Best staff/polearm for a melee only build?

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

I'm trying to find out which is the most effective at high levels between all the staff/pomearm weapons; I'm planning to use it on a frame which will run with melee equipped so I wanted a multi hitting weapon with the highest damage possible and a good attack speed.

Consider that I would need something able to deal decent damage on Sortie or similar level missions.

What would you suggest?

[IceColdHawk]

Lesion for damage, Orthos Prime for Range. But if you wanna go high level and might wanna strip the grineer's armor, lesion is the only way to go.

You won't be disappointed.

[ClinkzEastwood]

Tipedo and Orthos Prime.

Tipedo has the highest damage, Orthos Prime has higher reach.

Edited March 14, 2016 by ClinkzEastwood

[IceColdHawk]

5 minutes ago, ClinkzEastwood said:

Tipedo and Orthos Prime.

Tipedo has the highest damage, Orthos Prime has higher reach.

Tipedo stopped shining after coptering got removed. It's damage is so low that the crits can't save it.

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

11 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

Lesion for damage, Orthos Prime for Range. But if you wanna go high level and might wanna strip the grineer's armor, lesion is the only way to go.

You won't be disappointed.

How's that? Building it for 80%+ status chance with Corrosive? Would you mind suggesting me a build? 

I really like Lesion, though the range is not optimal.

[GinKenshin]

the best polearms are currently Lesion and Orthos Prime / Tonbo, though all of these suffer because of their bad stances 

best staff weapons and Tipedo and Bo Prime, the stances are great

[IceColdHawk]

5 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

How's that? Building it for 80%+ status chance with Corrosive? Would you mind suggesting me a build? 

I really like Lesion, though the range is not optimal.

I'm using Pressure Point, Primed Reach, Organ Shatter, Berserker, Maiming Strike, Blood Rush, Shocking Touch and Virulent Scourge for corrosive. I used only 1 status mod to save some damage. Did several testings in the simulacrum against a lvl 135 napalm. No need for more than 1 status mod.

This build is also a sliding build, keep that in mind!

Edited March 14, 2016 by IceColdHawk

[ranks21]

any staff polearm with bo at its base will underperform in the long run and tends to miss between the strikes.  orthos p has a lot over these bo type weapons.  range for more reach and slam  knockdowns and a tighter swing animation in its combos and you can mod it for 1,2 or all 3 of its damage stats and it will still perform great at any level, its that good.

even with the same stance on all of these melee with the same mods orthos just seems right while the others feels like something is missing.

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

5 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

I'm using Pressure Point, Primed Reach, Organ Shatter, Berserker, Maiming Strike, Blood Rush, Shocking Touch and Virulent Scourge for corrosive. I used only 1 status mod to save some damage. Did several testings in the simulacrum against a lvl 135 napalm. No need for more than 1 status mod.

This build is also a sliding build, keep that in mind!

So you go basically for a crit build? Isn't the crit chance around 10%?

Also, how can you keep up the Lesion bonus with such a "low" status chance?

Thanks anyway!

[IceColdHawk]

Just now, siralextraffo said:

So you go basically for a crit build? Isn't the crit chance around 10%?

It is 5%. Anyway, impress yourself:

Spoiler

Maiming strike and BR make it possible.

1 minute ago, siralextraffo said:

Also, how can you keep up the Lesion bonus with such a "low" status chance?

Hey hey hey, hold on founder, 48% status chance is not low. Every 2nd attack roughly gives a status. That's not low :P

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

4 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

It is 5%. Anyway, impress yourself:

  Hide contents

Maiming strike and BR make it possible.

Hey hey hey, hold on founder, 48% status chance is not low. Every 2nd attack roughly gives a status. That's not low :P

I see, I completely skipped the Maiming Strike in the build you posted above; that indeed makes sense, though I'll need to test it a bit as I'm not confident with slide attacks!

As for the status, yea 48% can't be considered low, but it also depends on the attack speed!

[IceColdHawk]

Just now, siralextraffo said:

As for the status, yea 48% can't be considered low, but it also depends on the attack speed!

Don't tell me you've missed berserker in my build :P

[AdunSaveMe]

1 hour ago, IceColdHawk said:

Tipedo stopped shining after coptering got removed. It's damage is so low that the crits can't save it.

But that's wrong.

[Stratego89]

1 hour ago, IceColdHawk said:

It is 5%. Anyway, impress yourself:

  Hide contents

Maiming strike and BR make it possible.

Hey hey hey, hold on founder, 48% status chance is not low. Every 2nd attack roughly gives a status. That's not low :P

So you build Lesion for a crit build, tell someone to not knock it before they try it- but slam on Tipedo which can melt lvl 95 heavy gunners in under 2 seconds with the right mods- not even including the new amazing ones the acolytes brought to the game? Wow man...

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

1 hour ago, IceColdHawk said:

Don't tell me you've missed berserker in my build :P

Nope, got that one, but with a base crit chance like that you really need to slide attack almost everytime you want for the whole build to work, right? 

[i_Lex]

17 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

Nope, got that one, but with a base crit chance like that you really need to slide attack almost everytime you want for the whole build to work, right? 

or use inaros' first?

[ClinkzEastwood]

2 hours ago, IceColdHawk said:

Tipedo stopped shining after coptering got removed. It's damage is so low that the crits can't save it.

And it was revived with the addition of bloodrush+body count.

Now it always crit., and is one of the biggest contender for the dps of it's clash.

 

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

9 minutes ago, sniperbro-captian-PS said:

or use inaros' first?

Well that's for sure, but since triggering the finisher animation for every single enemy might turn to be a little time consuming, I want something with high range that can allow me to use 1 and then kill blinded enemies while getting closer without the finisher animation if not absolutely needed.

That said, there are definitely some specific high level enemies that can hardly be killed without a finisher, I know that!

[IceColdHawk]

41 minutes ago, Stratego89 said:

So you build Lesion for a crit build, tell someone to not knock it before they try it- but slam on Tipedo which can melt lvl 95 heavy gunners in under 2 seconds with the right mods- not even including the new amazing ones the acolytes brought to the game? Wow man...

Are you kidding me? Tipedo is WAY weaker than Lesion. I actually played both things. I know what i'm talking about. And no you cant melt a lvl 95 gunner in 2 seconds with tipedo. Stop exaggerating there, it's not even possible with a dragon nikana. But melting a lvl 135 napalm in ~10 seconds. That was a true thing that i actually have tested with lesion. And what about the new amazing mods? I've even included them in the lesion since blood rush + maiming strike works just too good. The thing is, every melee weapon got made stronger because of those mods. While tipedo surely is better than before, it is still worse than other "mash e" crit weapons.

And if you gonna play tipedo the way you play it by mashing e, you can also easily pick the nikana prime which is miles better. Polearms got the advantage of their longer range so use them, with slides! Sure you can mash e too but you should mainly focus on the high slide attack damage with that range! While people poke the enemies one by one, i just slice'n dice through whole groups instakilling them. That is the main difference.

Lesion is underrated because it has 5% crit chance. But it in fact can red crit so hard with maiming strike and blood rush that it is not funny anymore. It also doesn't need a slot for body count since it already red crits after hitting 5 times whereas other crit weapons would lose a potential range or damage mod. Also mind the screenie i have posted before, it was corrosive damage. Would i have used viral the numbers would again be much higher.

43 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

Nope, got that one, but with a base crit chance like that you really need to slide attack almost everytime you want for the whole build to work, right? 

Yes. But you can also mash e after sliding a bit (for berserker to proc). Lesion is strong enough to keep it up. But the main strength lies in the slides. If you're not a fan of sliding but still want a staff/polearm and nothing else, go with tipedo then. It's not like i'm trying to force your playstyle lol.

29 minutes ago, sniperbro-captian-PS said:

or use inaros' first?

Inaros first allows finishers. While showing yellow numbers, they don't count as crits. And not every frame is inaros lol.

19 minutes ago, ClinkzEastwood said:

And it was revived with the addition of bloodrush+body count.

Now it always crit., and is one of the biggest contender for the dps of it's clash.

 

Let's say it got pushed a bit out of the grave, not revived :P

Also body count is arguable. It forces you to keep meleeing in order to keep that combo counter alive. I personally, don't wanna melee only. But you surely need that on weapons like tipedo.

So a question to siralex: What do you prefer? Mashing E or Combo'ing, or do you like sliding and hitting as many enemies as possible?

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

9 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

So a question to siralex: What do you prefer? Mashing E or Combo'ing, or do you like sliding and hitting as many enemies as possible?

First of all, thanks for the effort you're putting in this topic, I appreciate it!

To answer your last question, I usually do prefer mashing E, I use sliding attacks when I need the max damage the weapon can provide, but since I'm gonna use this polearm/staff on Inaros, if I need a very high damage I'm probably going through finishers rather than sliding attacks.

As I said before though, I'd rather avoid being forced to use finishers on every enemy, which is why I need a long range melee weapon that can kill many blinded enemies without being too close and triggering the finishers.

 

[IceColdHawk]

3 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

As I said before though, I'd rather avoid being forced to use finishers on every enemy, which is why I need a long range melee weapon that can kill many blinded enemies without being too close and triggering the finishers.

The satisfaction you get when sliding through blinded enemies is just too awesome, yet heavily lethal. Still i'd suggest you to give the lesion a try. The build i provided only needed 1 forma so it shouldn't be that of a big deal i guess. And as previously stated by me, you can still mash e with the lesion. Just no red crits but since it gets a 100% damage buff upon a status proc above the already immense high base damage, it deals more than enough damage to deal with weakened targets. 

7 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

First of all, thanks for the effort you're putting in this topic, I appreciate it!

No problem! I like it when people have the same likings as me when it comes to weapons :D

[Shreiko]

Lesion/Tonbo/Orthos prime. My favourite is Tonbo because it looks the coolest, the curved blade reminds me of the bristles on a Japanese calligraphy brush.

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

14 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

The satisfaction you get when sliding through blinded enemies is just too awesome, yet heavily lethal. Still i'd suggest you to give the lesion a try. The build i provided only needed 1 forma so it shouldn't be that of a big deal i guess. And as previously stated by me, you can still mash e with the lesion. Just no red crits but since it gets a 100% damage buff upon a status proc above the already immense high base damage, it deals more than enough damage to deal with weakened targets. 

I'll definitely try it!

Though, since I don't rely too much on slide attacks, I might swap Maiming Strike for Body Count, as I would need at least the counter to be always on if I want to benefit from Blood Rush boost without Maiming Strike.

[Coaa]

I personally have to agree with ice on this topic. Those new mods are really good for melee, but require you to strictly melee to keep counters up and damage up. This game has too much going on all the time to strictly use melee 100% of the time imo. When you get to high level enemies (100+) then melee is suicide without perfect setups and stealth / naramon to keep you going. Enemies will drop most any frame in a hit or two.

I've been doing alot of bloodrush + maiming combo on weapons and have been very very surprised by the results. (PS: if you like this combo, boltace has the highest slide damage in the game and will bring a bit smile to your face with some of these setups, granted not as much range or Lisions amazing mechanics.)

[IceColdHawk]

2 minutes ago, siralextraffo said:

I'll definitely try it!

Though, since I don't rely too much on slide attacks, I might swap Maiming Strike for Body Count, as I would need at least the counter to be always on if I want to benefit from Blood Rush boost without Maiming Strike.

Noooooo, don't! Maiming Strike is the total core mod in this build! Blood rush is completely  with a 5% crit chance. But maiming strike makes it, that your melee has 95% crit chance when sliding and then blood rush scales on that instead!

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

6 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

Noooooo, don't! Maiming Strike is the total core mod in this build! Blood rush is completely  with a 5% crit chance. But maiming strike makes it, that your melee has 95% crit chance when sliding and then blood rush scales on that instead!

But but but.............I slide so rarely that I'm afraid I would waste the core potential of your build! I'm afraid I need to adapt it to a more mashing E playestyle, unless for that something like Tipedo would be better...