Best Endgame Melee Weapon

[(PSN)Daguerreotype13]

So I've been running my Valkyr on an endless Hysteria and it's been fun, but I want to focus more on a tank build focusing on eternal war and a melee. I've slapped together a build that synergizes rage and toggle hysteria for "lifesteal" with good armor and health, but I can't decide on which weapon to run.

 

I've been running War and that's been working well but I can't help but think there's got to be something better. I know once enemies hit around lvl 100+ it's better to focus more on elemental and slash/puncture/impact becomes irrelevant, would would that mean something like a Lacera or Mios would make a good endgame melee weapon?

 

I've read about Orthos Prime with Primed Reach and viral proc and berserker being insanely good (crit isn't that high but it hits so many so fast that berserker works well). Just curious what melee everybody else is running (if at all) against engame level enemies.

 

Again, I'm trying to stick to melee only and speed isn't much of an issue as I'll be running an eternal war.

[MrPie5]

Dual Ichor is my go-to when I need high-level stuff to die, especially with Valkyr. Pressure Point, Spoiled Strike, True Steel, Organ Shatter, Blood Rush, Body Count, Berserker, and an elemental damage mod that varies based on what type you want.

Jat Kittag with Primed Reach is also pretty good for CC.

[Trichouette]

Hysteria > no care about the weapon, only mods matters.

Endgame melee weapon > scindo p / dual ichor / nikana p 

These are examples.

[Plushy]

I take Scindo Prime with me when I know it'll be rough. 

[Kevlareater]

Jat Kittag with Crushing Ruin stance works nicely. The weapon's slam and two of the combos in the stance proc blast and has a pretty high status chance of 25%.

 

I am starting to see more people choosing Nikana Prime as their go-to melee option. Not a fan of the Nikana myself, but I understand why others choose it.

 

Also, best is subjective, to some extent.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Kevlareater

[DanujCZ]

ScindoP, War, Jat kittag, NikanaP.

They all do wonders if you got berserker+body count+blood rush combo.

[(PSN)B0XMAN517]

If you're using the Crimson Dervish stance the broken war sword hits for some crazy numbers (due to CD's 4x damage). The stance can lock you in position and isn't everyone's favorite for mobility, but that dps tho.

[(PSN)Daguerreotype13]

I noticed a lot of builds including Blood Rush and Body Count, however I'm on ps4 so I won't have access to those mods probably for some time yet. The War is working well for sorties but it takes too many hits once you start getting lvl 100+. I'll have to try Duel Ichor again and although I have a Nikana Prime, I haven't found it all that fantastic against higher lvl enemies that aren't flesh. Maybe my build is terrible? I'll mess around woth them more a bit.

 

What are your thoughts on pure elemental damage weapons (Lacera, Mios) versus lvl 100+ enemies?

[6cPi]

i wonder if there are other weapons who benefits with prime reach except orthos 

[ValkyrieSequence]

6 hours ago, (PS4)Daguerreotype13 said:

I noticed a lot of builds including Blood Rush and Body Count, however I'm on ps4 so I won't have access to those mods probably for some time yet. The War is working well for sorties but it takes too many hits once you start getting lvl 100+. I'll have to try Duel Ichor again and although I have a Nikana Prime, I haven't found it all that fantastic against higher lvl enemies that aren't flesh. Maybe my build is terrible? I'll mess around woth them more a bit.

 

What are your thoughts on pure elemental damage weapons (Lacera, Mios) versus lvl 100+ enemies?

The War does really well over level 100 imo, but it all depends on the build on it. However, I won't sit there and tell you you have to take it if you don't like it. To each their own. 

Regarding the pure elemental damage weapons, some are lack luster, some are not. (BTW Mios is not a pure elemental damage weapon) I find that the electricity ones will take you farther, but in the end it is all dependent on what you're doing. For instance having some puncture will be nice if you find yourself squaring off with some heavy gunners, but if said heavy gunners have physical resistance then straight elemental will wipe it out. Having at least one with a forma or two on it and the normal melee mods will clear everything in game so I say go for it. 

[(PSN)Daguerreotype13]

Yea I didn't notice I was confusing the Mios with the Duel Ichor on the whole elemental platform. I was trying some weapons in the simulacrum against lvl 80 Corrupt Heavy Gunners last night but the issue is some of my weapons have forma/catalyst and some don't so it's tough to tell which are truely superior to others. 

I also noticed the Boltace has an insanely high Spin Attack damage (higher than all my other melee weapons). I wonder if this alone could make it a good top-tier weapon?

[(PSN)lhbuch]

I like War, Broken-War, Nikana Prime and Prisma Dual Clevers. I´m on console so I don´t have access to the new mods so I can´t tell which one of them is better considering these new mods.

[Rounpositron]

Dual Prisma War Wraith Vandal Prime.

[Coaa]

On March 20, 2016 at 11:20 AM, (PS4)Daguerreotype13 said:

Yea I didn't notice I was confusing the Mios with the Duel Ichor on the whole elemental platform. I was trying some weapons in the simulacrum against lvl 80 Corrupt Heavy Gunners last night but the issue is some of my weapons have forma/catalyst and some don't so it's tough to tell which are truely superior to others. 

I also noticed the Boltace has an insanely high Spin Attack damage (higher than all my other melee weapons). I wonder if this alone could make it a good top-tier weapon?

Shh my little secret ;O . With maiming strike, body count and weeping willow (inverse of everyones favorite "crit body count builds") you get a massively hard hitting slide attack weapon that procs some amazing statuses. Use it wisely tenno. It's not for everyone, not many people wanna use primarily slide attacks but this weapon is no joke with a good setup.

I bring this combo and naramon in sorties with pretty much any frame and have 0 trouble. You get your stealth when needed via slide + maiming, it does tons of damage and with the correct builds gives you on demand status + dmg or armor stripping very quickly.

[Voidforged]

I feel that the Dual Kamas Prime are often overlooked, so I made this quick video for you. I'd never choose War/Nikana/Scindo over them for any difficult content. 

 

Edited March 22, 2016 by Voidforged

[TyrannosauRayz]

Dual ichor, mios/leshion, war, dual kamas, tipedo or the new tipedo mutalist (idk the name) 

 

 

[Ozamchist]

On March 20, 2016 at 11:12 PM, 6cPi said:

i wonder if there are other weapons who benefits with prime reach except orthos 

Works wonders on the atterax, it's nice on the galantine as well.

As for other reccomendations besides the ones mentioned here:

ack & brunt (using final harbinger), ninkondi, atterax, tekko, ankyros prime, any dagger with covert lethality can be potent, galantine, anku (and if the scythe buff has hit ps4 then the hate and the reaper prime as well), and destreza (not a fan of the stance but I won't deny its potency.

[Epsik-kun]

14 hours ago, Voidforged said:

I feel that the Dual Kamas Prime are often overlooked, so I made this quick video for you. I'd never choose War/Nikana/Scindo over them for any difficult content. 

 

wow, that's some genuinely bad build!

[Voidforged]

Just now, Epsik-kun said:

wow, that's some genuinely bad build!

I've spent a lot of time playing with this build, if you can think of a way to improve it, please share.

I look forward to the video.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Voidforged

[Epsik-kun]

On 22.03.2016 at 2:38 AM, Voidforged said:

I've spent a lot of time playing with this build, if you can think of a way to improve it, please share.

I look forward to the video.

You making me work, man. I made a simple video, but I'm facing some problems converting it.

If we put it in short, you tried to make a universally good build, however in reality you made a universally bad one.

If you insist on using Weeping Wounds (which I wouldn't recommend to be honest), throw away Lasting Sting and Shattering Impact and change them for 2x90 for Corrosive damage.

Boom, your build will already perform several times better against absolutely anything in this game.

Also, if it were me, I would also remove Weeping Wounds and change it for Body Count and Life Strike for Organ Shatter. You use Valkyr, she has her Hysteria and Hysteria has innate Life Strike.

Also, while I'm against disregarding Hysteria in the favor of regular melee, you at least can make up for not using Body Count by using Hysteria to move between groupes of enemies, so you would conserve your combo.

There are also might be few tweaks that may worth it or may not. Like putting in True Steel, because Bloodrush provides multiplicative bonus. Or using dual-stats instead of 90 elementals (in a case where you remove Weeping Wounds).

[Grimlock84]

On 3/19/2016 at 6:21 PM, (PS4)Daguerreotype13 said:

I noticed a lot of builds including Blood Rush and Body Count, however I'm on ps4 so I won't have access to those mods probably for some time yet.

you can get Bloodrush from pavlov earth though :v

[Darth-Buldge]

Crit build tekko. I use those babies all day long!

[Voidforged]

Just now, Epsik-kun said:

-snip-

Took your opinions into the simulacrum for some play testing.

Tested against a single level 125 bombard, killed him 20 times with each build. Ran to bombard, blocked until he did his proximity ground slam, immediately begun spamming attack, no combos. No Steel Charge or Corrosive Projection. As fair as I could make it.

The original build I posted was killing him in 90.8 attacks.

Remove Lasting Sting and Shattering Impact in favour of Shocking Touch and Fever Strike was killing him in 96.6 attacks.

However, 

Remove Lasting Sting, Shattering Impact, Weeping Wounds and Life Strike in favour of Body Count, Organ Shatter, Virulent Scourge and Voltaic Strike was killing him in 76.2 attacks.

The actual build I use for general play, which is; Blood Rush, Primed Reach, Lasting Sting, Pressure Point, Weeping Wounds, Berserker, Organ Shatter, and Virulent Scourge, was killing him in 67.2 attacks.

Additionally, if you attack a mob (level 125 bombard) until his health is at 70%, you can move on to the next enemy whilst your slash procs destroy him. I demonstrate this in the video, about 20 seconds before you see the builds.

The reason the video was performed with a non-hysteria Valkyr was because that is what the OP is running.

Personally, when I do run Valkyr, I do so in Hysteria, which would be a completely different weapon build, as you know.

The only reason the video contained the weapon build it did was because a non-hysteria Valkyr would not be able to sustain herself against mobs of that level without Life Strike, which meant there was no room for a Corrosive combo to deal with armor, so instead Shattering Impact was slotted.

Just now, (PS4)Daguerreotype13 said:

I want to focus more on a tank build focusing on eternal war and a melee. I've slapped together a build that synergizes rage and toggle hysteria for "lifesteal" with good armor and health, but I can't decide on which weapon to run.

Again, I'm trying to stick to melee only and speed isn't much of an issue as I'll be running an eternal war.

Toggling Hysteria for its Life Steal would probably work fine for most content, but once you get higher up you'll be better off picking one state and optimizing it. Mods such as Blood Rush or Body Count that hugely improve whatever melee weapon they're slotted onto have no effect in Hysteria. If you main non-hysteria state, and build for it, the weapon you come up with might struggle against high level armored targets when you toggle.

Good example is the original build I posted, it destroys the level 125 bombard in non-hysteria, but once toggled, I can barely damage it. No damage equals no Life Steal.

If you are set on finding something for both states, I guess something like; Primed Reach, Pressure Point, Voltaic Strike, Virulent Scourge, Berserker, Organ Shatter, True Steel and either Vicious Frost or Life Strike would be your best middle ground.

Just now, Epsik-kun said:

I made a simple video, but I'm facing some problems converting it.

https://clipchamp.com/ Free online converting/compressing software. Drag/drop your clip and hit start.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Voidforged

[Epsik-kun]

17 hours ago, Voidforged said:

stuff

I have no idea, how did you manage to get a faster kill by exchanging corrosive proc for lasting sting, but whatever.

I think the main problem with your build lies in the fact you are testing it against a single lvl 135 Corrupted Bombard. Ask yourself, how often do you fight a single, lonely, lvl 135 Corrupted Bombard? Pretty often, if you live in Simulacrum, but not that much otherwise.

Here's the video, where I assume my dual Raza is Kamas prime (with a fantastic 5% base status chance, right), and then I don't assume that. Compare it to your build.

 

 

[Voidforged]

I usually test against 20 level 125 bombards, as they're the only real threat I encounter in-game, and doing so allows me to see how something performs with and without a melee combo.

The original video had me testing against 5 of each difficult corrupted enemy at level 125.

I fought a single level 125 bombard to give you numbers because you were ignoring the obvious, and numbers never lie.

I'd like to point out a few things from your video;

1) You're in Naramon, invisible, dealing 400% additional damage.

2) You're in Naramon, with Deadly Intent granting an additional 30% critical chance.

3) The mobs are only level 100.

4)  Volt energizes the surrounding area, increasing the attack speed and mobility of his allies within 15 / 20 / 22 / 25 meters. Affected allies will gain 10% / 15% / 25% / 50% melee attack speed and movement speed. The effects last for 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 seconds.

• Speed buff is affected by Power Strength.
• Maximized Power Strength increases the speed buff to 154.5%.

5) You didn't show your Volt build. Aura Mod? Strength Percentage? (Keep in mind all my testing was done without SC, CP or any Warframe Abilities/Focus.)

6) Drastically different weapons, can't really compare apples to oranges. 

• Kamas; Attack Speed, 1.17 - Physical Damage, 70 - Crit Chance, 15% - Crit Multiplier, 2.0x - Status Chance, 20%.
• Raza; Attack Speed, 0.917 - Physical Damage, 48 - Crit Chance, 20% - Crit Multiplier, 3.0x - Status Chance, 5%

[Epsik-kun]

11 minutes ago, Voidforged said:

stuff

That's a bad habit. That's why it takes you ages to kill Gunners who are much tougher and have different kind of armor. It also takes you too long to kill Ancients and Moas, despite them actually being semi-oneshottable.

Naramon doesn't provide the actual 400% stealth modifier, like RB does. It does give some damage tho. And yes, you should be using Naramon if you are using Blood Rush.

I've shown you the next closest thing to your Valkyr with Dual Kamas, I can't show you exactly Valkyr with Dual Kamas because I don't have either. Dual Kamas are bad tho. This particular build works best with either Dual Ichors or Prisma Dual Clevers.

Just try the actual build in the actual game and you will see the difference in performance, don't search for non existant loopholes.