right? Also apparently you can get the charge speed to swing faster with fury mod, probably a bug right or no? Regardless, it probably has a really fast swing speed fully decked out right? Same with Scindo?

 

Hate= assuming I can ever find one, my friend was saying it was simply OP due to its fast attack and charge speeds, but I see in the wiki the speeds seem to be changed from the first time I looked. So has it been nerfed or was/is the information wrong? Also it mentions Hate has a shorter range than the other heavy weapons, whats the range compare to then do you think? Something more like a long sword, dual swords, dagger? I know it can be extended with reach, but I could just as easily extend the range on the others with reach too and make their area of death even larger.

[Amistyrja]

Elemental damage will be added base on charge damage

Fury makes the animation faster

I personally love the Amphis as it's effective on pretty much every enemy there is. Main melee 9/10.

The Dark Sword is also pretty impressive, with a very powerful charge attack and useful ground slam attack. Can't go wrong with this weapon unless you hate charge attacks.

Dual Zorens are great for mobility and perform surprisingly well against Infested. It's pretty lame against Grineer and Corpus though.

[unmog]

Hmm, actually its the first time looking at the Amphis, must have also been a new weapon I overlooked. It seems pretty neat, though it has mediocre damage like the Dual Ether. Doesn't seem like it'd be a good weapon against infested either since they get electric resistance right? Hows your experience with it against higher level infested been?

 

I'm looking for a weapon that's pretty much good against everything and doesn't specialize against just one or two factions so this is kind of important to me.

[Vorpalstryke]

All the slow swing weapons benefit from Fury I think because it speeds up the swing animation including that of charge attacks (so I hear).

I don't have a Hate but I've maxed the Scindo and Fragor and am now working on the Gram and this is what I've found. The Gram is fast and that makes up for the lower base and elemental attack power. I think having this and the Fragor makes the Scindo almost unnecessary. The Fragor covers longer range and armor ignore with the best AoE ground attack. The Gram excels at Infested swarms due to its faster speed and quicker charge attacks and has the triple light-Infested damage like the Scindo. The Scindo has the best range of all two-handers but only by a slight margin. The slow speed of the Scindo makes taking down chargers and other fast Infested trickier. Other than having it as a coolness thing or if you really love axes, you can perhaps skip the Scindo.

I intend to keep a maxed out Glaive for fun, Dual Ether Swords for speed attacks, Gram for high level infested missions and Fragor for high level everything else. Of all 4 weapons, I think I might polarize the Gram first after I've gotten it to 30. For me, it has the best balance of speed, range and power (base and charge attacks). Plus it's the "glowiest" of weapons with its neon-lit edges and I personally like 2H swords. Of course everyone is entitled to a different opinion. But if your space is really limited, I'd go with Glaive, Dual Ether and Fragor to get the broadest differentiation of your melee weapons. You really should try em all to earn the mastery points but keep what "feels right" to you.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Vorpalstryke

[unmog]

Yea I was thinking the gram too since it has a nice balance with all kinds of things. However I was worried that the elemental charge damage might be less than the 50 damage weapons, or that the Scindo's Manticore skin with its extra 15% damage [which is 57.5, wonder if thats rounded up or down or if it keeps track of the extra damage and sometimes deals 57, sometimes 58] would make it have higher elemental damage for charge attacks.

 

Then again maybe the mod Killing Blow is just bugged somehow, thats why it doesnt increase elemental damage, since Amistryja said the elemental damage was based off their charge damage and not multiplied by their base damage.

 

Does anyone know for certain one way or another if increasing your pressure point damage increases your charge elemental damage? I always assumed it did, but if its just a bug with Killing blow it probably doesn't...