Best melee weapon for solo ODS?

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

So, I'm running a lot of solo ODS recently, just to take a break from clan ODD() and I'm wondering what melee weapon would be best for the run.

I'm currently going with Atterax, pure slash crit/status hybrid build; it's ok, I think it carries me well but I don't like whips at all so despite being quite efficent I don't enjoy using it.

Do you think there are better options? If so, how builded?

Mind me, efficency is the main feature required here, so if it turns out that Atterax is the best I'd stick to that even if I hate it.

[shut]

Just a heads-up-- Unless this was fixed with Update 19.8.0, there's a bug that allows invisible players to hit enemies with melee weapons without breaking the stealth multiplier. So you can literally smack an enemy until it dies, getting the 8x multipliers (64x on Slash/Toxic/Fire/etc procs, 512x on Gas procs) with every single hit, unless you somehow lose the invisibility or bump into the enemy.
Basically, you get the same effect as Blinding enemies by simply being invisible, without needing to manually debuff each enemy or deal with pesky Finishers that you don't want to do.

 

If the bug's still here, and you're using any frame with Naramon, then the Lesion is practically unstoppable. Go with a Status build (Gas only, with most weight toward Toxin rather than Fire) and watch as the tankiest enemies disintegrate at the slightest touch.

I'd assume that pure-elemental weapons like Lecta/Serro could work just as well (if not better) thanks to the higher Gas proc rate, although I haven't tried any in actual missions so I can't be certain.

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

7 hours ago, Sir_Alex_Traffo said:

I'm wondering what melee weapon would be best for the run.

Any of the top end melee weapons is going to work just fine considering that your baseline is the atterax and that does mediocre damage at best.   The fact it can go as far as it does is a testament to the power in bloodrush / bodycount and the combo multiplier.

Galatine prime, scindo prime, nikana prime, dual cleavers, jat kittag (vulcan blitz), fragor prime, etc, etc, etc.  Pick any one that you like and go to town.

 

4 hours ago, Autongnosis said:

The build is: Cunning Drift in the exilus, then Overextended, Equilibrium, Despoil, Health Conversion, Quick Thinking, Streamline, Transient Fortitude and Creeping Terrify. Enough EHPs to tank and Creeping for CC when S#&$ hits the fan

I much prefer shield of shadows to creepy terrify.  The shadows mod is just the better option IMO.  A couple things about your build, first I don't like quick thinking on nekros at all.  That should definitely be vitality.  And if you are running a solo melee build like the OP then the last thing you need is that much range.  Cunning drift is a waste and overextended is really bad as you don't want the power strength loss.

I run rejuvenation, power drift, health conversion, equilibrium, vitality, despoil, shield of shadows, p.continuity, constitution, and stretch.  You could take stretch off if you want something else like streamline.  And also constitution - I use that as much for the knockback recovery as I do the duration (the same applies to power drift).  How much you care about either duration or knockdowns is personal preference.

You shouldn't have to use shadows until about 35 minutes and not have to keep it up constantly until about 50 minutes.

[shut]

27 minutes ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

atterax

mediocre damage at best.

*snorts with laughter*

[Dragazer]

4 hours ago, SortaRandom said:

Just a heads-up-- Unless this was fixed with Update 19.8.0, there's a bug that allows invisible players to hit enemies with melee weapons without breaking the stealth multiplier. So you can literally smack an enemy until it dies, getting the 8x multipliers (64x on Slash/Toxic/Fire/etc procs, 512x on Gas procs) with every single hit, unless you somehow lose the invisibility or bump into the enemy.
Basically, you get the same effect as Blinding enemies by simply being invisible, without needing to manually debuff each enemy or deal with pesky Finishers that you don't want to do.

 

If the bug's still here, and you're using any frame with Naramon, then the Lesion is practically unstoppable. Go with a Status build (Gas only, with most weight toward Toxin rather than Fire) and watch as the tankiest enemies disintegrate at the slightest touch.

I'd assume that pure-elemental weapons like Lecta/Serro could work just as well (if not better) thanks to the higher Gas proc rate, although I haven't tried any in actual missions so I can't be certain.

its not a bug, but actually a bug fix:

The Glast Gambit: Hotfix 19.6.3

Changes

• Enemies no longer receive a mental perception of an attacker, but rather mental perception of the source object. This causes them to play a reaction and become alert, but not have any extra information about the player. Enemies that are shot with projectiles that are silent and/or without a sound effect will now report a visual perception (rather than doing nothing). Previously enemies knew the exact location of their attacker when taking damage, regardless of the source. 

And from the above post quote from DE Reb: 

Quote

Some degree of this is intended and it will be fully stated in the coming hotfix thread for maximum exposure. What (as you can see) appears to be happening here is basic enemy awareness on contact or sound of invisible units will trigger a response of some kind instead of full ignorance. The intent is to add a level of fine-control skills to the Invisibility mechanic. You've raised very valid points about how different ranged approaches make this fair/unfair, and I'm hoping to get clearly insight shortly to intent.

 

The stealth multiplier not applying on every hit was a bug along with enemies somehow knowing your exact location despite being hit by silent weapons when they changed stealth mechanics back in June 2014

Also stealth damage multipliers are now calculated differently when accounting for crit.

Instead of being multiplicative it is now additive with crit.

which is why the multiplier went up from 400% to 800%

Its a nerf to crit weapons (especially with the bloodrush meta) and buff to non-crit weapons.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Dragazer

[Autongnosis]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

I much prefer shield of shadows to creepy terrify.  The shadows mod is just the better option IMO.  A couple things about your build, first I don't like quick thinking on nekros at all.  That should definitely be vitality.  And if you are running a solo melee build like the OP then the last thing you need is that much range.  Cunning drift is a waste and overextended is really bad as you don't want the power strength loss.

I run rejuvenation, power drift, health conversion, equilibrium, vitality, despoil, shield of shadows, p.continuity, constitution, and stretch.  You could take stretch off if you want something else like streamline.  And also constitution - I use that as much for the knockback recovery as I do the duration (the same applies to power drift).  How much you care about either duration or knockdowns is personal preference.

You shouldn't have to use shadows until about 35 minutes and not have to keep it up constantly until about 50 minutes.

Uh... Thebuild above has a whooping 5% extra power strenght over the one i wrote xD Also, you need range if you are chasing spawns and / or using a slidebuild, particularly if ou don't run with a sentinel like OP does if i understood the kitty part correctly. Then again it's mostly personal preference. Also, why would you even want knockdown immunity/recovery when shield of shadows already gives you knockdown immunity on its own is really beyond me :)

Bottom line is though that for me Shield of Shadows is just not worth it at base, particularly not with 115% power strenght giving you not even 50% DR. At that point i'd much rather have the AoE 66% slow of Creeping Terrify that is also a hard CC... It's really a matter of preference, like with Vitality versus Quick Thinking. I prefer Quick Thinking because that way i can separate concern about my survival (my energy pool) from concerns about my Desecrate energy pool (my HPs), and since Health Conversion also applies to Quick Thinking Vitality and QT in the build i proposed give almost the exact same amount of EHPs (around 7k) with the added bonus of the QT build getting back double the EHPs from each orb taken up since both health and energy count...

45 minutes ago, SortaRandom said:

*snorts with laughter*

Also this ^

Edited January 26, 2017 by Autongnosis

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

1 hour ago, SortaRandom said:

*snorts with laughter*

45 base damage.  The crit stats are above average and that compensates for the low base some what.  Regardless of that there are 20 (at least) other weapons more effective than the atterax.

If you want to lean on slash procs and the fact your counter is inflated by needing to strike the same enemy 4 times by all means go ahead.

[TrickshotMcGee]

As a melee enthusiast myself, I could probably list everything I've used for those runs, but I'll try to cut it down. 

-Galatine Prime with a standard crit build (except maybe sub something with Weeping Wounds for the bleed procs). Boring, yes, but it gets the job done and you don't have to worry about enemies scaling past its capabilities.

-War, ditto.

-Vaykor Sydon is also something I use a lot. 25% status with 15% crit and hella awesome reach? Yes, please. And despite not being able to proc slash, it can still shred through enemies. I have used it into sortie levels and can confirm - it works well. It's not for everyone, though.

-Mios. Crit build, Weeping Wounds, pretty basic IMO.

-Haven't tried the Ohma yet, but they have 100 base damage + 15% crit + 30% status and that's a beautiful thing.

-Lesion with at least one dual stat mod and Weeping Wounds, modded for Bleed and Status damage. It'll do quite well, though it has low range and isn't the most efficient weapon.

-Tipedo is like a less powerful Galatine Prime, but has far better reach and it's stupidly fast. 

 

I do have to say that Atterax is one of the go-to Infested killing weapons because it's, pretty objectively, one of the most efficient. Huge range, crit scaling is ridiculous, and it can proc slash extremely often. There are plenty of options to go to, but that's honestly one of the best picks. 

Edited January 26, 2017 by TrickshotMcGee

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

37 minutes ago, Autongnosis said:

Then again it's mostly personal preference.

Exactly, if you like your build you should use it.  I'm more addressing the OP who is undecided on what his build should be and giving him a different perspective.

 

37 minutes ago, Autongnosis said:

Also, why would you even want knockdown immunity/recovery when shield of shadows already gives you knockdown immunity on its own is really beyond me

Because I don't have shadows deployed for 50 minutes.  50 minutes of getting knocked around is a PITA.

[Desperado14]

Any votes for the tipedo? I have one with prime Reach and it is fantastic fun, grest for infested. Also super mobility during combos.  

[shut]

2 hours ago, Dragazer said:

its not a bug, but actually a bug fix:

The Glast Gambit: Hotfix 19.6.3

Changes

• Enemies no longer receive a mental perception of an attacker, but rather mental perception of the source object. This causes them to play a reaction and become alert, but not have any extra information about the player. Enemies that are shot with projectiles that are silent and/or without a sound effect will now report a visual perception (rather than doing nothing). Previously enemies knew the exact location of their attacker when taking damage, regardless of the source. 

And from the above post quote from DE Reb: 

 

The stealth multiplier not applying on every hit was a bug when they changed stealth mechanics back in June 2014

Also stealth damage multipliers are now calculated differently when accounting for crit.

Instead of being multiplicative it is now additive with crit.

which is why the multiplier went up from 400% to 800%

Its a nerf to crit weapons (especially with the bloodrush meta) and buff to non-crit weapons.

Holy crap, thank you so much for this. I had thought that the disable-stealth-multiplier-on-hit thing was intentional from day one of the change.
Over the past few months, I was also wondering why my Atterax didn't seem to be perfectly octupling its slide attack damage during the first hit when Invisible. I never knew it interacted with crit that way! How long has this been going on for?

[shut]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

45 base damage.

You may want to consider actually using the weapon instead of looking at its base stats and making a judgment off of that.

The main thing about the Atterax is that its gigantic range, combined with its gigantic crit multiplier, combined with the fact that Maiming Strike's +90% bonus is currently bugged to stack with Blood Rush, makes it one of the best crowd-destroying melee weapons in terms of raw damage output (even disregarding procs).
To be more explicit about it: At 3x combo, a slide attack will have a 684% crit chance. That's a 16% chance to deal 29.2x damage, and an 84% chance to do 33.9x damage. (If you've got Organ Shatter.)

 

Of course, other weapons can deal stronger slide attacks simply due to the Atterax's low base damage. Especially Tonfas, which have roughly 10x the base slide attack damage.
However, there are zero other melee weapons in the game that can deliver such ridiculous damage over such a large range (save for maybe a Gas+Stealth Secura Lecta). This is what makes Atterax stand out so much from the crowd.

Edited January 26, 2017 by SortaRandom

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

47 minutes ago, SortaRandom said:

You may want to consider actually using the weapon instead of looking at its base stats and making a judgment off of that.

I do use the weapon.  Every time one of these threads pop up I pick it up again because everyone says how great it is and every single time I do throughout the entire mission I wish it was something else.

Chalk it up to personal bias against the weapon if you want.  I freely admit that I don't like whips. Nor do I want to spend 60+ minutes doing slide attacks non-stop if that's what it takes to make the atterax a better than merely decent weapon choice.

[-Fe-McHamm3rShot]

6 hours ago, Desperado14 said:

Any votes for the tipedo? I have one with prime Reach and it is fantastic fun, grest for infested. Also super mobility during combos.  

Can't sleep on the Tipedo, serious crit and status for days SONE!!

It's all:

red numbers everywhere

blood 

arms falling off 

there's a head 

more blood..

Edited January 27, 2017 by -Fe-McHamm3rShot

[Dragazer]

1 hour ago, SortaRandom said:

Holy crap, thank you so much for this. I had thought that the disable-stealth-multiplier-on-hit thing was intentional from day one of the change.
Over the past few months, I was also wondering why my Atterax didn't seem to be perfectly octupling its slide attack damage during the first hit when Invisible. I never knew it interacted with crit that way! How long has this been going on for?

This most likely happened with the introduction of the acolyte crit mods, (Based on the revision history on the Wiki page)

Things would have gone way out of hand if they kept the original formula for stealth damage with those mods.  

In any case I'm just glad an age old bug has been fixed.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Dragazer

[(PSN)lhbuch]

2 hours ago, SortaRandom said:

You may want to consider actually using the weapon instead of looking at its base stats and making a judgment off of that.

The main thing about the Atterax is that its gigantic range, combined with its gigantic crit multiplier, combined with the fact that Maiming Strike's +90% bonus is currently bugged to stack with Blood Rush, makes it one of the best crowd-destroying melee weapons in terms of raw damage output (even disregarding procs).
To be more explicit about it: At 3x combo, a slide attack will have a 684% crit chance. That's a 16% chance to deal 29.2x damage, and an 84% chance to do 33.9x damage. (If you've got Organ Shatter.)

 

Of course, other weapons can deal stronger slide attacks simply due to the Atterax's low base damage. Especially Tonfas, which have roughly 10x the base slide attack damage.
However, there are zero other melee weapons in the game that can deliver such ridiculous damage over such a large range (save for maybe a Gas+Stealth Secura Lecta). This is what makes Atterax stand out so much from the crowd.

Exactly. Atterax has a combination of what makes the best combimation to deal with high level enemies right now: range, crits, slash base with good status chance. If you top that with the maiming strike included in the blood rush account... 

Op if you dont like atterax maybe galatine prime, orthos or tipedo, venka ptine, p dual clevers, nikana prime could work well. I would suggest something with a good range because infested tend to group.

[shut]

4 hours ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

I freely admit that I don't like whips. Nor do I want to spend 60+ minutes doing slide attacks non-stop if that's what it takes to make the atterax a better than merely decent weapon choice.

I totally understand not enjoying the slidespam meta, or not enjoying whips in general.

But if your atterax hits like a wet noodle because you find meta builds unfun, then that's on you, not the weapon. Saying that "atterax is mediocre at best", when you're the one refusing to put Maiming Strike on it, is just plain silly.

Edited January 27, 2017 by SortaRandom