Let's talk about Melee 2.0

[Casval_Rouge]

EDIT : I made a post to expand this topic a bit further.  Now that we have different opinions on what is wrong, I want to move on to how to improve it.  So read this post for that.

 

So it's been more than 2 years since Melee 2.0 arrived.  I'm curious about the opinions of the players here on the overhaul.  Do you think it truly succeeded it fixing what was wrong with 1.0.  Anyway, for those that's willing to indulge me...

Now before we start I think I need to set the stage here, have a premise, etc. 

After all the flaws of 1.0, DE spent the time to overhaul the system and made 2.0.  Some of the biggest problems of 1.0 was two fold. 

1. Melee was significantly under-powered in comparison to powers and guns.  Only the very best melee weapons were good enough to be worth carrying (not that you can unequip back then).  Even then they were alright at best, Sword-alone definitely was very inefficient to say the least. 

2.  Melee was all charge attack.  Ever since Mod 2.0, spamming charge attack was the only way to do decent damage.  There are some quick attack weapons that could be decent as well, Dakra Prime was the top dog in quick melee if I remember correctly, but for the majority of melee weapons, charge attack was the way to go.

 

With all that said, here are some questions for you guys to answer.  I would love to see your thoughts.  You don't have to answer all of them, even just one is fine.  Just refrain from "Yes. No. Bye" posts please.  Just an overall opinion is fine too.

Do you believe 2.0 fixed the problems 1.0 had?

Do you believe 2.0 is in a good spot right now?  If not, why?

What's your opinion on Body Count + Blood Rush + Berserker as a build?  Is it how you imagine Warframe's melee should be?

What about Channeling?  Should Channeling itself receive some major update (not necessarily mean full on overhaul) or just tweaks? 

What do you think of Counterattack?  Do you think it has a place in 2.0? 

What do you think of Stances?  Do you enjoy the combos they offer?

When you go mainly melee in a mission, do you mix up your combos?  If so, are they tactical choices or just on a whim?

What do you think of the new charge attack?  Do you think they have a significant enough purpose to serve?

What do you think of the current state of blocking?  Do you think the damage resist they give are enough for melee playstyle?  Or would you prefer the old drain stamina but blocks 100% system?

What do you think of melee mods we have right now?  Do you think there are enough build variety for you to play?  Too few?  Good enough?  They aren't interesting regardless?

 

Since I'm the one asking these, I should properly answer a few.  Feel free to skip it since I care more about yours than my own anyway =/

 

I think 2.0 + Body Count solved the problem of melee not doing enough damage, but in turn have brought back the other problem of 1.0.  That is combos are meaningless as we only need combo count to be high enough.  Not to mention combos are difficult to execute when the attack speed are so high from Berserker.  It is simply easier to just spam the hold right click combos and still do more than enough damage.  So basically we swapped out spam Charge attacks into spam quick melee or one easy to use combo string.

Channeling have been very underpowered for two years and Life strike remain the only real purpose Channeling has.  

Counterattack is pointless because Warframe is a very offensive oriented game, riposte works in Dark Souls because it is the opposite there.

Bringing back the charge attack without any real gameplay support was pretty silly in my opinion.  Despite knowing they are adding some new mechanics through unique weapons to work with charge attack, I have a feeling spamming quick attack will still be too powerful for charge attacks to be worth the hassle.  Not to mention the charge attack now is not as responsive as 1.0.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2016 by Casval_Rouge

[Mastikator2]

I still wish they would've went with the fighting game combo style instead of the current model. Using direction + attack or other button + attack to dynamically build fighting moves, like you, street fighter, mortal combat, tekken, etc games that do this well

[PinkInaros]

2 minutes ago, Mastikator2 said:

I still wish they would've went with the fighting game combo style instead of the current model. Using direction + attack or other button + attack to dynamically build fighting moves, like you, street fighter, mortal combat, tekken, etc games that do this well

you know there are combos, plenty of them, even some that use directional buttons

[Airdrift]

I'll weigh in on this.

I like the potential melee has and I've played melee only for a very long time (since I made Chroma, actually).

I'll try to word this post in the least negative way I can, because I want to make it clear that I still -enjoy- melee in its current iteration, but it could be done better.

 

1. Combo system. I personally think a Light/Heavy attack system akin to Dragon Ball, Dynasty Warriors, etc, would work so much better than the current (Pause) and (Hold Block), etc system works. I never, ever use the (Pause) combos on purpose - they just happen every once in a while. This would make different combos much easier to execute and DE could easily make the different combo enders have different purposes, such as wide AoE, hard knockdown, high single target focus, etc.
2. Blocking. I pretty much never ever actually block, as the fraction of second in transitioning between enemies doesn't allow for it and holding block while in the air starts Aim Glide, slowing down my mobility. Should melee have some way to reduce incoming damage due to its disadvantages over ranged weapons? Sure. I just don't quite know what. Maybe 30% damage reduction when wielding a melee weapon?
3. Channeling. This serves a single purpose for me, and that is Life Strike. Oh and flashy disintegration kills, because why not? I would like to see this removed, to free up the button for blocking, so we'd have a simple Block, Light, Heavy attack control scheme. How would Life Strike work then? I don't know. Tie them to some percentage of Heavy Attack damage?
4. I like Bloodrush+Body Count, even if I think Body Count should just be an innate part of the game. Although, I do think that maybe it overly emphasizes crit weapons as the -most- viable weapons.
5. I'm not sure how Stances would work in a different, more useful combo system. Currently I choose stances based solely on they feel and I outright avoid most weapons that don't have a stance I like. Like Dual Swords.
6. And lastly, my number one annoyance. Knock downs. Every single Heavy unit has a knockdown and will execute it the second you come into range. This gets incredibly annoying when the game starts spamming heavy units at you. I don't mind the threat of knockdowns, but maybe make them a little less common?

[(PSN)B0XMAN517]

30 minutes ago, Casval_Rouge said:

With all that said, here are some questions for you guys to answer.  I would love to see your thoughts.  You don't have to answer all of them, even just one is fine.  Just refrain from "Yes. No. Bye" posts please.  Just an overall opinion is fine too.

Do you believe 2.0 fixed the problems 1.0 had? The only thing I remember from 1.0 are charge attacks so I'm going to go with yes.

Do you believe 2.0 is in a good spot right now?  If not, why? Crit is king, everything else can sit in a corner. That's no fun as it cut off every other melee weapon. By the time status is useful, you've been in the same mission for too long; time to extract.

What's your opinion on Body Count + Blood Rush + Berserker as a build?  Is it how you imagine Warframe's melee should be? It's really bad. It put DE in a precarious situation. As I said above, everything that's not crit can sit in the corner as it doesn't even hold a candle to crit builds. Other than restricting new mods to "weapons with < 15% crit" (bad solution) I can't think of a way to bring not crit weapons to crit's level, that won't make crit more powerful in the process.

What about Channeling?  Should Channeling itself receive some major update (not necessarily mean full on overhaul) or just tweaks? It's alright. It could use a damage buff, but I'm not really complaining.

What do you think of Counterattack?  Do you think it has a place in 2.0? You what?

What do you think of Stances?  Do you enjoy the combos they offer? No. They are far too clunky for this type of game. I can execute the combos, but just tend to stick to the main one and the one you can execute by holding block.

When you go mainly melee in a mission, do you mix up your combos?  If so, are they tactical choices or just on a whim? See above.

What do you think of the new charge attack?  Do you think they have a significant enough purpose to serve? DE put a swing before the charge, removing their point so no.

What do you think of the current state of blocking?  Do you think the damage resist they give are enough for melee playstyle?  Or would you prefer the old drain stamina but blocks 100% system? They threw out the baby with the bath water and, imo, should have kept the stamina bar and left blocking how it was.

What do you think of melee mods we have right now?  Do you think there are enough build variety for you to play?  Too few?  Good enough?  They aren't interesting regardless? I will always find a combination to min max and it usually ends up being the exact same build that most are using.

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by (PS4)B0XMAN517

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

I think melee 2.0 did a great job of revitalizing melee.

I love stances, but I honestly think a lot of stances need work. Certain ones like Tempo Royale (my favorite) does a great job of providing various combos that are worth using in different situations, but most stances really only have 1 actual combo (not counting the "hold" and "x3" combos basically everything has)...sometimes more, but even then only 1 combo worth using.

Honestly, I never use the melee hold attack anymore. I've even tried to throw it in occasionally to make use of it but it's just so clunky compared to combos. Keep in mind, I mainly use War and Nikana Prime, so there may be better weapons for it or ones with worse stances that may benefit from it. This is just my experience.

I actually swap between melee and range frequently depending on the frame i'm playing. I categorize frames by "power frame" / "weapon frame"--> "melee", "gun" and so on. When I'm using a "melee" frame like Ash I tend to switch between my Bow and Sword often, but on a "power" frame like Nova i only pull out the melee when something invades my personal space. Melee 2.0 really gave me the ability to make those kind of playstyle decisions that I don't feel I had before.

I've never really made channeling builds so I can't say how much is different there. I only channel when I need to activate Life Strike or add some extra damage briefly.

I've never found blocking or counterattacking very effective.

 

[Emulad0or]

Yes

Yes, but could be improved

Honestly, don't really like it. Sure it's a strong combo, but it's so strong that forces you to use it on most of the weapons, even those that were not actually crít weapons at first, now need this mods to become optimal (however I believe this is more of a Damage 3.0 fix thing, but anyway)

Channeling should be given some love, DE tried without success with Synoid Heliocor, but more tries need to happen

The mechanic of opening enemies to finisher exist and work (with some abuse) fine, but counterattacking enemies with the block+channeling doesn't, because we have so much stuff happening on the screen, with so many enemies, that it's kinda useless mechanic

Stances are good, but we could use a few more

Well, we Tenno are so strong that the need to use combos for tactical advantage is meaningless, so I just mix it for fun

Not really, we are already so strong with quick attacks that slowing down to give one charge attack is actually a lost o dps

The new block makes sense, but I think shields should be able to block 100%, even if not all the time, a chance to block 100% or a stamina bar for block only would be cool

Mods are ok for Damage 2.0, the lack of variety happens thanks to mods that até forced to most/any build (pressure point, body count, etc) and I believe this will only be fixed on Damage 3.0 

 

Comparing to the 2 points you made about 1.0:

1- Melee is actually better than ranged weapons thanks to the crít combo, but since you need to be close to the enemy, it also puts the frame in a risk/reward situation, and that's a good thing

2- Melee now is all about crits, specifically the crit build. DE is trying to create weapons with new mechanics to counter that, but so far, the optimal melee build for all situations is (sadly) a crit build 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Emulad0or

[Kalvorax]

9 minutes ago, Mastikator2 said:

I still wish they would've went with the fighting game combo style instead of the current model. Using direction + attack or other button + attack to dynamically build fighting moves, like you, street fighter, mortal combat, tekken, etc games that do this well

and how well will that work in the hectic chaos of warframe?

 

its hard enough doing the current combos

Edited October 24, 2016 by xcynderx

[Autongnosis]

I believe that doing what parkour 2.0 did to the parkour system to stances would make melee combat a lot more enjoyable.
What i mean by that is going from a fixed form linear path combo system to a branching system in which you mix and match several maneuvres as you see fit, using stuff like key+direction and other useless keys on melee, like alt fire and reload key. My only qualm with that is that it would probably be pretty hellish to implement on a controller without making our console friends go completely mad, since unlike usual fighting game WF has a full 3D complex movement system and it would probably clashes with the combo controls.

The other point that could be nice would be to add some kind of aerial combo, though that's nice but not necessary, at least to me.

Another point that became an issue much later, which is to say Shadow Debt mods for melee, could imho be solved with a double pass as follows:

• 1st point: make Blood Rush scale off BASE crit chance and not after everything else has been added (IE: the broken maming strike slide build that gets 340-something% crit chance at 1.5x combo)
• 2nd point: introduce other mods that work like Blood Rush and Weeping Wounds (which should incidentally be bumped to 10 ranks/110% bonus), and make those mods mutually exclusive like some mods are in Conclave.

That would make it pretty decent i think.

Also:

2 minutes ago, xcynderx said:

and how well will that work in the hectic chaos of warframe?

 

its hard enough doing the current combos

Think of it like this: if every maneuvre is good for a different thing, and you have like 5-6 of them tops, and they're easy to peform on their own, you've got a system that can feel a lot more fluid and that rewards you for knowing your stance and having a bit of finger dexterity (not too much, and nothing close to actual fighting games).

Imagine this:

• You have a big group of grineers coming your way, you bullet jump towards them then to one of the maneuvres (let's say W+melee attack) that does a ground slam then flips forwards past them.
• You then use another maneuvre (let's say alt fire) that does a double circular swing that hits almost all of them as they get up.
• You then turn around and use a third maneuvre (let's say hold E) that does a flurry of slashes in front of you, and they die
• A lone heavy unit closes in and you can use a 4th (like W+reload) that does a sort of short dash and swipes the legs off the enemy, and then finish him off with a ground finisher.

If you want to you can go for the complex way, if not you can just alternate spam the multiattack maneuvres and do a heck of a lot of damage exactly like you do now. But you are rewarded for having a bit of reflexes and knowing your stance, without having to stick to fixed form combos that sometimes are made way harder to execute because of attack speed modifiers or other factors AND lock you in for the duration unless you stop attacking for a little and then resume, which is a dramatically underestimated flowbreaker in combat.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Autongnosis

[BattledOne]

19 minutes ago, ObsidianG said:

you know there are combos, plenty of them, even some that use directional buttons

Calling what we have now, compared to what other games have as combo system is an insult to those other games.

Edited October 24, 2016 by BattledOne

[Casval_Rouge]

Thanks for the replies guys.  Good to see some other perspective than my own.  I've been formulating my thoughts on what kind of melee system would work in Warframe and ended up writing 1900 words.  So yea, thought I should get others opinion and not get too fixate on my own. 

15 minutes ago, xcynderx said:

and how well will that work in the hectic chaos of warframe?

 

its hard enough doing the current combos

If it's just direction key + holding down melee, it should be very simple to execute in practice.  But definitely not fighting games inputs, well maybe Smash's are fine. 

If De can split all the individual moves from the stances and make them standalone as a command attack and not all in 2-3 combo strings, use the control scheme I mention above, each stance can support 5 charge attacks + standard string.

Even better, let us choose what moves are in our own stance. 

 

I think what we don't need are combos.  What we need are moves.  This is what I think 2.0 really got wrong.  Slide attack is good, flying kick is good(technically not melee but meh), we need more of those, with each stance giving different variations.  They already spend all that time making those animations, should be able to just re purpose them into charge attacks.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Casval_Rouge

[ashrah]

i really like now current melee system only thing we need is charge attack like before without pre swing..

[Kalvorax]

9 minutes ago, Autongnosis said:

Think of it like this: if every maneuvre is good for a different thing, and you have like 5-6 of them tops, and they're easy to peform on their own, you've got a system that can feel a lot more fluid and that rewards you for knowing your stance and having a bit of finger dexterity (not too much, and nothing close to actual fighting games).

Imagine this:

• You have a big group of grineers coming your way, you bullet jump towards them then to one of the maneuvres (let's say W+melee attack) that does a ground slam then flips forwards past them.
• You then use another maneuvre (let's say alt fire) that does a double circular swing that hits almost all of them as they get up.
• You then turn around and use a third maneuvre (let's say hold E) that does a flurry of slashes in front of you, and they die
• A lone heavy unit closes in and you can use a 4th (like W+reload) that does a sort of short dash and swipes the legs off the enemy, and then finish him off with a ground finisher.

If you want to you can go for the complex way, if not you can just alternate spam the multiattack maneuvres and do a heck of a lot of damage exactly like you do now. But you are rewarded for having a bit of reflexes and knowing your stance, without having to stick to fixed form combos that sometimes are made way harder to execute because of attack speed modifiers or other factors AND lock you in for the duration unless you stop attacking for a little and then resume, which is a dramatically underestimated flowbreaker in combat.

oh ok. well if they ever decide to implement it, i hope we can do lots of testing first heheh.

OT: Currently, I wish we could change what combo is executed with quick melee/first combo...ie swapping Blind Justice's  Zatos creed with Destined Path or Guiding Light...having that slam at the end of Zatos creed really breaks the flow....especially when there is a slam at the end of Heeding Call.

[Autongnosis]

6 minutes ago, xcynderx said:

oh ok. well if they ever decide to implement it, i hope we can do lots of testing first heheh.

OT: Currently, I wish we could change what combo is executed with quick melee/first combo...ie swapping Blind Justice's  Zatos creed with Destined Path or Guiding Light...having that slam at the end of Zatos creed really breaks the flow....especially when there is a slam at the end of Heeding Call.

Definitely agree on both counts.

[Kalvorax]

now that im thinking about it...does alt fire do anything with melee weapons? why cant DE make that the charge attack?

[Mastikator2]

32 minutes ago, ObsidianG said:

you know there are combos, plenty of them, even some that use directional buttons

Here's the thing though, most combos are a series of pressing e. The other combos are pressing e with a space, direction or holding in that series of e.

None of the combos is JUST e + direction or reload + e or block + e. That's what I wanted, a longer list of very short very simple combos, not a short list of very long simple combos.

[Kinetos]

7 minutes ago, xcynderx said:

now that im thinking about it...does alt fire do anything with melee weapons? why cant DE make that the charge attack?

It's used by the Hysteria augment. 

[Kalvorax]

3 minutes ago, KinetosImpetus said:

It's used by the Hysteria augment. 

does hysteria have a combo for holding the attack button?

Also i forgot about that one because its a recent addition heh.

[Kinetos]

1 minute ago, xcynderx said:

does hysteria have a combo for holding the attack button?

Also i forgot about that one because its a recent addition heh.

I'm not sure what branches the combo has. I've not used Valkyr much in the last year and Hysteria always annoys me with its inability to change directions while attacking like every other stance now has. Hysteria is possibly my least favorite stance. Well ok, least favorite besides Crossing Snakes. 

[Kalvorax]

3 minutes ago, KinetosImpetus said:

I'm not sure what branches the combo has. I've not used Valkyr much in the last year and Hysteria always annoys me with its inability to change directions while attacking like every other stance now has. Hysteria is possibly my least favorite stance. Well ok, least favorite besides Crossing Snakes. 

ah, it does

Delirium*

E E HoldE E2X E

 

but either way...unless your using the augment, afaik no other melee has an alt attack...so i dont see why they cant make it the charge attack..would stop most of the complaints i think heheh)

[Karav]

Honestly, I feel that damage 2.0 did more for melee than the newer melee system. I often find the only thing that matters is finisher damage and range. Slide attacks are devastating against grouped enemies and I don't see that changing.

Combos. I don't know what to do with these. They are frustrating, confusing, and every weapon has a different idea of how long a "pause" should be. The only time I can consistently pull them off is when the enemies I'm facing pose too little a threat for the combo to be worth using. Most of the time I just smash the melee button and occasionally hold down a direction key or the block button and hope a combo triggers. I kind of wish DE would take a leaf out of my.com and the system used in skyforge.

Spoiler

If you look at the left, you'll see the melee combo system. The "charges" are what happens when you hold a button and only affect the last attack of a combo. Everything else are skills and ability augments. An example combo would be LMb, LMb RMb. I know it's a little simplistic, but it works and is easily remembered in combat. I like the combos in Warframe, I just find them too hard to use effectively.

Counterattack is mostly useless to me. The only way it's useful is if you have auto-parry equipped, which interrupts the use of other weapons.

Charge attacks Um, I guess they're useful. I don't use them because I can just slide-melee and do the same damage in an AoE.

Finishers. These feel almost too powerful. Melee 2.0 did little to mitigate this. (it went from instantly killing to flat damage that ignores armor) I'm using a finisher-damage/attack-speed mods on my permanent-stealth Loki right now and it runs exterminates faster than when I go in guns blazing. Why bother learning combos, when slide-attacks are finishers?

Crit Damage. I hate the current critical hit meta. I really do. I can have the best weapon in the game with the best damage stats, but it won't be able to keep up with something that can do six times it's base damage every hit and six times that every third strike. The status-damage meta is almost as bad, but guns with 100% status chance are typically mitigated by the RNG of multiple damage types.

TL:DR - Melee 2.0 is fairly healthy. Damage 2.0 is the source of most of melee 2.0's issues.

[Iceheart125]

Melee,2.0 is stronger,  but I think we need more. Instead of stances being 4 combos at best, they should each add a few different hits, for an zxc button style melee. Hit, strong hit, dash/contextual action hit, for finishers, etc. Make them less about pauses and more jumps, rolls, etc. We're space ninjas, I'm pretty sure we could pull off more than one or two swings with a given blade. If hammers crushing ruin had the spinning style, less multipliers, more aoe, spins, and the like, and shattering storm had more single target high damage, but both had flexibility. I want a dynamic overhaul.

[Nazrethim]

4 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

After all the flaws of 1.0, DE spent the time to overhaul the system and made 2.0.  Some of the biggest problems of 1.0 was two fold. 

1. Melee was significantly under-powered in comparison to powers and guns.  Only the very best melee weapons were good enough to be worth carrying (not that you can unequip back then).  Even then they were alright at best, Sword-alone definitely was very inefficient to say the least. 

2.  Melee was all charge attack.  Ever since Mod 2.0, spamming charge attack was the only way to do decent damage.  There are some quick attack weapons that could be decent as well, Dakra Prime was the top dog in quick melee if I remember correctly, but for the majority of melee weapons, charge attack was the way to go.

Do you believe 2.0 fixed the problems 1.0 had?

1. Yes and no. Yes melee weapons in general are good. No in the sense that power creep is still strong in weapons in general. Melee is very powerful in general, but it's still very clunky.

2. Yeah, combos are worth using depending on stance and weapon. Quickmelee is still the way to go due to animation lock.

Quote

Do you believe 2.0 is in a good spot right now?  If not, why?

It's in a good spot, but still needs lots of refinement.

Quote

What's your opinion on Body Count + Blood Rush + Berserker as a build?  Is it how you imagine Warframe's melee should be?

Body Count should have been an inherent mechanic not a mod. Blood Rush is good as it is, melee combo counter could use an upgrade. Berserker.. it's fine, I personally don't use it since a consistent attack speed is better for combo use. How Warframe's melee should be?

Spoiler

https://forums.warframe.com/topic/710704-melee-30-suggestion/

Quote

What about Channeling?  Should Channeling itself receive some major update (not necessarily mean full on overhaul) or just tweaks? 

 

 

For now, as a simple "tweak" it could be made usable if DE removed both positive and negative channeling efficiency from channeling mods.

Quote

What do you think of Counterattack?  Do you think it has a place in 2.0? 

Not really since melee attackers are either too weak to even be worth using and the ones who aren't weak are also resistant or inmune to counter attacks.

Quote

What do you think of Stances?  Do you enjoy the combos they offer?

Depends, several stances have akward combos with too much animation lock or dmb inputs required (backward being generally the most annoying to use). Conclave stances have the best combos I've seen, they are flashy yes, but they are also short and efficient and you don't have to wait 2s for animations to finish.

Quote

When you go mainly melee in a mission, do you mix up your combos?  If so, are they tactical choices or just on a whim?

In PvE, it's on a whim, since benefits aren't really that good and many stances lack atractive combos. In PvP proper combo use is imperative.

Quote

What do you think of the new charge attack?  Do you think they have a significant enough purpose to serve?

They are awful and pointless, they are also annoying on weapons with 'hold' combos.

Quote

What do you think of the current state of blocking?  Do you think the damage resist they give are enough for melee playstyle?  Or would you prefer the old drain stamina but blocks 100% system?

I'm fine with Blocking as it is now, though I think Channel Blocking should be disabled or the cost/damage reflection revised.

Quote

What do you think of melee mods we have right now?  Do you think there are enough build variety for you to play?  Too few?  Good enough?  They aren't interesting regardless?

Melee faces the same problems as guns: straight damage mods outclass everything else. and we have two mandatory mods now: PP and BC.

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

I feel that the equipped stance combo should replace quick attack, accessing melee combos shouldn't require you to equip your melee weapon.

I'd also like to see channeling extended to primary and secondary weapons.

Reduce the energy cost and rework all channeling related mods to make channeling more appealing.

 

[--Q--uaint]

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

Do you believe 2.0 fixed the problems 1.0 had?

Yes and no. Melee does enough damage now, but it's also almost entirely mindless. It doesn't help that a lot of the best damage enhancements for melee are attackspeed buffs and/or are triggered by hitting, making "mindlessly mash E at your target" the most effective strategy by far.

I think the melee combo counter is an interesting idea, but they implemented it very badly IMO. It scales too slowly for how easily you lose it, but now mods can take it from "mostly negligible" to "something you focus your entire build around because that's the best possible option"
At this point, I think the best change would be:
Boost the base counter duration to 9 seconds. This is usable, but not too long.
Make Blood Rush give additive crit chance, like Maiming Strike. Probably 15-30% per 1x of combo multiplier would work.
Body Count now grants +9 seconds. This is a buff from 15 to 18 seconds.
Add another mod that takes 6 seconds away from your counter duration, but makes the number of strikes for each level of combo not scale.
Give us back quick-melee charge attacks on all weapons.
Add a mod (or make it base functionality) that makes the charge on charge attacks last until you let go, with the damage bonus scaling with how long you hold it.
Add a benefit to not meleeing all the time, to make "quick melee" useful. Something like 5-10 seconds of not meleeing should give you say... double damage and/or guaranteed crit/proc on your next melee hit.

In addition, I think the combo system needs to be changed to use e.g. the reload button as a second melee button. Dawn of War: Space Marine had a two-button melee system, and it worked very well IMO.

IMO, something needs to be done about the balance issues with critical hits: there are a number of on-crit effects, and some weapons can easily guarantee crits with Blood Rush while others have a chance of failure even using Maiming Strike.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

Do you believe 2.0 is in a good spot right now?  If not, why?

No. There's no tactics. There is occasionally a reason to vary the combo you're using, but mostly you just want to use the one that hits the largest area.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What's your opinion on Body Count + Blood Rush + Berserker as a build?  Is it how you imagine Warframe's melee should be?

I think it should be an option, just not necessarily the best possible one. IMO, Berserker should just grant its bonus on melee hit so that it's more useful for more weapons.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What about Channeling?  Should Channeling itself receive some major update (not necessarily mean full on overhaul) or just tweaks?

Bring back Stamina. Channeled attacks and blocks use stamina, and have their current effects. Channeling while you do parkour should make you go faster (and maybe channeled parkour damage would scale with melee mods?) at the cost of stamina. Life Strike adds an energy cost to channeled attacks.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What do you think of Counterattack?  Do you think it has a place in 2.0?

Wait, you mean you are ever not attacking when there's an enemy near you?

IMO, the Counterattack stun on channeled blocks should work on all incoming damage, giving you the ability to have some actual effect on enemies at range.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What do you think of Stances?  Do you enjoy the combos they offer?

Some stances are really good, but some of them are terrible. I only use the ones that have good block combos, since I use a melee mashing macro so my hand doesn't die.

As noted previously, a two-button melee system would really help IMO.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

When you go mainly melee in a mission, do you mix up your combos?  If so, are they tactical choices or just on a whim?

Yes, sometimes. The only time I've ever felt a choice of combo was a legitimate tactical choice was testing in the Simulacrum, since that's the only place I'd fight such high level enemies without having any actual cheese of my own or being cheesed.

I think the main variation in my melee use when in a serious run is slide attacks for approach, and occasionally air melee for Hellions/Ospreys.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What do you think of the new charge attack?  Do you think they have a significant enough purpose to serve?

No, and no. Adding weapons with fun effects on charge attacks is cool, but doesn't fix them for other weapons.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What do you think of the current state of blocking?  Do you think the damage resist they give are enough for melee playstyle?  Or would you prefer the old drain stamina but blocks 100% system?

100% DR (or at least, much closer to it than we have) is a must in Warframe's current state. Also, it should work more consistently.

5 hours ago, Casval_Rouge said:

What do you think of melee mods we have right now?  Do you think there are enough build variety for you to play?  Too few?  Good enough?  They aren't interesting regardless?

For most missions, it doesn't really matter what mods I put on aside from the base damage ones. I think Maiming Strike is a really interesting and good mod: It makes maximal DPS on your melee take more work, but it boosts it significantly while also making quick melee worth using. Most other melee mods just encourage you to mash melee more... which I find boring (though obviously quite effective).