How to melee t4 for 40+ minutes without dying?

[CosmicHermitCrab]

I'm mr 21, but I mostly played this game with guns in the past. How do you melee 24/7 in t4 survival for 40 minutes or more without dying? I tried Saryn and Atlas and they didn't do too well after 20 minutes. Valkyr works but it's boring and so does Excalibur. Chroma I haven't tried yet, but I think paying attention to his defensive-buffs(the timers) will be annoying. I also use the zenurik focus, even though the naramon focus would be better; however, I like never run out of energy, I might even try mesa or zephyr since they can't take projectiles very easily. The problem in T4 survival unlike T3 survival is that they do so much more damage and I have trouble reaching to the next enemy (in time) before their bullets deplete my health entirely. I go max vitality and steel fiber with arcane guardian as well. I'm glad I didn't invest in arcane grace since I had trouble in t4 survival with melee only. I obviously run life steal on the weapon and the molt from saryn heals me with that molt augment, but they just do so much damage. Depending on the melee weapon I either run pure damage for finishers or blood rush with body count and berserker for crit or crit/status builds. I feel like I might be overlooking something. I have used Mios, lesion, and prisma cleavers mostly. The mios and prisma cleavers have very similar common crit builds. However, the lesion I got 4 dual stat status mods along with maiming strike and berserker. The attack speed goes insanely high with the lesion and they fall down frequently for ground finishers. I got prime nikana and broken war/dakra prime, but they are kinda slow in terms of attack speed. Haven't tried destreza yet though and I heard it's at least decent. When I was a newb I liked scindo prime with tempo royale, but I grown tired of it; feels like I just spam attack along with holding right click. Also, I used ankyros prime with finishers and it's pretty good, but nikana and broken war does more finisher damage; however ankyros prime is faster with the animations.

Edited April 12, 2016 by WingGun

[CosmicHermitCrab]

10 minutes ago, Exploderizer said:

You have, however, said you use Maiming Strike on the Lesion. It's best to pair up Blood Rush with Maiming Strike, as the crit on slide attacks scales with the bonus of Maiming Strike, making for easy and reliable red-crits as soon as you hit the 1.5x multiplier. As I said, it's totally possible to get to high times in T4S with the Lesion, and this won't pose a problem with the right build, you will find yourself having an easier time using another weapon which can take advantage of the Acolyte mods, as they will be able to kill enemies much faster at any level, meaning there will be fewer enemies alive to kill you. The PDC are also good, since their aug is fantasic, and will absolutely get you where you need to go.

Yeah, but the status chance that you sacrifice for that crit build isn't worth it in the end in my opinion. Just because you do more and maybe stronger red crits doesn't mean you do more damage than an enemy that has several armor reduction stacks from corrosive procs. Also, the blast proc helps you do ground finishers while doing normal attacks. Also, the crit multipler of the lesion isn't that high. I think you are overlooking the status capabilities of the lesion. It's more a status weapon than a crit weapon, compared to the orthos prime. You are not going to be able to one shot enemies with sliding attacks anyways, against lvl 100+ heavy units. The maiming strike just helps to get the berserker buff, so then you do attacks faster which synergies well with status procs.

Edited April 12, 2016 by WingGun

[Liljeman]

Shadow Step? Anyone? No, that's cheating... xD

[DarthVader]

26 minutes ago, WingGun said:

Do you switch between sleep arrow and the cloak arrow often? I have trouble switching between the two. I'm guessing you just shoot sleep arrow a bunch and use prowl a bunch. However, you can't regen energy while using prowl. I find equinox nightform excellent as well for this type of playstyle with daggers.

Also can use the lens which gives energy and use arcane trickery and when trickery proc's go out of prowl and gain some energy back aswell as energy orbs or can shoot invis arrows and just put packs down either way works.

[CosmicHermitCrab]

1 minute ago, WizMandem94 said:

Also can use the lens which gives energy and use arcane trickery and when trickery proc's go out of prowl and gain some energy back aswell as energy orbs or can shoot invis arrows and just put packs down either way works.

Arcane trickery ain't a bad idea.

[taiiat]

42 minutes ago, WingGun said:

Also, slash procs helps somewhat, along with corrosive or viral procs.

if you want Slash Status, note that all Dual Swords force Slash Status on Ground Finishers.
and definitely remember to position yourself on a side of the Enemy so your Dual Sword will hit them in a Weakpoint, so you can multiply your Slash Status.

don't forget that if an Enemy didn't know you existed or you made them forget through an available method, if you quickly back away after performing that Ground Finisher, your Slash DoT will get the Stealth Multiplier.
an interesting way for my Ichor to Kill Heavy Gunner Eximus up to like, Lv80 or so with a single Ground Finisher.

12 minutes ago, WingGun said:

Lol, how did you not die from the poison. Man you are such a a beast, man.

he said he was using a Trinity. complete explanation there.

[CosmicHermitCrab]

5 minutes ago, taiiat said:

he said he was using a Trinity. complete explanation there.

oh that makes sense now

[Sakatchi]

2 minutes ago, WingGun said:

oh that makes sense now

Yup, put bloodrush and body count along with crit and corrosive on tekkos, mash block, and spam link and blessing. You're the combat medic.

[--Q--uaint]

29 minutes ago, WingGun said:

Lol, how did you not die from the poison. Man you are such a beast, man.

I solo'd that alert. With a Speed Nova. _{Shadow Step OP}

1 hour ago, WingGun said:

I wonder if the charge attack scales from saryn’s toxic lash.

It does not.

I recommend Inaros.

I was able to, in the Simulacrum, use my Mios and Saryn to kill 20 level 135 Bombards with no Focus bonuses. Take that with a grain of salt, as I've not done any great amount of practical testing.

[CosmicHermitCrab]

9 minutes ago, ChronoEclipse said:

I was able to, in the Simulacrum, use my Mios and Saryn to kill 20 level 135 Bombards with no Focus bonuses. Take that with a grain of salt, as I've not done any great amount of practical testing.

Same, it does well in most missions except t4 survival after 30 min.

[Exploderizer]

42 minutes ago, WingGun said:

Yeah, but the status chance that you sacrifice for that crit build isn't worth it in the end in my opinion. Just because you do more and maybe stronger red crits doesn't mean you do more damage than an enemy that has several armor reduction stacks from corrosive procs. Also, the blast proc helps you do ground finishers while doing normal attacks. Also, the crit multipler of the lesion isn't that high. I think you are overlooking the status capabilities of the lesion. It's more a status weapon than a crit weapon, compared to the orthos prime. You are not going to be able to one shot enemies with sliding attacks anyways, against lvl 100+ heavy units. The maiming strike just helps to get the berserker buff, so then you do attacks faster which synergies well with status procs.

Just did some testing in the Simulacrum. Using Lesion, a build that was Pressure Point, Maiming Strike, Spoiled Strike, Berserker, and all 4 of the dual stat mods, it took 27 seconds to down a group of level 100 bombards.

Using a different build that was Blood Rush, Primed Reach, Pressure Point, Maiming Strike, Berserker, Organ Shatter, North Wind and Fever Strike, it only took around 10 seconds to kill the lot, under the same conditions. I will eat my words and say that my Orthos Prime did not do as well, and enemies did not die in time (high armor rating kills the lower damage of the Orthos Prime), at which point I came out of invis (assuming no use of Shadow Step) and was killed by group of Bombards.

However, note that even with only one Corrosive Projection, running Viral is a better choice, as heavies take more damage from Viral, and proc cuts half their health, which is very helpful for killing them. In any case, using Blood rush along with Maiming Strike is your best choice, since it kills faster, and thus leaves fewer enemies alive to kill you. Also be cautious if using both Radiation and Viral, as a Radiation proc might make an enemy aggro and kill you in the crossfire.

[CosmicHermitCrab]

54 minutes ago, Exploderizer said:

Just did some testing in the Simulacrum. Using Lesion, a build that was Pressure Point, Maiming Strike, Spoiled Strike, Berserker, and all 4 of the dual stat mods, it took 27 seconds to down a group of level 100 bombards.

Using a different build that was Blood Rush, Primed Reach, Pressure Point, Maiming Strike, Berserker, Organ Shatter, North Wind and Fever Strike, it only took around 10 seconds to kill the lot, under the same conditions. I will eat my words and say that my Orthos Prime did not do as well, and enemies did not die in time (high armor rating kills the lower damage of the Orthos Prime), at which point I came out of invis (assuming no use of Shadow Step) and was killed by group of Bombards.

However, note that even with only one Corrosive Projection, running Viral is a better choice, as heavies take more damage from Viral, and proc cuts half their health, which is very helpful for killing them. In any case, using Blood rush along with Maiming Strike is your best choice, since it kills faster, and thus leaves fewer enemies alive to kill you. Also be cautious if using both Radiation and Viral, as a Radiation proc might make an enemy aggro and kill you in the crossfire.

It's a more consistent test if you only test on one enemy than a group of enemies because the enemies move around. When I tested on a single level 135 corrupted heavy gunner, the crit build only beats my status build by a couple of seconds, like 3 seconds. Also, you built the status build wrong, spoiled strike is not a good choice since it reduces attack speed, it's better to put a maxed fury or another elemental mod on. You want more attack speed so then you proc more. However, I put life steal on both of my builds, since realistically players have life steal on their melee weapon for endgame content. So I would replace that spoiled strike with life steal. For the crit build I'm unsure, but I would probably take off the maiming strike or primed reach. I did this and it still outperforms the status build, but only for a couple of seconds. Either build works for endgame, to each their own. I also had body count on my crit build instead of either maiming strike or primed reach, since that's probably better on survival missions (the other one you replace with life steal). I personally rather run the status build since it has more cc potential and sacrifice a few seconds of dps.

Edited April 12, 2016 by WingGun

[Soulden]

Any frame you feel really comfortable with.

All you need is a weapon that can hit multiple enemies per hit, spin dash a lot, and keeps enemies close enough to keep multiplier up.

Melee is all about that multiplier, and running out of enemies (of having to chase them) and losing it is the part you need to master.

[OzoneSlayer]

shadow step and a crit melee